This information has been gleaned from a variety of books I have access to, many of which are listed on Research Books.
I have not gone out of my way to plagiarize other people's work but facts are facts and we
all have to get our data from somewhere.
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Tithing - see Parishes |
Township - see Parishes |
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Alias
Latin for 'otherwise'. When a person changed his surname, or was known by more than one name, he might sometimes be described in records as " Smith alias Jones ". The term had no disreputable connotation. In a few cases both names joined by alias were retained for several generations and so became the equivalent of our hyphen in a modern 'double barrelled name'. Once hereditary surnames became established , a change of name might be caused by the inheritance of property from a maternal relative , by a young person's being adopted, by becoming known by a stepfather's surname, or by a number of other causes. In legal papers a married woman often had her maiden name added as an alias to show her connection with the matter in hand. Another use of the word alias is with illegitimate births where the child might carry an alias eg John Smith alias Jones where the parents were not married. It seems that then John Smith's children would sometimes carry on their name as "Smith alias Jones, and their children too.
Apprentices
From the C14 apprenticeship was the system by which a man learned a trade that was controlled by a guild. An Act of 1562/3 provided that the apprenticeship term to be served, as a condition of gaining the right to practise a craft, should be at least 7 years. The terms of the apprenticeship were set out in a document known as an indenture, one copy of which was signed by the child's parents[or guardian], and the other by the master. A master would agree to teach the child a trade and also feed,clothe and house him for which he received a payment[premium]. These indentures are potentially valuable sources of research material since they usually name the master, the apprentice, the latter's father[possibly his trade and residence], and perhaps even the date and place of the apprentice's birth.
Although few personal copy indentures have survived, many apprenticeship records are extant in guild, parish and taxation records. For example the SOG has an indexed collection of C17-C19 indentures as well as a copy index of those in the Taxation registers,see below.The detailed coverage of all types of extant records cannot be covered here, the book Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber[see Research books section of the Help Page]has an extensive section dealing with the subject. However, the 1710 Stamp Act caused apps.to be taxed and therefore a register was kept for tax purposes up until 1811. After 1750 the information is less full but before that should have the names and residences of all parties to the indenture.Most such registers are at the PRO [IR1 and IR17]
There are in fact two types of apprenticeships, trade and poor. In practice the requirements for acceptance into trade[or guild] apps. usually involved not only money but property qualification too and this would have put them out of reach of the labouring poor. In fact an C16 law made trade apps. un-available to children whose fathers were involved in husbandry or were labourers.
From the mid C16 parish officials were able to apprentice out poor children whose parents were unable to maintain them. Such apps. were not subject to tax so do not appear in the above mentioned tax registers.They were however the concern of the parish and may be referred to in the Vestry Minutes.Where they exist, the latter may be available for searching at the county RO or the NLW.
Apart from Herber's book already mentioned these above notes also owe much to a reading of Welsh Family History, 2nd ed, edited by J & S Rowlands. [see the Research book section of this Help Page]
See also the National Archives Research Guide - Apprenticeship Records as Sources for Geneaolgy
The online records of Earls Colne parish, Essex have a selection of Apprenticeship Indentures entries which will help to demonstrate their use, here is one such example from that site
- "Apprenticeship Indentures 1689; this indenture made1.12.1689 that Humph Ruggles and Thos Payne churchwardens of Earls Colne and Simon Overell and Wm Augar overseers of the poor by the consent of justices of the peace whose names are hereunto subscribed have put and placed Hester Jenner a poor child of the said parish apprentice to Jn Jenner of the parish of St Giles Colchester carpenter with him to dwell and serve from the day of the date of these presents until the said apprentice shall accomplish her full age of twenty one years now aged about 10yrs according to statute etc during all which term the said apprentice her said master faithfully shall serve in all lawful business according to her power wit and ability and honestly orderly and obediently in all things demean and behave herself towards her master and all his during the said term and the said Jn Jenner for himself his executors and administrators doth covenant and grant the said churchwardens and overseers etc that the said Jn Jenner the said apprentice in the art and mystery of housewifery and all things thereto belonging shall teach and instruct or cause to be taught and instructed and shall during the term aforesaid provide sufficient meat drink apparel lodging washing and other things fit for an apprentice and also shall and will so provide for the said apprentice that she shall be not in any way a charge to the said parish or parishioners of the same but of and from all charges shall and will save the parish and parishioners harmless etc and at the end of the said term shall make provide allow and deliver unto the said apprentice double apparel of all sorts good and new that is to say a good new suit for the Holy days and another sort for working days in witness whereof the parties abovesaid to these present indentures interchangeably have put their hands and seals the day and year above written Jn Jenner Humph Rugels Thos Paine churchwarden Wm Augar overseer Simon Overalloverseer sealed and delivered in the presence of Robt Wright Peter Robinson justices of the peace Thos Weeley Wm Eldred "
Banns
Banns of marriage; a proclamation of intended marriage , repeated three times at weekly intervals in the parish churches of both the bride and bridegroom.To dispense with banns required a marriage licence [see also marriage allegation]. Both banns and licences were valid for 3 months. In 1753 , Hardwicke's Marriage Act brought Banns Registers into regular use, sometimes in separate books, sometimes in the parish marriage registers.A comparatively small number of Banns Books survive, the requirement to register banns continued until 1812. A banns record by itself is of course no guarantee that the marriage itself actually took place. People could always change their minds at the last minute, or parents might have stepped in to stopped minors marrying, or previous spouses have come forward to prevent a bigamous marriage, the list goes on.
Marriages are sometimes said to take place " by certificate", before 1837 that would likely mean that one party came from another parish and had to provide written evidence[a certificate] that the banns had properly been called in the other parish too, and no objection made.After 1837 it may refer to a Registrar's certificate issued after notice of the intended marriage had been posted for the requisite 3 weeks in the RO, and when the marriage subsequently took place in a church.
Baptists
The English Baptist movement was founded in 1611 in Amsterdam by John Smith [Smyth], an English puritan in exile who had fled the persecution of dissenters during the reign of Elizabeth I. One of his followers came to London in 1612 and formed the first Baptist church in England.That was the origin of the General Baptist denomination; in 1633 a church of Independents broke away and formed the first Calvinistic or Particular Baptist church in London. In the C18 many Baptist churches became Unitarian in theology.
Baptists were sometimes referred to as Anabaptists although Baptists didn't tend to use it themselves.
There were two main groupings of Baptists, those who believed in general salvation [Arminianism] and thus called General Baptists, and those who believed in the Calvinist doctrine, usually known as Particular Baptists but also as just Calvinistic Baptists according to the example below noted in the 1851 Religious Census returns
- Hermon Calvinistic Baptist Erected in 1850 Daniel Jones, Minister, Llanelly
Yet a third group known as Strict Baptists [or Strict and Particular Baptists] only allowed communion to those accepted into membership.
The central creed of the Baptist faith was that they believed that only those who had made a personal commitment and decided for themselves, should be baptised. They considered sprinkling water on babies, who knew nothing of what was happening, to be absurd. However, beliefs often degenerate when put into practice and what actually happened was that baptism became almost as automatic for teenagers as it was for infants of other churches. A whole Sunday School class would be prepared and it would take a lot of courage to stand out from the rest by refusing.
The ceremony of baptism was an emotionally charged occasion and the large chapels provided a great background. The floor in front of the pulpit was lifted to reveal a tiled pool and a tiled passage leading under the pulpit. Each candidate for baptism, in a white dress or white shirt and dark trousers would be led, through the dim watery passageway, out into the main pool under the full glare of chapel lights and the intense silent scrutiny of up to 1000 people. The minister would hold them by the nape of the neck and their clasped hands and plunge them backwards into the water saying "I baptise you my brother/sister in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." As they were lifted out of the water, the silence was dramatically broken as the great organ and congregation thundered out "Hallelujah. Glory to Him forever." After all the prepared candidates had been baptised the minister issued an invitation for anyone else who wanted to come forward. An expectant, almost fearful hush followed. Sometimes, those who had been moved by the drama and emotion of the occasion, walked forward to receive immediate immersion. [submitted by a Glamlist subscriber].
The first Baptist church in Wales was established in 1649 at Ilston, Swansea.
The non baptism of children is obviously a problem area for researchers, especially in the C17 & C18 but by the early C19 many Baptist congregations had started to keep birth registers.
In 1837-40 nearly all baptist registers were deposited with the Registrar General , and are now at The National Archives. Other records are at various Baptist libraries/archives.
There is a book for further reading " My Ancestors were Baptists " by G R Reed, published by the SOG, 4th ed.
There is a lot of information re Baptists in Wales on BAPTISTS http://www.pb.org/pbdocs/chhist5.html#Succession_in_Wales
The Baptist Historical Society http://www.baptisthistory.org.uk/ Founded in 1908, the Society seeks to advance awareness of Baptist history and principles ........
The Strict Baptist Historical Society http://www.strictbaptisthistory.org.uk/ Interesting and informative website giving information about the Society, it's membership and it's aims. There are articles on how to trace a Baptist, and a list of their publications and quite a bit more.
The Angus Library http://www.mundus.ac.uk/sites/10.htm The Angus Library contains more than 70,000 items relating to the life and history of Baptists in Britain and the wider scene
Baptist Union of Great Britain http://www.baptist.org.uk/
Bastardy Bonds
Illegitimacy was not unusual in earlier centuries, or for people to marry after a child was born. If a child was born to an unmarried mother then the parish records might not name the father although the parish overseer would have been keen to know who he was in view of the need to make him liable for the child's maintenance. Voluntary payments by the father to parish officials would often be recorded in the parish records, as would details of any indemnification bonds, otherwise known as bastardy bonds, where the father agreed to pay any future costs of the parish vis a vis the infant in question.
Records of bastardy bonds might be found amongst the parish poor law records, the vestry minute books or even the records of quarter sessions. The most likely place to find these is the relevant county archives office [RO], they will at least know what material is extant and where.
