Of the issue of John Shakspeare by this connection, the accounts are contradictory and perplexed; nor is it absolutely ascertained, whether he had only one wife, or whether he might not have had two, or even three. Mr. Rowe, whose narrative has been usually followed, has given him _ten_ children, among whom he considers _William_ the poet, as the _eldest_ son.[4:A] The Register, however, of the parish of Stratford-upon-Avon, which commences in 1558, is incompatible with this statement; for, we there find _eleven_ children ascribed to John Shakspeare, _ten_ baptized, and _one_, the baptism of which had taken place before the commencement of the Register, buried.[4:B] The dates of these baptisms, and of two or three other events, recorded in this Register, it will be necessary, for the sake of elucidation, to transcribe: "_Jone_, daughter of John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 15, 1558. "_Margaret_, daughter of John Shakspere, was buried April 30, 1563. "WILLIAM, son of John Shakspere, was baptized April 26, 1564. "_Gilbert_, son of John Shakspere, was baptized Oct. 3, 1566. "_Jone_[4:C], daughter of John Shakspere, was baptized April 15, 1569. "_Anne_, daughter of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 28, 1571. "_Richard_, son of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized March 11, 1573-4. "_Edmund_, son of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized May 3, 1580. "_John Shakspere_ and Margery Roberts were married Nov. 25, 1584. "_Margery_, wife of John Shakspere, was buried Oct. 29, 1587. "_Ursula_, daughter of John Shakspere, was baptized March 11, 1588. "_Humphrey_, son of John Shakspere, was baptized May 24, 1590. "_Philip_, son of John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 21, 1591. "Mr. _John Shakspere_ was buried Sept. 8, 1601. "_Mary Shakspere_, widow, was buried Sept. 9, 1608." Now it is evident, that if the ten children which were baptized, according to this Register, between the years 1558 and 1591, are to be ascribed to the father of our poet, he must necessarily have had _eleven_, in consequence of the record of the decease of his daughter Margaret. He must also have had three wives, for we find his second wife, Margery, died in 1587, and the death of a third, Mary, a widow, is noticed in 1608. It was suggested to Mr. Malone[5:A], that very probably, Mr. John Shakspeare had a son born to him, as well as a daughter, before the commencement of the Register, and that this his eldest son, was, as is customary, named after his father, John; a supposition which, (as no other child was baptized by the Christian name of the old gentleman,) carries some credibility with it, and was subsequently acquiesced in by Mr. Malone himself.