Wirksworth Area Wills - Fowke

[Cham]

    Hello, I am looking for family information contained in the wills of
   
    Ralph Fowke (Foucke in will) of Ashleyhay, WILL Apr. 8, 1590, INVENTORY Dec. 6, 1590, PROBATE Dec. 10, 1590
    Roger Fowke of Alderwasley, WILL May 25, 1573, INVENTORY Aug. 1, 1573, PROBATE Sept. 18, 1573
    Credit: "www.wirksworth.org.uk."

   In addition, in the "Calendars of Wills and Administrations in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1516 to 1652" (British Record Society, 1892), page 208, W.P.W. Phillimore, ed., there is a THOMAS FOWKE WILL for 1573 entered right above the Roger Fowke named here, and both are listed for page 7. The above named Ralph Fowke is on page 210 of the above work, and is listed for page 91. Thank you for your patience and time in reading this, much appreciated!

[goldie61]

Wills proved at Lichfield should now be on findmypast.
Have you checked?

If you don't have a sub, you may be able to access them at a local library.

[Cham]

    Thank You, goldie 61, for your response.  I do not have a subscription to findmypast, and my local library does not seem to connect to it from what I can see online, I would guess because findmypast seems to be a UK site, and I live in the United States.

[goldie61]

So I had a quick look at your Fowke wills on findmypast at my local library today (in New Zealand!).
(Well, trying to read handwriting from the 1500s is never very ‘quick’!)


Ralph (Raphe) Fowke 1590
Wife Anne. Sons John. Daughter Helen Willkinsone married to John Willkinsone of Mackworth. Daughter Margerie Fowke who along with wife Anne are the executors.
John Willkinsone is given as owing him £3.
A nice detailed inventory, taken by Richard Fowke among others.

Roger Fowke 1573.
Sons Richard, John and Thomas (who is left the house). Daughter Margrete.
Rauffe Fowke and Rychard Fowke are witnesses to it, among others.
Short inventory.

Thomas Fowke is of Breadsall, Derbyshire. 1573.
Wife Jane. Sons Richard, Thomas and John. Wife and son Thomas executors.


There are several other Fowke wills. Some Breadsall, some Wirksworth - I quickly saw there was a John of 1542 of Wirksworth, a John of Breadsall 1546, and a Thomas of Breadsall 1550. Possibly more.
The one of John in 1542 has a listing in the Index book - that’s the image findmypast take you to, but there don’t seem to be any images of the actual will. There is a tick against it in the index book, which generally means the will has survived. I don’t know why there are no images of the will. I have come across this before - sometimes they just get missed out of the filming.
If you want to see it, you would have to contact the Stafford Record Office and ask for a copy. (Won’t cost much). All these wills used to be housed at Lichfield Record Office, but that closed at the beginning if the year, and all records should by now be at Stafford RO.
email - staffordshire.record.office@staffordshire.gov.uk

If this were my family, I know i would like the see the original documents.
I suspect that would mean either taking out a short term sub to findmypast, or getting copies from the Stafford Record Office. (I think they now do nice colour scanned images, rather than the grainy black & white images on findmypast, which are always more pleasing to see.)
You can search findmypast for free from home - it’s only the images you have to have a sub for.
You can also search an index of Lichfield wills at Rosemary Lockies Wishful thinking site:
http://wishful-thinking.org.uk/cgi-bin/lichdb.pl?surname=fowke&county=0&submit=Search&firstname=&seed=&range=0&place=&peculiar=4&sort=Date&disp=20
You might need to play around with the spelling of Fowke. Unfortuately a ‘soundex’ matching option brings up about 10 pages with some very strange matches!

Good luck!

[Cham]

     Thank You So Much for finding and transcribing those wills for me, you truly are an "aristocrat"! I obviously need to get on findmypast somehow, and I shall try to find a way. In the meantime, if I may ask you one question more, for Ralph Fowke 1590 you have "sons" John, is that a typo or are there more sons?

[goldie61]

Ralph 1590 has sons John and Richard - his son Richard takes the inventory. I was going to add him later as a son together with John, and then forgot.
Sorry I didn't make that very clear before - I was putting the stuff together from the notes I made (not quite on 'the back of an envelope', but nearly!) 

I thought to add too - the index on the wishful thinking site gives lots of Fowkes wills, but not the places, or even the counties, they lived, so it would be a bit hit and miss to find the ones you want.
Not that people didn't move between counties. I have just this week broken down one of my very long term brick walls, by a little hint on a site I found, and then looking at a different county to where I thought they'd be. Bingo! 

[Cham]

      I do appreciate your clarifying that. I was trying to figure out how the Ralph (Raphe) and Richard Fowke of 1590 were related to the Rauffe and Rychard Fowke who witnessed the will of Roger Fowke in 1573. Richard is mentioned a son of Roger, but not Rauffe, so maybe Rauffe is a brother or omitted son of Roger. Congratulations on breaking down your brick wall, in my case I am trying to connect places in eastern Derbyshire where Fowke ancestors might have lived.