Student Question
How many siblings did William Shakespeare have?
Quick answer:
William Shakespeare had seven siblings, but only four survived into adulthood. His siblings who reached adulthood were Gilbert, a haberdasher, Joan, who lived to 77, Richard, who died unmarried in 1613, and Edmund, who attempted to become an actor in London but died before turning 30. The high infant mortality rate of the era meant several of his siblings died in childhood.
William Shakespeare apparently had seven siblings, but several died as children. William was the first child out of three to survive childhood. His parents then had a son named Gilbert, who became a haberdasher in London. His sister, Joan, lived to the ripe old age of 77. Richard Shakespeare survived childhood but died unmarried in 1613. The last sibling to survive childhood was Edmund, who tried to join William in London and become an actor but died before he was 30-years-old. Thus, in an age where infant mortality was high, four of William's sibling lived long enough to become adults.
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