The early registers of Rowington are lost, but we have shown from the wills that there were Shakespeares there bearing this Christian name. The Richard of Rowington who died in 1561 mentions a son William in his will. The second Richard of that place had a son William mentioned in the will of 1591. The third Richard and his wife Elizabeth had four sons--William, Richard, Thomas, John, and a daughter Joan. William had worked as a labourer without wages on his father's property, with expectation of succeeding to it. But some years before his father's death he went, with his father's permission, out to service, and married a certain Mrs. Margery. His father was incensed against him, and left the little property to his youngest son, John, November 13, 1613, proved in 1614.[237] Legal proceedings were commenced in 1614 at Worcester by William about the property of his mother, Elizabeth. A Chancery suit between the brothers was instituted in the Star Chamber,[238] and the case was heard at Warwick, in 1616, before four Commissioners, one of whom was Francis Collins, gent., the overseer of the will of the poet. William the plaintiff was then about forty years old. This is probably the same man who felt injured by his family while supported by his wife's money in his lawsuits. The mark of a William Shakespeare is found on a roll of the Customs of the Manor of Rowington, confirmed by the jury in 1614. Was he the same? And if not, which of these was the William Shakespeare whose name appears in the list of the trained soldiers of Rowington,[239] taken before Sir Fulke Greville at Alcester, September 23, 1605, erroneously by some believed to be the poet?[240] There is preserved a petition of William Shaxsper, Richard Shuter, and others of Rowington, co. Warwick, to the Committee for the Safety of Coventry and Warwick. About St. Andrew's Day they had some sea-coal which lay at Barford, near Warwick, which they had sold to Lady Lucy, but the soldiers of the city finding fuel scarce, had burnt L5 10s. worth of it. They pray satisfaction for their coals. Underwritten by Mr. Basnet is an order to pay this sum, April, 1646.[241] A William Shakespeare, of Hatton, married Barbara Stiffe in 1589; styled "gent." at baptism of his daughter _Susannah_, 1596. John Weale granted to Job Throgmorton the cottage in which William Shakespeare dwelt at Haseley, March 4, 1597.[242] In the Star Chamber proceedings is the notice of a fine levied "inter Willielmum Shackespeare et Georgium Shackespeare, quer. et Thomam Spencer, arm. Christopherum Flecknoe et Thomam Thompson deforc. de octo acris pasturae cum pertinentiis in Claverdon, alias Claredon, 12 Jac. I. (1615)."[243] I have collected these illustrations in order to show that the name William was not by any means rare in the Shakespeare family, and to account for some of the errors made concerning descents.