Hercules Underhill

In addition to these properties he held the manors of Loxley and Barton-on-the-Heath, 'together with other houses and lands in Stratford, Hollington, Hardwick, Meriden, Haselor, Drayton and Easinghall'.

[9] William Underhill died 31 March 1570, and was buried at Nether Ettington, where he and his first wife are commemorated by a marble monument.

[10] William Underhill (d.1597), his only son and heir, was sixteen years of age at his father's death in 1570, and became a ward of the crown.

She was buried at Idlicote, and after her death he settled his estates in trust on his eldest son and heir, Fulke Underhill.

[1][7] According to Schoenbaum, however, he was hanged at Warwick in 1599 for poisoning his father, and attainted for felony, whereby his estates escheated to the crown, which regranted them to Hercules Underhill when he came of age in 1602.

[13][14] In Michaelmas term 1602, Hercules Underhill confirmed the sale of New Place to William Shakespeare by final concord; in order to obtain clear title, Shakespeare paid a fee equal to one quarter of the yearly value of the property, "the peculiar circumstances of the case causing some doubt on the validity of the original purchase".

[1] The arms borne by Sir Hercules Underhill were Argent a chevron between three trefoils flipped, vert, three bezants.