ABSTRACT
Other than the sole brief contemporary description of John Shakespeare, the evidence for his biography is exclusively documentary. Halliday has summarized this evidence in his Shakespeare Companion, as follows:
“Shakespeare, John (d.1601), son of Richard Shakespeare, and the poet’s father must have left Snitterfield sometime before 1552, when he is first mentioned in the Stratford records, he, Humphrey Reynolds and Adrian Quiney each being fined 12d. for making a dunghill in Henley Street, where presumably he was living. In a suit of 1556 he is first called a ‘glover’, a trade he followed until at least 1586, when he again appears as a glover; he did not sign his name, but made his mark, sometimes in the form of a pair of glovers’ dividers. He also traded in barley, timber and wool, and possibly other commodities. In other documents he is styled ‘yeoman’, that is, a man of substance under the degree of gentleman. The twenty years of 1556-1576 are years of prosperity: 1556. Buys two houses; the ‘Woolshop’ in Henley Street and another in Greenhill Street. 1557. Marries Mary Arden, daughter of his father’s landlord at Snitterfield. 1558. Birth of his first child, Joan. (Six other children were born 1562-74, and Edmund in 1580.) 1557-62. Successively borough constable, affeeror (assessor of fines), and chamberlain. 1561. Administers his father’s estate. 1564. Birth of William Shakespeare. 1565. Alderman; 1568 Bailiff (mayor); 1571 Chief Alderman and J.P. 1575. Buys two more houses; sites unknown, but probably the Birthplace, and an adjoining house to the west, destroyed in the fire of 1594.
