21-507: William Clopton (1538–1592) was a member of the English gentry who inherited New Place in Stratford upon Avon , and in 1563 sold it to William Bott. William Clopton, born in 1538, was the second but only surviving son of William Clopton (died 1560), and Elizabeth Grey, the daughter of Sir Edward Grey (d. 14 February 1529) of Enville, Staffordshire , and Joyce Horde. From the thirteenth century,
42-487: A minor and before the fact that he had murdered his father was discovered. According to other sources, however, Fulke Underhill was hanged in 1599 for his father's murder and attainted for felony, whereby his property, including New Place, was forfeit to the crown. In 1602 the Court of Exchequer appointed a commission to "obtain an account of the possessions of Fulke Underhill of Fillongley, county Warwick, felon, who had taken
63-512: A substantial property holder in Warwickshire . At his death in 1570, Underhill left New Place to his son, William Underhill II (d.1597), who in 1597 sold it to William Shakespeare for £60. He (William Underhill II) died two months later, and it emerged that he had been poisoned by his eldest son and heir, Fulke Underhill . According to some sources, Fulke Underhill died in May 1598 while still
84-848: A surgeon, Thomas Bentley (d.1549), who left his wife, Anne, a life interest in the lease during her widowhood. Anne remarried, however, and after she became the wife of Richard Charnock, William Clopton II retook possession of New Place. By his wife Elizabeth Grey, the daughter of Sir Edward Grey of Enville, Staffordshire , William Clopton II had a son, William Clopton III (1537–1592), to whom he left New Place by will in 1560. On 20 December 1563, hard-pressed for money to pay his sisters' marriage portions and continue travelling in Italy, William Clopton III sold New Place to William Bott , who had already resided in it for several years. In 1567 Bott sold New Place to William Underhill I (c. 1523 – 31 March 1570), an Inner Temple lawyer and clerk of assizes at Warwick , and
105-441: Is known to have been used to treat certain medical conditions at the time by Elizabethans , as well as in the manufacture of materials such as sails , rope , and clothing, and may have also been used for purposes of pleasure. The pipe fragments, however, could have belonged to any number of other persons besides the famous playwright, and cannot be definitively dated to the periods of his residency there as they could have been from
126-489: Is said to have built 'the oldest surviving portions of Clopton House'. He and his wife were Catholic recusants ; however after his death it was reported that his widow 'goeth now to church'. He died in 1592. His widow, Anne, survived him by two years; both were buried in Holy Trinity Church . As he had no surviving male issue, he had settled his property on his two surviving daughters, Joyce and Anne. He married Anne,
147-427: The 18th century, around 200 years after Shakespeare's death. [REDACTED] Media related to New Place at Wikimedia Commons 52°11′27″N 1°42′27″W / 52.1907°N 1.7076°W / 52.1907; -1.7076 Reversion (law) A reversion in property law is a future interest that is retained by the grantor after the conveyance of an estate of a lesser quantum than he has (such as
168-516: The Clopton family seat was Clopton House near Stratford upon Avon . William Clopton's father is said to have been the 'champion of the Catholic party' in the area, against William Lucy (d.1551) of Charlecote . He served the table of Queen Mary I with wafers at the feast which followed her coronation on 1 October 1553, receiving as his fee 'all the instruments as well of silver or other metal for making of
189-500: The daughter of Sir George Griffith, with whom he had two sons and four daughters: New Place New Place was William Shakespeare 's final place of residence in Stratford-upon-Avon . He died there in 1616. The whole building was demolished in 1702 by Sir John Clopton, who replaced it with a modern-style house, also called New Place. This in turn was demolished by Francis Gastrell, vicar of Frodsham , Cheshire, in 1759. It
210-450: The garden from the site all together. Archaeologists from Time Team visited the dig during 2011 and a special programme on the subject, "Searching for Shakespeare's House", was transmitted on 11 March 2012. BBC One National Treasures broadcast a live programme from the site in August 2011. Findings from the excavation indicated the presence of a Tudor structure but were inconclusive as to
231-464: The garden said to have been planted by Shakespeare. In retaliation, the townsfolk destroyed New Place's windows. Gastrell applied for local permission to extend the garden. His application was rejected and his tax was increased, so Gastrell retaliated by demolishing the house in 1759. This greatly outraged the inhabitants and Gastrell was eventually forced to leave town. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust acquired New Place and Nash's House in 1876. Today
