Mary Shakespeare

File:Arden of Park Hall arms.svg

Arden Coat of Arms

Mary Shakespeare (née Arden; Template:Circa — September 1608)Template:Efn was the mother of William Shakespeare.

Biography

Mary was born about 1536 in Wilmcote, the daughter of Robert Arden, a gentleman farmer and junior descendant of the Arden family,<ref>Burke's Landed Gentry, 18th ed., vol. 2, 1969, ed. Peter Townend, 'Arden formerly of Longcroft' pedigree</ref><ref>Shakespeare, Anthony Burgess, Vintage Books, chapter 1, 'Home'</ref> who were prominent in Warwickshire. She was the youngest of eight daughters, and when her father died in 1556 she inherited land at Snitterfield and Wilmcote from him as a dowry. The house was left to her stepmother Agnes Hill. Richard Shakespeare, the father of John Shakespeare, was a tenant farmer on land owned by her father in Snitterfield. As the daughter of Richard's landlord, she may have known John since childhood.<ref name="auto">Wood, Michael. Shakespeare. New York: Basic, 2003. Print.</ref> Mary married John Shakespeare in 1557, when she was 20 years old and her spouse was approximately 26 years old.<ref name="auto"/> She bore eight children: Joan (1558), Margaret (1562–1563), William (1564–1616), Gilbert (1566–1612), Joan (1569–1646), Anne (1571–1579), Richard (1574–1613), and Edmund (1580–1607).<ref>A Shakespeare Genealogy Template:Webarchive</ref> Though Mary gave birth to many children, several of them died young. Their first daughter, Joan, born 1558 died; the name being used again for their third daughter. Their second daughter, Margaret, also died in infancy.<ref name="auto"/> Some members of the wider Arden family were of the Catholic faith.<ref name="auto"/> John died in 1601 and Mary died in September 1608.<ref name="auto1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Mary was born into a family of status and her ancestors were well connected in society, including Thomas Arden, who fought in the Second Barons' War (1264–67) on the side of Simon de Montfort; Robert Arden who fought in the Wars of the Roses, and John Arden who served at the court of Henry VII.<ref name="auto"/>

File:Mary Arden's House (rear view) -Wilmcote.jpg

Palmer's Farm (rear)

Mary Arden's House in Wilmcote was maintained in good condition as a working farmhouse, until it was bought by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1930 and refurnished in the Tudor period style.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2000 it was discovered that the building preserved as Mary Arden's house had belonged to a friend and neighbour, Adam Palmer, and the house was accordingly renamed Palmer's Farm. The house that had belonged to the Arden family – which was near to Palmer's Farm – had been acquired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1968 for preservation as part of a farmyard, without knowing its true provenance.<ref>The Shakespeare Houses – The Official Guide, Revised 2008, Template:ISBN</ref> The house and farm are open as a historic museum displaying 16th-century life.