o the repair of the church. On June
20, 1613, the churchwardens "received from John Shakespeare, by the
hands of Edward Thickness, the sum of L10, given as a legacy by Mrs.
Dimbleby, deceased" (which suggests that he was her executor), and in
1617 they "gave to John Shakespeare's daughter 7s. 6d."--a curious
entry, which I cannot explain. She may have done some work for the
churchwardens, as they often employed women; it may have been a debt due
her father, a present on her marriage, or an aid in sudden poverty. The
death of a "John Shakespeare, a man," is noted in 1646, in apparent
poverty, as the funeral cost only 1s.--a different cost from that of
Mrs. Dorothy Shakespeare in 1608. I had thought it possible that this
sum represented only a fee for a burial in another parish, but I find
that theory is untenable. Whether the John of 1646 was the same as the
sidesman of 1605 or not, he was certainly buried in the parish. From the
vestry books I found many notices of John Shakespeare as contributing to
the expenses of the poor, first on the "waterside" of the parish, and
then on the "landside"; and I believed, reasoning from a State Paper
Bill, that he was referred to in the entry, "received for a pewe, from
the Princes' Bitmaker 30s., 1639-40." His name disappeared from the
books long before 1646; and I fancied he had gone farther east to the
parish of St. Clement's Danes, which joined that of St. Martin's at
several points. "Paid to William Wright for a stone engraved with
letters on it, which is sett in the wall of the Earl of Salisbury at his
house at Ivie Bridge to devide the two parishes of St. Martin's in the
Fields and St. Clement's Danes in that place." I gave up theorizing
until I could see the registers of St. Clement's Danes, and from various
causes three years passed before I had an opportunity of clearing up the
puzzle. These registers prove that in London, as in Stratford-on-Avon, I
had been confused by double entries, and that there was _another John
Shakespeare_. The St. Martin's John lost his wife Dorothy in 1608; the
St. Clement's John married his wife Mary in 1605. "3rd Feb. 1604-5,
Johne Shakspear and Mary Godtheridg." _He_ was the wealthy bitmaker to
the King, of whom I had discovered notices in the State Papers and wills
that turned my attention to St. Clement's Danes, a hitherto unsuspected
locality for Shakespeare finds. I thought at first that he might have
been John the shoemaker who vanished from