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1598-
1599

E 359/56 (1)

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E 359/56 (1)
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Images reproduced by permission of The National Archives, London, England.

Terms of use
The National Archives give no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for the purpose of the information provided.
Images may be used only for purposes of research, private study or education.  Applications for any other use should be made to The National Archives Image Library, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, Tel: 020 8392 5225   Fax: 020 8392 5266.

Document-specific information
Date: 1598-1599
Repository: The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call number and opening: E 359/56, membr. 51 & 56
View online bibliographic record

 

Item Date
1598-1599
Repository
The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call Number
E 359/56

E 359/56 (2)

View Image Assets
E 359/56 (2)
Click image to enlarge

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Images reproduced by permission of The National Archives, London, England.

Terms of use
The National Archives give no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for the purpose of the information provided.
Images may be used only for purposes of research, private study or education.  Applications for any other use should be made to The National Archives Image Library, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, Tel: 020 8392 5225   Fax: 020 8392 5266.

Document-specific information
Date: 1598-1599
Repository: The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call number and opening: E 359/56, membr. 51 & 56
View online bibliographic record

 

Item Date
1598-1599
Repository
The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call Number
E 359/56

E 359/56, open roll

View Image Assets
E 359/56, open roll
Click image to enlarge

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Images reproduced by permission of The National Archives, London, England.

Terms of use
The National Archives give no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for the purpose of the information provided.
Images may be used only for purposes of research, private study or education.  Applications for any other use should be made to The National Archives Image Library, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, Tel: 020 8392 5225   Fax: 020 8392 5266.

Document-specific information
Date: 1598-1599
Repository: The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call number and opening: E 359/56, membr. 51 & 56
View online bibliographic record

 

Item Date
1598-1599
Repository
The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call Number
E 359/56

Institution Rights and Document Citation

 

Images reproduced by permission of The National Archives, London, England.

Terms of use
The National Archives give no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for the purpose of the information provided.
Images may be used only for purposes of research, private study or education.  Applications for any other use should be made to The National Archives Image Library, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, Tel: 020 8392 5225   Fax: 020 8392 5266.

Document-specific information
Date: 1598-1599
Repository: The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call number and opening: E 359/56, membr. 51 & 56
View online bibliographic record

 

Alan H. Nelson, "Remembrancer Roll 1598, Defaults for subsidies granted in 1593 and 1597, naming William Shakespeare," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/352.

The National Archives, E 359/56. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/352.

Lay subsidies were a type of tax based on personal wealth. In London, the collection of subsidies was managed at the local level of ward and parish. For a full explanation, and references to associated documents, see “William Shakespeare as taxpayer and tax defaulter.”

Shakespeare’s failure to pay the current subsidy is flagged by the marginal annotation “Affid.” recorded in the Lay Subsidy roll from 1598, St. Helen’s Bishopsgate. The names of householders marked “Affid.” were recorded on default rolls, and thereafter on Remembrancer Rolls.

William Shakespeare is one of hundreds of defaulters listed in Remembrancer Rolls for 1598 (shown here), 1599, and 1600, legal instruments dedicated to the recovery of crown debts. The relevant entry confirms Shakespeare’s connection to the parish of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, and, judging from the tax of 13s 4d, relates to the contemporary collection of 1598:

... In Warda de Bishopsgate ... In parochia Sancte Helene ... Willelmus Shakespeare ibidem xiijs iiijd

The same debt is carried over to the “Residuum London’” accounts dated October 6, 1599.

Written by Alan H. Nelson

Sources

B. Rowland Lewis, Shakespeare Documents, (Stanford University, California: Stanford University Press, 1940), 1: 262-71.

Samuel Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975)161-4.

David Thomas, Shakespeare in the Public Records, (London: H.M.S.O., 1985), 6-8.

M. Jurkowski, C.L. Smith, and D. Crook, Lay Taxes in England and Wales 1188-1688 (Richmond Surrey: PRO Publications), 1998.

Last updated February 1, 2020