Warwickshire: The Land of Shakespeare

by Clive Holland

The place has never played any important part in history, but at the outset of the Civil War it took the side of the King, and although the Royalist garrison was in 1642 driven out of the town by a Parliamentarian force under Lord Brooke of Warwick, the townsfolk remained faithful in heart to the cause they had espoused, and in 1643 Queen Henrietta Maria and Prince Rupert with a large body of troops were quartered there. The Queen remained three days, and stayed at New Place, where she was entertained by Mrs. Hall, Shakespeare’s daughter.

So far as history making goes, Stratford’s part may be said to have ceased when the Civil War no longer caused it to be the venue of the contending parties. And had it not been for the event which had occurred on April 23, 1564 (old style), when the Bard of Avon entered the world in the Henley Street house to which so many pilgrims flock each year, the claim of the town to special notice and description would be far less easily defined.

Obscure as many of the incidents of Shakespeare’s early life unfortunately are, the connection of his family with Warwickshire and with Stratford are happily traceable with some considerable degree of certitude. Richard Shakespeare (the Christian name of whom is traditional, it must be admitted) is popularly supposed to have been the owner or tenant of some land and tenements at Snitterfield, a small village about four miles north of Stratford, situated on rising ground, which were granted to him for “his faithful and approved service to the most prudent prince, King Henry VII. of famous memory”; what these services were does not appear. Of his several children two at least were sons named John and Henry. The former, afterwards to be the father of the poet, was born about the year 1530, and was certainly a resident in Stratford prior to 1552. About the latter year he was following the trade of fell–monger (hide seller) and glover, possibly also combining with these the trade of butcher, and it is ascertained that he at times also dealt in corn and timber. All of which trades he carried on in Henley Street. He appears to have prospered in his business, for in the month of October 1556 he is recorded as having purchased the copyhold of a house, garden, and some other property in Greenhill Street, not far from Henley Street. In the following year he was married to Mary Arden, the daughter of one Robert Arden, of Aston Cantlow, a village some six miles north–west of Stratford, who left her a small estate called Asbies, as well as reversionary rights in property at Snitterfield, including the farm which he had leased to Shakespeare’s father. In the same year John Shakespeare became a member of the Stratford Corporation.

His house on the northern side of Henley Street was one of considerable size, and, indeed, in those days was doubtless esteemed a fine house. As was not inappropriate for the birthplace of one who loved and must have often rambled in the Forest of Arden, it was from thence that came the oak planks and beams of which the house was built,—timbers tough and well seasoned, fit to outlast a thousand years. It was here that to John and Mary Shakespeare was born a daughter, Joan, in 1558 (who, it is probable, died some two years later); another daughter, Margaret, in 1562 (who died when about four months old); and then in 1564 a son, William, destined to be the greatest of English poets and dramatists.

The exact date of his birth is, unfortunately, but conjectural. It is usually accepted as being April 23. But, as was the custom with the other children of John and Mary Shakespeare, only the dates of baptism are recorded. That in the case of William was April 26, and the date being old style brings it actually to May 5 in our present calendar. But there is a well–authenticated and continuous tradition that St. George’s Day, April 23, was the actual date of the poet’s birth; and most authorities are agreed that in this case tradition is probably right. It must be remembered in this connection that in those days it was the custom to bring children to baptism as soon as possible after birth, and two or three days after was a very common time.

Shakespeare came into the world at a period when there was a perfect galaxy of prospective literary talent. Michael Drayton, born the previous year, was still an infant; Walter Raleigh, Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser were boys; and Francis Bacon, destined to provide so much material for Shakespearian controversy in later times, was a tiny child.

Indeed, the remembrance of Shakespeare’s birth year was likely to remain in the public mind for some considerable period, for it was the year of the Great Frost, when the Thames froze almost solidly from side to side above London Bridge, and a fair of several weeks’ duration was held upon it. Whilst in Stratford there was a recurrence of the plague, which is stated to have carried off at least one in seven of the total population. Fortunately the house of John Shakespeare escaped the scourge.

In the following year Shakespeare’s father was made an alderman of the borough, and in 1566 a son, Gilbert, was born to him. In 1568 the alderman became high–bailiff of the town; in the following year a daughter was born, who (in spite of the ill–fortune popularly supposed to follow such a thing as giving a child the name of a previous one who had died) was named Joan. In 1571 John Shakespeare became senior alderman of the town, which was the most exalted civic office the place could bestow, and entitled its possessor to the title of Magister, both after as well as during his term of office. It is by this title that he is at and from this date described in the Parish Registers. In the same year was born his daughter Anne, who was baptized on September 28; and two years afterwards a son, baptized Richard, was born.

In 1575 is recorded the purchase by John Shakespeare from one Edmund Hall of the house in Henley Street, now known as the birthplace, for the sum of £40. From this period the star of Shakespeare’s father, which hitherto, except for quite trivial ups and downs of fortune, appears to have been so distinctly in the ascendant, waned. Three years later his embarrassment was such that he was compelled to mortgage Asbies, which his wife had brought him, and also to sell his interest in certain lands at Snitterfield.