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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Here are the links mentioned in the newsletter: For more on the cultural, creative and public outcomes of Chris Hoban and Laura Sangha's [@lsangha.bsky.social] collaboration, see the project website: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... #EarlyModern 🗃️

sites.exeter.ac.uk

Wills as Songs

***NEWSFLASH: Chris Hoban is planning an album titled A TIME OF MINDING*** We are thrilled to bring you the news that Chris is seeking funding to record an album of songs written and composed by

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

📢AUTUMN NEWSLETTER OUT TODAY📢 This edition includes an important update on some changes to the team that impact the project's future. Those on our mailing list should have a copy in their inbox, for others see below, or DM your address to receive a pdf. #EarlyModern 🗃️ #DigitalHumanities #HTR

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Justin Colson @justincolson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The Exeter Material Culture of Wills team have done an AMAZING job with their Transkribus transcriptions of 25,000 wills. I've been playing with the marked-up raw files kindly provided by @bhamhistory.bsky.social

screenshot of annotated sixteenth century will

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Right up there on our Honours Board Philip! 🙏 Yes, there's never a good time to be put at risk, but this does seem like a particularly bad one.

A list of the names of the expert volunteers whose work trained handwritten text recognition models used to transcribe 30,000 historic wills.

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Thank you Sam! We always strive to treat our contributors as research associates, since our project just wouldn't be possible if they were not a part of it. So it's very affirming that you say this 🙏😊

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Thank you so much to everyone who has shown an interest in, supported, and volunteered for the project to date. We are very proud of everything that we have achieved so far. 6/6

A photograph of the wills project team standing outside Elton House in Bath. It shows a group of six people, wearing outdoor coats, standing outside a grey Georgian Bath townhouse, with large windows and a black front door.

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Whatever happens, we will share the autogenerated transcriptions and our database next year as planned, and they will be available in an open access in a repository in the longer term. While we focus on publications we will be quieter on here and will pause the will of the month blog series. 5/

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Though things are therefore very uncertain for the project at this moment, all of the team are committed to doing everything they can to bring our research to publication so the fruits of the project can be shared with volunteers and academics in future. 4/

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

While that planned research is ongoing, it has of course been severely disrupted as the processes of redundancy consultation, voluntary redundancy process, and selection for compulsory redundancy are happening across July-September. 3/

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This summer the project researchers, including Jane and Laura, were meant to be focusing on analysing and publishing findings relating to the 30,000 historic wills that we have transcribed with the help of thousands of volunteers. 2/

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

📢PROJECT UPDATE📢 You may have seen the news that the University of Exeter, home of the wills project, has placed 500 academics at risk of redundancy. The project leader Prof. Jane Whittle & project co-investigator Dr Laura Sangha are both at risk, alongside almost all of the History department. 1/

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

📢 In Case You Missed It 📢 📜 There's a new 'Will of the Month' post up on our blog! ⛪ Read all about a Tudor clergyman from Cumberland who had a tumultuous life, but regained considerable material wealth at his death 🪙🪙🪙 #history #SkyStorians #EarlyModern sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

A photograph of the front title page of an early modern book. The print is black on a pale parchment coloured page. The text is in the centre of the front page, surrounded by a printed border with small human figures. This is an image of the frontispiece of The Institution of a Christen Man (1537), known as the Bishops’ Book, which Adeson owned a copy of. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/institutionofchr00chur/page/n5/mode/2up

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

📢 NEW WILL OF THE MONTH POST 📢 June's post explores the will of a Tudor clergyman who forfeited much of his property in the turmoil of the Henrician Reformation📜 His fortunes improved: his will reveals material comfort & ownership of many fine & decorative items sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

A photography of an ornate sixteenth century tapestry. It is primarily green, with plants and flowers depicted in blue, cream, and orange hues, as well as birds, and a pale unicorn in the centre. The image is: Tapestry fragment woven in wool and silk, depicting a unicorn, Flanders, ca.1500, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2026 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O84543/tapestry-unknown/

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Gosh, that is a detailed will! The short answer is yes, we've got a few with more than 100 bequests, and a handful with more than 200 (but we're looking at 30,000 wills, so these examples are very rare)

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

'my swanne marke with vj nyckes'. 🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢 Alice Skipwithe's 16th-century will shows how she claimed ownership of these birds - with 6 notches carved into their beaks. Another bequest of swans is discussed in @emilymayvine.bsky.social's post here: #EarlyModern 🗃️

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

📢 In Case You Missed It! 📢 📜 Our latest 'Will of the Month' post is live on our blog: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... It explores the will of an C18th widow of Greenwich who bequeathed land, property, and bonds in the East India Company, but left only 1 shilling to her 'undutifull son' 🪙

