undum vim, formam et effectum huius presentis carte mee. Ratum et
gratum habens et habiturus totum et quicquid dicti attornati mei vice et
nomine meo fecerint seu eorum alter fecerit in premisses. In cuius rei
testimonium huic presenti carte mee et scripto meo sigillum meum
apposui. Hiis testibus Johanne Wagstaffe de Aston Cauntelowe Roberto
Porter de Snytterfield predicta Ricardo Russheby de eadem, Ricardo
Atkyns de Wylmecote predicta, Johanne Alcokkes de Newenham et aliis.
Datum apud Snytterfield predictam die lune proximo post festum
invencionis Sancte Crucis Anno Regni Regis Henrici Septimi post
conquestum Sexto decimo."[73]

Mr. Nichols' second objection was that in records he is styled
"husbandman"; but the word is an old English equivalent for a farmer, in
which sense it is often used in old wills and records. And in the
examination of John Somerville,[74] Edward Arden's son-in-law (also of
high descent), he stated "that he had received no visitors of late, but
certain 'husbandmen,' near neighbours." The Arden "husbandman" of
Wilmecote in 1523 and 1546[75] paid the same amount to the subsidy as
the Arden Esquire of Yoxall[76] in 1590, when money was of less value.

Mr. Nichols' third assertion, that the heralds scratched out the arms of
the Ardens of Park Hall, because they _dared_ not quarter them with
those of the Shakespeares, shows that he omitted certain considerations.
That family was under attainder then.

Drummond[77] exemplifies many arms of Arden, and traces them back to
their derivation. He notices that the "elder branch of the Ardens took
the arms of the old Earls of Warwick; the younger branches took the arms
of the Beauchamps, with a difference. In this they followed the custom
of the Earls of Warwick." The Ardens of Park Hall therefore bore ermine,
a fesse chequy, or, and az., arms derived from the old Earls of Warwick;
and this was the pattern scratched out in John Shakespeare's quartering.
But the reason lay in no breach of connection, but in the fact that Mary
Arden was an heiress, not in the eldest line, but through a _second
son_. A possible pattern for a younger son was three cross crosslets
fitchee and a chief or. As such they were borne by the Ardens of
Alvanley, with a crescent for difference. They were borne without the
crescent by Simon Arden of Longcroft,[78] the second son of the next
generation, and full cousin of Mary Arden's father. It is true that
among the tombs at Yoxall the fe