Description:Wills and their accompanying inventories of goods and chattels, are an excellent source of information for family, social and economic history. A will can provide all kinds of useful information about family relationships and the social and economic status of the testator, that is the person making the will. In addition before 1750, an itemised inventory of the goods of the deceased was drawn up by between two and five unbiased persons called appraisors, overseers or supervisors. The inventory includes all the moveable goods, including there appropriate household goods, clothing, stock-in-trade, farm stock, growing and cut corn, loose money and any rent and debts due but it does not include land.
“In the name of God Amen I William Wardle of Grindon in the County of Stafford yeoman being weak of Body but of perfect mind & memory praised be Almighty God do make & ordain this my last Will & Testament in manner following & First & Principally I commend my Soul into the Hands of Almighty God hoping through the Merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ to have free pardon of all my sins & to inherit Everlasting Life & my Body I commit to the Earth to be decently buried at the Discretion of my Executors hereafter named And as touching such Temporal Estate it hath pleased Almighty God to endow me with I give & dispose thereof as follows And First I give devise & bequeath to my beloved Brother Henry Wardle all that my Messuage & Estate lying at Oncote in the Lordship of Bradnop in the Parrish of Leek & County of Stafford with all the Lands Hereditaments & Priviledges thereunto belonging to him & his Heirs for ever I Also give devise & bequeath to my said Brother Henry Wardle all that my Messuage & Estate called Cliff Hollins lying in the Parrish of Leek beforesaid with all the Lands Hereditaments & Priviledges therunto belonging to him & his Heirs for ever upon Condition that he shall pay out of the same to my present Servant & House keeper Anne Hale, the yearly Sum or Annuity of Six Pounds a year at two equal Payments in the year that is to say on the twenty fifth Day of March & on the twenty ninth Day of September during the term of her Natural Life the first Payment to begin on which of the said Days Shall first happen after my Decease and if the said Annuity shall happen to be behind & unpaid
in manner as aforesaid for the space of two months after the before appointed Day for payment of the same if lawfully demanded in such Case my Will is that the said Anne Hales shall into the last mentioned Estate called Cliff Hollins, enter into Possession & in her Possession keep untill her Annully as beforementioned & all Arrears thereof shall be fully discharged & paid I Also give & bequeath to my said Brother Henry Wardle all my Personal Estate of what Nature or Kind soever it be that I shall hapen to die possessed of upon Condition he shall out of the same pay & discharge all the just Debts I shall owe at my Decease & my Juste Expenses and Lastly I do hereby constitute & appoint my said Brother Henry Wardle & my Nephew Ralph Bloor Executors of this my last Will & Testament In Wittness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand & Seal the Thirtieth Day of July In the year of our Lord 1745..”