Old Basing (Basing) Probate Material 1561-1580

St Mary's (formerly St Peter and St Paul), Old Basing

Fourteen wills and inventories survive for this period, all are in Hampshire Record Office. They reflect the local farming community and related rural trades. A number of wills were made by the Mulford family, some of whom were clearly prominent in local society, such as Leonard who died in in 1573 in possession of a number of weapons including two swords. Two testators provided for their widows to lose their bequests if they remarried.

The south of the parish is on the Hampshire chalk with sheep and corn, while the north is on the clay and supports more dairy farming.

Wills and inventories survive for Old Basing in Hampshire Record Office (HRO) and The National Archives (TNA). These are being transcribed by the Wills Group of the New Victoria County of Hampshire project based in Basingstoke and will be published in the near future. These transcriptions have been made from copies of original probate documents. 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. Old Basing is described as Basing being in the county of Southampton, the old name for Hampshire.

A glossary is attached of unusual words.