Christopher Wyld

  Noted events in his life were:

• Will, 20 Nov 1748, Woodborough, Nottingham, England. ³ Christopher WYLD placed his seal at the end of his will and, slowly and deliberately signed his name. Properties are mentioned in the villages of Lambley, Calverton, and Woodborough in Nottinghamshire.

Christopher specifically mentions: "....my freehold messuage farm or tenement situate at Calverton aforesaid and all that orchard and croft thereunto adjoining with the edifices and buildings thereto belonging togetherwith all and singular my other freehold lands in Calverton......" This prorerty he willed to his wife, Elizabeth, then, on her death, to his eldest son John and his heirs. In the event that John died without heirs then the property was to pass to his youngest son, William, then to William's eldest son, Richard.

Provision was also made for the children of his daughter, Elizabeth BURROWS, who had died, by setting up a trust fund with Reverend PUGH as Trustee. Upon the death of Elizabeth WYLD, John and William were to receive Straits Close in Lambley subject to a charge of £5 per year for 20 years being paid to the Trust fund.

The will was proved on 20 March 1751, with William the sole surviving executor, and the value placed on the goods and chattels was less than £20.

• Occupation: Tallow Chandler: Woodborough, Nottingham, England. ³ Christopher would have both prepared the tallow and made and sold candles, which would have been in high demand to provide light for the frame-work knitters in their cottages. Demand would have been stimulated by an Act of Parliament passed in 1709 which forbade the domestic production of candles.

According to "Candle Lighting" (by D.J.Eveleigh) two kinds of tallow, or animal fat, were used: Beef tallow from oxen, cows and bulls; and mutton tallow from rams, ewes, bucks and she goats. Mutton tallow was highly valued for its gloss and hardness.

The cheaper candles were made solely from beef tallow, and the more expensive ones used a mixture of beef and mutton tallow. To prepare the tallow it had to be melted in a large cauldron and any impurities skimmed off before the tallow could be strained into storage tubs. It was a very smelly process, with an everpresent risk of fire. Cheap candles were made by suspending wicks from a wooden frame and by successively dipping the wicks into the molten tallow until the required thickness of tallow had been deposited. This was a manual process until the late eighteenth century when mechanical dipping frames were introduced. Higher quality, more expensive, candles were made by pouring the tallow into moulds.

Christopher married Elizabeth (M Wyld). (Elizabeth (M Wyld) was born in 1670 in Woodborough, Nottingham, England.)