Transcribing Inventories, Wills & Testaments

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Jamboesque
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2005 6:39 am
Location: Edinburgh : Twinned with Somewhere

Transcribing Inventories, Wills & Testaments

Post by Jamboesque » Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:09 pm

Hi Folks,

Has anyone else transcribed a complete inventory and deed of settlement from the downloaded images from a Wills & Testament File from scotlandspeople ?

I seem to have picked up quite a few from the Hood family in Dundee and the Jolly family in Kincardineshire and feel that given the way that the Inventories and Deeds/Bonds are collated with no regard to an easily read format and in order to make sense I have to transcribe the entire thing.

I’ve just finished transcribing the Will & Testament for James Hood Brewer and Maltman died in 1845 in Dundee, all 15 pages, some 8,000 + words, but I now know about ‘Burgage and Blench Tenure’ also such latin phrases as ‘singuli in solidum’ and ‘Brevitatis Causa’, ‘Jus Mariti’. Though I am aware of the difference ‘know about’ and 'understanding fully' what these mean (especially the tenure and feu duty aspects of property law).

It does seem a lot of work but I feel that copying out the does give me a better understanding of the situation of what someone’s achievement sand how he/she regards other members of their family.

I do have a query though, maybe someone can help. It seems that James Hood left £3507 pounds of non-heritable legacies which is a not inconsiderable amount, but he also left 6 properties to be disposed of. I take that there is no way to find how much was realised in the disposal of these properties?


PS I’ve always had an idea my attraction for going down the pub and having a beer or two had a genetic element, and now finding my GGGG grandfather was a brewer now confirms it. I can now have drink my beer with clear(ish) conscience
:roll:
I'd like to be apathetic but I really can't be bothered.

Looking for blacksheep & not finding any with
Groats & Stevensons in Orkney, Hood's in Dundee/Angus, Mclaren's in Clackmannan and Jolly's in Kincardineshire. There may be more!

SarahND
Site Admin
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Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:47 am
Location: France

Post by SarahND » Fri Feb 22, 2008 3:37 pm

Hello,
Yes, I have also transcribed complete inventories and wills and invariably find that in doing so I discover things I had missed just in reading them. Nothing like having to make out each word to make you aware of all the details!

I'll let someone else answer about the disposal of the properties, since most of my experience is in the U.S. and may be different.

All the best,
Sarah

LesleyB
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Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Scotland

Post by LesleyB » Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:14 pm

Hi
but he also left 6 properties to be disposed of. I take that there is no way to find how much was realised in the disposal of these properties?
There should be a way to follow up land or houses through the sasines. These are held at NAS, and there are plans to put the abridgements online. Most of the abridgements are digitised already, and can be looked at on the PCs at NAS, but I don't know when they are due to be made public. Don't think this would tell you the amounts that the properties realised though....

Best wishes
Lesley

Fife49er
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:20 am
Location: Fife, Scotland

Post by Fife49er » Wed May 21, 2008 11:54 am

Hi

I've begun transcribing a testament dative document dated 1648 which may (or may not) be family-related. With the help of Hilary Marshall's book Paleography for family & Local Historians, and various online resources, I'm managing to place some pieces of the jigsaw puzzle but there are certain symbols, abbreviations and the like which confound me.

I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction for further help or (even better) could have a look at my document. A fresh pair of eyes might well help! Also, if anyone knows where to find examples of mid-17th century testaments with images, transcripts etc that would be great.

Thanks in anticipation

Alan
Looking for Stewart, Maxwell, Meldrum, Picken, Morris, Fisher, Higgie, Kininmonth, Cuthbert and Fowlis/Fowles/Foules mostly in the Fife area

AndrewP
Site Admin
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Location: Edinburgh

Post by AndrewP » Wed May 21, 2008 1:02 pm

Hi Alan,

Can you upload it to the TalkingScot Gallery for others to try their hand at deciphering it.

See http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6496 for uploading directions.

All the best,

AndrewP

LesleyB
Posts: 8184
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Scotland

Post by LesleyB » Wed May 21, 2008 1:28 pm

hi Alan
We'd love to see it, as Andrew suggested, but also have a look at www.scottishhandwriting.com if you have not already been spending many hours there (!) as that may help you too.

Best wishes
Lesley

Archiver
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 6:49 pm
Location: Aberdeen

Post by Archiver » Wed May 21, 2008 3:52 pm

Grant Simpsons book "Scottish Handwriting 1150-1650: An Introduction to the Reading of Documents" (Aberdeen: Tuckwell Press Ltd, 1998) is very very useful (there are various print runs of it as far as I'm aware). It gives not only the theory behind handwriting but also good examples of the different letter forms, contractions, abbreviations and so on.

