J. Charles Cox

“ The time of the wakes or village feast is a good guide to the dedication, but one which, from the reason stated above, as well as from other causes, must not be implicitly relied upon.
Another point worth remembering with regard to dedications, is that re-consecration was not of unfrequent occurrence. Murder and some other crimes [83] within the church, as well as special violations of the altar, rendered re-consecration imperative; and it was also often resorted to when the fabric was altogether or considerably rebuilt, or even when a new chancel was added. ”

“ Every effort should be made to identify the old manor-house, or its site (often marked by a grass grown moat) , and this should of course be done with each manor, where, as is usually the case, the parish has contained more than one. Oral tradition, in this as in other particulars, will often be found a useful handmaid. Should the exterior of the reputed manor-house be altogether unpromising, that should not check further investigation. ”

“ If there is a castle, or its relics, within the parish, the probability is considerable that it has already been well described by a county historian, or in one or other of the numerous journals of our Archæological societies. But it is equally probable that its history has not been thoroughly written, and special search should be made with that object at the P. R. O., beginning with the indexes to the printed calendars already enumerated. ”

“ Guilds and Fraternities of a more or less religious character, and usually directly connected with a special altar at the parish church, will naturally come under the history of the Church, provided any can be detected in connection with the particular parish. It used to be supposed that these guilds were only found in cities or boroughs, but later researches show that they also occasionally existed in quite small villages. ”

“ Dedication. The dedication of the church should never be taken for granted from county gazetteers or directories. Dedications to All Saints, and to the Blessed Virgin, should be viewed with some suspicion until firmly established, for in the time of Henry VIII. the dedication festivals, or “wakes,” were often transferred to All Saints’ Day, or Lady Day, in order to avoid a multiplicity of holidays, and hence by degrees the real dedication became forgotten. ”

“ Calendars, or short abstracts of [38] these Inquisitions, carefully indexed, have been printed in four folio volumes by the Record Commissioners, 1806-1828, up to the end of the reign of Richard III. These calendars, which are invaluable for reference, must be used with caution, and should never be quoted as proving the death of any person by a particular date, for unfortunately not a few inquisitions that are not post mortem, but ad quod damnum, are included amongst them. ”

“ The Inquisitio post mortem, on the contrary, was an inquiry held on oath by a jury of the district, summoned by virtue of a writ directed to the county Escheator, on the death of every tenant in capite. The jury had to inquire (1) of what lands the person died seized, (2) by what rents or services the same were held, and (3) who was his next heir and of what [37] age; they had also to ascertain whether the tenant was attainted of treason, or an alien, in which case the lands reverted to the crown. ”

“ Churchwardens’ Accounts, giving particulars of rates, receipts, and payments for church purposes, are often highly interesting, and should be carefully preserved. Sometimes they are found entered in bound volumes, but more often tied up in bundles or tumbled in confusion in the parish chest. Still more often they are altogether missing. They can occasionally be recovered from the private dwellings of present or past churchwardens. ”

“ About ten years after the completion of his ecclesiastical survey, Henry VIII. decided on appropriating the revenues belonging to Collegiate Churches and Chantries. As a preliminary measure to their sale, he appointed a commission, in the 37th year of his reign, to re-value this property, and to take an inventory [70] of the chattels. The whole subject of the suppression of the Chantries, as conceived by Henry VIII. and finally carried out by Edward VI., is ably and exhaustively treated in the introduction to the volumes of the Cheetham Society, which treat of the Lancashire Chantries. ”

“ Several instances are known to us in which modern brick casing or sash windows are but a screen to some of the oldest domestic architecture extant, which may be found in the back premises or outbuildings, or contain fine old chimney-pieces, carved oak panelling, or ceilings of elaborate pargetting. ”

“ Thus, if one of our old grey churches requires fresh seating, how much better to fill a single aisle or one bay of the nave with sound and effectively carved oak, and only repair the remainder, rather than to accomplish the whole in sticky pine. The best material and the best art should surely be used in God’s service, and [100] not reserved to feed our pride or minister to our comfort in private dwellings. ”

“ Domestic architecture should always be described by the century, and not by the “periods” into which ecclesiastical architecture is usually divided. The only book worth purchasing on the subject, is the somewhat costly but admirable four volume edition of Parker’s “Mediæval Domestic Architecture.” For [48] the general “History of Architecture,” both civil and religious, of all ages and countries, nothing can surpass Fergusson’s last edition in four volumes, published by Murray in 1874.
Personal History.
The pedigrees and brief particulars of the Nobility can be readily found. ”

“ The last visitation of several counties was taken in 1634, but the majority were visited in 1662-4; and the last of all was that of the county of Southampton, made by Sir Henry St. George, in 1686. The general genealogist and antiquary cannot but long for the issue of another royal commission, whereby the heralds might be empowered, as of old, to destroy all false and self-assumed arms, whether on carriages, plate, or monuments. ”

“ Any British, Roman, Danish, or Anglo-Saxon remains that there may be in the parish, had, perhaps, better be described before the manorial history is given. Every earthwork, mound, or ancient roadway should be carefully noted. ”

“ Nor should attention be [47] only directed to manor-houses. All old domestic work is worth chronicling, so rapidly is it disappearing both in town and country; and the annalist of a parish should not be above transcribing all the initials and dates so frequently seen on lintel stones. As a rule, every house or cottage, not obviously modern, that has stone buttresses, a moulded wall-plate or string-course, or bevelled stone mullions to the windows, is worthy of careful examination. ”

