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Early Modern England Encyclopedia
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Much 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.
The 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.
To 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.
To 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.
The 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
Shakespeare’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.)
Yet 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
Whatever 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.
Shakespeare 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.
He also donated £10 to the poor of Stratford, a generous sum in those days, as well as a small bequest to his attorney.
To the men he called his