The online records of Earls Colne parish, Essex have a selection of bastardy bond entries which will help to demonstrate their use, here is one such example from that site
- 1724 "Sam How of Glensford Suffolk bound to Jn Hatch and Ambrose Stowers churchwardens and Geo Wall overseer of Earls Colne in 100li5.8.1724 condition that Sam How indemnify the churchwardens etc re a female bastard lately born of Eliz Whittle of Clare Suffolk which said Sam How by his own voluntary confession doth acknowledge himself father Sam How witnesses Rich Androwes Rich Morris
Bidding Letters
The bidding letter was an invitation to a wedding celebration, normally at the home of one of the parents. Included with the invitation was a request for gifts. The latter could take the form of either repayment of donations previously given by the bride/groom or family members, or donations by persons not hitherto associated in this way.In order to maximise the number of gifts the names and relationships of many members of both families were appended and it is these which are of potential interest to family historians. The bidding could take place after the actual marriage. An associated document was the bidding account book in which a record of the receipts was kept. Around 500 bidding letters are known to have survived,mostly from the C19, hardly any account books though.
The tradition of bidding letters is largely confined to south west Wales, mainly CMN together with border country in neighbouring counties of PEM, CGN, BRE and GLA
There is also reference to "biddings" in a book by David Jenkins - The agricultural community in southwest Wales at the turn of the twentieth century...quoting....
" The neithior or bidding was in effect.. ...a customary form of savings club. A man or woman started to contribute sums of money or in kind during his teens, he drew on the club on marriage, and continued to pay into it for the rest of his life, both in order to repay contributions he had received on his marriage and in order to claim repayment on behalf of his children when they came to marry ".
Below is the text of a Bidding copied from the original at the NLW;
" September 19th, 1832
Having lately entered the Matrimonial State, we purpose to make a Bidding, on the occasion, on Thursday, the 11th Day of October, 1832, at the Young Woman's Father's House, called Creigiau, in the Parish of Manardeifi; when and where the favor of your good company is most humbly solicited, and whatever Donation you will be pleased to confer on us then, will be thankfully received and cheerfully repaid whenever called for on a similar occasion,
By your obedient humble Servants
Evan EVANS Mary EVANS
The Young Man's Father and Mother, (John and Hannah Evans) desire that all Gifts of the above nature due to them, be returned to the Young Man on the said Day, and will be thankful for all favors granted. Also, The Young Woman's Father and Mother, (John and Sarah Jones) desire that all Gifts of the above nature due to them, be returned to the Young Woman on the said Day, and will be thankful for all favors granted.
Isaac Thomas, Printer, Cardigan "
Bishops' Transcripts [BTs]
A copy of one year's entries in a parish register were sent by the incumbent to his bishop, usually at Easter.
This practice was made general in 1598 although in some dioceses it had been customary from Q.Elizabeth I's reign.
It is common place to find gaps, errors and omissions in the BTs although they sometimes contain entries and valuable details omitted from the original register.
BTs should be treated as a check on registers and a substitute when registers have gaps or are themselves missing. [See also Diocese and Parish Registers.]You can apply to the NLW for photocopies of BT entries : holi@llgc.org.uk
The service has been speeded up now - they will send you a copyright form as an e-mail attachment and also gave a link to a downloadable form to pay by credit card if you prefer that method. There is usually a standard initial charge for photocopying (£5 in 2007)Bear in mind that the BTs, and not the PRs, were used by the LDS for compiling the IGI for Welsh parishes
Chattel
Any kind of property, except a freehold and things appertaining to it. A more extensive term than "goods" or " effects. In old wills it is sometimes written "cattel", causing doubt as to its true meaning. Both cattel [beasts] and chattel come from the Old English and Old French words meaning property, and the Latin catallum served both meanings.
Congregationalists
The Congregationalist non-conformist denomination was not founded by a single person and did not form a single church but an early leader was the Separitist church founded by Robert Browne in Norwich in the C16. Its followers were at first called Separatists or Brownists, then Independents and finally Congregationalists.
The Separitist ethic is well explained by Browne's conviction that " a Christian had no need of a Bishop's consent to preach the gospel ". Congregationalists believed in the free association of the godly into independent groups which had their own minister and were run by deacons or elders appointed by the congregation; but without higher authority. These separate congregations held to no particular religious theory, the service being a balance between the minister's and the congregation's beliefs.
They were however firmly suppressed, and in 1608 Browne's followers emigrated for a time to Amsterdam to escape persecution. But some returned, and in 1620 the church provided the London contingent of the passengers of the Mayflower when she sailed for America. Although the Pilgrim Fathers are associated with Plymouth in Devon, the main party had been drawn from exiles in the Netherlands.
In a purely Welsh context, largely due to the influence of returning New World settlers, the first Independent church in Wales was founded at Llanvaches in MON in 1639.
When the monarchy was restored after the Commonwealth , the 1662 Act of Uniformity placed legal disabilities upon the sect, as it did upon other nonconformists. This was the period of the " Great Ejectment", almost 2000 dissenting congregations and their ministers were forced to leave the parish churches and reform in cottages and barns, requiring discretion and not a little secrecy. Although the persecution was ended under William and Mary, by the 1689 Act of Toleration, meeting places were still subject to granting of licences.
In the C17 and C18 the terms Congregationalists and Independents were interchangeable, in fact some Presbyterian churches were also described as 'independent' by virtue of being so from the Church of England. In the C19 Congregationalists became a more defined denomination, still a voluntary association of independent churches.
In 1742/3 a register of births for the Three Denominations [Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Baptists] was started by Dr Williams's Library. The 1753 Hardwicke Act declared that only marriages conducted in Anglican churches were to be legal. 1832 saw the Union of Congregationalist Churches inaugurated, and five years later, when civil registration began, marriages were allowed by Congregationalist ministers as long as a Registrar was present too, that latter restriction not being lifted until 1898.
In 1840 nearly all known registers were lodged with the Registrar General, then at the PRO, others were added in 1858, and the Three Denominations registers too. Some of the undeposited registers have since been published. The earliest registers of baptisms and burials began in 1644 but few are extant earlier than the late C18. Sundry records and histories of individual churches are kept at the Congregational Library, London.
It should be born in mind that the nonconformist ethic was anti authoritarianism by definition and so many Independent/Congregational chapels expressed their independence only too well by discontinuing the practice of keeping registers altogether. The end result is only too well known to the frustrated researcher in Wales.
Further reading ; " My Ancestors were Congregationalists in England & Wales" SOG 1992
Related web sites ;
Congregational History and Principles http://www.congregational.org.uk/
Court of Chancery
This is a Civil Court, it originated in medieval times when aggrieved subjects often petitioned the King himself , and courts evolved from the King's Council to deal with these petitions. They were known as the courts of equity because they applied the rules of equity[ reflecting conscience or justice] to deal with matters not covered by common law[or to overcome its injustices].The principal equity court was the Lord Chancellor's own court, the Court of Chancery. This Court had jurisdiction in civil disputes throughout England and Wales, although it usually declined to deal with cases which the common law could deal with and also disputes involving less than £10 [ or land worth less than 40 shillings p.a]. Appeals from decisions of the Court of Chancery were made to the House of Lords. In 1875 the Court of Chancery became the Chancery Divison of the High Court of Justice.
Chancery Court records are at the PRO, they date from the late C14 and are in English. Chancery cases were often disputes between members of the same family [over land,trusts,marriage settlements or wills] . The Court's records therefore contain a large amount of genealogical information. The surviving records are enormous, searching them is a complex operation.
The book " Ancestral Trails " by Mark Herber has a comprehensive section on the subject.
Courts of Great Sessions of Wales
In 1543 Wales was divided into 12 counties. In each county sessions were to be held twice yearly and were to be known as the Great Sessions of Wales. They are separate from the County Quarter Sessions which were also held in each county, [see separate note]. Criminal records of the Courts of Great Sessions of Wales are held at the National Library of Wales, they are written in English.
The Great Sessions were the Welsh equivalent of the English Assize Courts and were arranged in four circuits as below.
Note that Monmouthshire was not included in the Welsh circuits but was included in the Oxford Assize circuit which records are at the PRO;
Chester Circuit.......................................................................
Sessions for Cheshire were not included in this circuit, these were tried at the Palinate Court of Chester until 1830.
Gaol Files
Flint 1543 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/966 to 1022
Denbigh 1546 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/1 to 74
Montgomery 1690 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/124 to 203
Rule Books, Minute Books, Order Books
Flint, Denbigh and
Montgomery 1783 to 1830 ref. WALES 14/1 to 7
Flint 1574 to 1806 ref. WALES 14/71 to 86
Crown Books
Flint and Denbigh 1564 to 1667, ref. WALES 14/68 to 70 1707 to 1756 , and NLW MS 6298D
North Wales Circuit................................................................
Gaol Files
Anglesey 1708 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/250 to 261
Merioneth 1514 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/296 to 308
Caernarfon 1622 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/270 to 284
Rule Books, Minute Books, Order Books
Anglesey, Merioneth and
Caernarfon 1783 to 1830 ref. WALES 14/14 to 18
Brecon Circuit.......................................................................
Gaol Files
Brecon 1558 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/320 to 398
Radnor 1541 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/461 to 538
Glamorgan 1541 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/591 to 640
Black Books
Brecon, Radnor
and Glamorgan 1726 to 1830 ref. WALES 28/31 to 36
Rule Books, Minute Books, Order Books
Brecon, Radnor and
Glamorgan 1725 to 1830 ref. WALES 14/22 to 30
Calendar Rolls of Indictments
Radnor 1553 to 1659 ref. WALES 7/1 to 3
Glamorgan 1553 to 1601 ref. WALES 7/4 to 5
Carmarthen Circuit................................................................
Gaol Files
Carmarthen 1542 to 1630 ref. WALES 4/715 to 766
Pembroke 1547 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/775 to 837
Cardigan 1542 to 1830 ref. WALES 4/883 to 916
Rule Books, Minute Books, Order Books
Carmarthen, Pembroke
and Cardigan 1661 to 1807 ref. WALES 14/52 to 56
Calendar Rolls of Indictments
Cardigan 1541 to 1602 ref. WALES 7/6 to 7
Pembroke 1541 to 1674 ref. WALES 7/8 to 11
In 1830 the Courts of Great sessions of Wales were abolished and jurisdiction for all of Wales was taken over by the new North and South Wales Assize Circuit. The records of these two circuits are held at the PRO.
The North Wales Division comprised Anglesey, Carnarvonshire, Cheshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire,Merioneth and Montgomeryshire.
