Wills

There are many wills involving people associated with Holywell with Needingworth that are available from The National Archives, and other repositories. I have started transcribing these wills, and am now publishing them on this website (with permission). The facts they contain have also been fed into the event data and timelines of people we are interested in.

Below is an alphabetical table of those that are currently published [for the moment this is only a small selection]. For each of them if you click on the image you will be taken to an “album/book” page where you can see a list of the images of the relevant pages (with text transcribed highlighted). There are also buttons to switch to a slideshow of the same images, the transcription (with links to all the people we have in the database), and a PDF version of the transcription.

In the comment by each will are one or two aspects of particular interest about that will. After the table, there are some notes on the whole transcription process. For more general comments about the wills see the Wills – more information page.

As with most tables on this website, you can alter how many entries are shown on each page, move backwards and forwards between pages of entries, sort by column, and search for entries.

Testator	Ref No	Will Date	Images and Transcription	Comment
Ambrose Grounds	PROB 11/1536/416	22 Nov 1805		His first bequests were the forgiveness of bonds (loans) to his Brother and Brother in Law.  He had some “bonds due and owing to me on the drainage xxx of certain xxx Lands in March”. He owned estates at March and elsewhere in the Isle of Ely and Estates at Needingworth.
Edward Meane	PROB 11/303/537	27 Feb 1660		Edward Meane of Needingworth had just sold a house in Thetford for 120 pounds. One phrase seems unusual in that he provides for the case where his executrix (his daughter) does not give a 12 pound legacy to his wife at first asking.
Edward Theed	PROB 11/1017/9	19 Oct 1775		This will covers 6 pages (we have transcribed almost every word) and it has several interesting aspects: his Wife is granted all her paraphernalia meaning "things beyond the dowry" – the separate property of a married woman he makes provision for several Mourning Rings – a finger ring worn in memory of someone who has died he gives to the poor of the parish in bread in the first week after his death, and in money in the following week he calls the place where he lives Needingsworth, and the parish Hollywell (ie not Holywell-cum-Needingworth) he expects trouble with his son as he delays his coming of age to 24 (rather than 21), gives his guardian an extra sum “as an acknowledgement for the trouble he may meet with in the execution of this my Will”, provides for him to be apprenticed, and even makes provision should his son in “any ways molest or disturb my said Wife” his old servant holds a Note (a loan to him) of 140 pounds where he allows free use of assets until death he adds “she making no Wilful Waste or Spoil thereof” he had property in Crafton in Wing, Buckinghamshire and Little Walden in Great Walden, Essex
Benjamin Vipan	PROB 11/2189/40	18 Jun 1853		As well as property in Holywell-cum-Needingworth, he owned property in Sutton and Mepal. He seems to have been generous to his daughters and grand-daughters. (His brewery at Mepal and “any public houses and buildings belonging to me” seem to have been excluded from the will?)
Edward Ward	PROB 11/299/509	18 Jun 1659		A short will, with bequests mainly of sheep. Much of it is hard to read, including the names. William Roode is said by Edward Ward to be “my son” – has this literal meaning?
Ann Woodward	PROB 11/732/38	7 Nov 1743		Bequests to Offley, Frisby and Kirkman of Over; and to Bond of Holywell. This will was said to have been proved on 3rd February 1743, which due to the change in calendar we know as 1743/44. See the note on Older Dates under Parish Registers – more information.

Note on transcription of wills

The approach I have used to transcription of wills is to:

• transcribe only the more interesting aspects of each will – as much legal language is necessary for a will but it does not add anything to our knowledge
• highlight in the images the parts I have transcribed – both as a working aid and a help for readers (and leave untranscribed parts unhighlighted)
• italicise any summarised or abbreviated sections of text (eg legalese) within square brackets
• replace any section of little relevance to us by an ellipsis (“…”)
• add any transcribers’ comments in square brackets and italics, or as a footnote
• indicate where the transcription of each page (and hence each separate media image) starts
• put every name in bold, and clearly identify everyone mentioned in the will wherever they appear with either
  • their reference number (eg {P29888}) in our database, or
  • a “non-database” reference number specific to that will (eg [NonDB07])
• summarise everyone involved in a family and their relationships in a “Family Tree” section at the end of the transcription – again both as a working aid and a help for readers
• follow this with any other desired sections eg Notes
• use xxx where a word or two are undecipherable
• use (?) where the previous word is doubtfully correct
• written out common abbreviations in full (eg Robert instead of Robt)
• generally use modern spellings for words (eg follows instead of followeth), except:
  • old compound words (eg hereinafter) are transcribed literally
  • names of people and places are transcribed exactly, as it is interesting to see how names have changed over time (eg Halliwell for Holywell)
• capitalise where the manuscript does, although this can be variable, open to interpretation, and possibly has little relevance
  • (note that some handwriting in these wills seems to use a dot in the middle of a letter (eg p) to indicate a capital – although I have not yet found a reference to this practice elsewhere on the web)

For more on interesting aspects of our Wills and the transcription process see here.