Media: - BOOK, hardcover, 280 pages - original 1914 edition
Edited by C. W. Foster, M.A., F.S.A. Canon Of Lincoln And Vicar Of Timberland
Year: 1914
Printed for the Lincoln Record Society by J. W. Ruddock & Sons, High Street, Lincoln, 1914

FROM THE PREFACE

It is the intention of the Lincoln Record Society to issue a series of volumes containing abstracts of wills relating to the diocese and county of Lincoln. These ancient testamentary documents are of value because they throw much light upon the language, Hie religious customs and observances, and the manners and social life of mir forefathers. Moreover, they are of very great service for genealogical I an । mses since, in the period prior to the institution of parish registers, they in oftenthe only available source of information relating to families which did not hold land or use armorial bearings; and even when they relate to the same period as extant parish registers, they are no less important to the genealogist, for experience proves that, while it is generally impossible to compile a pedigree from either wills or parish registers alone, it is generally easy to do so when both these classes of i <'< ords are available.

In 1888 the late Mr. Alfred Gibbons, edited a volume of Early Lincoln Wills: an abstract of all the wills and administrations recorded in Ike Episcopal Registers of the old Diocese of Lincoln, 1280-1547. The Mil 1 nne is full of interest, though some names, and also many details which are important as illustrating ancient manners and customs, have been omitted.

The late Canon A. R. Maddison, F.S.A., in 1888 and 1891, edited Iwo volumes of Lincolnshire Wills, a.d. 1500-1600, and a.d. 1600-1617, । ontaining abstracts of wills preserved in the Lincoln District Probate Registry. These volumes give abstracts, generally short, of some 550 wills out of the tens of thousands which are deposited in the Registry. I he present work supersedes no more than three or four pages of ( anon Maddison’s first volume.

CONTENTS

Preface
Abbreviations and Explanastions
Additions
Lincoln Wills A.D 1271-1526
Index of Persons and Places
Index of Counties
Index of Subjects
Glossary
List of Authorities

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