"to my fellow William Shakespeare a thirty-shilling piece in gold." In
July of that year (July 24, 1605) Shakespeare completed his largest
purchase, in buying for L440 the unexpired term of the moiety of the
tithe-lease of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe.

In that year John Davenant took out the lease of the Crown Inn at
Oxford, where the following year his son William was born. Gossip,
supported, if not originated, by himself, suggests that William Davenant
was the son rather than the godson of Shakespeare, an unfounded slander
disposed of by Halliwell-Phillipps.

On June 5, 1607, Susanna Shakespeare married Dr. Hall. Elizabeth, their
only child, and the only grandchild Shakespeare saw, was born in
February, 1607-1608, and in September of that year John Shakespeare's
widow--Shakespeare's mother--died.

It is probable Shakespeare returned home to his mother's funeral, as he
was chief godfather on October 16 to the William Walker of Stratford to
whom he bequeathed 20s. in gold in 1616. In 1608 and 1609 Shakespeare
instituted a process for debt against John Addenbroke and his security
Hornebie. His attorney was his cousin, Thomas Greene, then residing,
under unknown conditions, at New Place. In the latter year he instituted
more important proceedings concerning the tithes. The papers of the
complaint by Lane, Green, and Shakespeare to Lord Ellesmere in 1612,
concerning other lessees, give details of the income he derived
therefrom.[167]

In 1610 he purchased 20 acres of pasture-land from the Combes to add to
his freeholds. The concord of the fine is dated April 13, 1610, and, as
it was acknowledged before the Commissioners, he is believed to have
been in Stratford at the time. In a subscription list drawn up at
Stratford September 11, 1611, his name is the only one entered on the
margin, as if it were a later insertion, "towards the charge of
prosecuting the Bill in Parliament for the better repair of Highways." A
Parliament was then expected to meet, but it was not summoned till long
afterwards. In 1612 Lane, Green, and Shakespeare filed a new bill of
complaint concerning the tithes before Lord Ellesmere.

In March, 1613, he made a curious purchase of a tenement and yard, one
or two hundred yards to the east of the Blackfriars Theatre. The lower
part had long been in use as a haberdasher's shop. The vendor was Henry
Walker, a musician, who had paid L100 for it in 1604, and who asked then
the price