Illiteracy & Wills

[Titanicfan]

Hi all

I just wondered that although wills were not written out by the person in question officially - do you think that there was less likelyhood of a person deciding to have a will written if the person was illiterate - would they have bothered?

I would be grateful for your thoughts. :)

[Geoffers]

I think it is almost impossible to say. It very much depends on the extent of the wealth and holdings of the person in question and the period in history.

I would guess that the majority of the illiterate were not affluent and so may be less likely to have personal wealth to leave in a will, or for Letters of Administration (Admon) to be granted. Education was more accessible to the wealthier and so possibly it may be said that at times in history the wealthier, literate members of society were more likely to leave wills.

Some people who could do little more than sign their name, may have left a will - it depends on their personal wealth, holdings, possessions and how strongly they felt the need to direct what happened to them.

[Vance Mead]

I go along with Geoffers most of the way. In the 19th century, when most people were at least a little literate, being illiterate was probably a sign of poverty and therefore a lack of property to bequeath. When you go back to the 16th and 17th centuries, this was still true, but less so. There were plenty of people, including yeoman and gentlemen, who signed their wills with a mark. You can see plenty of examples on SEAX, for example.

Margaret Spofford, who wrote an excellent book on local communities in Cams, discussed literacy in wills, and how to measure it. I think the conclusion was that you couldn't make any accurate estimates of literacy, just that gentlemen and yeomen were more likely to be literate than labourers, townsmen more than countrymen, men more than women.