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William Shakespeare
was believed to have been born in the Shakespeare family
home in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, England
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His actual date
of birth cannot be substantiated as at this time in England
births were not formally registered and Birth Certificates
were not produced
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His birth date
can, however be guessed as due to the high mortality rate of
infants it was the custom of Elizabethan parents to
have their children baptised three days after their birth
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There is a
record of William's baptism in the register of the Holy
Trinity Parish Church in Stratford dated 26th April 1564
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The baptismal
register of the Holy Trinity parish church, in Stratford,
shows the following entry, in Latin, for April 26, 1564:
Gulielmus Filius Johannes Shakespeare
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Therefore the
birthday of William Shakespeare has been set as April 23rd
1564
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This date has
importance to England as April 23rd is St Georges Day - the
Patron Saint of England
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William
Shakespeare was the third child of John and Mary - the two
previous children, Joan and Margaret, sadly died of the
Bubonic Plague (also known as the Black Death)
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The Bubonic
Plague was often transmitted by the fleas that lived on
animals
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The father of
John Shakespeare was a retailer of farm produce, such as
animal hides, and the family were therefore in constant
danger of contracting the Bubonic Plague via the farm
produce
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The Bubonic
Plague could also be air bound and transmitted from an
infected person's breath
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It is therefore
not surprising that the virulent nature of the disease
resulted in frequent outbreaks of the terrible disease and
that the two sisters of Shakespeare died in their infancy,
one at the age of eight and one of his brothers at the age
of 27 years old - all victims of the plague
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Neither is it
surprising that William Shakespeare therefore suffered from a terrible
fear of the Plague throughout his life - his own son, Hamnet
died at the young age of just eleven years old from this
terrible disease
