27 Nov 2021
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27 November 2021 Cheryl

27 November 1582: William Shakespeare marries

Bishop's register concerning the marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway,

Spelling wasn’t important during William Shakespeare’s lifetime so there are many variations of the written version of his name. In the 6 original signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelled his name differently each time and there is no record of him ever having written it as we do today. [1]

English playwright, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on 27 November 1582.

The marriage was considered unusual at the time, as William was just 18 years old and needed to obtain his father’s permission to marry. Anne, aged 26, was several months pregnant with their first child and, at that time, it was socially unacceptable for a woman of her standing to have a child out of wedlock.

The marriage did not take place in the couple’s parish church at Stratford-upon-Avon and nor were the banns read there three times, as would normally have been required. The couple obtained permission from the Bishop’s Court in Worcester to speed up proceedings and so married outside of their home parish (see the register shown in the image above).

Anne Hathaway was the eldest of the eight children of a yeoman farmer, Richard Hathaway. She is assumed to have grown up in the Hathaway farmhouse, which is located at Shottery, a short distance from Stratford-upon-Avon. Three children were born to the couple: Susanna six months after her parent’s marriage in 1583, and twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585. Hamnet died at 11 years old from bubonic plague.

Soon after the twins were born, Shakespeare left the family home and travelled to London to pursue a career as an actor and playwright. There is little known about William and Anne’s relationship in the following years; they had no more children together and lived apart until Shakespeare returned to Stratford sometime after 1611.