One of only two directories for Lancaster and District published by Bulmer's, this edition contains some 608 printed pages and is subtitled The History and Archaeology of the Town of Lancaster, with Separate Historical Descriptions of Each Parish and Township within a Radius of about Sixteen Miles.
Beginning with a history of the Lancaster from the Roman Invasion and continuing with a historical and topographical description of the town of Lancaster in 1912, the Directory then provides details on the towns civic, religious and municipal institutions and officers beginning with the Corporation of Lancaster its Council and Councillors and ending with a list of the carriers to and from Lancaster. The Directory then provides an alphabetical list of of the main residents and traders of the town followed by an alphabetical classification of trades and professions.
The majority of Bulmer's Lancaster Directory, some four hundred pages, treats on the parishes and townships within sixteen miles of the town, providing for each historical and topographical descriptions as well as listings of the chief residents, services, statistics, etc. The parish or township of Over Wyresdale, is treated upon in eighteen pages. Formerly part of the ancient forest of Lancaster it then existed in the Lancaster country court district and the union, petty sessional and electoral division of South Lonsdale. With a long association with the Molyneux family, the largest landowner for the parish was the Molyneux successor, the Earl of Sefton. Lengthy descriptions are provided for the notable edifices of Over Wyresdale, notably the Friend's Meeting House, Cawthorne's Endowed School, Abbeystead House, Lentworth Hall and Catshaw Farm, before a full-page biographical note on the Molyneux family is provided. The Directory then provides alphabetical notices of the principal residents and farmers of the villages within the parish, which included Aldcliffe, Cockersand Abbey, Ashton-with-Stodday, Bleasdale, Gressingham-with-Eskrigg, Heaton-with-Oxcliffe, Middleton, Myerscough, Overton, Preesall-with-Hackensall, Quernmore, Stalmine-with-Staynal, Thurnham and Over Wyresdale.
While the level of detail provided by Bulmer's Lancaster Directory on the parish of Over Clydesdale and its villages is the norm throughout, entries for some of the larger urban settlements such as Morecambe, Carnforth and Cartmel carry much greater detail and include trades and professions directories as well as the usual list of principal inhabitants. As Bulmer's Lancaster Directory is restricted to a relatively small geographical area the amount of detail provided on the places and people it does treat on is necessarily that much greater than a complete country directory.
As with all historical directories the uses for the local historian and genealogist alike are almost limitless and this is undoubtedly the case with Bulmer's History, Topography, and Directory of Lancaster & District, one of only a handful of directories that cover this part of Britain.
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Republished here in fully searchable digital format is the 65th edition of Doidge's Western Counties Illustrated Annual. Printed and published in Plymouth in 1933 by Hoyten & Cole, Doidge's Western Counties Illustrated Annual advertised itself as 'A book to Read and a Book to Refer to', which sums-up this publication quite nicely. Containing 462 printed pages of all sorts of miscellany such as directories of doctors, druggists, etc., tide tables, lighting up times, lists of churches, fairs, market days, packet ships, postal delivery services and much, much more.
As with all of the editions of Doidge's Western Counties Illustrated Annual, the publication paints an intimate portrait of the world as it was in the year of the Annual's publication, with particular emphasis on the Devon and Cornwall areas of England. A treasury of social history for the Western Counties, the Annual contains hundreds of local and indeed nation advertisements as well as hundreds of photographs of people and events from the western counties in 1932/33.
Doidge's Western Counties Illustrated Annual was founded by Thomas Sweet Doidge and first published in 1869, the longevity of the Annual clearly illustration its popularity and success. Thomas Sweet Doidge, a Wesleyan Methodist was born in West Teignmouth in 1833, the son John Sweet Doidge, who ran a successful book shop in Plymouth. John Doidge gained a reputation as an ingenious and successful bookseller by offering huge discounts on new titles from American and London publishers, some at less that a quarter of the advertised price. By 1864 Thomas Sweet Doidge had inherited his father's business, which he moved to 169-70 Union Street in 1867. Continuing with his father's practice of allowing vast discounts on new books, Thomas quickly built-up the largest booksellers in the West of England. It was from Union Street that Doidge first published his highly successful Western Counties Illustrated Annual in 1869, which he continued to published until his death in 1888. Publication of the Annual remained in the control of the family after Thomas's death, when two of his young daughters, Evelyn and Lily continued their father's business, finally relinquishing the Annual to Messrs Hoyten and Cole in 1900, who retained by the Annual's name and highly successful format.
