Distribution of inventories by parish and decade

This collection of inventories provides rich evidence for historians of many different specialisms for life in Bedfordshire in the period from 1550 to 1660. Readers will come to the collection with varying degrees of knowledge of the place, period, probate procedure and material. This introduction provides background information to fill in these different lacunae.

The first half of the introduction is about structure. It discusses what inventories were; their survival rate in Bedfordshire; the character of the county in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the Bedfordshire people for whom inventories were made; and how the inventories reflect the procedures of the probate system. The second half of the introduction is about their contents. It highlights issues about farming, housing, household and personal possessions in order to alert readers to features that need to be recognised to understand the inventories.

Probate inventories were the lists of a deceased person's goods, with their values, which were required to be made and produced in the church courts as part of the process of obtaining probate of a will (or letters of administration in the case of intestacy). Their purpose was to prevent fraud by the executor, creditors, debtors, heirs and beneficiaries and also to protect them, especially minor children, from fraud. One copy of the inventory was kept by the church courts and a second copy was returned to the executor.

Throughout the country as a whole, many thousands of inventories have survived and are held amongst diocesan records, most deposited with county record offices. However, for Bedfordshire only a few hundred have survived for the period before 1660. Bedfordshire Historical Record Society (BHRS) has already published 1813 and this book complements them with a further 432, one of which was made in 1497 and the others between 1550 and 1659. A few more survive in fragments and have been omitted.

The county and the Archdeaconry of Bedford were almost coterminous. The exceptions were the two parishes making up the peculiars of Biggleswade and Leighton Buzzard and the extra-parochial area of Colworth; they were administered separately from the Archdeaconry.

The obligation to produce an inventory of a deceased person's goods as part of the procedure for obtaining probate or letters of administration developed during the medieval period. Some aspects were formalised in legislation by the Probate Fees, Inventories etc. Act 1529, which was not repealed until 1925 by which time the practice of producing an inventory had fallen out of use. Although the 1529 Act did not give a reason for making an inventory, later commentators explained it as to prevent fraud, principally by the executor, and to protect creditors and anyone else having a claim on the estate. It is quaintly explained by Swinburne as ‘least the executor be disposed to deale unfaithfully, shoulde defraude the creditors or legataries, by concealing the goods of the deceased.’

Diocesan officials, proctors and notaries public who practised in the church courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and earlier and the scriveners who worked for some decedents probably had formularies or notes to guide them with the documentation. How the laity who helped people with wills and inventories gained the knowledge of procedure and the formulas to use is not known and there were no printed law books to guide either group until the end of the sixteenth century. The process is described here to inform the reader of the different requirements and enable a comparison with Bedfordshire practice.

The framework for making inventories set out in the 1529 Act focussed on curbing excessive fees, setting the scale for proving wills and exhibiting inventories (which remained unchanged throughout the period covered by this volume) and setting out who had priority for appointment as administrator in cases of intestacy. The framework was commented on and developed in books published later in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The detailed procedure has to be teased out of these sources.

William Lyndwood's Provinciale, made in the previous century, gathered together orders and procedures that governed the church. It was printed in an English trans¬lation in 1534 and was later cited by Swinburne. Henry Swinburne, who practised in the church courts of York, published a Brief Treatise on Testaments in 1591 with editions in 1611, 1635 and 1640. West's Symboleography, 1598 was a precedent book on all subjects. The Canons of the Church of England 1604, produced by the Bishop of London were concerned with doctrine and procedure from the church's standpoint.

Alphabetical list of Bedfordshire inventories published in this volume and in BHRS volumes 20 and 32

James Woodward of Barton, maltman made 30 November 1497

The National Archives, PROB2/128

The document is discoloured, especially the top half where there are also four large holes. Some text is missing.

A true […] all the good & Catalles of Jacob Woodward maltman late of Barton in the […] of Bedford praised by William Swayn, William Child, Thomas Jeffrey & Richard […] Barton aforeseid by the oversight of [illeg.] [?]Harmer the last day of November […] lord MlCCCClxxxxvij and the xiij [yere of the] Reigne of king Hen[ry] […]

Robert Cowper of Harrowden, Cardington, husbandmn made 23 September 1552

Lincolnshire Archives, MISC WILLS L/29

The document is faded and damaged down the right side.

Thys Inventory followyng of all suche goodes as weere of latet [sic] Robart Cowpers of Hrowden In the parrysche of Cardyngton husbandman nowe dyssessyd vewyd & praysyd the xxiij daye of September Anno 1552 by the vew & price [?]feat

Elizabeth Bacon of Goldington, widow made 27 September 1552

Lincolnshire Archives, MISC WILLS L/32

Thys Inventary takyn of the goodes of Elsabeth Bacon wyddoo late deseysyd In the paryche of Goldyngtone and presentytt by Master Jonson, Wyllyam Berde, Jorge Monyngham, Wyllyam Gale, Thomas Kyng, Thomas Fyscher the xxvij day of Septembr Anno domini 1552

Thomas Browne of Leighton Buzzard, shoemaker made 4 October 1552

Lincolnshire Archives, MISC WILLS L/31

Damage at the foot of the document. Some words or values are missing.

The Inventorie of the goodes of Thomas Browne of Leighton Bossard in the Cowntie of Bedford shomaker made the fourth daye of Octobre in the yere of our lorde god MCCCCCLij & in the syxte yere of the Reinge of oure soveraynge lorde kyng Edwarde the vjth praysed by Nycholas Wryght, Robart Scrogges, John Parson & Thomas Sanders

William Ireland of Milton Ernest, miller made 5 April 1555

Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, A25/183

This is a beautifully written, fair copy on parchment. There is slight damage and loss of a few letters on the right side.