📅 Upcoming wills project talks 👇

- Social History Festival this Friday
- Laura Sangha at the Institute of Historical Research (hybrid) on 7 May

#EarlyModern 🗃️

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

#EarlyModern 🗃️

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

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How about the moon? 🌜 4/5🧵

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And this wonderful fish! 🐟🐟🐟 3/5🧵

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See for example, a man smoking a pipe? Or blowing bubbles? 🚬🫧 2/5🧵

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📢 DOODLES IN THE PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY ARCHIVES 📢

📜 Some fabulous examples of 'faces' and other scribbles in early modern wills being shared by this account, run by one of our project volunteers 👇 1/5🧵

bsky.app/profile/scri...

Festival of Social History

And the presentations are:

~ Emily, Harry & I at the Festival of Social History, IHR 24 April
~ Me at @ihrscb.bsky.social seminar IHR, 7 May

Plus I am looking forward to talking wills at the #Reformation Studies Colloquium next week.

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Four people and a flautist sit on a stage playing, a man in a hat stands next to them singing into a microphone.

The newsletter links are:

Project progress blog: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Will of the Month Series: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Chris Hoban: chrishoban.com

Singing the wills blog: sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

The front page of the material culture of wills newsletter, with updates on data analysis, a book contract, project workshop and the blog.

The back page of the Material Culture of Wills newsletter, with an update on the collaboration with musician Chris Hoban and details of upcoming research presentations.

📢 Wills Project Spring 2026 Newsletter📢

Winging its way to many an inbox this week! 📜👇🌱

#EarlyModern 🗃️ @uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeternews.bsky.social

A photograph of an eighteenth century writing desk, which is made of a light coloured varnished wood, and photographed against a grey background. Further information about the image: Writing table with raised compartments (bonheur du jour), About 1775 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2025 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O113530/writing-table-roger-vandercruse-lacroix/

📢 In Case You Missed It! 📢

Our latest 'Will of the Month' post is now live 📜

David de Crasto, the hazzan of Bevis Marks synagogue, left in his will 'all my Hebrew Books in my Desk at the Synagogue', as well as charitable bequests to the congregation 📖

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

Btw our excellent lead blogger Emily [@emilymayvine.bsky.social] is running the London marathon this year!

The poor dear had to get up early every day in Bath to get in her training runs.

Why not make her feel better about this by sponsoring her?👇
2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/emily-vin...

📢VERY LARGE WILLS KLAXON!📢

ICYMI: we have a new will of the month: that of David de Crasto, from a prominent London Jewish family, who died in 1784.

#EarlyModern 🗃️

Many thanks, Richard! We're really looking forward to seeing the different approaches that our contributors will take.

To keep up to date with all the wills project news you can join our mailing list.

We will only send you the occasional newsletter (one on the way next week) and key updates (such as when we publish findings or release project data to the public).

#EarlyModern 🗃️

forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Five people sitting at a large wooden table, each working on a laptop in front of them. The room is decorated in Georgian style with pale blue walls and portraits, and large sash windows.

6 people wrapped up against the cold stand in front of a very large grand Georgian house.

A group of people stand around a man who is speaking to them, they listen. Behind a curved rank of impressive Georgian houses can be seen.

Three people in a museum looking at a range of eighteenth century artefacts in a glass case in front of them.

We'll eventually have a for a full write up of our time in Bath for the blog, but suffice to say it was exceptional to have so much time for discussion and collaboration in a beautiful historic house in a stunning city!

HUGE thanks to the Landmark Trust for awarding the project this amazing stay.

And on the database, the indefatigable @bhamhistory.bsky.social continues to improve and refine it, making it possible for us all to work with our 30,000 transcriptions at scale.

fyi Harry can also produce diagrams that represent the data in more than 3-D, which is a little mind blowing.

Wills and Material Culture in Early Modern England' will appear in @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social's well regarded series ‘Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History.

All contributors will be given access to our 30,000 transcriptions and database as the basis for their chapters.

