Will at centre of legal battle over Shakespeare’s home unearthed after 150 years
A will that has been lost for more than 150 years and was at the centre of a bitter legal battle by William Shakespeare’s family over who owned the playwright’s final home has been unearthed in an unlabelled box at the National Archives.The original 1642 document was made by Thomas Nash, who was married to Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hall.In it, he bequeathed New Place, reputedly the second grandest house in Stratford-upon-Avon, to his own cousin Edward Nash.However, on Thomas’s death in 1647, Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna Hall, and granddaughter Elizabeth, Thomas’s widow, refused to honour the will, claiming Shakespeare’s own will had decreed the property be left to them and Thomas had no right to bequeath it.The result was chancery court proceedings, lodged by Edward against Elizabeth, to claim the valuable property.
The Nash will has now been rediscovered in a box of unlabelled chancery documents from the 17th century and earlier by Dr Dan Gosling, a principal legal records specialist at the National Archives.“It was an incredible find,” said Gosling, who was sorting through the boxes, which were not catalogued or marked with dates or descriptions.The will was known about in the mid-19th century after being seen by a Shakespeare scholar when originally held in the Rolls chapel.When documents were later sorted it ended up in the unmarked box.“It wasn’t listed, and then was left there for about 150 years or so,” said Gosling.
Shakespeare bought New Place, a three-storied timber and brick dwelling, for £60 in 1597 and lived there until his death in 1616.It had 10 fireplaces, five handsome gables and grounds large enough to incorporate two barns and an orchard.Thomas Nash made the will while living at New Place with his Susanna and Elizabeth.Though Shakespeare’s will had left his land and the property to his daughter and granddaughter, “it is possible Thomas Nash was making this will in the expectation that he would outlive Susanna and Elizabeth”, said Gosling.“But what actually happened was he died in 1647.
He was very young.Elizabeth was still only 39 and in fact remarried afterwards.” Susanna died in 1649.Susanna and Elizabeth created a deed of settlement confirming their rights.“Then Edward Nash takes Elizabeth to court.
He argues the will of Thomas Nash was proved in the property court of Canterbury, and Elizabeth Nash, as the widow and executrix, was duty bound to abide by the terms of the will and give New Place to Edward Nash.”Elizabeth appeared at the chancery court to explain the lands and property were granted to her and her mother by “my grandfather William Shakespeare”.As part of proceedings she was asked to produce Thomas’s will, which is how the document eventually ended up in the chancery archives, now held by the National Archives.The upshot of the proceedings is not clear, but, Gosling said, it appears Edward never got to own the property.When Elizabeth died in 1670, having had no children and ending Shakespeare’s direct line of descendants, her will stipulated Edward Nash would have the right to acquire New Place.
“She uses the words ‘according to my promise formally made to him’, which suggests some spoken procedures were made,” said Gosling.In the event, there is no recorded mention of Edward as owner of New Place, which went to the wealthy landowning Clopton family after Elizabeth’s death and was demolished in 1702.“It is such a lucky find,” said Gosling.“The chancery case is known about among some Shakespeare scholars and is mentioned in some Shakespeare histories but they always seem to refer back to the 19th century discovery of the will.”Now the original is documented, catalogued and available to the public for the first time in more than a century.
