ENThe Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family HistoryOxford University PressOxford University Press

The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History

© Oxford University Press 2000, 2003
Published by Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organisation. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department Oxford University Press.

Look up a word or term
Look up an abbreviation
Look up a person
Look up a foreign word
Look up a publication

A

abbey.

A major monastery, ruled over by an abbot. The Cistercian and Premonstratensian foundations were abbeys, whereas the Cluniac and Carthusian houses were priories dependent on the original monastery of their order. The Benedictines, Augustinians, and Gilbertines had both abbeys and priories.

Back  -    New Search

abstract.

A summary of a document.

Back  -    New Search

accompt.

Archaic form of ‘account’.

Back  -    New Search

accounts, medieval.

The survival rate of annual accounts for medieval estates varies from one part of the country to another. For Norfolk alone almost 2,000 accounts are extant for the period 1238–1450, representing some 219 different demesnes, 60 per cent of them with fewer than five compotus rolls. On the other hand, in the remote north-west and south-west of England hardly any accounts survive.

Back  -    New Search

achievement of arms.

The complete representation of the heraldic insignia of a family, including the coat of arms, crest, helmet, mantling, torse, and motto. The achievement of a peer also includes chapeau, coronet, supporters, and compartment.

Back  -    New Search

acre.

Originally an approximate measure of land which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, it was standardized by Edward I (1272–1307) as a unit of 4,840 square yards. However, in northern and western England, and in Scotland and Ireland, the customary acre remained much larger.

Back  -    New Search

act books.

Records which summarize the procedure in a case before an ecclesiastical court, particularly during the second half of the 16th century and much of the 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

Acts of Parliament.

Statute Rolls, which contain all Acts of Parliament since 1500, are housed in the House of Lords Record Office. Acts which have not been printed may also be seen there. Public Acts from 1485 to 1702 have been printed as Statutes of the Realm, and from 1702 as Statutes at Large. Local, Personal and Private Acts from 1797 are kept among the Parliament Rolls in the Public Record Office. Printed sets of Local and Personal Acts are available at the British Library. Many local record offices and libraries have printed copies of local Acts, e.g. those relating to parliamentary enclosure, turnpike roads, etc.

Back  -    New Search

Adams , John: Index Villaris.

A list of the market towns of England and Wales, compiled by John Adams (fl. 1680). The second edition, published in London in 1690, is the more useful.

Back  -    New Search

administration, letters of and bonds.

When a person died without making a will, or if the named executors were unavailable, the next-of-kin, a friend, or a creditor could apply to a probate court for letters of administration of the estate. The applicant had to swear that he would discharge all funeral expenses and debts and would submit a true and perfect inventory and an account of his stewardship. He was sometimes required to enter into a bond.
Administration Acts (the records of the above, known as Admons.) are kept with wills in diocesan record offices. They were written in Latin until 1733. A probate inventory is often attached.

Back  -    New Search

Admiralty, High Court of.

The court with jurisdiction in cases involving piracy, privateering, and other offences committed on the high seas. It developed into the court which heard all matters relating to the high seas and business abroad. Its records—especially for the period from 1525—are kept at the Public Record Office under HCA 13 (examinations), 15–20 (instance papers), 23 (interrogatories), 24 (libels and answers), and 30 (miscellenea).

Back  -    New Search

adoption.

A register of adoption from 1927 onwards is kept at the General Register Office, St Catherine's House, London. No formal mechanism was available previously, unless the parties drew up a deed. Birth certificates obtained via the Adopted Children's Register at the General Register Office give the dates of birth and adoption and the names of the adopting parents, but not the child's original surname or the names of the natural parents.
The Children Act, which came into force on 12 November 1975, allows an adopted person over the age of 18 to apply for his or her original birth certificate at the General Register Office or by writing to the General Register Office (CA side), PO Box 7, Titchfield, Fareham, Hampshire PO15 5RU. An applicant who was adopted before 12 November 1975 will be interviewed by an experienced social worker before a certificate is issued. A person adopted after that date can decide whether or not to be interviewed.
Adoption was not recognized in Scottish law until 1930. Records of adoption in the Court of Sessions and Sheriff Court are kept in the Scottish Record Office, but information is supplied (by order of the court) only if the adopted child has reached the age of 17.

Back  -    New Search

Advent.

In the ecclesiastical calendar, the season immediately preceding the festival of the Nativity, including the four Sundays before Christmas. Because it was regarded as a time for fasting and repentance, this was a prohibited season for marriages.

Back  -    New Search

advowson.

The right to appoint a priest to a benefice, especially a parish church.

Back  -    New Search

affeerers.

The officers appointed by a manorial court to fix the amount of the fines for offences.

Back  -    New Search

affinity.

Relationship through marriage, not through blood, e.g. son-in-law, stepdaughter.

Back  -    New Search

aftermath

(agricultural) . Grass that sprouts anew after the cutting of a crop of hay, suitable for grazing.

Back  -    New Search

agger.

The raised foundations and drainage ditches of a Roman road.

Back  -    New Search

agistment.

1 The right to graze livestock on the commons in the summer.

2 The rate levied or profit made on the grazing of pastures.
Top

Back  -    New Search

agnate.

A relative descended from a common male ancestor.

Back  -    New Search

Agrarian History of England and Wales.

An eight-volume survey under the general editorship of H. P. R. Finberg and Joan Thirsk , published by Cambridge University Press.

Back  -    New Search

Agricultural Depression, the.

This term may refer to the 1930s but more usually relates to the late 1870s.

Back  -    New Search

agricultural labourers.

The distinction between a farm labourer and a farm servant was that a servant was hired on a yearly basis from about the age of 14 and lived on the farm, whereas a labourer was usually a married man, employed on either a regular or a casual basis, who lived elsewhere. In the Tudor and early Stuart period the labouring population of England and Wales probably formed about one quarter or one third of the entire population of the countryside. The figure varied considerably from region to region. As the population recovered to its medieval level, so the proportion of labourers grew.
The term ‘labourer’—the ‘ag. labs’ of census returns and parish registers—covered a wide variety of conditions. The labourer was usually far removed from the ‘Hodge’ stereotype of his social superiors, for he had to possess a variety of skills.

Back  -    New Search

agricultural statistics.

The 1801 crop returns, which are housed in the Public Record Office under HO 67, are responses on printed forms to government enquiries sent to local clergymen. They are arranged by dioceses and parishes and note the acreages devoted to specific crops, often including general remarks. From 1866 to the present day annual summaries of the livestock kept and crops grown in each parish have been returned to the central government. Those from 1866 to 1963 are kept at the PRO under MAF 68.

Back  -    New Search

ague.

Archaic term for acute fever, with cold, hot, and sweating stages. It is also used for malaria, caught in fens and marshes.

Back  -    New Search

aid.

1 A tax or subsidy paid to the Crown.

2 A feudal due paid by a tenant to a lord. It was limited by Magna Carta (1215) to ransom, the knighting of the lord's eldest son, and the marriage of the lord's eldest daughter. Feudal aids were abolished in 1660.
Top

Back  -    New Search

aisled hall.

A superior form of medieval open hall, where the roof-truss is extended to the wall-plates of aisles so as to provide extra space.

Back  -    New Search

alabaster.

A translucent white or nearly white form of gypsum (sulphate of lime), sometimes flecked with red, and much used in the past, particularly in England, for statuary and other decorative purposes. It was quarried mainly in the Trent valley.

Back  -    New Search

alderman.

1 The Old English title (ealdorman) for a royal official comparable with the post-Conquest sheriff.

2 A senior member of a medieval guild or, by extension, borough, elected by his fellows. This system was also used by 19th- and 20th-century county or borough councils.
Top

Back  -    New Search

alehouses.

The licensing system began in 1495, but most licences were issued after the passing of another Act in 1552. Amongst the records of quarter sessions are those of special sittings known as brewster sessions, when each constable had to present a list of the names of licensed innkeepers and alehouse keepers in his township. In these records, alehouse keepers are often listed as ‘tipplers’, without the modern connotation of the word. An Act of 1753 required all clerks of the peace to keep registers of licensed victuallers. The term ‘alehouse’ was gradually replaced by ‘public house’ during the course of the 18th century. The Beer Act (1830) brought free trade to the brewing industry.

Back  -    New Search

ale-taster.

A manorial officer responsible for the taste and correct measurement of ale.

Back  -    New Search

alias

(Lat. ‘otherwise’) . Aliases were used in cases of illegitimacy, upon the remarriage of a parent, upon inheriting property from a female relative, etc. In some cases the alias form was inherited for several generations and was thus similar to a double-barrelled surname. See also DEED POLL.

Back  -    New Search

alienation

(legal) . The transfer of ownership.

Back  -    New Search

aliens, returns of.

The Public Record Office Records Information leaflet no. 10, ‘Immigrants: Documents in the Public Record Office’ gives full details of the available public records concerning aliens.

Back  -    New Search

allegations, marriage.

A statement made on oath, or affidavit, in order to obtain a marriage licence.

Back  -    New Search

allotment.

1 A piece of land awarded by commissioners under the terms of an Act of Enclosure.

2 A plot of land for growing vegetables. A few allotments were provided for agricultural labourers in the late 18th century, but the impetus to provide such plots grew after the Napoleonic wars. An enquiry in 1833 showed that 42 per cent of parishes had some allotments. The Allotments Act (1887) enabled local authorities to purchase land for allotments. By 1900 there were nearly half a million allotments in England and Wales. The number increased during the First World War and reached one and a quarter million in the 1920s.
Top

Back  -    New Search

almanac.

Almanacs were very popular from the 17th century onwards. They included a calendar, information on fairs, roads, and posts, advice on farming, historical and scientific information, comments on political and religious matters, sensational news, and astrological predictions. In Victorian times, many small towns published their own annual almanac, keeping much of the old format but adding short articles and poems, often written in dialect. Some of these were published into the second half of the 20th century.

Back  -    New Search

almshouse.

A charitable foundation for the care of the poor, especially the elderly. In the Middle Ages almshouses were known alternatively as hospitals or maisons dieu. They were supervised by a warden or master and contained an infirmary hall and a chapel. Many were dissolved at the Reformation. The Elizabethans re-established some of the old almshouses and founded many new ones by private benefaction. Many examples survive from the 17th and 18th centuries. Many more almshouses were founded on traditional lines during the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

altar.

The focal point of a church for the celebration of the mass or communion. The altar took the form of a stone slab, with four small incised crosses in each corner, and another in the centre, supported on a rectangular stone base. Other altars were placed in chantry chapels. At the Reformation it was ordered that altar stones should be removed and destroyed; nevertheless, a considerable number survive.

Back  -    New Search

alum

was used by dyers and tanners as a binding agent.

Back  -    New Search

Amateur Historian.

The journal for local historians set up by the Standing Conference for Local History, and first published in August–September 1952. In 1968 it became The Local Historian.

Back  -    New Search

amercement.

The fine for an offence at a manorial court leet. The jurors presented the offender, the steward declared him to be ‘in mercy’ of the court, and the amount of the amercement was then decided.

Back  -    New Search

Anabaptist.

Originally, a name given to several unorthodox Protestant sects in Europe, who shared in common a rejection of infant baptism. In the British Isles the term was used in a derogatory way in the 16th and 17th centuries for a Baptist and, more loosely, for other Protestant dissenters.

Back  -    New Search

ancient demesne.

Manors which belonged to the Crown during the reigns of Edward the Confessor and William I, which retained certain privileges.

Back  -    New Search

angel

(monetary) . A gold coin bearing the image of St Michael the Archangel slaying the dragon, introduced in the reign of Edward IV (1461–83), and valued at 6s. 8d. It was known originally as the angelnoble, being a new issue of the noble. It ceased to be legal tender in the reign of Charles I (1625–49). It was the coin given to those who were touched for the King's Evil.

Back  -    New Search

annuity.

An annual sum of money, payable for either a fixed term, or for life, or in perpetuity. The first state life annuities were granted in the 1690s. The records, which are kept at the Public Record Office under NDO 1–3, give names, addresses, ages at entry, and the dates of last payments, together with some marriages, deaths, and wills. Most of the annuitants who are recorded as such in census returns, parish registers, etc. received their annuities from private settlements.

Back  -    New Search

apothecaries.

The London Company of Apothecaries, incorporated in 1606, was empowered in 1815 to license apothecaries throughout England and Wales and to enforce a five-year apprenticeship. The records of the Company date from 1670 and are kept at the Guildhall Library, London. The apothecary may be seen as the forerunner of the general practitioner in medicine.

Back  -    New Search

apparitor.

The messenger who summoned people to appear before an ecclesiastical court.

Back  -    New Search

appraiser.

A valuer of property, e.g. one who drew up a probate inventory.

Back  -    New Search

apprenticeship.

The Statute of Apprentices of 1563, which forbade anyone to enter a trade without serving an apprenticeship, remained on the statute book until 1814, though it was modified by later Acts and by legal judgments. The apprenticeship indenture was a legal document which bound a boy to a master, with a premium paid to the master by the boy's parents (or, in the case of paupers, by the overseer of the poor). Large numbers of apprenticeship indentures survive in assorted collections in county record offices. At the Society of Genealogists ‘Crisp's Bonds’ lists some 18,000 apprenticeships between 1641 and 1888.
An Act of 1710 made stamp duty payable on indentures of apprenticeship. Registers of money received were kept from 1710 to 1811. These ‘Apprenticeship Books’ may be consulted at the Public Record Office, where they are classified as IR 1. They record the names, addresses, and trades of the masters, the names of the apprentices, and the dates of the indentures. Until 1752 the names of the parents of the apprentices are also given. Indexes of masters' names, 1710–62, and of apprentices' names, 1710–74, are available at the Society of Genealogists, and at the Public Record Office under IR 17.

Back  -    New Search

appropriation

(in church documents) . The transfer to a monastic house or other religious institution of the tithes and other endowments of a parish.

Back  -    New Search

appurtenances.

The rights and duties appended to an agreement over holding land, especially within a manor.

Back  -    New Search

apse.

A semi-circular or polygonal recess, with an arched or domed roof, especially at the eastern end of the chancel of a church.

Back  -    New Search

archdeaconries and deaneries.

The large dioceses of the medieval church were subdivided into smaller administrative units, some of which survive to this day. A bishop delegated administrative authority over parts of his diocese to a number of archdeacons. In turn, an archdeaconry was subdivided into rural deaneries, each of which comprised a group of parishes. The archdeacon was charged with visiting each of his parishes from time to time in order to ensure that churches were kept in good repair, that services were being conducted upon approved lines, and that scandalous behaviour was being punished.

Back  -    New Search

archery.

In late medieval England practice with the longbow was a statutory requirement. Fear of French invasion prompted the revival of the statute in 1543. Men in every town and village were required to practice at the butts after attending church on Sundays and holidays. The statute fell into abeyance during the 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

Arches, Court of.

The provincial court of appeal of the Province of Canterbury. The records of this court are kept at Lambeth Palace Library.

Back  -    New Search

archive.

A historical document. The plural form is also applied to the place where such documents are housed, e.g. a county record office.

Back  -    New Search

armiger.

Someone who is entitled to bear a coat of arms, an esquire.

Back  -    New Search

armory.

Heraldry; armorial bearings.

Back  -    New Search

Arms, College of.

The corporation of heralds, founded in 1483–4. The College is situated in Queen Victoria Street, London EC4. Its registers include grants made or confirmed to English and Welsh families from the 15th century to the present day.

Back  -    New Search

army records.

See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet no. 59, ‘British Army Records as Sources for Biography and Genealogy’.
Personal information about officers should be first sought in the published Army Lists, which are available from 1754 in the larger public reference libraries. Manuscript lists of army officers from 1702 to 1752 (with an index) are kept in the Public Record Office under WO 64. Genealogical information about officers was seldom recorded by the army before the early 19th century, from which time several series of records, especially those kept under WO 25 and WO 76, are more informative. These give date and place of birth, and the dates of marriage and the births of children.
The attestation and discharge documents in WO 97 provide a detailed record of service, nearly always with the place of birth, age on enlistment, and a physical description. From 1833 they also note details of next-of-kin, wives, and children. Three series deal with soldiers discharged from 1756 to 1872, 1873 to 1882, and 1883 to 1913. Unfortunately, the records of soldiers who died whilst serving have been destroyed. Regimental pay lists and muster rolls are available in annual bound volumes from 1732 to 1878 under WO 12 and from 1878 to 1898 under WO 16. Description books, which give a physical description of a soldier, together with his age, place of birth, trade, and length of service, are available for the period 1756–1900 under WO 25, though many regiments have records only for the first half of the 19th century.
Soldiers who completed their term of service or who became invalids received a pension or institutional care in the Royal Hospitals at Chelsea and Kilmainham. Admission books for out-pensioners in the 18th and 19th centuries are housed under WO 116 to 118. Records of inpensioners are kept under WO 23. See the PRO Records Information leaflet no. 123. See also leaflet no. 84 for court-martial records.
The General Register Office at St Catherine's House, London stores the regimental registers of 1761–1924, which record the births, marriages, and deaths of soldiers who were stationed in the United Kingdom. The marriage records also note the names, births, and baptisms of any children who were born to a given marriage. The Army Register Book (1881–1959) notes genealogical details of the families of those serving overseas. From 1959 the entries of births, marriages, and deaths of the members of the families of those serving in all three forces—Army, Navy, RAF—are combined.

Back  -    New Search

Array, Commission of.

In the late 13th century, in order to raise an army from each shire in times of emergency, Edward I appointed commissioners from the ranks of the barons, knights of the shire, and officers of the royal household to choose from the muster rolls the required number of men from each township. Musters of males aged between 15 and 60 were held twice a year in every hundred or liberty. Wages were paid to men who had to serve abroad, but each man was expected to provide his own equipment. This system of providing against emergency survived until 1551, when the commission was replaced by lords lieutenant.

Back  -    New Search

Artificers, Statute of

(1563). An Act which ordered that the level of wages should be determined by Justices of the Peace, that the hours of labour should be limited to 12 in the summer and to daylight in the winter, that servants should be hired for at least a year, and that apprentices should serve seven years. Some of its provisions were difficult to enforce.

Back  -    New Search

artisan.

A skilled craft worker. The term was used particularly in the 19th century. Artisans provided the leadership of working-class political reform groups.

Back  -    New Search

Ashkenazic Jews.

Those Jews who came from Germany and other parts of eastern, central, and northern Europe. They spoke Yiddish, a form of German written in Hebrew characters.

Back  -    New Search

ashlar.

Freestone; smoothly cut stone for building purposes, introduced into Britain by the Normans.

Back  -    New Search

assart.

A piece of land, often of irregular shape, brought into cultivation from the waste, especially woodland. The term is usually applied to a medieval clearance.

Back  -    New Search

assembly rooms.

By the middle of the 18th century most towns of a reasonable size had their assembly rooms. The regular assemblies formed the weekly basis of the social round, but others were held on special occasions, e.g. at the meetings of quarter sessions, or during race week.

Back  -    New Search

Assize, Courts of.

Sessions of courts presided over by judges on circuit in England and Wales which tried capital and other serious offences, including homicide, infanticide, rape, robbery, burglary, larceny, and arson, offences which were too serious to be tried at quarter sessions. The assize judges also tried a variety of civil cases.
The assize circuits that remained in use until 1876 had been defined by the 14th century. England was divided into six circuits beyond London and Middlesex: the Home, Midland, Western, Oxford, Norfolk, and Northern. These were modified between 1876 and 1893 but were subsequently unaltered until the merger of assize and quarter-sessions courts in 1971. After the Union with England in 1536, Wales was divided into four assize circuits: Chester, North Wales, Brecon, and Carmarthen. The records of the assize courts are held in the Public Record Office under Assi. 44, etc.

Back  -    New Search

Assize of Mort D'ancestor.

A court for determining a claim to inheritance, founded in 1176 and abolished in 1833. Most cases were brought by manorial lords in order to repossess property upon the death of a tenant.

Back  -    New Search

Assize of Novel Disseisin.

A procedure established in 1176 and abolished in 1833, whereby a tenant who had been removed from his holding could have his case dealt with speedily.

Back  -    New Search

Association Oath rolls.

After a plot to assassinate William III in 1696, an Act of Association required all office-holders to take a solemn oath of association by which they vowed to help preserve King William III's person and government. The names of the oath-takers in each parish, and in the livery companies of the City of London, are recorded under C 213 at the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

asylum, lunatic.

The earliest asylums were private or charitable institutions. An Act of 1828 empowered Justices of the Peace to erect and maintain asylums from county rates; another Act of 1845 compelled them to do so. Records of this period will be found amongst those of the quarter sessions. In 1888 responsibility was transferred to county and borough councils, until the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948.
For England and Wales few records of a personal nature appear to survive; others are unavailable until they are 100 years old. If the approximate date of admission to an asylum is known, it is worth searching the registers compiled by the Lunacy Commissioners, and from 1913 the Board of Control, for the whole of England and Wales. These are arranged chronologically from 1846 to 1960, and are housed at the Public Record Office under MH 94. Correspondence and papers under MH 51 include files on individual asylums and gaols with insane prisoners. Class MH 83 contains the building records of the county pauper asylums which were erected under the terms of the 1845 Act.
Scotland has few records of asylums before 1858, though the Aberdeen Sheriff Court records include registers of lunatics in asylums between 1800 and 1823 and between 1855 and 1857. From 1857 Scottish asylums were regulated by the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy, whose archives are kept at the Scottish Record Office. These are available only after 75 years. The general register (MC 7) of all lunatics in asylums notes name, date of admission, which asylum, date of discharge or death, and whither removed (if relevant); an index is provided. Notices of Admission (MC 2) record name, age, marital status, previous place of abode, nearest relative, and observations on the mental and physical health of the patient.

Back  -    New Search

attainder.

A person condemned to death or outlawry for treason or felony forfeited both his real and personal estate and, by ‘corruption of blood’, his right to inherit or transmit property. Attainder was ordered either by judicial judgement or, from 1539, by an Act of Parliament (an Act of Attainder). For most crimes attainder was ended by the Forfeiture Act of 1870, but for outlawry it lasted until 1938. Inventories of the goods and chattels of attainted persons are found in the Public Record Office, mainly under E 154.

Back  -    New Search

attorneys.

By the second half of the 17th century attorneys were found occupying important positions in British towns. They were able to make a handsome living from drafting and executing wills, drawing up deeds and settlements, arranging mortgages and loans, giving advice on investments, and by acting as stewards, estate managers, and rent collectors. Since 1875 attorneys have been called solicitors.

Back  -    New Search

auditor.

The Office of the Auditors of Land Revenue formed a subdepartment of the Exchequer from the abolition of the Court of Augmentations in 1554 until 1832. Its records are kept at the Public Record Office under E 299 to 330 and LR 1 to 16.

Back  -    New Search

Augmentations, Court of.

Formed in 1536 upon the dissolution of the monasteries to administer the monastic properties and revenues confiscated by the Crown, the Court was amalgamated with the Exchequer in 1554. Its records are housed in the Public Record Office under E315 and E321. Some of these have been calendared by the List and Index Society.

Back  -    New Search

Augustinians.

Religious communities of regular canons organized according to the rule of St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), which emphasized poverty, celibacy, and obedience. The order was founded in Italy and France in the mid-11th century; the first community in Britain was that of St Botolph's Priory, Colchester, established in 1103. The order was known in Britain as the Austin Canons (after St Augustine) or the Black Canons (from their black outdoor cloaks). They were popular in lay society and had over 200 houses in England, Scotland, and Wales by 1350, and many others in Ireland. The Austin Canons sometimes shared their church with the parishioners. Some canons were seconded to be vicars of parish churches that were under the patronage of the priory. The order also founded hospitals, including St Bartholomew's and St Thomas's in London.

Back  -    New Search

aulnage.

Edward I (1272–1307) appointed aulnagers to give their seal of approval to cloths manufactured to standard sizes and quality. Aulnage was extended to knitted goods in the 16th century. The regulations on size were repealed in 1381, but those on quality remained in force until 1699. The earliest surviving rolls at the Public Record Office give the names of clothiers and the numbers of cloths produced.

Back  -    New Search

average.

The three most commonly used averages in the statistical analysis of historical data are the mean, the median, and the mode. The mean is the arithmetical average; the median is the middle value when all items in a distribution are arranged in order of size; and the modal value is that for which the frequency is greatest.

Back  -    New Search

B

back-to-back housing.

Once the typical working-class accommodation in the industrial towns of northern England. They consisted of one room on the ground floor and one room above. Their walls were shared by three other houses.

Back  -    New Search

badger

(historical) . A dealer in meal, malt, dairy produce, eggs, etc. Badgers had to be licensed at the quarter sessions under an Act of 1563, though those who lived in the northern counties of England were exempt. In time, badgers became general dealers or middlemen.

Back  -    New Search

badging.

Under an Act of 1697 those in receipt of poor relief were supposed to have a letter P and the initial of the parish sewn on to their clothes. Many parishes did not insist on this humiliation. Badging was abolished in 1782.

Back  -    New Search

bailey.

An enclosure within a castle, beyond the keep, containing accommodation, service buildings, etc., and defended by a ditch, rampart, and wall. The larger castles had both an inner and an outer bailey.

Back  -    New Search

bailie.

In Scotland, originally the chief magistrate of a barony or part of a county, equivalent to an English sheriff. Later, a municipal magistrate, equivalent to the English alderman.

Back  -    New Search

bailiff.

1 The holder of a public office in a certain district, e.g. a sheriff or mayor.

2 The agent of the lord of the manor responsible for administering the estate, collecting rents, etc.
Top

3 A court official responsible for executing writs and distraining goods.
Top

Back  -    New Search

bailiwick.

A district or place under the jurisdiction of a bailiff or bailie.

Back  -    New Search

balk.

An unploughed piece of land which formed a boundary between, and provided access to, the furlongs of open-fields. Grass balks did not serve as boundaries between individual strips, as historians once believed, but were sometimes valued as grazing.

Back  -    New Search

ballads.

A high proportion of surviving ballads can be dated, on internal evidence, to the second half of the 16th century and the first part of the 17th century. Thousands of ballads were enrolled by the Company of Stationers during this period.

Back  -    New Search

Band of Hope.

Founded in 1847 as a temperance organization for children.

Back  -    New Search

banking and finance.

Between 1640 and 1670 the City of London developed the three essential functions of the banker: to take deposits, to discount bills, and to issue notes. This movement culminated in the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694, the foundation of the Bank of Scotland in the following year, the emergence of the Stock Exchange, and the reform of the coinage.

Back  -    New Search

bankruptcy.

Records of bankruptcy proceedings are housed at the Public Record Office. From 1571 some conveyances of bankrupts' property can be found in the Close rolls. The Court of Bankruptcy's records are available from 1710, under a 75-years rule. Class B 3, which has been indexed by name, place, and occupation, contains the files of examinations and depositions from 1780 to 1842. B 1 contains the order books from 1710 to 1877, B 6 contains the registers from 1733, and B 7 the minute books from 1714. Some Chancery and Exchequer records contain information about bankruptcy in law cases. Notices of adjudications were, and still are, published in the London Gazette and advertised in local newspapers.
In Scotland, bankruptcy papers prior to 1839 are among the Court of Session records in the Scottish Record Office; a ‘Guide to Scottish Sequestrations, 1839–1913’ is available in the Search Room. In 1883 the Government created a Bankruptcy Department with responsibility for investigating and administering the affairs of insolvent individuals and firms; its records are housed at the Public Record Office under B 11 and 12.

Back  -    New Search

banksman.

The man in charge of the winding gear at a coal mine.

Back  -    New Search

banns of marriage.

The proclamation in church of an intended wedding, in order that those who know of any impediment may object. The banns are read on three successive Sundays in the parish churches of both the bride and the bridegroom. The procedure can be avoided by obtaining a marriage licence.
Between 1653 and 1660, when marriages were civil contracts under the authority of a Justice of the Peace, banns were read either in church on three consecutive Sundays or in the market-place on three successive weekly market days. These banns were sometimes recorded in a separate book and sometimes in the parish register, with the letter M (for market) added.
Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act (1753) regularized the keeping of registers of banns, but only a few books survive. The registering of banns was stopped in 1812 by Rose's Act.

Back  -    New Search

banqueting-house.

In Elizabethan times, a place for an intimate meal. These were special-purpose buildings, sometimes in the form of rooftop towers, sometimes as garden buildings.

Back  -    New Search

baptism customs.

Baptism was held to be essential to salvation in the Middle Ages and was therefore performed as soon as possible after birth. After the Reformation the Book of Common Prayer recommended that baptism should be performed upon a Sunday or holy day, unless it was feared that the infant might die. The interval between birth and baptism varied from parish to parish and over time, but was normally only a few days and rarely more than a fortnight. In the early modern period the custom grew up amongst the gentry of private baptism at home.

Back  -    New Search

Baptists.

The English Baptist movement was founded in exile in Amsterdam in 1611 by a group of Separatists from the Church of England led by John Smith . The following year Thomas Helwys returned to London to establish the first Baptist church in England.
In 1633 a group in Southwark who believed in Calvinistic predestination broke away to form the Particular Baptist Church. Those who remained with the original body became known as the General Baptists. By the late 17th century the Particular Baptists had become the more numerous body. Many General Baptist churches eventually became Unitarian; those that remained formed the General Baptist New Connection in 1770. Splinter groups like the Scotch Baptists continued to form and reform. In 1891 the General and Particular Baptists united in the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Baptist Union Library, 4 Southampton Row, London WC1, incorporates the Baptist Historical Society Library. Other relevant archives are kept at Dr Williams's Library, Gordon Square , London WC1. Registers before 1837 are kept with other Nonconformist records at the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

barbican.

An outer fortification or first line of defence, especially at an entrance to a walled city or a castle, or a temporary wooden tower or bulwark. These structures strengthened defences at weak points, served as watch-towers, and were intended to dictate the approach of enemy forces. They usually date from the 13th or 14th century.

Back  -    New Search

bargain and sale.

A 16th-century method of conveying property by a private agreement drawn up by a lawyer, which was gradually replaced by that of lease and release.

Back  -    New Search

barge board.

A board which covered the end of the rafters in the gable of houses. Such boards were often decorated.

Back  -    New Search

barmote court.

In the Peak District of Derbyshire all lead mining in the King's Field was controlled by barmote courts, which date from at least the 13th century.

Back  -    New Search

Barnardo homes, Dr.

Thomas John Barnardo (1845–1905) founded his first home for destitute children at Stepney in 1870. The archives of this and many subsequent foundations are kept at the University of Liverpool, where those over 100 years old may be consulted, by arrangement. Between 1874 and 1905 the photographic department of Dr Barnardo's Homes took over 55,000 photographs of nearly all the children in the homes, many of whom emigrated to Australia and Canada.

Back  -    New Search

baron.

The lowest rank of the peerage; originally, a rank held by military or other honourable service from the king. The term was introduced after the Norman Conquest to signify a tenant-in-chief of the king below the rank of earl. By the 13th century it was applied only to those lords who were summoned to Parliament. The Great Barons attended the king's Great Council. Most modern titles are not ancient; in 1956 only 144 of the 550 baronies went back beyond 1832. Since 1958 non-hereditary peerages with the rank of baron (or baroness) have also been conferred.

Back  -    New Search

baron and feme.

A legal term. In common law, a man and his wife were considered as one person. (Feme is derived from French femme.) Thus, upon marriage, a woman's personal property became her husband's.

Back  -    New Search

baronet.

The hereditary rank created by James I in 1611 to raise money for troops in Ulster, the fee being £1,095. Baronets are styled ‘Sir’ and take precedence over knights. Separate baronetcies of Ireland (1619) and Nova Scotia (1625) were also created.

Back  -    New Search

barony.

The domain of a baron. In Ireland, the division of a county. In Scotland, a large freehold estate or manor.

Back  -    New Search

baroque.

The term is used on the Continent for a florid architectural style that originated during the late Italian Renaissance and which became widely used, particularly for churches, in Catholic Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. In Britain, the term is used in a more restricted sense and is applied particularly to country houses erected between 1685 and 1715. English baroque was never a unified style, but embraced a variety of individual designs that were classical in their inspiration.

Back  -    New Search

barton.

The word is used especially in south-west England, to mean either the home farm of a lord of a manor, a monastic farm or grange, or simply a barley farm. In modern times the word normally means a farmyard.

Back  -    New Search

bastardy papers.

Parish records of the 16th to the 19th century kept by the overseers of the poor concerning the parentage of illegitimate children and efforts to make the fathers responsible for maintenance.

Back  -    New Search

bastides.

The medieval planned towns of France, which have many points of comparison with those of Britain. These include grid patterns, town walls, market squares, and burgage plots.

Back  -    New Search

bastle.

A fortified farmhouse of a type found in the Scottish borders, especially Northumberland, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and providing protection from raiders for livestock and people. Cattle were accommodated on the ground floor and the inhabitants occupied an upper room which was reached by an outside staircase.

Back  -    New Search

battlement.

An indented parapet along the top of a wall, used originally in fortified buildings, but by the 15th and 16th centuries for ornamentation in major houses and Perpendicular Gothic churches. The fashion was revived in the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

bawn.

A fortified farm or walled cattle enclosure in Ireland, especially one in the Ulster plantations of the early 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

bay.

1 The area between two sets of principal posts or dividing walls in a building. Early surveys record buildings as being of so many bays.

2 A recess in a room with a projecting window. In large houses these were often attractive architectural features.
Top

Back  -    New Search

beacon.

In the age before modern communications technology the most rapid means of alerting people to danger from invasion was by the lighting of hill-top beacons. These were not simply bonfires, but were often stone-built structures which were maintained regularly through county rates. A network of beacons was developed in the Middle Ages. The Tudors maintained beacons along the south coast and the Severn estuary to guard against invasion from France and Spain. The method was also used to alert the militia and volunteer companies during the Napoleonic wars. Many hill-top sites are commemorated by the place-name ‘Beacon’.

Back  -    New Search

beadle.

1 A town-crier or a crier in a law court.

2 A minor parish official responsible for keeping order; sometimes the equivalent of the constable.
Top

3 Someone who walks in front of dignitaries in a procession.
Top

Back  -    New Search

beast gate.

The right to pasture an animal on the commons and wastes was regulated by the manorial courts, which imposed a stinting system of so many ‘gates’ per holding.

Back  -    New Search

beating the bounds.

See PERAMBULATIONS.

Back  -    New Search

bederoll (also bead-roll).

The list of persons to be specially prayed for, which was read out from the pulpit each Sunday and at Christmas and Michaelmas; these persons usually comprised the benefactors of the church.

Back  -    New Search

bedesman (also beadsman).

A man who prayed for the soul or spiritual welfare of others, usually in a paid capacity. The term might be applied to the inmate of an almshouse who was charged with praying for his benefactor.

Back  -    New Search

bees

were the source of the main sweetener in cooking until sugar-cane was grown more abundantly in the Mediterranean in the 16th century and imported into northern Europe. In the early modern period bees were kept on estates in bee-boles, which are recesses built into a south-facing wall in which a straw hive could be protected from rain.

Back  -    New Search

beggars.

The Elizabethan Poor Law Acts of 1597–1601 ordered that beggars should be punished by whipping. Examples of such punishment being meted out can be found in quarter sessions and parish records. In the second half of the 17th century strident complaints about beggars ceased to be heard.

Back  -    New Search

Beguines.

The lay sisterhoods which began in the Low Countries in the 12th century. They pursued a religious life but did not bind themselves to a strict vow, and sometimes left upon marriage.

Back  -    New Search

bell-founding

was an urban craft in the early modern period, when it was often combined with that of the brazier or potter.

Back  -    New Search

bell pit.

A pit for the extraction of iron ore and coal. Although the technique was a medieval one, it was still used in the 19th century where coal or iron ore were found near the surface. A vertical shaft was dug to the seam, which was then worked in all directions, thus producing a bell shape. Fear of roof collapse would then lead to the pit being abandoned and the digging of a new shaft alongside. Pits are thus arranged in rows, marked by the spoil which was deposited around the head of the shafts.

Back  -    New Search

belvedere.

A turret-room, often glazed on all sides, at the top of a house or tower, providing distant views across the countryside; a summer-house. The name is derived from Italian words for a pleasant view or fair prospect. Introduced into Britain during the 16th century, the fashion flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

bench end.

Benches were introduced into the naves of parish churches towards the end of the 15th century. The earliest ones were very simple, but in time it became the practice to carve bench ends with tracery designs or with heraldic or allegorical subjects.

Back  -    New Search

bench mark.

Mark used by surveyors of the Ordnance Survey to provide a ‘bench’ or support for a levelling staff in order to determine altitude above mean sea-level. Below the horizontal notch is the broad arrowhead that was used from the Middle Ages onwards to mark the property of the sovereign.

Back  -    New Search

Benedictines.

The largest monastic order in Britain, based on the rule of St Benedict (d. 543). The early foundations of the black monks were destroyed in the 9th century by the Vikings. The Benedictines were reestablished in southern England in the 10th century. By the middle of the 12th century southern England had about 50 Benedictine monasteries and 12 nunneries, most of which were wealthy. In the later Middle Ages the Benedictines had 245 houses in England, Wales, and Scotland, but the movement had lost its impetus before the Anglo-Norman settlement of Ireland. In the 19th century new Benedictine houses were established at Ampleforth and Downside.

Back  -    New Search

benefice.

An ecclesiastical living.

Back  -    New Search

benefit of clergy.

In the Middle Ages the Common Law courts substituted a minor punishment for the death penalty for some of the less serious capital crimes when the convicted person was a clerk (clergyman). In 1305 this benefit was extended to secular clerks who were able to read and understand Latin. The first verse of the 50th Psalm in the Vulgate version of the Bible was used as the test. After the Reformation this was replaced by the ability to read, in English, the same verse in the Authorized Version of the Bible (where it was the 51st Psalm). It became known popularly as the ‘Neck Verse’. Anyone convicted of a capital offence who could read this verse was not hanged, but merely branded on his thumb. In practice, benefit of clergy had become a useful legal fiction to mitigate the severity of the law for first offenders. The formality of the test was abandoned in 1705. Benefit of clergy was abolished in 1827.

Back  -    New Search

berewick.

A dependent settlement within a manor. The term is used in the Domesday Book.

Back  -    New Search

betrothal.

Up to the early 17th century a betrothal before witnesses, followed by consummation, was considered a valid marriage. This explains why some baptisms recorded in early parish registers follow shortly after a church wedding. Betrothals gradually declined in status to that of the engagement, which could be broken.

Back  -    New Search

bibles.

The Vulgate bible, which was based on that prepared by St Jerome c. 400, and revised in 1592, is the official text of the Roman Catholic church. It takes its name from the Latin vulgare, ‘make public’. The first translation of the Bible into English was made in 1382 by John Wycliff and his associates. The first printed English bible was that translated by William Tyndale , starting with the New Testament in 1526 and followed by the Pentateuch and the Book of Jonah in 1530–1. A complete English bible, edited by Miles Coverdale , was published on the Continent in 1535. Various other editions extended Tyndale's work. The Geneva Bible of 1560 was popularly known as the Breeches Bible, for it translated the aprons of Genesis 3:7 as breeches. It became immensely popular during the reign of Elizabeth and ran to over 150 editions. The Authorized or King James Bible was published in 1611. The revised version of the King James Bible was published in 1881–5. It has been largely replaced in Protestant churches in Britain during the later 20th century by the New English Bible (1961–70).

Back  -    New Search

bidding.

A custom which survived in Wales until the late 19th century, whereby close friends and relatives of a bride and groom were bidden by word of mouth or letter to a festivity at which they were expected to make a gift of money towards the setting-up of the new home. The contributions ranged from 6d. to 2s. 6d., the most common being 1s. These payments were regarded as ‘marriage dues’, for the contributors had received, or would hope to receive, such gifts themselves. In effect, the bidding acted as a sort of savings club.

Back  -    New Search

bierlow.

The Viking word for a township, retained in some place-names.

Back  -    New Search

bill, hedging.

The hook-shaped tool with a sharp cutting edge, used by hedge-layers in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

bill of exchange.

A method of payment much used to obtain credit before the system of bank cheques was devised. It took the form of a written order by the writer (the ‘drawer’) to the person to whom it was addressed (the ‘drawee’) to pay to the ‘drawer’ or to a named third person (the ‘payee’) a stated sum of money on a certain date. Over time it aquired a looser meaning of a promissory note.

Back  -    New Search

birth-rates.

The ‘crude’ birth-rate is the number of births in a given year, expressed as so many per thousand. Since the only evidence in quantity of births before 1837 is the record of baptisms in parish registers, such figures have to be converted to birth-rates corrected for under-registration. Birth-rates can only be approximations before reasonably accurate population figures are available from census returns.

Back  -    New Search

bishops' registers.

Volumes recording the administrative acts of bishops in their dioceses. They date from the 12th and 13th centuries onwards, but are less useful after the Reformation. Such registers record the ordination of clergy and their institution to livings, the appropriation of benefices to religious houses, etc.

Back  -    New Search

bishops' transcripts.

In 1598 it became the practice for each parish in England and Wales to copy the entries made the previous year in the parish register and to forward this transcript (signed by the incumbent and the churchwardens) to the bishop of the diocese or to the head of the relevant peculiar jurisdiction. These records are now kept in diocesan record offices or the National Library of Wales. They are invaluable where an original register has been destroyed or where there are gaps or passages that are difficult to read. On the whole, the transcripts have not been as well preserved as the originals. The copyists frequently lacked care.
Few transcripts were made during the Commonwealth period, but the practice was revived at the Restoration. It petered out during the 19th century at times which differed from diocese to diocese.

Back  -    New Search

Black Death.

In Britain, its main effects were felt in 1348–9. A third or more of the population died as a result of this epidemic. Further epidemics occurred in 1360–2 and 1369, and plague remained endemic in Britain until the mid-1660s.

Back  -    New Search

Blome , Richard.

17th-century mapmaker. His world map, Cosmography, went through various editions from 1669. His Britannia (1673) was a series of county maps and included a map of Ireland. The maps have little geographical merit but are decorative.

Back  -    New Search

bloomery.

A forge in an ironworks where the melted ore is hammered into bars of iron known as blooms, so as to remove the slag. Sites are often located by the presence of slag and by place-names such as Cinder Hill or Smithies. Units of production were small and often short-lived. From the 14th century water power was used for bellows and hammers. Powered bloomeries remained important in many parts of the country until the middle of the 17th century. On average, a bloomery produced 20 to 30 tons of iron a year.

Back  -    New Search

blowing house.

The term used on Dartmoor and in Cornwall for the water-powered smelting works of the tin industry. The technique was well established by the end of the Middle Ages and continued in use into the 19th century, even though the reverberatory furnace had been introduced by 1702.

Back  -    New Search

blue books.

The official series of parliamentary papers from the late 18th century onwards. The most important ones have been reprinted by the Irish Universities Press and are available in large public libraries, university libraries, and the official publications room of the British Library. They are often difficult to locate because their lengthy titles are cited in different ways and they are unindexed. They include House of Commons Sessional Papers and Reports of Select Committees and Royal Commissions. The evidence of witnesses called before committees and commissions can provide vivid local detail, e.g. on the employment of children in coal mines or factories. The local historian needs to be aware that the questions that were asked were often designed to lead a witness to the answer that was wanted, and that replies were not necessarily recorded verbatim.

Back  -    New Search

Board of Agriculture.

Founded in 1793, with Sir John Sinclair as President and Arthur Young as Secretary, and an annual parliamentary grant of £3,000. Its founders hoped that it would become a department of state, but it was never more than a private society which spread useful knowledge and encouraged agricultural improvements. Its earliest and most important task was to commission a series of county reports, known as the General Views of Agriculture. The government grant was withdrawn in 1820. Attempts to keep the Board in operation by private subscription failed, and it was dissolved in 1822.

Back  -    New Search

board schools.

School-board districts were set up by the Education Act (1870), and elected boards were empowered to build new schools and to take over existing ones. The system was changed in 1902; See COUNCIL SCHOOLS.

Back  -    New Search

Bodleian Library.

Copyright library at the University of Oxford, which contains thousands of rare volumes and large manuscript collections in the Department of Western Manuscripts.

Back  -    New Search

Boer War.

The war in South Africa (1899–1902) between Great Britain and the Afrikaner republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. ‘Boer’ is the Dutch word for countryman or farmer.

Back  -    New Search

bole hill.

Lead-smelting site on the Pennines and the Mendips dating from the period before the adoption of bellows-blown hearths in the 16th century. The sites, which occupied windy escarpments, are often commemorated by the place-name Bole Hill, but remains are difficult to identify. The bole consisted of a stone-walled enclosure up to 5 or 6 yards in diameter, open on the side of the prevailing wind. The ore was stacked in the hearth and covered with brushwood and thicker wood. The molten lead was directed into a pig-mould.

Back  -    New Search

bona notabilia.

These Latin words (‘considerable goods’) are noted in the records of probate courts of the 16th to the 18th centuries when an estate was valued at £5 or more.

Back  -    New Search

bond.

1 A deed by which a person binds himself to pay a certain sum of money, or a document issued by the government or a public company promising to repay borrowed money at interest. Bonds recorded as credits in probate inventories were of this sort.

2 An agreement with a penalty for non-performance. A bond deed consists of two parts: the obligation (which before 1733 was in Latin) states the penalty; the condition (written in English) describes the commitment. These bonds could be private agreements or a necessary response to the law, e.g. to obtain a licence as a drover, badger, etc.
Top

Back  -    New Search

bond, marriage.

An obligation entered into by a groom or someone acting on his behalf that the particulars in a marriage allegation were true and that there was no impediment to the marriage. The practice was discontinued in 1823.

Back  -    New Search

bondage system.

A system of tenure with defined services, common in Northumberland and south Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries, designed to provide casual labour in times of need. Farm servants who were hired annually were provided with a house, specified quantities of food and coals, and the keep of a cow or a pig. In return the servant contracted to supply a woman labourer (usually his wife or daughter) to work for his employer for cash wages when required. These female workers performed all the jobs on the farm except ploughing and ditching. The system had virtually died out by the 1890s.

Back  -    New Search

bonding.

The arrangement of bricks in distinctive courses in a wall. As continuous vertical joints are structurally unsound, various types of bonds were evolved. The normal method in the Middle Ages was the English bond, by which courses were arranged alternately in stretchers (bricks laid at length along the face of the wall) and headers (bricks laid at right angles to the face of the wall). Flemish bond (alternate stretchers and headers in the same course) became popular in the 17th century. There are several variations on these two basic types.

Back  -    New Search

bondman.

A villein or serf.

Back  -    New Search

Book of Common Prayer.

This prayer book, which was the sole legal form of worship in England and Wales from Whit Sunday 1549, was the first to set out the liturgy of the Church of England. Written in English and largely the work of Archbishop Cranmer, it was revised in 1552, 1559, and by James I. The final text is that of 1662.

Back  -    New Search

bookland.

The Old English name for land obtained by ‘book’ or written charter, hence the place-name Buckland.

Back  -    New Search

boon work.

A manorial duty to do such seasonal work as ploughing and harvesting. The original sense of the word was ‘favour’, but such tasks became compulsory.

Back  -    New Search

bordar.

A term frequently found in the Domesday Book, meaning a smallholder who farmed assarted land on the edge of settlements.

Back  -    New Search

Border marriage.

Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, which came into force in 1754, made marriages in England and Wales legal only if they were performed in a building licensed for that purpose. Runaway couples therefore crossed the border into Scotland, where marriage could take place by mere consent, in the presence of witnesses, without even a priest. Gretna Green is the best-known of these places, but businesses whose sole purpose it was to perform such ceremonies were set up by men in various border settlements, including Alison's Toll Bar, Lamberton Toll Bar, Sark Toll Bar, Springfield, and Coldstream. Some of the marriage registers of these places have survived.
Lord Brougham's Marriage Act (1856) made it necessary to obtain a licence to marry if neither partner had been resident in the proposed place of marriage during the preceding 21 days. From 1878 marriages in Scotland could be performed only in buildings licensed for that purpose. Marriage by consent was abolished in 1940.

Back  -    New Search

borough.

Many English boroughs were recorded as such in the Domesday Book. The major medieval towns and cities obtained royal charters which granted or confirmed their privileges. These are kept at the Public Record Office, mostly in the Charter rolls or Patent rolls. Many old boroughs took the precaution of renewing their charters during the reigns of Charles II and James II.
A great number of towns were seigneurial boroughs, which had a certain amount of independence from their lord of the manor, but which did not have corporate status. The leading townsmen were called burgesses, but they administered their affairs through an institution (often a guild) which was recognized by the lord, but which did not have the same powers as a corporation. The lord of the manor usually retained his manorial courts.
The mayor of a corporation was normally the ex officio Justice of the Peace for the borough. The mayor and corporation were sometimes lords of the manor and usually had jurisdiction over markets and fairs. Borough records, therefore, are often not confined to minutes of corporation meetings, orders, by-laws, lists of admissions to the corporation and mayoralty, etc., but contain deeds to land, the records of the quarter sessions, and a great deal of information about the sites of markets and fairs and the attempts to regulate the commercial activities there.
Corporate towns had the right to elect Members of Parliament. Where a borough decayed, the owner of the site retained the right to choose MPs. Such ‘rotten’ boroughs, together with many ‘pocket’ boroughs which were under the control of a landowner because the electorate was so restricted in size, were disenfranchised by the Parliamentary Reform Act (1832).

Back  -    New Search

Borough English.

The inheritance custom in certain medieval boroughs and manors, notably in the south of England, whereby the youngest son was the heir to his father's lands and tenements.

Back  -    New Search

Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York.

A department of the University of York, specializing in the ecclesiastical history of the province of York, with search facilities (by appointment only) for members of the public in the medieval St Anthony's Hall. The institute houses the diocesan archives, including wills and inventories, parish registers, bishops' transcripts, tithe awards, and ecclesiastical court records. The records of most of the peculiar jurisdictions within the province of York are also kept there. The parish registers and some other records are on microfilm.

Back  -    New Search

bote.

The common right to take timber from the manorial wastes in order to repair houses, hedges, or fences, or for firewood and the making of tools.

Back  -    New Search

bothy.

A hut or cottage in Ireland or Scotland with stone or turf walls and roofs, used as a summer residence by farmers pasturing their livestock or as a one-roomed communal dwelling for servants or other workmen.

Back  -    New Search

bourgeoisie.

The prosperous middle class.

Back  -    New Search

Bourne , George

(1863–1927).
The pen-name of George Sturt of Farnham (Surrey), author of The Bettesworth Book (1901), Memoirs of a Surrey Labourer (1907), Change in the Village (1912), The Wheelwright's Shop (1923), and other sympathetic accounts of the lives, work, and thoughts of the people of his village during a period of profound change.

Back  -    New Search

bovate.

An oxgang, one-eighth of a ploughland or carucate, varying in size from 10 to 18 acres according to the condition of the land.

Back  -    New Search

Bowen , Emanuel.

‘Engraver of Maps’ for both George II of Great Britain and Louis XV of France. With Thomas Kitchin , he produced some of the finest county maps of the 18th century, between 1750 and 1780. These were unusual in devoting a great deal of space to a descriptive text in the form of historical notes.

Back  -    New Search

Boyd's Marriage Index.

Percival Boyd's compilation of marriage entries in English parish registers for 16 counties from the beginning of registration in 1538 up to the year 1837. The entries are copied mainly from printed registers and the coverage is not complete. The index may be consulted at the Society of Genealogists (which has published a Key) or at the Guildhall Library, London.
The counties included in the index are as follows: (the number of parishes covered, at least in part, is given in brackets): Cambridgeshire (169), Cornwall (202), Cumberland (34), Derbyshire (80), Devon (169), Durham (72), Essex (374), Gloucestershire (121), Lancashire (101), London and Middlesex (160), Norfolk (146), Northumberland (84), Shropshire (125), Somerset (120), Suffolk (489), Yorkshire (174).

Back  -    New Search

brace.

A curving support timber in a roof-truss.

Back  -    New Search

brass, memorial.

About 7,500 memorial brasses survive in England alone, more than in any other country. The earliest English brasses were imported from Flanders, but by the 14th century workshops had been set up in London, Norwich, and York. Purchasers normally chose from a series of standard designs, to which was added a personal inscription; but a few were special commissions to the customer's specifications. Brasses were not intended to be accurate portraits. The fashion disappeared during the second half of the 17th century but was revived in the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

breweries.

The early history of brewing was much associated with immigrants from the Low Countries, especially to London. The rise of the ‘common brewery’, as the large production unit was known in order to distinguish it from the numerous domestic breweries, began in the 18th century. The Beer Act (1830) created a free trade in the sale of beer.

Back  -    New Search

brewster session.

A special meeting of the quarter sessions at which Justices of the Peace licensed the keepers of inns and alehouses. The parish constable had to provide lists of the names of applicants for licences. The names of inns and alehouses are not recorded.

Back  -    New Search

brick

was much used by the Romans, whose forts and villas were quarried by later builders. It was once thought that the art of brick-making was unknown to the Anglo-Saxons, but detailed investigations of major churches have revised that view. Brick was not widely used by the Normans, though examples of 12th-century brickwork are known. The example of the Low Countries led builders in East Yorkshire to use brick extensively in the 14th century. Brick became a prestigious building material in the 15th century, particularly in the Humber basin and other parts of eastern England where no local building stone was available, and sometimes further west because of its rarity value. It was used for colleges, castles, gate-towers, and bishops' palaces. Perpendicular churches in eastern England used brick extensively, particularly for new towers and porches.
Brick was much favoured for the great houses of the Tudor period. Fantastic brick chimney-stacks became popular, even in smaller houses. During the 17th century curved and stepped Dutch gables became fashionable in East Anglia and the south-east. The fashion spread down the social scale during the 17th century, as yeomen and husbandmen in districts devoid of suitable stone rebuilt their old timber-framed houses in brick, often with pantile roofs. The Great Fire of London (1666), and provincial fires in towns such as Warwick and Blandford Forum (Dorset), convinced urban authorities that brick was safer than wood. Brick became a very fashionable material for the houses and public buildings of Georgian towns.
Bricks were almost invariably made close to the building site. Their variety of colours arises not just from the nature of the local clays but from the firing process that was adopted. The canals, and then (especially) the railways, enabled mass-produced, machine-made bricks of regular size to be transported from large brickfields, e.g. in Bedfordshire, to all parts of Britain.

