following judicious precept, at a still later period, when our poet was in his forty-third year: "Duke. What years, i' faith? "Viola. About your years, my lord. "Duke. Too old, by heaven! Let still the woman take "More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, "Then let thy love be younger than thyself, "Or thy affection cannot hold the bent "." From this inequality of years, I have sometimes fancied that the object of our poet's choice was a widow. They were not married at Stratford, no 66 as in the sweetest buds "The eating canker dwells, so eating love s A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. Sc. I. 7 This notion was first suggested to me by finding that Mr. William Wilson was married to Anne Hathaway, of Shottery, January 17, 1579-80; and I suspected that he died between that time and 1582. But, on a further examination, I found that Mr. William Wilson, who was an alderman of Stratford, lived to the year 1605. She could not, therefore, have married Shakspeare. Besides, as I have observed above, it is much more probable that our poet's wife was of Luddington. The late Mr. Joseph Greene, vicar of Welford, near Stratford, imagined that our poet's wife was of Shottery; induced, probably, by finding, in the Stratford register, the names of Richard Hathaway, otherwise Gardiner, of Shottery, and his descendants, frequently occur; and he supposed that a remarkable house in Shottery, which in his time was the property of two ladies of the name of Tyler, and had formerly belonged to an old Mr. VOL. II. I entry of their marriage appearing in the register of that parish; nor have I been able to ascertain the day Quiney, might have descended from Thomas Quiney, on whose marriage, with the poet's second daughter, he might have settled this house, which, it was suggested, he might have acquired as a part of his wife's portion. But it is clear, from Shakspeare's will, that he had not paid his second daughter's portion, at the time of his death, though he had covenanted to give her 100%. which, accordingly, he does, in his will; and he makes no mention of a house in Shottery. Mr. Bartholomew Hathaway, a substantial yeoman, who was the possessor of the Shottery estate, and who, I believe, was the son of Mr. Richard Hathaway, born before the commencement of the register, died at a good old age, in 1624. From his will, which was made December 16, 1621, and proved at Stratford, December 6, 1624, I find that he had three sons; John, Richard, and Edmond. To Richard he bequeaths twenty shillings; to Edmond, his third son, 120l. to be paid in seven years after his decease; and to his eldest son, John, his messuage, in Shottery, with the appurtenances, and two yard lands and a half [about seventy-five acres], lying in the fields of Shottery and Old Stratford; limiting the said lands to him and the heirs of his body, remainder to his son Edmond, remainder to Richard. To each of the children of his son John, viz. Alice, Richard, Anne, and Ursula, one of his best ewes. To his own daughter, Anne, the now wife of Richard Edwards, the sum of thirty shillings; and to each of her seven [q. six] children, Avery, Bartholomew, Alice, Thomas, Richard, and Ursula, 6s. viiid. His executor is his son John; and Mr. John Hall, of Stratford, and Stephen Burman, of Shottery, his overseers; to each of whom he leaves 2s. vid. Avery Edwards, the person above-mentioned, lived, in the year 1622, at Luddington, as appears from the collector's subsidy book, 19 Jac. in the chamber of Stratford. Richard Hathaway, a baker, who was elected an alderman of Stratford, April 18, 1623, and died there in October, 1636, was probably the second son of the above-named Bartholomew. I do not believe that there was any other person of the name of Hathaway, who had an estate at Shottery; and Bartholomew's or place of their union, though I have searched the registers of several of the neighbouring parishes for that purpose. The tradition, however, concerning the surname of his wife, is confirmed by the will of Lady Barnard, our poet's grand-daughter, which I discovered a few years ago; for she gives several legacies to the children of her kinsman, Mr. Thomas Hathaway, formerly of Stratford; and still more de daughter, Anne, we see, was married to Richard Edwards. The wife of our poet might, indeed, have been Bartholomew Hathaway's sister; but, as she was yet living when his will was made, and no mention is made of her in it, nor any memorial given to her, I think it improbable that she should have been his sister. I may add, in confirmation of what I have suggested (that our poet's wife was not of