It’s best to read In Defence of the Vicar of Titchfield: (1) ‘Romeo and Juliet’ first.
G. P. V. Akrigg continues his attack on Rev. Canon Morley by writing in his Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton (1968)….
The Parish guide is incorrect in claiming that Shakespeare’s fellow actor, Beeston, was a Titchfield man……
He then states categorically that…..
No Beestons are listed in the register during this period.
Akrigg transcribed the Parish Register from its beginning in 1587 to the burial of the Third Earl of Southampton in 1624.
How he must wish he had transcribed a few years more…..
On the 5th May, 1629 ‘Mis Elizabeth Bestenn’ was baptised at St. Peter’s. On 25th February, 1632 ‘Mary Beestone of William Beestone gener’ was married there – and on 20th March, 1633, ‘Mrs Fraunces Beestone’ baptised.
In the Second Volume of the Titchfield Parish Register (1634-1678)…….
……brilliantly transcribed by the Titchfield History Society – there are ELEVEN references to the name ‘Beeston’ and its variants.
Akrigg attacks Morley’s scholarship……
He should have got his own house in order first….
Even the Titchfield History Society itself can’t resist a bit of Vicar-bashing….
What is it about Vicars?
Why do they bring out the worst in everybody?
In April, 1981, two Distinguished Members of the Titchfield History Society…….
….no names, no pack-drill…..
….wrote in The Hampshire Field Club Local History Newsletter 1 (3):
Morley recorded in his parish guide the ‘incontrovertible fact’ that the family of Shakespeare’s ‘great friend and fellow actor William Beeston lived in Titchfield. The actor who for a time (about 1598) was in the Lord Chamberlain’s Company was in fact Christopher Beeston; it was his son, William Beeston who knew John Aubrey of the Brief Lives . There is however no evidence that this Beeston family had any connection with a family of some standing who lived at Posbrook in Titchfield in the 1630’s….
‘NO EVIDENCE’ !!!
Chistopher Beeston – who signed himself on this occasion Christopher ‘Hutchinson’ – completed his will on 4th October, 1638.
He stated he was ‘sick and weak in body’.
He wrote a codicil to his will on 7th October, 1638.
TWO DAYS LATER on 9th October 1638, William Beeston, of Posbrook Farm, Titchfield signed his will….
He said he was ‘weak in body’.
Chistopher Hutchinson/Beeston was buried in St. Giles-in-the-Fields on 16th October, 1638 and William Beeston was buried at St. Peter’s, Titchfield, on 3rd December, 1638.
EITHER THIS A COINCIDENCE OF COSMIC PROPORTIONS OR THERE WAS A LINK BETWEEN THE TWO MEN!!!
The Shakespeare Code is of the firm opinion that William Beeston of Titchfield was the natural father Christopher Hutchinson/Beeston who was illegitimate – hence his two names.
By 1638 William Beeston had acquired a legitimate family as well.
That’s why he writes……
I bequeath to every child that God hath sent me five shillings….
The phrase ‘every child that God hath sent me’ covers his illegitimate children along with his legitimate.
By leaving Christopher et al a paltry 5 shillings each – £125 in today’s money – the wealthy William Beeston (he had just acquired a coat of arms) prevented any further claims on his estate from his illegitimate children.
The bulk of his estate he left to his….
Beloved wife Elizabeth….
The Code believes that Christopher Hutchinson/Beeston begged his natural father, Titchfield William Beeston, to visit him when he was dying.
He wanted to persuade him to leave his family some money…..
Titchfield William Beeston was infected with Christopher’s disease, probably the Plague…
The Code further believes that the Titchfield William Beeston was in fact a friend of William Shakespeare – as he was a friend of Thomas Nashe who nick-named him William ‘Apis Lapis’…
Apis= Bee and Lapis = Stone……Beestone…..
Nashe in his pamphlet Strange Newes also mentions Beeston’s illegitimate children….
And though he was not a professional actor, The Code believes Titchfield William Beeston played the part of Bacchus in Nashe’s entertainment Sommer’s Last Will and Testament……
Bacchus’s advocacy of wine was, The Code believes, Beeston’s own sales pitch…..
….he was, amongst other things, a vintner…..
And this inspired Shakespeare and Nashe to create the immortal fat knight, Falstaff…..
Brothers and Sister of The Code can read more about this in the article…..
or the longer essay……
The Shakespeare Code 
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