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circumstances; and it is satisfactory to know he was esteemed a good man of business and a careful accountant. Had it been otherwise he would hardly have been selected to prepare the accounts of the corporations for chamberlains who were either unequal to the duty or unable from other circumstances to attend to them :-"thaccompt of William Tylor and William Smythe chamburlens made by John Shakspeyr the xv day of February in the eight yere of the reigne of our Sovereigne Lady Elyzabeth." Yet John Shakespeare could not write his own. name! This fact has been recently attempted to be overruled, but sufficient evidence will here be adduced to place it beyond the reach of further doubt. Under the date of September 27th,1565, we have, in the original book of the corporation still preserved at

Stratford, an order signed by

nineteen names, aldermen and

burgesses. Among these, in the

position indicated by the accompanying fac-simile, is found the name of Jhon Shacksper. It will

be observed that his mark is under his name, opposite to the name of Thomas Dyxon, who was apparently compelled to place his mark on the other side.

The name of John Shakespeare is undoubtedly written by the same hand which transcribed the names of four other persons of that Christian name found in the same column. To say that they are not written by one person, merely because the upper stroke of the letter h is in a small degree longer in one instance than in the other, could only be asserted by those who are quite unaccustomed to the examination of ancient writings. But we have several instances of John Shakespeare's mark, and in the following, which occurs in a list of names appended to the proceedings of a court-leet, dated 6 Oct. 1 Eliz. 1559, we find it amongst others altogether detached from the name.

Malone says it was his usual custom to set his mark lower than his name, and he correctly adds that in the latter part of his life he contented himself with making a cross instead of the mark he had previously used. It will be asked, perhaps, why he should have changed his mark at a later period; and I suspect the reply will contain an argument fixing the date of his occupations more correctly than has yet been accomplished. Of this hereafter.

John Shakespeare resided in Henley street, Stratford, as early as 1552, and seems to have commenced business as a glover, for we find him so described in the register of the proceedings of the bailiff's court, dated June 17th, 1556,* when Thomas Siche brought an action against him for the sum of £8::

"Stretford, ss. Cur. Philippi et Mariæ, Dei gratia regis et reginæ Angliæ, Hispaniarum, &c. secundo et tercio, ibidem tent. die Marcurii, videlicet xvij die Junii, anno prædicto, coram Johanni Burbage ballivo, &c.

"Thomas Siche de Arscotte in com. Wigorn. queritur versus Johannem Shakyspere de Stretford in com. Warwici glover in placito quod redd. ei octo libras, &c."

This being the only passage in which his trade is noticed, I present the reader with a fac-simile recently made with great care by Mr. Fairholt, that given by Mr. Knight not being very accurate. It is by no means unusual for us to find an English word of this kind in the middle of a Latin sentence in such documents, and there cannot be a moment's hesitation in writing it glover, the contraction for the last syllable being unquestionably er. We have the

This date has always been incorrectly given 1555. See Malone, ii. 78, Collier, p. 60, &c. It has been stated we should read x.s. at the close of the second paragraph, but the last letter is clearly a c, and a comparison with other entries sufficiently proves the correctness of our reading.

The tracing from which Mr. Knight's fac-simile is taken was not made by Mr. Fairholt, but unfortunately by some person not quite competent to a task which requires peculiar nicety and considerable practice.

same word in a similar position and with the same contraction in a rent-roll of the College of Stratford, 34 Hen. VIII, still preserved in the archives in the council chamber, "Johannes Purs glover pro duobus ten. per annum vj.s. viij.d.” It is thus established, on the best possible evidence, that John Shakespeare, the father of the poet, was a glover in the year 1556.*

He was, however, engaged in other occupations even at this period, for on November 19th, in the same year, we find him bringing an action against Henry Fyld, for unjustly detaining a quantity of barley. In the chamberlain's accounts for 1564, the following entry occurs: "Item, payd to Shakspeyr for a pec tymbur, iij. s.' These circumstances lead directly to the conclusion that John Shakespeare was occupied in agricultural pursuits, and in 1579 he seems to have been entirely engaged in them; for in a deed executed in that year he is styled "Johannes Shackspere

I am quite at a loss to discover on what evidence Mr. Harness founds the singular assertion that there were innumerable John Shakespeares at Stratford in 1556, for there is no entry whatever to be discovered in the Corporation books or church register, showing even two John Shakespeares of that town at so early a period. The shoemaker of that name is not mentioned till many years afterwards, and the reader will find in a subsequent part of this volume how impossible it is that this celebrated entry could have applied to him.

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de Stratford uppon Avon in comitatu Warwici yoman." We may now return to Rowe's statement that he was "a considerable dealer in wool" without being accused of violating the probabilities of the case. It was by no means unusual for a burgess of Stratford, in Shakespeare's time, to deal in gloves and wool. In "the trwe inventory of the goodes of Joyce Hobday, late of Stratford upon Avon in the county of Warwycke, wydowe, decessed, taken the 3. day of Apriell, 1602," we have the following entries in the list of debts:

George Shacleton oweth for woll, xxiiij.s.

John Edwards oweth for ij. pere of gloves, viij.d.*

And why should not John Shakespeare have dealt in the commodity which we are told "is the flower and strength, the revenue and bloud of England; a bond uniting the people into societies and fraternities for their own utility; the milk and honey of the grasier, and countreyman; the gold and spices of the West and East India to the merchant and citizen; in a word, the exchequer of wealth, and scepter of protection to them all as well at home as abroad, and therefore of full merit to be had in perpetual remembrance, defence, and encouragement."+

The ancient records of Stratford are so voluminous that we may conclude with tolerable safety the establishment of the Shakespeares in that town did not take place before the middle of the sixteenth century, from the fact of the name not occurring in the archives of the borough previously to that period. The old subsidy rolls do not give us any information respecting them, and the earliest notice of the

* There is another copy of this inventory which gives these entries rather more fully: Inp. George Shacleton oweth me for woll

It. Mr. Guttredge oweth me for calves lether

xxiiij.s. iiij.s. viij.d.

John Edwards of Allveston alias Allston oweth me for two pere of gloves viij.d. The Golden Fleece, by W. S. gent. 12mo, Lond. 1657, p. 2.