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- 5 Note on unpublished material by Patrick Wormald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 evidence for wills and will-making in the Liber Eliensis and Chronicon Abbatiæ Rameseiensis
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- 5 Note on unpublished material by Patrick Wormald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
A number of the references to wills or will-making listed here are made in passing by the compiler of the chronicle. In some cases there is no direct reference to a written will; in one case (no. 41) a bequest was made orally. References to the documentation of bequests in the Liber Eliensis are indicated by an asterisk in the ‘Bequest’ column; in four cases (nos. 7, 8, 21 and 27) the documents are said to have been written in English. The Ramsey compiler's claim to be drawing on vernacular documents is discussed in Chapter One. Where a vernacular will is extant for a donor, the reference appears in square brackets in the ‘Bequest’ column.
Since the evidence for dating is generally tenuous, donors are listed alphabetically for each chronicle. Numbers allocated in Sawyer's list are given where appropriate. Those gifts which are specified as post obitum are included, as well as those given for the benefit of the donor's soul or as payment for burial, where the context implies that they are to take effect on the death of the donor. Occasionally wider contextual evidence has been used to determine post obitum intention; any doubt is indicated by a question mark added to the ‘Bequest’ column. Where donors appear in both chronicles, or are related to other donors, links have been indicated by cross-referencing the Appendix numbers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Wills and Will-Making in Anglo-Saxon England , pp. 289 - 294Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011