Testamentary Brasses

Abstract

The importance of wills as a means of identifying unknown or lost brasses has long been recognized. Even for a brass of unquestioned identity, the study of the will often serves to elucidate heraldry, identify children, or, at its lowest, as a bonne bouche for the curious. One will, at least, is printed by Cotman, the first man to devote a book entirely to brasses; others are used by Waller; Haines endeavoured to collect from them indications of the costs of brasses; and later brass manuals have followed suit. The growth of record societies, however, and the consequent printing of wills, wholly or in part, has increased so greatly the information available, that it would seem the subject can endure the attentions of yet another antiquary.