London Lay Subsidy Default Roll, St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, naming William Shakespeare as a householder in 1597

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. Each collection typically generated one lay subsidy roll and one default roll for each ward. For a full explanation, and references to associated documents, see “William Shakespeare as taxpayer and tax defaulter.”

In 1597 Shakespeare’s wealth was estimated at £5, on which he was to pay 5s in tax, calculated at one shilling per pound. Shakespeare’s failure to pay the current subsidy is recorded in this default roll, listing him as one of four householders from “St Ellens parish” who had died, departed the parish, or who simply did not pay:

Peter Dalilla                lli        ls
William Shackspeare  vli       vs
Thomas Smythe gent. xxxli   xxxs
William Boyese          xxxli   xxxs

This default roll implies the existence of a lay subsidy roll for 1597, now lost, similar to the surviving lay subsidy roll for 1598. This non-extant lay subsidy roll would have listed William Shakespeare along with all other householders of the parish, with the marginal annotation “Affid.,” an abbreviation of “Affidavit,” against the four names included in this default roll, signifying that for some reason money was not collected. Possibly Shakespeare’s tax was paid, or otherwise discharged, as no subsequent documents are known to record an unpaid debt of 5s, in contrast to documents attempting to recover his 1598 debt of 13s 4d.

This Lay Subsidy Roll reveals that in 1597 William Shakespeare was, or recently had been, a householder in the parish of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate. Due to incomplete documentation, it is not known when he first took up residence in the parish.