[11] In many cases the name “Butts” refers to the fact of the land, under the common-field system, abutting on meadows or roads, e.g. “Butt-close,” in the parish of St. Mary Bourne.
APPENDIX
BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS RELATING TO PAROCHIAL HISTORY
To anyone who sets himself the task of writing a history of his village, the following notes may be useful. With regard to the etymology of the name, concerning which absurd errors are made in most guide books and old county histories, it would be well to consult Canon Taylor’s Words and Places, being careful to study the earliest form of the word in Domesday and old documents. Bede’s History, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and other old English chronicles, published by Bohn, may contain some allusions to the parish and neighbourhood, and also Kemble’s Saxons in England. The Domesday Book is, of course, a mine of wealth. The Public Record Office contains many documents which will be of great service—the Testa de Neville (Edward II.), Marshall Rolls, Nonarum Inquisitiones, Pipe Rolls, Patent Rolls, Close Rolls, Hundred Rolls, Inquisitiones post-mortem, and the Feet of Fines. The Manor Court Rolls, if they still exist, in the custody of the lord of the manor, should also be consulted. The journals of local antiquarian societies and county histories will of course be examined. The history of the families connected with the parish must be traced. The British Museum and the College of Arms contain fine collections of Heralds’ Visitations, and Burke’s Landed Gentry and Dugdale’s Baronage are the chief sources of information. Old wills will yield much information, many of which are in course of publication by the Index Society, and county archaeolgical journals; and Somerset House and many diocesan registries contain the original documents. The Historical Manuscripts Commission has published many volumes of borough records which are of great service, and the lives of any great men connected with the parish may be studied in the Dictionary of National Biography. As we have already pointed out, the parish chest contains valuable sources of information upon the history of the village, and its contents should be carefully examined.
The registers of the diocese contain many documents relating to the ecclesiastical history of the parish, and from them we can obtain a list of the rectors or vicars. If the church was connected with any monastery, Dugdale’s Monasticon will furnish some information. The Public Record Office contains the documents Taxatio Ecclesiastica P. Nicholai IV. and Valor Ecclesiasticus, which give an account of the value of the first-fruits and tenths, and also some volumes on the sale of chantries, and the inventories of church goods. The name of the saint to whom the church is dedicated must not always be accepted, in spite of years of usage, and should be confirmed by reference to some early will of a chief person of the village buried in the church, which usually gives the name of the patron saint. The story of the church writ in stone should be traced by the various styles of architecture, with the help of Rickman’s Gothic Architecture or Parker’s Glossary of Gothic Architecture. If there has ever been a monastery in the parish, Dugdale’s Monasticon should be consulted; and if there are any remains of a castle, Clark’s Mediaeval Military Architecture in England will be useful. Prehistoric remains, such as barrows, earthworks, pit dwellings, and caves should be described; also any Roman roads and villas; the flora and fauna of the neighbourhood, geology, folklore, and dialect.
The following books are recommended:—
Evans’ Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain.
Evans’ Ancient Bronze Implements.
Boyd Dawkins’ Cave Hunting.
Boyd Dawkins’ Early Man in Britain.
Greenwell’s British Barrows.
Fergusson’s Rude Stone Monuments.
Cox’s How to Write the History of a Parish.
Wright’s Essays on Archaeological Subjects.
Parker’s Mediaeval Domestic Architecture.
Sims’ Manual for the Topographer and Genealogist.
Burn’s History of Parish Registers.
Seebohm’s English Village Community.
Toulmin Smith’s English Gilds.
Haine’s Manual of Monumental Brasses.
Bloxam’s Principles of Gothic Architecture.
Tanner’s Notitia Monastica.
Cutts’ Middle Ages.
Lee’s Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical Terms.