PEGYN, Robert (Will)

The following summary of the will of Robert Pegyn appeared in the August and September 1915 editions of the Badsey Parish Magazine. E A B Barnard, FSA, of Evesham, was a regular contributor to the magazine and wrote a series on “Old Badsey Wills and Inventories”.

The family of Pegyn was located in Badsey and the immediate neighbourhood for several centuries, and many of its members took a prominent part in the affairs of the village, particularly in the 16th Century. The old Churchwardens' Accounts (1525-1600) bear constant witness to the interest displayed by the family in Church affairs, and a Pegyn was often elected as Churchwarden. John Pegyn, senior, was Churchwarden in 1529, or thereabouts, and was succeeded by Robert Pegyn in 1531. This Robert Pegyn also filled the office on two subsequent occasions, and died in 1552. I have quite recently found his will and the inventory of his possessions in the Probate Registry, Worcester. It will be noted that the inventory was made apparently before the testator's death. It is dated 16 August, 1552, and the will is dated 20 August, 1552.

The possessions of this 16th Century Badsey farmer were appraised as follows:

• Item for the corn in the barn as wheat and barley £8
• Item for pulse and hay 53s. 4d.
• Item for carts and cart gears, one plough, two small harrows ...
• Item for wood 3s. 4d.
• Item a cow and a heifer 23s.
• Item a horse and a mare 26s. 4d.
• Item a sheep 6s. 8d.
• Item a sow and six pigs 5s.
• Item poultry as geese, ducks and hens 5s.
• Item the hall as a cupboard, table boards, form, pewter vessels and candlesticks 13s. 4d.
• Item the kitchen as pots, pans, cobbarts and broaches, stands and pails with a cistern 15s.
• Item the chamber as beds, coverlets, bolsters, sheets, bed cloths, and towels 40s.

The total of the items thus detailed in the inventory of Robert Pegyn's possessions amounts to £17 11s., but the total which appears at the foot of the original document gives the amount as being £43 4s. 6d. There is reason for thinking that the first portion of the inventory is missing, but this is not evident from the document itself.

Robert Pegyn's Will is quite brief, and contains only one item of particular interest - the bequest that "my body is to be buried in the church hey of Saint James of Badsey." In the Badsey Churchwardens' Accounts, under the year 1533-34, is an item difficult to decipher, and one which perplexed several antiquaries when it was under discussion during the preparation of the Accounts for publication in 1913. Most of us were agreed that this item read "payyd for harborwynge [storing] of ye church hey, 26s. 8d.," certainly a very large sum for the purpose, but, for various reasons which there is not space here to detail, more likely to be intended than "ye halowynge of ye church hey," that is to say 'the consecration of the churchyard,' advocated by one authority. Evidently, as time has proved, he was correct in his choice as to whether the much discussed word was 'haborwynge' or, 'halowynge,' and we can now set a date to the consecration of Badsey Churchyard. Before that time villagers, as a rule, would be buried either in their Church or, in many cases, in the Churchyard at Evesham. In the Will of Walter Walcroft, of Worcester, dated 1555, the testator desires his body to he buried in "St. Mary's Church hey," i.e., the Cathedral graveyard.

Robert Pegyn mentions his wife, Elizabeth, and his son, Edward. The witnesses to the Will are Sir Thomas Jamys, curate; Thomas Wellys, Nicholas Grove, and William George. The last three witnesses all figure in the Accounts, particularly Nicholas Grove and William George, who were Churchwardens on several occasions in the 16th Century, as also Thomas Smyzt and Richard Haretun, whose names appear with theirs as appraisers of Pegyn's goods and chattels.