Divide the pupils into three groups, and rotate the groups between the three activities:
· Tudor buildings in Ledbury;
· Discovering the lives of the rich in Tudor Ledbury;
· Discovering Wills.
All three activities should take about 2 hours in total.
Activity 3 – Discovering willsBased at Ledbury Heritage Centre
Resources: Teacher Notes; six copies of wills; six transcripts of those wills; Ferret family tree.
Discuss with the group:
How do we know anything about what life was like 400 years ago as they did not have cameras or computers?
Elicit from the pupils how they research in school.
How do people know what to write in the books or include on a web site?
What have you already learnt from other aspects of the tour?
How did you learn this?
Looked at evidence that has survived 400 years e.g. buildings/ Skynner tomb.
Not many people could read and write in Tudor times. Those who were educated were often involved in the church or the law. They kept records quite often about money.
Ask a pupil to read out this extract:
Extract from the tithe collection by the church at Easter 1596
‘The custome hath bene time out of mind, that the vicar shud send his servants or his deputies upon the week next before Estor yerely, unto every Inhabitant within the Towne ad parishe of Ledbury, and receave of them for every henn, pullet, and duck – 2 eggs apiece: and also for every cocke and drake three eggs apiece for the tithe, as followeth in this booke.’
This was written by the Vicar of Ledbury, William Davies in 1596.
Receave – receive
Apeece – apiece (each)
Cocke – male chicken
Drake – male duck
Pullett – type of chicken
A ‘tithe’ is one tenth of a person’s annual income voluntarily given to the Church. If people owned bees, for example, they had to give honey. Some people paid with money instead of in kind.
Explain: People had their wills written down so there were no arguments. Some wills have survived – discuss what a will is.
Poor people didn’t have wills – why not?
Give the group the six copies of the wills to look at. Can they understand any of the words?
Discuss: parchment, quills etc.
Show the transcription; see if pupils can match up bits.
Encourage each child to have a go at reading out any will they have in front of them.
Ask: Did these people live in the town or countryside?
Why would a bushel (sack) of wheat be of any use to someone?
People could make flour, but they could also plant it for the next year and increase income.
Why was a millstone useful, or a pair of wain wheels?
Encourage pupils to understand people had far fewer possessions which were more important to them e.g. bequeathing a pair of sheets.
Would we do that today?
Show the pupils the Ferret family tree. Let the pupils explore it.
Ask: What is it? How did we know who was related to who?
All information came from the wills and church records.
Ask: What is special about Maud’s date?
Died at 5 years.
How many grandchildren were there? Etc.
Conclude: there are many ways of finding out about the past from ‘first hand’ evidence - monuments, paintings, buildings and old papers.
When the information is in a book or on the Internet someone else has researched this information already.