Shakespeare’s Baptism
Image of a Baptismfrom A Booke of Christian Prayers (1578) by Richard Day. Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library. Public Domain.
Facts
Para1Shakespeare was the third child of eight born to John and Mary Shakespeare, but he
was their first son and their first child to survive past infancy. In 1564, the year
of his birth, plague struck Stratford, and by year’s end had killed 200 people, about
20% of the town’s population. The Shakespeare household was spared, but families just
a few streets away lost children. The Parish Register for Stratford, housed in Holy
Trinity Church, records William’s baptism on 26 April 1564. A digital image of this
record is housed on the Shakespeare Documented site.
Para2The entry is in Latin, the official language of the Church of England, and reads,
Guiliamus filius Johannes Shakspere; that is, William son of John Shakspere.
Baptism Ceremony and Customs
Para3John Shakespeare would have taken his newly born son to the parish church, Holy Trinity
Church, accompanied by the child’s godparents, on the next Sunday or other holy day
(such as a saint’s day) after the child’s birth. William’s mother Mary would not have
attended, but rather remained secluded at home in a lying-in chamber, the warm, darkened bedroom where she gave birth.
When the father and godparents arrived either before Matins (morning services) or
after Evensong (evening prayers), they brought the babe to a special, raised basin
filled with holy water called a baptismal font, located near the entrance to the sanctuary.
The parish priest would meet them there and perform a prescribed ritual from The Book of Common Prayer. The central part of that ritual involved the priest making a short statement about
how baptism is central to salvation for Christians because it washes them clean of
the sin with which all humans are born. Next,the official prayer book instructs,
Here shall the priest aske what shall be the name of the childe, and when the Godfathers and Godmothers have tolde the name, then shall he make a crosse upon the childes forehead and breste, saying.receyve the signe of the holy Crosse, both in thy forehead, and in thy breste, in token that thou shalt not be ashamed to confesse thy fayth in Christe crucifyed, and manfully to fyght under his banner against synne, the worlde, and the devill, and to continewe his faythfull soldiour and servaunt unto thy lyfes ende. Amen.And this he shalt doe and saye to as many children as bee presented to be Baptised, one after another.
Inferences About Shakespeare’s Bapstism
Para4While the record from Holy Trinity Church indicates the date of Shakespeare’s baptism,
the actual date of his birth is unknown, although it is traditionally celebrated on
April 23. Because children were typically baptized two or three days after being born
and on the Sunday or holy day closest to their birth, April 23 remains a likely date;
however, it is also the day on which Shakespeare died in 1616, giving a pleasing,
though possibly artificial, symmetry to his life. He is also buried in the same church
in which he was baptized.
Legends About Shakespeare’s Baptism
Para5April 23 is St. George’s Day, a day on which the nation of England celebrated its
patron saint. St. George’s day and the red and white St. George cross flag gained
increasing importance in England after the Reformation, which discouraged the use
of saint’s images to disassociate its practices from those of the Church of Rome.
The association of Shakespeare’s possible date of birth with the patron saint of England
shakes the certainty of April 23 as Shakespeare’s actual birthdate and moves into
legendary territory.
Key Print Sources
Cressy, David. Birth, Marriage, and Death in Tudor and Stuart England: Ritual, Religion, and the
Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England. Oxford University Press, 1997.
Cressy, David and Lori Ferrell. Religion and Society in Early Modern England: A Sourcebook. Routledge, 2005.
Key Online Sources
Best, Michael.
Shakespeare’s Baptism.Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/childhood/childhood.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2023.
Day, Richard. A Booke of Christian Prayers. Folger Shakespeare Library, https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/bib169150-164322. Accessed 2 Mar. 2023.
Greenwood, Robyn.
The Birth and Burial Records of William Shakespeare.Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, 11 Apr. 2012, https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/birth-and-burial-records-william-shakespeare/.
Bearman, Robert, and Folger Shakespeare Library Staff.
Parish Register Entry Recording William Shakespeare’s Baptism.Shakespeare Documented, 2 May 2020, https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/parish-register-entry-recording-william-shakespeares-baptism.
Image Source
Day, Richard.
Image of a Baptismfrom A Booke of Christian Prayers. 1578. MS. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.26 Apr. 1564. MS. Shakespeare Documented. https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/parish-register-entry-recording-william-shakespeares-baptism.
Prosopography
Kate McPherson
Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley
University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity
in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities
Institute,
Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom,at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.
Leah Hamby
Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed
several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from
Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her
other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.
Michael Best
Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the
Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the
ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery,
a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on
Electronic Shakespeares,and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.
Navarra Houldin
Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual
remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major
in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary
research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They
are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice
Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.
Orgography
LEMDO Team (LEMD1)
The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project
director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators,
encoders, and remediating editors.
University of Victoria (UVIC1)
https://www.uvic.ca/Metadata
| Authority title | Shakespeare’s Baptism |
| Type of text | Critical |
| Publisher | University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform |
| Series | Early Modern England Encyclopedia |
| Source |
By Kate McPherson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions
|
| Editorial declaration | This document uses Canadian English spelling |
| Edition | Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a |
| Sponsor(s) |
Early Modern England EncyclopediaAnthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
|
| Encoding description | Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines |
| Document status | published |
| Funder(s) |
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University |
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