Wills & Documents

Our ‘List of Early Orwell Wills’ shows all the pre 1800 wills which can be seen at the Cambridge Record Office. We suggest that you should insist on the Record Office producing the originals – their microfilm copies are invariably very difficult to read.

In some cases, the original will of the Testator is shown.  Other copies are not of the original will, but of the copy made by the Probate Court at the time for its own records.

We have also provided copies of the Inventories of some of the Testators.  These are valuations of the property of the deceased, and provide an insight into the goods and belongings of the deceased, and in some cases they give a list of the contents of each room in the house.  This helps to establish the size of the house and the number of rooms it had at the time.  The Hearth Tax returns can then tell us how many of the rooms had a fireplace.

Further Wills of Orwell people can be found at The National Archives. These date from 1508 to 1917, and copies can be had on payment of a small fee.

We have taken copies of some the Wills at The National Archives, and these are being transcribed at the moment. The Wills are:- Richard Boston 1558; Nicholas Butler 1601; Laurence Johnson 1558; William Hall 1619 (alias Butler); Mary Palmer 1825; Thomas Butler 1622; Robert Fairechild 1654; Elizabeth Farchild 1615; John Merry 1805.

Some of the Wills are easy to read, and some are not. Any help in transcribing them will always be welcome – contact the Orwell History Society.