Shakespeare purchases Chapel Lane properties: Copy of court roll recording the assignment of a cottage in Chapel Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, from Walter Getley to William Shakespeare

Shortly after his purchase of land from the Combes, a major investment, Shakespeare acquired a cottage and a quarter acre of land in Chapel Lane, to be held by a form of tenure known as copyhold. It stood opposite the barns and garden behind Shakespeare’s residence of New Place and may have been acquired as service quarters with the land used as a kitchen garden. The document shown here is the only direct evidence of Shakespeare’s purchase of these Chapel Lane properties. 

The premises, with another small property in Church Street, were still held as part of the manor of Rowington, a settlement some eight miles north of Stratford. By 1602 the lordship of the manor was vested in Ann, the widow of Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, and the tenancy of this particular property was in the hands of Walter Getley. For the tenancy of such a property to change hands, the recognized practice was for the party in possession to appear at the manor court and surrender the property into the lord’s hand, and for it then to be granted to the new tenant. This transaction would be engrossed, or recorded, on the court roll and a copy given to the incoming tenant – hence the term copyhold. 

On this occasion, the niceties were not fully observed. Walter Getley performed his role, but Shakespeare was not there officially to take possession. He had also been absent in May 1602 when he purchased 107 acres from John Combe. The court steward therefore recorded that the premises would remain in the lord’s hands until Shakespeare came to receive it: "quousque predictus Willielmus Shakespere venerit ad capiendum premissa predicta." This stipulation was included in the document of transfer that was then handed to Shakespeare’s unnamed representative. As the court roll itself has not survived, this is the only direct evidence of the transaction. There is no record that Shakespeare ever appeared to complete the formalities, but his tenancy was never challenged. Later surveys of 1604 and 1606 record him as the tenant, and it was clearly in his hands when his made his will in 1616. A court roll estreat of 1617 also records that after Shakespeare’s death, his son-in-law John Hall and his wife Susanna Shakespeare were admitted to the property. 
    
These later surveys also give details of the rent due to the lord of the manor for this copyhold property, namely 2s. 6d. However, it is not known how much Shakespeare would have paid Walter Getley for this property transfer, nor indeed whether Shakespeare then decided to sub-let it for a higher rent rather than use it himself. Sub-letting was certainly an option pursued by other tenants of Rowington manor but the Chapel Lane cottage’s proximity to New Place certainly implies that it was seen simply as an adjunct to his principal residence.