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Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 4

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IV. BIRTH OF SHAKESPEARE’S TWIN CHILDREN (1585).

Baptismal Register, Stratford.

1584 [i.e. 1585] February 2 Hamnet and Judeth, son and daughter to William Shakspere.

Note. The twin children were presumably named after Hamnet Sadler, a baker of Stratford, and his wife Judith. Fripp (Richard Quyny, p. 108) notes that Hamnet and Hamlet are interchangeable spellings in the Stratford town records.[1]

Hamnet Shakespeare was buried August 11, 1596, having lived eleven and a half years. (See no. XII.) Judith married Thomas Quyny of Stratford (Feb. 10, 1616) and was buried there February 9, 1662, aged seventy-seven. She had three sons, all of whom died long before her and unmarried. The eldest, Shakespeare Quyny (baptized November 28, 1616), lived less than six months.


Footnotes

  1. See p. 84, fifth line from bottom.