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Shakespeare's Cousin, Thomas Greene, and his Kin: Possible Light on the Shakespeare Family Background

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Rupert Taylor
Rupert Taylor*
Affiliation:
Clemson College
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Extract

Since many years of threshing the same old straw have not determined the ancestry of William Shakespeare, investigation in a new direction seems wise. Genealogists, confronted with a gap they cannot cross, examine the history of families known to be related to the subject of their search but not how. Shakespearean students have long known of Thomas Greene, the solicitor, steward, and town clerk of Stratford-on-Avon from 1603 to 1617, who in his private diary called Shakespeare cousin, but they have not known much about him or his exact relationship to the poet. Since the word cousin occurs in such private and personal writing as a diary, it is more likely a term of real kinship than of friendly courtesy. This article presents the data gathered during an investigation—halted by the present war—into the ancestry of Thomas Greene. They do not reveal the ancestry of Shakespeare, but they show a chain of family connections of better economic and social status than some writers have granted the Stratford Shakespeares. Since the matter is genealogical, a fair presentation demands the inclusion of minute details of slight interest to the general reader but of possible great value to a specialist who may undertake to carry the investigation forward after the war, for in genealogy a seemingly insignificant detail may prove to be the clue to the ultimate solution.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 60 , Issue 1: Number 1 Part 1 , March 1945 , pp. 81 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1945

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References

1 Sir Edmund K. Chambers, William Shakespeare, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1930), ii, 149–152.

2 Edgar I. Fripp, Shakespeare Man and Artist, 2 vols. paged continuously (Oxford University Press, 1938), pp. 620, 763, 809, 898.

3 Edgar I. Fripp, Master Richard Quyny (Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 154.

4 Chambers, op. cit., ii, 150.

5 These details come from the original will which I read among the Worcester wills on file in the Probate Registry at Birmingham as well as in a copy at the Library of the Shakespeare Museum at Stratford-on-Avon.

6 Cf. a pedigree printed by Chambers, op. cit., ii, 150, quoting Fripp.

7 Harleian Mss. 1041 and 1543. Also printed in Harleian Society Publications.

8 The various pedigrees and histories of the Northamptonshire family do not show this man. In the following account the numerals attached to the names do not appear in the pedigree but are my own, adopted for convenience.

9 The printed version and both manuscripts have Tamworth for all four. As will appear later in the account of Thomas III and Oliver, it is a mistake for Tanworth in their cases. There are two separate places, one named Tamworth and one Tanworth or Tonworth. But the two words are not infrequently confused in the old records, both occurring in the same document but clearly referring to only one place.

10 Worcester Wills, Vol. 5, Fol. 33b, at Birmingham Probate Registry. I quote from a copy furnished by T. H. Nichols, Esq., of Birmingham, but have examined the text myself. I expand abbreviations.

10a Ancient Deeds, A. 13495, at Public Record Office.

11 Worcester Wills, on file, at Birmingham Probate Registry.

12 Fripp, Shakespeare Man and Artist, p. 31.

13 It is perhaps needless to explain that in following old documents I follow the spelling of the document. When speaking in my own person I follow the usual later spelling.

14 For instance Fines for 37 Henry VIII, in the Calendar of Fines, and Ancient Deeds, A. 4326, 4669, 13491, 13495, at the Public Record Office.

15 Sir William Dugdale, The Antiquities of Warwickshire … etc. The Second Edition … revised by William Thomas, D. D. (London, 1730), 2 volumes paged continuously, p. 783.

16 Court of Wards Inquisitions, 19, 100, at the Public Record Office.

17 Court Rolls for the Manor of Tanworth, Additional Manuscripts, 17, 792, at the British Museum.

18 Worcester Wills, vol. 6, part 2, fol. 253 b, at Birmingham Probate Registry.

19 Chancery Papers, C2 Elizabeth, G2, 161.

20 This leads one to suspect that this man may be the Thomas Greene, gentleman, of Worcester diocese, who was a recusant in 1596. Cf. Chambers, op. cit., n, 151.

