The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-17 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

The Last of the ,Shakespeares,

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

DENMARK,

Sir,—l have much pleasure in complying with
the request so courteously put forward by Mr.
liwell in your columns yesterday.
Before, however, publishing " the preliminary
evidence which is supposed to link Shakespeare's
brother with an ancestor of the present George
Shakespeare, of Wolverhampton," let me hasten to
avow and correct an error into which I was led from
the fact of not having the memoranda at hand to
refer to when my letter to you was written. The
brother of the poet mentioned should have been
Humphrey, not Gilbert. Of this Humphrey the
following is the pedigree, written in the hand-
writing of George Shakespeare himself :
" Tne Pedigree of George Shakespeare, of No. 6,
Great Berry-street, Wolverhampton—John Shake-
speare, father of the poet, died in 1601, Stratford-
on-Avon; Humphrey, son of John Shakespeare, bap.
tised May 24, 1590, Stratford; Humphrey, son of
Humphrey Shakespeare, baptised Feb. 2,1639, Lap-
worth; John, son of Humphrey Shakespeare,baptised
April 9, 1678, Lapveorth ; John, son of John Shake-
epeare, a carpenter, born 1697, Charlecote ; Edward,
son of John Shakespeare, died 1770, at Charlecote ;
Edward, son of Edwd. Shakespeare, baptised March
15, 1761, Charlecote ; John, son of Edward Shake-
speare, born 1782, died 1855, Henley-in-Arden ;
George,son of John Shakespeare, born Oct. 10, 1812,
Henley-in-Arden, now alive."
This pedigree can, I believe, be authenticated in
every particular, and if your distinguished corres-
pondent be desirous of testing its accuracy, he can
do so without the labour of devoting his valuable
time to a research which only his love for the great
master could render endurable.
Supposing the pedigree to pass unchallenged, it
may possibly be urged that after all Humphrey was
not the son of our poet's father, but of another
John Shakespeare, who undoubtedly resided in
Stratford in 1584.
This assumr.tion, so directly opposed to the state-
ments of Rowe, the poet, and Betterton, the actor,
the earliest investigators of this vexed question,
has been so admirably treated in an article in yes-
terday's Birmingham Daily Post that I venture to
enclose it in the hope that you will find room for

COPENHAGEN, JUNE 16, 10 52 P.N,

Baron von Seheel-Plessen, the Danish Ambas-
sador at the Court of St. Petersburg, has arrived
here. It is thought probable that he is the bearer
of the Russian proposals for the settlement of the
Schleswig Hoktein question.

FLENSBURG, JUNE 17.

Seven of the most respectable inhabitants of the
Island of Syit (on the western coast of Schleswig),
some of whom were members of the deputation who
recently went to Berlin, have been conveyed to
Copenhagen by Captain Hemmer, of the Danish
navy.

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, JUNE 16,

It is asserted that the arrangements suggested by
Sir Henry Bulwer have been agreed to between the
Porte and Prince Couz3. These relate to a new
constitution, with a senate and other important
changes. The Conference regards the late pro-
ceedings in the Principalities as null. Prince
Couz% has been greatly feted here.

SPAIN.
MADRID JUNE 16 (Evening).

The Epoca of to-day, speaking of the Peruvian
difficulties, says:—" Our troubles in Peru are
owing to our policy in Mexico. It is necessary to
be firm ; let- us respect the independence of Peru,
and we shall ourselves be respected."

FRANCE •
PARIS, JUNE 17.
The Moniteur of to.day says :—" Letters from
Mexico announces a series of encounters, which re-
sulted in favour of the French. A brilliant advan-
tage has been obtained by Colonel Dupin at San
Antonia.

" The Mexican loss amoy.nted to 200, that of the
French to 12.

"The Emperor Maximilian, on his arrival, will
find the pacificitions of the country almost com-
pleted. Juarez is wandering about the country,
but is unable to form any town into a centre of
resistance."

BOURSE, Jane 16.—The market still continues
heavy and inanimate. Threes, for the Account,
which are quoted ex 3 months' dividend of 75c., are
now at 66f. sc. Mobilier have receded to 1,067 f.
50c. Little or nothing doing in Railway Shares.
The market again rallied towards the close, and left
off as follows :

4} periCents 93 25
Do. end month —
3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 15
Credit Mobilier.... 1075
Do. end month 1077 50
Bank Shares 3395
Credit Foneier 1240
Roman

Italian Loan 69 65
Do. end month 69 85
Ditto Threes ..
New Mexican ....
Russian
Austrian .. B2
Spanish Threes 5O 75
Home Debt
Deferred . 45 75

its insertion :
" Wolverhampton, June 11.—I have called upon
George Shakespeare,of Henley-in-Arden;' of whom
Mr John Coleman, the tragedian, has written so
kindly to the Times, and he has given me all the
information he possesses upon which to base his claim
to be the only lineal descendant of William Shake-
speare. He traces back his lineage, not the poet's
brother Gilbert, but to Humphrey Shakespeare, who
was baptised at Stratford, May 24, 1590. This
Humphrey, it will be remembered, is the second
son of the three children who are supposed
to be included by Rowe in the large family
of John Shakespeare, the father of the poet, de-
scribed as ' ten children in all,' and it has never yet
been conclusively proved tt.,at Ursula, and Hum-
phrey, and Philip were not the children of the
poet's father. Malone,' Knight says, ' has estab-
lished very satisfactorily the origin of this error
into which Rowe has fallen.' The explanation is
this : After the baptism of the poet's sister Joan
(the second of that name, she who was married to
William Hart), on April 15, 1596, we find John
Shakespeare entered in the register as Magister or
Master. He might afterwards lose this designation
of respectability, but is scarcely likely. Bearing
this in mini, the fact that Ursula, and Humphrey,
and Philip are entered as the children of plain John
Shakespeare;after Anne, and Richard, and Edmund
had been entered as the children of Master John
Shakespeare, is an important one. It seems to show
that Ursula, and Humphrey, and Philip are the
children of John Shakepeare, a shoemaker, who,
according to the Stratford register, married Mar-
gery Roberts, Nov. 25, 1584; but Margery was
buried, the same register shows, on Oct. 29, 1537
and sho could not therefore be the mother of Ursula,
who was baptized March 11, 1588. Bowe's oppo-
nents got over this difficulty by assuming that the
shoemaker marries again. The Stratford register,
however, contains no record of this assumed second
marriage. If there had been a second, why should

