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
📢 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
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
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
📢 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
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 In Case You Missed It! 📢

We've been busy - catch up with our latest 'Project Progress Update' Blog Post 👇
sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Find our more about our recent milestones, and the building of our project database 💻📜

@uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk #skystorians
A screenshot of a working version of the project database. The cells of the datasheet are grey, with the top row highlighted blue. The datasheet shows lists of testator names, their occupation, location and archive reference.
December 4, 2025 at 8:35 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NEW 'Project Progress Update' Blog Post! 📢

We've recently reached a very significant project milestone, and thought this would be the perfect moment to provide a research update: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Featuring @zooniverse.bsky.social news, and a sneak peek at our database! 📜✍️💻
A screenshot from our Zooniverse website, with a banner that shows that the project data has now been completed. The webpage contains black, green, and gold banners spanning across the top of the page, and the title of the Zooniverse project 'The Material Culture of Wills: England 1540-1790'. On the left half of the screen is a close up of an early modern manuscript, and on the right half, a textual description of the zooniverse project, featuring grey text on a white background.
December 2, 2025 at 8:19 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢November Will of the Month📢

Meet Reverend William Thomas, a widowed clergyman from Pembrokeshire who made his will in 1786.

William left his breeches to Billy Rees and asked to be buried 'as remote from every other grave as conveniently may be'.

🪦✝️💀 #EarlyModern 🗃️ #Trousers
A long black waistcoat with black buttons on a mannequin. A monotone painting of Haverfordwest Castle - a romantic looking building set in rolling hills with some houses clustered around it's foot.
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢NOVEMBER WILL OF THE MONTH📢

This month's featured testator is a widowed clergyman from Pembrokeshire who made his will in 1786.

Reverend William Thomas asked to be buried 'as remote from every other grave as conveniently may be'. 🪦✝️💀

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A monotone painting of Haverfordwest Castle - a romantic looking building set in rolling hills with some houses clustered around it's foot.
November 18, 2025 at 8:49 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Our Zooniverse volunteers reached this fantastic milestone while the project team were in Exeter, and meeting to discuss next steps for the transcriptions and the database.

We were delighted to reach this milestone, and discussed how valuable all the Zooniverse contributions have been.

🧵3/4
A photograph of the Wills project team meeting in a room at the University of Exeter. There are six people in the photograph, sitting around a table with laptops in front of them, looking at a screen on the wall which contains a colourful graph. The carpet is grey and the walls are white. There are glass doors in the wall at the back of the room which overlook grass.
November 3, 2025 at 7:43 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 In Case You Missed It 📢

October's 'Will of the Month' post is now live on our blog 📜

When Margery Gadyng died in childbirth in 1540, she made a nuncupative or 'oral' will, leaving ribbons to the women who witnessed her declare her final wishes.

Read more here👇 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of a brown embroidered ribbon on a black background. The ribbon is curled on the right hand side, and decorated with embroidery, including green plants and white and yellow flowers. Ribbon, embroidered, ca. 1600, English https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O10418/ribbon-unknown/ ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2025
October 30, 2025 at 9:57 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NEW Will of the Month Post 📢

October's will is an unusual & poignant example of a married woman who made a will

Margery Gadyng died in childbirth in 1540 - she declared her will to the midwife & women attending her, leaving them bequests of ribbons & rosaries

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of a rosary - a loop of string threaded with brown beads, some with symbols painted on them. Rosary of 30 unglazed earthenware beads of red and black clay, British Museum 2009,8038.1.a-b https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_2009-8038-1-a-b?selectedImageId=1310905001 © The Trustees of the British Museum
October 28, 2025 at 8:13 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
One of our PhD students Jane Tozer recently visited @nationaltrust.org.uk Ham House during their 'Open Cabinets' event while researching 'japanning' - furniture finishes that imitated East Asian lacquerwork.

The cabinets are opened only twice a year - Jane captured this beautiful photograph:
A photograph of a black and gold cabinet, taken at the National Trust property Ham House. The black cabinet has several patterned drawers, and its doors are open. It stands on an ornate gold table, next to a wooden chair and a patterned screen, on a wooden floor, and in front of patterned walls. Description: a lacquer cabinet made from imported incised Coromandel lacquer panels with japanned interiors and mounted on a European gilded wood stand. 
October 23, 2025 at 3:05 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
Project Research Fellows Harry Smith and Emily Vine are looking forward to speaking as part of the Warwick History 'Post-Doc' Club series, next Wed 22 October @ 17.00.

They'll be discussing 'Digitization & Citizen Science'📜💻

Follow this link for Zoom details:
warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/his...
A poster with a white background and black text, with a blue border at the top of the poster, and photographs of manuscripts. The title of the poster reads Warwick History ‘POST-DOC’ CLUB METHODOLOGIES SERIES. Online Meeting: Weds 22 October at 5pm DIGITIZATION & CITIZEN SCIENCE: Inviting collaborative research to transcribe handwriting. With Harry Smith and Emily Vine of the Material Culture of Wills, 1540-1790 project at the University of Exeter.
October 14, 2025 at 11:06 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
3. Catch up on our latest 'Will of the Month' blog post!

