PREFACE.

"THERE are two entire classes of public records, both highly important, which I am conscious have been but imperfectly used-I mean the Inquisitions Post Mortem and the early Wills.-Of the early Wills we do not possess even a printed catalogue of the names of Testators, much more any work which should communicate to the public the choicer portions of the information, topographical, historical, biographical, literary, which is lurking, unseen by every eye, in the dispersed, the dark and dusty depositories of the testamentary evidence of England. I am persuaded, by experience in such enquiries, that there is no department of antiquarian research, topography, public or literary history, lives of our eminent men in every department, manners, language, which would not be essentially benefited by a publication of matter, which to an experienced eye would appear of importance, in Wills of the Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart reigns, while a better acquaintance with these evidences would be the creation of a new world in our gentilitial Antiquities."

The preceding remarks, made by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, in the Preface to the second Volume of his History of the Deanery of Doncaster, induced the Council of the Surtees Society to turn their attention to such early Wills and Inventories as are preserved in the

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Registry of the Diocese of Durham, illustrative of the public and private history, language, statistics, &c. &c., of the Northern Counties of England; and the present volume is the result of their investigation. In the earlier part of the volume, many new and valuable documents are brought to light, from which the public or local historian derive the most novel and correct information. That these are not more numerous is owing to frequent chasms in the Registry, occasioned by time or neglect. Those early Wills and Inventories, however, which have presented themselves, and which are now (thanks to public spirit and the press) secure against the attacks of time or accident,* are of sufficient importance to throw great light upon their respective periods, and to excite the Members of the Society to investigate more minutely and effectually this most copious, and hitherto almost entirely unexplored, source of correct public or private information. The early Registers of the Archbishops of York abound with documents of this nature, of the particulars of which almost nothing whatever is known, save the appointed burial place of each individual Testator. To ascertain this trifling fact, Torr, the Historian of York, and the Compiler of much valuable information relative to the Diocese and Province at large, still in MS., seems to have examined them, one after another, with great care, closing his eyes, however, to the clear light which they

A Registrar of the Consistory Court of Durham, during the first half of the last century, was in the habit of lighting his pipe with one of the Wills under his charge, and of glorying in his deed. "Here goes the Testator," was his usual exclamation when he was so employed. Things are not so now.

could throw upon the men and manners of the four first centuries after the Conquest. The time, it may be hoped, is not far distant, when they will be examined again, and with greater anxiety, not to ascertain the burial place of an individual, but as being themselves the burial place of much of the history, general and personal and in this may be included every other kind of correct information relative to times and things of all classes of men, over the widely-extending Province of York.

Soon after the year 1500, the Durham Series of Wills begins to be almost entirely perfect; and from that period downwards, as there has been no lack of matter for selection, so the utmost care has been taken to make such a selection as might best carry into effect the objects of the Society. Men of all classes, who have been forgotten for centuries, again appear, and afford the most minute and authentic information, not only relative to themselves and the rank in society which they occupied in their day, but numerous other incidental, and therefore the more valuable, notices and materials for an accurate history of the language and manners of our ancestors.

A few Wills, &c. have been obtained from other sources than the Durham Registry, and a few, which have been already before the public in substance, are reprinted, either at length, when such was not the case before, or are now, for the first time, given accurately, and with a due regard to that most important point, the phraseology of their respective periods, which had been previously either occasionally unattended to, or totally disregarded. Under the former class may be enumerated

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N°. XV. [Surtees, II. 381]; and under the latter, No. XVIII. [SURTEES], XXXIII. [MADOX FORM.] XLVIII. [SURTEES], LI. [ID.], LII. [ANTIQ. Rep. and WHIT. RICHM.], LV. [BOURNE'S NEWC. and HODGS. NORTHUMB.]

It has been above remarked, that this source of information has been hitherto almost entirely unexplored. County historians have occasionally availed themselves of the wills of our ancestors, but it has been chiefly for the purpose of ascertaining descent of pedigree and estate. Mr. Surtees has, in his History of Durham, gone a step further than this. He has frequently used these documents in illustration of the rise and fall of families of importance connected with the county of Durham.— Again, in the year 1826, two volumes of Wills, illustrating manners, customs, descent of blood and property, &c., from the reign of HENRY II. to the accession of ELIZABETH, were collected by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, chiefly from printed authorities, and enriched by much valuable preliminary observation, and many useful explanatory and genealogical notes: but the document is rarely given to the public in its original language or phraseology; the Latin Wills are translated; the early English Wills are frequently printed in a modern garb; the accompanying Inventories are seldom if ever noticed and neither their Editor nor Mr. Surtees, nor any other county historian, has even attempted to make the Wills and Inventories of the middle and lower ranks contribute their share of information to the general stock of historical and social knowledge.

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The Council of the Surtees Society have been careful