it not be recorded as well as the first ? But
there is a greater difficulty. How could the shoe-
maker have had a child born in wedlock not five
months after the death of his first wife ? If Ursula
was not the daughter of John Shakespeare, the shoe
maker, then she was the daughter of John Shake-
speare who, in 1571, became chief alderman of Strat-
ford, and entitled to and received the designation
of Magister. And if Ursula was the alderman's
daughter, why should not Humphrey, and after-
wards Philip, be the alderman's sons, and the de-
scendants of one or other of these as much the lineal
descendants of the poet as if they were the descen-
dants of Gilbert ? There is only one reason which,
as it seems to us, Rowe's opponents can urge (for we
will notice the Mr.' theory directly), and how far
that reason can be allowed to prevail in their favour
we must leave with others. The reason is involved
in the fact that between the date of the baptism of
the alderman's first child, Joan, on September 15,
1558, and the baptism of Philip, on September 21,
1591, a period of 33 years is embraced. John
Shakespeare, however, the alderman, and the
father of the poet, was not buried till September
8, 1601, and his wife survived him till 1608. Whet
her age was at the birth of any of her children there
is, so far as we know, no means of ascertaining,
but 33 years is a long period to be embraced in the
birth of children ty one mother. But it will not
avail Rowe's opponents much to say that, inas-
much as Edmund, who they say was the last child
the alderman, was baptised May 3, 1580, nearly
eight years elapsed between his birth and the birth
of Ursula : for it is a fact that between the birth of
Edmund, the eighth, and Richard, the seventh
child, more than seven years elapses, Richard hav-
ing been baptized March 11, 1573, and Edmund,
as we have seen, on May 3, 1580. And now
for the Mr.' theory. What really is there
in it ? The first five of John Shakespeare's
children were baptized as the offsprings of
plain John Shakespeare, the next three (Anne,
Richard, and Edmund) as the children of Mr. John
Shakespeare. Anne was born September 2, 1571 ;
in 1671 John Shakespeare was made chief alderman,
and his child became in virtue thereof the daughter
of Mr. John Shakespeare. In 1586 John Shake-
speare was deprived of his alderman's gown, and
was no longer Mr. John Shakespeare. All chil-
dren, therefore, born to him after that date became,
by the same process of reasoning, the offspring of
plain John Shakespeare again; and Ursula, and
Humphrey, and Philip were all born after that date
—a date prior to which he was found selling and
mortgaging his property, until, in 1579, he was
unable to pay a levy of three shillings, and at
which very date (1586) ho was returned by the
constable as having 'nothing to distrain upon.'
We think we have now adduced sufficient reasons
why Shakesperean scholars should re-examine
the data upon which they limit the family of
John, the father of William Shakespeare, to
eight children. At the same time I have re-
ferred to the only difficulty that presents itself—
e
not perhaps an insuperable difficulty—to Ursula,
Humphrey, and Philip being regarded as sister
and
g brothersthu s
clearedof
e
William
the way for Shakespeare,
George the poet.
Having Shakes.
peace, of Henley-in-Arden, and now of Wolver-
hampton, I will, in a communication which I hope
may appear in these columns on Tuesday, show in
what way he has traced his pedigree to Humphrey
Shakespeare, sketch his history, and narrate what
he has done and by whom ho has been assisted to
bring his claims to be regarded as the lineal de-
scendant of the Bard of Avon' before the notice
of those by whom be had hoped they would be
recognised, merely adding here that whatever may
have been the photographic representation of his
features that has been sent to London, I quite concur
with Mr. Coleman that ' Heaven has written his
pedigree in plainest characters upon his brow.'
1 am, Sir, yours most faithfully,
RAIN COLEMAN.
Marshall's-house, Prescot, Juue 14.
- . .
P -gime d 7

_T. PAUL'S ScuooL.—The Old auline dinner is
to be held at the Albion Tavern, the Lard Chief Baron in
the chair, on. Friday, the let of July, not the 2d, as stated
yesterday.

÷
The following letter has been addrau:d to the
editor of the Time', : ''* • /*..
11111111 --"-'7"" virobr

HER MAJESTY,

WINDSOR CASTLE, June 16.
His Royal Highness Prince Philip of Wurtem-
berg arrived at the Castle yesterday, and dined
with her Majesty.
The Duchess of Wellington also arrived, and had
the honour of joining the Royal dinner party.
The Queen, accoo3nanied by her Royal Highness
Princess Louis of Hoses, walked and drove this

•
morning.
His RoyAl Highness Prince Alfred, attended by
Lieutenant Haig, went to London.
The Caancellor of the Exchequer bad an audience
of the Queen.