Anne Hathaway’s Pt 1
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 29 Jun 2018 21:47
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Anne
Hathaway’s Cottage – Part
One   We drove to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage from
our digs, plan, to leave the car and use the Hop On Hop Off bus to see the
important houses in town.
   Roses around the coach park. Walking
toward the entrance and flower
beds.
 We entered through the shop (left) and
headed through the garden.
   Lovely roses and colourful deckchairs........
   .............with the Bard’s quotes on them.
   The veg plot and information.
 Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, gorgeous in the
sunshine.
   Gardeners were busy in the side garden,
pity that thatches have to be covered in chicken wire nowadays, still immaculate-looking though and our first
room where a guide told us the history of the
house(s).
  On the walls were these watercolours of the
house before and after being extended.
   We had to step through the first room, out and along to the far end,
to enter the original house, with its original flooring and some of the furniture.
Taken from the Shakespeare Trust Website: Anne
Hathaway’s Cottage was originally a farmhouse. It was
built in 1463 of cruck construction, when the building would have comprised of
just three rooms. The kitchen and parlour still remain from the original
medieval construction. The first Hathaway to live in the cottage was Anne’s
grandfather John Hathaway, who was a tenant sheep farmer. Anne, later
Shakespeare’s wife, was born in the cottage in
1556.
When the site was a farm it was known as ‘Hewlands’ and the Hathaway family were very successful sheep farmers. The garden would have been a farmyard with some livestock and likely a herb garden. After the death of Anne’s father in 1581, Anne’s brother Bartholomew inherited the tenancy of the 90-acre farm and later bought it freehold. He went on to make various improvements to the cottage including an extension. The first floor was inserted and the chimneys added at the same time. This work was completed before the death of Bartholomew in 1624. (We think our earliest experience of an extension) By the late 1800s, the family’s fortunes were on the wane; some property including land and houses were mortgaged and eventually sold. In 1838, the cottage itself was sold and the remaining Hathaway family continued to live in the cottage as tenants. One of the last Hathaways to live in the cottage was Mary Baker. When the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust purchased the cottage in 1892 from the then landlord, Mary and her family were paid the large wage of £75 per year. Their duties were to share family stories and to care for the cottage, both of which we continue to do today. Her son William Baker still occupied part of the cottage until he left in 1911.
Taken from a Building History Website: A cruck frame is one where the structure of the building depends on two or more 'A-frames' which go from the top of the building down to the ground. These frames are usually constructed of curved timbers (the cruck blades) using the natural shape of a tree and in many cases the tree is sliced long-ways down the middle so that whatever the shape of the curve the two sides are symmetrical. The two beams are joined together at the top by a ‘collar’ or tie-beam. By the eighteenth and
nineteenth century, cruck-framed buildings were in decline both because of the
success of box framing and because they used so much timber. Farm
modernisation also reduced the need for indoor threshing areas. The box
frame
as an alternative had also become popular for residential
buildings because it allowed the building of second and third floors and, being
a square construction, made more use of town-centre space above the ground
floor. Box framing
also made it much easier to add extra wings to a
building.
 The
cosy kitchen-sitting room was laid as it would have
been during Anne’s childhood. Recipes were scattered about (like the one
above).
   The
fireplace had a bread oven, stew pot and brace of pheasant as if the family would be back in a
minute.
  Up
the stairs to the upper chamber, a cloth at the
bottom of the bed told us the
contents.
  The
spinning wheel and a truckle
bed under the main one.
   The
space between the upper chamber and the next bedroom had more info. Then more as we went
in.
   The
next bedroom had a busy looking table in the far
corner, to the left a simple table, in front of the
busy box, a game.
9
Men’s Morris. This game can be played by two people. Each player needs nine
counters. You could use coins or buttons. In William Shakespeare’s time,
children probably used pebbles or fruit stones as
pieces.
The
first person to remove all the opponent’s men is the
winner.
  Bed info and an elderly pair of
chests.
