Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 1

by Tucker Brooke

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I. SHAKESPEARE’S BIRTH (1564).

Baptismal Register, Stratford-on-Avon.

1564April 26Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere.

Note One. The Date of Shakespeare’s Birth is not precisely known, but it probably preceded his baptism on April 26 by only a few days. The tradition is that he was born on St. George’s Day, April 23, which was the day also on which he died. The inscription on his monument stating that he was ‘Ætatis 53’ at his decease would indicate that he had at least completed his fifty-second year on April 23, 1616.

Note Two. Shakespeare’s Parents and Ancestry.

The poet’s paternal grandfather was probably Richard Shakespeare (d. 1561), a farmer of Snitterfield, four miles northeast of Stratford. The poet’s father, John Shakespeare, was living in Henley Street, Stratford, in 1552. In 1561 he was elected one of the two chamberlains of the borough; in 1565 he became an alderman; and in 1568 high bailiff, or mayor, of the town. He was buried, September 8, 1601.

John Shakespeare married (presumably in 1557) Mary Arden, youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy landowner of Wilmecote, a couple of miles north of Stratford. Robert Arden, who had died in 1556, was the son of Thomas Arden (the poet’s maternal great-grandfather), who was living at Wilmecote in 1501 and who probably belonged to the aristocratic family of the Ardens of Park Hall.^[1] Mary Shakespeare, the poet’s mother, was buried at Stratford, September 9, 1608.

Note Three. Shakespeare’s Brothers and Sisters.

The poet was the third child and first son of John and Mary Shakespeare. The other children, with their dates of baptism were:

Joan (Sept. 15, 1558),
Margaret (Dec. 2, 1562),
Gilbert (Oct. 13, 1566),
Joan (Apr. 15, 1569),
Anne (Sept. 28, 1571),
Richard (Mar, 11, 1574),
Edmund (May 8, 1580).

The first two daughters died in infancy, and Anne (buried Apr. 4, 1579) at the age of seven. The poet’s three brothers all died before him, probably without children, though Gilbert may possibly have had a son.^[2] Edmund became an actor and was buried in St. Saviour’s Church, Southwark, Dec. 31, 1607. Joan—the second sister so named—married William Hart and has descendants still alive.

1. See Mrs. C. C. Stopes, Shakespeare’s Family, p. 49; Shakespeare’s Environment, pp. 47 ff.
2. Against this possibility cf. Shakespeare’s Environment, pp. 332 ff.