BADGER FAMILY CHRONICLES

© Christopher Earls Brennen

Appendix 1A. Badger Family of Stratford-on-Avon

This appendix delineates the Badger family of Stratford-on-Avon which may be related but whose connection has not been established.

Family of George Badger of Stratford-on-Avon:

  1. George Badger lived in Stratford-on-Avon in the 1500s. He married a woman named Alice and became a prominent woollen draper in Stratford. George and was a neighbour and friend of John Shakespeare, the father of of William Shakespeare. George was an alderman in Stratford but was was deprived of his office as alderman and sent to prison for his Catholicism. As early as 1578 when a levy was made in Stratford partly to enforce anti-Catholic measures, George Badger refused to pay, as did John Shakespeare together with Thomas Reynolds and Thomas Nash, also Catholics and both fathers of two of William’s school friends. In 1597, John Shakespeare sold a portion of his Henley Street property to George Badger for the small sum of £2, the land apparently being of very little value in comparison with the house. The deed of conveyance to George Badger informs us that it was bounded on the north by the Guild Pits. The deed was dated Aug.14, 1591, and allows for the transfer of the land to George's son, George Badger, junior, and his male heirs. Some of the children of George and Alice Badger:
    1. George Badger, junior, who inherited his father's Stratford property and is mentioned in the deed of sale of the small section of land from John Shakespeare to George Badger, senior.
    2. Anne Badger was born about 1580 and, in 1595, married William Walford Jr., a prominent and wealthy Stratford woolen draper, who may have served his apprenticeship with George Badger. After the 1595 fire in Stratford, he built a house on the east side of High Street, one of those in Stratford which have been restored to something like its original appearance. In November 1598 Anne and her child died.
    3. Edward Badger is mentioned in the deed of sale of the small section of land from John Shakespeare to George Badger, senior.
    4. Richard Badger is mentioned in the deed of sale of the small section of land from John Shakespeare to George Badger, senior.
    5. William Badger is mentioned in the deed of sale of the small section of land from John Shakespeare to George Badger, senior.
    6. Robert Badger is mentioned in the deed of sale of the small section of land from John Shakespeare to George Badger, senior.

Last updated 3/5/04.

Christopher E. Brennen