John Shakespeare made enquiries concerning a coat of arms around 1575. John had been a
bailiff and had the social standing and marriage that made such a request possible. Nothing came of it, presumably because of economic difficulties; such applications were expensive. In 1596, the application was renewed, either by John or by his son William on John's (and probably William's own) behalf. As the eldest son, William could make a request for his family to be granted a coat of arms. At the time, William had enough money, and could hope for support from influential men such as
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton and
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. though there is a late 17th-century copy. According to the palaeographer
Charles Hamilton, the drafts were written by William, and if so they are existing examples of
his handwriting. The
heraldry scholar
Wilfrid Scott-Giles suggests that the changes and additions that can be seen on the drafts may have been made during discussions between William and the heralds. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown And put a barren sceptre in my grip, Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, No son of mine succeeding. A draft document from 1599 requests that the coat of arms of the Shakespeare family be combined, or
impaled, with that of the
Arden family, the higher-ranked family of John's wife
Mary. For unknown reasons, the Shakespeares did not use the combined version, which would have been considered of higher status. Possibly it was never granted. Scott-Giles hypothesises that William simply found the un-combined version more aesthetically pleasing. and can partly be seen on the wax seal of the will of her daughter
Elizabeth Barnard, the playwright's last surviving descendant. ==Description==