Strange - I posted this nearly a week ago (last Saturday, the 4th), and although it has been visible in the archives ever since then, it took until yesterday (Friday the 10th) to re-appear via the List. Matt ________________________________________ From: old-english-bounces@rootsweb.com [old-english-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Tompkins, M.L.L. [mllt1@leicester.ac.uk] Sent: 04 July 2009 15:25 To: Old English mailing list Subject: Re: [OEL] Two inventories - are they for the same house or a different house <<... two inventories for a husband and then his wife who died a year later. Each heading has been given a number according to its position in the inventory. The heading numbers for Henry go down the page 1 - 13 but Mary's dodges around a bit where I have to tried to match them with Henry's. The question is do these inventories apply to the same house? They don't seem to but I'd be grateful for the views of others.>> I agree with Audrey, Keith - I'd say they're the same house. The widow's Chamber over the Parlour is probably what was called the Green Chamber in her husband's inventory, while the widow's first Buttery is probably the same as the husband's Larder. That leaves only the Beer Buttery and the Men's' Chamber as differences between the two inventories. The Beer Buttery, just a little office or outbuilding, is too small a difference to be significant - there were clearly other outbuildings which haven't been listed by name (and anyway the husband's Larder may have been a two-room affair equating to both of the widow's Butteries). The absence of the Men's' Chamber is a bit more odd, but perhaps it just didn't contain any of the widow's goods (maybe it contained nothing but male servants and their personal property, or some adult male who was running the farm for the widow, or maybe it was occupied by the nephew and heir Richard or some other relative - did the husband's will confer a right of habitation on anyone?). Incidentally, it was common to store wool and grain and minor agricultural implements in the first floor sleeping chambers of a house (note the reference to 'wheat in the house' in the widow's inventory), so it may well be that the first two or four items under 'Outdoors B from 12 above' in the husband's inventory were in fact stored in the Men's Chamber where they were listed (incidentally the Men's and Maidens' Chambers would probably have been where the male and female servants in husbandry slept). I think the items listed under the Hall in the husband's inventory, which you speculate ought to have belonged to the Kitchen, probably were in fact in the Hall. At that time the hall was often still the largest room in the house and was its main living and eating room. It was sometimes even still used for cooking. It looks as though in these inventories the word 'kitchen' described a brewhouse. It's interesting to see how the husband's inventory, made in the autumn, lists a great deal of grain and other harvested crops, but that the widow's inventory, made in the summer before the harvest, does not. Comparing these two inventories would be a useful exercise for students - may I download them and use them for that purpose, Keith? Matt Tompkins ==================================== WEB PAGE: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/ ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=OLD-ENGLISH ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OLD-ENGLISH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Yes, there have been gremlins afoot at RootsWeb. Hopefully, it's cleared up now or soon will be. That was an excellent reply. It seemed like the same house to me also but I couldn't explain all the discrepancies. cheers, Judith Werner Salt Lake City, Utah, USA Administrator, OLD-ENGLISH http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tompkins, M.L.L." <mllt1@leicester.ac.uk> To: "Old English mailing list" <OLD-ENGLISH@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 4:40 AM Subject: Re: [OEL] Two inventories - are they for the same house or a different house | Strange - I posted this nearly a week ago (last Saturday, the 4th), and although it has been visible in the archives ever since then, it took until yesterday (Friday the 10th) to re-appear via the List. | | Matt |