The little-known Recusant Rolls of the time of Elizabeth, give information as to the humblest as well as the wealthiest parishioner who refused to attend the services of the Established Church. These, and many other similar class of documents, relative to the fining and other grievous penalties attached to profession of the Roman Catholic faith, extending up to a recent date, are to be found at the P. R. O.
Records of Attainders, Forfeitures, Sequestrations, and Pardons, some from the time of Edward II., will also be found at the same office, and may be consulted with advantage by those tracing personal history, if there is any cause to suspect their complicity in any of the multitude of baronial feuds, rebellions, or religious persecutions that led to the existence of so large a class of offenders. Sims’ “Manual” should be consulted for exhaustive lists of this class of documents, as well as for numerous lists of Gentry and Freeholders of different dates, pertaining to their respective counties.
Muster Rolls, which give the names, rank, dwelling, and often other particulars, of those able to bear arms in each county, may be of interest to the local historian. The earliest of these returns, now at the P. R. O., are of the reign of Henry III.; there are great deficiencies up to the time of Henry VIII., but from that reign to the time of Charles II, they are very voluminous. Lists of Sheriffs, Members of Parliament, and Mayors of Boroughs, have been printed for almost every county from an early date, and can readily be found at public libraries. The names of lords of the manor, or other individuals connected with the special parish treated of, should always be collated with such lists, in order to see if they held any of these important offices.
County Records. The various documents that are or ought to be in charge of the Clerk of the Peace, relative to all the multifarious business transacted at Quarter Sessions, contain much that is of value relative to personal or local history. But it would only be tantalising to enumerate the different class of records that should be in the custody of the county officials, for in the great majority of cases they are in so much confusion as to be practically useless for any literary purpose. Among the exceptions may be mentioned Leicestershire and Derbyshire, in the latter of which counties they have been recently admirably arranged; and also, to a certain extent, Devonshire, the salient points of whose records have lately been published—see “Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne,” by A. H. Hamilton, a volume that aptly illustrates local government, and which is useful as showing the class of information that may be gleaned from such documents. They do not, as a rule, extend further back than the time of Elizabeth.
Borough Records. These are in many instances of great antiquity; some charters going back to the time of John. But their condition and value are much varied, and there is no trustworthy general report. It is hoped that a “Borough Records Society” will soon be formed for the publication of our Municipal Archives.
In the six Reports already issued by the Historical Manuscripts Commission the Archives of the following English boroughs have been reported on:—Abingdon, Axbridge, Berwick-on-Tweed, Bridgewater, Bridport, Cambridge, Coventry, Dartmouth, Faversham, Folkestone, Fordwich, High Wycombe, Hythe, Kingston-on-Thames, Launceston, Lydd, Morpeth, New Romney, Norwich, Nottingham, Rye, St. Albans, Sandwich, Tenterden, Totnes, Wallingford, Wells, Weymouth, Winchester, and York.
The Report of the Municipal Corporation Commissioners, 1835, gives certain information, more or less meagre, of all boroughs. See also Merewether and Stephen’s “History of the Boroughs and Municipal Corporations of the United Kingdom.”
Under the head of Worthies it may be worth while to consider whether the parish has ever had amongst its residents, or on its baptismal registers, the names of men of marked celebrity in any walk of life. Nuttall’s edition of Fuller’s “Worthies of England,” published in 1840, in three vols. 8vo., Wood’s “Athenæ,” and any good Biographical Dictionaries (e.g. Chalmers’), should be consulted.
