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primis, I give unto my wife my houfe in London. Item, I give unto my daughter Nash my houfe in Acton. Item, I give unto my daughter Nath my meadow. Item, I give my goods and money unto my wife and my daughter Nath, to be equally divided betwixt them. Item, concerning my ftudy of books, I leave them, faid he, to you, my fon Nafh, to difpose of them as you fee good. As for my manufcripts, I would have given them to Mr. Boles, if he had been here; but forasmuch as he is not here prefent, you may, fon Nafh, burn them, or do with them what you please. Witneffes hereunto,

"Thomas Nash. "Simon Trapp."

The teftator not having appointed any executor, administration was granted to his widow, Nov. 23, 1636.

Some at least of Dr. Hall's manufcripts escaped the flames, one of them being yet extant. See p. 83, n. 1.

I could not, after a very careful search, find the will of Susanna Hall in the Prerogative-office, nor is it preserved in the Archives of the diocese of Worcester, the Registrar of which diocese at my request very obligingly examined the indexes of all the wills proved in his office between the years 1649 and 1670; but in vain. The town of Stratford-upon-Avon is in that diocese.

The infcriptions on the tomb-ftones of our poet's favourite daughter and her husband are as follows:

"Here lyeth the body of John Hall, Gent. he marr. Sufanna, ye daughter and co-heire of Will. Shakspeare, Gent. he deceased Nov. 25, Ao. 1635, aged 60.”

"Hallius hic fitus eft, medica celeberrimus arte,

66

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Expectans regni gaudia læta Dei.

Dignus erat meritis qui Neftora vinceret annis;
"In terris omnes fed rapit æqua dies.

"Ne tumulo quid defit, adeft fidiffima conjux,

"Et vitæ comitem nunc quoque mortis habet."

These verses should seem, from the last two lines, not to have been infcribed on Dr. Hall's tomb-stone till 1649. Perhaps indeed the last distich only was then added.

"Here lyeth the body of Susanna, wife to John Hall, Gent. ye daughter of William Shakspeare, Gent. She deceafed the 11th of July, Ao. 1649, aged 66."

66 Witty above her fexe, but that's not all,

"Wife to falvation was good Miftrifs Hall.

"Something of Shakspeare was in that, but this

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Wholy of him with whom the's now in bliffe.

a daughter, who was married first to Thomas Nafhe,&

"Then, paffenger, haft ne're a teare,

"To weepe with her that wept with all:
"That wept, yet fet her felfe to chere
"Them up with comforts cordiall.

"Her love fhall live, her mercy spread,
"When thou haft ne're a teare to thed."

The foregoing English verfes, which are preserved by Dugdale, are not now remaining, half of the tomb-ftone having been cut away, and another half ftone joined to it; with the following infcription on it-" Here lyeth the body of Richard Watts of Ryhon-Clifford, in the parish of old Stratford, Gent. who departed this life the 23d of May, Anno Dom. 1707, and in the 46th year of his age." This Mr. Watts, as I am informed by the Rev. Mr. Davenport, was owner of, and lived at the eftate of Ryhon-Clifford, which was once the property of Dr. Hall.

Mrs. Hall was buried on the 16th of July, 1649, as appears from the Register of Stratford. MALONE.

8 She left one child only, a daughter, who was married first to Thomas Nafhe, Efq.] Elizabeth, our poet's grand-daughter, who appears to have been a favourite, Shakspeare having left her by his will a memorial of his affection, though the at that time was but eight years old, was born in February 1607-8, as appears by an entry in the Regifter of Stratford, which Mr. Weft omitted in the transcript with which he furnished Mr. Steevens. I learn from the fame Regifter that she was married in 1626 : "MARRIAGES. April 22, 1626, Mr. Thomas Nath to Miftrifs Elizabeth Hall." It fhould be remembered that every unmarried lady was called Mistress till the time of George I. Hence our author's Mistress Anne Page. Nor in fpeaking of an unmarried lady could her chriftian name be omitted, as it often is at prefent; for then no diftinction would have remained between her and her mother. Some married ladies indeed were distinguished from their daughters by the title of Madam.

Mr. Nafh died in 1647, as appears by the infcription on his tomb-ftone in the chancel of the church of Stratford:

"Here refteth ye body of Thomas Nafhe, Efq. He mar. Elizabeth the daugh, and heire of John Hall, Gent. He died April 4th, A°. 1647, aged 53."

Efq. and afterwards to Sir John Barnard of Abington, but died likewife without iffue.1

"Fata manent omnes; hunc non virtute carentem,
"Ut neque divitiis, abftulit atra dies.
"Abftulit, at referet lux ultima. Siste, viator;
"Si peritura paras, per male parta peris."

The letters printed in Italicks are now obliterated.