Apart from the miscellany of directories, photographs and advertisements the 1933 edition of Doidge's Western Counties Illustrated Annual also contains some thirty short stories and sketches and numerous poems all of which make Doidge's Western Counties Illustrated Annual a fascinating and highly entertaining publication.
Originally published in London 1917 by MacMillan & Co., Ltd., this first edition of the Highways and Byways in Wiltshire, is republished here in fully-searchable digital format. Macmillan began publishing the Highways & Byways series in 1899 and by 1909 had completed almost twenty publications in the series, which extended across the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales, with one publication on Normandy and and another on Ireland. This highly popular series continued until the beginning of the Second World War. In May 2009 Pan Macmillan reissued a one-volume collection of the best of the Highways and Byways series offering a glimpse of the very best of Britain.
The original publication of the Highways and Byways in Wiltshire contains more than 450 printed pages, including a map of the county showing the routes taken by the author, Edward Hutton, who chose a number of circular routes that took him to the four corners of Wiltshire, and almost 90 pen and ink illustrations by Nelly Erichsen, providing as with all of the Highways and Byways series a wonderful mix of topography, local history and folklore, which perhaps more than ever allows the reader to rediscover parts of Britain that have long disappeared under a morass of concrete, bypasses and motorways.
Edward Hutton undertook twenty-seven topographical tours upon which he reported in the Highways and Byways of Wiltshire, numbered amongst which were the following: Old Sarum; Salisbury; the Meads; the Salisbury Avon; Valley of the Bourne; Amesbury; Stonehenge; Upper Valleys of the Wyle, Winterbourne, Nadder and Ebble; the Dorest Border; the Somerset Border; Devizes; Savernake Forest and its villages; Marlborough and district; Avebury; Swindon; Cricklade; concluding with a number of tours along the valley of the western Avon and the foothills of the Cotswolds.
Much of the charm a vigour of the Highways and Byways series which has stood the test of time is down to the travellers and in the case of Wiltshire this is no exception. A British author with a penchant for travel, Edward Hutton (1875-1969) was as familiar if not more so with Italy than Wiltshire, having already published a biography on Boccaccio, and books on Florence, Northern Tuscany, Genoa, Ravenna and Italy and the Italians, by the time he took-up his topographical tour of Wiltshire for Macmillan. However, as with his Italian excursions, Hutton, in the words of the New York Times in a review of one of his earlier works remarked, Mr. Hutton is a man of candour and keen observation and wit, attributes he brought to the fore in his writing of the Highways and Byways of Wiltshire. Highways and Byways in Wiltshire is replete with almost 90 pen and ink sketches by Nelly Erichsen, an illustrator who flourished between 1882 and 1917 and for who Italy was also familiar having already illustrated works entitled Venice and its Story and the Story of Assisi. Nelly Erichsen's illustrations of Wiltshire are a delight and compliment Hutton's text beautifully.
First published in 1883 and republished here in fully-searchable digital format is the first edition of the Diocesan History of Worcester. Containing some 383 printed pages the History of the Diocese of Worcester was written by the Rev. I. Gregory Smith, then Vicar of Great Malvern and the Rev. Phipps Onslow and published in London by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is the oldest Anglican mission organisation and was established by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray and others in 1698 and apart from the Oxford and Cambridge University is the oldest publishing house or organisation in England and apart from its extensive publication and distribution of bibles and religious tracts, from the 1830s onward it embarked on the publication and distribution of general religious histories of the Anglican Church and the History of the Diocese of Worcester is one such example.
