Archives
| Women and wills |
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Wiltshire Wills Project introduction | History of the wills within our collection | What is a will? Search the online catalogue of wills here! Until the Married Women's Property Act of 1882, wives could not make a will without their husband's consent. That consent could be withdrawn at any time before the will was proved, even after the wife's death. There were some exceptions however. Pre-nuptial settlements occasionally included a clause giving a wife the right to dispose of certain goods or property, particularly those she had brought with her to the marriage. In only about 0.8% of cases in the collection are the deceased identified as wives. There were no restrictions on widows and spinsters making wills. 3.5% of individuals in the collection identify themselves as spinsters or single women, and a substantial 17% as widows. There are some fascinating examples of women's wills in the collection. They include an inventory of the goods of Jane Forget dated 1588. She had been a nun at Wilton Abbey. The document shows a devout woman still living a nun's life, even though Wilton Abbey had been closed down 50 years earlier when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. One of her rooms was called the Chapel Chamber, which was probably at Woodlands Manor, Mere, where she lived with the Doddington family.
Women were very often made guardians of children and were usually made executors of their husband's will, at least until the eighteenth century. This is an example from the will of Nicholas Hulbert of Hinton, Steeple Ashton, dated 1594:
John Culverwell of Chardstock used his will to offer very practical support to his wife in her parental duties after his death:
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