Josiah Wilde’s Inventory (1656)

Original spelling and layout have been adopted throughout for authenticity and reader interest, but square-bracketed monetary values added to assist readability. The reason for using Roman numerals to give values is not known.

An inventory indented of all and singular the Goodes rightes Creditts and Chattells w^ch [which] late were of Josiah Wilde late of Lowestofft in the County of Suff[olk Merchant Deceased valued and apprised the Seventh Day of August in the year of our Lord One Thousand six hundred Fifty and six By James Wilde and Samuel Pacy & Thomas Mighells as followeth. Viz^t

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

• Josiah Wilde’s will was made on 6 May 1656, showing that he was in a state of serious advanced sickness. Almost what might be termed a deathbed testimony.

• The will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (copy register 332 Bowyer – National Archives, Kew). The inventory transcribed above was found by this writer in the St. Margaret’s Church safe during the mid-1980s. It was eventually sent to the Norfolk Record Office (along with other historic material), that repository being the one serving to hold parochial material for communities forming part of Norwich Diocese. Its archival reference number is PD 589/179.

• Presentation of an inventory to an ecclesiastical court was required as part of the probate process.

• The procedure, here, was for the assessors to begin their appraisal on the ground floor of the house, taking in the two principle rooms, before going upstairs and then coming back down into the kitchen. They then went down into the cellar and outside to the backhouse annex. From there, they went down the bottom end of the house-plot to assess Josiah Wilde’s commercial premises abutting onto Whaplond Way (Whapload Road). Though how, and why, his silver items and clothing should feature is a little puzzling – unless they had been overlooked earlier. Finally, as in most other inventories of the time, the assessment of his financial situation is given: showing that he had £40 in cash in the house, was owed the sum of £300 by loans extended to other unnamed people and had no debts owing himself.

• One thing of interest regarding the interior layout of the house is the reference to the smallest of the bedrooms being located “over the entry” – which would seem to mean the front door, between hall and parlour. The kitchen would have located at one end of the house, next to either hall or parlour – with the former being the likely one, here, because of all the items connected with cooking being present. Most, if not all, ordinary houses at this time below aristocratic/gentry level being one cell deep.

• The hall was the main room of a house, with varying functions (including cooking, in this case), and the parlour a more private reserved space for family only or important guests. Both were well furnished, with the latter also used for sleeping.

• The hall was the only downstairs room having a fireplace, with the chamber above also having the same facility and using the stack, which was probably located on one end of the house. Had it been in an off-centre position, both parlour and parlour chamber could also have been heated, as was the case with James Wilde’s house (what is now No. 80 High Street),

• The hall and parlour chambers were both well fitted for both sleeping and sitting, with the latter also serving to store much of the household linen.

• The vaunceroofe (al. vance roof) was the attic space, with sleeping provision for both family and (probably) servants. The five coombs of wheat stored there is interesting, as a sack of this capacity weighed eighteen stones. The likelihood is that the grain was in smaller sacks and the overall weight of ninety stones totalled just over eleven hundredweight.

• The kitchen (surprisingly perhaps) was not used for cooking, but for the storage of the household utensils, with food preparation probably also taking place there before being taken into the hall for cookibg. The “lumber” referred to here (and also in other places), as well as the “trifles” sometimes mentioned, were small items of one kind or another regarded as not being worth individual identification. Which is a pity, because knowing what they were would add to overall understanding of life at the time.

• The cellar would have been used for general dry storage within the house and the backhouse was an annex of some kind in the yard – either attached to the dwelling or free-standing. Its use here was brewing ale or beer for the household, as that was the standard beverage of the time (even for children) at about 2%-3% alcohol content – water being too dangerous to drink (unless boiled) and milk being used to make butter and cheese.

• The salthouse was exactly what it said: a building, down at the bottom of the cliff,  used to store salt and act as the area treating fish as part of the curing process. Herrings were usually dry-salted in heaps on the ground before being smoked in the fish-house(s), while the cod and ling brought back from Faeroe/Iceland (dry-salted for preservation on board ) were often washed and then steeped in brine for further long-keeping.

• The warehouse’s primary use was for the storage of fishing-gear and its adjacent yard served as the place where the oak and ash billets used to smoke red herrings were kept – as well as other, varied types of equipment. The horse would been a dual-purpose animal, used for riding and carting, while the cow would have provided the Wilde household with milk.

