Medieval English genealogy: updates: 29 September 2024

This page contains brief details of the latest batch of updates to the site, and includes newly added and updated links. For brief details of these and older additions - without links, to make site maintenance easier - see the what's new page.

If you'd like to receive a notification by email when this site is updated, please let me know by email at cgp@medievalgenealogy.org.uk.

Contents:

• New material
• New links
• Updated links

New material

Update, 19 November 2024.
Added a searchable database compiled from 144 indexes on the Anglo-American Legal Tradition website, to selected plea rolls from the Court of Common Pleas (CP 40) from the period 1349-1596. These indexes were created by two volunteers, Vance Mead and Rosemary Simons, and cover nearly 700,000 entries, which mention more than 2 million personal names. The search results give a summary of the information in each entry, together with links to the index page and to the photograph of the original document, both at AALT.

The following item has been added in the Corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage section:

• Warwick, volume 12, part 2, page 396.

New links

• A brief guide to medieval English genealogy:
  • Public records: General:
    • Olof S. Anderson, Bibliography, from The English Hundred-Names (1934) (University College London)
      Includes many published medieval public records.
• Medieval source material on the Internet:
  • Public records: Feet of fines:
    • Anita Travers, editor, A Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Buckinghamshire 1259-1307. With an Appendix 1179-1259. (1989) (Buckinghamshire Record Society)
      Buckinghamshire Record Society, number 25. English abstracts, with a general index. Includes Divers Counties. Appendix contains Divers Counties and final concords from other sources for 1179-1259.
  • Probate records:
    • Index of Testators (Richard III Society)
      Index to testators of published English wills made or proved between 1398/9 and 1540/1, downloadable as an Excel file, with an introduction and a key to sources.
  • Private letters and papers:
    • Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, The Stonor letters and papers. 1290-1483. Volume 1. (1919) (Internet Archive - Text Archive)
      Camden Third Series, volume 29. Transcripts of Latin, French and English documents, with an introduction.
      [Other copies at: University of Michigan.]
    • Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, The Stonor letters and papers. 1290-1483. Volume 2. (1919) (Internet Archive - Text Archive)
      Camden Third Series, volume 29. Transcripts, with a glossary and indexes.
• Victoria County History:
  • Older County Histories:
    • Edmund Cartwright, The parochial topography of the Rape of Bramber, in the Western Division of the County of Sussex. Volume 2, part 2. (1830) (HathiTrust)

Updated links

Note that the updated links to the website elizabethan.org are producing a security warning, presumably owing to a security certificate having lapsed. As these are static web pages, it should not be necessary for browsers to send any sensitive information to the website, but please be aware that any information sent will not be securely encrypted.

• Medieval source material on the Internet:
  • County and local history:
    • Rev. Evelyn Young (ed. T. M. Blagg) A History of Colston Bassett, Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire History and Archaeology)
      Text originally published in the Thoroton Society Record Series, vol. 9 (1942).
  • Public records: Feet of fines:
    • Patricia Hyde and Duncan Harrington, Faversham Fines. [1295-1610] (Kent Archaeological Society)
      Brief English abstracts; from Kent Records, new series 3, parts 7 and 8 (2002).
    • Duncan Harrington, Kent Feet of Fines for 7 Edward III onwards. [1333-1377; in progress] (Kent Archaeological Society)
      Brief English abstracts; from Kent Records, new series 5 (2012).
    • Duncan Harrington, Kent Feet of Fines Richard II. [1377-1399] (Kent Archaeological Society)
      Brief English abstracts; from Kent Records, new series 4, parts 4-9 (2007-2009).
    • Duncan Harrington and Chris Phillips, Feet of Fines for the Reign of King Henry IV. [1399-1413] (Kent Archaeological Society)
      Brief English abstracts; from Kent Records, new series 5, parts 1-4 (2010, 2011).
    • Duncan Harrington, Feet of Fines for the Reign of King Henry V. [1413-1422] (Kent Archaeological Society)
      Brief English abstracts; from Kent Records, new series 5, parts 4-6 (2011, 2012).
    • Michael Zell, Feet of Fines for the reign of Henry VIII. [1509-1547] (Kent Archaeological Society)
      Brief English abstracts; from Kent Records, new series 2 (1995-1998); included in the indexes for this volume.
    • Michael Zell, Feet of Fines for the reigns of Edward VI to Philip and Mary. [1547-1558] (Kent Archaeological Society)
      Brief English abstracts; Kent Records, new series 4, parts 1-4 (2004-2007).
  • Charters:
    • The English Deeds Collection (Harvard Law School Library)
      Using the "Starts with/browse" option of the Hollis catalogue, from the drop-down menu select "Browse by Call number - Other" and specify "Deeds" in the search box. This will display abstracts of more than a thousand medieval and early modern English deeds.
  • Manorial records:
    • English Manor Rolls (Harvard Law School Library)
      Handlist to a collection of 170 parchment rolls, including records of the manors of Moulton (Cheshire), Odiham Hundred (Hampshire), Herstmonceaux (Sussex), Chartley (Staffordshire) and Onhouse (Suffolk); the descriptions include some names of lords of the manors and manorial officials.
• Links:
  • Online library catalogues:
    • Library Hub Discover (combined catalogue for a number of UK national, academic and specialist libraries, replacing COPAC)
  • Heraldry:
    • Elizabethan Heraldry (Paula Kate Marmor and John Neitz, Elizabethan Heraldry)
      A small site containing an Elizabethan armorial, a brief primer on blazonry and an article on the Elizabethan heralds.
  • Glossaries and manuals:
    • A primer of blazonry (Paula Kate Marmor, Elizabethan Heraldry)
      A nicely illustrated basic introduction.
  • Seals:
    • DigiSig: Digital Sigillography Resource (John McEwan, St Louis University, Missouri)
      Searchable database containing details of nearly 28,000 records and 11,000 images of medieval seals held by repositories in the British Isles. Electronic catalogue entries and extracts from published catalogues are linked to the records.
  • Modern armorials:
    • An Elizabethan Armory (John Neitz, Elizabethan Heraldry)
      Contains about 150 coats of arms.
  • Links to some useful societies and journals:
    • Canterbury and York Society
      The Society has published about 50 medieval bishops' registers. The website includes a list of publications.
    • Northamptonshire Record Society
      With a list of publications, including many on medieval Northamptonshire, and an index to the Society's journal Northamptonshire Past and Present. Many volumes are available for free download.
    • Volumes 1-158 (1847-2020), together with other reports, articles and chapters, are freely available through the Archaeology Data Service
• Victoria County History:
  • Older County Histories:
    • Cornelius Brown, A History of Nottinghamshire. (2nd edition, 1896) (Andy Nicholson, Nottinghamshire History and Archaeology)
      Transcript.