Existing as it it did as a See on the frontier of east and west, sandwiched between the powerful and unruly Kingdoms of Northumbria and Wessex, the See of Worcester, situated co-extensively within the territory of the Wiccii in Mercia was from its foundation subjected to the 'vicissitudes of a debatable land in the midst of contending forces' and more than once in its early history was the Bishop of Worcester found in his civil capacity defending his See against invaders.
The History of the Diocese of Worcester is presented in a roughly chronological fashion beginning with the conversion of the indigenous Princess of Wiccii to Christianity. Here its was seen that the Wiccians favoured the development of monasticism, which was in marked contrast to the remainder of the Kingdom of Mercia and it was argued by Smith and Onslow that assisted the Princess in civilising their Kingdom as well as providing shelter in turbulent times for members of their families and the Cathedral of Worcester was originated as one of these earliest monastic cathedrals and refuges.
From the Wiccian conversion, the History of the Diocese of Worcester traces the development of the Diocese and its history in a further fifteen chapters starting with the supremacy of the Kingdom of Mercia, the upheavals wrought by the arrival of the Danes and later the Normans and the bloodshed and battles fought on the lands of the See of Worcester during the reigns of the Plantagenet Kings. Much of the History of the Diocese of Worcester is not unnaturally given over to the period immediately before the Reformation and the subsequent impact on the Diocese during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary and Elizabeth before concluding with chapters centred around the periods of the Civil War and the Restoration, concluding with the state of the Diocese in the eighteenth century.
Written from a number of primary sources, the History of the Diocese of Worcester is fully-indexed and contains a number of valuable appendices, which include a complete list of the Bishops of the Diocese as well as the Priors and Deans, a short history on the Wiccii and a description of the arms of the See of Worcester. The History of the Diocese of Worcester is a valuable addition on the rich and varied history of this diverse and important diocese.
First published in 1892 this edition of Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of his Letters, was published in London John Murray in 1902 and contains a photograph of Darwin towards the end of his life by Elliott and Fry, one of a limited edition of 4,000 such reproductions.
In his preface to the first edition, Francis Darwin, the third son and seventh child of Charles and the author and compiler of this work - himself a renowned biologist - states that this publication is 'practically an abbreviation of the Life and Letters' of Charles Darwin, published in 1887. Containing some 350 printed pages, Francis Darwin's Charles Darwin details in thirteen chapters much of the life of Charles Darwin revealed mainly through his correspondence with colleagues, with a large portion of the book given over to the development of the ideas and eventual publication of the work that was to eventually change the way man viewed everything about himself and the world in which he inhabited: Origin of the Species. The republication here in fully-searchable digital format of Charles Darwin is poignant as it coincides with the 150th Anniversary of the publication of the Origin of the Species. Although an abbreviation of Life and Letters, Francis Darwin notes that the chapters detailing the story of the Origins of the Species are 'told with nearly the full amount of available material'.
Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, an in a Selected Series of his Letters is a roughly chronological account of the life of Charles Darwin beginning with his birth in Shropshire in 1809 and with his death at Downe House in Kent in 1882 and funeral at Westminster Abbey. Charles Darwin is introduced by its author with a brief sketch of the Darwins and is followed by 'the autobiography' indicated in the title of this publication. This fifty-page account of his life was composed by Darwin at the prompting of a a German editor who had written to Darwin requesting 'an account of the development of my mind and character with some sketch of my autobiography'. Written in August 1876 and entitled Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character, Darwin thought that an attempt to sketch his life would be 'amusing'; written for his children and grandchildren Darwin's recollections were composed as if her 'were a dead man in another world looking back at my own life'.
It is to the Origins of the Species, Darwin's legacy to humankind, that much of this book is given over to. With chapters on his appointment to the Beagle, the five year voyage and even longer thirteen year ruminations on what the voyage's discoveries might mean to the germination of ideas that led to the writing of the Origins of the Species, which took a further thirteen years, until eventual publication at the end of 1859. Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of his Letters is concluded by the impact of the Origins of the Species in the decade after its publication together with more detailed examinations on some of Charles Darwin's botanical work.
