8-2Parents&Siblings

Who was Shakespeare’s parents and family? What was his relationship like with them?
 // Answer Prepared by Sara P. //

John Shakespeare was born in 1531. His father, Richard Shakespeare, was a tenant farmer who worked on many different sections of land. John worked as a farmer with his father but in 1551 he moved to Stratford to set up business trading in wool, malt and corn. He was very good at leatherworking and started to make ladies gloves and purses for the nobility. He bought a house in Henley Street, Stratford, and it probably had a small shop attached to it. He also started in the dubious business of money lending. His business probably started to do very well, because he bought another house in 1552, just five years before he met Mary.

Mary Arden was born in 1540. The Arden’s were one of Warwickshire's most prominent families; they could trace their ancestry back to before 1066. The Arden’s land was given to them by William the Conqueror, in the Doomsday Book. Mary was her father’s favorite out of the eight daughters’ so she was very spoiled. Her father was a wealthy and single, but in 1548 he married Agnes Hill. This marriage added four stepchildren, and the Arden’s were now a family of fourteen. When Mary was sixteen her father died, and she inherited some of his land and money.

Some of the land that Richard Shakespeare farmed on was owned by the Arden family. Mary and John met often, when John was working with his father. Mary’s father died soon after they met and they started courting. He would not have approved because John was only of Yeoman stock and Mary was part of the aristocracy. They married a year after his death, when Mary was seventeen and John was twenty-six. After they were married, Mary moved into one of the houses John had bought.

They started their family in 1558 with the birth of their first child, Joan. Their happiness was short-lived when the baby died of the plague shortly after birth. Mary became pregnant again and gave birth in 1562 to a second daughter, Margaret, but she only lived for a year. Soon Mary became pregnant again and on April 23rd, 1564 she gave birth to William Shakespeare. In 1566, William’s brother Gilbert was born and in 1569 a girl also called Joan was born. Also in 1568 John Shakespeare became the Mayor or Stratford, and with that he got free education for his kids at the local grammar school. From 1571-1574 the Shakespeare’s expanded their family even more; Mary gave birth to Anne and Richard. In 1580 their last child, Edmund, was born.

According to the William Shakespeare website, the family was very close and liked to help each other. William became good friends with Gilbert, and when the family started having financial troubles both boys dropped out of school to help.

**Works Cited** Aagesen, Colleen.//Shakespeare for kids: his life and times. First. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 1999. // Ganeri, Anita.//A Young Persons Guide To Shakespeare. First. London: Pavilion Books LTD, 1999 //