We're on to Chapter 5. It's a bit of a longer one. This chapter covers Shakespeare's family history as well as how the Reformation affected Shakespeare's family financially.
Shakespeare: A Biography
by
Peter Ackroyd
Part One
Chapter Five: Tell Me This: Who Begot Thee?
There were two cultures in a more particular sense: old and reformed. The English Reformation of religion was begun in fury and in greed; such violent origins beget violent deeds. It was only during the cautious and pragmatic reign of Elizabeth I that a form of compromise was reached.
As a result and impatience with the Pope, Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII had proclaimed himself to be the head of the Church of England. He had several churchmen sent to their deaths for daring to deny his supremacy, His more avid advisers, motivated by the prospect of enrichment as much as religion, crushed the monasteries and confiscated the lands they owned. The king was also responsible for the introduction of the English Bible into the parish churches, an innovation which had more beneficial effects.
After the death of his father, Edward VI, was much more devoted to the destruction of Catholicism. He was embolden to reform the prayer book and liturgy but his early death interrupted his programme of renewal. His actions were then reversed by the brief reign of his sister Mary I, a fervent Catholic. It was their sister, Elizabeth I, who finally found a middle path and she seemed intent on placating as many factions as possible. It was part of her "settlement" in which the vagaries of Catholicism and Protestantism were chastened. She ordered that church services should be held in English, but permitted the use of such Catholic tokens as the crucifix and the candlestick. She installed the Book of Common Prayer in every church. It was a rickety structure, stitched together by compromise and special pleading, but it held. She may have underestimated the power of the Puritan faction, as well as the residual Catholicism of the people themselves, but her control of religious affairs was never seriously in doubt.
The Virgin Queen, was not necessarily mild with her more religiously rebellious subjects. Recusaants as they were known, were fined, arrested or imprisoned. They were considered traitors. Catholic priests and missionaries were tortured and killed. Commissioners made periodic and advertised visits to towns where Catholicism was said persist, while bishops made regular inspections of their dioceses in pursuit of renegade piety. It was dangerous to be a Catholic or to be a suspected Catholic.
All these conflicts and changes found a vivid reflection in the life of Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare. He was described in later life as "a merry Cheekd old man-that said-Will was a good Honest Fellow, but he durst have crackt a jeast with him at any time." Since this sketch was first published in the mid-seventeenth century, it should not be taken with any high degree of literalness. What we know about Shakespeare's father, and forefather, can be more carefully measured by documentary reports.
The ancestry of the Shakespeares stretches far back. Shakespeare's own name more than eighty different spellings - including Sakspere, Saxper, Schaftspere, Shakstaf etc, The variations suggest prolificity and universality. In Stratford documents alone there are some twenty different and separate spellings.
The original family may have been Norman derivation, as in 1195, there is found a William Sakeespee", though the first name in English records is of a William Sakspeer in 1248. He came from the village of Clopton, just a few miles outside of Stratford. From the thirteenth century the name often occurs in Warwickshire records which may help to explain the rootedness of Shakespeare himself within English culture.
There are many other Shakespeares of a later date in Balsall, Baddesley, Knowle and neighbouring villages. provides evidence of an extended family of siblings and cousins living within a geographical area a few miles in extent. Many of them were part of the guild of the Knowle, fulfilling certain secular and religious obligations, and therefore would have been considered good and observant Catholics.
Shakespeare's grandfather, Richard Shakespeare, was a farmer of Snitterfield, a village four miles north of Stratford. He was an affluent farmer, with two sets of land in the vicinity. Snitterfield itself was a scattered parish with a church and a manor-house, ancient farmhouses and cottages, presiding over a mixed landscape of woodland and pasture, heath and meadow. This was the landscape for the part of Shakespeare's childhood.
There was a further familial bond. Richard's house and grounds were leased from Robert Arden, the father of Mary Arden, whom his father John Shakespeare later married. Shakespeare's mother and father knew each other from and early age and doubtlessly met in Richard Shakespeare's old house.
John himself grew up in the life and atmosphere of the farm. He was born in 1529, the year that his father is first Snitterfield, and it seems likely that Richard moved to the area with his new wife and anticipated family.
John Shakespeare embarked on a prosperous career at an early age. John Shakespeare left the farm in order to be enrolled as an apprentice to a glover in Stratford. His apprenticeship lasted for seven years. At the age of twenty-seven, he would have already pursed the trade for a few years. In later years John is described in documents as a "whittawer" or dresser of untanned white leather. He would have soaked and scraped the skins of horses and deer, before softening them with salt and alum: they were place in pots of urine or excrement before being laid out in the garden to dry. It was a messy and smelly business. From the evidence of Shakespeare had a pronounced aversion to unpleasant smells. When the skins were rendered soft and flexible they were cut to pattern with a knife and scissors and became gloves, purses, belts and bags.
