Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, died at age 11, but his two daughters, Susanna and Judith grew to age. Susanna married a Stratford man and had a daughter, Elizabeth, shown here with her husband, Dr. Nashe, a prominent physician and author. Judith later married a tavern owner. Some scholars have speculated on possible connections between the marriage of his daughters and the new direction Shakespeare's plays took in his later years. His last five plays (Pericles, Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, The Tempest and Henry VIII all feature a young innocent daughter through whom their fathers are redeemed and the rightful order of the world restored.

Throughout the 1600's Shakespeare continued to invest in property around Stratford. He bought agricultural land, such as this shown here, and rented it out to tenant farmers. In 1613 he was able to retire from the London theater scene and return to Stratford to live as a gentleman. It is through the various legal documents that he left behind that scholars have been able to track much of Shakespeare's life.

In preparing to retire from the King's Men Shakespeare helped initiate the playwright who would replace him, John Fletcher. Fletcher, shown here, was a well-known dramatist in his own right. He apparently collaborated on two of Shakespeare's last plays, Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII. It was during a performance of Henry VIII that a cannon apparently set the thatched roof of the Globe on fire and the theater burned to the ground. It was probably a good time for Shakespeare to retire.

Shakespeare's place in the partnership of the King's Men was taken by Nathan Field, one of the actors in the company. In fact Field had started his career as one of those boy actors who played the part of women. The King's Men continued to perform for more than 20 years until the Puritans seized control of the country and closed all the theaters.