William Shakespeare had a big family and was the third of eight children. His family lived from the Tudor era,
into the Elizabethan era. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert,
Richard, and Edmund. William had another two siblings, Margaret and Joan, but they unfortunately died when they
were a baby. Shakespeare's parents were, John and Mary Shakespeare. His father was a leather merchant, but later
on ran for mayor, and was elected. His mother, Mary Shakespeare, was a landed heiress, and a wealthy landowning
farmer. William lived with his parents and his five siblings in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. William Shakespeare
also lived through the Black Plague at the age of 11, which was the cause of the deaths of his siblings, Joan and
Margaret. Unfortunately, there are no documented facts on William Shakespeare between the years 1578-1582
(From when he left school, at the age of 14 to when he married Anne Hathaway, at the age of 18), this is called the
first lost years. Therefore, we do not know anything about William's teenager years. Even if we don't know much
about Shakespeare, we know that he had a great family, and a simple childhood.
