Testamenta cantiana : a series of extracts from fifteenth and sixteenth century wills relating to church building and topography.
- Date:
- 1906-1907
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Testamenta cantiana : a series of extracts from fifteenth and sixteenth century wills relating to church building and topography. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Almshouses. Bequests to these houses of charity will he found under Dartford (1580) and Eochester (1523 and 1528). The religious changes of the sixteenth century are of course reflected in these wills. There is a decided falling off in bequests after about 1540, and by Queen Elizabeth’s time they are very scarce. At Cuxton in 1559-60 there is a be- quest of ten shillings to the altar and Communion table,” a phrase that not inaptly sums up the compromise which was intended (but hardly carried out) as the Elizabethan settle- ment. A bequest in 1595 to Earnborough Church of a green cloth for the Communion Table adds another to the many evidences of coloured coverings of the Holy Table in Eliza- beth’s reign and that of her successors. The unrest engendered by the changes made or proposed finds expression in such phrases as To be buried after the vse and custome of the Kealme ” [Eichard Swysle, yeoman, of Erith, 1547 (XI., 17)], or ‘‘^To be buried according to the custome of the Eealme ” [Thomas Wrayt of Halstowe, 1547^ proved 1550 (XI., 121)]. Under Tudley will be found a note from the will of George Fane, Esq., 1571, in which he desires to be buried according to the laudable custome and vsage that then shall fortune to be hadd and vsed throughe the realme of England in the Catholike Churche.” Bequests other than of ecclesiological interest. I have not attempted to include in the following notes the many references to field names which are to be found in mediaeval wills, neither does it come within the scope of the present work to deal with the other bequests of a secular nature which form the bulk of the contents of the wills. There are, however, a few bequests which may find a place here as an indication of the information to be obtained occasionally. Eichard Bayden of Asshurst, 1539, proved 1544 (X., 75),](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2898738x_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
