The Accounts of the Administration of Thomas Mighells (1636-9)

This fascinating document records settlement of the estate of a leading Lowestoft merchant, whose burial was recorded in the parish registers on 18 September 1636. It is located within the pages of the Lowestoft Tithe Accounts book (Norfolk Record Office, 589/80) – placed there by the Revd. John Tanner (Vicar of the parish, 1708-59), who had married into a branch of the Mighells family on 20 January 1713 (1712, by Julian Calendar dating) and who probably found the document among existing family papers. He obviously noticed, in the second set of accounts, that burial within the walls of St. Margaret’s Church carried a fee of eleven shillings – this, in reference to that specific sum being paid to the vicar of the time, Robert Hawes, for Thomas Mighells’ own inhumation. And he must have then made the decision to place the whole of the documentation with the Tithe Accounts, which recorded what was due to the incumbent annually from farming and fishing activity to constitute his stipend.

The transcription below represents the layout and grammatical wording of the original documentation as closely as possible, so as to give it authenticity – but the decision was made to adopt modern spelling and format throughout for all aspects of the text, in the interests of clarity and because certain symbols and abbreviations differ in form from what is now standard practice and cannot always be replicated on a keyboard. Square brackets are mainly used in text for words which are abbreviated in form or had different meanings in earlier times – as well as to insert missing known forenames – and bullet-points have been inserted to help make the text easier to read. 

The Accounts of Robert Coe one of the administrators for Thomas Mighells of the goods Credits and Chattells of Thomas Mighells of Low[e]stoft deceased of his Receipts As followeth

The Account of Robert Coe one of the Administrators for Thomas Mighells of all his layings out & paym[en]ts as followeth 

The Account of Richard Mighells one of the administrators of Thomas Mighells of the goods Credits & Chattels of Thomas Mighells late of Lowestoft deceased of his Receipts, as follows / viz

The Account of Richard Mighells one of the administrators for Thomas Mighells of the goods Credits and Chattels of Tho[mas] Mighells late of Lowestoft Deceased of his payments as followeth / viz

Family background and information

• Thomas Mighells was the son of Thomas and Martha Mighells, baptised in St. Margaret’s Church on 5 May 1598 – making him thirty-eight years old, when he died (his burial being recorded on 18 September 1636). His father’s own baptism was registered on 19 February 1576 (1575 by Julian Calendar dating) and his burial followed, just short of his twenty-sixth birthday, on 9 February 1602 (1601, by Julian Calendar) – leaving three young children: Thomas Jnr. (as referred to above), Thomizen [Thomasine] baptised 6 January 1600 (1599) and Richard baptised 19 April 1601.

•Thomas Snr., the father, was the son of James and Katherine Mighells, a prosperous 

Lowestoft merchant and his wife, who lived at No. 27 High Street, in the same house which still stands there – this having been built in 1551 by James’s father Richard (a fire-place beam in the main downstairs room carries the year carved into the wood) and remaining one of the town’s most important surviving early dwellings. Richard Mighells had probably moved into Lowestoft from Gunton, at some stage, as his father Robert was by far the wealthiest taxpayer there in the 1524-5 Lay Subsidy and on a par with the richest in the neighbouring town itself.

• Richard Mighells was noted as being fifty-five years old on 12 February 1567 (1566, by Julian Calendar dating), when he appeared as one of five witnesses to give evidence at an inquiry into the annual value of the Lowestoft vicarage.

• Notional year for the birth of both James and Katherine Mighells would be c. 1550, using average marriage ages for each partner: c. 24 years (female) and c. 26 years (male). The opening entry in the first surviving Lowestoft parish register (a burial) is dated 25 March 1561 – New Year’s Day, by the Julian Calendar then in use.  

