Biography of William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was born in 1564, supposedly on 22 or 23 April, in Stratford-upon-Avon. His father, John, who was a prosperous glover there, preparing and selling soft leather, became alderman and later high bailiff. Shakespeare was educated at Stratford Grammar School. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway - eight years older than he and already, she was pregnant. Six months later their daughter Susanna was born. They had twins, a boy Hamnet and a girl named Judith, two years later. There are no records of Shakespeare's life during the seven years that followed, ‘the lost years'. But by 1592 he was already an established actor a