John Shakespeare had a ground floor shop at the front of his house, looking out on Henley street, with outbuildings in the back for stretching and drying. He found employment for one or two apprentices. He was a member of the glovers' guild. The making and selling of gloves was a well-developed and thriving trade in Stratford. But he had other occupations as well. He was still a yeoman farmer, farming the land with his father and younger brother. He reared and slaughtered the animals whose skins which he later converted to leather. There is indeed a number of references to butchery in Shakespeare's dramas, most notably connected with the relationship between sons and fathers.
But, like other glovers, John Shakespeare also acted as an unlicensed wool-broker; information was laid against him in court that two occasions he had illegally purchased wool at fourteen shillings per "tod". His actions were illegal because he was not a member of any kind of guild, but more importantly he laid down the sum of £140 for one transaction and £70 for the other. These were very large amounts of money and suggest that John Shakespeare was a very wealthy man.
That is why he could afford to speculate on property. He bought three houses and rented them out for £40. He rented out another house to one William Burbage, who may or may not have relocated to the London acting family. Ordinary life is filled with coincidence.
He also lent money at an illegal rate of interest to his neighbours, a trade which passed under the happy name of "usury". The legal rate was 10 per cent, but John lent £100 to a business colleague at an interest of 20 per cent.
John was a canny and prosperous businessman. There has been much speculation about his literacy. He signed with a mark rather than a signature, which suggests that he could not write. The fact that he could not write does not mean he could not read. Reading and writing were taught seperatly, and were considered to be different skills. It would have been hard for him to engage in his trades and business without being able to read.
Then there is the question of his religion. For centuries it has been speculated by scholars over the possibility that John Shakespeare was a secret Catholic. The question is confused by the complicated circumstances of the time, when the faith professed was not necessarily the faith observed. There were conflicting loyalties. You might be a Catholic who attended the reformed services for the sake of propriety or to escape a fine, you might might be undecided or you might not have any faith at all.
The evidence for John Shakespeare is about the same. He had his son baptized within the rites of Anglican communion, and the minister was Protestant. But John might also have concealed within the raters of the roof at Henley Street an explicit "spiritual testament". Many scholars who doubt the authenticity of this document. It has been shown to be a standard Roman Catholic production distributed by a Jesuit priest by the name Edmund Campion, who had travelled from Rome on a secret and ultimately fatal mission to England. Jesuits were not welcome in England and Campion was eventually apprehended, tried, and sentence.
The spiritual testament found in Henley Street included John Shakespeare's obedience to "the Catholike, Romaine & Apostolicke Church" and invocations to the Virgin Mary and "Angell guardian," as well as to support "the holy sacrifice of the masse." It could not be a more orthodox or pious document. John's mark appeared, as well as the information that his particular patron saint was "saint Winifrede". The saint had her shrine in Holywell, which was a place of pilgrimage for the wealthier Catholic families of Warwickshire. If the testament is a forgery, only a well-informed forger would know the details of a local saint. More doubts are raised by the notion. If John could not write, then who added the reference to Winnifred? There is one clue. In this Catholic testemtent there is reference to the danger that "I may be possibly cut off in the bossome of my sins." In Hamlet the ghost laments that he was "Cut off even in the bossomes of my sinne" (693) and invokes the Chatolic doctrine purgatory. This ghost is of course that of the father.
The identity of the writer must remain for speculation. If we believe that the testament was signed by John Shakespeare and then concealed in the attic of his house, the suggestion is that he was or had become a secret and practising Catholic. There are other pieces of evidence. His family history included pious ancestors, among them Dame Isabella and Dame Jane of the nuns house in Wroxhall. His wife, Mary Arden, also came from an old Catholic family.
On the other side of the argument is the contention that he would have subscribed to the oath of supremacy in order to take various official posts in Stratford. He was instrumental in ordering and overseeing the lime-washing the religious imagery in the guild chapel as well as the removal of the crucifixion scene. Of course, he could have fulfilled his administrative duties on these occasions without necessarily compromising or admitting any deeply held private faith.
In 1552 Jon is recorded as a tenant or householder in Henley Street. At the age of twenty-three he had passed through his apprenticeship, and had set up business on his account. He purchased the adjoining house in Henley Street that has become known as the "Woolshop."
In the spring or summer of the following year he married Mary Arden, the daughter of his father's old landlord. In 1556 he began his slow rise in the Stratford hierarchy when he was appointed one of two "tasters". They were borough officials who ensured the quality of bread and ale provided in the district.
