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The Wodham Family
of Wroxall
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No study of the Shakespeares of Wroxall can be complete without looking at some of the other families connected with them. One of these was the Wodham's - the name is also rendered in several variants eg Wadham, Wodon, Woddam, and Woodham: for simplicity the one spelling will be used here. The name is of extreme rarity in the locality, and from the time of the earliest Wroxall charters up until the commencement of the surviving Wroxall parish registers in 1586 only three individuals of the name are to be found: Richard Wodham The first of these was Richard Wodham, who was the brother-in -law of Richard Shakespeare, one-time Bailiff of the Manor, having married his sister Agnes Shakespeare. These two brothers-in-law had joint tenure of a farm at Haseley, in addition to holding other property elsewhere in their own right. The earliest reference to Richard Wodham is a Lay Subsidy Roll of 1524-5, and the last around 1542 when he is recorded as holding property in Wroxall by License under the Great Seal (presumably property taken over by the Crown from the former Wroxall Abbey at the dissolution). A number of documents record his presence in the intervening period, mainly tax assessments and dealings in copyhold property. In 1534 he was one of the Jurors for the Manor Court. Roger Wodham There are but two brief glimpses of Roger - in 1530, and again in 1532, he, along with Richard Tompson, is recorded as 'the tithingmen there.' There is no other mention of him, so who he was remains a mystery, but it is quite likely that he was Richard's brother. James Wodham James's life overlaps the period covered by the parish registers, and he is mentioned in a number of documents, including his brother-in-law's will, and, (not quite the last record of his earthly existence, for he is mentioned in a posthumous legal document) he made his own will in 1590, which is preserved at Worcester. He died in August of the same year. Thus a little more can be said about him. James's connection with the Shakespeares is confirmed in the will of John Shakespeare, labourer, of Wroxall, dated 1574, which names him as John's brother-in-law. It is not known how exactly they were related: James Wodham's wife, Margaret, could have been John Shakespeare's sister, or John Shakespeare's wife, Isabel, could have been Nicholas's sister. How James was related to the two Wodham's of the previous generation is unlikely to be proved, but the conclusion that he was the son of either Richard or Roger raises the speculation that a cousin marriage lies at the root of his direct relationship with the Shakespeares. A number of references to James Wodham can be found in 'Records of Wroxall' by J W Ryland - from these we know that he was a Charity Feoffee at the same time as his close relative, Nicholas Shakespeare, as position he seems to have held from at least 1566: the following record confirms this:
The Wroxall Parish Register The remaining references to the Wodham family are to be found in the Wroxall parish register, which dates from 1586, with an approximately forty year gap in the early 1600's. The following are ALL of the entries which survive for this surname:
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