The British Association for Local History recently published* a review of Robert Dunning’s recent book for the Society and have given us permission to reprint that review on our website, which we are very pleased to be able to do. Our thanks go to Dr Heather Falvey for giving her permission.
*‘The Local Historian’, Volume 53, No. 2 (April 2023)
NATIONAL, LOCAL, FAMILY History from Somerset’s Bishops’ Registers 1264-1559 by Robert Dunning (Somerset Record Society extra series 2 2022 ix+153pp ISBN 978-0-901732-50-7) £21+£2.15 p&p.
When carrying out local or family history research, one will inevitably reach a point where it is necessary to read original documents. The purpose of record society volumes is to make documents more easily accessible by publishing transcripts of them. The reasons why particular documents are selected for publication are varied: they may be held in archives far distant from the place to which they relate; they may be in Latin and/or difficult script; or perhaps someone working on a document for their own research has offered their transcript. Whatever the reason for publication, the contents of these books might be put to various of uses by subsequent historians. Here Robert Dunning reveals what can be found in nine sets of bishops’ registers, dating from 1264 to 1559, published by the Somerset Record Society between 1887 and 1940.
This is ‘how to do’ history book, with a rather different methodology. Dunning has trawled the published registers for examples of various activities of the bishops of Bath and Wells. As he pointed out in his article ‘Bishop Droxford’s register and the importance of a comprehensive index’ (The Local Historian vol. 52 no.2, April 2022), the contents of such volumes are not always well indexed but they do contain all manner of information, not least because bishops were highly influential figures in society, holding much property and having a large entourage, not only household servants but also administrators and legal advisers.
Having explained how the registers were made, Dunning considers ‘The people of the registers’. Some lay people were recorded, but, of course, far more clergy are named in them. While they were not expected to have offspring, they would have been related to others who did, so building blocks for family historians are there. Some of these men can be seen beginning their clerical career: being tonsured and being examined to check that they have character references or recommendations and whether they were free (not a serf tied to a manor). Leave for study was sometimes granted so that clergy might be educated, even though their chaplains usually were not. Bishops were responsible in a general way for monasteries in their diocese, being involved in the election of heads of houses and ordaining monks and canons. Some of the registers include records of monastic elections, which give the names of monks, canons or nuns present (appendix I lists when the names of particular religious communities were recorded.) Sometimes all was not well in these communities. Bishop Ralph, for example, left detailed criticism of life at Muchelney in 1335, at Glastonbury in 1350 and at Cannington in 1351. As Dunning notes, ‘Medieval religion is seen in the registers as both passive and active: [not only] simple presence at mass in church but [also] regular attendance at processions outside’. Bishops granted licences for oratories or chapels to be created in private houses (detailed in appendix III), although the number allowed to attend was often limited so that parish churches were not deprived of income (or the gentry’s good example). Several bishops approved hermits and some people were given permission to go on pilgrimage: mostly clergy were recorded, but Walter, son of Thomas de Spekyngton, was to go to Compostela ‘and other places’ over three years from 1339 as part of his penance for stealing corn from the rector of Yeovilton. Other people whom the bishop might examine were heretics, principally Lollards, and in such cases the registers record what these people believed, or questioned. The registers also reveal matters relating to marriage, divorce and family problems. Such cases vary from issuing special licences for marriages between people of well-known families in their private chapels to breaches of promise. Clandestine marriages were discovered and corrected (marriage cases in the registers are listed on pp.53-56). Wills might be entered into the bishops’ registers when the deceased held property outside a single archdeaconry but within a single diocese. Few entire Somerset wills were registered but there are notes when a will had been proved and executors appointed or discharged (all such entries are listed on pp.57-65).
In ‘Rural and urban landscapes’ Dunning outlines what the registers reveal about the physical world. For rural areas it is more a question of deductions than outright statements—rectors and vicars in the countryside depended for most of their income on the proceeds of farming, not only from tithes but also from their own glebe land. Bishops might make arrangements regarding which tithed items went to the vicar and which to the rector. For example, in 1262 at Wiveliscombe the vicar had the tithe of venison in the bishop’s park. There might also be disputes with parishioners over unpaid tithes. The bishop owned property in several Somerset towns and, although the registers did not record day-to-day estate administration, they do contain references to many medieval urban communities. For example, in 1450, after a disastrous fire in Yeovil, Bishop Bekynton offered an indulgence of 40 days remission of purgatory for people prepared to help the sufferers: the fire had destroyed 117 houses. There is surprisingly little about church building, although the provision of a chapel when a community was far distant from their parish church is recorded occasionally.
In ‘The world beyond the diocese’ it is possible to see how the bishop interacted with the wider world, often depending on how close he was, or had been, to royal government. There are references to parliament and granting and collecting taxes. In letters from government there are requests for the prayers of the faithful in support of the king in invasions of Scotland and France, to defend him from attack at home and abroad, and even to improve the weather. In mid-August 1348 Bishop Ralph warned his clergy and people of the plague that was approaching the country from the East and urged them to pray for the mercy of God. The effects of the plague can be seen in the shortage of priests and other clergy since there were numerous vacancies to be filled. The ‘Wars of the Roses’ intervened in the diocese when, for example, Bishop Stillington was for some years a loyal servant of Edward IV. In 1484 prayers were asked for ‘the defence of the King (Richard III) and the realm, for peace, and for the serenity of the air and the tranquillity of the people’.
This is a fascinating book that does indeed indicate the potential of bishops’ registers for national, local and family history. But such published sources are quite rare. As Dr Dunning points out, the series of published registers for the diocese of Bath and Wells is the most complete for any diocese, with Hereford a close second. Registers for Hereford and some other dioceses have been published mainly by the Canterbury & York Society. Those of us researching people in other areas are not so fortunate.
HEATHER FALVEY is Reviews Editor of The Local Historian, and has worked extensively on later medieval documentary sources