Suffolk Records Society – serie

Edition of original letters and other documents sheds light on a major ecclesiastical controversy.In 1881, after decades of mouldering into ruin, the grand fifteenth-century church of Blythburgh, Suffolk, "The Cathedral of the Marshes", was closed as unsafe. The church was saved - but its rescue involved a bitter twenty-five year long dispute between Blythburgh vicars and committees, and William Morris and his Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, who feared that the medieval fabric would be over-restored and the character of the building lost forever.This volume presents an edition, with notes and introduction, of original documents from both sides - providing unique insights into a rancorous conflict, with vicars pitted against patrons as well as the Society.The need was local, but the significance national, with elites ranged against another. From a description of the Blythburgh committee headed by a royal princess, to accounts of lavish fund-raising fetes and garden parties, the story is vividly brought to life. Alan Mackley, an honorary research fellow at the University of East Anglia, studied history after a career as a scientist in the oil industry. He has lived in Suffolk for over 35 years.

Edition of the records of a medieval Suffolk eyre reveal rich details of life at the time.The eyre was an organised judicial visitation to the counties of England by the king's justices to hear all types of plea, civil and crown, as well as to investigate any matters for the king that pertain to the county; it was thus a hugely important part of the legal process.This volume, edited by Eric Gallagher with an introduction by Henry Summerson, follows on from Dr Gallagher's edition and translation of the civil pleas of the same eyre, published by the Suffolk Records Society in 2009. But whereas the civil pleas deal primarily with litigation between landowners, the crown pleas are mostly concerned with the actions of townsmen and peasants, recorded both as killers and thieves, and as the victims of crime. Like the civil pleas, the crown pleas illuminate the workings of the common law, but in addition they illustrate the functions and purposes of local and central government, shedding light in sometimes vivid detail upon the lives of the humbler members of society, upon their occupations, relationships, misfortunes and quarrels - and the sometimes bizarre ways in which they met their deaths. The eyre was led by William of York, the King's justiciar and later bishop of Salisbury, and his colleagues who met at Ipswich, Cattishall (outside Bury St Edmunds) and Dunwich.The eyre roll, now in the National Archives, is the first from Suffolk surviving in full to have been edited and published; it has the particular interest of coming from a county that was then one of the most populous and prosperous of English shires.

Monks Eleigh was one of the principal units of medieval administration, providing a legal framework for land tenure, the prosecution of crimes and misdemeanours and social control.The manor was one of the principal units of medieval administration, providing a legal framework for land tenure, the prosecution of crimes and misdemeanours and social control. For the lord of a manor it was a source of supplies and income for the maintenance of his status and power. For the tenants the manor formed the everyday focus of their working lives, because they typically owed work services on his land and were subject to the manorial court for wrong doings, the settlement of disputes, the holding of their lands and payment of various feudal dues. Manors were the standard unit of land tenure for centuries, but they changed and developed over time and differed in their administration according to the particular custom of each manor.The records of the manor of Monks Eleigh are typical of those which still exist for hundreds of manors across England. They allow us to glimpse some of the details of the people who lived and worked there over a period of some four centuries. In the earliest extents and accounts we see a concentration on the work services which the unfree tenants were obliged to do on the lord's lands in lieu of rent, including ploughing, sowing, harrowing, harvesting, carting, ditching, hurdle-making and working in the manor vineyard. Accounts list the lord's stock of animals including oxen, horses, cattle, sheep, geese, ducks, peacocks and doves. They detail repairs to manorial buildings such as the hall, barns, mill, dovecote, sheep-cotes and gates. Court rolls record admissions of tenants to land-holdings as well as fines for misdemeanours such as trespass on growing crops, assaults and thefts. By the sixteenth century the rentals show that an increasing number of tenants were using their manorial land-holdings as investments by living elsewhere and sub-letting them.In more general terms, these records can throw light on the development of manorial administration over time, the changing forms of land tenure, place name and surname studies, the decline in serfdom, popular unrest and social mobility.

