@materialwills

A Leverhulme Trust project using digital technology in tandem with volunteers to transcribe 25,000 wills. Find us at @materialwills.bsky.social

 University of Exeter
sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcultureofwills/
Joined January 2024
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📢WILLS PROJECT NOW LIVE ON ZOONIVERSE 📢 Using cutting edge technology we've generated transcriptions of 25,000 wills, now we need your help to check & correct them! zooniverse.org/projects/hjsm… 🧵1/ #History #twitterstorians #EarlyModern @LeverhulmeTrust @UkNatArchives
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📢In Case You Missed It📢 January's Will of the Month Post is now live on our project blog! It's the will of a Berkshire gentleman who left >50 bequests - so many objects are mentioned that we didn't know what to write about!🪑🥄👞 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialc… #twitterstorians
A composite image showing a range of different early modern objects – similar to the wide range of objects found in Denton’s will. Individual images © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2024 and © The Trustees of the British Museum

ALT A composite image showing a range of different early modern objects – similar to the wide range of objects found in Denton’s will. Individual images © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2024 and © The Trustees of the British Museum

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This fascinating will📜was first flagged by our @the_zooniverse volunteers. To have a go at reading early modern wills✍️and seeing what you can find, have a look at our Zooniverse site: zooniverse.org/projects/hjsm… We've recently added NEW Tudor wills from 1538-155⏳ #history

The Material Culture of Wills: England 1540-1790 | Zooniverse - People-powered research

Help us transcribe wills from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and reveal how ownership of, and attitudes towards, objects changed in a period of economic transformation

zooniverse.org
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A reminder that this account will be leaving Twitter / X shortly. Details of where to find us below 👇
The Material Culture of Wills Project@materialwills13 Jan 2025
📢 Important Announcement 📢 We'll be leaving Twitter / X in the next couple of weeks. To keep up to date with out project, you can find us on Bluesky @materialwills.bsky.social, or you can check out our website: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialc…
A screenshot of 'The Material Culture of Wills Project' profile page on Bluesky

ALT A screenshot of 'The Material Culture of Wills Project' profile page on Bluesky

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📢NEW WILL OF THE MONTH📢 January's will📜was identified by our Zooniverse volunteers This Berkshire gentleman left >50 bequests (it was difficult to chose what to write about) including items engraved with family names & coats of arms⏳ sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialc… #twitterstorians
A steel knife with a coat of arms on the handle, c.1550 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O109908/knife-unknown/ © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2024

ALT A steel knife with a coat of arms on the handle, c.1550 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O109908/knife-unknown/ © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2024

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In Case You Missed It 📢TUDOR WILLS NOW ON ZOONIVERSE!📢 A new milestone for our @the_zooniverse site - we've uploaded new wills 📃dating 1538-1552. Practice your sixteenth-century palaeography✍️ & read wills made during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward⏳ #twitterstorians
The Material Culture of Wills Project@materialwills22 Jan 2025
📢SIXTEENTH-CENTURY WILLS NOW ON ZOONIVERSE!📢 A new milestone for our @the_zooniverse site - we've gone back in time⏳& have uploaded new wills 📜dating 1538-1552. Practice your early modern palaeography✍️& read Tudor wills made during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI
A screenshot of a Tudor will on our Zooniverse site - black and white text in sixteenth-century 'secretary hand' style handwriting.

ALT A screenshot of a Tudor will on our Zooniverse site - black and white text in sixteenth-century 'secretary hand' style handwriting.

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📢SIXTEENTH-CENTURY WILLS NOW ON ZOONIVERSE!📢 A new milestone for our @the_zooniverse site - we've gone back in time⏳& have uploaded new wills 📜dating 1538-1552. Practice your early modern palaeography✍️& read Tudor wills made during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI
A screenshot of a Tudor will on our Zooniverse site - black and white text in sixteenth-century 'secretary hand' style handwriting.

ALT A screenshot of a Tudor will on our Zooniverse site - black and white text in sixteenth-century 'secretary hand' style handwriting.

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You can check out this new batch of sixteenth-century wills 📃on our Zooniverse site now: zooniverse.org/projects/hjsm… @LeverhulmeTrust @UniofExeterNews #history #twitterstorians #citizenscience #Tudors

The Material Culture of Wills: England 1540-1790 | Zooniverse - People-powered research

Help us transcribe wills from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and reveal how ownership of, and attitudes towards, objects changed in a period of economic transformation

zooniverse.org
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The Material Culture of Wills Project retweeted
Transkribus@Transkribus21 Jan 2025
After transcribing over 25,000 wills with Transkribus, this project at @UniofExeter is looking for volunteers to proofread the transcriptions. More info 👇
The Material Culture of Wills Project@materialwills16 Oct 2024
📢WILLS PROJECT NOW LIVE ON ZOONIVERSE 📢 Using cutting edge technology we've generated transcriptions of 25,000 wills, now we need your help to check & correct them! zooniverse.org/projects/hjsm… 🧵1/ #History #twitterstorians #EarlyModern @LeverhulmeTrust @UkNatArchives
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A short blog post I wrote about some of the wills I looked at during my fellowship at the wonderful @MarshsLibrary in Dublin @materialwills
Marsh's Library@MarshsLibrary14 Jan 2025
Maddock Fellow Dr Emily Vine @EmilyMayVine explores the unlikely survival of 18th century Huguenot wills housed in Marsh's in our latest blogpost #Blog #Fellowship marshlibrary.ie/huguenot-wil…
Detail of an 18th century will

ALT Detail of an 18th century will

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📢 Important Announcement 📢 We'll be leaving Twitter / X in the next couple of weeks. To keep up to date with out project, you can find us on Bluesky @materialwills.bsky.social, or you can check out our website: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialc…
A screenshot of 'The Material Culture of Wills Project' profile page on Bluesky

ALT A screenshot of 'The Material Culture of Wills Project' profile page on Bluesky

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Funeral instruction of the day: When Thomas Cherell made his will in 1540, he wanted those who attended his burial to each receive 'one Spice bune and a Cake' 🍰
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🎉HAPPY NEW YEAR!🎉 We're starting 2025 by reflecting on our 'Will of the Month' blog post series - we wrote about a different will every month of 2024 We began in February with London minister Josias Alsop, who died just after the 1666 Great Fire:🧵1/12 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialc…

Will of the Month: a London minister and the Great Fire of 1666

Emily Vine Our first blog post introduced the different features of early modern wills, and provided some examples of how we can determine the ‘meaning’ ascribed to some of the objects and possessi...

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In December 2024 we had a Christmas-themed 'Will of the Month' post 🎅🎄⛄ We looked at the 1786 will of Somerset Spinster Mary Partridge, and whether it could be tied in with the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' 🍐🌳 💍💍💍💍💍 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialc… 🧵11/12

Will of the Month: Mary Partridge, an orchard, but no pear tree

Our project is analysing a sample of 25,000 wills, and when writing each ‘Will of the Month’ post, it can be difficult to know how to select just one to write about. For December’s post,

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We hope you enjoyed reading our 'Will of the Month' posts for 2024 🎉 We'll continue them throughout 2025, and we also regularly post about other project updates and news - so watch this space: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialc… #twitterstorians #history #earlymodern 🧵12/12

Blog

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