This lesson features the lives of 4 different Tudor people as evidenced from a key document that they each have in common, namely an inventory. By studying the nature, value and amount of possessions each person had, pupils can start to draw conclusions about their occupation, wealth and position in society. They can even work out family relationships and the type of life the four people led. Edward Jaxson, for example, was a farmer (up for the charge of murder!!). Seth was a vicar and the two ladies were both widows, but from completely opposite poles of the social spectrum.
An extension activity for the gifted and talented gives them the opportunity to access online material from the National Archives which they should realize they must analyse critically before using.
Learning Objectives
- Pupils can make deductions about relative wealth of individuals from their inventories;
- they can match the owners of inventories with images of the houses they would have lived in and explain their reasoning;
- they can analyse the inventories to work out which were the highest value items;
- they learn that inventories do not always contain the full possessions of an individual;
- the most able can explain some of
