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Palmer's Farm, home of Adam Palmer a friend and neighbour of the Arden family

Mary Shakespeare, née Mary Arden, (c. 1537–1608) was the mother of William Shakespeare. She was the daughter of Robert Arden and his first wife of unknown origin. The Arden family had been prominent in Warwickshire since before the Norman Conquest. She was the youngest of eight daughters, and she inherited her father's farm, now called Mary Arden's House, in Wilmcote, Warwickshire when he died in December 1556.

Her aunt Abigail Webb married Richard Shakespeare.^{[citation needed]} Richard was the father of Mary's husband John Shakespeare. Mary most likely married John Shakespeare in 1557. Mary gave birth to eight children: Joan (1558), Margaret (1562–63), William (1564–1616), Gilbert (1566–1612), Joan (1569–1646), Anne (1571–79), Richard (1574–1613), and Edmund (1580–1607).^[1]

Palmer's Farm (rear)

Mary Arden's House in Wilmcote has been maintained in good condition because it had been a working farmhouse over the centuries. It was bought by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1930 and refurnished in the Tudor style.^[2] In 2000 it was discovered that the building preserved as Mary Arden's house had belonged to a friend and neighbour Adam Palmer and the house was renamed Palmer's Farm. The house that had belonged to the Arden family which was near to Palmer's Farm had been acquired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1968 for preservation as part of a farmyard without knowing its true provenance.^[3] The house and farm are open as historic museum displaying 16th century life.

References

External links

• [1] Wilmcote in old picture postcards