The Amateur Historian Volume 7 Number 1 February 1966

By Kerridge, Eric

pp 2-7

Study of the potential of manorial surveys as source material for local history. Kerridge, a leading agricultural historian, gives a simple definition of the manor, noting that its lands, services and rents were controlled by a court baron, and that these and the courts leet determined the systems of land transfer and the relationships between landlord and tenant. The manorial court system included courts of recognition, by which a new lord took possession of the manor and was acknowledged by the tenants, and courts of survey, which carried out a detailed survey of the lands and redefined agreements when a new landlord took control. The latter included investigations of all the deeds and leases, valuations and rents, rights and obligations, and descriptions of the housing. Few, though, have details of acreages or surveys in the later (18th century) sense, and even fewer give any information in map form.

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By Mills, Dennis

pp 7-13

This article follows on from (06 08 271-278), in which Mills discusses the sociological analysis of village communities. Here he reviews a wide range of sources, both primary and secondary, which allow the researcher to undertake analysis of this type. He divides the materials into documentary sources, statistical printed sources and general reference works: i) documentary sources: including tithe maps and apportionments; parish enclosure awards; estate records; land tax records; crop returns; census data; ii) statistical printed sources: including census data; poor law returns; county directories; early county histories; Ballot Act poll books; and iii) general printed sources such as published histories and reference works. The article includes a bibliography of relevant texts.

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By Owen, Dorothy M.

pp 17-27

A detailed explanation of possible methods and procedures for the study of church history, using archive sources. The article emphasises the range, content and location of likely material, including i) episcopal records such as bishops' registers, supplementary registers and files, visitation returns, and the records of the consistory court; ii) archdiaconal records, which may replicate on a smaller scale the form of the diocesan records; iii) records of the dean and chapter and other collegiate bodies; iv) records of the appropriate archdiocese; v) faculty office records, held in Lambeth Palace Library; vi) the other records at Lambeth; vii) papal records, held in the Vatican archives or available in transcript or other published form; viii) material in the Public Record Office; ix) material in the House of Lords Record Office, especially papers associated with private Bills; x) records of municipal corporations and other local government bodies; xi) private papers in family and estate collections; and xii) private papers collected by antiquarians and historians over the past three or four centuries.

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By Johnson, W. Branch

pp 28-32

A biographical study, one of a short series, dealing with Reginald Leslie Hine, who in the early 20th century wrote extensively on Hitchin and the history of north Hertfordshire.