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The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is the world’s leading charity in promoting the works, life and times of William Shakespeare. The Trust offers a unique Shakespeare centered experience with outstanding archive and library collections, inspiring educational and literary event programs and five wonderful houses all directly relating to Shakespeare. As an independent charity the Trust receives no public subsidy or direct government funding. The Trust depends entirely on income generated through their supporters: their visitors, volunteers, donors and Friends.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s History
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was formed in 1847 following the purchase of Shakespeare’s Birthplace as a national memorial.

The role of the Trust grew with the purchase in 1876 of Shakespeare’s New Place estate, comprising the site of Shakespeare’s grand final home and Nash’s House (the home of Thomas Nash and Shakespeare’s grand-daughter Elizabeth).

The Trust purchased Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, the girlhood home of Shakespeare’s wife, in 1892 and Mary Arden’s House was purchased in 1930.

The last house to be acquired was Hall’s Croft, the home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her husband, physician Dr John Hall, in 1949.

In 1964 to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth the Trust threw open the doors of its new headquarters and study facility, the Shakespeare Centre.  This distinctive building provides a home for the Trust’s extensive Shakespeare Centre library and archive (including the RSC archive). The second part of this project, an extension including facilities for the Trust's educational and cultural work and a visitor centre for Shakespeare’s Birthplace, was added in 1981.

In addition to the Shakespeare Houses, the Trust cares for Harvard House on behalf of the Harvard House Memorial 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

Documents contributed by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

February 2, 1585
Parish register entry recording Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare’s baptisms
Hamnet and Judith, William and Anne Shakespeare’s second and third children, were baptized on the same day, February 2, 1585, according to the Holy Trinity Church parish register.
September 6, 1586
Meeting of the Stratford-upon-Avon Corporation at which John Shakespeare and John Wheeler are removed from the office of aldermen
John Shakespeare may have appeared at a meeting of the Corporation held on December 5, 1576 (Minutes and Accounts, ii, p. 111). However, there is no record of his attendance thereafter until his eventual expulsion at the meeting held on September 6, 1586, shown here.
January 18, 1587
Proceedings in the local court of record in an action brought by Nicholas Lane against John Shakespeare concerning an alleged debt of £22 owed to Lane by his brother Henry Shakespeare: writ of capias
This is part of a sequence of nine loose papers and entries in the Stratford court of record register, documenting the progress of an action brought by Nicholas Lane, a prosperous Alveston husbandman, against John Shakespeare for the recovery of a debt of £22.
February 1, 1587
Proceedings in the local court of record in an action brought by Nicholas Lane against John Shakespeare concerning an alleged debt of £22 owed to Lane by his brother Henry Shakespeare: formal declaration by Lane’s attorney
This is part of a sequence of nine loose papers and entries in the Stratford court of record register, documenting the progress of an action brought by Nicholas Lane, a prosperous Alveston husbandman, against John Shakespeare for the recovery of a debt of £22.
March 1, 1587
Proceedings in the local court of record in an action brought by Nicholas Lane against John Shakespeare concerning an alleged debt of £22 owed to Lane by his brother Henry Shakespeare: a demurrer
This is part of a sequence of nine loose papers and entries in the Stratford court of record register, documenting the progress of an action brought by Nicholas Lane, a prosperous Alveston husbandman, against John Shakespeare for the recovery of a debt of £22.

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