Anne Hathaway

Anne Shakespeare (née Hathaway) was the wife of the famous playwright- William Shakespeare, who wrote plays and poems such as Sonnet 18 and Romeo and Juliet. She was seven years senior to her husband but outlived him also by seven years. Anne also provided Shakespeare with three children.

The actual date of Anne's birth is unknown, yet if you look on her gravestone it gives her name and her age at death, which was sixty- seven. Therefore, we can estimate her year of birth as 1556 as she passed away in 1623. Her father was a farmer called Richard Hathaway and she was the eldest of three children produced by his first wife. Master Hathaway went on to marry a woman named Joan, after the death of Anne's mother, with whom he had five more children. When Master Hathaway died in 1581, the family stayed living in the house, which is now known as Anne Hathaway's cottage, in Shottery one mile away from the town of Stratford- Upon- Avon in which she lived later on in her life with her husband William Shakespeare. It is now one of the most visited tourist attractions in England! The Hathaway's were firm Protestants. 

In 1582 twenty- five year old Anne married eighteen year old William Shakespeare of Stratford- Upon- Avon. It is likely that the couple may not have even wanted to wed but because Anne was pregnant, William had to marry her because in Tudor times it was considered extremely bad for a woman to have a child without being married to man. In her father's will, he left Anne £6 for when she got married, and as she was already in her mid- twenties, Anne was considered an old maid! After the wedding, the new couple moved into William's parents home in Stratford. 

Susanna was born six months after her parents' wedding in the May of 1583. She was baptised in Stratford Parish Church on 26th May 1583. There is an official recording of Susanna when she failed to attend the Easter day service on 5th May 1606! She also married Dr. John Hall in 1607 and on 21st February 1608, Susanna gave birth to her only child who was a daughter named Elizabeth. Despite marrying twice, Elizabeth never had any children and was the last surviving descendant of Anne and William.  Susanna died on 11th July 1649 aged 66.

Two years after Susanna's birth, Anne gave birth to twins. They were named after close friends of the Shakespeares- the local baker Hamnet and his wife Judith. Little is known about Hamnet's life because the boy died aged eleven, quite possibly of the plague. Judith, however, went on to marry Thomas Quiney in 1616, and she had three children but baby Shakespeare died aged six months and Richard and Thomas were buried between nine days of each other aged only twenty- one and nineteen! Judith died on 9th February 1662, one week after her 77th birthday.

In his will, Shakespeare left Anne his 'second- best bed'! Judith received not much more because her father disagreed with her new marriage as her new husband was discovered to have made another woman pregnant! The rest of his belongings were left to Susanna. 

On 6th August 1623, Anne passed away and was buried next to her husband in the Church of Holy Trinities cemetery.