A Suffolk Bibliography

This volume is the result of nearly fifteen years' work since the idea of such a bibliography was first considered by the Suffolk Records Society in 1964. It is designed as a practical working bibliography, and gives a comprehensive guide to the literature on almost every aspect of Suffolk.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15115-1

Price:  £30.00

Accounts of the Feoffees of the Town Lands of Bury St Edmunds, 1569-1622

In 1569, thirty years after its abbey had been dissolved, the large town of Bury St Edmunds remained unincorporated. These accounts show how the feoffees (still essentially the medieval Candlemas guild) experimented with town government. The pre-Reformation landed endowments were increased throughout the period. This enabled the feoffees to address many aspects of town life. In addition to payments for housing and clothing the poor, and the provision of medical care, they also contributed to the cost of providing clergy (whose theology was akin to their own) for the two town churches. To encourage trade, they built the town's first covered Market Cross, while the acquisition of theShire House enabled the assizes and quarter sessions to move into the town. After the turn of the century, the Charitable Uses Act of 1601 was used to recover land which had long ago been alienated. At the same time some of the up and coming men successfully petitioned for a charter of incorporation for Bury St Edmunds, so that in 1606 the town acquired the borough status which had eluded it for centuries. Unless new sources are discovered, these accounts, though inevitably slanted to the feoffees' activities, are the most revealing source for the work of the new corporation in its early years.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15921-8

Price:  £35.00

Charters of St Bartholomew's Priory, Sudbury

The Benedictine priory of St Bartholomew outside Sudbury was a cell of Westminster Abbey founded in the reign of Henry I by Wulfric the moneyer. Although a small and poorly-endowed establishment, it has nevertheless, and unusually, left over 130 original documents in the muniments at Westminster, enabling this volume in the Suffolk Charters series to be the first to be devoted to a group of original documents rather than medieval transcriptions. Dating mostly from the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the collection illustrates the lower levels of local society and the government of the town, providing a wealth of evidence for trades and occupations, place names and personal names in the Sudbury area, including the earliest known reeves and mayors of Sudbury. Of particular interest are a late-fourteenth century inventory of the priory which brings alive the physical surroundings of the monks, and the quantities of seals attached to the charters, including an unusual number of women's seals.
RICHARD MORTIMER has been Keeper of the Muniments, Westminster Abbey, since 1986; he has edited four previous volumes in the Suffolk Charters series.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15574-6

Price:  £25.00

Charters of the Medieval Hospitals of Bury St Edmunds

This volume contains over 250 charters and other documents relating to four of the six hospitals established in medieval Bury. The core of the collection is the cartulary of St John's hospital, the domus Dei, but documents relating to the hospitals of St Nicholas, St Peter and St Saviour are also included.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15558-6

Price:  £25.00

Churchwardens' Accounts of Cratfield, 1640-1660

The rare set of churchwardens' accounts edited here offers a detailed view of life in an East Anglian village during the English civil wars. Their survival is unusual in a time which is considered by many to have experienced a wide-spread breakdown of local government, and they reveal many aspects of early modern life: of particular interest are the costs of war in a village which committed both men and money to Parliament's cause. The introduction recreates the demographic, economic and social structure of early modern Cratfield, and the volume is completed with a number of appendices, including short biographies of those named in the accounts.
LYNN A. BOTELHO is in the Department of History at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15759-7

Price:  £30.00

Dodnash Priory Charters

The history of Dodnash Priory, one of numerous Augustinian priories founded in East Anglia in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, has hitherto been totally obscure. The two hundred original charters edited here now show that it was founded by Wimer the chaplain, sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk and a prominent servant of Henry II, and that although always small it played a disproportionately large part in the economic and social life of south-east Suffolk for the next three centuries. The early charters include the first known references to Flatford Mill at East Bergholt; later documents relate to serious flooding at the end of the thirteenth century, and soon thereafter to the leasing of estates in order to adapt to new economic conditions. As always, the charters provide much information about local lay society as well as the canons themselves.
CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL is Professor of English History at the University of East Anglia.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15372-8

