Old Age as Condition Versus Identity in Early Modern Record Keeping
Early modern wills generally started with the same conventions. To verify the capacity for will making, the testator would state near the outset of the will that they are of sound mind. In almost all cases, this claim is positioned in relation to the condition of the physical body. This results in many wills following the formulation of someone being sick and weak of body but of sound and perfect mind and memory. In an examination of women’s wills in The North East Inheritance Database, I identified a trend in the late seventeenth century of old age being conflated as a condition in these formulations. This paper interrogates the ways old age is included in early modern record keeping with a focus on wills and parish burial records. Through comparisons of the ways old age is invoked in wills, this paper identifies how in different contexts age was employed in records to clarify conditions of ill-health, as well as function as an identity marker where the term ‘old’ carries greater societal implications.
This research was carried out thanks to the Barker Fellowship with the Durham University Residential Research Library.
- this seminars is free to attend but registration is required.
This page was last updated on 14 March 2025
