The Material Culture of Wills Project
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materialwills.bsky.social
The Material Culture of Wills Project
@materialwills.bsky.social
4.1K followers 410 following 510 posts
The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790: a Leverhulme Trust project using digital tech & volunteers to transcribe 25,000 wills.

Visit our website: https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcultureofwills/
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materialwills.bsky.social
The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 14d
📢 NEW Will of the Month Post 📢

January's post looks at the wishes of a Yorkshire widow who made a 'Living Will'📜

She not only divided up her material wealth, but also expressed hopes for later life, pre-empting any future incapacity.

Read about her wishes here: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of Church Lane, Catwick, Yorkshire, including the church where this month's testator hoped to be buried. On the left of the photograph is a row of white houses, in the middle, towards the back of the composition, is a grey stone parish church, and on the right of the photograph is a grey road leading towards the church, bordered by green grass and hedges. The sky at the top of the photograph contains grey-white clouds. Photograph: Church Lane, Catwick, with the churchyard in the background where Mary Young hoped to be buried next to James Young Church Lane, Catwick. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_Lane,_Catwick_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1816304.jpg
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 In Case You Missed It! 📢

Our new blog post reports on project Creative Fellow Chris Hoban's recent sold out gig at Topsham Folk Club, where he and the excellently-named band 'The Executors' performed music inspired by our wills 📜

🎶🎻🪗🪕

@leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social #skystorians
lsangha.bsky.social Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 7d
'What a brilliant night! Wills: dry, formal, boring? This was story telling at its best: intriguing, engaging, human!’

In this new blog post, find out what happened when Chris Hoban and his band, The Executors, played to a packed house in Topsham

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

#EarlyModern 🗃️
Two men on stage playing guitars, one sings into a microphone.
February 6, 2026 at 9:03 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
We are also thrilled to bring you the news that Chris has been recording his wills songs!

If you would like an email to let you know when the album is released, follow the link here 👇
lsangha.bsky.social Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 7d
📢ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT: A TIME OF MINDING📢

Chris Hoban has been recording all the music he composed as a fellow on the @leverhulme.ac.uk project The Material Culture of Wills!

Sign up here to be notified when the album is released:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Photo: Tom Hurley #EarlyModern 🗃️
Chris Hoban on stage holding an accordian and speaking into microphone.
February 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢NEW POST: a report on Chris Hoban's recent performance of music inspired by our wills at a sold gig for Topsham Folk Club 📢

📜🎶🎻🪗🪕

@leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social
lsangha.bsky.social Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 7d
'What a brilliant night! Wills: dry, formal, boring? This was story telling at its best: intriguing, engaging, human!’

In this new blog post, find out what happened when Chris Hoban and his band, The Executors, played to a packed house in Topsham

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

#EarlyModern 🗃️
Two men on stage playing guitars, one sings into a microphone.
February 3, 2026 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Sneak Peak ...

... of a little treat coming tomorrow - a full review of Chris Hoban's wills performance in Topsham last month!

And a very exciting related announcement ...

#EarlyModern 🗃️

📷 Photo courtesy of Tom Hurley, Devon Digital.
Photo of Chris Hoban on stage playing the accordian, he looks over at Paul Downes who is also playing an instrument.
February 2, 2026 at 8:23 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 In Case You Missed It! 📢

January's 'Will of the Month' blog post is now live 📜

Read all about a Yorkshire widow's 'Living Will', as well as her ownership of 'global goods': tea, coffee, china, and a ladle for serving punch (made with sugar & spices) ☕🫖

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of an ornate eighteenth-century silver punch ladle. It is positioned at an angle, with the ladle in the bottom left and the handle pointing towards the top right, positioned against a white background. Image caption: Cast, chased and engraved silver punch ladle; London hallmarks for 1738-39, mark of Paul de Lamerie, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2025, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156415/ladle-lamerie-paul-de/
January 29, 2026 at 9:38 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NEW Will of the Month Post 📢

January's post looks at the wishes of a Yorkshire widow who made a 'Living Will'📜

She not only divided up her material wealth, but also expressed hopes for later life, pre-empting any future incapacity.

Read about her wishes here: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of Church Lane, Catwick, Yorkshire, including the church where this month's testator hoped to be buried. On the left of the photograph is a row of white houses, in the middle, towards the back of the composition, is a grey stone parish church, and on the right of the photograph is a grey road leading towards the church, bordered by green grass and hedges. The sky at the top of the photograph contains grey-white clouds. Photograph: Church Lane, Catwick, with the churchyard in the background where Mary Young hoped to be buried next to James Young Church Lane, Catwick. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_Lane,_Catwick_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1816304.jpg
January 27, 2026 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
justincolson.bsky.social
Did medieval people buy each other Christmas gifts? New Year's Day was the main gifting day, but little is known about everyday people's present giving. Our project on London's customs records has uncovered a wealth of affordable items imported around this time: gloves and hats to toys and rattles🧵
Medieval Londoners’ cheaply imported mass-produced Christmas gifts look surprisingly familiar
We often imagine medieval life as dull, dirty and short, with little in the way of material comfort or decoration. However, medieval Londoners were importing toys, treats and trinkets by the boatload ...
theconversation.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:56 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
Glad you enjoyed - thank you for sharing!
December 22, 2025 at 10:45 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
🎄A FESTIVE TREAT: BONUS CHRISTMAS BLOG POST🎄

🎁As we approach the holidays, @lsangha.bsky.social has collected some of the best 'Christmassy' names in The National Archives' will registers.

