Bedfordshire Probate Inventories before 1660

Fewer than two hundred probate inventories for Bedfordshire have survived, but recently more have come to light, bringing the total to almost six hundred. These inventories provide evidence of the home environment of the minor gentry, clergy, middling sort, tradesmen, and the poor in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They include agricultural equipment, livestock, and crops, as well as shopkeepers and tradesmen. Several inventories stand out, including a luxuriously furnished inn and two exceptionally wealthy gentry. An analysis of the debt culture challenges some of the first impressions of affluence or poverty.

Format: Hardback
Length: 824 pages
Publication date: 12 March 2024
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Fewer than two hundred probate inventories were believed to have survived for Bedfordshire, and most were published in Bedfordshire Historical Record Society volumes 20 and 32. However, recent discoveries have brought the total of known pre-1660 inventories to almost six hundred. These additional 432 inventories are presented here and provide valuable insights into the home environments of the minor gentry, clergy, middling sort, tradesmen, and the poor of Bedfordshire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While most inventories are for men, nearly sixty are for widows and single women, whose circumstances reflect those of the men. The detailed listings of agricultural equipment, livestock, and crops, as well as the comfortable domestic lifestyle of the farming community, confirm the already known agricultural prosperity of the county. Surviving inventories for shopkeepers and tradesmen are sparse, but the few inventories that list trades, services, and manufacturing equipment (for malting, brewing, and dyeing) offer a glimpse of thriving industries with links beyond the county. Several inventories stand out, including a luxuriously furnished inn and two exceptionally wealthy gentry who were part of the county administration during the Commonwealth period. It is important to note that not everyone was well-off, and the inventories also include many people whose goods reveal them to be poor or living in near poverty. The introduction provides an overview of these diverse living conditions, houses, furnishings, clothing, agriculture, prosperity, and poverty, and draws on other sources to flesh out the lives of these individuals. An analysis of the debt culture, which occurred at all levels of society, challenges some of the initial impressions of affluence or poverty. Appendices show the distribution of inventories over the county.

Weight: 1g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780851550855