9

Master Timeline

1517 to 1646, then the afterlife of the documents. Where the notes flag a dispute, it is flagged here.

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, tower and spire seen across the River Avon in spring.
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, from across the Avon. William Shakespeare was baptised here on 26 April 1564 and buried here on 25 April 1616.Peter Trimming, 2016-04-23. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.
  • 1517

    Robert Arden joins Stratford’s Guild of the Holy Cross.

  • 1547

    The Chantries Act ends 2,374 chantries and guild chapels. Stratford’s guild is dissolved; its members re-emerge in 1553 as the Corporation.

  • 1556

    Robert Arden’s will, 24 November, with a preamble Lee called that of “an observant Catholic”; proved 16 December. John Shakespeare becomes ale-taster.

  • 1559

    The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity.

  • 1563/64

    As chamberlain John records 2s for “defasyng ymages in ye chapell”; the next year 2s for taking down the rood loft.

  • 1564

    William baptised 26 April at Holy Trinity. “Hic incepit pestis” beside a burial that June.

    A 1793 engraving of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, seen from the river.
    Holy Trinity Church from the water, engraved by Thomas Medland after T. Thornton, 1793.Thomas Medland, after T. Thornton; scan by the Yale Center for British Art, 1793. Wikimedia Commons. CC0.
  • 1568

    John sworn bailiff and justice, 1 October.

  • 1570

    Regnans in Excelsis.

  • 1571

    Treasons Acts. Simon Hunt master at the school until 1575.

  • 1577

    John stops attending the council. Exchequer informer cases have run since 1569.

  • 1578

    John excused the poor rate, 19 November; Asbies mortgaged to Edmund Lambert for £40, 14 November.

  • 1580

    Campion lands at Dover, 24 June. John fined £40 in Queen’s Bench, half of it as surety for a Nottingham hatter.

  • 1581

    The Act with the £20 fine, 18 March. Alexander Hoghton’s will names William Shakeshafte, 3 August. Campion executed at Tyburn, 1 December.

    A seventeenth-century engraving of Edmund Campion, half length, with the rope and knife of his martyrdom.
    Edmund Campion, in a seventeenth-century engraving. Landed at Dover 24 June 1580; executed at Tyburn 1 December 1581.Unknown engraver, seventeenth century. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  • 1582

    Thomas Cottam executed, 30 May. Marriage licence at Worcester, 27 November, naming “Annam Whateley de Temple grafton”; bond next day for Anne Hathwey of Stratford.

  • 1583

    Susanna baptised 26 May. Edward Arden executed at Smithfield, 20 December. Disputed: The Catholic Encyclopedia gives 30 December, and the DNB wrongly says Tyburn in October. Nearly every other source gives 20 December.

    The Elizabethan brick gatehouse of Charlecote Park, Warwickshire, with two octagonal turrets.
    The gatehouse of Charlecote Park, Sir Thomas Lucy’s house. Lucy searched the Arden houses in 1583; the deer-poaching story in Davies’s note is set here.DeFacto, 2016-04-09. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • 1585

    Hamnet and Judith baptised 2 February. The Act against Jesuits and seminary priests.

  • 1586

    Robert Dibdale of Shottery executed at Tyburn, 8 October. John removed as alderman, 6 September. Cartwright preaches in Stratford.

  • 1592

    The Warwickshire certificate, 25 September: John among nine who “come not to church for fear of process for debt”.

  • 1593

    Venus and Adonis, printed by Richard Field, dedicated to Southampton.

    A 1590s portrait of Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, with long hair and a lace collar.
    Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, in the 1590s. Venus and Adonis was dedicated to him in 1593.Attributed to John de Critz; photograph of the Cobbe Collection portrait, about 1590 to 1600. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • 1595

    Southwell executed at Tyburn, 21 February.

    A small period engraving of Robert Southwell with a rope round his neck and a knife at his breast.
    Robert Southwell, Jesuit and poet, executed at Tyburn 21 February 1595. Period engraving.Unknown engraver, sixteenth or seventeenth century. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  • 1596

    Hamnet buried 11 August. Dethick drafts the grant of arms for John, 20 October.

  • 1599

    The arms exemplified with the Arden impalement; the Park Hall coat drawn and struck out.

  • 1601

    Richard II revived for Essex’s followers, 7 February; the rising next day. Anne Line hanged, 27 February. John Shakespeare dies.

  • 1603

    James accedes. Harsnett’s Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures.

  • 1604

    The Hampton Court Conference, January, a Puritan and bishops affair. Sugar and Grissold executed at Warwick, 16 July.