Back  -    New Search

Bridewell.

A house of correction for prisoners, originally vagabonds who were set to hard labour. It was named after Bride Well in London, which was made into a house of correction in 1552. By the 1630s every county in England and Wales had a similar institution for petty offenders.

Back  -    New Search

bridges.

A large number of medieval bridges survive. They can be recognized by their pointed, ribbed arches, but are difficult to date precisely. They are marked on Christopher Saxton's county maps of the 1570s. These medieval bridges normally had a chapel attached. They were rarely more than 12 to 15 feet wide, and most have been widened to cater for an increased volume of traffic in later centuries.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the Justices of the Peace took over responsibility for the major bridges, which were designated ‘county bridges’. Quarter sessions records note the money spent on repairing them from time to time. They also note the smaller ‘packhorse bridges’ which were in need of repair, when local overseers of the highways were admonished for not performing their duty. Packhorse bridges are not as old as the larger ‘county bridges’. They date from the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th.

Back  -    New Search

brief, church.

A royal mandate authorizing a collection for some deserving cause, addressed to the incumbent and churchwardens of a parish and read from the pulpit. The collection was made at the end of the service by the parish clerk, who handed the money to the official travelling collector. The brief was endorsed with the amount raised and the sum entered in the parish register or churchwarden's account.

Back  -    New Search

Britain, Great.

The whole island, including England, Wales, and Scotland. The term was used by the early antiquarians only in a historical context, with particular reference to Roman Britain (Latin Britannia). Scotland was referred to as North Britain. Upon the accession of James I (James VI of Scotland) in 1603 he was proclaimed ‘King of Great Britain’. The two kingdoms were united as Great Britain in 1707. In 1801 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. Since 1922 the Irish part of the UK has consisted only of Northern Ireland.

Back  -    New Search

British Association for Local History.

The society which was founded in 1982 to promote the interests of local historians at national level continued the work of the Standing Conference for Local History. It organizes conferences in various parts of Britain and publishes The Local Historian, handbooks, and Local History News.

Back  -    New Search

British and Foreign School Society.

Founded by Joseph Lancaster in 1810 to promote elementary schools, provided by Nonconformist churches, and using the monitorial system of teaching. The society had been known in the previous two years as the Royal Lancasterian Society.

Back  -    New Search

British Library.

A group of libraries that was formed in 1973 out of a merger of the national lending, patent and science reference libraries with the collections of the printed-book and manuscript departments of the British Museum.
The manuscript collection includes about 75,000 Additional Manuscripts and a similar number of Additional Charters. For the local historian its greatest riches, however, are perhaps the Cotton and Harleian collections: the former comprises about 1,000 volumes, including many medieval chronicles and more than 150 medieval cartularies; while the 7,600 Harleian manuscripts include many heraldic volumes besides more chronicles, cartularies, and a wide range of historical and other texts.
For the early stages of an enquiry involving manuscripts, the most useful starting-point is likely to be the amalgamated index to persons and places, the Index of Manuscripts in the British Library, 10 vols. (1984–6). A subject-based approach is best begun through the multi-volume Class Catalogue (comprising catalogue descriptions, cut up and mounted on a subject basis), of which the sole copy is in the Department's reading room, the Students' Room.
The collections of the former Department of Printed Books can be accessed via catalogues in printed form, compact disk, or on-line computer. They comprise about 12 million volumes.
Among the printed-book collections is that of official publications, which has its own reading room in the British Museum building. This contains an exceptionally full set of all British official publications— notably the HMSO's Command Papers and printed parliamentary bills and statutes, including the various governmental commission reports and the like that are often known as blue books.
The map library has been a separate unit since 1867, and has its own reading room: it contains the fullest sets in existence of Ordnance Survey and other published maps of the British Isles as well as a major collection of early printed maps.
Newspapers are divided between the former Department of Printed Books' collections in Bloomsbury and a separate reading room and store at Colindale, in Hendon, north-west London.

Back  -    New Search

British Record Society.

Founded in 1888 as the Index Society, it publishes indexes of historical records, such as Chancery proceedings, inquisitions post mortem, wills, and marriage licences.

Back  -    New Search

broadcasting

(agricultural) . The casting of seed by hand from a basket, alternatively to the right and to the left.

Back  -    New Search

broadcloth.

A fine woollen cloth of the Middle Ages and early modern period.

Back  -    New Search

broadside.

A printed, popular ballad of the 16th to the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

Bronze Age.

The prehistoric era between the Stone Age and the Iron Age, lasting from c. 2,500 BC to c. 800 BC. This was the era of the great henge monuments.

Back  -    New Search

brother.

The term was often used to mean a brother-in-law.

Back  -    New Search

Brown, ‘Capability’.

Lancelot Brown (1716–83), the most famous landscape gardener of the 18th century and the designer of numerous schemes for British country houses. He swept away the formal gardens of previous generations and provided instead an open, ‘natural’ look, with rolling pastures, clumps of mature trees, and wide expanses of water.

Back  -    New Search

Buck , Samuel and Buck , Nathaniel.

As a young man, Samuel Buck (1696–1779) was commissioned to draw views of towns and country houses in Yorkshire for an uncompleted project of John Warburton's . His sketchbook of 1719–23 has been published as Samuel Buck's Yorkshire Sketchbook (1979). He and his brother Nathaniel later achieved fame through their prints, made over a period of 30 years, which they assembled in their Antiquities (2nd edn., 1774). These careful engravings are now a major source for the study of urban topography and of buildings.

Back  -    New Search

buckwheat.

Known alternatively as French wheat, it was grown on barren, sandy ground and was prized as fodder for pigs and poultry.

Back  -    New Search

Builder, The.

Founded in 1834, this journal contains numerous articles which provide information about public buildings and houses erected in many parts of Britain during the Victorian period. It is particularly useful for the period 1844–83, when George Goodwin was editor.

Back  -    New Search

building societies

were originally small clubs of 20 to 50 people who paid regular subscriptions which enabled the society to build houses. These were then allotted by ballot. Such societies were formed from the late 18th century onwards, especially in northern industrial towns.

Back  -    New Search

burgage plot.

The property owned by a burgess in a medieval town. As burgesses congregated around the market place and main streets, space at the front was at a premium. Burgage plots are therefore characteristically long and narrow, with a row of outbuildings stretching to the rear of the house and shop. The pattern of burgage plots is often evident from old maps and sometimes can still be discerned on the ground.

Back  -    New Search

burgess.

1 A citizen or freeman of a borough, especially a member of the governing body of a town.

2 A member of parliament for a borough, corporation, or university.
Top

Back  -    New Search

burgh.

A Scottish town which had a measure of self-government and defined trading privileges. The most important were the royal burghs which were founded by royal charter and whose lands were held directly from the Crown. A large number of ‘burghs of barony’ were created in the 16th and 17th centuries, but most remained very small.

Back  -    New Search

Burghal Hidage.

The date of this document is debatable, but it is generally agreed that it refers to the defensive system created by King Alfred of Wessex at the time of the Danish invasions. The document lists the burhs, or fortified places, in a clockwise order, starting in the east.

Back  -    New Search

burh.

A fortified place of the late 9th and 10th centuries, constructed by the kings of Wessex to resist the Danish invaders. As the kingdom of Wessex expanded, so new burhs were erected well north of the former boundaries.

Back  -    New Search

Burke , John

(1787–1848).
Burke's Peerage was first published in 1826. It was an annual publication from 1847 to 1940, except for the years 1918–20. Occasional editions have appeared since 1949. Burke's Landed Gentry was first published in 1837. In 1877 Professor E. A. Freeman dismissed the pedigrees published in Burke's Landed Gentry as ‘much wild nonsense’.
John Burke wrote several other books on heraldry and genealogy. He was succeeded as editor of the Peerage and the Landed Gentry by his son Sir John Bernard Burke (1814–92) and his grandsons.

Back  -    New Search

butt.

1 A shooting target, a mound for archery practice. Edward IV (1461–83) made shooting practice compulsory on Sundays and feast days. Every man between the ages of 16 and 60 was expected to own a bow of his own height, and every township was ordered to set up its own butts.

2 Grouse butts, a hideout from which grouse are shot.
Top

3 A shorter or irregularly shaped selion, in an open-field, or one that abuts at right angles upon other selions.
Top

Back  -    New Search

button-making.

Buttons were made of a variety of materials, including silver, alcomy (a base metal that resembled gold), brass, horn, and cloth. Button-making originated as an urban craft that required no apprenticeship and was therefore attractive as an occupation to the poor.

Back  -    New Search

by-employments.

The occupational descriptions of people in the past often obscure the fact that they obtained their living in a variety of ways.

Back  -    New Search

bylawman.

Alternative name for a constable.

Back  -    New Search

by-name.

Before surnames became fixed and hereditary, many people had a by-name as well as a personal name in order to distinguish them from other people with similar names. These took similar forms to later surnames, but they were not necessarily passed on to descendants.

Back  -    New Search

byre.

A term used in some regions for a cow-shed.

Back  -    New Search

C

cadet.

A younger son or brother; a younger branch of a family.

Back  -    New Search

calendar.

1 In 1752 Britain changed from the inaccurate Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, which had been used in Catholic countries since 1582. The eleven days' discrepancy between the two calendars meant that 2 September 1752 was followed after the change by 14 September. At the same time the old custom of starting the official year on Lady Day (25 March) was abandoned in favour of the year beginning on 1 January.
As 1 January had long been regarded by most people as the true beginning of the year, regardless of official reckoning, dates between 1 January and 25 March were often written as e.g. 1688/9. To avoid confusion, it is a useful practice for local and family historians to follow this convention and to refer to dates before 1752 as Old Style and those after 1752 as New Style.
Before 1752 September, October, November, and December were often referred to in written records as 7ber, 8ber, 9ber, and 10ber. Quakers called all the months by numbers; before 1752 March was their First Month, afterwards it was the Third Month. This Quaker practice continued into the 20th century.
In the Middle Ages documents were dated not by calendar years but by regnal years starting from the time that a monarch ascended the throne. In the early modern period documents give regnal years alongside calendar ones.

2 A catalogue summarizing what the editor deems to be the essential data contained in a series of documents.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Cambridge University archives.

The Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR houses the archives of the University. The various colleges also have archive collections. The older colleges often have estate records that are of interest to local historians in the various parts of the country where the colleges were landlords.

Back  -    New Search

Camden , William.

(1551–1623).
Author of Britannia (1586), a milestone in the development of historical studies. Additional material, including the first study of the etymology of surnames, was brought together in his Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine (1605).

Back  -    New Search

Camden Society.

Named after William Camden , the antiquary, the Camden Society was formed in Cambridge in 1839 to further the cause of ecclesiology. It was enormously influential, through its journal, The Ecclesiologist, in determining the style of church building and restoration. The society also published edited historical texts, with introductions. In 1897 it was amalgamated with the Royal Historical Society and represents their series of edited historical texts on extremely varied subjects.

Back  -    New Search

Camping Closes.

Field names such as Camping Close indicate the places where the game of camping (a mixture of football and handball) was played from the Middle Ages through to the 19th century. It was particularly popular in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Essex.

Back  -    New Search

CAMPOP.

The Cambridge Group for the Study of Population and Social Structure. This group of researchers, based at Cambridge University and drawing on the labours of local historians throughout England, has since the 1960s placed the study of historical demography on a sound footing. They were the first to use parish registers to reconstitute families.

Back  -    New Search

canals.

The first important British canal was that which brought coal from the Duke of Bridgewater's mines at Worsley (Lancashire) to Manchester. This was completed by 1761. Within two generations the industrial districts of Britain were connected by a system of canals that involved some amazing technical feats. Canals gradually declined with the coming of the railways.
The passage of the private Acts of Parliament which authorized canals can be followed in the House of Commons and the House of Lords Journals. Parliamentary papers include the Report of the Select Committee on Canals (1883), the returns made to the Board of Trade of canal statistics (1888), and the 12-volume Report of the Royal Commission on Canals of 1906–11, which contains a great deal of information, including maps. The Public Record Office has papers and correspondence concerning individual canals.

Back  -    New Search

Candlemas.

The feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary (2 February; 14 February old style), traditionally celebrated with a display of candles.

Back  -    New Search

canons.

1 (historically) . Priests who lived according to a strict, almost monastic rule. The Augustinian and Premonstratensian orders arrived from France in Britain during the early 12th century. The Gilbertines (founded 1131) were the only native order. The canons preached in local parish churches and were expected to combine manual labour with their devotions and studies.

2 (present-day) . Member of a cathedral chapter in the Church of England.
Top

Back  -    New Search

cantrev.

The Welsh equivalent of the English hundred or wapentake.

Back  -    New Search

cap money.

A statute of 1571, repealed in 1598, enforced the wearing of caps of English wool on Sundays and holy days. Cap money was the fine of 3s. 4d. for non-observance.

Back  -    New Search

capite, tenant in.

The holding of land in feudal tenure direct from the monarch.

Back  -    New Search

cardmaker.

A maker of a wooden instrument which was shaped like a square bat with raised iron spikes and held in the hand in order to card wool in preparation for spinning.

Back  -    New Search

carrier.

The long-distance professional carrier operated in the Middle Ages under a variety of names, e.g. salter or jagger. The numbers of long-distance carriers grew in the later 16th and 17th centuries, by which time regular services to London had been established from all parts of the provinces.
Information about local carriers is hard to come by until the publication of trade and commercial directories in the late 18th and 19th centuries, which show that a network of routes linking the whole of the country was well established by that time. Directories normally give full details of carriers' services, including starting points and destinations, times of departure and arrival, and connections with distant places.

Back  -    New Search

Carriers' Cosmographie.

(1637). A publication of John Taylor naming the London inns which were the destinations of provincial carriers, and giving the days and times of arrival and departure.

Back  -    New Search

Cartae Antiquae rolls.

A series of 46 rolls at the Public Record Office, containing transcripts of documents from 1189 to 1327, which renewed or confirmed privileges, e.g. charters.

Back  -    New Search

Carthusians.

A monastic order, The Poor Brothers of God of the Charter-house, founded in 1084 in France, but not officially an order until 1142. The Carthusian monks modelled their way of life on that of the desert hermits of early Christian Egypt. This was deliberately harsh, involving the wearing of rough hair shirts and the eating of coarse food in slender portions. The monks were housed in separate cells with a small garden to the rear, arranged around a central courtyard. They accepted a vow of silence, except during the singing of offices.

Back  -    New Search

cartouche.

A panel on early maps, containing the title, dedication, etc. They were often in a highly decorative form.

Back  -    New Search

cartulary, or chartulary.

A register of the charters, deeds, grants of property, etc. of a monastery.

Back  -    New Search

carucate.

The term used in the Danelaw, comparable to the Saxon hide, for a unit of taxation, originally the amount of land that a team of eight oxen could plough each year. This varied according to the quality of the land but was about 120 acres. The carucate or hide was the basic unit of taxation in the Domesday Book.

Back  -    New Search

Cary , John

(c. 1754–1835).
A prolific maker of high-standard maps, which rank in accuracy with those of the Ordnance Survey.

Back  -    New Search

castellany.

A large lordship centred on the castle of one of the Norman barons, especially in the border areas of northern and western England.

Back  -    New Search

castle.

The term ‘castle’ is used by historians to refer to fortified buildings erected after the Norman Conquest. Hundreds of motte-and-bailey castles were erected in Britain by the Normans. They were a recent invention which had spread rapidly in Normandy. Others may date from the civil wars of Stephen's reign (1135–54). Most motte-and-baileys were subsequently abandoned, but during the second quarter of the 12th century the most important ones were converted into stone castles, surrounded by huge ditches, ramparts, and a curtain wall, and entered by a gatehouse.
Major changes in the design of castles came in the later 13th century, particularly with the building of Edward I's castles in north Wales. By the 1380s such castles were becoming redundant in warfare, in face of cannon that were increasingly effective. Meanwhile, the number of licences to crenellate reached a peak in the second quarter of the 14th century as magnates throughout the country topped their curtain walls and residential buildings with battlements. By the early 14th century the keep had been abandoned. Smaller baronial castles used high walls and massive square corner towers to enclose a courtyard.
In the more settled times under the Tudors castles fell out of fashion. Those which were refortified by Royalists in the Civil War of the 1640s were dismantled after the Parliamentarian victory. Others were allowed to decay gradually until serious interest in their preservation began in the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

Catholic Emancipation Act.

(1829). Roman Catholics were prohibited from membership of the House of Commons, even after the inclusion of Ireland in the United Kingdom in 1801. The election of Daniel O'Connell for Clare, in 1828, dramatized the situation and led to the cancelling of this disqualification.

Back  -    New Search

Catholic Record Society.

A society housed at 114 Mount Street, London WC2Y 6AH, which was founded in 1905 to publish historical records concerning Roman Catholicism in Britain, including registers of baptisms, burials, and marriages from the later 18th century, Recusant Rolls (1592–1691) kept at the Public Record Office, monographs, etc. Recusant History (from 1951) is the historical journal of the society.

Back  -    New Search

causey, causeway.

A series of flagstones laid down on wet or soft terrain to prevent the formation of holloways. Individual causeys cannot be dated on stylistic grounds, but most surviving examples are probably from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

caveat.

A legal process to suspend proceedings.

Back  -    New Search

cell.

A small dwelling used by a hermit, or an apartment in a monastery.

Back  -    New Search

cellars

were an essential feature of the medieval town houses of merchants and craftsmen. They were not normally a feature of rural vernacular architecture before the 18th century. In the 19th century cellar accommodation became a notorious method of housing the poorest sections of society in the largest industrial towns.

Back  -    New Search

Celtic fields.

The name given to prehistoric fields whose outline is preserved on the ground or can be seen from aerial photographs.

Back  -    New Search

cemeteries and crematoria.

The idea of landscaped public cemeteries came from Italy, France, and Sweden. The Clifton Graveyard, Belfast, dates from 1774, and Calton Hill, Edinburgh, from the late 18th century, but England did not follow the fashion until the severe overcrowding of churchyards made them a health risk. Before the middle of the 19th century such cemeteries were generally established and run as commercial ventures, but after the passing of legislation in the 1850s and 1860s enforcing the closure of urban churchyards, municipal cemeteries became the rule.
Cemetery records have sometimes been deposited at local record offices, but others are still kept at the office on the site. They usually give the name, address, age, and occupation of the deceased, the date of death and of burial, and the position of the grave. These records are arranged chronologically, and are not indexed alphabetically.

Back  -    New Search

census returns.

The first census for the whole of Britain, except Ireland, was taken in 1801, but no central archival material survives from that exercise or from the following censuses of 1811, 1821, and 1831.
From 1841 the census has been collected by the office of the Registrar-General. A number of enumerators were appointed for each sub-district, to issue forms and collect them the day after census night, and to copy the information into books. The transcriptions, or ‘enumerators’ returns', for 1841–91 survive. Those for England and Wales are available for consultation in microfilm form at the Public Record Office Census Rooms, Chancery Lane, London, WC2. Microfilm copies of the returns for particular districts are often available at public libraries and local record offices or at Mormon branch libraries. The Scottish system of enumeration differed in minor ways. The records are kept in the New Register House of the Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh.
The enumerators' districts of 1841 were retained, as far as possible, up to at least 1891, so that comparisons with previous data could be made. The information provided by the 1841 census enumerators' returns is not as full as that given in later years. The arrangement is by households (or by institutions, e.g. workhouse or prison), but the relationship of each member to the head of the household is not recorded. The ages of people over 15 were rounded down to the nearest five, so that the population could be classified in age-bands. The occupation of each person is then noted; this is necessarily a succinct description that takes no account of dual occupations or by-employments. The final column does not record the birthplace, but merely notes whether the person was born in the same county as his or her present residence, or whether the place of birth was in Scotland, Ireland, or ‘foreign parts’. From 1851 onwards the enumerators' returns provide fuller information. Night-workers who were not at home on census night but who returned the following morning were now listed with other members of their household. The relationship of each person with the head of household was noted. The returns purport to record the exact age and place of birth, but this information needs to be handled cautiously.
Despite the inclusion of Ireland within the United Kingdom in 1801, the procedure for making a census of the Irish population was quite different. The first official census was taken in 1821. It gave names, ages, occupations, and relationships to heads of household, also the acreages of land and the number of storeys in the house. The Irish census returns for 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891 were destroyed by government order; those for 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851 were destroyed in an explosion and fire in Dublin (1922). The 1901 and 1911 census returns were stored locally and were thus preserved from destruction in 1922. They are now available for inspection at the National Archives, Dublin. Although the enumerators' returns do not survive, published reports from 1841 to 1911 give the acreage, population, number of houses, and valuation of each individual townland.
Identifying a particular family can be a time-consuming task in a city, particularly in London. The boundaries of the enumerators' districts sometimes ran down the middle of a street, and even in the large towns houses were rarely numbered before the 1850s, and often much later.

Back  -    New Search

censuses, local.

For most places in England, Scotland, and Wales the national census of 1801 is the first count of the population; for Ireland it is 1821. However, individual places sometimes held a local census for a particular reason. The records of local censuses appear in miscellaneous collections in local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

centuriation.

The laying out of roads and fields in a regular pattern by the Romans.

Back  -    New Search

ceorl.

The lowest class of Old English freeman.

Back  -    New Search

chain.

A linear measure of 22 yards used in surveying, which remains in use as the length of a cricket pitch.

Back  -    New Search

champion land.

A term used in the early modern period to denote land given over to cereals in open-fields as distinct from wood pasture, fens, moors, etc. The term conjures up a picture of a certain kind of landscape with large fields, few hedges, and little timber. It also implies the settlement of people in villages rather than hamlets or scattered farms.

Back  -    New Search

chancel.

The eastern part of a church (now known as the sanctuary) containing the high altar and reserved for the clergy and choir. The maintenance of the chancel was the responsibility of the tithe owner.

Back  -    New Search

Chancellor.

An official secretary, e.g. of the chapter of a cathedral. The Chancellor of England (Lord Chancellor or Lord High Chancellor) became the highest officer in medieval England; he presides over the House of Lords and remains a member of the Cabinet and the highest judicial officer. The Chancellor of the Exchequer became the highest finance minister.

Back  -    New Search

Chancery, Court of.

In the early Middle Ages the decisions of the king's council were put into effect through the Chancery, under the direction of the Chancellor. The records of the Chancery date from 1199. Chancery became a court of law about 1348. It acted as a court of equity to deal with cases for which there was no provision under Common Law, and later with cases where the plaintiff might have been at a disadvantage. In 1873 equity jurisdiction passed to the Chancery Division of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
The Court of Chancery has extensive records, which are housed at the Public Record Office. All records before 1873 begin with the letter C, afterwards with the letter J. See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet, no. 30, ‘Chancery Proceedings (Equity Suits)’. The records of cases include pleadings (statements made by parties to a case; known collectively as Chancery Proceedings), evidence in the form of affidavits (statements on oath) and depositions (examinations of witnesses), and court decisions and opinions, though these last are the most difficult documents to locate in the archive. Cases were mostly in English. Families of middling means often used the court, and the witnesses were drawn from all sections of local society. Most of the records are indexed only by the name of the plaintiff.

Back  -    New Search

chantry chapel.

A private chapel, normally attached to a parish church or a chapel-of-ease, with an altar for the celebration of mass for the souls of the founder and his or her nominees, or for the souls of the members of guilds and fraternities who had erected such a chapel. The system began in the 13th century, but became fashionable in the later Middle Ages, particularly after the Black Death. Chantry chapels were built at the end of the aisles of the nave, extending along the side walls of the chancel, or within the transepts of cruciform churches. They were dedicated to the saints nominated by the founders. The endowment of a chantry chapel allowed for the employment of a priest who received either a money payment or land to farm or rent. These properties were confiscated when Edward VI dissolved all chantries in 1547.

Back  -    New Search

chapbook.

Cheap popular books, published in London from the 16th to the 18th centuries and sold by book sellers, chapmen, or pedlars throughout the land. The texts consisted of traditional stories and ballads, histories, and moral and religious tales.

Back  -    New Search

chapel-of-ease.

A term used to indicate a building used for religious worship that was created for the ease of the inhabitants of an outlying part of a parish. These included the places of worship in many of the medieval new towns. The tithes of the inhabitants of a chapelry went to the rector of the parish; the chapels were served by curates. Many chapels-of-ease obtained rights of baptism, marriage, and burial. Most were made into parish churches during the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

chapelry.

The area served by a chapel-of-ease.

Back  -    New Search

chaplain.

A priest serving a private individual or family, a private body, e.g. a hospital, or a public institution, e.g. the army.

Back  -    New Search

chapman.

A middleman.

Back  -    New Search

chapter.

1 The governing body of a cathedral or a collegiate church.

2 The daily assembly of the members of a religious house. The name is derived from the practice of reading a chapter from the rule of the order of that assembly.
Top

Back  -    New Search

chapter house.

The building used for the meetings of a chapter.

Back  -    New Search

charcoal

was obtained from the underwood of coppices, which was charred in hearths that did not admit air, so preventing rapid combustion. The process lasted for several days in order to get rid of moisture in the wood. Charcoal burners were referred to as colliers and are thus often confused with coal miners. Leases allowed the ‘coaling’ of coppiced wood. Whilst the job was under way, the charcoal burners lived in temporary huts constructed of poles and turf sods.

Back  -    New Search

charity boards.

Lists of the charitable endowments within a parish, painted on boards which normally hang inside the tower or porch of the parish church. They usually date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

Charity Commissioners.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales was established in 1853 to oversee the accounts and activities of registered charities. The Charitable Trusts Act (1860) empowered the commission to appoint or remove trustees and to change the purpose of a trust if the original purpose was outdated. The Charities Act (1960) provides the basis for the work of the present Charity Commission, which maintains a central register of charities at 14 Ryder Street, London SW1 (for national charities and those in southern England) and Graeme House, Derby Square, Liverpool (for northern England and Wales). Documents over 30 years old are open to public inspection.

Back  -    New Search

charnel house.

Before the practice arose in the 17th century of marking graves with permanent gravestones, churchyard graves were often reused. The bones from previous burials were collected together in a charnel house next to the church or at the edge of the churchyard. Crypts were sometimes used for the same purpose.

Back  -    New Search

charter.

A document granting rights or privileges. Thus, a lord of a manor who wished to create a market or to hunt in a park or chase had to obtain a royal charter. Anglo-Norman charters are a major source for the study of ancient estates and boundaries.

Back  -    New Search

Charter rolls.

Records from the Court of Chancery, dating from 1199 to 1517, of royal grants of land or rights, and confirmations of such grants. They are housed at the Public Record Office under C 53 and have all been published. Those for the reign of King John (1199–1216) were printed by the Record Commissioners in 1837, the rest in six volumes in the PRO's Calendar of Charter Rolls (1903–27). They are particularly important for the study of the history of boroughs.

Back  -    New Search

chartered company.

A company of merchants, e.g. the Merchant Adventurers', the East India Company, and the Hudson's Bay Company, which were incorporated by royal or parliamentary charter, and received certain monopoly privileges.

Back  -    New Search

Chartism.

The Chartist movement acquired its name from the six points of the charter published in 1838 by the London Working Men's Association. The Charter demanded universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, annual Parliaments, payment of members, secret ballots, and no property qualifications for MPs. All this was eventually achieved, except for annual Parliaments, but at the time it was considered revolutionary.
The Chartist movement grew from earlier agitation, going back to the constitutional societies of the 1790s, but is regarded as the first genuinely working-class mass political movement. Their support was greatest in the manufacturing districts, where they were able to get many of their members elected to local councils. Their activities are well recorded in local newspapers. But their failure in 1848 heralded their decline in a subsequent period of prosperity.

Back  -    New Search

chase.

A hunting area allowed by royal charter, the private equivalent of a royal forest. Chases were larger than deer parks and were not enclosed by ditches and palings.

Back  -    New Search

chattel.

Personal property that is not real estate or freehold.

Back  -    New Search

cheap.

Old English chepe, meaning market, has given rise to street names in many parts of England.

Back  -    New Search

cheese trade.

In the 17th century, particularly after 1660, certain areas began to acquire a national reputation for the quality of their cheese. By 1750 all the cheese-producing areas that were of national importance in Victorian times were already sending their cheese to market in London.

Back  -    New Search

Chelsea Hospital.

A retirement home in south-west London for army pensioners, founded by Charles II in a building designed by Wren, and completed in 1692. Its registers of baptisms (1691–1812), marriages (1691–1765), and burials (1692–1856) can be consulted at the General Register Office, St Catherine's House, London.

Back  -    New Search

chevage.

A payment made to a lord by a villein who wished to move from one manor to another.

Back  -    New Search

chief rent.

Formerly, rent paid by a tenant-in-chief; now quit rent.

Back  -    New Search

chimney.

The term was originally applied to a fireplace, hence the alternative name for the hearth tax was the chimney tax.

Back  -    New Search

Chinese immigrants.

The Chinese population in Britain has grown from less than 5,000 in 1946 to about 250,000 in 1993, mostly as a result of immigration from Hong Kong. About 70,000 live in the Greater London area. In earlier times the Chinese population was largely concentrated in London, though small colonies were also found in some other ports.

Back  -    New Search

chirurgeon.

Surgeon; often a barber-surgeon.

Back  -    New Search

Chivalry, High Court of.

The court within the College of Arms which has jurisdiction over armorial matters in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Back  -    New Search

choir.

That part of a medieval cathedral, monastery, or collegiate church, between the high altar and the pulpitum, which was occupied by the stalls of the monks, minor clerics, and boys, who sang the music of divine services. Victorian clergy began the practice of introducing choir stalls for lay singers in the chancels of parish churches.

Back  -    New Search

cholera.

A water-borne disease endemic in India, which struck Britain in 1831–2 and again in 1848.

Back  -    New Search

chrisom.

1 The images of dead infants on tombs and memorial brasses, showing children wrapped in the white chrisom cloths that were commonly worn for a month after baptism, and used as a shroud if they died within the month.

2 (or chrism). The mixture of olive oil and balsam used in baptism, confirmation, and consecration services.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Christmas.

The modern forms of celebration at Christmas are largely Victorian. In the Middle Ages and beyond Christmas was followed by 12 days of celebration during which activities which at other times of the year would have been suppressed were tolerated. Church services at Christmas were simple affairs before the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

chronicles.

The keeping of chronicles of important events was an ancient monastic tradition, going back to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Chronicles written by laymen were published in the 16th century. A number of towns kept chronicles of important local events.

Back  -    New Search

church ales.

A common form of fund-raising for the maintenance of parish churches and the poor in the Middle Ages. On special occasions home-brewed ales were sold either in the nave of the church or in an adjacent church-house. Some 16th-century examples of church-houses survive. After their suppression at the Reformation some became secular alehouses.

Back  -    New Search

Church in Wales.

In 1920 the four dioceses of Bangor, Llandaff, St Asaph, and St David's were formed into a disestablished and separate province of the Anglican communion, with its own archbishop. The Department of Manuscripts and Records in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, is the approved repository for non-parochial records; parish records may be deposited locally or at the Library.

Back  -    New Search

Church of England.

The Church of England was created by a series of Acts of Parliament between 1529 and 1559. Most of the clergy who had been parish priests before the Reformation remained in office and the medieval buildings which had long served as parish churches were simply adapted to the new liturgical requirements. Moreover, the Church of England was governed on similar lines to its Catholic predecessor, with two archbishops and 24 bishops.

Back  -    New Search

Church of Ireland.

The Anglican Church in Ireland since the 16th century. It was disestablished in 1869. Some parish registers exist from the middle of the 17th century onwards; they are housed in the National Archives in Dublin.

Back  -    New Search

Church of Scotland.

At the Reformation the Catholic Church was replaced by Presbyterianism as the official state religion of Scotland. A new hierarchical structure was created, headed by an annual General Assembly in Edinburgh, and descending through synods, presbyteries, and kirk sessions, all of which were courts as well as administrative bodies. Nearly all the records of the Church of Scotland are kept at the Scottish Record Office.
The Church of Scotland has experienced many schisms since the 18th century. The main division occurred in 1843, when a long-standing dispute over patronage came to a head with the withdrawal of 474 ministers, a third of the total, to form the Free Church of Scotland. A third Presbyterian body, the United Presbyterian Church, was formed in 1847.

Back  -    New Search

church rates.

Until 1868 churchwardens were allowed to levy a rate on all householders in a parish in England and Wales (regardless of whether or not they attended the services of the Church of England) in order to help maintain the parish church and churchyard.

Back  -    New Search

church seating plans.

During the 17th century churches became filled with pews. It became the custom in most places, particularly in the countryside, for the right to sit in a pew to be regarded as part of the property of a farm or cottage; in this way, the social structure of a parish was formalized during a church service. The owners or tenants of the largest farms sat at the front, the smallholders were seated in the middle, and the cottagers occupied the seats to the rear. In towns, the most prominent pews were set aside for the mayor and aldermen. Few seating plans survive from the 17th century, but a number of later ones are displayed in churches or are occasionally found in the records of ecclesiastical courts. The present seating arrangements commonly date from the period 1840–90.

Back  -    New Search

church sites.

Most parish churches were sited near the castle or manor house of the lord of the manor. Some now appear isolated because the lord's residence, and even the village that lay alongside it, have decayed and disappeared. Other churches occupy what seem to be strange sites because they were deliberately sited to convert adherents from pagan forms of religion.

Back  -    New Search

churchwardens' accounts.

A few accounts survive from the 14th century; others become much more plentiful in later years. Churchwardens' accounts note expenditure on the maintenance, cleaning, and decoration of the parish church and provision for the services. Those that survive from the 15th and 16th centuries are an important source of information about changes associated with the Reformation, e.g. the removal of rood screens and gilded images.
In addition to their responsibilities for the parish church, the churchwardens often paid for the shooting of birds and vermin, gave relief to the itinerant poor, and paid the ringers for celebrating national events.

Back  -    New Search

churchyards

are normally larger on the south side than on the north, though 19th- and 20th-century enlargements may have obscured this arrangement. This was because well into the 18th century (and sometimes beyond) the north side was regarded as the Devil's side, where excommunicants, the unbaptized, suicides, etc. were buried. The present appearance of most churchyards dates from the Victorian period.

Back  -    New Search

Cinque ports.

The south-eastern ports of Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich (and, later, Rye and Winchelsea) which in the Middle Ages enjoyed trading privileges in return for their contributions to naval defence. These privileges were mostly abolished in the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

Cistercians.

Monastic order founded at Cîteaux in Burgundy in 1098 in an attempt to return to the original simplicity of the Benedictines, from whom they were immediately distinguished by their white habit.
The first Cistercian house in Britain was established at Waverley (Surrey) in 1128; by the end of the century over 100 Cistercian houses had been settled in England and Wales. The early Cistercians sought remote sites and renounced the lavish buildings and ritual of the Cluniacs. The Cistercian ideal was the frugal, devotional, and meditative life, but the monks relied on the manual labour of large numbers of lay brothers. The wealth of their monasteries came from the farming and industrial activities of the lay brothers, many of whom worked at outlying granges.

Back  -    New Search

civil registration.

From 1 July 1837 the state took responsibility for the registration of all births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales. Civil registration began in Scotland on 1 January 1855 and in Ireland on 1 January 1864. The system continues to this day. The indexes of the events registered in England and Wales are kept at the General Register Office, St Catherine's House, 10 Kingsway, London WC2B 6JP. Those for Scotland are kept at the General Register Office, New Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YT. Irish records are kept at the Office of the Registrar General, Joyce House, 8–11 Lombard Street, Dublin 2, and the General Register Office, Oxford House, 49–55 Chichester Street, Belfast BT1 4HL. Microfiche copies of indexes are also available at major public libraries and some record offices, the Society of Genealogists, the research centres of the Mormon Church, and various family history societies.
The indexes are kept in bound volumes on open shelves, in sections arranged according to births, marriages, and deaths. Each of the three sections is arranged chronologically, with the years divided into quarters labelled March, June, September, and December. The indexes for each quarter are arranged alphabetically by surname, and then under each surname by first name. The next column notes the name of the Superintendent Registrar's District where the event was registered. The final column contains a reference giving a volume and page number. All this information (including the year and quarter on the spine of the index) should be entered on an application form for a certificate and presented at the counter with the fee.
The registration districts were based on the Poor Law Unions that were created in 1834, but some changes were made from 1 January 1852. Local Register Offices do not have the staff or facilities to deal with general enquiries, and indexes are not available there for public consultation, but specific requests can be dealt with if the information about name, place, and date of event is already known.
Birth certificates give the precise date of the event, followed by the place of birth. The next columns give the name and sex of the child, the father's forename and surname (or a blank space for an illegitimate child), and the mother's forename, surname, and maiden name. The final columns contain the date of registration and the signature of the registrar.
The indexes of marriages are arranged in the same way as those of births. From March 1912 onwards the name of the spouse was entered in the index alongside that of the bride or groom. Marriage certificates give the date of the event and the name of the church, chapel, or register office where the ceremony was performed. They then record the names of both partners, their ages, and their ‘condition’ as bachelor, spinster, widower, or widow. The next columns note the ‘rank or profession’ of each partner, their places of residence at the time of marriage, and the full names and ranks or professions of their fathers.
From 1866 the indexes of death give an extra piece of information, namely the age at death. The death certificates record the date and place of death, the forename(s) and surname of the deceased, and his or her sex, age, and occupation. The next columns note the cause of death and give the signature, description, and residence of the informant, followed by the date of registration and the signature of the registrar.
The Irish certificates of births, marriages, and deaths from 1864 are similar in form to those for England and Wales. As in England and Wales, the 163 Poor Law unions formed the registration districts. Records for each superintendent's district are held locally as well as centrally. Scottish certificates give more information than the English, Welsh, and Irish ones. The birth certificates note the date of marriage of the parents; marriage certificates record the names of both parents of each partner; and death certificates note the names of both parents. From 1929 onwards birth certificates also note the mother's maiden surname.

Back  -    New Search

clandestine marriage.

Until Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act came into force in 1754 it was possible to be married without the calling of banns or the obtaining of a marriage licence. Certain clergymen got the reputation of being willing to perform such ceremonies. Prison chapels, most notoriously the Fleet, where 217 marriages were performed on the day before Hardwicke's Act came into operation, were commonly used. The Public Record Office holds about 300 registers of clandestine marriages.

Back  -    New Search

clans, Scottish.

The popular concept of Highland clans is largely the invention of Sir Walter Scott . Clans were not distinguished by their own tartans before the 1745 rebellion. The tradition of wearing a distinctive tartan grew up with the Highland regiments that were formed in the second half of the 18th century. The occasion of George IV's celebrated visit to Edinburgh in 1822 was responsible for many clans first adopting their own tartan.
The chiefs of clans were mostly known by the name of their estates. It is debatable whether Highland surnames were distinguished by clan or whether a variety of names could be found within a clan. A clan was a unit which contained families of different lineages; common descent is often assumed but it cannot be demonstrated.

Back  -    New Search

clapper bridges

consisting of long slabs of stone, or sometimes just a single slab, are found in south-western England and the Pennines. Their age is often greatly exaggerated, for despite their primitive appearance many are 18th-century.

Back  -    New Search

Clarenceux King of Arms.

The second ranking King of Arms in England.

Back  -    New Search

class, social.

The term was not widely used until the 19th century, though examples of its usage can be found from the 17th century onwards. In the early modern period commentators spoke of orders of society rather than classes. Class is a basic tool of Marxist historians.

Back  -    New Search

classical orders.

The five types are the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite. The term ‘order’ refers to the base, shaft, capital, and entablature of a column.

Back  -    New Search

Clearances, Highland.

After the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion at Culloden in 1746, the Highland chiefs lost many of their former powers. Many of them left the Highlands and Islands to live in Edinburgh or London and ceased to speak the Gaelic language. Their commitment to the former semi-feudal society based on the clan system was weakened. It became obvious that their estates could be run more profitably by the grazing of sheep and cattle than by farming the land in small crofts. Their agents pursued a policy of clearing the cottages of the crofters, by raising rents and sometimes by violent methods. Between 1763 and 1775 about 20,000 inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands emigrated to America and Canada. The numbers of emigrants grew enormously during the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

clerestorey.

The upper part of a wall (particularly of a church), characterized by a range of windows.

Back  -    New Search

clerical subsidy.

In the Middle Ages religious bodies paid taxes separately from lay people. The records are kept in the Public Record Office under E 179. Names of priests appear only in the poll tax returns of 1377–81 and in the early 16th century; names of chaplains only in 1450 and 1468.

Back  -    New Search

clerk, parish.

Originally, a man who was appointed to assist the parish priest and who held his office for life. He was paid from church funds. His duties included making arrangements for services and leading the responses. The civil parishes which were created in 1894 have a parish clerk as their administrative officer.

Back  -    New Search

clerk of the peace.

The principal officer who kept the records of the quarter sessions and the lieutenancy.

Back  -    New Search

clipping.

1 A church ceremony, often held on Shrove Tuesday, whereby parishioners held hands to form a chain around the parish church to ward off evil spirits.

2 The clipping of coins was a capital offence tried at the assizes during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
Top

Back  -    New Search

cloister.

A covered way in a monastery, for walking and recreation, enclosing a usually quadrangular area, and with a number of cubicles for private study or meditation leading off. They were usually placed on the south side of the church.

Back  -    New Search

close.

1 (cathedral) . The enclosed area around a cathedral, which contains the houses and offices of the principal officers: dean, treasurer, chancellor, and precentor, and the bishop's palace, forming a separate jurisdiction.

2 (field) . A small, hedged or walled field, either at the edge of cultivation or taken in (‘enclosed’) from the open-fields, and so not subject to rights on the commons and wastes.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Close rolls.

Records of the Court of Chancery, housed in the Public Record Office under C 54, so called because registered copies of private letters and documents were closed with a seal. The rolls record large numbers of bargains and sales of land, including sales of confiscated land during the Interregnum.

Back  -    New Search

close studding.

The method of arranging vertical timbers close together in the walls of a timber-framed building.

Back  -    New Search

clothiers.

The term covered a wide range of activities in the cloth trade. The wealthiest merchants of medieval and early modern England were often described as clothiers. The term continued in use to mean those engaged in selling cloth, but it was also used from the 16th to the 19th century to describe those men whose families manufactured pieces of cloth.

Back  -    New Search

clover

was introduced from the Low Countries into East Anglia in the early 17th century, but it was not until the 1650s that agricultural writers began to speak of its merits in the meadow and the grass ley. Imported seed was expensive and some early experiments failed. By the 18th century it had become recognized that the value of clover lay not so much in improving traditional meadows, but in its use in an arable rotation on otherwise bare fallows, on suitable soils in a dry climate.

Back  -    New Search

club men.

In the Civil War farmers armed with clubs tried to protect their crops and livestock against plundering armies. They were active in Dorset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and Somerset in 1645–6 and 1648.

Back  -    New Search

Cluniacs.

Monastic order founded at Cluny in Burgundy in 910 and much favoured by the Norman kings and barons. The first Cluniac priory in England was founded at Lewes (Sussex) in 1077. Only three Cluniac houses were built in Scotland and none at all in Wales and Ireland.

Back  -    New Search

coaches.

According to John Stow , ‘In the yeare 1564 Guilliam Boonen , a Dutchman, became the Queene's Coachman, and was the first that brought the use of coaches into England … within twenty years began a great trade of coach making.’ At first the use of coaches was confined to the London area, but by the end of the century noblemen were using them in other parts of the country and by the 1630s public stage-coaches provided links with London within a 30-mile radius of the capital. A more comfortable ride was made possible by the use of steel springs in coaches from 1754. Many more stage-coach routes were opened once the principal highways were turnpiked in the 18th century. Provincial directories from the late 18th and early 19th centuries are a major source of information about routes and coach proprietors. Newspapers often contain advertisements of the services that were available, and private letters and journals give other details.

Back  -    New Search

coal.

Those coalfields which had seams near the surface have documentary evidence of small-scale mining since the 13th century. The first coalfield to be developed in a major way was that in Durham and Northumberland, which had the inestimable advantage of being near the sea and therefore able to export its products at prices that could not be matched by its landlocked competitors. The term ‘sea-coal’ was widely used, even in places far distant from the sea, as a generic word for coal, to distinguish it from charcoal and the white-coal of the lead smelters.
The canals and, especially, the railways enabled the landlocked coalfields to compete on a national scale. It has been estimated that there were about 50,000 coalminers in Britain by 1800; by 1914 the number had risen to well over 1 million. What has come to be regarded as the ‘traditional’ pit village rarely lasted for more than 100–120 years and often had a much shorter life-span of two or three generations.

Back  -    New Search

coastal erosion.

The relative level of the sea to the land has varied over the centuries. It rose in the late Roman period, receded in the Anglo-Saxon period, rose again from about 1250 onwards, and continued well into the 15th century.

Back  -    New Search

coat of arms.

Distinctive heraldic bearings. The name is derived from the 13th-century fashion of applying armorial bearings to a surcoat.

Back  -    New Search

cob.

A traditional building material, especially in Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall, consisting mostly of mud, with pebbles, straw, or horse hair for binding.

Back  -    New Search

Cobbett , William

(1763–1835).
Writer and politician. A lover of the country who was concerned about the changes that were occurring, he is best remembered for his Rural Rides (1830).

Back  -    New Search

cock fighting

was originally an outdoor ‘sport’ held in circular pits dug into the ground. Throwing stones at cocks was a traditional pastime of apprentices on Shrove Tuesday. During the 17th and 18th centuries smaller cockpits were constructed indoors.

Back  -    New Search

codicil.

An addition to a will that seeks to explain or alter previous provision.

Back  -    New Search

coffee house.

The first coffee house in England was reputedly established in London in 1650 at the Angel. They became popular after the Restoration and remained so during the 18th century. The fashion spread quickly to provincial towns.

Back  -    New Search

cognate.

Related on the mother's side.

Back  -    New Search

collar beam.

A short horizontal beam connecting the principal rafters at a higher level than a tie-beam.

Back  -    New Search

college.

The colleges that were founded in the Middle Ages were intended as residences and places of prayer and study for priests. Many colleges were dissolved in 1547, for they were regarded in the same light as chantry chapels, but those whose purpose was principally educational survived. The word ‘college’ thus became applied to institutions of higher education.

Back  -    New Search

collegiate church.

Some of the largest parish churches in the Middle Ages were endowed by rich benefactors who made provision for them to be served by a college of priests who were not bound to any specific monastic rule. They normally had endowments for a provost or master and up to 12 priests, but a few were much larger. Collegiate churches can often be recognized by their grand chancels, which retain stalls with misericords. The constitutions of priestly colleges varied considerably, but from the middle of the 14th century the great majority, including almost all those associated with parish churches, were chantry foundations, and as such were dissolved in 1547.

Back  -    New Search

collier.

The term has come to be used exclusively for a coal miner, particularly one who works at the coal face, but before the 19th century it included wood-colliers or charcoal burners.

Back  -    New Search

Combination Acts.

The Acts of 1799 and 1800 prohibited combinations of workers in trade unions. They were passed during the Napoleonic wars, when fear of revolution after the French example was at its height. They were repealed in 1824.

Back  -    New Search

comes.

A Latin word which was Anglicized as count.

Back  -    New Search

Commissary Court.

An ecclesiastical court presided over by a commissary acting on behalf of a bishop where the area served by the court lay well away from the bishop's residence.

Back  -    New Search

Common Pleas, Court of.

A royal court of justice sitting at Westminster, whose origins go back to the reign of Henry II (1154–89). From the reign of Edward I (1272–1307) its work became restricted to common law actions between private subjects. It became a division of the High Court in 1873. The records are kept at the Public Record Office under CP. The archives of most use to local and family historians are the final concords which end fictitious suits, whose real purpose was to transfer property.

Back  -    New Search

commons and wastes.

In open-field villages the manorial tenants had the right to graze livestock not only on the common at the edge of the settlement, but on the fallow field, and on the other open-fields after harvest. Settlements on the edges of the moors, woods, or fens often had rights over extensive commons and wastes. Some of these areas were inter-commoned by neighbouring manors. Common rights were vital to the ability to survive on a small farm; in deeds they are referred to as the ‘appurtenances’ of a property. Common rights were basically those of pasture (for cattle, sheep, and horses), pannage (for pigs), turbary (peat), estovers (wood), piscary (fish), and common in the soil (sand, stone, gravel, etc.), but they varied from manor to manor. Occasionally, the jury of a manor court noted the customs of the manor and the rights which could be claimed by the tenants.
Manorial courts insisted that only those tenants of ‘ancient enclosures’ had rights over the common and that these rights were in direct proportion to the size of the holding. This was crucial to the question of compensation for the loss of rights at the time of enclosure. Common rights did not imply common ownership; they are best regarded in the same way as the right to use a footpath over somebody else's land. Manorial juries often found it was necessary to limit common rights so as to prevent overstocking of the commons. The rights were therefore ‘stinted’ to so many ‘cow gates’, etc., according to the size of the holding. The poor inhabitants of a manor had a different view of the common from that expressed by the manorial courts and they felt dispossessed by enclosure.
Thousands of acres of commons and wastes survived the period of parliamentary enclosure and continue to be administered by local authorities. Under the Commons Registration Act (1965) a national register has been made of these commons, whose main use is now for recreational activities.

Back  -    New Search

Commonwealth, the

(historical) . The period of republican government following the execution of Charles I in 1649 until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. In 1653 the Rump Parliament was dissolved by the army and Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector. He was succeeded upon his death in 1658 by his son Richard.

Back  -    New Search

Commonwealth immigrants.

Immigration on a large scale began on 8 June 1948 when 492 passengers sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, to settle in Britain. Many more West Indians, predominantly Jamaicans, followed during the 1950s and 1960s. Another large group of immigrants came from the Indian sub-continent; in the 1950s Sikhs came from eastern Punjab, and smaller numbers of Hindus, Muslims, and Parsees came from other parts of India. The newcomers settled mainly in the large conurbations which were losing population and where there was prospect of work.
The Commonwealth Immigrants Act (1962) restricted entry to dependants and skilled workers. The variety of New Commonwealth immigrants increased during the 1960s and 1970s with the arrival of refugees from Kenya (1967) and Uganda (1972), who were mainly business and professional people with family roots in India. Other refugees arrived later, e.g. Malawis in the mid-1970s and Somalis in the 1980s. A series of Acts passed between 1968 and 1981 imposed further restrictions on entry.

Back  -    New Search

communion tables.

The medieval church used stone altars, inscribed with small crosses at each corner and in the middle. In 1550 wooden communion tables replaced stone altars. During the 1630s Archbishop Laud tried to introduce more ritual into church services, including the installation of permanently placed east altars beyond the communion rail, at which communicants could kneel. In 1643 Parliament abolished all east altars and communion rails.

Back  -    New Search

commutation.

The change from paying tithes in kind to a fixed money payment. The Tithe Commutation Act (1836) made this change compulsory.

Back  -    New Search

comperta.

‘Things discovered’ at an ecclesiastical visitation of a parish by a bishop or archdeacon.

Back  -    New Search

Compotus rolls.

Accounts of royal and seigneurial estates. The records of royal escheators are kept in the Public Record Office under E 136 and 357. The compoti of manorial lords are mostly housed in local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Compton ecclesiastical census.

An ecclesiastical census, taken in 1676 for the Provinces of Canterbury and York. The returns have been published as Anne Whiteman (ed.), The Compton Census of 1676: A Critical Edition (1986). The answers given by the incumbents of parishes were recorded in three columns, which gave the total number of Conformists, Papists, and Nonconformists.

Back  -    New Search

compurgation.

The process whereby an accused person could call upon 12 people to swear to his innocence or the truth of his statement. It was abolished in 1833.

Back  -    New Search

coney, or cony.

The original English name for rabbit.

Back  -    New Search

Conference of Regional and Local Historians.

Founded in 1978 to promote regional and local history among teachers in higher and further education.

Back  -    New Search

confirmation rolls.

Records of the renewal of privileges by the Crown from 1483 to 1625, housed at the Public Record Office under C 56.

Back  -    New Search

Congregationalists.

The Congregationalists originated as a Puritan sect led by Robert Browne in the 1580s. They were known at first as Brownists and, until well into the 18th century, also as Independents. Their distinguishing feature was their insistence on the independence of each congregation. The Congregational Union of England and Wales was formed in 1831. In 1972 the Congregationalists and English Presbyterians joined together to form the United Reformed Church.

Back  -    New Search

consanguinity.

Blood-relationship; descent from a common ancestor.

Back  -    New Search

consecration cross.

When a bishop consecrated a new church he anointed each of the 24 crosses marked high on the walls, half of which were on the outside. Each cross was painted red and enclosed in a small circle.

Back  -    New Search

Conservative Party.

Sir Robert Peel , Prime Minister 1834–5 and 1841–6, is recognized as the first leader of the Conservative Party, which grew out of the Tory Party of the late 17th and 18th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

consistory court.

See ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS.

Back  -    New Search

constable.

The office was manorial in origin; the constable was the link between the lord and his tenants, the keeper of law and order. He was appointed by the jury of the court leet. Where manors decayed during the 17th and 18th centuries, the appointment was made by the parish vestry meeting. The constable served for one year and was usually elected on a rotation basis from the farmers and craftsmen, the better-off members of the community. The office was unpaid and no expenses were given for loss of earnings. The constable raised taxes, kept accounts, and presented these for approval at the end of his year of office. He was also responsible to the Head Constable of the hundred or wapentake for certain duties and to the Justices of the Peace for others.
In dealing with petty law and order the constable was responsible for the stocks, pillory, and village lock-up. He raised the hue and cry, saw to the whipping of vagrants, and secured prisoners and escorted them to the quarter sessions or assizes. His other duties included the collection of county rates which paid for the house of correction, roads, and bridges, lame soldiers, travellers with passes, and the assizes, etc., and of national taxes such as the poll tax, hearth tax, and land tax. His military duties included the raising of the local militia, the provision of accommodation and transport for armed forces, and the lighting of beacons. He was responsible also for weights and measures and the supervision of alehouses, including the provision of lists of alehouses for licensing at the brewster sessions. Surviving constables' accounts in local record offices and the records of quarter sessions reveal the variety of tasks that fell to the constable during his year of office. The office was replaced by the establishment of a national police force in the mid-19th century.

