en Clarenceux herald, a 'pattern' or sketch
of an armorial coat. This allegation is not noticed in the records of
the College, and may be a formal fiction designed by John Shakespeare and
his son to recommend their claim to the notice of the heralds. The
negotiations of 1568, if they were not apocryphal, were certainly
abortive; otherwise there would have been no necessity for the further
action of 1596. In any case, on October 20, 1596, a draft, which remains
in the College of Arms, was prepared under the direction of William
Dethick, Garter King-of-Arms, granting John's request for a coat-of-arms.
Garter stated, with characteristic vagueness, that he had been 'by
credible report' informed that the applicant's 'parentes and late
antecessors were for theire valeant and faithfull service advanced and
rewarded by the most prudent prince King Henry the Seventh of famous
memories sythence whiche tyme they have continewed at those partes
[_i.e._ Warwickshire] in good reputacion and credit;' and that 'the said
John [had] maryed Mary, daughter and heiress of Robert Arden, of
Wilmcote, gent.' In consideration of these titles to honour, Garter
declared that he assigned to Shakespeare this shield, viz.: 'Gold, on a
bend sable, a spear of the first, and for his crest or cognizance a
falcon, his wings displayed argent, standing on a wreath of his colours,
supporting a spear gold steeled as aforesaid.' In the margin of this
draft-grant there is a pen sketch of the arms and crest, and above them
is written the motto, 'Non Sans Droict.' {189} A second copy of the
draft, also dated in 1596, is extant at the College. The only
alterations are the substitution of the word 'grandfather' for
'antecessors' in the account of John Shakespeare's ancestry, and the
substitution of the word 'esquire' for 'gent' in the description of his
wife's father, Robert Arden. At the foot of this draft, however,
appeared some disconnected and unverifiable memoranda which John
Shakespeare or his son had supplied to the heralds, to the effect that
John had been bailiff of Stratford, had received a 'pattern' of a shield
from Clarenceux Cook, was a man of substance, and had married into a
worshipful family. {190}

[Picture: Coat-of-arms]

Neither of these drafts was fully executed. It may have been that the
unduly favourable representations made to the College respecting John
Shakespeare's social and pecuniary position excited s