ut, in the first place, any such declaration at that date would then
have designated our Shakespeare "gent."; in the second, he would have
employed his cousin, Thomas Greene, as his attorney, and not William
Tetherton, and Thomas Greene would have spelt his name otherwise than it
is written. In the third place, there is no corroborative testimony that
the poet ever sold malt, and there is concerning this contemporary
William.

The early registers of Rowington are lost, but we have shown from the
wills that there were Shakespeares there bearing this Christian name.
The Richard of Rowington who died in 1561 mentions a son William in his
will. The second Richard of that place had a son William mentioned in
the will of 1591. The third Richard and his wife Elizabeth had four
sons--William, Richard, Thomas, John, and a daughter Joan. William had
worked as a labourer without wages on his father's property, with
expectation of succeeding to it. But some years before his father's
death he went, with his father's permission, out to service, and married
a certain Mrs. Margery. His father was incensed against him, and left
the little property to his youngest son, John, November 13, 1613, proved
in 1614.[237] Legal proceedings were commenced in 1614 at Worcester by
William about the property of his mother, Elizabeth. A Chancery suit
between the brothers was instituted in the Star Chamber,[238] and the
case was heard at Warwick, in 1616, before four Commissioners, one of
whom was Francis Collins, gent., the overseer of the will of the poet.
William the plaintiff was then about forty years old. This is probably
the same man who felt injured by his family while supported by his
wife's money in his lawsuits. The mark of a William Shakespeare is found
on a roll of the Customs of the Manor of Rowington, confirmed by the
jury in 1614. Was he the same? And if not, which of these was the
William Shakespeare whose name appears in the list of the trained
soldiers of Rowington,[239] taken before Sir Fulke Greville at Alcester,
September 23, 1605, erroneously by some believed to be the poet?[240]

There is preserved a petition of William Shaxsper, Richard Shuter, and
others of Rowington, co. Warwick, to the Committee for the Safety of
Coventry and Warwick. About St. Andrew's Day they had some sea-coal
which lay at Barford, near Warwick, which they had sold to Lady Lucy,
but the soldiers of the city finding fuel scarce, had burnt L5 10s.
worth o