riet married William Woodcock, Esq.

The alderman's eldest daughter Sarah married Joseph Sage; his second
daughter, Anne, John Blagrove, of Cardiff Hall, Jamaica; his third,
Martha, the Rev. John William Lloyd, of Aston Hall, co. Salop; his
fourth, Mary, Laver Oliver, Esq., to whose children the rope-factory
descended.

Whatever may have been the fortunes of the other branches, it is very
clear that the chief modern Shakespeares have descended from the
Shadwell stock. John Shakespear, the second son of the Alderman, left a
memorandum declaring his belief that the family was derived from the
poet's grandfather. There has as yet, however, been found no proof of
any such connection, though it is perfectly possible that it existed. If
Richard, of Snitterfield, was the father of John, Henry, and Thomas,
there were two possible lines of descent. Henry may have had children
christened at other places than Snitterfield, whose descent no one has
traced. Thomas had a son John, born in 1581-82, clearly too old to have
been the first John of Shadwell. He _may_ have had a son of the proper
age; but, as I have stated above, I have found no John of the right age,
except John, son of Thomas.

A Hannah[360] Shakespeare, born 1777, is mentioned in the pedigree of
Esterby and Sootheran.

Henry Shakespear, of London, was a broker Loriner, 1775, connected with
Hertford (see p. 137).

On June 29, 1794, was baptized Joshua,[361] son of Thomas and Ann
Shakespeare.

A warm eulogy of the charity and virtues of William Shakespeare, Esq.,
of Hart Street, Bloomsbury, who died in January, 1799, aged
seventy-three, is given in the _Gentleman's Magazine_[362] of that date;
and in May of the same year the death is noticed, in Paddington, of
George Shakespeare, Esq., son of the late George Shakespeare, Esq., of
Walton-upon-Thames, and Pimlico, Middlesex.[363]

M. L. Jeny, in _L'Intermediaire_, March 25, 1889, states that "he had
read in _L'Abeille du Cher_ of Friday, November 18, 1836, that a poor
old man of seventy-seven, named George Shakspeare, was found dying with
cold and hunger in the middle of the frightful night of Wednesday
preceding, in Clarence Street, London, and was taken to the Hospital,
and died there. He was one of the poet's descendants."[364]

So late as November, 1880, there was a Mrs. Anne Shakespeare who died at
Brighton, aged 102.[365]

There are several American branches of Shakespeares, some of them
literary, and two