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Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Summer of
1614

BRU4/1, p. 266

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BRU4/1, p. 266
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Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

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The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has graciously contributed images under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike 4.0 International license.  Visitors may download, link to and cite the images for personal research only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of the images, commercial or third party use, is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to request additional use, at: images.scla@shakespeare.org.uk

Document-specific information
Title:  Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Date: 1615
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU4/1, p. 266
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Item Title
Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Item Date
1614
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call Number
BRU4/1, p. 266

BRU4/1, p. 266 detail

View Image Assets
BRU4/1, p. 266 detail
Click image to enlarge

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Terms of use
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has graciously contributed images under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike 4.0 International license.  Visitors may download, link to and cite the images for personal research only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of the images, commercial or third party use, is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to request additional use, at: images.scla@shakespeare.org.uk

Document-specific information
Title:  Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Date: 1615
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU4/1, p. 266
View online bibliographic record

Item Title
Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Item Date
1614
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call Number
BRU4/1, p. 266

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Terms of use
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has graciously contributed images under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike 4.0 International license.  Visitors may download, link to and cite the images for personal research only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of the images, commercial or third party use, is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to request additional use, at: images.scla@shakespeare.org.uk

Document-specific information
Title:  Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Date: 1615
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU4/1, p. 266
View online bibliographic record

Robert Bearman, "The Stratford Corporation’s chamberlain, in his annual account records the payment of 20 pence for a quart of sack and a quart of claret wine 'geven to a precher at the newe place'," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/512.

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, BRU4/1, p. 266. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/512.

Stratford’s Corporation chamberlains presented their annual accounts, covering payments from the previous twelve months, in January each year. Although individual payments are usually undated, it can be assumed they were entered broadly in chronological order. On January 13, 1615, the chamberlains presented the accounts for 1614, shown here, which include a mention of Shakespeare’s property, New Place.

During 1614 the chamberlain, John Woolmer, entered three payments to visiting preachers, 10 shillings to an anonymous unnamed preacher invited to the town by Alderman Daniel Baker, 20 pence for sack and quart given “to a precher [also unnamed] at the newe place,” and 2 shillings when “Mr Beck … preched here.” “Mr Beck” is either Job Beck, rector and preacher at Stanway, in Gloucestershire, until his death in May 1619, or James Beck, rector and preacher at Bourton-on-the-Hill, also in Gloucestershire, until his death in July 1617.

Scholars have attempted to link these three payments to the three annual sermons provided for under charitable bequests by Robert Perrott, Thomas Oken and Hamlet Smith. However, specific sums of 3s. 4d. were reserved for each of these sermons, normally delivered by the parish vicar. Although smaller payments were occasionally made to other travelling or invited preachers, three in one year was most unusual. However, this could have been the result of the serious town fire which occurred on July 9. Urban fires provided a good opportunity for itinerant preachers to deliver sermons suggesting why such calamities had been visited upon local communities and the appropriate spiritual responses. The three payments are separated by only fourteen lines in the accounts, and follow a payment for eight new buckets as ordered by the Corporation on July 15 (at the bottom of p. 265 of the accounts, not shown here).

The payment naming New Place is worded slightly ambiguously. It probably indicates that the preacher was simply staying, or at least resting at New Place, rather than that he preached there. If he had preached at the nearby Guild Chapel, New Place would have been an appropriate place to receive refreshment. This implies some tolerance by Shakespeare or his family towards what would have been a Puritan message and also indicates that the Corporation was not necessarily prepared to meet all the preacher’s expenses. 

Semi-diplomatic transcription

[BRU 4/1, p. 266]

Item winne and sugor cakes and bere
for Sir Edward Conway
viijs
Item payed to Iohn Lopton for the hier of a hors for frauncys boyesse
ii dayes going to Stonley
ijs
Item payed to henry broume for making
a selle for the strykes
xijd
Item payed to Willy Emmetes for iij loads
of claye yoused abou the Almeshouses & the
chamber
ijs
Item for one quart of sack and one quart of clarrett
winne geven to a precher at the newe place
xxd
Item payed for a horse hier & the keperes
fee when the venyson was fett
xjs
Item payed to George brigges for one days
work and a half mending the almeshouses
xxjd
Item for half a hondered of brick
xxd
Item for besomes and candells to the haulle
iijd
Item the Last of Iune wine to sir Willyam
sommerfyld making the warante
ijs          ijd
Item the chargies of Mr beck when he preched here
ijs
Item payed to henry broume f for colloring
the armor and for on new hilte and
ij pommelles and remouyng one other hilt
of a sworde
iiijs
Item payed for pottell of sack and one
pottell of clarrett wine geven to the Iosteces at the shewe of the trayned men
iijs          iiijd
to brome for that dayes work
xijd
Item geuen to the clark of the markett
by Mr bayles apointmen[t]
vjs       viijd
the xvij of october for sack for him on quart
xijd
Item the xxx of September wine and shugor for Sir Edward
Grevell and Mr haylles
xvjd
Item payed for mending of bocketes                                                                      
iiijd
Item for ij cordes for the grett bell                                                                          
vjd
Item for lycker for the bell                                                                                      
ijd
Item payed to Richard Roodes for the
balrige
xviijd
Item for the borbell to hit                                                                                      
iiijd
Item for the powles for the fyer hock
xiijd
Item for Iorne and making the whork
iijs          iiijd
Item payed to Iohn Ingrom for the hier
of a hors for frauncyes
boyess ij days to
Clarden and on day to Stonley                                
iijs
Item payed to Olfer Hicokes for mending
the clock at the cross
xviijd
Item payed to Mr wyatt for the drinking
ouer & aboue the alowance
iijs          iiijd
Item for on pint of sack for Mrs wodward
vjd
3  6   5
Somm    3li    6s    5d

Written by Robert Bearman

Last updated May 15, 2020