Mapledurwell Probate Material 1518-1560

There are eight surviving wills but only two of these have inventories. The early wills show the survival of Roman Catholic bequests so well described by Eamon Duffy in  Morebath (2003) as testators leave their souls to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Company of Heaven.

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:

• Richard Taylor, 1518 (Will)
• John Lane, carpenter, 1543 (Will)
• Anys King, widow, 1545 (Will)
• Margaret Smythe, widow, 1545 (Will)
• Roger Omyden, shoemaker, 1547 (Will)
• Richard Aclowe alias Taylor, husbandman, 1551 (Will and inventory)
• Thomas Smythe, weaver, 1552 (Will and inventory)
• Thomas Wylde, carpenter, 1555 (Will and inventory)