The Essex Record Office has now completed the publication of the series Elizabethan Wills of Essex. These twelve volumes of transcriptions are the result of the painstaking work of F. G. Emmison, a former County Archivist. These wills can make fascinating reading. As important documents, they are composed with great care and accuracy.
Many of the testators were High Country residents, and even more reference the property and people within the parishes of the High Country. William Atwood of Stanford Rivers made his will on 20th February, 1600. William Atwood was deemed a gentleman and, as can be discovered, had dressed well, apparently very well. The division of his wardrobe filled the larger part of his will. To his son, Thomas the younger, he left “my laced cloth coat, my riding cloak, my doublet of black rash, a pair of round cloth hose”; to Thomas the elder “my furred cloak” and also, incidentally, a “coverlet that his wife made of the stuff her mother gave her”; to his son Edward “my furred gown”; to Richard “my black satin doublet, my hose of velure, my cloak faced with taffeta”. Amongst other clothes, he mentions “my hat of taffeta”, which he left to Susan, “my hose of Venetians”, a couple of pairs of new stockings, waistcoats and “my new fustian doublet”. His “great ring of gold with the picture of a death’s head on it” was important enough to be itemised and this was to go to his godson.
Money also accompanied most of these legacies. Rash is a smooth textile fabric of silk or worsted.
It was usual for the “better sort” to will money for the poor. Stephen Bamwell of Greenstead (sic), a bachelor, with no direct family, but clearly a man of some means, was widely generous. He selectively gave “To the poorest households of Hatfield Broad Oak £5; I will that Michael Crabbe shall have none of that money”. However, to Michael Crabbe’s children £3 was to be divided equally. The sum of 15s was left to the poorest householders in Laindon, 50s to Basildon, and specific bequests were made to the poor in Ongar. Touchingly, he left “To a little girl called Tedwell at Andrew Spranger’s 16s, which I will my exor. shall keep for 7 years after my decease and to employ it to the best profit of the child.” Andrew himself was to gain “a silk russet coat and a shirt band”.
Thomas Lake was a yeoman, who rented Stanford (Rivers) Hall. The usual charitable donation was made to the poor of the parish “so that the most godly, aged and honest poor shall be relieved”. Can that be better phrased? Along with his two sons, his daughters, Lettice and Isabel, were willed a bullock each. The instructions for the care of his daughters is specific; “My executors shall have the rule of Isabel and Lettice to see them brought up in the fear of God and in an honest and Christian course of life, for the performance of which they shall have the use of their legacies (their bullocks excepted) until 20 or marriage”.
Thomas Lake’s two executors were rewarded for their “advice and pains” with 40s each. Being an executor often involved considerable responsibility, and there may have been reluctance to take on the role. Thomas Heard, a husbandman of Stanford Rivers, with sons Edward and William, specified “I make Edward exor.; if he refuse to be exor., I make William exor. and Edward shall be excluded from his legacies …” Conditions were otherwise attached but were generally less punishing. William Saringe, husbandman of Stanford Rivers, was happy to bequeath his daughter £30 at 21 but “if she marry or make her choice without the consent of her mother her legacy shall be detained from her until she is 24”.
There are at least two local examples of wills made prior to sea journeys. Fearing the worst, William Tynge of Chipping Ongar drafted his will because he was “minded to go over the seas to Portugal”. Similarly, James Fynche of Chipping Ongar was persuaded to make make his plans because he was to “adventure a journey beyond the seas”. Emmison has commented that since their burial cannot be found locally, they may not have returned. The will was a wise precaution!
These wills not only make interesting reading. They are important documents which relate to the economic and social conditions of the family in the Elizabethan Age. When combined with other sources, such wills can reveal the niceties of relationships with family and kin. The initiative of the Essex Record Office has made these wills easily accessible to a wide audience.