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or thinge, in the said complainantes byll conteined, materiall or effectuall in the lawe, to be answeared unto, towchinge or concernynge him this defendante, and herein before not answeared unto, confessed and avoyded, traversed or denied, is true, to this defendants knowledge or remembrance, in suche manner and forme as in the said byll the same is sett downe and declared. All which matters this defendante is reddy to averre and prove, as this honorable courte shall awarde, and prayethe to be dismissed therhence with his reasonable costs and charges in this wrongfull sute by him unjustly susteyned.

OVERBURY.

The replicacion of John Shakespere and Mary his wief, plent, to the answere of John Lamberte, defendant.

The said complaynaunts, for replicacion to the answere of the said defendant, saie that theire bill of complaynt ys certayne and sufficient in the lawe to be answered; which said bill, and matters therein conteyned, these complainants will avowe, verefie, and justifie to be true and sufficient in the lawe to be answered unto, in such sorte, manner, and forme, as the same be sett forthe and declared in the said bill; and further they saie that thanswere of the said defendaunt is untrue and insufficient in lawe to be replied unto, for many apparent causes in the same appearinge, thadvantage whereof these complainants praie may be to theym nowe and at all tymes saved, then and not ells; for further replicacion to the said answere, they saie that accordinge to the condicion or proviso mencioned in the said indenture of bargaine and sale of the premisses mencioned in the said bill of complaynt, he this complainant John Shakspere did come to the dwellinge house of the said Edmunde Lambert, in Barton uppon the heathe, uppon the feaste daie of St. Michaell tharcheangell, which was in the yeare of our Lorde God one thousand fyve hundred and eightie, and then and there tendered to paie unto him the said Edmunde Lambert, the said fortie poundes, which he was to paie for the redempcion of the said premisses; which somme the said Edmunde did refuse to receyve, sayinge that he owed him other money, and unles that he the said John would paie him altogether, as well the said fortie pounds as the other money, which he owed him over and above, he would not receave the said fortic pounds, and imediatlie after he the said Edmunde dyed, and by reason thereof, he the said defendant entered into the said premisses, and wrongfullie kepeth and detayneth the said premisses from him the said complainant: without that any other matter or thinge, materiall or effectuall, for these complainantes to replie unto, and not herein sufficientlie confessed and avoyded, denyed and traversed, ys true: all which matters and things thes complaynants are redie to averr and prove, as this honorable court will awarde, and pray as before in theire said bill they have praied.

In dorso, Ter. Michael. Annis 40 et 41.

J. STOVELL.

In discussing these subjects connected with John Shakespeare's property, one important question has been omitted, which may here with propriety be briefly discussed,-when did he relinquish his occupation as a glover, and become a yeoman? As early as 1579 we find him described under this latter title, and in a deed executed by him in that year, he no longer signs with the curious cabalistic-looking character traced by him in 1559 and 1565, given in the fac-similes at p. 19 and p. 18, or with the similar but somewhat different mark in the accompanying copy of a presentation made when he was one of the affeerors in 1561. Some

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where, then, between the years 1565 and 1579, he commenced marking with a cross, and I suspect it will be conceded that when he did so, at that time also did he leave off his trade in gloves. The earlier mark of John Shakespeare was his merchant's mark, representing under both forms an instrument used in the glove trade, rudely executed perhaps, but still symbolical of his occupation. An instrument of a very similar form is still in common use for stretching or opening the fingers of new gloves, and a character not unlike that above given, may be seen in the "Wits Interpreter," 8vo. 1671, p. 519. Perhaps some

one, who has leisure for the inquiry, will be able to produce a contemporary illustration of this opinion.

John Shakespeare has already been traced through the various offices of the corporation to 1569, when he was the chief magistrate of Stratford. From 1570 to 1586, he continued one of the aldermen, and he appears to have been a most regular attendant at the councils of the corporation till 1577, his name very seldom occurring as an absentee before that period. From 1577, however, till his removal in 1586, he scarcely made his appearance in the chamber. In a list of aldermen at a meeting held January 23d, 1577, "ab. Johannes Shaxpeare," and he is not marked as being present till October 4th, 1577; he then attended regularly till January 15th, 1578, after which he absents himself till September 5th, 1582, when he is again marked as being present, and he is also mentioned among the "alldermen present," at a hall holden November 4th, 1582, in a loose paper at the end of the corporation book marked A.* After this, he attended no more meetings of the corporation, and on September 6th, 1586, he was deprived of his alderman's gown:

Stratford Ad aulam ibidem tent. vj. die Septembris anno regni Dominæ Burgus. Elizabethæ, &c. vicesimo octavo.

At thys halle William Smythe and Richard Courte are chosen to be aldermen in the places of John Wheler and John Shaxspere; for that Mr. Wheler dothe desyre to be put owt of the companye, and Mr. Shaxspere dothe not come to the halles when they be warned, nor hathe not done of longe tyme.

