PROBATE ASSIGNMENT:

Probate was the legal process whereby wills were approved by and registered in local courts. The purpose of probate was to protect the property intended for the heirs of the deceased. Many times, these wills included specific inventories or legacies to be provided to members of the family.

For many years, historians have used these probate records to help them reconstruct the lives of ordinary people in past times. I would like you to do the same thing:

In a 1-2 page essay, provide a narrative of what you think this person's life was like and what his possessions tell you about life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The transcript of the will is available here.  You will need Adobe Acrobat to read it. If you do not have it installed on your machine, click on the icon below:

1. Selections from Beowulf.

2. The Miller's Tale from Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.

3. Magna Carta.

4. Selections from J. P. Kenyon, The Stuart Constitution.