• Seven children are recorded from the marriage of James and Katherine Mighells: unnamed child buried 2 April 1575; Thomas baptised 19 February 1576; Thomizen [Thomasine] baptised 8 December 1577; Richard baptised 23 April 1579; James baptised 1 November 1580; Anne baptised 17 June 1582; Katherine baptised 23 August 1584 and buried 22 May 1589.

• James Mighells Snr. was buried on 3 May 1585 (age unknown, but probably of no great length) and was long survived by his wife, who remarried into the local Rous family of gentry status. She also remained in ownership of the High Street house until 3 December 1631 (though possibly not living there), having been widowed a second time, and eventually conveying the property to her grandson Thomas – the subject of this article.

• The dwelling stood on a large plot running down to Whaplond Way (now Whapload Road) and accommodated fish-houses, salt-stores, stables and other buildings at its lower end.

• The administration of Thomas Mighells’ earthly estate shows that he was involved in fishing (and perhaps maritime trade also, with many vessels of the time being dual purpose), fish-curing, train oil production and agriculture. Details from his will reveal this activity also – as does that of his grandfather, James, with brewing thrown in for good measure (3 June 1584). Though that of his father (another Thomas) – made only three days (6 February 1602) before his burial date does not. However, a surviving incomplete probate inventory of his worldly goods (0.0.1602) shows activity in both local herring fishing and curing and involvement in the Icelandic cod voyages also.

• Thomas Mighells, of this particular article, married his first wife, Mary Bonner, on 28 August 1623 – her burial being recorded just over eight years later on 1 November 1631. She might well have been the Margaret Bonner baptised on 6 December 1601– daughter of John and Alice Bonner – as variation of Christian names in the Lowestoft parish registers (and changes in the same) is not unknown.

• Four children were born to the couple: Thomas (baptised 6 June 1624), James (baptised 30 January 1626 – 1625 by Julian Calendar), Richard (baptised 28 December 1627 and buried 22 January 1629 – 1628 by Julian Calendar) and “replacement” Richard (baptised 15 November 1629). This made the surviving boys twelve, ten and six years old at the time of their father’s death in September 1636.

• Thomas Mighells’ second marriage to Alice [ ? ] is not recorded in the registers and probably took place out of Lowestoft in the bride’s home parish. It is likely to have been of relatively short interval, following on from his first wife’s death, because of the care needed for his three young sons – a situation which was common both in  the town of Lowestoft and in many other English communities of the time. 

• A son was born from this union, who was baptised 22 April 1633 and was named Robert. He became a mariner in adulthood.

• Thomas Mighells’ will gave Alice the task of seeing to the education of the four boys, but (for whatever reason) this seems to have been taken over by an uncle – named Richard – who was the son of James and Katherine Mighells referred to earlier (baptised 23 April 1579). 

• As Co-administrator of the Thomas Mighells estate, he was also the younger brother of the deceased’s own father Thomas – the latter having died untimely in February 1602 (1601 by Julian Calendar), leaving three young children (Thomas, Thomasine and Richard) as already discussed. Richard Mighells Snr. may well have been involved in the family business activity and became wealthy enough to be able to self-style himself as a gentleman, since his burial entry of 7 December 1642 refers to him as “gent”. He lived in an earlier house on the site of what is now No. 58 High Street.

• Thomas Mighells’ younger brother Richard became a master-cooper by trade. He made his will on 3 November 1661, at the age of sixty, but no record of his burial is to be found – probably the result of defective recording present in the Lowestoft parish registers during the early 1660s. 

• Nothing further has been found regarding young James Mighells, apprenticed to a Great Yarmouth master (occupation not stated), but his older brother Thomas became one of Lowestoft’s leading citizens and died on 31 August 1695 (burial date 3 September) – being laid to rest in a vault located within the ground-floor area of the tower of St. Margaret’s Church.

• Their younger sibling, Richard, remained in Lowestoft and married a woman named Barbara (probably out-of-parish). They had three children: Thomas (baptised 3 November 1659), Robert (baptised 16 July 1663) and James (baptised 2 February 1666 – 1665 by Julian Calendar). Robert died young and was buried on 2 September 1666 and his mother followed over thirty years later on 3 July 1698. An “end-date” for Richard himself has not been established.

