The Parish Chest

W E Tate

Cambridge University Press, 1969 (Third Edition)

 

This excellent book describes the wide range of documents that you might find in the Parish Chest in churches - and in now technically "out-of-date" in that most of these documents will now be found in county records offices, etc. However second hand copies are widely available and it still serves its original purpose of describing the kinds of historical documents, relating to parish administration, etc., which could be of value to the genealogist.

  1. Parish Registers [Early Registers, Lord Hardwicke's Act, Civil Registration, Diocesan Transcripts, Register Entries, Burial in Woollen, Mortuaries, Registers and Population Statistics.]

  2. Churchwardens' Accounts [Election of Churchwardens, Early Churchwardens' Expenses, Pew-rents, Church Rates, Bells and Bellringers, Churchwardens and Vermin.]

  3. Charity Accounts and other Charity Records [Some Typical Charities, Charity Records, Briefs, Brief Scandals.]

  4. Glebe Terriers and Tithe Records [The Historical Value of Glebe Terriers, The Parish Clerk, Tithe Records, Tithe Apportionments,

  5. Other Ecclesiastical Records [Church Courts, Notices and Proclamations, Faculties and Licences, Touching for the King's Evil]

  6. Vestry Minutes and Agreements [Vestry Agreements, The Psalm Singers, Prosecution of Felons, Parish Officers and Beer.]

  7. Petty Constables Accounts [The Parish Constable, The Militia]

  8. Records of Poor-Law Administration [Early Vagrancy Acts, Humanising of the Poor Law, Settlement and Removal, Settlement Records, Parochial Parsimony, Vagrancy Records, Bastards and Bastardy, Apprentices and Apprenticeship Agreements, Workhouses, The Labour Rate, Reform of the Poor Law.]

  9. Records of Highway Maintenance

  10. Records of Open-Field Agriculture Enclosure [Enclosure Acts and Awards, The Open-field System, Modernisation of Open Fields, Enclosure.]

  11. Miscellaneous Records [Census Returns, Fiscal Records, Incumbents' Diaries.]

Locating Books
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Page updated April 2005