An eighteenth century oil painting of Greenwich and the river Thames. It shows the river in the foreground, with sailboats, and buildings, including a church and the royal naval college. Trees and hills can be seen behind he buildings, and the sky is blue. This painting is: Samuel Scott, The Thames at Greenwich; The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-thames-at-greenwich-142722

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

📢 NEW WILL OF THE MONTH POST 📢 May's post explores a Greenwich widow's will which exhibits some clear favouritism📜 One son received the bulk of her estate, the other 'one Shilling and no more because of his undutifull behaviour' 🪙 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... #skystorians #EarlyModern

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Emily Vine @emilymayvine.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

📜 A recent blog post from the @materialwills.bsky.social blog, reflecting on the project team's recent 'Landmark Trust Futures' research retreat at Elton House in Bath 👇 @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social #history #skystorians #EarlyModern #Georgians

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

📢 In Case You Missed It 📢 📜There's a new post over on our project blog! Our Principal Investigator, Jane Whittle, discusses different ways of approaching 30,000 will transcriptions, and reflects on our recent research retreat, funded by the wonderful Landmark Trust Futures scheme 👇#skystorians

A photograph of the wills project team working as part of their 'Landmark Trust Futures' research retreat at Elton House in Bath. Five people sit around an old wooden table, with laptops, notebooks, cups of tea. The room is an eighteenth-century room with antique portraits on the walls and large windows.

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

It seems to happen quite a lot! Particularly those who died abroad and were moved at a later time.

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Church Monuments Society @churchmonuments.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Fascinating account of burial choices and removal

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Emily Vine @emilymayvine.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

📜 In Case You Missed It 📜 April's 'Will of the Month' post is now live over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog! 👇 #history #EarlyModern #Skystorians

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Jane also reflects on our recent team research retreat to Elton House in Bath - generously funded by the wonderful Landmark Trust Futures scheme - which has allowed the team to discuss and refine ideas, and share some of our different approaches to this large number of will transcriptions. 🧵3/3

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Jane considers 3 main approaches to large numbers of early modern sources: 1. Quantitative Surveys 📈 2. Searching for how the meaning of words changes over time ✏️ 3. Finding needles in haystacks! 🪡 🧵2/3 @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social #DigitalHumanities @uniofexeternews.bsky.social #History

A colourful chart titled 'Changing Bequests', containing changing 'areas' of colour - dark blue, orange, green, light blue, purple. The chart shows how bequests of property, cash, finance, specific goods and unspecified goods changed over time.

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

📢 NEW PROJECT BLOG POST 📢 Something a bit different from our 'Will of the Month' posts... 📜 Our Principal Investigator, Jane Whittle, explains the different ways we can approach and work with 30,000 will transcriptions 🧵1/3 #EarlyModern @uoearchhist.bsky.social sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

sites.exeter.ac.uk

What to do with 30,000 wills? Three Approaches

Jane Whittle, Wills Project Principal Investigator The wills project has now successfully transcribed more than 30,000 early modern wills from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, with at least 5000 f...

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Co-investigator @lsangha.bsky.social is speaking about the project at the @ihrscb.bsky.social seminar tomorrow! In person at the @ihr.bsky.social and online on Zoom 🌐 Sign up here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... @leverhulme.ac.uk @transkribus.bsky.social @zooniverse.bsky.social #History

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

In tomorrow's paper I explain how we transcribed 30,000 wills and share some preliminary findings: on bequests in wills as a measure of economic change & how wills can be used to trace the interiority of people in the past. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social

history.ac.uk

The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790

Society, Culture & Belief 1500-1800 Seminar

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

📢TOMORROW!📢 I'm speaking at the @ihrscb.bsky.social seminar on people's changing relationship with their possessions in the 150 years before the Industrial Revolution. Join us in person @ihr.bsky.social or on Zoom, register: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... #EarlyModern 🗃️@uoearchhist.bsky.social

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, many English will makers took the trouble to describe in some detail the items they bequeathed to particular relatives and friends in their wills, and sometimes they even explained why they did so. Wills are thus a unique source of evidence for material culture in the past since they show us not only the sorts of things people owned, but also, by choosing particular objects to bequeath and by describing them in distinctive ways, they indicate people’s attitudes towards their possessions, and how they used objects they owned in order to achieve a variety of aims.

In this talk Laura Sangha will introduce the ongoing Leverhulme Trust project ‘The Material Culture of Wills: England 1540-1790’, which takes advantage of this ability of wills to lay bare the sentiment, meaning and value attached to objects in the past. Laura, the Co-Investigator on the project, will introduce the research team’s focus and explain how they have transcribed 30,000 English wills to create an unprecedently large data sample. She will also share two sets of preliminary findings, to demonstrate the varied themes that different members of the team are investigating to collectively address the central question: how did people’s relationship with, and attitudes towards possessions change in the 250 years before the industrial revolution?