• The step-brother, Robert – as referred to six notes above – entered upon a life at sea and had his burial recorded in the parish registers on 13 June 1693. His wife Elizabeth’s own interment took place on 26 April 1708.

• It is to be hoped that the repetition of Christian names above (especially Thomas and Richard) does not cause too much confusion in this summary of the Mighells family connections. It certainly made this overview difficult to construct.

Explanatory notes (following the order of matters raised in and by the document)

• Thomas Mighells made his last will and testament on 26 July 1636, in a state of ill health, and its probate was granted by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (copy held in the ledger 110 Pile – National Archives, Kew).

• Robert Coe (yeoman) lived in house situated on freehold land west of the High Street and to the north of Swan Lane (now Mariners Street) and to the south of Church Way (now St. Margaret’s Road) – an area known at the time as Westlands. In today’s terms, it would have occupied the second plot down from the former road junction – in an 

area which is now open space.

• He acted as Co-adminstrator of Mighells’ estate and his two sets of accounts show that (1) he was mainly responsible for the sale and disposal of the latter’s household goods and of items associated with his agricultural and maritime activity, and (2) the payment of debts owed by him, and with expenses incurred by matters involving himself (Coe).

• The first set of accounts does, however, also include six stated cases of debts owing 

to the deceased for one thing or another: John Sprat £1, William Green of London £20, [?] Ingram of Yarmouth £15, John Stroud (fisherman) 6s 8d, Francis Ewing (brewer) £4  and Mr. [John] Maplesden [of Oulton] £1 10s 0d. Two further payments collected from Mr. Doubleday of Yarmouth £2 13s 4d and Henry Aston 12s 0d might also have been debts.

• There is also the matter of the £23 14s 0d paid by James Larwood of Yarmouth for his third-part interest/share in a North Sea fishing vessel owned by Thomas Mighells, which was probably mainly engaged locally in the Spring mackerel voyage and the Autumn herring season, with possible line-fishing activity for demersal species carried out at other times of the year.

• The substantial sum of £30 13s 6d was paid to Thomas Coe (yeoman) by Alice Mighells, the widow, for various unnamed things he had purchased for her – perhaps during her husband’s terminal illness.

• The second set of accounts deals with settling the various debts owed by the deceased relating to various spheres of activity .

• The first six payments in the matter of settling debts incurred by Thomas Mighells himself show that, as well as lending money to other people and effectively acting as a kind of community banker, he also borrowed money himself (when ready cash was needed) by the process of bond, which was a legal document held by each party involved in the transaction, stating the sum of money borrowed/lent, the loan’s length of time and the rate of interest charged.  

• A major matter was arranging for Thomas Mighells’ younger son James (aged ten years) to be bound apprentice to Nicholas Godson of Yarmouth (occupation not stated), to make payment for different kinds of maintenance work carried out on Thomas Mighells’ main house and other properties, to settle expenses associated with making and proving his will, and for arranging his burial within St. Margaret’s Church.

• The £2 17s 6d paid to Thomas Colby  (merchant)  shows that this man had a third-part share in a North Sea fishing vessel belonging to Thomas Mighells and was receiving the profits made from a particular voyage – possibly from the May-June mackerel  season. His origins were in Pakefield.

• Thomas Harvey (draper) supplied the cloth for James Mighells’ coat and John Sanderson (tailor) made it.

• The reference to Thomas Neale (husbandman) carrying lumber – most likely using his own horse and cart – to the North End house may well have referred to the first house standing on the east side of the High Street, next to where the Lighthouse Score pathway now emerges. 

• This belonged to John Bonner, father of Thomas Mighells’ first wife Mary, and a family connection of some kind continued to March 1664, when the property was left 

to Thomas Mighells Jnr. by his grandfather.

• Robert Underwood (scrivener) wrote Thomas Snr’s will and obviously stored certain items in his own house.

• Robert Westgate (mason) was involved in various building work associated with Mighells’ property. 

• Erasmus Utber (gentleman) had measured the quantity of train oil (produced from the reduction of cod livers and used mainly for fuelling household lamps and dressing leather) deriving from the Iceland lining voyage.

• The town ground referred to was part of Lowestoft’s charitable lands, donated by townsmen (and townswomen) over the years and producing rental money used to relieve poverty. Mighells owed three months’ rent for whatever land he occupied and Mark Pacy (fisherman and mariner) was probably a Town Lands trustee. He was also Churchwarden 1636-39 and was owed money in some way connected with Mighells being buried inside St. Margaret’s.

• Robert Hawes was Vicar of Lowestoft (1610-39) and was entitled to a fee of 11s for each burial within the body of the church.

• Richard Mighells, Co-Administrator and uncle of Thomas Mighells, had incurred expenses (£2 15s 6d) in procuring probate for his nephew’s will – which would have been less costly if either of the Norwich Diocese courts (Norwich Consistory or Archdeaconry of Suffolk) had been used. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury had been originally established to deal with large and extensive wills where property in more than one English county was involved. As time wore on, it became something of a status symbol to have wills approved there because of the Diocese’s primacy in the Church of England – and this was probably the case with Thomas Mighells. 

• It is not known who Lionel Seamons was, but the payment of £5 expenses made to him (the charges referred to) would seem to suggest that he had been engaged in some kind of legal matter relating to Thomas Mighells’ estate.

• The Admiralty Court (al. Court of Admiralty) – also known locally as a Water Leet – was a forum which met periodically and dealt with wreck of the shore and matters of maritime salvage. As a generalisation, anything of value found along the Lothingland coastline belonged to the Lord of the Half-hundred (who was also the Lowestoft manor’s Lord – the two titles having long been held in tandem). The established custom was for the finder(s) or retriever(s) of salvaged goods or material to have one half of the value of what had been rescued and for Lothingland’s lord to have the other. Thomas Mighells seems to have purchased a salvaged ship’s anchor before he died, with the money being paid into the Admiralty Court following his decease.

• Henry Westgate (mason) was the man responsible for lifting the ledger stone covering the Mighell vault in St. Margaret’s Church floor and replacing it after Thomas Mighells’ burial service had taken place. This may well have been the vault on the south side of the tower, below the belfry, in which his own son Thomas was laid to rest on 3 September 1695 – having died three days earlier on 31 August.

• The load of thatch referred to would most likely have been locally sourced reed.

• William Frary (blacksmith) occupied a house and forge on the site of what is now Nos. 38A-40 High Street. It seems that building work was being carried out at No. 27 High Street.

• Co-administrator Robert Coe (yeoman) had obviously incurred expenses in assisting Thomas Mighells in various ways during his terminal illness.

• It was always a condition of apprenticeships that a boy be provided with a set of clothing (sometimes two sets). The length of time served varied from seven to ten years, depending on the nature of the work and the age of the apprentice.

• There were obviously legal complications of some kind (not known) with regard to the execution of the will and disposal of the estate.

• The occupation of Nicholas Godson, to whom James Mighells was apprenticed is not known.

• Thomas Neale (husbandman) was owed money for carting train oil and a chest of some kind during Thomas Mighells’ latter days.

• Money was owed to Thomas Harvey (draper) for items of material used in making clothes for Thomas Mighells, deceased. The tailor surnamed Lone has not been found in parish and manorial documentation.

• Lord’s rent was the annual ground-rent payable to the lord of the manor on all copyhold property in the town – this being 80-85% of the housing stock. The other 15-20% was freehold tenure.

