Peter BAGGS

WILL: Date: AUG 1543 Place: Berks Archdeaconry court

On the 10th June 1543 he made his will. At this time he was living in Longworth, Berks. He left to Mawde "ii kene and iii tewlmonthlyngs", and to his three children "iiii kene"; John and George Baggs, his brothers, were to have oversight of the four cows on their behalf; he left George a calf, as he did Elizabeth Baggs; he left his father and mother five shillings, and his son Richard a maser; the residue was left to his wife.2

He died at the end of July 1543, at Longworth. His will was proved in the Berkshire Archdeaconry court in August that year. The inventory of his effects had been appraised on the 5th August. Peter was said to have lived at Duxford, Berks. His worldly wealth consisted of a horse (5/8), 2 kyne (16s), 3 yerlings (12/-), 2 Schepe (2/-), a bacon hogge and 2 pyggs (3/4), 2 brasse potts and a postnet (5/-), a brasse pan (3/4), a cawdern (20d), a ketyll and a bason (12d), 7 pewter platters (3/6), 2 potteniers and a Sawcer (10d), bords formis stoles trestells and barrells (5/-), a cupburd (2/4), a chaffinge disshe (8d), a frysed cote (3/-), the pulse off 3½ acres (12/-), one akers barley (20d), a stacke of whete cotaynynge a quarter (8/-), 4 kyne (40/-), and a maser (6/8); total value: £6/14/10.3

The cottage in which he and his family lived would have been the usual yeoman's home, built on a timber frame and with walls of mud and wattle. It was probably a two-storeyed affair with a single room on both floors and a central hearth. Rooms were added by erecting temporary walls which were nailed to the ceiling timbers. When the family matured and the offspring moved away then these temporary dividers were removed. The farm itself comprised little more than five acres of land, probably scattered round the parish in strips. The livestock was few in quantity yet typical of the 16th century farm. The farm was obviously situated at Duxford, which would suggest that that tithing was on the eastern edge of the parish of Hinton Waldrist, alongside Longworth.