This 1902 edition of Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of his Letters, which is indexed, is republished here in fully-searchable digital format and is a timely republication 150 years after Darwin's original publication of the thesis that changed the way we think about everything for ever.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format is the 8th edition of Baddeley & Ward's Guide to South Devon and South Cornwall, originally published in London by Thomas Nelson & Sons., in 1915. Published as part of Baddeley and Ward's 'Thorough Guide' Series, this edition contains 405 printed pages and carries the full title of Thorough Guide Series: South Devon & South Cornwall with a Full Description of Dartmoor and the Isles of Scilly.
Mountford John Byrde Baddeley (1843-1906) distinguished himself as a guide book writer of the late 19th early 20th centuries, with his first 'Thorough Guide', that to the Lake District, being published by Dulau in 1880. This publication alone went through 23 editions, the last being published by Hammond in 1978 illustrating the enduring appeal of the format of Baddeley's Thorough Guides, which encompassed twenty regions throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
This edition of the Baddeley's Thorough Guide to South Devon and South Cornwall was edited by W. Baxter, the text written by Charles .Slegg Ward with maps and plans by J. Bartholomew and includes some twenty pages of advertisements, list of golf courses, approaches and an introduction. Written for the independent tourist travelling on foot, bicycle by coach or rail these guides were at the time of their publication particularly highly regarded and praised in the national newspapers for their accuracy, tasteful topographic descriptions and beautiful maps and these aspects of the Thorough Guides series was as true then as it is today. The 8th edition for South Devon and South Cornwall includes a number of gradient route maps designed for cyclists, which also note dangerous bends in roads and approaches into towns and villages.
The Thorough Guide to South Devon and South Cornwall includes thirty-four main destinations, which are Lyme Regis, Seaton, Sidmouth, Exeter, Exmouth, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot, Torquay, Dartmouth, Totnes, Kingsbridge, Salcombe, Dartmore, Ashburton, Bovery Tracey, Lustleigh & Moreton Hampstead, Chagford, Okehampton, Lydford, Tavistock, Ivybridge, Plymouth & Devonport, Liskeard, Lostwithiel, St. Austell, Truro, Fowey, Falmouth, The Lizard, Marazion, St. Michael's Mount, Penzance and the Isles of Scilly. Each of the destinations is accompanied by descriptions of how to get there be it by rail, bicycle or coach and on arrival where to stay. From these focal points the Thorough Guide provides notes for all the activities available in the area, such as notes for walkers, notes for cyclists, anglers, golfers and the like as well as learned topographical descriptions provided by Ward on the local buildings, places and sights of interest. From each stopping point the reader is offered a number of day trips or excursions, which are aimed walkers with varying levels of fitness to cyclists prepared to cycle more than 100 miles in a day!
One of the distinguishing features of the Thorough Guides series are the excellent maps and plans that accompany the guides and the 1915 edition for South Devon and South Cornwall is no exception. This edition includes fourteen coloured, contoured maps as well as a number of street plans, as well as a diagram of the interior of Exeter Cathedral and coloured route-maps specifically designed for cyclists. The nature of the maps, showing reliefs and gradients are akin to modern discovery series Ordnance Survey Maps all of which mark the routes described in Ward's text.
The 1915 edition of the Thorough Guide to South Devon and South Cornwall is an excellent travel companion for the environs that it covers and all editions in this series have now become eminently desirable to collectors, the maps alone making this digital republication a worthy edition to anyone with an interest in the north Devon and Cornwall areas of England.
Originally published in London 1910 by MacMillan & Co., Ltd., this first edition of the Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire, is republished here in fully-searchable digital format. Macmillan began publishing the Highways & Byways series in 1899 and by 1909 had completed almost twenty publications in the series, which extended across the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales, with one publication on Normandy and and another on Ireland. This highly popular series continued until the beginning of the Second World War. In May 2009 Pan Macmillan reissued a one-volume collection of the best of the Highways and Byways series offering a glimpse of the very best of Britain.
