Nicholas Leveson's Will: Family Remembrance

Description:Nicholas Leveson’s preoccupation with his lineage and legacy is evident again in his secular bequests. He leaves twenty pounds for the ‘funding’ of ‘somme well disposed student or students at the universities of Oxford’ and also at Cambridge University. A bequest such as this would ensure that Nicholas was remembered for making a contribution to the education and development of future generations. In terms of his family’s lineage, amongst the last bequests listed Nicholas states ‘I give unto Gresill my daughter a gilte cuppe of the price of six poundes thirteen shillings and four pence’. Nicholas states that ‘myn armes to be sett uppon the same cuppe for a token of remembrance’. In this request, Nicholas declares that an actual object, perhaps a family heirloom, is to be created, bearing the family’s arms. Such an object would ensure the remembrance of his own and his family’s identity and significance for future generations.

Nicholas Leveson’s will, and similar documents for his contemporaries, are extremely rich in detail, providing us with a wealth of information about a person’s social status, their family relationships and also their wealth and values. From just a brief overview of the bequests in Nicholas Leveson’s will, we can learn a great deal about the lives of people living during the sixteenth century.

Attachments

Transcription of Nicholas Leveson's Will, 1539 (63 KB)