He was appointed as one of four `constables`in 1558 and supervised the night watch, quelling disturbances in the street and disarmed those bent on fighting. It suggests that at the age of twenty-nine, John was a person of respect. In 1561 he was elected as chamberlain, in charge of the property and revenues of the Stratford corporation. He filled that office for four years.
He was appointed as one of the fourteen alderman in 1565, the year after his son's birth. From this time forward he was addressed as "Master Shakespeare". On holy days and days of festivals he was obliged to wear a black cloth gown faced with fur. He also wore an aldermanic ring that his young son knew well. He was also a Justice of the Peace and presided over the Court of Record. When his term of office expired in 1571 he was appointed high alderman and deputy to his successor as mayor. The extent and sporadic council business suggest a man of tact and moderation as well as one of sound judgement. We see some of those virtues in his son and like many other self-made men he may also have been excessively confident in his own abilities. This was also a familial trait.
His younger brother, Henry, continued the family tradition of farming. He rented land in Snitterfield and in a neighbouring parish. What little is known of him suggests he was inclined to quarreling with his neighbours and had an independent mind. He was fined for assaulting the husband of one of Mary Arden's sisters. He was gaoled at different times for debt and for trespassing. Shakespeare might have inherited the vices of his uncle as well as the virtues of his father. Despite his reputation as a bad debtor Henry Shakespeare was good at acquiring and keeping his money. Shakespeare came from a family of undoubted affluence, with all the ease and self-confidence that such affluence encourages.
The original family may have been Norman derivation, as in 1195, there is found a William Sakeespee", though the first name in English records is of a William Sakspeer in 1248. He came from the village of Clopton, just a few miles outside of Stratford. From the thirteenth century the name often occurs in Warwickshire records which may help to explain the rootedness of Shakespeare himself within English culture.
There are many other Shakespeares of a later date in Balsall, Baddesley, Knowle and neighbouring villages. provides evidence of an extended family of siblings and cousins living within a geographical area a few miles in extent. Many of them were part of the guild of the Knowle, fulfilling certain secular and religious obligations, and therefore would have been considered good and observant Catholics.
Shakespeare's grandfather, Richard Shakespeare, was a farmer of Snitterfield, a village four miles north of Stratford. He was an affluent farmer, with two sets of land in the vicinity. Snitterfield itself was a scattered parish with a church and a manor-house, ancient farmhouses and cottages, presiding over a mixed landscape of woodland and pasture, heath and meadow. This was the landscape for the part of Shakespeare's childhood.
There was a further familial bond. Richard's house and grounds were leased from Robert Arden, the father of Mary Arden, whom his father John Shakespeare later married. Shakespeare's mother and father knew each other from and early age and doubtlessly met in Richard Shakespeare's old house.
John himself grew up in the life and atmosphere of the farm. He was born in 1529, the year that his father is first Snitterfield, and it seems likely that Richard moved to the area with his new wife and anticipated family.
John Shakespeare embarked on a prosperous career at an early age. John Shakespeare left the farm in order to be enrolled as an apprentice to a glover in Stratford. His apprenticeship lasted for seven years. At the age of twenty-seven, he would have already pursed the trade for a few years. In later years John is described in documents as a "whittawer" or dresser of untanned white leather. He would have soaked and scraped the skins of horses and deer, before softening them with salt and alum: they were place in pots of urine or excrement before being laid out in the garden to dry. It was a messy and smelly business. From the evidence of Shakespeare had a pronounced aversion to unpleasant smells. When the skins were rendered soft and flexible they were cut to pattern with a knife and scissors and became gloves, purses, belts and bags.
John Shakespeare had a ground floor shop at the front of his house, looking out on Henley street, with outbuildings in the back for stretching and drying. He found employment for one or two apprentices. He was a member of the glovers' guild. The making and selling of gloves was a well-developed and thriving trade in Stratford. But he had other occupations as well. He was still a yeoman farmer, farming the land with his father and younger brother. He reared and slaughtered the animals whose skins which he later converted to leather. There is indeed a number of references to butchery in Shakespeare's dramas, most notably connected with the relationship between sons and fathers.
But, like other glovers, John Shakespeare also acted as an unlicensed wool-broker; information was laid against him in court that two occasions he had illegally purchased wool at fourteen shillings per "tod". His actions were illegal because he was not a member of any kind of guild, but more importantly he laid down the sum of £140 for one transaction and £70 for the other. These were very large amounts of money and suggest that John Shakespeare was a very wealthy man.
That is why he could afford to speculate on property. He bought three houses and rented them out for £40. He rented out another house to one William Burbage, who may or may not have relocated to the London acting family. Ordinary life is filled with coincidence.
He also lent money at an illegal rate of interest to his neighbours, a trade which passed under the happy name of "usury". The legal rate was 10 per cent, but John lent £100 to a business colleague at an interest of 20 per cent.