In the busy box was a laminated copy of:- Direct transcript of
Bartholomew Hathaway’s Will, 1624. (Try reading aloud – it’s easier) In the
name of God, Amen, the sixteenth day of September Anno Domini.... way of
Shottery in the parish of Olde Stratford in the county of Warwick, yeoman, being
in good and prosperous health, and of sownd and perfect.... ankes be given to
Almighty God, do ordeine and make this my last will and testament in manner and
forme folloeing, that is to say, first, I bequeath my... to the handes of
Almighty God, my maker, and by fayth in the merittes and passion of his sone,
Jesus Christ, I beleeve and hope to be saved, and my body to therth from
(wh)ence yt came to be burryed in the Christian burriall of the parrish church
of Olde Startford aforesaid, hopeing to arise at the latter day, and to receive
the reward of his elect; and for my worldly goodes I bequeath them as
followeth, that is
to say, –Imprimis, I give and bequeath to Richard Hathaway, my sone, the some of
twenty shillings of lawful English money to be paide unto him within one yeire
after my decease. Ittem, I give and bequeath unto Isabell Hathaway, my
graundchild, daughter of saide Richard, one chilver shipp. Ittem, I give and
bequeath unto my sone, Edmonde Hathaway, my third sone, the whole some of one
hundred and twenty poundes of lawful English monye to be paide unto him the
saide Edmond within seaven yeires next after my decease, that is to say, the
some of twenty poundes a yeire for the first five yeires next after my decease,
and the other twenty powndes to be paide tenne powndes a yeire the next two
yeires followeinge after saide terme of five yeires in full satisfaction of the
saide summe of one hundred and twenty powndes. (keep up, you are only
reading, I’m typing this ‘stuff’) Ittem, I further give unto my saide sone
Edmonde my youngest gray mare, and my best cowe soe two and my elme cart and the
wheeles belonging to yt, which mare, cart and wheeles he hath alredy in
possession; togither alsoe with my best fether bedd, my best heiling, two paire
of sheetes and one payre of my best blankettes and my best bowlster, and one of
my best pillowes, my second brass pott and one the bedsteedes in the
over-chamber. Ittem, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Anne Edwards, the now
wyfe of Richard Edwardes, the summe of thirty shillings to buy her a gowne, and
to her seven children, Avery, Bartholomew, Alice, Thomas, Richard and Ursula
Edwardes, I give unto each of them severally the severall sums of six shillinges
eight pence apeece to be paide unto them within one yeire after my decease.
Ittem, I give and bequeath unto my sone, John Hathaway, his children Alice
Hathaway, Richard, Anne and Ursula Hathaway, and to each of them one of my best
ewes a-peece. Ittem, I give and bequeath unto my said sone John Hathaway, and to
the heires males of his body lawfully begotten, all that my messuage or
tenement, orchard, garden and backside, with thappertenaunces, seituate, lyeing
and being in Shottery aforesaid, togither alsoe with two yard land and a half
earable, meddow, comon and pasture, with two closses therunto belonging,
seituate, lyeing and beinge within the towne, hamlettes and feildes of Shottery
and Old Stratford, with theire and every of theire appurtenaunces, and for want
of such issue of the said John Hathaway, I give and bequeath the said messuage
or tenement, two yard land and a half, with thaappurtenaunces, unto the saide
Edmond Hathaway my ... lawfully to (be) begotten, and for want of such issue of
the saide Edmonde Hathaway, I give and bequeath the saide messuage or tenement
... aunces unto my sone Richard Hathaway, and to the heires males of his body
lawfully begotten or to be begotten, and for want of such issue of the said
Richard, then to remaine to the right heires of me the said Bartholomew Hathaway
for ever. Ittem, I give and bequeath towardes the repaire of the parish church
of Olde Stratford the some of tenn shillinges. Ittem, I give and bequeath unto
the poore of the said parrish the some of thirteene shillings foure pence to be
distributed amongst them at my funerall. All the rest of my goodes and cattell
and chattelles whatsoever unbequeathed, my debts and legacyes being paide, and
funerall exspences discharged, I wholly give unto my sone John Hathaway, whome I
doe ordeine and make my whole executor of this my last will and testament.
Overseers of this my last will and testament I doe make choyse of John Hall of
Stratford aforesaid, gentleman, and Stephen Burman of Shottery aforesaid,
yeoman, and for theire paines therein to be taken I do give unto eache of them
two shillinges six pence a peece. In wytnesse wherof to this my last will and
testament I have heerunto sett my hand and seale in the presence of these
wittnesses heerunder written. – Witnesses heerunto William Court
junior, Clement Burman, Stephen Burman, WIlliam Richardson. – Proved at
Stratford-upon-Avon on the sixth of December, 1624, in the Peculiar Court’
When I asked Bear if he wanted this will in the blog, Oooo yes, never seen one that old and it will be fun.
Really, I nearly lost the will to live after my fifth I give and
bequeath....... You love me really. Don’t push
your luck....
    The next
bedroom was in the extension, the staircase in the far corner, beyond,
the final bedroom.
   The desk
in this room and the info.
CONTINUED |
