What was stratford like in shakespeare time

Good friend for Jesus sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here! Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones. Shakespeare had signed his will just one month earlier, leaving his property to the male heirs of his eldest daughter, Susanna. This sounds like a poor inheritance but she would have had the right, through English Common Law, to one-third of his estate as well as residence for life where they lived, in New Place house.

Skip to content. When was William Shakespeare born? Where did Shakespeare go to school? What did Shakespeare do after leaving school? How many children did the Shakespeare family have? Why and when did William Shakespeare go to London? Where did William Shakespeare spend his final years? Strangers were treated with suspicion and risked being accused of a crime and suffering the appropriate punishment.

An interesting piece of information to consider as William Shakespeare made the decision to leave Stratford to become an actor. For example, John Shakespeare moved to Stratford but still remained close to his father and family and although William and his brothers moved to London they still remained in close contact with the family in Stratford. It was quite unusual for the Shakespeare brothers to move from the security and roots in Stratford to a relatively uncertain life in London.

In Stratford everyone knew everyone else. There were close family ties, brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins and marriages between other local people. This provided a good support mechanism if people fell on to hard times.

The noble families also tended to stay static. Lands, titles and property were handed down from generation to generation and the same families would remain in the same homes just as the Shakespeare family did with their property in Henley Street in Stratford. There was no reason for the average person to ever travel further than half a day's walk. Everything was available from the people who lived in the town of Stratford.

Water was not clean so people drank ale which was brewed and sold in Stratford. John Shakespeare's first civic duty was Ale-taster. He also owned a shop and traded in wool and farm produce and worked as a glover. His life was not so very different from his neighbours and so all sorts of trades were engaged in and a variety of provisions were available in the small town. Money was is short supply so the people would barter to obtain their requirements, it was therefore unnecessary to take dangerous journeys amongst strange people.

There were, however, local market fairs when trade was brisk to obtain items in short supply by the exchange of surplus provisions. It was the custom of the reigning monarch to go on ' progresses ' throughout the land. Royalty would progress from town to town stopping at various castles and manor houses throughout England. Although this would be viewed as an honour the cost of entertaining royalty, together with all their accompanying households and retinues, had been known to bring families to near ruin due to the enormous expense incurred.

On 25 March , he signed his will. He was already a sick man, and on 25 April he was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, where he had been baptised just fifty-two years earlier. His will included bequests to his sister Joan and her children, his daughter Judith, his granddaughter Elizabeth, and the poor of Stratford-upon-Avon, as well as money for his fellow-actors Richard Burbage , John Heminge , and Henry Condell to buy memorial rings.

The remainder of his estate, including New Place, went to his daughter Susanna and her husband. His wife Anne, to whom he left only 'my second-best bed', outlived him by seven years. She was buried on 8 August Shakespeare's life 1 2. British Library, Eg. Larger image Tell me more:.