DEATH: "Richard Baldwin, described as of "Donrigge", in the Parish of Astin-Clinton, Bucks, yeoman, made his will 16 Jany., 6 Edward VI., that is 1552/3.

660Richard Baldwin I
Richard and Ellen produced a lively family of three sons and four daughters. Would these young people ride over the steep and rutty tracks to morning church in a lumbering, spring-less wagon through Aston Chivery's sloping woods to the Vale of Aylesbury making the welkin ring with their merriment and groans of anguish intermixed, as they bumped along, or would they have to proceed in silence under the stern gaze of their mother? We can only assume that they would find the four mile trek somewhat painful in such a conveyance, for even at a later period Queen Elizabeth I travelling in her state carriage along roads in better condition complained that she was unable to sit in comfort for a week after one of her trips.
The alternative form of conveyance would be more popular when the males of the family could manage a steed and take their sisters on the pillion. They could then stable their mounts at the Manor House, which was near the Aston Clinton Church.
The children would at first be somewhat disturbed by the mural paintings. A terrifying Satan would be leering at them from some prominent position, while his myrmidons might be shown forking sinners down to hell fire. The Church, even then, believed in visual education and the grotesqueness of the illustrations emphasised the sombre teaching.
During the reign of the young King Edward there was taken an inventory of the Church property and the Commissioners received all the candlesticks, etc., and even the four bells hanging in the steeple. They returned only the bare minimum of necessities of worship, i.e., the Chalice and Platen, a surplice and some linen cloth, - and the bells as an afterthought. Richard would have to witness this ceremony in his capacity of an officer of the Church.
He was becoming ambitious and was growing affluent enough to consider the possibility of purchasing the Manor from the King. At the same time he was educating his boys for a higher status in society. Indeed, his eldest son Henry, had some training in Law before the death of his father in 1553, the year that saw the accession of Queen Mary.
Though frugal, both Richard and Ellen, were kindly natured as the peasants around found to their own comfort. In his Will, Richard's bequests to them were to a degree generous, a shilling then being £10 value in present day economy. To his family, the following bequests were made:
"To Alis my daughter, 20 marks when she marries; (1 mark = 13s 4d)
To Agnes, £12 when 19; - to Cecilly and Letise £10 each
To John, my farm at Dongrove when 23, but if he die before age, the same to Henry, my son;
To Richard, my tenement in Cholesbury when 23;
To Ellyn, my wife and Henry, my son, the rents of my said houses and lands towards bringing up my children."
There were other numerous sums to be paid as legacies to servants, god-children, etc., and furthermore he desired to rest in Aston Clinton Churchyard, where he was buried in 1553.
It is noteworthy that "the managing wife" secured to herself 50% of the estate during her lifetime. Maybe this was to safeguard the affairs of the farm now nominally in the hands of her young son.

Children Henry (ca1529-1602)
John (~1532->1599)
Alice (~1535-)
Richard (ca1540-1632)
Agnes (~1545-1567)
Cicely (~1547-<1599)
Lettice (~1549-)
Thomas (~1550-~1578)