Wes Streeting’s row with pharma firms grows as they reject NHS drug pricing offer
A row between Wes Streeting and pharmaceutical companies has intensified after drugmakers rejected the health secretary’s latest offer on NHS drug pricing.The two sides failed to reach agreement by a midday deadline on Friday, meaning the mechanism under which the health service claws back some of the money it pays for medicines will continue at a rate the industry said was “unsustainable” and could ultimately disadvantage patients.At the heart of the dispute is the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (VPAG), under which pharma companies agree the amount of revenues from drug sales to the NHS they have to pay back.The two sides have been in acrimonious negotiations for months after the government raised the rate last December unexpectedly to almost 23% for 2025 for newer medicines.It is understood that Streeting had made an ultimatum that if the industry did not accept his latest “generous” offer on pricing then the arrangement would continue unamended and on Friday that scenario came to pass
‘Hopelessly insolvent’: how ‘saviour of steel’ Sanjeev Gupta’s global empire unravelled
A disparate collection of steelworks in Australia, the UK, Romania and the Czech Republic at the start of the year had two things in common: they were part of the metals empire of Sanjeev Gupta, and they had fallen silent.The idling plants were emblematic of the tycoon’s struggles. Born in India before starting a commodities trading business at university, Gupta was once nicknamed the “saviour of steel” for his plans to turn around struggling plants. Yet things looked very different this week, as he finally lost control of one of his key UK businesses.London’s high court ruled on Thursday that Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), a key operating subsidiary, should enter compulsory liquidation as it was “hopelessly insolvent”, with debts of several hundred million pounds but only £650,000 in its account
Government to cover pay and pensions at collapsed South Yorkshire steelworks
Workers at the UK’s third-largest steelworks, in South Yorkshire, have been assured that they will receive their pay for August as well as unpaid pension contributions after a government-appointed special manager took over the collapsed company.Liberty Steel’s main British business, Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), was put into administration on Thursday afternoon after a high court judge ruled that it was insolvent and that its owner, the metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, had no prospects of repaying debts of several hundred million pounds.The judge approved an application by the government’s official receiver, a representative tasked with winding up insolvent companies, to appoint special managers from the advisory company Teneo. A Teneo senior managing director was in court on Thursday, and made contact with Liberty Steel executives immediately after the hearing.Concerned union leaders representing SSUK’s 1,450 workers met the special managers last night, seeking assurances particularly on pay and pensions, as well as on when operations could restart at sites including Rotherham and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire, after a year without work
OnlyFans owner paid $701m in dividends as platform readies for potential sale
The owner of OnlyFans was paid $701m (£523m) in dividends last year as the subscription service best known for offering adult content positions itself for a potential multibillion-dollar sale.The payment to Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American entrepreneur behind the streaming platform, adds to the more than $1bn in dividends he has already received from the business as he profits from connecting porn stars and celebrities more directly with their audiences.OnlyFans accounts show it paid $497m in dividends to its parent, Fenix International, which is owned by Radvinsky, in 2024, up from $472m in its 2023 financial year. The business paid a further $204m to its owner in five tranches over the course of December to April.The UK-based company reported revenue of $1
Block Elon Musk’s bid to supply UK home energy, Ed Davey urges
Elon Musk’s company, Tesla, should have its application to supply energy to UK homes blocked on national security grounds, Ed Davey has told ministers.The Liberal Democrat leader argued that giving the electric car manufacturer a foothold in the British energy market would be “a gravely concerning move considering Elon Musk’s repeated interference in UK politics”.Tesla has a clean energy arm and applied in July for a licence to supply power to British homes.If the licence is granted by the regulator, Ofgem, the US company could be competing with big UK domestic energy suppliers such as British Gas and Octopus as soon as next year.In a letter to the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, Sir Ed cited comments by Musk on social media appearing to encourage violent riots in the UK last summer, and accused the Tesla CEO of “peddling misinformation to millions”
Trump officials urge Fed to remove governor after she refuses to quit
The Trump administration is ratcheting up pressure on the Federal Reserve to remove governor Lisa Cook, after the economist declared she had “no intention of being bullied” into stepping down.Cook, who was appointed to the US central bank’s powerful board of governors by Joe Biden, has been accused by Donald Trump’s officials of committing mortgage fraud. The allegations are unconfirmed.The US president has waged an extraordinary war on the Fed’s independence, breaking with precedent to demand interest rate cuts and urge its chair, Jerome Powell, to resign. Trump promptly called on Cook to quit on Wednesday
Baby food firms given 18 months to improve quality of products in England
Michael Göpfert obituary
Obesity has a serious impact on health – it shortened my mum’s life | Letter
Tell us: how do you cope with broken sleep during the menopause?
‘I dream about toilets, I admit it’: the man on a mission to improve Britain’s loos
‘Mountain to climb’: how Labour is facing a crisis in youth unemployment