Background notes for teachers
Probate inventory of John Peito [or Peto/e] of Dyers Cross, Chiddingfold, a yeoman, taken 28 April 1608.
Surrey History Centre ref. 212/26/26 – The original is at Surrey History Centre, Woking.
Probate inventories were required by a law of 1529 and were a detailed list of a person’s possessions when they died, not including a widow’s own property or dowry. The lists were made room by room of personal moveable property and can give an idea of how people lived, their wealth, how comfortable life was, what food they ate, what tools they used and the clothes they wore.
We know John Peto had a wife called Catherine and three children, who inherited his property. As a yeoman, he would have been a small land owner and farmer, with his own status and independence.
This probate inventory lists John Peto’s possessions at the time of his death and it can be used to estimate the size and structure of his house. The house consists of two main rooms, the hall and the chamber over it. There are also the service rooms, the kitchen, the buttery and the napery, where the household linen was kept. There was a loft over the buttery which may have been a servants’ room.
The hall would have been the main room, but it seems to have been sparsely furnished; the total value of the goods in it was only two shillings and sixpence. Maybe there was more furniture which belonged to Catherine, his widow. Peto was not a poor man; in his will he bequeathed twenty pounds a head to two of his children, which was apparently apart from the rest of his estate; and his clothes (wearing apparel) were assessed at four pounds.
There were very few luxuries, no hangings or books, but clearly enough to make life comfortable, for example the napery (household linen). The household would have been largely self sufficient in food and drink, making their own butter, cheese and beer. Honey would have been important as a sweetener, before sugar was imported. The valuation of the bee hive at 5 shillings, shows how valuable it was.
It is obvious that John Peto’s wealth and his status lay in his farm, as would be expected for a yeoman. About three quarters of his total wealth comes from his animals, farm equipment, crops and the produce of 8 acres of his land called ‘Wooll land’. His one acre of wheat, one acre of rye and six acres of oats were valued at £4 10 shillings. In 1608 the price of wheat was high; the average received per quarter was 44 shillings and sixpence.
There is a mistake in the total value of the property, thirty eight pounds, one shilling and six pence should be only thirty seven pounds one shilling and six pence.