We're delighted to report we've recently signed a contract with @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social for the edited collection of essays that is the centrepiece of the project publications:

'Wills and Material Culture in #EarlyModern England', eds Laura Sangha & Emily Vine [@emilymayvine.bsky.social].

The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790

I'm in the process of writing 2 presentations - for the Reformation Studies Colloquium 2026, & the IHR @ihrscb.bsky.social seminar.

At the IHR on May 7th I will introduce the project and give an airing for some of our preliminary findings.

Hybrid, sign up here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Photo of lots of graves covered with prominent tomb stones, all laid flat on the ground and facing the same direction.

📢MARCH WILL OF THE MONTH📢

Out today, our latest featured will is that of David de Crasto, a prominent Jewish Londoner who was the cantor or hazzan of the Sephardic synagogue.

#EarlyModern 🗃️📜

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

After our fabulous week long residential workshop in Bath last week, it's proving to be a busy time for the wills project team.

We'll be circulating our latest newsletter next week if you want to get up to speed on our progress to date:

#EarlyModern 🗃️

A photograph of hundreds of flat gravestones in a cemetery, with a grey sky, grey and brown buildings at the end of the cemetery, and brown leaves on the ground around the gravestones. This is a photograph of the Novo or New Sephardic Jewish Cemetery at Mile End (now part of Queen Mary University of London). Photo © Emily Vine, 2025

He also asked to be 'decently interred without ostentation according to the rites and ceremonies of the Jews in the Portugueze Jews Burial Ground at Mile End’.

As the blog post explores, this initial wish was granted, but he sadly did not remain in his preferred resting place.
#EarlyModern

🧵2/2

A photograph of Bevis Marks synagogue in the City of London, built in 1701. The photograph shows a close up of a brown-red brick building, with a grand wooden front door with a gas lamp, large windows, and a clock and a sign with some hebrew characters above the door. The image comes from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bevis_Marks_Synagogue_P6110044.JPG

📢 NEW WILL OF THE MONTH POST 📢

📜 March's post explores the will of David de Crasto, the hazzan of the Bevis Marks synagogue.

De Crasto left a bequest of 'all my Hebrew Books in my Desk at the Synagogue', as well as charitable bequests to the congregation 📖

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
🧵1/2

The header of the Material Culture of Wills newsletter. Black text reads 'The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790 Spring 2026 Newsletter'.

📢 Project Newsletter Alert 📢

We're going to be circulating our Spring 2026 Project Newsletter next week! 📰✉️

If you'd like to receive a copy, you can sign up to our mailing list by following this link: forms.office.com/e/JbUEq4Za1u

#skystorians #history #earlymodern #citizenscience

A fantastic video about project Co-I @lsangha.bsky.social 's Creative Fellowship working with musician Chris Hoban 👇
🎶📜

@leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social #History #EarlyModern #Skystorians

🎉 Our last post marked TWO YEARS of the 'Will of the Month' series! 🎉

📜 We've now written about the wills of 25 people who lived and died between 1540-1790. You can find out more about some of them here: 👇

#History #Skystorians #EarlyModern #Tudors @leverhulme.ac.uk @zooniverse.bsky.social
🧵2/2

A photograph of an ornamental carved wooden swan, white with an orange beak, which is on a green ornamental wall bracket. The wall bracket is attached to the sandy coloured wall of a historic building, and flanked by two sash windows. The swan faces away from the wall, looking out towards the street. Image Credit: A Grade II Listed sixteenth-century swan. A carved wooden swan on an ornamental cast-iron bracket, 11 Sadler Street, Wells, Somerset. Image credit: Tony Cooper / Art UK, (CC BY-NC) https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/swan-281128

📢 In Case You Missed It: Our latest 'Will of the Month' post is live on our blog! 📢

📜 It explores the will of a Tudor landowner who left several interesting bequests, including of a nest of swans 🪹🦢🦢🦢

@uoearchhist.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social
🧵1/2

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

The 'Will of the Month' series on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog has now been running for TWO YEARS - since February 2024 📆

📜 Our site now features 25 of these transcribed wills: testators who died between 1540-1790, across England and also overseas, and who made a wide range of bequests 👇