Shottery), that Susanna, the daughter of Thomas Hathaway (Shakspeare's great nephew, as I believe), who was baptized at Stratford, June 11, 1648, and to whom, without doubt, Mrs. Susanna Hall was godmother, is described, in the parish register, as the daughter of Thomas Hathaway, without any addition; as are William, son to the same Thomas Hathaway, baptized April 19, 1640; Rose, his daughter, baptized November 6, 1642; and Elizabeth, another daughter, baptized January 10, 1646-7. Whereas, we find that Edmond, "son to John Hathaway, of Shottery," baptized November 23, 1628, and Elizabeth, daughter of the same John Hathaway, of Shottery, baptized January 22, 1625-6. This distinction is constantly preserved in the register. I mention these circumstances, as they show that the Hathaways, who were related to our poet's daughters, were not of Shottery. Mrs. Judith Quiney was, without doubt, sponsor for Judith, another daughter of the same Thomas Hathaway; and our poet's grand-daughter, Lady Barnard, bequeaths legacies to his several children above-named; Susanna, Judith, Rose, and Elizabeth; which last was certainly her own godchild. She calls him "her kinsman Thomas Hathaway, late of Stratford upon Avon." cisively by a deed, which was executed June 2, 1647, in order to lead the uses of a fine and recovery of our poet's estate, then in the possession of his eldest daughter, Susanna Hall; in which the parties were, that lady, and her daughter, Elizabeth Nash, of the first part; William Smith, of the second part; and William Hathaway, of Weston upon Avon, yeoman, and Thomas Hathaway, of Stratford, joiner, of the third part. This Thomas Hathaway was, without doubt, either the son or brother of William; and was originally not of Stratford, but, as I conjecture, of Weston, a town in Gloucestershire, about four miles from it. That he was not originally of Stratford, appears not only from there being no notice of his baptism in the register of that parish, but from his having paid, as a foreigner, on the 25th of March, 1636, fifty shillings for his freedom; of which sum twenty shillings were restored to him, as a grace, by the corporation. We have seen already, that our poet was naturally connected with the family of Arden. Mr. William Arden, who appears to have been second cousin to his maternal grandfather, Robert Arden, married a daughter of Edward Conway, Esq.' a gentleman of large fortune, who was proprietor of Luddington, a village about two miles from Stratford. Some persons of the name 8 Penes Charles Boothby Schrymshire Clopton, Esquire. 9 Registr. Burg. Stratford, B. The ordinary sum paid by a native was but 3s. 4d. Mr. Thomas Hathaway died at Stratford, where he was buried, January 15, 1654-5. I Cod. MS. in Officio Arm. of Hathaway, were tenants to his grandson, Sir John Conway, early in the reign of Elizabeth, though one of them is said to have had a little patrimony of his own, probably at Weston; and the Marquis of Hertford, to whom Luddington belongs, has informed me, that in his youth he remembers a person of the name of Hathaway, a tenant on that estate. Here, therefore, it is not improbable, Shakspeare found his wife; and the marriage, in consequence of her father having some property at Weston, was perhaps celebrated either there (rather than Stratford, in which parish Luddington is), or at Billesley, of which parish the church is very little distant from Wilmecote, the original residence of his mother. The ancient registers of Weston and Billesley having, like many other ancient registers, been thrown by and lost, as soon as they were filled with names, and it became necessary to procure a new blank book, it is now impossible to ascertain this point 3. 2 I have since learned that Mr. John Hathaway farmed part of this estate, till the year 1775, when he died. 3 The earliest register of the parish of Weston now extant, begins in 1680. Weston being in the diocese of Gloucester, I hoped to have found, in the proper office there, a duplicate of the several entries contained in the more ancient register, which has been lost; but, after taking a journey to Gloucester expressly for the purpose, I was disappointed; no transcript of the names of any persons married in the year 1582, being there extant. These very useful transmisses were, indeed, first enjoined to be sent from the various parishes, in each diocese, by the canons made in 1601; but, I apprehend, the practice, in some places, prevailed before. Though Cromwell's injunctions for the orderly registering of all marriages, baptisms, and burials, were not issued till 1538, I have seen some registers of an earlier date. |