Medieval English genealogy: What's new on this site: July-September 2006


SOME NOTES ON MEDIEVAL ENGLISH GENEALOGY
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What's new on this site: July-September 2006

For more details, with links, of the latest batch of updates, see the update page.

11 September 2006:

New material

In the Feet of Fines section, abstracts of fines for Herefordshire (1360-1509) and Worcestershire (1422-1509) - 431 fines in total - have been added.

New links

A brief guide to medieval English genealogy:
- Published works, bibliographies and indexes:
  - George W. Marshall The Genealogist's Guide to Printed Pedigrees (1879) (Google Book Search)
- Public records: Domesday Book:
  - Domesday Book (National Archives, DocumentsOnline)
    Images of the manuscript with English translations, from the Alecto editions of Great and Little Domesday, available as pay-per-view, with a freely searchable index.
Medieval source material on the Internet:
- Medieval and early modern texts: by author, O-Z:
  - Henry Thomas Riley, ed., Gesta Abbatum Monasterii S. Albani, a Thoma Walsingham, regnante Ricardo Secundo, ejusdem ecclesiae praecentore, compilata. (1867) (Google Book Search)
    Latin text. Volume 2 of 3, covering 1290-1349.
  - Benjamin Thorpe, ed., [Florence of Worcester] Florentii Wigorniensis monachi Chronicon ex chronicis ... (1849) (Google Book Search)
    Latin text. Volume 2 of 2, covering 1067-1295, with an index to both volumes.
- County and local history:
  - Search Online - West Sussex Past (West Sussex Record Office)
    Search facility for "the majority" of the Record Office's catalogues (the material covered doesn't seem to be specified further).
- Modern biography and prosopography:
  - Fifteenth-century Biographical Index (Ian Rogers, www.girders.net)
    Very extensive biographical index, including entries for more than 21,000 individuals, arranged in folders alphabetically by surname (Microsoft Word format).
- Public records: Inquisitions post mortem:
  - Edw. Alexander Fry, ed., Abstracts of Gloucestershire Inquisitiones Post Mortem returned into the court of Chancery in the reign of King Charles I. Miscellaneous Series. (1899) (Google Book Search)
    British Record Society, volume 21. Covers 1625-1642.
  - William Langton, ed., Abstracts of inquisitions post mortem made by Christopher Towneley and Roger Dodsworth. Volume 2. (1876) (Google Book Search)
    Chetham Society, volume 99. Latin abstracts of Lancashire inquisitions, covering 1423-1637.
  - George S. Fry and Edw. Alex. Fry, eds, Abstracts of Wiltshire Inquisitiones Post Mortem returned into the court of Chancery in the reign of King Charles I (1901) (Google Book Search)
    British Record Society, volume 23. English abstracts, covering 1625-1649.
- Public records: Pipe rolls:
  - The great roll of the pipe for the twenty-second year of the reign of King Henry the Second, A.D. 1175-1176. (1904) (Google Book Search)
    Pipe Roll Society, vol. 25. Latin transcript.
  - The great roll of the pipe for the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Second, A.D. 1178-1179. (1907) (Google Book Search)
    Pipe Roll Society, volume 28. Latin transcript.
- Public records: Taxation and other lists:
  - John A. C. Vincent Lancashire Lay Subsidies, being an Examination of the Lay Subsidy Rolls Remaining in the Public Record Office London from Henry III. to Charles II. Volume 1. Henry III. to Edward I. (1216-1307) (1893) (Google Book Search)
    Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, volume 27.
  - William Brown, ed., Yorkshire Lay Subsidy being a fifteenth, collected 30 Edward I. (1301). (1897) (Google Book Search)
    Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series, volume 21.
- Public records: Feet of fines:
  - William Farrer, ed. Final Concords of the County of Lancaster from the original chirographs, or feet of fines preserved in the Public Record Office London. Part 1. 7 Richard I to 35 Edward I. A.D. 1196 to A.D. 1307. (1899) (Google Book Search)
    Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, volume 39. English abstracts of fines for 1196-1307, with a general index. Includes Divers Counties and some final concords from other sources.
  - William Farrer, ed., Final Concords of the County of Lancaster from the original chirographs, or feet of fines preserved amongst the Palatinate of Lancaster records ... Part 3. John, Duke of Lancaster, to Henry VII. A.D. (1905) (Google Book Search)
    Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, volume 50. English abstracts of fines for 1377-1509, with a general index.
  - Walter Rye A Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Suffolk (1900) (Google Book Search)
    Brief English abstracts of fines for 1189-1485, with indexes of names and places.
  - Frank B. Lewis, ed., Pedes Finium; or, Fines relating to the County of Surrey, levied in the King's Court, from the seventh year of Richard I to the end of the reign of Henry VII. (1894) (Google Book Search)
    Brief English abstracts of fines for 1195-1509, with indexes of names and places. Includes Divers, Unknown and Various Counties.
  - [W. Brown, ed.] Pedes Finium Ebor. regnante Johanne. A.D. 1199-A.D. 1214. (1897) (Google Book Search)
    Surtees Society, volume 94. Latin transcripts of fines for 1199-1214, with a general index. Includes Divers Counties.
- Charters:
  - Isaac Herbert Jeayes, compiler, Descriptive Catalogue of Derbyshire Charters in Public and Private Libraries and Muniment Rooms (1906) (Google Book Search)
- Probate records:
  - W. P. W. Phillimore, ed., Calendars of Wills and Administrations in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1516 to 1652... (1892) (Google Book Search)
    British Record Society, volume 7. Also includes wills proved in peculiars, then at Lichfield (1529-1652), Birmingham (1675-1790) and Derby (1753-1790).
  - Index of wills in the York Registry A.D. 1627 to 1636. Administrations A.D. 1627 to 1652. (1905) (Google Book Search)
    Yorkshire Archaeological Society, volume 35.
  - [F. Collins, ed.] Wills in the York Registry from 1636 to 1652. (1888) (Google Book Search)
    Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Association, volume 4.
  - [James Raine, ed.] Testamenta Eboracensia. A selection of wills from the Registry at York. Part 2. (1855) (Google Book Search)
    Surtees Society, volume 30. Covers 1429-1467; with an index to parts 1 and 2.
  - [James Raine, ed.] Testamenta Eboracensia. A selection of wills from the Registry at York. Part 3. (1865) (Google Book Search)
    Surtees Society, volume 45. Covers wills 1395-1491, and other material 1374-1531.
  - Testamenta Eboracensia. A selection of wills from the Registry at York. Volume 4. (1869) (Google Book Search)
    Surtees Society, volume 53. Covers wills 1420-1509, and other material 1308-1556.
  - [J. W. Clay, ed.] Testamenta Eboracensia. A selection of wills from the Registry at York. Volume 6. (1902) (Google Book Search)
    Surtees Society, volume 106. Covers 1516-1551.
- Funeral monuments:
  - Thomas, Lord Berkeley and his wife Margaret (1392): Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire (rubbing and discussion) (Monumental Brass Society, Brass of the Month, June 2006)
  - John Eldred (1632): Great Saxham, Suffolk (rubbing, photographs and discussion) (Monumental Brass Society, Brass of the Month, July 2006)
  - Dame Agnes Jordan (c. 1540): Denham, Buckinghamshire (rubbing and discussion) (Monumental Brass Society, Brass of the Month, August 2006)
- Church records and religious houses:
  - Walter de Gray Birch Liber Vitae: Register and Martyrology of New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester (1892) (Google Book Search)
    Latin text, with an introduction and extensive footnotes.
- Heralds' Visitations and the College of Arms:
  - John Fetherston, ed., The Visitation of the County of Cumberland In the Year 1615 ... (1872) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, volume 7.
  - William Dugdale The Visitation of Derbyshire, taken in 1662, and reviewed in 1663. (1879) (Google Book Search)
  - John Paul Rylands, ed., The Visitation of the County of Dorset, taken in the year 1623, ... (1885) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, volume 20.
  - F. R. Raines, ed., The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1664-5, ... Part 1. (1872) (Google Book Search)
    Chetham Society, volume 84. Covers surnames Adlington-Entwisle.
  - Joseph Jackson Howard and George John Armytage, eds, The visitation of London In the Year 1568 ... since augmented both with descents and arms. (1869) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, volume 1.
  - Joseph Jackson Howard and Joseph Lemuel Chester, eds, The visitation of London, anno domini 1633, 1634, and 1635, ,... (1880) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, Publications, number 17. Volume 1 of 2, covering surnames A-H.
  - G. H. Dashwood and others, eds, The Visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563 ... Volume 1. (1878) (Google Book Search)
  - George John Armytage, ed., The Visitation of the County of Rutland in the year 1618-19, ... and other descents of families not in the visitation. (1870) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, volume 3.
  - Nicholas Harris Nicolas, The controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor, In the Court of Chivalry, A.D. 1385-1390. Volume 2. (1832) (Google Book Search)
    The volume is subtitled, "Containing a history of the family of Scrope, and biographical notices of the deponents".
  - Frederic Thomas Colby, ed., The visitation of the county of Somerset In the Year 1623. (1876) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, volume 11.
  - Joseph Jackson Howard, ed., The visitation of Suffolke, made ... 1561, with additions from family documents, original wills, Jermyn, Davy and other MSS., &c. (1871) (Google Book Search)
    Volume 2 of 2.
  - John Fetherston, ed., The Visitation of the County of Warwick In the Year 1619 ... (1877) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, volume 12.
  - Walter C. Metcalfe, ed., The Visitation of the County of Worcester, begun ... 1682, and finished ... 1683 ... With Additions by the Late Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. (1883) (Google Book Search)
  - Charles Best Norcliffe, ed., The Visitation of Yorkshire in the years 1563 and 1564, ... (1881) (Google Book Search)
    Harleian Society, volume 16.
Medieval English families on the Internet:
- M:
  - The Mowbray Legacy (Marilyn Roberts, Queens-Haven Publications)
    Web pages giving information about Marilyn Roberts's recent book, The Mowbray Legacy (2004), which examines the history of the Mowbrays from the Conquest to 1481. The pages include the index in full and a selection of photographs.
Links:
- Seals:
  - Walter de Gray Birch Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. Volume 3. (1894) (Google Book Search)
    Includes heraldic seals, surnames G-Z, and British companies, colonies and dependencies.
Victoria County History:
- VCH county websites:
  - Alford (VCH Somerset website)
  - Kingweston (VCH Somerset website)