• Richard Mighells’ role in the administration of his nephew’s estate was less extensive in terms of transactions than that of Robert Coe. Most of the first part of his input consisted of the sale of household and various trade goods (nineteen examples), with nearly all of the purchasers not being named, but there are also four cases of the repayments of money lent out by the deceased – Mr. Green £33 8s 6d, Mr. Ingram £10, Henry Aston £5  (all three of whom were referred to in Robert Coe’s first set of accounts) and Coe’s own brother Thomas’s 11s interest on a £7 loan – as well as the purchase of a maritime chart of some kind from the Grudgefield family.

• The musket, bandoliers and sword referred to were typically present in many Lowestoft merchant households of the time – partly for defensive use at sea and partly as status symbols.  

• William Underwood (grocer) had purchased a quantity of soap from Thomas Mighells. A firkin was a wooden cask of nine gallons capacity and was widely used for the conveyance of both wet and dry goods. The half-firkin reference might have been to a cask of four-and-a-half gallons size (sometimes known as a “pin”) or simply to the actual amount of the commodity. Soap, at the time, was made largely from animal fat (especially tallow, from sheep) and wood ash – and, so, it is possible that Thomas Mighells was manufacturing it, using the ash deriving from the curing of red herrings in his smokehouses.   

• Abraham Todd had purchased a quantity of train oil, produced from the reduction of cod livers (in the liver trench located down on the Denes) brought back from the Iceland/Faeroe lining voyages.

• Thomas Coe (yeoman), brother of Robert Coe, had borrowed the sum of £7 for one year from Thomas Mighells and the 11s paid over by him represents the interest due at a rate of 7½% which was round about average for the time.

• The map referred to, acquired from Widow Grudgefield – formerly belonging to her son – would have been a maritime chart, of some kind, showing the North Sea area.

• This part of Richard Mighells’ administration ends with the sale of various items of horse tack.

• The second set of accounts dealt with payments made in the execution of Thomas 

Mighells’ will, in the administration of his estate, in the managing of aspects of his fishing and fish-processing activities, and in the care provided for him and two of his sons.

• The payment of 23 19s 6d made to Philip Mewse (butcher) is not specified, but it looks as if it was repayment of money borrowed by the deceased.

• Payment for the process of probate then follows and the expenses incurred by some kind of legal enquiry carried out at The Swan inn (site now occupied by Nos. 41-42 High Street). There is no way of knowing of what this entailed, but food provided for the Commissioners (and perhaps for the witnesses involved) was included in whatever procedures took place.

• Other expenses incurred in assessing the value of Thomas Mighells’ house contents and his trade goods and equipment (amounting to £1) had to be met and a fee of 5s was paid to Erasmus Utber (gentleman) for drawing up the probate inventory itself.

• Reference then follows to payment for the hooping of fourteen tuns and three barrels, located at the cod-liver reduction coppers down on the Denes. A tun was a measure of cubic capacity for liquids of 252 gallons and consisted of seven barrels (each of thirty-six gallons volume). This means that hooping sufficient for 101 barrels was present, at a cost of 1s 2½d per barrel. The hooping of/for barrel-staves at that time consisted of split lengths of coppiced ash-wood nailed into place around the circumference – a practice that lasted until well into the 19th century.

• Further barrel hooping was located at the deceased’s house, as well as other lengths used to secure the staves of wooden vats – large, circular, shallow, open vessels used for dry-salting or brining herrings before they were hung to cure by smoking.

• The drove bowls referred to were small wooden casks which were used as surface 

floats on drift-nets, while the stop mentioned would have been a circular end-piece for these.

• The final five entries relate to expenses incurred by Richard Mighells Snr. in his role of Co-Administrator of his nephew’s estate. No mention is made of the youngest boy Robert (who was three years old when his father died), but there is one reference each to Thomas (aged twelve) and James (aged ten) and three to Richard (aged six, rising seven). The first concerns board and lodging for Thomas from 21 November 1636 to 13 February 1637 (still 1636 by Julian Calendar) and the second was connected with clothing made for James when he went to be apprenticed in Great Yarmouth.

