Edward Garfield

Biography

Life summary. Edward Garfield lived at Hillmorton, in present-day Rugby, Warwickshire. After his death, his widow Alice was appointed to administer an estate valued at £35 14s. The valuation and the men who made it connect this household to its village community, although Edward’s occupation and the contents of his estate remain unknown.

Edward Garfield’s home parish lay in the Warwickshire countryside at Hillmorton, now part of Rugby in central England. The settlement had upper and lower parts, with its church on lower, moorish ground. A windmill is documented there in 1582, and archaeological evidence of cultivation survives beneath the later High Street. Fields and grain processing formed part of the material setting in which Edward and Alice’s household lived. ^703-1703-2

Access to local resources could concern a whole group of inhabitants. In 1580, another Hillmorton resident, John Smythe, provided forty shillings in his will for the village’s cottagers to defend their common if litigation became necessary. The provision shows that rights of use could require money and collective action to protect. It does not place the Garfields among those cottagers, but it helps explain the village economy around them: a household’s resources could include rights shared with others as well as possessions held within its home. ^703-3

Edward was probably the man buried at Hillmorton on March 12, 1585/86. By September 27, 1586 he was certainly dead: on that date, administration of his estate was granted to Alice, explicitly identified as his widow. An inventory dated 1586 valued the estate at £35 14s. Thomas Perkins, Thomas Smyth, William Sawbridge and Richard Gumley were its appraisers. Four named men thus took part in assessing what Edward left behind, while Alice took responsibility for its administration. ^703-1703-4

The inventory and Alice’s appointment served different purposes. The inventory recorded the value of property; Alice’s appointment authorized her to administer the estate. Hillmorton fell within the probate jurisdiction associated with Lichfield, so the settlement linked a village household to a church court beyond Warwickshire. The court’s location does not mean that Edward or Alice lived there. ^703-1703-5

The £35 14s records the estate’s valuation, not what ultimately remained for the family. The estate’s settlement became Alice’s responsibility: Edward’s death left her both a widow and the person appointed to handle his affairs. ^703-1703-5