"my ghostlie father"

[ElizabethHerts]

I'm transcribing a will from 1559 and the testator is saying:

"And also I make and ordayne my ov’seers &c Roger Whelar my ghostlie father and Hughe Swayne my brother"

I haven't seen this before. I have googled and I taken Roger Whelar to be a priest. Is this correct?

[ElizabethHerts]

Yes, he was obviously the vicar at Cocking during that period.

http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/locations/index.jsp?locUnitKey=14294

[kiterunner]

Chambers Dictionary gives "spiritual" as an obsolete definition of "ghostly".

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks, Kate. Well, you learn something new every day!

[Nell]

Romeo called Friar Lawrence "my ghostly father" in Romeo & Juliet.