Back  -    New Search

contumacy.

Refusal to appear before an ecclesiastical court or to accept its authority.

Back  -    New Search

conventicle.

The term used in the late 17th century for a meeting of religious Dissenters. Quarter sessions licensed conventicles during periods when they were tolerated and prosecuted those who attended conventicles when they were not.

Back  -    New Search

conventionary tenure.

A system of tenure peculiar to Cornwall and parts of Devon, by which tenants obtained a seven-year lease at a negotiated rent, with no automatic right of renewal.

Back  -    New Search

convertible husbandry.

Also known as alternate, or up-and-down husbandry, this method of farming allowed the temporary conversion of arable strips in the open-fields into grass leys. Some leys remained under grass for up to 10 years; others became permanent grass.

Back  -    New Search

coppice and coppicing.

The art of coppicing has been practised since prehistoric times. Most surviving broad-leaved woods were coppiced for centuries up to about the First World War. The cycle of years varied according to the product that was required; on average, it was seven years in the Middle Ages, but by the 19th century the average length had doubled. Some underwood was cut in the first year of growth, but for pit props the cycle was over 30 years.

Back  -    New Search

copyhold tenure.

A form of customary tenure by which a tenant held a copy of the entry in the rolls of the manorial court baron which recorded his or her possession of a holding on agreed terms. In the early Middle Ages the tenant performed services to the lord, but by the 16th century services had generally been converted into money payments, involving large entry fines and nominal annual rents. During the same century copyhold began to be replaced by leasehold agreements. Copyhold was abolished in 1922.

Back  -    New Search

corbel table.

A series of projecting supports under a roof. In Norman churches these were carved with animal heads, etc.

Back  -    New Search

cordwainer.

A boot-and-shoe maker.

Back  -    New Search

corn exchange.

During the second and third quarters of the 19th century the corporations of the more substantial market towns built large, imposing corn exchanges for trading in samples.

Back  -    New Search

corn laws.

From at least the 12th century, the English government attempted to regulate the export and import of grain. The laws became controversial at the end of the Napoleonic wars. The supply of imported grain from Continental Europe had been severely affected by the long war with France, so British farmers had been encouraged by government bounties to increase their production. The onset of peace made farmers fearful of bankruptcy. The government therefore agreed to a policy of protection which prohibited imported corn under a certain price. Sliding scales of prices were introduced in 1828 and adjusted in 1842, but the corn laws were not repealed until 1846 after much public pressure from the Anti-Corn Law League.

Back  -    New Search

cornet.

The lowest commissioned rank in a cavalry regiment; the man who carried the colours, traditionally the youngest in the regiment.

Back  -    New Search

Cornwall, Duchy of.

The oldest duchy, founded in 1337. The estates of the Duchy are chiefly, but not exclusively, in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset. A few records are kept at the Public Record Office, but most are available for consultation at the Duchy's own estate office in Buckingham Gate, London.

Back  -    New Search

coroner.

The office was created in 1194, when coroners were appointed to enquire into cases of sudden or unexplained death. They gradually acquired other functions, including confiscating property from outlaws. Records survive from the 14th century under ‘Justices Itinerant’ at the Public Record Office. The Coroners Act (1887) and the Coroners Amendment Act (1926) created the modern office. Coroners' inquests are usually reported in local newspapers, but the official records are closed to public inspection for 75 years.

Back  -    New Search

Corpse Way.

In large parishes coffins sometimes had to be carried several miles for burial in the churchyard. Burial parties followed traditional routes, fearing that if they deviated from the ‘corpse way’ the ghost of the deceased would rise to haunt them.

Back  -    New Search

Corpus Christi.

The Body of Christ, or the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Corpus Christi is a movable feast that depends on the day of Easter; it falls between 21 May and 24 June. Established in England in 1318, until the Reformation this was the day on which the guilds of the major cities performed their mystery plays, telling the Biblical story from the Creation to the Day of Judgement.

Back  -    New Search

corviser.

A boot-and-shoe maker.

Back  -    New Search

cote.

A cottage or animal shed.

Back  -    New Search

cottages/cottagers.

The term ‘cottage’ has come to be widely applied to any small or medium-sized domestic building, but most of the older structures that are now referred to as cottages were originally the houses of yeomen, husbandmen, and craftsmen. Cottages were smaller, inferior buildings inhabited by the poorest sections of society.
Cottages appear in manorial records, often as encroachments upon the commons and wastes. The fines that were levied were a round-about way of charging rent. Manorial surveys sometimes describe cottages, e.g. as ‘one-bay thatched’. An Act of 1589 insisted that new cottages should have at least four acres of land attached, but this legislation was not enforced consistently. Increasing numbers of poor cottagers led to decisions being taken at some manor courts and parish vestries to restrict further building and sometimes to demolish recently constructed cottages. Disputed cases ended up at the quarter sessions. Encroachments for cottages are normally identified in enclosure awards, for the cottagers' rights on the commons were often disputed.

Back  -    New Search

cottar.

The term used in the Domesday Book and other medieval records for cottagers.

Back  -    New Search

cotton.

Raw cotton originally came to Britain from the Levant into London, then during the second quarter of the 17th century it came from the East and West Indies. By the early 18th century American and West Indian cotton was being imported through Bristol, Lancaster, and Liverpool; after 1750 Liverpool became the leading port for this trade and Manchester became the chief market.
By the end of the 18th century all the processes for making cotton goods had been brought into factories. The spinning process was the first to be mechanized. The early industry was concentrated in Derbyshire, but it soon moved to Lancashire. The earliest cotton mills were water-powered and therefore sited in remote valleys. These mills depended largely on the labour of children and made much use of pauper apprentices; from the 1770s until the passing of the Factory Act (1833) several thousand children grew up in apprentice houses. By 1803 cotton had overtaken wool as Britain's leading export, a position which it kept until 1938.

Back  -    New Search

council housing.

The Housing of the Working Classes Act (1890) authorized the building of ‘council houses’. The new powers were taken up mainly by urban authorities in order to clear slums and rehouse families that were living in insanitary conditions. The Housing, Town Planning, Etc. Act (1909) gave local authorities planning powers over land for development. The first major Scottish programme followed the report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Industrial Population of Scotland (1917). A succession of Housing Acts after the First World War, beginning in 1919, led to the creation of large council estates on the edges of towns and the building of smaller estates alongside villages in many parts of Britain. The minutes of the relevant housing committees, which are kept at local record offices, are the major source of information, though local newspapers are also informative.

Back  -    New Search

Council in the Marches of Wales.

‘The Lord President and Council of the Dominion and Principality of Wales and the Marches of the Same’ was created in the late 15th century but acquired much greater powers upon the Union of Wales and England (1536–43), with a headquarters eventually settled at Ludlow Castle. Its civil and criminal jurisdiction extended over the whole of Wales and the English border shires. It was abolished during the Civil War but revived at the Restoration until 1689.

Back  -    New Search

Council in the North.

‘The King's Council in the Northern Parts’ was established at York in 1537 in order to counter the threat of rebellion. The Lord President was seated at the King's Manor. The Council was abolished in 1641. Surviving records are fragmentary.

Back  -    New Search

council schools.

The Education Act (1902) empowered county and county borough councils as local education authorities. They took over responsibility for board schools and built many new schools. The Education Act (1944) set up the tertiary system of elementary, secondary modern, and grammar schools.

Back  -    New Search

counties, origins of.

Some shires were based on ancient tribal divisions. Kent, Cornwall, and Devon are named after Celtic tribes, and Berkshire and Dorset have names with Celtic roots. Norfolk and Suffolk were the districts populated by the north folk and the south folk of the kingdom of East Anglia; the east, middle, and south Saxons settled in Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex; and Dorset and Somerset are early folk names. The other Anglo-Saxon shires were not necessarily based on tribal divisions but were created for military reasons around a town or royal estate. The earliest shires were Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire, which were formed in 8th- and 9th-century Wessex. The east midland shires were created under the Danelaw during the 10th century and were named after the military centres that became their county towns: Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, and Cambridge; Lincolnshire united the two Danish armies based on Lincoln and Stamford. Rutland was the only county south of the Humber that had not come into existence by the time of the Norman Conquest.
North of the Humber the only county that was in existence before the Norman Conquest was Yorkshire, the area occupied by the Danish army at Jorvik (York). After the Conquest, Lancashire was created from territories which had previously formed part of Cheshire and Yorkshire, but which by the 12th century were grouped together as the Honour of Lancaster. Cumberland and Westmorland were also created in the late 12th century, though they were based on older territories. County Durham was that area which formed the central part of the lands of the prince bishops of Durham. Northumberland was the shrunken remnant of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria.
The Scottish Lowland counties were created by Malcolm II in the 11th century on similar lines to those south of the border. Those in the Highlands date from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Welsh counties were created after the Act of Union with England (1536), on the English model. During the second half of the 16th century Ireland's four provinces of Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, and Munster were divided into 32 counties, which were based on older lordships.

Back  -    New Search

country.

The word ‘country’ was used not only for describing the whole of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, etc., but more imprecisely to convey a sense of a district much wider than that of a town or rural parish, but smaller than that of a county. The identity of a ‘country’ was determined largely by topography and the nature of the work, but also by the residential persistence of a group of core families.

Back  -    New Search

county councils.

Elected county councils, together with county borough councils for towns with a population of over 50,000, were created in 1888 and abolished in 1974. They took over the administrative responsibilities of the county quarter sessions and were empowered to appoint medical officers. County councils acquired housing and planning powers from 1890 onwards. In 1902 county councils took over responsibility for elementary and secondary education from the school boards. The minutes and other records of the council and its committees, the letter books and files of the clerk, and the treasurer's accounts are deposited in local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

court, manorial.

Although custumals and surveys survive in a written form from c. 1180 to c. 1240, records of manorial courts do not start until the mid-13th century. In the second half of the 13th century, especially in the 1270s and 1280s, the practice of keeping manorial records became widespread as landlords copied the example of the king's courts. The courts were presided over by the lord's steward. Manorial juries, consisting of 12 homagers, were sworn in. Their first duty was to deal with the lord's financial interests in his manor. They then appointed officers, e.g. the constable, judged pleas brought by individuals, and laid pains or fixed penalties on categories of petty offences.
By the early modern period many manorial courts had declined and some had disappeared. Nevertheless, some others continued to thrive. Some manors have long runs of records from the 13th to the 19th or 20th centuries, but the records of many smaller manors have been lost or destroyed. Surviving manor court rolls are normally housed at local record offices or in national collections at the Public Record Office, British Library, etc. Except for the period of the Commonwealth, records were normally written in Latin until 1733.

Back  -    New Search

court baron.

The manorial court which dealt with the transfer of copyhold land, upon inheritance or sale, which determined the customs of the manor, and which enforced payment of services which were due to the lord. It was normally held every three weeks.

Back  -    New Search

court leet.

The manorial court which dealt with petty law and order and the administration of communal agriculture. By the late Middle Ages the court leet and the view of frankpledge came to be treated as alternative names for the same jurisdiction. Rolls were often headed: ‘The Court Leet with View of Frankpledge’. It was normally held every six months.

Back  -    New Search

courtyard house.

A distinctive type of late medieval manor house, arranged around a rectangular open space which was entered by a broad arch.

Back  -    New Search

credit

was widely available in the early modern period. Probate inventories regularly note the debts that were due to the deceased, and sometimes the debts that he himself had incurred. These included bills and bonds on which interest was paid.

Back  -    New Search

creek.

Small harbours which came under the jurisdiction of neighbouring ports.

Back  -    New Search

crenellate, licence to.

A royal licence was necessary before a house could be fortified. The records of such licences, dating from the 12th to the 16th century, are kept mostly in the Patent rolls at the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

crime, associations for the prevention of.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, before the establishment of a local police force, property owners commonly formed a local organization that was pledged to bring offenders before the courts. These bodies had names such as Association for the Prosecution of Felons.

Back  -    New Search

Crimean war.

Fought by British, French, and Turkish troops against the Russians, 1854–6.

Back  -    New Search

croft.

1 An enclosed piece of land by a dwelling.

2 In the Scottish Highlands and Islands, a smallholding centred on a cottage.
Top

Back  -    New Search

crofter.

The Scottish crofters held a small area of arable land and grazing rights on the commons and wastes. They supplemented their income by weaving, fishing, and the burning of seaweed (kelp). Many were driven out of their holdings by the landowners of great estates during the 18th and 19th centuries, whereupon thousands emigrated to Canada and the United States of America. Security of tenure was achieved by the Crofters Act of 1886.

Back  -    New Search

crop marks.

On intensively cultivated land, where ancient sites have been obliterated by the plough, crop marks seen from aeroplanes can give remarkably accurate indications of the ground plans of former structures.

Back  -    New Search

crop returns.

The Home Office files at the Public Record Office (H.O. 67) contain the returns of a national survey of 1801, arranged by diocese and parish. The ministers of each parish in England and Wales were asked to complete printed forms by noting the acreages devoted to wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, peas and beans, and turnips and rape. Some correspondents also noted rye, lentils, and flax. The returns were not concerned with pasture or meadow and therefore vary in importance from one farming region to another. Space was left for comments, many of which are revealing about local farming practices. Returns do not survive for all parishes and the minister was not always well informed.
In 1854 Parliament ordered the gathering of information from 11 representative counties—Berkshire, Breconshire, Denbighshire, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Shropshire, Suffolk, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire—on crops, livestock, grassland, and waste.
From 1866 agricultural returns have been collected each March for livestock and each June for crops (except for certain years). These returns are housed at the Public Record Office under M.A.F. 68. See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet, no. 14, ‘Agricultural Statistics: Parish Summaries’.

Back  -    New Search

cropper.

A skilled craftsman who cropped the imperfections in a piece of finished cloth with a large pair of shears.

Back  -    New Search

crosses.

Intricately carved crosses, standing several feet high, in churchyards or in isolation, survive in many parts of the British Isles, but mainly in northern England and Ireland from the era of the Celtic church or from the Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods. Their purpose has never been explained convincingly. Some may have marked preaching sites, but others were personal memorials.
The tradition of erecting wayside crosses ceased in England, Scotland, and Wales upon the Reformation. Some survive in mutilated form. Crosses of a simple form which survive in churchyards usually served as markers in churchyard processions; they are similar in form to crosses which marked the boundaries of parishes, townships, manors, or monastic estates.

Back  -    New Search

crown

(coin) . Gold crowns and half-crowns were first issued in 1526. After 1551 they were minted in silver and a crown was worth 5 shillings.

Back  -    New Search

crown estates.

Administratively, the crown estate fell into distinct parts. The first were those rents collected by sheriffs. The main estates were, for much of Henry VII's and Henry VIII's reigns, in the hands of bodies collectively called General Surveyors. The former monastic lands (and the other lands which came to the crown in the 1530s) were administered by the Court of Augmentations established for that purpose. In 1547 General Surveyors and Augmentations were merged; and in 1554 the ‘second court of Augmentations’ became part of a reconstructed Exchequer. The Duchy of Lancaster was (and remains) a separate element, with its own legal status, management, and tradition of record-keeping. The Duchy of Cornwall was administered by the Exchequer when there was no duke, but this practice was not restored when Charles I became king in 1625, since when the Duchy has had a continuous existence.

Back  -    New Search

crucks.

A distinctive method of supporting the roof of a vernacular building was the cruck frame. A pair of curving timbers, known as cruck blades, were hoisted on to stone footings by means of poles inserted into holes near the bases of the blades, so as to provide a secure foundation, prevent rising damp, and sometimes to acquire extra height. At mid-level the two blades were joined by a tie-beam and at the top by a collar-beam and by a variety of techniques. Sometimes, the two cruck blades were split from the same tree. Pairs of crucks were then connected by ridge-poles, purlins, and wall-plates in order to form a bay. Cruck buildings could be several bays long, but were commonly of only two or three bays. Dendrochronology dates show that surviving examples date mostly from the 13th to the 17th centuries, and that some are later.

Back  -    New Search

Crusades.

Western Christendom organized several Crusades between 1095 and 1269 to capture the Holy Land from the Muslims. During the 13th century Muslim armies recaptured all their lost territories.

Back  -    New Search

crypt.

A vaulted chamber below the chancel of a medieval parish church, or beneath the choir of a cathedral or abbey, containing the tomb or relics of a saint or martyr, and sometimes an altar. Some of these shrines attracted pilgrims.

Back  -    New Search

cucking stool.

A wooden contraption whereby a woman was ducked in a pool or a river as a punishment for scolding, etc., during the early modern period.

Back  -    New Search

cupola.

A dome, e.g. on a church or town hall. The term was also used for a reverberatory furnace, particularly for coke-smelted blast furnaces in the iron industry.

Back  -    New Search

Curia Regis.

The king's council, established by William I, out of which in the 13th century grew the courts of Exchequer, Common Pleas, and King's Bench. Records dating from the late 12th and the 13th centuries are kept in the Public Record Office under KB 26.

Back  -    New Search

curtilage.

A legal term for the land on which a dwelling and outbuildings are situated.

Back  -    New Search

customs and excise.

From the reign of King John (1199–1216) duties have been payable on certain imported goods, and customs men have been employed by the government to collect the duties and prevent smuggling. In 1643 excise duties were introduced on certain home-produced goods and a Board of Excise set up for their collection. It was not until the creation of the Board of Customs and Excise in 1909 that the two collecting bodies were amalgamated. See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet, no. 106, ‘Customs and Excise Records as Sources for Biography and Family History’.

Back  -    New Search

Custos rotulorum.

The principal Justice of the Peace who was responsible for the safeguarding of the records of the quarter sessions.

Back  -    New Search

custumal.

A record of the customs of a manor, drawn up by the manorial jury.

Back  -    New Search

cypher.

A personal monogram, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

D

Dame.

The form of address for a woman of rank or position.

Back  -    New Search

dame schools.

Elementary schools run by women before the setting up of board schools.

Back  -    New Search

Danegeld.

A payment made to the Danes by the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to prevent invasion in the 10th and 11th centuries. The money was raised by a tax on land. Similar taxes were raised later by Cnut and the early Norman kings to pay for national defence. Danegeld was abolished in 1162.

Back  -    New Search

Danelaw, the.

A collective term for those shires which were ruled by the Danes from the 9th to the 11th centuries. The Danelaw comprised four areas: Northumbria; the territory of the Five Boroughs; East Anglia; and the south-eastern midlands. Its southern boundary was Watling Street, the Roman road whose line is largely followed by the present A5 road from London to Chester.

Back  -    New Search

Dark Ages.

An old-fashioned term for the period beginning with the withdrawal of the Romans in the 5th century to the later Anglo-Saxon period of the 8th century onwards, for which there is relatively little evidence.

Back  -    New Search

datestones.

A fashion which began in the second half of the 16th century for gentlemen and yeomen farmers to carve a date on the stone of their door lintel, or perhaps on the chimney breast. The date was often combined with the initials of the forenames of husband and wife and of their surname placed centrally above.

Back  -    New Search

daughter.

The term could include a daughter-in-law.

Back  -    New Search

day labourer.

A labourer paid by the day, and not living in the farmer's household.

Back  -    New Search

deacon.

1 A clerk in holy orders who assists a priest.

2 An officer of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches.
Top

Back  -    New Search

dean.

The head of a chapter of a cathedral or of a body of canons in a collegiate church. A rural dean heads a deanery.

Back  -    New Search

deanery, rural.

A group of parishes that form a subdivision of an archdeaconry. Although deaneries are Anglo-Scandinavian in origin, they often did not achieve their final form until after the Norman Conquest.

Back  -    New Search

death duty.

The Legacy Duty Act (1796) imposed a tax on certain types of bequests and residues of the personal estate of deceased persons. These duties were extended by further Acts in 1805 and 1815. A duty on succession has been payable since 1853. Registers from 1796 to 1903 record bequests chargeable with these duties. They list the name of the deceased, the date of the will, the place and date of probate, the names and addresses of executors, and details of estates, legacies, trustees, legatees and their degree of consanguinity, annuities, and the amount of duty paid. They are kept in the Public Record Office under IR 26 and 27 and are indexed in the List and Index Society's volume 177. See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet no. 66, ‘The Death Duty Registers’.

Back  -    New Search

death rates.

The number of deaths in a year expressed as a rate per thousand of the total population. As the number of burials in parish registers is under-recorded, a correction factor is used to produce estimated death rates.

Back  -    New Search

Debrett , John, Peerage and Baronetage.

John Debrett (d. 1822) published the first edition of his Peerage in 1802 and that of his Baronetage in 1808. The Peerage went through 15 editions in his lifetime and was continued by others after his death. It was eventually combined with the Baronetage in an annual volume.

Back  -    New Search

Decorated architecture.

A style introduced in major religious and secular buildings in the late 13th century and characteristic of parish churches in the first half of the 14th century. The Decorated style involved the use of flowing window tracery and ogee-arches, and a delight in decorative sculpture.

Back  -    New Search

decoy.

A trap for ducks and other wildfowl in forests, chases, parks, and especially in fens. The birds were enticed into funnel-shaped arms of pools or rivers and caught in nets. The word is of Dutch origin and the use of decoys seems to have originated in the early 17th century. Duckdecoys became increasingly complex during the late 17th and 18th centuries. Tame ducks and dogs assisted in the trapping.

Back  -    New Search

decree.

A judgement of a court; a judicial decision; an edict.

Back  -    New Search

deed, title.

A legal document which transfers property or rights from one person (or institution) to another. The Law of Property Act (1925) reduced the need to prove title back to 30 years.

Back  -    New Search

deed poll.

A deed involving only one person or body, e.g. for changing a surname.

Back  -    New Search

deer park.

It has been estimated that at least 1,900 deer parks were created in England alone during the Middle Ages. A few were recorded in the Domesday Book, but most were created during the 12th and 13th centuries. The fashion declined during the 15th and 16th centuries, but enjoyed a brief revival during the reign of Charles II. As deer were the property of the Crown, a lord was supposed to obtain a royal charter to empark. However, there are many well-documented parks for which no royal licence exists.
The main types of deer which were kept in parks in the Middle Ages were the native red and roe deer, and fallow deer, which are thought to have been introduced by the Normans.

Back  -    New Search

defaulter.

In the Middle Ages, an absentee who was fined for not attending a manorial court.

Back  -    New Search

Defoe , Daniel

(1660–1731).
For local historians his most important work is A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–6), a record of journeys undertaken over many years which provides a vivid and informed account of Britain in the first quarter of the 18th century.

Back  -    New Search

deforciant.

A defendant.

Back  -    New Search

Delft ware.

Blue-and-white pottery, originally from Delft (Holland). The first Delft ware factory in England was established in Norwich in 1567 by two Dutchmen. Delft ware was popular throughout the country in the 17th and early 18th centuries and was often recorded in probate inventories.

Back  -    New Search

demesne.

Land on a manor that was reserved for the lord's own use, as distinct from land held by tenants. The demesne was effectively the same as the so-called ‘home farm’ of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century estates. The term ‘ancient demesne’ was used to describe manors held by the king at the time of the Norman Conquest. Lords no longer found it profitable to farm their demesne after the Black Death, but were content to lease their lands to others. There was a revival of interest from the late 15th century onwards.

Back  -    New Search

demise.

To convey property by will or lease for a term of years or for life.

Back  -    New Search

dendrochronology.

The technique of dating timbers by their annual growth rings. Large databases of computerized information have been compiled and some remarkably accurate results have been achieved.

Back  -    New Search

denization.

A grant by letters patent by which an alien was allowed some of the privileges of naturalization, e.g. the buying and devising of land. The records, from c. 1400 to 1844, are kept in the Public Record Office under C 66 and 67. They are useful in naming an immigrant's place of origin. See also the Parliament Rolls for the same period (C 65), and the Close Rolls (C 54), which have enrolments of Naturalization Certificates, 1844–73.

Back  -    New Search

deodand.

A legal term for the instrument which caused a person's death.

Back  -    New Search

deponent.

One who makes an oral or written statement (deposition) on oath in a court of law. It was usual in civil cases in the 16th and 17th centuries for both sides to present supporting statements of this sort, often in the form of answers to leading questions. The records of quasijudicial enquiries under special commissions initiated by the Exchequer are kept at the Public Record Office under E 133, 134, and 178.

Back  -    New Search

deserted medieval villages.

Over 3,000 deserted villages in England alone have now been identified. It has become recognized that desertion was a long-drawn-out process, stretching from the 11th to the 18th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

detached pasture.

In areas of intercommoning of a moor, marsh, wood, etc., the inhabitants of some manors had common rights on pastures that were physically detached from the rest of the fields and commons. These detached pastures could be several miles away from the homes of the farmers.

Back  -    New Search

detached portion.

Many parishes were not compact entities, but had detached portions that were surrounded by the lands of neighbouring parishes. Such arrangements reflect ancient tenurial history, often from before the Norman Conquest.

Back  -    New Search

devise.

To convey or bequeathe land, as distinct from personal property.

Back  -    New Search

dew pond.

A familiar sight on chalklands and limestone since the 17th century, such ponds were used to collect rain-water for cattle.

Back  -    New Search

diaries.

The keeping of diaries as a record of personal experience and development began in the 17th century and in most cases was inspired by piety. In the 19th and 20th centuries working-class people began to keep diaries and to record their memories in the form of an autobiography.

Back  -    New Search

Dictionary of National Biography.

The DNB was launched in 1882. It included short biographies of notable British people from earliest times up to 1900. Supplements have been published every 10 years. A New Dictionary of National Biography was started in 1994.

Back  -    New Search

dioceses.

A diocese is an ecclesiastical administrative territory under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
The medieval English dioceses were created as follows: Canterbury (AD 597), London (604), Rochester (604), York (625), Winchester (662), Lichfield (669), Hereford (676), Worcester (c. 680), Bath and Wells (909), Durham (995), Exeter (1050), Lincoln (1072), Chichester (1075), Salisbury (1078), Norwich (1091), Ely (1109), and Carlisle (1133). Six new dioceses were created by Henry VIII in the 1540s, following the dissolution of the monasteries: Chester, Peterborough, Gloucester, Bristol, Oxford, and Westminster (which lasted only a decade). No further Church of England dioceses were created until 1836, since when 20 have been founded in response to population changes; the cathedrals of these new dioceses are often enlarged versions of medieval parish churches.
The Welsh dioceses of Bangor, St Asaph, St David's, and Llandaff were created in the mid-6th century, and that of Sodor and Man in the 11th century. The Irish dioceses were mostly created in the Viking period, e.g. the diocese of Cork was essentially the territory of the Mac Carthaigs. However, these territories were based on even older units. By the early 14th century Ireland was divided into four provinces and 35 dioceses: Armagh (11), Dublin (6), Tuam (8), and Cashel (10). The 13 medieval dioceses of Scotland were swept away at the Reformation.
For administrative purposes dioceses are divided into archdeaconries, rural deaneries, and parishes. The records of the diocese are available for public consultation at the various diocesan record offices, some of which are amalgamated with county or city record offices.

Back  -    New Search

diphtheria

was a winter disease which mainly attacked children under the age of five.

Back  -    New Search

directories.

The first London directory was Samuel Lee's list of the City merchants in 1677. The industrial towns took the lead in the provinces. These early publications contain far less information than the directories of the Victorian era, but they arrange the names of people in each trade in alphabetical order and give their addresses, together with details of postal, coach, and carrying services.
In the late 18th century a number of directories covering much wider areas than single towns were published. The first national series was that of James Pigot , published between 1814 and 1853, after which the firm was taken over by Francis Kelly . Kelly's became the most famous series of directories up to the middle of the 20th century, though there were other well-known names, such as William White . In contrast, many other publishers of directories did not remain in the business very long.
The general trade directories began each entry with brief notes on the history and topography of the settlement, with some account of recent economic developments, and with notes on land-ownership, tenures, and the administrative details of townships, parishes, and manors. They then listed the ‘principal inhabitants’ and arranged the names of professionals, businessmen, and tradesmen in alphabetical order under different occupations. Even the best directories are not comprehensive in their listings, nor did they record labourers, domestic servants, and other employees. They do, however, give a good indication of the commercial life of a town and the names of farmers and craftsmen in a village.

Back  -    New Search

disafforestation.

The process by which some of the royal forests were sold and converted to other agricultural purposes, particularly during the reigns of James I (1603–25) and Charles I (1625–49), when the Crown was attempting to rule without revenue authorized by Parliament.

Back  -    New Search

dispensaries.

A charitable provision in many 18th- and 19th-century towns, whereby poor people nominated by the subscribers were able to get free medical treatment.

Back  -    New Search

disseisin.

Forcible or involuntary eviction.

Back  -    New Search

dissenting academies.

In the later 17th century various Nonconformist preachers started to provide education for those who wished to enter the ministry and for the sons of members of their congregations. These academies became leading educational institutions after the Toleration Act of 1689, but gradually declined in the middle and later years of the 18th century.

Back  -    New Search

dissolution of the monasteries.

In the five years between 1536 and 1540 all 650 monasteries in England and Wales were dissolved. A new ministry, known as the Court of Augmentations, had been established at the beginning of dissolution in March 1536 in order to deal with the newly acquired spoils. Only about 2.5 per cent of the plunder was given away, and sales started almost immediately.

Back  -    New Search

distraint.

Originally the seizure of livestock or other possessions for a breach of feudal dues, the term came to be used for the seizure of goods to compensate for unpaid rent.

Back  -    New Search

divorce.

Before the Reformation marriages could not be dissolved by formal procedures. By the end of the 16th century all the Protestant countries except England had divorce laws. In Scotland, by the mid-16th century, divorce was permitted on the grounds of adultery or desertion and the innocent party was allowed to remarry. In England and Wales no changes in the law of divorce were made before the Matrimonial Causes Act (1857). This Act was never extended to Ireland. In practice, however, the ending of unsatisfactory marriages was possible through the common law and the ecclesiastical courts and by Act of Parliament. See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet no. 127, ‘Divorce Records in the Public Record Office’, which also outlines the further legislation of 1873–1969. For the poorer classes from the 16th to the 19th century there was the option of wife-selling, which followed customary rules in a public place.
The Matrimonial Causes Act (1937; extended to Northern Ireland, 1939) broadened the grounds of divorce in England and Wales to include desertion and cruelty, unsoundness of mind, rape, sodomy, and bestiality. The Divorce Reform Act (1969) made the irretrievable breakdown of marriage the sole ground of divorce in Britain; this was taken to have occurred if there was adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion for at least two years, or if the parties had been living apart for five years. In the Republic of Ireland, however, an Act of 1937 forbade the dissolution of marriage.

Back  -    New Search

docks, dockyards.

Maps, prospects, and travellers' accounts, notably those of Defoe , are useful sources for the 18th century. The construction of a dock sometimes required a private Act of Parliament; maps and plans deposited prior to an application, together with records of naval dockyards, are found in the Public Record Office under WORK 41 to 44. Other records are kept under MT 19 (1848–63, arranged by harbour), and MT 10 (from 1864, arranged chronologically). See also MT 21, 22, and 26 for individual ports.

Back  -    New Search

doctors.

Early medical practitioners included apothecaries, barber-surgeons, and physicians. In the 18th century medical training was still largely by apprenticeship, except for those who graduated at Edinburgh University or who had studied at Leiden. From the late 18th century onwards a number of provincial medical schools were established. In 1858 medical education came under the authority of the General Medical Council.

Back  -    New Search

Dodsworth , Roger.

Early 17th-century Yorkshire antiquary whose manuscripts are kept in the Bodleian Library.

Back  -    New Search

dole.

1 A donation to charity. These are often recorded on charity boards in the towers or porches of parish churches. Some churches retain their dole-cupboards in which bread was kept for distribution to the poor. This sense is preserved in the expression ‘on the dole’.

2 A division of the common meadows, shared out annually by rotation or by lot. The name is sometimes preserved in minor place-names and in the expression ‘to dole out’.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Domesday Book.

William the Conqueror decided on a survey of all his new lands in England to determine who owned what both before and after the Norman Conquest and what each of their holdings was worth. The whole of England, except Cumberland and northern Westmorland, was surveyed during 1086. The survey was organized by county, under the headings of the tenants-in-chief of each county.
The returns from each county were gathered at Winchester, where they were recorded (in abbreviated Latin) in two volumes, now housed at the Public Record Office. The volume that contains the unabridged returns for Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk is the most detailed; the other volume has clearly lost much of the original material through editing. The greatest loss is that the surveys of County Durham and Northumberland and of major towns, including London and Winchester, were not transcribed. Some surviving contemporary surveys, notably the Exon Domesday, may have been preliminary work for the compilation of the Domesday Book.
In many cases, the Domesday Book reference is the earliest documentary source of information about a place and the first recorded spelling of its name. The only people to be named in the Domesday Book are the tenants-in-chief and their sub-tenants, both before and after the Conquest. The villeins, cottars, bordars, freemen, sokemen, and slaves are simply numbered. Some social groups are significantly under-recorded. The Domesday Book is not an accurate guide to the early Norman landscape. The only buildings mentioned are churches and mills, and even those figures are minimal. Historians are divided on the accuracy of the figures for woodland. The importance of livestock in the economy is largely ignored, for the compilers were chiefly concerned with arable land. Nor were they usually concerned with crafts and industries. The information about towns was unsystematic and incomplete.
The Domesday Book is a description of rights, charges, customs, duties, and titles.

Back  -    New Search

Domesday of Inclosures.

Most of the findings of a Commission of Inquiry, which was set up by Wolsey in 1517 to investigate the enclosure of arable land and its conversion to pasture, were published under this title, in two volumes, by I. S. Leadham in 1897.

Back  -    New Search

domestic economy.

The term is used to describe the system of manufacture which was in widespread use before the factory system was developed in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The place of work was the home, and much manufacture was combined with farming. Each member of the family had particular tasks.

Back  -    New Search

domestic servant.

Entering domestic service as a young teenager and continuing in such employment until marriage was the normal expectation of girls from farming, craft, and labouring families in the early modern period. Most girls did not travel far, but some ventured to London or the nearest provincial city. In the later 19th and the first half of the 20th century domestic servants sometimes moved much further away, though most stayed near to home. The 1851 census return recorded 1 million female domestic servants; by 1901 there were 1.4 million.

Back  -    New Search

doom painting.

The public part of a medieval church (the nave) was separated from the priest's part (the chancel) by a stone arch and a wooden rood screen which supported an image of Christ on the cross. A painting of the Last Judgement (a ‘doom’) often occupied the space above the arch. This depicted Christ in majesty and the weighing of the souls of the dead. Good Christians are shown ascending to heaven, sinners as descending into hell. These dooms were painted over at the Reformation, but over 60 have been restored.

Back  -    New Search

doomsman.

A juryman of a manorial court.

Back  -    New Search

dorse.

The reverse side of a sheet of paper or parchment. Any writing on that side ‘endorsed’ a document.

Back  -    New Search

dorter.

The monks' dormitory, usually on the first floor of the building on the south side of the cloister and connected by a stair to the church.

Back  -    New Search

dovecotes.

Surviving dovecotes date from the 12th to the 18th century. They are built of stone, brick, or timber and are difficult to date. They were originally confined to the demesne lands of manorial lords and monasteries, but ordinary farmers broke down this monopoly in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

dowager.

A widow whose title is derived from her late husband.

Back  -    New Search

dower.

The widow's third; that part of an estate which by common law passed to a widow on the death of her husband for the duration of her lifetime or until she remarried.

Back  -    New Search

dowry.

Property that a wife gave to her husband on the day of their marriage; also known as ‘a marriage portion’.

Back  -    New Search

dozener.

A name derived from the head of the dozen or jury, applied to the constable or other officer in some boroughs.

Back  -    New Search

dreng.

A Scandinavian word for a well-to-do farmer.

Back  -    New Search

drovers.

The droving trade grew considerably during the early modern period and was at its peak from the 17th century to the railway era. Cattle were brought from Scotland and Wales to the lowland pastures of midland, southern, and eastern England.
The documentation for the history of droving is meagre. From 1552 to 1772 drovers and badgers were expected to be licensed at quarter sessions (except in the six northern counties of England). A drover had to be a married householder of at least 30 years of age.

Back  -    New Search

drystone walls.

Most are a product of the period of parliamentary enclosure of the commons and wastes in the 18th and 19th centuries, though walls close to villages and farmsteads may be earlier. The oldest walls use upright boulders—‘orthostats’—but they are difficult to date.

Back  -    New Search

dual economy.

A term used to describe the combination of farming a smallholding (or sometimes a larger property) with another employment.

Back  -    New Search

Dugdale , William, Sir

(1605–86).
Warwickshire country gentleman, antiquary, and distinguished member of the College of Arms. His The Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) is one of the finest of the old county histories.

Back  -    New Search

duke.

A title created in England by Edward III in 1337 as the most senior rank of the peerage.

Back  -    New Search

Durham Ox.

A famously huge Shorthorn bred by Charles Colling in 1796, which was exhibited at numerous fairs.

Back  -    New Search

Dutch immigrants.

The term ‘Dutch’ was used in England not only for the people of Holland, but also those of Flanders, Brabant, and sometimes Germany (‘Deutsch’). Large numbers of immigrants from the Low Countries settled in London, Norwich, Colchester, Sandwich, and other south-eastern towns during the second half of the 16th century. Together with French Huguenot immigrants they introduced the New Draperies. They were also largely responsible for the development of market gardening around the capital city. As well as this, they were noted potters, glass-makers, brick-makers, tailors, haberdashers, and craftsmen in leather, printing, brewing, goldsmithing, and the making of clocks and spectacles. They established a centre of tapestry-making at Mortlake in 1619.

Back  -    New Search

dyeing.

Concern over the high prices of imported dyes in the 1570s and 1580s led to the Elizabethan government actively encouraging the cultivation of woad, madder, saffron, and weld for use in the textile industries. Manchester and the Merseyside towns became the leading centres of the production of coal-based dyes in the mid-19th century. The German contribution to the development of this industry was crucial.

Back  -    New Search

dykes.

Linear earthworks dating from the Bronze Age to the Anglo-Saxon period, constructed as boundaries.

Back  -    New Search

dysentery.

A disease which inflames the mucous membrane and glands of the large intestine, thus causing severe pain and loss of blood. It was transmitted by impure drinking water.

Back  -    New Search

E

ealdorman.

The chief royal official of a county in Anglo-Scandinavian England; cf. the post-Conquest sheriff.

Back  -    New Search

earl.

Derived from Scandinavian jarl, earl is the oldest English title and rank. Later in the Middle Ages it was placed below the new ranks of duke and marquess. An earl's wife is a countess.

Back  -    New Search

Earl Marshall.

The officer responsible for state ceremonies. This has long been a hereditary role of the Duke of Norfolk.

Back  -    New Search

Early English architecture.

The earliest of the Gothic styles, introduced into England from France in the third quarter of the 12th century. Windows designed as single lancets or as Y-tracery are the most readily identified feature of this style.

Back  -    New Search

East Anglia, kingdom of.

The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia comprised most of present Norfolk and Suffolk. It was conquered by the Danes in 869 and became part of the Danelaw.

Back  -    New Search

East India Company.

Incorporated on 31 December 1600, this joint-stock company established trading stations in India and the East Indies and served as the agent of British administration there. After the Indian Mutiny of 1857 the company was taken over by the Crown.
The Company's archives can be consulted at the India Office Library, Orbit House, Blackfriars Bridge Road, London SE1. The records of baptism, marriage, and burial in India date from the late 17th century. From 1803 annual printed lists name all the Company's workforce.

Back  -    New Search

Easter book.

A list of householders in a parish, compiled as a record of those liable to pay personal tithes on the profits of trade, crafts, wages, and other dues to the incumbent at Easter. Such books date from the second half of the 16th century until the Tithe Commutation Act (1836).

Back  -    New Search

ecclesiastical censuses.

On two occasions in 1563 and 1603 the Privy Council required bishops to make returns of the number of people in the parishes and chapelries of their dioceses. These are found in the Harleian manuscripts 280, 594, 595, and 618 at the British Library. Returns survive for 12 dioceses in England and Wales. The returns of 1603 survive for only seven dioceses. They record numbers of communicants, Protestant dissenters, and Roman Catholics.
The only census of attendance at religious worship ever taken by the state was that for England and Wales on Sunday, 30 March 1851. The returns provide detailed information, parish by parish, on the places of worship of each denomination, on the number of sittings available, and the numbers attending the morning, afternoon, and evening services that were held by different denominations during that day. These returns are kept at the Public Record Office under HO 129. The returns also note the number of children who attended Sunday School in the morning or afternoon. The foundation date of a particular meeting or of the place of worship was often recorded.

Back  -    New Search

ecclesiastical courts.

During the Middle Ages the Church exercised jurisdiction over matters which were dealt with by ecclesiastical law rather than by common law. At the Reformation ecclesiastical authorities tackled administration with a new zeal. The highest ecclesiastical court in the land was the High Court of Delegates, beneath which sat the Court of Arches and its northern equivalent and the prerogative courts of Canterbury and York. Below these were the bishops' and archidiaconal courts. During the 19th century ecclesiastical courts withered as the state took over many of their powers (notably, in 1858, their jurisdiction over probate) and as the Church of England no longer tried to enforce public morality or to suppress dissent in this manner.
The records of the consistory courts of bishops and archdeacons are notoriously difficult to read and interpret, because of their use of technical terms and scribbled abbreviations. The more legible ones include cause papers, which contain details of arguments and evidence in particular cases, and Act books which summarize the procedure of a case. The number of surviving records increases from the late 16th century onwards. A particularly fruitful source for local and family historians are the depositions of witnesses in such cases. These begin with a note of the witness's name, occupation, age (‘or thereabouts’), residence, etc. and sometimes an account of previous jobs and places of residence. Many cases deal with church matters such as the conduct of the minister, plurality, the state of the church fabric and furniture, Roman Catholicism or Protestant Nonconformity, non-attendance at services and sacraments, the payment of dues, etc. Disputes over the non-payment of tithes were frequently contested. The officers of the consistory courts also saw themselves as the guardians of public morality. They became known in some places as ‘bawdy courts’ because they dealt with sexual misconduct and defamation.

Back  -    New Search

ecclesiastical visitations.

Bishops were supposed to visit all parts of their diocese every three years and archdeacons to visit their archdeaconries annually. Ministers and churchwardens would travel to a nearby town to answer questions about attendances at services, the state of the church as a building, the conduct of their parishioners, the names of Recusants and Nonconformists, etc. These records are available at diocesan record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Ecclesiologist, The.

Published by the Camden Society between 1841 and 1868, this journal greatly influenced the course of church building and restoration in the Victorian period. Its pages are now an important source of information about Victorian church architecture.

Back  -    New Search

Eden , Sir Frederick Morton

(1766–1809).
Eden's enquiry into The State of the Poor (3 vols., 1797) is a major source of information about the workhouses that were set up under the Old Poor Law before the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834). The abridged (single-volume) version of his report contains descriptions of a selection of workhouses throughout England.

Back  -    New Search

Eleanor crosses.

Memorial crosses erected at resting places along the route by which the body of Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I, was brought from Nottinghamshire for burial at Westminster in 1290.

Back  -    New Search

electoral register.

The Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 required the publication on a parish basis of lists of persons eligible to vote. As the franchise has been gradually extended, so the lists have become more comprehensive. Since 1928 (when the age that women were allowed to vote was lowered to 21) they list the names and addresses of all adults who have registered. Copies may be seen at county and borough record offices and public libraries.

Back  -    New Search

electricity.

Michael Faraday's publications led to the use of electrical lighting in lighthouses and street lamps in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1880 Sir William Armstrong , the Tyneside armaments manufacturer, made his home at Cragside (Northumberland) the first house in the world to be lit by hydro-electric power.

Back  -    New Search

enclosure, parliamentary.

Parliamentary enclosure occurred where an agreement to enclose by all the owners of land in a parish or township could not be obtained; a hostile minority could be overruled by a private or public Act of Parliament. The first Act was that for Radipole (Dorset) in 1604, but it was well into the 18th century before this method became common and not until after 1750 that it became dominant. Over 85 per cent of parliamentary enclosure was completed or on the statute book by 1830. In all, 5,341 awards were made for England and 229 for Wales. These were of two types: those which dealt with both open-fields and common pastures, and those which were concerned only with commons and wastes. In Scotland, most enclosure was enacted under legislation that predated the Union with England in 1707 (even though the timing of enclosure was much later).
The sponsors of individual Acts of parliamentary enclosure are named in the petition and bill, and in the subsequent Act and award. The progress of the bill through Parliament can be followed in the journals of the House of Commons and House of Lords. The size of any opposition was noted at the Report Stage in both Houses.
In England and Wales 38 per cent of all Acts were passed in the first main period of activity between 1755 and 1780. These early Acts were concerned mainly with the heavy soils of the midland clay belts. A second wave of activity from the 1790s to the mid-1830s was at its height during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, when grain prices were high and farming prosperous. Indeed, the war years accounted for 43 per cent of all parliamentary enclosures. The Welsh uplands were enclosed a little later, half of them after 1840. A 525,880 acres were enclosed in Wales by the 229 acts of Parliament.
The area of open-field arable that was enclosed by Acts of Parliament measured almost double the area covered by commons and wastes. Much of the heavier soils were converted to pasture.

Back  -    New Search

enclosure, private and piecemeal.

‘Enclosure’ was a general term which differed in its impact according to time and place. The enclosure of land in the open-fields in the midlands aroused strong opposition, culminating in the Midland Revolt of 1607, but elsewhere enclosure could be carried out amicably and by agreement. When commons and open-fields were enclosed by a hedge, fence, or wall, common rights over them were extinguished. A typical prelude to enclosure was the amalgamation of a holding by the exchange or purchase of strips. The agreements that were drawn up often do not survive, but some can be found amongst parish records, estate papers, and solicitors' collections in local record offices. An alternative method was to contest a fictitious suit in the Court of Chancery.

Back  -    New Search

enclosure awards and maps.

The parliamentary enclosure of open-fields and commons and wastes in England and Wales was achieved through thousands of private Acts of Parliament.
The new allotments were set out in an award which contained a schedule and an accompanying map. The copy of the award that was deposited in the parish chest is now normally kept at the appropriate county record office, though a large number are housed at the Public Record Office. The map is often the earliest one available for a particular township or parish.
Awards describe the position and acreage of the new allotments and list their owners and tenants. The awards also set out public roads, bridleways and footpaths, watercourses and drains, and other conveniences such as public wells. The maps mark (with a letter T on the inside boundary) which owners were responsible for the maintenance of walls.

Back  -    New Search

enclosure roads.

The commissioners responsible for individual Acts of parliamentary enclosure had, as one of their tasks, to define public rights of way, including roads, bridleways, and footpaths. These were described in their enclosure award and set out on the accompanying map. Some of the roads followed the lines of ancient highways, but others were new routes across former open-fields, commons, and wastes. They were given standard widths, e.g. of 30 or 40 feet, and were enclosed with hedges or walls. They are characteristically long and straight.

Back  -    New Search

encroachment.

The extension of a piece of private property so as to enclose part of a green or common or someone else's land.

Back  -    New Search

end.

A part of a village, sometimes detached from the rest of the settlement, or a hamlet.

Back  -    New Search

endogamy.

The practice of marrying within a clan or local society. The term is used by social historians when discussing the geographical origins of marriage partners.

Back  -    New Search

enfeoffment.

The surrender of property to a group of trustees.

Back  -    New Search

enfranchisement.

The conferring of freedom, e.g. making land freehold.

Back  -    New Search

English Place-Name Society.

Founded in 1923, the society has published surveys of place-names for many English counties and its work continues.

Back  -    New Search

engrossing.

The amalgamation of two or more farms into one.

Back  -    New Search

ensign.

The lowest commissioned rank in an infantry regiment; the man who carried the flag.

Back  -    New Search

entail.

To bequeath an estate in a named sequence of succession. The practice was common from medieval times. The Scottish Record Office has a Register of Entails or Tailzies from 1685. In 1914 the creation of new entails was prohibited.

Back  -    New Search

ephemera.

Handwritten or printed papers which were not meant for posterity but which are now often valuable historical sources.

Back  -    New Search

epitaphs.

Inscriptions on monuments or gravestones commemorating the deceased. The Elizabethans started the fashion for lengthy epitaphs, often in verse, which described a man's family background and his achievements and extolled his virtues. The style degenerated into ridiculous flattery and bad verse during the 18th century.

Back  -    New Search

equity.

1 (legal) General principles of justice used to correct or supplement common and statute law.

2 (commercial) Stocks and shares which do not have a fixed interest.
Top

Back  -    New Search

escheat.

Escheated property reverted to a lord when a tenant was guilty of a felony or when he died without adult heirs. The term will often be found in manorial records.

Back  -    New Search

espousal.

A betrothal, which until the 17th century was considered almost as valid as marriage. This practice sometimes explains why a child was baptized less than nine months after a marriage.

Back  -    New Search

esquire.

Originally the shield-bearer to a knight, by the 16th century an officer of the Crown, and in the following two centuries a man with a coat of arms who was a superior gentleman. In the 19th century ‘esquire’ became more widely used as a style when addressing letters to a gentleman, and later to all men.

Back  -    New Search

essoin.

An acceptable excuse for absence from a manorial court.

Back  -    New Search

estate, early or multiple.

Territorial estates in medieval England and Wales which demonstrate remarkable continuity from Roman, and possibly even earlier, times.

Back  -    New Search

estate records.

In the post-medieval period archivists often catalogue records that were previously described as manorial accounts and rolls as ‘estate papers’. These include correspondence, accounts of the management of the estate, maps, surveys, leases, and rentals. Most of these records have now been deposited at county record offices.

Back  -    New Search

estover, right of.

The right to take timber, brushwood, bracken, etc. from commons for use in building, repairing fences, or as fuel etc.

Back  -    New Search

estreat.

An extract from a list of fines, returned to the Exchequer.

Back  -    New Search

evangelical revival.

A Protestant movement in the late 18th and 19th centuries, which included ‘Low Church’ members of the Church of England and most of the Nonconformist sects, and which emphasized salvation by faith alone.

Back  -    New Search

eviction.

Families living in tied houses or cottages could be summarily evicted by the owner. Newspapers sometimes reported evictions, but often the only information about such events is through oral history. The threat of eviction was often sufficient to enforce the wishes of an owner.

Back  -    New Search

Exchequer, Court of.

The administrative body that collected royal revenue and the court which originally dealt with fiscal matters, but which became an ordinary court of justice. The records are kept at the Public Record Office under class E; many have been printed. The court was merged with the High Court of Justice in 1880. In Scotland, after the Act of Union (1707), a remodelled Exchequer was responsible for forfeited estates, particularly after the failure of the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. The records are kept at the Scottish Record Office, which has published extracts and summaries.

Back  -    New Search

excommunication.

The exclusion of a person from the communion of the Church, imposed by an ecclesiastical court for offences ranging from non-attendance at church to heresy. Christian burial was denied to excommunicants.

Back  -    New Search

execution, public.

Capital punishment was normally performed in public throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Successive Tudor governments turned it into street theatre, with set-piece executions for high-born traitors and later for common felons.
The number of capital offences increased greatly during the second half of the 17th century and the first part of the 18th century. The most infamous gallows was at Tyburn, which was approached on a ‘hanging day’ by a long procession through the streets of London. The last hanging at Tyburn was in 1783; later hangings in London took place instead within the confines of Newgate Prison, but many sentences were commuted to transportation. Public executions were abolished in 1868. Capital punishment within prisons was abolished in 1965.

Back  -    New Search

Exon Domesday.

A survey of the south-western counties, preserved in Exeter Cathedral and printed in volume iv of the Record Commission edition of the Domesday Book. It includes a count of farm stock, which is not given in the final version of the Domesday Book.

Back  -    New Search

expectation of life.

The average expectation of life before the 20th century was lowered considerably by the high rate of infant mortality. In the Elizabethan period, for instance, if a person survived childhood he or she could expect to live into what is now called middle age (though sudden death at all ages was a common experience) and some lived as long as the oldest people of today. The great difference between the present age and the past is that a high proportion of the population are now elderly. Society was formerly much more youthful in its composition.

Back  -    New Search

extent.

A detailed survey and valuation of an estate, especially a manorial one. It records the names of tenants, the size and nature of their holdings, and the form of their tenure.

Back  -    New Search

extra-parochial.

An area outside the jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical or civil parish. In 1894 all such areas were incorporated into parishes or made into new ones.

Back  -    New Search

eyre, in.

A system of justice introduced in 1166 by which the king's justices travelled on circuits to county sessions. General eyres were replaced by assizes in the late 13th century.

Back  -    New Search

F

factor.

An agent, dealer, or middleman.

Back  -    New Search

factory.

The original meaning was trading station, the place of work of a company's factors. The change took place in the 19th century when cotton ‘manufactories’ became known by the shortened form.

Back  -    New Search

Factory Acts.

The Factory Act (1819) prohibited children under 9 from working in cotton mills and restricted older children to a 12-hour day. The Factory Act (1833) reduced the daily hours of children under 12 working in textile mills to nine, with a maximum of 48 hours a week, and those aged 13–18 to 12 hours a day, with a maximum of 69 hours a week; children at these mills were obliged to have two hours' schooling a day; and factory inspectors were appointed to enforce these regulations. The Factory Act (1844) ordered that women were not to work more than 12 hours a day in textile mills and that children were to spend half their day at school. Further reforms were passed by the Factory Acts of 1853, 1867, 1874, 1891, 1901, and 1937.

Back  -    New Search

faculty.

A licence from a bishop to alter or add to church buildings or a churchyard.

Back  -    New Search

fairs.

From the late 12th century onwards the right to hold a fair was granted by a royal charter. Fairs already in existence were claimed by prescriptive right. The greatest period of creation, as with markets, was between the Norman Conquest and the Black Death. The rapid methods of communication in modern times have destroyed the great majority of fairs. In a report of 1889 on market tolls and rights, the Government published a list of markets and fair charters down to 1483.
The staple commodity of most fairs was cattle, followed by sheep, then horses. The major fairs catered for a variety of commerce, including pedlars' goods, but those held at remote country sites were limited to one speciality. The most famous fair in Britain was that held in a field at Stourbridge on the outskirts of Cambridge.

