Alice Rolfe

The Will of Alis Rolfe of Hamptworthe in the parish of Downtone in the county of Wilts, widow, 8 December 1604. My body to be buried in the parish churchyard of Downtone. I give to the parish church of Downtone 6d. To our lady church of Sarum 4d. To my son Thomas Rolfe a coverlet and other household goods. To my son John Rolfe my best heifer, three bushels of grain, and I forgive him 9s. which he oweth me. To his daughter Alis Rolfe a bullock, and to his son John Rolfe a sheep, and to his wife a gown. To my daughter Agnes Rice two ewes and a heifer, and to her daughter Honore Rolfe a heifer and a coffer, and to them both all my wearing apparel. To her daughter Agnes Rolfe a ewe, to her daughter Alis Rice a bullock, and to her daughter Marie Rice a ewe. To my maid servant Margaret Dyer a sheep. The residue of my goods and chattels I give to my sons Henry Rolfe and Thomas Rolfe equally divided, and make them my executors. My well beloved friends Thomas Cousins and Robert Emmerie to be assistants to my executors, and to them 5s. each. Debts I owe: to my son Henrie Rolfe 40s. and to my son Thomas Rolfe 6 pounds 7s. Proved 26 January 1604/5, by the executors named. Inventory taken 8 December 1604, by two "nabours indifferent dealers herein Roger Webbe and John Raafe," 45 pounds 6s. 8d., exhibited 26 January 1604/5, by the executors. (Archdeaconry of Sarum, 1604, Original Will and Inventory.)

Her will does a great deal to clarify the complicated Rolfe genealogy, though it tells us neither her husband's given name (as he was already dead) nor her own surname before marriage. Like the other Rolfe wills, it reflects a simple but reasonably thriving life of "husbandry" or subsistence farming.