• It therefore looks as if Thomas Mighells Jnr. lived with his great-uncle Richard for about a three-month period (21 November 1636 – 13 February 1637), following his father’s death – perhaps to allow his mother some kind of temporary relief at a time of great difficulty for her and enable her to concentrate on the well-being of three-years-old Robert.

• Three specific entries refer to the youngest of Thomas Mighells’ first-marriage sons, Richard – who was two months short of his seventh birthday when his father died and who seems to have lived with his late father’s uncle for a period of two years, from 21 November 1636 to 21 November 1638 – hence the reference to board and lodging.

• During that time, expenditure was also made on having clothing made for him, as well as paying for routine repairs to his stockings and shoes – with this activity stretching from 21 November 1636 until 15 January 1539 (1538, by Julian Calendar).

• Finally, Robert Underwood (scrivener), who had written his father’s will, is seen to have given young Richard Mighells some kind of basic education up until 15 January 1638/39.

• There were obviously complications of some kind connected with the proving of Thomas Mighells’ will and with the administration of his estate. Though these difficulties are not known, their presence and the survival of the document connected with the administration process itself give a fascinating insight into the lives of one particular Lowestoft family in the upper levels of its socio-economic structure during the first half of the 17th century.

• One date given twice in the final part of the administration document – 15 January 1639 (1638, by Julian Calendar) – shows the total length of time taken to deal with the worldly estate of Thomas Mighells and matters arising from it. Some two years and four months, in all. 

• The sale and disposal of household and trade goods would probably have taken place relatively quickly, with the settlement of debts needing longer – as would have been the case with the apparent (but unknown) legal complications. And longest of all would have been the attention given to Thomas Mighells Jnr. and his younger brothers James and Richard. 

Glossary (following the order of appearance of words used in the document)

• Admiral Court: local forum controlling matters of maritime salvaging activity. 

• Bandoliers: belts slung over the shoulder with attached cartridges for firing muskets.

• Barrel: wooden cask of thirty-six gallons capacity.

• Barrel staves: the oak or ash lengths of timber forming the body of wooden casks.

• Berdcloth: probably a variant or misspelling of boardcloth.

• Billets: lengths of coppiced ash or oak used to fuel the smouldering fires in fish-houses for the curing of red herrings.

• Board: board and lodging expenses.

• Boardcloth: table-cloth.

• Bolster: a large pillow, the width of the bed, which supported the individual pillows. 

• Bond: legal document recording the details of monetary loans. 

• Bushel: dry measure of volume equating to eight gallons capacity and with the weight of grain and other commodities varying as to their nature. The word was also used for the bushel measure itself – usually a basket or open-ended wooden drum.

• Chaff: waste derived from the threshing of corn, used as low-grade livestock feed or for animal bedding. Sometimes mixed in with clay daub as part of the building mix.

• Chalder: variant of chaldron: a dry measure of volume, consisting of thirty-two bushels. Increased to thirty-six bushels at some stage and used mainly for measuring quantities of coal and weighing fifty-two tons. The weight of lime, with reference to use of the word in the Mighells estate administration cannot be estimated – but, it was a considerable quantity of the material.

• Collars: horse-collars – essential part of the harness used in pulling carts and ploughs. 

• Coomb: a measure of grain consisting of four bushels. A coomb of wheat weighed eighteen stones (252 pounds), a coomb of barley sixteen stones (224 pounds) and a coomb of oats twelve stones (168 pounds). 

• Coppers: large receptacles in which cod livers (brought back in sealed casks from the Faeroe/Iceland lining voyage during the Spring) were boiled down to extract the oil. They were probably made of iron, rather than the metal copper itself, and were located in a large trench down on the Denes, which accommodated the fire-pits. See LO&N article North Denes Liver Trench.

• Coverlet: bedspread.

