Thomas Nash (relative of Shakespeare)

Nash was baptised at the parish church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon and entered in the register as "Thomas filius Anthonij Nash generosi", i.e. "Thomas, son of Anthony Nash gentleman". His mother's maiden name was Mary Baugh and she came from Twyning, near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. His father Anthony, a friend of Shakespeare and farmer of his tithes, was born in Old Stratford. Nash entered Lincoln's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London, on 15 May 1616 at the age of 22.{{cite book| last = Matthew| first = Henry Colin Gray| title = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ==Career of Nash==

Nash was called to the bar on 25 November 1623, but there is no evidence that he ever went on to practice law. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that he may however have taken over a rôle that his father held in being an agent for Sir John Hubaud, a High Sheriff of Warwickshire; but Sir John Hubaud died in 1583, ten years before Thomas was born. When Nash's father died in 1622, he was bequeathed properties in Stratford: the Bear Inn (opposite the Swan) and a house in Bridge Street, and a piece of land called "the Butt Close by the Avon" where burghers used to shoot at archery butts.{{cite book| last = Eccles| first = Mark| author-link = Mark Eccles| title = Shakespeare in Warwickshire| url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareinwar0000eccl| url-access = registration| publisher = University of Wisconsin Press| location = Madison, Wisconsin Nash was part of the 1633 triumvirate, along with John Hall and the vicar of Harbury, Richard Watts, that was to oversee the wranglings associated with Thomas Quiney and his lease on a house called The Cage.{{cite book| last = Schoenbaum According to Charlotte Carmichael Stopes, Nash's coat of arms was emblazoned "double quarterly of four, First, 1 and 4 argent on a chevron between three ravens' heads erased azure, a pellet between 4 cross-crosslets sable, for Nash; 2 and 3 sable a buck's head caboshed argent attired or, between his horns a cross patée, and across his mouth an arrow, Bulstrode. Second, 1 and 4, for Hall, 2 and 3 Shakespeare".{{cite book| last = Stopes| first = Charlotte Carmichael ==Personal life==

Nash married Elizabeth Hall on 22 April 1626 at Holy Trinity church in Stratford-upon-Avon. Elizabeth was Shakespeare's granddaughter through his eldest child Susanna and her husband John Hall. Writer Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859) later conjectured that this date was chosen to celebrate the birthday of Elizabeth's famous grandfather, who was baptised on 26 April, and whose birthday is traditionally celebrated on 23 April. Being 32 years old at the time of the marriage, Nash was 14 years older than his 18-year-old bride. Nash was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity, immediately to the left of Shakespeare's as one faces the altar. To be accorded this honour required some kind of position recognised by the church as fitting, such as holding parish tithes. His burial inscription and epitaph reads: HEERE RESTETH YE BODY OF THOMAS NASHE, ESQ. HE MAR. ELIZABETH, THE DAVG: & HEIRE OF IOHN HALLE, GENT. HE DIED APRIL 4. A. 1647, AGED 53. Fata manent omnes, hunc non virtute carentum vt ncque diuitiis, abstulit atra dies; Abstulit, at referet lux ultima; siste viator, si peritura paras per male parta peris. His widow Elizabeth married for the second time two years later to John Bernard (MP for Northampton), and eventually became Lady Bernard. They lived in Elizabeth's property of New Place for a time. ==References==