8-1HathawayEarlyLife&Education

The Early Life of Anne Hathaway //Answer prepared by Michelle T//

Many are familiar with the life of Anne Hathaway after her marriage to William Shakespeare, but few have knowledge on her early life before her matrimony. The date of birth of Anne is unknown, but “Anne Hathaway Biography” from //William Shakespeare Info// claims that “we are…able to deduce her year of birth as 1556.” This same website also argues that Anne’s name might actually have been Agnes; they say, “the daughter of Richard Hathaway is identified as Agnes Hathaway. The names Anne and Agnes are legally distinct, however, it was a common custom for these names to be interchangeable. We therefore are assuming that Anne Hathaway and Agnes Hathaway are one and the same person.”

Anne was the eldest of eight children under the father of Richard Hathaway and step-mother of Joan Hathaway. According to Sidney Lee, author of //A Life of William Shakespeare//, the Hathaway family lived in a large, thatched farmhouse in Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford-Upon-Avon. The house remained within the Hathaway family until 1838.

As Hathaway progressed onto her late childhood years, historians note that there are not many records available about her schooling and life. Fortunately, “Anne Hathaway Biography” from //William Shakespeare Info// provided a brief opinion on the schooling of a girl such as Anne. They state, “the girls of Anne Hathaway’s background would not have attended school or received any formal type of education. She would have had to learn how to govern a household and become skilled in all housewifely duties. Her education would have been purely of the domestic nature in preparation for the only real career option for a girl—marriage! The married state was therefore seen as highly desirable by all women of Anne Hathaway’s social standing.”

In //Readings on the Tragedies of William Shakespeare//, Clarice Swisher says that Anne was twenty-six years old when married to William Shakespeare, who was only eighteen. She states, “[biographers] assume that church officials hurried the marriage because Anne was already pregnant. However, because of Elizabethan custom considered betrothal (engagement) a binding agreement and in some instances the same as marriage, her pregnancy was less unusual than the modern customs might consider it.” Also from //Readings on the Tragedies of William Shakespeare//, Clarice Swisher says “the couple lived with Shakespeare’s family on Henley Street in Stratford. On May 26, 1583, their daughter Susanna was baptized; twenty months later the young couple had twins, baptized Hamnet and Judith on February 2, 1585. How this twenty-one year-old man supported his family is unknown.” John Aubrey, an English antiquarian, claims that someone informed him that “Shakespeare taught school and worked in his father’s shop, a butcher’s shop.”

Although the early life of Anne Hathaway is semi-disregarded in terms of her later life with William Shakespeare, the foundation of existence is based on childhood years with close family and friends. Though the information known about Anne Hathaway is minimal, most of the gathered information gives a great overall background about her early life.






 * Works Cited:**

Lee, Sidney. __A Life of William Shakespeare__. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1917.

Swisher, Clarice. __Readings on the Tragedies of William Shakespeare__. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.

Unknown Author, “Anne Hathaway Biography.” __William Shakespeare__ 2005 12 Mar 2009 .