This volume contains full transcripts of all the wills and probate inventories (and one rare record, an exceptionally detailed probate account) which survive from Sunderland and its environs (the parishes of Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth, Co. Durham) in the twenty-five years between 1651 and 1675. It draws together 119 files of documents preserved in The National Archives, the special collections of Durham University Library (which holds the majorityof the records presented here), the Borthwick Institute at the University of York and Durham Cathedral Library. Together, they paint a vivid picture of Sunderland at a period of rapid change, as it developed as an industrial and trading port. Testators include shipowners, shipwrights, anchor smiths, mariners, coal fitters, and merchants and the records include some very detailed inventories, notably one of a woolen draper and clothier.
The documents are supported by an introduction which places them in their context, outlines local aspects of the turbulent controversies of the time, and examines changes in the local economy and in houses and household furnishing. The volume also includes a glossary explaining words not in current use, and indexes of names and subjects.