Thomas of Chillenden's Register: the earliest surviving register of testaments (1396-1455) kept by the Commissary-General of Canterbury

Abstract

The earliest surviving register of testaments kept for the Commissary-General of the Diocese of Canterbury has for a long time been known in manuscript, but has not yet been printed or made generally available. It has, therefore been a rewarding task to transcribe and calendar it. The introduction which precedes the Calendar opens with a description of the manuscript itself. A section follows on the general character of medieval testaments and the growth of the ecclesiastical law of Probate, dealing with the Diocese of Canterbury in particular. The short survey of the testators themselves which follows, reveals that they belonged to the propertied class of whom the majority were married men, though there are some clerics and a few women, mostly widows. From the 1440's wills of Real Estate became more frequent and the special value of this register lies in the light it throws on the practice of Enfeoffment to Use at the end of the first half of the fifteenth century. An analysis has been made of the various ways in which testators employed this valuable device from which an interesting picture emerges of the Kentish land-market at this period. Bequests of chattels have also been analysed and some attempt has been made to describe and classify the most interesting of these, while a consideration of the monetary bequests leads to a discussion concerning the social conscience of the age. The significance of medieval testaments used in connection with other documents is exemplified by tracing the relationship of some individual testators with each other, and with better known characters of the fifteenth century. The social and political importance of men in this class in both local and national history is thus indicated, and the value of testaments and wills as historical raw material is finally emphasised.