The page I’ve been transcribing includes a considerable number of large (financial) bequests to servants and staff. They appear to total at least £2,500 though it may be more since some are “to all my …” In addition, the testator left two sums of £500 “for the poor of the parish” at two separate parishes. At that point, I didn’t have a date.
My next page happened to be the next page of the same will and I discovered it was written in 1785. The Bank of England Inflation Calculator tells me that £3,500 in 1785 would be worth about £1,750,000 today. One reading further, I discovered it was the Will of Princess Amelia, the youngest child of King George III! Wow!
Has anyone else had any particularly interesting pages?
That is really fascinating. I haven't had anything so exciting. I have had the will of Walter Earle of Charborough but Earle turned out to be his last name! On the other hand I have learned something new. I puzzled over what was meant by 'rent graynes/greynes'. Further down it talked about rent graynes being wheat, barley and oats. But still not sure why he was getting rent for them.
Was he receiving rent or saying what he paid I wonder ? Corn rent as a small part of overall rent was quite common in rural areas from 16th century onwards when a limit to the raising of rent in money provoked many to add a corn element which related to the price in the local market in any given year. Hence it went up and down according to circumstances and varied from year to year but it enabled effectively a raent rise in good years !
Perhaps he was getting rent in kind from his tenants, a bit like tithes? There are some references to grain rent in this article about Scottish agriculture - https://bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/57_103Johnstone.pdf - so (if the context fits) it could be another way of phrasing this.
Thanks for the suggestions. I had wondered whether it was some kind of tithe but it could be the rent being partly paid for in grain. As it part of the manors, leases , rents etc he is bequeathing the wording implies he was receiving the rent grains rather than paying it. I will look at the article -in between transcribing. Thanks for the link.