Yes, William’s father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge seems to have been unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare crest appears in later collections of coats of arms and on William Shakespeare’s funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.
