Susanna Hall and her daughter Elizabeth Nash settle the estates inherited from William Shakespeare: the final concord

Thomas Nash, first husband of Elizabeth Hall, Shakespeare’s granddaughter, died on April 4, 1647 without issue. Under his will, he left New Place, the four and a half yardlands in Old Stratford, and the Blackfriars Gatehouse directly to his kinsman, Edward Nash, with no regard to the interests of his mother-in-law and wife (still only thirty-nine) as provided for under the settlement of the Shakespeare family estate, dated May 27, 1639. Within a week or two of Nash’s death, Susanna and Elizabeth therefore set in motion proceedings to secure a new settlement.

The first step, during Easter Term, 1647, was to arrange for the estates to pass, by final concord registered in the Court of Common Pleas, to two trustees, Richard Lane of Stratford-upon-Avon, and William Smith of Balsall, both styled gentlemen. A copy of the concord (the “foot”) remained in the court’s archives but another copy has survived as part of the family’s title deeds and is shown here. In line with standard practice, the property was described in formulaic terms as simply made up of three houses, three gardens, one orchard, 107 acres of land and 20 acres of pasture in Old Stratford, Bishopton and Welcombe, and a messuage (dwelling house) in the parish of St Ann, Blackfriars, in the city of London. 
   
Susanna and Elizabeth moved on to secure the family estate by means of a deed of settlement and recovery, but Edward Nash eventually disputed the entire maneuver. In February 1648 he filed a bill in Chancery seeking to compel Susanna and Elizabeth to implement the provisions of Thomas Nash’s will. Proceedings petered out towards the end of 1650, that is, after Susanna’s death, with no formal decree issued to settle the dispute. Some compromise may have been agreed, reflected in a provision of Elizabeth Nash’s will (by then Lady Barnard) whereby Edward Nash was given the opportunity to acquire New Place and the four and half yardlands “according to my promise formerly made to him."