A will, also, which I found some time ago, in the Prerogative Office, has furnished me with a further confirmation of the distressed circumstances of our High strete warde-xls. ijd. Ship strete warde-xxxis. vid. Henley strete warde-xxxis. viijd. Sum vli. iijs. viijd. whereof disbursed iijli. xis. xid. so remaneth xxxis. vijd. wch was payd to Mr Barber, and not yet accounted for. Accompt of Richard Court and James Wood strete warde. Received xlis. viijd. Churche strete warde Bridge strete warde xliiijs. viijd. xxxijs. xd. Sum vli. xixs. ijd. not accompled for; remaneth. which was payd to Mr. Barber; whereof leid out by him Sum vl. xviijs. iijd. Remaneth xxixs. ijd. dew by "Richard Court ys to accompt for money collected by him for the hygh waye." I am aware that among the above defaulters, are some persons who were probably in easy circumstances; but though their neglect may not have arisen from want of money, the other proofs which have been given relative to the straitened circumstances of John Shakspeare, warrant us in supposing that he was a defaulter, from its not being convenient to him to pay the rate imposed. poet's father, at this time. Mr. Roger Sadler, as has been already mentioned, was a baker, in Stratford; and, living in the same street with him, probably served him with bread. He died in the latter end of the year 1578. To his will, made on the 14th of November, in that year (in which he appoints his kinsman, and our author's friend, Hamnet Sadler, one of his residuary legatees, as well as one of his executors), he has subjoined a list of debts due to him (a common practice at that time); by which it appears, that John Shakspeare was then considered insolvent, if not as one depending rather on the credit of others than his own '. The following extract from the register of the Bailiff's Court is also observable. "Stratford } Curia dnæ Reginæ ibm tent. xiii. die Januarii, anno Burgus. regni &c. vicesimo octavo [1585-6]. "Ad hunc diem Servien. ad Clavam burgi predict, retorn. pr. [præceptum] de distr. eis direct. versus Johem Shackspere ad sect. Johis Browne, qa. predict. Johes Shackspere nihil habet unde distr. potest levari. Ideo fiat Ca. [Capias] versus Johem Shackspere ad sect. Johis Browne, si petatur." On the 2d of March following an alias Capias was issued against him. "Debtes which are owing unto me Roger Sadler. "Imprimis, of M'. John Combes, the elder, for a horse, 31. “Item, of the same J. C., due to me by bond at Christmas next, 201. "Item, of Richard Hathaway, alias Gardyner, of Shottery, 61. 8s. 4d. "Item, of Edmond Lambart *, and Cornishe, for the debt of Mr. John Shacksper, 51." * Mr. Edmond Lambart, who it appears had entered into a security for John Shakspeare to the amount of five pounds, and had also furnished him with forty pounds on a mortgage of his In addition to all these concurring circumstances, we have the confession of our poet's father himself; for, in the bill which he exhibited in chancery, in 1597, he describes himself as a "man of very small wealth, and who had very few friends, or alliances, in the county of Warwick." This declaration, indeed, was made several years after the period now under consideration; but, at the same time, corresponding with all the various proofs here adduced, serves, in some degree, to corroborate them. While this subject is under our consideration, the following notices, preserved in a manuscript, in the Herald's Office, which I have already had occasion to quote, require to be particularly considered. At the bottom of the grant of arms to John Shakspeare, made in 1596, we are told-" This John estate, lived, as we have already seen, at Barton on the Heath, in Warwickshire, where he died, according to his son's account, about the year 1586. He was perhaps a relation of Mary Shakspeare; for her mother, Agnes Arden, left a legacy to " Joan Lambard," who might have been the wife of Edmond. That Mr. Lambart was obliged to pay this debt for Mr. John Shakspeare, may be inferred from the statement made by Shakspeare himself in the bill which he filed against his son. See Appendix. The other friend of our poet's father, here mentioned, who, according to the mode of that time is familiarly called Cornish, was perhaps the son of Walter Cornish, who lived in Stratford, in Wood-street, as appears from the following entry in an account book of the bridge-wardens of Stratford: "Anno regni regis Henrici Octavi decimo sexto. "Item the saide Bruge-wardens lafte in the box at their departyng [a blank here in the original] the which was geven by the hole consent of the honesty of Stratford to the reparation of the tenement in Woode Streete in the tenure of Walter Cornyshe." sheweth a patent thereof under Clarence Cook's hands in paper xx years past 2. "A justice of peace, and was baylif, officer, and chief of the towne of Stratforde upon Avon, xv or xvi years past 3. "That he hath lands and tenements of good wealth and substance, 5001. “That he married a daughter and heyre of Arden, a gent. of worship "." One of these assertions, it must be acknowledged, is wholly inconsistent with the account I have now given, concerning the distressed circumstances of John Shakspeare; but, when the history of this paper is known, it will not, I conceive, tend, in the smallest degree, to invalidate the foregoing state ment. It appears, from another manuscript in the same office, that Sir William Dethick, and Camden, had 2 This grant was made by Robert Cook, Clarencieux; and if it was made to John Shakspeare whilst he was bailiff, it must have been made between Michaelmas, 1568, and Michaelmas, 1569, which was twenty-seven years at least before these notes were written. In the exemplification of 1599, the heralds expressly say that John Shakspeare obtained a grant of arms while he was bailiff. 3 This also, as appears from the foregoing note, is a great inaccuracy. "Twenty-six or twenty-seven years past" would have been nearer the truth. 4 Vincent, 157, No. 24.-A gentleman of worship was the phrase of the day, denoting a person of a respectable situation; if not wealthy, yet at least in easy circumstances. s W. Z. p. 274. “ The Answer of William Dethick, Garter, principal king of arms, to two matters, among others, whereof he was accused by some of the officers, whereof information was been charged, by some of the officers of the College of Arms, with having granted several arms wrongfully, either in respect of the arms themselves, which, in some cases, were said to be too similar to others already possessed by various ancient families, or in respect of the persons to whom they were granted, who, it was alleged, were either tradesmen, or persons of so low a condition as not to be entitled to such an honourable distinction. Among the persons to whom objection seems to have been made, on both these grounds, was John Shakspeare; and the notices or minutes concerning him, above given, appear to have been short hints, preparatory to the defence which was made in form, on the 10th of May, 1602, before Henry Lord Howard, Sir Robert Sidney, and Sir Edward Dier, chancellor of the order of the Garter, against the libellous scrowl, as Dethick terms it, which had been exhibited against him and Camden; and, therefore, these notices are not to heard the 1st day of May before the Right Hon. Henry Lord Howard [Qr. Lord Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton], Sir Robert Sydney, Lord Governer of Flushing, and Sir Edward Dier, Chancellor of the order of the garter, and day given the said Garter to answere hereunto, namely, the 10th of May ensuing, 1602." 6 "The Answere of Garter and Clarenciaux, kings of arms, to a libellous scrowle against certen arms supposed to be wrongfully given. "Right Honorable. The exceptions taken in the Scrowle of Arms exhibited, doo concerne these armes granted, or the persons to whom they have been granted. In both, right honble. we hope to satisfy your Lordships." They then mention twenty-three persons, to whom they were charged with having granted arms improperly, either in respect of |