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materialwills.bsky.social
The Material Culture of Wills Project
@materialwills.bsky.social
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The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790: a Leverhulme Trust project using digital tech & volunteers to transcribe 25,000 wills.

Visit our website: https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcultureofwills/
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materialwills.bsky.social
The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 18d
📢 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...
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
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
justincolson.bsky.social
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🧵
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 ...
theconversation.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:56 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
🎄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...
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).
December 22, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
🎄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
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'.
December 22, 2025 at 7:24 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
🚨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...
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.
December 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 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...
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
December 17, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
cordeliabeattie.bsky.social
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 🗃️
thorntonsbooks.bsky.social Alice Thornton's Books @thorntonsbooks.bsky.social · 19d
15th Dec. 1651 #OTD Alice Wandesford married William Thornton. She describes the months of negotiations in what she calls 'tedious' detail in her ‘First Book of My Life’ (Book 1). Her mother wished to see her daughter's inheritance protected during marriage. Spoiler: it wasn't!
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Photo of a seventeenth-century gold wedding ring with inscription: ‘Two hands, one heart, Till death us part.’ There is also a pictogram of two overlapping hearts with a hand on either side.
December 15, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
🎅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
Will of the Month: A merchant of Ragusa and 300 pairs of stockings
When selecting previous wills to feature in our monthly series, we browsed testator metadata, looking for particular names or locations, or filtering by occupational, social, and marital status. All o...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
December 16, 2025 at 9:28 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 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...
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
December 16, 2025 at 8:31 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
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!🎉🎄🎅
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.
December 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Found the 'people named after birds' page of the will register
The margins of a will register, showing text reading 'Abraham Swallow' and 'Anne Turkey'.
December 4, 2025 at 5:52 PM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 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
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.
December 4, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
📢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
A snapshot of a database showing lists of testators, their occupation, location and archive reference.
December 2, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
emilymayvine.bsky.social
📜 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
materialwills.bsky.social The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · Dec 2
📢 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! 📜✍️💻
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.
December 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 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! 📜✍️💻
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.
December 2, 2025 at 8:19 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢November Will of the Month📢

Meet Reverend William Thomas, a widowed clergyman from Pembrokeshire who made his will in 1786.

William left his breeches to Billy Rees and asked to be buried 'as remote from every other grave as conveniently may be'.

🪦✝️💀 #EarlyModern 🗃️ #Trousers
A long black waistcoat with black buttons on a mannequin. A monotone painting of Haverfordwest Castle - a romantic looking building set in rolling hills with some houses clustered around it's foot.
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Many thanks to Public Engagement with Research at Exeter for featuring us prominently in their write up of the FUTURES festival 👇

@uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social

sites.exeter.ac.uk/per/2025/11/...
Lights, Camera, Action! Performance and Film at the FUTURES Festival
Making the most of the festival’s location at Exeter Phoenix, the city centre’s hub for cinema and culture, FUTURES 2025 included a mix of films and performances. Each of these took different areas of...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
hltn.bsky.social
✍ Introducing ✍

Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for beginner #EarlyModern #palaeography

gjhilton.github.io/Sharpie/

AKA What I Did Over Reading Week.

#skystorians I’d be so grateful if you had time to share or take a look and tell me what sucks and needs fixing.

Love g 🗃️
Sharpie
Sharpie, a letterform recognition game for apprentice Early Modern palaeographers
gjhilton.github.io
November 12, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Delighted everyone found this sculpture as delightful as me!

Tombs, monuments & funerals are something I will be writing about as part of my wills research project - I wonder what insights 25,000 English wills will bring?

🪦⚰️📜🗃️

All the info on the project here: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
November 15, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Couple of wills talks coming up: I'm presenting to the Devonshire Association, Tavistock & West Devon branch on Friday.

Then next Friday @bhamhistory.bsky.social & I are giving a talk at a joint Devon History Society & Devon Archaeological society workshop at Devon Heritage Centre.

🗃️
7 people stand in front of two banners showing info about the Leverhulme Trust project, The Material Culture of Wills: England 1540-1790. The people are smiling.
November 17, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
cordeliabeattie.bsky.social
I've read quite a few married women's wills but never one made during childbirth. Great find! #EarlyModern 🗃️
materialwills.bsky.social The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · Oct 28
📢 NEW Will of the Month Post 📢

October's will is an unusual & poignant example of a married woman who made a will

Margery Gadyng died in childbirth in 1540 - she declared her will to the midwife & women attending her, leaving them bequests of ribbons & rosaries

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of a rosary - a loop of string threaded with brown beads, some with symbols painted on them. Rosary of 30 unglazed earthenware beads of red and black clay, British Museum 2009,8038.1.a-b https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_2009-8038-1-a-b?selectedImageId=1310905001 © The Trustees of the British Museum
October 28, 2025 at 8:35 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
📢NOVEMBER WILL OF THE MONTH📢

This month's featured testator is a widowed clergyman from Pembrokeshire who made his will in 1786.

Reverend William Thomas asked to be buried 'as remote from every other grave as conveniently may be'. 🪦✝️💀

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A monotone painting of Haverfordwest Castle - a romantic looking building set in rolling hills with some houses clustered around it's foot.
November 18, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
This is the first recording of any of Chris Hoban's wills inspired music!

For lucky people in Devon, Chris will be performing ALL the wills songs at Topsham Folk Club on 18 January, with support from Miranda Sykes.

Grab your ticket now 👇

#Exeter #Devon 🗃️ #Events

wegottickets.com/event/680386
Chris Hoban
A master songwriter -- inventive and inspiring Show of Hands favourite - has crafted a unique evening with classical and folk musicians, retelling in song the moving, joyful and absorbing stories of ...
wegottickets.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Alice Walter's will might be familiar if you read our project blog, as it was our Will of the Month in October 2024.

Read @emilymayvine.bsky.social's post, and see a transcription of the whole will here:

#EarlyModern 🗃️

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
Will of the Month: Alice Walter and Her ‘Deaths Head’ Ring
The end of October and the beginning of November marks ‘Allhallowtide’ – the time of the year when Western Christians, including in early modern England, have traditionally turned their thoughts to th...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
📜WILLS ON THE RADIO!📜

The brilliant Chris Hoban was on local radio talking about the wills project and playing some songs!

This one is perhaps my favourite: based on the will of London widow Alice Walter, proved September 1665. TNA PROB 11/317/428.

#EarlyModern 🗃️

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXwB...
Chris Hoban - Rings On My Fingers (one )
YouTube video by Will Pollard
www.youtube.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Transkribus is the handwritten text recognition tool that we used to transcribe 25,000 wills from 1540-1790 for our Leverhulme project.

Beginners' guide here 👇

#DigitalHumanities 🗃️ #EarlyModern
November 4, 2025 at 3:00 PM