Sheephey Wills and Leases

The following is a list of Sheephey wills that have survived [LCRO*]. Dates of death are given where they can be clearly identified from the parish registers [LPRS] or other sources.

Testator	Dates	Names	Remarks
Richard Kay of Shuttleworth	Will: 16th Jun 1573 Inv: 15th Aug 1573	Robert (son) Six daughters (only Cateryn and Margaret named)	While not definitely a Sheephey will, the names and the value of the inventory (£112) suggest it was. This was not the father of Robert (d 1637/8) – Robert had brothers, and the dates of death are too far apart – so there would have been one or maybe two generations in between
James Kaie of Sheepey	Will: 20th Feb 1634/5 Inv: 24th Feb 1634/5 Proved: Apr 1635	Richard Kay (brother), his wife Alice and children Roger Booth (Richard’s son in law) and his wife Alice Robert (brother) and children	Brother of Robert (d 1637/8)
Robert Kaie of Sheephey	Will: 2nd Feb 1637/8 Buried: 7th Feb 1637/8 Inv: 8th Feb 1637/8	Richard Kay (son) and children Robert Kay (son) and children Alice Kay (daughter in law) Robert, Elizabeth and Dorothy Kay of Horncliffe (grandchildren, mother not named but still apparently alive)
Richard Kaie of Sheephey	Will: 14th Mar 1646/7 Buried 19th Mar 1646/7 Inv: 23rd Mar 1646/7	Alice (wife) Robert Kay (son and heir) James Kay (son) Alice Kay (daughter) Robert Kaie (brother) owed him £60	Son of Robert (d 1637/8) and father of Robert (d 1669). At first sight, this could be taken as the brother of James (d 1634/5), but daughter Alice was Alice Booth in 1634/5 and Alice Kay in 1646/7 which suggests otherwise.
Thomas Kay of Sheephey	Will: 18th Oct 1668 Died: 20th Oct 1668 Inv: 22nd Oct 1668 Proved: 7th Apr 1669	Anne (wife) Thomas Kay, James Kay, Joshua Kay and Hannah Kay (children)	Lower Sheephey
Robert Kay of Sheephey	No surviving will Died: 21st Jan 1668/9 Inv: 20th Jan 1668/9 Proved: 8th May 1669	Elizabeth Kay (wife) Oliver Grime of Scout owed goods worth £35-2-8 to Robert’s wife	Husband of Elizabeth Kay of Lowe Dates are as given here. Somebody made a mistake!
Richard Kay of Sheephey	Died intestate Died: 16th Apr 1692 Inv: 16th Apr 1692 Admin: 6th Feb 1692/3	Alice (wife)	Elizabeth’s son
Robert Kay of Park	Will: 27th Mar 1704 Inv: 18th Apr 1704 Proved: 27th May 1704	Ellin (wife) Robert Kay, Ephraim Kay, Richard Kay and William Kay (children – all minors) Child yet to be born William Entwistle (brother in law)	Elizabeth’s son
James Kay of Shupplebotham	Will: 11th Feb 1706/7 Proved: 26th Jan 1707/8	Anne Kay (wife) Children Robert Kay, Ann Kay (under 14) and Elizabeth Kay	Elizabeth’s son
Elizabeth Kay of Lowe	Will: 1st Apr 1708 Died: 25th Feb 1710 Inv: 3rd Mar 1710/11 Proved: 21st May 1711	Richard Kay of Sheephey (late son), his wife Alice and children Robert Kay, Thomas Kay, Oliver Kay, Edward Kay, Elizabeth Hamer and Mary Kay Robert Kay of Park (late son), and his children Robert Kay, Richard Kay, William Kay and John (all of them minors) James Kay of Shipperbottom (late son) and his childen Robert Kay, Elizabeth Kay and Ann Kay Oliver Kay (still alive) and his children Robert Kay, Oliver Kay and Alice Kay Elizabeth Marcroft (still living) and her children Abraham Leach, Elizabeth Hamer and Daniel Leach Alice Kay of Cross Hall (late daughter) and her children Richard Kay, Robert Kay, John Kay and Mary Kay Margaret Holt of Catloe Lane (late daughter) and her son Robert Holt
Joshua Kay of Sheephey	Will: 20th Apr 1716 Inv: 25th Apr 1716 Proved: 23rd Jun 1716	Thomas Kay (brother) John Kay (Thomas’s son) Elizabeth Kay (niece) Hannah Whittaker (sister)	Lower Sheephey. Son of Thomas (d 1668)
Oliver Kay of Lowe	Died intestate Admin: 14th Mar 1719/20	Alice (wife)	Elizabeth’s son
Thomas Kay of Sheephey	Will: 8th Oct 1723 Inv: 21st Oct 1723 Proved: 2nd Nov 1723	Elizabeth (wife) Children John, Thomas, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary (under 21) and Jane (under 21)	Lower Sheephey. Son of Thomas (d 1668) and brother of Joshua (d 1716)

The parish of Bury covered two manors, Tottington held by the crown, and Bury held by the Earls of Derby. The Stanleys had been granted 60 manors in Lancashire as a reward for their part of the Battle of Bosworth in 1485; Lord Stanley had been charged by Richard III with raising forces in the North West, and his change of allegiance on the field of battle was an instrumental part in Henry Tudor’s victory. He was created Earl of Derby (the name comes from the Hundred of West Derby, not from the county) and given the new king’s mother in marriage.

