Ruth Andrews - 1617
Ruth's father was Mr. Nicholas Andrews, quite an important person, who died in March 1617. Although she was one of five children she must have been a very capable woman because he finished his will with, 'Lastly I do ordain and appoint my daughter Ruth Andrews my full and sole executrix willing her to give five shillings to the poor at my burial and to her all else'.
Ruth had a sister in Helston, married to Edward Praed, who was left five pounds. Her other sister, Alice in Plymouth, was left her father's black ambling horse. Ruth also had two brothers, John the elder in Plymouth and John the younger who lived in Zennor with her. I wonder whether her father married twice to have two sons called John? Ruth and her mother Jane lived with John the younger, his wife and their little daughter, Charity.
A few days after his death, an extensive inventory was made of her father Nicholas's goods. From this we can tell that Ruth lived in one of the few two-storey long houses in Zennor with three rooms downstairs and three rooms above them.
Ruth may have lived in a house like this before the back parts were built
The most important bed was usually in the hall for the head of the household. Also downstairs were two tables, some chests, a cupboard for cups and thirty pieces of pewter - a very large amount. Cooking pots sat on the two iron ‘brandises’ (trivets) by the fire in the large hearth. There was a spinning wheel, for Ruth and the other women to spin wool. At the north end was the cool room which was crowded with five tubs, two hogsheads, three cheese vats and twelve brass pans (used for the milk in summer). Most important were three firkins of butter.
Each of these firkins contained 112 pounds of butter which makes 672 for the three, or in present-day terms a total of 1344 half pound packets. There was the same amount of butter in Plymouth, worth £3.75p, which was left to Ruth. In Zennor butter was made in the summer and salted down for winter. In June a tenth was paid to the vicar as tithe. If Mr Nicholas Andrews bought all the tithe butter from Zennor and three similar parishes, that would account for the butter at home. He will have kept it until March, when the price would be at its highest.
Ruth's father also had connections with East Torrington because he left 'my table board being in ye possession of Robert Chappel of Launston to be delivered to Joan Babage of which shall be for her.[in payment of?]. and my entertainment...'. His son John in Plymouth was left his best cloak with a velvet cape, his riding coat of mulberry colour and forty shillings which someone owed him for a fat cow, also 'my book called Saltins Sermons on Job, with all the rest of my books',
Very few people had books in 1617. But Ruth's father also left a desk, which was probably like a box with a sloping lid, a sword, crossbow, and two guns. The two pack saddles meant he was transporting goods. On the farm Ruth and her younger brother John had nine cows, twice the number most people had, together with four heifers, a mare, two colts, pigs, geese and hens.
Jane Williams of Porthmere - 1601
Most husbands left their wives provided for in their wills. Ruth's mother was left £15, and any money she had in hand. Most wives had a wedding chest but when they married it became the property of their husbands so for example Nicholas Berryman in 1617 left '...to Jane my wife the chest with all the clothes, money and coins in it that she hath.'
A complete contrast to Ruth Andrews is Jane Williams of Porthmere who was widowed in the autumn of 1601. She was left only 'such goods as she brought with her.' Jane had three children including baby John was ‘but a quarter of a year old’ and whose cradle was valued at twelve pence. Daughter Jane was 'sickly all her life' and died when she was fourteen. Son William was only just old enough to take over the tenancy of the farm so they were helped by their neighbours. Richard Davy was granted probate and kept careful accounts for three years: saving their corn and thatching their ricks that autumn, and paying all their rents and dues, then attending to the 'reparation' of their house.
Jane's husband had been wealthy enough to be buried in Zennor church. Widow Jane and her son William had to look after three cows, five other cattle, a mare and colt, six pigs, eighteen sheep with twelve lambs and five geese. They had a bushel each of wheat, oats and rye to get them through the winter. In the house were three ropes and hemp waiting to be made into more. The sheep produced wool, and widow Jane had a spinning wheel. She also had pots, pans and platters as well as bowls, barrels and tubs for preserving food.
_(c.1340),_f.139_-_BL_Royal_MS_10_E_IV-1.jpg)
‘A spinning turn – the spinner had to take two steps back and two forward at every turn’
Credit: An_amorous_encounter__Smithfield_Decretals_(Decretals_of_Gregory_IX)_(c.1340),_f.139_-_BL_Royal_MS_10_E_IV
Agnes Lynch - 1621
Agnes Lynch died in 1621 and I am fascinated by the list of her possessions, as she had so many clothes including a pair of sleeves. The sleeves were laced to one of her two gowns, as were each of her two bodices: portraits of Queen Elizabeth I show her with big sleeves and very pointed bodices which were attached with laces. Agnes' two waistcoats were short coats finishing at the waist. Another, fustian waistcoat would have been more waterproof in bad weather. Agnes owned a cloak as well as two coats, one made of luxurious ‘stammel’, a fine worsted cloth usually with a glazed finish. The assessors of her goods also listed seven aprons: these were usually finely decorated and embroidered to hang in front of skirts. Her ‘safeguard’ was a full length apron. The list of Agnes’ clothes finishes with ‘three kerchiefs and other old clothes’. The grand total value of Agnes’ clothing was just over £6, significantly more than was usual in Zennor parish, where the apparel of the prosperous was usually valued at £1 10s.
Clothes were highly valued and handed down from one generation to another. At Boswednack in 1645, Sybil Davy's father left to Grace Doubt 'my wife's best waistcoat'. Further research revealed that Grace Doubt was his sister.