• The 160 coombs of malt (a coomb of barley weighing sixteen stones before malting and less than this afterwards) show that this was a commercial undertaking for supplying local brewers. The malthouse is referred to in earlier 17th century property transfers, while an adjacent fish-house also features (probably not mentioned here because there was nothing being cured there, with the autumn herring season having not got under way).

• The various craft referred to reflect the maritime side of Josiah Wilde’s  business activities.  

• The three assessors were his older brother James (merchant) who lived at what is now No. 80 High Street, Samuel Pacy (merchant) who lived next door at Nos. 81-83 and was a cousin, and Thomas Mighells (merchant) who lived in an earlier dwelling at what is now No. 58 High Street.

• Elizabeth Wilde (wife and executor) signed herself with a capital E for her Christian name, which may indicate that she was not literate. On the other hand, this kind of use is also sometimes found with people who could read and write.

• Use of the abbreviation xc (etc.) at the end of the inventory was used to allow for any further legal matters which might arise from the administration of Josiah Wilde’s estate and assessment of his possessions.

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

• Josiah Wilde’s will was made on 6 May 1656, showing that he was in a state of serious advanced sickness. Almost what might be termed a deathbed testimony.

• The will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (copy register 332 Bowyer – National Archives, Kew). The inventory transcribed above was found by this writer in the St. Margaret’s Church safe during the mid-1980s. It was eventually sent to the Norfolk Record Office (along with other historic material), that repository being the one serving to hold parochial material for communities forming part of Norwich Diocese. Its archival reference number is PD 589/179.

• Presentation of an inventory to an ecclesiastical court was required as part of the probate process.

• The procedure, here, was for the assessors to begin their appraisal on the ground floor of the house, taking in the two principle rooms, before going upstairs and then coming back down into the kitchen. They then went down into the cellar and outside to the backhouse annex. From there, they went down the bottom end of the house-plot to assess Josiah Wilde’s commercial premises abutting onto Whaplond Way (Whapload Road). Though how, and why, his silver items and clothing should feature is a little puzzling – unless they had been overlooked earlier. Finally, as in most other inventories of the time, the assessment of his financial situation is given: showing that he had £40 in cash in the house, was owed the sum of £300 by loans extended to other unnamed people and had no debts owing himself.

• One thing of interest regarding the interior layout of the house is the reference to the smallest of the bedrooms being located “over the entry” – which would seem to mean the front door, between hall and parlour. The kitchen would have located at one end of the house, next to either hall or parlour – with the former being the likely one, here, because of all the items connected with cooking being present. Most, if not all, ordinary houses at this time below aristocratic/gentry level being one cell deep.

• The hall was the main room of a house, with varying functions (including cooking, in this case), and the parlour a more private reserved space for family only or important guests. Both were well furnished, with the latter also used for sleeping.

• The hall was the only downstairs room having a fireplace, with the chamber above also having the same facility and using the stack, which was probably located on one end of the house. Had it been in an off-centre position, both parlour and parlour chamber could also have been heated, as was the case with James Wilde’s house (what is now No. 80 High Street),

• The hall and parlour chambers were both well fitted for both sleeping and sitting, with the latter also serving to store much of the household linen.

• The vaunceroofe (al. vance roof) was the attic space, with sleeping provision for both family and (probably) servants. The five coombs of wheat stored there is interesting, as a sack of this capacity weighed eighteen stones. The likelihood is that the grain was in smaller sacks and the overall weight of ninety stones totalled just over eleven hundredweight.

• The kitchen (surprisingly perhaps) was not used for cooking, but for the storage of the household utensils, with food preparation probably also taking place there before being taken into the hall for cookibg. The “lumber” referred to here (and also in other places), as well as the “trifles” sometimes mentioned, were small items of one kind or another regarded as not being worth individual identification. Which is a pity, because knowing what they were would add to overall understanding of life at the time.

• The cellar would have been used for general dry storage within the house and the backhouse was an annex of some kind in the yard – either attached to the dwelling or free-standing. Its use here was brewing ale or beer for the household, as that was the standard beverage of the time (even for children) at about 2%-3% alcohol content – water being too dangerous to drink (unless boiled) and milk being used to make butter and cheese.

• The salthouse was exactly what it said: a building, down at the bottom of the cliff,  used to store salt and act as the area treating fish as part of the curing process. Herrings were usually dry-salted in heaps on the ground before being smoked in the fish-house(s), while the cod and ling brought back from Faeroe/Iceland (dry-salted for preservation on board ) were often washed and then steeped in brine for further long-keeping.