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#1732872268694252-532: The ground plan of Shakespeare's original house. Clay pipe fragments unearthed in recent years in Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon garden were found to possibly contain traces of cannabis , along with tobacco and camphor , based on the results of a study published in the South African Journal of Science . This has fuelled speculation by some that Shakespeare may have possibly smoked cannabis, which
273-408: The house next door. After Elizabeth died, the house was returned to the Clopton family. In 1702 Sir John Clopton demolished the original New Place, building in its place a replacement, also called New Place, in a very different contemporary style. In 1756 then-owner Reverend Francis Gastrell (vicar of Frodsham , Cheshire ) having become tired of visitors, attacked and destroyed a mulberry tree in
294-446: The life of his father, William Underhill, by poison". When Fulke's younger brother, Hercules Underhill , came of age in 1602, his father's former properties were regranted to him, and he and Shakespeare negotiated a confirmation of the sale. In 1616 the house passed to his daughter Susanna Hall , and then his granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall , who had recently remarried after the death of her first husband, Thomas Nash , who had owned
315-467: The male heirs of the lordship of Clopton. In his will William Clopton I (d. 29 May 1521) granted his wife, Rose (d. 17 August 1525) a life interest in the property, with the reversion after her death to his son, William Clopton II. When John Leyland visited in 1540, he described New Place as a " praty house of Bricke and tymbre wherm he (ie Hugh Clopton) lived in his latter dayes and dyed". In November 1543, William Clopton II leased it for forty years to
336-504: The same place. After his father's death, Clopton resided at Clopton House , while his father's agent, William Bott, moved from his home in Snitterfield into New Place in Stratford upon Avon . William Clopton, aged twenty-two at his father's death in 1560, was his father's only surviving son and heir, but in order to pay the legacies bequeathed to his four sisters, Anne, Elizabeth, Eleanor and Rose, and to finance his travels in Italy, he
357-507: The same wafers, and also all the napkins and other profits thereunto appertaining'. William Clopton's parents died within a year of each other. His mother, Elizabeth Grey, was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford on 31 January 1559, probably in what has been termed the Clopton chapel at the east end of the north aisle of the church. On 4 January 1560, his father made his last will, witnessed by his agent William Bott , requesting burial in
378-518: The site of New Place is accessible through a museum that resides in Nash's House , the house next door. The site received 109,452 visitors during 2018. Excavations in the grounds of Nash's House were initially carried out in 1862 and January 1864 by James Halliwell-Phillipps but after the excavations were finished, the ruins were eventually covered up by a garden and further excavations carried out during 2010, 2011 and 2012 by Birmingham Archaeology, removing
399-477: Was forced to sell a portion of his inheritance. In 1563 he sold New Place to William Bott, who had already been residing there for some time. However in the following year he brought a case in the Court of Star Chamber against Bott, accusing him of fraud and forgery. Bott sold New Place in 1567 to William Underhill (c.1523 – 31 March 1570), an Inner Temple lawyer and substantial property holder in Warwickshire . He
420-711: Was initially within the plot of an Iron Age farmstead sometime around 700 BC – 43 AD, as indicated by pottery that also dates to the same time period. New Place was built atop the site of a former 13th-century timber building in 1483 by Sir Hugh Clopton , a wealthy London mercer and Lord Mayor . Built of timber and brick (then an innovation in Stratford) it had ten fireplaces, five handsome gables, and grounds large enough to incorporate two barns and an orchard. In 1496 Sir Hugh Clopton left New Place in his will to his great-nephew William Clopton I ('my cousin William Clopton') and
441-477: Was never rebuilt after the second demolition and only the foundations remain. Though the house no longer exists, the site is owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust , which maintains it as a specially-designed garden for tourists. The three storied house stood on the corner of Chapel Street and Chapel Lane, and was apparently the second largest dwelling in the town. The current site of New Place
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