🎅Featuring Mr Christmas, Christopher Pudding, John Turkey & many more 👇

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A black and white printed frontispiece from an early modern book. The text in the centre reads 'Four Choice Carols for Christmas Holidays.' Carol I. On Christmas Day. Carol II. On St. Stephen's Day. Carol III. On St. John's-Day. Carol IV. On Innocent's Day. Being very necessary and proper to be had in all Christian Families. There are three woodcut images underneath - of St Matthew on the left, the Virgin and child in the centre, and St John on the right. Detail from FOUR Choice CAROLS for CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS (London, 1700-1).
December 22, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
🎄CHRISTMAS BLOG POST!🎄

A silly gift for you all: I dug through The National Archive wills looking for Christmassy names. There were a lot, inc:

Mr 🎅
Christopher 🍮
❄️ Green
Thomas 🦃
Theophilia 🛷

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

📜 #EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social
Woodcut showing three men. Two are dressed in 17th century clothesm the one in the centre is in a long robe with a fun hat. The man on the left says 'Keep out, you come not here', the one on the right says 'Old Christmas welcome, no not fear'. The man in the centre says 'O Sir I bring good cheere'.
December 22, 2025 at 7:24 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Thank you!
December 19, 2025 at 10:39 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
We're very excited - thank you!
December 19, 2025 at 10:38 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
🚨FAB PROJECT NEWS🚨

We are delighted to report that we have been awarded a free study break at a Landmark Trust property as part of their Landmark Futures scheme!

The whole team will spend a week in Bath at the handsome Georgian building, Elton House.

More here: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
Photograph of Georgian buildings in Bath, in the centre is Elton House, owned by the Landmark Trust. It is a three story building with regular windows top to bottom. It's frontage has not been blast cleaned so is shades of darker brown. Photo of the dining room at Elton House. A long wooden table with lit candlesticks in the centre, pale blue walls and a fireplace with a mirror over it.
December 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NOW LIVE: December's 'Will of the Month' post! 📢

Read on to find out about the life of a Ragusan merchant who found himself in Stuart London, sick of 'the Disease of the Stone' 👇

He left bequests of: 1 parrot 🦜, 300 pairs of stockings 🧦, & 360 jars of wine 🍾

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A seventeenth-painting of a red parrot, with some blue and yellow feathers, against a brown rocky landscape. The parrot is on a brown perch, and is facing towards the left side of the painting. The file is: Parrot or Ara rouge sur son perchoir, seventeenth century, attributed to Tommaso Salini, File:Exposition Phantasma (Le Voyage à Nantes 2014) (14792256749).jpg
December 17, 2025 at 8:48 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
That's fabulous, thank you for sharing. Yes. absolutely - the range of different directions that could be taken just with 1-2 objects as a starting point.
December 16, 2025 at 6:10 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
Oh wonderful! What did the students write about? We'd love to know more...
December 16, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
cordeliabeattie.bsky.social
In Alice's will, made in 1705, she left her wedding ring to her oldest daughter with the stipulation that it should then be passed down the Comber line with other Wandesford family heirlooms. Her younger daughter received her 'wedding bodice and crimson stomacher of flowered satin'. #EarlyModern 🗃️
thorntonsbooks.bsky.social Alice Thornton's Books @thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · Dec 15
15th Dec. 1651 #OTD Alice Wandesford married William Thornton. She describes the months of negotiations in what she calls 'tedious' detail in her ‘First Book of My Life’ (Book 1). Her mother wished to see her daughter's inheritance protected during marriage. Spoiler: it wasn't!
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Photo of a seventeenth-century gold wedding ring with inscription: ‘Two hands, one heart, Till death us part.’ There is also a pictogram of two overlapping hearts with a hand on either side.
December 15, 2025 at 1:40 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
Thank you for sharing - wonderful example!
December 16, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
🎅December Will of the Month!🎅

This merchant from the Republic of Ragusa made reference to the altarpiece he commissioned ✝️ 300 silk stockings🧦400 pairs of stirrups🐴, and a parrot 🦜.

#EarlyModern 🗃️

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social
Will of the Month: A merchant of Ragusa and 300 pairs of stockings
When selecting previous wills to feature in our monthly series, we browsed testator metadata, looking for particular names or locations, or filtering by occupational, social, and marital status. All o...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
December 16, 2025 at 9:28 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Yes, I (this is Emily from the project here) didn't know much about Ragusa before investigating this. It's such a fascinating republic, and the presence of Ragusan merchants in England is so key for thinking about trade / mobility at this point.
December 16, 2025 at 10:55 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Many thanks for sharing!
December 16, 2025 at 10:52 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NEW Will of the Month post 📢

For December's post, we searched for Christmas-related bequests🎅

'Stockings' led us to the will of a Ragusan merchant: featuring 300 pairs of stockings 🧦, a parrot & 360 jars of wine, & insights into foreign trade in Stuart London👇

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of a cream coloured stocking, folded over, and photographed against a black background. The stocking has green stitching on the side. Man’s stockings or boot hose, 1590-1630, English; linen embroidered with green silk thread https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78739/pair-of-stockings-unknown/ © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2025
December 16, 2025 at 8:31 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
The last Wills Project meeting before Christmas!

As you can see, we came suitably attired, but held off on the mulled wine since it was only 11am ..

A very productive year for us & our amazing community of volunteers - look out for our December will of the month & a special Christmas blog soon!🎉🎄🎅
Screenshot of an online meeting with 6 attendees. All are wearing Christmas jumpers, three are seated in front of Christmas trees or decorations, two wear floppy santa hats.
December 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Found the 'people named after birds' page of the will register
The margins of a will register, showing text reading 'Abraham Swallow' and 'Anne Turkey'.
December 4, 2025 at 5:52 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
It will be relational! The above is just a screenshot of the 'Testator' datasheet.
December 4, 2025 at 12:58 PM