Meeting of the Stratford-upon-Avon Corporation at which John Shakespeare was elected bailiff

Under the terms of Stratford-upon-Avon’s 1553 charter of incorporation, every September the fourteen aldermen and fourteen capital burgesses elected one of their number to serve as bailiff for the coming year. Due to gaps in the records, it's not certain how these elections were managed immediately after incorporation, but by at least 1564 the Corporation had developed a practice whereby three men were proposed for the office, one of whom was then elected to serve. If, as sometimes happened, the man chosen declined the office, another of the candidates would then be approached.

John Shakespeare, who was elected an alderman in 1565, may have been first proposed to serve as bailiff as early as 1566, although the record-keeping for that year was particularly poor. There are no records of meetings between February, 1566 and January, 1567, although we do know that William Smith served as bailiff during that time. There is, however, a record of the election meeting held on September 3, 1567 which shows that John Shakespeare was one of the three candidates nominated for bailiff. He got three votes, losing to Robert Perrott who received sixteen votes. The other candidate, Ralph Cawdrey, secured no votes at all (Minutes and Accounts, ii, pp. 4–5). Record-keeping remained poor in 1567–68, but we can deduce that Perrott had refused to serve and that John Shakespeare, the runner-up, must have declined as well. Instead, the bailiff for that year was Ralph Cawdrey.

The next election meeting, presided over by Ralph Cawdrey, the retiring bailiff, was held on September 4, 1568 (shown here). The opening paragraph also lists the other aldermen in attendance (including John Shakespeare), and in the left-hand column the nine capital burgesses present.

At this meeting the three men nominated for the office of bailiff for the coming year were John Shakespeare, Robert Perrott, and Robert Salisbury, listed in the right-hand column. The result of the election is not given, but from the record of a meeting on October 1 (Minutes and Accounts, ii, pp. 13–14), it is clear that John Shakespeare had been sworn in, possibly because Perrott had again refused to serve. It may be significant that at this meeting, the only item of business recorded was an order setting fines for those who refused to serve in public office when elected.  It is also worth noting that the third candidate in 1568, Robert Salisbury, was not yet an alderman (he was elected on October 7). This would suggest that at that time the Corporation was having a difficult time recruiting suitable and enthusiastic townsmen to serve as members.