How to write the history of a parish

by J. Charles Cox

Heraldic Church Notes. In the different heraldic visitation books, especially those temp. Elizabeth, which have been previously described, there often occur interesting church notes, which not only detail heraldic glass in the windows and arms on the monuments, but also occasionally give inscriptions that have long since disappeared. These can only be found by a careful inspection of the heralds’ register books of the county in which the parish is situated.

Commonwealth Survey. In pursuance of various ordinances of the Parliament, a complete survey of the possessions of Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, and of all benefices, was made in 1650, by specially appointed Commissioners. These interesting returns, filling twenty-one large folio volumes, are in the library of Lambeth Palace, and numbered in the catalogue of MSS. from 902 to 922. These surveys have hitherto been singularly overlooked by county historians and ecclesiologists, though occasional extracts have been published from a much-abbreviated and inaccurate summary, based on these documents, which forms No. 459 of the Lansdowne MSS. in the B. M.

The Record Books of the Commonwealth Commissioners for augmenting Rectories and Vicarages (MSS. 966-1,021); the original Presentations to various benefices from 1652 to 1659 (MSS. 944-7); and Counterparts of leases of Church Lands, made by authority of Parliament from 1652 to 1658 (MSS. 948-50), are also in Lambeth Library.

Briefs. Royal Letters Patent, authorising collections for charitable purposes within churches, were termed “Briefs.” Lists of them, from the time of Elizabeth downwards, are often to be found on the fly-leaves of old register books, or in churchwardens’ accounts. The repair or rebuilding of churches in post-Reformation days, until nearly the beginning of the Catholic Revival, was almost invariably effected by this method. About the middle of last century, owing to the growing frequency of Briefs, it was ordered that they should only be granted on the formal application of Quarter Sessions. Much information as to the condition of the fabrics and other particulars relative to churches can be gathered from the petitions to Quarter Sessions, in those counties where the documents are accessible. The Briefs themselves were issued from the Court of Chancery, so we suppose they would be attainable at the P. R. O. At the B. M. is a large collection of original Briefs, from 1754 down to their abolition in 1828. They were presented to the Museum in 1829, by Mr. J. Stevenson Salt.

Advowson. The history of the advowson, if the living remained a rectory, was almost invariably intermixed with that of the manor or the moieties of the manor. Consequently it will be found, that, in the case of rectories, various particulars as to the owners of the advowson, and its value, at different periods, can be gleaned from the Inquisitions, and from the Patent and Close Rolls to which references have already been made; or, in the case of litigation, from the Plea Rolls and Year Books. If the living became at any time a Vicarage, care should be taken to look through the particulars given by Dugdale and Tanner, of the religious house to which the big tithes were appropriated, and more especially to carefully search the chartularies of that establishment, if any are extant. There is an excellent list of the various monastic Chartularies, i.e., ancient parchment books, containing transcripts or abstracts of the charters of the different houses, in the first two volumes of Nichols’ “Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” and a shorter one in Sims’ “Manual.”

The Ordination of a Vicarage, i.e., the official appropriation of certain parts of the endowment for the sustentation of a vicar, required episcopal confirmation; and these ordinations will usually be found in the Episcopal Registers, if they are extant for the date when the rectory was formally appropriated. These ordinations often contain information of great interest, and have hitherto been very rarely searched for, and still more rarely printed.

The terms used in these documents for different sorts of tithes, for the various produce of the soil, etc., etc., will be sought for in vain in any ordinary Latin Dictionary; for their explanation it will be necessary to consult a Glossary of mediæval or monastic terms. The most handy and accurate is the abridged edition of the Glossaries of Du Cange, Du Fresne, etc., in six vols. 8vo., published at Halle, between 1722-1784. Some such work will also be found indispensable in consulting the monastic Chartularies and many of the Records and Rolls. The majority of the terms will be found in the last two editions of Cowel’s “Interpreter,” 1708, and 1737, which can much more readily be met with than the larger glossaries; but there is great need for a one volume compendious glossary, and it is hoped that such a work may shortly be published.

Lists of Incumbents. Lists of rectors and vicars, giving the date of their institution, and the names of their respective patrons, are indispensable to a complete parochial history. They are, for the most part, to be obtained from the diocesan registers. This work, in several dioceses, will be found to involve no small labour, for Bishop’s registrars were not always particular to separate institutions from other Episcopal acts, and occasionally placed them in precise chronological order for the whole diocese, without any regard to archdeaconries and other minor divisions. But the trouble will be amply repaid by the numerous quaint and interesting little details that the searcher will be almost sure to discover. Many of our episcopal registers, or act books, are of supreme interest, and yet they are perhaps less known than any class of original documents. The dates at which these registers begin average about the year 1300. We give, for the first time in any manual, their respective initial years:—Canterbury, 1279; London, 1306; Winchester, 1282; Ely 1336; Lincoln, 1217; Lichfield, 1296; Wells, 1309; Salisbury, 1296; Exeter, 1257; Norwich, 1299; Worcester, 1268; Hereford, 1275; Chichester, 1397; Rochester, 1319; York, 1214; and Carlisle, 1292. The old registers of Durham are mostly lost, that of Bishop Kellaw, 1311-18, being the oldest. None of the Welsh Cathedrals have any registers older than the 16th century.

Gaps are not unusual in the episcopal registers for some time subsequent to the Reformation, when the books were often kept in a slovenly fashion. These deficiencies can be generally supplied from the lists of institutions in the Augmentation Books at the P. R. O.

It is scarcely necessary to say that no list of incumbents should be considered complete, until it has been carefully collated with the parish registers.