Price:  £25.00

Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters I

Eye priory, founded in the late 1080s by Robert Malet as a cell of the abbey of Bernay in Normandy, was the first house of Benedictine monks to be established in Suffolk after the Norman Conquest, to be followed shortly afterwardsby Stoke-by-Clare. The two share similarities; both were cells of great Norman abbeys and both were established in the centre of feudal lordships or `honours'. The heartlands of the honour, given by William the Conqueror to Robert's father, lay around Eye itself, stretching from there across the north of the county eastward to the sea and to Dunwich. The development of this port in the early 12th century and its slow decline therafter, is reflectedin the loss and decline of many of the churches the priory held there. The charters contained in the mid-thirteenth century cartulary provide valuable information about the lordship of the honour as well as other religious, social and economic matters of interest to medieval historians of the local and wider world of the 12th and 13th centuries.
VIVIEN BROWN worked on Eye priory material with her husband, R. Allen Brown, the initiator and first General editor of the series. [East Anglian] Eye priory, founded in the late 1080s by Robert Malet as a cell of the abbey of Bernay in Normandy, was the first house of Benedictine monks to be established in Suffolk after the Norman Conquest. The charters contained in its mid-thirteenth century cartulary provide valuable information about religious, social and economic matters of interest to medieval historians of both the local and wider world of the 12th and13th centuries.
VIVIEN BROWN worked on Eye priory material with her husband, R. Allen Brown, the initiator and first General editor of the series.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15322-3

Price:  £30.00

Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters II

This second volume of the charters of the Benedictine priory of Eye, a cell of the Abbey of Bernay in Normandy, comprises an introduction to the charters and completes the text of the thirteenth-century cartulary edited in the first volume, together with certain other charters from a fourteenth-century rental and custumary and the very few original deeds which survive. As well as being of interest to those studying ecclesiastical and social history, the charters are important in casting light on the history of the `honor' of Eye itself, in particular the succession of its lords in the twelfth century. Interesting links can be made to earlier volumes in the Suffolk Chartersseries. As an alien priory in the centre of an `honor', Eye has affinities with Stoke by Clare, and the evidence which the charters of Eye provide for local history and genealogy is all the more comprehensive in the light of other charters, particularly those of Sibton, Leiston and Blythburgh.
VIVIEN BROWN worked on Eye priory material with her husband, R. Allen Brown, the initiator and first General editor of the series.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15347-6

Price:  £25.00

Guilds and the Parish Community in Late Medieval East Anglia c. 1470-1550

The parish and the guild were the two poles round which social and religious life revolved in late medieval England. This study, drawing freely on East Anglian records, shows how influential they were in the lives of their communities in the years before the break with Rome - and provides an implicit commentary on the impact of the Henrician Reformation at parish level. The records of many of the guilds (or fraternities) of East Anglia in the years 1470-1550 are examined for evidence of their form, function and popularity; the spread of fraternities across East Anglia, the size of individual guilds, types of member, and the benefits of guild membership are all studied in detail. The social and religious functions of the fraternities are then compared with the parish, through a study of the records of two Norfolk market towns (Wymondham and Swaffham) and two Suffolk villages (Bardwell and Cratfield). A final chapter studies the fortunes of the guilds during the early years of the Reformation, up to their dissolution in 1548. KEN FARNHILL is research associate at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.   hardback   ISBN 978-1-903-15305-5

Price:  £55.00

Ipswich Borough Archives 1255-1835

Ipswich received its first charter from King John in 1200; the Corporation records survive from 1255, placing the borough archive among the earliest in England, antedated only by Leicester, Shrewsbury, Wallingford, London and Exeter. The archive is particularly rich in records of the medieval courts, most notably perhaps those of the Court of Petty Pleas, whose cases touched almost every aspect of town life, and those of the Petty Court of Recognizances -in effect a register of deeds furnishing a detailed record of transactions involving burgage tenements. The financial records of Treasurer and Chamberlains are particularly detailed for the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, and much social history is contained in the records of various town charities. This catalogue, published to celebrate the 800th anniversary of John's charter, includes all the surviving records of the old Corporation down to its dissolution in 1835, thus facilitating access to an unjustly neglected major source for the history of Suffolk. Also two contextual essays: The Government of Ipswich from its Origins to c. 1550 by GEOFFREY MARTIN (former Keeper of the Rolls) and The Government of Ipswich from c. 1550-1835 by FRANK GRACE (Lecturer, Suffolk College). Dr DAVID ALLEN is on the staff of the Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich and editor of the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15772-6

Price:  £45.00

Ipswich Recognizance Rolls, 1294-1327

The recognizance rolls of Ipswich are a register of titles to property in the borough and are among the most varied and interesting of the courts records. They begin in the late thirteenth century and extend, in a series of filesand leger-books, through to the Victorian age. Their texts comprise abstracts and copies of private deeds, testaments proved in the borough court, and grants of common soil. The careful description of properties, including ownership of neighbouring tenements, and the naming of parishes, streets, and landmarks, makes them a source of great historical and topographical interest. The early part of the series is well preserved, and its continuity allows us tofollow the fortunes of individuals and of families in some detail. We can observe in these gifts, bequests, and exchanges the recruitment of the burghal community and the affiliations of its members. It also offers a varied picture of the borough court at work, both as a tribunal and as an administrative office. The contents of the first twenty-one rolls are presented in an English paraphrase that takes account of all significant variations in the originalLatin, and also indicates the clerk's marginal notes and memoranda.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-900-71614-0

