Family Story

Grace Hancock's Will and Probate of 1679

Grace & Thomas Hancock | St Austell, Cornwall | Family history story

This story examines the contents and implications of Thomas and Grace Hancock's wills and probate.

Grace Hancock's Will: A Widow's Legacy

In 1679, in the parish of St Austell, Cornwall, an elderly widow named Grace Hancock lay on her deathbed and dictated her final wishes. She then made her mark on the will and the wax seal was carfully placed near her mark. Her words offer us a rare and precious glimpse into her world—a world she had navigated as a wife, mother, and widow in 17th-century Cornwall.

Portion of Grace Hancock’s Will. Her mark is the t shape next to the seal.

Born around 1628, likely in St Austell, Grace married Thomas Hancock sometime before 1650. Theirs was a union that bridged the chaos of the English Civil War, a period when many parish records were lost or poorly kept. Together, they built a life in the shadow of Hensbarrow Downs, where the granite moors met the sky.

Thomas was a tinner—but not the downtrodden labourer of Victorian imagination. As a "yeoman-tinner," he was part of an ancient and privileged class. Operating under Cornwall's independent Stannary system, he and his sons were independent capitalists. They worked their own "tin bounds" on the moor, streaming tin from the gravel of riverbeds, and paid only a small portion of their earnings to the lord of the soil. They were sturdy, self-reliant, and occupied a respected place in the middle tier of Cornish society.

The Hancock household was a careful blend of industry and agriculture. As "yeoman-tinners," when the summer sun dried up the moorland streams, they seamlessly shifted their focus back to their agricultural smallholding.

Their home was likely a classic Cornish longhouse—a dwelling where the family and their livestock shared a single roof. The hearth was the heart of the home, providing warmth and a place to cook the simple fare of pasties and broth. The cottage would have been furnished with the necessities of rural life: a sturdy table, wooden stools, a spinning wheel, and perhaps a few cherished possessions—a pewter plate, a brass pot, or a treasured bible.

Grace's world revolved around the management of this household. She was responsible for the dairy, the poultry, the garden, and the endless cycle of spinning, brewing, and preserving. She was also the family's nurse, midwife, and first teacher. She would have taught her children the skills required to run an efficient household, and would have assisted in farming duties when required also.

The Ordeal of Widowhood

Thomas died in 1672. The legal doctrine of coverture meant that, as a married woman, Grace had held no independent legal identity. Her property, her earnings, and even her children were, in law, her husband's. Widowhood, while a time of grief and vulnerability, also brought a profound and startling liberation.

As a widow, Grace regained her legal personhood. She could now hold property in her own name, make contracts, and manage her own affairs. Her will is the ultimate expression of this regained agency—a document in which she, a woman, could dispose of her property according to her own wishes.

Grace lived for seven more years after Thomas's death. During this time, she managed the land and resources he had left, ensured her younger children were cared for, and maintained the family's place in the community. Her son Robert, my seventh great-grandfather, was only eighteen when his mother died, and the family's ability to remain respectable and independent is a testament to Grace's prudent management.

The Legacy She Left Behind: The 1679 Will and Inventory

Grace's will details the careful distribution of her worldly goods. The bequests were not just about money; they were about memory, continuity, and belonging. Below is the inventory of her estate, which offers a remarkable snapshot of the family's economic standing:

Item	Value (£:s:d)	Historical Context & Family Significance
One house, garden, and one acre of land	5:0:0	The family cottage and freehold/leasehold land; passed directly to her eldest son as executor.
Three packhorses	3:0:0	Vital for a Cornwall tinning family; used to carry heavy sacks of raw tin ore from the mines to the blowing houses.
Four swine (pigs) / heifers	0:10:0	Basic smallholding livestock used for self-sufficiency, clearing land, and winter meat.
Two fully equipped beds	1:0:0	Includes the wooden bedstocks, feather mattresses, blankets, bolsters, and sheets. Highly valued heirlooms.
One brass cooking pot and pan	1:0:0	Heavy metal cookware. Notice it is valued the same as two full beds; metal was incredibly scarce and precious.
One press (linen cupboard)	0:10:0	A large, heavy wooden wardrobe used to keep valuable clothing and bed linens safe from dampness and mice.
Six pewter dishes	0:5:0	High-quality tableware made of a tin-lead alloy. A proud nod to her late husband Thomas's trade as a tinner.
One dining table (board & trestle) and benches	0:5:0	A classic 17th-century dining setup: a long wooden board resting on a frame, paired with long benches (forms).
Things unuseful / omitted	0:2:0	A standard legal catch-all for minor items, broken tools, or old rags not worth valuing individually.
TOTAL VALUE	11:15:0	Successfully preserved her late husband's 1671 wealth (£12 9s 5d) throughout her entire widowhood.