The original publication of the Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire contains more than 340 printed pages, but unusually for the series as a whole no map of the route undertaken by the author, Clement Shorter, who chose to take a number of short trips, and almost 100 pen and ink illustrations by Frederick L. Griggs, providing as with all of the Highways and Byways series a wonderful mix of topography, local history and folklore, which perhaps more than ever allows the reader to rediscover parts of Britain that have long disappeared under a morass of concrete, motorways and bypasses.
Clement Shorter undertook more than twenty-five 'tours' on which he reported in the Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire, which included the following stops in his itinerary: Aylesbury and Thame; Aston; Brill; Quarrendon & QuaintonTring; Wendover; Great Missenden; Amersham; High & West Wycombe as well as chapters on noted personalities of the county such as the Chalfont family and noted establishments, including Eton College, Chequers and Hampden House.
Much of the charm a vigour of the Highways and Byways series, which has stood the test of time is down to the travellers and in the case of Buckinghamshire this is no exception. Clement Shorter (1857-1926), a noted journalist, began his career at the Star, before becoming editor of the Illustrated London News and founded icons in British publishing such as Sketch, Tatler and Sphere. Shorter was married to Dora Sigerson, author and daughter of George Sigerson a noted Dublin surgeon, writer and folklorist. The Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire is replete with more than 100 pen and ink sketches by Frederick Landseer Griggs (1876-1938). A native of Hertfordshire, this was one of thirteen books illustrated by Griggs in the Highways and Byways series. An architectural draughtsman, illustrator, early conservationist, associate of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds, Griggs was the most distinguished etcher of his age and the first etcher to be elected to full membership of the Royal Academy. His illustrations from this period 'capture a vanishing England of a brooding spiritual intensity, harking back to an idyll of vanished dreams' and as such fit very well with the general themes of the Highways and Byways series, that of a vanished or forgotten heritage. The presence of so many of Griggs' sketches in one place is sufficient reason to purchase any of the series in which he was the illustrator.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format is the 8th and 9th editions of Baddeley & Ward's Guide to North Devon and North Cornwall, originally published in London by Dulau & Co., in 1904. Published as part of Baddeley and Ward's 'Thorough Guide' Series, these editions contain 195 and 261 printed pages and carries the full title of Thorough Guide Series: North Devon [Including West Somerset] and North Cornwall. From Exmoor to the Scilly Isles with a Description of the Various Approaches.
This edition of the Baddeley's Thorough Guide to North Devon and North Cornwall was edited by Baddeley, the text written by Charles Slegg Ward with maps and plans by J. Bartholomew. Written for the independent tourist travelling on foot, bicycle by coach or rail these guides were at the time of their publication particularly highly regarded and praised in the national newspapers for their accuracy, tasteful topographic descriptions and beautiful maps and these aspects of the Thorough Guides series was as true then as it is today. The 9th edition for North Devon and North Cornwall includes a number of gradient route maps designed for cyclists, which also note dangerous bends in roads and approaches into towns and villages.
The Thorough Guide to North Devon and North Cornwall includes fifteen main destinations, which are Exeter, Barnstaple, Dulverton, Lynton, Ilfracombe, Clovelly, Lundy, Bideford, Bude, Boscastle, Wadebridge, St. Agnes, Land's End, Lizard and the Scilly Isles, including all the major towns in between such as Exmoor, Newquay and Penzance. Each of the destinations is accompanied by descriptions of how to get there be it by rail, bicycle or coach and on arrival where to stay. From these focal points the Thorough Guide provides notes for all the activities available in the area, such as notes for walkers, notes for cyclists, anglers, golfers and the like as well as learned topographical descriptions provided by Ward on the local buildings, places and sights of interest. From each stopping point the reader is offered a number of day trips or excursions, which are aimed walkers with varying levels of fitness to cyclists prepared to cycle more than 100 miles in a day!
One of the distinguishing features of the Thorough Guides series are the excellent maps and plans that accompany the guides and the 1904 edition for North Devon and North Cornwall is no exception. This edition includes fifteen coloured, contoured maps as well as street plans of the towns of Exeter, Ilfracombe, Newquay and Penzance as well as a diagram of the interior of Exeter Cathedral. The nature of the maps, showing reliefs and gradients are akin to modern discovery series Ordnance Survey Maps all of which mark the routes described in Ward's text.