Back  -    New Search

falling sickness.

Epilepsy.

Back  -    New Search

fallow.

Arable land which is left unploughed for a year in order to recuperate. In open-field systems an entire field was left fallow in rotation. The jurors of the manorial court determined when and how the fallow could be grazed in common.

Back  -    New Search

families, core.

The population of medieval and early modern Britain was far more mobile than was once realized. Movement beyond the parish boundary was commonplace. Nevertheless, most movement was restricted to a radius of between 20 and 25 miles, within an area bounded by the nearest market towns.
Much of the movement in and out of parishes was by young farm and domestic servants and apprentices. Young people often returned upon inheriting the family farm or cottage. Studies of communities and local societies in many different parts of the country have emphasized the contrast between this mobility and the stability of core groups of families over the generations.
The members of core families feature large in the lists of local officials, e.g. churchwardens, constables, overseers of the poor and of the highways, witnesses to wills, and appraisers of probate inventories. The core families which remained in a particular locality for at least a century or two were largely drawn from the middle ranks of society.

Back  -    New Search

Family Division, Principal, Registry of.

Since 1858 all wills in England and Wales have been proved at the registry in Somerset House, Strand, London. The annual indexes, which name the testator and (until 1967) executor(s), can be consulted free of charge. A fee is payable to see the will. The indexes to letters of administration may also be consulted; before 1870 these are indexed in separate volumes.

Back  -    New Search

family reconstitution.

The technique of compiling family trees for as many people as possible in a chosen area of study, e.g. a parish, so as to obtain detailed demographic data on matters such as age at marriage, or expectation of life.

Back  -    New Search

famine.

The great dearth of 1258 was the worst in the 13th century, but it was far surpassed in severity by the succession of harvest failures and livestock epidemics between 1315 and 1322. In some parts of Britain famine conditions persisted until the Black Death of 1348–50.
Early modern England did not suffer from famines on a major scale. After 1623 famine conditions seem to have disappeared in England, though it has been argued that dearth was partly responsible for the high mortalities of 1723–30. In the 1840s Ireland experienced a disaster comparable in its effects to the Black Death.

Back  -    New Search

famuli.

Workers on medieval estates who were paid, as distinct from those tenants who provided boon labour.

Back  -    New Search

farm, model.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries great landowners employed architects to design farm buildings that were aesthetically pleasing as well as being an efficient use of space.

Back  -    New Search

farm servants.

The distinction between a farm servant and a farm labourer was that a servant was an adolescent boy or an unmarried man who was hired for a year and who lived on the farm, whereas an agricultural labourer was usually a married man who lived elsewhere (often in a tied cottage) and who was paid a daily or weekly wage for the job that he performed. Farm service was the normal career expectation of teenage boys from about the age of 14 during the medieval and early modern period, and in some parts of Britain during much of the modern era.

Back  -    New Search

farmer.

1 A collector of taxes, who paid the Crown an agreed sum and made a profit on the collection.

2 In its modern sense, conveying no idea of acreage farmed or social status, the word began to replace yeoman and husbandman during the 18th century.
Top

Back  -    New Search

farthing.

A quarter-penny. Until 1279 it was formed by cutting a penny into four quarters. The farthing ceased to be legal tender in 1956.

Back  -    New Search

father-in-law.

The term was often used to mean stepfather, i.e. a mother's second husband. A father-in-law in the modern sense was often termed ‘father’.

Back  -    New Search

fealty.

An oath of allegiance to the king, given when a new tenant paid homage to the lord who was his immediate superior, thus recognizing his obligations.

Back  -    New Search

Federation of Family History Societies.

Founded in 1974 to coordinate the activities of the growing number of family history societies, the federation publishes Family History News and Digest twice a year and a series of booklet guides to the availability and use of records. Conferences are held twice a year under the auspices of member societies. The federation represents the points of view of family historians to official bodies.

Back  -    New Search

fee simple.

Freehold land which is unlimited in duration and extent of ownership and which can be disposed of according to the wishes of the owner.

Back  -    New Search

fee-farm.

An annual rent paid by chartered boroughs to the Crown in the Middle Ages.

Back  -    New Search

feet of fines.

From the late 12th century until 1834 a record of title (usually made after a purchase) was written out three times on a single sheet of parchment. The three copies were then cut apart along wavy lines to prevent forgery. Two parts were given to the parties involved, and the copy at the foot of the fine was filed among the rolls of the Court of Common Pleas, now kept at the Public Record Office under the references CP 25 and 27. Until 1688 the rolls were arranged under counties; this has enabled several county record societies to publish editions.

Back  -    New Search

felony.

Crimes such as murder, rape, arson, robbery, burglary, etc. were regarded (except in Scottish courts) as being more serious than misdemeanours. The penalties included forfeiture of land and goods. Forfeiture was abolished in 1870.

Back  -    New Search

female descent.

Any line of descent through a woman.

Back  -    New Search

feodary.

A survey of the obligations of tenants of the Crown; the officer who enforced such obligations.

Back  -    New Search

feoffee.

One of a group of trustees appointed to manage a private tenant or an endowed institution, e.g. a charity school.

Back  -    New Search

feoffment.

The original form of conveyance by a symbolic handover known as livery of seisin. It guaranteed a fee simple.

Back  -    New Search

fertility rates.

These are measured in various ways, so the precise method in use needs to be stated. Fertility rates refer to the number of births per female of reproductive age in the population under scrutiny, normally expressed as so many per thousand. Sometimes age-specific rates are used.

Back  -    New Search

feudal aids

were originally gifts from a free tenant to his lord, but the system was abused. Magna Carta (1215) insisted that a lord might exact an aid on only three occasions: to pay a ransom for the lord, upon the lord's eldest son becoming a knight, and upon the marriage of the lord's eldest daughter.

Back  -    New Search

feudalism.

A term used to describe the political and economic system in European countries during the Middle Ages, by which land was held on condition of homage and service to a superior lord. The nobility held their estates in return for military service to the Crown; the peasantry farmed their holdings under the protection of a lord of the manor in return for boon work, customary payments, and military service when required. In England the system broke down during the 13th and 14th centuries as services and obligations were commuted to money payments. Historians use the term ‘bastard feudalism’ to describe conditions in the later Middle Ages, when the system was breaking down. Feudal tenure was abolished in 1660, long after it had ceased to operate in practice.

Back  -    New Search

fief.

A hereditary estate held under a superior lord on condition of homage and service.

Back  -    New Search

field books.

The notebooks used ‘in the field’ by surveyors.

Back  -    New Search

Fiennes , Celia

(1662–1741).
Her account of journeys undertaken at various times in the later 17th and early 18th centuries is a marvellously rich source of observations on society and the developing economy of late Stuart England.

Back  -    New Search

Fifth Monarchy men.

A millenarian Puritan group that emerged during the Civil War. Their name was taken from the Book of Daniel, which foretold the rise and fall of four successive monarchies, to be followed by a fifth monarchy which would last for ever. This fifth monarchy was identified as the rule of Jesus Christ and his saints. The group was influential in the Barebones Parliament of 1653. After the Restoration they attempted a rising in London, in January 1661, which failed. They quickly declined as a creditable movement thereafter.

Back  -    New Search

final concord.

An agreement drawn up at the conclusion of a fictitious suit, whose true purpose was to convey real estate.

Back  -    New Search

Fine Rolls.

Records of payments to the Crown for writs, grants, privileges, and pardons, of appointments of royal officials, and of orders sent to sheriffs, etc. The rolls are kept at the Public Record Office. A published calendar covers the period 1272–1509.

Back  -    New Search

fines and rents.

In the late medieval and early modern period tenants who held their property by copyhold or leasehold paid an entry fine upon acquiring a holding through inheritance or purchase. This fine was a lump sum, which might be either ‘certain’, that is, fixed by custom, or ‘arbitrary’, that is, open to negotiation.
Copyholders and leaseholders also paid low annual rents, which were known variously as rents of assize, quit rents, reserved rents, or by some other local name.
During the second half of the 17th and the 18th centuries the system of levying fines on the grant or renewal of leases was gradually abandoned in favour of rack rents. The fine system declined slowly, but survived on ecclesiastical property well into the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

fire insurance.

The Guildhall Library, London, has a collection of fire insurance records. These start with the Sun Fire Office and the Hand in Hand in 1710, the London Assurance from 1720, and the Royal Exchange Assurance (whose earlier records are lost) from 1773. The registers note the address of the insured property, the owner's name and occupation, and any transfer of ownership, and give a brief description of the structure, including its building materials.

Back  -    New Search

firebote.

The right to remove wood from the commons for fuel.

Back  -    New Search

First Fruits and Tenths, Court of.

The profits of a benefice during the first year after the death or resignation of an incumbent, originally made to the see of Rome, were confiscated by Henry VIII in 1523, together with a payment equal to one-tenth of the value of each benefice. A new court to administer this revenue was set up in 1541, but was abolished in 1553 upon the accession of Mary Tudor . The records of the court are kept at the Public Record Office under E 331–47.

Back  -    New Search

fish.

In the Middle Ages fish formed a major part of everyone's diet, especially during Lent and other religious festivals. The mid-16th-century household accounts of Sir George Vernon of Haddon Hall (Derbyshire) show that even in the most land-locked parts of Britain it was possible to obtain a regular supply of both salted and fresh fish from local fairs and markets. The 18th and 19th centuries saw a great development of deep-sea fishing and the rise of large fishing-ports.

Back  -    New Search

fish ponds.

In the Middle Ages fish ponds were a normal feature of both lay and ecclesiastical estates, for the consumption of red-blooded meat was forbidden during Lent and at other times.

Back  -    New Search

Fitz-.

From the French fils, meaning ‘son of’. It was not associated with illegitimacy until Charles II named his bastards in this manner.

Back  -    New Search

Fitzherbert , Master.

The author of the earliest English book of advice on farming, published as Revd W. W. Skeat (ed.), The Book of Husbandry, by Master Fitzherbert, 1534 (1882).

Back  -    New Search

Five Boroughs.

The Five Boroughs of the Danelaw were Nottingham , Derby , Leicester , Lincoln , and Stamford .

Back  -    New Search

Five Mile Act.

An Act of 1665 which forbade clergymen who had been ejected from their livings for refusing to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity (1662) from dwelling within five miles of a corporate town.

Back  -    New Search

flail.

A hand-tool for threshing corn, consisting of two wooden rods tied together by leather thongs.

Back  -    New Search

flatt.

A term used in the north of England for a furlong, a block of strips in an open-field.

Back  -    New Search

flax.

In the 17th to 19th centuries flax was grown as a specialist crop in certain areas. A parliamentary bounty had encouraged its growth during the Napoleonic wars.

Back  -    New Search

fleet.

An Old English word for a channel or stream, especially along the south-eastern and southern coast.

Back  -    New Search

Flemish immigrants

came from Flanders and Brabant and spoke a Dutch dialect. Flemish weavers were encouraged to settle in England by Edward III (1327–77). A second wave came to escape the Spanish occupation of the Low Countries in Elizabeth I's reign.

Back  -    New Search

florin.

A gold coin issued by Edward III (1327–77), worth 6 shillings or 6s. 8d.; the name given to various continental gold coins; a silver coin, first minted in 1849, worth two shillings.

Back  -    New Search

foldcourse.

The practice of grazing sheep in a restricted area so that manure could be collected to improve arable land.

Back  -    New Search

folio.

A leaf of parchment or paper, either loose or in a book, numbered only at the front.

Back  -    New Search

folly.

A general term for the romantic structures built in Classical, Gothick, or Chinese styles in landscaped parks during the 18th and 19th centuries. Some were eye-catchers, others memorials or imitations of famous structures elsewhere. Few served any practical purpose other than that of a summerhouse.

Back  -    New Search

fonts.

The earliest surviving fonts are late-Saxon and Norman. From 1236 covers were compulsory; some later covers were very elaborate canopies.

Back  -    New Search

football.

Although it was an ancient pastime, the game had few rules before the Victorian period.

Back  -    New Search

foreign church.

A church established in a town by a group of foreign immigrants in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

foreshore.

That part of a beach that stretches between the medium low-tide mark and the medium high-tide mark and which belongs to the Crown or its grantee.

Back  -    New Search

forest.

The popular sense of the word is of a dense wood, but medieval forests were never more than partly wooded and often covered moors, heaths, and fens rather than woodland. The term ‘forest’ had a legal meaning; it referred to an area that was under forest law (with its own courts and officials, known as verderers), in which deer and other game could be killed only by the forest owner, usually the king. Many forests were ‘disafforested’ in the first half of the 17th century. The Forestry Commission was established in 1919 to restore the losses to native woodlands which occurred during the First World War.

Back  -    New Search

forestalling.

The practice of trading before the ringing of the market bell in order to avoid tolls.

Back  -    New Search

forfeiture.

The Crown received the possessions of those who were convicted of high treason. The possessions of other offenders who were sentenced to death or banishment went to the Crown for one year and then to the lord of the manor.

Back  -    New Search

forge.

The term includes a variety of structures from a blacksmith's shop to a large ironworks.

Back  -    New Search

forks

were introduced from Italy early in the 17th century, but remained rare until Charles II popularized their use.

Back  -    New Search

forts, coastal.

In 1539 Henry VIII began a programme of coastal defences involving the construction of artillery forts and the strengthening of urban fortifications from the Thames estuary to Cornwall. Fear of Scottish attacks led to similar defensive work at Hull and Tynemouth. Similar considerations in Elizabeth's reign led to further strengthening of south-coast forts and to major defences at Portsmouth and Berwick.

Back  -    New Search

foss(e).

From the Latin fossa, meaning a ditch or trench. The word is usually found in connection with castles or other fortifications.

Back  -    New Search

foundlings.

Abandoned infants, mostly illegitimate, upon being found became the responsibility of the parish overseers of the poor. In 1741 Thomas Coram opened his Foundling Hospital in Guildford Street, London. The records are kept at the Greater London Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

fox hunting.

The first reference to fox hunting is from 1539; hare coursing dates from about the same time. Fox hunting did not become a popular organized sport until the 17th and 18th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

The popular title of John Foxe's History of the Acts and Monuments of the Church, first published in Latin in 1554, and translated into English in 1563.

Back  -    New Search

framework knitting.

Stockings, socks, shirts, gloves, handkerchiefs, underwear, and other fabrics were knitted by men, women, and children in their own home, or in a small workshop, in the towns and villages of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and south Derbyshire from the second half of the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Parish registers (which often used the abbreviation FWK) show that in many midland villages for much of the 19th century the majority of the inhabitants were working at this trade.

Back  -    New Search

franchise court.

A liberty exempt from normal jurisdiction.

Back  -    New Search

frankalmoign.

Land granted to an ecclesiastical body by a lay person in return for prayers for the souls of the donor, his family, and his descendants.

Back  -    New Search

franklin.

A medieval term for a substantial freeholder below the rank of gentleman.

Back  -    New Search

frankpledge.

A system of suretyship and mutual responsibility for bringing criminals to justice. In much of medieval England every householder formed part of a group of 10 or 12 known as a tithing, who were responsible for the good behaviour of one another and for bringing members to a manorial court leet to face charges. From time to time a manorial court would hold a view of frankpledge to make sure that every man and boy was included. By the end of the Middle Ages the term ‘frankpledge’ was synonymous with court leet.

Back  -    New Search

free miner.

A miner born in the hundred of St Briavels in the Forest of Dean, who upon reaching the age of 21 has worked for a year and a day in a coal or iron-ore mine in the hundred and who is thus entitled to own up to three mines.

Back  -    New Search

free warren.

The sole right (granted by royal charter to a lord of the manor) to hunt certain beasts and fowls—the pheasant, partridge, hare, and rabbit—within a given area, such as a chase. Many charters were granted between the late 12th and the early 14th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

freebench.

The custom on some manors whereby the widow of a copyholder retained between a third and all (usually, in practice, a half or more) of her late husband's land until her death or until she remarried.

Back  -    New Search

freehold.

A tenurial status for property which was not subject to manorial customs, as were copyhold or leasehold. A freehold was originally held either in knight service or in socage.

Back  -    New Search

freehold land societies

were formed by the lower-middle and working classes in the 19th century to acquire plots of land on which to build good-quality houses.

Back  -    New Search

freeman rolls.

Admission to the freedom of a corporate city allowed a man to practise his trade and to vote at elections. Freedom was achieved either upon the completion of an apprenticeship or through following a father's trade to adulthood. The names of freemen were registered annually on a series of rolls. These are now kept at local record offices, and some have been published.
At their best, the registers note the date of admission, the name of the freeman, the name and occupation of his father, and (where the freedom has been obtained through the completion of an apprenticeship) the name and occupation of the master.

Back  -    New Search

freemason.

Originally, a mason who worked the best-quality freestone. A system of lodges was developed to suit the itinerant nature of the job. By the 17th century these lodges had ceased to have any connection with the craft, but had become fellowships acknowledging God as the Great Architect of the Universe. The United Grand Lodge of England (founded in 1717) has records of members' names, their lodge, and the date of entry.

Back  -    New Search

French origin, families of.

In the Middle Ages and early modern period France provided more immigrants to Britain than any other country. The chief landowners after the Norman Conquest were from Normandy and Brittany.
During the early 16th century French iron-workers and glass-makers introduced new technology into southern England. They were followed by Protestant (Huguenot) refugees, who were persecuted in their home country from the 1560s onwards, culminating in the treacherous massacre on the eve of the feast of St Bartholomew in 1572. They were welcomed by the government for their craft skills. Most settled in towns, with about half going to London. Other Huguenots fled to England in the 17th century, particularly in the troubled times of the 1680s. A much smaller group of refugees were the landed families who fled the French Revolution, some of whom never returned.

Back  -    New Search

friary.

The various mendicant orders of friars were founded in the early 13th century. The men who joined the Dominicans (black friars), Franciscans (grey friars), or the Friars Minors (the ‘little brothers’ of Francis) were not originally attached to any particular house, but were free to move around preaching and evangelizing. Great emphasis was placed on sermons. About 100 friaries were founded by the early 14th century. Numbers had declined long before 1538, when all orders were dissolved in a single operation.

Back  -    New Search

friendly societies.

A few friendly societies were formed in the early 18th century, but most date from the late 18th or 19th centuries. Their heyday was during the Victorian and Edwardian era.
The main purpose of a friendly society was to act as a benefit club in times of sickness and death, but some societies built halls to provide social and educational facilities, and some lent money for mortgages.

Back  -    New Search

fruit.

Fresh fruit was not grown on a commercial scale in Britain before the 16th century.

Back  -    New Search

Fuller , Thomas

(1608–61).
Clergyman and antiquarian, best known as the author of The History of the Worthies of England (1662).

Back  -    New Search

fulling mills.

After a piece of cloth had been woven it was taken to a water-powered fulling mill, where wooden hammers would pound it with fuller's earth in order to scour and cleanse it. Fulling mills were known in northern England as walk mills and in the south-west as tuck mills.

Back  -    New Search

funerary monuments.

Stone or wooden figures representing a dead person were first placed in churches during the 12th century. From the 13th century onwards local lords were depicted in a reclining position clad in armour, often with their feet resting on some mythical animal. A lord or knight is sometimes shown lying next to his wife with representations of his children (including dead ones) on the sides or at the base of the tomb.
From the 16th century these figures are often portraits. The design of tombs containing effigies in the Elizabethan and Stuart era was influenced by the Italian Renaissance. From the later 17th century full figures in an upright position or busts in a classical style were favoured. The Victorian fashion was for large monuments in a variety of styles.

Back  -    New Search

funfairs.

The towns led the way to converting the ancient annual livestock fairs into pleasure fairs. By the 1820s and 1830s Easter and Whitsuntide funfairs were being held in, or close to, major centres of population. By the last quarter of the 19th century steam roundabouts and steam organs were an essential part of the attraction.

Back  -    New Search

furlong.

Originally, the length of a furrow in an open-field, 220 yards. The term was also used for a block of strips within an open-field. Such blocks were often sown with different crops from the rest of the field and were subject to piecemeal enclosure.

Back  -    New Search

furnaces.

The charcoal blast-furnace was introduced into south-eastern England by French ironworkers. The first furnace was built at Newbridge, in Ashdown Forest, in 1496. The main expansion outside the Weald began in the 1580s. The earliest successful use of coke was at Coalbrookdale in 1709.

Back  -    New Search

G

Galilee.

A vestibule at the western end of a cathedral or monastic church, used as a chapel for penitents.

Back  -    New Search

gallery.

1 Elizabethan prodigy-houses started the fashion for a long gallery on the top storey.

2 In the 17th and 18th centuries churches and chapels provided extra seats in upper galleries. In most Anglican churches these were removed in the High Church movement of the 19th century.
Top

Back  -    New Search

galleting.

From the French galet, meaning a pebble. The practice of placing pebbles in the mortar of vernacular buildings was common in parts of south-eastern England and East Anglia.

Back  -    New Search

game laws.

The strict preservation of game was a concern of landowners from Norman times, but reached new peaks from the second half of the 17th century. In 1671 the property qualification for taking game was set at £100 a year for freeholders and £150 for leaseholders; this was enforced by a £5 fine or three months' imprisonment. After 1707 the possessors of illegally acquired game or of ‘engines’ to kill game faced the same penalty. An Act of 1770 threatened with a year's imprisonment those who took game at night. The laws became increasingly severe in the first half of the 19th century. In 1800 a single JP was empowered to punish poachers with imprisonment and hard labour; in 1803 armed resistance to arrest was punishable by death; and in 1817 armed poachers caught at night were transported for seven years. In the years after the Napoleonic wars committals for poaching increased substantially. At the same time, the use of spring-guns to catch poachers was at its peak. The ferocity of the game laws was to some extent counter-productive, however, for some judges and juries preferred to dismiss charges rather than impose harsh penalties.

Back  -    New Search

gangs, labour.

A system in the eastern counties of England whereby gangs of people, especially women and children, under the direction of a gang master, moved from farm to farm to meet seasonal demands for labour. About half the workforce consisted of children aged 7–13. The Report on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture (1843) provides a great deal of information on the hardships endured under this system.

Back  -    New Search

gaol delivery.

A Commission of Gaol Delivery ordered sheriffs to bring prisoners awaiting trial before specially appointed justices. The records are kept at the Public Record Office under JUST.ITIN. 3 and PL. 25.

Back  -    New Search

gardens.

By the Middle Ages both kitchen and flower gardens were prominent features of towns and villages, monasteries, castles, and manor houses. The Italian Renaissance inspired the design of gardens as an art form and introduced the idea of botanic gardens. The Elizabethans favoured formal gardens with symmetrical and knot patterns.
After the Restoration French and Dutch garden designs were widely used for country and town houses. They made much use of water in the form of fountains, canals, and ornamental pools and of classical statuary, and introduced the idea of segregated garden areas. Most of these gardens were swept away in the landscape gardening movement of the 18th century.
Eighteenth-century gardens were also influenced by Chinese designs and by a delight in the Gothick and the Picturesque. The 19th century saw a huge influx of new trees and shrubs from all over the world. The great walled gardens were brought to a high state of cultivation and all styles of garden layout were attempted, including the reintroduced formal Italianate garden and gardens to show off plants.

Back  -    New Search

garderobe.

A latrine in a medieval castle or house, placed within the thickness of a wall, with a shaft descending to a cesspool or moat.

Back  -    New Search

Garter King of Arms.

The principal King of Arms at the College of Arms.

Back  -    New Search

garth.

From an Old Norse word meaning an enclosure. In northern England garth is still used as a field name, but its derivative ‘yard’ has a more general meaning of a small, enclosed space, as in churchyard, courtyard, farmyard. ‘Garden’ is also derived from the same word.

Back  -    New Search

gas.

Gas extracted from coal was first used in Britain in 1792.

Back  -    New Search

gate / yat.

In areas of Scandinavian settlement in northern and eastern England ‘gate’ meant a road.

Back  -    New Search

gatehouses.

The gatehouses of medieval castles were strong defensive structures. As the need for defence receded, gatehouses became increasingly decorative.

Back  -    New Search

gavelkind.

A system of inheritance, particularly in Kent, and anciently in Wales, whereby estates were equally divided amongst sons, and in the absence of male heirs equally amongst daughters. The system was abolished in Wales by Henry VIII, elsewhere not until 1925.

Back  -    New Search

geld.

A tax calculated upon the holding of land.

Back  -    New Search

Genealogists, Society of.

Founded in 1911, the Society is based at 14 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7BA, where it has the largest specialized library of books, journals, manuscripts, indexes, and microfiche and computer databases on genealogy. The Society holds regular lecture meetings and publishes guides to records, as well as the quarterly Genealogists' Magazine, and a quarterly newsletter Computers in Genealogy.

Back  -    New Search

General Register Office.

Currently at St Catherine's House, London, where indexes of birth, marriage, and death certificates from 1 July 1837 to the present day may be consulted.

Back  -    New Search

General Views of Agriculture.

The series of county reports published by the Board of Agriculture from the 1790s to the early 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

generation.

An imprecise reckoning, roughly 30–40 years.

Back  -    New Search

Gentleman's Magazine.

Published from 1731 until 1868, this monthly magazine is a mine of miscellaneous information. Particularly valuable are the topographical descriptions of provincial towns and villages sent in by readers. These describe local antiquities and give a contemporary account that is now of historical interest. G. L. Gomme edited this material for a series of county volumes published about the turn of the 20th century. Two general indexes covering the period 1731–1810, an index of marriages 1731–68, and indexes of obituaries and biographies 1731–80, have also been published.

Back  -    New Search

gentry.

Although the word ‘gentil’ originally meant ‘noble’, by the 15th century a gentleman was one who was superior to a yeoman but inferior in status to a baron. Between 1530 and 1688 the heralds attempted to restrict the use of the term gentleman to those who could prove a legal claim to a coat of arms, but they were unable to enforce their decisions, for in popular usage the term was applied loosely to one who did not work with his hands.

Back  -    New Search

geological surface maps.

The Institute of Geological Sciences has published a series of maps of drift geology, based on the Ordnance Survey 1:63,360 (one inch to one mile) maps for practically the whole of Great Britain, but many of the early ones are no longer in print. This series is being replaced by a new one using the scale of 1:50,000. Sheets are also available on larger scales for much of Great Britain. Other series show the solid geology of Britain.

Back  -    New Search

German immigrants.

London was the destination of 16th- and 17th-century German immigrants who were Protestant refugees. With the accession of the Hanoverian kings more German merchants and craftsmen were attracted to London. In the 19th century German businessmen were also attracted to the industrial towns.

Back  -    New Search

gibbet.

The post from which the corpse of an executed criminal was hung in chains at prominent crossroads to deter others.

Back  -    New Search

Gilbertines.

The only religious order to originate in England. Founded in 1131 by Gilbert, the parish priest of Sempringham (Lincolnshire), 12 monasteries were soon established in his native and neighbouring counties. Ten of these monasteries were double houses for canons and nuns. The order had a reputation for high standards and for its charity, but its membership declined rapidly in the 14th century. It was extinguished at the dissolution of the monasteries.

Back  -    New Search

Gilbert's Act

(1782). A reform of the Poor Law which restricted indoor relief to the impotent poor and allowed the able-bodied to obtain employment outside the workhouse. Children under seven years were not separated from their parents, orphans were boarded out, the use of the pauper's badge was abandoned, and paupers were sent to workhouses no more than 10 miles away. Inspectors were appointed to enforce these laws and the building of workhouses by unions of parishes was encouraged.

Back  -    New Search

gin.

1 A spirit distilled from malted grain and originally flavoured by juniper berries. The name is contracted from ‘geneva’ (from the Dutch for juniper).

2 A short form for ‘engine’, used for example in horse-gin.
Top

Back  -    New Search

glass.

Glass was used sparingly in most domestic buildings in the Middle Ages because of the cost, but it was used on a lavish scale in major secular and ecclesiastical buildings. Until the second half of the 16th century better quality glass was imported from the Continent.
After 1610 coal rapidly replaced wood as the fuel in the manufacturing process, and so the industry was re-sited in the coalfields. The great conical furnaces which became typical of the industry were introduced around 1700. By the mid-19th century bottle, plate, crown, and flint glass were being produced on a large scale in Lancashire.

Back  -    New Search

gleaning.

The practice of collecting stray ears of corn and straw from a field after reaping was an ancient custom. It was popularly supposed that a landowner had no right to prevent the practice. In numerous court cases in the 19th century farmers tried to restrict gleaners, or at least to enforce regulations.

Back  -    New Search

glebe.

Land farmed (or leased out) by a parish priest. Over the centuries parishioners bequeathed small portions of land, e.g. a strip or two in an open-field, to their minister, though the major part of his income came from the tithes. The amount of glebe land varied considerably from parish to parish.
An ecclesiastical visitation commonly produced a glebe terrier which gave an account of the parsonage and the land that belonged to the incumbent. These terriers are preserved amongst diocesan records or in parish records deposited at county record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Glorious Revolution.

The name given to the events of 1688, whereby James II, the Roman Catholic king, was deposed and William of Orange, the Protestant ruler of the Netherlands, became joint ruler of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales with his wife Mary, the daughter of the deposed king. The revolution brought constitutional government and toleration for Nonconformists.

Back  -    New Search

gloss.

A marginal commentary on a text.

Back  -    New Search

godparent.

A family friend who sponsors a child at baptism. The ancient practice was for a child to have two godparents of his or her own sex and one of the other. Godparents had an important influence on choosing the name of their godchild.

Back  -    New Search

Goodwife.

A form of address in the Middle Ages and early modern period for the mistress of a house, below the status of a gentlewoman. The term is sometimes found in records as a prefix to a surname.

Back  -    New Search

gore.

A triangular piece of land.

Back  -    New Search

gorse

was collected from the commons and wastes for fuel.

Back  -    New Search

Gospel Oak / Gospel Thorn.

A place-name on a parish boundary where a passage from the Gospels was read at the annual Rogationtide perambulation or ‘beating of the bounds’.

Back  -    New Search

Gothic.

Originally a term of abuse coined in the 17th century by admirers of classical architecture, who compared the replacement of the Romanesque style from the late 12th century onwards with the destruction of ancient Rome by the Goths. The Gothic style was introduced from France for monasteries and cathedrals and was used subsequently for parish churches and secular buildings. Thomas Rickman divided the Gothic ecclesiastical styles into Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. The term ‘Tudor Court Gothic’ is used to describe Hampton Court and other royal palaces and the Elizabethan prodigy-houses which were influenced by them. The Gothic style never completely disappeared, though historians speak of ‘Gothic survivals’ in the 18th century and the ‘Gothic revival’ of the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

Gothick.

The term is used for architectural features in buildings erected in the 18th and early 19th centuries which were loosely based on medieval Gothic designs. Such buildings were often romanticized or given a fake air of antiquity. In literature the term is used to describe novels with improbable dramatic plots set in ruined abbeys, decayed manor houses, etc.

Back  -    New Search

Gough , Richard.

1 (1735–1809). Antiquarian and collector. His vast collection of antiquarian material—maps, plans, prints, drawings, notes, coins, and medals—is kept in the Bodleian Library and other repositories. He is best known as the author of British Topography, 2 vols. (1768, 2nd edn. 1780), and of Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain (1768), and as the editor of Camden's Britannia (1789 and 1806).

2 of Myddle (1635–1723). The author of Antiquityes and Memoyres of the Parish of Myddle (1700), and Observations concerning the Seates in Myddle and the Familyes to which They Belong (1701–2), a remarkable account of all the families of this Shropshire parish.
[Gough]

Back  -    New Search

grange.

Monasteries were often given land which was situated too far away to be worked from the monastery itself. The Cistercians therefore developed a system of granges, which were outlying farms worked by lay brothers and hired labourers. Many farmhouses are built on the sites of former granges, but ‘grange’ became a popular choice of name for a Victorian house with no monastic connections.

Back  -    New Search

grave, greave.

A person chosen by the tenants of a manor to act as their representative in dealings with the lord.

Back  -    New Search

gravestones.

The earliest inscribed gravestones are those placed within a church by the wealthier inhabitants during the 16th century. Graves in parish churchyards were originally unmarked, or were perhaps marked by an impermanent wooden cross. During the 17th century the yeomen and better-off husbandmen and craftsmen began to erect tombstones in churchyards.

Back  -    New Search

great chambers.

were a feature of the prodigy-houses and other substantial halls and manor houses of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. They acted as upper-floor retiring or withdrawing rooms for the owner and his family and guests away from the communal life of the open hall below.

Back  -    New Search

Great Exhibition.

Held in 1851 at the Crystal Palace, London to display the manufactured goods of industrial Britain.

Back  -    New Search

Great Rebuilding.

In a pioneering aricle, ‘The Rebuilding of Rural England, 1570–1640’, Past and Present, 4 (1953), W. G. Hoskins argued that agricultural prices increased so much during the Elizabethan and early Stuart period that ‘no yeoman with his wits about him could fail to accumulate money savings on a scale hitherto unknown’ and that this led to much rebuilding of houses and a great increase in the standards of domestic comfort. The essay remains a useful starting-point in the study of vernacular architecture, but the ideas have now been considerably refined.

Back  -    New Search

Great Seal.

A seal depicting the sovereign on horseback on one side and enthroned on the other, which was used to authenticate important documents issued by the Crown.

Back  -    New Search

green.

A large number of medieval villages had a small green, often in a central position, perhaps with a duck pond. These greens were used for recreation and some rough grazing. Many disappeared through encroachments or at the time of parliamentary enclosure. In some villages the central green is a larger, planned space of regular shape; they originated in the Anglo-Scandinavian or Norman periods, occasionally later. Greens are also the focal points of hamlets in areas of scattered settlement. Many place-names in different parts of England incorporate the ‘green’ element.

Back  -    New Search

green lane.

A popular term for unmetalled tracks in the countryside.

Back  -    New Search

green men.

The carved figures known as green men are of two types. Some are doleful or grimacing faces peering through foliage, others have leaves sprouting from their mouths and ears, or even from their nostrils or eyes. They are often discovered in the stonework or woodwork of medieval churches throughout Europe, especially as roof bosses. They may have been demons or pagan symbols of spring that have been adapted to Christian usage as representations of the festival of Easter, or various other fancies that had a remarkably tenacious hold on popular consciousness.

Back  -    New Search

Greenwood , Charles and Greenwood , James.

Publishers of a beautifully engraved Atlas of the Counties of England (1834), mostly from their own surveys. They also published large-scale maps of 33 English counties.

Back  -    New Search

Gregorian calendar.

Introduced in Catholic Europe in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII to replace the old Julian calendar. Britain did not change until 1752, when 11 days between 3 and 14 September were lost to bring the country into line. At the same time the start of the official year was changed from 25 March to 1 January.

Back  -    New Search

gressom.

A fine paid to a feudal lord upon entering a property.

Back  -    New Search

Grim.

One of the names of the Anglo-Saxon god Woden.

Back  -    New Search

grisaille.

Silvery-grey stained glass used from the 12th to the 14th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

groat.

A coin in circulation between 1351 and 1662, worth four pence.

Back  -    New Search

grottoes.

Architectural features at the edges of lakes in 18th-century landscaped parks, imitating water-filled limestone caves and including nymphs, dryads, and often the figure of Neptune.

Back  -    New Search

grouse.

Although grouse and other game birds had been shot on the wing in earlier times it was only after parliamentary enclosure divided the commons and wastes in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that large tracts of moorland came under private ownership. Aristocratic and other owners often preferred to use these moors for shooting rather than for growing timber.

Back  -    New Search

guardians.

The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) took away parish responsibility for the poor and created instead Boards of Guardians for the management of poor relief through unions of parishes. These guardians were elected by local landowners and rate-payers. Their records are kept at local record offices and include workhouse admission registers, accounts, day books, minute books, general ledgers, and correspondence. The Local Government Board Act (1871) created a central government department with responsibility for poor relief and public health. In 1919 its functions were taken over by the newly created Ministry of Health.

Back  -    New Search

guide stoops.

Inscribed waymarkers erected by order of Justices of the Peace under the terms of an Act of 1697.

Back  -    New Search

guild.

The term ‘guild’ or ‘gild’ was used loosely in the Middle Ages to mean any kind of urban religious fraternity or craft organization. Guilds originated in the 12th century as supportive religious societies, offering mutual charitable help and composed of men and women working at a common craft, and living at close quarters in a single parish. They came to be hierarchical trade organizations, with power to control entry into a trade through apprenticeship and the enrolling of freemen, and power to insist on common standards for goods through the appointment of searchers. They were also mutual protection societies which provided for the poor, sick, and needy, and social organizations devoted to feasting and ornate processions, especially at Corpus Christi. They obtained their authority through the grant of a royal charter. In small towns the guild fulfilled the role of the borough until a charter of incorporation was obtained, often in the post-Reformation period.

Back  -    New Search

Guildhall Library and Record Office.

Located in central London by the Guildhall, and open to the public since 1873, the Library is a major source of printed historical and genealogical material. It is particularly strong in all aspects of the history of London. The Record Office houses the archives of the City of London, including parochial records, ward rate books, the records of the City's livery companies, and the archives of various fire insurance companies, individual families, estates, businesses, societies, schools, and other institutions, including the Diocese of London and St Paul's Cathedral. The records range in date from the 11th century to the present day. The Print Room has an unrivalled collection of prints and drawings relating to London and south-east England.

Back  -    New Search

guinea.

A coin introduced in 1663 and named after the Guinea Coast of Africa, from where gold was obtained for minting. Initially valued at 20 shillings, from 1717 it was valued at 21 shillings. The last guineas were struck in 1813, but the fashion for charging fees in guineas continued until the introduction of decimal coinage.

Back  -    New Search

gunpowder.

was first used in England during the late 13th or 14th centuries. Mills worked by water power were in use by the 16th century.

Back  -    New Search

Guppy , H. B.

Author of a pioneering work, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain (1890), which drew attention to the striking geographical distributions of British surnames.

Back  -    New Search

gypsies.

The name originates from the mistaken belief that the first groups to arrive in England in the 16th century came from Egypt. The Romany language shares some characteristics with Sanskrit and later Indian languages and contains some loan words that suggest a migration via the Middle East into south-eastern Europe. References to their being moved on can be found in parish and quarter sessions records.

Back  -    New Search

H

ha-ha.

A landscape feature introduced in the early 18th century, which remained popular until Victorian times. The desire to have an uninterrupted view from a house was balanced by the need to keep livestock out. This was achieved by a sunken ditch supported by a wall that did not rise above ground level. The origin of the term is uncertain.

Back  -    New Search

habeas corpus.

A writ requiring the bringing of a person under arrest before a court to ensure a legal hearing. This ancient right, which predates Magna Carta, was sometimes abused before it was guaranteed by the Act of 1679.

Back  -    New Search

hafod.

A Welsh upland pasture, grazed in summer.

Back  -    New Search

hair powder duty.

A duty payable between 1795 and 1798.

Back  -    New Search

half-baptized.

Term describing someone baptized at a private christening, as distinct from a service in a church.

Back  -    New Search

hall.

In the Middle Ages and later the largest room in both great and small houses was the open hall. In large houses this served as the communal dining room and fulfilled many other purposes. It was gradually replaced in the later 17th and 18th centuries by a large reception hall. In smaller houses during the later Middle Ages and the early modern period the hall was chambered over and a parlour and service rooms were provided at either side, to form a characteristic three-unit plan. The central room in such buildings retained the name hall, but was known in the north of England as the house, fire-house, or house-body. As the internal designs of houses have changed since the 18th century, the term ‘hall’ has been relegated to mean the small entrance space.

Back  -    New Search

hallmark.

A mark used at Goldsmiths Hall, London, and by provincial assay offices to approve the standard of the gold and silver articles on which it is engraved.

Back  -    New Search

hammer pond.

The mill pond of an iron forge, particularly in the Weald, where they flourished during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

Hansard.

The official record of the proceedings of the two houses of Parliament since 1803.

Back  -    New Search

harden cloth.

Coarse, hard cloth, often of hemp, recorded in probate inventories for use on beds and tables.

Back  -    New Search

hardwareman.

A term used in the early modern period for an ironmonger or a chapman specializing in iron wares.

Back  -    New Search

Harleian Society.

Founded in 1869 to publish records relating to heraldry and genealogy, notably the pedigrees approved at the Heralds' Visitations of various English counties, and many of the parish registers of London.

Back  -    New Search

Harrison , William.

(1534–93).
Clergyman and antiquarian. His Description of England (1577) was one of the earliest topographical descriptions of the country.

Back  -    New Search

harrow.

A heavy frame with iron teeth for breaking down the clods of freshly ploughed land and for removing weeds.

Back  -    New Search

hatchment.

Derived from the heraldic term ‘achievement’, a display of the arms and other heraldic insignia upon a person's death. The diamond-shaped hatchments, painted on wood or canvas, which can be found in churches, date from the mid-17th to the mid-19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

haybote.

The right to collect wood from the commons in order to erect and maintain fences.

Back  -    New Search

hayward.

The manorial officer responsible for hedges and fences and for preventing cattle from straying.

Back  -    New Search

headborough.

Originally, the man at the head of a tithing or frankpledge. The term came to be applied in some places to the constable or his deputy.

Back  -    New Search

headland.

The untilled land at the end of a block of strips in an open-field, which allowed access and room for the plough-team to turn.

Back  -    New Search

hearth penny.

A payment made by the owners of a house with a fireplace to the minister of a parish on Maundy Thursday; also known as a smoke penny.

Back  -    New Search

hearth tax.

The tax was levied twice a year—at Lady Day and Michaelmas—between 1662 and 1688. The tax returns are kept at the Public Record Office under E 179; some counties have copies of individual returns in local record offices.
Each hearth was taxed at the rate of 2 shillings a year, payable in two instalments. Those people who were too poor to be rated to church and poor rates, or who occupied premises worth less than 20 shillings a year, or who possessed property worth not above £10 were exempt, as were charitable institutions such as hospitals and minor almshouses. Some lists simply note ‘Poor’ in the margins, others list the poor at the end. In other cases, however, the poor are not recorded or the lists are incomplete. The returns for each county are arranged by hundreds or wapentakes, which in turn are divided into townships. The name of each householder was recorded, together with the number of hearths that he or she possessed. The hearth tax returns usually provide the best base for assessing population levels before the first census of England and Wales in 1801. The returns are of great interest to students of vernacular architecture as they indicate the complete range of houses at a fixed point in time. They also provide information about individual houses. In Scotland a hearth tax was levied on several occasions between 1691 and 1695. The surviving returns are kept at the Scottish Record Office under E 69. They list householders and are arranged by counties and parishes. In Ireland the hearth tax was introduced in 1662 and continued to be levied until the Act of Union (1800). The original rolls were destroyed by fire in 1922, but copies exist for some areas.

Back  -    New Search

hedges.

A method of dating hedges was suggested by Max Hooper . The number of species of trees and shrubs in a sample 30-yard length of hedgerow was said to increase with the age of the hedge, at the rate of one new shrub every 100 years. This dating method has been much criticized; general opinion now holds that a large number of shrubs does indeed indicate an ancient hedge (except where there has been a conscious effort to plant several species) but that the date cannot be estimated with any degree of accuracy.

Back  -    New Search

heir.

One who has inherited a title or property. An heir apparent is one whose right to succeed is inalienable; an heir presumptive is one who does not have inalienable rights.

Back  -    New Search

hemp.

An industrial crop. It requires a rich alluvial soil, so it was grown particularly in the fens and along rivers.

Back  -    New Search

henge.

A modern term for circular monuments of the Neolithic period and early Bronze Age.

Back  -    New Search

Heptarchy.

The seven separate kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England: Wessex, Sussex, Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria.

Back  -    New Search

heraldry.

The origins of heraldry are obscure but can be dated to the second quarter of the 12th century. The rules and terminology of heraldry were laid down during the 13th century. The Heralds were incorporated as a College of Arms by Richard III in 1484. Their county surveys—known as Heralds' Visitations—began in 1530 and continued until the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Many of the records of county visitations have been published by the Harleian Society or by county record societies.

Back  -    New Search

hereditament.

Anything that can be inherited. The term is commonly used in deeds to include anything not specifically mentioned.

Back  -    New Search

heriot.

A payment (often the best beast) from an incoming tenant to the lord of the manor.

Back  -    New Search

heritor.

A Scottish term for the landowners in each parish, who until 1845 were responsible for the local poor and until 1925 for the maintenance of the church, manse, and school. Valuations made of parishes (mainly in the 19th century), known as heritors' records, are kept at the Scottish Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

herringbone.

A distinctive pattern of courses of rubble stone, used by masons in the late Saxon and early Norman period in the erection of churches and castles.

Back  -    New Search

hide.

An area of land, varying according to the quality of the soil and the nature of the terrain, which a team of eight oxen could plough in a year, sufficient to support a family. It normally covered about 120 acres. The hide became a unit of tax assessment in southern England and was used as such in the Domesday Book. Its equivalent in the Danelaw was the carucate.

Back  -    New Search

High Church movement.

A section of the Church of England emphasizing the importance of sacraments, the apostolic succession, and use of ritual. Its prominence in early Victorian times led to profound and lasting changes to the physical appearance of churches and the arrangements for worship.

Back  -    New Search

High Commission, Court of.

The highest ecclesiastical court in England from 1570 to 1641 and from 1686 to 1689. The records of the Province of Canterbury are kept at the Public Record Office under SP, those for the Province of York at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York.

Back  -    New Search

High Court of Justiciary.

The supreme criminal court in Scotland.

Back  -    New Search

High Farming.

A phrase coined in the 1840s described the epoch of prosperity between 1837 and 1873 as the Age of High Farming. ‘High’ was used in the sense of ‘excellent’ or ‘superior’, but it was a complex expression meaning different things to different users. It included ‘high feeding’ as well as increased cereal production.

Back  -    New Search

High Sheriff.

By the 17th century the ceremonial duties of the sheriff's office were performed by a high sheriff, while the administrative tasks were undertaken by an under-sheriff.

Back  -    New Search

Highland zone.

Sir Cyril Fox applied the concept of a Highland zone and Lowland zone, long used by geographers, to the study of prehistory. The concept was used to good effect by W. G. Hoskins in his studies of the English landscape. The frontier of the two zones in England is drawn from the mouth of the Tees in the north-east to the mouth of the Exe in the south-west.

Back  -    New Search

highways, overseers of.

An Act of 1555 required the annual appointment at Easter of a ‘Surveyor of the Highways’ for each parish or township. Like the overseer of the poor, this officer was empowered to raise local rates; his accounts had to be approved at the end of his term of office, and he was answerable to the Justices of the Peace. A particular responsibility was the supervision of statute labour, whereby local people were called upon to maintain their roads. The office of overseer was unpaid and was usually filled by rotation. Accounts of the overseers of the highways do not survive in the same bulk as do the accounts of the overseers of the poor; most date from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1835 a new system was introduced whereby JPs appointed paid surveyors for groups of parishes.

Back  -    New Search

hiring fairs.

Martinmas hiring fairs were known as ‘statute’ or ‘stattis’ fairs because an Act of Parliament of 1677 endorsed the yearly bonds that were made at that time. Contracts between farmers and their servants expired on Old Martinmas Day (23 November), the end of the farming year. The practice of holding such fairs survived in market towns until Edwardian times, but rarely beyond the First World War.

Back  -    New Search

Historical Association.

The association which promotes the teaching of history in schools and universities, through conferences, lectures, its quarterly journal, Teaching History, and its Short Guides to Records series. Its headquarters is at 59A Kensington Park Road, London SE11 4JH.

Back  -    New Search

Historical Manuscripts, Royal Commission on.

This permanent body was first appointed in 1869 to locate and make accessible records in private ownership. In the following year it began to publish reports on the most important collections in the British Isles. In 1945 it set up the National Register of Archives to collate information about historical manuscripts and to make this available to researchers. In 1959 a new Royal Warrant revised and enlarged the Commission's powers and made it the United Kingdom's central advisory body on all matters concerning the location, preservation, and use of historical manuscripts and archives outside the public records.

Back  -    New Search

Historical Monuments, Royal Commission on.

The Commission has been surveying ancient and historical monuments since the beginning of the 20th century. Separate branches deal with England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. In 1994 the RCHM (England) completed a move to the converted premises of the Great Western Railway's General Office in Kemble Drive, Swindon SN2 2GZ. These premises house the National Monuments Record Centre (NMR), which combines the National Archaeological Record, the National Buildings Record, and the National Library of Air Photographs.
The Commission has a number of regional offices, which are responsible for surveying and for publishing complete inventories of earthworks and monuments from prehistoric times up to the year 1850, county by county.

Back  -    New Search

History Workshop.

Based at Ruskin College, Oxford, the History Workshop are a group of historians whose principal concern is the history of working-class men and women from the 18th century onwards.

Back  -    New Search

Hocktide.

The second Monday and Tuesday after Easter, when church fund-raising activities took the form of binding people with ropes until they had paid a ransom for their release. The custom originated in the 15th century and soon became widespread before its demise at the Reformation.

Back  -    New Search

holding.

A term for a farmer's landed property, as in smallholding.

Back  -    New Search

Holinshed , Raphael.

(d. c. 1580).
Author of The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (2 vols., 1577).

Back  -    New Search

Hollar , Wenceslaus.

(1607–77).
Bohemian engraver who is best known for his panoramic view of London from Bankside (1647).

Back  -    New Search

holograph.

A deed, letter, or document wholly written by the person under whose name it appears.

Back  -    New Search

homagers.

The twelve jurors of a manor court.

Back  -    New Search

homilies.

Official sermons of the second half of the 16th century.

Back  -    New Search

honour.

A term used by the Normans for the large lordships that were centred on castles.

Back  -    New Search

hops.

The fruits of a climbing plant, used for flavouring beer. They were first grown in England for this purpose in the mid-16th century.

Back  -    New Search

horse racing.

The early Stuart kings made Newmarket famous by their patronage. The 18th century saw the laying out of courses and the building of grandstands in or near towns and the holding of small meetings in the countryside.

Back  -    New Search

hospice

(historical) . A lodging for travellers, maintained by a religious order.

Back  -    New Search

Hospitaller, Knights.

The Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem were a military-religious order founded after the capture of Jerusalem from the Turks in the Crusade of 1099. They provided accommodation and care for the sick, the poor, and pilgrims, and built and garrisoned castles against the Turks. They attracted substantial endowments of land which they administered from their headquarters at St John's Priory, Clerkenwell, London, and from about 50 ‘preceptories’ in various parts of Britain.

Back  -    New Search

hospitals and infirmaries.

Medieval hospitals were charitable institutions founded by religious bodies, guilds, livery companies, and private individuals.
Most medieval hospitals were dissolved at the Reformation. The numerous almshouses and small hospitals of the early modern period were founded privately, often by a bequest made in a will. The 18th century saw a great growth in the provision of hospitals. By 1800 or shortly afterwards most large provincial towns had opened infirmaries and dispensaries as a result of voluntary contributions. A striking development of the second half of the 19th century was the creation of infirmaries from the sick wards of workhouses.

Back  -    New Search

hotel.

The first hotel in England was built in Exeter in 1768.

Back  -    New Search

House of Commons Journals.

Records of the proceedings of the House of Commons, including the receiving of petitions and the passage of bills. The journals do not summarize debates. The passage of bills through the House of Commons can be followed from the formal procedure and the presentation of petitions.

Back  -    New Search

house of correction.

In the early modern period Justices of the Peace established houses of correction for those found guilty of offences at the quarter sessions.

Back  -    New Search

House of Lords Journals.

Records of the proceedings of the House of Lords, including the receiving of petitions and the passage of bills. They give no clue to the tenor of debates. The Journals have been published from 1510. The passage of public and private bills can be followed from the indexes.

Back  -    New Search

House of Lords Record Office.

The collections in this office which are of most use to local and family historians are the original texts of public and private bills and Acts of Parliament and their associated petitions and papers. They cover such topics as railways, canals, turnpike roads, enclosure, reservoirs, etc.

Back  -    New Search

house platform.

A feature of deserted and shrunken villages, marking the slightly raised foundations of former houses.

Back  -    New Search

housebote.

The right to take wood from the commons to repair houses.

Back  -    New Search

household.

Demographic historians have shown that the nuclear household of parents and children (including apprentices and domestic or farm servants) was the norm from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The majority of households contained fewer than five persons.

Back  -    New Search

hoy.

A small, rigged ship for conveying passengers and goods along a coast.

Back  -    New Search

huckster.

A hawker.

Back  -    New Search

Hudson's Bay Company.

Founded by English royal charter in 1670 with a grant of all the land within Hudson's Bay not already belonging to others and a monopoly of the fur trade there. In 1869 the Company ceded its lands to the Canadian government. Microfilm copies of its records are kept at the Public Record Office, but permission to see them must be obtained from Hudson's Bay & Annings Ltd, 77 Main Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 2RI, Canada.

Back  -    New Search

hue and cry.

A parish responsibility, whereby victims of, or witnesses to, a felony had to shout an alarm and all who heard this were obliged to pursue the felon.

Back  -    New Search

Huguenot immigrants.

The term Huguenot, denoting a French Protestant of Calvinistic persuasion, is of disputed origin, but it was in use in France by 1560. After the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572 many Huguenots fled to Protestant countries such as England. English people tended to use the word Huguenot also to describe Walloon refugees who emigrated from the Low Countries to avoid Spanish control. French Protestants were granted religious freedom by the Edict of Nantes (1598), but this was revoked in 1685, provoking further emigration.
The Huguenots and Walloons settled principally in London and the towns of eastern and south-eastern England, notably Norwich, Canterbury, Sandwich, Maidstone, and Southampton. They made a significant contribution to the introduction of new craft skills. On arriving in England, a Huguenot refugee had to apply for naturalization or denization. The records of this process, and many other records, have been published by the Huguenot Society.

Back  -    New Search

hundred.

Hundreds were subdivisions of counties, from the 10th century onwards, in those parts of England that lay south of the Danelaw. They had military, judicial, and administrative functions, some of which they retained well into the modern period.

