Cousin or Grandson?

[MattD30]

I am hoping someone here can clarify something for me.

The attached extract is from a the will of John Puttock of Tillington in Sussex. In this extract he mentions "my cosen Thomas Puttocke sonne of my sayd sonne John Puttocke" or at least that's how I'm reading it.

Elswhere he refers to other "cosens" in the same way.

Obviously he was referring to his grandchildren here.

My question is was the term "cousin" often used to refer to grandchildren or was it a more general term. I have another will where the testator referred to his niece as his cousin and one where the testator referred to her cousin in more details describing him as "the son of Willliam King son of my father's brother Henry King".

So could a granchild be described as a "cousin"?

Matt

[Karen McDonald]

Hi Matt,

cousin used to be used very generally. Shakespeare, for example, used the term to denote nephew, step-son and grandchild. And possibly others. 

Best regards,
Karen

[Greensleeves]

I agree with Karen and so does the OED:

“collateral relative more distant than a brother or sister; a kinsman or kinswoman, a relative; formerly very frequently applied to a nephew or niece.”

Regards
GS