The Shakespeare Fellowship inherits the objectives framed by Sir George Greenwood, J. Thomas Looney, and the other founders of the first Shakespeare Fellowship, established in 1922.

The new Fellowship, founded in 2001, is dedicated to these specific objectives:

• To promote and endow research and education in the Shakespearean authorship question, with special emphasis on the theory first proposed by J. Thomas Looney identifying Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford (1550-1604), as the true author of the Shakespeare canon;
  
• To promote and endow the reading, performance, study, and enjoyment of the works of Shakespeare;
  
• To encourage and support the revision of literary history inaugurated by Looney in 1920, making the case for de Vere's authorship available to students, teachers and all who are interested in literature and history;
  
• To promote and endow research and education in the European Renaissance in general: its culture, philosophy, history, literature, politics and music, with a particular emphasis on the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth I;
  
• To further the debate over the relevance of Shakespeare in the 21st century;
  
• And to establish and promote a variety of related activities -- a quarterly newsletter, regional speakers' bureaus, conferences, and other educational and scholarly initiatives addressing the authorship issue and the recognition of Edward de Vere as Shakespeare.