Remembrancer Roll 1598, Defaults for subsidies granted in 1593 and 1597, naming William Shakespeare

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.