William Shakespeare’s holding of yardlands is included in a list made by Thomas Greene of freeholders’ lands in Old Stratford and Welcombe, appended to an earlier survey of leaseholders’ lands in the same area

In late August/early September 1614, it became generally known that plans were afoot to enclose some of the open fields at Welcombe, to the northeast of Stratford. Enclosure was a process whereby landholders could condense their scattered holdings, distributed across the open fields in the form of strips, into unified blocks. This process, amongst other things, could threaten common rights and undermine common pasturage. The enclosure of land for the raising of sheep, though profitable for major landholders, required less labour and took land out of arable use, and so became associated in the popular mind with depopulation and hardship. In many cases this led to riots and disorder.

The Corporation resolved to oppose this local enclosure scheme, mainly on the grounds that its considerable income as a holder of the tithes would be adversely affected if land were taken out of arable production and converted to sheep pasture. (To learn more about the history of the Stratford tithes, please refer to Ralph Hubaud’s 1605 assignment of a lease of a share in the Stratford Tithes to William Shakespeare.) The first reference in the Corporation order book to the threat of enclosure is dated September 23, 1614 (BRU 2/2, p. 271), although the matter had clearly been discussed previously. In particular, as shown here, the Corporation steward, Thomas Greene, had already looked up an earlier survey of lease-holdings in the area, to which on September 5 he added a list of lands held by freeholders (or landowners, in modern parlance) including William Shakespeare, as shown here.

The first leaf of the document is basically a copy of a section of the inquisition taken on the death Stratford’s lord of the manor, Ambrose earl of Warwick, in 1590 (Minutes and Accounts, iv, pp. 113-4). It lists those who held their lands by leases granted either by the earl himself or by earlier lords. However, it is not an exact copy and differences indicate that it had been updated after the death of Queen Elizabeth (March 1603) but before September 1605.

When news of the enclosure broke, Greene further updated this survey with marginal notes and interlineations in his own distinctive hand. On the second leaf he then added, “Auncient Freeholders in the Fieldes of Old Stratford and Welcombe,” Shakespeare heading the list with his holding of “4 yard Land,” clearly the land sold to him in 1602 by John Combe, which had then been described both as four yardlands and 107 acres. This was made up of strips or “lands” distributed in the open fields and a later survey gives an indication of where these lay. At this stage, however, Greene noted simply that Shakespeare’s holding included “noe Common nor grownd beyond Gospell bushe nor grownd in Sandfield, nor none in Slowe Hill field beyond Bishopton, nor none in the enclosures beyond Bishopton.” The point of these remarks (and of the survey generally) was to establish which of the freeholders (and leaseholders) held land likely to be affected by the enclosure proposals so that, if necessary, pressure could be brought on them to refuse to co-operate. The conclusion, however, appears to have been that, in Shakespeare’s case, his freehold interests would not be affected by the proposals. This is confirmed to some extent by the description of his holdings in the later survey. The location of Gospel Bush, however, remains uncertain – unless it is synonymous with Beggars Bush, named as a boundary of the enclosure in other sources.