Shakespeare's Family

ty of Mary Arden's family further elucidated. Some writers consider that, following a custom of the day, John Shakespeare treated as his antecessors his wife's ancestors. The word "g

s, "If the making of gentlemen heretofore hath been greatly misliked by her Majestie in the Kinges of Armes; much more displeasing, I think, it will be to her, that you, being no Officer of Armes, should erect, make and put down Earles and Barons at your pleasure." It must have been peculiarly galling to him that by the influence of Sir Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke, Camden was advanced over his head to the dignity he himsel

istracy in Stratford-on-Avon, was Justice of the Peace, married the daughter and heir of Arderne, and was able to maintain that estate." The Heralds first tricked the arms of the Arde

ns concerning this question in

the Shakespeare-Arden claim are

bility, while Robert Arden was a mere "husbandman." 3. That the Heralds knew the claim was unfounded when they scratched out the arms of Arden of Park Hall, and replac

the case step by st

arks annually. This is an income too small even for younger sons to live on in those days, so it is to be supposed the father had already either placed them, married them well, or otherwise provided for them during his life. Among the witnesses to the will are "Thomas Arden and John Charnells, Squires." Thomas, being the second son, might have had something from his mother Eleanor, daughter and coheir of John Hampden, of Great Hampden, county Bucks. This Thomas was alive in 1526, because Sir John Arden then willed that his brothers-Thomas, Martin, and Robert-should have their fees for life. Henry, and probably also William, had meanwhile

eath, was living at Wilmecote, in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, on soil formerly owned by the Beauchamps. On May 16, 16 Henry VII., Mayowe transferred certain lands at Snitterfield to "Robert Throckmorton, Armiger, Thomas Trussell of Billesley, Roger Reynolds of Henley-in-Arden, William Wood of Woodhouse, Thomas Arden of Wil

his children, in association with John Kingsmel, Sergeant-at-Law, Sir Richard Empson, and Sir Richard Knightley.[72] That a man of the same name, at the same time, in the same county, retaining the same fam

s Robert was her father; this property, that tenanted afterward

xtenso, I should like to preserve the copy. It may save trouble to future investigators, and help to clear up the connection between the Shakespeares and the Ardens. It

uis pertinenciis; quod quidem mesuagium predictum quondam fuit Willelmi Mayowe et postea Johannis Mayowe et situatum est inter terram Johannis Palmer ex parte una et quandam venellam ibidem vocatam Merellane ex parte altera in latitudine et extendit se in longitudine a via Regia ibidem usque ad quendam Rivulum, secundum metas et divisas ibidem factas. Habendum et tenendum predictum mesuagium cum omnibus et singulis terris Toftis, Croftis, pratis, pascuis, et pasturis predictis, ac omnibus suis pertinenciis prefatis Roberto Throkmerton, Thome Trussell, Rogero Reyno

m hujusmodi seisina dicta capta fuerit ad deliberandam pro me ac vice et nomine meo prefatis Roberto Throkmerton, Thome Trussell, Rogero Reynoldes, Willelmo Wodde, Thome Arderne et Roberto Arderne plenam et pacificam possessionem et seisinam de et in eodem mesuagio ac omnibus et singulis premissis, secundum vim, formam et effectum huius presentis carte mee. Ratum et gratum habens et habiturus totum et quicquid dicti attornati mei vice et nomine meo fecerint seu eor

ecords. And in the examination of John Somerville,[74] Edward Arden's son-in-law (also of high descent), he stated "that he had received no visitors of late, but certain 'husbandmen,'

of Park Hall, because they dared not quarter them with those of the Shakespeares,

the reason lay in no breach of connection, but in the fact that Mary Arden was an heiress, not in the eldest line, but through a second son. A possible pattern for a younger son was three cross crosslets fitchée and a chief or. As such they were borne by the Ardens of Alvanley, with a crescent for difference. They were borne without the crescent by Simon Arden of Longcroft,[78] the second son of the next generation, and full cousin of Mary Arden's father. It is true that among the tombs at Yoxall the f

o means universally, the mark of cadency for a fourth son at that time.[79] Thus, Glover[80] enumerates among the arms of Warwickshire and Bedfordshire: "Arden or Arderne gu., three cross crosslets fitchée or; on a chief of the second a martlet of the first. Crest, a plume of feathers charged with a martlet or." If heraldry has anything, therefore, to say to this dispute, it is to support the claim of Thomas Arden to being a cadet of

r escucheon impaled the same with the auncient arms of the said Arden of Wellyngcote, signifying thereby that it maye and shalbe lawfull, for the said John Shakespeare, gent., to beare and use the same shields of arms, single or impaled,

live long after his app

f his using them. Whether his son ever used the impalement we do not now know, but it does not appear o

ut his coat of arms; but it was the recognition of his descent that secured him so universa

tage doth stain p

e are in mind

ngest, whom they had probably always pitied and looked down on, because of her comparatively unfortunate mar

TE, BY SOME SUPPOSED

ace

TNO

, but his bitterness only hurt himself. His stri

st 10, 18

i., p. 510, 1863; and Notes and Qu

's "Warwicks

at Somerset H

aces the sons i

I., second part, m

ies, mem. 35,

III., September 24,

to Sir John Arden of Park Hall." "

Guild of Knowle 1469, and there is an entry in 1504 of a donation "for Sir William Trussell and for his soul": "To Thomas Trussell, farmer of the said Bishop of Worcester; in Knowle for the Worke-silver 4/4" (37 Henry VIII., Report. "Register of the Guild of Knowle,"

rd Arden, of Park Hall, was brought up in his c

See p

field. (Transcribed from the Miscellaneous Doc

mestic Series, Elizab

d at ￡10; Walter Edkyns, ￡10; John Jenks, ￡6; John Skarlett, ￡8; Thomas Dixson, ￡8; Roger Knight, ￡8; Richard Ingram, ￡6; Thomas Gretwyn, ￡5; Margaret Scarlet, ￡5; Richard Edkyns, ￡6; Robert Fulwood, ￡5; Ni

espeareana," p. 423; and Nicho

"Noble British Fami

's "Worthies of

for the distinction of houses ... for the second son a crescent, the third a

, vol. ii.

Parnassus," 1606, Studi

t lifts them up

down in grov

ds these glor

st their fardel

e on through th

n their glari

attend thei

rds that better

ands and now es

V.,

may refer to Shakespeare, though A

is "Epigrams,

e such new-found

aster' to the

akespeare elsewhere shows

's "Microcosmus, The Civil W