The Early Life Story
of William Shakespeare
Stratford, England, 1564-1569
(Page 4: Shakespeare's Uncle Henry)
An excerpt from "William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius"
by Anthony Holden
Richard Shakespeare's landlord was Robert Arden, of the nearby village of Wilmcote, in the parish of Aston Cantlow, whose daughter Mary would marry Shakespeare's son John in 1557. John was the second, perhaps the third of Richard's sons. The parish records mention a Thomas Shakespeare, whose £4 rent was the largest of all Snitterfield tenants, but not his parentage. But Henry Shakespeare, a colourful character in constant trouble with the law, certainly was Richard's son, John's younger brother, the future poet's uncle — and the black sheep of the family.
A tenant farmer like his father, with land at nearby Ingon, Henry appears to have inherited the Shakespeare indifference to keeping his fences and ditches in good repair, or playing his communal part in the maintenance of the Queen's highway. More reckless than his father, Henry served frequent prison terms for trespass and debt, and was temporarily excommunicated for refusing to pay his tithes. In 1574 he 'drew blood' in a fight with one Edward Cornwell — also, later, to become William's uncle, as the second husband of his mother's sister Margaret; having failed to turn up in court, Henry was fined in absentia. Nine years later, in 1583, he and two friends were also fined for the curiously provocative act of attending church in hats, rather than caps — in defiance of the Statute of Caps, a recent measure designed to assist the ailing cap-making industry. For all the attraction of seeing this as a gesture of religious protest — there was widespread Puritan opposition to the statute — it was more likely just another roguish act of defiance from a man impatient with authority all his life. Henry also pioneered the Shakespeare trait of not repaying debts until sorely pressed; once, as he languished in Stratford jail for non-payment, his surety, William Rounde, took the chance to reclaim two oxen which Henry had bought but not yet paid for. Though still in debt when he died in December 1596, the poet's Uncle 'Harry' left corn and hay 'of great value' in his barn, and a mare in the stable.
Copyright © 1999 by Anthony Holden. All rights reserved. Posted with permission of http://www.twbookmark.com. Click here for ordering information for "William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius" at Amazon.com.
