Description:John also signed the 1579 conveyance [see below] by mark, establishing, at the very least, that he too was unable to write easily. His reading abilities may also have been limited, but this would have been no obstacle to his conducting business dealings and keeping accounts, as calculations were then often made on an abacus.
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