{Part 5}
In conclusion, we may briefly notice the bequests of goods and chattels, which are such
an interesting feature in early wills owing to the particularity with which they are often recorded. Furniture, domestic utensils,
articles of clothing
and so forth are named separately. For instance, John Feryer (1504) left to his godson, "a Spruse Cofyr," a feather bed and a pair of sheets, etc., a brass pot, four dishes and six platters; John Hankyn
(1506) left to one of his sons, a "shottable," a fireplace and a stone mortar;
Thomas Harry (1507) left to his son his best gown, a spruse
cover, a brass pot, three platters, two dishes and a saucer. While the bequests of other testators included a kettle and brass pot, a table, a coverlet, pewter
and brass, twenty timber trees, etc.
Dealing as we are with the effects of
country folk, articles of silver are rarely specified, but Agnes Hankyn (1505) possessed a girdle
harnessed with silver and
two silver rings; and Joan Cole (1508) had two, and Gonor Dorell (1513) six silver spoons; the latter also owned a mazer bowl.
As might be expected
in a river-side parish, boats are mentioned from time to time. John Hankyn
(1506) left two fishing boats to one of his sons; Richard Hankyn (1515) left his best boat
to his wife; and Robert Graye (1542), mariner, also left a boat to his wife. The Hankyns
and Graye probably
belonged to the well-known Harwich seafaring families
of those names.
Agricultural products
were a frequent form of bequest, and these tend to show that in the sixteenth century a good many of the parishioners
were small holders. To take some typical examples: Edmund Sowthow (1513) left
to his wife and children, a seam
of wheat each, also one of barley
and one of oats; Alice Hankyn (1505) left four hens and
a cock and a young hog; John Hankyn (1506) left to his wife, son and daughter , ten beasts
and thirty sheep each, to another son, six oxen,
two horses and thirty sheep, and
to his sister, his
bees;
Thomas Harry (1507) left to
his wife a cow, and to his
son, his horse and sheep;
James Mounte (1508) left "a bullock,
which beareth the bell," and a horse and saddle, and to his wife four kine and four calves;
Giles Cocke (1540) left to two of his
sons, ten "lawfull shepe" each; and John Woode (1543) left to his wife, twenty
ewes and two beasts, and to his three daughters, two sheep each, and two lambs. Sheep
seem to have been more numerous
than any other stock,
partly, no doubt, because free pasture was available for them on the common lands.
A few of the place-names in the following
abstracts have continued in use down to the present day; references to these, and to others which are now obsolete,
will be found in the footnotes.
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and may be searched using ‘Fingringhoe Wills’.
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