Sorry short delay in replying to your general e-mail of 15th December. I know
others have replied but none seemed to directly answer your query. As far as I
am aware, all wills at that time automatically left the marriage bed to the
widow, or other relation if she had predeceased him, and then personal items to
specific people. It is the probate inventories which list the
agricultural/trade implements and produce left, plus the contents of each room
and, as you no doubt know, the estimated value of his 'purse and apparel'. The
fact that he was named as a 'yeoman' does not, necessarily, mean the he had
land and house to leave. In the 72 Wawne wills and inventories, it is quite
common for men, from the same family but in succeeding generations, to be named
as yeoman for one generation and then 'labourer' for the next; it did not, I
think, mean that they had 'gone down in the world', as some of those named as
labourers left possessions of a considerable value in their probate
inventories, but perhaps just that generally economic, or social, circumstances
had changed by the next generation.
I do think that wills are most usefully studied in conjunction with other
probate records and would highly recommend 'When Death Do Us Part', Tom Arkell,
Nesta Evans and Nigel Goose, Oxford, Leopard's Head Press Limited, 2000, ISBN 0
904920 42 9, although Waterstones had to order a copy for me.
Mary Carrick, Wawne, Hull, East Yorkshire.
Quoting Frank Clement-Lorford <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hi, I have a will of a yeoman made in 1589, although he mentions his goods
> and chattels. He does not mention land and abode. Am I correct in assuming
> that as a yeoman he was one step down from the landed gentry (more middle
> class) equivalent to out tenant farmers therefore would he have land and
> house to leave? I am trying to find the value of this will other than
> leaving a few things to his direct family such as a flockbed, brooches,
> candlestick and several bequests of money. I am having trouble seeing the
> importance of this document against another of a similar nature.
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> Any suggestions gratefully received.
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> I must add I am a student is this is a 1500 assignment, but I am struggling
> to see the historical importance of this document, If it was a country
> squire's will or such like I would understand. The fact that this is a man
> who leaved his bedding to one son and pots and candlesticks to another, does
> not really tell me much about the life of a yeoman, or am I missing the
> obvious.
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> Ta
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> Frank
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> Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. Oscar Wilde
> 1854-1900
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