Back  -    New Search

Hundred Rolls.

(1279). The operation of local government through hundreds was investigated at Edward I's command in 1274–5. As a result, in 1278 all holders of franchises, such as the right to hold courts or markets, or the right to hunt, were made to justify their claims at Quo Warranto enquiries. The surviving records are not comprehensive; they were published in two volumes as Rotuli Hundredorum in 1812 and 1818.

Back  -    New Search

Huntingdon Connexion, Countess of.

Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (1707–91), financed the Calvinist branch of the Methodist movement, led by George Whitefield , whom she appointed her chaplain in 1751. At the time of the ecclesiastical census of 1851 the Connexion had over 100 chapels. Their registers are kept at the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

husbandman.

The old word for a farmer below the rank of yeoman. A husbandman usually held his land by copyhold or leasehold tenure and may be regarded as the ‘average farmer in his locality’. The words ‘yeoman’ and ‘husbandman’ were gradually replaced in the later 18th and 19th centuries by ‘farmer’.

Back  -    New Search

hydropath.

Hydropathy was the name given to the treatment of illness by hot and cold water used both outwardly and inwardly.

Back  -    New Search

I

ice houses.

Introduced from France in the 17th century and much used on country estates until the invention of refrigerators, ice houses had a domed roof and were approached via a short tunnel. Ice was packed with straw in winter, kept as airtight as possible, and used for summer drinks and for preserving meat and vegetables.

Back  -    New Search

illegitimacy.

Illegitimate births are recorded in parish registers by such comments as ‘base’, ‘bastard’, ‘spurious’, or a capital letter B, or by some Latin equivalent. Illegitimacy rates were not high during the early modern period: for most of the time illegitimate children accounted for no more than 1 or 2 per cent of baptisms. Illegitimacy rates were at their highest in the second quarter of the 19th century, when national population growth reached unprecedented levels. From 1837 the information provided by parish registers can be supplemented by that from the civil registration of births. Illegitimacy rates reached a high point of 7 per cent, but then gradually declined to 4 per cent by the 1890s.

Back  -    New Search

Imperial Gazetteer

The six volumes of J. M. Wilson's The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870) are a reliable source of statistical and other information for towns, parishes, and rural townships. They are noted for signalling, in parishes, whether land was ‘much subdivided’ or ‘divided among a few’.

Back  -    New Search

impropriation of parishes.

The annexation of a benefice, and thus of the great tithes of a parish, especially by a monastery or a college, which would then appoint a vicar to serve the parish. If the minister of a church is known as a vicar rather than a rector, then it means that impropriation will have taken place during the Middle Ages.

Back  -    New Search

improvement commissioners.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries private Acts of Parliament established ‘improvement’ or ‘street’ commissioners in towns. These bodies used their powers of administration to perform many of the tasks of local government. Their records, which include minute books, rate books, and building plans, should be sought in local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

incised slabs.

Medieval slabs shaped like coffins and incised with crosses, and occasionally with human figures, laid into church floors as personal memorials.

Back  -    New Search

inclined plane.

A method of raising boats from one level of water to another on the smaller canals of western England, either hydraulically or by steam power or water wheels.

Back  -    New Search

income tax.

Introduced during the Napoleonic wars. Returns for 1799–1816, giving the names of individual taxpayers on a parish basis, are kept in the Public Record Office under E 182.

Back  -    New Search

indenture.

A formal agreement, so-called from the practice of separating two identical texts by cutting along an irregular line, to prevent forgery. Indentures were used for title deeds and for contracts, e.g. with domestic servants or apprentices.

Back  -    New Search

Independent Labour Party.

Founded in 1893 in Bradford under the leadership of Keir Hardie .

Back  -    New Search

independents.

The 17th-century Nonconformists who rejected national organization in favour of loose affiliations of independent congregations. From the 18th century they were generally known by their alternative name of Congregationalists.

Back  -    New Search

India Office Library and records.

The archives of the East India Company and the India Office, from 1600 to 1947, are kept at Orbit House, Blackfriars Road, London SE1.

Back  -    New Search

indictment books.

The record of charges brought before the Justices of the Peace at quarter sessions. These are kept with the order books from the same sessions at county record offices.

Back  -    New Search

indulgence.

A system begun at the time of the first Crusade whereby repentant sinners who prayed for forgiveness and made a personal commitment were offered relief from suffering in purgatory.

Back  -    New Search

infangentheof.

The right of a manorial or borough court to try and punish a thief arrested within its jurisdiction.

Back  -    New Search

infant mortality.

More than one-fifth of all children born in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, and about one-quarter of those born during the 17th century, died before the age of ten. Well over half of these deaths, and almost two-thirds of those in Elizabeth's reign, occurred during the child's first year.
Infant mortality remained high in Victorian England, at 150 per thousand live births, which is more than ten times the rate in the late 20th century. These crude national figures mask the differences between social groups and different countries. The Irish rate of infant mortality was about 40 per cent below that of the English, and the Scottish rate was 20 per cent below.

Back  -    New Search

infield / outfield system.

The infield (which was referred to variously as ‘croftland’, ‘inbyland’, and ‘mucked land’) was the inner circle of land around a settlement, which was farmed in common (in strips) on a rotation that included a fallow every third year. The infield received all the manure. The outfield lay in irregular patches beyond the settlement. It varied in size, according to local conditions, but was generally about three times as large as the infield. It was poorer in fertility and drainage. The outfield was also farmed in common, but less intensively. Parts would revert to natural grass and weeds for several years at a time to allow recovery.

Back  -    New Search

inflation.

The three greatest periods of inflation have been those of 1180–1220, when food prices doubled or trebled, the late 15th to the mid-17th centuries, when prices rose four- or fivefold, and that of the later 20th century, when prices rose tenfold between 1960 and 1990.

Back  -    New Search

influenza.

Virulent forms of influenza have been amongst the greatest killers in the past. The worst international outbreak of influenza ever recorded was that which killed millions of people immediately after the First World War.

Back  -    New Search

Inghamites.

A Nonconformist sect founded in 1754 by Benjamin Ingham , after a break with the Moravians.

Back  -    New Search

ingle-nook.

A seat built into the wall by the fireplace.

Back  -    New Search

ings.

Low-lying meadows and pastures, liable to floods.

Back  -    New Search

inheritance customs.

The inheritance customs of the British Isles have varied considerably from region to region and over time. The basic distinction between primogeniture and partible inheritance was blurred by customs which ensured that younger children obtained a share of the patrimony and which enabled women to protect their own property and the interests of children by a previous marriage through formal or informal marriage settlements.

Back  -    New Search

inland revenue records.

Housed at the Public Record Office under IR.

Back  -    New Search

inns.

During the 17th century facilities were greatly increased. (See the Carriers' Cosmographie (1637) and the account of guest beds and stabling in towns and villages throughout England and Wales in 1686 (Public Record Office, WO 3/48) and the lists of innkeepers and alehouse keepers licenced at the ‘brewster sessions’ by Justices of the Peace.)

Back  -    New Search

Inns of Court.

Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, and the Inner and Middle Temple are the surviving Inns of Court in London at which barristers-at-law have been trained since the Middle Ages. The admission books record the name and date of entry of a student, together with the name, status, and residence of his father.

Back  -    New Search

inoculation

against smallpox was practised in the eastern Mediterranean and parts of Asia during the 17th century and was first reported in England in 1701.

Back  -    New Search

Inquisition of the Ninths

(1341). An assessment of the agricultural value of each parish in most of the area covered by 27 English counties, published by the Record Commission as Nonarum Inquisitiones in Curia Saccarii (1807).

Back  -    New Search

inquisition post mortem.

An inquest held by the king's escheator or his deputy after the death of a tenant-in-chief of the Crown to establish the extent of the estate and to confirm the rightful heir. A jury of 12 local men of high repute gave information under oath. Records from the 13th century onwards are kept at the Public Record Office, under C 133–142 and E 149–150. Calendars and indexes are available for many reigns, and some county record societies have published detailed calendars. Such records survive in large numbers, especially for the period 1270–1350.

Back  -    New Search

Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies.

Housed at Northgate, Canterbury, the institute was founded in 1961 to provide study, research, and training facilities in family history. It has a large library, and publishes aids to study and the journal Family History.

Back  -    New Search

intakes.

Irregular-shaped fields enclosed from the edges of commons.

Back  -    New Search

intercommoning.

A system whereby several settlements around a marsh, wood, or moor had rights on the commons within that area.

Back  -    New Search

International Genealogical Index.

This microfiche and CD-ROM index of births / baptisms and marriages covering most of the world has been compiled by amateur researchers who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church). The entries from Britain comprise baptism and marriage entries in parish and Nonconformist registers (including those kept at the Public Record Office) and miscellaneous other sources up to 1885. The IGI has been made widely available for public consultation in record offices and public libraries, and in the record-searching facilities created by the Mormons in various parts of the country. The entries are arranged under (pre-1974) counties, in alphabetical order of surnames, and then of forenames (in chronological order).

Back  -    New Search

Interregnum.

The period between the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the restoration of his son, Charles II, in 1660.

Back  -    New Search

intestate.

A person who died without making a will.

Back  -    New Search

inventories, probate.

From the early 16th century to the mid-18th century (and in some districts until much later) it was the custom of the ecclesiastical courts that proved wills in England and Wales to insist that the executors should appoint three or four local men to make ‘a true and perfect inventory’ of the personal estate of the deceased. The inventory was filed with the will, or where a person died intestate with the letters of administration. The appraisers, or valuers, swore a solemn oath that they would carry out their duty truthfully. They proceeded to list every item of furniture and utensils in the house, then they noted the livestock, crops, and equipment or the tools and finished goods in workshops, and whatever else was movable and therefore constituted personal estate, as distinct from real estate, i.e. the value of the house, land, etc.
Tens of thousands of probate inventories survive for most parts of England and Wales. They are mostly kept with wills at the record offices of the ancient dioceses, except for the period 1653–60, when all wills and inventories for England and Wales were proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury; these are now kept at the Public Record Office under PROB 3.
Many of the words used by the appraisers are archaic terms, often of a technical kind, and frequently employing dialect forms. Little work has yet been done on their value as a source for the study of regional speech. The study of farming history in the early modern period has been transformed by the use made of inventories. Inventories have also been used with profit for the study of vernacular architecture. Probate inventories are an unrivalled source for the study of furnishings and for demonstrating the rise in standards of domestic comfort. The full potential of craftsmen's inventories has not yet been realized.
There are many problems to be faced in interpreting individual inventories and in the statistical analysis of inventories in bulk. The major omission is that of real estate, whether freehold or copyhold property. The other major item which is often omitted is that of the debts which were owed by the deceased.

Back  -    New Search

Irish emigration.

The population of Ireland rose from over 4 million in 1781 to over 8 million in 1841. Long before the famine years of the late 1840s Irish men and women emigrated to England and south Wales, and to a lesser extent to Scotland, in search of work.
The famine years from 1846 onwards saw massive emigration from Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom and to the United States of America. By the end of the 19th century the population of Ireland had dropped to half the size it had attained by 1851. The favourite destinations for those who crossed the Irish Sea were London, Liverpool and other Lancashire towns, and parts of Lowland Scotland.
The Irish continued to arrive in considerable numbers during the later decades of the 19th century, particularly in the late 1870s and 1880s when farming was particularly depressed. The creation of an independent southern Ireland in 1922 and the long depression in Great Britain during the inter-war years reduced the flow of Irish immigrants, but after the Second World War and the revival of the British economy in the 1950s and 1960s large numbers of new Irish settlers arrived in search of work.

Back  -    New Search

iron.

The quality and quantity of wrought iron improved during the Middle Ages. Water-powered bloomeries were in use in England from the 14th century and remained important in some regions until the middle of the 17th century. The iron industry grew considerably in the 16th and 17th centuries after blast furnaces were introduced into England by French ironworkers in Ashdown Forest in 1496. The Wealden industry grew quickly in the next 50 years, and the new technology arrived in the midlands and the north of England in the 1560s. The era of the charcoal blast furnace lasted until the mid-18th century.
In 1709 Abraham Darby's works at Coalbrookdale was the first to use coke successfully. In the later 18th century the design of coke-fuelled furnaces changed rapidly and Henry Cort's puddling process was widely adopted. The 19th-century iron industry was far more complex and varied than its 18th-century predecessor. The furnaces had a far greater capacity and steam power was now in common use.

Back  -    New Search

Iron Age.

The last of the prehistoric periods, from c. 800 BC to the Roman invasion of AD 43, characterized by the use of iron tools and weapons, hill forts, and farmhouses of roughly circular plan whose outlines are often revealed by aerial archaeology.

Back  -    New Search

Irvingites.

The followers of Edward Irving (1792–1834), the founder of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, which was based in London.

Back  -    New Search

Issue Rolls.

Records of payments made from Crown revenues, from 1240 to 1480 and from 1567 to 1700, kept at the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

Italian immigrants.

Although individual Italians had settled in Britain since the Middle Ages, it was only in the 19th century that a community was established in London, especially in Clerkenwell and Soho. Many more Italians left their home country in the late 19th century. In London, numbers trebled from 3,500 in 1881 to 11,000 in 1901. Another wave of immigrants came in the 1950s and 1960s.

Back  -    New Search

J

Jacobites.

Supporters of the deposed King James II and his descendants after the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, which placed William of Orange and his wife Mary on the throne. Armed conflict occurred in 1689–90 (culminating in James's defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, in northern Ireland, on 1 July 1690), in 1715 (‘The Jacobite Rebellion’), and in 1745–6, ending in the battle of Culloden and the suppression of the Highland clans.

Back  -    New Search

jagger.

A north country term for a man in charge of a team of packhorses carrying lead, coal, etc.

Back  -    New Search

Jesse window.

A depiction in stained glass of the Tree of Jesse, often in the east window of a church, showing Christ's descent from Jesse, the father of King David.

Back  -    New Search

Jesuit.

A member of the Society of Jesus, which was formed in Paris in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola as a body of scholars and missionaries dedicated to the aims of the Counter-Reformation.

Back  -    New Search

Jewish immigrants.

A small Jewish community settled in London after the Norman Conquest. By the middle of the 12th century other English cities, e.g. King's Lynn and Norwich, had attracted Jewish moneylenders. Anti-semitism broke out during the heightened emotions of the first Crusade.
These early settlers were Sephardic Jews, whose name is derived from a Hebrew word meaning Spaniards. A small group resettled in London from 1541 onwards; by 1734 the number of English Jews had risen to about 6,000. Most of these were Sephardic Jews who had come from Portugal as traders; many were wealthy. They were followed by other Sephardic Jews from different parts of the Mediterranean.
The other Jews who had settled in England by 1734 were from a different tradition. They were known as Ashkenazic Jews from a Hebrew word meaning German, for they had once been concentrated in the Rhine valley before moving east into Poland, the Baltic States, and Russia. Their native language was Yiddish, a type of German written in Hebrew characters. Their numbers increased steadily after 1800, especially after the persecutions in Central and Eastern Europe of 1848–50 and 1863; then in the last two decades of the 19th century thousands of families from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and other parts of the Russian Empire sought refuge. The favourite destination was the East End of London, especially Stepney, followed by Leeds and Manchester.

Back  -    New Search

jointure.

A fixed annual sum paid to a widow out of her husband's freehold estate until she remarried or died.

Back  -    New Search

journeyman.

A day labourer, often one who worked away from home; a man who had completed an apprenticeship but had not set up as a master himself.

Back  -    New Search

Julian calendar.

The calendar in use since the time of Julius Caesar until the Gregorian calendar was introduced into Catholic Europe in 1582 and into Britain in 1752. By the time that it was abandoned in Britain, the Julian calendar was 11 days out of line with the Gregorian.

Back  -    New Search

jury.

A body of 12 people sworn to give a verdict in a court of justice, manorial court, coroner's court, etc. Jury service was dependent upon a property qualification defined in 1285 and extended in 1664 and 1692. From 1696 lists of eligible jurors (men aged 21–70 who possessed freehold, copyhold, or life-tenure property worth at least £10 a year) were presented by each parish to meetings of the quarter sessions and may now be consulted in county record offices. From 1730 long-term leaseholders of property valued at or above £20 were also eligible to serve. In 1825 jury service was restricted to those aged 21–60 and the property qualification was revised.
The Grand Jury was drawn from the ranks of the minor gentry and substantial yeomen who decided which cases should proceed to trial at the quarter sessions. Records of such proceedings are not well preserved.

Back  -    New Search

jury of presentment.

By ancient custom, confirmed in 1166, 12 men from each hundred and four men from each vill were liable for bringing suspects before the justices of the hundred court. These courts withered under the Tudors.

Back  -    New Search

Justices of the Peace

developed from the ‘Keepers of the Peace’ who were appointed by a commission under the Great Seal in 1277 and 1287. They had acquired their name by 1361. JPs were appointed by the Crown from the ranks of the major landowners of a county.
The duties of the JPs were greatly extended under the Tudors. The commission of peace by which justices were appointed was revised in 1590 to authorize them to hold regular sessions, to enquire by jury into a variety of offences, and to try cases upon indictment. The JPs had to try offenders and consign some of the guilty to gaols and houses of correction, to oversee the operation of the Poor Law and the laws concerning vagrancy, to attend to the regulation of fairs and markets, wages and prices, and weights and measures, to see to the upkeep of roads and bridges, to license Nonconformist meeting houses, alehouses, playhouses, badgers, drovers, and pedlars, and to levy rates. Justices were also appointed to perform similar duties in some boroughs.
They began to lose their powers in 1888 when their administrative functions were transferred to elected councils in each county and large town.

Back  -    New Search

juxta.

A Latin word, meaning ‘near’, used in some place-names to mean ‘by’.

Back  -    New Search

K

keep.

The tower of a castle, which contained the living quarters of the noble family and which acted as the ultimate place of defence. During the 1240s keeps went out of fashion.

Back  -    New Search

kelp.

Seaweed, used as a manure and as an alkali in the chemical industry.

Back  -    New Search

Kennett , White

(1660–1728).
Clergyman and author of Parochial Antiquities Attempted in the History of Ambrosden, Burcester and Other Adjacent Parts in the Counties of Oxford and Bucks (1695), the first parish history.

Back  -    New Search

kerseys.

Cheap, coarse cloths manufactured in many parts of medieval and early modern England.

Back  -    New Search

kidder.

Alternate term for a badger.

Back  -    New Search

Kilvert , Francis

(1840–79).
Clergyman and author of a diary (1870–9), kept while he was a curate, most famously at Clyro (Radnorshire).

Back  -    New Search

King , Gregory

(1648–1712).
Pioneer statistician and demographer. In his Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England (1696) he used taxation returns to analyse English society and to estimate the numbers in each social group, starting with ‘Ranks, Degrees, Titles and Qualifications’ and descending a social ladder via the merchants and professionals down to the humblest paupers. His table has been frequently reprinted.

Back  -    New Search

king post.

A post which rests on a tie-beam and extends upwards to a ridge-pole. This method of supporting a roof-truss was common in the northern half of England.

Back  -    New Search

King's Bench, Court of.

One of the three courts that had become separate from the Curia Regis by the reign of Edward I (1272–1307). At first, it dealt with cases involving the king, but in time it tried both criminal and civil cases as the highest court of the realm other than Parliament. It was abolished in 1875 and merged into the High Court as the King's Bench Division. Records from the late 12th century onwards are kept at the Public Record Office under KB. A number of early rolls have been published by the Record Commission, Pipe Roll Society, and Selden Society.

Back  -    New Search

King's Evil.

It was once popularly supposed that scrofula, a disease of the lymphatic glands, could be cured by a touch from the king or a reigning queen. The last monarch to attempt this cure was Queen Anne.

Back  -    New Search

King's highway.

Any public road, described in medieval and early modern records as via regis, or the King's highway.

Back  -    New Search

knight.

Originally the fighting men who accompanied William the Conqueror to England. William I rewarded them by grants of land (a knight's fee) which they held in return for knight service. This was gradually commuted to a money payment. Knighthood therefore became a personal rather than a hereditary honour. A register of knights has been kept at the College of Arms since 1662.

Back  -    New Search

knight bachelor.

The lowest degree of knighthood. A knight bachelor commanded a small unit of personal retainers.

Back  -    New Search

knight of the shire.

A Member of Parliament who was elected to represent a county.

Back  -    New Search

knight service.

The military service owed to a feudal lord by a knight in return for land. It was gradually commuted to a money payment and was abolished in 1662.

Back  -    New Search

knight's fee.

After the Norman Conquest all the land in England was owned by William I, who by a process of enfeoffment granted most of it (except the royal demesnes) to earls and barons, who in turn granted it to knights in return for knight service. England had about 5,000–6,000 knights' fees.

Back  -    New Search

knitting.

During the late Elizabethan period the traditional country craft of hand-knitting was transformed into a flourishing rural industry.

Back  -    New Search

L

Labourers, Statute of

(1351). This Act attempted to hold wages at their pre-Black Death level by imposing severe penalties for infringement. The shortage of labour thwarted attempts to keep down wages, however, for demand was greater than supply.

Back  -    New Search

labour party.

The Labour Representation Committee, which was formed in 1900 as a loose federation of trade unions and socialist societies, changed its name to the Labour Party upon winning 29 seats in the election of 1906. Its constitution was drawn up in 1918.

Back  -    New Search

labour services.

The obligation of medieval peasants to work for certain periods on the demesne of the lord of the manor.

Back  -    New Search

lace-making

was an Elizabethan project which took root in the south midlands and Devon. It survived as a handcraft (‘pillow’ lace-making) for females until the Victorian period in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, and Devon. Machine-made lace originated in Nottingham in the late 18th century.

Back  -    New Search

Lady chapels.

Chantry chapels in parish churches dedicated to Our Lady, St Mary. Chantry chapels were dissolved in 1547, but since Victorian times many of them have been restored as chapels for private prayer.

Back  -    New Search

Lady Day.

25 March, the official start of the year until 1752. Rents were commonly paid twice a year, at Lady Day and Michaelmas.

Back  -    New Search

laithe houses.

A term coined to distinguish a type of farmhouse found in northern England, especially on the Pennines, from the medieval longhouse. The dwelling house and laithe (barn) are built on a long axis and share the same roof, but unlike the longhouse they have separate entrances and no internal connection.

Back  -    New Search

Lambarde , William

(1536–1601).
Author of The Perambulation of Kent (1576), the first county history.

Back  -    New Search

Lambeth Palace Library.

Founded in 1610 in a wing of the palace, this public library houses many of the documents of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, e.g. enquiries about benefices, tithes, buildings, etc., the marriage licences of the Faculty Office and Vicar General's Office, and the probate records of the Court of Arches and certain peculiar jurisdictions in London. The library is now administered by the Church Commissioners. Application to search the records should be made in writing to the Librarian, Lambeth Palace Library, London SE1 7JU.

Back  -    New Search

Lammas grazing.

Some enclosed lands, which formerly lay within the open-fields of a manor, were still grazed in common after the gathering of the harvest. Before 1752, Lammas Day was 1 August; after the change of the calendar it was 13 August.

Back  -    New Search

Lancaster, Duchy of.

Created in 1351 when Henry, Earl of Lancaster, was made a duke, and revived in 1377 by a grant to John of Gaunt, the Duchy of Lancaster retained its distinctive judicial system and administrative structure after it reverted to the Crown in 1399. The dukedom had estates in almost every county of England and Wales. Its records are kept at the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

land tax

was first imposed in England and Wales in 1693 and abolished in 1963. At first it took the form of a national poundage rate on both personal and real property, but in 1698 the direct poundage rate was replaced by a system of quotas, at county, hundred, and parish or township level. During the 18th century the tax evolved into a true land tax, assessed on land, buildings, and various forms of rents. Relatively few records survive before 1780, but from that date until the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 annual copies or ‘duplicates’ of the assessments owed by each owner of real property and by each of his tenants were lodged at quarter sessions in order to establish qualifications for the vote at county elections. These duplicates survive in bulk amongst the quarter sessions papers at county record offices. The only return that covers almost all of England and Wales is that of 1798, which is kept in 121 volumes at the Public Record Office in class IR 23. The duplicates contain three categories of data, each arranged in a separate column: the name of each proprietor within the township; the names of the occupiers; and the amount of tax assessed.
The main problem is that huge proportions of smallholders are commonly and continually missing. Sometimes between 50 and 80 per cent of the smallholders of a township are not recorded. Duplicates do not provide accurate or even consistent counts, either in their tax entries or in the names they record, of the entire spectrum of the land-owning population.

Back  -    New Search

lands.

The strips or selions of an open-field.

Back  -    New Search

larceny.

Stealing . Grand larceny, the theft of goods worth more than twelve pence from a person's house, was a felony (therefore a capital offence) which was tried at the assizes. Petty larceny was tried at the quarter sessions. The distinction was abolished in 1827.

Back  -    New Search

lathe.

An ancient Kentish division comparable with the Sussex rape, comprising several hundreds.

Back  -    New Search

Latin, medieval.

With the exception of the period 1651–60, Latin was the language of legal documents until 1733.

Back  -    New Search

lawn.

Originally, a grassy plot in the wooded part of a medieval deer park.

Back  -    New Search

lay brother.

The Cluniacs and other monastic orders had used lay brothers during the 11th century, but the idea was developed in a new way and on a much greater scale by the Cistercians. Lay brothers entered monastic life as adults, were usually illiterate, and took no part in the daily choral offices. They provided both the skilled and the unskilled manual work, as farmers and craftsmen. They greatly outnumbered the choir monks.

Back  -    New Search

lay subsidy.

A tax for a specific purpose, e.g. to subsidize a foreign war, which was distinguished from taxes levied on the clergy. The lay subsidy rolls of 1290–1334 are a major medieval source. The tax was commonly known as the Tenth and Fifteenth because it was levied on one-tenth of movable property in a town and one-fifteenth of similar property in the countryside.
The records are held at the Public Record Office under E 179. Some county record societies have published their fullest returns. The collectors arranged the returns by hundred or wapentake and then by vill or borough. The number of exempted poor and the amount of evasion are unknown. The lay subsidy was revived by Henry VIII. The lay subsidy of 1546 is the last that is of use to local and family historians, though occasional assessments were made until 1623.

Back  -    New Search

lead

was mined and smelted during the Roman period. The great growth of the industry occurred after 1570, particularly in the 17th century. The industry experienced boom conditions in the 1750s and 1760s and again from the late 1780s until 1796. The lead industry underwent prolonged periods of depression in 1816–18 and 1824–33, but recovered again before the lead fields became exhausted during the second half of the 19th century. The depression of 1880–2 signalled the end of mining in many districts and a dramatic emigration.

Back  -    New Search

league.

A measure longer than a mile that varied from one part of the country to another.

Back  -    New Search

lease.

The conversion of copyhold tenure to leasehold occurred over a long period, particularly from the mid-16th century onwards. The conditions attached to leases varied from manor to manor but, as a generalization, in the western half of England the favoured method was a lease for three lives determinable upon 99 years. The lessee paid an entry fine and an annual rent and his lease held good as long as one of the entered names was still alive. It was common to enter the names of husband, wife, and eldest son, though any names could be chosen. Fresh lives could usually be entered upon the payment of another entry fine. These fines were negotiable; during the first half of the 17th century lords usually managed to raise them to meet inflation. The method favoured in the eastern half of England, namely a lease for 21 years. Long leases, including some lasting 800 years or more, were offered on some estates; on the other hand, short terms, e.g. three years, could also be negotiated. Estate records often include a good run of leases; surveys of estates give an account of the various ways in which property was held.

Back  -    New Search

lease and release.

A method of transferring land from one party to another without the necessity of enrolling a deed. The purchaser first took a lease of the property for one year (thus avoiding the need to enrol), then on the following day the vendor conveyed to him the reversion of the lease. The records of the transaction consisted of two documents, the lease and the release. The method remained popular until 1845.

Back  -    New Search

leasehold.

Tenure by lease, either for lives, or for a stated term, a method that began to replace copyhold tenure in the early modern period and which was also used for demesnes that a landowner did not wish to farm himself, but which he could recover at the end of the term.

Back  -    New Search

leasow.

A pasture, particularly in the West Midlands and Welsh Borders.

Back  -    New Search

leather.

The leather trades were important during the Middle Ages and the early modern period when garments, boots and shoes, bottles, belts, saddles, sheaths, etc. were made from tanned hides or dressed skins. Workers in leather formed a sizeable proportion of the workforce, especially in towns.

Back  -    New Search

lectern.

Medieval stone lecterns were normally fixed to the north wall of the chancel of a parish church. After the Reformation detached wooden, brass, or latten lecterns were installed in the nave. In threedecker pulpits the reading desk formed the middle tier. The Victorians reintroduced the late medieval practice of supporting the Bible by the outstretched wings of an eagle, the symbol of St John the Evangelist.

Back  -    New Search

lecturer.

In the 17th century private individuals endowed lectureships at parish churches to encourage preaching. The idea was much favoured by Puritans.

Back  -    New Search

Leicester University, Department of English Local History.

Founded in 1948 with W. G. Hoskins as reader and sole member, it quickly became a unique postgraduate department concerned with the comparative study of local history throughout the whole of England.

Back  -    New Search

Leland , John

(1506?–52).
The first English topographer. His notes of his journeys have been published as Lucy Toulmin Smith (ed.), John Leland : The Itinerary, 5 vols. (1907–10, repr. 1964).

Back  -    New Search

Lent.

The period of fasting and penitence from Ash Wednesday to Eastereve, in commemoration of Christ's 40 days in the wilderness. A forbidden period for marriages.

Back  -    New Search

lentils.

A leguminous plant, closely related to the vetch, sometimes called ‘tills’. It was valued as excellent fodder for calves and young cattle, and also for pigeons.

Back  -    New Search

Letters and Papers (Foreign and Domestic), Henry VIII.

A full calendar for the years 1517–47 has been published in many volumes between 1864 and 1932. This includes papers from the Public Record Office, the British Library, and archives from abroad.

Back  -    New Search

Levant Company.

Founded in 1581 and known also as the Turkey Company. Its members, who until 1753 had to be Freemen of the City of London, acquired a virtual monopoly of trade in that area until 1825. The records are kept at the Public Record Office, under SP 105.

Back  -    New Search

levée en masse.

Lists of men aged 17 to 55 who might form a reserve defence force in 1803–4 were drawn up by parish constables.

Back  -    New Search

Levellers.

A group who advocated sweeping political reforms of a democratic nature in the 1640s and 1650s.

Back  -    New Search

Lewis's Topographical Dictionary.

Samuel Lewis published A Topographical Dictionary of England in seven editions between 1831 and 1848–9, the last edition being in 4 volumes and an atlas. He also published A Topographical Dictionary of Wales in 1833, 1844, and 1849, in 2 volumes and an atlas, A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1846), in 2 volumes and an atlas, and A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1846) in 2 volumes and an atlas. Brief historical details of each town and village were given and the civil and ecclesiastical arrangements noted.

Back  -    New Search

leyerwite.

A fine payable by a medieval villein to the lord of the manor upon his unmarried daughter becoming pregnant.

Back  -    New Search

leys, grass.

The open-field system of farming was far more flexible than was once thought. Individual arable strips were often converted to grass, on a temporary basis, in order to provide sufficient feed for livestock. These leys could last for varying periods, from two years to seven or eight years; if longer still, they seemed permanent.

Back  -    New Search

Lhuyd , Edward

(1660–1709).
Welsh and Oxford antiquary, natural historian and philologist.

Back  -    New Search

Liberal Party.

The mid-19th-century successor to the Whig Party. A split between groups led respectively by Asquith and Lloyd-George was a major cause of the decline of the party after the First World War. In 1988 the Liberals merged with a majority of the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats.

Back  -    New Search

Liberate Rolls.

Writs authorizing royal officers to make payments on behalf of the Crown, from 1226–1426. The records are kept at the Public Record Office. A calendar has been published for the period up to 1272.

Back  -    New Search

liberty.

A manor or group of manors, or other area, that lay outside a sheriff's jurisdiction.

Back  -    New Search

libraries, public.

The first ‘circulating libraries’ were formed during the first half of the 18th century. Public lending and reference libraries became widely available during the second half of the 19th century after an Act of Parliament of 1850 authorized local authorities to provide them. The generosity of Andrew Carnegie (1835–1918), the Scots-born American multi-millionaire, allowed many small authorities throughout Britain to provide a ‘free library’. The Public Libraries Act (1919) enabled the County Councils to form County Libraries.

Back  -    New Search

licences.

After the Reformation schoolmasters, midwives, physicians, and surgeons had to prove that they conformed to the beliefs of the Church of England and had attended communion. Licences to practice were then registered in the diocesan records.
Licences to pass beyond the seas were an early form of passport issued from the late Elizabethan period until 1677. The records, which are kept at the Public Record Office under E 157, include registers of soldiers serving in the Low Countries, 1613–24; people going to Holland and other places, 1624–37; and passengers to the colonies, 1634–9 and 1677.

Back  -    New Search

liege.

The lord of whom a man held his principal property was his liegelord, to whom he owed military service.

Back  -    New Search

lighthouses.

The earliest survivors date from the 17th century. Electric arc lamps were used from the 1860s.

Back  -    New Search

lime kilns.

Some date from the 16th and 17th centuries, but most are from the 18th and 19th. Their chief use was to produce lime that farmers could spread on acid soils.

Back  -    New Search

linen.

In the early modern period linen weaving for garments, sheets, tablecloths, and sailcloth was a widespread rural industry wherever flax could be grown in the British Isles. The industry began to be mechanized in the late 18th century.

Back  -    New Search

List and Index Society.

Established by readers and staff at the Public Record Office to publish cheap finding-aids to records.

Back  -    New Search

literary and philosophical societies.

During the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th, Britain's major towns founded ‘lit. and phil.’ societies to discuss the intellectual issues of the day and to sponsor cultural activities.

Back  -    New Search

livery and maintenance.

The medieval practice of maintaining large numbers of retainers who wore their lord's badge and livery. These retainers were expected to respond to a call for military service in return for the lord's protection. The practice was widespread from the 14th to the 16th century, but from the reign of Henry VII it required a royal licence.

Back  -    New Search

livery companies.

The medieval guilds of the City of London. The records of most of the companies are kept at the Guildhall Library, which also has a number of published histories.

Back  -    New Search

Local Historian, The.

Founded in 1952 as The Amateur Historian, its name was changed in 1968. Since 1961 it has been the official journal of the Standing Conference for Local History and its successor, the British Association for Local History. It is published quarterly and contains articles and reviews that are scholarly but accessible to a wider readership. As such, it is the principal journal for local historians.

Back  -    New Search

Local History Magazine.

A privately run national magazine for local historians, which has been published bi-monthly since 1984. It contains articles, reviews, and notices of events throughout the country.

Back  -    New Search

Local Population Studies.

A journal founded in 1968, devoted to the study of population history.

Back  -    New Search

locative surname.

A surname derived from a place-name.

Back  -    New Search

lodges.

In the Middle Ages small and simple hunting lodges provided temporary accommodation for a lord and his party. Between the 16th and 18th centuries lodges were fashionable retreats set in a park. Some were rebuildings of old hunting lodges, others were new structures of superior quality and unusual design, often on new sites.

Back  -    New Search

lodgings.

In the 14th and 15th centuries the provision of lodgings altered the plans of palaces, castles, and manor houses. Whole new ranges were built to accommodate retainers as well as guests and their retinues. At the same time, urban terraces provided lodgings for vicars-choral, chantry priests, and students at universities. In the 19th century the word became associated with the rooms rented by migrant or unmarried workers in industrial towns.

Back  -    New Search

Lollards.

Followers of John Wycliffe (c. 1329–84) who rejected the authority of priests and attacked abuses in the church, including the system of confession, penance, and indulgence. Wycliffe wrote popular religious tracts in English, translated the Bible, and organized a body of itinerant preachers who insisted on the importance of inward religion rather than the mechanical observance of established practices. His followers were persecuted from 1382, but his influence lasted down to the Reformation.

Back  -    New Search

London Gazette.

This official news sheet was first published in 1665 as The Oxford Gazette, but from number 24 onwards (5 February 1666) it bore the name of The London Gazette. At first it was published each Tuesday and Friday, but it now appears daily. It reached most parts of the country from its earliest years. A complete set is available in the Guildhall Library.

Back  -    New Search

long-and-short work.

A method of arranging the quoins of a late Anglo-Saxon building, particularly in Mercia. The quoins were laid alternately upright (‘long’) and sideways (‘short’).

Back  -    New Search

longhouse.

A house with opposed entries and an unheated lower room which was once used for accommodating livestock or as a workshop or storage-place. Humans and animals entered the building via a common door and passage. The longhouse was a common form of farmhouse in the Middle Ages. In the early modern period livestock were removed from the lower ends of longhouses and the space was used instead for service rooms.

Back  -    New Search

lord of misrule.

During the twelve days of Christmas the traditional social hierarchy in a palace, castle, or manor house was turned upside down by the appointment of a lowly member of the household as lord of misrule, with licence to organize boisterous activities and to make fun of his social superiors.

Back  -    New Search

lord of the manor.

Manors varied considerably in size and their importance declined over the centuries. A lord of the manor could therefore be a medieval baron, titled landowner, or just a well-to-do local farmer, businessman, or attorney. Lords frequently did not reside on their manors and left the administration of the manor court to a steward.

Back  -    New Search

lords lieutenant.

In 1551 king's lieutenants were placed in charge of the county militias, with responsibility for musters and beacons. As they were noblemen, they came to be known as lords lieutenant. They became a valued means of passing on local news to the central government. Records of their activities (mostly from the second half of the 18th century and the early 19th century) are available at county record offices. The duties of the office are now ceremonial.

Back  -    New Search

lordship.

The larger feudal territories, e.g. a castellany. Some were compact estates, others consisted of scattered manors.

Back  -    New Search

lorimer.

A maker of bits, spurs, and the metal parts of harness.

Back  -    New Search

Lowland zone.

The concept of a Lowland zone was advanced in Sir Cyril Fox , The Personality of Britain (1932). It has greatly influenced historical geographers, archaeologists, and landscape historians. The populous, wealthier, and more advanced lowland areas, east and south of a line drawn from the Tees to the Exe, are contrasted with settlements in the Highland zone. The concept has been refined by the study of pays.

Back  -    New Search

Lowside window.

A low window on the south side of the chancel of a parish church, whose purpose is mysterious.

Back  -    New Search

lucerne.

One of the artificial grasses imported from France during the later 17th and 18th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

Luddites.

The machine-breaking activities of the Luddites occurred during 1811–12, with fresh outbreaks in 1814 and 1816. The central records are kept at the Public Record Office under HO 40.

Back  -    New Search

lych-gate.

A term coined by Victorian ecclesiologists from Old English lich, meaning corpse, for a roofed structure at the principal entrance to a churchyard. Here priests met burial parties at ‘the church style’ to commence prayers for the dead. Most surviving examples date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

lynchet.

A landscape feature that is particularly noticeable on pasture land in limestone districts. Fields formed on slopes tended to have their upper and lower limits defined by scarps (lynchets) formed by the build-up of soil from ploughing. Some are prehistoric, but the type known as strip-lynchet is medieval.

Back  -    New Search

M

madder.

A plant whose roots produce a red dye, introduced into market gardens around London in the 1620s.

Back  -    New Search

Magna Carta.

The great charter of 1215 by which King John, under pressure from his barons, conceded certain liberties, including the right of a freeman not to be imprisoned except by due process of law. It was much quoted in the constitutional struggles of the 17th century and came to be regarded as the foundation of English liberties.

Back  -    New Search

mainprise.

A writ requiring a sheriff to obtain securities for the appearance of a defendant in court.

Back  -    New Search

majority, age at.

The age at which a person is legally considered to be an adult was 21 until 1969, when it was lowered to 18.

Back  -    New Search

Malthus , Thomas R.

(1766–1834).
Clergyman and economist, whose Essay on the Principle of Population (1798; greatly enlarged in a new edition, 1803) argued that the natural tendency of population was to increase faster than the means of subsistence. The term ‘Malthusian crisis’ is used by demographers.

Back  -    New Search

mandamus, writ of.

An order to a public officer to carry out his duty.

Back  -    New Search

manners, reformation of.

The term is used in a broad sense to mean the Protestant, and more particularly the Puritan, attempt to create a godly society in the late 16th and 17th centuries. It is also used, more specifically, to refer to the renewed concerns of clergymen and churchgoers, especially in towns, in the late 17th century. In 1691 a Society for the Reformation of Manners was founded in London. Its title was changed to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in 1698.

Back  -    New Search

manor.

By the time that the Domesday Book was compiled the manorial system was established throughout most of England. It was subsequently imposed on other parts of the British Isles that came under Norman rule.
A manor may be defined as a territorial unit that was originally held by feudal tenure, by a landlord who was not necessarily noble, and who himself was a tenant either of the Crown or of a mesne lord who held land directly of the Crown. In the Middle Ages the manor was an economic unit, which included the demesne which the lord farmed himself (usually by paying wages and by labour services or boon work), and the rest of the land, which was farmed by tenants or used as common pasture and waste. There was much regional variety of practice; indeed, neighbouring manors differed in their customs. The manor became less of an economic unit in the early modern period, but retained its legal functions.

Back  -    New Search

manse.

The residence of a Nonconformist minister, e.g. a Congregationalist or a Scottish Presbyterian.

Back  -    New Search

manuscript.

A document or book written by hand; abbreviated as MS, or MSS in the plural.

Back  -    New Search

maps and mapmakers, early.

The first English map of the British Isles was drawn by Matthew Paris , c. 1250, followed about a century later by the anonymous ‘Gough’ map. By the beginning of the 15th century the principles of cartography were sufficiently understood for the making of maps to accompany local surveys.
During the 1570s maps of all the counties of England and Wales were made by Christopher Saxton . Saxton's achievement provided the framework in which other topographers, such as John Speed , John Norden , and the Dutch mapmaker, Jan Blaeu , could work. During the late 16th and the 17th centuries written surveys or descriptions of manors or estates were often accompanied by a map. Such maps and surveys were concerned primarily with establishing ownership, boundaries, field-names, and, occasionally, land use. The usual term for such maps was ‘platt’.

Back  -    New Search

march.

Derived from the Old English mearc, meaning ‘boundary’, march denoted a tract of land along a border, notably the marches of Wales and Scotland.

Back  -    New Search

mark.

A metal unit of accountancy, worth 13s. 4d., two-thirds of a pound.

Back  -    New Search

market charter.

At the Quo Warranto enquiries of the late 13th century manorial lords often claimed a prescriptive right to hold markets and fairs. The granting of royal charters for such foundations began in the late 12th century. A prescriptive right was one that dated from before that time, often going back to the early years of Norman rule, and sometimes into the Anglo-Saxon era. In 1889 the Royal Commission on Market Rights and Tolls, i. 108–31 listed 2,713 grants of market and fair charters made between 1199 and 1483, records of which had been preserved in the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

market gardening.

Commercial gardening was introduced into southern and eastern England by Protestant refugees from the Low Countries in the second half of the 16th century. In the second half of the 17th century market gardening spread to new areas, well away from London and East Anglia.

Back  -    New Search

marl.

A mixture of mud and lime, which was dug out of pits and spread on fields to counteract acid soils and to improve the water retention of sandy soils, whether they were used for arable or grass.

Back  -    New Search

marquess, marquis.

The rank of nobility between duke and earl. The first man to receive the title was Robert de Vere , Earl of Oxford, who was made Marquess of Dublin in 1385. The French spelling ‘marquis’ is often preferred. The wife of a marquess is a marchioness. The heir to a dukedom sometimes has the courtesy title of marquis.

Back  -    New Search

marriage.

While it was a fairly common practice amongst the medieval and early modern nobility to arrange marriages whilst the partners were children, the great majority of the people of Britain remained unmarried until their mid-twenties.
The record of marriages in parish registers indicates that the peak periods when people married coincided with the ending of annual service contracts, i.e. at springtime in pastoral farming districts and in the late autumn in arable regions. During the Middle Ages the Church had forbidden marriage during Advent, Lent, and Rogationtide. Advent remained unpopular until the late 17th century and Lent stayed a prohibited period. The calling of banns could be avoided by obtaining a licence to marry from the diocesan consistory court. The records of licences are kept at diocesan record offices. They include the allegations made by one of the parties, normally the bridegroom.

Back  -    New Search

Marriage Act, Lord Hardwicke's

(1753). The Act required marriages to be performed in the churches and chapels of the Church of England (except for Quaker or Jewish marriages) and to be registered in a prescribed form in books which were kept separate from the registers of baptisms and burials. It came into effect in 1754.

Back  -    New Search

Marriage Duty Act

(1695). A tax on ‘Marriages, Births and Burials and upon Bachelors and Widowers for the term of five years’ lasted 11 years, from 1695 to 1706.

Back  -    New Search

Marshall , William

(1745–1818).
Agricultural writer who produced a number of regional reports in his Rural Economy series between 1777 and 1796.

Back  -    New Search

Martello towers

were built during the Napoleonic wars on the eastern and southern coast of England, from Suffolk to Sussex, in a similar manner to the earlier Tudor coastal forts. They were named after, and designed like, the Torre della Mortello, an impregnable Corsican fort. Of the 103 towers that were built between 1804 and 1812, 43 have survived.

Back  -    New Search

maslin.

A mixture of the two winter-sown cereals, wheat and rye.

Back  -    New Search

masons' marks.

Each mason had his own distinctive mark to indicate which stones he had dressed. Marks are of a variety of simple designs, usually about two inches long.

Back  -    New Search

masques.

Costly and extravagant spectacles at court or a nobleman's house, either inside or in the open air, or a combination of both. They were much in favour at the court of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I.

Back  -    New Search

Matins.

Originally the office for the night, observed in monasteries; now the service of Morning Prayer in the Church of England.

Back  -    New Search

Matrimonial Causes Act

(1857). The Act cleared up the previous confused laws of marriage and separation. Jurisdiction for matrimonial affairs was removed from the ecclesiastical courts and placed under a new court headed by the Lord Chancellor. The Act did not make radical changes in procedure or in the legal basis of the grounds for divorce, and the financial cost of divorce remained high. The Act did not apply to Ireland. The records of the court established by the Act of 1857 are kept at the Public Record Office under J 77 as the Principal Probate Registry Divorce Files, 1858 to 1937. These are indexed by the names of parties, subject to a 30-years closure rule.

Back  -    New Search

Maundy Thursday.

Christ's washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper is commemorated by the Maundy service on the day before Good Friday.

Back  -    New Search

meadow.

Meadows for the growing of hay were a precious part of farming systems until the modern practice of cutting silage for storage in a silo became widespread. In open-field systems meadows were divided into doles, which were sometimes reallocated on an annual basis. Meadows were valued highly in surveys. During the 17th and 18th centuries artificial water-meadows were created.

Back  -    New Search

measles.

A children's disease, which often led to pneumonia and death before it was controlled in the 20th century.

Back  -    New Search

Mechanics' Institutes.

From the 1820s onwards mechanics' institutes were founded in most large towns and in many of the smaller ones. They represent the first serious efforts at adult working-class education.

Back  -    New Search

Memoranda Rolls.

Financial accounts, especially of monies owing to the Crown, kept by the Exchequer and the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer. The rolls are housed at the Public Record Office under E 159, 368, and 370.

Back  -    New Search

memorial

(heraldry) . A formal application for a grant of arms.

Back  -    New Search

merchant.

The term used in the medieval and early modern periods for a businessman, especially one involved in overseas trade.

Back  -    New Search

merchant seamen.

The Board of Trade records of men in the merchant service are kept at the Public Record Office under BT. See the Public Record Office Information leaflet no. 5, ‘Records of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen’.

Back  -    New Search

merchet.

A payment from a villein to his lord of the manor upon the marriage of the villein's son or daughter.

Back  -    New Search

Mercia.

The kingdom of the Angles, which in the 7th century stretched south of the Humber and west of the Trent as far as the forests of the western midlands. Mercia was at its most powerful in the second half of the 8th century under Offa, who was supreme among English kings south of the Humber.

Back  -    New Search

mere.

1 A boundary, often commemorated in a place-name.

2 A place-name element for a glacial lake or pool.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Merton, Statute of

(1235). This statute authorized lords to enclose part of the manorial wastes, provided they left sufficient pasture for their tenants.

Back  -    New Search

mesne lord.

A lord in the middle of the feudal hierarchy, i.e. a lord of a manor who held land from a superior lord and who let the land to a tenant.

Back  -    New Search

Mesolithic.

The middle period of the Stone Age, c. 10,000–5,000 BC, between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic.

Back  -    New Search

messuage.

A term used in deed to signify a dwelling-house and the surrounding property, including outbuildings. A large residential property was referred to as a capital messuage.

Back  -    New Search

Methodists.

In 1738 John Wesley (1703–91) and Charles Wesley (1707–88) began the movement which soon acquired the nickname of Methodism. The Methodist Society was founded two years later. In 1744 circuits for Wesleyan preachers were established and the first national conference was held. The Wesleys' message was that salvation was possible for every believer, and that communion with God did not need the intervention of a priest.
The Methodists did not break from the Church of England until 1784. Their rapid expansion did not begin until the 19th century, with a particularly successful decade in the 1830s. They then overtook the older Dissenting sects in terms of membership, and by the time of the 1851 ecclesiastical census were the chief rivals to the Church of England.
In 1797 the Methodist New Connexion was formed from congregations that wished to have control over their own affairs. The Primitive Methodists broke away in 1812 and soon became the second strongest of the Methodist sects. The ‘Ranters’, as they became known, were humble people, especially the farm labourers of eastern England, the urban poor, and the miners in the new pit-villages. Smaller breakaway groups included the Independent Methodists, who left in 1807, the Bible Christians (O'Bryanites) of south-western England, who became independent in 1815, the Protestant Methodists, who became a separate body in 1827, and the Wesleyan Reform Movement, who set up a national headquarters in Sheffield in 1849. In the 20th century most of these groups have come together again. In 1907 the New Connexion joined with the United Free Methodist Churches to form the United Methodist Church. Then, in 1932, the Wesleyans joined the rest to form the Methodist Church in Great Britain.
The early Methodists accepted Church of England baptism, marriage, and burial. Only a few Methodist registers survive before the 1790s. Most start in the second decade of the 19th century, and even then the majority recorded only baptisms. In 1837 these early registers were deposited at the Public Record Office. Later ones are mostly kept in local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

metronymic.

A surname derived from a mother, e.g. Marriott, Megson, or Maude.

Back  -    New Search

Michaelmas.

29 September, the feast of St Michael the Archangel, the time when half-yearly rents were due.

Back  -    New Search

Middle Ages.

The term is used to mean the long period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Reformation. However, many British historians restrict its usage to the period after the Norman Conquest.

Back  -    New Search

migration, subsistence.

A term coined by Peter Clark for the long-distance migration of poor people in the period between the dissolution of the monasteries and the Civil War, which was distinct from the ‘betterment migration’ of others.

Back  -    New Search

miles.

The statute mile of 1,760 yards was defined by Act of Parliament in 1593, but various customary miles long continued in use in most parts of Britain. The statute mile was first adopted on maps by John Ogilby , Britannia Depicta (1675), and became usual in the 18th century both on maps and on the milestones erected by the turnpike trusts.

Back  -    New Search

militia records.

An Act of 1757, modified by subsequent legislation, set out the procedures for raising the militia. From time to time constables were ordered to draw up lists of all the able-bodied men of a certain age in their parishes or townships. A ballot was then held to decide which of these men should be called upon to serve or else pay for a replacement.
The Act of 1757 instructed the constables of each township to list all men aged between 18 and 50, according to rank or occupation and incapacity, and to send their list to the lord Lieutenant of the county who supervised the ballot. In 1762 the age limit was reduced to 45. Those excused service included peers, clergymen, articled clerks, apprentices, seamen, soldiers, those who had served previously, and the constables. In some ballots judges, medical practitioners, Quakers, and licensed teachers were also excused. Although the men in these exempted groups were supposed to be recorded by the constable when he drew up his return, this complete listing was not always carried out. Exemption from service was also granted on the grounds of infirmity or poverty, for it was held that, if such men were called to serve, their wives and children would have to be provided for out of the poor rates.
An Act of 1802 which divided the able-bodied into four classes, who would be called upon in order if the occasion arose:
(1) men under 30 having no children;
(2) men above 30 having no children;
(3) men aged between 18 and 45 with no children under 14; and
(4) men aged between 18 and 45 having children under 14.

Back  -    New Search

mills, water and wind.

Water-powered corn mills had been installed in many parts of Britain before the Norman Conquest; at least 6,000 English ones are recorded in the Domesday Book. Water power was also used for fulling mills by the last quarter of the 12th century, the period when windmills made their first appearance. Windmills are thought to have been an English invention of c. 1180, and they spread rapidly during the next half-century.

Back  -    New Search

ministers' accounts.

The accounts of revenue and expenditure for Crown lands. They are kept at the Public Record Office under SC 6 and have been indexed in Lists and Indexes, vols. 5, 8, and 34.

Back  -    New Search

minster churches.

The Old English word mynster was derived from the Latin monasterium, for minster churches were served by communities of priests before the medieval system of parishes was created. Many churches which were, and are, called ‘minster’ were ancient foundations. A number of place-names, especially in southern England, refer to former minster churches. Such churches were long-established and were regarded as ‘mother churches’ to which people over a large district paid dues. Their parishes remained significantly larger than neighbouring parishes, which had been carved from them.
However, it is difficult to prove that all minsters were ancient ecclesiastical centres. Minsters were a feature of the Anglo-Saxon period for which little documentation survives.

Back  -    New Search

misdemeanour.

An indictable offence that is less serious than a felony.

Back  -    New Search

misericord.

A wooden seat which can be tipped up to provide a rest for someone who appears to be standing. The name is derived from the Latin word miserere, meaning ‘to have pity’. Misericords date from the later Middle Ages and are found in the choirs of cathedrals and monastic or collegiate churches and the chancels of some parish churches. The underside of the seat (which is visible in its upright position) was carved with figures taken from folklore, bestiaries, and moral tales, or with heraldic devices.

Back  -    New Search

missal.

