Introduction
I’m pleased to bring to your attention a fascinating data set just published by the Sussex Records Society. The Society was founded in 1901 ‘with the aim of publishing historical records of the county found in the great national libraries (such as the British Library and the Public Record Office [National Archives at Kew]) and in the archives of its great country houses and county families.’
One of our members Dr. James McInnes has just completed editing a set of Chichester wills, now published on the Sussex Record website.
Below is James’ introduction to the volume and it would appear the horse gelder also kept bees. The wills can be downloaded from the Sussex Record Society website here where there is also a comprehensive analytical index
Philip Robinson
TUDOR AND STUART WILLS OF CHICHESTER
1485-1688
SRS VOL ADD20
EDITED BY JAMES MCINNES
There are 1,275 surviving last wills and testaments of the men and women of Chichester from the years 1485 to 1688. Some of the Chichester wills, particularly those of the clergy, have been published and used by historians, but the purpose of this digital publication is to make available to researchers the complete wills of all the 956 men and 319 women who wrote them in this period. Wills are one of the few ways in which the voices of people from all levels of society can be heard. Letters and diaries might be more revealing, but they were written only by the educated élite. As is to be expected, many of these wills are those of clerics, gentlemen and merchants, but spinsters, trades people, labourers, such as a well-digger, horse-gelders and domestic maidservants are also represented.
The last will and testament is one of the few ways in which the voice of the common folk of the period can be heard. They help the reader to analyse the social and religious attitudes of the testators to matters such as their relationship with God, death, the family and kinship, wealth and poverty, and how they changed over time. They are particularly revealing about family relationships and problems such as how to make provision for a daughter who is married to a ne’er-do-well husband. Unlike letters and diaries, wills were written by all nature of people.
More than 300 of the wills were written by women (and they do differ from the wills of men) and as well as the expected clerics, yeomen, husbandmen and merchants there are numerous trades people and labourers, a well-digger and a horse-gelder. The wills also reveal a great deal about the material culture of the time and can be used, ideally alongside the inventories, to identify which possessions people thought were worthwhile to pass on and also to examine the growing material comfort of the times.
Those engaged in the writing of family histories will find the material particularly helpful as they can find the names they are researching in the wills of others. There are numerous references to the built environment of Chichester which enhance the understanding of the development of the city. The wills can also be used to look at the social and other networks established by the people of Chichester. For instance, it is remarkable how many of the references to places outside Chichester are to the coastal plain and how few there are to places north of the South Downs and to more distant Sussex places such as Lewes.
This volume is in Adobe pdf format, and is fully searchable. It contains a full name index to the testators.
The wills can be downloaded from the Sussex Record Society website here
There is also a comprehensive analytical index of the wills that can also be downloaded here