Newnham Probate Material 1661-80

There are five surviving inventories and three wills for this period. The testators were farmers with one innkeeper. Thomas Riggs (d. 1665) was a minor whose parents appear to have predeceased him and his guardian had sold the family farm. The little information surviving in these inventories still reveals a cattle and crops economy with no sheep.

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.

Links to the wills and inventories are below.

A glossary is attached of unusual words.

• John Sex, yeoman, 1662 (Inventory)
• Thomas Riggs, infant, 1665 (Inventory)
• Roger Wilkins, yeoman, 1669 (Will and inventory)
• Thomas Atkinson, senior, 1671 (Will and inventory)
• Amy Wilkins, widow, 1673 (Will and inventory)