Anne Hathaway’s Life as an Elizabethan Housewife

While her husband, William, was working hard in London to support the family, Mrs Shakespeare was working hard, too, in the home in Stratford. Here we take a look at what Anne Hathaway’s life as an Elizabethan housewife would have been like.

Girls in Elizabethan England were not given a formal education and weren’t even taught to read at home. Even among the great families that was the case, and a man would have been very advanced if he taught his daughters to read. Sir Thomas Moore, Henry VIII’s chancellor, was notorious for teaching his daughters to read and encouraging them to read philosophy and theology books. The rest of the community considered that scandalous. Queen Elizabeth was also an exception. Being groomed as a possible monarch, she was educated by the best tutors available.

But Anne Hathaway was illiterate, as were her two daughters. A great deal would have been expected of her, though, as a wife. She was responsible for managing the household which in those days, was far more demanding than it is today. Anne had to cook and preserve the food herself, using equipment that we would consider impossible today. Acquiring food was in itself an almost full-time job – there were markets, but not nearly as well-stocked as markets are today. Poor harvests, such as those that occurred in the 1590s, led to widespread starvation. Most housewives had kitchen gardens where they grew basic vegetables, which were roasted or boiled and served in soups and stews.

What qualities did Anne have to possess to be called a good housewife? Regardless of all her other functions, there were some precise expectations for her presence in the kitchen. In one of the first cookery books published in England, 1615, the author says: now that I proceed unto Cookery it self, which is the dressing and ordering of meat, in good and wholesome manner; to which when our House-wife shall address her self, she shall well understand that these qualities must ever accompany it; First, she must be cleanly both in body and garments, she must have a quick eye, a curious nose, a perfect taste, and ready ear; (she must not be butter-fingred, sweet toothed, nor faint-hearted) for the first will let every thing fall, the seconde will consume what it should encrease; and the last will lose time with too much niceness.

If the Shakespeare household was typical there would have been three meals a day. Each member of the family would have had a quarter of a pound of meat, a loaf of bread, homegrown vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, and ale. When she got hold of a chunk of meat Anne would have had to preserve it in salt or smoke it. Later, as William brought in more money, she would have been able to buy spices to counter the extreme salt taste of the meat or disguise the taste of meat that had gone off. She would also have to turn milk into butter and cheese – commodities that didn’t go off as quickly as milk. And she would have to brew ale – a very weak ale, safe from the diseases that water carried.

When her husband was at home on a visit, and particularly after his retirement, when he lived at home with her, she had to entertain his friends. Anne would have been expected to arrange sleeping accommodation for his guests, good meals and bathing facilities.

Anne also had to do the household accounting, budgeting, and everything that goes with making ends meet with, perhaps, some treats for the children. Considering that she could not read and write it all had to be done in her head.

Anne had three children, fewer than most of her neighbours would have had, but even then, raising them was a huge job. She had to do everything to keep them alive and well at a time when child mortality was common. Even so, in spite of all her efforts her son, Hamnet, died aged eleven of unknown causes. She had to teach her daughters household skills and she had to make sure that her son had the best education possible. Hamnet’s grandfather and father had both been to school and his mother had an obligation to ensure a good schooling for him as well.

It’s doubtful that Anne had any time for herself in the way that we try and make time for ourselves these days. However, she lived to a good old age, as a widow, and we can take pleasure in the thought that her husband left her well off and that she may have taken it easier once her daughters had grown up.