What do a friendship with a prison cat, a silver-gilt decorative nut, and a doomed voyage to the East Indies have in common? They’re all preserved in the last wishes of people who lived in and around Maidstone between 1520 and 1680.
While we often think of wills as dry legal documents, the early modern wills we’ve been transcribing reveal intimate glimpses into lives lived centuries ago: a nobleman’s plea for “no pompe nor vayne glorye” at his funeral, a wealthy widow’s careful provisions for multiple generations of heirs, and a sailor’s simple request that his brother “be good unto” their mother before embarking on what would prove to be his final voyage. These documents don’t just record who got what - they capture relationships, anxieties, social networks, and the everyday objects that mattered most to people facing their mortality.
It’s early days at The Making of Maidstone, but Ryan, our wills digitisation volunteer, and I have been making headway with wills from individuals in and around Maidstone between 1520 and 1680. This involves gathering photographs of probate records and transcribing them to give us a treasure trove of information about the town and the people who lived in it. We’ve been using a platform called Transkribus because it makes it easy to keep track of images, transcriptions, and other important information, and lets multiple people work on transcribing the wills together. We hope to bring you some interesting digital ‘distant’ readings of these texts once we have enough transcriptions.
So, we thought we would bring you a blog post covering some of the more interesting wills we have looked at so far and an idea of what you need to do to learn to transcribe Early Modern wills which, happily, are all in English.
A Noble’s Last Wishes
Among the many lives preserved in Maidstone’s early modern wills, few offer as poignant a glimpse into the web of loyalty and remembrance as that of Sir Henry Wyatt, grandfather of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, who led a rebellion from Maidstone against Queen Mary in 1554. Henry himself was a fascinating individual and his life reflected the various political vicissitudes of the age. He was imprisoned, tortured, and apparently survived by befriending a cat who would bring him dead pigeons. Variously, he was a trusted courtier of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and his final wishes reflects the quiet authority of an elder statesman concerned with continuity, duty, and care.
In his will, Henry directed that his body be buried beside his wife Anne in Milton Church, near Gravesend. He expressed a desire for modesty in funeral arrangements: “no pompe nor vayne glorye.” He established a chantry at Milton for prayers in perpetuity and ensured its endowment from lands in Kent and Essex.
Henry’s care extended to his household and wider circle. A long list of servants received annuities, from feather beds to barley and monetary payments, and several younger men were given allowances for their education. He also appointed Lord Thomas Cromwell, Walter Hendley, and his son Thomas as executors, with gifts of silver cups to Cromwell and Hendley as tokens of remembrance and gratitude. The will is a testament to a man mindful of legacy, loyalty, and the material means to sustain both.
A Wealthy Woman’s Legacy
Elizabeth Fisher, a Maidstone widow, left a will in the 1530s that showcases the wealth, piety, and familial care of a prosperous woman in early Tudor Kent. Her will is rich with detailed bequests: feather beds, silver cups, coral beads, and even a “Nutt garnished with silver and gilt”, a highly prized personal object of the period. Her sons, John, Robert, William, and John the younger, are carefully remembered with heirlooms and monetary gifts, along with precise provisions for future generations.
Yet Elizabeth’s bequests extend far beyond her family. She funded a priest to say masses for the souls of herself, her husband, and her parents, both for one full year and annually for ten years thereafter. Her servants, too, were not forgotten. Named individuals received bedding, grain, and clothing.
Elizabeth’s accompanying land settlements, laid out with legal precision, suggest she was not merely a donor of goods, but a manager of property and legacy in and around Maidstone. She outlined detailed provisions to ensure the succession of family lands across multiple generations, with contingency plans for every branch of her male heirs. Her will gives us a portrait of a woman of standing, faith, and considerable foresight, whose influence in Maidstone lived on well after her death.
A Sailor’s Farewell
The will of Valentine Nashe, drawn up in 1614, opens a rare window into the life of a Kentish man preparing to sail for the East Indies aboard the Hector of London. It is a brief, deeply practical will, not weighed down by lists of goods or elaborate provisions.
Nashe, a mariner from Aylesford, begins by commending his soul to God and deferring the fate of his body to the customs of “that society and company with whom I travel.” His worldly possessions, any wages or profits from the voyage, or goods carried as personal investment, he left entirely to his brother William. But there was one request: that William “be good unto Katherine Nashe my now mother,” a simple but powerful plea that reveals concern not only for wealth but for familial care.
Ryan and I were particularly excited by the mention of the ship, the Hector of London. There are a few different ships called Hector around this time but we managed to work out that this particular Hector was an East India Company ship. In 1607, this ship was part of the first English fleet to sail directly to India under the command of William Hawkins, a veteran of Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe. After some digging Ryan managed to find a Ship’s log for this voyage which showed that it began just nine days after Nashe drew up his will. This was the Hector’s, and Nashe’s, last voyage as it sank in 1616 while under repairs in the east following a battle with the Portuguese. Tantalisingly, we don’t know if Nashe was part of the earlier voyages to the East Indies which were the first to sail directly from England under the auspices of the East India Company. Currently, all that is clear is that news of Nashe’s death likely returned with Clove another East India ship which returned just before his will was proved.
There is a lot more information to digest and we hope to bring you more Nashe’s story in a future blog post. For now, I wanted to add in this image of English, Dutch, and Spanish ships in a bay. This was painted by a Dutch artist in the year that Nashe and his fellow crew members set sail.
Threads Across Time
These three wills, from a courtier navigating royal politics, a widow managing substantial property, and a mariner heading into unknown waters, reveal the remarkable diversity of lives intersecting in and around early modern Maidstone. Yet for all their differences in social status and circumstance, they share common threads: deep concern for family welfare, careful attention to relationships and loyalty, and an awareness that their words would outlive them.
What strikes us most in transcribing these documents is how wills capture both the grand sweep of history and its most intimate moments. Henry Wyatt’s story connects us to royal courts and political upheavals, while his request for “no pompe nor vayne glorye” reveals a man’s personal values. Elizabeth Fisher’s detailed land settlements show us how property and power moved through Tudor society, while her gifts of beds and clothing remind us that she cared about her individual servants. Valentine Nashe’s brief will ties Maidstone to global trade and exploration, yet his most heartfelt words concern his mother’s wellbeing.
As we continue transcribing more wills from this period, we’re building a collective portrait of a community, one that encompasses farmers and courtiers, merchants and mariners, all bound together by the shared experience of life in early Kent. Each will adds another thread to this tapestry, and we’re excited to share more discoveries with you.
Want to follow our progress or learn how to get involved? Sign up for our Newsletter or follow us on Bluesky. If you want to Take Part then please get in touch. There’s always more treasure waiting to be uncovered in these centuries-old words.