Parish register entry recording Gilbert Shakespeare's burial

Gilbert, William Shakespeare’s brother, was buried on February 3, 1612, according to the Holy Trinity Church parish register. Next to the entry, an “X” added by a later hand highlights its significance. He was 45 years old.

The clerk who entered Gilbert’s burial into the register described him as “adolescens.” This could hardly have meant “young man” or “youth” but was probably used simply to indicate a single man. On May 20 and June 2, 1611, William Gilbert, alias Higges, the curate who had previously made the entries in the register, used the term “adolacentula” to describe unmarried women, Elizabeth Benton and Margaret Clark, and on March 9, 1610, he used “adolocentulus” for Richard Scriven, also probably single. We do not know who took over the keeping of the registers from late 1611 after Gilbert’s illness and death (the curate was buried the day before Gilbert Shakespeare’s burial), but he probably used the term “adolescens” with the same meaning.

As far as is known, Gilbert left no will, nor did his estate require administration. This suggests that he was not maintaining an establishment of his own but living with his brother William at New Place. His cause of death is unknown, but the mortality rate that winter was not unusually high.