The South Wales Division comprised Brecon,Cardiganshire,Carmarthenshire,Glamorgan,Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire.
Other criminal records held at the PRO include Calendars of Prisoners [held for trial at Quarter Sessions and Assizes], Convicts Licences,Captions and Transfer Papers, Court of Bankruptcy Records, Criminal Registers [arranged by county], Debtors' Prison Records, Palatinate Courts Criminal Records, Prison Books and Journals, Quarterly Prison Hulk Returns, Prison Registers, Transportation to Australia, [lists of convicts] . There are records relating to specific prisons which may still be with the Prison Service although planned to go to the PRO in due course. These include Cardiff 1896, and Swansea 1845-1900.
For further reading , and explanations of the nature of the different types of records above, I strongly recommend the book " Criminal Ancestors,a Guide to Historical Criminal Records in England and Wales by David Hawkings 1992 [ ISBN 0-86299-817-4]. This contains many examples of criminal cases with full details of persons,offences and punishments.
Diocese
The area of a bishop's jurisdiction. Before 1541/2 there were 14 English dioceses, and thereafter, until the C19, eighteen , plus 4 for Wales. For administrative purposes a diocese might be divided into several archdeaconries many of them having much the same boundaries as the counties within the diocese. Every diocese has a registry for its records. In south Wales the main body of BTs for the diocese of Llandaff does not begin until 1725, whilst those for the diocese of St David's fall into three categories: parishes in the archdeaconries of Carmarthen & Gower which generally have transcripts beginning in 1671; parishes in the archdeaconry of Brecon which have a smattering of transcripts dating from 1685 and a main series beginning in 1700; and parishes in the archdeaconry of Cardigan and St David's which have some transcripts dating from the last quarter of the C17 and then nothing for most of the C18 until the main series start [See also Bishop's Transcripts.]
The composition of the Welsh dioceses; [abbreviations used below are Chapman county codes
St David's = CMN, CGN, PEM, BRE, most of RAD, parts of MGY, GLA, MON and HEF.
Llandaff = Most of GLA and MON.
St Asaph =most of Flintshire and Denbighshire, with parts of Caernarfonshire, Merioneth, MGY and Shropshire.
Bangor = Anglesey, most of Caernarfonshire, parts of Merioneth and MGY, and the deanery of Dyffryn Clwyd in central Denbighshire.
The position is confused because overtime there was considerable transfer of parishes between English and Welsh border dioceses, and between adjoining Welsh ones. See the book Parish Registers of Wales for an explanation.
Divorce
In 1857, Lord Halsbury defined divorce as " the dissolution of marriage with the right thereafter to marry another person while the former spouse still lives"
A divorce in England and Wales could only be secured by the passing of a private Act of Parliament until the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. This became effective from 1858 , a divorce could now be granted by the new civil Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes.[absorbed into the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Divison of the Supreme Court in 1873, becoming in 1970 the Family Division of the Supreme Court]
From 1858, a husband could obtain a divorce because of his wife's adultery. But until 1925 a wife had not only to prove adultery but also that it had been aggravated by the husband's cruelty or other offences such as bigamy or desertion for 2 years. There were c 150 divorces p.a by 1860, and c 800 p.a by 1914. In that latter year an Act made divorce more widely available after WWI . Further legislation such as the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1937, which greatly extended the grounds for divorce, meant that by 1939 there were c 8,000 divorces p.a and over 20,000 p.a by 1950. The latter increase followed the need for Government to make the divorce process easier and less costly in the chaotic aftermath of the return of British servicemen from WW2 to find that many lonely wives had been fraternising in their absence with US servicemen based here. The Divorce Reform Act of 1969 made the irretrievable breakdown of a marriage the sole grounds for divorce, the court to be satisfied that there had been either adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion for 2 years or separation for 5 years [2 where the other party consented to the action].
The 1857 Act also gave powers to Assize Courts to hear petitions and eventually a lot of divorces were dealt with locally. From 1873 the District Courts of the Supreme Court had similar powers, as did from 1967 the County Courts for undefended cases.
There are at the PRO [Kew], and the FRC, indexes of divorce petitions available for searching, these relate to petitions not decrees, the exact coverage should be confirmed with those offices. The files which these indexes relate to are held at the PRO [Kew] in Class J77, they used to be closed for 100 years but are now open to the public.
There is a Central Index of Decrees Absolute granted by courts in England & Wales since 1858 held at the Principal Registry of the Family Division at First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, WC1V 6NP [tel; 020 7936 6000]. Anyone can search this for a fee, either to get a copy of the Decree, to find out whether they have been divorced by a spouse, or whether a friend or relative has been divorced.
See also PRO for post 1858, and PRO2 for pre 1858
Felony
The word originally meant " forfeiture" . It came to mean offences for which the punishment included forfeiture of land and/or goods and chattels. The chief Common Law felonies were homicide, rape, larceny [i.e stealing], robbery [i.e theft with violence], burglary and similar offences. Other classes of crime were treason [the most serious], misdemeanour, and summary offence. Counterfeiting, once classed as treason, was later made a felony. [See also Chattel.]
Freehold
Originally land held on non-servile tenure either for life or in fee simple or fee tail. It could be held either by knight service or in socage.[socage was a form of feudal tenure held for a rent]. Freeholders enjoyed security of tenure in perpetuity under the Common Law. The expression " in fee " means "hereditarily", and "in fee male " means through male descent.A fee simple was an estate in land which passed at death to the common law heir.A Fee Tail was a grant of land to a person and " the heirs of his body " to tie up the land in one family. Each successor would enjoy only a life interest in it and it would pass on to his heirs on the principle of primogeniture[see below].
See also Land tenure
Gavelkind
A term which came to be applied solely to one characteristic markedly different from the law of tenure over most of the country.This peculiarity was a local survival of a pre-feudal custom by which a man's land was divided between all of his sons instead of passing to his eldest son [as it did by the later feudal law]. If he had no sons the land was divided between all of his daughters but not between sons and daughters. Gavelkind survived in Wales until abolished under Henry VIII, it was instrumental in fragmenting estates into smallholdings.
Guardians of the Poor
In 1834 the care of the poor was transferred from the parish to Boards of Guardians newly constituted by the merging of parishes [ for Poor Law purposes] into 585 Unions. Each Union was controlled by its own Board consisting of parish representatives elected by the major ratepayers.The out-relief formerly given to the poor was restricted to cases of most serious need; for others, a spell in the Union's workhouse was substituted. Workhouse inmates were segregated by age and sex; families were often separated and all contact forbidden. This latter restriction has been put forward as a contributory factor to the civil unrest of the period ,represented in south Wales by the Rebecca Riots. Some Boards arranged for the emigration of their younger paupers. Records of these Unions are generally available at county Records Offices.
Hearth Tax
The first Act imposing "Hearth Money" was in 1662. Exempted hearths were mainly in those houses worth less than £1 p.a yearly value, or their occupiers were almsmen, or paid no Church or Poor rate. The tax was 2/- on each hearth [fireplace]. From 1663 all hearths were to be included in the returns , exempted or not. Most charitable institutions such as hospitals and almshouses, were exempt as were industrial hearths [except blacksmiths' forges and bakers' ovens].There were several revisions to the tax rules , it was abolished in 1689. Its relevance to family historians lies in those Hearth Tax records that have survived and are available at county Records Offices and /or the PRO. These show names of families occupying the listed houses at that time.
Here are two sites with Hearth Tax material
- The 1671 Hearth Tax of Montgomeryshire on the Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society site
- The 1670 Hearth Tax of Pembrokeshire on Richard Hopkins' site
There is a Gibson guide which lists extant records .
[see also Window Tax].Hiring Fairs
Such fairs were held annually, usually in market towns. Their purpose was to assist employers in finding employees and vice versa.The latter were mainly domestics and ag labs. They were hired for 1 year. Both parties were attracted to the fairs from miles around which contributed to the mobility of families. This is the main reason for men and families jumping quite long distances between census returns, and sometimes men aquiring local wives and settling down permanently in the new area as well. It seems parish and county lines were no barrier to this movement. If your ag lab ancestor has disappeared find out where the local hiring fair was held, and what its catchment area might have been, you may be lucky.
Hundred
Until Tudor times this was an administrative sub-division of a county, probably so named having originally contained either a hundred families, fighting men or hides. [a hide was a measure of land as much as would support one free family, perhaps c 120 acres ].
Hundred Courts, dealing with minor offences such as trespass, continued after a fashion until 1867 when they lost most powers under the County Courts Act, finally losing all function in 1886.Surviving records may be found in county Records Offices.
A practical example of the modern relevance of hundreds to family historians is the Dyfed FHS 1813-1837 Marriage indexes which are sold in sets comprised of hundreds, the latter made up of a variable number of parishes.
On the Genuki county pages for CGN, CMN, PEM, and GLA are lists of which parishes are within each hundred.
See also Cantref/Commote
Husbandman
The term is used in several ways. When it describes an occupation it could apply to a man of any status who was engaged or interested in husbandry ie the cultivation of the land. But it was also used to designate a status in which sense it usually applies to a smallholder or tenant farmer , who might also have to work on the land of larger owners to maintain himself ie he was below the status of a yeoman. [see also Yeoman]
Journeyman
A day labourer, or skilled manual labourer/craftsman on piece work. A modern equivalent of a 'jobbing whatever' ? Unlike apprentices and workers engaged on a longer term basis, most journeymen worked a distance from their homes. The Statute of Artificers of 1563 laid down a journeyman's hours of work as being , in winter from dawn to dusk, and in summer from, at or before 5 am until between 7 and 8 pm , with not more than 2.5 hours off for breakfast, dinner and drinking.
