Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/428

The following documents, extracted from the Registry of the Exchequer Court of York, are of a class of testaments seldom printed, neither the testators nor their descendants having attained any rank to mark them in history. We have offered to our readers on a former occasion an inventory which illustrates the condition of the husbandman or small farmer at the close of the thirteenth century^[1], and now present to them similar evidences regarding two worthy yeomen of Yorkshire, who flourished in the times of the Reformation, and died in the days of strong religious reaction, in the reign of Mary. We are indebted to the kindness of Richard Almack, Esq., E.S.A., for the communication of these documents: and it is needless to observe how valuable are all materials of this description, as authentic information relative to the personal and social condition of the various classes of the community in former times. A well-selected series of such memorials would form a most valuable addition to our antiquarian literature, and might serve as the groundwork for a complete illustration of the private life and advancing civilization of our forefathers, through successive generations.

In the name of God, Amen, the iiij.th day of m'che in the yere of our Lord god, 1558. I, John Almoche, of Sandhuton¹, hole and good of Remembraunce, make this my last will in maner and forme following. first, I gyve my soull to almyghtie god, and to our blessed Lady Saint Marye, and to all the holy company of heaven; and my bodie to be buried in the P'ishe churche of our Ladye in thriske². Item, I gyve to S^r. Bartilmewe Smyth half a bushell of Whete, and half a bushell of Rie. Item, I gyve to george norton half a quarter of Barlye malte. Item, I will that Thomas almoche, my brother, shall have my farmehold. Item, I gyve to the said Thomas almoche ij. of the best oxen, a Iren bowne wayne, a cowpe³, a plewghe yok', and teames, and all that belonges them, and the said Thomas to have a Dun̄ed meare, and all tymber wood about the farmehold, ij. tres excepted. Item, yt is my mynd that my brother Robert Almoche shall have a howse and a porc'on of Land. Item, I gyve to my brother, Robert almoche, a Cowe with Calf, a gray fyllie stagg⁴. Item, I gyve to Elizabeth yates one blake oxe. Item, I gyve to Isabell Carter one spynke

oxe⁵, a Dun̄ed maire, and ij. yowes. Item, I gyve to the said Elizabeth