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(LEP)

DEATH AND MEMORY IN MEDIEVAL EXETER

Transcribed by Brian Randell

The Source (LEP)

The book Death and Memory in Medieval Exeter (Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 2003), by David Lepine and Nicholas Orme, (Eds.) contains extensive information about Exeter burials and wills. Specifically it contains (i) details of a large number of burials and funerals in Exeter (1020-1540), including in many cases brief extracts from wills concerning the testator's wishes regarding his/her burial, (ii) full transcripts of 18 early wills and two inventories (1244-1349), and (iii) a register of surviving Exeter wills (1244-1540).

 

DWP's editing process

The set of LEP source items provided here derive from the will abstracts and will and inventory transcripts in the book. However Lepine and Orme's register of surviving wills largely duplicates information given in source DHC-W (particularly with respect to Mayor's Court Wills) and in source PROB 11 (PCC wills). Therefore only entries not included in these two sources are included here, though even these overlap somewhat with the contents of DHC-W.

 

Locating the source and acquiring copies

We provide, in the 'Reference' column, all the cataloguing information given in the book for the various wills and inventories; and we indicate in the Form column whether a given item is a transcript or an extract, or merely a list entry. There is no further information in the book about items that are characterised as list entries - however for such wills the 'Reference' column should suffice to enable the will to be located in the relevant archive. Copies of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society's publications are held by major reference and genealogical libraries, and can be consulted in order to access the transcripts and brief will extracts that this book provides for some of the wills that it records.