“ Registers should be carefully looked through, not only for the purpose of extracting the names of prominent or interesting families, but also for the purpose of gleaning the innumerable little scraps of local information that were not unfrequently interpolated in the earlier pages, such as notes pertaining to excommunication, licenses for eating flesh in Lent, penance, remarkable or eccentric characters, storms, and weather observations, inventories of church goods, visitations of the plague or sweating sickness, national events, etc., etc. ”

“ Numerous MS. volumes of indexes to Chancery proceedings are at the service of the searcher in the P. R. O.
The volumes known as the Year Books contain reports in Norman-French of cases argued and decided in the Courts of Common Law. They form the basis of the “lex non scripta” of English jurisprudence, [35] and are worthy of attention on account of the historical information and the notices of public and private persons which they contain. The frequent disputes about heirship cause them often to be of value in manorial history. ”

“ It has often been noticed how far better the work of redeeming the interior of our churches from that state of dirt and neglect that had degraded some at least below the level of the very barns upon the glebe, has been carried out where money has come in slowly, and at intervals, rather than where some munificent patron has readily found the funds to enter upon a big contract. ”

“ Edward Jones, in two folio volumes. Those who have had occasion to use Mr. Jones’s index know that the judgment “very useful, but very imperfect,” is true in each particular.
The Hundred Rolls will often prove to be of the greatest interest for one period of manorial history. During the turbulent reign of Henry III., the Crown revenues had been much diminished by the Tenants in Capite alienating lands without license, and by powerful ecclesiastics and laymen usurping the rights of holding courts, and committing other encroachments. ”

“ The Originalia are described in the Public Records Report as “the Estreats transmitted from the Court of Chancery into this (Exchequer) office, of all grants of the Crown inrolled on the Patent and other Rolls, whereon any rent is reserved, any salary payable, or any service performed.” These rolls commence early in the reign of Henry III. An abstract, in two folio volumes, of the Originalia from 20 Henry III. [27] to the end of Edward III., was published by the Commissioners in 1805. ”

“ There are various Inventories of Church Goods in the P. R. O., taken by Commission at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., some on detached slips of parchment, others in paper books. The inventories are not absolutely perfect for all parishes in any one county; in several counties the churches of one or more Hundreds are missing ”

“ Sims’ “Index to the Pedigrees and Arms” contained in the Heralds’ Visitations in the B. M., is [52] an accurate and useful book of reference. The “Manual for the Topographer and Genealogist,” by the same gentleman, is quite indispensable. Careful lists of family histories, of all the principal topographical works, and of all MSS. of worth in public libraries, are therein classified under the different counties.
Wills are too obvious a source of information to need a word of comment. At Somerset House is the most important and largest collection, viz., those of the province of Canterbury. ”

“ Sims’ “Manual” should be consulted for exhaustive lists of this class of documents, as well as for numerous lists of Gentry and Freeholders of different dates, pertaining to their respective counties.
Muster Rolls, which give the names, rank, dwelling, and often other particulars, of those able to bear arms in each county, may be of interest to the local historian. The earliest of these returns, now at the P. R. O., are of the reign of Henry III.; there are great deficiencies up to the time of Henry VIII., but from that reign to the time of Charles II, they are very voluminous. ”

“ If the living became at any time a Vicarage, care should be taken to look through the particulars given by Dugdale and Tanner, of the religious house to which the big tithes were appropriated, and more especially to carefully search the chartularies of that establishment, if any are extant. There is an excellent list of the various monastic Chartularies, i.e., ancient parchment books, [77] containing transcripts or abstracts of the charters of the different houses, in the first two volumes of Nichols’ “Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” and a shorter one in Sims’ “Manual.” ”

“ The Domesday Book, compiled in 1085-6, is [17] preserved at the Chapter House, Westminster. It gives particulars of all the different manors throughout England, excepting those of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham. It was printed in two large volumes in 1783, and a third volume of indexes and introductory matter added in 1811. A most valuable “General Introduction” was published in 1833, by Sir Henry Ellis. The Ordnance Survey have recently brought out a fac-simile edition of the Domesday Book, produced by Photo-zincography, which can be obtained in separate counties. ”

“ They relate to the revenues of the Crown, digested under the heads of the several counties. They are of much interest [23] and utility in early pedigrees, and relate to a far wider range of subjects than Crown lands, as the Crown revenues come from so great a diversity of sources. The originals are in the P. R. O., but most of the rolls are in duplicate at the B. M. Several volumes of transcripts are in the B. M. and B. The Rolls for the 31 Henry I.; 3 John; 2, 3, and 4, Henry II.; and 1 Richard I., have been published by the Record Commissioners. ”

“ On them are entered all grants of lands, offices, honours, pensions, and particulars of individual or corporate privileges, etc., etc. These invaluable Rolls are unfortunately not indexed. A folio calendar of those from John to 23 Edward IV., was printed in 1802, but it is only a capriciously made selection. Those from the 3rd to 18th John have since been printed in full, with an admirable introduction. In the B. M. are many [24] volumes of selections and extracts for particular periods. Manorial grants of “free warren” in these rolls will often supply a missing link in the history of a manor. ”

“ Occasionally the patron saints of the different churches are mentioned in the institutions in the episcopal registers, and more often in monastic chartularies; but the surest of all references, in the case of a doubtful dedication, is to look up the pre-Reformation wills of the lords of the manor or other chief people of the parish. These wills almost invariably contain an early clause to this effect:—“I leave my body to be buried within the church of St. ”