Price:  £25.00

Poor Relief in Elizabethan Ipswich

The records in this book provide one of the most illuminating social studies of an Elizabethan town ever undertaken. Ipswich suffered severely from the economic dislocations of the mid-sixteenth century and here we see the townsmen's response. One of the principal benefactors of the town was the merchant Henry Tooley who, when he died in 1551, left most of his fortune to the poor of the borough. The first part of this volume records the work of the Tooley Foundation, the experience gained in establishing the Foundation led on to a complementary system of public charity, with a municipal poorhouse and Christ's Hospital, records of which provide the second part of the book. The third part is a register of the Ipswich poor over the years 1569-83. The fourth part lists the poor rate assessments of 1574, provides a directory of all the well-to-do inhabitants, catalogues relief in time of plague and ends with an elaborate cenSus of the poor in 1597. The whole work is a vivid picture of a period and problem often discussed, but rarely illustrated in so striking a way.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-900-71603-4

Price:  £25.00

Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters Part II

Sibton Abbey, founded in 1150, was the only Cistercian house in Suffolk. Its substantial remains include two cartularies and a large number of original charters. Of particular interest is the proportion of later documents runningup to the Reformation, thus providing an unusually comprehensive survey of the house, its properties, tenants and patrons.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15443-5

Price:  £25.00

Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters Part III

Sibton Abbey, founded in 1150, was the only Cistercian house in Suffolk: of particular interest is the proportion of later documents running up to the Reformation, thus providing an unusually comprehensive survey of the house, itsproperties, tenants and patrons.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15474-9

Price:  £25.00

Sibton Abbey Cartularies and Charters Part IV

[East Anglian] A wealth of surviving documents provide an unusually comprehensive overview of the only Cistercian house in Suffolk.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15499-2

Price:  £25.00

Stoke by Clare Cartulary

The first two volumes make available all the existing pre-Reformation charter material, the third consists of an introduction and index. Taken together the three volumes illuminate the social and economic as well as the ecclesiastical organisation of the Suffolk-Essex border in the 12th and 13th Centuries.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15198-4

Price:  £25.00

Stoke-by-Clare Cartulary

[East Anglian]Three volumes illuminating the social, economic and ecclesiastical organisation of the Suffolk-Essex border in the 12th and 13th centuries.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15165-6

Price:  £25.00

Stoke-by-Clare Priory Cartulary

The first two volumes make available all the existing pre-Reformation charter material, the third consists of an introduction and index. Taken together the three volumes illuminate the social and economic as well as the ecclesiastical organisation of the Suffolk-Essex border in the 12th and 13th Centuries.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15179-3

Price:  £25.00

Suffolk 1524 Subsidy Return

Thousands upon thousands of people listed in this transcript of ancient documents. Subsidy returns are of very great value to genealogists and historians, since they show the residence of persons, the value of their assessment, and the amount of tax contributed by each, whether on their land or their goods.    

Price:  £12.13

Suffolk 1568 Subsidy Return

More than 16,000 people are listed in this transcript of ancient documents. Practically the whole of the male population of Suffolk with a small sprinkling of women too, from wealthy landowners down to their servants. Effectively a partial census in 1568 with an excellent index as well.    

Price:  £12.13

Suffolk 1873 Return of Owners of Land

Lists every person in the county who owned 1 acre of land or more, with name, place, extent of land and its value.    

Price:  £8.94

Suffolk Committees for Scandalous Ministers 1644-46

In the 1640s Parliament intervened against clergymen with Royalist sympathies, and in the political jargon of the time they were referred to as 'Scandalous Ministers'. As the Civil War developed two Suffolk committees were empowered to hear evidence against any minister (or schoolmaster) who was 'scandalous' in either life or doctrine, or in any way 'malignant' (ill-affected to Parliament).   hardback   ISBN 978-0-900-71600-3

