Repository Name

Leicester Record Office

Repository Reference

Folio 154

Probate Court

Archdeaconry Court of Leicester

 

Thomas Ballard

Wymeswold, Leicestershire

 

Will dated

31 January 1617

 

 

 

Will probated

1617

 

 

In the name of god Amen. I Thomas Ballard of Wymeswold in the county of Leicester gent do <?????> <??????> make this my last will and testament in manner and form following. First I bequeath my soul to Almighty god my saviour and redeemer <????> Jesus in whose death and merits I hope to be saved, next my body to be buried in the church at Wymeswold aforesaid And for my wordly estate I first give and bequeath unto Robert Tyringham[i] of Barkby in the county aforesaid gent and his heirs for ever two farms in Wymeswold aforesaid in the tenure of Robert <Rufod> & Edward Leake or their assign or assigns, only for that the said Robert Tyringham or his heirs and assigns shall <buy?> the aforesaid two farms and with the said money shall pay my debts and the residue of the said money to go to my executrix and I give him for his pains two <Angels> of gold[1]. Item I do ordain my wife my sole executrix and Sir George Parkins knight[ii] the supervisor of this my will and give him for his pains an angel of gold. In witness whereof I have set to my hand and seal this last day of Jane 1617.

 

In the presence of us Gevase Eyre; George Mason ; Patrick Lame his mark.



[1] These were golden coins thought to ward off bad luck and evil spirits. They are now very rare and examples have, on the head-side of the coin, a design of the Archangel St Michael trampling a devil-like dragon.

 



[i] It seems likely that he was a member of the family of that name of Teringham Court, Teringham, Northampton.

[ii] In 1592 Richard Parkynes of Bunny, gent was one of the trustees of the marriage settlement of Edward Ballard and Valentyne Rolston. According to Burke’s Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Volume III; “The family of Parkyns came originally from Upton and Mattisfield, in the county of Berks. Richard Parkyns, esq. (great grandson of Thomas Parkyns, esq. of Upton), in the commission of the peace and recorder of the towns of Nottingham and Leicester, died in 1603, leaving, by Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of Aden Beresford, esq. of Fenny Bentley, in Derbyshire, and relict of Humphrey Barlow, esq. of Stoke, inter alias, a son and heir, Sir George Parkyns, of Bunny, direct ancestor of the present Lord Rancliffe, and a daughter, Ann, married to Henry Plumptre, esq of Nottingham.