MENU
Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
June 5,
1607

DR243/1: Marriage register, folio 11 recto

View Image Assets
DR243/1: Marriage register, folio 11 recto
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
Creator: Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Title: Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Date: 1558-1776
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: DR243/1: Marriage register, fol. 11r
View online bibliographic record

Item Creator
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Item Title
Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Item Date
1558-1776, entry for June 5, 1607
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call Number
DR243/1: Marriage register, fol. 11r

DR243/1: Marriage register, folio 11 recto, entry detail

View Image Assets
DR243/1: Marriage register, folio 11 recto, entry 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
Creator: Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Title: Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Date: 1558-1776
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: DR243/1: Marriage register, fol. 11r
View online bibliographic record

Item Creator
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Item Title
Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Item Date
1558-1776, entry for June 5, 1607
Repository
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call Number
DR243/1: Marriage register, fol. 11r

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
Creator: Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Title: Parish Register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
Date: 1558-1776
Repository: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Call number and opening: DR243/1: Marriage register, fol. 11r
View online bibliographic record

Robert Bearman, "Parish register entry recording Susanna Shakespeare and John Hall's marriage," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/463.

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, DR243/1: Marriage register, folio 11 recto. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/463.

Susanna Shakespeare and John Hall were married on June 5, 1607, according to the Holy Trinity Church parish register. Next to the entry, an “X” added by a later hand highlights its significance. Susanna, William and Anne Shakespeare’s daughter, was 24. For the period 1570–1630, there are sixty brides whose age at first marriage is known; 24 is the average age of marriage among this group, although in fact the greatest number of brides were married when they were either 17 or 21.

Born around 1575, John was 32 when he married, only 11 years younger than his father-in-law. He is styled a gentleman in his marriage entry, mainly due to his education at Cambridge (he received his BA in 1594 and MA in 1597), but also because his father, William Hall of Acton, was a physician and thus of gentlemanly status.

John was a younger son. His father died in December 1607, leaving him unspecified leasehold and freehold property and effectively cutting out John’s older brother, Dive, who only received 40 shillings. However, John’s acquisition of property may not have been anticipated at the time of his June marriage, calling into question the scholarly assumption that Shakespeare regarded Hall to be of sufficient status to marry his elder daughter.

John, like his father, was a physician. It is not known where he received his medical training, and where he subsequently lived before his marriage. Following their marriage Susanna and John settled in Stratford, and their first child was baptized on February 21, 1608, some two weeks short of nine months. 

It is often said that Shakespeare settled on his daughter in marriage the land he had purchased in 1602. However, this is based on evidence of ca. 1625 and is probably a misunderstanding. Hall almost certainly had no interest in the property until it was bequeathed to his wife Susanna under her father’s will of 1616.

The marriage entry is in the hand of the curate, William Gilbert (alias Higges), who kept the parish register from May 1604 until around two months before his death in late January 1612.                    

Written by Robert Bearman

Last updated May 22, 2020