1 rombers of the family came a dumphta an of twenty-one, in the year 1995, there is c ́e, was a butiful and amiable gud. with Thomas and Alice Roces P St.a. I the life of JJ n Shakspere and May AA ere was a man in the same ding and as we could say, a mukat- i an. Pevails TJs then was Thomas Reges, but 1, townspier, for he was made alderon fono Jensar lycople, and thy le. in 1. ned, ons and dechtes in good store; the twan di jog" at two and two. Witham Shaaste „ IN contempontics in the fan.ous g. ront of which the two fainers were ofbelly u w paddie nagtates, --there and also if on aniwire clow righbors. The two fathers, it can se erwe than that they were associates, and pr times e a eitors, in their insiness; i, som slay t the eo roll on h of de little boreogh, they stained e pul Le responsibility. There is every reason to suppose the zens have been an intiaacy between the families. Me vial, ia Lon for, at Southwark, a handed : 9 and that meant a great deal more in those days than at the g Tes WIM was going on the fe cf Robert Harvard. He vas a twenty-nine years old and a widower, and in 1505 was pl a new marriage. It is the sumise of Mr. Horary C. Biote whose very interesting bork I wknowledre oligotha that Viam Shakspere who introduced Robert Prvard to Kase. 1s; but the sauny, of Mr. Waters sex ins to the moa -that Thomas Rog rs, a ton of rather 1 rse efels. I sometimes, probably, make business eyesOLA , nght have become acquained with Elers H in the same callin, with himself, there in Seals. Record of the Marriage of Robert Harvard and Katherine Rogers in the Parish Register of Holy Trinity. Stratford-on-Avon Record of the Marriage of John Harvard and Anne Sadler Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts seen in him an eligible son-in-law. At any rate, in the year 1605 Robert Harvard was married to Katherine Rogers, she being then twenty-one. The wedding procession went from the door of the house in High Street to the church of Holy Trinity, where, standing on the flag-stones which a few years later were to cover the dust of William Shakspere, Robert Harvard and Katherine Rogers were united in marriage. They set up their home in Southwark, in the shadow of St. Saviour's Church, and very close to the Globe Theatre, in which at that time the ruling spirit was Katherine's fellow-townsman, William Shakspere. And there, in November, 1607, John Harvard was born. Shakspere at that moment was at the zenith of his career. So much for heredity. In John Harvard's case it seems as though we had a pretty definite story of the stock from which he came. Now as to environment, what can be said? Who were the friends that came to the house of Robert and Katherine Harvard in the shadow of St. Saviour's Church? It can scarcely be otherwise than that Shakspere was sometimes a visitor there. Shakspere had been a comrade of Charles, Katherine Rogers's elder brother, and naturally, although Shakspere was twenty years older than Katherine, he would look in upon his young towns-woman there, far from home. Can we believe that Shakspere rocked John Harvard's cradle? Very possibly. Can we believe that he held the little boy on his knee and told him stories? It is very possible that he did. Can we go further and say that John Harvard grew up to write Shakspere? I am not equal, quite, to that, though dealing with the story is a gymnastic that inclines one to bold ventures. In other ways we know narrowly about John Harvard's environment. He must have gone to the grammar school of which his father, who became a vestryman of St. Saviour's, was a trustee. We know the excitements which came into the life of a London boy there in the reign of James I. We know from old prints and charts of which Mr. Lane, the librarian of Harvard, has had such an interesting exhibition in Cambridge, something about the look of his surroundings. We know the sights upon which his boyish eyes fell; the narrow streets, the upper stories of the houses overhanging their lower stories, and beyond the streets the green fields; and up High Street only a few rods, the gateway of London Bridge, the heads of the malefactors, each one upon its pole, a gruesome spectacle which we are told was always present. We know quite narrowly as to the boy's environment. When he had reached the age of eighteen a sad crisis came in the prosperous and peaceful family. The plague struck the city, and in the year 1625 Robert Harvard, two sons, and two daughters died within five weeks of each other, leaving Katherine a widow with her two sons, John and Thomas. It was only following what was then the custom of the world that Katherine Harvard within five months married again, this time a rich cooper, John Elletson; and he having died within a year, she married a third time, this time a most substantial man, Richard Yearwood, a member of Parliament during several terms, from 1620 to 1629. We can tell why it was that John Harvard went to Cambridge, choosing that as his university. There is documentary evidence that an intimate friend of the family was Nicholas Morton, a chaplain at St. Saviour's who had been a fellow of Emmanuel College at Cambridge; and it is only reasonable to suppose it was through his advice that Emmanuel College was selected. There he went when he was twenty years old. And here again, at Cambridge, we need be in no doubt as to the environment of the young man. We know narrowly the curriculum of studies; we know the names and the reputations of the teachers under whom he must have sat; and we know the excitements which must have come into the life of the Cambridge students of those days. The Duke of Buckingham, the French Ambassador, and finally, even the King and Queen, were entertained at Cambridge by elaborate pageants, of which we have careful descriptions. Those John Harvard must have witnessed, and in many of them, as a member of the student body, he must have taken part. As regards the great movements of the world outside, we know exactly what was doing and what would be the things that came to his notice. Cambridge is in eastern England, in the heart of the country from which the twenty thousand emigrants were going who came over to New England. Close by was old Boston, and from there John Cotton was permeating the whole of eastern England with his influence. A great noble, whose seat was not far from Cambridge, the Earl of Lincoln, was deeply interested in the emigration, sending over two of his daughters to this country, for he was the father of the Ladies |