West
Street Ward.[264]

In the inquisitions post-mortem of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 32
Elizabeth, a Thomas Shackspere was one of the witnesses.

A Thomas Shakespeare had a grant from Mr. Henry Ferrers of two
messuages, one orchard, four gardens, and four acres of pasture in
Warwick for L80, Michaelmas, 39 Elizabeth, 1597.

There was a Thomas Shakespeare--probably the same--who married on June
21, 1598, Elizabeth Letherbarrow, daughter of the Mayor of Coventry. He
became Bailiff of Warwick November 1, 10 Jac. I., 1613. The only notice
of the name in the "Visitation of Warwickshire" in 1619 is that of
"Thomas Shakespeere, gent., one of the principal Aldermen of Warwick."

It is not clear whether or not he was the son of Thomas Shakespeare, the
shoemaker, who held land of the manor of Wroxall, and died in 1557,
leaving William, Thomas, John, and Joan, ux. Francis Ley.[265]

In Birmingham Registers there was a William, 1637, and an Anne
Shakespeare of Knowle, 1743.

More might be said of the Shakespeares of Coventry and Fillongley. There
is a tablet recording Shakespeare benefactions in Fillongley Church, and
many still bear the name among the neighbouring peasantry. But to
complete the pedigrees of the Warwickshire families, we must follow them
to other abodes.

FOOTNOTES:

[231] November 25, 1584, Stratford-on-Avon Register. Mr. R. B. Wheeler,
writing in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, September, 1816, takes for
granted the poet's father had three wives; a belief which Rowe also
held. See Reed's ed., vol. i., p. 136.

[232] "Ursula, daughter of John Shakespeare, bapt. March 11, 1588-89;
Humphrey, son of John Shakespeare, bapt. May 24, 1590; Philip, son of
John Shakespeare, bapt. September 21, 1591."--Stratford-on-Avon
Register.

"This Humphrey was ancestor to the George Shakespeare living in
Henley-in-Arden in 1864, and since in Wolverhampton." See French's
"Shakespeareana Genealogica."

[233] See "Rot. Claus.," 23 Elizabeth.

[234] See St. Nicholas' Churchwardens' Accounts, transcribed and printed
by Mr. Richard Savage, of Stratford-on-Avon. The register states: "1579.
July Sexto die huius mensis, sepultus fuit Gulielmus Shaxper, qui
demersus fuit in Rivulo aquae, qui vel vocatur Avona."

[235] A collection of thirty-five MSS. containing the name of
Shakespeare. Besides these of William, there are papers of Thomas
Shakespeare of Tamworth, 1679; Edward Shakespeare in the Manor of
Solihull, October 2