Land Tax
The Land Tax was first regularly imposed annually in 1693. A quota was fixed for each county and local assessors were left to allot appropriate sums to each parish, and within the parishes, to each taxpayer ;and was largely confined to owners of real estate. Only a few early records survive. In 1772 the returns were altered to include all the occupiers of land in each parish, then changed to include the owner of each building. From 1780 duplicates had to be lodged with the Clerk of the Peace, these records are available down to 1832 after which they became less regular.From 1798 landowners were able to "buy themselves out" from the tax, a lump sum of 15 years purchase was levied, however their names continued to be listed as such. The tax lapsed in 1816 but was levied again from 1842, finally ending in 1949. The records from 1780 are in county Records Offices, usually in annual bundles with parishes grouped in hundreds.[see above]
Land tenure
Leasehold tenure could be for a term of years, for life, for up to 3 lives, or at the will of the landlord. Land available for such leases was mainly either demesne land or land reclaimed from the waste; or a copyholder's holding that had reverted to the lord through the extinction of his family. In a lease for 3 lives, not necessarily of 3 generations, the names of the 3 persons had to be recorded , and it has been suggested that this is one reason why a man would christen more than one of his sons with the same name. In Wales, by mid C19, the usual tenancy was from year to year.
The book Myddfai: Its Land and Peoples by David James (1991) has some helpful references and examples;
- Properties were usually let at a fixed annual payment over a set period or a rent was fixed on an annual basis.
- Sometimes leases were for lives, an example in Myddfai is where Thomas Jones held a lease for three lives at an annual rent of £44
- During the C18th 21 year leases were common place - the book gives 8 examples of farms with such leases starting as early as 1722
- At an earlier date another farm was on an 11 year lease, another had a 31 year lease and then a 7 year lease.
The article THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF A GLAMORGAN PARISH (Llangiwg); By Hugh Thomas, National Library of Wales journal Winter, 1975, Vol XIX/2 has this reference ;
"The leases by which the farms were held were characteristic of a backward rural economy. There were a few tenants-at-will, but the majority enjoyed the security of leases for three lives or ninety-nine years. Current opinion had already moved against such long leases on the grounds that they were detrimental to efficient farming and were in part responsible for the poor condition of many of the estates in this part of Wales. It was John Herbert Lloyd who introduced the shorter leases into the parish when he inherited the Cilybebyll estate, though his example was soon followed by the Ynysgedwyn estate despite the sympathy expressed by its owner for the smaller farmers in 1816"
Demesne land is those parts of the land and rights of a manor that the lord retained for himself, what might now be called the "home farm".
Waste was land of a manor not devoted to arable, meadow or wood.Copyhold is a form of tenure for land of a lord of the manor for rent or services. So called because the tenancy rights were laid out in an entry on the court rolls of the manor; being the only evidence of its existence. Tenure of such land could only be transferred by its surrender to the lord, and by admission by him of the new tenant.[see Manor ]. The Law of Property Act, 1922, converted all remaining copyhold land into freehold from Jan 1926.
See also Freehold
Messuage is a term used in deeds to describe a house with its surrounding land.
Lodger
With reference to census returns in particular,a lodger just got accomodation whereas a boarder got meals as well.
Manor
For 500 years after William the Conqueror, the manor, an agricultural estate, was the unit of local government. Its head was the lord of the manor, literally the landlord, not necessarily a titled person, who held the land from the King.The estate was administered by the manor court, a periodic meeting of the tenantry, presided over by the lord, or his steward. Custom governed everything, the principle was " justice shall be done by the lord's court, not by the lord".
It should be noted that manors were not always compact geographical units, a single manor was defined by its allegiance to a particular lord. The boundaries of a manor were not confined to one parish and indeed might stretch across several.
The lord of the manor granted strips of land to his tenants in return for service, which might be rent, work on the lord's land or military obligation. The lord's own land was the demesne.
Frankpledge was the ancient right of the village community to be responsible for each other's good behaviour and when a manorial court (Court Leet - see below) brought together all the males of the manor over the age of 12 it was called a "View of Frankpledge".
Two types of manorial court were;
- Court Baron - effectively the Lord of the Manor's personal court for dealing with tenancies and transfers of land and to enforce manorial custom.
- Court Leet - one of public jurisdiction dealing with minor offences and routine matters such as maintenance of highways - also the "View of Frankpledge" (see above). The Court Leet appointed a constable who had a range of responsibilites such as;- collection of taxes; maintenance of lockups & stocks; supervision of jury service; apprenticing of pauper children; and many others. The jurisdiction of a constable was called a constablewick.
In Wales, the manorial system had limited impact; it existed in Pembrokeshire, Glamorgan and Monmouthshire and adjoining counties where Anglo-Norman influences extended but was barely known in the north Wales counties of Caernarvonshire, Anglesey and Merioneth.
The principal records of the manorial estate were the Court Rolls, some of these records are deposited with county Record Offices eg Carmarthen Archives , but the principal repository for records of Welsh estates is the National Library of Wales. (See Archives)
A definition of ' manorial records' would include; court rolls, surveys, maps, terriers, documents and books of every description relating to the boundaries, wastes, customs or courts of a manor.
Another name for the lord of the manor was squire
Sites to visit for more information on researching manorial records;
Marriage Allegations/Bonds/Licences
When 2 persons wished to marry without having the banns read out in church, on 3 consecutive Sundays , they usually applied to the bishop or archdeacon for a licence.This might have been to avoid the 3 week delay or simply to avoid the publicity of banns, they might also have been away from "home" which would have made it difficult to arrange banns in their home parish. The application was called a Marriage Allegation and in it one of the parties,usually the groom, swore that they were able to marry each other i.e. single or widowed, of age, not related within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity, and that they had resided for the required length of time in the parish where they wished to be married. Bonds may also have been submitted, although abolished in 1823, these were sworn statements containing assurances by a couple's friends or relatives[and often the groom] that they knew of no impediment to the marriage and stating the amount of money by which they were bound [and which they might forfeit if the licence was not complied with]
The original Welsh Marriage licences, affadavits and bonds are held at the National Library of Wales (where there is an online index of pre 1838 bonds) though not all have survived . The actual licences themselves are very rare simply because they were handed to the couple concerned. The NLW has bonds and affadavits for St Davids for the years 1661-1867. Llandaff is covered from 1665-1941 (with gaps), St Asaph 1690-1938, Brecon 1661-1867 and Bangor 1757-1931.There are paper and computer indexes accessible at some Record Offices although copies of actual documents can only be obtained from the NLW.
[ see also Banns
Memorial Inscriptions
The oldest surviving inscriptions are on brasses and around effigies inside churches.The majority were for peers,knights and church dignatories.In the C16 the custom spread of burying the gentry and more prosperous merchants inside the church building and the number of memorials on the walls and floor increased accordingly.However an interior memorial does not mean that the deceased was buried in the church, the clergy objected to this and so the actual burial was often in the church yard. Burial ground monuments are of many kinds; wooden deadboards, vertical headstones, footstones, horizontal ledger stones and tombs of many types. In the C17 the oldest churchyard inscriptions , except for the wealthy, were probably all engraved on wooden boards supported by wooden posts. Stone and slate gradually came into use, local materials and craftsmen for the carving were normally used.It was in the C18 that the inscriptions became the most fulsome, and informative. with names, dates, place of residence commonplace.Memorial inscriptions tend to give more information than the parish register but are more prone to error because normally a stone cannot be put in place until about a year after the burial to allow the earth to settle. Details should therefore be checked with the registers. Sadly, many individual MIs have become illegible through weathering or vertical stones have "fallen", in some cases whole sections of older cemeteries have the headstones cleared to one side. I'm not sure when the tradition started but in my local cemetery it is the norm for an "old saying", for want of a better description, to be inscribed on the gravestone as well, the most popular I have seen is " Hedd Perffaith Hedd" [Peace Perfect Peace]. The MIs in many churchyards and cemeteries have now been transcribed ,and often indexed, by Family History Societies and are available for purchase from them.
Methodists
Numerically, the most important branch of non-conformity, the Methodist movement began in 1738 when John and Charles Wesley set out to revive a sense of spirituality and inner holiness in worship and persuade Anglican churchgoers to live their religion, not just attend services. At first they preached to church congregations and religious societies, then their followers formed themselves into "societies" and met at members' houses. The Wesleys and George Whitefield began to preach in the open air, they accepted the nickname "Methodist", and although remaining members of the established Anglican church , built preaching houses and tabernacles which became grouped into Circuits. Methodism had no particular theological claim to non-conformity, the phrase 'evangelical Anglicanism' fitting quite well. One feature of this denomination is the circuit, with ministers preaching in different places; another the requirement for ministers to move on to another circuit often.
In 1741 they split into two groups, Calvinist [Whitefield] and Arminian [John Wesley], both continued to be called Methodists. Wesley's following grew greatly, by 1784 Methodist clergy were being barred from Anglican churches so they invoked the Toleration Act and became, officially, Dissenters.
After the deaths of the Wesley brothers late in the century, a succession of sub denominations developed and the movement continued to divide throughout the early C19. The names of the different groups [confusingly] include ; The Methodist New Connexion, Primitive Methodists, Bible Christians, Protestant Methodists, Wesleyan Methodist Association, United Methodist Free Church, Wesleyan Reform Union.
In Wales, Calvinistic Methodism was prevalent, called the Presbyterian Church of Wales, Howell Harris was the founder. There was also Wesleyan Methodism. See also Presbyterians
In 1837 Methodists obeyed the call to deposit their registers with the General Registrar, the oldest being 1738; a proportion escaped deposit although some of those have since gone into county ROs. The largest holding of registers is at the PRO.
The Methodist Archives and Research Centre in Manchester has non-deposited registers as well as those of defunct societies. The Superintendent Ministers of Circuits still have a number of registers and some C18 membership rolls.
Each of the 31 Methodist administrative areas has an archivist.
Further reading ; " My Ancestors were Methodists " by W Leary, SOG,1999.
Parishes, what are they?
Civil administration in England & Wales is based on the parish system.
Since medieval times an ecclesiastical parish had been that area in the charge of the clergyman at the parish church. Parishes began to acquire secular functions after the 1597 Elizabethan Poor law.
Until the early C19 there were c 11,000 Anglican parishes in E & W. These parishes are often called ancient parishes to distinguish them from the many new parishes created since c 1830.Administration of the parish was undertaken by a council known as the vestry, and by officials such as church wardens and overseers. In the C16 & C17 many administrative functions, such as highway repairs , were transferred from manorial courts to the parish which also became responsible for the care of the sick and the poor.
During the C19 responsibility for most secular matters was passed from parishes to central government, or to county or borough councils .
In the C19 the growth and change in population led to the building of many new Anglican churches and the creation of new parishes by dividing up some ancient parishes.
