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John Shakespeare (c. 1531 – 7 September 1601) paid a shilling fine for an unauthorized trash heap in Henley Street, Stratford. -- He was known as a maker of gloves, though he had other businesses.15 September 1558 (William Shakespeare's Age = -6):
John Shakespeare's first child, Joan, is baptized. She died in infancy.2 December 1562 (William Shakespeare's Age = -2):
John Shakespeare's second child, Margaret, is baptized. (Buried 30 April 1563)26 April 1564 (William Shakespeare's Age = 3 days?):
John Shakespeare's third child, William, is baptized.13 October 1566 (William Shakespeare's Age = 2):
John Shakespeare's second son, Gilbert, is baptized. (Buried 2 February 1612.)1 October 1568 (William Shakespeare's Age = 4):
John Shakespeare takes office as bailiff of Stratford. -- "Before being allowed to perform for the general public, touring playing companies were required to present their play before the town council to be licensed. Players first acted in Stratford in 1568, the year that John Shakespeare was bailiff.[7] Before Shakespeare turned 20, the Stratford town council had paid for at least 18 performances by no fewer than 12 playing companies." What kind of plays might have Shakespeare seen? --See the page on English Drama to 1564.1569: John Shakespeare applies for a coat of arms. (Granted 20 October 1596.)
John Shakespeare's daughter, Joan, is baptized. (The first Joan had died; this Joan was the only one of William Shakespeare's sisters to reach adulthood. She died in 1646, thirty years after her famous brother.)28 September 1571 (William Shakespeare's Age = 7):
John Shakespeare's fourth daughter, Anne, is baptized. (She was buried 4 April 1579; William Shakespeare was 14.)11 March 1574 (William Shakespeare's Age = almost 10):
John Shakespeare's third son, Richard, is baptized. (He was buried 4 February 1613;William Shakespeare was almost 50, retired from the stage, and living in Stratford.)1576 (William Shakespeare's Age = 12):
14 November 1578 (William Shakespeare's Age = 14):
- [According to Marchette Chute, Shakespeare of London] John Shakespeare applies to the Office of Heralds for a coat of arms, and a preliminary sketch is made.
- John Shakespeare, though an Alderman, stops attending Stratford town council meetings. He attended on September 5, 1576. He had been on the council for 13 years and missed only one meeting in that whole time. After that, he attended only one other meeting, on 5 September, 1582, but he was never fined, and replaced only in 1586, because Mr. Shakespeare "doth not come."
- The Theatre, the first purpose-built playhouse in England, opens for business.
John Shakespeare raised £40 by mortgaging part of his wife's inheritance—a house and fifty-six acres in Wilmcote—to her brother-in-law Edmund Lambert of Barton on the Heath. (Shakespeare's Sly, the drunken tinker who appears in the induction of The Taming of the Shrew, hails from the neighborhood.)3 May 1580 (William Shakespeare's Age = 16):
John Shakespeare's fourth son, eighth and last child, Edmund, is baptized. (He became an actor in London. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Giles Church without Cripplegate on 12 August 1607; William, then 43, and well past the midpoint of his career, may have paid for his brother's rather expensive burial.)26 September, 1580 (William Shakespeare's Age = 16):
Francis Drake arrives in Plymouth, completing a voyage around the world. (On the 4th of April 1581, Queen Elizabeth went aboard the Golden Hind at Deptford and presided at his knighting.)27 November 1582 (William Shakespeare's Age = 18):
A special license, permitting the marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, age 26, is issued by the consistory court of the Bishop of Worcester.26 May 1583 (William Shakespeare's Age = 19):
Susanna, first child of William and Anne Shakespeare, is christened.2 February 1585 (William Shakespeare's Age = 20):
Hamnet and Judith, twin children of William and Anne Shakespeare, are christened.