Part 1 (2/2)

The poet's ancestry cannot be defined with absolute certainty The poet's father, when applying for a grant of arrandfather) received for services rendered in war a grant of land in Warwickshi+re from Henry VII {2} No precise confirmation of this pretension has been discovered, and it y, fictitious But there is a probability that the poet caood yeoeneration were fairly substantial landowners {3a} Adam Shakespeare, a tenant by military service of land at Baddesley Clinton in 1389, seerandfather of one Richard Shakespeare who held land at Wroxhall in Warwickshi+re during the first thirty-four years (at least) of the sixteenth century Another Richard Shakespeare who is conjectured to have been nearly akin to the Wroxhall fae four miles to the north of Stratford-on-Avon, in 1528 {3b} It is probable that he was the poet's grandfather In 1550 he was renting a e and land at Snitterfield of Robert Arden; he died at the close of 1560, and on February 10 of the next year letters of adoods, chattels, and debts were issued to his son John by the Probate Court at Worcester His goods were valued at 35 pounds 17s {3c} Besides the son John, Richard of Snitterfield certainly had a son Henry; while a Thomas Shakespeare, a considerable landholder at Snitterfield between 1563 and 1583, whose parentage is undetermined, may have been a third son The son Henry reed in far success; he died in embarrassed circumstances in December 1596 John, the son who administered Richard's estate, was in all likelihood the poet's father

The poet's father

About 1551 John Shakespeare left Snitterfield, which was his birthplace, to seek a career in the neighbouring borough of Stratford-on-Avon There he soon set up as a trader in all ricultural produce Corn, wool,the commodities in which he dealt Doculover Aubrey, Shakespeare's first biographer, reported the tradition that he was a butcher But though both designations doubtless indicated iarded as disclosing its full extent The land which his family farmed at Snitterfield supplied hi as his father lived he seems to have been a frequent visitor to Snitterfield, and, like his father and brothers, he was until the date of his father's death occasionally designated a farmer or 'husbandman' of that place But it ith Stratford-on-Avon that his life was mainly identified

His settle there in Henley Street, a thoroughfare leading to the market town of Henley-in-Arden, and he is firstin thata dirt-heap in front of his house His frequent appearances in the years that follow as either plaintiff or defendant in suits heard in the local court of record for the recovery of sest that he was a keen man of business In early life he prospered in trade, and in October 1556 purchased two freehold tenearden, in Henley Street (it adjoins that non as the poet's birthplace), and the other in Greenhill Street with a garden and croft

Thenceforth he played a prominent part in municipal affairs In 1557 he was elected an ale-taster, whose duty it was to test the quality of malt liquors and bread About the saess or town councillor, and in Septeain on October 6, 1559, he was appointed one of the four petty constables by a vote of the jury of the court-leet Twice--in 1559 and 1561--he was chosen one of the affeerors--officers appointed to determine the fines for those offences which were punishable arbitrarily, and for which no express penalties were prescribed by statute In 1561 he was elected one of the two chah, an office of responsibility which he held for two years He delivered his second statement of accounts to the corporation in January 1564 When attesting documents he occasionally made his mark, but there is evidence in the Stratford archives that he could write with facility; and he was credited with financial aptitude

The municipal accounts, which were checked by tallies and counters, were audited by him after he ceased to be chamberlain, and he more than once advanced small sums of money to the corporation

The poet's mother

With characteristic shrewdness he chose a wife of assured fortune--Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer of Wilmcote in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, near Stratford The Arden family in its chief branch, which was settled at Parkhall, Warwickshi+re, ranked with the enitor of that branch, was sheriff of Warwickshi+re and Leicestershi+re in 1438 (16 Hen VI), and this sheriff's direct descendant, Edward Arden, as hih sheriff of Warwickshi+re in 1575, was executed in 1583 for alleged coainst the life of Queen Elizabeth

{6} John Shakespeare's wife belonged to a humbler branch of the family, and there is no trustworthy evidence to deterree of kinshi+p between the two branches Her grandfather, Thomas Arden, purchased in 1501 an estate at Snitterfield, which passed, with other property, to her father Robert; John Shakespeare's father, Richard, was one of this Robert Arden's Snitterfield tenants By his first wife, whose nahters, of whom all but two est

Robert Arden's second wife, Agnes or Anne,of John Hill (_d_ 1545), a substantial farmer of Bearley, survived him; but by her he had no issue When he died at the end of 1556, he owned a farmhouse at Wilmcote and many acres, besides some hundred acres at Snitterfield, with two farmhouses which he let out to tenants The post-oods, which was made on December 9, 1556, shows that he had lived in comfort; his house was adorned by as many as eleven 'painted cloths,'

which then did duty for tapestries a the middle class The exordium of his will, which was drawn up on Nove, indicates that he was an observant Catholic For his two youngest daughters, Alice and Mary, he showed especial affection by no them his executors Mary received not only 6 pounds 13s

4d in money, but the fee-si of a house with some fifty acres of land She also acquired, under an earlier settlees at Snitterfield {7} But, although she ell provided orldly goods, she was apparently without education; several extant docun her name

The poet's birth and baptise with Mary Arden doubtless took place at Aston Cantlowe, the parish church of Wilin at a later date) On Septehter, Joan, was baptised in the church of Stratford

A second child, another daughter, Margaret, was baptised on December 2, 1562; but both these children died in infancy The poet William, the first son and third child, was born on April 22 or 23, 1564 The latter date is generally accepted as his birthday, round that it was the day of his death There is no positive evidence on the subject, but the Stratford parish registers attest that he was baptised on April 26

Alleged birthplace

Some doubt is justifiable as to the ordinarily accepted scene of his birth Of two adjoining houses for on the north side of Henley Street, that to the east was purchased by John Shakespeare in 1556, but there is no evidence that he owned or occupied the house to the west before 1575 Yet this western house has been known since 1759 as the poet's birthplace, and a room on the first floor is claimed as that in which he was born {8} The two houses subsequently cahter to the family of the poet's sister, Joan Hart, and while the eastern teneers for more than two centuries, and by them converted into an inn, the 'birthplace' was until 1806 occupied by the Harts, who latterly carried on there the trade of butcher The fact of its long occupancy by the poet's collateral descendants accounts for the identification of the western rather than the eastern tenement with his birthplace Both houses were purchased in behalf of subscribers to a public fund on September 16, 1847, and, after extensive restoration, were converted into a single domicile for the purposes of a public museum They were presented under a deed of trust to the corporation of Stratford in 1866

Much of the Elizabethan timber and stonework survives, but a cellar under the 'birthplace' is the only portion which remains as it was at the date of the poet's birth {9}

II--CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

The father in municipal office