Thanks Mel...... It was very definitely two *d's*, not *t's*. Some of the writing was olde english and the odd thing such as one date was the old Latin way of writing it. So if I wasn't 100% sure on the spelling, I put a question mark. They also had a nasty habit in those days of putting a 'swirl' at the end of a word.......which could consist of a few letters.....as in "Mires" which could have been "Mirehouse". I got my practice interpreting Wills from 1500 and 1535 in Norwich (which I really must finish)......and boy, any resemblance to present day formation of letters is non-existent!! But I typed Wills for many years when working in law and there is really not that much difference from 1500 to the late 1900's.......other than spending a whole page worrying about one's soul making it safely to the other side. (G) Heather > Rothersike is a hamlet straddling the road from St. Bees to Beckermet > and roughly 3 miles from St. Bees village. > > Properties there include Rothersyke Farm which had several dwellings > associated with it > and Rothersyke House a mansion built around 1850 for Henry Jefferson > ship and plantation owner and wine merchant. > > Howman is a rather fine old house on the same road about a mile from St. > Bees. > > Roddersyke is how Rothersyke would have been pronounced by the locals in > those days. > > Mel > > > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >