My first contributor to this section of the site, Janice Tostevin, says, rightly:

Wills are addictive. They are a wonderful social commentary on their time, full of explanations of family relationships and great for seeing who was connected to whom even when they weren't related. There are lots of little subplots to stir the imagination too - people literally cut off with a shilling and other indications of family friction, guardians anxiously appointed in advance, wives exhorted not to remarry etc

I even learned some family things by doing this Massingham batch. One ancestor cropped up as a witness and that helped me narrow down his date of death, another popped up with a will under a new married name when I hadn't even known she had remarried and I finally discovered something about the name of the donor in a family bible inscription from 1824. But it was the 'feel' I got for Massingham that was the real bonus.

Accordingly I hope that this will encourage other researchers to study wills, and perhaps contribute to this site?

1. Massingham Index of Wills, 1738 – 1858 [Janice Tostevin]
2. North Elmham Notes on Will of Charles ATKINSON {Juanita Hadwin)
3. Pentney Will of Jeremiah RICHES [Bob Rust]
4. Pulham St. Mary The VirginWill of Stephen BROWN [Honor Jones]
5. Ridlington Wills of Lawrence, Thomas, James, Margaret and Lawrence(2) SHORTE (Alison U. Ring)
6. Sharrington Notes on Will of John BULLEN [Juanita Hadwin]
7. Swanton Novers Notes on Wills of Frances and William DEW, Thomas PIGGE, Robert BULLEN, and of William MUSSETT (Juanita Hadwin)
8. Woodrising Will of David HUGHES [Paddy Apling]

See also
Several indexes to Norfolk Wills (without the detail given in the index above) have been published by Norfolk Record Society, as follows:

Vol. XVI. Part I. Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1370-1550 (A to Hi)
Part II. Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1370-1550 (Hi to Ro)
Part III. Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1370-1550 (Ro to Z)
Vol. XXI. Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1550-1603.
Vol.XXVIII. Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1604-1686.
Vol. XXXIV. Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1751-1818.
Vol. XLVII. Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1819-1857.
Vol. LVI. A Miscellany.
The Will of Oliver Wyth, 1291.
The Will of Hugh Atte Fenne 1476
The Letters and Will of Thomas Greene (d.1545), Rector of Poringland. The Autobiography of Elizabeth Oakley 1831-1900.

Most, if not all, of Norfolk Record Society publications are available from Norfolk County Library and many other county libraries.

This page last updated 11th June, 2002.

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