{"id":1135,"date":"2020-01-05T20:15:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T20:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:39:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:39:20","slug":"beds-through-the-ages-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/05\/beds-through-the-ages-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Beds through the ages, comfort and joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beds through the ages: most important piece of furniture?<\/h2>\n

Spoiled for choice when considering a new mattress? Puzzled by the claims for memory foam, pocket springs, toppers, zoning, cores\u2026 When you come to think about it, the bed(s) is (are) probably the most important pieces of furniture in your home. Because while you manage without a table or a wardrobe, who wants to sleep on the floor?!<\/p>\n

According to the National Bed Federation<\/a>,\u00a0the oldest known bed in the world dates back 77,000 years. Though it wasn\u2019t till about 3,000 or so years ago that anyone thought to raise them off the ground.<\/p>\n

So, beds through the ages have always been important. And as a good bed doesn\u2019t come cheap, it\u2019s no surprise that our ancestors made special mention of them in their wills.<\/p>\n

The bed in the kitchen<\/h2>\n

Bridget Dixon,<\/strong> of Harras, Ainstable, made her will in 1767, \u2018being sick and weak in body\u2019.<\/p>\n

It would seem she wasn\u2019t as sick as people thought, as she didn\u2019t die until seven years later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She was then aged 90 \u2013 a reminder that the \u2018average age of death\u2019 in 1774 didn\u2019t mean everyone died young compared to today. As my post on life expectancy in 1776 and 1845<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n

Her daughters Mary Nicholson and Jane Socalt (sic) were left \u00a35 each\u2026 her sons Thomas, John and Caleb Dixon the sum of one shilling (1\/20th of a \u00a31) each.<\/p>\n

Son-in-law James Wesdale (sic) also got one shilling. But his daughter Bella Westdale (sic), Bridget\u2019s granddaughter, was left \u00a320.<\/p>\n

Spelling wasn\u2019t exactly consistent in 1767, even among the solicitors (or their clerks) who drew up wills.<\/p>\n

Bella Wasdale<\/strong> was also left: \u201cthe bed in the kitchen\u201d.<\/p>\n

As you do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually possible that this was the best bed in the house, despite what seems a strange location.<\/p>\n

Beds through the ages: Shakespeare\u2019s time<\/h2>\n

As Bill Bryson\u2019s excellent, and entertaining,\u00a0<\/span>At Home<\/em><\/a> book\u00a0explains.<\/p>\n

(Shakespeare famously bequeathed to his wife his \u2018second-best bed\u2019. Which wasn\u2019t at all the insult it might seem).<\/p>\n

Beds in Shakespeare\u2019s day were expensive. A canopied bed cost \u00a35, half the annual salary for a teacher. The best bed might be kept in the living room, for guests or to be shown off as as status item, rather than for family use.<\/p>\n

Curtains were for privacy as well as to keep out drafts: servants would sleep on the bedroom floor of nobles.<\/p>\n

Inns expected beds to be shared by strangers.<\/p>\n

Ok, 1767 was 151 years after Shakespeare\u2019s death, but the concept of \u2018best\u2019 household possessions isn\u2019t so unfamiliar today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We may not have a \u2018best bed\u2019, but how many of us have a crockery set, or glasses, that we keep for special occasions? With an everyday set for daily use, so it doesn\u2019t matter too much if one cup or one wine glass gets broken?<\/p>\n

Beds through the ages: the Victorians<\/h2>\n

Esther Cowen<\/strong>, of Hutton Sceugh, Caldbeck, died almost a century after Bridget Dixon, in 1869, aged 63.<\/p>\n

She left a LOT of beds, with son John getting not only a feather bed but also the \u2018bedstead in the parlour loft\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Son Isaac got \u2018the bed on which he sleeps\u2019 (with the hangings). Which conjures up an image of a lawyer telling him: \u201cIt\u2019s ok mate, no need to get up\u201d!<\/p>\n

Sheets mattered, too<\/h2>\n

Bed linen was deemed valuable enough to bequeath as well. My maternal great-grandparents weren\u2019t short of money but didn\u2019t believe in wasting any on fripperies either, \u2018recycling\u2019 flour sacks from their farm into pillow cases. And that was in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Thomas Dixon<\/strong>, yeoman, of Froddle Crook, died in 1812, aged 73.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now it seems likely that he had a first wife who died some time after 1780. And there is an 1804 Wetheral marriage of a Thomas Dixon to a Rebecca Newton.<\/p>\n

What is certain is that Thomas Dixon left \u2018my wife Rebecca the furniture and bedding that were hers before marriage\u2019.<\/p>\n

That is a reminder that a woman\u2019s property became her husband\u2019s when she married: he was leaving her what had been her own goods.<\/p>\n

It also means the sheets he was so kindly letting her have back were at the very least eight years old.<\/p>\n

The main image, by the way, is of a patchwork quilt my mother made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beds through the ages: most important piece of furniture? Spoiled for choice when considering a new mattress? Puzzled by the claims for memory foam, pocket springs, toppers, zoning, cores\u2026 When you come to think about it, the bed(s) is (are) probably the most important pieces of furniture in your home. Because while you manage without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,4],"tags":[260,259,262,261],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cumbria-history","category-social-history","category-wills","tag-ainstable","tag-dixon","tag-froddle-crook","tag-hutton-sceugh"],"yoast_head":"\nBeds through the ages, comfort and joy - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From a bed kept in the kitchen to leaving a son the bed he slept on, beds have been a source of pride and value down the centuries.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/05\/beds-through-the-ages-important\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beds through the ages, comfort and joy - 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