Richard Shakespeare (1490 – before 10 February 1561) was a
husbandman of
Snitterfield,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
, four miles (6.5 km) north-northeast of
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...
, the father of
John Shakespeare and the grandfather of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 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 ...
.
Life
Shakespeare was born in the
Wroxall area, about to the north in Warwickshire. At some time before 1529, he removed to Snitterfield, where he was a
tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...
until his death on land owned by Robert Arden, the father of
Mary Arden, who married his son
John, the poet's father.
[Schoenbaum, 15.]
Richard Shakespeare is mentioned in the court and manorial records as a prosperous farmer with livestock. Thomas Atwood ''alias'' Taylor, a prosperous
vintner and
clothier who was a member of the
Stratford Guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...
, bequeathed him a team of four oxen he was keeping. He was fined two pence for not attending the
manor court in 1529, and he was charged with overburdening the
commons
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
with his cattle and fined for letting them run loose in the meadows and neglecting to ring or
yoke
A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, used in dif ...
his swine.
At the time of his death, Richard leased 80 acres of farm land on which his house stood, situated from the corner of High Street (now Bell Lane) down to the ford over the stream that flowed through the village into the
Avon. His estate was valued at £38 17s (equivalent to £ in ).
[Honan, Park (1998). ''Shakespeare: A Life'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, , p. 28.]
See also
*
Shakespeare baronets, said to be descendants of Richard Shakespeare.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespeare, Richard
1490 births
1561 deaths
People from Stratford-on-Avon District
Shakespeare family
16th-century English people