Transcription of English wills.
Does anyone know of a person who can transcribe a will into readable English.
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That particular will, you could read (at least in part), if your eyesight is good and you have some experience- but it it still quite difficult.
I can see a wife Penelope Canton, and three sons William, John and Thomas. The sons were to receive their inheritance upon reaching 21.
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I agree with the first poster's identification of the wife and "my three sons". The phrase "my three sons" indicates that there are only those three sons living at the time. That doesn't exclude any daughters being mentioned further along in the will.
Also, you probably just posted part of the will on purpose, but just in case, I'll point out that this is only part of the will. There should be a second part with the rest of the will, and a note about probate being granted to the named executor.
When I was learning how to read older English language handwriting, the book "Reading Early American Handwriting" by Kip Sperry taught me the archaic letterforms, so I could generally get the gist of most older English wills, and pick out all the names. It can take a lot of training and skill to transcribe an entire will, so it's fair to pay for a good transcription. Not sure the going rate, though. Sorry.
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Allan
I am just another 'lowly' User/Patron ...
Just in passing ...
While we were travelling in England, we obtained a "Will", such as that ...
And, we had to PAY, for the "Translation" of such, through one of the "County Archives", in England.
[ Luckily, the Archives, had an Archivist, that was able to translate such ... ]
That was back in 2017; and, it cost quite a few £'s ...
Just thought, I would pass that along ...
Brett
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I would generally expect to pay for a transcription. I have considered this at times, but found that reading the names to be the most important part and (as illustrated) this is generally not too difficult. Wills of this period tend to follow a similar layout and phraseology, too.
Try to get hold of some other, older records and examples of old, English handwriting and letters of the alphabet and you should possibly be able to manage without a word for word transcription.
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Thank you for the suggestions.
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There are various articles linked from the FIBIS Fibiwiki Page "Reading old handwriting" https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Reading_old_handwriting
If you are really interested in improving your skills, included is
English Handwriting Online 1500-1700: an online course, with links to 28 Lessons, with difficulty rating 1 to 5, based on documents from Cambridge University Colleges, with transcriptions provided. A CERES COPIA project (Cambridge English Renaissance Electronic Service (CERES)).
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