In brief note, Was William Shakespeare William Shakeshafte?,' published in 1970, Douglas Hamer subjected to critical examination theory then gaining momentum that William Shakespeare might have spent some of his youthful years in the household of Alexander Hoghton of Lea Hall, near Preston, in Lancashire.1 This theory was based on clause in Hoghton's will, dated 3 August 1581, in which arrangements were made for William Shakeshafte, one of his servants, to pass into the service of Hoghton's brother-in-law, Thomas Hesketh.2 In the preceding clause Hoghton had also left hisinstrumentes belonginge to mewsyckes, & all maner of playe clothes to Hesketh should his heir, his brother Thomas Hoghton, not wish to keppe & manteyne playeres:' This sequence suggests that this Shakeshafte was either household musician or player or both. The text of Hoghton's will, published as long ago as 1860, had apparently escaped critical attention until 1923, when Edmund Chambers mused, in footnote, whether this William Shakeshafte was indeed player.3 But it was Oliver Baker, gentleman antiquary and Stratfordupon-Avon antique dealer, who, in 1937, first committed to print the suggestion that William Shakeshafte might actually have been William Shakespeare, who, having entered Heskeths service in accordance with his late master's wishes, found a home with band of players in Lancashire. In note published in 1944, Chambers took up this suggestion, adding that, from the evidence of the household books of Henry, earl of Derby, it was known that Thomas Hesketh often visited the earl at his home (or homes) in Lancashire, and that on one occasion, in 1587, on the basis of somewhat enigmatic entry, he brought with him band of players.5 As