By his laft will, which is in the Prerogative-Office, dated August 26, 1642, he bequeathed to his well beloved wife, Elizabeth Nafh, and her affigns, for her life, (in lieu of jointure and thirds,) one meffuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, fituate in the Chapel Street in Stratford, then in the tenure and occupation of Joan Norman, widow; one meadow, known by the name of the Square Meadow, with the appurtenances, in the parish of old Stratford, lying near unto the great ftone-bridge of Stratford; one other meadow with the appurtenances, known by the name of the Wafh Meadow; one little meadow with the appurtenances, adjoining to the said Wash Meadow; and also all the tythes of the manor or lordship of Shottery. He devifes to his kinfman Edward Nash, the son of his uncle George Nash of London, his heirs and affigns, (inter alia) the meffuage or tenement, then in his own occupation, called The New-Place, fituate in the Chapel Street, in Stratford; together with all and fingular houses, outhoufes, barns, ftables, orchards, gardens, eafements, profits, or commodities, to the fame belonging; and alfo four-yard land of arable land, meadow, and pafture, with the appurtenances, lying and being in the common fields of Old Stratford, with all the easements, profits, commons, commodities, and hereditaments, of the fame four-yard lands belonging; then in the tenure, ufe, and occupation of him the said Thomas Nath; and one other meffuage or tenement, with the appurte nances, fituate in the parish of, in London, and called or known by the name of The Wardrobe, and then in the tenure, ufe, and occupation of Dickes. And from and after the death of his faid wife, he bequeaths the meadows above named, and devised to her for life, to his faid coufin Edward Nash, his heirs and affigns for ever. After various other bequefts, he directs that one hundred pounds, at the leaft, be laid out in mourning gowns, cloaks, and apparel, to be diftributed among his kindred and friends, in fuch manner as his executrix fhall think fit. He appoints his wife Elizabeth Nath his refiduary legatee, and fole executrix, and ordains Edmund Rawlins, Wil

This is what I could learn of any note, either

liam Smith, and John Eafton, overfeers of his will, to which the witnesses are John Such, Michael Jonson, and Samuel Rawlins.

By a nuncupative codicil dated on the day of his death, April 4th, 1647, he bequeaths (inter alia) "to his mother Mrs. Hall fifty pounds; to Elizabeth Hathaway fifty pounds; to Thomas Hathaway fifty pounds; to Judith Hathaway ten pounds; to his uncle Nath and his aunt, his coufin Sadler and his wife, his coufin Richard Quiney and his wife, his coufin Thomas Quiney and his wife, twenty fhillings each, to buy them rings." The meadows which by his will he had devised to his wife for life, he by this codicil devifes to her, her heirs and affigns, for ever, to the end that they may not be fevered from her own land; and he " appoints and declares that the inheritance of his land given to his coufin Edward Nash should be by him settled after his decease, upon his fon Thomas Nafh, and his heirs, and for want of fuch heirs then to remain and descend to his own right heirs."

It is obfervable that in this will the teftator makes no mention of any child, and there is no entry of any iffue of his marriage in the Regifter of Stratford; I have no doubt, therefore, that he died without iffae, and that a pedigree with which Mr. Whalley furnished Mr. Steevens a few years ago, is inaccurate. The origin of the mistake in that pedigree will be pointed out in its proper place.

As by Shakspeare's will his daughter Sufanna had an estate for life in The New Place, &c. and his grand-daughter Elizabeth an estate tail in remainder, they probably on the marriage of Elizabeth to Mr. Nath, by a fine and recovery cut off the entail; and by a deed to lead the ufes gave him the entire dominion over that estate; which he appears to have misused by devifing it from Shakspeare's family to his own..

Mr. Nath's will and codicil were proved June 5, 1647, and administration was then granted to his widow. MALONE.

9 Sir John Barnard of Abington,] Sir John Barnard of Abington, a small village about a mile from the town of Northampton, was created a Knight by King Charles II. Nov. 25, 1661. In 1671 he fold the manor and advowfon of the church of Abington, which his ancestors had poffeffed for more than two hundred years, to William Thurfby, Efq. Sir John Barnard was the eldest son of Baldwin Barnard, Efq. by Eleanor, daugh ter and co-heir of John Fulwood of Ford Hall in the county of VOL. I. H

relating to himself or family; the character of the man is best seen in his writings. But fince Ben

Warwick, Efq. and was born in 1605. He firft married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Clement Edmonds of Prefton, in Northamptonshire, by whom he had four fons and four daughters. She dying in 1642, he married fecondly our poet's grand-daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Nash, on the 5th of June 1649, at Billesley in Warwickshire, about three miles from Stratford-upon-Avon. If any of Shakspeare's manufcripts remained in his grand-daughter's cuftody at the time of her fecond marriage, (and fome' letters at leaft the furely muft have had,) they probably were then removed to the house of her new hufband at Abington. Sir Hugh Clopton, who was born two years after her death, mentioned to Mr. Macklin, in the year 1742, an old tradition that the had carried away with her from Stratford many of her grandfather's papers. On the death of Sir John Barnard they muft have fallen into the hands of Mr. Edward Bagley, Lady Barnard's executor; and if any defcendant of that gentleman be now living, in his cuftody they probably remain. MALONE,

I but died likewife without iffue.] Confiding in a pedigree tranfmitted by Mr. Whalley fome years ago to Mr. Steevens, I once fuppofed that Mr. Rowe was inaccurate in saying that our poet's grand-daughter died without iffue. But he was certainly right; and this lady was undoubtedly the laft lineal defcendant of Shakspeare. There is no entry, as I have already obferved, in the Regifter of Stratford, of any iffue of hers by Mr. Nash; nor does he in his will mention any child, devifing the greater part of his property between his wife and his kinfman, Edward Nafh. That Lady Barnard had no iffue by her fecond husband, is proved by the Regifter of Abington, in which there is no entry of the baptifm of any child of that marriage, though there are regular entries of the time when the feveral children of Sir John Barnard by his firft wife were baptized. Lady Barnard died at Abington, and was buried there on the 17th of February 1669-70; but her husband did not show his refpe&t for her memory by a monument, or even an infcription of any kind. He feems not to have been fenfible of the honourable alliance he had made. Shakspeare's grand-daughter would not, at this day, go to her grave without a memorial. By her laft will, which I fubjoin, the directs her trustee to fell her eftate of New-Place, &c. to the best bidder, and to offer it firft to her coufin Mr. Edward Nath. How she then came to have any property in New-Place, which her firft husband had devised to this very Edward Nath,

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