Archive of June 2022

The Will of Thomas Winterbury

In another of our occasional pieces looking at the community around Lossenham through the evidence of wills, let me introduce you to Thomas Winterbury. Thomas ‘the elder’ was a grandfather and a widower, living in Sandhurst and it would seem that by 1501 his health was declining. On the 13th of August he decided it was time to make his will.

Thomas’s will gives us no indication of how he had made a living; he left no business utensils or other items suggesting a means of income. Instead it is clear that, understandably, his main concern was for the health of his soul - in other words, what would happen to him after his death. So how did he write this concern into his will?

In the first place, Thomas requested burial in the churchyard of St Nicholas in Sandhurst, giving ten shillings for his burial expenses and leaving twelve pence to the high altar of the church ‘for my tithes forgotten’. This is a standard bequest found in virtually every pre-Reformation will.

He then requested that ten shillings be spent at his month’s mind and ten shillings more was to be spent at his year’s mind for the benefit of his and his former wife, Johanne’s, souls. The month’s mind and year’s mind were both typical ‘anniversaries’ for a dead person, usually celebrated with prayers or masses sung by a priest or chaplain in the church. Such events had a profound importance, as it was universally believed that one’s soul would ultimately go either to heaven or to hell, after a period in purgatory. Purgatory (from the Latin purgare - to clean/purify) was where the soul went, hopefully to be cleansed of sin, before entering heaven - or not, in which case it went to hell. It was widely held that the more prayers were offered up for your soul whilst it was in purgatory, the more likely it was that you would be cleansed of sin and saved - hence the buying of masses and prayers in the years following death.

Thomas was a man with substantial economic resources, but he was also so concerned about his soul (did he have much sin to cleanse? Or was he just very devout?) that he chose to use these resources to ensure that his soul would be saved, rather than damned. His will therefore specified that

my messuage (property) with all the houses thereto belonging and pertaining with iii gardens and iii crofts of land lying in Sandhurst upon the dennes of Silverden and Osynden (Silverden can still be located to the north of Sandhurst Cross)


were to be leased out by his executors for six years. From the profits arising, ten shillings were to be distributed every year

in diriges and masses to be done in the church of Sandhurst for my soul, my wife’s soul and for all Christian souls. The residue of the said 10s if any be to be distributed in diriges and masses and poore people.


After those six years, Thomas’s son (Thomas the younger) was to inherit the properties. Even then, however, the will specified that if Thomas the younger were to die without heirs, the properties were to be sold to fund

an honest priest to sing in the church of Sandhurst or else where my executors will assign, to sing for my soul, my father and mother’s souls and all Christian souls for three years: ten marks a year to sing yearly as the money will be received.


Unusually, and touchingly, Thomas the elder was also so concerned for his son’s soul in the event of his death, that he specified that 3s 4d was to be spent at his son’s ‘outbering’ (burial), then at his month’s mind, and then at his year’s mind. He added

And so yearly I ordain in masses and diriges to be done in Sandhurst church for the soul of Thomas Winterbury, me, my wife and all Christian souls for six years after Thomas’s death every year 3s 4d.


Apart from modest sums left to a couple of other beneficiaries, including 3s 4d to the Prior of Lossenham and 13s 4d to his granddaughter Elise, it was clearly the health of his and his family’s souls which dominated Thomas the elder’s thoughts when he made his will. Let us hope that these final arrangements gave him some measure of confidence as he faced his last few weeks and whatever lay beyond. Probate was given on his will in October the same year.

Rebecca Warren