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Shakespeare of Stratford 204) explains that some flaw had been discovered in Shakespeare’s title to the property. ‘In order to meet this difficulty it was necessary for a fine to be levied through which the absolute ownership of the purchaser should be recognized by Hercules, and of so much importance was this considered that, upon the deforciant representing in June, 1602, that the state of his health prevented his undertaking a journey to London, a special commission was arranged for obtaining his acknowledgment. This important ratification was procured in Northamptonshire in the following October, Shakespeare no doubt being responsible for the considerable expenditure that must have been incurred by these transactions.’ The strange facts that accounted for the second deed were discovered by Mrs. Stopes (Shakespeare’s Warwickshire Contemporaries, 231 f.). William Underhill was poisoned by his elder son, Fulke, a few months after the sale of New Place to Shakespeare, dying July 7, 1597. His property finally passed to his younger son, Hercules, who came of age in 1602, when Shakespeare found it desirable to get assurance of his title.

(A) Record in the court rolls of the manor of Rowington of surrender of title by Walter Getley to Shakespeare, September 28, 1602. (Shakespeare Birthplace Museum.)

Rowington.—Visus franci plegii cum curia baronis prenobilis domine Anne, Comitisse Warwici, ibidem tentus vicesimo octavo die Septembris, anno regni domine nostre Elizabethe, Dei gracia Anglie, Francie