{"id":711,"date":"2021-11-15T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T10:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/?page_id=711"},"modified":"2022-01-04T17:04:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T17:04:05","slug":"feather-beds-frying-pans","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wills-and-inventories\/feather-beds-frying-pans","title":{"rendered":"Feather beds and frying pans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is taken from a talk given to the Thriplow Society by Pat Easthope on November 21st<\/sup> 2013.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

When I joined the Palaeography group I\u2019m not sure I knew what I was letting myself in for.\u00a0 I had seen the sheet illustrating the alphabet and the many ways each letter could be written.\u00a0 My first thoughts when I saw the sheet were that it wasn\u2019t so bad.\u00a0 \u00a0However, when I was given a will to translate, and faced with \u201cjoined up writing\u201d where all the letters flow into one another, the letters didn\u2019t always match the examples, many of the words were spelt differently and a good number of them were words I had never heard of which have long since gone out of use, my views on palaeography changed somewhat.\u00a0 Still, I thought I\u2019d stick with it and give it a go, which is why I find myself standing here today.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that \u00bd million wills have survived from 16th<\/sup> century England.\u00a0 Historians have realised that wills and other probate material are a fruitful source of information of the details of everyday life at the time.\u00a0 In the Cambridgeshire Records office there are 249 wills and inventories for Thriplow dating from 1471 \u2013 1854.\u00a0 The earliest ones are in Latin but from the late 15th<\/sup> century they begin to be in English.<\/p>\n

Originally two documents had to be drawn up \u2013 the will which dealt with land and real estate and the testament which dealt with goods & chattels, i.e. personal property and effects.\u00a0 In 1540 the Statute of Wills allowed land and personal property to be disposed of in the same document and it remains so to this day.\u00a0 Wills still start with the words \u201cThis is the last will and testament of\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Furniture, furnishings and clothes formed an important part of the will \u2013 these could be seen as continuing ones person in the community, whereas money is interchangeable and livestock eventually dies.<\/p>\n

It would appear that about 25% of wills were made while the testator was in good health but the vast majority of wills were made shortly before death.\u00a0 Many wills state that the testator is \u201csick in body but sound in mind\u201d.<\/p>\n

Making the will was a memorable occasion for the family.\u00a0 A scribe had to be summoned and witnesses gathered.\u00a0 The will had to be dictated and then read out to the assembled company, signed by the testator and the witnesses and sealed.<\/p>\n

In order to be valid the will needed at least 2 witnesses to the signing and sealing and the nomination of at least one executor.\u00a0 After the testator\u2019s death the will had to be proved in the appropriate church consistory court where the executors and witnesses swore on oath that this was the testator\u2019s will that they had seen signed and sealed.\u00a0 They were then given permission to administer the will and for this they had to pay fees to the church court.\u00a0 Until it was taken over by the civil authorities in 1857 this made probate a good source of income for the church.\u00a0 The executors and witnesses had to travel to the diocesan seat to get probate which meant that they probably had to stay overnight, or at least take refreshment, which made probate another significant event for the family.<\/p>\n

Anyone could make a will in the 16th<\/sup> Century, but as the church could only charge a fee on wills worth over \u00a35.00, any wills worth below this sum were discouraged.\u00a0 Most will-makers came from the better off section of society and usually only represented a small proportion of the population.\u00a0 A comparison has been made between the number of wills and the number of adult burials in an area of Norfolk for the period 1581 to 1610 and it was found that on average only 10% of the adults buried had made wills.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inventories<\/strong> were made after death. \u00a0These were a list of items owned by the deceased and their value.\u00a0 A law passed in 1529 directed that goods and chattels worth more than \u00a35 be listed within 40 days of the deceased\u2019s death by 4 honest and skilful \u2018Appraisers\u2019; often these appraisers were neighbours or church wardens.<\/p>\n

Some of the words we find in the old wills are no longer used and some meanings have changed, for instance, a \u2018hutch\u2019 was then a small cupboard and a cupboard was just that \u2013 a board for standing cups on.\u00a0 A \u2018joyned\u2019 table was craftsman made with joints not just a plank on a trestle.\u00a0 Chairs were status symbols, most people sat on forms or benches; The best beds or mattresses were feather, second best was flock.\u00a0 Books were a rare possession.<\/p>\n

