Hathaway, Anne (1556–1623)

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Hathaway, Anne (1556–1623)

English wife of William Shakespeare. Name variations: Anne Shakespeare. Born in Shottery, near Stratford, in 1556 (some sources cite 1557); died in 1623; daughter of Richard Hathaway (a farmer) and his first wife (name unknown); married William Shakespeare, in 1582; children: Susanna Shakespeare (b. 1583); (twins) Judith Shakespeare and Hamnet Shakespeare (b. 1585).

Anne Hathaway was born in Shottery, a small hamlet inside the parish of Stratford, in 1556, the eldest daughter of Richard Hathaway, a landowner, and his first wife. A year before Anne married, her father died and left her a marriage portion in his will. Anne's brother Bartholomew, the eldest son, was left with most of the land and a request that he be "a comfort unto his brethren and sister."

Anne Hathaway was 26 and pregnant when she married 18-year-old William Shakespeare. Marchette Chute in Shakespeare of London suggests that Hathaway, from a solidly respectable background, was likely neither trapped by her pregnancy into demanding marriage nor a seductress of a young man, but rather that she and William had a pre-contract which freed Hathaway to conduct herself as a married woman before the actual marriage ceremony. Elizabethan church law took a pre-contract, which was almost as binding as the ceremony, in earnest; refusal to marry after a pre-contract was grounds for excommunication. On the marriage license, issued on November 27, 1582, Hathaway's name is spelled "Whateley" due to a clerical error. Although it is not known what church the marriage took place in, it is known that it was somewhere in Worcester diocese and that it was not in the parish church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford.

It is likely that William and Anne followed the custom in Stratford that saw the eldest son bringing his bride back to his father's home. The middle house on John Shakespeare's property had a wing at the back with a private entryway, back parlor and kitchen, as well as its own stairway to the second floor, which made it well suited for an additional family. In 1583, Anne and William's first child, a daughter, was born, probably in this middle house; on Trinity Sunday of that year, she was christened Susanna. The choice of her daughter's name, which was one favored by the Puritans, as well as factors in Hathaway's family background, has led to speculation that Hathaway might have been brought up as a Puritan. From this theory, Chute finds a possible explanation for the apparent estrangement between Anne and William that was to ensue a few years after their marriage. Unlike many people at the time who expressed casual contempt for the acting profession, the Puritans attacked actors for being a threat to salvation. Writes Chute:

The language of some of these tracts is almost unbelievable in its violence. When Shakespeare was twenty-three a book was published in London which described actors as "fiends that are crept into the world by stealth," "sent from their great captain Satan (under whose banner they bear arms) to deceive the world, to lead tht [sic] people with enticing shows to the Devil." The author also describes them as apes, hell hounds, vipers, minotaurs, painted sepulcres [sic], dogs and of course caterpillars, and his book is most suitably entitled A Mirror of Monsters.

Two years after the birth of Susanna, Hathaway gave birth to twins, christened on February 2, 1585, and named Hamnet and Judith, in all likelihood after the Shakespeares' friends Hamnet and Judith Sadler of High Street. Chute cites the break between Anne and William as probably occurring three or four years after their marriage and relates it to his decision to seek a career on the stage. He headed for London about this time, as did young men all over England. The year he entered the acting profession is unknown, but by 1592 he was an established, successful actor, a fact which points to his having entered this arduous and highly competitive field several years earlier. Chute also remarks that had the household situation been stable it is most likely that Anne would have followed him there once he was settled, which she did not. For nearly 20 years, William lived in hired lodgings in London.

Hamnet died at age 11, two months before Shakespeare's father John was awarded a grant of arms. It is said that given the dynastic ambition of the day and Shakespeare's conduct in his worldly affairs, the death of the only son must have been a hard blow. The welfare of his wife and two daughters is said to have become his primary family preoccupation, and he purchased New Place in 1597 for them. Located a few minutes' walk from his parents' house, this was an imposing mansion on which he spent freely for improvements to the house and garden.

Anne's eldest daughter Susanna married in 1607, to Dr. John Hall, a respected physician, and the first grandchild, Elizabeth, was born in 1608. Anne Hathaway outlived her husband William, who died on April 23, 1616. She died in 1623.