[308] _Notes and Queries_, Third Series, vi. 324, and French, "Shakespeareana Genealogica," p. 541. [309] _Notes and Queries_, Third Series, vi. 324, and French, "Shakespeareana Genealogica," p. 541. Mr. C. G. Dickenson tells me his will is at Canterbury, v. 52, f. 36. [310] Registers of Sutton Valence, Kent, kindly sent by a correspondent. [311] "Misc. Gen. et Herald," New Series, i. 143. CHAPTER XIV LONDON SHAKESPEARES By far the most interesting search can be made in London, that great centre where congregate representatives of all the families and counties of the kingdom. It is strange that a William was one of the earliest recorded burials in the registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster. "William Shakespeare was buried April 30, 1539." A comparatively modern hand has written against this the foolish scribble, "Query if this be the poet or not?" He may have been in the service of the Court, but there are no signs that he was a man of wealth. In the churchwardens' account[312] he was only charged 2d. for the candles at his funeral, a common charge, but not for great people. He may have been the son of the fifteenth-century William, or of Peter of Southwark, and father or brother of Roger the royal yeoman. The discovery that _Shakespeare_ lived in St. Helen's Parish, Bishopsgate, has been claimed for an American, though Hunter mentioned in his "Life of Shakespeare," 1845, that in the Subsidy Rolls of London a William Shakespeare was assessed in 1597 in that district.[313] [Illustration: NORDEN'S MAP OF LONDON, 1593. _Between pp. 142, 143._] The entry is: "Affid. William Shakespeare on v^li goods,[314] assessed xiii iiii^d." The "affid." affixed to it shows that the Shakespeare named tried to avoid payment on some grounds. It has surprised many, and satisfied others as suitable, that the poet should have lived in this neighbourhood, near so many of his theatrical friends. But I do not think it is certainly proved that it was our Shakespeare at all. Two references of Collier seem to locate him in Southwark in 1596, and in 1609, near the site of the Globe Theatre. Several of the name lived near Bishopsgate before and after his death.