Agnes Lynch had a well stocked kitchen with all things needed for preserving food. She had eight platters as well as twelve wooden trenchers, which raises the question of how big her household was. As well as tools for turf cutting and tilling, she owned five sheep. A surprising item was seven pairs of linen sheets. Other possessions included three silver rings, one little gold ring and eight silver spoons.
Agnes could make a will because she was a widow who had not married again. Most women, however, needed to marry again for financial support - and if a wife died, the man needed another wife to bring up his children and run his home.
Alice Pellamounter and her five daughters - 1639
Alice Pellamounter's husband John died in 1633, and he had paid more rates than anyone else in Zennor parish. The couple lived at Tremedda with their two sons and five daughters. They also farmed Foage, and owned 42 cattle, 16 horses and over a hundred sheep and goats - four times more than anyone else in Zennor. When Alice died six years later her elder son Richard was farming Tremedda and she owned half the livestock. She had inherited all the furniture in the house so perhaps Richard lived in another house at Tremedda. Alice left her right in Foage to her younger son John, where he owned two looms. Jane, Lucy, Mary and Margaret were left £25 each by their father but the youngest, Sybil, was left £30. Sybil's name had various spellings including ‘Zebole’. I wonder, whether Sybil was the youngest and left more money because she needed extra care?
Alice's daughters Jane and Mary had married well. Alice left Mary, Margaret and Sybil 'a butt of bees' each; these ‘butts’ were straw skeps. Alice also left a butt of bees to another Alice, who was her grand-daughter - the daughter of Jane, who had married George Guye. Her final bequest was 'all the rest of my goods and chattels to my daughters Lucy and Margaret whom I make my sole executors'.
A ‘butt of bees’
Bee Bole on Cottage behind Quebec House
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Oast House Archive
Sybil Davy and the Civil Wars – 1642
In 1642 Richard Davy's daughter Sybil was running his household for him as his wife had died. She had two brothers who farmed two parts of Boswedanck, and the Phillips family next door farmed the other two parts. Elizabeth Phillips was a widow living with her two sons James and Thomas. The English Civil War had broken out and on November 20th 1642 Sybil's heart perhaps sank when she saw the vicar, Sam Sweete, calling in at the Phillips’. She would have known he had come to see young Thomas, and perhaps she popped around to support the family.
The vicar sat to write and Thomas began to make his will, ‘...being pressed for the wars in the King's Majesty's service and doubting my return’. He left Sybil Davy ‘All my right in Boswednack for the natural love and affection I bear unto her, being one fourth part of the tenement until after the death of my mother Elizabeth Phillips'. He also made Sybil his executrix.
Why did he leave so much to Sybil? Perhaps he hoped to marry her on his return, - if he did come back. We do not know how old she was but we learn a little more about Sybil from her father’s will a few years later. He left her the generous sum of ‘£13.6s.8d, a year and a day after my burial. She is to have her diet in this house (she doing some work) until she be paid’.
What a sad day it probably was for them all when Thomas left, with five other men from Zennor parish, to fight for the king.
Sybil knew of another Zennor man who was away fighting for the King. Israel Michell had left behind his wife Phillipa at Trewey Vean. At Kresen Kernow is the letter he sent home from Taunton in April 1645 (M735b). It is quite a thrill to pick it up and read it. He wrote home to his wife Phillipa and it begins, ‘… kind and loving wife my true and constant love to you ...I will and do give all that I have to you loving wife...'. He finished with, ' wishing all happiness to attend you. I leave you to the almighty protector, and rest your ever loving husband until death.’ That was in April 1645 and in July news came through of his sad death. Phillipa inherited a small holding at Trewey with two cows, a heifer and calf, three little yearlings and two calves, a mare, palfrey and colt, four sheep and six lambs, two little pigs and a ‘bore pig’.
1645 was the fourth year of the war and almost everyone must have longed for peace. Cornwall was exhausted by continual demands from both sides for money and supplies. In September Sybil heard that Richard Grenville had come to St. Ives for more recruits but the Mayor, who was a staunch Puritan, decided to resist. He called on the trained bands from Zennor and Towednack to join him and fight for Parliament. The constable for Zennor that year was a Phillip, possibly Thomas’s brother James, and he had to go. Grenville met them at Longstone Downs, Carbis Bay, and defeated them. He picked out three, including the constable of Zennor to be hanged as an example. Shocks would have gone through the parishes whose men had died on both sides during the years of civil war.
‘Dog eat dog’ – a 1642 impression of the English Civil War
In November more bad news came for Sybil and the families at Boswednack with the death of Thomas Phillip, the third Zennor man that we know of. How the families must have grieved. Sybil had waited three years for Thomas to come back and now she had to oversee the terms of his will. She took over the lease of a quarter of Boswednack Farm to look after his mother, as well as running her father's household. She must have been a very ‘special’ person - resilient and resourceful.
1645 was also the year in which Sybil's father, Richard Davy, made his will. He died two years later - so perhaps he was ailing and she had to look after him. He left two spinning wheels; perhaps her two brothers had wives who spun. No more is known of Sybil – whether she married, left the family home or herself stayed and became a spinster.
After 400 years these old documents are not always easy to read but we are fortunate to have them available in the County Record Office at Kresen Kernow, Redruth.
References:
Nicholas Andrews’ will CRO AP/A107 1617
Nicholas Berryman’s will CRO AP/B407 1616/7
Penwith Local History Group
Edited by
Sally Corbet
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