Price:  £25.00

The Cartulary of the Augustinian Friars of Clare

The Augustinian friary of Clare is one of the very few medieval religious houses to have been re-occupied, in the present century, by its original inhabitants. This late medieval cartulary contains a multitude of deeds relating to Clare and its immediate neighbourhood recording the endowment of the friary in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the countess Matilda and numerous local inhabitants. The text is presented in the form of a full English calendar, with notes and an introduction.
CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL is principal lecturer in history, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill. He is general editor of Boydell & Brewer's new series, `Studies in History of the Medieval Church', following the death of R. ALLEN BROWN he has also assumed the editorship of the Suffolk Charters Series. He has edited several volumes of records of the medieval church.[East Anglian] The late medieval cartulary of the Augustinian friary of Clare -one of the very few medieval religious houses to have been re-occupied, in the present century, by its original inhabitants -contains a multitude of deeds relating to Clare and its immediate neighbourhood, recording the endowment of the friary in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the countess Matilda and numerous local inhabitants. Of wider interest are documents relating to the furnishing of a chapel, violation of the right of sanctuary, indulgences and the friars' library and begging limits. The text is presented in the form of a full English calendar, with notes and an introduction.
CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL is principal lecturer in history, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill. He is general editor of Boydell & Brewer's new series, `Studies in History of the Medieval Church'; following the death of R. ALLEN BROWN he has also assumed the editorship of the Suffolk Charters Series. He has edited several volumes of records of the medieval church.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15295-0

Price:  £25.00

The Court Rolls of Walsham le Willows, 1303-50

These records of the proceedings of the one hundred and fifty-five courts for the two manors of Walsham le Willows, Suffolk, provide a wealth of evidence of a sophisticated system of local administration and justice, operating ina populous and prosperous community. The rolls were designed to be used as working documents, and, being accessible to all, they protected the interest of the ordinary man and woman as well as that of the lord of the manor. Examples of tenants or claimants using the rolls to settle disputes over title show that there was a flourishing land market in Walsham; and the frequent cases of damage by domestic animals reveal details of agriculture, crops grown andanimals kept. The rolls cover two contrasting periods, marked by political unrest and the advent of the Black Death; dramatic evidence of its terrible virulence, and the resilience of the stricken population, survives in these rolls.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15616-3

Price:  £30.00

The Court Rolls of Walsham le Willows, 1351-1399

The court rolls of the two manors of Walsham le Willows provide detailed evidence of the workings of local administration and justice in the fourteenth century, and were themselves working documents designed to be accessible to all. As Roy Lock says of the documents edited in the first volume, 'they protected the interest of the ordinary man and woman as well as that of the lord of the manor.' This second volume completes the transcription of all surviving court rolls for the fourteenth century manors of Walsham le Willows, covering the proceedings of ninety-nine courts after the Black Death had tragically reduced the local population. Serious difficulties still had to be overcome: for example, two successive reeves of Walsham manor were heavily fined for gross dereliction of duty, and in 1353 a large number of tenants refused to perform services for their lord. In general, however, these rolls give ample evidence of increased prosperity as land-holdings grew in size, and as the land and labour markets quickly stabilised.
RAY LOCK is a retired civil servant who has become immersed in the study of local history since his move to Suffolk. He edited the first volume of Walsham le Willows court rolls for the Suffolk Records Society (published in 1998), and has written on the local effects of the Black Death in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15846-4

Price:  £30.00

The History of the Parish of Buxhall

A huge volume published in 1902 which is incredibly detailed. The contents include transcripts from the parish register from 1558, court rolls, and early wills, plus details of free and copyhold tenants, topographical and historical information. Also included are twenty four full plate illustrations and a very large map of lands in the parish.    

Price:  £17.87

The Pakenham Cartulary for the Manor of Ixworth Thorpe, Suffolk, c.1250-c.1320

The Pakenham cartulary for the manor of Ixworth Thorpe in Suffolk is one of the few secular medieval cartularies to survive. It is especially deserving of attention for its demonstration of the importance families of the Pakenhamclass attached to the provision of inheritances for their younger sons. Thomas of Pakenham, the man for whom the cartulary was composed, was the second son of the knight Sir William of Pakenham; his elder brother Edmund was the main beneficiary of their father's estate, but it is clear that Sir William wished to provide for all his sons: the manor of Ixworth Thorpe was Thomas's inheritance. The charters collected in this cartulary represent the assets of Sir William in the vill, accumulated over a period of about fifty years, plus acquisitions made by Thomas after his father's death.
Dr S.D. CHURCH is Senior Lecturer in History, University of East Anglia.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15835-8

Price:  £25.00

The Town Finances of Elizabethan Ipswich Select Treasurers' and Chamberlains' Accounts

The treasurers' and chamberlains' accounts of Elizabethan Ipswich are a detailed record of the annual income and expenditure of the town's ruling body during one of the most fascinating periods of its history. A major source for any detailed study of the Suffolk borough at a time when it was among the country's ten richest provincial towns, the entries selected from the accounts not only shed light on sixteenth-century urban administration but also providevivid insights into the social and economic life of the period: the equipping of soldiers, ducking of scolds, and performances of town minstrels and itinerant players.
JOHN WEBB was formerly Principal Lecturer in History at Portsmouth Polytechnic.   hardback   ISBN 978-0-851-15643-9

Price:  £25.00