Medieval manorial records provide a unique insight into the economic and social life of local communities, as well as the different approaches adopted by lords in managing their estates.This volume, edited by James Davis and Joanne Sear, contains the translations of the surviving court and account rolls of Newmarket, together with translations of two royal charters for Newmarket's fairs. Although the court rolls span only fifteen years around the turn of the fifteenth century, the four different types of court they represent - manorial, market, fair and leet - are not replicated in the surviving records of any other medieval English small town. Also included are substantial sets of account rolls from the middle and later years of the fifteenth century which, in particular, provide details of the holdings, stalls and shops that were rented not just to Newmarket tenants but also to traders from further afield. Although the dates of the two sets of rolls do not coincide, their span across most of the fifteenth century provides substantive evidence for the growth and expansion of commercial activities, changing Newmarket from an inconsequential trading post into a significant and vibrant settlement, albeit small, on the main route between London and Norwich.The manorial rolls contain deletions and revisions, showing that they were used as working documents, indispensable to the lord of the manor's officials in overseeing the smooth running of the settlement and in ensuring the maximal receipt of all the income due to him. The commercial focus is a clear and vibrant reminder of the importance of markets to much of medieval society.

John Trist, "Mr. Agriculture" to Suffolk's farming community, was a crucial figure after the East Coast Sea Flood, orchestrating agricultural land recovery. His dedication earned him an OBE. Presented here for the first time, transcriptions of Trist's own story, diary, and notes for an official report that was never made public, are enhanced by sixteen meticulous maps. Join Trist on a turbulent aerial survey of lost landscapes, touring flooded farms on Suffolk coastal, river marshes. Read how wildlife, crops, livestock suffered in the North Sea assault, and farmers mobilised workers in a 'battle of the breaches', alongside river board engineers. Delve into statistics and recovery policies to learn how farming was rescued and revived, amid fears for post-war national food security. Trist's heartfelt writing, astute observations and reflections, on this historically significant event reveal resilience and raise questions about governmental and personal responsibilities in climate crises.

An annotated edition of all surviving letters originating from a long-vanished Suffolk mansion, an important part of the correspondence of one of Tudor and Stuart England's most powerful families.The Bacon family fortunes were founded by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Elizabeth I, and father to the philosopher Francis Bacon; among their properties was the now-vanished Suffolk mansion of Redgrave Hall,and it is from here that this fascinating collection of letters originates. The correspondence centres on Francis's half-brother Nicholas, Premier Baronet of England, one of the Puritan gentry who ran the government of Elizabethan and Jacobean Suffolk, and touches on many of the most important issues and events of the period. One important component is a fascinating run of letters describing a failed marriage negotiation for young Nicholas's sister between the Protestant Lord Keeper and the wily guardians of a young Catholic, William Yaxley, in the fragile opening years of Elizabeth I's Protestant religious settlement. It also includes papers of the flamboyant courtier and diplomat Sir Robert Drury, a Bacon relative by marriage [and original inhabitant of 'Drury Lane' in London]: he was friend and patron to John Donne, who features in the correspondence. Later letters touch on the Civil War in East Anglia.Overall, the letters reveal a wealth of detail about the lives and preoccupations of English provincial magnates and their often uneasy relationship to the great political figures of the realm.DIARMAID MACCULLOCH is Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford.

When François de la Rochefoucauld and his brother Alexandre visited Suffolk in 1784, the events which were to lead to the French Revolution in 1789 were already in train. François' father, the duc de Liancourt, Grand Master of theWardrobe at Louis XVI's court, was well placed to appreciate the dangers of the situation in France, and it must have been with anxious hopefulness that he sent his sons (François was then 18) to England for a year to appreciatethe ordering of these things in a country which had experienced a revolution over a century earlier. Such reflections are never far below the surface of this otherwise cheerful journal of a year abroad, which gives a vivid pictureof English provincial life; François' observations range over such diverse subjects as English customs and manners and methods of agriculture and stockbreeding, and include a lively account of a general election.Norman Scarfe, the well-known historian of Suffolk and beyond, provides a spirited translation of François' journal; it is complemented by numerous illustrations.

Edition, with full explanatory notes and introduction, of financial records from Elizabeth de Burgh, one of the most important women of fourteenth-century England.Noble widows were powerful figures in the later Middle Ages, running their own estates and exercising considerable influence. Elizabeth de Burgh (1295-1360), daughter of one of the most powerful earls in England and cousin of Edward II, lost her third husband at the age of twenty-six, and spent the rest of her life as a widow. In 1317, having inherited one-third of the lands of her brother, Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, who had been killed at Bannockburn three years earlier, she established herself at Clare, which became her main administrative centre for her estates in East Anglia, Dorset and South Wales. She enjoyed a noble lifestyle, was lavish in her hospitality to family and friends, entertaining Edward III in 1340, and she displayed her piety through her patronage of religious houses and her foundation of Clare College in Cambridge.Her life and activities are portrayed in vivid detail in her household accounts and her will, selected extracts from which are provided in this volume. Altogether, 102 accounts of various types survive from the years of her widowhood, and the records here have been chosento illustrate the great range of information provided, throwing light on Clare castle itself and its furnishings, daily life and religious practice, visitors, food and drink, livery and retainers, travel, and business. They paintof a vivid picture of the life and work of a noble family in the fourteenth century.Jennifer Ward taught and researched medieval and regional history at Goldsmiths College, University of London, until her retirement.