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

📢 APRIL WILL OF THE MONTH 📢 📜 Our new 'Will of the Month' post is now live on our blog! It explores the will of Sir Francis Cottington, who died & was initially buried in Valladolid in 1652. 26 years later, his body was removed & reburied in Westminster Abbey. sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

A seventeenth-century portrait of a man wearing black with a white lace collar. He has a grey pointed beard and moustache, appears to have dark hair or a dark hat, and is posed against a dark background. This is a portrait of Sir Francis Cottington (c.1579-1652).

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Hi Sophie - as part of the project we've used Handwritten Text Recognition technology - making use of a platform called @transkribus.bsky.social . It's different from Generative AI, and more similar to longstanding technologies like Optical Character Recognition.

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Many thanks to the organisers, SHS and the IHR for hosting me, @emilymayvine.bsky.social and @bhamhistory.bsky.social at the Festival last Friday. A really excellent day showcasing so much exciting work.

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Interdiscplinary action! Combining the wills project, UCL makerspace and the Uni of Essex's project on The Gay Switchboard! 💀

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

This led to an even more surprising output - following conversations over lunch & a collaboration with two fantastic nearby stalls, one of our ballad 'woodcut' images from our earlier linocut workshop was transformed into a sparkly badge! 🧵3/3 @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social

A photograph featuring a print in the style of an early modern woodcut, of 4 white skulls against a black background. Below the print is the lino stamp that was used to create the print, as well as two badges that were made from the skull print design. The badges are blue and black in colour and also have glitter.

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Later in the day @lsangha.bsky.social, @bhamhistory.bsky.social & @emilymayvine.bsky.social also ran an interactive stall showcasing the project - featuring photos, videos, and posters with details about what we've been up to over the last couple of years 🧵2/3 #SHSFest #Skystorians #History

A photo of three people standing and sitting behind a table - the table is covered in a black cloth, and has photographs, leaflets, and a laptop on it. A banner behind the table reads 'The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790'.

This is a photograph of three members of the project team, from left to right, Emily Vine, Laura Sangha, and Harry Smith, running an interactive stall about the 'Material Culture of Wills' project at the Festival of Social History.

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Last week we participated in the 'Festival of Social History' - an event organised by @socialhistsoc.bsky.social & @ihr.bsky.social In the morning, co-investigator @lsangha.bsky.social spoke about the project's use of AI transcription and working with volunteers 🧵1/3 bsky.app/profile/dave...

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Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · 28/04/2026

Featuring @lsangha.bsky.social and musician Chris Hoban, this video showcases the @materialwills.bsky.social project @uoearchhist.bsky.social that uses cutting edge digital technology to transcribe 25,000 manuscript wills. 🎬 media.leverhulme.ac.uk/video/wills-...

media.leverhulme.ac.uk

Wills as Windows onto Past Lives

Musician and lyricist, Chris Hoban, collaborates with Dr Laura Sangha, one the researchers currently working on the Leverhulme-funded project ‘The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790’

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

📢NEW POST: APRIL WILL OF THE MONTH📢 It's the 1652 (proved 1666) will of Sir Francis Cottingham, ambassador to Spain and a Catholic convert who asked to be buried in the English College. sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... #EarlyModern 🗃️

a portrait of a man wearing black with a white lace collar. He is an older man with an ostentatious grey beard and moustaches, pointed at the ends.

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

📢 NEW Will of the Month Post! 📢 📜 April's post explores the will of Sir Francis Cottington (c.1579-1652), ‘Ambassador extraordinary' to the King of Spain. A Catholic convert, he died in Valladolid, leaving a 'Jewell of Diamonds' to a famous statue of Our Lady 💎 sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

A photograph of a golden statue of Mary the Mother of God. The statue is in a golden archway, with a blue backdrop. The gold statue has a halo, and has been mutilated, so it is missing arms, and there is damage to the face. There is green foliage and white flowers in front of the statue, on the left hand side of the photo.

This is a photo of the statue that Sit Francis Cottington left the 'Jewell of Diamonds' to. The ‘Virgen Vulnerata’ is a mutilated statue of Our Lady at the English College in Valladolid - Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virgen_Vulnerata_de_Valladolid_(2024).jpg

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

📅 Upcoming wills project talks 👇 - Social History Festival this Friday - Laura Sangha at the Institute of Historical Research (hybrid) on 7 May #EarlyModern 🗃️

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

ICYMI - the Wills project spring 2026 newsletter is out now. Find out what we've been up to over the past 6 months 👇 #EarlyModern 🗃️

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Although this one, we think is our favourite. We call this face 'That feeling on the Tuesday after the long bank holiday weekend' 5/5🧵 #history #SkyStorians #EarlyModern #Palaeography #archives #Tudors bsky.app/profile/scri...

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

How about the moon? 🌜 4/5🧵 bsky.app/profile/scri...

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The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

And this wonderful fish! 🐟🐟🐟 3/5🧵 bsky.app/profile/scri...

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