Will at centre of legal battle over Shakespeare’s home unearthed after 150 years

Summary

A will that has been lost for more than 150 years and was at the centre of a bitter legal battle by William Shakespeare’s family over who owned the playwright’s final home has been unearthed in an unlabelled box at the National Archives.The original 1642 document was made by Thomas Nash, who was married to Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hall. In it, he bequeathed New Place, reputedly the second grandest house in Stratford-upon-Avon, to his own cousin Edward Nash.However, on Thomas’s death in 1647, Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna Hall, and granddaughter Elizabeth, Thomas’s widow, refused to honour the will, claiming Shakespeare’s own will had decreed the property be left to them and Thomas had no right to bequeath it.The result was chancery court proceedings, lodged by Edward against Elizabeth, to claim the valuable property.The Nash will has now been rediscovered in a box of unlabelled chancery documents from the 17th century and earlier by Dr Dan Gosling, a principal legal records specialist at the National Archives.“It was an incredible find,” said Gosling, who was sorting through the boxes, which were not catalogued or marked with dates or descriptions.A section of thee 1642 document. Photograph: The National ArchivesThe will was known about in the mid-19th century after being seen by a Shakespeare scholar when originally held in the Rolls chapel. When documents were later sorted it ended up in the unmarked box. “It wasn’t listed, and then was left there for about 150 years or so,” said Gosling.Shakespeare bought New Place, a three-storied timber and brick dwelling, for £60 in 1597 and lived there until his death in 1616. It had 10 fireplaces, five handsome gables and grounds large enough to incorporate two barns and an orchard.Thomas Nash made the will while living at New Place with his Susanna and Elizabeth. Though Shakespeare’s will had left his land and the property to his daughter and granddaughter, “it is possible Thomas Nash was making this will in ...