17 July 2006:

New material

I'm very grateful to John R. Schuerman and Douglas Hickling for permission to reproduce here their article entitled Tempest Wives and Daughters in the late Medieval Period, examining the evidence concerning four wives and one daughter of the Tempest family of Yorkshire in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Thanks to an extremely generous offer of sponsorship from a private source, I am now able to make some primary source material available on this site. The Feet of Fines are records of conveyance of freehold property, and are among the most genealogically informative of medieval records. A number of collections for individual counties have been published by local record societies, but many are still unpublished and unindexed. I hope to produce abstracts of as many of these as possible, beginning with the period 1360-1509. So far, the counties of Cumberland, Rutland and Westmorland have been covered. The abstracts, together with some introductory material, a bibliography of published editions of feet of fines, and a search facility, are available here.

New links

Medieval source material on the Internet:
- County and local history:
  - Bourne [Lincolnshire]: Its castle and the Wake family (Kenneth W. Jacob, My Jacob Family)
    Short article on Bourne Castle and the Wake family.
  - Faversham [Kent] in the 12th - 14th centuries (Kenneth W. Jacob, My Jacob Family)
    On the same site is a short article entitled Jewry in Faversham in 12th - 13th centuries.
  - Westmorland Villages and Parishes (EdenLinks)
    History and description for each place, apparently from Parson and White's Directory of Cumberland and Westmorland (1829).
  - William Farrer (edited by John F. Curwen) Records relating to The Barony of Kendale [Kendal, Westmorland], volume 1 (1923) (EdenLinks)
    Text of the first of three volumes containing extensive transcripts of records relating to the south-western division of Westmorland.
- Modern biography and prosopography:
  - Boyd's Inhabitants of London (British Origins)
    Biographical notes on nearly half a million inhabitants of London, 16th-18th centuries, included in a pay-per-view database.
Medieval English families on the Internet:
- C:
  - The Chiche family of Canterbury (Kenneth W. Jacob, My Jacob Family)
    Extensive research notes on the Chiche family of Kent, 12th-16th centuries.
- J:
  - My Jacob Family (Kenneth W. Jacob)
    Includes pedigrees of various Jacob families, an article entitled Jacobs of the Cinque Ports in Sussex and Kent (13th - 15th centuries), and information on Jacob coats of arms.
- O:
  - A Vignette of the de Ospringe family in 12th - 14th centuries (Kenneth W Jacob, My Jacob Family)
    A detailed account of the family originating from Ospringe in Kent, with a separate page of Additional Information.
Links:
- Genealogical databases:
  - Medieval Lands (Charles Cawley; Foundation for Medieval Genealogy)
    An ambitious project, whose aim is to provide narrative biographical accounts of the royal and noble families of Europe in the medieval period. The aim is eventually to document the accounts from primary source material, but a number of them - including those for England after 1066 - are currently outlines based on secondary sources.
Victoria County History:
- British History Online:
  - Worcestershire, volume 4 (1924) (part)

For older additions, see: