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[English documents are given in modern spelling, except as regards proper names, which remain as in the originals. Latin documents are usually not normalized, but are translated in footnotes.]



Baptismal Register, Stratford-on-Avon.

1564April 26Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere.

The Date of Shakespeare’s Birth is not precisely known, but it probably preceded his baptism on April 26 by only a few days. The tradition is that he was born on St. George’s Day, April 23, which was the day also on which he died. The inscription on his monument stating that he was ‘Ætatis 53’ at his decease would indicate that he had at least completed his fifty-second year on April 23, 1616.

Shakespeare’s Parents and Ancestry.

The poet’s paternal grandfather was probably Richard Shakespeare (d. 1561), a farmer of Snitterfield, four miles northeast of Stratford. The poet’s father, John Shakespeare, was living in Henley Street, Stratford, in 1552. In 1561 he was elected one of the two chamberlains of the borough; in 1565 he became an alderman; and in 1568 high bailiff, or mayor, of the town. He was buried, September 8, 1601.

John Shakespeare married (presumably in 1557) Mary Arden, youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a