2012 NOTES AND QUERIES
emphasizing the visual element. Firk provides
the motto: ‘Yea, truly, God help the poor
couple; they are lame and blind’. The moral
interpretation, in terms of the need for
mutual forbearance and support, would have
been left to the audience.
PAUL J. C. M. FRANSSEN
Utrecht University
doi:10.1093/notesj/gjs150
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WILLIAM SHACKSPERE VS. JOHN
CLAYTON
IN the Court of King’s Bench, Hilary term
1600,1 one William Shackspere, through his at-
torney Thomas Awdley, produced a bill
against one John Clayton, a yeoman of
Wellington (later spelt Willyngton) in the
County of Bedford, with a plea that he pay
him seven pounds ‘which he owes him and un-
justly detains’.2 Leslie Hotson searched the
subsidy rolls for that county and found in the
roll for 1593 a husbandman of Wellington
named John Cleyton, and in a roll for 1596 a
husbandman of Campton named William
Shakespeare.3 Campton is about eight miles
south of Willington (the modern spelling),
and Hotson adds ‘With this new light I think
we may regard the question as settled.’ If any
doubt remains, further light might be thrown
on the matter if Shackspere’s attorney could be
identified.
It is likely that Thomas Awdley was a resi-
dent of London, retained by the absent Shack-
spere to act on his behalf. Accordingly a search
1
National Archives: KB27/1361/1 rot. 293. Coram Rege
roll, Easter 42 Eliz. (1600). The document was discovered by
J. O. Halliwell-Phillips, Outlines of the life of Shakespeare,
7th edn (London, 1887), I, 185, and discussed by Charlotte
Stopes, Shakespeare’s Industry (London, 1916), 259. It is a
‘Bill of Middlesex’, a legal fiction for expediting claims for
debt-recovery and other complaints.
2 4
‘. . . septem libras . . . quas ei debet et iniuste detinet.’
Shackspere claimed ten pounds, ie the sum lent plus three
pounds damages; he was awarded the sum lent plus 20 shil-
lings damages. I thank Tina Hampson for transcribing and
translating the text of the lawsuit.
3
Leslie Hotson, Shakespeare’s Sonnets Dated: and Other
Essays (London, 1949), 230.
559
was made of the Lay Subsidy Returns for
London, Middlesex, and Surrey (north) for
1593–1600, transcribed by Alan H. Nelson.4
In brief, three people are recorded in 1599
with the name Thomas Awdley (Awdely
or Awdeley), worth £3, £20, and £50. The
wealthiest of these resided in the parish of St
Magnus, a prosperous grocer with a house on
London Bridge.5 Such a person might well
seem suited to act on another’s behalf over a
financial dispute of this nature (note that £7 in
Downloaded from http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Michigan on June 18, 2015
1592 equates to roughly £3,500 in today’s
currency).
This Thomas (d. 1603) was a son of Thomas
Audeley of Henlow, Bedfordshire, who died in
1553 and was buried there. It turns out that
Henlow is just two miles from Campton, the
home of the William Shakespeare found by
Leslie Hotson. Although we are only dealing
with possibilities, it seems that of the three
principal characters in the Clayton Suit two
were living within eight miles of each other,
while the third had a father who used to live
within two miles of the plaintiff. While coinci-
dence cannot be ruled out, and while the evi-
dence is circumstantial (there are three or more
possible Thomas Awdleys), it would seem that
the William Shackspere of the Clayton Suit
was almost certainly the man from Campton,
as Hotson had suggested. When calling in his
loan, made on 22 May 1592, he (supposedly)
enlisted the services of a wealthy London
grocer, whose father used to live in a village
two miles away from his own. It should be
borne in mind that an ‘attorney’ does not
need to be someone with legal qualifications
(OED), though someone with business experi-
ence would be well equipped for such a role.
JOHN M. ROLLETT*
Ipswich, UK
doi:10.1093/notesj/gjs182
ß The Author (2012). Published by Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. For Permissions,
please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
Advance Access publication 19 October, 2012
Alan H. Nelson, <http://socrates.berkeley.edu/ahnel
son/SUBSIDY/indexn.html> accessed 2 October 2012.
5
A. L. Reade, Audley Pedigrees (London, 1929–36),
ch. 4; <http://www.audleyfamilyhistory.com/index.php?
option¼com_content&view¼article&id¼87&Itemid¼97>
accessed 6 February 2012.
* I am grateful to Nina Green for valuable discussions.