The ecclesiastical parish should be distinguished from a township or civil parish as it became known, which is also medieval in origin. Specifically, the Settlement Act of 1662, allowed large parishes to be divided for poor law purposes into their constituent " townships or villages" and in parts of England, particularly in the northern counties, it was the ancient secular administrative unit, the township or vill, rather than the ancient ecclesiastical parish, which had responsibility for raising poor rates and thus became the civil parish of the 19th century.
In the hill country of the Welsh heartland the parishes were larger and like their counterparts in Northen England were divided for secular purposes into townships or hamlets which were the descendants of the medieval trefi.To remove confusion, the civil divisions termed hamlets, townships, chapelries, liberties and tithings were all renamed parishes by the 1866 Poor Law Amendment Act.
From 1871, ecclesiastical parishes that had not been subdivided into townships or chapelries became civil parishes for civil administration purposes.
From a Dyfed perspective, the term townships is confined to 3 hundreds in northern CGN, i.e Genau'r-Glyn, Ilar and Penarth
A tithing was another sub-division of the parish, usually for Poor Law purposes, originally one tenth of a Hundred in area
The modern day civil parish was confirmed in 1889 as the lowest level of local secular government and is largely based on the original ecclesiastical parish boundaries.
That's how it evolved but as far as the "here and now" is concerned, I'll illustrate the modern day structure by reference to where I live in Devon, England.
I live in a village which is in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, which is in the borough council of West Devon which is in the county of Devon. Apart from the village concept each of the others has an elected council with administrative functions ranging from the purely local to the county level. The borough council is responsible for actual tax raising, called council tax and which is based on property values.As far as practical FH research goes it is mainly the historic ecclesiastical parish that is relevant.
The book Parish Registers of Wales lists the separate parishes in each county and shows how and when the more modern ones came about. And where the extant parish records are held.
Parish Registers
Parish registers were formally started in 1538, there was no prior standard system countrywide for recording baptisms although some monasteries did keep records. Initially on loose sheets, only about 800 registers still exist with entries from as early as 1538 , they were supposed to be written up weekly. The records were kept in the Parish Chest, which had 2 keys, one for the priest and one for the churchwarden. Bound parchment books for recording baptisms, marriages and burials were commenced in 1598, by Act of Parliament; with prior entries to be inserted , so these can start from 1538, but mostly from 1558. The records were to be made by the church incumbent . In some early registers, baptisms, marriages and burials are all entered on the same pages, in chronological order. Usually the three were kept in the same book but in separate parts. In the C16 & C17 entries are often in Latin. A duplicate set of entries had to be sent to the bishop each year[ see Bishop's Transcripts above].
During the Interregnum [ 1649-1660] the responsibility for registration was transferred to an elected Parish Register[Registrar], a fee of one shilling discouraged many from bothering to register at all. In 1660 , along with the monarchy, the old system of free church registration was restored but not enforced with the result that many events, especially marriages, went unrecorded. However, many children unbaptised during the Interregnum were baptised late which is a point to remember. Between 1694 and 1705 a tax was again imposed on registration resulting in non registration amongst the poor, or private baptisms in their homes.
In 1753 the Hardwicke Act meant couples now had to marry in a parish where one of them lived[see Banns above].The marriage now had to be recorded in a separate book specially designed for this purpose, with spaces for signatures of bride,groom and witnesses.Also the marriage could now only take place in licensed buildings which were always churches or chapels belonging to the Church of England. Only the marriages of Jews and Quakers were exempt. Roman Catholics and Nonconformists still had to register in an Anglican parish for the marriage to be legal. Between 1783 and 1794 a stamp duty was imposed , yes, poorer families again failed to always register.
Rose's 1812 Act standardised Church of England registers from 1 Jan 1813, registers now became bound volumes of printed forms. Baptisms showed the name of the child and both its parents, the father's occupation and where they lived. Marriages showed the name and parish for each partner and also the names of witnesses. Burial records now gave the age and residence of the deceased.
Civil Registration began on 1 July 1837, banns and marriage licences were no longer obligatory. Marriages could again take place in Roman Catholic and Nonconformist places of worship but a registrar had to be present, at least until 1898. In 1874 fines began for non registration of births. In 1979 all parish registers had to be deposited with the local Records Office unless it could be proved that the parish itself had adequate storage facilities in which the registers could be preserved. The book "Parish Registers of Wales" is an invaluable guide to where many extant parish registers are now housed. The websites for Records Offices are hotlinked elsewhere on this Help Page.Be aware that ecclesiastical parish boundaries are not necessarily the same as on census returns. Many parish registers have been indexed/published by Family History Societies.
See also this article for an in depth history of PRs;
MacDonald, R W. The Parish Registers of Wales, National Library of Wales journal. 1976, Winter. Volume XIX/4Patronymic
Is a surname derived from a father or ancestor. The related subjects of patronymics and the origins of Welsh surnames can not be covered exhaustively here but some introductory explanations are offered. Surnames in England were derived from personal names, occupations, locations and topographical features.They would have settled between the C12 and C14. But a completely different picture was seen in Wales where the ancient naming system continued ,where children were identified in relation to their father eg Dafydd ap Rhys.To confuse matters further the latter format might well have ended up as the surname of Price[Prys]. A daughter would also be known by her father's name e.g Ann verch Rhys, and women often retained their maiden name after marriage Present day Welsh surnames do not represent truly Welsh forenames but the fashions in naming children a generation before a surname was taken. In Wales a handful of biblical and saints' names have predominated since medieval times. Clergymen did not generally consider the Welsh versions of these as acceptable officially , or had difficulty getting their English tongues around them. So Dafydd became David, which became the surname David initially , but usually Davies eventually. Also, the late adoption of surnames in Wales, coupled with the later popularity of some given names , led to given names such as Francis and James becoming Welsh surnames. The first to adopt fixed surnames in Wales were the wealthier classes, the practice filtering through society at different levels from Tudor times. The ap system survived in a shorthand form for some time , a man known once as Dafydd ab Ifan might have become David Evan. his son may have been known as Thomas David and his grandson as Evan Thomas.The latter's son may have become David Evan or David Thomas , if the second then a permanent surname could be said to have settled in a family. The whole process evolved at a different pace throughout different communities in Wales, generally speaking , earlier in the south and south east, later in the upland areas, earlier amongst the gentry, later among the labouring people. Also depending on the degree of anglicisation and urbanisation The timescale of the adoption of a fixed surname may vary from south Pembrokeshire, with a similar timescale to England , to mid C19 in parts of Caernarfonshire.
Here is a real practical example of patronymics at work pre1700 in the CMN parish of Myddfai (From Myddfai and Its Peoples by David B James, 1991). Note that a fixed surname was apparently adopted in this particular estate owning family sometime mid C17th.
"There is an extant genealogy for the Cilgwyn estate which shows the 7 antecedents of Benjamin Lewis who died in 1699. Commencing with the oldest they are; Meredith ap David; Morgan ap Meredith; Evan ap Morgan; Phillip ap Evan; David ap Phillip; Lewis David Phillip; and David Lewis the father of Benjamin Lewis. "Presbyterians
In Wales, Calvinistic Methodism was prevalent, called the Presbyterian Church of Wales, Howell Harris was the founder. See also Methodists
English nonconformity began as a Puritan movement within the Church of England, to bring ritual and organisation nearer to Lutheran and Calvinistic forms by abolishing bishops, archdeacons, deans and chancellors.
The Presbyterians grew in influence and formed the majority in Charles I's early parliaments dominating the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. Presbyterianism became the established church of the country under the Commonwealth but was overthrown at the Restoration of the monarchy when many Anglican ministers were ejected from their livings and subsequently formed the backbone of nonconformist congregations. After a generation of persecution Presbyterians in common with other dissenters accepted toleration and exclusion from power.
Presbyterian clergy who refused to conform under the Act of Uniformity were ejected from their livings. In 1665 the Five Mile Act forbad dissenting clergy from coming within five miles of corporate towns which was where dissent was strongest. In 1689 the Toleration Act gave rise to the building of over one thousand meeting houses over the next 20 years and as still forbidden to have any central or regional links they were Independent in organisation.This brought the Presbyterians and Independents closer together and in 1691 in London they combined under the name of the United Brethren, although this union collapsed in 1694.
In 1695 Church of England incumbents were ordered to register the births, not bapts, of dissenters in their parish, so the word "born" in a parish register may give a clue to dissenting parents. The baptism of dissenters' children at home became common place and lasted for 100 years.
In 1702 the Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists united under a combined banner of The Three Denominations and the practice of keeping registers became more general though far from universal. In 1719 The Three Denominations split up, Presbyterians fell under the influence of Unitarianism and by the end of the C18 most groups of Presbyterians were actually Unitarians.
Presbyterianism in Scotland was the established religion, and was not non-conformist there. The Presbyterian churches built in England in the C19 mostly catered for people who had immigrated from Scotland and Ireland.
In 1742/3 a body of Protestant Dissenting Deputies set up a general Register of Births for the children of dissenters all over the country, this became known as Dr Williams's Library. Before 1754 fewer marriages were performed in Presbyterian meeting houses than in other sects, their religious ceremony was not recognised in law but the contracting of the two parties before witnesses was.This practice was brought to an end with the Hardwicke Act.In 1768 the general register at Dr Williams's Library began to record bapts as well as births.
In 1837 the registers of all dissenting sects were called in to the GRO, some slipped through the net. The PRO has the great majority of pre 1837 registers. Presbyterian registers sometimes give more information, eg wives or mother's maiden names or even parents names.[see also Puritanism, Baptists, Congregationalists]
Further reading; My Ancestors were English Presbyterians/ Unitarians. A Ruston, SOG 1993
Related web sites ;
Primogeniture
The right , or custom , whereby an estate in land or a title of dignity , descends to a person by virtue of his being the eldest male. In the past , when a person died intestate [not having made a will], his personal property, after deduction of the widow's portion , was, under Common Law, divided equally between all of his children but all his real estate [landed property] went to his eldest son. [See also Gavelkind].
