Robert Fox was a yeoman (gentleman farmer) working Middleton Hall Farm in the late 1600s. He was probably born in the early 1630s as he married Barbara Hasslock in 1655, and he died in 1698 being buried at St. Edburgha in Yardley on August 4th.
His will included an inventory listing all the rooms and goods at Middleton Hall, which gives an insight into what the Hall was like in the late seventeenth-century.
In the Hall
3 Table-boards, 2 jointed forms, 2 screens, 4 jointed stools, 1 brass candlestick. £2 - 0 - 0d
In the parlour
1 table-board and 2 forms, 1 side-table, 4 chairs, 1 bed, 1 press with cupboards, 1 grate, fire shovel & tongs, 2 looking-glasses. £7 - 1 - 6d
In the kitchen
1 table-board, 3 plain forms, 4 chairs, 1 clock, 1 jack, 1 grate, fire shovel & tongs, cobberts & spits, 2 dripping-pans, 10 pieces of tinware, 1 box of drawers. £5 - 4 - 9d
Brass & Pewter, meat in the roof, wheat in the house and barn. £34 - 16 - 6d
In the chamber over the buttery
3 bed, 1 jointed chair, 1 half-headed bed, 2 coffers. £4 - 3 - 6d
Over the dairy house
1 jointed beadstead & 2 others with all things belonging to them. £5 - 4 - 6d
Over the parlour & in the porch chamber
2 beds with furniture to them, 3 flaskets. £8 - 3 - 6d
Over the back house
1 bed, 2 little tables, 1 chest, 1 coffer, 1 chair. £11 - 0 - 0d
Over the kitchen
1 bed, 1 press with cupboards, 2 chests, 1 trunk, 1 chair, a stool, 1 grate, 1 closet of books. £9 - 2 - 4d
In the cheese chamber
The cheese & oats & pulse. £15 - 0 - 0d
All the linen with wool, bags and strike with other small measures. £8 - 9 - 6d
Cheese presses with other things belonging to the dairy. £3 - 2 - 6d
In the back house
1 furnace, 1 malt mill, with other things belonging to it. £2 - 0 - 0d
In the buttery
6 half-hogsheads. £1 - 11 - 6d
His wearing apparel and money in purse. £10 - 0 - 0d
£50 more in real money. £50 - 0 - 0d
Cattle and other things without doors
17 cows, 1 bull, 2 heffers, 2 weaning calves, 12 sheep. £66 - 0 - 0d
6 horses & colts, 3 hogs, 6 store pigs. £26 - 15 - 0d
The corn on the land & hay in the barn. £70 - 15 - 0d
2 waggons, 2 tumbrells, ploughs & harrows & other husbandry tools. £25 - 5 - 6d
Item for lumber & odd things forgotten & coals for the fire. £9 - 15 - 9
£375 - 11 - 4d
Witness our hands.
John Smith
Thomas Mucklow
KEY
Cobbert: ?
Coffer: a strongbox or small chest for holding valuables.
Malt mill: used in brewing.
Tumbrel: Two wheeled cart for a single horse or ox.
