ID: MARG_311_012

TitleInventory of William Myddelton of West Mersea 1555 Modern English
AbstractWilliam Myddleton Inventory Essex Record Office D/ABW 25/125

Translation to Modern English by Elaine Barker
See MARG_311_011 for original transcription of the document

This is a true inventory made of the goods
that formerly belonged to William Middleton of West
Mersea and written the 16th day of April in
the first and the second year of the reign of
Philip and Mary our King and Queen and apprised [Note 1] by John
Prentes the elder and Robard Fokes and John
Jefere the elder and William Semnell pariter [note 2]
First all his clothes price 20 shillings
Item: in the hall a table and form and 2 old chairs
price 2s
Item in the solar [note 3] 2 flockbeds [note 4] and all that be-
longs to them priced at 26s 8d
Item: 3 brass pots and 2 posnets [note 5] priced at 14s
Item: a cauldron and a brass pan and 3 old kettles
and a skillet [Note 6] priced at 13s 4d
Item: 10 pewter plates and 7 dishes and 5 salt cellars
and 2 salt cellars and 3 candlesticks priced at 13s
Item: all the pans and tools and pots trenchers [Note 7]
dishes and spoons priced at 3s
In the bakehouse [or house at the back] a hanging brass and a
malt quern [ Note 8] and a malting tool and a cheese
trough and a cheese lathe and 3 cheese motes [Note 9] and
a hayer [Note 10] priced at 10s 8d
Item: a trowel a spot and Andiron [Note 11] and a pair of
tongs and a pair of bellows price 3s 4d
Item: 2 axes a spade a mattock and a billhook price 2s
Item: an old plough and 2 chains and a coulter [Note 12] and 2
ploughshares and a pair of harrows price 7s
Item: 8 beasts [cattle] and a bullock price £5 13s 3d
Item: a bull and 2 steers and an ox price
£10 6s 7d
Item: a horse and a mare price 20s
Item: 30 ewes and lambs besides
price £5
Item: 3 sheets price 5s
Item: 8 hens and a cockerel and 2 geese and a
gander price 3s
The total is £20 and 3s
These witnesses John prentes, Robard
Fokes John Jefere

the elder John Aylward
with others

Note 1 apprised = estimated the value of
Note 2 pariter = paritor an officer, a steward or the summoning officer of an ecclesiastical court
Note 3 solar = a private room, usually upstairs
Note 4 flockbed = a bed stuffed with wool or bits of cloth
Note 5 posnet = a small metal pot for boiling with a handle and three feet
Note 6 skillet = a small long handled pan
Note 7 trencher = a wooden plate or platter
Note 8 quern = a stone mill turned by hand
Note 9 cheese mote = cheese cloth
Note 10 hayer = coarse cloth
Note 11 andiron = in a kitchen fireplace the upright support for a rack for the spit to turn in
Note 12 coulter = the iron blade fixed in front of a ploughshare

See also
Will of Johne Middleton 1557 ERO D/ABW 25/151

Published1555
SourceMersea Museum
IDMARG_311_012