8-1Parents&Siblings

WHO WERE SHAKESPEARE’S PARENTS AND SIBLINGS? WHAT WAS SHAKESPEARE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM LIKE? //Answer prepared by Gabby P.// Shakespeare had a family of ten people total. Can you imagine that big of a family? I know i can't. Shakespeare’s father was John Shakespeare. John came to Stratford from Snitterfield before 1532 as an apprentice glover and tanner. He flourished and began to deal in farm products and wool. John married Mary Arden who’s wealthy father owned a sixty-acre farm called Asbies between 1556 and 1558. After marrying John Shakespeare, Mary became William’s mother, then obtaining the name Mary Shakespeare. The two wedded in Mary Arden’s Parish Church at Aston Cantlow. Mary Arden’s Parish Church was also the burial place of Robert Arden. Amanda Mabillard stated on the //Stratford website// in the article “Shakespeare’s Parents”, that although there is no evidence of strong holiness on either side of the family, it would have been a Catholic service under Queen Mary's rule. Since she was a Roman Catholic, Queen Mary I would have made the main religion practice at that time Catholic. Therefore, Shakespeare’s parents were John and Mary, and had married Catholic. In summary, John and Mary are William’s parents and married Catholic.

Kids! Yes, it was the time when Mary and John Shakespeare became parents for the first time in September of 1558, when their daughter Joan was born. Nothing is really known of Joan Shakespeare except for the detail that she was baptized in Stratford on September 15 and was taken by the plague abruptly after. The Shakespeare’s’ second child, Margaret was born in 1562 and baptized on December 2; she died one year later. John and Mary’s third child was the famous William Shakespeare. The Shakespeare’s fourth child, Gilbert, was baptized on October 13, 1566, at Holy Trinity. It’s likely that John Shakespeare named his second son after his friend and fellow neighbor on Henley Street, Gilbert Bradley, a glover and a burgess according to Charles Boyce in __Shakespeare A To Z.__ A burgess was a member of the lower legislative house in Maryland or Virginia before the American Revolution in Stratford. Records show that Gilbert Shakespeare survived the plague and began a long and successful career as a tradesman. Unfortunately, he died as a bachelor in Stratford on February 3, 1612. In 1569, John and Mary Shakespeare had another girl, Joan, named after their dead first child. Joan lived seventy seven years old before she died in 1646. In 1571, the birth of the Shakespeare’s fourth daughter, Anne took place. Unfortunately, tragedy befell the family yet again when Anne died at the age of eight according to the article “William Shakespeare Biography- The Parents Of William Shakespeare” on //William Shakespeare Info Site.// Mary and John Shakespeare had another boy named him Richard, probably after his paternal grandfather. Not much is known about Richard except that he was baptized on March 11 of that year and died unmarried and was buried on February 4, 1613… a year and a day after the death of Gilbert Shakespeare, As stated in __The Usborne World of Shakespeare__ by Anna Claybourne. In 1580, Mary gave birth once again. Mary christened him on May 3 and named him Edmund, probably in honor of his uncle Edmund Lambert. Edmund was eager to pursue acting but never succeeded. Edmund perished in 1607; he was not even thirty years old yet at that time, stated Donald S. Lawless in __Shakespeare's Brother__. Edmund was buried in St. Saviour's Church in Southwark; this is the same place he was baptized almost 52 years before on December 31 of that year. Through tragedy and success, the Shakespeare’s didn’t stop their desire for kids.

In total, the Shakespeare’s had eight children, four girls (Joan, Margaret, Joan and Anne), and four boys (William, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund). The majority of the children experienced unfortunately premature deaths as Amanda Mabillard states in “Shakespeare’s Siblings” on the //Stratford Website.// However, this infant and child mortality wasn’t unusual back then in the 18th and 19th centuries. With ten people in the family, don’t you think times would have been harder then, rather than a normal sized family now? I sure do. Can you say MAD HOUSE!? Works Cited Boyce, Charles. __Shakespeare A To Z__. 1. New York, New York: Roundtable Press, Inc., 1991.

Claybourne, Anna. __The Usborne World of Shakespeare__. 1. London, England: Usborne Publishing Ltd. 2001.

Lawless, Donald S. __Shakespeare's Brother__. 1. New York: New York, 1981. Print.

Mabillard, Amanda. "Shakespeare's Marriage and Children." Shakespeare Of Stratford 1999 8 Mar 2009 .

Mabillard, Amanda. "Shakespeare's Parents." Shakespeare Of Stratford1999 8 Mar 2009 .

Mabillard, Amanda. "Shakespeare's Siblings." Shakespeare Of Stratford1999 8 Mar 2009 .

"William Shakespeare Biography –The Parents Of William Shakespeare." William Shakespeare Info Site 2005 8 Mar 2009 .''