[391] Leland's "Itinerary," vi. 20. See also admin. of goods, granted to his sister Alice Buklond and his nephew John, son of Sir John.

[392] Patent 17 Henry VII., February 22, second part, mem. 30.

[393] Same series, September 9, mem. 35.

[394] Patents 23 Henry VIII., September 24, first part, mem. 12.

[395] Pat. Henry VIII., p. 1, m. 16.

[396] Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., Gairdner.

[397] Bedfordshire Visitation, 1566. (See Glover.) There was in Edward VI.'s reign a William Arderne, Clerk of the Market of Struton Oskellyswade, Bedford (Est. of Office, Edward VI. to Elizabeth). And in the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber there are mentioned among the "Extraordinary Yeomen of the Guard, 1570," "William Arden and his son Robert Arden."

[398] Somerset House, 8 Porch.

[399] The name Collins appears in connection with the Ardens in Wiltshire also.

[400] See Visitation of Worcester, 1569: "Richard Muklowe of Hodon, Worcestershire, married Katherine, daughter of John Arden." The Gloucester Visitation records that Richard Cotton of Sedenton, married Agnes, daughter of Sir John Arden of Park Hall, sister of Thomas.

[401] Commissary Wills, Somerset House, 31^a Clyffe.

[402] Dugdale's "Warwickshire."

[403] "Stratford-on-Avon Miscell. Papers," see p. 410, _Genealogical Magazine_, 1897. He was also trustee in a settlement made by Sir John Arden of Park Hall, in a.s.sociation with Sir Richard Empson and others.

See Pet.i.tion of Simon Arden, p. 184.

[404] It is curious that in a will of Sir William Trussel of Cublesdon, 1379, there is a bequest mentioned as having been made to him by his "cousin Sir Thomas d'Ardene" (Sir N. H. Nicolas, "Testamenta Vetusta,"

i. 107).

[405] Glover's "Heraldry," vol. ii., ed. 1780.

[406] Fuller's "Worthies."

[407] 7 Alen. Inquis. P.M. at Warwick, June 27, 37 Henry VIII., Edward, son and heir, aged twelve.

[408] See Close Roll, 32 Henry VI., m. 11. Saltley came into the family with Elizabeth Clodshalle (who married Robert Arden in the time of Henry VI.), and remained in it till the death of Robert Arden, 1643, when it fell to the share of his sister Anne.

[409] By some family arrangement, the old family seat of Pedmore seems to have been settled on him, as he was always styled Francis Arden of Pedmore.

[410] Anne married John Barnesley of Barnesley (see Visitation of Worcester, 1569); Bridget, Hugh Ma.s.sey; Barbara, Richard Neville, son of the last Lord Latimer, and claimant of that t.i.tle and the earldom of Westmorland; Joyce, John Ladbrooke. Was this Jane Arden the lady of this name who married into the Brownlow family about 1553? See Pedigree of Brownlow.

[411] "Originalia et Memoranda." Lord Treasurer's side of the Exchequer, Hilarii Recorda, 7 Elizabeth, Rot. 82.

[412] _Ibid._, Hilarii Recorda, 15 Elizabeth, Rot. 55.

[413] c.o.ke's "Entries," f. 39_b_.

[414] In an account of the Grevilles, when the eldest son still resided at Drayton, it is noted: "Though a great part of the Lands of Sir Giles Arden came to Lewis Greville through his wife, yet there is one Arden at this time in Warwickshire that is a man of three hundred marks land by the yeare." Addit. MS., 5937, f. 88, British Museum.

[415] See "Liber Pacis," Eg. MS., 2345.

[416] Dugdale's "Warwickshire," 884, 927.

[417] See _Athenaeum_, Feb., 1896, p. 190, and my little volume on "Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries" (Stratford-on-Avon Press), p. 48.

[418] State Papers, Dom. Series, Elizabeth, clxiii., 21 _et seq._

[419] Accounts of Treasurer of the Chamber, 1583-84.

[420] Burke makes an extraordinary error in stating that Shakespeare's mother was a daughter of Sir Edward Arden, of Park Hall ("Hist. Landed Gentry," edition 1882, vol. i., p. 34). Now, Edward was never knighted, and must have been born about the same year as Mary, daughter of Robert Arden, who married John Shakespeare.

[421] The Accounts of the Wardens of the Tower mention Francis Arden's board, up to June 24, 1585, and he sued shortly after for Pedmore, on the death of Sir George Digby, to whom it had been granted (State Papers, Dom. Series, Elizabeth, ccii., 40).