Anyone looking to start learning palaeography would do worse than to start there, and do the tests at www.scottishhandwriting.com which is the best online resource for Scottish handwriting around. Scottish handwriting does differ from English so beware of relying on English sources.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes

Fife49er
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:20 am
Location: Fife, Scotland

Post by Fife49er » Thu May 22, 2008 10:19 am

@ LesleyB & AndrewP: Ok, I'll upload the images today (there are two pages).

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1549
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1550

I did find the Scottish handwriting site helpful, but the National Archives site also has an excellent paleography section, and I recently managed to get my hands on a copy of Hilary Marshall's book as well.

It's maybe cheating slightly, but I did use Photoshop to help out too. The original image has a lot of text bleeding through from whatever is on the other side of the page. What I did was to call the image up in Photoshop then, using a Brush tool, I "faded" the reverse text and boosted the contrast to give a clearer, sharper image - this made deciphering words or individual letters a bit easier.

I would indeed appreciate any help from members in filling in some more of the jigsaw puzzle. At this stage, I'm still not 100% sure the document in question is directly related to my ancestry, but what the hell - it's good practice anyway!

Gallery URLs added - AndrewP
Looking for Stewart, Maxwell, Meldrum, Picken, Morris, Fisher, Higgie, Kininmonth, Cuthbert and Fowlis/Fowles/Foules mostly in the Fife area

LesleyB
Posts: 8184
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Scotland

Post by LesleyB » Thu May 22, 2008 4:16 pm

Hi Fife49er
WIth such a long document it would really help and save a lot of duplicated effort if you could perhaps post what you have transcribed already so that we can concentrate on the bits you are having particular trouble with.

Best wishes
Lesley

Fife49er
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:20 am
Location: Fife, Scotland

Good point

Post by Fife49er » Wed May 28, 2008 8:21 am

Aye you're right, Lesley - I should have thought of that.

The results of my efforts so far are as given below.

PAGE 1

(In margin)

Testamentum Datibum
Foules man
in Cambo

(Para 1)

1. THIS Inventarie & Testament Dative of the giude[s]
2. geire & debtis of umquhile William Foules in Cambo
3. within the parochine of Kingsbarnes & Kingdome
4. of Fyffe the tyme of his deceis quha deceissit
5. in the moneth of august 1645 yeires ffaithfullie
6. maid & gevin up be William Foules in Cambo
7. faither to the s[aid]d defunct in name of .................
8. ......................................................... bairnes .............
9. .................................... the s[ai]d defunct and ...........
10. decernit to him be decreit of my lord Comisshr
11. of ..................... of the dait the ~~~ Day of ~~~ 1648

(Para 2)

1. ........................ xxx oxene pryce of the peice
2. xxxiij £ vj s. & 8 d. inde jaj £. Item five ky pryce of the
3. peice xxvj £ xiij s. 4 d. inde j C* xxxiij £ vj s. 8d.
4.Item of ............................................................
5.lxxxxiiij £ vj b 8d
6. ........ pryce of the .peice. lxvi £. xiij s. 4d. Inde vi
7. ...........by ............
8. ..............................lxxxiiij
9. beare................................
10. bollis beare pryce of the boll with the fodder v £ inde
11. jaj ij C lxxx £ item
12. ...
13. of the boll with the fodder iiij £. iij s. 4d inde ......
14. ....... in .... .....the......yeire ........
15. .....
16. pryce of the boll with the fodder ......inde
17. £ Item ** £ inde iij C £ Item ...................................
18. pryce of the ..........................Item the
19. ....domeceile .....the abulziementis of his bodie &....
20. .... geare........ij C £

(Para 3 inset)

1. Summa of the Inventarie ~~~ vjaj iij C xxxiiij £
2. Debtis awand to the Dead

(Para 4)

1. Imprimis be Andrew Andersone
2. ........................
3. .......................
4. ......................
5. .....................
6. ............his .................

(Para 5)

1. .............debtis ........... be the
2. Summa of the inventtarie
3. Summa of the ----- debtis

(Para 6, bottom of page 1)

1. ............... the Laird of Cambo ...............

PAGE 2

1. his ferme The s[ai]d yeire 1645 yeir- .........pryce
2. of the boll iiij £ xiij s.4d ...................
3. f ferme ...........yeire
4. iij £ xiij s. 4d inde iij (*) xxxviij £ vj s 8d...................
5. ..................

(Para 8 inset)

1. Summa of the.......................
2. Summa of the.......................
3. ...........................

(Para 9)

1. This p[rese]nt inventorie..........
2. the...........upon the xxviij of July
3. <Juinj> 1648 yeires Wm. Foules faither.......
4. of the.................M[aste]r
5. Lyall of Boghallis.......................the said............
6. ............................

The rest of page 2 is part of someone else's inventory and I'm not looking at that.

Thanks again

Alan
Looking for Stewart, Maxwell, Meldrum, Picken, Morris, Fisher, Higgie, Kininmonth, Cuthbert and Fowlis/Fowles/Foules mostly in the Fife area