STEPHEN ALDOUS and his second cousin, MARGARET ALDOUS, fell in love and were married in about 1602. Both had been born in the parish of Fressingfield, Suffolk, England, he in 1579 and she three years earlier. They lived at a farm called Bourneys, which had been in STEPHEN's family for several generations. STEPHEN had been only four years of age, the youngest child in his family, when his father died, and as he grew up he shared the home with his mother and four sisters.
About twenty years after marriage STEPHEN prepared his last will and testament, written in extreme detail. Since the house and grounds at Bourneys came to him and MARGARET furnished and in use the premises probably did not change much in that twenty years. From information in the will we can, in imagination, walk into the rooms of the house in which STEPHEN and MARGARET lived, rooms where their two daughters and three sons were born and played; rooms where companionship was enjoyed, tears were shed; where there was talk (both pleasant and otherwise), laughter, and music.
The extreme detail gives us a picture of what life must have been like in the 1600
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