;r 7 rmaKgpeare's jTiarna^e. 

 J / 



The gleanings of tradition excepted, the first 

 owledge that has reached us of the poet, af- 

 his baptism, has reference to his marriage, 

 we states that ' he thought fit to marry while 

 was yet very young,' and that his wife was 

 3 daughter of one Hathaway, said to have 

 2n a substantial yeoman, in the neighborhood 

 Stratford ; and later disclosures prove that 

 iwe must of had access to good sources of infor- 

 ition. The marriage took place in the fall of 

 32,* when the poet was in his nineteenth year. 

 L the twenty-eight of November, that year, 

 Ik Sandels and John Kichardson subscribed a 

 id whereby they became liable in the sum of 

 ty pounds sterling, to be forfeited to the 

 'hop of Worcester, in case there should be 

 ind any lawful impediment to the marriage of 

 illiam Shakspeare and Anne Hathaway, of 

 atford ; the object being to procure such a 

 pensation from the Bishop as would author- 

 the ceremony after once publishing the bans, 

 e original bond is preserved at Worcester, 

 ;h the marks and seals of the two bondsmen 

 xed, and also bearing a seal with the initials 

 H., as to show that the bride's father, Rich- 

 [ Hathaway, was also present and consented 

 the act. 



["he parish books all about Stratford and 

 ?rcestcr have been ransacked, but no registry 

 the marriage has been discovered. The pro- 

 ilty seems to be, that the ceremony took place 

 one of the neighboring parishes, perhaps 

 jston, or Billesday, or Luddington, where the 

 isters of that period have not been preserved, 

 ne Hathaway was of Shottery, a pleasant 

 age situated within an easy walk of Stratford, 

 I belonging to the same parish. No registry 

 her babtism has come to light ; but the bap- 

 nal register of Stratford did not commence 

 1558. She died on the sixth of August, 

 3, and the inscription on her monument in- 

 ns us that she was sixty-seven years of age. 

 r birth therefore, must have occurred in 1556, 

 tit years before that of her husband. 





LF, 63, SNOW HILL. 



>o OBWOINO BY HAT.F._A very particular Friend " 



ww Smith, and a very decided enemy to all worldly 



*,a9 anybody m Philadelphia knows : but a fcisiuesa 



* r ^ S Uth dida ' t kn W> Aud " thereb ? 



m correspondent had directed his letter to Amo* 

 h, Asqrnre." Friend Amos replied punctually and 

 despatching business matters, added the following 



.e H K-U FT 6 - to , illf ? rirt y u *, *<% a merahe? 

 Society of Fnends, 1 am not free to use worldly 



n,fl ?r iag , my fneuds ' and wlsh them to refrain 

 them to me. Tiwu wilt, therefore, please t 



' the end of rri ^ nftra ^ * 

 , without any Mi! " 