Just to confuse the reader , there is this interesting extract from LIFE IN A WELSH COUNTRYSIDE: A Social Study of Llanfihangel yng Ngwynfa by Alwyn D. Rees, Director of Extra-Mural Studies, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth published in 1975:
"The roots of many of the customs described in this chapter lie in the social system of medieval Wales. Unlike the English villager, who often handed on his holding to his successor during his own life-time with the proviso that he and his wife should be cared for in their old age, the Welsh tribesman retained control of his share of the land of the kindred until his death. Sons were entitled, as they are today, to equal shares of the moveable property when they left the family hearth, and after their father's day they inherited equal shares of the land itself. But the paternal homestead and the remaining moveable wealth were reserved for the youngest son. Daughters were normally excluded from succession to land, but they were entitled to a share of the moveable property."
Prohibited Degrees of Marriage
Quoted from the excellent book " Ancestral Trails" by Mark Herber
[ISBN 0-7509-1418-1] published 1997 by Sutton Publishing in association with the SOG
Prohibited Degrees of marriage.
The marriage of first cousins was not unusual and has been legal since the C16.
However marriages between people who were related in some other ways [known as the prohibited degrees] were forbidden by acts of Parliament and ecclesiastical law.
The present position is set out in the Marriage Act 1949 [as amended in 1986], but for most of the period you will be researching the relevant rules [reached in about 1560 and confirmed by church laws , known as Canons, in 1564] were listed in the Common Book of Prayer of 1662.
The prohibitions prevented someone marrying his or her;
a] brother or sister [ or their spouse]
b] parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, child or grandchild[ or their spouse]
c] niece or nephew[ or their spouse]
d] spouse's child, grandchild,parent, aunt, uncle or grandparent.
Statutes of 1907 and 1921 made an exception to the prohibition at a] above, allowing people to marry the spouse of their brother or sister, if that brother or sister had died.
Some further exceptions were made in 1931,1949 and 1986 so that, for example, a man was allowed to marry his deceased wife's niece, aunt, or widowed mother.
Puritanism
Unco-ordinated movements within the Church of England , beginning in the reign of Henry VIII and aiming to purify some aspects of its worship. Although all Puritans were against Catholic rites and all believed in the bible as their sole authority, they interpreted it in many different ways. Many groups held meetings of their own to expound the scriptures, known as conventicles.
In the period 1558 to 1642 most Puritans remained within the Church of England and tried to create change from within. A small number chose to go to Holland, a much greater number followed the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620 and settled in New England, North America.
From 1643 people who disagreed with the priest could withdraw from the Anglican church.
During the Commonwealth [or Interregnum] period which spanned 1649 to 1660, the power of the Church of England was destroyed and the Puritans came largely into their own, to such an extent that many Anglicans departed for Virginia, North America.
It was from the Puritan movement that the first dissenting sects developed after being forced outside the Anglican Church in the 1660 to 1688 period when they were persecuted for their beliefs. [see Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists]
Quakers
In 1652 George Fox, standing on high Pendle Hill in England, had a vision which was the beginning of the Religious Society of Friends. Its members are commonly called Quakers. A magistrate first used this name in Derby in 1650, when Fox was on trial for his beliefs. His followers trembled during religious excitement, and Fox bade the judge to "tremble at the word of the Lord."
George Fox believed, as the Puritans did, that the formal practices of the Church of England violated the spirit of Christianity. He taught that people can worship God directly without help from clergy. His followers refused to attend the services of the Church of England or to pay tithes for its support. They refused to take oaths on the ground that an oath recognizes a double standard of truth. They were frugal and plain in dress and speech. They rejected church buildings [steeplehouses].
The authorities persecuted them with fines, confiscation of property, and imprisonment. Nevertheless the sect flourished. In 1689 the Toleration Act ended the persecution. Meanwhile, Quakers could settle freely in America on a large grant of land given to the Quaker William Penn in 1681 .The Hicksites separated from the orthodox Quakers in 1827, and there were other divisions.
Quakers still reflect the teachings of Fox. They do not sanction taking part in war because they feel that war causes spiritual damage through hatred. Most Quakers therefore refuse to give military service, but individuals follow their own convictions.
The Friends have no ritual, sacraments, or ordained clergy. They appoint elders and overseers to serve at each meeting. Men and women who have received a "gift" are called recorded ministers. The meeting for worship is held "on the basis of silence." Members speak in prayer or testimony as the "Inward Light" moves them. After an hour the meeting ends with the members shaking hands. Congregations generally hold a meeting for business every month with recorded minutes.
In the 19th century Quakers in the United States founded a number of colleges and universities with an emphasis on science. Because Friends were trusted and extended credit, they became active in banking and insurance. Quakers are also active in welfare work and social reform. The American Friends Service Committee, founded during World War I, organizes relief and service projects not only in the United States but throughout the world.
Although many Quaker records have not survived, the survival rate for their records is much better than for Independents, Baptists and Presbyterians. Formal record keeping commenced in 1669. The Quaker registers of births [not baptisms], marriages and deaths/burials were handed over to the PRO with other nonconformist registers [RG6].These are being microfilmed and will be available at the FRC, meanwhile indexes, or digests, are available at Friends House Library and the SOG.
Library of the Society of Friends, Friends House, Euston Rd, London, NW1 2BJ library@quaker.org.uk
Further reading; My Ancestors were Quakers; How can I find out more about them?. E H Milligan/M J Thomas. SOG 1999
Related web sites;
Homepage of the Religious Society of Friends (or Quakers) in Britain http://www.quaker.org.uk/library/
Quarter Sessions
The Court of Quarter Sessions was an assembly of Justices of the Peace in any county ,riding or county town, for the joint purposes of judging suits and administering the affairs of the area. A statute of 1388 laid down that "Justices shall keep their sessions in every quarter of the year at least".They were held at Easter, Trinity [midsummer], Michaelmas and Epiphany [ January], and were presided over by the sheriff or his deputy. A leading justice was appointed and called the Keeper of the Rolls.In the C18 several counties were sub-divided into two or more divisions for admin purposes,each of which held its sessions. The administrative control of the towns was taken away by the Municipal Corporation Act of 1835 and in 1888 the Local Government Act transferred administrative control of the counties to county councils , much as seen in the present day.
The Records of the Court are made up of Session Rolls[files[, Indictment Books,Minute Books and Order Books. Some of these records are at the PRO, others are held by the county Record Offices. The FFHS has published a booklet " Quarter Sessions Records for Family Historians" by J Gibson. which gives details of each county's holdings. See also Courts of Great Sessions
Registration Districts
The 1836 civil registration legislation generally used the existing Poor Law union boundaries for its administration purposes. A Superintendent Registrar for births, marriages & deaths was appointed in each one.
The Poor Law unions already overlapped some ancient county boundaries, which confusion was therefore continued into the sphere of civil registration.Registration Districts (RDs) were divided into Registration sub-districts made up of combined parishes etc with a resident registrar. For example see the breakdown of Carmarthenshire RDs on this Genuki site
Regnal years
In the Middle Ages , documents were dated by the year of the monarch's reign. Thus a document for the third year of the reign of King Henry VI would be shown as such [ and in modern calenders as 3 Henry VI ]. In later records the anno domini year either replaced the regnal year or was given as well. After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, all documents used by genealogists will bear the AD date, even though regnal years continue to appear, even[in the case of Acts of Parliament] into the present century.
Relationships
Degrees of relationship for purposes of inheritance follow a biological path, and advance by one with each person in that path , as follows;
one degree : parent and child
two degrees : siblings[ie via the parent];grandparents and grandchild
three degrees : uncle or aunt, and nephew, or niece; great-grandparent and great-grandchild
four degrees : first cousins; great-great-grandparent and great-great-grandchild
Degree of cousinship
First cousins are the children of siblings; second cousins are the children of first cousins; and so on. Cousins are once or more removed when they are not both of the same generation. The removal number indicates by how many generations they differ. For example: my son's child and my daughter's granchild are first cousins once removed ,although logically , one might also say they were second cousins once removed. In practice the relationship is always measured from the closer cousinship.
Roman Catholics
From 1559, the history of English Catholics became a subject separate from that of their compatriots, as a result of the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. The latter made non-attendance at services of the Church of England a fineable offence, called recusancy.
In 1569 many Catholic nobles took part in the "Rising of the North" in favour of Mary Queen of Scots, which led to the persecution of their co-religionists. In 1581 fines were increased substantially and the offence of attending a Catholic Mass risked inprisonment. Three years later it became high treason for a layman to receive the ministrations of Catholic priests. The missionary priests were concealed by wealthy co-religionists in hiding holes in their country houses.
Although no registers were kept, Catholics were baptised and even married by their missionary priests but usually went through a Church of England marriage too, to avoid a fine, to obtain legal registration and to avoid any doubt about the legitimacy of their children. Burials were usually only possible in parish churches.
Catholicism survived mainly in the North. At the end of the C17 so many Catholics were not having their children baptised by the parish priest that they were obliged by law to inform him of the births of their children, or fined. Anti Catholic feelings grew sharper as the danger of a Catholic heir to the throne became imminent. Papists were forbidden to buy or inherit land.
In 1701 , the Act of Settlement barred Catholics from the throne of England. At the accession of George I, an Act was passed compelling all persons over age 18 to take an Oath of Allegiance , in the wording of which they renounced the Catholic Church. Lists exist of people of property who refused to take this oath. Papists were compelled to register the value of their lands with the Clerk of the Peace.Some papists forfeited their land, all were liable to special taxes.
From 1754 only marriage in the C of E churches were legal. In 1778 an Act was passed " to relieve upon conditions and under restrictions, persons professing the Popish religion". It is from now that a number of Catholic registers begin. The Catholic relief Act of 1791 enabled Catholics to worship at their own registered churches under registered priests, and many churches were built. Several thousand priests fled from the French Revolution to England and gathered congregations here. In 1829 the Emancipation Act enabled Catholics to vote, sit in Parliament and hold property unconditionally.
In 1850 the law permitted the creation of a Roman Catholic hierarchy in Britain. Immigration from Ireland as a result of famine increased the number of Catholics here.
In 1837 the Catholic Church, like the nonconformist churches was asked to deposit registers of bapts and burials with the RO, now at the PRO. The Catholic Record Society has many registers.
