t. James', Westminster." Joseph Champ and Martha Ham,
married at Portsmouth April 22, 1736, had John Shakespeare, of
Portsmouth, as one of their bondsmen; and George Poate and Anne Loch,
October 6, 1802, had Samuel Shakespeare one of their bondsmen.[294] The
London Shakespeares seem to have had a residence in Hampshire also, for
"Mrs. Shakespeare, widow of Alderman Shakespeare, of London, died at
Bramdean, co. Hants, aged 80, in March, 1807."[295]

Aubrey speaks of the wife of John Shakespeare, of Worplesdowne, in
Surrey, who made as good butter there as she ever did at Wroxall or
Bitteston. She was a North Wiltshire woman.[296] At Walton-upon-Thames,
Surrey, tombstones remind us of Matthew Shakespeare and George
Shakespeare, who died August 8, 1775; also of John Shakespeare, of
Weybridge, January 13, 1775; of William Shakespeare of this parish,
1783; and of George Shakespeare, architect, Oxford Street, London,
1797.[297]

On March 13, 1663, "William Shakespeare of Faucat was buried, and on
July 23, 1668, Ann Shackspere, daughter to Will Shackspear, was buried
in Toddington, co. Beds."[298]

There were Shakespeares also in Essex. Mr. Veley collects a few
particulars regarding them from the unregistered wills of the
Archdeaconry of Essex.[299] The oldest is that of Thomas Shakespeare,
priest, August 26, 1557. He leaves legacies to "8 priests of Jesus
Commons, wherein I now dwell," to sing masses, and something to the
maintenance of Jesus Commons, and to poor people, to the sisters of
Sion, the fathers of Sheen, the observant friars of Greenwich, the
Black-Friars of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, the nuns of King's Langley,
and "to the parryshe church of Seynt Mildryd in Bred Streete in London,
towards the byeing of a pyxt or monstrat to carry the blyssyd Sacrament,
v^li. To my brother, Robert Shakespeare; my brother, Harry Wyllson; my
brother, John Cooke; my sister, Grace Starke; my sister, Jone
Shackspere: my sister, Cicely Richardson; to John Cooke, of Jesus
Commons; to Mother Agnes, of the Commons, and Goodwyfe Blower." The
strange thing about this will is that it seems to have been made by the
same Sir Thomas Shakespeare, clerk, whom I enter among the
pre-Shakespearean London Shakespeares in August 22, 1559.[300] His will
is preserved at Somerset House.[301]

The two years that intervened between the drafting of the two wills were
years of great import. Mary had died, Philip had vanished, and Elizabeth
was seated