Up Nately and Andwell Probate Material 1581-1600

The wealthiest testator of the 16th century was Gilbert Lookar with an inventory of c. £545. Of this inventory, £340 of goods and livestock were at Andwell and the rest were divided between Basingstoke and Worting. The value has had to be calculated as Lookar’s will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury from where no inventory survives. However, he left all his farms of Andwell and Basingstoke to his wife, Joan, for five years. Two inventories survive for Joan in 1594: one in her own right, containing the livestock and goods left to her by Gilbert and valued at £55 and the other of her husband’s possessions which she held in trust. Unfortunately a few of the items in the inventory relating to her husband were listed but not valued. These omissions included crops in Andwell, Basingstoke and Worting. These values have been calculated using other values of crops in the inventory and in a few cases, values in other inventories of this period, giving a total of £489.65 to which the £55 of his widow’s own inventory should be added to give the total of £545. Lookar also had a house at Cliddesden.

Bridgett Sex, executor in her husband’s (1597) and joint administrator of her son, Thomas’, estate in 1600, appears to have been married to three different men in as many years. She was named as executrix by her husband (17th February 1596-7) but appears as Bridgett Reve in her husband’s grant of probate, 5 April 1597, and Bridgett Barnard, wife of Thomas, in her son’s probate grant in 1600. Unfortunately, parish registers of Up Nately only survive from 1695.

These transcriptions have been made from copies of original probate documents supplied by HRO and TNA. Words have been modernized and punctuation added to make reading easier but names have been transcribed as written. Words in italics indicate omissions in the original document which have been added to make sense of the text. Words in square brackets indicate that they have been transcribed as seen but where the meaning is unclear. Basingstoke is described as being in the county of Southampton, the old name for Hampshire.

A glossary is attached of unusual words.

Links to the wills and inventories are below: