Odd words from the Essex Wills

Continuing my posts on the vocabulary of the Essex Wills and its place in English lexical history, an introduction to which can be found here.

The Essex Wills are naturally full of words for household and farm goods. The majority are words that are still used, though the things to which they are applied may now be different in design or appearance. A large majority are words, or meanings of words, that are no longer used, but are carefully recorded in dictionaries, and especially in the Oxford English Dictionary. But a significant number have escaped notice by lexicographers and yet can be found, often in large numbers, in wills, inventories, and other non-literary documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and sometimes in earlier and later documents). Please note that I record the absence of terms from Early English Books Online not in order to criticize that inestimable resource but to highlight the gap between the language we find in non-literary texts and that of the printed book, especially the literary text.

Here are some odds and ends of vocabulary that don’t belong to any particular category.

kiltring

The familiar phrase out of kilter has obscure origins. The OED, under kelter², kilter, defines it thus: 

‘Good condition, order; state of health or spirits. Used in the phrases out of kelter, in (good, high) kelter, to get into kelter.’ 

In the etymology it says: 

‘Etym[ology] obscure. Widely diffused in Eng[lish] dial[ect] from Northumb[erland] and Cumb[erland] to Cornwall, and occasional in literature. More frequent in U.S. (in form kilter).’ 

Intriguingly, the earliest examples in the OED, as well as many later ones, are from America: 1628 in Massachusetts for ‘out of kilter’ and 1643 for ‘out of kelter’. Both examples refer to firearms. Nothing of the word’s earlier history is known. It must of course have originated in England.

The Essex Wills (1597 VII. 83), in the will of John Gibson, a miller of West Bergholt, contain the following example of an otherwise unknown verbal noun kiltering: 

tools and implements belonging to the mills as mill bills, hammers and such things as belong to the ‘kiltring’ of the mills

Gibson owned both a corn mill and a fulling mill. A mill bill is ‘a steel adze fixed in a wooden handle, used for dressing and cracking millstones’ (OED). It is obvious that kiltering here means getting something into operational order, possibly in particular a device like a millstone or musket that has grooves which need to be sharp and clean. It rather implies, though does not make certain, the prior existence of a verb to kilter. This verb, in much the same meaning, is attested 326 years later, also from Essex, in:

1923 E. Gepp Essex Dialect Dictionary (ed. 2) 20 kilter up, to repair an implement, or anything.

This occurrence of kiltring in the Essex Wills will does not solve the mystery of the word’s etymology but it makes clear that it belongs to the realm of technology and takes it back thirty years. It might suggests a connection between Essex and the early New England settlement, except that we know that the noun kilter was widespread throughout the country, at least at a later date—and there is no clear reason to suppose that the word spread from Essex or the southeast.

Early English Books Online provide one example of kilter earlier than both OED and the Essex Wills:

1582 J. Ludham tr. R. Gwalther Homilies ix. f. 67, [STC 25012 image 75] So is it necessarye that the riuers of heauenlye doctrine should flowe into the mindes of men being otherwise barren and out of  kilter, to the end they may be made fitte for those thinges, that are prescribed vnto vs of the Lord.

Ludham was vicar of Withersfield in Suffolk.

They also have one that is only earlier than OED:

1621 Taylor, Thomas The parable of the sower 153 [STC (2nd ed.) 23840 image 89] The good Husbandman, who would keepe his ground in good kilter. [Occurs twice] 

Taylor (1576-1632), however, was born in Richmond, Yorks; he was at Cambridge (where he could have learnt the expression) but otherwise lived in Reading and London. But both these last two examples relate to tilling the soil rather than maintaining a tool.

And EEBO also have two other sixteenth century examples that shed some light on the word.

1654 J. Norton Orthodox Evangelist iv. 63 [Wing N1320 image 41] The upper wheel of a Clock going well, and turning about the lower wheel out of kilter, is the cause of its going, but not of its going amiss.

1674 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words not generally Used (South & East Country Words) 69 Kelter or  Kilter; Frame, order, Procul dubio (inquit Skinnerus) à Dan. Opkilter succingo, Kilter, cingo; vel forte à voce cultura. Non absurde etiam deflecti posset à Teut. Kelter, torcular, Skinnerus quem adisis.

Norton (1606-1663) was a teacher at Ipswich, Mass., and born in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, and his example relates to a mechanical device.

Ray in the seventeenth century definitely ascribes the word to the south and east. 

The English Dialect Dictionary gives kilters sb. pl. Ess[ex]. Tools, implements; the component parts of anything. 

Whereas under kelter sb. the same dictionary gives the word as widespread in Scotland and England as well as America.

It’s difficult to know what to make of this, but tentatively there seems to be a meaning specifically relating to tools and mechanisms, with a derived verb that is associated with Essex and the surrounding area; and the word may have been exported to America from this base.

Maytide

It’s a surprise not to find Maytide in the OED (which has revised this part of the alphabet). The Essex Wills have three examples, from 1576 (III. 205), 1588 (XI. 218), and an uncertain date between 1583–92 (V. 114) 

Further examples are not uncommon:

1593 B. Rich Greenes Newes both from Heauen & Hell [STC 12259] sig. D3^v,At May-tyde, who was the ring-leader for the fetching home of a May-pole, but I.

1624 G. Goodwin Babels Balm [STC 12030] 14 The Rule that  May-tide Lords of Mis-rule finde, Such Lord, such Lawes let be to Rome assign’d.

1739 Laws relating to Poor 134 One John Crowdey the 19th of Febr. 1710, came from Shipley to Easthed in Horsham, and bargain’d with him to serve him till Maytide, for one Shilling per Week. [Occurs several times in this case report]

1755 J. Strange Rep. Adjudged Cases Chancery, King’s Bench, Common Pleas, & Exchequer I. 83 Mich. 12 Ann. Paroch. Horsham v. Shipley there was a hiring from 19 February to Maytide from thence to Lady-day, then to May-tide again, then to Lady-day, and then to the next May-tide; but there being no contract for a year, the court held it no settlement. [Same case as preceding.]

1793 W. L. Bowles Sonnet XXV in Sonnets (ed. 9, 1805) 32 The shrubs and laurels which I lov'd to tend, Thinking their May-tide fragrance might delight.

1868 Gardener’s Monthly June 161/1 Then, what is the use of writing Hints for June, when not even the May-tide has come?

1997 E. Muir Ritual in Early Mod. Hist. iii. 94 Rogation week..frequently overlapped with Maytide.

no elsewhere

A curious expression meaning ‘nowhere else’ found once in the Essex Wills:

1585 (V. 302) in the parlour and chamber and noelsewhere

You might think it a freak, but here are some further examples:

1609 S. Grahame Anat. Humors f. 31, If a man intrude him selfe in a Ladies bed-chamber, & look vpon every thing about him, he shal think him selfe to be no else where, but in an evil deformed shop of Merchandise.

1851 Indicator Jan. 146 Yet need we look no elsewhere for the noblest examples.

1855 Ballou’s Dollar Monthly Mag. Apr. 374/1 There only, then, will I be wed. No elsewhere!

pot

This occurs once in the Essex Wills:

1570 (IX. 74) an old cauldron that we use to pot ashes in

Now, perhaps this is just a variant spelling of put: they use the old cauldron to put ashes in. If that is the explanation, no further exploration is needed.

If it is really pot, it cannot belong to OED’s pot v.1, v.2, or v.3; it looks like a use of pot v.4 in a general sense ‘put something into a pot’, but there is no suitable sense of that verb, which dates from 1616. 

Moreover, the collocation with ‘ashes’ seems to imply some connection with potash n. At the latter entry in OED, however, there is no explanation of the reason for the first element of the compound: one may infer that the plant material burnt to make the ashes was burnt in a pot. There is only one example (1504) of the noun (in its plural form) earlier than our phrase. The next two examples, preceding scientific use in the 1660s, are both from Virginia.

short-legged

Compounds like this one are quite common in the Essex Wills. This happens to occur only once:

1586 (V. 65) short-legged brass pot

Earlier and later examples can be found, though it’s not in the OED:

1540 J. Fitzherbert Boke of Husbandry [STC 10996] sig. G4, The fyfte [property of the fox], to be  shorte legged.

1612 D. Lyndesay Satyre (18??) 509 (l. 3517) Schort-leggit men, I se, be Bryds bell! Will nevir cum thair, thay steppis bene sa wyde.

1675 H. Hexham Eng. & Nether-Dutch Dict. (new ed.) Kort beenigh, Short-legged.

1740 Mem. Royal Soc. V. 262 The short-legged spiders, which are the most common, always find out some place, secure from the wind and the rain, to make their bags in.

But it is noticeable that examples referring to things (those above all related to people or animals) are hard to find outside the Essex Wills.

twyne

Perhaps the testator in the Essex Wills is literally bequeathing some string:

1569 (IX. 174) the residue of my ‘twyne’

Or could this be an uncharacteristically poetic expression meaning ‘the rest of my life’? Compare (in the OED at twine n. 1b): 

1595 G. Markham Most Honorable Trag. Sir R. Grinuile cxxiii, Behold a goddesse shall my lifes twine breake.

And additionally:

1578 T. Blenerhasset Mirror for Magistrates Author’s Ep., I looked that Parcæ shoulde haue shread my twyne before my returne (16th century). 

?1604 R. Williams Poore Mans Pittance in F. Furnivall Ballads from Manuscripts (1873) II. 122 You Fatall Sisters, websters of my lyfe, Spin slowe, wynde softe, and cutt not yet my twyne.

Law and property in the Essex Wills

Continuing my posts on the vocabulary of the Essex Wills and its place in English lexical history, an introduction to which can be found here.

The Essex Wills are naturally full of words for household and farm goods. The majority are words that are still used, though the things to which they are applied may now be different in design or appearance. A large majority are words, or meanings of words, that are no longer used, but are carefully recorded in dictionaries, and especially in the Oxford English Dictionary. But a significant number have escaped notice by lexicographers and yet can be found, often in large numbers, in wills, inventories, and other non-literary documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and sometimes in earlier and later documents). Please note that I record the absence of terms from Early English Books Online not in order to criticize that inestimable resource but to highlight the gap between the language we find in non-literary texts and that of the printed book, especially the literary text.

These are some terms relating to legal documents, property, and institutions.

covent seal

This term appears twice in the Essex Wills: 1561 (II. 124) and 1575 (III. 358).

OED enters one example of covent seal under the undefined lemma convent-seal n.:

1538–9 Instruct. Hen. VIII Visit. Monast. (1886) 14   Whether the Covent-seal of this House be surely and safely kept.

This implicitly links the first element to the older form covent of the word convent. But our examples seem to have nothing to do with monastic institutions. They look as if they have to do with covenant, of which there is a rare Middle English variant covant; occasional Middle English examples of conaunt, etc., with this meaning, may also be transmission errors for couaunt.

Compare:

1583 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 289 by a Duchy [of Lancaster] lease which is 31 years to come after my convent seal.

1583 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 289 my house wherein I dwell which I hold by convent seal of the manor of Much Coggeshall.

The compound is quite common and can be antedated and postdated, e.g. by:

1529 E. Herbert Life & Reign Henry Eighth (1683) 300 The said Lord Cardinal did call before him Sir John Stanley Knight, which had taken a Farm by Covent-Seal of the Abbot and Covent of Chester.

1540 Will of William Masson in C. R. Haines Dover Priory (1930) App. I 435 My Covent seal, which I have, of the late priory of Dover..to my wife.

Whether the first element is convent or covenant, after the Reformation period, the sense of this term seems to have been broadened to refer (perhaps) to the seal of any ecclesiastical body:

1847 J. T. Law Eccl. Statutes at Large II. 371 The same election, under the common and covent seal of the electors.

There are six examples,1655–1687, on Early English Books Online.

fivepartite 

This occurs once in the Essex Wills:

1568 (III. 176) certain writings fivepartite between one T. C...and me and others

OED implicitly covers this under partite adj. 1, with examples 1570 (uncompounded), 1680 (12-partite), then late twentieth century (uncompounded), and 2001 (three-partite).

Later example:

1572 Lease Steventon Rectory in C. S. Knighton Acts Dean & Chapter Westminster 1543–1609 Part Two (1999) 60 Yt was decreed by the deane and chapiter that one lease fivepartite of renovation of the parsonage of Stevington..shall passe under the common seale of this collegiate churche.

Compare also:

1649 J. Owen Ouranon Ourania [Wing O789] The ten-partite Empire of the West.

1688 R. Morden Geography Rectified [Wing M2620] Spain fell into a 12-partite division

guardianership, guardianing 

Examples in the Essex Wills:

1573 (II. I 84) to have the ‘garnership’ of the said children

[no date] (V. 153) gardnership

1562 (II. 139) he to have the ‘gardenynge’ of my children

OED has neither form, but does have guardianer n. ‘a guardian’: its only examples are 1595 gardeaner, a1627 Gardianer.

Essex Wills also has:

1558 (VIII. 51) My gossip..shall have the ‘garden’ and keeping of John my son

head house 

Examples in the Essex Wills:

1558 (VIII. 55) My headhouse in Colchester ‘Heth’ to sell

1560 (I. 208) the headhouse that I dwell in

1561 (II. 130) my head house that I dwell in

1591 (XI. 121) I will that my head house be sold by 6 of the headboroughs of the town

Also:

1583 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 202 my pasture named Partridge Fen to go and continue with the head house in Trinity parish.

Examples outside the Essex Wills:

1527 Will of Robert Cole of Stratford, Suffolk 29 Jan. in New Eng. Hist. & Geneal. Reg. July (1896) 420 To my son Richard at twenty one all that moiety or half part of the lordship of Newhall in East Bargholt and my head house with the appurtenances in the ‘Valye’ in Bargholt which I purchased of the executors of Robert Florett.

1593 J. Norden Speculum Britanniae [STC 18535 ‘historicall and chorographicall description of Middlesex’] 26 But this word Court is hereunto added neither in regard of antiquitie, nor  head house of a mannor.

It is noteworthy that these come from Essex and Middlesex. Apart from these examples, there is a small amount of evidence for head house (hede house, etc.) in the sense ‘mother house of a monastic order’. The sense here, however, appears to be ‘principal dwelling’ (of a person who has several properties to live in), probably the same as the very common expression ‘capital messuage’. OED has this compound only in the senses ‘the main or principal house of an organization’ and ‘a structure containing the winding gear at the top of a mine shaft’.

inventorying

Example in the Essex Wills:

1595 (VI. 220) for inventorying of my goods

Later examples suggest widespread use:

1643 Arthur Lord Capell Lieutenant Generall under the Prince His Highnesse of His Majesties forces, in the counties of Worcester, Salop, and Chester, and the sixt northern counties of Wales To all commanders, officers, and souldiers, and to all other His Majesties subjects whatsoever, whom these presents shall or may in anywise concern [Wing C470] (single page), And that due care shall be had and taken for the punctuall Inventorying and valuable Apprizing of such Moneys, Goods, Cattell, or other Estate which shall be so seized.

1643 Jrnls. House of Lords VI. 279/1 For the more speedy and effectual inventorying, securing, seizing, and obtaining Possessions, of all such Monies, Plate, Goods, and Estates.

1677 Z. Babington Advice to Grand Jurors in Cases of Blood [Wing B248] Otherwise there could be no  Inventorying of Goods.

1688 Some necessary disquisitions and close expostulations with the clergy and people of the Church of England [Wing S4528] 23 In his  Inventorying (as he calls it) of the several things he names.

1773 W. Beawes Lex Mercatoria Rediviva (ed. 6) 386/1 If, on inventorying, any Creditor claims the Merchandise that he should have sold to the Debtor.

1775 Ash New & Complete Dict. Eng. Lang., Inventorying, the act of putting into an inventory.

1789 G. Washington Let. 13 Sept. in Writings (1839) X. 32 If the ceremony of inventorying, appraising, &c. can be dispensed with.

part and part like 

This is a legal phrase indicating equal shares. It’s entered in the OED under like adj., adv., conj., and prep. Phrases 4, a sense which covers part and part like, portion and portion like, share and share like, and mixed phrases such as part and portion like. The entry illustrates part and part like with quotations from 1555, a1638, and 1707. The 1555 example is not in a legal (let alone specifically testamentary) context:

Thei..eate parte and parte like, the one with the other.

But the Essex Wills, where the phrase is very common, show that testamentary use was already established by the 1560s:

1561 (I. 57) My wife shall have her being..part and part like with my..sons

1562 (II. 131) to Edward’s children part and part like

1562 (II. 137) part and part like

1567 (II. 168) part and part like

1568 (II. 144) my brass and pewter to be divided part and part like

1573 (IX. 39) To my aunt and my dame S. all my linen part and part like

1582 (IV. 171)  the money to my children part and part like

Also:

1581 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 312 Equally divided between Elizabeth my wife and my children part and part like.

It is by no means restricted to the Essex Wills, as these examples (none earlier, however) show:

1572 Will of John Parrott of London, 31 Oct. in Endowed Charities City of London (1829) 141/1 Unto and amongst the poorest people of the said parish of St. James aforesaid, unto and amongst the poorest people of the parish of Allhallows Stayning, in London, part and part like to either parish.

1630 Will of John Heminge of London in J. P. Collier Lives Orig. Actors Shakespeare’s Plays (1853) 77 Part and part like.

1634 Will of William Browne (St James Clerkenwell) in E. A. J. Honigmann & S. Brock Playhouse Wills, 1558–1642 (1993) 180 The summe of Ten Powndes of lawfull money of England to be shared amongest them part and part like.

1640 Will of Henry Webb of Boston in New Eng. Hist. & Geneal. Reg. (1856) X. 182 all my other estate, goods, debts, merchandises, Shipps, Chattles, not formerly given, to be devided Amongst them, part and part like.

1675 Will of John Thruston, Chamberlain of Bristol, 25 Mar. in Geneal. Virginia Families 143 To be divided betweene them part and part like.

1707 A General Discourse of Commerce 71 The Commissioners may assign and divide this (viz) to every Creditor a portion, part and part-like.

There are also examples on Early English Books Online from 1597, 1606, 1635, 1651, 1653, 1655, 1665, 1683, and 1695.

rentary

There are several examples of this in the Essex Wills, apparently describing some kind of real estate, probably synonymous with tenement. Most examples are plural. There is no trace of this in the OED.

1559 (VIII. 119) my renters [rentaries] with Burds garden and my ground that lieth above the pond

1560 (I. 207) his deed of ‘rentre’

1571 (IX. 145)  the letting of my head house that I dwell in, with the rentary or tenement and ground belonging

1573 (IX. 41) the 2 rentaries or houses near Head Gate which he hath mortgaged

1577 (IV. 161) my capital messuage wherein I dwell and my rentary with 2 gardens in St. Martin’s parish

1579 (IV. 174)  my house wherein I dwell called 2 tenements or rentaries

1589 (XI. 274)  I will that all those my houses, rentaries and stalls in the borough of Colchester be sold

1592 (VI. 138) With these 5 tenements or rentaries near or adjoining

Also:

1579 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 281 a rentary adjoining and now taken into the tenement on the west part

1579 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 281 the four rentaries adjoining my head tenement

1583 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 201 my capital messuage and head house in Trinity parish with the rentaries, gardens and orchards belonging.

1583 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Essex Gentry’s Wills (1978) 201 To her my messuages, rentaries and lands in St Botolph’s Street.

This earlier example is also from the Essex area (Harwich).

1467 in Manners & Household Expenses Eng. Thirteenth & Fifteenth Cent. (1841) 454 Wetenes that I John Howard have bowte of dame An Morpathe here plase lyhen in Herwesche, wethe the ij. renteres and wethe gardenes, and al hoder a portenanse that sche hathe lyhenge in the same towene.

No evidence is forthcoming from Early English Books Online.

selender

An untraced word that is not uncommon in the Essex Wills. There seems to be nothing like it in the OED.

1568 (VIII. 190) I have delivered ‘selender’ to the hands of John Sewall the elder

1571 (IX. 218) delivered the ‘solender’ to R— F—..according to the custom of the manor

1575 (II. I 177) all these to be ‘standers’ [standards] to the house according to my ‘solendar’

1559 (I. 132) deliver a ‘selender’..of the two fields

1560 (II.  118) The ‘selender’ given of my house and land..into the hands of W. H.

1561 (II.  122) I have delivered my ‘selender’ to William Crabe, constable

Also:

1568 in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Wills of South-west Essex (1983) 32 The residue of my goods to Agnes my wife, on condition that she perform my ‘selender’ [surrender] that I delivered to John Grene and William Harryson [tenants of the manor]. 

sellender also occurs in the Essex Wills.

This looks (as Emmison suggests) like surrender n. 1a; examples of deliver as verb, with surrender, in regard to property, can be found. However, OED seems not to record spellings of this word with –l-; and in any case, such a sound change seems surprising and unprecedented.

Old Essex Housewares

Continuing my posts on the vocabulary of the Essex Wills and its place in English lexical history, an introduction to which can be found here.

The Essex Wills are naturally full of words for household goods. The majority are words that are still used, though the things to which they are applied may now be different in design or appearance. A large majority are words, or meanings of words, that are no longer used, but are carefully recorded in dictionaries, and especially in the Oxford English Dictionary. But a significant number have escaped notice by lexicographers and yet can be found, often in large numbers, in wills, inventories, and other non-literary documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and sometimes in earlier and later documents). 

bail kettle, bailed kettle

These items occur at least five times in the Essex Wills:

1561 (I. 116), 1590 (V. 165) bail kettle 

1561 (II. 124), 1569 (II.  72), 1572 (IX. 15) bailed kettle

Surprisingly, both can be found in very recent and quite ordinary, non-regional sources:

1871 Ann. Rep. Commissioner of Patents 1869 I. 528/1 With the bail-kettle, formed after the fashion of a common tea-kettle. 

1952 Hospital Management 73 69 Bail kettles 4 sizes. 

1918 Department Store Merchandise Manuals 99 Dutch ovens are cast iron bailed kettles with a tightly fitting cover. 

1938 Bull. Business Hist. Soc. 12 63 We consign none but bailed kettles.

What is a bail? It’s the curved and hinged handle that traditional kettles used to have; OED’s bail n.² sense 2 (attested from 1463):

The hoop-handle of a kettle or similar vessel.

This OED entry does not include bail kettle or any other compounds, while bailed adj.² (1548, 1603) has only the sense ‘hooped (and covered) as a wagon’.

The Essex Wills also have:

1581 (X. 43) bailless kettle

And again, surprisingly, we can find a modern example of this:

1980 J. P. Brain Tunica Treasure 139/3 Undoubtedly, most, if not all, of these bails came from some of the bail-less kettles in the collection.

basting ladle 

I have noticed only two examples of this in the Essex Wills:

1582 (IV. 170); 1592 (VI. 33) basting ladle

There is indeed a quotation in the OED illustrating this at basting n.² 1a:

1822 W. Kitchiner Cook’s Oracle (ed. 4) 187 Put a little bit of butter into your basting-ladle.

But it is not acknowledged with a ‘lemma’ (subordinate or nested headword). It really should, as the basting ladle was an item with a certain cultural significance, often referred to:

1613 Alcilia Philoparthens louing folly [STC 4275] And with the  basting ladle did him beate.

1633 T. Heywood Eng. Traveller [STC 13315] About went his Basting-Ladle.

1638 Hocus Pocus Junior [STC 13544] Halfe hollow, like a basting-Ladle.

1639 in F. W. Steer Farm & Cottage Inventories Mid-Essex (1950) 80 In the buttery 2 basting ladles.

1649 Mercurius Brittanicus No. 4 26 Harke, harke, what a noise is here with frying pans and scummers, and basting ladels, and dripping pans.

1650 10 Dec. in G. F. Dow Probate Rec. Essex County, Mass. (1916) I. 127 A skimer & a basting ladell.

1656 S. Holland Don Zara del Fogo (Wing H2437) Butter in a Basting-ladle.

[There are four more examples in EEBO down to 1683.]

1676 Probate Rec. Essex County, Mass. (1920) III. 49 Basting ladle, 1s. 6d.

1719 in F. W. Steer Farm & Cottage Inventories of Mid-Essex 1635–1749 (1969) 247 A basting ladle of brass.

1772 F. Gentleman Cupid’s Revenge i. i. 15 When she talked of the dripping-pan, the basting ladle could not be far off.

1793 Gentleman’s Mag. Feb. 127/2 She seized the basting-ladle, and with it gave the king a severe blow on the back.

The basting ladle was both the sceptre and the weapon of the cook. He used it to beat his subordinates (and enemies) and it symbolized his supremacy in the kitchen. The term was common down to about 1870. The item, and its name, still exist of course, but the cultural connections have probably got lost.

bell

A familiar word used in a way that is difficult to interpret. It occurs in the Essex Wills as a ‘premodifier’ (a subordinate word standing before a noun so as to describe it) to characterize various  household items: bell candlestick occurs at least 8 times; e.g. 

1561 (I. 214) 2 bell candlesticks of latten

1577 (IX. 48) 1 of my best latten bell candlesticks 

bell chafer occurs once (reference unavailable) and two examples occur with pan:

1566 (II. 225) her bell brass pan

1567 (VIII. 126) a brass bell pan. 

One might guess that this has some relationship with OED’s bell-metal n. meaning ‘an alloy of copper and tin’. But in our examples, bell co-occurs with brass and latten (an alloy similar to brass), which would seem to rule that out. Perhaps it refers not to material, but to shape, style, or method of manufacture.  There seems to be no evidence on EEBO, but the following earlier and later examples are found:

1554 in E. Peacock Eng. Church Furniture (1866) App. 187 Item too bell candillstickes. Item one lesse candillstick of bell fasshion.


1590 Will of Helen Ford, widow, St Nicholas in S. Lang & M. McGregor Tudor Wills Proved in Bristol 1546–1603 (1993) 17 [modernized text] To her daughter Joan one platter and one bell candlestick.

chine

Some part of a manufactured article. There are five examples of chine in the Essex Wills: 

1559 (VIII. 138) a dozen of pewter or broad chines

1559 (VIII. 139) a dozen of broad chines pewter

1574 (III. 113) 1 bedsteadle..hath a broad chine

1575 (IV. 39) my brass pan with the broad chines

1597 (VI. 98) the best of my two brass pots with the broken chine.

Evidently this is not OED’s chine n.¹ ‘fissure’ or chine n.² ‘backbone’. It might be connected in some way with chine n.³ sense 1 ‘the projecting rim at the heads of casks, etc., formed by the ends of the staves’ (dating from before 1475) in that it clearly refers to some material object that may or may not form part of a larger whole. The objections to this view are that (a) the context is domestic rather than coopery, (b) the material involved seems to be metal, except in the case of the ‘bedsteadle’, and (c) the OED’s chine is a rim formed by the ends of the staves rather than a continuous surface.

Compare also these examples of the derivative adjective chined:

1562 (I. 152) 1 broad chined [platter]

1567 (II. 49), 1569 (II.  89) broad chined

1602 (VII. 58) broken-chined candlestick

It does look as if the thing referred to is the rim of a plate or pot, or the base of a candlestick. But why are Essex Wills’ chines only either ‘broad’ or ‘broken’?

colefatte

This item occurs only once:

1582 (V. 13) the ‘colefatte’ in the brewhouse

Since fat was an earlier form of the now standard vat, perhaps this is coal vat. We normally think of a vat as a container for liquid, but OED’s vat n.¹, sense 3a, is ‘a cask, barrel, or other vessel for holding or storing dry goods’ and sense 3b is ‘formerly used as a measure of capacity for coal’. These correspond to fat n.¹, senses 3 ‘a cask or barrel to contain dry things’ (1540 onwards) and 4 ‘used as a measure of capacity’ (1413 onwards).

A few examples from outside the Essex Wills lend support to this idea:

[date?] in Pre-Reformation Rec. All Saints’ Church, Bristol (2004) 259 Item for nails and for hauling the bars to the cole fate [?coal vat] - 20d. Item for clamps of iron to the cole fate - 7d. Item for 9 studs to the cole fate.

1700 C. Povey A discovery of indirect practices in the coal-trade [Wing P3040] Every  Coal Fat Containing Sixty six Gallons.

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 398/1 Vat, a large wooden or metal cistern or tub;..The old London coal vat contained 9 bushels.

cragg 

cragg seems to be a word of incredibly limited distribution, and hence it’s not in the OED. The Essex Wills contain as many examples as are to be found elsewhere:

1582 (X. 177) crages

1596 (VI. 188) 1 hand basket, 1 cragg, a brewing tub

1602 (VII. 142) 3 milk bowls, 1 ‘crage’, 1 biggest brewing tub

The English Dialect Dictionary has an entry for cragge, sb. It tells us that it is obsolete, found in Essex and southern counties, is also written cragg, and means ‘a small beer-vessel’. Previous lexicographers who recorded it are Ray (1691) and Grose (1790). The latter means Francis Grose’s Glossary of Provincial and Local Words, which gives exactly the same definition. He may well have simply borrowed it from:

1691 J. Ray A Collection of Words not generally Used [Wing R 389] 94 (South and East Country Words) A Cragge; a small Beer-Vessel.

The etymology is not established.

cup dish

This looks like a fairly obvious compound of cup and dish. What could it have meant? My first guess was that the cup dish was the partner of the cup before the word saucer had that application, which, according to the OED, it acquired only around 1700 (and if you think about it, it’s an odd use of a word which originally meant ‘a receptacle for condiments’). Alternatively, cup in this compound could be cup n. 1b ‘a hollow vessel of wood or metal, used for drinking’, in which case cup dish would be a kind of tautological compound. It occurs at least three times in the Essex Wills:

1585 (V. 51), 1585 (X. 201) cupdish

1598 (XII. 44) a cupdish, 2 dishes, 1/2 dozen trenchers

It is also found in these works (via Early English Books Online):

1648 J. Goodwin Neophytopresbyteros [Wing G1183] 133 What mighty waves are here raised in a  cup dish of water?

a1646 J. Gregory Gregorii Posthuma (1649) [Wing G1926] The Pæonians adored the Sun under the form of a Cup-dish.

1657 E. Wright Certain Errors Navigation [Wing W3689] chapter xvii, This pin must be made of lattin, with a very sharp point, and is to be fastned upright in a round box of wood, which must be of the fashion of a great  cup-dish, containing the rose within it, being covered above with a clear round glasse.

This last quotation describes the making of a sea-compass. Since the rose was round, and could swivel in any direction on the pin, I suspect that the box was roughly hemispherical, in which case the second interpretation of cup dish may be correct.

curble, curbled 

There are several examples in the Essex Wills:

1560 (I. 257) a cauldron (that for Joan with a curble)

1591 (XI. 150) 1 brass ‘curble’ as it hangeth in the kitchen

[no date] (I. 180) a cauldron with a ‘cerbbell’

1596 (XII. 201) 1 great brass pan hanged with a kirble

1601 (XII. 179) 1 curbled pan and my best copper kettle

OED’s curble n. has two senses.

sense 1: = curb n. 1, which is ‘a chain or strap passing under the lower jaw of a horse’ (1598) 

sense 2: = curb n. 8, which is ‘a frame round the top of a well’ (?1780)

The sense of the word in the Essex Wills is not in the OED and is unclear, and the examples are earlier than the senses in the OED. It must refer to some kind of attachment to a kitchen implement by which it hangs: compare OED’s curb n. 8b ‘a framing round the top of a brewer’s copper’. Possibly it referred to the apparatus for raising and lowering a cauldron or pan over the fire; compare:

1857 T. Wright Dict. Obs. & Provincial Eng., Kirble, the windlass of a well.

I have found one other example from the eastern counties:

[date?] in East Anglian (1900) 8–9 383 Item I give to Agnes my wief the cownter table in the hall the cupborde in the hall and the great panne with the curble and also all the beds and bedding.

There seems to be nothing relevant in Early English Books Online.

kettle brass

Presumably a kind of brass from which kettles are made. Four examples occur in the Essex Wills:

1569 (II.  242) kettle brass

1576 (III. 208) kettle brass pot

1581 (X. 3) kettle brass

1584 (V. 51) 1 posnet of kettlebrass

Additionally we find:

1655 E. Terry Voy. to East-India (1777) 14 These Boos and Baas, as they call them, were formerly bought in great plenty, for small quantities of kettle-brass, and iron hoops taken off our empty casks, which were all for this long voyage hoop’d with iron.

1913 M. Bell Old Pewter vii. 12 Harrison, in a ‘Description of England in Shakespeare’s Youth’, when eulogising English pewterers and pewter, says: ‘I have also been informed that it consisteth of a composition which hath 30 lbs. of kettle-brass to 1000 lbs. of tin, whereunto they add 3 or 4 lbs. of tin-gloss (in modern parlance, bismuth)’.

pottle 

Used several times in the Essex Wills as a premodifier with the names of kitchen containers (kettle, skillet). The OED has a section of compounds that covers this use ‘with the sense “having the capacity of one pottle”’, i.e. (sense 1b) half a gallon or 2.3 litres; but OED does not have these compounds:

1558 (VIII. 111) pottle skillet

1575 (IX. 5), 1584 (V. 5), 1553? (II. 143) pottle kettle

stample

There are three examples of stample in the Essex Wills:

1563 (I. 221) 1 brazen mortar with the ‘stample’ thereof

1572 (III. 281) a latten mortar with the ‘stampell’

1578 (IV. 191) my spice mortar and the ‘stampell’

Evidently this means ‘pestle’. Equally obviously it must be a derivative of stamp, with the -le ending found in the names of devices.

But there seem to be no other examples of this noun elsewhere. Only a verb stample is traceable, but it has a corresponding sense:

a1500 MS Balliol College 354 f. cvii in S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson The Index of Middle English Prose. Handlist VIII: Manuscripts containing Middle English Prose in Oxford College Libraries (1991) 10/2 Take a quantitie of vineger as mvche of the iuse of rue a quantitie of grenes and a quantytie of sowre bucade stample them well together.

1597 W. Langham Garden of Health [STC 15195] Stample it and apply it warme.

1599 R. Perceval Dict. Spanish & Eng. [STC 19620] Machucàr, to stample with pestle.

1630 T. Bonham The Chyrugians Closet [STC 3279] Boyle them in the broath of flesh, then stample and straine them... Boyle the hearbes in aq: q.s. vnto tendernesse, then stample them.

1896 W. W. Skeat Nine Specimens of Eng. Dialects Vol. 32 40 ’A striv’th vor stample ’e abroad. [Glossed as ‘tread upon’.]

tinker’s kettle

Perhaps this is a variety of kettle obtainable from a tinker (as opposed to a blacksmith, say?). Judging by the last example below, it was a superior kind. These are some of the examples in the Essex Wills:

1569 (II. 89)  a latten chafing dish, a tinker’s kettle

1575 (IV. 39) a brass kettle called a tinker’s kettle

1588 (XI. 203)  the greatest kettle, a tinker’s kettle, a smaller kettle

1588 (XI. 203) an old tinker’s kettle of a pottle

1592 (XI. 42)  a great kettle, a tinker’s kettle, a posnet

1596 (XI. 53) tinker’s posnet

1600 (XII. 94) my best kettle called the tinker’s kettle

There is a discussion of its meaning in F. G. Emmison Elizabethan Life: Morals and the Church Courts (1976), page 27, which says that a clause in a will ‘“The tinker’s kettle commonly used to wash vessels in” tells of other uses’. It shows that this must have been a reasonable large open vessel. Similarly the expression is defined in Southampton Records Series (1992) 35, page 477 as ‘a pot or cauldron’.

It is possible to find various proverbial and allusive uses of the expression, e.g. ‘to sound worse than a tinker’s kettle’ or ‘the coin may mend a tinker’s kettle’; but these seem to depend on a literal meaning ‘a kettle owned or used by a tinker’ and not to indicate a particular kind of kettle.