Anne Hathaway Biography Quotes 3 Report mistakes

Identity and Historical Context
Anne Hathaway (c.1556 - 1623) is known principally as the wife of William Shakespeare and the mother of his children. Surviving records place her in and around Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, and connect her to a family of yeoman farmers in nearby Shottery. Although her name is often confused with that of a modern film star, and although the Elizabethan theater looms large in accounts of her life, there is no evidence that she was an actress. In Anne Hathaway's time, women did not perform on the public stage in England; female roles were played by boys and young men until after 1660.

Early Life and Family
Anne was the daughter of Richard Hathaway, a prosperous yeoman of Shottery whose farm, later called Hewlands, stood just west of Stratford. His 1581 will refers to her by the name Agnes, a common variant of Anne in the period, a detail that underlines how fluid given names could be in parish and probate documents. Richard Hathaway's will also names other children, and the property ultimately passed to his son Bartholomew, an heir whose continuity helps anchor the family's local standing. The farmhouse associated with the Hathaways later became known as Anne Hathaway's Cottage, a posthumous label reflecting the family's connection to her rather than a contemporary name. Little else is securely recorded of Anne's childhood, education, or daily pursuits; like many women of her social tier, she likely contributed to household management and farm work within a network of kin and neighbors.

Marriage to William Shakespeare
Anne's marriage to William Shakespeare is unusually well documented for the era. On November 27, 1582, a license to marry was issued by the bishop's consistory court at Worcester, and a bond was filed by Fulke Sandells and John Richardson of Shottery, known associates of the Hathaway family. The bond allowed the couple to marry with a reduced reading of the banns, an administrative shortcut that suggests haste. Around the same time, a separate clerical entry appears for a license involving an Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton; scholars have long debated whether that record reflects an error, a different woman, or a scribal confusion. What is clear is that William Shakespeare, aged about 18, and Anne, about eight years his senior, were swiftly married late in 1582.

Children and Household
The couple's first child, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, indicating that Anne was already pregnant at the time of the marriage. Twins, Hamnet and Judith, were baptized on February 2, 1585. These entries in the Stratford parish register are among the firmest markers of Anne's life. After the twins' birth, the records fall largely silent about her personal activities, a typical archival silence for women of the period. It is likely that Anne managed a household that included the children and, at times, members of the extended Hathaway and Shakespeare families.

Shakespeare's Career and the Stratford-London Divide
In the late 1580s and 1590s, William Shakespeare's career drew him to London, where he acted and wrote for the theater. By contrast, surviving evidence ties Anne to Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1597, her husband purchased New Place, one of the town's substantial houses, which became the family's principal residence. The couple's paths therefore straddled two worlds: the commercial and theatrical life of London for William, and the civic, familial sphere of Stratford for Anne. Although anecdote has often romanticized estrangement or intimacy, the documents neither confirm nor deny such narratives. They do, however, show Anne at the center of a household that persisted in Stratford while William traveled and worked.

Loss and Family Alliances
In August 1596, Hamnet died at about eleven years old, a family sorrow noted in the parish register but otherwise undocumented. Susanna later married the physician John Hall in 1607, creating a prominent alliance within Stratford. Their daughter, Elizabeth Hall, became William Shakespeare's only grandchild to reach adulthood, and Anne's only grandchild to survive her. In early 1616, Judith married Thomas Quiney, a vintner; the marriage soon drew church court censure over licensing formalities, and legal complications surrounded Quiney around that time. These difficulties appear to have influenced revisions to William Shakespeare's will, completed in March 1616.

Property, Will, and Widowhood
When William Shakespeare died in April 1616, his will famously left Anne the household's "second best bed". Modern readers sometimes treat that bequest as slighting, but in the legal framework of the day a widow commonly held dower rights: a life interest in one-third of her husband's freehold property. The bulk of the estate was settled on Susanna and John Hall to secure continuity, while the bed bequest likely had personal or customary meaning within the home. After her husband's death, Anne appears to have remained at New Place, living in close association with Susanna and John Hall, whose professional practice and civic profile anchored the family's status in Stratford.

Death and Commemoration
Anne Hathaway died in August 1623 and was buried on August 6 in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, where her husband had been interred seven years earlier. A brass inscription records her age as 67 and calls her the wife of "Mr. William Shakespeare", providing the most straightforward outline of her identity as preserved by her contemporaries. The text reads in period spelling that here lies interred the body of Anne, wife of Mr. William Shakespeare, departed this life the 6th day of August 1623, aged 67 years. The ledger stone places her memory physically within the same sacred space as her husband and other family members.

Name, Records, and Historical Gaps
The mixture of "Anne" and "Agnes" across documents, the compressed timetable of the 1582 marriage license and bond, and the puzzling "Anne Whateley" register entry illustrate how much of Anne's biography is mediated by administrative records rather than narrative testimony. These sources fix her relationships to Richard Hathaway, Fulke Sandells, John Richardson, William Shakespeare, and her children, but they do not reveal her voice, outlook, or day-to-day choices. Where the record does speak, it shows a woman embedded in a network of family responsibilities and property arrangements that were typical for her station.

Legacy
Anne Hathaway's legacy lies in what can be securely said and what must be carefully inferred. She was the elder spouse of England's most celebrated playwright, the mother of Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith, mother-in-law to John Hall and Thomas Quiney, and grandmother to Elizabeth Hall. She lived her life largely in Stratford-upon-Avon, associated by birth with the Hathaway farm at Shottery and by marriage with New Place. No credible evidence makes her an actress, and no surviving letters or diaries record her opinions of the London stage. Instead, her biography is written in parish entries, wills, property records, and memorial brass - the materials that, for many early modern women, have always borne the weight of remembrance.

Our collection contains 3 quotes who is written by Anne, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Music - Equality.

Other people realated to Anne: Michael Caine (Actor), Robert De Niro (Actor), Matthew McConaughey (Actor), Helena Bonham Carter (Actress), Rihanna (Musician), Hector Elizondo (Actor), Cate Blanchett (Actress), Jake Gyllenhaal (Actor), Christopher Nolan (Director), Edward Zwick (Director)

• Wikipedia