Welsh Journals

conventional but sometimes a strong and simple faith shines through the mellifluous phrases of the Jacobean English. John Lucas, dying at Stouthall in 1623 at the early age of twenty-nine leaving a wife and baby daughter and another child on the way, starts his will:- "I John Lucas of the psh of Reynoldston in the Deanery of Gower and diocese of St David's sicke in body but whole in minde and of good and pfect remembrance prayse bee given to God for his gracious gifts Doe make and declare this my last will and testament in maner and forme following. ffirst and chiefely I give bequeath and willingly Resigne and yield up my soule into the hands of God the ffather of spirites who first gave it mee and inspireth into all liveing creatures in a wonderfull order life and breath and being Item I give and bequeath my body to Christian burial in the earth whence it was taken; there to take its rest and last sleepe untill the great day of the Lord and comming of my saviour Christe Jesus in the cloudes of heaven to judge all flesh; At which time I hope and undoubtedly expect to bee raysed up to meete my Lorde in the ayre and thenceforth to remayne with him in glory; As for those small portions of worldly substance which god hath endowed me with and whereof hee hath made mee steward and guardian during the time of this my short and paynfull pilgrimage I dispose thereof give and bequeath the same as follows. Careful provision is made in John's will for the children, with alternative arrangements should the expected baby be a boy or a girl, but it is typical of the period that John goes on to appoint his wife Mary then aged twenty-three as sole executor to settle his affairs and run the farm, with separate trustees for the children only in the event of her remarriage. The Gower housewife of those days seems generally to have been left in full control of the family business during widowhood, in marked contrast to a certain amount of male chauvinism in more recent times. A problem which worried testators then, as now, was how to provide for elderly female relatives. A case in point was John's grandmother Ann Battcocke, the wife of John William Lucas of Stouthall who died in 1602. John William had three sons, Harry, David and George. He provided in his will that Harry should look after his mother at Stouthall but if they failed to 'agree' then she should go and live with David at Gapons Hill. When Harry died ten years later the old lady was still at Stouthall. Harry's legacy to his mother was an annuity of forty shillings per annum and a "chaffer (warming pan) a feather bed a boulster a pair of blankets and a coverlet." I hope it is not uncharitable to read this as a hint to his mother that the time had come for her to remove herself and her bedding to Gapons Hill.