Shakespeare left his wife his "second best bed" and struck his new son-in-law out of the will

In January 1616 William Shakespeare called the lawyer Francis Collins and had a draft will made. He did not sign it. In February his younger daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney. Quiney had fathered a child with another woman, Margaret Wheeler. Mother and baby were buried on 15 March. On 25 March Shakespeare revised and signed a three-page will. The draft's words "sonne in L[aw]" were struck out and replaced with Judith's name. Judith got £100 as a marriage portion and £50 more if she gave up a cottage. A further £150 was hers only if Quiney settled land of equal value on her; he could not touch it otherwise. New Place and the main estate went to the elder daughter Susanna and then to "the first Sonne of her body". Susanna and her husband John Hall were executors. His wife Anne got one line, written between the lines: "Item I gyve unto my wiefe my second best bed with the furniture." The National Archives notes that a widow had rights in her husband's property by law, and that the best bed usually passed to the heir. The entail failed. His last direct descendant, granddaughter Elizabeth Barnard, died in 1670. In 2026 the will, carrying three of the six surviving Shakespeare signatures, is at The National Archives as PROB 1/4. A 2016 radar survey of his grave suggested the skull is missing; the vicar disputed that conclusion.