A 1642 will at the centre of a family legal dispute about a house belonging to William Shakespeare has been discovered at The National Archives.
The will, made by Thomas Nash on 25 August 1642, was found in a box of Chancery documents from the 17th century and earlier.
Chancery Courts were courts of equity used to handle civil disputes from the 14th century.
Thomas Nash (1593-1647) married Elizabeth Hall, the granddaughter of celebrated playwright William Shakespeare, in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1626. He was 32 and she was 18.
The couple lived in New Place, a house in Stratford which Shakespeare purchased in 1597, and which was his place of death in 1616. In his will, Nash left the house to his cousin, Edward Nash.
Unfortunately, Nash had no right to bequeath the house because it had been left by Shakespeare in his will to his daughter, Susanna, Elizabeth’s mother, who was still alive at the time and also living in New Place.
The confusion caused by Nash’s will prompted Susanna and Elizabeth to obtain a legal document confirming that they still held Shakespeare’s estates when Thomas Nash died before both of them in 1647.
This riled Edward Nash and he took Elizabeth to court the following year, arguing that she should honour the terms of Thomas’ will.
Dr Dan Gosling, Principal Legal Records Specialist at The National Archives, who discovered the will, said: “This is a really exciting discovery, showing how the execution of Shakespeare’s will wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. Elizabeth had to bring her husband’s will into court and explain why she hadn’t honoured the terms of it.
“In the Chancery proceedings, though, Elizabeth stood up to Edward Nash, arguing that her late husband had no right to grant New Place, specifically mentioning that it had been left by her grandfather William Shakespeare to her mother Susanna Hall.”
Elizabeth subsequently married John Barnard in 1649. He was knighted in 1661 for his support of the Royalist cause during the English Civil War, making her Lady Elizabeth Barnard.
She died without issue in Abington, Northamptonshire in 1670, making her Shakespeare's last direct descendant.
You can find out more about Chancery Court records in an article by researcher Susan Moore in Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine October 2025, which goes on sale on 9 September.
In the article, Susan Moore writes: “Disputes tend to fall into two very broad categories: unpaid debts and the possession of property, the latter generally being more informative and interesting particularly when there is a dispute over a will or a marriage settlement.”
