Obscure as many of the incidents of Shakespeare’s early life unfortunately are, the connection of his family with Warwickshire and with Stratford are happily traceable with some considerable degree of certitude. Richard Shakespeare (the Christian name of whom is traditional, it must be admitted) is popularly supposed to have been the owner or tenant of some land and tenements at Snitterfield, a small village about four miles north of Stratford, situated on rising ground, which were granted to him for “his faithful and approved service to the most prudent prince, King Henry VII. of famous memory”; what these services were does not appear. Of his several children two at least were sons named John and Henry. The former, afterwards to be the father of the poet, was born about the year 1530, and was certainly a resident in Stratford prior to 1552. About the latter year he was following the trade of fell–monger (hide seller) and glover, possibly also combining with these the trade of butcher, and it is ascertained that he at times also dealt in corn and timber. All of which trades he carried on in Henley Street. He appears to have prospered in his business, for in the month of October 1556 he is recorded as having purchased the copyhold of a house, garden, and some other property in Greenhill Street, not far from Henley Street. In the following year he was married to Mary Arden, the daughter of one Robert Arden, of Aston Cantlow, a village some six miles north–west of Stratford, who left her a small estate called Asbies, as well as reversionary rights in property at Snitterfield, including the farm which he had leased to Shakespeare’s father. In the same year John Shakespeare became a member of the Stratford Corporation. His house on the northern side of Henley Street was one of considerable size, and, indeed, in those days was doubtless esteemed a fine house. As was not inappropriate for the birthplace of one who loved and must have often rambled in the Forest of Arden, it was from thence that came the oak planks and beams of which the house was built,—timbers tough and well seasoned, fit to outlast a thousand years. It was here that to John and Mary Shakespeare was born a daughter, Joan, in 1558 (who, it is probable, died some two years later); another daughter, Margaret, in 1562 (who died when about four months old); and then in 1564 a son, William, destined to be the greatest of English poets and dramatists.