Page:Shakespeare of Stratford (1926) Yale.djvu/81

Shakespeare of Stratford 1611 [ie. 1612] February 8  Gilbertus Shakspere, adolescens.

. This was almost certainly the poet’s brother, who had acted as his agent in the purchase of land from the Combes in 1602. (See no. XXXIV.) The identification has been doubted on the ground that the word adolescens is a strange one for a man of forty-five. A plausible explanation is offered by Mrs. Stopes, Shakespeare’s Environment, pp. 382 ff.

(Public Record Office, London.)

Stephen Belott, an apprentice of the French Huguenot tiremaker (wigmaker), Christopher Mountjoy, was married to his master’s daughter, Mary Mountjoy, in St. Olave’s Church, Silver St., London, November 19, 1604. On January 28, 1612, Belott brought suit in the court of requests against his father-in-law, alleging that Mountjoy had not fulfilled a promise to pay ‘threescore pounds or thereabouts for a portion’ at the time of the marriage and also to leave the couple two hundred pounds more on his decease. Shakespeare, who had been living in Mountjoy’s house at the time and had taken part in the ante-matrimonial negotiations of Belott and Mountjoy, was cited as a witness in the case.

(A) Summons to Shakespeare and others, May 7, 1612.

''Septimo die Maij. A compulsory to William Shakespeare gent. and others ad testificandum inter Stephanum Bellott querentem et Xpoferum'' [Christo-