ABSTRACT
A much used means of determining the social attitudes of individuals in pre-industrial society is through the statistical exploitation of the numerous wills that survive from this period. Wills appear to present a sizeable body of personal documents that not only crosses the evidential gulf between the medieval and modern, but that also includes almost all social groups and both sexes among their authors. However, few, if any, historians would now agree with W. K. Jordan’s interpretation of wills as, ‘mirrors of men’s souls’.1 Rather, the burgeoning body of work using probate documents in order to assess the impact of social and religious change that has emerged over the last 30 years, has led to increasing scepticism concerning the reading of individual wills.2 In addition, it has become clear that they must be interpreted in the light of a complex of legal, economic and social circumstances.3 Nevertheless, with these limitations in mind, wills remain one source that does present an opportunity to assess the changing fortunes of spiritual kinship in pre industrial England and the impact upon the institution of different social conditions and circumstances.