An important 15th century source throws light on the organisation of what was one of medieval England's wealthiest ports.

A record of crests of Suffolk and Norfolk families arranged by charge or object, covering 600 years and c.8,000 names.This volume offers a comprehensive guide to the heraldry of Suffolk over more than six centuries, covering around 8,000 names and acting as a companion to the earlier Dictionary of Suffolk Arms(1965). It is the first attempt to produce an Ordinary of crests, a classification by charge or object using standardised groupings, arranged in such a manner that they may be readily identified when the name of the bearer is unknown; the usual arrangement isalphabetical by name, an Armory. Although it relates specifically to Suffolk, many crests relating to Norfolk families are given, the two counties having always been closely connected heraldically and genealogically. The book willbe of interest for all those interested in heraldry and, on a wider level, act as a handbook for the identification of crests when borne alone, on artefacts ranging from signet rings and silverware to pub signs and school uniformcrests.JOAN CORDER, the author of a Dictionary of Suffolk Arms, is an independent scholar and recognised authority on East Anglian heraldry.

Census returns provide a detailed information about patterns of religious life in 19c Suffolk, revealing much about both orthodox Anglicanism and Dissent.The reader is in John Clare's world... Every county should publish its Census and see that it is done as excellently as that for Suffolk. RONALD BLYTHE, CHURCH TIMESThe census returns edited in this volume provide a unique sample of mid nineteenth-century religious life. They are printed in calendared form, and their findings set in local and national context; information about land and property ownership is supplied, making it possible to compare patterns of ownership in most parishes with the presence or absence of Dissent. Chapel dates are collated with those in meeting-house certificates and printed notices, while much detail refused by Anglican clergymen is recovered, together with communicant numbers and/or information about the frequency of Holy Communion. The appendices present the evidence about places of worship omitted, and contain facsimiles of the census forms.T.C.B. TIMMINS has prepared editions of two volumes of church registers: of John Chandler, Dean of Salisbury, 1404-17, and John Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury, 1388-1395.

Edition of ecclesiastical records from a parish church offer a rich source of knowledge for life at the time.The documents in this volume bring to life the day-to-day business and upkeep of the large church of Mildenhall, belonging to a parish whose manor was the richest in the possession of Bury St Edmund's Abbey. The Collections recordthe weekly offerings gathered in aid of church building and maintenance. The churchwardens' accounts provide evidence for such matters as repairs to vestments and books, the cost of candles, and payments to the various tradesmenemployed. The later accounts also show the impact of the Reformation on the church, with the pulling down of the rood, destruction of the stone altar, and erasure of Thomas Becket's name from service books, and so forth. Many of the people in the accounts are also known from their wills, reproduced as an appendix.The documents are set into context with an introduction, which covers the history of the church during the period, and notes.The late Judith Middleton-Stewart gained her doctorate from the University of East Anglia; her book on death and remembrance in the Suffolk deanery of Dunwich, Inward Purity and Outward Splendour, is also published by Boydell.

Edition of rare churchwardens' accounts offers rich evidence for East Anglian life in the Civil War.The rare set of churchwardens' accounts edited here offers a detailed view of life in an East Anglian village during the English civil wars. Their survival is unusual in a time which is considered by many to have experienced a wide-spread breakdown of local government, and they reveal many aspects of early modern life: of particular interest are the costs of war in a village which committed both men and money to Parliament's cause. The introduction recreates the demographic, economic and social structure of early modern Cratfield, and the volume is completed with a number of appendices, including short biographies of those named in the accounts.LYNN A. BOTELHO is in theDepartment of History at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

All the surviving records of the old Corporation, from the first charter under King John in 1200 to its dissolution in 1835; particularly rich in medieval legal records, Tudor and Stuart financial records.Ipswich received its first charter from King John in 1200; the Corporation records survive from 1255, placing the borough archive among the earliest in England, antedated only by Leicester, Shrewsbury, Wallingford, London and Exeter. The archive is particularly rich in records of the medieval courts, most notably perhaps those of the Court of Petty Pleas, whose cases touched almost every aspect of town life, and those of the Petty Court of Recognizances -in effect a register of deeds furnishing a detailed record of transactions involving burgage tenements. The financial records of Treasurer and Chamberlains are particularly detailed for the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, and muchsocial history is contained in the records of various town charities.This catalogue, published to celebrate the 800th anniversary of John's charter, includes all the surviving records of the old Corporation down to its dissolution in 1835, thus facilitating access to an unjustly neglected major source for the history of Suffolk.Also two contextual essays: The Government of Ipswich from its Origins to c. 1550 by GEOFFREY MARTIN (former Keeper of the Rolls) and The Government of Ipswich from c. 1550-1835 by FRANK GRACE (Lecturer, Suffolk College).Dr DAVID ALLEN is on the staff of the Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich and editor of the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History.

