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Messages - Syntill

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Australia / Re: Emma SPRAGGS
« on: Monday 28 February 11 17:47 GMT (UK)  »
Emma Spraggs was the sister of my great-grandfather. John Spraggs, her father, was born in Maidstone in 1822, married Elizabeth Rains in 1846 and died at Chatham in 1856, the year that Emma was born. She had two older brothers and a sister, besides a brother who died in infancy. She also had a half-brother, George, whose father was her stepfather Robert Campbell. I am indebted to Joan Spraggs for this information.

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Travelling People / Re: Gypsy, Traveller, Circus, Fairground etc. website links
« on: Monday 28 February 11 17:38 GMT (UK)  »
There are some classic nineteenth-century works on gypsies freely accessible on the Internet Archive [http://www.archive.org/]. These include _In Gipsy Tents_, by Francis Hindes Groome [ http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028693632], and some early volumes of the _Journal of the Gipsy Lore Society_, for example, vol 1 [http://www.archive.org/details/journalofgypsylo01gypsuoft], vol 2 [http://www.archive.org/details/journalgypsylor01socigoog] and vol 3 [http://www.archive.org/details/journalofgypsyl03gypsuoft].

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As regards the first document:

I believe the first paragraph means that the will was proved before John Briggs, surrogate for Thomas Waite esquire, Bachelor of Laws and commissary for the archdiocese of Richmond in the diocese of Chester. (That would be Richmond in Yorkshire.)

The will concerns the goods, debts, cattle and chattels of Christopher Waller lately [nuper] of Moorgarth in the parish of Bentham. His widow [viduae relictae] Alice [Alicia] Waller is one of his co-executors. The administration is to be committed to James [Jacobus] Waller, the son of the dead man and the other co-executor.

The last part gives the date: the sixth day of the month of April anno domini 1704.

The rest of the document looks to me like legal flannel. For instance, 'Sub Sigillo officij nri' just means 'under the seal of our office' (officij nri = officii nostri). I think your transcription is a bit wonky in places: for instance, 'arnngeri' must be armigeri, esquire. 'Insceptur' looks to me like a mistake for something else, and so does 'Etime'. A 'proper' translation isn't really possible without more certainty about the transcription: but do you really need one?

Resources you might find useful: Eve McLaughlin's pamphlet 'Simple Latin for Family Historians' has three pages on 'Reading a Latin Will Probate'. Charles Trice-Martin's _The Record Interpreter_ has an extensive list of Latin abbreviations, plus Latin forms of places, bishoprics and Christian names. To the best of my knowledge, there's a copy of this old book in most record offices. Grannum and Taylor's _Wills and Other Probate Records_ is not particularly helpful with legal Latin, but is a very good guide to the law of probate, the legal procedures, and understanding how to interpret wills and related documents.

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