If you are not used to old documents it can be difficult at first to understand
what is being said. These notes should help you read and understand your
document and extract the maximum amount of information to determine what was
going on in the life of the person who may well have been your ancestor.
For each document I have written a physical
description.It tells you whether
the document is on parchment or paper.It tells you the overall size, the number of sheets and whether it has
been signed, sealed and stamped (which implies that it was a legally valid
document).There is a grading system
based on condition of the document ranging from ‘Poor’ to ‘Very Good’, and
documents are priced accordingly.The summary of contents namespeople mentioned in the document and
gives an overview of the subject, for example, the main points of a will,
details of a property conveyance, or terms of a marriage settlement.
Parchment was the material used for legal contracts, usually called
Indentures.The majority of documents
on this website are written on parchment and are of a remarkably good and
consistent quality.For many of them
the description of their condition is simply described as ‘Good, consistent
with age’.
When a
document is described as ‘Good, consistent with age’ I mean:
complete, with no holes, tears or major
stains
completely legible, with no more than
slight fading of the ink
usually shows some discolouration
dependant on age (very little for documents more recent than 1860, but
progressively worse as they get older)
has been folded in storage, and the
folds will sometimes be deep and quite stiff to unfold
outer cover as it has been folded may
be extremely dirty, but this will not affect the written side
seals will be in place, although a small
portion of the wax on one or more seals may have cracked away
Where the condition differs from this I will give specific reasons, but
they will generally be as follows:
A ‘Very good’ document is
exceptionally clean and neatly folded
A
‘Fair’ document may show
more than usual discolouration
particularly deep and untidy folds
small stains, usually along the folds,
maybe up to a couple of centimetres long
‘Poor’ document
may have small holes at the
intersection of the folds, or larger stains.Even this category will still be almost entirely legible
‘Very poor’
I have only come across one or two
documents in this condition and they are described individually – but even
these can still be understood and would be a very worthwhile addition to any
family history archive
Paper documents are far more variable and the description should be read
carefully.Older paper documents, even
when in otherwise good condition can have small tears at the intersection of
folds.Many paper documents on this
site are drafts of wills or contracts and may have many deletions and
alterations.Private correspondence can
be on very flimsy paper.I do believe
that everything offered on this site is generally legible and potentially of
interest to a family historian – but not all are works of art.Paper documents are graded as for parchment,
but of course are priced on merit.
Documents may mention many names but not all are included in the name index
on the web site.I have tried to ensure
that the names indexed are those of significant importance in the document, but
ultimately, some of the choices are a bit arbitrary.Some general rules used are as follows:
Indentures
All those listed as parties to the contract are always included in the name
index.The main difficulty here is that
many contracts include trustees, who may sometimes be solicitors acting
professionally and who play a very minor part in the transaction.Before 1874 any contract relating to a
Building Society would be undertaken in the names of its trustees, who will all
be listed as parties to the contract.I
hope that the document summary makes it clear where any of the parties listed
play no very interesting part.
The preamble to many Indentures makes it clear that they result directly
from someone’s death.In this case the
deceased will have many mentions in the contract and is included in the name
index.
Wills and Probate
Here I have generally indexed the document by the testator, the major
beneficiaries and the executors and trustees.Clearly some executors and trustees will be relations or friends who may
be of interest to a family historian, but others may be acting in a
professional capacity only.There is no
easy way to distinguish them and I have included them all.
Manor Court Documents
I have generally included the Steward of the Manor among those indexed for
these documents.Court documents are always
signed by the steward, and in many cases appear also to have been written by
the same hand.
I have tried to include all the readily useable information about the
property in the document summary.Note
that a typical description of a property location takes the form “… bounded on
the North by land formerly in the occupation of X but now of Y, and on the East
by land in the occupation of Z” etc. etc.Evidently it would take much local research to make sense of this and I
have left it out of the summary.More
useable information such as “bounded on the West by the public highway from A
to B” has been included where available.
Condition of
document – Parchment