Lincoln Wills, 1532–1534 LRS89 Hickman Hardback Lincoln Record Society

Lincoln Wills, 1532-1534Author(s): David Hickman\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Lincoln Record Society\nISBN-13: 9780901503664, 978-0901503664\nSynopsis\nWills from lower social status shed light on religious, social and cultural history.\n\nLincolnshire has an extensive archive of sixteenth-century probate material, preserved in the registers of the consistory and archdeaconry courts of Lincoln, the peculiar court of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral, and thearchdeaconry court of Stow. Unlike the wills proved by the archiepiscopal probate courts of Canterbury and York, those from Lincolnshire reflect a population of lower social status. The overwhelming majority come from the ranks of husbandmen, yeomen, or tradesmen, rather than the gentry. In this respect the wills offer a valuable source for the cultural and religious preoccupations of the 'middling sort' and those lower in the social spectrum on the eve of the Reformation.