The wills can tell us quite a lot about how people saw their possessions in terms of importance.\u00a0 Any household goods left to daughters were likely to leave the house on the daughter\u2019s marriage.\u00a0 Items such as hutches, kettles, towels, bedding, candlesticks, coffers, platters were all portable and would provide a dowry for the daughter.\u00a0 Items left to sons were tables, benches (which were often fixed to the house wall) beds, and aumbries (which were large fixed cupboards).\u00a0 It would appear that these items were considered to be permanent holders of the family<\/strong> identity and they stayed with the house which passed down the male line.\u00a0 Clothes were another item that sometimes appeared in wills and historians have suggested that the bequest of clothes was seen as a way of keeping alive the identity and memory of the deceased.\u00a0 I imagine the receiver of clothes would not have seen the bequest in such a romantic light but would have taken a far more practical view and the clothes would have been gratefully received.<\/p>\n

Other items given a value in the inventories prepared after death were Lumber in the yard and dung.\u00a0 Commercially prepared fertilizer had not yet been invented so dung was a valuable commodity.<\/p>\n

One assumes that, just as we do today, the testator trusted the executors to carry out their wishes as set out in the will but this did not, or could not, always happen.\u00a0 An example of this can be seen in the will of Matthew Prime which was made on 28th<\/sup> March 1739.\u00a0 Matthew was a Yeoman which is a farmer who owns and farms a small area of land. In the social hierarchy a yeoman was probably classed just under a gentleman.\u00a0 In this will the land mentioned is some 18 acres in Thriplow and 10 acres in Fowlmere \u2013 total of 28 acres<\/p>\n

On Lines 30 – 32 we can see that here he leaves his son Benjamin one rood of Saffron Ground (half a rood in the New Ground and the other half in the Twelvemonth setts)\u00a0 and ALL MY SAFFRON THAT I HAVE BY ME NOW.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Matthews death the inventory of his Goods, Chattels and Cattles was made on 2nd<\/sup> April 1739, which is only a few days after his death and the will was made.\u00a0 Nowhere in the inventory is there any mention of saffron, nor of the saffron ground.\u00a0\u00a0 The inventory also mentions various crops growing on 9 acres and 3 roods of the land \u2013 was there nothing growing on the other 19+ acres?\u00a0\u00a0 Saffron was a valuable commodity \u2013 we have to assume that this was removed before the inventory could be made so that its value was excluded.\u00a0 Unfortunately we will never know who took it!<\/p>\n

Looking at the items Matthew left and remembering that he was one of the better off people of the time, it does make me wonder what the less well off people had.<\/p>\n

When I learned to add up it was in pounds, shillings and pence and when we have inventories to translate I can\u2019t resist adding up the figures in my head \u2013 just to prove to myself that I can still do it – and I have actually found some errors in the adding up.<\/p>\n

One problem in transcribing these documents is that we have to copy exactly what has been written.\u00a0 Trying to tell a computer that you don\u2019t want the spelling corrected can get very frustrating!<\/p>\n

One of the earlier transcriptions I was given was the will of William Wallis.\u00a0 The will was proved in March 1667 but I don\u2019t know what year it was written.\u00a0 \u00a0It starts with the words \u201cIn the name of God amen, the seven and twenty day of May in the fifteenth year of the reign of our sovereign lord Charles the second\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0I never was any good at history dates and I keep meaning to look up what year this was \u2013 one day I might get around to it.[i]<\/a><\/p>\n

I find that as we translate more documents, so more questions are thrown up.\u00a0 Unfortunately we will never know the answers to some of them but Palaeography has certainly given me a greater idea as to what life must have been like a few hundred years ago and made me grateful that I wasn\u2019t around then \u2013 I don\u2019t think I would have lasted very long.<\/p>\n

Pat Easthope<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> The date was 1663, – C.R.Cheney, A Handbook of Dates, <\/em>Cambridge University Press, 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is taken from a talk given to the Thriplow Society by Pat Easthope on November 21st 2013.\u00a0 … When I joined the Palaeography group I\u2019m not sure I knew what I was letting myself in for.\u00a0 I had … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":706,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-711","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":718,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/711\/revisions\/718"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/thriplow-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}