Shakespeare’s Will

Para1Much to his biographers’ dismay, Shakespeare’s will exists as a standard legal document, following the formulas common for legal disposition of property in his era. It contains no sentimental mentions of his career as a poet and playwright, nor words of affection for his wife and surviving daughters. The original copy is preserved in the National Archives of the United Kingdom, and the registered copy (the one delivered to the courts for the probate process) is held by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
Para2The will was likely drafted in January 1616, written on three sheets of paper with several revisions, and signed on March 25, about a month before his death.

His Children’s Inheritances

Para3To his eldest daughter, Susanna, Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate, including the majority of his real estate holdings in Stratford and London. His wife Anne was automatically entitled to one-third of his estate, so the specific bequests of other property serve to divide it up in the ways Shakespeare wished. Susanna’s husband, Dr. John Hall, was named executor of the will and was thus responsible for overseeing that its provisions were honored. William Shakespeare is careful to detail the precise extent of his property holdings being given to Susanna and her husband:
And all my barns, stables, orchards, gardens, lands, tenements, and herediments whatsoever, situate, lying, and being, or to be had, received, perceived, or taken within the towns and hamlets, villages, fields, and grounds of Stratford upon Avon, Old Stratford, Bushopton, and Welcombe, or in any of them in the said county of Warwick.
And also all that messuage or tenement with the appurtenances wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, situate, lying and being in the Blackfriars in London near the Wardrobe, and all other my lands, tenements and hereditaments whatsoever.
Para4To his younger daughter Judith, he left specific sums of money and some heavy silver dishes, which were a way of holding assets in a time before banks. The will was amended regarding Judith’s inheritance, possibly because of her recent marriage and the scandal involving her new husband, Thomas Quiney (who had recently fornicated with a local woman and fathered an llegitimate child). Shakespeare took care to leave Judith’s £300 portion of his estate to be distributed over the course of three years, directly to her. The remainder of his silver he left to Susanna.

His Wife’s Inheritance and The Second Best Bed

Para5The only mention of Shakespeare’s wife Anne in his will is a single line inserted in the middle of the last page:
Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed with the furniture bed linens and hangings.
Para6Shakespeare’s will is a careful and detailed document, so why is his wife of more than 30 years left with what seems like so little? According to the laws of the day, Anne Shakespeare would have been entitled to one-third of her husband’s estate, so presumably John Hall would have ensured she received money and property according to customary inheritance laws. As Alan Nelson notes in his essay about the original signed copy of the will,
The second best bed bequest should not be seen as a window into William and Anne’s marriage, but as a way to distinguish one bed from another so that his wife received the right bed. (On the other hand, it is noteworthy if not downright odd that Shakespeare’s wife is mentioned nowhere else in his will than in this interlineation.)
Para7Yet questions continue to surround the bequest of the second best bed to Anne. Scholars have wondered was this was the marriage bed, with appropriately sentimental associations? Other have explored the language of best and noted that the best bed was often reserved for guests.
Para8Whatever Shakespeare’s intentions about the bed, it seems likely that Anne spent the rest of her days in her home at New Place with her daughter Susanna. Anne Shakespeare died on 6 August 1623, at the age of 67, seven years after her husband.

Other Bequests

Para9Shakespeare also provided for his granddaughter Elizabeth Hall; he calls her niece, a generalized word for female relation in the time. He also left his sister Joan and her sons some inheritance. He left the Stratford house he owned and in which Joan lived to her and her children, as well as all his clothing. Joan may have sold his clothing for cash since her husband predeceased Shakespeare by about a week, although it could have been used by his nephews.
Para10He also donated £10 to the poor of Stratford, a generous sum in those days, as well as a small bequest to his attorney.
Para11To the men he called his fellows, John Heminges, Richard Burbage and Henry Condell, he left 28 shillings and 6 pence to buy memorial rings. They were his colleagues and co-investors in the King’s Men and his late inclusion of them by name suggests his close association with the company continued into his last weeks of life. Memorial rings were popular in early modern England as gifts to the friends and family of the deceased; they were worn by men and women alike.

Key Print Sources

Potter, Lois. The Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
Schoenbaum, Samuel. William Shakespeare: a Documentary Life. Clarendon Press, 1975.

Key Online Sources

Best, Michael. Anne’s Inheritance. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/retirement/anne.html. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.
Best, Michael. The Text of Shakespeare’s Will. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/retirement/will+1.html. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.
Best, Michael. Will’s Will. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/retirement/will.html. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.
Nelson, Alan. Wills in Shakespeare’s England. Shakespeare Documented. https://web.archive.org/web/20180619220103/https://www.shakespearedocumented.org/wills-shakespeares-england. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.
The Second Best Bed. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/william-shakespeare/second-best-bed/. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.
William Shakespeare. The National Archives. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/william-shakespeare/. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.

Image Sources

Nosse Te Ipsum Ring. c. 1600. Victoria and Albert Museum Collection. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O118913/ring-unknown/. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.
Neslon, Alan, and Folger Shakespeare Library Staff. William Shakespeare’s Last Will and Testament—Original Copy Including Three Signatures. Shakespeare Documented. http://www.shakespearedocumented.org/exhibition/document/william-shakespeares-last-will-and-testament-original-copy-including-three. Accessed 23 Jun. 2017.

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 Will
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 Encyclopedia

Anthology 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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