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Family, Kin and Community in Eight Lincolnshire Parishes, 1567–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

J.A. Johnston
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Extract

The purpose of this study is to examine the changing proportions of bequests made by the inhabitants of eight Lincolnshire parishes to various categories of heirs between 1567 and 1800. Six of the parishes are located in the clay vale of western Lincolnshire, the other two are on the fen edge in the south of the county. There are 1,442 wills from these parishes which made 10,763 bequests. These bequests can be divided into three categories, those made to the immediate family, those made to kin and those made to unrelated people who must represent the community in which the deceased had lived. The share each of these categories enjoyed changed significantly in the period. By the eighteenth century the immediate family had become predominant and, apparently, the community occupied a less important place in the social environment of the will makers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , October 1995 , pp. 179 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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35 There is ambiguity in the wills for the entire period in that son and daughter in law can mean either step children or the relationship as we define it today. Both however count as kin in the percentages of table, 2.

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42 See below

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