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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

I

PARENTAGE AND BIRTH

Shakespeare came of a family whose surname was borne through the middle ages by residents in very many parts of England—at Penrith in Cumberland, Distribution of the name.at Kirkland and Doncaster in Yorkshire, as well as in nearly all the midland counties. The surname had originally a martial significance, implying capacity in the wielding of the spear.[1] Its first recorded holder is William Shakespeare or 'Sakspere,' who was convicted of robbery and hanged in 1248;[2] he belonged to Clapton, a hamlet in the hundred of Kiftergate, Gloucestershire (about seven miles south of Stratford-on-Avon). The second recorded holder of the surname is John Shakespeare, who in 1279 was living at 'Freyndon,' perhaps Frittenden, Kent.[3] The great mediæval guild of St. Anne at Knowle, whose members included the leading inhabitants of Warwickshire, was joined by many Shakespeares in the fifteenth century.[4]

  1. ↑ Camden, Remaines, ed. 1605, p. 111; Verstegan, Restitution, 1605.
  2. ↑ Assize rolls for Gloucestershire, 32 Henry III, roll 274.
  3. ↑ Plac. Cor. 7 Edw. I, Kanc.; cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 122.
  4. ↑ Cf. the Register of the Guild of St. Anne at Knowle, ed. Bickley, 1894.
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