In 1602 William Shakespeare bought 107 acres of land in the open fields of Stratford for 320. This is the unsigned draft intended for Shakespeares signature (that signed by the vendors William and John Combe was already owned by SBT). Why it was never signed remains a mystery, but it was obviously kept with other Shakespeare family papers and was found at Clopton House, near Stratford, in the late 18th century with other title deeds relating to the land which had been acquired by the Clopton family in 1675 from the executors of the last of the Shakespeare descendants. Illustrated at p.55 of AR
Item Provenance
Acquired by the 4th Earl of Warwick in the 19th century, deposited at SBT in the 1970s until withdrawn for sale in 1997