Dr Robert Bearman BA, (Oxford) PhD (King's London)

Shakespeare Institute
Retired Head of Archives and Local Studies, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Contact details

Address
The Shakespeare Institute
Mason Croft
Church Street
Stratford-upon-Avon
CV37 6HP
UK

Biography

  • Educated: Chichester High School
  • Hertford College, Oxford BA (History)
  • Kings College, London. PhD
  • Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
  • Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Research in the Arts and Social Sciences, University of Birmingham

Research

I am currently editing for publication by the Dugdale Society, 'Minutes and Accounts of the Stratford-upon-Avon Corporation, 1599-1609'.

Other activities

  • General Editor of the Publications of the Dugdale Society, from 2001
  • Editor of Warwickshire History, from 1970

Publications

  • The Gregorys of Stivichall in the Sixteenth Century, 1972
  • Stratford-upon-Avon as it Was, 1979
  • Stratford-upon-Avon: a history of its streets and buildings, 1988, revised 2007
  • Captain James Saunders of Stratford-upon-Avon: a local antiquary, 1990
  • Charters of the Redvers Family and the earldom of Devon, 1994
  • Shakespeare in the Stratford Records, 1994

Contributions

  • Anglo-Norman Studies, Equilibrium, Midland History, Notes and Queries, Oral History, Persuasions, Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Survey, Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society, and Warwickshire History, including;
  • 'Baldwin de Redvers: some aspects of a baronial career in the reign of King Stephen', Anglo-Norman Studies, 1996
  • 'Stratford's fires of 1594 and 1595 revisited', Midland History, 2000
  • '"Was William Shakespeare William Shakeshafte?" revisited', Shakespeare Quarterly, 2002
  • 'John Shakespeare's spiritual testament; a re-appraisal', Shakespeare Survey, 2003
  • ‘John Shakespeare: a papist or just penniless?’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 2005
  • ‘The early Reformation Experience in a Warwickshire market town: Stratford-upon-Avon, 1530-1580’, Midland History, 2007
  • Contributor to and general editor of:
  • The History of an English Borough: Stratford-upon-Avon, 1196-1996, 1997
  • Compton Verney: a history of the House and its Owners, 2000
  • Stoneleigh Abbey: The House, Its Owners, Its Lands, 2004