1564. In the Parish Register preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Straford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, is enshrined the following brief record of Shakespeare's nativity-the entry of his baptism, which, it may be assumed, took place during the first week of the child's life: 1564. April 26. Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere. A fairly old tradition fixes April 22 or 23 as the poet's birthday; the latter date, the day of St. George, Eng 1554 Benedicta filia home flomming 22 Johannes filius milliam Brooke 26 nholms filius Gohannes & hak peme (Facsimile of the Registry of Shakespeare's Baptism.) land's patron saint, is fittingly associated with the birth of England's national poet. The researches of generations of students have put us in possession of many minute facts connected with Shakespeare's family history, with the environments of his early life, and with the various elements that may have contributed to the fostering of his mighty intellect. The "Johannes Shakespeare," William Shakespeare's father, mentioned in the entry of baptism, was a person of importance in the borough at the time of the birth of his first son and third child. The son of Richard Shakespeare, a farmer of Snitterfield, a village about three miles distant, he appears to have settled at Stratford about 1551, and to have traded in all sorts of agricultural produce and the like. The municipal books attest his growing prosperity, though the earliest notice, in April 1552, refers to a fine paid by him for having a dirt-heap before his house in Henley Street. Successively "ale-taster,' town councillor, one of the four constables of the courtleet, affeeror (i.e. an assessor of fines for offences not expressly penalised by statute), chamberlain, he attained to the rank of alderman in 1565, head-bailiff in 1568, and chief alderman in 1571. John Shakespeare's prosperity seems to date from the time of his marriage, in 1557, with Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer of Wilmcote, Aston Cantlowe, near Stratford, probably distantly connected with the ancient and distinguished Arden family of Warwickshire. Robert Arden possessed property at Snitterfield, and among his tenants there was Richard Shakespeare, John's father. Mary Arden was the youngest of seven daughters; her father, dying in 1556, left her the chief property at Wilmcote, called Ashbies, extending to fifty-four acres, together with a sum of money; she had also an interest in some property at Snitterfield; with her sister Alice she was appointed executrix of her father's will. |