These editions of the Thorough Guide to North Devon and North Cornwall are an excellent travel companion for the environs that it covers and all editions in this series have now become eminently desirable to collectors, the maps alone making this digital republication a worthy edition to anyone with an interest in the north Devon and Cornwall areas of England.
Originally published in London 1905 by MacMillan & Co., Ltd., this first edition of the Highways and Byways in Derbyshire, is republished here in fully-searchable digital format. Macmillan began publishing the Highways & Byways series in 1899 and by 1909 had completed almost twenty publications in the series, which extended across the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales, with one publication on Normandy and and another on Ireland. This highly popular series continued until the beginning of the Second World War. In May 2009 Pan Macmillan reissued a one-volume collection of the best of the Highways and Byways series offering a glimpse of the very best of Britain.
The original publication of the Highways and Byways in Derbyshire contains more than 500 printed pages, including several maps recording the meandering routes taken by the book's author, John Benjamin Firth, who chose to take many short trips from a central points, and more than 80 pen and ink illustrations by Nelly Erichsen, providing as with all of the Highways and Byways series a wonderful mix of topography, local history and folklore, which perhaps more than ever allows the reader to rediscover parts of Britain that have long disappeared or have been forgotten.
John Benjamin Firth undertook more than thirty expeditions across the length and breadth of Derbyshire, which he stated were more or less arbitrary, but always preferring the byways to the dusty highways of the county, and these are noted under the following chapter headings: Melbourne; Repton; Sudbury; Ashbourne; Dovedale; Beresford Dale; Arborlow; Buxton; Dove Head; Chapel-en-le-Frith; Ashopton; Eldon Hole; Tideswell; Cressbrook Dale; Bakewell; Haddon Hall; Chatsworth; Baslow; Froggatt Edge; Stoney Middleton; Eyam and the Plague; Lathkill Dale; Darley Dale; Matlock Bath; Cromford; Heage; Wingfield Manor; Ashover; Ambergate and finally Derby itself.
Much of the charm a vigour of the Highways and Byways series which has stood the test of time is down to the travellers and in the case of Derbyshire this is no exception. John Benjamin Firth (1868-1943) was a prolific author, writing works on Constantine the Great and Augustus Caesar; translator of the letter of Pliny the Younger, which was still in use by scholars in the 1970s, a journalist for the Daily Telegraph as well as the author of three further editions in the Highways and Byways series. The Highways and Byways in Derbyshire is illustrated with more than 80 pen and ink sketches by Nelly Erichsen, an illustrator who flourished between 1882 and 1917 and for who Italy was as familiar as Derbyshire having already illustrated works entitled Venice and its Story and the Story of Assisi. Nelly Erichsen's illustrations of Derbyshire are delightful and compliment Firth's text beautifully.
Wills from Doctors' Commons. A Selection from the Wills of Eminent Persons Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1495-1695, was printed and published for the Council of the Camden Society for its 1862-1863 transactions. Edited by John Gough Nichols and John Bruce, the then director of the Society and member of its council, Wills from Doctors' Commons is republished here in fully-searchable digital format.
Containing 184 printed pages this publication contains the transcripts of only thirty-two wills and a number of administrations, annotated by Nichols and Bruce, but the importance of the wills contained herein cannot be questioned, which is true for all wills which abound with the manners, customs and laws from the periods in which they were written and as such their importance for historical and literary research is beyond doubt. The Register of Wills from which these examples were extend over a considerable period of time, from 1383 until the time of the publication of this collection. The wills were entered chronologically in order of proof in gigantic quarto volumes and the repository as a whole held more than 2,000 of these volumes, making the collection under review a mere drop in the ocean. Each quarto volume was distinguished by the embossed name of either the name of the first testator or eminent person contained therein.
Although this publication contains a mere fraction of those proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury all of those featured are for eminent personages, which include four members of royalty, prelates, nobility, five men who distinguished themselves during the English Civil War and amongst the others there are the wills of Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Thomas Gresham. The collection is not absent of wills made by women and numbered amongst these are the mothers of Queen Katherine Parr and Lady Jane Grey.