September's post was written by Dylan Cox, a 3rd year Exeter History student 📜

You can catch up on all of our 'Will of the Month' posts - over 20! - on our website 💻

@uoearchhist.bsky.social #history
sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

🧵3/3
A 1720 drawing of Bridewell Prison, seen from above, from “The Prospect of Bridewell” from John Strype‘s An Accurate Edition of Stow’s “A Survey of London“ (1720) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridewell_Palace#/media/File:Prospect_of_Bridewell.jpg
October 1, 2025 at 8:49 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
2. Read our Autumn Newsletter! 📰

We've recently circulated our latest project update - with details of what we've been up to over the last 6 months! 📜🎨🎵

Download the pdf or plain version from our news page:
sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

@uniofexeterhass.bsky.social #skystorians
🧵2/3
A newsletter - mainly consisting of text, with some photos of a workshop in the bottom corner. A newsletter - mainly consisting of text, with some photos of a print workshop and some images of the prints that were made.
October 1, 2025 at 8:49 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 📢

September's 'Will of the Month' post is live on our blog 📜

Written by Dylan Cox, a 3rd year Exeter History student, it explores the will of a C17th London gentleman, and his charitable bequests & mourning rings 💍

#skystorians #history

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of a gold mourning ring and a small gold crucifix. Catalogues caption: an Example of a ‘Enamelled gold mourning ring, The hoop with a skull reserved in black enamel inscribed Non hic Sr. N. S. obt 30 June 86, England, date 1686’. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2025 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125929/mourning-ring-unknown
September 29, 2025 at 8:22 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NEW WILL OF THE MONTH POST 📢

We're delighted to share this very special post by Dylan Cox, a 3rd year History student at Exeter. 📜

Dylan has transcribed & researched the will of a London gentleman who made several bequests, including to Bridewell prison 🧵1/2

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A 1720 drawing of Bridewell Prison, seen from above, from “The Prospect of Bridewell” from John Strype‘s An Accurate Edition of Stow’s “A Survey of London“ (1720) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridewell_Palace#/media/File:Prospect_of_Bridewell.jpg
September 25, 2025 at 7:58 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
In the next few days we'll be circulating our Autumn 2025 project newsletter! 🍂✉️

To receive a copy and find out what we've been up to over the last few months, make sure you're signed up to our mailing list: forms.office.com/e/JbUEq4Za1u

@leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social #history
A screenshot of the banner for The Material Culture of Wills Autumn 2025 newsletter.
September 16, 2025 at 11:20 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 ICYMI: in our new blog post Laura Sangha talks about her collaboration with a musician to explore wills, history and creative approaches 👇

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

#EarlyModern 🗃️
A photo montage showing Laura Sangha and Chris Hoban talking to people, looking at wills, visiting a museum. There are also images of people creating linocuts at a workshop, and of a will.
September 12, 2025 at 7:04 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢NEW WILLS PROJECT POST!📢

In the post our project Co-Investigator Laura Sangha recounts what happened when she collaborated with musician Chris Hoban in order to explore the wills in our sample.

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

#EarlyModern 🗃️
A photo montage showing Laura Sangha and Chris Hoban talking to people, looking at wills, visiting a museum. There are also images of people creating linocuts at a workshop, and of a will.
September 10, 2025 at 7:44 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 In Case You Missed It 📢

Our August 'Will of the Month' post is now live on our blog! 📜

It explores the will of a Huguenot 'Master Weaver', who lived in Stepney and made a bequest of 'all the Loomes and Harnesses belonging to a Weavers’ Trade' 🧶 #skystorians 👇

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A book showing colourful flowery designs for woven silk. The book is opened and set against a black background. Design for woven silk from the ‘Leman Album’, pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper, possibly by James Leman, 1734. James Leman was a second-generation Huguenot refugee, and silk weaver and designer who was living and working in Spitalfields at the same time as our featured testator. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O65210/design-leman-james/ © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2025
August 28, 2025 at 8:00 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NEW Will of the Month post! 📢

It explores the will of a Huguenot refugee & 'Master Weaver of Stepney' whose will is a insight into community & craftsmanship 📜

He leaves money to the French church & mentions the Huguenot trades of silversmithing & watchmaking ⌚

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of a row of eighteenth-century townhouses in Spitalfields, East London, with blue sky and some cars parked on the street. Master Weavers would have lived in large townhouses like the ones in Fournier Street in Spitalfields. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:25_to_41_Fournier_Street,_Spitalfields_(01).jpg
August 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM