How to write the history of a parish

by J. Charles Cox

If there is a castle, or its relics, within the parish, the probability is considerable that it has already been well described by a county historian, or in one or other of the numerous journals of our Archæological societies. But it is equally probable that its history has not been thoroughly written, and special search should be made with that object at the P. R. O., beginning with the indexes to the printed calendars already enumerated. There is no one efficient volume treating of our mediæval castles that corresponds with Viollet-le-Duc’s “Military Architecture of the Middle Ages,” but a translation of this French work has been published by Parker, and it would be well to read either that or the original.

Every effort should be made to identify the old manor-house, or its site (often marked by a grass grown moat), and this should of course be done with each manor, where, as is usually the case, the parish has contained more than one. Oral tradition, in this as in other particulars, will often be found a useful handmaid. Should the exterior of the reputed manor-house be altogether unpromising, that should not check further investigation. Several instances are known to us in which modern brick casing or sash windows are but a screen to some of the oldest domestic architecture extant, which may be found in the back premises or outbuildings, or contain fine old chimney-pieces, carved oak panelling, or ceilings of elaborate pargetting. Nor should attention be only directed to manor-houses. All old domestic work is worth chronicling, so rapidly is it disappearing both in town and country; and the annalist of a parish should not be above transcribing all the initials and dates so frequently seen on lintel stones. As a rule, every house or cottage, not obviously modern, that has stone buttresses, a moulded wall-plate or string-course, or bevelled stone mullions to the windows, is worthy of careful examination. Many interesting details, such as the site of chantry-houses, may be thus brought to light, and the history in stone, and the history on parchment, be found to tally in unexpected ways.

Domestic architecture should always be described by the century, and not by the “periods” into which ecclesiastical architecture is usually divided. The only book worth purchasing on the subject, is the somewhat costly but admirable four volume edition of Parker’s “Mediæval Domestic Architecture.” For the general “History of Architecture,” both civil and religious, of all ages and countries, nothing can surpass Fergusson’s last edition in four volumes, published by Murray in 1874.

Personal History.

The pedigrees and brief particulars of the Nobility can be readily found. The most useful standard works are Dugdale’s “Baronage,” Collins’ “Peerage and Baronetage,” Banks’ “Dormant and Extinct Baronage,” and the “Baronagium Genealogicum,” or pedigrees of English Peers, in five folio volumes, by Joseph Edmondson. Burke’s “Landed Gentry” gives much information with respect to the principal families of commoners, but the earlier genealogical statements that he prints are often purely mythical. Several indexes to the many thousands of printed pedigrees that are scattered up and down in topographical and other works have been published, of a more or less faulty and incomplete description, but a work of this class, now (1879) in the press, entitled “The Genealogist’s Guide,” by Mr. George W. Marshall, promises to be all that can be desired.

But a large portion of family history and pedigree, which will often be essential to the elucidation of the monumental history of a parish, to completing the links in lists of the lords of the manor, or furnishing particulars with regard to smaller landholders, yet remains in MS. The most accurate of such MSS. are at the College of Arms, and are not ordinarily accessible except on payment of fees; but there is a fine collection of heraldic visitations at the B. M., the chief of which are among the Harleian MSS.

Heralds’ Visitations are said to have commenced in the reign of Henry IV., but it was not until 20 Henry VIII. that a commission proceeding from royal authority was issued. From then until the latter half of the seventeenth century, visitations were made every twenty-five or thirty years. The register books, kept by the heralds and their assistants, contain the pedigrees and arms of the gentry of the respective counties, and are often also illustrated by copies and excerpts from charters and private documents. Many of these books are lost, and the rest scattered throughout public and private libraries. The archives of the College of Arms have the most important collection, and next comes the B. M. There are a large number at the B., fifty-four volumes in the library of Caius College, Cambridge, and forty in that of the Queen’s College, Oxford. The earliest heralds’ registers for the counties of Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucester, Hampshire, Kent, Notts, Oxford, Surrey, Sussex, Wilts, Worcester, and Yorks, are of the year 1530; for Berks, Devon, and Somerset, 1531; for Cheshire and Lancashire, 1533; for Essex and Herts, 1552; for Suffolk, 1561; for Lincoln, 1562; for Leicester, Norfolk, Stafford, and Warwick, 1563; for Hunts, and Northampton, 1564; for Beds, and Bucks, 1566; for Derby, Hereford, and Salop, 1569; for Middlesex, 1572; for Cambridge, Durham, and Northumberland, 1575; for Cumberland and Westmoreland, 1615; and for Rutland, 1618. The last visitation of several counties was taken in 1634, but the majority were visited in 1662-4; and the last of all was that of the county of Southampton, made by Sir Henry St. George, in 1686. The general genealogist and antiquary cannot but long for the issue of another royal commission, whereby the heralds might be empowered, as of old, to destroy all false and self-assumed arms, whether on carriages, plate, or monuments.

Sims’ “Index to the Pedigrees and Arms” contained in the Heralds’ Visitations in the B. M., is an accurate and useful book of reference. The “Manual for the Topographer and Genealogist,” by the same gentleman, is quite indispensable. Careful lists of family histories, of all the principal topographical works, and of all MSS. of worth in public libraries, are therein classified under the different counties.

Wills are too obvious a source of information to need a word of comment. At Somerset House is the most important and largest collection, viz., those of the province of Canterbury. The original wills in this office begin in 1404, and the transcripts in 1383. They are complete only from December, 1660. In the office at York, for that province, the wills begin in 1590, and the transcripts in 1389. Owing to the probate privileges enjoyed by the various ecclesiastical courts, there were not only registries for wills in every diocese, but numerous peculiar and exempt jurisdictions in each diocese. The dates at which wills begin in the different minor registries are so very varied, and their condition and facilities, or even possibilities, of search so multifarious, that it is impossible to give any useful abstract. The Report on Public Records for 1837, and Sir Harris Nicolas’ “Notitia Historica,” should be consulted. The power of probate was taken away from the ecclesiastical courts by the Act of 1857.