Will of the Month – Margaret Nelham settles her account  

Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk

20 August 2024

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Emily Vine

Thanks to all participants at our recent workshops at The National Archives and the University of Exeter, where we discussed this will. I have drawn on these discussions when writing this post.

In this month’s post we’re thinking not just about the ‘content’ of a will – the details of the bequests it contains – but also some of the features of the will as a physical document – the handwriting, spelling, and type of paper used, and what this can tell us about the circumstances in which it was produced.

Most of the wills that we’re looking at as part of the project are registered copies – that is, copies of wills entered into a large volume (register) by church court clerks when wills were proved before the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC). It is the copies that most researchers access – they have been digitised and made available for download on The National Archives’ website.

This post analyses an original will rather than a registered copy. These have not been digitised – you have to go to The National Archives in Kew to view them.[1] Original wills were written by a scribe or scrivener, or occasionally by the testator themselves, or a friend or relative. We are concerned with the original will of Margaret Nelham of St Bartholomew, London, which was made in July 1665 and proved in August of the same year.[2] You can download the registered copy of Margaret Nelham’s will here.

Scraps of paper

One of the most unusual features of Margaret Nelham’s will is its layout and the type of paper that it was written on to. There are vertical lines running down the margins on the left and right sides of the page, creating columns for pounds, shillings, and pence as would be used when recording accounts. The writer itemises and sets out the money owed to Nelham in the same way, and it appears that it may well have been written on a scrap of paper torn from an account book. Indeed, while other wills begin with arrangements for burial or bequests to others, the first few lines of Nelham’s will are concerned with recovering debts owed to her for rent. The methodical recording hints at Nelham’s numeracy and responsibilities as a landowner, and her desire to accurately settle her affairs before death. The use of a repurposed page from an account book perhaps reinforces this idea that her main bequests would be sums of money rather than objects, but it could also hint at rushed circumstances in which the will was made, where this was possibly the only suitable paper available.  

An ‘unprofessional’ scribe?

Several features of Margaret Nelham’s will suggest that it wasn’t written by a professional scribe or scrivener. It lacks many of the formulaic features of wills, including a standard preamble which would begin with ‘In the Name of God Amen’, which would identify the testator, their occupation, and where they lived, and which stated that they were ‘of Sound Mind and Memory’. You can read more about the formulaic features of wills in one of our previous blog posts.

Instead, the date appears at the top of the page ‘July the July Julie ^the 24. 1665’ and as mentioned the will then launches straight into details of money owed to Nelham: ‘Mrs Sollondine of mortelake oweth me fore an quarters rent 3l 15s 0d which was due the 24. of June being Midsomer day ¹⁶⁶⁵’. Another indication that this will was not written by a professional scribe is the spelling. While spelling was not standardised at this point, the will does not display the level of spelling or consistency usually associated with someone who made their living from drafting formal documents. In the first few lines ‘four’ is rendered as ‘fore’, ‘Michaelmas’ as ‘mickilmas’, ‘children’ as ‘Chilldren’, ‘James’ as ‘Jeames’. Words are frequently crossed out and missing letters are added in in superscript: it does not appear to be a ‘clean’ or final copy. Indeed, this type of spelling and style of handwriting is quite similar to other examples of women’s writing from the mid seventeenth century – is it possible that Maragaret Nelham wrote the will herself?

With mine own hand…

It is certainly possible –the will is quite personal in tone and content, but it must be said that it was usual for wills to be drafted as though in the first person. Alternatively it may have been dictated to a friend or family member. We are also missing one of the only pieces of evidence that could confirm who wrote it. Wills often conclude with the signatures of the testator, scribe, and the witnesses present when the will was made. One example of this is the will of Edward Andrewes, which was made the same month as Nelham’s. At the bottom of the will, we can see the signature of the scrivener: ‘Edw: Wolrich Scr.’, as well as witnesses ‘John Whitehall’ and ‘Nehe: Bowen’.

The inclusion of the abbreviation ‘scr’ after Wolrich’s name identifies him as the scrivener, but we could also ascertain this by comparing the signature with the handwriting in the rest of the will. However, Nelham’s will, unconventional in many ways, also stops quite abruptly, with no signatures. This means we cannot compare Nelham’s signature with the handwriting of the rest of the will to try and determine authorship.

Providing for the future

Much of the will pertains to settling leases on the land and ‘littell houses’ at Mortlake, Surrey, which Nelham appeared to have some ownership over (although she also owed money to the ‘head landlord’). The other bequests included ‘a great cobbard and a stone morter’ to one Mr Purchase, ten shillings to the poor, and efforts to provide for Nelham’s children. Eighteen shillings were left to a Mr Pix to ensure schooling for her son James. One of the more moving clauses pertained to Nelham’s youngest daughter, who still lived at home. The will states:

I have no way to provide for her […] I hope the Lord will move your harts to make som provision for her shee is a very hopfull child and very Tractable unto the lord and you I leave her.[3]

This is quite a desperate plea to her executors or friends to step in and provide for her children after her death – Nelham had ostensibly no one else to turn to. That very few material objects are mentioned perhaps suggests that Nelham wished to prioritise more valuable rents or sums of money, or that she did not have time to list other objects or possessions.

Nelham’s desperation, and some of the more unusual or rushed features of her will, can perhaps be illuminated by the urgent circumstances in which it was written, and in which she died. Nelham was living in the City of London at the height of the great plague in the summer of 1665. This could explain why Nelham wanted to make a will, why she was unable to employ the services of a professional scribe, why she or possibly another member of her household had written up her wishes on a page torn from an account book, and why she had perhaps not had much time to secure care arrangements for her younger children. Indeed, Nelham died within three weeks of making this will, hopefully reassured that she had done the best that she could, with limited time and resources, to provide for her family’s future, and set her affairs in order.

Project Research Fellows Harry and Emily discuss some of the material features of wills in greater detail in their forthcoming article. This article will be published ‘Open Access’ and made freely available later in 2024 – to receive an alert once it’s been published, you can join our mailing list.

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[1] They appear in the series ‘PROB 10: Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Other Probate Jurisdictions: Bundles of Original Wills and Sentences.’

[2] Original Will of Margaret Nelham TNA PROB 10/979

[3] Will of Margaret Nelham TNA PROB 10/979.