Shakespearean drama...1642 will find reveals fight over Bard's home

DID Shakespeare bequeath his house to me, or not to me? That is the question the Bard's granddaughter brought to court after her husband tried to pass the property to his own cousin.

- By Ted Hennessey

The family drama has been revealed in a centuries-old will discovered by a historian at the National Archives.

The document was drawn up by Thomas Nash, the husband of William Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth.

Thomas and Elizabeth lived at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon with Elizabeth's mother Susanna Hall, who was the playwright's eldest daughter.

The house had been left to Susanna when Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616.

But in 1642, Thomas wrote a will of his own, leaving the property to his cousin Edward Nash despite having no right to do so.