Immediately below is a short table explaining the meaning of some of the unusual legal words you might find in a medieval/Elizabethan will.
| appurtenances | pertaining to something that attaches |
| behoof | benefit or advantage |
| bequeath | to leave or give personal property or money by will, to hand down or pass on after your death |
| copyhold | copyhold tenure was as form of feudal tenure of common land in England from the Middle Ages until the 19th century although surviving in a residual form until 1922. The land was held according to the custom of the manor and the mode of landholding took its name from the fact that the ‘title deed’ received by the tenant was a copy of the relevant entry in the manorial court roll. |
| devise | a gift or disposal of real property |
| messuage | a dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use |
| moiety | the half of anything; as, if a testator bequeath one moiety of his estate to A, and the other to B, each shall take an equal part. Joint tenants are said to hold by moieties |
| nuncupative will | a ‘deathbed’ will that must be made in the presence of two witnesses who usually write the document. |
| ordain | to set something that will continue in a certain order |
| pightle | a small field, paddock or enclosure |
| tenement | a building for human habitation, especially one that is rented to tenants. Also a property of a permanent nature that is possessed or owned such as land or a building, together with the rights associated with such possession or ownership |
| viz | medieval abbreviation of ‘viderlicet’ from Latin ‘videre licet’ – ‘permitted to see’) – especially in written English when you want to give more detail or be more exact about something you have just written |