The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790

Blog - The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790

Will of the Month: A Lincolnshire landowner and his ‘Perewigges’

In this month’s post, one of our Expert Volunteers shares a fascinating will that he transcribed as part of our project. Austen Hamilton, Project Volunteer This month’s post explores the...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 23 July 2024


Using Wills in Historical Research: the What’s in a Will Workshops

Generously funded by the University of Exeter’s Public Engagement with Research Fund. Many thanks to the knowledgeable and generous attendees at our two recent workshops (June 2024) at The National...

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Posted by Laura Sangha on 9 July 2024


Will of the Month: Mary Andrews – from the Bubble to the Baltic

In this month’s post, one of our Expert Volunteers shares her research into one of the wills she came across when transcribing pages for our project. Liz Wood, archivist and...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 27 June 2024


“If my daughters will not be ruled…”: Contingencies and Caveats in will-making

Emily Vine Early modern folk frequently added ‘conditions’ to their wills: that a sum of money would not be given until a beneficiary reached the age of twenty-one, got married,...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 11 June 2024


Will of the Month: A Suffolk ‘Scrivener’ and his second-best trousers

Emily Vine In this month’s post we explore the will of John Tylney, a man who had made his living from writing the wills of others. Tylney had lived and...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 21 May 2024


Citizen Humanities: wills and the wisdom of the crowd

Laura Sangha It’s safe to say that the Wills Project wouldn’t be possible without drawing on the skills and knowledge of a wide variety of volunteer ‘citizens’ – or rather,...

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Posted by Laura Sangha on 7 May 2024


Will of the Month: a fashionable lady and her Cloath of Gold shoes

Our third will of the month, that of affluent fashionable lady Helen Spratt (d.1726), is as long and as detailed as that of the Lincolnshire farmer Ralph Wrighte [link], and...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 23 April 2024


Digitising 25,000 wills: method and accuracy

Harry Smith  In this blog post, Research Fellow Harry Smith provides an overview of some of the innovative digital methods used by our project. Read on to find out more...

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Posted by Laura Sangha on 9 April 2024


PhD on Global Commodities in Early Modern Wills

We are currently re-advertising our funded PhD studentship Global Commodities in Early Modern Wills. The focus of the studentship is intended to be broad and elastic so that the successful...

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Posted by Laura Sangha on 25 March 2024


Will of the Month: a Lincolnshire farmer and his cows

This month’s featured will is longer and more detailed than previous examples, stretching to three and a half pages. It’s the will of Ralph Wrighte, a landowner and farmer who...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 19 March 2024


Project Progress: Spring 2024

Hello, and welcome to our first ‘Project Progress’ blog post. In this blog post you will find an overview of some of the things we’ve been up to since the...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 5 March 2024


Will of the Month: a London minister and the Great Fire of 1666

Emily Vine Our first blog post introduced the different features of early modern wills, and provided some examples of how we can determine the ‘meaning’ ascribed to some of the...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 20 February 2024


What’s in an early modern will?

Emily Vine  What’s in an early modern will? On the one hand the answer to this question is straightforward – according to the legal definition a will is the documentary...

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Posted by e.m.vine@exeter.ac.uk on 6 February 2024


How to find things on the project blog

Throughout the life of the project we will be posting about our progress, findings and activities on this blog. You can filter the posts either by choosing a category, or...

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Posted by Laura Sangha on 30 January 2024