A book of devotions, often illuminated, containing the words and directions for the celebration of the mass.

Back  -    New Search

mister, mistress, miss, ms.

In parish registers and other records of the early modern period most people were recorded only by their Christian name and surname. A ‘Mr’ was someone of at least minor gentry status (though many did not possess a coat of arms). Mistress or ‘Mrs’ was used for a woman of similar status, whether or not she was married. The use of ‘Miss’ for an unmarried woman came into use during the early 18th century. In the later 20th century ‘Ms’ has become increasingly popular as the female equivalent of ‘Mr’, which has been the style for any untitled adult male since the later 18th or early 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

moat.

The digging of deep ditches, which were then usually filled with water, around castles, manor houses, and some smaller properties was a common medieval practice. Most date from the 13th and 14th centuries, particularly the period from 1250 to 1325. Security obviously played a part, but moats could act only as a temporary hindrance to a determined attacker. Prestige was the main reason for their construction, though they were also useful for keeping fish.

Back  -    New Search

modus.

The conversion of a tithe payment in kind (i.e. a tenth of produce) to a fixed sum of money.

Back  -    New Search

moiety.

A half. The term was used, for instance, when the right of advowson was split between two heiresses.

Back  -    New Search

Monmouth's rebellion.

The attempt in 1685 of the Duke of Monmouth to depose the new Catholic king, James II, was supported enthusiastically by Protestant craftsmen and labourers in Dorset and Somerset.

Back  -    New Search

monogram.

A character formed by interweaving two or more letters.

Back  -    New Search

moot.

An Anglo-Saxon legislative assembly; hence, a moot-point is a subject for debate. The supreme council was the Witenagemot. Each hundred and borough also had its moot.

Back  -    New Search

Moravians.

A Protestant sect founded in Moravia and Bohemia by the followers of Jan Huss in the early 15th century. In 1728 Count Zinzendorf sent three missionaries from Saxony to London and Oxford. The earliest surviving register is that of the Fetter Lane congregation in London, beginning in 1741.

Back  -    New Search

Morden , Robert

(died 1703).
London map- and globe-maker. He is best known for The New Description and State of England, containing the Maps of the Counties of England and Wales, in fifty-three copper plates (1701, and later editions).

Back  -    New Search

Mormon Branch Libraries.

The Mormons have established a number of branch libraries, attached to a local church, in various parts of Britain. Their aim is to foster genealogical research by the provision of microfiche, microfilm, etc. of records from all over Britain, and from other parts of the world. The basic source is the International Genealogical Index, but a range of other records are made available in reproduction form. The facilities are made available to all searchers, regardless of whether or not they are members of the Mormon Church.

Back  -    New Search

Mormons.

The Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ , founded in the USA by Joseph Smith (1805–44). Members base their beliefs on the Book of Mormon (1830), claimed to have been written by a prophet of that name.

Back  -    New Search

Morris , Joseph.

Author of numerous topographical guides, including the series of ‘Little Guides’ to the counties of England, published by Black in the first third of the 20th century.

Back  -    New Search

mortality, bills of.

During the 17th century the practice grew up in London and the major provincial cities of collating information on burials recorded in parish registers. This allowed municipal authorities to keep a check on the progress of plague and other diseases and enabled them to identify infected parishes. Bills of mortality were published for many towns in the 18th and 19th centuries, but the figures must be used with caution.

Back  -    New Search

mortgage.

In the early modern period obtaining a loan upon the mortgage of property was a common form of credit. Large collections of deeds relating to mortgages can be found in the various registries of deeds and in local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Mortmain, Statute of

(1279). This statute added to existing penalties for the transference of land to an ecclesiastical body without the lord's permission. The tenants of such land were free from the payment of escheats and reliefs, to the financial disadvantage of the lord.

Back  -    New Search

mortuary.

A fixed payment to the rector or vicar by a parishioner upon the death of a member of his or her household. The poorest parishioners were exempt.

Back  -    New Search

motte-and-bailey.

An early type of castle introduced by the Normans. Mottes were artificial mounds of stone and earth, which were round or oval at the base and flattened at the top so as to provide a look-out point and sometimes a temporary residence. Baileys varied enormously in size and shape, according to the scale of the enterprise and the restrictions imposed by the local topography. The bailey contained the outbuildings and was separated from the motte by a ditch. The whole complex was surrounded by a deep ditch and rampart.

Back  -    New Search

mud walling.

In areas where suitable building stone was unavailable mud was used from the Middle Ages to the 19th century in the construction of farmhouses and cottages, barns and other outbuildings, and field walls.

Back  -    New Search

mullion.

A vertical post, usually of stone, which divides a window. They gradually went out of fashion after the invention of sash windows.

Back  -    New Search

mummers.

The local men who performed a traditional play at Christmas in the larger houses of their parish.

Back  -    New Search

municipal boroughs.

The Municipal Corporations Act (1835) reformed the ancient constitutions of 178 boroughs and provided for the incorporation of others. The Municipal Corporations Act of 1882 revised and added to the Act of 1835. Municipal corporations were abolished in 1974.

Back  -    New Search

muniments.

Title deeds, etc. that confer rights and privileges. The term is used to refer to a collection of archives relating to an estate.

Back  -    New Search

murrain.

Infectious disease in cattle.

Back  -    New Search

museums.

The British tradition of collecting began in the 16th century. The British Museum was founded in 1753. After the success of the Great Exhibition, the South Kensington Museum was founded in 1852; by the end of the century it had developed into the separate Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Geological Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Imperial War Museum moved from South Kensington in 1936. The National Maritime Museum was founded at Greenwich in 1937. The two major national museums of Scotland—the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Museum, both based in Edinburgh—were amalgamated in 1985.
The civic museums which were created by municipal enterprise in the second half of the 19th century copied the national museums in the scope of their collections and in their style of presentation. The first such ‘open-air’ museum was the Welsh Folk Museum at St Fagan's (1947).

Back  -    New Search

muster rolls.

The name given to militia lists of the 16th and 17th centuries. All able-bodied men aged 16 to 60 were liable for military service, armed with their own weapons and armour according to their income. Muster rolls are now kept at the Public Record Office, mostly in the State Papers Domestic. See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet no. 46, ‘Militia Muster Rolls, 1522–1640’.

Back  -    New Search

mystery plays

are so called because they were performed by the trade guilds, or ‘mysteries’, of medieval towns. They were performed at Corpus Christi. Each guild was responsible for financing, producing, and acting a particular scene.

Back  -    New Search

N

nail-making.

The making of nails was an ancient handcraft in the industrial villages of the west midlands, south Yorkshire, north Derbyshire, and central Lancashire, which expanded greatly after the introduction of slitting mills in the 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

Napoleonic wars.

The initial enthusiasm for the French Revolution in some parts of Britain turned to hostility during the prolonged wars with France from 1793 to 1815. Napoleon I became First Consul of France in 1799 and Emperor in 1804.

Back  -    New Search

narrow cloths.

Cheap, coarse cloths, half the length and width of broadcloths.

Back  -    New Search

National Register of Archives.

Founded in 1945 as a branch of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, to collect and disseminate information about manuscript sources for British history outside the public records, the NRA aims to make this information available for public use as quickly and as widely as possible. Its coverage includes the papers of individuals of note, families and estates, businesses, churches, local authorities, societies, and other organizations. The Register may be consulted on Mondays to Fridays from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Quality House, Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1HP.

Back  -    New Search

National schools.

The National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church was founded in 1811 to take over the schools of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and to build new ones. They operated under the monitorial system.

Back  -    New Search

naturalization.

Applying for naturalization was a troublesome and costly business and many aliens did not bother, especially when they married an English woman, for their children then automatically became British nationals. Before 1844 naturalization could be accomplished only by private Act of Parliament; from 1844 it could be gained by a certificate from the Home Secretary. The records are kept in the Public Record Office under HO.

Back  -    New Search

nave.

The public part of the parish church, where parishioners congregate during services. Parishioners were responsible for the upkeep of the nave and its aisles, tower, and porch.

Back  -    New Search

navvies.

The ‘navigators’ who constructed the canals and railways.

Back  -    New Search

Navy records

are kept at the Public Record Office under the reference ADM. Nearly every class of naval records mentions individuals by name, but the chief sources are the Ships' Muster and the Ships' Pay Books. Ships' musters survive from 1667 under ADM 36–39, 41, 115, 119. From 1764 they sometimes give a man's age and place of birth. Description Books, particularly those of the 19th century, record a man's age, height, and complexion, and note any scars or tattoos. Ships' Pay Books from 1669 (ADM 31–35, 117) provide confirmation that a man served in a particular ship.

Back  -    New Search

neatherd.

The cowman who drove the cows of all villagers in one herd to the pastures.

Back  -    New Search

negative proof.

A term much used in genealogical research. It denotes the attempt to prove that a name found in a parish register, etc. is the one being sought by searching all other records in the neighbourhood to make sure that no one else of that name is recorded.

Back  -    New Search

Neolithic.

The last phase (c. 5000–2400 BC) of the Stone Age, following the Mesolithic.

Back  -    New Search

nephew.

Before the 18th century this could mean a descendant or kinsman and not just the son of a brother or sister.

Back  -    New Search

New Draperies.

In the 16th century craftsmen from France and the Low Countries were invited to settle and practise their trade in southern and eastern England. The most successful of these projects was the enlargement of the cloth industry by the introduction of lighter-weight cloths, known collectively as the New Draperies, using innumerable combinations of long wool, silk, and linen yarn.

Back  -    New Search

newspapers, local.

The first newspapers were published in the 17th century. Large collections of early newspapers are kept at the newspaper library of the British Library at Colindale, north London, and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The larger provincial towns began to publish their own newspapers in the first half of the 18th century. Local news began to feature prominently only in the later 18th century. The chief interest of local newspapers in the 18th century is often in the advertisements.

Back  -    New Search

niece.

Until the 17th century this word was used in a wider sense than ‘daughter of a brother or sister’ to mean either a male or female descendant or a younger relative.

Back  -    New Search

nobility.

The term was originally applied to all ranks above commoners, so as to include earls, barons, knights, and esquires. The establishment of the House of Lords created a clear distinction between the hereditary nobility (the peerage) and lower ranks, but in the 17th century the gentry were still thought of as noble. By the 19th century the exclusion of the gentry from the nobility led to the use of the inclusive term aristocracy.

Back  -    New Search

noble

(coin) . A gold coin worth 6s. 8d., or half a mark. It was first minted in 1351.

Back  -    New Search

Nonconformity.

A Nonconformist or Dissenter was originally one who refused to conform to the Acts of the ‘Clarendon Code’ passed after the Restoration of Charles II, in particular the Act of Uniformity, which came into force on St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1662, and which required all English and Welsh clergy to consent to the entire contents of the Book of Common Prayer. For refusing to conform, over 2,000 clergymen, about one-fifth of the entire body of ministers, were ejected from their livings. For short periods in 1669 and 1672 Nonconformist meetings were tolerated as ‘licensed conventicles’.
In 1689, after the Glorious Revolution, Protestant Nonconformists were allowed to license their meeting-houses for public worship at the quarter sessions, but they were still banned from holding public office and excluded from the universities.
The early Nonconformist registers are mainly records of baptisms. For marriages and burials (and often duplicate baptisms) Dissenters used the Church of England. Civil registration, from 1837, heralded a relaxation of the insistence that Church of England baptism was a necessary requirement for the holding of public office; Nonconformist registers deposited with the Registrar-General (and now kept at the Public Record Office) were allowed as legal evidence by the Non-Parochial Registers Act (1840).

Back  -    New Search

Norden , John

(1548–1625?).
Writer of county histories, surveyor and mapmaker, and author of devotional or religious works.

Back  -    New Search

Northumbria.

The most northerly of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The original Anglian migrants formed the two kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira. In the early 7th century Aethelfrith united the two territories into one kingdom, which remained intact until the Danish conquest of 865.

Back  -    New Search

notary.

A professional scribe and compiler of legal documents.

Back  -    New Search

Notes and Queries.

A periodical first published weekly in 1849, and now published quarterly by Oxford University Press. It contains much valuable information on all subjects, mostly supplied by readers in reply to other readers' queries. The main subjects are literary and historical, but much genealogy and local history are included. There are cumulative indexes, but not for the more recent volumes. It is available in most of the large public libraries.

Back  -    New Search

novel disseisin.

A medieval legal action for claiming recent dispossession.

Back  -    New Search

nuncupative.

A will made by word of mouth only, before ‘credible witnesses’ who later made sworn statements before a probate court.

Back  -    New Search

nunnery.

Small religious houses, with usually only up to 12 nuns under a prioress. Most were founded in the 12th or 13th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

nuptiality.

A measure of the extent to which women marry.

Back  -    New Search

O

oasthouses.

Kilns for drying hops in south-eastern England and the south-west midlands.

Back  -    New Search

Ogilby , John

(1600–76)
is remembered best for his Britannia Depicta (1675), which contained 100 strip-maps of the 73 principal highways of the kingdom, the first set of road maps produced in Britain.

Back  -    New Search

old age pensions.

Introduced from 1 January 1909 by David Lloyd-George , the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Asquith's Liberal Government. At first, the state pension was for people over 70.

Back  -    New Search

Old English.

1 (linguistic) . Term used to embrace all the dialects of the Anglo-Saxons up to c. 1150. These developed into Middle English (to c. 1500) and Modern English.

2 (Irish) . Term used to distinguish English people who settled in Ireland before the new settlers of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Top

Back  -    New Search

old style.

The dating of days and months before the replacement of the Julian by the Gregorian calendar in 1752 and the change from 25 March to 1 January as the official start of a new year.

Back  -    New Search

one hundred years' rule.

The rule to preserve confidentiality of certain records, e.g. census enumerators' returns, by prohibiting access before 100 years have passed.

Back  -    New Search

One-Name Studies, Guild of.

A group which encourages the registering of all available information about individuals sharing a particular surname and which seeks to study past and present distributions of such names. The guild was founded in 1979, is based at the Society of Genealogists, and holds regular meetings.

Back  -    New Search

open-fields.

The widespread system whereby the agricultural land of a parish was farmed in large fields which were divided into strips. The number and extent of the fields varied. They were normally farmed communally under regulations agreed at the manor court.

Back  -    New Search

open hall.

In the Middle Ages and after manor houses were arranged around a central hall which was open to the rafters. Smoke from a central fire escaped through a louvre in the ceiling. The hall served as a communal dining-area and as sleeping accommodation for some of the servants. The lord's family and guests sat at a table on a raised dais at the end of the hall that had access to the private withdrawing rooms and chambers. The other end of the hall was shielded from the service rooms by a screen.

Back  -    New Search

oral history.

Oral history is a term imported from the USA to describe a historical approach that is based on the use of personal reminiscences.
The pioneer work in Britain is Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay (1956) by George Ewart Evans . In this and subsequent books Evans established the value of personal testimony in providing an understanding of the old farming economy of the era of horse power and hand tools. No written sources could match the wealth of detailed explanation of this former way of life. He showed that oral evidence could be treated just as rigorously as evidence from other sources.
The year 1971 marked the appearance of the first issue of Oral History, the annual journal of the Oral History Society.

Back  -    New Search

orator.

A plaintiff or petitioner, referred to in legal documents as ‘your orator’.

Back  -    New Search

oratory.

A medieval chapel which was licensed for private use. Upon toleration in the 19th century, a Roman Catholic society of priests which was founded at Rome in 1564 built oratories for preaching and the holding of popular services.

Back  -    New Search

ordeal.

Until 1212 legal suits could be decided by three types of ordeal; by combat for knights, by fire for freemen, and by water for villeins.

Back  -    New Search

ordinary.

1 In heraldry, a reference book that lists the heraldic descriptions of shields of arms.

2 In ecclesiastical law and administration, one having authority, e.g. a bishop.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Ordnance Survey.

The threat of invasion from France in the late 18th century caused the Board of Ordnance, based at the Tower of London, to map the south coast of England on the scale of one inch to one mile. This grew into a series covering the whole of Britain.
The Ordnance Survey became a separate organization in 1841. The six-inch series was started in 1840; the 25-inch maps covering all but the wildest areas date from 1853 to 1896. Large-scale maps for urban areas began with the five feet to one mile survey of the 1850s, which was abandoned in 1858 in favour of a 10 feet to the mile survey; this was discontinued in 1894. The latest series of 25-inch maps was begun in 1948 and completed in the early 1980s.

Back  -    New Search

outfangtheof.

The right of a manorial lord to arrest a thief beyond the manorial estate and to hold the trial at his own court.

Back  -    New Search

outlaw.

One who had escaped custody or who had failed to appear before a court to answer criminal charges. After four summonses an absconder's goods were confiscated and he was declared beyond the protection of the law; therefore an outlaw could be legally killed by anyone who met him. Outlawry was not abolished until 1879.

Back  -    New Search

ovens, common.

In the Middle Ages and the early modern period many towns and villages had a common oven for the baking of bread. These were usually provided by manorial lords.

Back  -    New Search

Owen , William, Book of Fairs.

The most popular of the 18th-century guides to fairs, arranged under counties. First published in 1756, the sixth edition of 1770 is the fullest and most accessible.

Back  -    New Search

Oxford movement.

An intellectual movement in the Church of England, centred on Oxford University in the middle decades of the 19th century. It was concerned at first with doctrine and ecclesiastical authority, but soon became associated with the move to restore ritual in the Anglican church. The movement was inspired by a romantic medievalism, which led to many internal changes in parish churches, involving stained glass, screens, choir stalls, elevated chancel floors, etc.

Back  -    New Search

Oxford University archives.

The archives of the University, including wills proved at the court of the Chancellor of the University, are kept at the Bodleian Library. The individual colleges have their own archives.

Back  -    New Search

oxgang.

See BOVATE.

Back  -    New Search

oyer and terminer, commission of.

In the Middle Ages and after, justices of the royal court were occasionally commissioned by the Crown to hear and determine specific cases of treason, murder, and other serious crimes within a particular county. The records are kept in the Public Record Office under JUST 1.

Back  -    New Search

P

packhorses

Although specialist breeds of horse were sometimes used, the term ‘packhorse’ was applied loosely to any horse that carried a pack. By the 18th century the normal weight of a pack of cloth was 240 lb. and the distance covered in a day was up to 30 miles.

Back  -    New Search

pains.

The regulations issued by the jury of a manorial court leet, the breach of which incurred a fixed penalty.

Back  -    New Search

palaeography.

The handwriting of documents from the 18th century onwards does not present too many difficulties in terms of unfamiliar forms and styles, though, as today, individual writers vary in their clarity. The script used in the 16th and 17th centuries was radically different, however, even if it was in English rather than Latin.
Several manuals provide guidance on how to read medieval Court Hand, the Secretary Hand of the Elizabethans, and the Italic Hand, which was introduced in the 16th century from Italy and which became general after the Restoration and was the forerunner of modern styles.
One of the greatest difficulties in reading old documents is caused by the use of abbreviations. These were developed in the Middle Ages, but long continued in use. At first, they consisted of various signs above the line to indicate the exact nature of the shortening, but by the 16th century they had often degenerated into dashes, flourishes, or squiggles. They cause particular problems when the declension of a Latin word is obscured by an abbreviated ending.

Back  -    New Search

Palaeolithic.

The Old Stone Age, the earliest period of human activity following the last Ice Age.

Back  -    New Search

palatine

means ‘petaining to a palace’. Palatinates were huge lordships established for the defence of border regions.

Back  -    New Search

Pale.

1 A territory under a particular jurisdiction, e.g. the English Pale in the hinterland of Calais, or the Pale in Ireland over which the English had jurisdiction. This sense has given rise to the expression ‘beyond the pale’.

2 A stake in a fence, e.g. around a deer park.
Top

Back  -    New Search

palimpsest.

A manuscript on which the original writing has been replaced by new. The word was recently used by W. G. Hoskins to describe the successive layers of history that are revealed by a study of the landscape.

Back  -    New Search

Palladian.

The villas, churches, and other public buildings of Andrea Palladio (1508–80) in Vicenza, Venice, and the surrounding countryside, together with his Four Books of Architecture (1570), were enormously influential in western European countries and their former colonies. The style was based on the strict proportions and decorative features of the major surviving buildings of ancient Greece and Rome.

Back  -    New Search

Pallot's Index of Marriages and Births.

An index begun in 1818 by a firm of record agents, whose successors included Messrs Pallot & Co. The index includes the marriages of 101 of the 103 ancient parishes of London and of many Middlesex parishes for the period 1800–37, with a smaller number from elsewhere, together with 30,000 baptisms. The index is now held (and catalogued) by the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, Canterbury.

Back  -    New Search

palmer.

One who wore a representation of a palm branch as a token of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Back  -    New Search

pannage.

The right to graze pigs on acorns and beech mast on the commons of a manor.

Back  -    New Search

pantiles

are the curving, orange-coloured roofing tiles which were introduced into eastern England from the Netherlands during the 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

paper-making.

The earliest-known paper mill was in production at Hertford in 1495, but the industry was insubstantial until the second half of the 17th century. Water power was used for beating until well into the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

parchment.

Many old documents were written on both sides of the treated skins of sheep or goats.

Back  -    New Search

pardoner.

A seller of indulgences.

Back  -    New Search

pargeting.

The decorative plasterwork on external walls of houses in Suffolk, Essex, and parts of adjacent counties.

Back  -    New Search

paring and burning.

A technique used to kill weeds and fertilize the land with potash before bringing it into cultivation.

Back  -    New Search

parish.

The majority of England's medieval parishes were formed by 1200. The antiquity of parish boundaries has been a matter of much debate. Many parishes preserve the outline of pre-Conquest estates. The shape and size of a parish varied from one part of the country to another.
The pattern of parishes in urban areas is markedly different from that in the countryside. London had over 100 parishes by the end of the Middle Ages, while leading provincial cities such as Norwich or York had over 40 each. On the other hand, the new industrial towns, such as Manchester or Sheffield, were served by single parishes which included large sections of the surrounding countryside. These huge urban parishes were not divided up into numerous new ones until the second and third quarters of the 19th century.
The Tudor governments gave responsibilities for the poor, the highways, and for petty law and order to civil parishes, which often covered the same area as the ecclesiastical parishes. Where ecclesiastical parishes were large, their subdivisions (the townships, or groups of townships) became the civil parishes. Information on the size and shape of these civil parishes can be obtained from 19th-century directories, the largescale maps of the Ordnance Survey, and the relevant volumes of the Victoria County History. The Local Government Act (1894) divided England and Wales into some 14,000 parishes, whose boundaries generally followed those of the old civil parishes. Anomalies caused by divided parishes and detached portions were removed.
Scotland had acquired a similar structure of ecclesiastical and civil parishes by the 16th century. The medieval parishes of Ireland were often made redundant by the land reallocations of the 17th century. The parishes of the Church of Ireland are usually amalgamations of the ancient parishes, but the Catholic Church had to create a new parish network in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

parish registers.

In 1538 Thomas Cromwell ordered each parish in England and Wales to keep a register of baptisms, marriages, and burials. At first the normal practice was to record such events on loose sheets, many of which have been lost or destroyed. In 1597 it was ordered that from the coming year each parish should keep a bound register and that older records should be entered into that register, the accuracy of the transcript being attested at the foot of each page by the minister and two churchwardens. Only a minority of parishes have records as far back as 1538; many parishes began their copies in 1558, the year that Elizabeth I came to the throne. These bishop's transcripts are now kept at diocesan record offices.
Since 1979 (and in individual cases long before) parish registers have normally been deposited at the appropriate local record office, unless a church has adequate facilities to ensure their safe keeping.
A great number of parish registers have been published. No standard form of entry was imposed on English and Welsh parish registers until Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act (1753) and Rose's Act (1812). The style of entry therefore varies from place to place and over time. Often, only the barest details are given, i.e. the date of the event and the name of the person who was buried, or the names of the groom and bride, or the name of a baptized child with the name of the father. In the earliest registers this information is often recorded in simple Latin. Most registers have occasional gaps.
An Act which came into force at Michaelmas 1653 transferred responsibility for keeping the register to an elected official, known as the Parish Register [sic], though in practice the minister or clerk was often elected and the arrangements continued as before. The Act ordered the recording of births rather than baptisms, but this instruction was frequently ignored. During the later 17th and 18th centuries various attempts were made by central government or the bishops of some dioceses to improve the quality of registration. Rose's Act (1812), which came into effect on 1 January 1813, insisted on standard entries in bound volumes for all events. Henceforth, a baptismal entry noted the name of the child, the date of baptism, the full names of the parents, their place of residence, and the occupation of the father. Marriage entries recorded the names of both partners, their parishes, the date of the ceremony, and the names of witnesses. Burial entries noted the name and age of the deceased, his or her place of residence, and the date of the burial.
In Scotland the older system of parish registration goes back to 1552. The quality of these registers was never as good as in England and Wales. The 4,000 or so registers that survive have been deposited in the Scottish General Register Office and have been microfilmed for the Mormon International Genealogical Index. In Ireland the records of almost 1,000 parishes were destroyed by fire in 1922. However, transcripts survive for some parishes, and a number of original volumes are intact because they were not deposited centrally.

Back  -    New Search

park.

The meaning of the word ‘park’ has changed considerably over time. It is derived from the Old English pearroc ‘an enclosed piece of land’, a meaning which is retained in some field-names. In the Middle Ages it was used exclusively for deer park. The 18th century was the great age of landscaped parks, the 19th century of the municipal recreational park.

Back  -    New Search

Parliament: the franchise.

The right to vote at parliamentary elections was gradually extended by the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884, until in 1918 all men over 21 and all women over 30 were enfranchised. In 1928 the age at which women were allowed to vote was lowered to 21. The age for both males and females was lowered to 18 in 1969. Voting was a public affair until the Secret Ballot Act (1872).

Back  -    New Search

Parliamentary papers.

The ‘blue books’ of the late 18th and 19th centuries, a comprehensive collection of which may be consulted at the British Library. Reprints by the Irish Universities Press are available at major public and university libraries.

Back  -    New Search

parlour.

A ground-floor sitting-room and bedroom. In many parts of Britain it remained the best bedroom into the 18th century. By the 19th century it had acquired the meaning of best front room.

Back  -    New Search

parterre.

A level flower-bed in a formal garden, especially one designed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries after French and Dutch examples.

Back  -    New Search

partible inheritance.

A system whereby all children, or in some cases all sons, received a share of an estate, in contrast to the system of primogeniture. Particular types of partible inheritance included Borough English and gavelkind.

Back  -    New Search

passenger lists

of emigrants to the colonies of the British Empire are incomplete. Most are kept in the Public Record Office under BT 27. The fullest give name, age, place of origin, occupation, and the family relationship of each passenger; but many are simply a list of names. Bristol Archives Office has a detailed register of passengers who embarked at Bristol for America between 1654 and 1679.

Back  -    New Search

passports.

From the late 16th century to 1677 the government issued licences to pass beyond the seas. A register of passports from 1795 onwards is kept at the Public Record Office under FO 610. Indexes of names are available for 1851–62 and 1874–98 under FO 611. The modern type of passport with a description and photograph of the holder was introduced in 1921.

Back  -    New Search

pastor.

In Britain the word is used for a Nonconformist minister.

Back  -    New Search

patent.

From 1617 the sovereign, Privy Council, or Parliament granted the right to use an invention. The Patent Office for the United Kingdom was established in 1852.

Back  -    New Search

Patent rolls.

The registered copies of Letters Patent issued by the Court of Chancery from 1201 to 1946, kept at the Public Record Office under C 66.

Back  -    New Search

patronymic.

A surname derived from a father.

Back  -    New Search

pattern books.

Local builders and other craftsmen obtained their knowledge of the latest styles through pattern books that were published in France, Italy, the Netherlands, etc. and in Britain from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

pavilions.

The term had a specialist meaning in the 18th century to denote the balancing wings of a country house.

Back  -    New Search

pays.

A framework of explanation of social and economic development focused on distinctive countrysides, best described by the French word pays.
Although it was recognized that pays underwent change, studies have stressed the long continuity of major characteristics such as farming systems, land-ownership and manorial control, social structure, rural industries, and religious and political attitudes.

Back  -    New Search

peas

were formerly grown as a fodder-crop for animals as well as for human consumption.

Back  -    New Search

peasants.

In France paysan is used to denote a small farmer, but in Britain the term has acquired derogatory connotations. Medieval historians find the term an appropriate one, but early modern historians prefer the contemporary terms husbandman and yeoman.

Back  -    New Search

Peasants' Revolt

(1381). The major uprising of the Middle Ages, also known as the English Rising, for it occurred in towns as well as in the countryside. The main area of revolt was southern and eastern England.

Back  -    New Search

peculiar jurisdiction.

For a variety of reasons, certain parishes, manors, and liberties were exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop and archdeacon in whose diocese and archdeaconry they were situated. They include the separate or ‘peculiar’ jurisdictions of another archbishop or bishop, the dean and chapter of a cathedral, the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, and of chapels royal, e.g. St George's, Windsor. A knowledge of such jurisdictions is necessary when searching for wills and probate inventories before 1858. In practice, the records of most peculiars are found in diocesan record offices alongside those that were proved through the archdeaconry courts.

Back  -    New Search

pedigree.

A genealogical table. The first collections of pedigrees were made in the 15th century.

Back  -    New Search

pedlar.

In the early modern period pedlars provided a distribution system that connected all parts of Britain. Pedlars sold ribbons, gloves, lace, tape, points, pins, thread, looking-glasses, necklaces, bracelets, brooches, hats, ballads, chapbooks, etc.

Back  -    New Search

pele-towers.

Characteristic tower houses found on both sides of the Scottish border, dating from the 14th to the 17th century, by which the typical arrangement of service-rooms, living-quarters, and bedrooms was expressed vertically rather than horizontally. Such buildings afforded short-term defence against marauders.

Back  -    New Search

penance.

At the Reformation instead of having works of penance imposed, the guilty person was ordered to stand in the presence of the congregation at church, dressed in a white sheet, bare-headed, bare-legged, and bare-foot, carrying a wand, and to confess the fault, express penitence, and pray for forgiveness. The minister and churchwardens signed a certificate, which was sent to the bishop's office, to say that the penance had been performed. These certificates are kept at diocesan record offices. The practice fell into disuse in the later 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

pence.

Silver pennies were first minted in the 8th century, when they were known as deniers after the Roman denarii, hence the abbreviation d. Twelve old pence made one shilling, twenty shillings made one pound. Pence were often counted (and written down) in amounts up to two shillings, e.g. as 16d. or 20d.

Back  -    New Search

pens.

The quill pen that was used until the 19th century was made from a goose feather, shaped by a penknife to form a nib. Metal nibs were first made in the mid-19th century and fountain pens from the end of the century.

Back  -    New Search

peppercorn rent.

A nominal rent acknowledging the tenancy.

Back  -    New Search

perambulations.

Until the Ordnance Survey published large-scale maps which marked the boundaries of parishes, it was a common practice at Rogationtide for groups of parishioners to walk their boundaries and to mark stones and trees. A number of written accounts of such perambulations have survived in manorial records, dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, which record each boundary point in turn.

Back  -    New Search

perch.

A square measure. 40 perches made one rood (a quarter of an acre). Old maps and surveys express measurements in the form of, e.g., ‘7 a[cres]. 3 r[oods]. 21 p[erches]’.

Back  -    New Search

Perpendicular architecture.

The last of the Gothic styles of the Middle Ages and the only one to be peculiarly English. The style is distinguished by the straight mullions of the windows, by ranges of clerestorey windows surmounted by battlements and pinnacles, and by splendid towers.

Back  -    New Search

perpetual curate.

A priest who was nominated by a lay rector, and licensed by a bishop, to serve a parish which did not have a vicar. Once appointed, such a curate had lifelong tenure.

Back  -    New Search

personalty.

Personal estate that, under common law, did not pass to the heir upon the death of an owner but could be bequeathed by a will.

Back  -    New Search

petty sessions.

Courts of summary jurisdiction held by two or more Justices of the Peace or magistrates for trying lesser offences or to enquire into indictable offences. The proceedings of the 17th and 18th centuries are not well recorded. They are now sittings of magistrates' courts.

Back  -    New Search

pews

were not widely used in the early Middle Ages, when most people stood during church services, or squatted on the floor. The ‘weak went to the wall’ to sit on a stone bench. Wooden benches were introduced into English churches during the 14th century. They became widespread during the 15th century, though they occupied only part of the available space.
During the 17th century it became the fashion to fill the nave of a parish church with box-pews. In rural parishes, in particular, the ownership of these pews passed with that of the farm or cottage to which it belonged. The arrangement of the pews reflected the social structure of the parish, with the rich at the front, the middling sort in the centre, and the poor at the sides and the back. In corporate towns the mayor and corporation occupied the best pews. During the 18th century many churches became crammed with pews and galleries. Most of these were replaced during the Victorian period by new pews.

Back  -    New Search

pewter.

An alloy of tin, lead, and brass, which was cast in moulds, then turned and hammered. From the early 14th to the 18th century pewter was widely used in Britain for plates, mugs, tankards, etc.

Back  -    New Search

pheasant shooting

was a minority sport of the rich which became organized in a big way during the reign of Victoria.

Back  -    New Search

photographs.

Photography was invented independently in France and England in the first half of the 19th century. Photographs become a major source of information for local and family historians in many parts of Britain in the 1840s and 1850s. Many places had their early enthusiasts who have left invaluable records. Most public reference libraries or museums have large collections of local photographs. Many old photographs are undated, and few of those collected in family albums have been identified for future generations.

Back  -    New Search

Picts.

During the Roman occupation of Britain the Picti were hostile tribes north of the Antonine wall. They were assimilated with the Scots in the 9th century.

Back  -    New Search

piece halls.

The clothiers of the West Riding of Yorkshire brought their finished pieces of cloth to market at the close of each week. During the 18th century several clothing towns built halls to protect sellers and buyers from bad weather.

Back  -    New Search

piece work.

The system by which a worker was paid by the ‘piece’, or finished good, rather than by a regular wage.

Back  -    New Search

Piepoudre, Court of.

Especially in the Middle Ages, the court by which the owner of the right to hold a market or fair settled disputes, regulated measures, and maintained order.

Back  -    New Search

Piers Plowman.

The great Middle English poem written by William Langland in the late 1370s, which inter alia provides much information about medieval agriculture.

Back  -    New Search

pightle.

A small, irregular shaped piece of land, usually at the edge of cultivation. The word was corrupted into various forms, e.g. pingle.

Back  -    New Search

Pilgrimage of Grace

(1536). A rebellion that began in Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire and which quickly spread to other parts of the country. It was sparked off by opposition to the dissolution of the monasteries, but its underlying causes were high prices and resentment directed against certain landlords.

Back  -    New Search

pillboxes.

In 1940 thousands of small concrete defences, from which Bren machine guns could be fired on all sides, were built under the threat of German invasion.

Back  -    New Search

pillory.

Whereas the stocks fastened an offender by the legs, the pillory secured a standing person by the neck and arms, thus leaving him vulnerable to objects thrown by spectators. Pillories stood in market places and offenders were placed there by order of the Justices of the Peace. The pillory was abolished in 1837.

Back  -    New Search

pillow mounds.

Long, raised banks of soft earth with artificial burrows were deliberately created for rabbits by the keepers of warrens, especially in the 16th century.

Back  -    New Search

pinder.

The manorial officer in charge of the pinfold.

Back  -    New Search

pineapples.

The fruit was introduced from central and south America in the early 18th century. The ‘pineapples’ used in decorative carving in the 17th century were based on the cones of pine trees.

Back  -    New Search

pinfold.

A pound in which stray animals were locked. Manorial court records record fines and disputes.

Back  -    New Search

Pipe Rolls.

The annual accounts of Crown revenues, which were sent by sheriffs to the Exchequer, where they were rolled around rods (‘pipes’) for storage. They are now housed in the Public Record Office under E 372. They survive from 1130–1, with an almost continuous series from 1155–6 until 1832. Some have been published by the Pipe Roll Society.

Back  -    New Search

piscary, right of.

The common right to fish in the pools, etc. of a manor.

Back  -    New Search

piscina.

The stone basin in which a priest washed his hands and the vessels after mass. They are normally set in the wall to the south of an altar.

Back  -    New Search

plague.

Plague was endemic in Britain from at least the Black Death of 1348–50 until its mysterious disappearance after 1666.

Back  -    New Search

Plantagenets.

A family, French in origin, to which the Kings of England from 1154 (Henry II) to 1399 (Richard II) belonged.

Back  -    New Search

Plantations.

The new settlements in Ulster and other parts of Ireland, Virginia, New England, and the West Indies in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

plashing.

The formation of stock-proof hedges by skilful pruning and intertwining of branches.

Back  -    New Search

plasterwork, decorative.

The nobility and leading members of the legal profession started the fashion for decorating ceilings and walls with plasterwork mouldings in the second half of the 16th century. The fashion spread to gentry families and then to wealthy yeomen.

Back  -    New Search

playstow.

A recreational area or playground, commemorated in minor place-names.

Back  -    New Search

Plea rolls.

Records of actions brought under the common law in the courts of Common Pleas, Exchequer, King's Bench, etc., from the late 12th century until 1873. A Calendar of Pleas and Memoranda Rolls is available for the early rolls down to 1482.

Back  -    New Search

pleaching.

See PLASHING.

Back  -    New Search

Plot , Robert

(1640–96).
Oxford scholar and first keeper of the Ashmolean museum, who was influential in moving the antiquarian tradition of county studies in a new direction with his emphasis on natural history: Natural History of Oxfordshire (1677) and Natural History of Staffordshire (1686).

Back  -    New Search

Plough Monday.

The public holiday on the Monday following 6 January. In the Middle Ages farm-workers in eastern England raised money for the local parish church by dragging a plough around the streets. The associated performance of a play involving song, dance, verse, and ad-libbing is not recorded before the 1760s.

Back  -    New Search

ploughs.

The design of ploughs was highly varied, since, until the late 18th century, most were made locally, were adapted to local soil conditions, and conformed to local preferences.

Back  -    New Search

plurality.

The holding of more than one benefice by a clergyman.

Back  -    New Search

Plymouth Brethren.

A Nonconformist sect founded in Ireland in the late 1820s by The Revd J. N. Darby and established at Plymouth in 1830. It has no formal creed or ministers; each local church is autonomous. In 1849 the Open Brethren split from the Exclusive Brethren.

Back  -    New Search

Pococke , Dr Richard

(1704–65)
. Irish bishop famous for his travel writings.

Back  -    New Search

police.

The first police force was established at Bow Street, London, in the early 18th century. In 1829 Sir Robert Peel , the Home Secretary, appointed police commissioners to take over responsibility from the magistrates. An Act of 1839 allowed the Justices of the Peace at quarter sessions to create a county force of chief and petty constables. This was made compulsory in 1856.

Back  -    New Search

Polish immigrants.

Many Polish Jews emigrated to Britain in the late 19th century to escape Tsar Alexander III's pogroms. The main period of Polish immigration was during and immediately after the Second World War.

Back  -    New Search

poll books.

Until 1872 elections to Parliament were not held in secret. An Act of 1696, designed to prevent fraud on the part of returning officers, authorized the publication of copies of the poll, showing how each elector had voted. Returning officers soon afterwards allowed local printers to publish poll books of county elections as a commercial venture.

Back  -    New Search

poll tax.

A tax on heads, or polls, was first levied in England in 1377. It was levied again in 1379 and 1381, but the hostility aroused by the tax caused the government to abandon it after the Peasants' Revolt. The tax returns are kept in the Public Record Office under E 179.
In 1377 the tax was levied at 4d. per head for all lay people over the age of 14; clergy paid a shilling. It is not clear how many people were exempt or under the age of 14 or who evaded payment, so different multipliers have been used to calculate population totals. The 1377 returns are considered to be the most complete, being less subject to the large-scale evasions of 1379 and 1381. The return of 1379 is useful, however, in grading the tax according to the wealth of people above the age of 16. The basic rate remained 4d., but many craftsmen and tradesmen paid 6d., 1s., or 2s., and the more substantial people paid higher rates, culminating in the £4 paid by an earl; clergy were now exempt.
The poll tax was reintroduced in 1641 and again upon the Restoration of Charles II. It was levied on eight occasions between 1660 and 1697. Few returns survive in central records, but a number of local returns are housed in local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

pollarding.

The cropping of trees, especially oak, beech, elm, and hornbeam, at their heads (Norman French poll), in order to obtain poles for fencing, etc.

Back  -    New Search

polyfocal settlements.

The old idea that the original Anglo-Saxon settlers lived in villages has been discredited. It is now realized that villages arose in the late Anglo-Saxon / Scandinavian period either through a deliberate act of replanning or by the gradual coalescing of small settlements or isolated farms, which did not originally have a single focus.

Back  -    New Search

pontage.

A toll levied at a bridge for its maintenance.

Back  -    New Search

poor, overseer of.

The officer chosen at a vestry meeting of a township or civil parish to administer the Poor Law for the ensuing year. The overseer was empowered to raise taxes (‘assessments’ or ‘rates’) in order to meet demands for poor relief. He had to submit his accounts at the end of his year of office for the approval of the vestry. The system started in Elizabeth's reign and was consolidated by the Poor Law Acts of 1597–1601. It lasted until the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834).
Overseers' records were kept in the parish chest and are now housed at local record offices. Quarter sessions records in the form of depositions, indictment books, and order books are the other major source of information.

Back  -    New Search

Poor Law.

The history of poor relief in England and Wales is divided into two periods, separated by the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834). During the first period the civil parish was the unit of administration. The Acts of 1597 and 1601 ordered the annual election of overseers of the poor, who were answerable to the parish vestry and to the Justices of the Peace. The overseers were empowered to raise revenue from local rates.
The Act of Settlement (1662) defined the ways in which a parish was responsible; this led to large numbers of cases being heard before the quarter sessions. The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) abolished the old system and introduced a new one based on unions of parishes, run by boards of elected guardians.

Back  -    New Search

port.

1 The place-name can mean either harbour, market town, or gate.

2 The Exchequer port books, housed at the Public Record Office under E 190, are an important source for the history of local overseas trade and of coastal traffic in the early modern period. They survive in large numbers for many ports for the period 1565–1799, though there are gaps in the Civil War and Commonwealth and for some ports the records cease in the mid-18th century.
Top

Back  -    New Search

portcullis.

The heavy grating, made of iron or wood and iron, that defended the entrance of a medieval castle, manor house, or town.

Back  -    New Search

portico.

A range of columns supporting a pediment, which provided a formal entrance to a classical-style building.

Back  -    New Search

Portland stone.

The white oolitic limestone of the Isle of Portland (Dorset).

Back  -    New Search

portraiture.

The fashion for hanging portraits of family and friends developed in the reign of Elizabeth I.

Back  -    New Search

postcards

were used from about 1870 onwards. Picture-postcards with views of streets and rural scenes became popular towards the end of the 19th century and were used on a very large scale during the first 20 years of the 20th century.

Back  -    New Search

post-medieval archaeology.

The archaeology of the centuries between 1500 and 1800.

Back  -    New Search

Post Office.

The office of Postmaster of England was created by James I (1603–25), who in 1609 created a monopoly, the Royal Mail. By the middle of the 17th century towns throughout England and Wales were connected by a postal service. The system was subsequently extended to Scotland and to Ireland after unification. The Post Office has an Archives and Records Centre at Mount Pleasant House, London ECIA IBB.

Back  -    New Search

potatoes.

During the early 17th century the potato was introduced from America into Ireland and by the middle of the century was also successfully established in western Lancashire and Cumbria.

Back  -    New Search

poultry.

The keeping of poultry was traditionally regarded as the responsibility of the farmer's wife, the profits being used as spending money. For this reason poultry (or ‘pullen’) were often not recorded in probate inventories.

Back  -    New Search

prebendary.

A member of a chapter of a cathedral or college, who held the revenues of a prebend, e.g. the tithes and dues of a parish that formed a peculiar jurisdiction.

Back  -    New Search

precentor.

The officer in charge of musical arrangements at a cathedral.

Back  -    New Search

precognition.

In Scotland, the written report of the evidence of witnesses to a crime, taken in order to prepare a case before it comes to trial. These survive from 1812 onwards amongst the Lord Advocate's records at the Scottish Record Office, under AD 14 and 15. The records are arranged within years by the name of the accused. A card index, arranged alphabetically, is available up to 1900.

Back  -    New Search

Premonstratensians.

An order of regular canons, founded at Premontré, near Laon (France) in 1120. The first house in Britain was established at Newhouse (Lincolnshire) in 1143. Soon the Premonstratensians had 31 abbeys and three nunneries, mostly in remote places. The heyday of the order was in the 12th century. All were dissolved in the late 1530s.

Back  -    New Search

prerogative courts.

The probate courts of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, which proved the wills of testators who left considerable goods in more than one diocese or deanery. Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (the senior of the two) from 1383 to 1858 are kept at the Public Record Office, under PROB 11 and 12. Indexes have been published down to 1700, and the Society of Genealogists has a slip index for 1750–1800. Surviving probate inventories are collected under PROB 2 to 5. During the years 1653–60 all wills in England and Wales were proved through this court. The probate records of the Prerogative Court of York are housed at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York, alongside the records of the archdeaconry of York. The Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series has published indexes from the 1380s down to 1688; typewritten indexes are available for later periods.

Back  -    New Search

Presbyterians.

The Presbyterian Church rejected government by bishops in favour of a hierarchy of general assembly, synod, presbytery, and kirk session, on each of which sit ministers and elders of equal rank. The doctrines of the church were strongly influenced by Calvinism. At the Reformation the Church of Scotland became Presbyterian.
The number of English Presbyterians grew in the 1570s and 1580s. They became one of the most influential Puritan sects in the first half of the 17th century. After the Restoration the Presbyterians became the most respectable Nonconformist group, with an educated ministry and a prosperous membership. In 1972 the Presbyterian Church of England joined with the Congregational Church of England and Wales to form the United Reformed Church.

Back  -    New Search

presentment.

A statement made on oath by a jury concerning matters within its knowledge, e.g. the ownership of property, or by a churchwarden at a bishop or archdeacon's visitation.

Back  -    New Search

presents (by these).

A formal start to a legal document, meaning ‘by this document’.

Back  -    New Search

press-gang.

Once a man had accepted the ‘King's shilling’ from a recruiting party for the navy or army he was obliged to serve. Such payments did not entice enough volunteers, so military parties forcibly pressed others into service. The system was used sporadically from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

priest.

In Christian teaching, an ordained minister above the level of deacon and below that of bishop, authorized to celebrate the mass and hear confession. After the Reformation, use of the term declined within the Reformed Churches, being associated with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but in the Church of England it was readopted in some parishes for clergymen associated with the High Church movement.

Back  -    New Search

priest holes.

Secret hiding-places in the homes of Roman Catholic families for protecting chaplains and itinerant priests from persecution during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

primogeniture.

The system of inheritance whereby an estate passed to the eldest male heir. In practice, the distinctions were blurred, for younger children received some provision.

Back  -    New Search

Principal Probate Registry.

Founded in 1858, to take over responsibility for proving wills. The registry is at Somerset House, London.

Back  -    New Search

priory.

A monastery or nunnery headed by a prior or prioress, which was a lower rank than abbot or abbess. In practice, some priories were larger than some abbeys.

Back  -    New Search

prise.

The compulsory purchase of provisions for a royal household on the move and the requisition of means of transport. The Statute of Purveyors (1362) attempted to remedy abuses.

Back  -    New Search

prison.

The Public Record Office keeps records of prisoners from 1770 to 1894 under PCOM. These include registers, photographs, minute books, and visitors' books. From 1824 to 1876 quarterly prison returns record offence, date, place of conviction, and length of sentence. The PRO also has registers for the Fleet and King's Bench prisons and for Newgate Gaol (HO 10). A card index of people in debtors' prisons in London from 1775 can be consulted at the Corporation of London Record Office at the Guildhall. Some county gaol records up to 1877 are retained amongst quarter sessions papers in county record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Privy Council.

This group of royal advisers emerged in the 14th century and exercised great power during the 16th and 17th centuries, as the forerunner of the Cabinet. The council dealt with all matters of state, and members sat upon the bench at sessions of the courts of Star Chamber, Requests, and High Commission. In Elizabeth I's reign, in particular, many local matters came to its attention. See Acts of the Privy Council of England (several vols., 1890–1964), which print the register from 1542 to 1631. The most important classes in the Public Record Office are PC 1 and LIS 24 and 35.

Back  -    New Search

Privy Seal.

From the 12th century the clerks of the King's chamber attached a private seal to documents. By the 14th century the authority of this seal rivalled that of the Great Seal.

Back  -    New Search

probate accounts.

About 30,000 probate accounts survive in various record offices. A year or so after the death of a testator, accounts of the estate were submitted to an ecclesiastical court by an executrix or executor, or by the person who had received letters of administration in cases of intestacy. By that time, an inventory of the personal estate had been drawn up, debts had been paid, and expenses were known, leaving the residue to be divided according to the terms of the will or the wishes of the administratrix. Nearly three-quarters of all probate accounts were filed by women. These records therefore provide unique information on women's experience in handling property and the history of property relations between men and women.

Back  -    New Search

prodigy-houses.

The name for the huge country houses that were built in the Elizabethan and Jacobean age by the members of the government circle.

Back  -    New Search

proof of age.

Before documentary evidence was available in the form of parish registers, etc. proof of age, e.g. of a minor, was established by a sworn jury making a presentment. Records are kept in the Public Record Office under C 132–42. See also the published volumes of Calendars of Inquisitions.

Back  -    New Search

prospect towers.

18th- or 19th-century towers which commanded a prospect or distant view from a hill or a landscaped park. Some commemorate historical events or characters.

Back  -    New Search

Protectorate, the.

The period 1653–60, when Oliver Cromwell , followed in 1658 by his son Richard, had the title of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.

Back  -    New Search

Protestant.

Member of any of the churches that repudiated the supremacy of the pope at the Reformation or which emerged later from that tradition.

Back  -    New Search

Protestation returns.

In 1642 Parliament ordered all males in England and Wales over the age of 18 to take an oath ‘to live and die for the true Protestant religion, the liberties and rights of subjects, and the privilege of Parliaments’. Lists were made by churchwardens and constables of all who signed and of those who refused to sign.
The Appendix to the 5th Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (1876), 120–34, notes all the areas for which returns survive in the House of Lords Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

proto-industrialization.

A concept advanced by F. F. Mendels argued that the origins of the Industrial Revolution must be sought in rural industries which produced goods for external markets. The success of these industries provided economic opportunities for earlier marriages and therefore more children, and encouraged the rise of commercial agriculture, two necessary conditions for rapid industrial growth. Critics have pointed to the eventual failure of some flourishing rural industries and to the role of towns in the industrialization process.

Back  -    New Search

provost.

1 In Scotland, the head of a municipal corporation or burgh, cf. the English mayor.

2 In the Church of England, the head of a chapter of a cathedral founded in the 19th or 20th century, cf. the dean of older establishments.
Top

3 The head of a college.
Top

Back  -    New Search

psalter.

A written or printed book containing the Psalms.

Back  -    New Search

pseudo-gentry.

A term coined by Alan Everitt to describe those 17th century townsmen who were as wealthy as the rural gentry but who did not have a landed estate to support a claim to gentility.

Back  -    New Search

public health.

The Public Health Act (1848) established local boards which were responsible to the General Board of Health. The Public Health Act (1872) established urban and rural sanitary authorities, and the Public Health Act (1875) empowered local authorities to make bylaws governing the building of new houses and streets. Each of these authorities has extensive records, deposited in local record offices. The reports by government inspectors on local conditions, which were published for about 300 places between 1848 and 1857, were often very detailed.

Back  -    New Search

Public Record Office.

The Public Record Act (1838) established the Public Record Office as a central depository for ‘all rolls, records, writs, books, proceedings, decrees, bills, warrants, accounts, papers, and documents whatsoever of a public nature, belonging to Her Majesty’, together with those records previously deposited in the Tower of London, the Chapter House at Westminster, and elsewhere. In 1838 purpose-built premises in Chancery Lane, London, with reading space in the Round Room, the Long Room, and the Rolls Room, were opened to the public. In 1977 new purpose-built premises were opened at Kew, with a main reading room, a microfilm room, and a room for large documents and maps. These rooms were provided with a new computerized system and mechanical delivery.
For Scotland, see the SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE. The Public Record Office for the Republic of Ireland (now the National Archives) is housed at Bishop Street, Dublin. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland is at 66 Balmoral Avenue, Belfast.

Back  -    New Search

pulpits.

Stone or wooden pulpits were introduced into the naves of parish churches in the 14th century. The Reformation brought a greater emphasis on preaching and reading the homilies, which was reflected in the prominent position given to the pulpit. The late 17th and 18th centuries was the age of the ‘three-decker pulpit’, with the clerk positioned below and the minister seated at the reading desk in the middle, until he ascended to the top tier to preach. During the High Church movement of the Victorian period many of these ‘three-deckers’ were replaced by new pulpits designed in the medieval manner. In Nonconformist chapels the pulpit is often the focal point.

Back  -    New Search

Purbeck marble.

A dark limestone from the Isle of Purbeck (Dorset).

Back  -    New Search

Puritan.

The word ‘puritan’ was in use in England by the late 1560s amongst both supporters and opponents. It came to mean a variety of things, but was originally a label for those radical Protestants who were not content with the Elizabethan settlement of 1559. Before the 1630s Puritanism was not seen as separatist, anti-episcopalian, or revolutionary. Puritans were content to work for further reforms in the Church of England.
The events of the Civil War and the Commonwealth have been labelled ‘The Puritan Revolution’. The 1640s and 1650s saw an outbreak of millenarian beliefs. Upon the Restoration, the former puritan sects formed the basis of Nonconformity.

Back  -    New Search

purlieu.

Land on the edge of a forest which had once formed part of that forest and which still came partly within its jurisdiction.

Back  -    New Search

purpresture.

An encroachment in a forest or other royal land.

Back  -    New Search

purlin.

A horizontal post in a roof-truss, which supports the weight of the rafters.

Back  -    New Search

purveyor.

One who purchased provisions for the Crown. The system caused resentment because of abuses.

