Nately Scures Probate Material, 1543-1700

The small parish of Nately Scures, lies on the A30 road four miles east of Basingstoke and two miles west from Hook. The majority of the parish is to the north of the road and stretches from the old turnpike at Water End. It also includes land owned by the Dorchester estate, Heather Row and Andwell. Until 1870 there were six detached parts of the parish including Holt and the then hamlet of Hook. The detached parts were attached to surrounding parishes in 1879.
Civil parish boundaries in the area were revised in 1932, consequent upon the creation of Hook Civil Parish. The remaining parts of Nately Scures were then transferred to Hook and Newnham and it ceased to exist as a civil parish. It finally ceased to be a separate unit of any kind in 1955, when the ecclesiastical parish was absorbed into the newly-created ecclesiastical parish of Hook.
Using probate documents from the Hampshire Record Office and National Archives, 34 wills and 44 inventories have been transcribed from 1543-1700 by the Wills Group of the Hampshire Victoria County History project based in Basingstoke. The documents reveal a mixed farming economy with associated rural crafts. It is noticeable that the testators of this parish situated on clay soil, have few sheep compared with neighbouring parishes on the chalk downland, but some do have hops, hop poles and apples. 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.
A glossary is attached of unusual words.
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1543-60
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1561-80
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1581-1600
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1601-20
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1621-40
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1641-60
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1661-80
- Nately Scures Probate Material 1681-1700
Content derived from research undertaken as part of the Victoria County History project