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Document-specific information
Title: Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Date: 1598
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU4/1 p. 44
View online bibliographic record
Robert Bearman, "Note in the chamberlain’s account submitted to the Stratford Corporation of a payment to Mr Shaxspere of 10 pence for a load of stone for the repair of Clopton Bridge," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/445.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, BRU4/1, page 44. See Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/445.
The borough chamberlain, in his accounts submitted in January 1598, included an entry that at some point in the previous twelve months he paid “Mr Shaxpere” 10 pence for “on lod of ston,” one of a set of five payments made towards the repair of the bridge over the River Avon. As William Shakespeare had purchased New Place the year before, this transaction may represent the selling off of excess stone arising out of repairs to the house. However, as the chamberlain did not supply a given name, the vendor might have been Shakespeare’s father, John. The other four payments (for sand, gravel, picking of stones and paving) suggest that the expenditure was only to repair the carriageway over the bridge. The bridge is now known as Clopton Bridge after Hugh Clopton who financed its construction in the 1490s.
A “load” was often used as a unit of measure or weight for defined substances and it may be that Stratford’s chamberlain was reporting on the supply of a recognized quantity when he paid William (or John) Shakespeare 10 pence for one load. However, in 1598 John Rogers had been paid over twice as much, 6s. 6d., for three loads of stone “in his yeard” to repair the almshouses (Minutes and Accounts, vi, p. 63) and back in 1583, three loads of stone for the repairs to the bridge itself cost the similar sum of 6 shillings (Minutes and Accounts, iii, p. 136). If in all three cases, a “load” was used to indicate a specified quantity, the higher price paid in the earlier transactions might indicate that more expensive building material was purchased for the repair of stonework at the bridge and almshouses, as opposed to the rougher, and cheaper, stone purchased from “Mr Shaxpere” to repair the carriageway.
[BRU 4/1, p. 44]
The Acountt of wyllyam wyatt
Chamberlen in the yeare 1598
Paymentes
Imprimis paid to Mr Aspinoll for that he
was behind the last yeare for his wages
iijli
paid to Mr Hidges for that he was
behind the last yeare
iijli
paid to Mr Geffres for on Ambrosse Coper
iijs iiijd
paid to Edward Ange for a locke
for the gelde hall doore
iiijs
paid Cowart the smith for mending
the keey of the chappell dore
ijd
paid to the glasier for glasing at the
yeld halle
xiiijd
paid for whickcord and greesse for wood
ijd
paid to the collarmaker for pessing Rope
ijd
_____________________________________________________________________
the bridge
paid to Ihon Yeaton for carridges of
iij lodes of stones, xviij lodes of sand
ix lodes of gravell
xiiiis vjd
paid to Mr Shaxspere for on lod of ston
xd
paid to Roddes dawtere for pickkinge
of stones
xijd
paid to Robart Hawll for paving
xxj dayes at xd a day
xvijs vjd
paid to Revens for xix dayes worke
at vjd a daye
ixs vjd
___________________________________________________________________
more payed for whickcord and gresse
iijd
paid to Heminges to by papar
iiijd
paid to Mr Cowart for the statute booke
ijs vjd
paid to Richard Cowell for squaringe
wood in the chappell yeard ij dayes
xxd
paid to Prisse for a Rooppe for the clocke
xd
paid to Mr Smith for wyne and suger
when my lady Grevell cam to see
our sport
ijs ijd
and for iij Cakes the same time
vjd
paid to Mr bayle Gibbes for that he
leed out Abowght Ihon Rogers sutte
xijs vjd
paid to Peter Ioyner for mending the bell
whell
xd
paid to Littell Smith for mending the
beme of the clocke
iijd
paid to borcholl for mending the harnis
iiijs
paid to iij wymmen for Carring in of colles
ijs iiijd
paid to wydowe baker for sweping before
the chappell
xvjd
paid more to nicklas bayles for paynting
xvjd
paid to sor ffowcke Grevell for nothing
xjs
paid to Mr balliue
iijs iiijd
paid to littell Smith for mending keey
ijd
paid to Prisse for a cord to peesse the bell Roppe
iijd
paid to R Richard Smith for mending
the sleye of the cloke
iijd
paid for candels
ijd
_____________________________________________________________________
paid for bords to make the dore in the hawll
xvd
paid to Peter Ioyner for making the dore
xijd
paid to Mr Wilson for hinges and nayles
xd
paid to Watton for the bolt
iiijd
____________________________________________________________________
to mend the gealle hall
paid for i hondard of bordes and xxiiij foott
vjs vjd
paid to Richard Gibbes for iijpeare of Rafters
xijd
paid to Ihon Smith for hondard halfe
of xd nayles butt on peni worth
xiiijd
to Cowell for his worke
xijd
_____________________________________________________________________
13l jd
Written by Robert Bearman
Last updated July 11, 2020