Parish register entry recording Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare’s baptisms

Hamnet and Judith, William and Anne Shakespeare’s second and third children, were baptized on the same day, February 2, 1585, according to the Holy Trinity Church parish register. Similar to the other Shakespeare family parish register entries, an “X” was added by a later hand to highlight its significance. However, it is no longer visible due to rebinding. The entry does not actually describe Hamnet and Judith as twins but the twenty-month interval between their elder sibling’s baptism and their own must surely indicate that they were.

The choice of names is significant. Hamnet (and its variant, Hamlet) is very unusual and rarely occurred in local parish registers at this time. However, Hamnet Sadler was a well-established burgess of the town at that time and he married Judith, daughter of Thomas Staunton of Longbridge. This coincidence of the couple’s first names and those of William and Anne’s children (especially as the name Hamnet was so unusual) strongly suggests that the couple acted as godparents.

Hamnet Sadler and William Shakespeare may well have been schoolfellows and they were still in close touch in 1616. Hamnet witnessed Shakespeare’s will, under which he also received a small bequest to purchase a mourning ring. The only other Stratford contemporary named Hamnet was the son of John Smith, vintner. Born in September 1583, he was Hamnet Sadler’s nephew and was clearly named after him.

As William and Anne had no further children, scholars have suggested that carrying twins to full term may have had an adverse effect on Anne’s ability to bear further children. However, over the period 1560 to 1600, in at least ten out of eighteen cases in which both twins are known to have survived for at least three months, the couple did have more children.