Henry Portas 1541 Will / Fulstow, Lincolnshire, England

Why do I do this to myself? I have been transcribing the 1541 Will of Henry Portas of Fulstow on and off for over a month. Ever since I received the images from Lincolnshire Archives I've been curious if I would be able to transcribe it fully. At least I'd want to get the family names so I can enter them in my ever-growing database of Portas families in Lincolnshire, England.

Transcribing isn't that easy when you are going at the mid-16th century writing. Between the spelling and the old handwriting, it sure takes a bite out of the old brain and eyes! I use cheat sheets with samples of various old English handwriting and that helps some.

I start out just trying to read through it — best I can — grabbing the familiar like "my daughter," "my sonne," "my wife," and the place name. I then print out a copy and start marking it up. Below is my working sheet in several stages — red ink, green ink, pencil, and colored highlighter. I thought of making my copy larger so I could write in between, but didn't get to the office supply store...besides, I really only need the family names for my purpose.

Attempting the transcribing holds some challenges and it is fun to see how much I can decipher without help. Well, I found the more I looked at it, the more I could actually see. I also guess a lot and later I come back to correct. So once I felt I had enough to put together, I started typing out what I found.

My transcription is very rough and it is incomplete... I just wanted to show what I have been doing lately in the world of my research. As you can see I did glean out the family names which is most important to me.

Below are a few of the words I'm having problems with. They will eventually get transcribed. I find that if I leave it alone for a few days or so and then come back to it, I see more words and make some changes and add more to it. The 16th-century handwriting has so many abbreviations and markings it is hard to tell what it is. Another problem is the pen used which I'm sure is a quill. I'm surprised throughout the will, the handwriting was clear and crisp. I did enhance the image through Photoshop in order to get more clarity.

The image below is one that I actually asked for help with. I contacted Lincolnshire facebook page and a very nice person responded with the answer and explanation to what was said. You have to understand, back then in England, sheep was a major industry. One of my ancestor's hamlet was moved to make room for more pasture somewhat like the "clearing" in Scotland.

That kind person wrote back saying it is "Half of the shope gerrat. I have seen similar wills when shops had garrets or lofts where stock was stored."

 "ye other halfe of ye shope gerryt"

I'm wondering now if Henry owned a shop of some sort. I don't think there is any mention of one in the will...or is there? I haven't deciphered the whole will yet.

I have no idea when the will was proved, but I do know Henry was buried in the Fulstow parish churchyard as instructed in his will.

Ancient church dedicated to St. Lawrence. It is believed this church dates back to the 1200s. Below in the porch, on either side of the doorway, stand two effigies, one of a knight and the other of his lady. I would have looked for headstones, but the bugs were scaring us away. This church is next to a farm and at first we didn't even see it for the shroud of trees along the road. (Images by me on a 2014 trip.)