6

commodious habitation of the priests, a large house of square stone was built by Ralph de Stratford, Bishop of London, in the 26th year of Edward III. which, on the suppression of religious houses (37 Henry VIII.), being vested in the crown, was granted by Edward the Sixth to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and afterwards, as we have seen, by Elizabeth, to his son. How the crown was enabled, while that nobleman was yet living, to make a lease of this college, with all its appurtenances, for twenty-one years, to Richard Coningsby, his executors and assigns, 13th Dec. 17 Eliz. [1574], which was surrendered in the following year, and a new grant made to him for the same

select number of priests and choristers, was formerly called a college, according to the maxim of the civil law, "tres faciunt collegium." So in Leland's Itin. iv. 165, a: “On the north syde of St. James [in Warwick] is a pretty Colledge, havinge a 4 preists that sing in St. James Chappell, and they belonge to a fraternity of our lady and St. George."-Again, ibid. “The suburbe withoute the west gate is called the West end-There was a Colledge of Blacke Frires in the north part of this suburbe." Again: "There is a suburbe in the north syde of Warwike, and therein is the chapell of St. Michaell, where sometyme was a College et confratres; but now it is taken as a free chapell.”

6 "The church of Stratford now standinge, as it is supposed, was renewed in building by John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the begining of the raigne of K. E. 3, whoe was borne at Stratforde, whereof he tooke his name. He made this of a simple paroche church a collegiate church, augmenting it with some landes.

"There be belonginge to the Colledge 4 preists, 3 clarkes, 4 choristers, and there mansion house is an ancient peice of worke of square stone, hard by the cemitarye. The church is dedicated to the Trinitye." Itin. iv. p. 1, fol. 167, a.

term', reserving a rent of 641. 8s. 4d. I have not been able to discover.

So early as the time of King Richard the First, the burgesses of Stratford are mentioned ; and the town, I believe, was for a long time governed by wardens, or bailiffs, chosen from among them. It is certain, that during the reign of King Henry the Eighth, wardens were annually chosen, to keep the great bridge of Stratford in repair 1; and in the time of Edward the Fourth, they had a steward or town-clerk 2. The town, however, was not incorporated till the seventh year of the reign of Edward the Sixth; who signed the charter of incorporation on the 28th of June, 1553, eight days only before his death. By this charter the principal inhabitants were incorporated by the name of the bailiff and burgesses of Stratford upon Avon, and the corporation was appointed to consist of fourteen aldermen, one of whom was to be elected annually to the office of bailiff, and of fourteen burgesses. The first bailiff named in the charter was Thomas Gilbert, whose trade is not

7 Pat. 18 Eliz. p. 12.

8 Dugdale's Antiq. of Warwicksh. p. 476.

9 The bailiffs of Stratford are mentioned in a patent, 5 Ed. III. p. 3, m. 10.

I This bridge, consisting of fourteen arches, was built by Sir Hugh Clopton, Knight, in the time of Henry the Seventh.

2 Thomas Throckmorton, Esq. Steward of Stratford, was admitted into the Guild of St. Mary, 9 Ed. IV. 1469. Registr. Gild. fol. 92, a.

3 The warrant for the grant of this charter is inserted in the Appendix.

4 The other aldermen named in the original charter, were Richard Lord, Hugh Reynolds, William Smythe, Thomas Phi

mentioned in that instrument, but who, I find from other documents, was a dyer. For their better maintenance and support, all the lands and possessions of the gild of the Holy Cross (an amicable and charitable fraternity, which had subsisted at least from the time of Edward the Third [1327], and had been dissolved in the first year of the reign of Edward the Sixth, excepting only a single house called the Mansion House of the Guild), were granted to the aldermen and burgesses, expressly, however, on condition that they should continue and maintain the almshouse, for twenty-four decayed inhabitants of the town, and the grammar school for the education of youth, as they had been maintained by the late guild ; and that they should pay the master of the school a stipend of twenty pounds a-year. All the tithes of hay and corn in Old Stratford, Welcome, and Bishopton, which had belonged to the lately dissolved college of Stratford, being likewise granted by this charter, the aldermen and burgesses were very properly required to pay the vicar an annual salary, which at that time was no more than twenty pounds, and forty shillings to enable him to pay his tenths and first

lippes, Thomas Wynfeeld, John Jefferies, Thomas Dixon, George Whatley, Henry Biddle, William Whatley, Robert Mors, Robert Pratt, and Adrian Quiney.

