1st extract
And the residue of all the profits of my lands & tenements should remain with Johanna/Joan my wife, if she is then living, during the term of minority of the aforesaid John my son & Johanna/Joan my daughter. Item I will that my children should remain in the custody and governance of Henry Essherst or his assigns during the whole of the aforesaid period of (their) minority, if my wife should fail.
2nd extract
As in reply #6 above. The word exec(uto)rib(us) shows that there is more than one executor, but they are not named in this snippet.
ADDED – the decorated initial is surely intentional. An ‘artistic’ clerk in the probate registry? You can sometimes find ‘pointing fingers’ in the margin, decorated with rings and bracelets, to highlight significant parts of a will. With all the legal verbiage to plough through, such guides can be quite helpful.
Many thanks for those updates which are very useful. I am still trying to work out what the relationship between John Esseherst and Henry Esseherst is. I think they might be brothers but I am not certain. There is a Henry Esseherst of Kingsnorth who left a Will dated 1530 and I'll look at this next to see if I can find a link.
I've also got the 1517 Will of John Essherst of Ashford and I wonder if this is the son of this John. I'll post some of the images soon. There is also a Thomas Asherst of Ashford who left a Will dated 1518 and I wonder if he is a relative as well.
My ancestor was Alice Essheherst (or Asshehurst) and hopefully by going through these Wills I will be able to build up a picture of her parents and family. I did think that this John was her father but as she is not mentioned in the Will, I am now not certain. My theory that her father was this John was based only on info sent to me in an email several years ago which drew on some online resources and trees, however I have always been uncertain about this connection as no evidence was provided.
Alice's father might be this John's son (also John), or she might be the daughter of a different Essheherst (perhaps Henry).
Whatever the case I am pretty certain these people are related as the surname is relatively unusual and they all appear to be in the same area of Kent.
Thanks again for the help and suggestions
Matt