The Material Culture of Wills Project
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materialwills.bsky.social
The Material Culture of Wills Project
@materialwills.bsky.social
4K followers 400 following 480 posts
The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790: a Leverhulme Trust project using digital tech & volunteers to transcribe 25,000 wills.

Visit our website: https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcultureofwills/
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Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
This is the first recording of any of Chris Hoban's wills inspired music!

For lucky people in Devon, Chris will be performing ALL the wills songs at Topsham Folk Club on 18 January, with support from Miranda Sykes.

Grab your ticket now 👇

#Exeter #Devon 🗃️ #Events

wegottickets.com/event/680386
Chris Hoban
A master songwriter -- inventive and inspiring Show of Hands favourite - has crafted a unique evening with classical and folk musicians, retelling in song the moving, joyful and absorbing stories of ...
wegottickets.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by The Material Culture of Wills Project
lsangha.bsky.social
Alice Walter's will might be familiar if you read our project blog, as it was our Will of the Month in October 2024.

Read @emilymayvine.bsky.social's post, and see a transcription of the whole will here:

#EarlyModern 🗃️

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
Will of the Month: Alice Walter and Her ‘Deaths Head’ Ring
The end of October and the beginning of November marks ‘Allhallowtide’ – the time of the year when Western Christians, including in early modern England, have traditionally turned their thoughts to th...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 8:20 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
And we continue to share full transcriptions and blog posts about interesting wills! 📜

In case you missed it, last week we published our latest 'Will of the Month' post 👇

#skystorians #history #EarlyModern
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bsky.app/profile/mate...
materialwills.bsky.social The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 24d
📢 In Case You Missed It 📢

October's 'Will of the Month' post is now live on our blog 📜

When Margery Gadyng died in childbirth in 1540, she made a nuncupative or 'oral' will, leaving ribbons to the women who witnessed her declare her final wishes.

Read more here👇 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
A photograph of a brown embroidered ribbon on a black background. The ribbon is curled on the right hand side, and decorated with embroidery, including green plants and white and yellow flowers. Ribbon, embroidered, ca. 1600, English https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O10418/ribbon-unknown/ ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2025
November 3, 2025 at 7:43 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Our Zooniverse volunteers reached this fantastic milestone while the project team were in Exeter, and meeting to discuss next steps for the transcriptions and the database.

We were delighted to reach this milestone, and discussed how valuable all the Zooniverse contributions have been.

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A photograph of the Wills project team meeting in a room at the University of Exeter. There are six people in the photograph, sitting around a table with laptops in front of them, looking at a screen on the wall which contains a colourful graph. The carpet is grey and the walls are white. There are glass doors in the wall at the back of the room which overlook grass.
November 3, 2025 at 7:43 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
You can find out more on our Zooniverse 'Talkboards' - which we'll continue to monitor.

We hope to be able to share preliminary results in the near future, and BlueSky will be one of the first places we'll update - so watch this space! 📜

www.zooniverse.org/projects/hjs...

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Zooniverse
The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research.
www.zooniverse.org
November 3, 2025 at 7:43 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
And thank you, Philippa, for everything you've done to contribute to the project!
November 3, 2025 at 7:19 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Thank you Austen, yes it really is moving - and as you'll know from reading many wills, we still get surprised by how poignant / personal some of them are.
October 31, 2025 at 9:55 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Thank you Nicola! We on the team also wish we'd seen it sooner, for various projects!
October 28, 2025 at 8:54 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Thanks for sharing, Dave.
October 28, 2025 at 8:51 AM
materialwills.bsky.social
Thanks Cordelia - we were amazed to find this one.
October 28, 2025 at 8:38 AM