Suffolk wills of ordinary inhabitants illustrate all aspects of the social conditions of the time.ARCHIVES: The making and registering of wills by ordinary people became widespread in East Anglia a century earlier than parts of midland and western England. It is of enormous value therefore to have one of the earliest surviving registers from an archdeaconry made available. [The volume] provides us with a window into rural society in mid-fifteenth-century East Anglia. It was a society bustling with small farmers, craftsmen involved in the cloth industry, and other artisans and traders. The wills record their concern for religion, the local community and the future welfare of wives, children, godchildren and even servants. There is a wealth of information here for the historianof religion, the family, material culture, agriculture and industry. This volume contains abstracts, in English, of nearly nine hundred wills made by residents of the western part of Suffolk in the mid-fifteenth century, together with a further five hundred 'probate sentences' - details of the granting of probate, without the associated wills. These are the earliest surviving wills of ordinary inhabitants of that part of Suffolk, excluding the titled, the wealthy and the clergy. They illustrate in considerable detail the social conditions of the time, including housing and household possessions, landholding and farming patterns, and provision for the poor. They are especially rich in references to the religious practices of the day. The introduction outlines the probate system of the area at that time and examines the form and content of a medieval will.

Detailed evidence of the workings of local administration and justice in the fourteenth century.The court rolls of the two manors of Walsham le Willows provide detailed evidence of the workings of local administration and justice in the fourteenth century, and were themselves working documents designed to be accessible to all. As Ray Lock says of the documents edited in the first volume, 'they protected the interest of the ordinary man and woman as well as that of the lord of the manor.' This second volume completes the transcription of all surviving court rolls for the fourteenth century manors of Walsham le Willows, covering the proceedings of ninety-nine courts after the Black Death had tragically reduced the local population. Serious difficulties still had to be overcome: for example, two successive reeves of Walsham manor were heavily fined for gross dereliction of duty, and in 1353 a large number of tenants refused to perform services for their lord. In general, however, these rolls give ample evidence of increased prosperity as land-holdings grew in size, and as the land and labour markets quickly stabilised. RAY LOCK is a retired civil servant who has become immersed in the study of local history since his move to Suffolk. He edited the first volume of Walsham le Willows court rolls for the Suffolk Records Society (published in 1998), and has written on the local effects of the Black Death in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History.

In the absence of borough status and after the winding up of the guilds, the townsmen of Bury St Emunds experiment with town government.In 1569, thirty years after its abbey had been dissolved, the large town of Bury St Edmunds remained unincorporated. These accounts show how the feoffees (still essentially the medieval Candlemas guild) experimented with town government. The pre-Reformation landed endowments were increased throughout the period. This enabled the feoffees to address many aspects of town life. In addition to payments for housing and clothing the poor, and the provision of medical care, they also contributed to the cost of providing clergy (whose theology was akin to their own) for the two town churches. To encourage trade, they built the town's first covered Market Cross, while the acquisition of theShire House enabled the assizes and quarter sessions to move into the town. After the turn of the century, the Charitable Uses Act of 1601 was used to recover land which had long ago been alienated. At the same time some of the up and coming men successfully petitioned for a charter of incorporation for Bury St Edmunds, so that in 1606 the town acquired the borough status which had eluded it for centuries. Unless new sources are discovered, these accounts, though inevitably slanted to the feoffees' activities, are the most revealing source for the work of the new corporation in its early years.

Published by Boydell & Brewer Inc.

A register of titles to property in the borough.The recognizance rolls of Ipswich are a register of titles to property in the borough and are among the most varied and interesting of the courts records. They begin in the late thirteenth century and extend, in a series of filesand leger-books, through to the Victorian age. Their texts comprise abstracts and copies of private deeds, testaments proved in the borough court, and grants of common soil. The careful description of properties, including ownership of neighbouring tenements, and the naming of parishes, streets, and landmarks, makes them a source of great historical and topographical interest. The early part of the series is well preserved, and its continuity allows us tofollow the fortunes of individuals and of families in some detail. We can observe in these gifts, bequests, and exchanges the recruitment of the burghal community and the affiliations of its members. It also offers a varied picture of the borough court at work, both as a tribunal and as an administrative office. The contents of the first twenty-one rolls are presented in an English paraphrase that takes account of all significant variations in the originalLatin, and also indicates the clerk's marginal notes and memoranda.

