Wills Workshop

Our professional historian, Louise Rylan-Epton, has been busy researching and writing up the economic history of Bremhill Parish. She has found that women played a surprisingly influential role.

In the early/mid 19th century, 8 out of 61 local farmers were women. They farmed 750 acres and between them employed up to 26 labourers. The farms included Westend, a 153 acre mixed dairy and arable holding run by Sarah Hancock. The smallest was just 16 acres run by ‘Mrs Pegler’. While these women wielded economic power, they are likely to have enjoyed it by virtue of the fact they were widows. Apart from the Foxham schoolmistress, Martha Burgess, other women were mostly employed as domestic servants or governesses. However, one surprise is Ann Collar, a blacksmith in Bremhill! We will be further researching these women and other interesting characters we uncover in the project.

 

Article updated after workshop...

 

12 of us attended a most excellent workshop at the History Centre in Chippenham. We are particularly interested in wills and inventories which describe a person's trade or possessions as these will help us build a picture of how inhabitants made their living in the past. After an initial talk, the group had a go at reading a will and inventory for George Beames from the parish who died in 1673. George had a cheese press, 8 cheese racks and 20 cheeses as well as 6 cattle, 6 heifers, 9 ewes, 1 pig and 2 horses.

We have a list of wills/inventories. Village co-ordinators will be working with volunteers in each village to read and transcribe these documents. Since the workshop, I have attempted to read a few wills including for Ann Chapman of Tytherton Lucas, who died a spinster in 1689. The inventory lists her possessions by room. These rooms could describe Westfield House (where I live), or it could be somewhere that no longer exists.