[422] State Papers, Dom. Series, Elizabeth, clxxi. 35; also Patents, Elizabeth, 28, c. 10.

[423] Dugdale's "Warwickshire," 927. I find also several pensions allowed by the Crown to a Robert Arden, early in James I. These may refer to Robert of Park Hall (Book of Patents, xi. 212).

[424] Inventory of his property is at Lichfield, where also is that of his wife, Lady Dorothy Arden, 1635-36, and will of his son, Robert Arden.

[425] Ashmolean MSS., 36, f. 125: "Robert Arden, Colonel and Sheriff of Warwickshire." An elegy upon his death in Oxford of small-pox, August 22, 1643: "Seeing these tapers and this solemn night," etc. Signed, "Peter Halstead."

[426] She was a Lady of the Privy Chamber to the Queen-mother, and survived her husband. See the burial of her daughter, Mrs. Henrietta Maria Stanhope, October 23, 1674.

CHAPTER II

THE ARDENS OF LONGCROFT

This main line of Ardens having thus become extinct, we have to go back some generations to find the younger branch that carried on the name.

Simon, the second son of the Thomas Arden who died in 1563, brother of the William Arden who died 1546, and uncle of Edward Arden, who was executed 1583, seems to have been an important man in his own day. He was much trusted by his father and nephew, and was elected Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1569, when he bore as arms three cross crosslets fitchee, and a chief or.[427] His first wife was Margaret; his second Christian,[428] widow of Thomas Bond, of Ward End. In a catalogue of all the n.o.blemen and gentlemen resident in Warwickshire, 1577-78, by Henry Ferrers, of Baddesley, is mentioned Edward Arden, of Park Hall, and Simon Arden, of Saltley, his uncle;[429] and in the Subsidy for Warwickshire, 1581, he is mentioned as one of "those collecting, and not a.s.sessed themselves."[430] During the first half of Elizabeth's reign he purchased Longcroft, in the parish of Yoxall, Staffordshire, a property that had previously been in the family. In 18 Elizabeth (1576) he found one light horse for the royal service there, and paid to the Subsidy of 1590, 26s. 8d. for his lands at Yoxall, valued at 10.[431] He seems, however, to have got into trouble in his old age. The draft of a pet.i.tion of his (_circa_ 1595-98) is preserved among the Longcroft papers,[432] which is well worthy of being transcribed:

"_To the most honourable the Lord High Treasurer of England._

"The most humble pet.i.tion of Simon Arden, of the age of 100 years or thereabouts, praying your good Lordship's aid in his owld age against the great wrongs and oppressions offered by Edward Darcie, Esquire, one of the grooms of her Majestie's Privy Chamber.

"As by the enclosed may plainlie apeare:

{The Pedigree. John Arden had issue Thomas.

{Thomas had issue William, Simon, George, Edward, Thomas.

{William had issue Edward & Francis.

{Edward had issue _vivens_ Robert.

"The said John Arden did infeff John Kingsmel, Sergeant-at-Lawe, Sir Richard Empson, Sir Richard Knightley, Sir Robert Throgmorton,[433] Knights, and others, of the manor of Crudworth, and other lands in the county of Warwick, to divers uses; the said Thomas, being seized in fee, granted to me, and his said other sons, dyvers several annuities, being all the patrimony he provided for the same his younger sons. The said Thomas did afterwards make other a.s.surances to the said William. The said annuities were paid unto all the said younger sons during their lives, and unto me till the attainder of Edward Arden. By which means the premises came into the hands of her Majestie, in what time that the same remained in her hands, by your Honor's order I was paid mine annuitie, being 20 marks by the year. And after that the same was granted to the said Edward Darcie, your Lordship did likewise very honorably apporcion how much thereof should be yearely paid unto me by the said Edward Darcie, and how much otherwise, according to which aporcionment the said Edward Darcy paid his part thereof unto me foure or five yeares, and about six yeares sithence denyd so to do, urging me with seutes in the Court of Requests, and in the Honourable Court of Exchequer Chamber, and at the Common Law. Also for the s.p.a.ce of vi yeares now together seeking by this countenance to oppress me. The said Robert Arden payeth unto me the porcion of the said annuity apointed by your Lordship's order, or rather more thereof than he was charged with by your order, and I have desired but ye residew of Mr. Darcie. I have had judgment against him in the Common _Place_, he hath removed the record into the King's Bench by writ of Error; so yt by injunction out of the Court of the Exchequer Chamber to entertain time and delay me til death hath wholy interred my ancient bodie already more than half in grave, knowing, _Mors solvit omnia_, by my death my cause wil be remeadiless.