  • 1605

    The Gunpowder Plot. Rookwood at Clopton House; arms at Norbrook; the plotters’ families at Coughton.

    The 1605 engraving by Crispijn van de Passe of eight Gunpowder plotters in tall hats conferring in a row.
    The Gunpowder plotters, engraved by Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, 1605: Bates, Robert Wintour, the Wrights, Percy, Fawkes, Catesby, Thomas Wintour.Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, 1605. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  • 1606

    Owen dies under torture, 1 to 2 March. Garnet tried 28 March, executed 3 May. Susanna cited 5 May for not receiving Easter communion. Jonson and his wife cited in January before the London Consistory Court.

    A seventeenth-century painting of Henry Garnet in a black Jesuit habit holding a martyr's palm.
    Henry Garnet, superior of the Jesuits in England, tried as Farmer on 28 March 1606 and executed 3 May 1606. Anonymous seventeenth-century painting.Anonymous, European school, seventeenth century. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  • 1608

    Mary Shakespeare buried 9 September. William stands godfather to Henry Walker’s child.

  • 1613

    The Blackfriars Gatehouse bought, 10 March. The Globe burns during Henry VIII, 29 June. William Reynolds jailed for recusancy in the autumn.

    A sheet of the Agas map of London, about 1561, in Vertue's 1737 impression, showing Blackfriars on the river.
    Blackfriars on the Agas map, Civitas Londinum, about 1561, in George Vertue’s 1737 impression. Bibliothèque nationale de France.George Vertue, after the map attributed to Ralph Agas; scan by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1737 impression of a map of about 1561. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  • 1616

    Will re-signed 25 March. William Hart buried 17 April. William Shakespeare dies 23 April, buried 25 April. Joan a widow in the Henley Street cottage.

    The chancel floor of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, with Shakespeare's grave slab roped off and the board transcribing the curse on it.
    Shakespeare’s grave in the chancel of Holy Trinity, with the transcription of the four-line curse that Davies’s note mentions: Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare.Lewis Clarke, 2014-05-04. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.
  • 1623

    The First Folio.

    Martin Droeshout's engraved portrait of William Shakespeare from the 1623 First Folio.
    The Droeshout engraving, First Folio, 1623. Bodleian Library copy.Martin Droeshout; scan by the Bodleian Library, 1623. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  • 1646

    Joan Hart buried 4 November, aged 77.

    An engraving of the Henley Street houses in 1769, a long timber-framed range with the western cottage at the left, before the Victorian restoration.
    The Henley Street houses in 1769, drawn by Richard Greene and engraved by Benjamin Cole for the Gentleman’s Magazine: the earliest printed view, showing the main house and the western cottage as separate fronts before the restoration.Drawn by Richard Greene, engraved by Benjamin Cole, for the Gentleman's Magazine, 1769. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
  • 1690s

    Davies writes “He dyed a papist” into Fulman’s papers.

  • 1757

    Joseph Mosely, re-tiling the western Henley Street house, finds a booklet between rafters and tiles. Disputed: 1757 is Jordan’s date, attached to the lost first leaf. Malone’s own estimate was “about twenty years” before 1789, so about 1770.

  • 1784

    Jordan sends a copy to the Gentleman’s Magazine, 14 June; it is rejected as spurious.

  • 1789

    The original reaches Malone through Payton and the vicar Davenport.

  • 1790

    Malone prints the Testament. Jordan admits, 19 March, that the copy of the first leaf was his own.

    Page 330 of Malone's 1790 edition, where Articles I and II of the Testament are printed from John Jordan's copy.
    Malone, 1790, page 330: Articles I and II, printed from the copy John Jordan supplied. Malone never saw this leaf.Edmond Malone, 1790. Internet Archive. Public domain.
  • 1796

    Malone’s retraction: documents prove it “could not have been the composition of any one of our poet’s family”. He never said forgery.

  • 1923

    Thurston finds the body of the text in a Borromeo-attributed edition printed at Mexico City in 1661.

  • 1967

    McManaway identifies the English printing, The Contract and Testament of the Soule (Saint-Omer, 1638), now at the Folger.

  • 2003

    Bearman’s reappraisal in Shakespeare Survey 56.

  • 2024

    Steggle: Venice, 1613; probably Joan’s.

Sources: as cited in the sections above, plus Shakespeare Documented, baptism; Shakespeare Documented, twins; Shakespeare Documented, 1586 removal; Shakespeare Documented, 1596 draft; Shakespeare Documented, burial; Wikipedia, Essex’s Rebellion; Wikipedia, Hampton Court Conference; Catholic Encyclopedia, Edward Arden; Bowden 1899; Chambers 1930.