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Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
1598

BRU4/1, page 44

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Title:  Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Date: 1598
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU4/1 p. 44
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Item Title
Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Item Date
1598
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call Number
BRU4/1 p. 44

BRU4/1, page 44 detail

View Image Assets
BRU4/1, page 44 detail
Click image to enlarge

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace 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

Document-specific information
Title:  Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Date: 1598
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU4/1 p. 44
View online bibliographic record

Item Title
Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Item Date
1598
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call Number
BRU4/1, p. 44

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Reproduced by permission of Shakespeare Birthplace 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

Document-specific information
Title:  Stratford-upon-Avon Borough: Chamberlains' Accounts
Date: 1598
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: BRU4/1 p. 44
View online bibliographic record

Robert Bearman, "Note in the chamberlain’s account submitted to the Stratford Corporation of a payment to Mr Shaxspere of 10 pence for a load of stone for the repair of Clopton Bridge," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/445.

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, BRU4/1, page 44. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/445.

The borough chamberlain, in his accounts submitted in January 1598, included an entry that at some point in the previous twelve months he paid “Mr Shaxpere” 10 pence for “on lod of ston,” one of a set of five payments made towards the repair of the bridge over the River Avon. As William Shakespeare had purchased New Place the year before, this transaction may represent the selling off of excess stone arising out of repairs to the house. However, as the chamberlain did not supply a given name, the vendor might have been Shakespeare’s father, John. The other four payments (for sand, gravel, picking of stones and paving) suggest that the expenditure was only to repair the carriageway over the bridge. The bridge is now known as Clopton Bridge after Hugh Clopton who financed its construction in the 1490s.

A “load” was often used as a unit of measure or weight for defined substances and it may be that Stratford’s chamberlain was reporting on the supply of a recognized quantity when he paid William (or John) Shakespeare 10 pence for one load. However, in 1598 John Rogers had been paid over twice as much, 6s. 6d., for three loads of stone “in his yeard” to repair the almshouses (Minutes and Accounts, vi, p. 63) and back in 1583, three loads of stone for the repairs to the bridge itself cost the similar sum of 6 shillings (Minutes and Accounts, iii, p. 136). If in all three cases, a “load” was used to indicate a specified quantity, the higher price paid in the earlier transactions might indicate that more expensive building material was purchased for the repair of stonework at the bridge and almshouses, as opposed to the rougher, and cheaper, stone purchased from “Mr Shaxpere” to repair the carriageway.

 

Semi-diplomatic transcription

[BRU 4/1, p. 44]

The Acountt of wyllyam wyatt
Chamberlen in the yeare 1598

Paymentes

Imprimis paid to Mr Aspinoll for that he
was behind the last yeare for his wages  
iijli
paid to Mr Hidges for that he was
behind the last yeare                                          
iijli
paid to Mr Geffres for on Ambrosse Coper                                                                      
iijs      iiijd
paid to Edward Ange for a locke
for the gelde hall doore                                               
iiijs
paid Cowart the smith for mending
the keey of the chappell dore                                               
ijd
paid to the glasier for glasing at the
yeld halle                                                                         
xiiijd
paid for whickcord and greesse for wood                                                                                     
ijd
paid to the collarmaker for pessing Rope                                                                                     
ijd

_____________________________________________________________________

                                                               the bridge
paid to Ihon Yeaton for carridges of
iij lodes of stones, xviij lodes of sand
ix lodes of gravell                                          
xiiiis       vjd
paid to Mr Shaxspere for on lod of ston                                                                                        
xd
paid to Roddes dawtere for pickkinge
of stones                                                                         
xijd
paid to Robart Hawll for paving
xxj dayes at xd a day                                                 
xvijs      vjd
paid to Revens for xix dayes worke
at vjd a daye                                                             
ixs      vjd

___________________________________________________________________

more payed for whickcord and gresse                                                                                        
iijd
paid to Heminges to by papar                                                                                                    
iiijd
paid to Mr Cowart for the statute booke                                                                            
ijs      vjd
paid to Richard Cowell for squaringe
wood in the chappell yeard ij dayes                              
xxd
paid to Prisse for a Rooppe for the clocke                                                                                    
xd
paid to Mr Smith for wyne and suger
when my lady Grevell cam to see
our sport                                                                                                                          
ijs       ijd
and for iij Cakes the same time                                                                                                   
vjd
paid to Mr bayle Gibbes for that he
leed out Abowght Ihon Rogers sutte                                                                            
xijs      vjd
paid to Peter Ioyner for mending the bell
whell                                                                           
xd
paid to Littell Smith for mending the
beme of the clocke                                                           
iijd
paid to borcholl for mending the harnis                                                                          
iiijs
paid to iij wymmen for Carring in of colles                                                                      
ijs      iiijd
paid to wydowe baker for sweping before
the chappell                                                             
xvjd
paid more to nicklas bayles for paynting                                                                                    
xvjd
paid to sor ffowcke Grevell for nothing                                                                            
xjs
paid to Mr balliue                                                                                                              
iijs      iiijd
paid to littell Smith for mending keey                                                                                           
ijd
paid to Prisse for a cord to peesse the bell Roppe                                                                        
iijd
paid to R Richard Smith for mending
the sleye of the cloke                                                           
iijd
paid for candels                                                                                                                              
ijd

_____________________________________________________________________

paid for bords to make the dore in the hawll                                                                               
xvd
paid to Peter Ioyner for making the dore                                                                                    
xijd
paid to Mr Wilson for hinges and nayles                                                                                       
xd
paid to Watton for the bolt                                                                                                          
iiijd
____________________________________________________________________

                           to mend the gealle hall
paid for i hondard of bordes and xxiiij foott                                                                    
vjs        vjd
paid to Richard Gibbes for iijpeare of Rafters                                                                            
xijd
paid to Ihon Smith for hondard halfe
of xd nayles butt on peni worth                                                                                             
xiiijd
to Cowell for his worke                                                                                                              
​xij

_____________________________________________________________________

 

13l jd

Written by Robert Bearman

Last updated July 11, 2020