• The warehouse’s primary use was for the storage of fishing-gear and its adjacent yard served as the place where the oak and ash billets used to smoke red herrings were kept – as well as other, varied types of equipment. The horse would been a dual-purpose animal, used for riding and carting, while the cow would have provided the Wilde household with milk.

• The 160 coombs of malt (a coomb of barley weighing sixteen stones before malting and less than this afterwards) show that this was a commercial undertaking for supplying local brewers. The malthouse is referred to in earlier 17th century property transfers, while an adjacent fish-house also features (probably not mentioned here because there was nothing being cured there, with the autumn herring season having not got under way).

• The various craft referred to reflect the maritime side of Josiah Wilde’s  business activities.  

• The three assessors were his older brother James (merchant) who lived at what is now No. 80 High Street, Samuel Pacy (merchant) who lived next door at Nos. 81-83 and was a cousin, and Thomas Mighells (merchant) who lived in an earlier dwelling at what is now No. 58 High Street.

• Elizabeth Wilde (wife and executor) signed herself with a capital E for her Christian name, which may indicate that she was not literate. On the other hand, this kind of use is also sometimes found with people who could read and write.

• Use of the abbreviation xc (etc.) at the end of the inventory was used to allow for any further legal matters which might arise from the administration of Josiah Wilde’s estate and assessment of his possessions.

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

• Andirons: fire-dogs (a pair of metal stands used to support logs in a hearth).

• Answerable: suitable.

• Apparrell: clothes.

• Backhouse: an annex to the rear of the house, either attached or free-standing, used for various household activities and storage.

• Baskett: basket. With this being in the hall chamber and associated with fireplace equipment, it could have been used for the storage of wood.

• Bason: basin. Used in conjunction with the ewer.

• Beame: beam. Given its presence in the warehouse, with other mixed items, probably a length of shaped timber.

• Bedstead: the wooden framework of a bed. Originally used to refer to the place where a bed stood.

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

• Boardclothes: : table-cloths.

• Boules: variant spelling of bowls referring to the small wooden casks used as floats on drift-nets for catching both herring and mackerel.

• Buffet stools: low stools or footstools.

• Bushells: the bushel was a former Imperial dry measure of volume equal to eight gallons in capacity. Much used, at one time for measuring grain. The item referred here was probably a wooden or metal container of required size to measure out malt.

• Chamber: bedroom.

• Chayres: chairs.

• Cloath: cloth.

• Closestoole: early type of commode, with covered chamber pot set within a chair.

• Cockboat: the small boat of the fishing vessel referred to, which could either be carried on board or towed behind.

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

• Combes: measures 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).

• Cowe: animal kept to produce milk for the household, which would have been mainly used to make butter and cheese.

• Curryes: small two-wheeled carts.

• Double herring nets: two drift-nets 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. Mackerel nets were often set up in the same way.

• Drawing table: one with pull-out leaves.

• Earthen: pottery made of earthenware.

• Entry: front door.

• Ewer of earth: earthenware pitcher or jug, with wide spout, used mainly for pouring water used in washing hands and face.

• Faggott wood: brushwood of different kinds, bundled up for use as household fuel – particularly to get fires started and to heat bread ovens.

• Fatts: vats. Large, open-topped, circular, wooden containers, used in this case for the brining of fish.

• Feathers: kind not identified, but likely to have been used in pillows and bedding.

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

• Fire cradle: a legged, free-standing structure of iron, standing within a hearth and containing a fire.

• Fire pan: shallow iron vessel, which stood beneath a fire cradle, to catch embers w 

which fell through, and which could be used to carry this material to start fires in other 

areas if and when needed. 

• Framed chayres: probably armchairs of some kind.

• Framed table: a four-legged table, with rails and stretchers, used mainly for eating.

• Furniture: equipment.

• Glasse keepe: some kind of small container, or box, with glass lid or panel.

• Hakes: hooks used to suspend pots over a fire.

• Halberd: hand-held pole weapon similar to a bill, with spike and claw, but with larger straight-edged cutting head. Still carried ceremonially by Yeomen of the Guard at the Tower of London.

• Hall: the main downstairs room in a house.

• Hayre: hair. In this case, given its presence in the malthouse, probably a sieve of some kind made from animal hair.

• Horse: a general purpose animal for pulling carts and riding. Quite likely to have been the so-called reddish-brown sorrel horse – forerunner of the Suffolk Punch.  

• Inpris: abbreviation for the Latin legal term in primis, meaning “in the first place”.  

• Itm: item.

• Jack: a device which assisted 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.