• Curry: a small two-wheeled cart.

• Double nets: two drift-nets for herring or mackerel, joined together. It was customary for Lowestoft fishermen to each contribute the pairing to form part of the gear carried 

by their boats and guarantee their allotted share of the profits of an individual voyage. 

• Down pillow: a pillow stuffed with either goose or duck down. Lower grade pillows sometimes used down taken from chickens.

• Drossy corn: low grade grain, sometimes of mixed variety and containing chaff.

• Drove bowls: small wooden casks used as surface floats on drift-nets. The word drove itself derived from drive – which was sometimes used as an alternative for drift.

• Dutfin: a horse’s bridle.

• Fan: a wide, shallow, open, wicker device used for winnowing grain during the threshing process. 

• Fanning: use of the implement described immediately above. 

• Farm: rent.

• Fat: a vat.

• Fathom: a length of six feet (used extensively, but not exclusively for depth of water 

at sea). In this particular case, it refers to a bundle of reed.

• Featherbed: largely made from duck and goose down and feathers (but not usually those from the wings). Cheaper types probably used similar material from chickens. It formed what would, today, probably be termed a mattress. But, one of finer quality than the tough linen case stuffed with straw.

• Ferry boat: an inshore rowing boat, used for conveying goods to and from the shoreline. Possibly also used for longshore fishing activity during the autumn herring season. 

• Filler: a horse which went between the shafts of a cart.

• Firkin: a cask of nine gallons cubic capacity. In many ways, the standard container for the carriage of dry and wet goods. 

• Frieze: a rough, woven, woollen cloth, with raised nap, used mainly for outer clothing like coats.

• Gauging: measuring.

• Ground sill: length of building stone or hard, damp resistant timber (e.g. oak, elm, alder) on which the threshold of an outer doorway was set.

• Hemp: unprepared or (more likely) dressed hemp fibre (Cannabis sativa). used for making twine

• Hend(e): a term used to describe something near at hand. As applied to pitch, in this case, no information is given as to the quantity.

• Hogshead: large cask of fifty-four gallons capacity (barrel and half-barrel, added together). Sometimes used to indicate the quantity itself.

• Hooping: lengths of split coppiced ash, nailed into place around the circumference of barrels and vats to reinforce the staves. Split hazel and chestnut were also used

• Hose: stockings. 

• House-room: temporary storage capacity within a dwelling.

• Hurry: a small quantity of hay or grain. Probably, originally, one that had been cut and harvested in haste, in advance of expected bad weather.

• Inventoring: the drawing-up of a list of household items, trade materials, money owing and owed, and anything else which went towards creation of a statement of the assets and liabilities of a deceased person leaving a will. 

• Jack: device which assisted the even and efficient roasting of meat on a spit, consisting of a metal set of windmill vanes located in the flue (to be driven by the rising hot air) and connected to the spit by a system of gears which rotated the spit itself.

• Joined chest: one where the frame was made with mortice and tenon joints, rather than just being nailed together.

• Lime: burnt and ground-down chalk used in building work – mainly, to make mortar. The usual medieval mix was one part lime to three/four sand.

• Lint: lengths of drift-net mesh, prior to being made up into the nets themselves. A reference to when the nets had been made from the fibres of flax – with lint also serving as a name for the plant itself (Linum usitatissimum). At some point, hemp fibre (being stronger) superseded it. But, the word continued in use even after cotton took over from hemp during the 19th century.

• Livers: cod livers, saved from the Faeroe/Iceland lining voyages.

• Map: an early maritime chart of some kind – probably of the North Sea area.

• Mortuary: a fee payable for burial inside St. Margaret’s Church.

• North Sea boat: a vessel engaged solely in North Sea fishing activity. Other vessels of the time were dual-purpose and often converted to maritime trade.

