Chelsfield - Parish Information
Geoffrey
Copus Local History Researches of Chelsfield etc
With some justification, local historians may often be
accused of being excessively territorial about the parishes in which
they are interested, and I must admit to having had a rather possessive
attitude towards Chelsfield. As I get older, however, I begin to think
that it would be pity if the fruits of my researches on the parish
(which I began in 1947) should not be recorded for posterity. It seems
to me that the best way of making a permanent record is to put my
transcripts onto this website, for them to be readily available at the
touch of a button to any interested person throughout the world.
Wills have always been a great interest of mine, and the
list of I have produced consists of my abstracts of all wills proved in
the PCC (the Prerogative
Court of Canterbury) in which the testators describe themselves as being
"of Chelsfield". It is only quite recently that the National
Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) has published on its
website detailed indexes of wills in the whole period 1383-1858, which
may be searched for under surnames or parishes. Under Chelsfield 115
wills are listed and I subsequently found four more which had somehow
been omitted, in the pre-1700 period.
The testators range widely across the social scene. At the
top end are Lords of the Manor, wealthy 18th and 19th
century Rectors and well-off landowners, while at the other
extreme are wills of farm labourers. The longest will is that of the
hard-headed John Fuller of Woodlands, whose estate in Chelsfield had
been built up during his minority by his mother, and who continued to
buy up many small farms in the parish during and after the Napoleonic
Wars. His will proved in 1820 took a very long time to abstract, since
in it he lists all his landed property in great detail, with field names
and acreages, and the names of the tenants. Even in abstract the will
runs to 11 pages, and it forms a valuable link between the Parish Survey
of 1798 (now in Bromley Local Studies Library) and the Tithe
Award Schedule & Map of 1838.
Among the wills of lesser inhabitants, it was only in
completing the list for the website that I
abstracted the will of Mary Sales. I thought the name sounded
familiar, and found that indeed she figures on the
tomb of the Crawfords of the Court Lodge, in Chelsfield
churchyard - "Mary Sales, of this village, for upwards of 40 years
the faithful and devoted servant of Elizabeth Crawford and her
family." Touchingly, in her will proved in 1852 Mary left £12
stock each to six of her former charges - the spinster daughters of the
family, who by then had had to sell up and leave the parish, and were in
somewhat reduced circumstances.
The value of wills to family historians is of course
enormous, and a complex network of relationships in the parish shows up
well in the many wills of yeomen and small farmers. Perhaps the most
useful wills from this point of view are those of
moderately well-off, childless people, who often leave small bequests to
a great many servants, friends and distant relations. It is clear too
who were the most respected inhabitants of the parish, from the number
of times their names appear as Executors and Trustees, while the Rev.
George Smith, Rector from 1576 to 1626, witnessed and in some cases
himself wrote out many wills made on the testators’ deathbeds.
Geoffrey Copus November
2005.