Back  -    New Search

putting-out system.

A system by which manufactures or middlemen sub-contracted work to pieceworkers, e.g. in the textile or cutlery industries.

Back  -    New Search

Q

Quakers.

The popular name for members of a Nonconformist sect. George Fox (1624–91), founder of the religious Society of Friends, began preaching in 1647. Quakers rejected formal church services and the sacraments (including baptism), paid ministers, and the authority of the scriptures, and emphasized instead the ‘inner voice of God speaking to the soul’. They faced great hostility and much prosecution in ecclesiastical courts (for interrupting church services and insulting clergymen and magistrates, for forming illegal conventicles, and for non-payment of tithes) and at quarter sessions (for refusing oaths, military service, etc.) until the Toleration Act of 1689 allowed Nonconformists to worship in public.
A structure of monthly and quarterly meetings had been established by 1654. By 1670 most monthly meetings, and a few particular ones, were keeping registers. The early Quaker meeting-houses had burial grounds, but the Society forbade the erection of gravestones until the yearly meeting decided in 1850 that stones of a uniform size and design should be allowed.
The registers of births, marriages, and burials were not kept according to a standardized form until 1776. The Friends' Library, which was established in London in 1673, preserves many early records. It is rare to find a list of members before the late 18th century; many meetings did not make such lists until 1836. In the following year the registers of surviving Quaker meetings were copied for the Registrar-General. They are now kept with other Nonconformist registers at the Public Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

quarter sessions.

The system of quarterly meetings of the Justices of the Peace for each county and county borough began in 1361. Under the Tudors the responsibilities of JPs were extended to include not only the enforcement of law and order but conformity to the established religion, the regulation of trade, commerce, and employment, the maintenance of the poor, and the upkeep of roads and bridges. The elected county councils which were created in 1888 took over the administrative functions of the quarter sessions, but the judicial and licensing powers were retained, and until 1971 the quarter sessions continued to serve as a criminal court.
Surviving quarter-sessions records may be consulted at county record offices. They date from the late 16th or 17th century and the more formal ones are written in Latin until 1733. Most counties have a series of indictment and order books, which record the cases under discussion and the decisions that were made. These form the basis of the quarter sessions records that have been published by various county record societies. Informal papers, including petitions and depositions, provide much more human detail where they survive. Associated documents include jurors' lists, prison records, lists of licensed brewsters (keepers of inns and alehouses) and of badgers, drovers, and other itinerant traders, together with land tax assessments, and maps and plans associated with enclosure awards, turnpike roads, and other public works.
At the quarter sessions JPs tried crimes that were not capital offences, regulated wages, enforced apprenticeship regulations, licensed Nonconformist meeting-houses and received sacrament certificates, ordered the repair and rebuilding of ‘county’ bridges, and forced parishes to maintain their highways. A major part of their time, however, was spent on overseeing the operation of the Poor Law, dealing with complaints from aggrieved parties, and judging settlement disputes between contending parishes.

Back  -    New Search

quarto.

A quarter sheet, or a book consisting of such sheets.

Back  -    New Search

Queen Anne's bounty.

From 1704 the incomes of the poorer clergy of the Church of England were supplemented by a fund which drew upon ecclesiastical revenues confiscated by Henry VIII and payments made by clergymen with larger incomes. The records are kept in the Public Record Office under QAB 1; an index of parishes is available. In 1948 the scheme was taken over by the Church Commissioners.

Back  -    New Search

queen post.

A vertical post extending upwards from a tie-beam towards horizontal timbers which help take the weight of a roof. This elaborate style was a particular feature of the Wealden houses of south-eastern England.

Back  -    New Search

querns.

Stones for grinding corn by hand.

Back  -    New Search

Quia Emptores, Statute of.

(1290). A law ensuring that feudal obligations were preserved when a mesne lord sold land for a nominal sum.

Back  -    New Search

quit rent.

A small fixed annual rent whose payment released a tenant from manorial services. Such payments were abolished in 1922.

Back  -    New Search

Quo Warranto enquiries.

From 1278–1294 the Crown made a series of enquiries into the privileges that lords claimed to hold, e.g. the right to hold a market and fair, so as to ascertain by what warrant they were held. A statute of 1290 accepted undocumented rights that had been held since before the accession of Richard I in 1189. These have been published by the Record Commission.

Back  -    New Search

quoin.

The external corner-stones of a building.

Back  -    New Search

R

rabbits.

The rabbit was introduced into Britain by the Normans. The word ‘rabbit’ was originally applied only to the young of the species; adult rabbits were known as coneys. At first, rabbits had to be carefully reared in specially created warrens until a hardier breed was able to withstand the damp British climate. It was not until the 18th century that rabbits successfully colonized the wild.

Back  -    New Search

rack.

Medieval and early modern instrument of torture by stretching to obtain a confession.

Back  -    New Search

rack rent.

In the 18th and 19th centuries landowners increasingly tried to maximize their incomes by moving away from long leases to annual agreements with their tenants. Such ‘rack rents’ came to be regarded as extortionate, but in practice landowners were able to get only what the market would stand.

Back  -    New Search

radiocarbon dating.

A method of dating organic material from archaeological deposits, based on the knowledge that the radiocarbon content of dead animals and plants decays at a regular rate. However, radiocarbon years are not the same as calendar years and conversion formulae remain controversial. Dates arrived at by this method are only rough approximations.

Back  -    New Search

Ragged schools.

Founded in 1818 by John Pounds of Portsmouth, as free schools for poor children, they formed an unofficial union in 1844 under the patronage of Lord Shaftesbury.

Back  -    New Search

railways.

The earliest railways were horse-drawn wooden waggonways, which were used in the Northumberland and Durham coalfield in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Richard Trevithick , a Cornish engineer, built the first steam locomotive for a railway, in 1804. John Blenkinsop and William Hedley were other pioneers, who used steam locomotives to move coal. George Stephenson was part of this tradition. He built the engine Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington railway, which was opened in 1825 for both passenger and goods traffic. However, this railway also used horses and stationary engines, and passenger traffic remained of minimal importance. The Manchester to Liverpool railway of 1830 was the first to convey passengers and goods entirely by mechanical traction. Stephenson's Rocket, which won the famous Rainhill trials in 1829, was the first steam locomotive designed to pull passenger traffic quickly.
By 1852 nearly all the main lines of the modern railway system in England were authorized or completed; progress in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland was less rapid. By Act of Parliament which came into effect on 1 January 1923 the nation's railways were amalgamated into four large companies: the Great Western; the London, Midland, and Scottish; the London and North Eastern; and the Southern. These companies were nationalized as British Railways in 1948.
The Public Record Office Records Information leaflet no. 32, ‘Records Relating to Railways’, outlines the national records of the former railway companies: these include maps and plans, reports and returns, Parliamentary papers, minutes and accounts, staff records, etc. Important collections of railway records are also housed at the House of Lords Record Office, the Scottish Record Office, the Greater London Record Office, and the National Railway Museum, York.

Back  -    New Search

rake.

A vein of lead.

Back  -    New Search

rape seed.

was once grown all down the eastern side of England. It was valued for its industrial oil and as fodder for sheep. The seed was crushed at windmills or water mills.

Back  -    New Search

rapes.

Ancient divisions of Sussex, comparable to the lathes of Kent.

Back  -    New Search

rate books.

A few rate books, or assessments, survive amongst the records of the Old Poor Law, naming householders and the rate paid. After the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) the names of both owners and occupiers were recorded. Borough rate books from the 19th and 20th centuries are an important source of information about owneroccupiers and those who lived in rented properties. They are arranged in columns and typically list occupants and owners, then describe the property and name the street in which it was situated, and note the rental value and rate to be paid.

Back  -    New Search

Rebecca riots.

Riots in south Wales which formed the most dramatic and successful of the 19th-century rural protests. The name is derived from a passage in Genesis about Rebecca ‘possessing the gates of those which hate them’, for the protesters were principally concerned to remove the gates erected on the new turnpike roads, and the leaders of the riots dressed in women's clothes. The riots began in 1839 and lasted until 1844. The targets of the rioters included the workhouses of the New Poor Law and Church of England clergymen who demanded the payment of tithes.

Back  -    New Search

recognizance.

A bond kept by the clerk of the peace to secure the appearance at quarter sessions of defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses.

Back  -    New Search

recorder.

The person who presided over borough quarter sessions.

Back  -    New Search

Recovery rolls

A fictional method of conveying property in use from the 15th century until 1833. The rolls are kept at the Public Record Office under CP 43.

Back  -    New Search

recto.

The right-hand page of a book, the opposite of verso. In folio numbering, the reader is guided by the use of the superscript ‘r’.

Back  -    New Search

rector.

The person who was appointed to the benefice of a parish and who thus received the tithes of the parishioners. At first, the rector was the incumbent who was responsible for the church services and the spiritual welfare of his parishioners, and for maintaining the chancel of the parish church. In time, many parishes were appropriated to monasteries or colleges, who kept the great tithes and spent the small tithes on the appointment of a vicar to serve in their place. After the dissolution of the monasteries the rector's rights were purchased by lay people. If a parish church is, or has been, served by a vicar, then its tithes must have been appropriated in the past.

Back  -    New Search

reddle, ruddle, raddle.

Red ochre dug out of pits and used for marking sheep, staining fences, etc.

Back  -    New Search

reeve.

A man elected by his fellow tenants to act as intermediary with the lord of the manor and to undertake certain customary duties. In some manors he was known as the greave or grave.

Back  -    New Search

Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation of the English Church began in 1534 with Henry VIII's decision to renounce papal supremacy and become head of the Church of England. This was soon followed by the dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540 and the suppression of the cults of some local saints, which considerably reduced the number of minor holy days.
In 1538 a new set of royal injunctions brought about the first major alteration in local worship at the parish church. These injunctions ordered the churchwardens of every parish to purchase a Bible, to extinguish all lights in the church that were used for a religious purpose rather than for practical illumination, except for those on the altar, in the rood loft, and before the Easter sepulchre. The candles and lamps which had burned before the images of saints were extinguished. The injunctions also instructed churchwardens to remove any images which had been ‘abused with pilgrimages or offerings’, not to venerate holy relics, and to regard the surviving representations of saints simply as memorials. Meanwhile, in Scotland the Protestants were destroying most of the institutions and liturgy of the medieval Church and were establishing a new Church of Scotland.
Upon the death of Henry VIII and the accession of Edward VI the pace of change quickened considerably. On 31 July 1547 the government of Lord Protector Somerset ordered the destruction of all shrines and pictures of saints, and of all images to which offerings had been made or before which candles had burned. They limited the number of lights in the church to two upon the high altar, they banned the blessing of wooden crosses, and they forbade processions in or around the church when mass was celebrated, thus cancelling one of the principal Palm Sunday ceremonies. They ordered churchwardens to buy the Paraphrases of Erasmus, a work much admired by the reformers.
In the autumn of 1547 the government dissolved chantry chapels, religious guilds, and endowed masses known as perpetual obits, and confiscated their properties. Another change in liturgy allowed the laity to share the communion wine with the priest. On 6 February 1548 a royal proclamation forbade four of the major ceremonies of the religious year: the blessing of candles at Candlemas, of ashes upon Ash Wednesday, and of foliage upon Palm Sunday, and ‘Creeping to the Cross’. The dissolution of religious guilds meant the end of Corpus Christi celebrations. In mid-February 1548 the Privy Council ordered the removal of all remaining images in parish churches. Together, these measures had a profound impact on religious observance at the local level. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer set out the new liturgy: services were now held entirely in English, prayers to individual saints and for intercession on behalf of the dead were prohibited, and many old feast days and ceremonies were abolished.
The progress of the Protestant Reformation came to a sudden end in July 1553 with the death of Edward VI and the accession of the Catholic queen, Mary Tudor. However, in November 1558 Mary died and her Protestant sister Elizabeth came to the throne. In April 1559 Parliament passed a statute prescribing the use of a new Protestant liturgy, based on that of 1552. The impact upon ritual was even swifter than that of Edward's measures, but the removal of the physical surroundings of Catholic worship was slower, churchwardens being naturally reluctant to destroy the images and fittings that had been paid for so recently and when the survival of the new regime was not certain. Ecclesiastical visitation and court records and churchwardens' accounts show that many altars were not taken down until well into the 1560s.

Back  -    New Search

Regency.

The term is applied to the period 1810–20, when the future George IV was Prince Regent during the final years of the reign of George III, who was ill, but it is also used to denote the Regency style of classical architecture which continued in use in the 1820s and 1830s.

Back  -    New Search

regional novels.

The first regional novel was Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent (1800). Relatively few regional novels were published in the first half of the 19th century, but they grew in popularity during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. During the 20th century, such writing declined during both World Wars, but gained new impetus from the 1950s onwards.

Back  -    New Search

Registrar-General.

The civil servant in charge of the General Register Office, created in 1836 to oversee the civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales. From 1841 he has also been responsible for census returns. In 1970 the department was remodelled as the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Scotland has its own Registrar-General, whose records are kept at the New Register House, Edinburgh, part of the Scottish Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

registries of deeds.

Middlesex and the three Ridings of Yorkshire established registries of deeds in the early 18th century, upon a voluntary basis. Deeds were copied in bound volumes and indexed by personal name and by place-name.

Back  -    New Search

regrate.

The buying of food and other goods outside the market place. Market toll-owners frequently passed by-laws to prohibit this practice.

Back  -    New Search

regular.

A person bound by vows to a communal religious life (living ‘by the rule’).

Back  -    New Search

relics.

The venerated material remains or possessions of martyrs and other saints. The cult reached its peak during the Crusades, when many spurious relics were brought back from the Holy Land. The relics were often kept in richly decorated reliquaries. On the most important holy days the reliquaries were carried at the front of processions. Many superstitious beliefs were associated with them until their destruction at the Reformation.

Back  -    New Search

relict.

Widow.

Back  -    New Search

relief.

1 A customary payment to a lord of the manor by an incoming freeholder.

2 Payments to parish paupers by the over-seers of the poor.
Top

Back  -    New Search

remainder.

The residue of an estate. The term is often used in title deeds and wills.

Back  -    New Search

removals.

Under the Act of Settlement (1662) a person who needed poor relief was the responsibility of the parish or township in which he or she was legally settled. The over-seers of the poor of a parish or township could apply to the Justices of the Peace for an order to remove such a person to the parish of settlement. Such orders were on printed forms with spaces in which the particular details of the case were filled. Removal orders survive amongst parish records deposited at local record offices; they give the name(s) of the people removed, the names of the parishes involved, and the date of the order. Such cases were frequently disputed at quarter sessions, where records survive in the form of indictment and order books and depositions.

Back  -    New Search

rental.

Manorial accounts and estate records sometimes include details of rents collected each year, usually at Lady Day and Michaelmas, though sometimes at Christmas and Midsummer. These normally give only the tenants' names and the amounts of rent paid. It is often the case that the person who actually occupied the property was a sub-tenant who is not recorded.

Back  -    New Search

Requests, Court of.

Court for the recovery of minor debts; abolished in 1642. The records are kept at the Public Record Office under REQ 1–3.

Back  -    New Search

reservoirs.

In the 18th and 19th centuries private water companies constructed small reservoirs on the outskirts of towns to provide drinking water. Groups of millowners sometimes obtained private Acts of Parliament to build reservoirs to ensure a constant supply of water to turn the water wheels of their mills.
During the Victorian period the demands for water from the growing industrial towns led to municipal authorities gradually taking over responsibility for the provision of water for drinking and for industrial purposes.

Back  -    New Search

resiants.

The term used in the call lists of manorial court rolls to describe those heads of households who were not tenants. Resiants included sub-tenants, ex-tenants who were still resident within the manor, and some householders who eventually became tenants. Call lists of tenants and resiants cover most of the households within a manor, except the poorest ones.

Back  -    New Search

residence, certificates of.

The practice in the 16th and 17th centuries of issuing certificates to show that people who had paid their lay subsidy and had then moved elsewhere should not be charged again. The certificates are kept in the Public Record Office under E 115 and are calendared by surname.

Back  -    New Search

Restoration.

The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 after the Civil War and Commonwealth. Contemporary records date the start of the reign of Charles II not from 1660 but from the execution of his father, Charles I, in 1649.

Back  -    New Search

Restoration houses.

Country and town houses built in a classical style during the reign of Charles II (1660–85). These were greatly influenced by the houses in France and the Low Countries. Restoration houses were formal and compact, with classical proportions and details.

Back  -    New Search

retours.

Scottish record of heirs, from about 1530 to the present day. Those dating before 1700 are summarized (in Latin) and indexed in Inquisitionum Capellam Regis Retonatarum Abbreviatio (3 vols., 1811–16). Original documents are kept with the Chancery records in the Scottish Record Office, under C 22 (to 1847) and C28. They are indexed by the name of the heir.

Back  -    New Search

ridge-and-furrow.

In many parts of Britain the evidence of former ploughing is preserved in patterns of ridge-and-furrow in fields now used for pasture. In some cases these patterns are a few hundred years old. M. W. Beresford and J. K. St Joseph showed that ridge-and-furrow on aerial photographs could be correlated with the strips of open-fields of 16th-century maps, in terms of length, breadth, and position.
Ridge-and-furrow patterns are particularly visible in the Midland Plain. The ridge-and-furrow patterns in former open-fields curve like an inverted S, to allow the oxen team to turn as they reached the headland. They did not simply mark the strip boundaries but were useful for drainage.
Not all ridge-and-furrow is as old as this. Land taken in from the commons and wastes by parliamentary enclosure, particularly during the period of the Napoleonic wars, was newly ploughed with straight, narrow patterns of ridge-and-furrow.

Back  -    New Search

ridgeway.

Ancient upland routes of prehistoric origin. Most of their present names are modern inventions.

Back  -    New Search

riding.

A Viking word meaning ‘a third part’, used from the time of the Danelaw until 1974 to divide Yorkshire into East, North, and West Ridings (with York separate from each). Lindsey, the northern division of Lincolnshire, was also divided into North, South, and West Ridings.

Back  -    New Search

ringwork.

An early Norman defensive earthwork in the form of a mound surrounded by a ditch.

Back  -    New Search

Riot Act

(1715). A constable or other figure of authority who was faced with 12 or more persons whom he considered to be gathered unlawfully or riotously was empowered to read a specified section of the Act, whereupon those who refused to disperse within an hour were considered to be felons.

Back  -    New Search

riparian rights.

Rights to river water possessed by the owners of land bordering a river, above the tidal point.

Back  -    New Search

river traffic.

Even in the Middle Ages, rivers were often navigable far inland. The road and water transport systems were complementary rather than rivals. The navigability of the major rivers was improved by companies authorized by private Acts of Parliament during the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

roads.

Many roads are prehistoric in origin. The Romans built many new roads for military purposes, but they also adapted older roads. Many of the minor roads and lanes of later times were probably in existence by the Romano-British period.
No further roads were planned until the 18th century. The medieval and early modern roads were partly ancient ones that continued in use and partly new ways that connected the medieval planned towns. The names of the traders in particular commodities are often attached to these routes. Others were ‘church ways’ or ‘kirk gates’. The old words for such routes were the Anglo-Saxon ‘way’ and the Scandinavian ‘gate’, together with ‘lane’ and a variety of dialect words for minor tracks. The word ‘road’ was rarely used before the later 17th century. The early turnpike authorities took over existing highways and improved them, sometimes with new diversions from the old course; entirely new roads were not constructed by such bodies until the end of the 18th century.

Back  -    New Search

Rogationtide.

The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day. Before the Reformation this was a time of fasting and supplication for the coming harvest; afterwards it remained the time of year for the perambulation of the parish boundaries by the parishioners.

Back  -    New Search

Roman Britain.

Recorded history begins in Britain with the Roman occupation. The area that was most intensively settled by the Romans lay south of the river Thames and the Bristol Channel. Some major medieval towns and cities grew on Roman foundations. Yet other important Roman sites disappeared entirely.
Population levels were much higher than was once thought. Archaeological evidence, especially that provided by aerial photography, has confirmed that lowland Britain was farmed intensively during the Roman period.

Back  -    New Search

Roman Catholicism.

Until the Reformation, people throughout the British Isles worshipped according to the rites of the Catholic Church. During the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, English Catholics formed only a small, persecuted minority. In certain rural areas, however, where local Catholic gentry families provided leadership, they were stronger.
In England and Wales, the fear of persecution meant that few Catholic registers were kept before the middle of the 18th century. Most Catholics opted for Anglican registration of their vital events. From 1791, more Catholic registers were kept, but most surviving ones date from the 19th century. In 1858 Catholic registers from Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, and some other places were deposited with the Registrar-General and can now be consulted at the Public Record Office, under RG 4. In recent years many Catholic registers have been deposited in local record offices.
The English Catholic population was small before the 19th century. A number of Catholic chapels were opened between 1791 and 1814. The Catholic Emancipation Act (1829), after which many more parish churches and a few cathedrals were built. Irish emigration brought a great rise in the numbers of Catholics living in England, Lowland Scotland, and parts of Wales.

Back  -    New Search

Romanesque.

Architecture in the Roman manner. In Britain the style is divided into the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman, with a period of overlap in the 11th century.

Back  -    New Search

Romanticism.

A movement in European literature and art, from about 1770 to 1848, which asserted the importance of intense individual experience and valued a sense of the infinite.

Back  -    New Search

rood.

1 (measure) . A quarter of an acre.

2 (ecclesiastical) . The crucifix which was supported by a loft on top of the rood screen that separated the nave of a parish church from the chancel. The carved and painted figure of Christ on the cross was usually flanked by images of the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist. Most roods, with their lofts and screens, were removed at the Reformation, under orders of 1547 and 1561, but new ones were installed in Victorian times under the influence of the High Church movement.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Rose's Act.

(1812). The Act which came into operation on 1 January 1813, by which the forms of entry of baptisms, marriages, and burials in Anglican churches were standardized in bound volumes.

Back  -    New Search

rotten borough.

A borough which still returned members to Parliament despite the decay of the settlement. Such boroughs, which were often controlled by a single landowner, were abolished by the Reform Act of 1832, which redistributed the seats to the growing industrial towns.

Back  -    New Search

rough music.

The use of a rude cacophony of sound and simple dramatic performance to ridicule or express hostility towards those who had offended against communal values and moral standards. Rough music was just one of the terms used for such activities; regional variations include ‘skimmington’ and ‘riding the stang’, and Continental historians use the term ‘charivari’.

Back  -    New Search

round tower.

1 Irish monastic bell-towers, probably designed as watchtowers and defences against Viking raids. Some are over 100 feet high.

2 East Anglian church towers of the late Saxon and Norman periods, constructed of flint. The lack of adequate stone for quoins meant that a round form had to be used.
Top

Back  -    New Search

Royal Air Force.

Formed in 1918 by combining the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Navy Air Service. See the Public Record Office Records Information leaflet no. 13, ‘Air Records as Sources for Biography and Family History’.

Back  -    New Search

royal arms.

Painted representations of the royal arms on square or lozenge-shaped boards were placed above the chancel arch (upon the removal of rood lofts and screens) to symbolize loyalty to the Crown as head of the Church of England. Surviving Tudor ones are relatively rare; they can be distinguished by the Tudor griffin in place of the Stuart unicorn. Most date from after the Restoration of Charles II. Where they survive, they are now found hanging in many different parts of a church.

Back  -    New Search

Royal warrant.

From Elizabethan times tradesmen who provided personal services to members of royal households (and from the 19th century those who provided particular products) advertised the fact that they operated ‘By appointment to His [or Her] Majesty’.

Back  -    New Search

Royalist composition papers.

In 1643 the Parliamentary Committee for the Sequestration of Delinquents' Estates was formed to confiscate the lands of those who fought on the Royalist side in the Civil War. In 1653, after the war was ended, a new Committee for Compounding the Estates of Royalists and Delinquents was established. Those Royalists who pledged their loyalty to the new government were allowed to compound for their estates, i.e. pay a fine for their recovery, on scales depending upon the extent of their involvement in the war. The records of the two committees are kept at the Public Record Office under SP 20 and 23.

Back  -    New Search

rubble.

Stones of different shapes and sizes, often uncut, used in vernacular buildings. The term distinguishes such materials from ashlar stone, but does not necessarily imply poor quality.

Back  -    New Search

runes.

Letters used by Anglo-Saxon and Viking inscribers of crosses and memorial stones.

Back  -    New Search

runrig.

In the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and in parts of Ireland, the communal farmers of a permanent infield and temporary outfields used ridge-and-furrow for drainage, the patterns of which are still visible.

Back  -    New Search

Rural District Councils.

Elected councils which were created in 1894, at the same time as Urban District Councils. They took over the responsibilities of the old rural sanitary authorities, and later assumed responsibility for rural council housing. RDCs were abolished by local government reorganization in 1974. Minutes of the council and administrative records are kept at local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Rural History Centre.

University of Reading . A national centre for the study of the history of farming, food, and the countryside, particularly since 1750. Its library contains 30,000 books and periodicals, over 1 million photographs, numerous water-colours and drawings, and 40,000 computerized bibliographical references.

Back  -    New Search

rustication.

A method used by the architects of the Italian Renaissance and widely adopted in Britain, at first by Inigo Jones and later by the Palladians, by which the basement and ground storey of large houses were constructed of stones with deeply recessed joints to suggest that the building was emerging from the natural rock below. In contrast, the first floor (the piano nobile of the Italians) and upper storey were constructed in smoothly jointed stone.

Back  -    New Search

Rylands, John, Library,

Manchester . It has a considerable manuscript collection, including a wide range of charters and deeds, manorial records, and family muniments, particularly those of the landed families of Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

Back  -    New Search

S

sacrament, certificate of.

Amongst the provisions of the Test Act (1673), which excluded from civil or military employment all except members of the Church of England, was the requirement that a certificate, signed by a minister, churchwarden, and two witnesses, should be presented to quarter sessions by the holder of a civil or public office to acknowledge that he had received communion in the Church of England.

Back  -    New Search

saffron, safflower.

Saffron was grown as a dye, a condiment, medicine, and perfume in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially around Saffron Walden (Essex), Walsingham (Norfolk), and in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, on a variety of soils.

Back  -    New Search

sainfoin.

One of the new grasses, introduced from Normandy in the second quarter of the 17th century as a fodder crop.

Back  -    New Search

St Catherine's House.

Home of the General Register Office, which holds the records of civil registration from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The address is 10 Kingsway, London WC2. It is open on weekdays from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

Back  -    New Search

Saint Peter's Pence.

Annual tribute by householders to the Papal See, stopped by Henry VIII in 1540, but still collected in Catholic churches.

Back  -    New Search

Saints' Days, calendar of.

Up to the 17th century documents were often dated by reference to saints' days.

Back  -    New Search

salt.

The making of salt from sea water, or from the brine springs of Cheshire and Worcestershire, goes back to at least Roman times. Numerous minor place-names, e.g. Saltergate, Salter Hill, Saltersford, indicate the routes of ancient roads by which salt was carried to market towns. Deep brine pits were in use at Droitwich and Nantwich in the Middle Ages and later. Rock salt was mined at Northwich, Middlewich, and Nantwich from the 1690s.

Back  -    New Search

Salt, William, Library.

The library at 19 Eastgate Street, Stafford, which contains the antiquarian collection of William Salt , and forms part of the Staffordshire Record Office.

Back  -    New Search

sanctuary.

The medieval right of sanctuary was claimed by fugitives from justice. The area of sanctuary was originally only around a bishop's throne, but it was later extended to include the whole of a church and an area around it defined by crosses. The fugitive had 40 days in which to appear before a coroner to confess his crime, to abjure the realm, and to accept banishment. In 1540 the privilege of sanctuary was restricted to seven towns. Sanctuary for those accused of crime was abolished in 1623 and for civil cases in 1773.

Back  -    New Search

sarcophagus.

A stone coffin from the Middle Ages, sometimes seen in churchyards or church porches, shaped to take a body, and with a drainage hole.

Back  -    New Search

sash windows.

Sashes were introduced from France and Holland in the 1670s. The so-called Yorkshire sash, where the sashes slide sideways without the use of weights, was also introduced in the late 17th century, and, despite its name, is found in many parts of Britain.

Back  -    New Search

Sasines, Register of.

In Scotland copies of legal transactions involving the ownership of hereditable property are registered in one of the registers of sasines. The Secretary's Register of 1599–1609 was the forerunner of the system inaugurated in 1617. Registers of sasines for royal burghs were kept from 1681. The registers are kept in the Scottish Record Office. Indexes up to 1780 have been published for most parts of Scotland.

Back  -    New Search

Saxo-Norman overlap.

Churches built in the 11th century cannot usually be dated to either side of the Norman Conquest, as techniques that had been developed by Saxon masons, e.g. the use of herringbone masonry, continued in use.

Back  -    New Search

Saxton , Christopher

(c. 1542–c. 1611).
The maker and publisher of the first atlas of England and Wales (1579) and the first wall map of England and Wales (1583). These were based on his series of county maps which appeared individually between 1574 and 1579.

Back  -    New Search

scagliola.

Marble chips imported from Italy in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were cemented together to imitate true marble. The columns of many a great house have a hollow ring to them when rapped, for they are not of solid marble.

Back  -    New Search

scolding.

Women who scolded their neighbours received rough justice in the form of the cucking stool in the early modern period. Cases of scolding were sometimes brought before the ecclesiastical courts or quarter sessions.

Back  -    New Search

scot ale.

A dinner given to tenants on the occasion when they paid their rents.

Back  -    New Search

scot and lot.

Parish rates; scot was collected for the poor, lot for church maintenance.

Back  -    New Search

Scotch Baptists.

The Scotch Baptists differed from the Baptist church in their rejection of a trained or paid ministry. Originating in the 1760s, they spread throughout Scotland and into parts of England during the next half-century.

Back  -    New Search

Scotchmen.

In the 17th century Lowland Scots pedlars hawked cheap linen in many parts of England. Local authorities occasionally attempted to restrict the activities of such ‘Scotchmen’. In time, the name was applied to any pedlar who specialized in linen, regardless of whether or not he originated from north of the border.

Back  -    New Search

Scotland, National Library of.

A copyright library occupying two sites in Edinburgh. The Department of Manuscripts and the Department of Printed Books are at George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EW; the Map Room is at 137 Causewayside, Edinburgh EH9 1PH. The Department of Manuscripts inherited the collection of private papers in the Advocates' Library (dating from 1680), a catalogue of whose material has been published as the Summary Catalogue of Advocates Manuscripts. Five catalogues of later holdings have also been published, but many other catalogues are not available in print. The collections are principally of estate and business papers; trade union records are also strongly represented. The Map Room has collections of maps from the middle of the 16th century, including comprehensive holdings of all Ordnance Survey series from the earliest surveys to the present day.

Back  -    New Search

Scottish Episcopal Church.

The Scottish church that retains the episcopal system of government, as in the Church of England. The church's archives are kept at the Scottish Record Office under CH 12. The SRO also has microfilm copies of Episcopal Church registers, arranged by diocese.

Back  -    New Search

Scottish Record Office.

HM General Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YY has been the home of the Public Records of Scotland since the late 18th century. It was opened for public searches in 1847. The General Register House occupies a prime site at the east end of Princes Street and is open on Mondays to Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4.45 p.m. A second building, West Register House, in Charlotte Square a mile away, is also open during those hours. (The New Register House, which is adjacent to the General Register House, but is not part of the Scottish Record Office, serves as the General Register Office for Scotland, housing the civil registration records and census returns.

Back  -    New Search

screens passage.

Through passage, dividing the open hall from the service end of a manor house or other large building. The entry into the hall was through a screen, which was carved and decorated and sometimes supported a minstrels' gallery above.

Back  -    New Search

scutage.

The annual money payment by which military service that was owed by knights to a feudal lord was commuted.

Back  -    New Search

seaside resorts.

The fashion for sea-bathing started with the aristocracy and gentry in the mid-18th century and soon spread to the middle classes. Transformed by the railways, the appeal of the seaside changed from an emphasis on health to the provision of pleasure amongst all social groups. The golden years were those of the late Victorian and Edwardian era.

Back  -    New Search

Secretary hand.

The style of handwriting of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

Seebohm , Frederic W.

(1833–1912).
His The English Village Community (1883) was enormously influential in the development of local agrarian studies.

Back  -    New Search

seed drills.

Jethro Tull , the author of The Horse-Hoeing Husbandry (1733), invented the first seed drill, but its spread from his native Berkshire was slow. It did not begin to replace broadcasting of seed in most districts until the 1830s and 1840s.

Back  -    New Search

seigneurial borough.

A borough which did not have a mayor and corporation, but which had a measure of independence from the local lord of the manor. The lord, however, remained a dominant figure in his castle nearby; he often retained the right to the market tolls and exercised authority through his manorial court.

Back  -    New Search

seisin.

Possession of property, as distinct from ownership.

Back  -    New Search

Selden Society.

A national record society founded in 1887 ‘to encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of English law’ by annual publications.

Back  -    New Search

selion.

A strip of arable land in an open-field. This is the term usually favoured in documents.

Back  -    New Search

Sephardic Jews.

Those Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain became known as Sephardic from a medieval Hebrew word meaning Spaniard. Most of the 16th- and 17th-century Jewish migrants to England were Sephardic Jews, who came mostly from Portugal. During the following century others came from various Mediterranean countries, but the 19th-century Jewish immigrants were mainly of Ashkenazic origin from central and eastern Europe.

Back  -    New Search

sequestration

(Scottish) . The temporary possession of an estate or benefice because of debt or vacancy.

Back  -    New Search

serf, serfdom.

Serfs were the unfree peasants of the Middle Ages. Their obligations to a lord of the manor varied in detail from one manor to another, but had a basic similarity. Generally, they paid modest money rents and frequently some rents in kind. They owed seasonal boon works, which normally consisted of a few days' ploughing, harrowing, threshing, haymaking, and harvesting, and perhaps some carting, fencing, ditching, and cutting thatch. Their heaviest obligation in many places was ‘week-work’, a regular obligation to work the lord's land. The severity of these services was reduced considerably between the late Anglo-Saxon period and the 14th century. In many places services were commuted into money rents during the mid-12th century, only for serfs to face new exactions in the later 12th and 13th centuries, before a general relaxation again in the late 13th century. The great loss of population in the Black Death created a situation in which such services were abolished once and for all, though vestiges of serfdom survived into the early modern period.

Back  -    New Search

sergeant-at-law.

Member of a superior order of barristers which was abolished in 1880.

Back  -    New Search

serjeantry.

A type of medieval tenure by which land was held in return for various personal services below that of knight service.

Back  -    New Search

service rooms.

The kitchen, dairy, etc., which in larger houses were separated by a screens passage from the living and sleeping quarters.

Back  -    New Search

Session, Court of.

The highest civil court in Scotland. The arrangement of the records in the Scottish Record Office is complicated and poorly indexed. The archives date from 1478 and include Registers and Acts of Decreets from 1542 to the present day, Minute Books from 1557, Register of Deeds from 1554, and Extracted and Unextracted Processes, by which claims and counter-claims were lodged.

Back  -    New Search

settlement.

(legal) . The complex arrangements for passing on property, adopted by the major landowning families after the Restoration.

Back  -    New Search

Settlement, Act of

(1662). The Poor Law Acts of 1597–1601 established the township or civil parish as the unit of local government that was responsible for relieving the poor. The Act of 1662 set out the ways in which a poor person could claim to be legally settled. Anyone entering a township to occupy a property worth less than £10 per annum might be challenged by the overseers of the poor within 40 days of arrival, and after an order from two Justices of the Peace be removed by the constable to the place where he or she was legally settled, unless security for indemnity against becoming chargeable to the parish could be provided. Children obtained settlement in the place where they were born, even if they were illegitimate; overseers were therefore anxious to remove pregnant, unmarried women before the birth of a child. A new settlement could be obtained through apprenticeship, or through service for more than a year. Upon marriage, a wife took her husband's place of settlement.
The practice of issuing certificates, signed by churchwardens and overseers, and confirmed by JPs, whereby responsibility for an individual was acknowledged, began in 1691. Disputes about settlement occupied much of the business at quarter sessions. The records of settlement examinations concerning applicants for poor relief, or of those thought liable to become a burden on the poor rates, may be found amongst parish records in local record offices. They include much information about the length and conditions of service and about the movement of individuals. An Act of 1795 laid down that removal could take place only when a person became chargeable to the parish. The 1662 Act was repealed by the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834), which created unions of parishes as the responsible authorities.

Back  -    New Search

severalty.

Private possession of land. The term is used to describe enclosed lands beyond the open-fields of a village.

Back  -    New Search

Sewers, Commissioners of.

An Act of 1531 authorized the appointment of commissioners charged with the drainage of low-lying land that was liable to floods. Courts of sewers conducted their administrative business in a judicial manner, before a jury. They were abolished in 1930, when their work was transferred to bodies which now form part of regional water authorities. Their records are to be found at local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Shambles.

The name was commonly applied to that part of a market place or adjoining street where the butchers (and sometimes the fishmongers) had their stalls or shops.

Back  -    New Search

sheila-na-gig.

A naked female figure, with legs wide open, which is incorporated in the decorative sculpture of some medieval churches and (in Ireland) secular buildings such as castles and mills. The term is an Irish Gaelic expression for an immodest woman. They first appear in the British Isles amongst the Romanesque carvings of 12th-century Herefordshire churches, where their purpose was to portray sin.

Back  -    New Search

shell keep.

A circular or polygonal stone enclosure, which in the later 12th century began to replace the wooden palisades on the tops of mottes. They contained domestic quarters and were not strong defensive structures like the square and polygonal towers that often replaced them.

Back  -    New Search

sheriff.

The ‘shire-reeve’ was the chief official of a county after the Norman Conquest. His legal responsibilities passed to the Justices of the Peace in the 14th century and his responsibility for the militia passed to the lords lieutenant in the 16th century. The office is now ceremonial.

Back  -    New Search

sherman.

A sheep shearer.

Back  -    New Search

shieling.

A summer settlement for farmers practising transhumance in Scotland and northern England, so as to rest their winter pastures. These men lived in stone or turf huts known as bothies, and cultivated a small field of oats or rye, while tending their cattle and sheep. Place-names such as -erg, -scholes, and -sett commemorate these settlements. The Welsh ‘hafod’ and the Irish ‘buaile’ have the same meaning. Shielings also acted as territorial markers on disputed moorlands.

Back  -    New Search

shilling.

A silver coin, introduced in 1504, bearing the portrait of Henry VII, and at first known as the testoon. It was worth 12 old pence; 20 shillings were worth £1.

Back  -    New Search

shingles.

Wooden tiles, usually of oak, were used for medieval roofs, especially in southern England. In domestic buildings, they were gradually replaced by clay tiles from the 16th century onwards, because of the fire risk, but they have continued in use on church spires.

Back  -    New Search

ship money.

The collection of a tax, based on the previous practice of raising money in time of war, but used in the 1630s by Charles I for other purposes without recourse to Parliament, was based on assessments levied on counties and towns. There are no detailed records naming individuals.

Back  -    New Search

shires.

See COUNTIES, ORIGINS OF. In the kingdom of Northumbria smaller units than counties were also known as ‘shires’, e.g. Blackburnshire, Hallamshire, Howdenshire.

Back  -    New Search

shops.

Gregory King estimated that in the late 17th century England and Wales had about 40,000 shopkeepers. Most of these were based in towns, but a contemporary tract claimed that shops were also to be found ‘in every country village’. Most shopkeepers were known as grocers, drapers, etc., but their inventories show that they sold anything they could and that shops were often general stores.
During the second half of the 19th century the centres of major towns and cities ceased to be residential areas and became retail and entertainment districts. The process whereby shops replaced old houses can be followed in trade and commercial directories and by the use of old photographs.

Back  -    New Search

shot, shutt.

A block of strips in an open-field, a furlong.

Back  -    New Search

shows, agricultural.

Numerous local farmers' societies were founded in the late 18th and 19th centuries, especially from the 1830s to 1840s onwards.

Back  -    New Search

Shrove Tuesday.

The day preceding Ash Wednesday, which together with the preceding two days forms Shrovetide, the period of confession before Lent. Long after the Reformation, Shrove Tuesday remained the day when apprentices were boisterous in the streets (indulging in crude sports such as stoning cocks), and when traditional sports were held.

Back  -    New Search

side-alternate quoins.

The large corner-stones used in Anglo-Saxon churches. The early Norman churches used smaller stones in similar arrangements. Later churches used buttresses instead.

Back  -    New Search

silk.

The silk stockings that were fashionable in Elizabethan times were sometimes made of Spanish silk, but were increasingly made from yarn produced by Flemish weavers working in London, especially Spital-fields. Canterbury was another important silk weaving centre at the same period, accommodating French immigrants. The importation of French silks was banned in 1698, and of Indian and Chinese silks in 1701, in order to encourage the native industry.
The first provincial silk spinning, or ‘throwing’, mill was that erected in 1702 on the river Derwent at Derby by Thomas Cotchett . This small mill was overshadowed by the one built alongside it in 1718–22 by Thomas Lombe , on an Italian model. Lombe's mill, which produced yarn of a superior quality, broke London's ancient monopoly.
Luxury silk garments were worn by the wealthy in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the silk top hat became fashionable in the 1840s; in the first half of the 20th century silk garments became fashionable amongst wider sections of society.

Back  -    New Search

simony.

The buying or selling of a benefice or other ecclesiastical office.

Back  -    New Search

Sir.

The title of baronets and knights, and, until the Reformation, of a priest who was not a university graduate.

Back  -    New Search

sister.

The term was also used to mean sister-in-law.

Back  -    New Search

skimmington ride.

Public disapproval of an adulterous couple was expressed by the parading of effigies and rough music, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. The performance was also known as ‘riding the stang’.

Back  -    New Search

slitting mill.

Water-powered mills for the slitting of iron into rods were introduced from the Continent into the west midlands by the 1620s.

Back  -    New Search

slubber.

An occupation in the West Riding scribbling and spinning mills, whereby loose cardings were drawn out and slightly twisted so that they could be wound on to bobbins.

Back  -    New Search

smallpox

was the major killer disease of the late 17th and 18th centuries. Survivors were disfigured by pock-marks on their skins. Smallpox was believed to be eradicated throughout the world in 1977.

Back  -    New Search

smithy.

1 The small forge of a blacksmith, cutler, nail-maker, etc.

2 A term used, often in the plural, in the 16th and 17th centuries for a much larger site for the forging of iron.
Top

Back  -    New Search

smoke-penny.

An Easter due payable to the incumbent of a parish by the occupier of a house with a fireplace.

Back  -    New Search

smuggling.

The duties charged on foreign imports such as tobacco, wine, proof spirits, tea, and sugar from the 16th to the 19th centuries made smuggling a profitable if dangerous enterprise for the inhabitants of remote coastal communities. Smugglers have attracted a romantic literature, but so secret a trade has left little firm evidence.

Back  -    New Search

soap

was originally made from animal fats, vegetable oils, ashes, and lime, boiled in large pans. Its domestic use was rivalled by its use in the cloth industry. Soap-making was both an urban and a rural occupation, often combined with that of making candles.

Back  -    New Search

socage.

A form of feudal tenure in which land was held not by service but by a money rent.

Back  -    New Search

Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.

Founded in 1698 to reform manners and to encourage the provision of charity schools under the auspices of the Church of England. The manuscript records of the society include letters and minutes from 1699 to 1729 (and later). Annual Reports were printed from 1705 to 1732.

Back  -    New Search

sojourner.

A temporary resident.

Back  -    New Search

soke.

Land in the Danelaw which was held by free peasant tenants who owed suit of court and other customary dues to the lord of the manor. They are recorded in the Domesday Book. A soke was a dependent free territory scattered over many villages. By the end of the Middle Ages soke had come to mean simply an administrative division of a lordship. The Soke of Peterborough, consisting of 32 townships, was a separate county until 1974.

Back  -    New Search

solar.

A private chamber on the sunny side of a house.

Back  -    New Search

Solemn League and Covenant.

An agreement made by members of the House of Commons in 1643 to defend Protestantism and the rights of Parliament, to which in the following year all males over 18 were expected to subscribe. A few lists survive in county record offices.

Back  -    New Search

Somerset House.

The Principal Probate Registry, containing all wills proved in England and Wales after 1858. Indexes may be consulted free. The address is Strand, London WC2. It is open on weekdays between 10.00 and 4.30.

Back  -    New Search

son-in-law.

The term was often used to mean ‘stepson’. A ‘son-in-law’ was often referred to as ‘son’.

Back  -    New Search

South Sea bubble.

The huge financial speculation, encouraged by the Government, which burst in September 1720 ruining many families.

Back  -    New Search

sovereign

(coin) . Introduced by Henry VII (1485–1509) at the value of 20 shillings. During the second half of the 16th century it was worth 30s. Discontinued in the early 17th century, it was reintroduced from 1817 to 1917, when it was again valued at 20s.

Back  -    New Search

spas.

The fashion of visiting spa centres for the supposed healing properties of sulphur and chalybeate springs was imported from Belgium, France, and Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries, but took a long time before it flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

Speed , John

(1552–1629).
Cartographer and antiquarian. Between 1605 and 1610 he produced a new set of 54 maps of the counties of England and Wales, which remain popular to this day. In 1610 he published the six maps of the Kingdome of Scotland. The following year he published Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine.

Back  -    New Search

Speenhamland system.

In 1795 the overseers of the poor in the parish of Speenhamland (Berkshire) adopted a method of supplementing low wages with an allowance paid for out of the rates. This allowance varied according to the cost of bread. The system was widely copied in southern England, but as local farmers deliberately kept wages low, in the knowledge that allowances would be given by the parish, the number of people on poor relief actually rose. The system was discredited before the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834).

Back  -    New Search

spelling, phonetic.

In documents of the Elizabethan period and later it is common to find the same word spelt in different ways only a line or two apart and to find that people spelt their own names in different ways as the spirit moved them. Spelling gradually became standardized during the 17th and 18th centuries as the amount of printed literature increased.

Back  -    New Search

spice.

Spices from the East came via the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. The East India Company was the major provider once a sea route around Africa was established.

Back  -    New Search

spinning.

The spinning of yarn was traditionally a woman's domestic employment. Spinning was mechanized during the late 18th century, long before weaving. Women and children formed most of the workforce of the water-powered cotton and woollen mills.

Back  -    New Search

square panelling.

The method of arranging the posts of timber-framed buildings that was favoured in the western half of England.

Back  -    New Search

squarson.

A word used in the 18th and 19th centuries for a clergyman (parson) who was also the squire of his village.

Back  -    New Search

squatters.

The increase in the national population in the late 16th and early 17th centuries meant that large numbers of families sought space on which to erect cottages. They were attracted to the edges of commons in forests and fens, and on the moors. An Act of 1589 tried to ensure that new cottages had at least four acres of land attached, but this statute was enforced only sporadically. Some manorial lords allowed new settlements and obtained rents by the roundabout method of annual fines for encroachment. Squatting was tolerated where labour was needed on farms or in industries. Many other squatters remained through the negligence of the authorities. Growing concern was expressed as resources dwindled during the population growth of the 18th century. The enclosure of most of the remaining commons and wastes in the late 18th and early 19th centuries removed the opportunities for squatting and channelled the rural poor towards the towns.

Back  -    New Search

squire.

The dominant landowner in a parish.

Back  -    New Search

stables.

Commodious stables first became an architectural feature of country houses during the 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

stained glass.

Only small pieces of Anglo-Saxon stained glass survive. During the late 12th and 13th centuries English churches adopted the designs and techniques used in French grisaille and richly coloured glass. The Reformation destroyed the living of many artists, but some, notably Henry Giles of York, found new patrons amongst the aristocracy and gentry for heraldic glass. William Peckitt and others kept the tradition of stained glass alive during the 18th century. The Victorian period saw a major revival under William Morris , Edward Burne-Jones , and C. E. Kempe. The later 20th century has seen another revival.

Back  -    New Search

staith.

A wharf. The word is of Viking origin.

Back  -    New Search

standard

(tree) . Many coppice woods included a number of standard trees that were allowed to grow to a full height for timber. Legislation that tried to enforce a minimum number of standards per acre was difficult to enforce.

Back  -    New Search

standard abbreviations

(genealogy) .

b.

born

bapt.

baptized

d.

died

d.unm.

died unmarried

d.s.p.

died without children

dau.

daughter

div.

divorced

l.

left descendants

s.

son

unm.

unmarried

= married

Back  -    New Search

Standing Conference for Local History.

Founded in 1948, under the aegis of the National Council for Social Service, the SCLH was the forerunner of the British Association for Local History, and former publisher of The Amateur Historian, later The Local Historian.

Back  -    New Search

Stannaries.

The tin-mining district of Cornwall, which was regulated through the Stannaries Court.

Back  -    New Search

Star Chamber, Court of.

So-called from the chamber at the royal palace of Westminster with painted stars on its ceiling, where the Privy Council met in the 14th and 15th centuries. The court was revived by Henry VII in 1487 and at first was popular because it provided quick redress cheaply, but it was associated with the exercise of the royal prerogative under the early Stuarts and was abolished in 1641. Its records are kept at the Public Record Office under STAC 1 to 9. The court dealt with a number of local disputes and received lengthy depositions.

Back  -    New Search

State Papers Domestic.

All the state papers from the accession of Edward VI (1547) to the second year of Queen Anne (1704) have been published in official calendars. They are a rich mine of information on everything under the sun, and have reasonably, but not consistently, good indexes. The List and Index Society has published a Calendar of State Papers (Domestic) for the reign of George I (1714–27). The term ‘Home Office’ was used for domestic, as distinct from foreign, affairs later in the century.

Back  -    New Search

statute labour.

An Act of 1555 ordered the annual election of overseers of the highways for each township or civil parish, and obliged every householder to work under the supervision of the overseer for four days a year (or to pay for someone else to perform the work) on repairing and maintaining the local highways. An Act of 1563 increased this liability to six days a year. The better-off inhabitants were also obliged to provide carts and draught animals. ‘Statute labour’ or ‘the common days work’ system formed the basis of road maintenance for the next three centuries. The system was not replaced by turnpike roads (for statute labour was used to supplement the workforce there, and minor roads were not turnpiked).

Back  -    New Search

steam engines.

Those of the late 17th and early 18th century designed by Savery, Newcomen, and Trevithick were used for pumping water out of mines, and later for draining the fens. They are marked on 18th-century county maps as ‘Fire Engine’. James Watt's single-action engine of 1769, his rotative engine of 1783, and other improvements made steam the principal source of power in many industries in the late 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in the blast furnaces and the textile mills.

Back  -    New Search

steel.

In the early modern period steel was imported from abroad, firstly from Bilbao, then via Cologne, or Danzig. The first steel to be made in England was in the Forest of Dean in the early 17th century. The English cementation steel industry was largely dependent on imported Swedish ores. A purer form of steel was invented by Benjamin Huntsman in Sheffield c. 1742. Huntsman reheated cementation steel in clay crucibles to a high temperature.
A new stage of the steel industry began in 1856 when Henry Bessemer invented a convertor. Further advances were made by the Siemens open-hearth furnace, the James Nasmyth steam hammer, and the techniques of Robert Mushet and Robert Hadfield for making special steels. In 1912–13 Harry Brearley invented stainless steel.

Back  -    New Search

steward.

In the later 17th and early 18th centuries landowners began to employ land stewards to supervise their estates during long periods of absence. These stewards became a highly professional group during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

stint.

A share. The term was applied by manorial courts to the amount of livestock that a tenant was allowed to graze on the commons.

Back  -    New Search

stocks.

The stocks were an ancient punishment for petty offenders, who were subject to ridicule by having their feet locked in a wooden structure which was placed in some public space, such as a village green or market square. The use of the stocks died out during the middle years of the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

Stone Age.

Popular term for the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic, the earliest periods of prehistory.

Back  -    New Search

Stow , John

(1525–1605).
Author of the famous Survey of London and Westminster (1598).

Back  -    New Search

strapwork.

A fashionable ornamentation of the Elizabethan and Jacobean age, imported from the Netherlands for use on the roofs and garden walls of great houses, on chimney pieces and tombs, and in other decorative arts. The name came from the resemblance of the ornamentation to curved leather straps.

Back  -    New Search

straw plaiting.

The plaiting of straw hats, bonnets, and mats was a cottage industry for women and girls, especially in the south midlands. The numbers employed declined rapidly in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

strays.

A term used by family historians for events that are recorded in unexpected places.

Back  -    New Search

street names.

Many street names are medieval in origin, but others did not become fixed until Victorian times. Alternative forms can be found on successive maps. Once signs were erected, the names of streets became settled. The Victorians took this opportunity to rename streets which had offensive or lowly connotations.

Back  -    New Search

street numbering.

The early census enumerators' returns and trade directories show that in the mid-19th century the houses in most towns and nearly all villages were still not numbered. The fashion spread during the later 19th century, but it is common to find inconsistencies between one census return and the next, as houses were renumbered.

Back  -    New Search

string course.

A horizontal, projecting course, usually half-way up a wall, used for decorative rather than constructional purposes.

Back  -    New Search

strips.

The term used by agricultural historians to describe the long, narrow divisions of open-fields that farmers usually called lands. These had a sinuous, reverse-S shape to allow the plough-team to turn as they approached the headland. Strips were individually owned, but initially the open-fields were farmed in common, allowing communal grazing over all the land after harvest.

Back  -    New Search

stucco.

The application of plaster to the exterior of a building to simulate stone.

Back  -    New Search

stud.

An upright post in a timber-framed building, serving a minor purpose.

Back  -    New Search

stylobat.

The stone footing for a principal post in a timber-framed building.

Back  -    New Search

subinfeudation.

The granting of a fee by a tenant-in-chief or mesne lord to a sub-tenant.

Back  -    New Search

sub-manor.

The lords of large medieval lordships sometimes granted favoured retainers the right to hold manorial courts for small districts within their jurisdiction. In time, these sub-manors usually became completely independent, with their own manor houses, deer parks, etc.

Back  -    New Search

sub-tenant.

Surveys and rentals usually record the name of the tenant but, as the matter was of no financial importance to the landowner, they do not usually name any sub-tenants. A misleading picture of a local community may be drawn from such evidence, if much of the land was tenanted by absentees who sub-tenanted their properties to the men who actually farmed them.