This inventory paints a picture of a comfortable yeoman farmer's household. The total value of £11 15s 0d, equivalent to approximately $4,000–$4,800 AUD in modern consumer purchasing power, indicates that the Hancocks were by no means impoverished. They were a solidly middle-class family within their rural community.

Specific Bequests in the Will

Grace's will distributed her possessions among her children with careful consideration:

• To daughters Jane and Margaret: "Littol blak Coro"—likely a little black cow, or a protective black coral or jet charm/pendant, highly valued in the 1600s for warding off illness and evil spirits.
• To Jane: a furnished bed, cooking pot, storage chest, spinning wheel, old carts, and 20 shillings.
• To sons William and Samson: a pig (littol Jafor?), a cauldron (groater crok), and forty shillings each.
• To daughter Tamsin and her son William: 10 shillings.
• To son Robert: 45 shillings, one suit of leather work clothes, and one head of cattle as an interest-free loan for three years.
• To son John: her home, goods, and chattels not otherwise bequeathed, and he is appointed executor.
• To daughter Margaret: 40 shillings.

A Calculated Inheritance: Robert's Path to Yeoman Status

At first glance, the 45 shillings (£2 5s 0d) bequeathed to Robert might seem modest. However, this sum was strategically calculated to launch a young man into the yeoman class—the very status to which his father Thomas had belonged.

To be legally defined as a yeoman in the 17th century, a man traditionally needed to own freehold land worth at least 40 shillings of annual rental value. The purchase price for such land, however, was typically "20 years' purchase"—meaning if a plot generated 40 shillings of rent per year, buying it outright would cost approximately 800 shillings (£40). The 45-shilling loan covered only a tiny fraction of a freehold purchase and could not buy land outright.

Instead, Robert's inheritance was perfectly structured to secure a Duchy of Cornwall "Three-Lives" Lease—the primary way Cornish yeomen built their wealth without vast capital. Under this system:

• A tenant would pay a one-time upfront cash lump sum (called a premium or fine) to a major landlord, such as the Duchy of Cornwall.
• This upfront payment secured the land for the duration of three named lives—typically the young man, his wife, and his firstborn child.
• Once the premium was paid, the ongoing annual rent was purely nominal—often just a few pence or a shilling a year.

Leases for three lives were common on Duchy and church lands, and "farms were in general very small" in the mining districts, consisting chiefly of "cottage holdings". Paying a 40-shilling premium for a leasehold cottage and an acre of ground gave a family absolute security for decades. Families holding these secure, lucrative leases were universally regarded, respected, and recorded as yeomen by the local parish, even though the ultimate freehold title belonged to the Crown or a lord.

Grace's clever structuring of Robert's inheritance provided him with a complete "business kit" for launching into the yeoman class:

• 45 shillings in cash — The perfect amount to serve as the upfront premium on a three-lives lease.
• One head of cattle — Livestock to graze the leased land and provide dairy, meat, and breeding stock.
• A suit of leather work clothes — Durable clothing for working the land and the mines.

This was an interest-free loan for three years—not a gift. The loan structure gave Robert immediate collateral to secure a local leasehold without overwhelming him with debt, while also providing the livestock to work it and the clothing to work in. It was a calculated, practical inheritance designed to give her son a foothold in the independent yeoman class that both his parents had occupied.

Grace left her mark (a curved T-shape) with a seal on top (an anchor within a circle). The witness was Samson Crapp, likely her brother or cousin.

Unravelling the Kinship Network: The Crapp Family Connection

A meticulous review of the primary legal documents left by the Hancock family reveals an undeniable, multi-generational reliance on the Crapp family of St Austell, establishing a clear "Kinship Network" that points to a biological connection.

