Still Moving Between Stratford and London
Tradition says Shakespeare retired to Stratford, but the surviving record shows continued travel. In 1612, he appeared as a witness in the Bellott v Mountjoy case, involving a disputed marriage dowry. The following year, he returned to London to purchase an apartment near the Blackfriars Theatre.
He also faced family concerns at home. In 1613, John Lane accused Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna of having contracted gonorrhea from a lover. Susanna and her husband, Dr John Hall, sued for slander. Lane failed to appear and was convicted.
A Troubled Wedding Arrangement
In the last weeks of Shakespeare’s life, Thomas Quiney—a tavern keeper who planned to marry his younger daughter Judith—was prosecuted by the church court for fornication. A woman named Margaret Wheeler had claimed Quiney fathered her child; both mother and baby died soon afterward.
Quiney’s disgrace prompted Shakespeare to revise his will, protecting Judith’s inheritance from possible mishandling.
Death and Burial
Shakespeare signed his will while describing himself as being in “perfect health.” He died on 23 April 1616, aged 52. A later tradition claimed he caught a fever after drinking heavily with Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton, but no contemporary source explains his death.
He was buried in Holy Trinity Church, where he had purchased a share of the local tithe. His famous grave therefore reflects both religious honour and financial investment.
His final years were not wrapped in theatrical grandeur. They were filled with lawsuits, family anxieties, property, and paperwork—the ordinary pressures of a prosperous household.