• Joyned chayres: chairs made from wooden pieces, joined together with mortise-and-tenon joints – not just nailed up. 

• Joyned stooles: ones with a proper frame (including stretchers on the legs), not ones where the legs had been inserted into the seat.

• Kettles: metal containers (iron or copper) used for cooking food by boiling.

• Livery bedstead: a smaller bedstead than the posted type, but larger than the trundle variety. 

• Livery cupboard: oak cupboard, with pierced doors, used mainly for the storage of food.

• Lumber: unused pieces of furniture and other household items. 

• Mattock: a hand-tool similar to a pick-axe, but with one of its blades broader than the other. Often used to break through hard, compacted soil.

• Malt: roasted germinating barley, used to produce ale or beer.

• Malthouse: a building where the barley was roasted, to produce what was required in brewing.   

• Morter: mortar. A metal or stone vessel in which ingredients (spices, coarse salt, lump-sugar etc.) were ground down for use in cooking.

• Napkins: square pieces of linen used as serviettes. 

• North seanettes: North Sea nets. These would either have been mid-water seines or seabed trawls, used to catch demersal species of fish (cod, plaice, rays etc.).

• P(ar)cell: general term for a quantity or collection of things related.

• Parlour: downstairs room, mainly intended for family use only and that of close friends.

• Pestle: small, club-shaped stone or metal rod used to grind down food ingredients in a mortar. 

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

• Pillowbeeres: pillowcases.

• Pillion: either a light woman’s riding-saddle or a pad that was attached to an ordinary saddle for another person (in addition to the rider) to use.

• Plate: utensils or other items made of silver (the term deriving from the late medieval Latin word plata, indicating the sheet of metal from which such things were made).

• Platters: large oval or rectangular plates, used for serving food and made of either earthenware or sycamore wood. 

• Powdering tubb: wooden vessel in which food was dry-salted for preservation.

• Proctor: a lawyer acting on behalf of someone involved in a civil legal case of some kind.

• Props: probably, either supports for the vessel’s hull when it was on the mother ship or poles used to push it off through the shallows if beached.

• Protestacon: protestation. It has the legal meaning, here, of a formal affirmation or denial being made with regard to the administration of Josiah Wilde’s last will and testament.

• Purrs: fire-side tongs.

• Rost iron: variant spelling of roast. These implements were small gridirons, placed above the fire to cook smaller items of meat than needed to be turned by spit.

• Rugg: variant spelling of rug, which either refers to a piece of coarse woollen material of a particular kind or to a coverlet made from this. Probably, the latter. Sometimes also used to make coats.

• Salthouse: building serving for the  storage of salt used in curing fish and for carrying out other preparatory tasks.

• Screene: probably a fire-side screen – though the parlour itself wasn’t heated.

• Settle: a wooden bench, with arms and high back. 

• Shovells: probably light-weight wooden shovels, with slightly dished blades, used for turning the barley as part of the roasting process to turn it into malt. 

• Smoothing iron: a clothes iron, used for removing the creases from fabrics – especially linen.  

• Specialties: monetary loans made by bond.

• Speetes: 1. Spits for roasting meat over a fire.  2. Slender rods of coppiced hazel on which herrings were threaded for curing in fish-houses.

• Stander: possibly a large wooden candle holder of some kind.

• Still: distilling apparatus, usually employed in making medicines and perfumes.

• Swills: wicker baskets used for the washing and draining of fish. 

• Trifles: small odds and ends, not regarded as being worth individual note.

• Trivett: a round, pierced, three-footed iron stand, on which cooking vessels were placed for heating over a fire.   

• 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.

• Twilt curtaines: curtains made of twilled woollen material, which had been woven to produce diagonal lines running across the surface.  

• Tymbour: timber.

• Unwrought: not made up into anything.

• Valence: valance. Material which hung down from the canopy of a posted bedstead.

• Vaunceroofe: attic. The spelling vance is also found used.

• Warehouse: general term for a building in which goods of varying kind were kept. 

• Warming pan: a long-handled household implement, with the lidded pan itself (made of brass or copper) containing hot embers from a fire, which was placed in a bed – beneath the covers – to warm it up (or even make sure that it was dry) before use.

• Weigh: variant spelling of wey, which was a quantity of forty bushels of salt and which weighed one ton when dry. The word derived from weigh itself and was used to give the specific weight of particular commodities – which varied accordingly. Salt was one of the things where the word was most commonly used.

• xc: etc.

CREDIT:David Butcher