Related web sites ;
- Catholic History http://www.catholic-history.org.uk/ Catholic history from the Reformation on
- The Catholic-L mailing list Archives on Rootsweb http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Religion/CATHOLIC.html
- The Organisation of the Church http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/nav/churchineandw.htm
- Local Catholic Church & Family History Genealogical Research Guide http://home.att.net/~Local_Catholic/
- The Catholic Encyclopedia 1914 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ site to purchase it on CD
- Catholic Central Library (London) http://www.catholic-library.org.uk/
- National Archives leaflet on Catholic recusants http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/researchguidesindex.asp?j=1
Settlement
A legal right to poor relief, arising out of a settled place of abode. By the Poor Law Act of 1601 a person was recognised as being legally a settled inhabitant of a parish after a month's abode. Parish vestries soon began to use this principle to operate an unofficial system of refusing relief to paupers who had settlement elsewhere. The Settlement Act of 1662 laid the basis of the law of settlement for the next two centuries. Anyone entering a township and occupying a tenement worth less than £10 per annum might , within the next 40 days, be removed by the parochial Overseers of the Poor, acting on an order from two Justices of the Peace who had examined him on oath. He would then be escorted by the constable, or by a series of constables along the route, back to the place where he was considered to be legally settled, unless he could give security for indemnity against becoming chargeable to the parish. If he managed to stay there for the 40 days he obtained settlement at his new abode. In a family, a child's place of settlement was the same as his father's until he or she was apprenticed, which could happen at the age of seven.Then his place of apprenticeship would become his parish of settlement . Unmarried persons, not apprenticed , could obtain a new settlement after service in a parish for one year. At marriage, a woman took the same settlement as her husband. Illegitimate children were granted settlement where they were born. This led Overseers to try to get rid of women pregnant with bastards. If a child was born whilst the mother was actually under an order of removal then it was given the same settlement as hers.
From 1691 , the forty days were made to begin from the publication of the notice of removal in church. It is from this year that records of removal begin. In 1697, an Act authorised Overseers to issue Settlement Certificates to paupers of their parish. The document eased the pauper's temporary acceptance into another parish [ eg for helping with the harvest] since it enabled the parish authorities there to send him back where he had come from if he even looked like becoming chargeable to them. In 1795 removal by the Overseers was forbidden unless the pauper became actually chargeable to the parish which did away with much of the injustice of the law. Though the Settlement Act was repealed in 1834, the principle of settlement remained substantially in force until 1876.
The main documents relating to settlement are; Indemnity Certificate of Settlement; The Examination;Removal Order; Records of Appeals at Quarter Sessions; Vestry minutes. Most of these are to be found in county ROs but some of the parochial records may still be held at the parish churches.
The online records of Earls Colne parish, Essex have a selection of Removal order entries which will help to demonstrate their use, here is one such example from that site
- "Removal Orders 1678; to the constables of Earls Colne and to either of them whereas complaint hath been made unto me by the overseers of the poor of your said parish that Rachel Bounds is come into your said parish within forty days last past and that she does endeavour to settle herself there in a tenement under the yearly rent of 10li and that she is like to be a charges to the parish where she shall reside these are therefore to require you to give present notice unto the said Rachel Bounds to remove herself out of your said parish to the parish where she was last legally settled or else give sufficient security for the discharge of your said parish and if she shall refuse so to do then you are hereby required to apprehend the said Rachel and bring her before me or some other of his majesties justices of the peace for this county that she may be removed according to law given under my hand and seal this1.5.1678 Jo Eldred "
Tithes
Tithe, or a tenth part of anything, but especially that of the profits and stock of parishioners, was due, under Canon Law, to their incumbent (Church of England) for his support. The tithe system was first recorded in England in AD 747. Throughout the Middle Ages, every parishioner of a tithable parish was expected to contribute one tenth of his crop, animal produce and other trade products, to the rector of the parish. Normally the rector was the parish priest, he received the tithes directly and stored them in his tithe barn. An Act of 1391 obliged monastic rectors to devote part of their tithes to the poor of the parish. Tithes were of two kinds, Great and Small. The Great Tithes were those of corn, hay and wool, all others were Small. The usual custom was for the monastic rector to pass the Small Tithes to the vicar. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538 the rectorship of many parishes passed to the new lay owners of the former monastery lands. In the C17th the numerous nonconformist sects resented paying tithes to the Church of England clergy. There was a gradual commutation of tithes from payments in kind to cash payments.
The Tithes Commutation Act of 1836 enabled commutation to be made more easily by commissioners in negotiation with the inhabitants of each parish on the basis of a land valuation. Tithe Awards are incorporated in schedules arranged alphabetically under parish landowners and show the occupiers, the acreage of each parcel of land, the annual amount of tithe payable, and a numerical reference to an accompanying large scale map.The maps show houses, boundaries, acreages, land-use and field names.
Tithe Awards were drawn up in three copies, the one for the commissioners is now at The National Archives (TNA) , the one for the bishop is either at the diocesan registry or the county RO (but the Welsh ones are at the NLW), the one for the incumbent may still be in the parish chest or the county RO. There may be pre 1836 tithe records for some parishes in county ROs.
See also this NLW feature on Tithes
This extract below is from a TNA page that describes what happened after 1836;
"Prior to 1836, tithes (payments made by parishioners for the support of their parish church and clergy) were payable in kind in the majority of parishes in England and Wales. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 provided for monetary payments, called tithe rentcharges, to replace the payments in kind. Tithe Commissioners were appointed to administer the Act. Legislation passed in 1851 authorised the appointment of commissioners to perform the functions of three commissions (the Tithe Commission, the Copyhold Commission and the Inclosure Commission) under the joint title of the Copyhold, Inclosure and Tithe Commission. Under the Settled Land Act 1882, its functions passed to the Land Commission, under the Home Office. From 1889, the Board of Agriculture and successors took responsibility for administration of the Tithe Acts.Difficulties in the administration of these Acts led to the setting up of a Royal Commission on Tithe Rentcharge. Its report in November 1935 led to the Tithe Act 1936. The principal effect of this statute was the replacement of tithe rentcharge and extraordinary tithe rentcharge by terminable tithe redemption annuities, and the compensation of tithe owners out of government stock (3% Redemption Stock 1936-96), funded by annuities payable over sixty years. The Tithe Redemption Commission was set up to administer the 1936 Act and inherited most of the surviving tithe functions from previous legislation: determining, apportioning, collecting and managing the annuities; and the apportionment of annuities on division of land. It also administered corn rents resulting from commutation before the Tithe Act 1836; and corn rent annuities converted under the Tithe Act 1918; and liability for chancel repairs. Certain obligations placed upon the Tithe Redemption Commission were modified under the Tithe Act 1951.
The Tithe Redemption Commission was dissolved and its functions transferred to the Board of Inland Revenue under the Tithe Redemption Commission (Transfer of Functions and Dissolution) Order (Order in Council, 20 November 1959). This Board created a Tithe Redemption Office which, on 1 April 1960, took over the functions and staff of the Tithe Redemption Commission. It thus became responsible for the collection and administration of tithe redemption annuities in England and Wales, which work was organised on a functional and subsequently on a regional basis. ..............................
................................In 1976, the Government announced that as there were sufficient funds in the tithe account to service the existing redemption stock and because of the high administrative costs of the scheme, tithe redemption annuities should be extinguished. The Government proposed a normal payment in 1976 followed by a final payment in October 1977 equal to twice the normal payment. Legislative effect was subsequently given to this in the Finance Act 1977. "
Unitarians
Not to believe in the Trinity was an offence which carried the death penalty in the C16 and C17, Unitarians do not believe in it..
At the beginning of the C18, the Socinian [C16 doctrine] belief in the divinity of God the Father, and in the humanity of Christ, began to permeate Presbyterian and Congregationalist assemblies.
An attempt in 1719 to make the belief in the Trinity [Father, Son & Holy Spirit] the official Presbyterian doctrine failed and congregations all over the country became divided on the issue. In some, traditional Presbyterian doctrines prevailed and members holding Unitarian views had to set up new chapels ; in other places , it was a Unitarian majority that retained the chapel.
Much the same divisions occurred in Congregational chapels.
Unitarians circumvented the law by calling their groups, societies, it wasn't until the Trinity Act of 1813 that it became legal for a congregation to call itself Unitarian.
When Nonconformist registers were deposited in 1837 at the GRO[now PRO] most of the Unitarian records dating from 1762 were classed as Presbyterian.
[see also Presbyterian and Congregationalist ].
Further reading; My Ancestors were English Presbyterians/ Unitarians. A Ruston, SOG 1993
Vestry
The governing body of a parish.The name was derived from the room in the church building in which its meetings were held. The assembly consisted of the incumbent, as chairman, the churchwardens and respected householders of the parish who were either co-opted by existing members[ close or select vestries] or elected by the parishioners[ open vestries] according to the custom of the parish. During the C16/C17 the meeting gradually took over the functions of the manor court as the basic unit of local government. The office of churchwarden was often filled by the occupants of certain properties in turn[house-row],. The vestry appointed the Constable ,and the Overseers of the Poor ,and the Surveyor of the Highways, subject to the approval of the Justices of the Peace.Minutes were kept of all meetings and the books containing these [where they survive] may be either still with the incumbent or deposited at the county RO. They tell the history of the parish , the background of our ancestors' lives , and mention the names of many of the parishioners.They are supplemented by the account books of the Wardens, Overseers, Surveyor and Constable. The Local Govt Act of 1894 transferred the civil functions of the parish to parish councils.
The online records of Earls Colne parish, Essex have a selection of Overseers Accounts entries
Vicars etc
A vicar is a parish incumbent, who is the holder of the benefice or church living.
In the past he differed from the rector in that he did not receive the Great Tithes which went to the rector, who may have been a monastery or an ecclesiastic or even a layman, who then paid the vicar a salary. Since the commutation of tithes the difference between a vicar and rector has been purely historical.The name priest is normally used to describe a Roman Catholic clergyman but in the Anglican church can mean an ordained minister who is above the rank of deacon but below that of Bishop.
The expression parson is sometimes used for anyone in holy orders but only truly accurate when describing an incumbent of a parish.
A chaplain is a priest without benefice who in modern times ministers to public bodies such as hospitals, the armed forces or prisons.
In the Anglican church a deacon was a clerk in holy orders, not yet ordained, who assisted an incumbent. In the Nonconformist Welsh denominations a deacon is an elected official of the church.
