Shakespeare's Ancestry

Shakespeare's Father
John Shakespeare was a glove maker and also held public offices in Stradford. When William was 13 years old his father went into finacial failure. In 1596 his finances improved but he later died in 1601.

Shakespeare's Mother
Little is known about Mary Shakespeare. She was born Mary Arden and then when she was married changed her name to Shakespeare. She died on September 9th 1608.

William had eight brothers and sisters.

• Joan, born 1558, died before 1569.
• Margaret, born 1562, died 1563 (aged 5 months).
• (William, born 1564, died 1616.)
• Gilbert, born 1566, haberdasher, died 1612. (A haberdasher sells hats, clothes, thread,etc.)
• Joan born 1569, married William Hart, died 1646.
• Anne, born 1571, died 1579.
• Richard, born 1574, occupation unknown, died 1613.
• Edmond born 1580, "player," died 1607.

Shakespeare's Childhood

Although the exact date and time of Williams birth is unknown, most researchers think that he was born on April 23, 1564. He was baptized three days later. He began school at either six or seven. He first attended the Stradford Grammar school. Later, because of a charter by King Edward VI, it was renamed the Kings New School.He learned the ABC's and lessons from horn-books. Which are pieces of paper on a horn that is flattened out. Latin was the first language of the school, but some lessons were in English. This is one of the reasons of how he became such a great writer. Also he read a lot of books and knew some langueges such as French and Italian.

As a child in a small town he observed the many relationships, quarrels, and business dealings that the adults participated in. Later he would entwine this into his works. When his dad went into financial failure he had to quit school or his dad would be thrown in jail. In the next five years there is almost no information. These are known as "The Lost Years".

Shakespeare's Early Adulthood

At the age of 18 he married a 26 year old pregnant orphan named Anne Hathaway. The Hathaway's might have been friends of the Shakespeare's, but there is not a lot of evidence to support this claim. By that time both of them were the oldest in the family. There was a rumor that he married two people named anne. This ended up going all the way to court but there was no proff that he was married twice. After that, Anne and William had thier first baby arrived on May 26th, 1583. They named her Susanna. Then two years later they had the twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died in 1596 when he was 11. This caused Shakespeare to write his play "King John". He was deeply in loss after this. Then the second case of the "Lost Years" occurred. Except when he became known again he was a new man.