Back  -    New Search

suburbs.

The major medieval and Tudor cities were largely confined within their walls. The early suburbs housed the poor immigrants. As towns became more crowded, so the middle classes moved out of the centres into spacious streets and squares at the edges. This evacuation of town centres became a mass movement during the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

sugar.

Sugar cane was imported from the Mediterranean from the 16th century. During the 17th century it became the major product of the new plantations in the West Indies. In the 20th century a large supply has come from sugar beet.

Back  -    New Search

suicide

was held to be a crime by the ecclesiastical courts. Those who had committed suicide were buried either in unconsecrated ground on the north side of a churchyard or at cross-roads with a stake driven through the heart to destroy evil spirits. Suicide rates were low in the early modern period. For later times, see coroners' inquests, and newspaper reports.

Back  -    New Search

sulung.

A measure of land used in south-eastern England, about twice the size of a hide.

Back  -    New Search

summoner.

An apparitor who summoned people to appear before an ecclesiastical court.

Back  -    New Search

sumptuary laws.

Medieval and early modern laws which attempted to restrict private expenditure on dress and to confine the use of certain materials to the nobility. In England a series of Acts were passed from 1463 onwards. Until 1600 ‘excessive apparel’ was controlled by seven Acts and ten proclamations. In 1566 four ‘sad and discreet’ persons were stationed at the gates of the City of London to watch for people who might be wearing prohibited styles of hose.

Back  -    New Search

sundials.

Parish churches used sundials to enable clergymen to judge the times of services and for public use long before clocks were installed in church towers. A few Saxon sundials survive. In the Middle Ages ‘scratch dials’ were inscribed on a buttress or wall close to the porch of a parish church. Later sundials were mounted on stone posts in the churchyard. From the 17th to the 19th centuries churchyard and private sundials became increasingly ornate. Many are inscribed with reminders of mortality.

Back  -    New Search

surety.

One who stood as security for the repayment of a bond or for the proper performance of duties.

Back  -    New Search

surnames.

The fashion for families to have fixed, hereditary surnames began at the top level of society and spread slowly down the social scale. The fashion spread in southern England and East Anglia during the second half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, but took another century to become widespread in northern England and Lowland Scotland. By the 15th century most English people had acquired fixed, hereditary surnames, but Welsh names did not take an English form until the 16th century.

Back  -    New Search

‘Surnames’, The.

The kinship groups of Northumberland and Cumberland which offered some measure of protection to their members and which had some affinity to Scottish clans. They became an anachronism after the union of the English and Scottish crowns under James I and VI.

Back  -    New Search

surrender.

A document that extinguishes an owner's right in a property. Conditional surrender refers to the practice of mortgaging copyhold land, for if the loan was not repaid the mortgagee could enter the property only if the lord of the manor agreed to accept him as his tenant.

Back  -    New Search

surrogate.

A deputy presiding over a court.

Back  -    New Search

Surtees Society.

Founded in 1834, the society has published a wide range of records relating to County Durham and Yorkshire, in annual volumes.

Back  -    New Search

survey.

During the late 16th and 17th centuries landowners often employed a land surveyor to make a survey of their estate, showing the extent of each property, the form of tenure by which it was held, and often the use to which it was put, i.e. arable, meadow, pasture, or wood. The most detailed surveys also described each building, by its size (expressed as so many bays), purpose, and sometimes by its building materials. The entry fines and rents and customary payments were always noted, sometimes with the ‘improved rents’. Surveys were often made upon a change of ownership, with the intention of discovering the value of the estate in detail and of assessing ways in which the yield to the owner could be increased. The written survey was usually accompanied by a map, which is often the first large-scale map of the area.

Back  -    New Search

swaler.

The alternative name in the north midlands for a badger, i.e. a dealer in meal, corn, butter, and eggs.

Back  -    New Search

sweating sickness.

The name given by contemporaries to the epidemic of the late 1550s, which was probably a virulent form of influenza.

Back  -    New Search

Swing, Captain.

The name given to the widespread rural incendiarism and destruction of threshing machines of 1830–1, which started in Kent and spread over southern and eastern England. Agricultural labourers demanded improved wages, reductions in tithe payments, and the removal of machinery which caused under-employment.

Back  -    New Search

syke, sick.

The steep slopes of land by streams were difficult to plough and were therefore not incorporated in open-fields, but were used for hay which was auctioned to local farmers.

Back  -    New Search

Synod of Whitby.

The church synod of 664 which determined the outcome of the clash between English and Irish churchmen over the dating of Easter, a symbolic battle about whether the Roman or the Celtic form of Christianity would be the dominant one in Britain. The Roman form was triumphant.

Back  -    New Search

T

tallage.

A medieval tax, levied by a feudal lord upon his villeins at Michaelmas, by the king upon towns and his demesne manors, or by a borough upon its burgesses. It was replaced by other taxes by the 14th century.

Back  -    New Search

tallow chandler.

A candle-maker.

Back  -    New Search

tally.

A stick notched as a record of accounts and then split down the middle so that the two halves ‘tallied’.

Back  -    New Search

tatty hawker.

An itinerant, Irish potato-seller.

Back  -    New Search

Taxatio Ecclesiastica

(1291). A tax valued at one-tenth, published by the Record Commission as Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae, auctoritate Papae Nicholai IV, c. 1291 (1802).

Back  -    New Search

tea.

Tea was brought from the Far East from the late 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

teasels.

Plant with large prickly head, used for the finishing of cloth.

Back  -    New Search

telephone directories

are a prime source for establishing the modern distribution patterns of surnames. The United Kingdom is divided into 103 districts. The whole series from 1879 is available for consultation at The British Telecom Archives and Historical Information Centre, 2–4 Temple Avenue, London EC4Y OHL.

Back  -    New Search

Templar, Knights.

Founded in 1119 as the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, the knights became established throughout Europe by the late 13th century. In 1312 their possessions were transferred to the Knights Hospitaller.

Back  -    New Search

temporalities.

Ecclesiastical income that came from secular sources, e.g. rents, as distinct from spiritualities.

Back  -    New Search

tenant-in-chief.

Under the feudal system a person who held land directly from the king.

Back  -    New Search

tenements.

Originally, any rented property. In his account of Myddle (Shropshire) in 1700–2 Richard Gough used the term to describe the holdings of yeomen and husbandmen, which were smaller than farms but larger than the properties of cottagers. In the Victorian period the word was used to describe the working-class houses which were subdivided horizontally in the major industrial towns.

Back  -    New Search

tenters.

After a piece of woven cloth had returned from the fulling mill, it was hung on frames known as tenters to be stretched and dried.

Back  -    New Search

terraces.

1 (housing) . By the first half of the 19th century the typical accommodation of a working-class family was a two-storey house that formed part of a terrace.

2 (gardens) . Terraced gardens were introduced into England and Wales during the reign of William III (1689–1702).
Top

Back  -    New Search

thane, thegn.

An Anglo-Saxon landowner who held his land by charter in return for military service. King's thegns were substantial men, but petty thegns were hardly distinguishable from ordinary farmers.

Back  -    New Search

theatre.

Travelling bands of actors are recorded in provincial towns and cities from the 1530s. The Vagabonds Act (1572) forced companies of travelling players to seek royal or aristocratic patronage and thus forced them to be based in London.
Theatres were banned by the Puritans during the Commonwealth, but were re-established in London after the Restoration. During the next century provincial urban drama flourished as never before.

Back  -    New Search

thirdborough.

An alternative name for headborough or tithingman.

Back  -    New Search

threshing.

Hand-threshing by flail survived well into the 19th century, and later on the smallest holdings. Experiments with threshing machines had begun in the late 18th century. Steam-powered threshing machines were made from the 1840s.

Back  -    New Search

tie beam.

The horizontal beam which connects the principal posts of a timber-framed building and which helps to support a roof-truss.

Back  -    New Search

tied housing.

In the 19th century and later, farmers and other employers often provided rented accommodation for their workforce, whereby such housing was ‘tied to the job’.

Back  -    New Search

timber-framed buildings.

Until the late 16th or 17th century the majority of vernacular buildings were constructed with timber frames. Dendrochronology has allowed the precise dating of numerous timbers. It is clear that many surviving timber-framed houses are medieval rather than Tudor. The earliest vernacular examples are 13th century.

Back  -    New Search

time immemorial.

From 1291 a person who had no charter of authority for a franchise, e.g. the right to hold a market or fair, had his claim allowed if he could prove that he and his ancestors, or predecessors in his position, had held that right since ‘time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary’. This was known for short as ‘time immemorial’, or ‘time out of mind’, and was fixed as the period before the accession of Richard I in 1189.

Back  -    New Search

tin

was produced in Devon and Cornwall from prehistoric times in its alloy, bronze, and since at least Roman times in its alloy, pewter. The industry came to an end in the late 20th century.

Back  -    New Search

tithe awards and maps.

The bureaucratic structure that was created in 1836 to solve the tithe problem was closely modelled on the Poor Law Commission established in 1834. Between 1836 and 1852 the Tithe Commission quietly brought about a major redistribution of English and Welsh property. During that time they made apportionments for 11,395 districts (which were either parishes or smaller townships); in 7,147 cases (63 per cent) the agreements were made voluntarily. Only a few of the remaining cases dragged on, some until the 1880s.
The commissioners appointed surveyors to make large-scale maps and schedules. These were drawn up in triplicate: the copy made for the tithe office is now kept at the Public Record Office; the ones for the parish clerk and the bishop of the diocese are normally kept at an appropriate county or diocesan record office. The maps often the earliest surviving large-scale maps for a given area. The reference numbers on the tithe maps correspond to those in the accompanying tithe apportionment.
A preamble to the apportionment notes the extent and use of the arable land which was liable to tithe, the names of all tithe owners, and all customary payments which were made in lieu of tithe. After the preamble, the tithe apportionment lists all landowners and tenants and their fields; it is therefore a principal source for the study of landownership and of field-names. The apportionment goes on to note the land use of each field (usually as arable, meadow, or pasture). Nevertheless, about 79 per cent of England and Wales is covered by tithe maps.
The tithe files in the Public Record Office consist for the most part of the working papers of the assistant commissioners. About half the civil parishes in Ireland were valued between 1823 and 1830; the rest were valued between 1832 and 1837. The valuers' notebooks, known as tithe applotment books, note the names of tenants and townlands, and record the area, value, and tithe payable.

Back  -    New Search

tithes.

The great tithes of corn and hay, and the small tithes of livestock, wool, and non-cereal crops, went to the support of the rector of a parish, who in return maintained the chancel of the church and saw to the provision of church worship. Where the resident minister was not the rector but an institution such as a monastery or college, or a layman, the small tithes were paid to the vicar who served in the rector's place. Local customs varied greatly to complicate this general picture. At the Reformation tithe-rights that belonged to monasteries were confiscated by the Crown and granted or sold to various owners known as lay impropriators. From this time, about a third of all tithes became owned by lay people; moreover, some clergymen and ecclesiastical institutions leased the collection of tithes to laymen. This lay involvement created opposition to the payment of tithes. In the mid-17th century Quakers and Anabaptists refused to pay tithes to any owner. By the early 19th century the growth of Nonconformity had increased opposition to the payment of tithes to the Established Church.
Originally, tithes were payable in kind. In most English parishes the precise customs to be followed in collecting tithes were set out in detail in glebe terriers. In some parishes it had become the practice by the early modern period for farmers to pay a fixed modus instead. After periods of inflation, tithe-owners frequently challenged the legality of such arrangements, either in diocesan courts (which tended to favour the tithe-owners) or in the equity courts of Chancery and Exchequer (which were expensive and dilatory). The records of such cases contain depositions which are often informative about local customs. Contests over the payment of tithes on new crops, e.g. potatoes, indicate when such crops were first grown in a parish.
Parliamentary enclosure provided an opportunity for ending strife by allotting land to the tithe-owners in lieu of tithe. Over 60 per cent of the 3,700 or so Acts passed between 1757 and 1835 dealt with tithes in this way. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 converted tithes into rent charge payments based on the prevailing price of grain. New Tithe Acts, notably those of 1891, 1925, and 1936, dealt with changed circumstances. Rent charges finally disappeared in 1936 when landowners began to pay an annuity over 60 years in order to redeem all tithe by 1996.
In Scotland, tithes were abolished at the Reformation. In Ireland an Act of 1823 allowed the voluntary commutation of tithes into a money payment; an Act of 1832 made commutation compulsory. In 1838 the tithe payment was reduced by 25 per cent and transferred from the tenant to the landowner. Tithes were abolished in Ireland in 1869.

Back  -    New Search

tithing.

The medieval system whereby groups of ten households were responsible to the manorial court leet for the good conduct of each member.

Back  -    New Search

tithingman.

The elected representative of each tithing who was responsible for presenting the misdemeanours of his members or their families to the manor court leet.

Back  -    New Search

toft.

A plot of land to the rear of a building, often bounded at the rear by a back lane. The regularity of tofts in some medieval villages suggests a planned settlement.

Back  -    New Search

Toleration Act

(1689). After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had ousted the Catholic King James II, congregations of Protestant Nonconformists were allowed to worship openly provided they licensed their meeting houses at quarter sessions.

Back  -    New Search

Tolpuddle Martyrs.

The six Dorset agricultural labourers who were sentenced to transportation to Australia in 1834 for being members of a secret society which aimed to improve their wages. They subsequently became symbolic heroes of the trade union movement.

Back  -    New Search

tomb chest.

A form of funerary monument, dating from the 13th to the 17th century, and from the Gothic revival of the 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

toot-hill.

Look-out points used to watch for raiding armies in the Anglo-Saxon and Viking era.

Back  -    New Search

topographical guides.

The first topographical guides were published in the late 18th century to cater for the increasing numbers of visitors to the Lake District, Snowdonia, and the Highlands of Scotland.

Back  -    New Search

topographical surname.

A surname derived from a feature in the landscape, e.g. Green, Wood, or Hill.

Back  -    New Search

toponymic.

The term is used to describe the classes of surname that are derived from places.

Back  -    New Search

Tories.

The word (derived from an Irish word for ‘outlaw’) was first used as a nickname to distinguish a group of aristocratic politicians from their Whig opponents in the late 17th century. They adopted the name Conservative under Sir Robert Peel in the mid-1830s.

Back  -    New Search

Torrington, Viscount.

The Hon. John Byng , 5th Viscount Torrington, kept diaries of his tours through England and Wales between 1781 and 1794. These have been published as C. B. Andrews (ed.), The Torrington Diaries, 4 vols. (1935–6).

Back  -    New Search

torture

was commonly used in the Middle Ages and the early modern period to get a confession to a charge of treason. Common methods were to stretch suspects on a rack, or to press them with heavy weights on their chests, or to screw their thumbs. The use of torture by government declined during the 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

total descent.

A chart showing all ancestral lines, both male and female. In practice, such charts usually go back no further than the 16 great-great-grandparents.

Back  -    New Search

tournament.

Medieval tournaments were a mixture of sport and warfare, where rival groups of knights fought across open country, often with the loss of life and limb. The Tudor and Jacobean tournament was very different. It no longer served as a training ground for war, but was a carefully stage-managed public spectacle for political and cultural purposes.

Back  -    New Search

tower houses

were built on both sides of the Scottish border in the 14th and 15th centuries to protect the occupants from raiders.

Back  -    New Search

town halls.

The traditional town hall of the 16th and early 17th centuries consisted of a large room or rooms raised on columns above an open arcade. Such buildings served also as market halls and sometimes as the meeting places of manorial courts.
Even more striking are the town halls of Britain's Victorian cities, which provided office space for staff as well as rooms and chambers for meetings and prestigious reception and dining areas. The architectural styles are eclectic and often incorporate both classical and Gothic elements.

Back  -    New Search

townfields.

A term used in the north of England when referring to the open-fields of a township, particularly those relatively small openfields of upland areas.

Back  -    New Search

townland.

The ancient and basic unit of local government in Ireland. The average size of the 60,462 townlands is 350 acres; the range is from a little over 1 acre to over 7,000 acres.

Back  -    New Search

township.

The smallest unit of local government, and an ancient one, largely synonymous with vill. In many parts of England parishes formed a single township, but in districts where parishes were large, e.g. the Pennines, they were subdivided into townships. In the 16th century townships or civil parishes were given responsibility for the poor and the highways. They were also units of taxation. Townships survived until the creation of Urban and Rural District Councils in the late 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

trade token.

The shortage of coins in the early modern period led to shopkeepers and other traders issuing their own tokens. Millions must have been produced until a royal proclamation of 1672 forbade their circulation after the introduction of copper farthings and halfpennies.

Back  -    New Search

trade unions.

By the middle of the 18th century trade unionism was already well established among many groups of industrial workers. The main collections of trade union records are those housed at Warwick University and Nuffield College, Oxford. Many Scottish trade union records are kept at the Department of Manuscripts, the National Library of Scotland. Some branches have deposited their archives at local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

trams and buses.

Horse-drawn omnibuses were a Parisian invention. London's first service was opened in 1829. Horse-drawn trams, which ran on rails, were an American invention, which was introduced into London in 1870. They were soon replaced by electric trams, whose efficiency led to the decline of omnibus services except in suburbs where trams did not penetrate.

Back  -    New Search

transcript.

An exact copy of the wording of a document.

Back  -    New Search

transept.

An ‘arm’ which projects north or south from the space below a central tower in a church.

Back  -    New Search

transhumance.

The ancient practice whereby livestock that had been wintered in sheltered valleys were taken in summer to graze on upland or woodland pastures, accompanied by shepherds and cattle herders who lived in shielings or similar structures.

Back  -    New Search

transom.

The horizontal division of a window; usually associated with mullions.

Back  -    New Search

transportation of convicts.

In 1615 the Privy Council authorized the transportation of criminals to America, particularly to Virginia, as an alternative to hanging. On arrival, prisoners were sold to the highest bidders. Transportation to the American colonies continued until the War of Independence in 1776. By then, an estimated 40,000 convicts had been transported to America.
After 1776 British gaols began to get overcrowded. Parliament therefore authorized transportation to Australia. The ‘First Fleet’ of 586 male and 192 female convicts, together with free settlers and seamen, set sail on 13 May 1787 and arrived the following January. Transportation ceased in 1868, by which time it is estimated that about 162,000 convicts had been transported to the other side of the world. The Public Record Office has convict transportation records arranged by ships (HO 11), contracts for the transportation of convicts who are named, with their place of trial and sentence noted (TS 18), lists of convicts on particular ships (PC 1), Privy Council registers (PC 2), lists of convicts at particular dates (HO 31/1), and thousands of petitions for release (HO 17). Quarter sessions records are another major source of information.

Back  -    New Search

travellers' accounts.

Some discerning descriptions of England were written by early foreign travellers. Before the 17th century people rarely travelled for pleasure. A tour of the ‘Wonders of the Peak’ was one of the first recognized itineraries. The celebrated account of the travels of Celia Fiennes is exceptional, not only in its 17th-century date and in being written by a woman, but in its breadth of interest in contemporary matters. Daniel Defoe , A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–6), the first attempt at a comprehensive account, was a compilation of observances made on journeys undertaken over many years, with additional information culled from other writers.
In the later 18th and early 19th centuries the fashion for travelling to remote places was at its height. The number of travel diaries that survive for this period is far in excess of earlier ones.

Back  -    New Search

T.R.E.

Tempore regis Edwardi, ‘in the time of King Edward the Confessor’, the Domesday Book formula for the period before the Norman Conquest.

Back  -    New Search

treasure trove.

Discovered hoards of gold or silver coins or other precious objects that have been deliberately hidden by unknown owners. Ownership is determined at a coroner's inquest.

Back  -    New Search

trefoil.

One of the artificial grasses whose cultivation in pastures and in an arable rotation was introduced from the Continent in the 17th century.

Back  -    New Search

Tribal Hidage.

A 7th- or possibly 8th-century document that appears to be a list of the tribute assessments paid to the kingdom of Mercia by dependent peoples, some of whom are not known from other sources.

Back  -    New Search

Trinitarianism.

Belief in the Holy Trinity, especially by 19th-century members of the Church of England, in opposition to Unitarianism.

Back  -    New Search

trow.

A term used in the 17th and 18th centuries for various kinds of boats or barges that conveyed goods on rivers or along the coast. The precise meaning varied considerably from region to region.

Back  -    New Search

truck.

The system by which employers paid part of an employee's wage by vouchers that could be used only at a shop or store belonging to the employer. The system was open to abuse and was forbidden by the Truck Act (1331).

Back  -    New Search

tumulus.

A term, favoured by the Ordnance Survey, for a prehistoric burial site.

Back  -    New Search

turbary, right of.

The right to dig peat for fuel on the commons and wastes.

Back  -    New Search

turnips.

An improved variety was introduced from the Low Countries as a vegetable, and became a market garden crop in the later 16th century. By the end of that century they were much grown in gardens by the poor. Farmers learned in the 17th century to value them as fodder for cattle, sheep, and poultry. From the late 17th century onwards turnips were increasingly grown by farmers in open-fields, on light soils but not on heavy clays.

Back  -    New Search

turnpike roads.

Roads administered by trusts authorized by private Acts of Parliament, on which tolls were charged at gates.
The first turnpike trust was established by private Act of Parliament in 1663 to repair and maintain a particularly badly worn 15-mile stretch of the Great North Road between Wadesmill and Royston in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, but this pioneering enterprise was not imitated elsewhere until 1696. The number of new turnpike Acts rose steadily from four in the 1690s, to 10 in the 1700s, 22 in the 1710s, and 46 in the 1720s. By 1750 most of the major through routes in England had been turnpiked, though no turnpike roads had yet been authorized in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, or Wales, and the movement had only just begun in Scotland, and had achieved only limited success in Ireland. The most active period for the formation of turnpike trusts was between 1751 and 1772, when 389 new Acts were passed. The 1790s was also a busy period. By 1820 over 1,000 turnpike trusts controlled about 22,000 miles of British roads and charged tolls at some 7,000 or more gates.
The progress of a private bill through Parliament can be followed in the printed Journals of the House of Commons and House of Lords. Printed Acts, which name the trustees and outline their powers, are usually available at local studies libraries and local record offices. A complete set of Acts is available in the House of Lords Record Office, including renewal Acts which are available only in manuscript. Powers were normally granted for 21 years, after which a renewal Act had to be sought.

Back  -    New Search

Tusser , Thomas

(c. 1520–80).
East Anglian writer on agriculture, whose metrical Five Hundrethe Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1573), an enlarged version of his A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie (1557), went into numerous editions.

Back  -    New Search

Tyburn.

The gallows, known as ‘Tyburn tree’, was the place of public execution in London until 1783. The site is now occupied by Marble Arch.

Back  -    New Search

typhoid.

An infectious disease, once thought to be a variety of typhus, whose main characteristic is catarrhal inflammation of the intestines.

Back  -    New Search

typhus.

A contagious fever transmitted to humans by body lice or rat fleas, and characterized by rose-coloured spots, prostration, and delirium. Outbreaks affected the urban poor and armies involved in siege warfare.

Back  -    New Search

U

ultimus haeres.

Under Scottish law, if a person died without a known heir, the Crown was deemed the ultimus haeres (last heir). The records are kept in the Scottish Record Office. Those dating before 1834 relate to the granting of ultimus haeres to petitioners. After 1834 fuller records are kept under E 851–870.

Back  -    New Search

uncle.

In the early modern period the term had a wider meaning than brother of one's father or mother. It included more distant relatives and was used for an older man.

Back  -    New Search

underdrainage.

Although much land had been drained before the 19th century, the heavy clays could not be effectively drained until the invention of machine-made tiles c. 1840 made the work cheaper and more efficient.

Back  -    New Search

Unitarians.

A Nonconformist denomination that denies the Holy Trinity and accepts the humanity of Christ. During the second decade of the 18th century Presbyterian and Independent congregations split on the issue of the Trinity. In some places the Unitarian majority retained possession of the chapel, elsewhere they left to erect new meeting houses. The old name Presbyterian was retained by both groups. Unitarianism became legal only in 1813.

Back  -    New Search

United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed in 1801. In 1922 southern Ireland became independent, since when the UK has consisted of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Back  -    New Search

Urban District Councils.

When county borough councils were created in 1888, responsibility for the public health of towns with under 50,000 inhabitants remained with urban sanitary authorities. In 1894 these and other functions were taken over by elected urban district councils and their officers. UDCs were abolished under local government reorganization in 1974. Their minutes and other records have been deposited with local record offices.

Back  -    New Search

urban renaissance.

A term coined by Peter Borsay to chart the rise of provincial urban society after the Restoration, together with the great improvement of the built environment, and the provision of leisure and intellectual activities on an unprecedented scale.

Back  -    New Search

V

vaccary.

A place for rearing cattle in hilly or moorland districts.

Back  -    New Search

vaccination

against smallpox was introduced by Edward Jenner (1749–1823), a physician from Berkeley (Gloucestershire). Previous attempts to combat the disease had been by inoculation.

Back  -    New Search

vagabond.

The Elizabethan Poor Law Acts of 1597–1601 dealt harshly with sturdy beggars, rogues, and vagabonds, whose numbers were greatly exaggerated by the government and commentators. Most vagrants were single men, who travelled alone or in twos, rather than in the gangs that worried the writers of pamphlets. After the Restoration their numbers fell and they ceased to be a matter of national concern.

Back  -    New Search

Valor Ecclesiasticus.

An Act of 1535 impropriated the ‘first fruits’ and imposed an annual tax of one-tenth of the net income of all ecclesiastical benefices. As a result, a detailed and exact valuation of church wealth was made. This has been published in six volumes as J. Caley and J. Hunter (eds.), Valor Ecclesiasticus (Record Commission, 1810–34). The survey gives details of the income of all parish churches, together with many chapels, guilds, and chantry chapels. The full report is missing for some counties, but summaries of incomes survive.

Back  -    New Search

Valuation Office.

The Finance Act (1910) proposed a tax on land values. The valuation survey that was carried out between 1910 and 1915 describes and assesses the value of land and buildings in both an urban and a rural context. Information on each unit of property was recorded in Valuation Office Field Books, which are now housed in the Public Record Office under IR 58, and in the accompanying forms of return which were filled in by owners. The properties referred to in the Field Books can be identified from accompanying Ordnance Survey sheets. Parish indexes are available in the Map Room at the Public Record Office, where a detailed finding sheet is available.

Back  -    New Search

vassal.

Under the feudal system, a person who held land of a lord in return for sworn homage.

Back  -    New Search

Vatican records.

The medieval papacy received a constant stream of letters petitioning for privileges, confirming appointments, and dealing with disputes. The Vatican houses a mass of documentation of an administrative and legal nature that is of use to local historians who are concerned with the Middle Ages.

Back  -    New Search

vellum.

A fine type of parchment made from the skin of young calves and kids.

Back  -    New Search

verderer.

The medieval official who administered the vert and venison of a forest. Each forest had four verderers, who were elected by the freeholders who had rights in the forest.

Back  -    New Search

vernacular architecture.

The term ‘vernacular architecture’ has been used by architects, historians, and archaeologists since at least 1839 to describe the minor buildings of town and countryside, but it is only in the second half of the 20th century that the term has been widely employed to define an area of interest that has attracted much scholarly and amateur study.

Back  -    New Search

verso.

The left-hand page of an open book, the opposite of recto. In folio numbering, the reader is guided by the use of the superscript ‘v’.

Back  -    New Search

vert and venison.

In a forest, vert referred to the trees and shrubs which bore green leaves and thus provided food and shelter for livestock; venison referred originally to all livestock, not just deer.

Back  -    New Search

vestry.

A room attached to the chancel of a church which is used for the keeping of vestments, etc. The vestry is now usually reserved for the minister, but it was originally the room where parish meetings were held. Membership of the vestry comprised the minister, churchwardens, and leading parishioners, who were either co-opted (under a ‘close’ or ‘select’ vestry system) or elected (‘open vestry’). In the 16th and 17th centuries the vestry assumed many of the old functions of the manor court, e.g. appointing the constable, as well as taking on new responsibilities for the poor and the highways. The vestry lost these responsibilities during the 19th century, and in 1894 the civil functions of parishes were transferred to parish councils and parish meetings.

Back  -    New Search

vicar.

Originally, the minister who was appointed by an absentee rector, e.g. a monastery or college. The vicar received the small tithes, whereas a resident rector received all the tithes. Parishes which today are served by a vicar must have paid their tithes to a religious institution such as a monastery in the Middle Ages.

Back  -    New Search

vicars-choral.

The body of choristers in a cathedral.

Back  -    New Search

vicinage, common of.

Rights on commons claimed by owners of adjacent properties.

Back  -    New Search

Victoria County History, The.

The Victoria History of the Counties of England was founded in 1899. The series is divided into sets for each of the historic counties and, within each county set, into general and topographical volumes. The general volumes deal with natural history, prehistory, the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods, the Domesday Book, political and administrative history, ecclesiastical history and religious houses, social and economic history, forests, endowed schools, and sport. The topographical volumes are arranged by hundred or wapentake, subdivided into parishes and townships, or by towns. The history of each township is traced by a general description, followed by sections on manors and other estates, economic history, local government, church, Nonconformity, education, and charities for the poor.

Back  -    New Search

Vikings.

Scandinavian invaders, settlers, and traders who spread throughout northern Europe between the 8th and the 11th centuries. They came to Britain as two groups: the Norwegians, who settled in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Hebrides and west Scotland, northwest England, the Isle of Man, and the eastern coast of Ireland; and the Danes, who settled in what became the Danelaw in north-eastern and eastern England.

Back  -    New Search

vill.

A term often found in medieval records, e.g. central government taxation returns, for a township.

Back  -    New Search

villages, close.

A term coined by the Poor Law Commissioners to denote those villages where all the land was owned by a squire, or a small group of landowners, from which poor immigrants were excluded in order to keep the poor rates at a minimum.

Back  -    New Search

villages, estate.

During the 18th and 19th centuries great landowners and country squires redesigned and rebuilt villages in an aesthetically pleasing manner. To do this they had to own all the properties. Some were resited outside the landscaped park of the great house. They were often built in vernacular styles, especially the Tudor or Jacobean, using traditional materials for walls and roofs.

Back  -    New Search

villages, open.

A term coined by the Poor Law Commissioners to describe villages that were not dominated by a squire, or a small group of farmers, and where control of movement, building, and religious and social preferences was therefore lax. Such villages were populous and contained large numbers of poor people. Many were industrial villages.

Back  -    New Search

villeins.

An unfree tenant of manorial land under the feudal system. A villein held his land by agricultural services, by working on the demesne, and by boon work. The term was introduced by the Normans and gradually fell into disuse after the consequences of the Black Death had altered the supply of labour.

Back  -    New Search

virgate.

A standard holding of arable land in the Middle Ages, of up to 30 acres, scattered amongst the open-fields of a manor, with accompanying rights on the commons.

Back  -    New Search

viscount.

The rank of the peerage between earl and baron, created in 1440.

Back  -    New Search

Vitruvius Britannicus.

The publication in 1715 by Colen Campbell , under the sponsorship of the Earl of Burlington, of two volumes of plans and elevations of contemporary country houses in Britain, to inspire others to follow best practice. It signalled the beginning of the Palladian movement in Britain. Vitruvius was the greatest architect in ancient Rome. A further three volumes were subsequently published.

Back  -    New Search

W

waggons and wains.

The Old English word ‘wain’ and the Dutch word ‘waggon’ have a common root. They were translated as plaustrum in medieval Latin documents. The lighter, two-wheeled wain was in common use, even in highland Britain, in the Middle Ages.
John Stow observed that ‘long waggons’ which brought goods and passengers to London from Canterbury, Norwich, Ipswich, Gloucester, etc., began to operate about 1564. This heavy, four-wheeled vehicle was introduced from the Low Countries. Its use was long confined to southern England.

Back  -    New Search

waits, town.

Musicians employed by urban authorities to play on ceremonial and other occasions, e.g. accompanying the watch at fair times. Extra employment was obtained by playing at weddings and other private gatherings. Waits appear in town records from the Middle Ages to the 18th century upon their appointment and upon the provision of cloaks, ribbons, badges, etc. Payments were also made for musical instruments, such as fiddles, bass viols, hautboys, and bassoons.

Back  -    New Search

Wales, National Library of.

Founded by royal charter in 1907, and sited at Aberystwyth, the Library collects a wide range of manuscript, printed, cartographic, visual, sound, and moving-image material relating to Wales and the Celtic peoples. The collections are held in three curatorial departments: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Records, and Pictures and Maps.
Public records include the records of the Court of Great Sessions, established by the Second Act of Union 1542 and functioning until 1830. The extensive collections of estate records, including correspondence, account books, deeds, and rentals, and associated manorial records, together with a wide range of ecclesiastical records, are valuable sources. The records of the Welsh dioceses, the Presbyterian Church of Wales (previously Welsh Calvinistic Methodists), and other Nonconformist churches have been deposited at the Library. Of particular importance are bishops' transcripts, parish registers, probate records, membership lists, and annual reports. A computer index to the pre-1858 probate records is available, as also is the post-1858 Calendar of Grants. Microform copies of the census returns for the whole of Wales (1841–1991), the General Register Office's indexes (1837–1983), and the 1988 edition of the International Genealogical Index may be consulted in the microfilm reading area.

Back  -    New Search

wall painting.

The interiors of medieval parish churches were a blaze of colour. Wall paintings of scenes from the Bible and lives of saints were used as visual aids. At the Reformation it was ordered that these paintings should be destroyed or covered with whitewash. Many have been recovered during the 19th and 20th centuries. About 200 British churches have paintings in a good state of preservation and very many more have fragments.

Back  -    New Search

wall paper.

The earliest British wall papers, dating from Tudor times, were printed from wood-blocks to imitate fabric designs. Wall paper became fashionable in the late 17th century. The standard roll size of that time, 36 feet long and 22 inches wide, remains in use to this day. From the 1690s until the 19th century Chinese hand-painted papers were particularly popular in great houses; as they were imported from China by the East India Company, they were often known as ‘Indian’ papers.

Back  -    New Search

wall plate.

A horizontal post which rests on the tie-beams of a timber-framed building, to help support the weight of a roof-truss. The sidewalls of a building reach from ground level as far as the wall plate.

Back  -    New Search

Walter of Henley.

13th-century author of a treatise on husbandry, which provided practical advice for owners of estates of moderate size and for squires farming their own land.

Back  -    New Search

wapentake.

The Danelaw equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon hundred, i.e. a subdivision of a county for administrative and judicial purposes. The original meeting-places were open-air sites, often at river crossings or near major highways. Wapentakes survived as taxation districts (combining a number of townships) into the early modern period and for calling out the militia in the Napoleonic wars, and did not finally disappear until the reorganization of local government in 1974.

Back  -    New Search

war memorials.

Memorials listing the dead, as distinct from earlier monuments commemorating victories or peace, were first placed in public places after the Crimean War. A number survive from the Boer War, but it was only after the First World War that monuments were erected by public subscription in every town and parochial centre.

Back  -    New Search

War Office records.

The appointment of a Secretary at War upon the Restoration in 1660 led to the keeping of more systematic records. These are now kept in the Public Record Office under WO. The returns of accommodation for men and horses at inns and alehouses in 1686 (WO 30) provide statistical information about such provision for each settlement in England and Wales.

Back  -    New Search

ward.

A division in the four northern counties of England and in some of the southern counties of Scotland. They appear to have arisen after the Norman Conquest. East Ward and West Ward (Westmorland), and Castle Ward (Northumberland), survived as the names of civil registration districts.

Back  -    New Search

Wards and Liveries, Court of.

The court that administered funds received by the monarch for rights of wardship, marriage, and livery. Established in 1541, it was abolished in 1660. Its records are kept at the Public Record Office under WARD 1 to 7.

Back  -    New Search

wardship.

The right of the Crown to hold and administer the estates of heirs of tenants-in-chief until they reached the age of 21, or 14 for an heiress. During this period the Crown received the revenues of the estate and could determine the marriage of the heir or heiress. These rights were enforced from Henry VII's reign (1485–1509) until the abolition of feudal tenures in 1660. Wardships were frequently sold to nobility and gentry, and were, of course, lucrative assets. Often wards were married off to a child of the person who got wardship; sometimes relations got wardship.

Back  -    New Search

warrens.

In the Middle Ages royal grants of free warren allowed feudal lords to hunt small game in defined areas. Warrens which were enclosed for the rearing of rabbits were widely established, on heaths, sandy wastes, and other land that was fit for little else, in the medieval and early modern periods.

Back  -    New Search

wars, foreign.

The first major foreign war in English experience was the prolonged war with France, begun by Edward III (1327–77), and known as the Hundred Years' War. It came to a temporary end in 1382, but was revived under Henry V (1413–22). By the mid-15th century the English retained no interest in France, except for Calais. Henry VIII conducted three expensive and inconclusive campaigns in France (1511–14, 1522–5, and 1542–6), and waged war against the Scots. During the second half of the 16th century the Continental balance of power changed and Spain became the major threat to England, until the defeat of the Armada in 1588. Another war with Spain lasted from 1656 to 1659. From the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) onwards, the English were concerned to create and extend an empire, starting with Ireland, and then Virginia. This led not only to conflict with the Irish and the Native Americans, but to frequent skirmishes, and eventually to fullscale wars, with other western European powers engaged in similar activity. Three wars were fought against the Dutch (1652–4, 1665–7, and 1672–4), and two long wars were fought against the France of Louis XIV (1689–97 and 1701–14, the latter being known as the War of Spanish Succession).
In the 18th century the Union with Scotland (1707) and the defeat of the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 brought an end to wars between England and Scotland, but renewed struggle with the Catholic countries of Europe brought the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739), the War of Austrian Succession (1740–8), and the Seven Years' War (1756–63). Military activity took place not only in Europe, but in Brazil, the Caribbean, New England, Africa, and India. The American colonies were lost as a result of the War of Independence (1775–83). The major and prolonged conflict known as the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars lasted from 1793 to 1815. France subsequently ceased to be the traditional enemy of the English and fought with the British against the Russians in the Crimean War (1854–6). British military activity was thereafter largely concentrated on consolidating an empire in India and Africa, culminating in the Boer War (1899–1902). (See the records of the two World Wars (1914–18 and 1939–45).) The Korean War (1949–51), the Suez Campaign (1956), and the Falklands War (1982) have been the major wars involving British troops in the second half of the 20th century.

Back  -    New Search

Wars of the Roses.

A struggle for power between the rival aristocratic factions headed by the houses of Lancaster and York, both of which descended from Edward III (1327–77) and therefore claimed rights to the throne. Several battles were fought between 1455 and 1461. The Yorkist victory at Towton led to the crowning of Edward IV as king of England in 1461.

Back  -    New Search

‘waste’ in the Domesday Book.

After valuing a manor as it had been in the time of Edward the Confessor, the Domesday Book often concludes ‘and now it is waste’. The frequency of this expression in entries for the north of England has led to the belief that such manors were laid to waste by William I's army during the ‘Harrying of the North’. Such views are now largely discredited, despite the reality of the ‘harrying’. ‘Waste’ seems to have meant land from which no tax was forthcoming, for whatever reasons. No fewer than 128 Yorkshire manors in the Domesday Book were described as ‘waste’, even though some had resources, population, or value recorded.

Back  -    New Search

watch and ward.

The medieval and early modern system whereby the security of towns was preserved by patrols. The watch kept a lookout at night, the ward was responsible for daytime security. Membership of the watch and ward was a duty for all male citizens by rotation.

Back  -    New Search

water closet.

The first water closet used in Britain was invented in the Elizabethan period by Sir John Harrington , but it was not until the late 17th century that water closets became installed in country houses.

Back  -    New Search

wattle and daub.

One of the principal ways of filling in the spaces between the posts of a timber-framed building. The wattle came from coppice wood, the daub was made from clay, cow dung, animal hair, straw, etc. and was usually whitened to improve the appearance.

Back  -    New Search

weather cocks / vanes.

Weather cocks are revolving metal structures on the tops of church towers and spires, which indicate the direction of the wind. The cockerel shape was preferred as the tails are well suited to catch the wind, but the emblems of patron saints were also favoured, as were idiosyncratic designs. Most examples are difficult to date, and in any case have probably been replaced frequently. The use of weather vanes is thought to have originated in France. The first in England were heraldic devices (the word is derived from fane, meaning banner), placed on domestic buildings, especially of the Tudor period. Pre-Victorian vanes were usually painted.

Back  -    New Search

weatherboard.

Timber cladding used to protect the external walls of houses, mills, church towers, etc. in eastern and southern England.

Back  -    New Search

weaving

was a major source of employment in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, in both the towns and the countryside. The urban weavers were often members of guilds; those in the countryside were usually smallholders who combined their craft with running a small farm. Weaving did not become mechanized as quickly as spinning, so when woollen and worsted spinning mills were erected in the late 18th and early 19th centuries the increased amount of yarn that was produced continued to be woven at handlooms in cottages. The characteristic weavers' cottages that survive in parts of the Pennines mostly date from this time. They are distinguished by their row of windows on the second or top floor, which allow the maximum amount of light to fall on the looms. By this time, weaving was normally a full-time occupation. Weaving became mechanized from the 1820s and 1830s, and hand-weaving disappeared during Victoria's reign.

Back  -    New Search

weights and measures.

There was much regional variety in the use of customary weights and measures, even within a county, until the late 19th century.

Back  -    New Search

weld.

A crop that produced a yellow dye.

Back  -    New Search

Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.

An archive and research centre at 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BN.

Back  -    New Search

wergild.

The Anglo-Saxon system of compensation for murder or malicious injury, payable by the malefactor or his family to the family of the murdered or injured person. Payments were on a scale according to a man's social position.

Back  -    New Search

Wessex.

The kingdom of the West Saxons, which became pre-eminent in Anglo-Saxon England. During the period 685–840 Wessex became dominant in southern England. Under Alfred (871–99), Wessex successfully resisted the Danes. During the 10th century Alfred's descendants recovered much of England from the Danes. The name ‘Wessex’ was revived in the 19th century by the Dorset poet William Barnes , and by Thomas Hardy .

Back  -    New Search

Western Rebellion.

A rebellion in Cornwall and Devon during 1547–9 against the Edwardian Reformation.

Back  -    New Search

wheelhouses.

Horse-mills under permanent cover. These are built in a semi-circular shape, one storey high with a sloping roof, against the wall of a barn in which machinery was housed. A horse walked round and round to power a gin for threshing, cutting turnips and chaff, crushing gorse for animal feed, etc.

Back  -    New Search

Whigs.

A nickname of uncertain origin applied to the aristocratic political party that was formed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to keep a check on royal power.

Back  -    New Search

whipping.

The whipping of men and women, who were tied to a post or fastened to the tail of a cart which was led through the streets, was a punishment for criminals, vagabonds, and beggars until well into the 18th century. Whipping was also used to maintain discipline in the army and navy.

Back  -    New Search

white coal.

Wood fuel for lead smelters, burnt slowly in pits which often survive in woods. The fuel was lighter in colour than charcoal. It was used from Elizabethan times until it was replaced by coke in the late 18th century.

Back  -    New Search

whitesmith.

A worker in tin; also, a polisher and finisher of metalware.

Back  -    New Search

wife-selling.

The ‘poor man's divorce’ of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The sale was conducted according to recognized procedures: the venue was the market place or other public space, the event was sometimes preceded by a public announcement and was conducted by an auctioneer, the woman was led in by a halter round her neck to signify that she was the property of her husband, a nominal purchase price was agreed, and the woman left with her purchaser, who was her accepted lover.

Back  -    New Search

Williams's, Dr, Library,

14 Gordon Square, London. A library and archive of Nonconformity. Of particular use is John Evans's list of dissenting congregations (1715), MS 34–4, which gives the numerical strengths of meetings throughout England and Wales. A voluntary General Register of Births for Dissenters was opened on 1 January 1743. This contains entries from many parts of Britain, but particularly for London, until the introduction of civil registration in 1837.

Back  -    New Search

wills.

The practice of making a will goes back to Anglo-Saxon times, but was originally restricted to the wealthiest groups. The custom was not widely adopted by farmers and urban craftsmen until the 16th century. Labourers and other poor people rarely made wills, even in later times. The various studies that have compared the numbers of adult males who made a will with those whose deaths are recorded in parish registers usually show that the figure was about 1 in 3 or 1 in 4.
The ancient responsibility for proving a will lay with the church. Most wills are therefore kept at the record offices of the ancient dioceses. During the Commonwealth (1653–60) all wills in England and Wales were proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and are now kept at the Public Record Office. On 12 January 1858 the state took over responsibility for proving wills. Since then, they have been kept at the Principal Registry of the Family Division, Somerset House, The Strand, London.
The ancient Scottish system of proving wills was through one of the 22 commissary courts, and after 1823 in sheriff's courts. The records are kept at the Scottish Record Office. In Ireland the system was similar to that in England and Wales, being based on church dioceses until 1858, when responsibility for proving wills passed to a new Principal Registry in Dublin whose records were destroyed by fire in 1922, though the indexes were saved. A miscellaneous collection of wills and will-substitutes, e.g. notebook copies made before the fire, is housed at the National Archives, Dublin. Few wills survive from before 1780.

Back  -    New Search

window tax.

Introduced in 1697, after the abolition of the hearth tax. The occupier of every house was taxed at the rate of two shillings a year, with an additional payment of eight shillings for a house with over 10 windows. In 1709 the rates were increased for larger houses, but those who were too poor to pay church or poor rates were exempt. From the mid-18th century the rates paid by those with over 10 windows were frequently increased. From 1825 occupiers with fewer than eight windows were exempt. The tax was abolished in 1851. Unlike the hearth tax, few returns have survived. They should be sought at county record offices.

Back  -    New Search

wiseman.

A conjuror or wizard who performed ‘white’ magic which was generally regarded as being beneficial, e.g. the healing of sick people and animals, the recovery of stolen property, and forecasting the weather.

Back  -    New Search

witchcraft.

In the Middle Ages prosecutions were few and punishments light. Witchcraft became a felony in 1563. The death penalty was carried out on those who were found guilty of causing death by witchcraft, and lesser offenders were imprisoned. Serious cases were tried at the assizes, minor offences at the ecclesiastical courts. Prosecutions rose from 1563 to a peak during the last two decades of the 16th century. They fell away markedly during the 17th century, except for the craze that affected East Anglia and south-eastern England in 1645–7.

Back  -    New Search

woad.

The leaves of this plant afforded the essential dye in the colouring of blue, black, and purple cloth until the demand was partially satisfied, from the 16th century onwards, by imports of indigo.

Back  -    New Search

wolves

are commemorated in place-names, but were generally extinct by the end of the Middle Ages. The last recorded sighting in the Highlands of Scotland was in 1743 and in Ireland in 1786.

Back  -    New Search

wong.

A strip in a shared meadow.

Back  -    New Search

wood-collier.

A charcoal burner. The term often appears simply as ‘collier’ and is thus sometimes confused with coal miner.

Back  -    New Search

wood pasture.

The term used to describe those agricultural districts where the farming economy was significantly different from champion land which was farmed on the open-field system. Such districts often had only small areas devoted to open-fields; instead most of the land was in closes and used for pastoral activities, such as the rearing of cattle or dairying. The neighbouring woods were often extensive and were a source of grazing rights on the commons. Settlement was not confined to nucleated villages, but was scattered in hamlets and isolated farmsteads. Wood-pasture districts often had specific social characteristics, notably light manorial control, numerous freeholders, and sometimes a predilection for religious and political dissent, and for rural industry.

Back  -    New Search

woods.

The earliest evidence for woodmanship comes from the Neolithic trackways that have been found in the Somerset Levels. Woodland management was practised by both prehistoric peoples and the Romans. By the time of the Norman Conquest many parts of England were without woods. The interpretation of the woodland entries in the Domesday Book remains controversial, but it is clear that the surviving woods had to be carefully managed as an economic asset, mostly as coppice or springwoods, that is, trees which were felled just above ground level, allowing regeneration through young shoots. The alternative method of pollarding involved the lopping of branches about 7–18 feet above the ground. Hedges were also a source of wood from early times.
The ancient tradition of coppicing began to decline in the late 19th century, in face of competition from foreign imports, and was largely abandoned after the First World War. Most surviving broad-leaved woodlands have a continuous history from at least the late Middle Ages.

Back  -    New Search

wool.

The woollen industry was pre-eminent in the economy of the British Isles during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The manufacture of cloth was unrivalled as England's principal medieval industry, in both the towns and the countryside. The manufacture of woollen cloth in East Anglia, the Cotswolds, and other regions declined in face of West Riding competition during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Back  -    New Search

workhouse.

A few workhouses for the able-bodied poor were founded, from the late 17th century onwards, by local Acts. More were established under the Acts of 1722 and 1782. From 1722 parishes were allowed to farm out their responsibility for the poor to a contractor at a fixed fee. Gilbert's Act (1782) allowed parishes to join forces in the erection of a workhouse, in an arrangement by which each parish paid the cost of maintaining its own poor but achieved savings by sharing the premises. The establishment of these 18th-century workhouses is noted in the accounts of the overseers of the poor, but detailed records usually do not survive, since the operation was often let to contractors.
By the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 the whole of England and Wales was divided into unions of parishes, in each of which a board of guardians was elected to administer poor relief. These unions were often centred on a market town, and they sometimes stretched beyond county boundaries. The new Poor Law met with considerable opposition in the north of England. Each union built a workhouse to house those people who were in receipt of relief. Some unions merely took over existing workhouses, and others were slow to build their own Contrary to the intention of the Act, the guardians often continued to pay relief to people who lived in their own houses. Workhouses gradually evolved into orphanages and hospitals, especially for the feeble-minded, the aged, and the infirm. In the mid-19th century some workhouses established schools for the children in their care, until local board schools were built in the 1870s. Children were finally removed from the workhouse in 1908. County and district councils took over responsibility for workhouses from the guardians in 1894. The system was replaced in 1948 upon the creation of the National Health Service.
In Ireland, the same system of Poor Law unions, elected guardians, and union workhouses began in 1838. In Scotland, the heritors and kirk session of each parish were responsible for the poor until the Poor Law Act (1845) established parochial boards to administer poor relief in each parish. From 1845 poor houses were established more widely than before. Here, too, the old system was replaced in 1894 when responsibility passed to elected parish councils, which were replaced in turn by district councils in 1929, until the reorganization of local government in 1974.
The best-known workhouse records are the master's accounts. Some admission registers survive, together with guardians' minute books and general ledgers. These will be found in local record offices. Census returns list the inmates of workhouses on census night.

Back  -    New Search

World Wars, records of.

Regimental museums have lists of soldiers who served in the First and Second World Wars, and much background information, including photographs. Many rolls of honour for the dead in the two World Wars have been published by regiments, schools, and professional bodies. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2 Marlow Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 7DX, has details of servicemen who died overseas and on ships during the two World Wars.
The London Gazette published despatches, campaign reports, casualty lists, and citations for awards and decorations. The Public Record Office has First World War records of military tribunals (MH 47), medical and discharge papers (MH 106), and records of pensions and allowances (PIN 15 and 26, PMG 42–47). The PRO's records of the Second World War include the Army Roll of Honour, which lists servicemen and servicewomen who died, noting their rank, regiment, birthplace, residence, and place of death (WO 304), and war pensions paid to widows (PMG 10).

Back  -    New Search

worsted.

A type of cloth, using long wools, that was originally made in Worstead, Norfolk, but which became a speciality of the upper Calder and Aire valleys in the West Riding of Yorkshire from the later 17th century onwards.

Back  -    New Search

Wright , Joseph

(1855–1930).
Known for his work as editor of The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols. (1898–1905), which despite its title covers Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as well as England.

Back  -    New Search

writ.

A written and sealed command from a court, ordering or forbidding an act by the person to whom it is addressed.

Back  -    New Search

Y

yard.

A word meaning enclosed ground, as in the sense of back yard, courtyard, farmyard, etc.

Back  -    New Search

yardland.

A virgate, a typical peasant holding in the Middle Ages, often dispersed in strips in the open-fields. The acreage of yardlands varied considerably, but as a fiscal unit it often remained consistent over long periods of time.

Back  -    New Search

yeomanry.

The local volunteer force of the Victorian and Edwardian era, who were mounted on their own horses and were therefore distinct from the foot soldiers of the militia.

Back  -    New Search

yeomen.

The term has changed its meaning over time. In the 13th–15th centuries it was principally applied to a knight's servants or retainers, though in the royal household the minor officials under the Chamberlain were known as the Yeomen of the King's Chamber. Under the Tudors the use of the term was gradually widened to include the prosperous working farmers below the rank of the gentry, the class formerly known as franklins. They worked their own land, but did not necessarily have to be freeholders. Yeomen increasingly held their land by a variety of tenures: freehold, copyhold, and leasehold. The term had no legal precision, but was used informally to distinguish a farmer who was more prosperous than the average husbandman.

Back  -    New Search

yoke.

A piece of wood curved round the necks of two oxen, or other animals, by which they were harnessed to a plough or vehicle. Yokes were also used by people, e.g. milkmaids carrying pails.

Back  -    New Search

Young , Arthur

(1741–1820).
Writer on agriculture. His major works include A Tour through the Southern Counties (1768), A Tour through the North of England (1771), The Farmer's Tour through the East of England (1770–1), Tour in Ireland (1780), Travels in France during 1787–88–89–90 (1792–4), The Farmer's Kalendar (which went into 215 editions by 1862), and reports on seven counties published in the General Views of Agriculture series of the Board of Agriculture, where he was Secretary from 1793.

Back  -    New Search

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History

Reproduced by kind permission of Dr David Hey.

David Hey
Includes over 1500 entries
This dictionary provides both amateur and professional historians with quick answers to questions of terminology that may arise in the course of research. It contains, for example, entries on legal and other specialist terms; types of documentation; sources of information; social and religious groups; institutions and organizations; historical and political events; official functions and occupations; and authors and scholars.
David Hey is Professor of Local and Family History at the University of Sheffield.

ISBN 019860839x

© David Hey 1997, 2002

First published by Oxford University Press 1997

E-book copyright © 2003.