Will of Hugh Loring, soap boiler, 1656

Loring was a soap boiler who seems to have been a widower. This was proved in London during the Interregnum when the bishops’ probate courts had been abolished, no inventory survives. It was an unusual trade for a village dweller and there was little indication of where he sold his goods. He left money to the church and poor of Nately Scures. The majority of his possessions were left to his two young daughters with instructions that his executors should collect his debts amounting to £102 10s. in order to provide them with an education.