John was a canny and prosperous businessman. There has been much speculation about his literacy. He signed with a mark rather than a signature, which suggests that he could not write. The fact that he could not write does not mean he could not read. Reading and writing were taught seperatly, and were considered to be different skills. It would have been hard for him to engage in his trades and business without being able to read.
Then there is the question of his religion. For centuries it has been speculated by scholars over the possibility that John Shakespeare was a secret Catholic. The question is confused by the complicated circumstances of the time, when the faith professed was not necessarily the faith observed. There were conflicting loyalties. You might be a Catholic who attended the reformed services for the sake of propriety or to escape a fine, you might might be undecided or you might not have any faith at all.
The evidence for John Shakespeare is about the same. He had his son baptized within the rites of Anglican communion, and the minister was Protestant. But John might also have concealed within the raters of the roof at Henley Street an explicit "spiritual testament". Many scholars who doubt the authenticity of this document. It has been shown to be a standard Roman Catholic production distributed by a Jesuit priest by the name Edmund Campion, who had travelled from Rome on a secret and ultimately fatal mission to England. Jesuits were not welcome in England and Campion was eventually apprehended, tried, and sentence.
The spiritual testament found in Henley Street included John Shakespeare's obedience to "the Catholike, Romaine & Apostolicke Church" and invocations to the Virgin Mary and "Angell guardian," as well as to support "the holy sacrifice of the masse." It could not be a more orthodox or pious document. John's mark appeared, as well as the information that his particular patron saint was "saint Winifrede". The saint had her shrine in Holywell, which was a place of pilgrimage for the wealthier Catholic families of Warwickshire. If the testament is a forgery, only a well-informed forger would know the details of a local saint. More doubts are raised by the notion. If John could not write, then who added the reference to Winnifred? There is one clue. In this Catholic testemtent there is reference to the danger that "I may be possibly cut off in the bossome of my sins." In Hamlet the ghost laments that he was "Cut off even in the bossomes of my sinne" (693) and invokes the Chatolic doctrine purgatory. This ghost is of course that of the father.
The identity of the writer must remain for speculation. If we believe that the testament was signed by John Shakespeare and then concealed in the attic of his house, the suggestion is that he was or had become a secret and practising Catholic. There are other pieces of evidence. His family history included pious ancestors, among them Dame Isabella and Dame Jane of the nuns house in Wroxhall. His wife, Mary Arden, also came from an old Catholic family.
On the other side of the argument is the contention that he would have subscribed to the oath of supremacy in order to take various official posts in Stratford. He was instrumental in ordering and overseeing the lime-washing the religious imagery in the guild chapel as well as the removal of the crucifixion scene. Of course, he could have fulfilled his administrative duties on these occasions without necessarily compromising or admitting any deeply held private faith.
In 1552 Jon is recorded as a tenant or householder in Henley Street. At the age of twenty-three he had passed through his apprenticeship, and had set up business on his account. He purchased the adjoining house in Henley Street that has become known as the "Woolshop."
In the spring or summer of the following year he married Mary Arden, the daughter of his father's old landlord. In 1556 he began his slow rise in the Stratford hierarchy when he was appointed one of two "tasters". They were borough officials who ensured the quality of bread and ale provided in the district.
He was appointed as one of four `constables`in 1558 and supervised the night watch, quelling disturbances in the street and disarmed those bent on fighting. It suggests that at the age of twenty-nine, John was a person of respect. In 1561 he was elected as chamberlain, in charge of the property and revenues of the Stratford corporation. He filled that office for four years.
He was appointed as one of the fourteen alderman in 1565, the year after his son's birth. From this time forward he was addressed as "Master Shakespeare". On holy days and days of festivals he was obliged to wear a black cloth gown faced with fur. He also wore an aldermanic ring that his young son knew well. He was also a Justice of the Peace and presided over the Court of Record. When his term of office expired in 1571 he was appointed high alderman and deputy to his successor as mayor. The extent and sporadic council business suggest a man of tact and moderation as well as one of sound judgement. We see some of those virtues in his son and like many other self-made men he may also have been excessively confident in his own abilities. This was also a familial trait.
His younger brother, Henry, continued the family tradition of farming. He rented land in Snitterfield and in a neighbouring parish. What little is known of him suggests he was inclined to quarreling with his neighbours and had an independent mind. He was fined for assaulting the husband of one of Mary Arden's sisters. He was gaoled at different times for debt and for trespassing. Shakespeare might have inherited the vices of his uncle as well as the virtues of his father. Despite his reputation as a bad debtor Henry Shakespeare was good at acquiring and keeping his money. Shakespeare came from a family of undoubted affluence, with all the ease and self-confidence that such affluence encourages.
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