MENU
September 5,
1614

BRU15/1/94, folio 1 recto

View Image Assets
BRU15/1/94, folio 1 recto
Click image to enlarge

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Terms of use
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has graciously contributed images under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Visitors may download, link to and cite the images for personal research only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of the images, commercial or third party use, is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to request additional use, at: images.scla@shakespeare.org.uk

Document-specific information
 Date: September 5, 1614
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU15/1/94
View online bibliographic record

Item Date
September 5, 1614
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Call Number
BRU15/1/94, fol. 1r

BRU15/1/94, folio 1 verso and folio 2 recto

View Image Assets
BRU15/1/94, folio 1 verso and folio 2 recto
Click image to enlarge

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Terms of use
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has graciously contributed images under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Visitors may download, link to and cite the images for personal research only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of the images, commercial or third party use, is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to request additional use, at: images.scla@shakespeare.org.uk

Document-specific information
 Date: September 5, 1614
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU15/1/94
View online bibliographic record

Item Date
September 5, 1614
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Call Number
BRU15/1/94, fol. 1v-2r

BRU15/1/94, folio 2 verso

View Image Assets
BRU15/1/94, folio 2 verso
Click image to enlarge

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Terms of use
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has graciously contributed images under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Visitors may download, link to and cite the images for personal research only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of the images, commercial or third party use, is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to request additional use, at: images.scla@shakespeare.org.uk

Document-specific information
 Date: September 5, 1614
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU15/1/94
View online bibliographic record

Item Date
September 5, 1614
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Call Number
BRU15/1/94, fol. 2v

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Terms of use
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has graciously contributed images under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Visitors may download, link to and cite the images for personal research only. Any further use, including, but not limited to, unauthorized downloading or distribution of the images, commercial or third party use, is strictly prohibited. Visitors must contact the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to request additional use, at: images.scla@shakespeare.org.uk

Document-specific information
 Date: September 5, 1614
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU15/1/94
View online bibliographic record

Robert Bearman, "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," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/487.

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, BRU15/1/94. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/487.

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.

 

Semi-diplomatic transcription

[fol. 1r]
Manerium de Stratford Vetere cum membris in
Comitatu Warr’
Creddita liberorum tenentium ibidem per Annum
iiijli   xiijs     vjd
Creddita Custumariorum tenentium in Stratford

Vetere per Annum
ijs     vjd
Creddita Custumariorum tenentium in Welcombe
per Annum
viijli   xiijs     xjd
Creddita Custumariorum Tenentium in Shottery
per Annum
vjli      xs
Tenentes per Indenturam

Adrianus Quyney tenet per Indenturam datam
vltimo die Octobris Anno regni domine nuper
Regine Elizabeth &c xiijo factam per Ambrosium
nuper Comitem Warr’ vnum Toftum et vnam virgatam
Terre et vnum Messuagium et vnam virgatam terre
Cum perti­nentiis pro Termino xxjo Annorum a festo
Sancti Michaelis Archangeli vltimo preterito ante
datam eiusdem Indenture redditui per Annum
xxjs

[Notes by TG in left margin]
Mrs [Elizabeth] Quyney
she hath a newe Lease of that
5 September 1614: Mr [Iohn] Gybbes seyeth
yt is but a yard Land & a half.

[Notes by TG in right margin]
2 messuagia
2 virgate terre

Iohannes Combes tenet per Indenturam datam xmo
die decembris Anno regni nuper Regis Henrici
viijvi xxxmo factam per Reverendum in Christo patrem Hugonem

quondam Wigor­n’ Episcopum Tria Messuagia
et da duas Virgatas Terre et tres quarterias
cum pertinentiis pro Termino iiijxxix Annorum Redditui
per Annum

Cs iiijd

[Note by TG in right margin]
3 messuagia
2 virgate & ¾

Willelmus Barker tenet per Indenturam datam vto die
Octobris Anno Regni nuper Regis Henrici viijvi xxxvjto factam
per Anthonium Barker Clericum et Richardum Barnes
Clericum domus Collegii de Vetere Stratford Cum
pertinentiis pro Termino lxxo Annorum Redditui inde per
Annum
Cs

[Notes by TG in left margin]
Mr W.[illelmus] Combe
Colledg house

[Note by TG in right margin]
in the ffeodarys book
it is 4 E 6. Stratford
Colledg tent’ in Capite per
Comitem Warr’ 

Iohannes Combes tenet per Indenturam vnum horreum
existentem super vastum redditui per Annum
xijd

[Marginal note by TG]
Mr I.[ohannes] Combe

ffranciscus Smyth armiger tenet per Indenturam
factam per Hugonem quondam Episcopum Wigorn’ Iohanni Smyth
armigero et assignatis suis molendina in Stratford cum pertinentiis
per annualem redditum xli et terras dominicalis manerii de
vetere Stratford Cum pertinentiis pro certis annis
adhuc venturis per annualem Redditum lxAc eciam
Tenementum vocatum Burmans pro quibusdam Annis
adhuc venturis per annualem Redditum xiijs iiijd Sed
eciam certam datam huius Indenture et certos terminos
dictarum indenturarum Iuratores ignoranxiijli xiijs iiijd

