Note 13 — Chapter II
Reading edition
The allusion is to the Harts, whose ancestress was Shakespeare’s sister Joan. A monumental record in Trinity Church, Stratford, reads thus: “In memory of Thomas Hart, who was the fifth descendant in a direct line from Joan, eldest daughter of John Shakespeare. He died May 23, 1793.”
A son of the above Thomas Hart “followed the business of a butcher at Stratford, where he was living in 1794.” Still another Thomas Hart (eighth in descent from Joan) is said to be now living in Australia—the only male representive of that branch of the family.