Surveys of the two manors of Walsham-le-Willows, 1577, embracing agriculture, patterns of tenure, domestic and farm buildings and the social structure of the community.[East Anglian] Detailed survey of two Suffolk manors, revealing details of country life in the sixteenth century.

A selection of documents left by the Suffolk Catholic family, the Rookwoods, brings them vividly to life.The Rookwoods of Coldham Hall in the parish of Stanningfield, Suffolk, were Roman Catholic recusants whose notoriety rests on Ambrose Rookwood's involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. In 1606 the owner of Coldham was hanged, drawn andquartered for treason for supplying the plotters with horses. A century later another Ambrose Rookwood suffered the same fate for conspiring to assassinate William III. Tainted by treason, the Rookwood family nevertheless managedto hold on to their estates in Suffolk and Essex, in spite of their Royalist sympathies in the Civil War, the recklessness of individual family members, and later adherence to the Jacobite cause - and even to thrive. As a result,the family left behind a lasting legacy in the form of the Catholic mission founded by Elizabeth Rookwood and her son in Bury St Edmunds.The documents in this volume tell a remarkable story of resilience, survival and reinvention. They also testify to the Rookwoods' profound Catholic faith, their patronage of the Jesuits, and their cultural and literary interests. An extensive introduction sets the Rookwoods in their historical and local context.Francis Young is the author of, among other titles, The Gages of Hengrave and Suffolk Catholicism, 1640-1767 (2015). He is Head of Sixth Form at a public school in East Anglia.

Edition of extremely rich household inventories provides a wealth of information about life at the time.It is rare to find a sequence of household inventories surviving on the site they record; and rarer still when that house has been occupied continuously by generations of the family who built it circa 1510. The four inventories are dated 1597, 1626, 1708 and 1741 but some were updated and annotated for years beyond. They list over 4,500 items by room, working space or outdoor area. Entries are rich with evidence of recycling and upcycling, dimensions and design, fabric and textile, construction and colour, and sometimes provenance or provider. A numerical reference has been added to each entry in the transcriptions and this, in turn, is cited in all main and cross-references in theIndex and Glossary of Household Goods which is a substantial part of the volume. During the span of these inventories, the Tollemaches rose from the status of gentry to earldom: their household possessions reflect this transition vividly and an appendix traces the parallel development of Helmingham Hall. Removals from the Hall equipped the family's 17th-century home at Fakenham Magna in Suffolk and a further appendix is devoted to this property.Compilation of a household inventory was never a statutory requirement, and the introduction answers a question fundamental to any study of these records: why were the inventories compiled? Moira Coleman is the author of Fruitful Endeavours: the 16th-century household secrets of Catherine Tollemache at Helmingham Hall. She is an Open University graduate, an independent scholar, now retired from a career in adult education.

This volume is a companion to the Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474, edited in two parts under the aegis of the Suffolk Records Society. It provides comprehensive, separate indexes to both, covering people andplaces, and subjects.

Documents from the Suffolk Humane Society reveal many fascinating details of life in a coastal town in the nineteenth century.The Suffolk Humane Society was formed in 1806 after the pattern of the Royal Humane Society of London, its purpose being to reward those who saved their fellows from drowning and those who resuscitated people who had apparently died. It took on additional duties the following year when it undertook the financing and administration of the Lowestoft lifeboat Frances Ann, the world's first sailing lifeboat and one of the most successful early lifesaving craft in Britain. The story of the Frances Ann, which was credited with saving more than 300 lives by the time she was replaced in 1850, is of great interest to maritime historians. The first craft intended for lifesavingto carry sail, she was the forerunner of a type of lifeboat that found favour on the east coast for the rest of the nineteenth century and beyond.This pioneering lifesaving organisation continued to operate the lifeboats atLowestoft and Pakefield, in spite of a sometimes chronic lack of financial support, until it handed over the two stations and their boats to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1873; it was not finally wound up until 1892.The documents presented here detail its activities and finances; they are accompanied by an introduction and elucidatory notes.An East Anglian by birth and upbringing, Robert Malster has been involved with the study of local history for more than half a century and is the author of a number of books on the region. He is a member of the Society for Nautical Research and of a number of historical organisations in Suffolk.