A curate is a clergyman who is either a temporary appointment to a parish, known as a Curate in Charge, or an assistant to the incumbent.
A perpetual curate received no tithe income and was supported by the diocese. The adjective perpetual underlined the fact that he had the same security of tenure as vicars & rectors. An 1868 Act allowed perpetual curates to style themselves as vicars.A canon is a priest who is a member of a cathedral chapter but may still be a parish priest.
A Rural Dean is a clergyman who has been appointed by his Bishop to run a deanery, a small group of parishes.
A dean presides over the chapter of a cathedral or collegiate church
An archdeacon is a senior clergyman with authority delegated from his bishop.
A bishop has jurisdiction over a diocese, the four ancient dioceses in Wales are Bangor, Llandaff, St David's and St Asaph.
An archbishop is responsible for a province of the Church of England, either one of two diocesan areas; Canterbury covers those south of the river Trent, York those north of that river.
The Archbishopric of Wales came into being in 1920 with the dis-establishment of the Church in Wales but prior to that Wales came under Canterbury.A valuable resource for researching clergymen is Crockford's Clerical Directory which has been published since 1858. It lists Anglican clergymen with their parish and how much they earned. Over time it is possible to follow the lives of individual clergymen from their entries in Crockfords.
Another useful source book if you can find one, might be Records of the Church of England; A Practical Guide for Family Historians by S Bourne & A Chicken, 1991.
Wife selling
Until the end of the C19 it was a common misapprehension that a wife was her husband's chattel and so could be sold by him if he so wished.
The customary practice was to take her to a market place , hang a halter around her neck and put her up for auction. Recorded cases of wife sale occur from the late C17. Prices recorded from all over the country vary from 4 pence to £50.
In 1891 the Chancellor of the day ruled that no law gave a husband complete dominion over the person of his wife.Window Tax
In 1696 a new tax on housing replaced the Hearth Tax which had been ended a few years earlier. One of the chief objections to the latter had been that it could involve the intrusion of inspectors into private dwellings, in contrast the Window Tax was assessed from outside. Nevertheless it was objected to on the grounds that it was a tax on light and air. The tax was imposed on the occupiers , not the owners, and small dwellings whose occupants did not pay poor or church rate were exempt, others were charged on an increasing scale. Householders would reduce their totals by blocking up non essential windows, and for this reason the total yield fell instead of rising. In 1747 a new Act was passed with an increasing sliding scale depending on how many windows there were ! It was finally abolished in 1851. The few extant records are at the PRO, they have the name and address of the tax payer, number of windows and amount of tax paid.[see also Hearth Tax].
Yeoman
In the Plantagenet period the word meant a knight's servant or retainer. There were also Yeomen of the King's Chamber, who were minor court officials under the Chamberlain. At that period there was a class of freemen called Franklins (men of substance and gentle birth) and under the Tudors they gradually became either 'gentlemen' (non armigerous) or yeomen . Broadly speaking the latter constituted a stratum of the cultivators of the soil, either freeholders or tenants, who differed from the minor gentry more by their way of life than by economic category. The yeoman would put his own hand to work that the gentleman would employ servants to do, and his wife likewise, but many a young man of gentle and even armigerous[ bearing arms] family was styled yeoman as long as he lived like one ie until he inherited his father's estate. Below the yeoman class came the equally ill defined stratum of Husbandman, whose land-holding was normally smaller. The standing of the yeomanry is reflected in the later use of the word for the local volunteer force, mounted on their own horses, as distinct from the [infantry] militia.[see also Husbandman]. The mid C15th hierarchal scale in local society was knight, esquire, gentleman, yeoman, husbandman.
Workhouse
In the Middle Ages the religious houses had traditionally helped the poor with alms and shelter, but the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII ended that and the church itself became poorer and less able to do this.
The Poor Law Act of 1601 was passed in the reign of Elizabeth I and Churchwardens and householders were now required to give assistance to the poor and sick of the parish who could apply for 'out relief ' which they received in their own homes, be it money or jobs. They might also be taken into the workhouse, if one existed in that parish, where they worked for their keep.
For the purposes of this Act a person was now recognised as being legally a settled inhabitant of a particular parish after a month's abode there.Although there were some workhouses before this date, in 1723 an Act of Parliament authorised parish officials to set up workhouses in their parishes, with the agreement of the majority of parishioners. The main purpose being to provide a place to give relief to the poor of the parish. The same Act allowed workhouse overseers to refuse relief to paupers who would not go into a workhouse.Parishes were allowed to combine together and share the costs if they were too small to support their own workhouse. Another Act of 1782 allowed parishes to come together in voluntary unions to administer the poor law and employ paid guardians in the union workhouse.
By 1834 the cost of providing poor relief was becoming a burden and many thought that the system encouraged people to avoid work and "live on the parish".[So what's new ?]. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 brought in significant changes.Parishes were now made to amalgamate into Unions, each with a Board of Guardians to administer relief. The latter were elected by those parishioners who paid the poor rates .
From 1834 each Union was to be split into separate districts each with a relieving officer whose job it was to assess the circumstances of anyone applying for relief. The able bodied were no longer to be given outdoor relief but were to be admitted to a workhouse. Conditions in workhouses varied , the good ones perhaps on a par with a pauper's own home, the worst being more like prisons. Outdoor relief could still be granted to the old and sick, and widows with children, or until a workhouse had been built [all had them by 1865]. It seems the criteria for relief was not applied uniformly and in areas of high unemployment outdoor relief might still be granted .
I have read that the rigid /inhumane [perceived ?] application of the 1834 legislation was possibly one contributory factor to the social unrest behind the Rebecca Riots of 1839+ in rural west Wales.
The Boards of Guardians were the responsibility of the Poor Law Commission in London, and in 1919 became part of the Ministry of Health. The necessity for poor law and workhouses was in part dealt with by the introduction of old age pensions and unemployment insurance in 1908 and 1911. Boards of Guardians were abolished in 1930 when Local Authorities took over from the Unions. Many workhouses continued until 1948 [ National Assistance Act] when some were converted into hospitals and asylums.
Extant Records of Poor Law Unions will be either at the relevant County Record Office or the PRO.
The excellent book "Ancestral Trails "by Mark Herber should be consulted for detailed coverage of what parishes were, how they worked , and their records .
There are two specialised guides to consult on the whereabouts of extant Union records;
Poor Law Union Records, 3: South/West England,the Marches and Wales . FFHS 1993. By Gibson, J & Rogers,C.
Poor Law Union Records, 4 ; Gazetteer of England & Wales. FFHS 1993. By Gibson, J & Youngs,FA.
Illegitimacy
This section specifically relates to post 1837 birth registration procedures regarding illegitimate children.
Between 1837 and 1965 it is reckoned about 4% to 7% of births were illegitimate, it is therefore not unusual to come across one or two in one's family research !
The surname of any child [which can be any name the parents desire] has only been entered in the register [and hence on a birth certificate] since 1 April 1969. Before that date it was inferred from the parents' name. Column 2 of the birth certificate merely says "Name, if any", whereas column 4 , for example, asks for " Name, and surname of father".
The surname of a father of an illegitimate child rarely appears on the register, the space being blank, only the mother's name is usually given. Before 1875, the mother was allowed to name any man as the father; he was not required to acknowledge paternity.From that date , a man could only be named as the father if he consented and was present at the registration.If a father is not named, further research might involve the parish or poor law union records .
If an illegitimate ancestor used the mother's surname , but the birth is not found under that name, it is possible it was registered under the father's name after all, possibly with his agreement despite not being married to the mother. As a mother was apparently not required to present proof that she was married, it is also possible that a registration was sometimes made on the basis that she pretended she was married. In which case it would be worth searching the surname of any future husband, or , say, any male living in the same premises on a census return.
An illegitimate child can now be issued with a birth certificate which gives him or her the surname of either the father or the mother but the father's name can only appear on the registration entry if an affiliation order has been issued, or he signs the entry , or has acknowledged paternity through a statutory declaration.
Until 1977, foundlings [a foundling being an abandoned child of unknown parentage] were registered by Boards of Guardians and are indexed in the usual way under whatever surname was chosen for the child.
Electoral Registers and and Poll Books
Historical background to voting qualification in parliamentary elections.
In the UK today, all men and women over 18 can vote at national parliamentary elections, this wasn't always so.
Pre 1832 the old system had been the same for years, Welsh counties were only entitled to return one member of parliament [MP] each .Welsh boroughs mostly shared this same entitlement with another borough. Expanding towns like Merthyr Tydfil had no member of their own to represent them.
There were also "rotten" and "pocket " boroughs which did have MPs, the first was a no longer existing borough , and the second , controlled by a local lord or major landowner . For example, the Morgan family continuously represented Brecon for 80 years , at one point only 17 men were eligible to vote there.
Nationally, in 1830, only one man in twelve could vote, and no women at all.
Those who could vote were open to be bribed or threatened, the system was very corrupt. MPs were not paid so only the wealthy could enter, the country was run by, and for, the landed gentry.The Reform Act of 1832 came about after considerable social unrest, even civil rioting , although it didn't change anything like as much as most people wanted . Counties were divided to reflect population distribution and Wales gained 5 more seats overall with Merthyr Tydfil and Swansea now being able to elect their own MPs.
But still only one man in seven could vote, for example, Merthyr had only 500 eligible voters.
Voting was still not secret, see below for changes in the voting qualification.
The disappointment felt by the population at large lead directly to the birth of the Chartism movement.Who exactly could vote in parliamentary elections ?
Until the late C19 , the qualification for voting was generally linked to land ownership and therefore this was a right enjoyed by a minority of men.
- From the C15 the qualification in the counties was ownership, by adult men only, of freehold land with an annual value of at least 40 shillings.
In cities and boroughs the right to vote often depended on local custom.In the C19, voting qualifications were amended in 1832 , 1867 and 1884.
- In 1832 enfranchisement was extended in boroughs to men who were householders [thus including tenants] of land worth at least £10 pa, but in counties only to male owners of land of the same value.
- Relatively few people are found in Electoral registers until 1867 when there was a large increase in voters, the franchise being extended to all male owners of real property worth £5 in the counties plus those who occ