Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on the references
- Introduction
- 1 Anglo-Saxon written wills: the nature of the evidence
- 2 The process of will-making
- 3 Politics, power and the bequest of land
- 4 Lay bequest of land: pious gifts and family strategy
- 5 The bequest of movable wealth
- 6 Wills, commemoration and lay piety
- Conclusion: Why make a written will in Anglo-Saxon England?
- 1 The corpus of Anglo-Saxon wills
- 2 The evidence for wills and will-making in the Liber Eliensis and Chronicon Abbatiæ Rameseiensis
- 3 The bequest of movable wealth
- 4 Local churches mentioned in wills
- 5 Note on unpublished material by Patrick Wormald
- Bibliography
- Index
- York Medieval Press: Publications
2 - The process of will-making
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on the references
- Introduction
- 1 Anglo-Saxon written wills: the nature of the evidence
- 2 The process of will-making
- 3 Politics, power and the bequest of land
- 4 Lay bequest of land: pious gifts and family strategy
- 5 The bequest of movable wealth
- 6 Wills, commemoration and lay piety
- Conclusion: Why make a written will in Anglo-Saxon England?
- 1 The corpus of Anglo-Saxon wills
- 2 The evidence for wills and will-making in the Liber Eliensis and Chronicon Abbatiæ Rameseiensis
- 3 The bequest of movable wealth
- 4 Local churches mentioned in wills
- 5 Note on unpublished material by Patrick Wormald
- Bibliography
- Index
- York Medieval Press: Publications
Summary
Since the vernacular wills themselves provide little insight into the process which produced them, any attempt to reconstruct that process must draw on other contemporary documents as well as narrative sources. One text is particularly valuable: the account in the twelfth-century Liber Eliensis of a sequence of post obitum dispositions made by a certain Siferth of Downham (Cambs.). Bishop Æthelwold's accumulation of land at Downham was not without incident, as in the case of many of Æthelwold's land deals; this appears to have prompted the compiler of the earlier Libellus, on which the chronicle account is based, to include a considerable amount of circumstantial detail for the transactions in support of Ely's title to the land, including, incidentally, Siferth's will-making.
The oral aspect of the will-making process is well demonstrated in the account of Siferth's declaration of two post obitum gifts at Ely, made on separate occasions, with considerable emphasis placed on the oral declaration before witnesses at every stage in these proceedings. His first declaration, which took place between 975 and 978, was made before particularly distinguished company:
Nec multo post Siverthus de Dunham defractus viribus vergensque in senium, infirmitate pedum, que podagra dicitur, graviter contrahebatur. Qui eo tempore, quo beatus Æðelwoldus Æðelredum, futurum regem tunc vero comitem, et matrem suam [Ælftreðam reginam] et Alfricum Cild et plures maiores natu Anglie ad Hely secum adduxerat, venit cum coniuge sua nomine Wlfled ad episcopum et ei coram prememoratis notificavit se post diem suum duas hydas quas in Dunham habuit Deo sancteque Æðeldriðe pro anima sua daturum ibique se dixit sortitum esse locum sepulture sue rogavitque omnes qui aderant, ut super hac re sibi testificarentur.
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- Wills and Will-Making in Anglo-Saxon England , pp. 56 - 79Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011