Shakespeare’s Will
Shakespeare’s Will (Will), 1616A detailed will was necessary to set worldly affairs in order and ensure the smooth passing on of property and possessions after death. Shakespeare's will represents the type of document that a wealthy member of the middling sort would have had written by a scribe and then signed in the presence of witnesses before they died. It was a legally binding document that specified the gifting of goods to particular family members and friends.
The more property a person owned, and the longer the period before their death over which they were writing it (a service for which they usually had to pay) the more detailed and complicated a will might become. This will (which happens to have been William Shakespeare’s) shows various crossings out and additions as he changed his mind about certain bequests (gifts) - much cheaper and easier than writing it out again. Wills had a formulaic opening, which set out the religious hopes of the testator (will-maker) as they approached death and in anticipation of an afterlife in heaven.
In addition to bequeathing their soul to God and their body to the earth, at this point upper-middling individuals in particular might include bequests to charity. In that sense, wills show commitment of assets beyond the individual to family, friendship networks and the local community.
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| Object Type | Will |
| Year | 1616 |
| Material | Manuscript |
| Owned By | TNA PROB 1 / 4 |
| Keywords | writing; manuscript; remembering; giving; charity; assets; credit; death; William Shakespeare; Stratford-upon-Avon |
| Image Credit | Will (1616), The National Archives PROB 1/4 © The National Archives. |