The pertinacity with which John Shakespeare absented himself arose most probably from a desire to withdraw himself from the corporation.† At a hall held on September

It has been usually stated he did not attend the councils after 1579. See Knight's Shakspere, a Biography, p. 107.

+Mr. Collier thinks that as it is stated that Wheler desired to withdraw, so also, if John Shakespeare had had the same wish, it would have been adduced. But Wheler may have resigned officially, and the council were not obliged to recognise any such desire, however well known, unless especially communicated to them.

4th, 1583, he was the only alderman not present. He is marked as being there on August 31st, 1586, but this is so much at variance with the note above given, that it may perhaps be merely a clerical error. Yet is the fact of his continual absences so far from being an evidence of a falling off in circumstances, that it implies on the contrary the ability to pay the fines for non-attendance; for we cannot doubt if he had not paid them, some notice, earlier than the above, would have appeared in the books. At a hall on November 19th, 1578, it was "ordened at this hall that every alderman and burgese that hath made default not comminge to this hall accordinge to the order shall paye their merciament." That he was in Stratford and able to attend in the year he was excluded from the corporation is unquestionable, for he was summoned on a jury of a Court of Record, May 25th, 28 Eliz.

The occupations of John Shakespeare about this period were probably those of an ordinary yeoman of the time. There is reason to believe that his activity continued for many years afterwards. In 1592, we find him engaged in two instances in making inventories of the goods of persons deceased, a task which the old law-books tell us should be performed by "four credible men or more." With the desire of rendering my collection of documentary evidence as complete as possible, I subjoin these papers, although I need scarcely add that for all ordinary purposes brief abstracts would have been sufficient.

A trew and a perfecte inventory of the goodes and cattells of Henry ffeelde late of Stretford uppon Avon in the county of Warwyke tanner, now decessed, beynge in Stretford aforesayd, the xxj.the daye of Auguste, a: Domini, 1592, by Thomas Trussell, gentylman, Mr. John Shaksper, Richard Sponer, and others, viz.

Inprimis, on table. .

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In the hall ther.

uppon a joyned ffram, feyve smale joyned stowlls, with a smale cheare, with the waynscott benche, and the paynted clothes ther

X.S.

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Item, one payer of aldyornes, a fyer showle, a payre of tongs, toow payer of pothucks, one payer of pothangers

In the parler ther.

iij.s. iiij.d.

Inprimis, one smale table uppon a frame, with tow joyned stowlls, ij. cheares, one joyned presse, one joyned bedde, a smale planck, beyng aboute the vallewe of

XX.8.

Item, three paynted clothes ther, one fether-bed, one floke bed, tow bowlsters, one pillow, one bed kevoringe of yellow and grene, fore blankets old, one old karpet

XX.S.

Item, one longe cheaste wherin ys conteyned feyve payer of hurden course sheets, thre cowrse table clothes, seaven cowrse weypers, three cowrse table napkins

X.S.

Item, in the shorter coffer ther ys conteyned iij. payer of flaxen sheets, one payer of hempton sheets, one flaxen table clothe, and one other of hempe, halfe a dowsen of table napkins of flaxe and j. d. of hempe, which were redeemed by his weyfe since his decesse, ij. dyaper napkins, fowre pillowbeares flaxen, valewed xl.s.

In the butterey this pewter.

Inprimis, vj. puter disshes, eight platters, thretteen sawcers, three porridge disshes, fowr saltsellers, feyve candelstyks of latteyn, one quarte potte, toue chamber potts, and a woyne poyncte potte, tow flower potts, at

In brasse ther.

XX.S.

Item, three brasse potts, three possenetts, a smalle panne old, iij. cawthornes and vj. skymers, a latteyn bason, one chaffyng dyshe, a frying panne, a drypping panne of plate

Item, ffowr broches great and smalle, one payer of cobbards

In the chamber next to the parler.

XX.S.

ij.s. vj.d.

Item, one trowkle bedd with a flocke bedd, a kevoring old, and old bolster, and one old blankette, a lytle rownd table, tow old chestes, at

X.S.

In the lytle chamber next to that.

Item, one bedstead of bords, one flocke bedde, one dowble twylley, an old kevoring, one save, fowr old coffers, one presse mad of bords, loyke shelves, xiij.s. iiij.d.

at

In the klyne house.

Item, syx barrells for beare, feyve loomes, fower payles, fowr formes, three wheels, one bowlting wytche, tow skipps, one using fatte, ij. skells, a tablebord, ij. payer of tressells, ij. streyks, one gallon, fower shelves

XX.S.

Item, a leade standeng in frame, one axe, ij. shovells, and a spade, vj.s. viij.d. Item, in one sheller or over chamber one joyned bedsteed and one cheese

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