21 Op. cit., ii, 150.

22 The will of Richard Yardley of Warwick, dated 22 July, 1557, is at Somerset House. (P. C. C., 37 Wrastley). He left wife Joan and children John, Robert, William, Richard, Joan, Katherine, Winifred, and named brother William Edwards, and kinsman and servant Henry Yardley.

23 CP. 40, 1190, membrane 211.

24 Chambers, op. cit., ii, 150.

25 Harleian Society Publications, xxix, 327.

26 Early Chancery Papers, C1, 1448, 32, at the Public Record Office.

27 Land Revenue Books, L.R. 2, 181, Survey of Monasteries, Henry VIII, Part i, beginning on folio 148.

28 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, ii, 229.

29 An entry in the Worcester Consistory Act Book covering the year 1568, 15 A, shows that in that year a marriage bond was made for marriage of Bryget Fetherston to John Palmer, yeoman, of Aston Cantlowe.

30 P.C.C., 88 Woodhall.

31 A will of John Lynall of “Chaddishewche in the parish of Bromsgrove (Worcester Wills, 5 and 6 P & M, file 154) names wife Joan, son John, daughter Margaret, and father-in-law John Butler. A will of Margery Lynall of Bromsgrove, dated April 14, xx(v?) Henry VIII, and proved 23 July, 1543, names daughter Elizabeth Badger, and Elizabeth Badger, daughter of Thomas Badger, and makes a William Tybson joint sharer with Elizabeth Badger in the residuary estate.

32 Chancery Papers, C 2, Elizabeth. F5. 28. at the Public Record Office Chancery.

33 E. I. Fripp, Shakespeare Man and Artist, p. 91, said that Jenks was bailiff of Warwick in 1572–73.

34 Warwickshire Manuscripts, No. 288023, at the Reference Library in Birmingham.

35 P.C.C., 53 Pickering.

36 W. B. Bickley, The Register of the Gild at Knowle, 1894, p. 202.

37 Lichfield Wills, fol. 80 b, at Birmingham Probate Registry.

38 Land Revenue Books, L.R. 12, 185, Monastic Surveys, fol. 1.

39 [Omitted.]

40 Lichfield Wills, from the filed wills, at Birmingham Probate Registry.

41 Lichfield Wills at Birmingham Probate Registry. This is a filed will.

42 The suit is calendared in the volume entitled Depositions by Commission, vol. 1, p. 364, at the Public Record Office. The depositions are in the files for the indicated terms of court.

43 W. B. Bickley, The Register of the Gild at Knowle (1894), p. 237.

44 Early Chancery Papers, C1, 123, 16.

45 Chambers, op. cit., iii, 366, quoting sources in note 6. I have examined the original patent.

46 Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward VI, v, 29.

47 Bickley, Register, p. 201.

48 Lichfield Wills, fol. 146, at Birmingham Probate Registry.

49 Chambers, op. cit., p. 366, citing his sources in note 6. I have myself examined the original will at the Birmingham Probate Registry. No daughter Agnes is named in it.

50 Leslie Hotson, “Shakespeare of Stratford,” The Times (London), July 2, 1933. In the article, Professor Hotson omitted the reference to the suit, but he kindly gave it to me and I have read the original record.

51 Chambers, op. cit., ii, 4.

52 J. Harvey Bloom, The Register of the Gild of Holy Cross at Stratford-on-Avon, 1907, p. 9. Other references to the Gild in this paragraph are to the same book. Since they are easily identifiable, the page references are omitted.

53 J. O. Halliwell-Phillips, Descriptive Catalogue of the Ancient Manuscripts and Records … of the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon (1836), 57.

54 Supra, p. 180.

55 Supra, p. 133.

56 Cf. Feme, John, The Blazon of Gentry …, London, 1586. fol. 65, where Ferne states the conditions under which the son of a gentle mother and yeoman father might bear his mother's arms.