Shakespeare purchases New Place: 1597 concord of fine

In May 1597, the freehold title to New Place passed from William Underhill to William Shakespeare. This would normally have been recorded in a formal deed of conveyance, signed by the both parties. Of this there is no trace but we do have good documentation of a ritualized process in the central Court of Common Pleas, known as a final concord, whereby the change in title was “registered,” as a form of security should a dispute later arise.

The first stage in the process, shown here, was for both parties to appear before the justices of the court to establish that they were both in agreement about the transfer of title. The property was then defined, as was customary, in purely summary form as one messuage, two gardens and two barns in Stratford-upon-Avon. The justices then further indicated the specialized legal formula (in Latin) to be used in the drawing up of the final concord. In theory there were several options but the most popular, and the one used here, was that Underhill had recognized the right to the property under discussion to be Shakespeare’s as the result of his (Underhill’s) previous gift.

The parties could have appeared in open court or before the Chief Justice in his chambers. Either could have happened here but the “concord,” as it was known, dated May 8 (a Sunday) in the 39^th year of Elizabeth’s reign (1597), was signed by the Chief Justice, Edmund Anderson. 

For further details about the 1597 concord of fine, see the general essay for Shakespeare's purchase of New Place.