[Notes by TG in left margin]
Sir Frauncys Smyth
the Ox Closse howse &
Barley Closse & a yard
Land 19 years end

[fol. 1v]
Iohanna [Note by TG: Cawdrey] vidua tenet per Indenturam datam
xiiijto die Maij Anno Regni Henrici viijvi  xxxvijmo factam
per Reverendum in Christo patrem Nicholaum quondam|
Episcopum Wigorn’ vnum Messuagium vnam Virgatam
Terre vnum Cottagium et duas acras terre et vnam
C1auseam cum pertinentiis pro Termino lxo annorum a
festSancti Michaelis a[r]changeli proximo post datam
dicte Indenture Redditui per Annu       
xxs iiijd
[Note by Thomas Greene in left margin]
Mr [Thomas] Barber

[Note by TG in left margin]
1 messuagium
1 Cotagium
1 Closse
1 yard Land
2 acres Land

Thomas Raynoldes generosus tenet per Indenturam
datam xxo die Iunij Anno Regni domine nuper Regine
Elizabeth xxvijo factam per Ambrosium nuper Comitem
Warr’ duo Messuagia et vnum Toftum et duas
Virgatas Terret vnum aliud messuagium et vnam
aliam Virgatam terre et dimidium Cum pertinentiis pro
Termino vitarum Thome Raynoldes Margarete vxoris
eius et Henrici filii eorum Redditui per Annum
lviijviijd

[Note by TG in left margin]
Mr Reynoldes

[Note by TG in right margin]
3 messuagia
1 Toftum
 yard virgatterre
½ virgate terre

Thomas Sheffield tenet per Indenturam
datam xiiijdie Maij Anno Regni nuper Regis
Henrici viijvi  xxxvijo factam per Nicho­laum quondam
Episcopum Wigorn’ vnum Messuagium et dimidium
Virgatam terre Cum pertinentiis pro Termino lxo
Annorum Redditui per Annum
xvs iiijd

[Note by TG in left margin]
Iohn Sheffield]

[Note by TG in right margin]
1 messuagium
 ½ virgate terre

Iohannes Richardson tenet per Indenturam datam
xmo die Octobris Anno Regni nuper Regis Her
Henrici viijvi xxxiiijto factam per Hugonem quondam
Wigorn’ Episcopum vnum Massua­gium et vnam virgatam
Terre et vnum aliud Messuagium voca­tum Yonges et
vnum Toftum cum tribus aliis Virgatis terre
pro Termino lxo annorum Redditui per Annum
xxxvijs iiijd

[Note by TG above]
13 yeres to come

[Note by TG in right margin]
2 messuagia
1 Toftum
4 virgate terre

Summa with the Colledge
ljl vijs iiijd

[in right margin, partly obscured, and extending across the fold onto f. 2, an apparent total of lands in TG’s hand]
13 yardland & 3 quarters
Welcombe 2
Byshopton 2

[Notes added by Thomas Greene]
Stratford Vetus & manerium & advocacionis vicarie & terre ibidem tente per Iohannem
ducum Northumberland in circa 7 E 6

2 Sept 1613
[in right margin, partly obscured, and extending across the fold onto f. 2, an apparent total of lands in TG’s hand]
13 yardland & 3 quarters
Welcombe 2
Byshopton 2

[fol. 2r: in TG's hand]
5 Septembris 1614
Auncient ffreeholders in the ffieldes of Old Stratford and Welcombe.
Mr [William] Shakspeare. 4 yard Land. noe Common nor grownd beyond gospell bushe.
nor grownd in Sandfield, nor none in slowe hill field beyond Bishopton nor
none in the enclosure beyond Bishopton.

Thomas Parker in right of his wife half a yard Land, noe Land in Sandfield. q’ if gospell
bushe & slow hill ffield: but hath Common over all the ffieldes:

Mr [Iohn] Lane, in [William] Perryes occupacion half a yard Land: hath some Land beyond gospell bushe & hey in
Welcombe medowe:

Sir Frauncys Smyth 19 or 20 Ridges in the ffieldes wherof 6 in Watt ffurlonge nere
Welcombe medowe, noe Common. 1 shootyng vpon Iohnsons gate. 5 at the upper
end of the Dingles & 5 shootyng vpon Mr [Anthony] Nashes Inclosure.

[William?] Mace. 21 or 22 Landes or thereaboutes most of them lyeing in Sandfield wherof 4 shootyng vpon the 4
Elms. 2 into Brinols way:
& 5 Leyes in the Hame. 

Arthur Cawdry hath a year Lande

Mr [Richard] Wright Vicar of Bishopton 4 Leyes in the Hame:

 

 

Written by Robert Bearman

Last updated May 11, 2020