Mary Shakespeare ( née Arden; c. 1537 — September 1608) was the mother of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Biography

Mary was born about 1536 in Wilmcote, the daughter of Robert Arden, a gentleman farmer and junior descendant of the

Arden family The Arden family is an English gentry family that can be traced back in the male line back to Anglo-Saxon landholders who managed to maintain status after the 1066 invasion of England by the Normans of France. The family takes its name from the Fo ...

, who were prominent in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

. She was the youngest of eight daughters, and when her father died in 1556 she inherited land at

Snitterfield Snitterfield is a village and civil parish in the Stratford on Avon district of Warwickshire, England, less than to the north of the A46 road, from Stratford upon Avon, from Warwick and from Coventry. The population of the civil parish at t ...

and Wilmcote from him as a

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...

. The house was left to her stepmother Agnes Hill.

Richard Shakespeare Richard Shakespeare (1490 – before 10 February 1561) was a husbandman of Snitterfield, Warwickshire, four miles (6.5 km) north-northeast of Stratford-upon-Avon, the father of John Shakespeare and the grandfather of William Shakespeare. Life ...

, the father of John Shakespeare, was a tenant farmer on land owned by her father in Snitterfield. As the daughter of Richard's landlord, she may have known John since childhood.Wood, Michael. ''Shakespeare''. New York: Basic, 2003. Print. Mary married John Shakespeare in 1557, when she was 20 years old. She bore eight children: Joan (1558), Margaret (1562–1563),

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(1564–1616), Gilbert (1566–1612), Joan (1569–1646), Anne (1571–1579), Richard (1574–1613), and Edmund (1580–1607). Though Mary gave birth to many children, several of them died young. Their first daughter, Joan, born 1558 died; the name being used again for their third daughter. Their second daughter, Margaret, also died in infancy. Some members of the wider Arden family were of the Catholic faith. John died in 1601 and Mary died in September 1608. Mary was born into a family of status and her ancestors were well connected in society, including Thomas Arden, who fought in the

Second Barons' War The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of barons led by Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of King Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the fu ...

(1264–67) on the side of

Simon de Montfort Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...

; Robert Arden who fought in the Wars of the Roses, and John Arden who served on the court of Henry VII. Mary Arden's House in Wilmcote was maintained in good condition as a working farmhouse, until it was bought by the

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is an independent registered educational charity based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, that came into existence in 1847 following the purchase of William Shakespeare's birthplace for preserva ...

in 1930 and refurnished in the

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began wit ...

style. In 2000 it was discovered that the building preserved as Mary Arden's house had belonged to a friend and neighbour, Adam Palmer, and the house was accordingly renamed Palmer's Farm. The house that had belonged to the Arden family – which was near to Palmer's Farm – had been acquired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1968 for preservation as part of a farmyard, without knowing its true provenance.''The Shakespeare Houses – The Official Guide'', Revised 2008, The house and farm are open as a historic museum displaying 16th-century life.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespeare, Mary 1530s births 1608 deaths Shakespeare family People from Stratford-upon-Avon 16th-century English women 17th-century English women 17th-century English people