The Material Culture of Wills Project

📢 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

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 👇

📢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

Photo of Chris Hoban on stage playing the accordian, he looks over at Paul Downes who is also playing an instrument.

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.

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/

📢 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 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

📢 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...

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 ...

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🧵

Glad you enjoyed - thank you for sharing!

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).

🎄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...

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'.

🎄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

Thank you!

We're very excited - thank you!

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.

🚨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...

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

📢 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...

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.

Oh wonderful! What did the students write about? We'd love to know more...

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 🗃️

Thank you for sharing - wonderful example!

🎅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

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.

Many thanks for sharing!

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

📢 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...

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.

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!🎉🎄🎅

The margins of a will register, showing text reading 'Abraham Swallow' and 'Anne Turkey'.

Found the 'people named after birds' page of the will register

It will be relational! The above is just a screenshot of the 'Testator' datasheet.

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.

📢 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

Thanks for sharing, Anne-Marie!

📢The wills team have been very busy of late!📢

Here's a little update on our progress over recent months - our volunteers completed Zooniverse and the database is on it's way...

#EarlyModern #DigitalHumanities #Transkribus 🗃️ @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk

📜 There's a new 'Project Progress Update' blog post over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog! 📜

Read on for more about our research progress, featuring @zooniverse.bsky.social news & updates about our database 👇

#skystorians #history #citizenscience @leverhulme.ac.uk @transkribus.bsky.social

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.

📢 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! 📜✍️💻