The untimely death of Patrick Wormald prevented the completion of his important work The Making of English Law, of which only Volume One was published. Volume Two would have brought to fruition his views on Anglo-Saxon wills.

Wormald's thoughts on land tenure and inheritance evolved over many years and were explored in a number of his published works, most notably in the present context Bede and the Conversion of England: the Charter Evidence, Jarrow Lecture (1984); ‘Charters, law and the settlement of disputes in Anglo-Saxon England’ (1986); and ‘On þa wæpnedhealfe: kingship and royal property from Æthelwulf to Edward the Elder’ (2001). In addition, among the series of Wormald's unpublished lecture notes which contain material preparatory to the second volume of The Making of English Law there is an outline of his provisional ideas on inheritance and tenurial issues. These notes have been deposited with the remainder of his papers in the archives of King's College, London, and may be obtained there or by contacting Dr Stephen Baxter.

For the purposes of this book I have restricted my references to Wormald's published works without attempting to engage with or expound on these unpublished notes. However, I am grateful to Dr Baxter for making this material available to me, and for drawing my attention to the key aspects of Wormald's research relevant to the study of wills which are summarised here.