History of a Village: Freckleton

Page 5 of 10

• 1. A brief history
• 2. First steps
• 3. History detective
• 4. Medieval Freckleton
• 5. Village life and families
• 6. The Marsh
• 7. Churches and schools
• 8. Trade and Industry
• 9. Using oral sources
• 10. Finishing touches
• Print entire article

Village life and families

Among the many documents which I used, the wills of more than 150 Freckleton residents from the 16th to the 18th centuries were particularly important. Over a period of two years I transcribed every will and inventory. This could be slow but engrossing work - sometimes a single will might take a day to transcribe.

I extracted all the details from these documents, telling not only of the individuals concerned but also providing otherwise unrecorded information about the village. About one-third of these wills had an accompanying inventory giving a wealth of detail about the personal estates (household contents and livestock) of the deceased.

'Parish registers provided evidence of connections between village families ...'

I analysed these using spreadsheets, listing the contents of each under a total of 17 headings (such as occupation of the deceased, different breeds of livestock, crops and weaving equipment). In this way I could chart the social changes in the village over a 200-year period.

In the absence of early township records, important sources included parish registers and quarter sessions records. Parish registers provided evidence of connections between village families and were particularly useful when they could be linked to names mentioned in wills.

Quarter sessions records gave information about such matters as the poor seeking the help of the magistrates and disputes within the township. When combined, these sources helped to piece together the story of the people who lived, worked and died in Freckleton from the reign of Elizabeth I to the time of George II.

NextPrevious

Published: 2005-03-03