Hopefully, I'll be able to find out the name of my 11 x g.grandmother.
I know all about 11 x g.grandfather, born 1505 Suffolk, died 1558, buried 1 March 1558 in Westerfield, Ipswich, Suffolk, but I can't find out the name of his wife. He was a church warden and yeoman. I've even got his will and strange man that he must have been he leaves bequests to his sons John and George, (well he leaves them his land, but apart from a small acreage that they live on, it has to be sold first for £400 but if the sons choose to buy it they only have to pay £350, if they choose not to buy the land, then it can be sold to the highest bidder and they will receive some of the proceeds.
He leaves small bequests to his daughters Agnes, Elizabeth and Mary (Marie), then more bequests to John and George, then to 2 daughters of his son John, then another bequest to his son George's godson, then to 2 godsons, money to be given to them on their marriage, then another bequest to "every one of my other godchildren", then another bequest to his son George, and,
finally he remembers his wife. Unfortunately, he doesn't name her, he just calls her "my wife" and not only that he only gives her money from his sons' land and if she keep herself a widow, the best parlour the salon over that, the buttery and the salon over that. And if she marry, I will that she shall not meddle with the house. And the mean man that he was, if she didn't agree to his terms, then she would lose everything and also he takes from his daughters everything he's given to them, except from 100 marks each, everything else going to his son George.
Nice man
I've got lots of wills from a similar period, but never have I read one that is so obviously chauvinistic.
I really would like to find out the name of his long-suffering wife.
Interestingly, about 6 years before his death he had signed over the Manor House where he lived to his eldest son John. John was the exact opposite of his father. In his will, he transferred the manor to his wife so she could bring up their daughter's children (the daughter being feeble minded). Only after his wife's death would the manor pass to their eldest son. There's another story as to how and why their feeble minded daughter came to be married with children.
