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32
in the list of burials for 11 July 1564, ‘Hic incipit pestis’: the dreaded plague had
visited Stratford. Before it left, it would carry off some 200 souls. Infants and the
infirm were in particular danger. Roger Green, a neighbour of the
Shakespeares, had buried four children by the end of the year.
John Shakespeare had moved to Stratford by 1552; in that year, he was
fined for leaving an unauthorized dung-heap in Henley Street. Originally he had
come from Snitterfield, a village a few miles to the north. He was the son of
Richard Shakespeare, a farmer, who died in 1561. He had left his disreputable
brother Henry behind in Snitterfield, and taken to the trade of glover and
whittawer (one who prepares white leather). He seems also to have traded in
wool. For a time, everything went well. The Stratford records chart his early
success in the purchase of property around Stratford, and the offices he held in
the corporation.
By September 1558, when his first child was born, he had married Mary,
the daughter of Robert Arden, a modestly well-to-do farmer. Like John, she
came from a village a few miles to the north of Stratford. William Shakespeare’s
career would take him to the city to work in a distinctively urban leisure-industry,
but his roots, like those of the majority of the English people, were rural.
For a while, life was sweet. The Shakespeares were reasonably well off
as middling people, and they were blessed with children, whose arrival one can
chart through the entries in the baptismal register of Holy Trinity Church: Joan,
1558; Margaret, 1562; William, 1564; Gilbert, 1566; Joan (again - the first had
died), 1569; Anne, 1571; Richard, 1574; and Edmund, 1580. John's business
did well through the 1560s and into the 1570s. He was rewarded by his rise
through the tiers of Stratford government to become Alderman in 1565. This
meant that he would be addressed as Master Shakespeare, and on formal
occasions he would have worn his gown of office. In the autumn of 1567, John
was elevated to the highest office in the corporation when he became Bailiff.
Again his position would have been visible to his fellow Stratfordians. He would
have processed to the Guild Hall, and would have occupied a place of honour in
church and, perhaps, when touring theatre companies came to perform. Even
after his year in office, his standing was high: in 1571, when his neighbour
Adrian Quiney was Bailiff, he was elected Chief Alderman and deputy. At some
point while his fortune held, John Shakespeare applied to the College of Her-
alds for a Coat of Arms. This would have established his status as a gentleman,
and passed it on to his heirs - an important matter in a society so conscious of
rank.
The College got as far as drawing up a design for him, but the grant was
never completed. The reason can be gleaned from the Stratford records. From
1576, his attendance at council meetings fell off. His colleagues were as
indulgent to him as they could be, but finally, on 6 September 1586, they had to
replace him because ‘Mr Shaxspere doth not come to the halls when they do
warn, nor hath not done of long time’. He had fallen on hard times. In 1578 he
mortgaged part of his wife’s inheritance. There were other transactions clearly
designed to raise ready money. He seems to have had other, perhaps related,
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