Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 35
XXXV. SHAKESPEARE GETS ASSURANCE OF HIS TITLE TO NEW PLACE FROM HERCULES UNDERHILL (1602).
Foot of second ‘fine’ levied on New Place, Michaelmas, 1602. (Public Record Office.)
Inter Willielmum Shakespeare, generosum, querentem, et Herculem Underhill, generosum, deforciantem, de uno mesuagio, duobus horreis, duobus gardinis, et duobus pomariis cum pertinenciis, in Stretford-super-Avon . . . et pro hac recognicione, remissione, quieta clamancia, warantia, fine et concordia idem Willielmus dedit predicto Herculi sexaginta libras sterlingorum.
Note. This document agrees verbally with the ‘fine’ which Shakespeare received from William Underhill in 1597 (see document XV), except for the addition of two orchards (duobus pomariis) not mentioned in the earlier paper and the substitution of Hercules Underhill in place of his deceased father, William, as deforciant. Halliwell-Phillipps (Outlines, 7th ed., i. 204) explains that some flaw had been discovered in Shakespeare’s title to the property. ‘In order to meet this difficulty it was necessary for a fine to be levied through which the absolute ownership of the purchaser should be recognized by Hercules, and of so much importance was this considered that, upon the deforciant representing in June, 1602, that the state of his health prevented his undertaking a journey to London, a special commission was arranged for obtaining his acknowledgment. This important ratification was procured in Northamptonshire in the following October, Shakespeare no doubt being responsible for the considerable expenditure that must have been incurred by these transactions.’ The strange facts that accounted for the second deed were discovered by Mrs. Stopes (Shakespeare’s Warwickshire Contemporaries, 231 f.). William Underhill was poisoned by his elder son, Fulke, a few months after the sale of New Place to Shakespeare, dying July 7, 1597. His property finally passed to his younger son, Hercules, who came of age in 1602, when Shakespeare found it desirable to get assurance of his title.