PRIMARY

John Shakespeare - glove maker

William Shakespeare’s father, John, was a Master Glover and Whittawer (a worker in fine leather), employing apprentices whom he trained to become glovers themselves. He made his own leather from the skins of animals. The most popular skins used would have been sheep, goat and occasionally dog!

John would have had four or five apprentices working for him. An apprenticeship was for seven years. While John hand sewed the leather into gloves, small money purses and pockets, the apprentices would have been busy in the yard turning animal skins into leather, a process known as “tanning”. The skins were tanned in pits outside the property and soaked in unpleasant substances such as urine.

John Shakespeare’s workshop was a busy, smelly hive of activity and included a window (without glass) from where he could display the items he made and sell them - window shopping!

The glover’s workshop was adjacent to the Shakespeare family home so William would have been familiar with the glove and leather trade. Shakespeare’s plays contain more than 70 references to gloves and glove-making. In the play The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare describes someone as having ‘a great round beard like a glover’s paring knife’. It’s possible that when William left school, aged around 14, he helped his father in the family business.

For many years John Shakespeare’s business was successful, allowing him to rise in status in Stratford-upon-Avon and take on official duties, including the important role of bailiff (mayor).

For a full range of resources see: shakespeare.org.uk/primaryresources

Registered Charity Number 209302 Page 1