The Beginning

 

    The ancestry of William Shakespeare is a little bit of a question mark.  The most difficult issue is that during the sixteenth century Shakespeare was an extremely common name.  At the time the name was spelled in many different ways, from the way we know it to Chacsper to Shagspere.  The farthest back that the lineage has been traced was to a Shakespeare who was hanged in Gloucestershire in 1248 for a minor theft.  What we do know is that William Shakespeare grandfather was Richard Shakespeare, a farmer who lived about 5 miles from Stratford in a town called, Snitterfield.  Researchers have not found too much on Richard other then he was fined a couple of times for having too many cattle on common lands and that he had two sons Henry and John (William’s father). 

            Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden’s family was wealthier and had more esteem then his fathers.  They were the Arden’s of Park Hall and owned a great deal of land.  Mary’s father, Robert Arden, left much of his wealth and land to his daughter (Mary) after his death.  It was this financial hand-me-down that eventually led to William Shakespeare’s education, as it was not likely that his father was an educated man. 

 

Stay tuned for part II…