The original burgesses are not named in the charter; but from another instrument in the archives of Stratford, I find that about two years afterwards (April 20, 1555), the burgesses were, then, John Burbadge, William Mynsker, Daniel Phillips, Robert Perrot, Laurence Peynton, Roger Sadler, Humphry Plymley, Richard Harrington, William Smith, corvizar, Francis Harbadge, George Turnor, Richard Symmonds, John Wheler, and Lewis ap Williams.

fruits. In addition to the grant of a common seal, a weekly market, and two annual fairs, the bailiff was invested with the powers of escheator, coroner, almoner, and clerk of the market, and authorized to hold a court of record, every fortnight, for the trial of all causes within the jurisdiction of the borough, in which the debt and damages did not amount to thirty pounds. The whole revenues of the guild of the Holy Cross, which were granted by this charter, produced at that time only forty-six pounds, three shillings, and two-pence halfpenny. In addition to which his Majesty gave the borough, by the same charter, the tithes of all the lands which had belonged to the late dissolved college, which were let for 341. per annum.

SECTION IV.

John Shakspeare, wherever he may have been born, settled in Stratford not very long after the year 1550;

s Pat. 7 Ed. VI. p. 13.

6 Antecedent to this grant, the revenues of the borough of Stratford appear to have been extremely small: for in the earliest rent-roll of the borough, which I have found, after the grant of this charter, that for the year 1563, their whole revenue, exclusive of the tithes of the late college, amounted only to 52l. Os. 7d.

The personal property of the guild, about seventy years before its dissolution, is ascertained by the curious inventory, which, being too long for this place, may be found in the Appendix. The guild, it should be observed, was governed by eight aldermen, chosen annually out of their own body, and a master, who was also elected annually, by the aldermen. The master, together with two proctors, elected by him and the aldermen, had the entire management of the lands and revenues of the guild. The famous lawyer, Littleton, was admitted a member of this fraternity in 1479, 19 Ed. IV. Registr. Gild. fol. 110, b.

for in the middle of the year 1555 a suit was instituted against him, in the bailiff's court, which, for another purpose, I shall hereafter have more particular occasion to mention. He was, as I conjecture, born in or before the year 15307. From Mr. Arden's will, made in Dec. 1556, there is ground to believe that his daughter Mary was then single. She must have married our poet's father in the following year; for in Sept. 1558, she brought him a daughter, named Joan, who died in her infancy.

In consequence of misinformation obtained at Stratford, as it should seem, by Mr. Betterton, in the early part of the last century, and communicated by him to Mr. Rowe, originating probably in too hasty an inspection of the register of that parish, we have been told, and the tale, together with the few other facts recorded by the same writer, has been transmitted from book to book,-that our poet's father "had so large a

7 He was chosen a burgess of Stratford about the same time as John Tayler, a shearman or cloth-worker of that town, and served with him the office of chamberlain in the year 1562. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to suppose them to have been nearly of the same age.

In the register of the proceedings of the corporation in the Council Chamber, 30 June, 34 Eliz. (1592), Mr. Tayler is called old John Tayler; and in the account of Henry Wilson, Chamberlain, made 24 January, 34 Eliz. (1593-4), he is denominated Father Tayler: "Receaved of Father Tayler for Michael Shakleton, iijs. iiijd." This was then, as now, in the country, a common appellation for old men. So, in another account made by George Badger for the year 1596: "Item, Receaved of Father Degge for his entrance into the Almshouse, vis. viiid." So also in the register of the parish of Stratford, I find among the burials in 1587, March 23, "Jone, wife to Father Bell of Bishopton."