resident at Aston Cantlow, neither has there
hitherto been made any suggestion concerning Joyce, and her death does
not appear in the parish registers. Now, it was an exceedingly common
custom of the time for poorer single relatives to enter into the service
of wealthier members of the family; for "superfluous women" even, who
were not poor, to go where they were wanted in other homes. Might she
not have gone in such a capacity to one of the houses of the Ardens of
Park Hall? In Worcestershire, near Stourbridge, there is a parish called
Pedmore, and a hall of the same name, then inhabited by the Arden
family. The registers there record the death of a "Mistress Joyce Arden"
in 1557, to whose family there is no clue: and I cannot but think she
was Shakespeare's aunt, as the Joyce of Park Hall was married.

The Webbes[93] gradually bought up the reversionary shares of the other
Arden sisters in Snitterfield, and held the whole as tenants under Mrs.
Arden, widow. But the story of the Shakespeares' transfer is so
curiously mixed up with their other actions that they must be taken
together, in order to get a contemporary view of the matter. We find
that John Shakespeare had apparently pinched himself in 1575 to purchase
two houses in Stratford-on-Avon for L40, believed to be in Henley
Street[94]. By 1578, for some reasons not explained, he was excused his
share in municipal charges[95], and by a will of "Roger Sadler" Baker in
that year, we know that he was in debt to him, and under circumstances
that necessitated a security. "Item of Edmund Lambert and ---- Cornish
for the debte of Mr. John Shakesper v^li[96]." John Shakespeare
mortgaged Asbies to Edmund Lambert for a loan of L40 on November 14,
1578[97], the fine being levied Easter, 1579, the mortgagee treating the
matter as a purchase[98].

There is a curious complexity caused by a lease of the same property
being apparently granted to George Gibbes, and a double fine
levied[99]--_i.e._, parties brought in who were strangers to the title;
and a double fine appears to have been levied for technical purposes
when the estate was entailed[100]. These other names were Thomas Webbe
and Humphrey Hooper[101]. The mortgage loan was made repayable at
Michaelmas, 1580, when the lease commenced to run, and things seemed to
have been made safe for the Shakespeares. Then they proceeded to sell a
parcel[102] of the Snitterfield property to Robert Webbe for L40 on
October 15, 1579. The