Thomas Nash
| Thomas Nash | |
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Portrait of Thomas Nash
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| Born |
20 June 1593 (baptism) Stratford-upon-Avon, England |
| Died | 4 April 1647 (aged 53) Stratford-upon-Avon, England |
| Occupation | Possibly an assistant to the High Sheriff of Warwickshire |
Thomas Nash (baptised 20 June 1593 – died 4 April 1647) was the first husband of William Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth Barnard. He lived most of his life in Stratford-upon-Avon, and was the dominant male figure amongst Shakespeare's senior family line after the death of Dr. John Hall, Shakespeare's son-in-law, in 1635.
Nash was baptised at the parish church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon and entered in the register as "Thomas filius Anthonij Nash generosi", i.e. "Thomas, son of Anthony Nash gentleman". His mother's maiden name was Mary Baugh and she came from Twyning, near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. His father Anthony, a friend of Shakespeare and farmer of his tithes, was born in Old Stratford. Nash entered Lincoln's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London, on 15 May 1616 at the age of 22.
Nash was called to the bar on 25 November 1623, but there is no evidence that he ever went on to practice law. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that he may however have taken over a rôle that his father held in being an agent for Sir ohn Hubaud, a High Sheriff of Warwickshire; but Sir John Hubaud died in 1583, ten years before Thomas was born.
When Thomas's father died in 1622, he was bequeathed properties in Stratford: the Bear Inn (opposite the Swan) and a house in Bridge Street, and a piece of land called “the Butt Close by the Avon” where burghers used to shoot at archery butts. Thomas was an executor to his father's will. It appears that Thomas held on to the Bear Inn: his father-in-law, Dr. John Hall, once treated someone that he called one of Thomas's servants “lying at the Bear”, presumably indicating that he was a publican or worker at that inn. Hall's first treatment for the poor heavily jaundiced servant elicited “seven Vomits”, and this and a series of further treatments “cured him perfectly”.
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