Description:Contemporary endorsement, with the names of those who witnessed the transaction. They are 'Nycholas Knooles, vicar of Auston [Alveston], Wyllyam Maydes, Anthony Osbaston and others'.
Robert Arden, John Shakespeare's father-in-law, had left a house and land he owned in Snitterfield jointly to six of his daughters by his first marriage, one of whom, Mary Arden, had married John Shakespeare. From the 1570s, Robert Webbe, son of another of the daughters, began buying up these shares so that ownership would be re-united in his hands. John and Mary Shakespeare sold their share in 1579, at a time when there is evidence to suggest that John was short of ready money, though the sale only raised £4.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust reference: ER 30/1