• Oil (train oil): the oil extracted from cod livers by the reduction process of boiling them for a period of time, then removing them and leaving the liquid to cool – after which the oil which had settled on the top could be skimmed off for use. Two of its main functions were to dress and damp-proof newly made leather and to fuel household lamps. It was widely known as train oil, deriving the first element of the term from the Dutch word traen, meaning “oil”. 

• Pewter: an alloy of lead and tin, much used to make household utensils. Modern pewter, for health reasons, does not use lead.

• Pillowbere: pillowcase – deriving from Old English bera, meaning “a cover”.

• Pitch: probably bitumen, used for making the hulls and planking of boats and ships water-tight. But, it might also have referred to conifer resin, which was imported from the Baltic.

• Prizing: the act of appraising. That is, estimating the market value of a deceased person’s goods and personal items. 

• Prop: no definitive meaning possible to arrive at – but, being mentioned in the same entry as a ferry boat and anchor, it may have been a pole used in launching the craft from the beach by pushing it off through the shallows.

• Proving: the process of getting probate for a will.

• Reed: the bundle of the material referred to probably indicates use in sealing barrel staves – sometimes done in the manufacturing process and also to deal with leaks. 

• Rope: the length, thickness and purpose of this is not able to be established.

• Scuppit: following on from a bushel measure, a fan and twelve sacks, this was almost certainly a shovel with hollowed wooden blade used for moving grain. 

• Schooling: education.

• Strop: a leather loop of some kind – part of a fill-horse’s harness.

• Thatch: probably reed, rather than wheat straw.

• Town ground: part of the Town Lands, which had been bequeathed over the years for the rents to be used for the relief of poverty.

• Trace(s): long leather straps, used to link a horse-collar to the swingletree – the latter enabling the animal freedom of movement when pulling cart, plough or carriage.

• Trundle [al. trendle] bedstead: a low, narrow bed (sometimes with wheels or castors) which could be pushed under the larger posted kind. Used mainly for children and live-in servants and sometimes found referred to as a truckle bed.

• Trunk: a large wooden chest, used for various kinds of storage.

• Tun: a measure of volume for liquids, totalling 252 gallons (seven barrels). The word was also used for a cask of this size, mainly used for the storage of wine.

• Use: a monetary loan, with interest charged – the word deriving from the term usury. 

• Venture: investment. The word implies the element of risk inherent in maritime enterprise, both fishing and trading activity.

Known (and conjectured) occupations of people named in the document

• Richard Adams (fisherman?)

• John Barker(ship’s carpenter/shipwright)

• Robert Brissingham (merchant)

• Robert Coe (yeoman)

• Thomas Coe (yeoman)

• Nathaniel Colby (merchant?)

• Thomas Colby (merchant)

• John Daynes (brewer)

• Francis Ewing (brewer)

• John Ferney (fisherman)

• William Frary (blacksmith)

• Thomas Fullwood (merchant)

• Widow [Prudence] Grudgefield (merchant’s relict)

• Thomas Harvey (draper)

• Francis Knights (merchant)

• Matthew Lincoln (husbandman?)

• Philip Mewse (butcher)

• John Neale (husbandman?)

• Thomas Neale (husbandman)

• Nicholas Pacy (fisherman/mariner)

• Mr. [Robert] Peake [Pake] (surgeon)

• John Postle (tanner)

• Matthew Reeve (innkeeper)

• Mr. [William] Reeve [of Carlton Colville – occupation not known]

• Cornelius Rope (thatcher)

• John Sanderson (tailor)

• Richard Savage (miller)

• John Spratt (fisherman?)

• John Stroud (fisherman)

• John Townsend (butcher?)

• Robert Underwood (scrivener)

• William Underwood (grocer)

• Erasmus Utber (gentleman)

• Henry Ward (merchant/brewer)

• James Ward (yeoman)

• Thomas Webbe (merchant)

• Henry Westgate (mason)

• Robert Westgate (mason)

• James Wilde (merchant)

• Josiah Wilde (merchant)

CREDIT: David Butcher