The Witness/Appraiser Testimony

• 1671 (Thomas Hancock's Will): A Peter Crapp serves as an official asset appraiser/witness to the estate inventory.
• 1679 (Grace Hancock's Will): The same Peter Crapp returns to act as an appraiser for Grace's estate. Concurrently, a Samson Crapp (written phonetically by the scribe as Samson Cragg/Crago) steps in as the primary legal witness to Grace's final deathbed text.

Genealogical Rule: In the 1600s, widows and vulnerable families did not select random neighbours to appraise or witness their most valuable family assets. Legally binding probate responsibilities were almost exclusively entrusted to close blood relatives—specifically brothers, fathers, or maternal uncles—to protect the children's inheritance from fraud.

The Timeline & Onomastic Link (Naming Patterns)

Parish register reconstruction reveals a highly compatible, localized family structure matching the exact timeline of Grace's life:

• The Ancestral Line: A Peter Crapp (b. 1588 in Menheniot, d. 1670) migrated toward the mining hubs of mid-Cornwall. His son, Peter Crapp (b. 1629), would be exactly 42 years old in 1671 and 50 years old in 1679—the precise prime age for a respected male householder to be called upon by church courts to legally appraise the Hancock family estates.
• The St Austell Breakthrough: A Samson Crapp is recorded actively having children in St Austell right at the time of Grace's projected birth window, registering daughters Johan in 1627 and an unnamed/unreadable daughter in 1628, which may be Grace herself.

📜 New Discovery

I have recently discovered that a Sampson Crapp was granted probate in 1676 in St Austell. This discovery is discussed in his story.

Other Key Individuals Named in the Wills

The witnesses and other individuals mentioned in Grace's will provide further clues about her social network:

• Samson Verran / Verrant (1679 Witness): Written phonetically as "Farrs" using the double-lowercase "f" script for a "V". He signed with a flawless, unembellished capital "P" mark. This neat initial points to his professional role as a Stannary Purser—the official bookkeeper of the local tin mines.
• John Anstis & Charles Arscott (1671 Witnesses): Witnessed Thomas Hancock's will. John Anstis was a renowned Cornish gentleman and Archdeaconry Court Registrar (whose son became the Garter King of Arms). His presence explains the highly precise, uniform clerical handwriting on both documents.
• Peter Crapp: As noted, a central figure in both wills. WikiTree records show a Peter Crapp (b. 1629, Menheniot) died in St Austell in 1712. His son, Peter Jr., was baptised in St Austell in 1664.

Portion of Thomas Hanock’s will. Note the covered seals, this was a common practice to protect the seals.

Conclusion: A Matriarch's Enduring Gift

Grace Hancock died in 1679, the year her will was proved. She had lived through the upheaval of the Civil War, the daily hardships of a life on the Cornish moors, the death of her husband, and the responsibility of raising her children alone. She did not leave behind a fortune in gold or silver. Instead, she left something more valuable: a family equipped to survive.

Her children, who inherited her resilience and her knowledge of both farming and tinning, would carry on. Robert, her son and my ancestor, inherited the tools of the tinner and the knowledge of the land—and, crucially, the means to secure a leasehold that would give him a foothold in the yeoman class. This legacy would sustain his own family for generations.

The story of Thomas and Grace Hancock is one of quiet endurance. In the shadow of moorstone walls and beneath the shelter of towering hedgerows, they laid the foundations of a family that would weather centuries. Grace's will is not just a legal document; it is her final act as a matriarch, a woman who ensured her family's future by bequeathing to them the most important thing of all: their name, their heritage, and their home in this harsh yet beautiful corner of Cornwall.

Related Stories:

A Cornish Inheritance: The Hancock's Part 1

A Man of Substance: The Will and Legacy of Sampson Crapp

Sources for This Story:
Wills and probate inventories of Grace Hancock (1679) and Thomas Hancock (1671) — Kresen Kernow records AP/H/1952 & AP/H/1708
Cornwall parish registers (St Austell);
Duchy of Cornwall lease records and legislation (1672, 1700);
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th Edition — entry on Cornwall, Duchy leases, and land tenure;
Princeton University Library collections on John Anstis;
Cornish mining history resources.