The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790

Tagged: London


Will of the Month: an ex-con examines his conscience

This month’s featured testament belongs to John Pooke, a citizen and haberdasher of London who made his will in 1607. It was only once I sat down to read Pooke’s will carefully, from start to finish, that it suddenly unfolded like a little novella before me, complete with knotty little plot twists. Perhaps this enlightenment […]


View


Will of the Month: Alice Walter and Her ‘Deaths Head’ Ring

The end of October and the beginning of November marks ‘Allhallowtide’ – the time of the year when Western Christians, including in early modern England, have traditionally turned their thoughts to the dead with the marking of All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. While Protestantism rejected purgatory and prayers for the […]


View


Will of the Month – Margaret Nelham settles her account  

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 […]


View


“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, or entered a certain profession, or threats to disinherit those who behaved poorly or ignored parental instruction. These caveats and contingencies reflect a key reason […]


View


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 is full of rich detail about Helen’s possessions and what they meant to her. She itemises silk dresses, crimson quilts, and chinaware, and sets out […]


View


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 objects and possessions listed in them. This blog post is the first in our ‘Will of the Month’ series. Each month we will put a […]


View


Other tags used on our site...

16th Century 17th Century 18th Century Animals Books Charity Clothing Creative Fellow Digital Humanities Full transcriptions Furniture Global Goods Grandchildren India Jewellery London Making wills Maritime Men's wills Methodology Rural Silverware Slavery Tableware Teaching Urban Volunteers Women's wills