In the accounts of the Stratford Corporation of 1576, “Mother Margaret†is recorded as having been paid three pence for “making clean before the chapelâ€. That may be the first record of a woman who later appears as Margaret Smith, in 1578 doing the same job, the pay having risen to 20 pence in 1580, with an extra pence for “sweeping the street after the tilerâ€. In 1582 she was paid 16 pence, the following year the same, but she has become “old Margaretâ€.
By 1585 she is “lame Margaretâ€, but obviously still doing a good enough job, being paid again 16 pence. Her will was written on April 11 1586. She had to give one coffer, a brass pot and the corn in her bag to one Richard Holmes, another coffer to her son, and to John Johnston and Isabel Barrymore a kerchief each. Five shillings was to be bestowed on the day of her funeral to the poor, probably for a feast.
This from Germaine Greer’s Shakespeare’s Wife, on which more after the Green Party conference, but a short note that it contains many such lovely tales that create a vivid picture of the life, particularly the female life, of Stratford. Greer says:
“Margaret’s will … is a dignified little document, a fitting epilogue to an ordered, frugal and useful life.†(p. 160-161)
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