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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Alexander. on Wednesday 15 September 10 16:08 BST (UK)
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This 1741 will and inventory is quite easy to read, though there are still a number of words that are giving me trouble.
to be paid in one Year & a half after My Decease Ilem? I give
unto James Fricknall My Son the Sum of one Shilling, all the
rest and Residue of My personable Estate I give and bequave?
unto My Son George Fricknall and do make him Sole Executor
of this my Last Will and Testament upon this Condition that
the Sd George Fricknall doth Not Marry with the Sd Rebacka
Taylor my Maid Servent and furder? that ye Sd George Fricknall do bring up
My Younger Son John Fricknall till he be att ye age of
fiveteen o[r] while he Can provide for himself and to give him
and to pay my Son George his Wages that Shall be due to him from
me and one Shilling at a Legacei In Witness where unto I have
Set my Hand and Seal this Eleventh day of December in ye Year
The inventory gave me quite a bit more trouble so will post those sections next.
Thanks!
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2nd bit
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They seem to be strange spelling variations to me
Ilem -Item
bequeave - bequeath
furder - further
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2nd part
one shilling as a legacy?
Judy
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Thanks Judy, I wondered if they were just strange spellings which were confusing me. The one I couldn't work out was "furder" but now I see that he probably meant "further".
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Moving on to the inventory...if the spelling was strange in the will then I don't know how to describe this.
in the house fire iron ... Chares? ... s d
1 dreser and severl other things 2 10 0
in the parler ouefer ye seler
1 Cead? 1 Chist 1 tabel and other things 3 : 0 0
in the new parler 1 Cead? 1 Chist 1 : 0 0
in kichin 1 : 0 : 0
in the Chees? Chember 1 Cead? 3 : 0 : 0
5 Cows 3 heffers 4 Calfes 24 : 0 : 0
4 mares 1 fille 1 foale 21 : 0 : 0
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Hi FreckNeale
I think your cead may actually be board i.e. table
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Is it fire iron, 7 chairs?
i think fire irons were things like tongs and pokers.
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I think the chairs referred to are those probably bronze that the fire irons rested on when not in use. By the way I read it as "Fire irons & chairs" Not 7 chairs, I think the squiggle was meant to be an ampersand.
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Thanks Judy & Redroger, at first I thought it said 'five iron' but didn't think that golf would had made it to a small Notts village by 1741.
Still wondering about the "board" - there just doesn't seem enough letters in the word. And why in the third line would it say 1 board and 1 table if they are the same thing?
The last section:
harnis for the horses 3 : 0 : 0
1 waggon 1 Cart 6 : 10 : 0
for plows and harrows 1 : 00 : 0
for Corn in the Chember 12 : 00 : 0
for Clots? and wheat on ye ground 19 : 0 : 0
for the pease ..... 3 : 0 : 0
Thanks,
Alexander
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After a further look I now think that what we thought was "board" is in fact "bed" Try this in other contexts, it seems to make sense to me.
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Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. But what is a bed doing in the "Chees Chamber"? Am I correct in saying that is meant Cheese? What is a cheese chamber?
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I am wondering if the Chees Chamber had something to do with the farming operation.Somewhere Cheese was made or kept, a board i.e. table would make sense.
Liz
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... where it says Cbots on the ground, I would expect it to say oats :-\
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I guess they must have made cheese. I don't know whether most farms would have done this.
I've been puzzling over that Clots/Cbots for ages - almost positive it starts with a C and ends in 'ots' compared to other letters on the page, but can't make anything fit. I didn't think of oats though - but it really doesn't look at all like that. I don't know...
I was wondering on the next line whether it says "Pease eath" as in Peas heath or something like that. Though I'm not really sure.
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It is definitely cheese chamber. Perhaps what we would call a larder or pantry now - somewhere cool with cold stone slabs to store milk, cheese and other perishables.
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I thought it might be pease (peas) valued though I can see all the letter don't fit!
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In many old wills you will see the phrase
for oats and wheat on the ground - though I must admit that it definitely doesn't say oats, but Cbots :-\
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Oldtimer: 1/- as a legacy is not unusual, I've seen them as low as 3d in early wills from the late 16th century.
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??? ???
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Yes, it surprised me too!
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Trawling OED for possible dialect words, they have 'clats', cow-dung - which seems to have been a useful product on farms, e.g. their example:
"1834 Brit. Husb. I. 27 'Clats..the dung of cattle as fuel..collected from the pastures at the close of summer' ".
(Weirdly, I had a Yorkshire friend who puzzled me once when she casually referred to something being 'as flat as a cow clart': I now understand what she meant.)
Re the 'pease ___', OED has a word which can be spelled 'eddish', 'etch' or 'eatage' meaning the stubble left after a crop had been reaped. It could have value as cattle fodder, or because other crops could be sown over the top and gain nutrients from it:"The bean etche well cleaned in the autumn and sown again with wheat".
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Interesting...never heard of that but it could be right. "Clats and wheat on the ground"...not exactly what I was expecting, but it fits, thanks!
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Yes! I have had Staffordshire wills where dung has been mentioned in an inventory!
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Dung of course had (and has) value as a fertiliser. I have seen sheep sent into sprout fields in November when the crop has been flooded to eat the debris and clean and fertilise the field. Pigs were traditionally let loose in autumn for this very purpose. Older wills will be much closer to the natural cycle than we are, and it is often difficult to work out exactly what the makers meant.