wich ** are the same, being a farm in the hamlet of Balsall, in the
parish of Hampton in Arden, and about three miles from Knowle.
8 Shakespeare's Family

period. It is to be wished he had published his book
in two volumes, one of facts and one of opinions. He
says that the earliest record of the Court Rolls of
Wroxall^ is one dated 5 Henry V. (1418). It is a
grant by one Elizabeth Shakspere to John Lone and
William Prins of a messuage with three crofts. (The
same Rolls tell us that in 22 Henry VIII. Alice Love
surrendered to William Shakespeare and Agnes his
wife a property apparently the same.)

In 1485 John Hilly John Shakespeare and others,
were enfeoffed in land called " Harveys " in Rowington,
and John appears as witness in 1492 and 1496.'

There were Shakesperes at Coventry and Meriden
in the fifteenth century. John Dwale, merchant of
Coventry, left legacies by will to Annes Lane and to
Richard Shakespere, March 15, 1499.'

Among the "foreign fines" of the borough of
Nottingham,^ Robert Shakespeyr paid eightpence for
license to buy and sell in the borough in 1414-15.
The same Robert complains of John Fawkenor for
non-payment of the price of wood for making arrows.
And French^ tells us there was a Thomas Shakespere,
a man at arms, going to Ireland on August 27,
18 Edward IV., 1479, with Lord Grey against the
king's enemies.
John Shakespere, a chapman in Doncaster,® paid on
each order i2d. Among the York wills, John Shake-
spere of Doncaster mentions his wife, Joan, 1458. In

* Mr. Yeatman's "Gentle Shakespeare,'* p. 135.
* Mr. J. W. Ryland's " Records of Rowington."

' Proved May 26, 1500, Somerset House ; Moone, f. 2.