At this time, Bury still used the mediaeval system of Life Leases. Under this system, a lease was taken out for the duration of up to three lives; the lease lapsed and had to be renewed when the last person named on the lease died. When a lease was taken out or renewed, the annual rent for the property was set, but in addition a fairly massive ‘fine on entry’ had to be paid. Annual rents seem to have averaged between one and two shillings an acre, but fines could be anything up to £100 – there was one instance (taken out by James Kay of Seedfield for Chamber Hall in 1709) in where the fine on a forty four acre property was £700, but this was out of the ordinary. Many leases also included a ‘boon’, usually a hen or a capon, or the obligation to “keepe a hound if required”. This was a payment in kind that was to be made to the landlord each year; there was usually a cash equivalent stated in the lease.

Obviously it was to any family’s advantage to keep leases running for as long as possible, and there are many instances where very young children were entered as lives on the lease. In the same way, presumably to spread the risk should illness enter a household, the lives entered were not always from the immediate family. Distant relatives often appear, as do neighbours – for example, we often find Sheephey Kays appearing on leases taken out by the Grymes of Scout, and vice versa. Leases could be ‘topped up’, adding new lives to replace those that had died, and the fine in such cases seems to have been reduced accordingly.

A large number of leases from the period have survived and can be found among the papers of the Earls of Derby that were lodged at the County Records Office in Preston. The leases are stored in over two hundred boxes, those for Bury occupying thirty three of them. In those 33 boxes for Bury are 1,801 leases, covering the years from 1609 to 1868, though the vast majority fall in the years 1664 to 1810; of these, 91 are for Kays for the years 1750 or before, 40 of these being for the seventeenth century. A number of surveys have survived as well. The earliest were in the 1650s after the property of the Earl of Derby had been confiscated for his part in the Civil War; later ones were for a less exciting reason, simply as statement of what leases were in force and for whom.

Leases detailed the rights and obligations of the tenant. They were long and complex documents, but used a standard format. From about 1730 onwards, they were pre-printed forms with spaces in which the details were filled; before that, they were individually hand-written (and two copies at that, one for the tenant and one for the landlord) on very thin parchment backed by sheepskin. Writing these leases must have kept at least one person in full-time employment. The accumulated dirt of three hundred years that the sheepskin has picked up is such that, after an hour or so of reading them, you end up looking like a coal miner.

The following is a list of Sheephey leases that have survived [LCRO*]:

Leaseholder	Date	Reference	Lives	Remarks
Thomas Kay of Sheephey	2nd Aug 1636 Survey dated 29th Oct 1652	DDK 1465/1	Thomas (leaseholder, age 43) Robert (son, age 37 [sic]) Robert (son of Robert, age 36 [sic])	Land in Shuttleworth (40 acres). This, and the next lease, still need to be identified, but look like Higher and/or Lower Sheephey.
Dennis Kay	2nd Aug 1636 Survey dated 29th Oct 1652	DDK 1465/1	John Kay (original leaseholder, age 36) Dennis Kay (leaseholder, brother of John, age 26) John son of Thomas Kay (no age given)	Land in Sheephey (16 acres)
Robert Kay of Sheephey	13th Feb 1664	Box 211	Robert (leaseholder) Richard (son) Robert (son)	27 acres and 3 roods. The only lease we have for Sheep Hey farm
John Kay of Sheephey	1664	Box 211	Elizabeth Kay (wife) Thomas Kay (son) Thomas Kay of ?Shittricke?	3 acres. Part of Higher Sheephey.
Thomas Kay of Shuttleworth	20th Jul 1690	Box 206	Thomas (leaseholder) Elizabeth (wife) John (father)	11 acres and 1 rood Higher Sheephey?
Thomas Kay of Shuttleworth	1st Oct 1718	Box 171	Thomas Kay (leaseholder, age 62) John Kay (son, age 26) Thomas Kay (son, age 13)	Tenement of Lower Sheephey (10 acres and 1 rood)
Oliver Kay of Tottington yeoman	1st Oct 1718	Box 236	Oliver (leaseholder, age 49) John Kay (son, age 7) John (son of Robert and grandson of Oliver, age 7)	5 acres and 2 roods This looks like Elizabeth’s son Oliver
John Kay of Sheephey	2nd Jun 1728	Box 171	Thomas Howorth (age 25) James Howorth (age 20) Thomas Kay (son of leaseholder, age 11 months)	Probably Lower Sheephey