Will of John Horsington of Corston, 1536

The register copy, in English with a Latin probate. Read from a download, 10 Oct 2026. Words marked [?] are uncertain, and a printed abstract is in Somerset Medieval Wills, 3rd series (Somerset Record Society 21), p. 31.

“In the name of God amen. The first day of Octobr in the yere of our lord god a thousande fyve hundreth xxxvj, I John Horssyngton of the parishe of Coston [Corston] in the Dioc’ of Bathe and Welles, sik in body but of perfite remembraunce … make my testament and last wille.” He asks to be buried in Corston church, and leaves:

• 4d. to St Andrew’s, Wells, and 4d. to every godchild;
• “to every housholder to [?] every one of myn owne children halfe a dossen of silver spones and a Cupp of silver,” that is, to each of his children with a household of their own [?];
• to the poor of Corston, of the Spittle house at Bath, and of the almshouse at Pensford;
• to his son Richard Horssyngton the mills at Pensford, the tanhouse, two culverhouses (dovecotes) and the tenements there, his wife Agnes, “his mother,” to have half for her life. If Richard dies, his son Giles and Giles’s mother are to have them for life;
• to his son “maister Thomas Horssyngton” £4 a year for eight years, paid by John Callowe [?] of Midsomer Norton out of the rent of the parsonage there;
• to his ghostly father Sir Thomas Goldston [?], to Walter Horssyngton, to William Mauncell of North Stoke and to Nicholas Moorton [?], 20s. each [?].

The residue goes half to his wife Agnes and half to his sons Giles and Richard, his executors. The overseers are his sons William and Thomas Horssyngton, his brother Walter, William Mauncell of North Stoke and Nicholas Moorton of Bristol [?]. The witnesses are Sir Thomas Goldston, priest, Christopher Stork [?], clerk, William Kynge, John Kynge, John Cotton and John Brytton [?]. Proved at London in December 1536 by the executors, through their proctor Robert Johnson.

Why it is here. Edith Holbrooke of Compton Dando (d. 1592/3), probably the mother of William Holbrooke of Glastonbury, called William Horsington the younger her “cousin and godson.” One lead for her maiden name is that she was born a Horsington, perhaps a daughter of this John (research/holbrook/early-holbrook-family-england.md, “Edith’s maiden name”). The will doesn’t settle it either way. It names his wife and four sons, but its daughters are only “every one of my owne children,” so no Edith appears. The lead stays open.