circumstance would not at all militate against the present hypothesis.

As the concession of arms obtained from the College of Heralds, by John Shakspeare, in 1569 or 1570, entitled his son to the honourable distinction of armorial ensigns, a privilege which, however little estimated at present, was in that age considered as very valuable and important, it may appear strange, that our poet (for the application, without doubt, came from him, though his father's name was used) should at a subsequent period, near thirty years afterwards, again apply to them on the same subject. The solution, I think, is, that, finding himself now rising into consequence (which we shall hereafter see was the case), and having acquired some wealth, he wished to derive honour to himself and his posterity, in consequence of his descent from the ancient and opulent house of Arden. Hence that descent is carefully noticed in the draft of 1596; and, to enable him and his posterity to impale the arms of Arden with his own, seems to have been the principal object of that confirmation3, or exemplification of arms, which was granted by Camden and Sir William Dethick, in 1599: circumstances which appear to me to add great strength to the interpretation of the ambiguous words in these grants, which has been already given.

3 These arms have not hitherto been discovered thus impaled; they might, notwithstanding, have been thus impaled in a ring or seal used by our poet, and now lost; or this might have been his object in 1596 and 1599, and that object have been afterwards neglected.

SECTION III.

The town of Stratford upon Avon having, as Dugdale observes, had the good fortune to give birth and sepulture to our great dramatick poet, and his father having been a member of the corporation, and attained to the highest honours which it can confer, it may not be improper, before we proceed further, to take a transient view of its history and constitution.

Stratford, or Stretford as it was anciently called, deriving its name from the ford, or passage there, over the Avon, on the great street or road, leading from Henley in Arden to London, can boast a very high antiquity; being mentioned in a charter of Egwin Bishop of Worcester, to whom it belonged, above three hundred years before the Norman invasion. It continued to be possessed by the Bishops of Worcester, who had formerly a palace there, and under whom a court leet was held there twice a-year, till it was passed away by Nicholas Heath,

3 Dugdale's Antiq. of Warwicksh. p. 475, edit. 1656.

"Necnon de uno burgagio jacen. in strata vocat. Church strete in Stratford predict. in quo Jõhes Ashurste modo inhabitat uno capite inde abuttan. versus Episcopum Wigorn. ex parte occidentali, et alio capite inde abuttan. versus Jōhem Hubaude ex partie orientali: necnon de alio burgagio jacen. in Church strete, in quo Jõhes Boleyn modo inhabitat, uno capite inde abuttan. versus Dōm. Episcopum Wigorn, ex parte occidentali, et alio capite inde abuttan. versus viam regiam vocat. Church Strete." Esc. 13 Hen. VIII. p. unica, n. 140.

5 This appears from a loose paper which I found in the chamber of Stratford, containing the proceedings of a court leet in the time of Henry VIII.

7

Bishop of that diocese, in the third year of King Edward the Sixth [1549], to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick (afterwards Duke of Northumberland 6), who in the same year parted with it to the King, for certain lands in Oxfordshire, and by another exchange recovered it again, in the seventh year of the same King's reign. On the attainder of the Duke of Northumberland (1 Mary, 1554), this town, by the name of the manor of Old Stratford, was granted by the Queen, to Joan his duchess; but in the third and fourth year of Philip and Mary, as Dugdale has observed, a new grant of it was made (Nov. 10, 1556) to the hospital of the Savoy in the suburbs of London'.

The learned, and generally most accurate writer above-mentioned, has not traced the property of this manor further: but if he had looked a little lower on the same roll, he would have found that this grant to the hospital of the Savoy (which had been founded by King Henry the Seventh; afterwards, with other eleemosynary institutions, dissolved by his son; and again re-established by letters patent, dated 3 Nov. 3 and 4 Ph. and Mary), he would have found, I say, that this grant, made seven days after the re-establishment of that hospital, was vacated in the following year, the Master and Chaplains of the Savoy on the

"Stratf. Cur. vis fran. pleg. cum cur. dni Jõhs gracia Dei Episc. Wigorn. ibid. tent. quarto die mensis Octobris anno regni Henrici octavi, &c. tricesimo tertio," [1542], &c.

6 Pat. 3 Ed. VI. p. 3.

8 Pat. 7 Ed. VI. p. 8.

1 3 & 4 Ph. & Mar. p. 12.

7 Ibid. p. 9.

9 Pat. 1 Mar. p. 5.

12th of May, 1557 (4 and 5 Philip and Mary), having come into Chancery and surrendered the said letters patent; and accordingly the grant was cancelled on the roll. In the year 1562 (April 6), this manor, with all its rights, members, and appurtenances, was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick (eldest son of the late John, Duke of Northumberland), and the heirs male of his body, and for want of such issue, to his brother Robert Dudley (afterwards Earl of Leicester), and the heirs male of his body. By these letters patent, also, the site and capital mansion of the late college of Stratford (of which institution some account will be given hereafter) was granted to the Earl of Warwick, together with all houses, edifices, barns, stables, dovehouses, orchards, &c. within the circuit and precincts of the same site, or thereto appertaining (then, or late in the occupation of John Combes), late parcel of the possessions of the late aforesaid Duke of Northumberland2. The Earl of Warwick, who was one of the most amiable and respected characters of that age, and a perfect contrast to his brother, the Earl of Leicester, dying in Feb. 1589-90, without issue, and his brother, who deceased about eighteen months before, having also died without lawful issue, a new grant of this manor in fee was made 33 Eliz. (Jan. 27, 1590-91), to Henry Best and John Wells, who afterwards sold it to Lodowick, the father of Sir Edward Grevil, of Milcot, knight, from whom it was purchased, some time, as I imagine, between the years 3 Pat. 33 Eliz. p. 3.

2 Pat. 4 Eliz. p. 4.

1620 and 1630, by Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, ancestor of the present Duke of Dorset, in whose possession it remains at this day.

Of the college above-mentioned it is only necessary to say here, that John de Stratford, a native of this town, and Bishop of Winchester, in the fifth year of King Edward III. founded a chantry, consisting of five priests, one of whom was warden, in a certain aisle or chapel of the church of Stratford, on the south side, dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr; and, for their support and maintenance, endowed it with lands and tenements, which, with the accession of subsequent benefactions, were valued in a survey made in 37 Henry VIII. at 1277. 18s. 9d. per annum. In addition to the original foundation in the seventh year of Henry VIII. [1514,] Ralph Collingwode instituted four children choristers, to be daily assistant in the celebration of Divine service. This chantry, says Dugdale, soon after its foundation, was known by the name of the college of Stratford 5. For the more

4 From the following extract from the Court of Augmentations made by Mr. Thomas Greene, formerly town-clerk of Stratford, their revenues do not appear to have been adequate to their expenditure.

"The College Founded by John Stretford for a Warden, of Stretford. 5 preests, and 4 choristers, and endowed with other lands by Collingwood, value 1277. 18s. 9d.

"Resolut. 20s. 3d. In annuities & fees 137. In stipends to divers ministers, videlicet to the Warden for his Stipend yerely, 681. 5s. 2d. to other ministers for their stipend & dyet, 641. 18s. 8d. Sum 1477. 4s. Rem'. Nill. quia in surplusag.

191. 5s. 3d."

5 Antiq. of Warwicksh. p. 482. Any small foundation for a