Page:Shakespeare of Stratford (1926) Yale.djvu/35

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Shakespeare of Stratford
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(B) Assessment paper, October 1, 1598.

This indenture, made the first day of October, in the fortieth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady, Elizabeth . . . Witnesseth that the said Ferdinando Clutterbooke and Thomas Symons so named, deputed, appointed, and chosen to be petty collectors in the said ward [i.e. Bishopsgate], and authorized thereunto by these presents, shall receive, levy, collect, and gather of all and every the several persons hereafter named to the Queen’s Majesty’s use all such several sums of money as in this present extract been taxed and assessed upon them and every of them, for their several values and substances, rated, specified, and contained as hereafter followeth; that is to say, of

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St. Helen’s Parish.

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Affid. William Shakespeare, V li.xiiis ivd.[1]

(C) Residuum, or back-tax, account for London, 1598.

William Shakspeare in the parish of St. Helen’s in Bishopsgate Ward owes 13s. 4d. of the subsidy; and he answers in the following roll[2] in Residuum Sussex.

(D) Residuum account for Sussex (which included also the Bankside district in Surrey), 1599.

William Shakspeare in the parish of St. Helen, 13s. 4d. of the whole subsidy aforesaid granted in the said

  1. The meaning of ‘Affid.’ is uncertain. Hales interprets it as signifying that Shakespeare protested the tax. It is affixed to the names of six other residents of St. Helen’s and to the names of thirteen persons listed as ‘strangers’ in the parish. The tax in this case was at the rate of two shillings and eightpence in the pound.
  2. This means that in the tax lists of the following year he will be found in the Residuum for Sussex, not London,