The first will featured in the publication is that of Cecily Duchess of York, mother of Edward IV, proved in 1495, requested that her body be lain next to that of her husband, Richard Duke of York, who had been killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, buried at Pontefract, but removed to Fotheringay in 1466. Among the beneficiaries of the will were Henry Duke of York, later King Henry VIII, who was bequeathed a number of tapestries. Sir Francis Drake's will, proved in 1595, is remarkable for the fact that his will was made on board his ship off the coast of South America where he died following the execution of the will. The last will noticed, proved in 1695, is that of Henry Purcell, who was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey at the age of eighteen and died aged just thirty-seven, but who name is still remembered.
Although only a brief collection of wills, this CD-Rom republication of Wills from Doctors' Commons contains sufficient wills of eminent and remarkable men and women to make this an interesting and worthy addition to any collection.
Originally published in London 1901 by MacMillan & Co., Ltd., this 1903 edition of the Highways and Byways in the Lake District, is republished here in fully-searchable digital format. Macmillan began publishing the Highways & Byways series in 1899 and by 1909 had completed almost twenty publications in the series, which extended across the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales, with one publication on Normandy and and another on Ireland. This highly popular series continued until the beginning of the Second World War. In May 2009 Pan Macmillan reissued a one-volume collection of the best of the Highways and Byways series offering a glimpse of the very best of Britain.
The Highways and Byways in the Lake District contains just over 320 printed pages, including a map of the Lakes marking the route taken by the author, Arthur Granville Bradley and more than 100 pen and ink illustrations by Joseph Pennell, providing as with all of the Highways and Byways series a wonderful mix of topography, local history and folklore, which perhaps more than ever allows the reader to rediscover parts of Britain that have long disappeared under a morass of concrete, which is perhaps fortunately less the case with the Lake District than other areas of Britain.
Arthur Bradley undertook only eleven 'tours' on which he reported in the Highways and Byways in the Lake District, which is perhaps misleading, as he chose to structure his travels in thirteen chapters, which included many meanderings off his main routes. The major stops on Bradley's tour of the Lake District include: Penrith - his starting point for a number of the tours - Carlisle; Strickland; Kendal; Keswick; Ravenglass and the most westerly point on his travels, St. Bee's.
Much of the charm a vigour of the Highways and Byways series which has stood the test of time is down to the travellers and in the case of the Lake District this is no exception. Arthur Granville Bradley (1850-1943) was a renowned English 'traveller' in the Victorian sense of the word as well as well-published author, with popular works such as The Fight with France for North Africa, Sketches of Old Virginia, a History of Marlborough College as well as a biography of Captain John Smith to his credit. The Highways and Byways in the Lake District is replete with more than 100 pen and ink sketches by Joseph Pennell (1857-1926). Pennell, an American artist and author, was a friend and biographer of James Whistler, whose chief distinction is that of an original etcher, lithographer and illustrator. Pennell's works and the added association with Whistler make any publication associated with his work a much sought after acquisition and the Highways and Byways in Lake District is no exception.
First published n London in 1829 by Edward Suter and republished here in fully-searchable digital format is John Southerden Burn's 257-page Registrum Ecclesiae Parochialis or The History of the Parish Registers in England, also of The Registers of Scotland, Ireland, The East & West Indies, Foreign Countries, Dissenters, The Fleet, King's Bench, Mint, Royal Chapel, Etc., with Observations on Bishop's Transcripts, and the Provisions of the Act of 52d George III. Cap 146.
Over a period of many years Southerden Burn had collected a miscellany of information from the parish registers her had professionally examined. It was noted that since the establishment of procedures for keeping accurate birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records during the reign of King Henry VIII, Government had periodically sought to pass legislation for regulating the records kept as was the case in 1812 under Provisions of 52d George III Cap 146, which should have standardised the good keeping and preservation of parochial records. It was, however, lamented that by 1829 provisions laid out in the Act had not been met in two important respects, namely the sufficient details were still not being inserted in parochial records being kept and transcripts of all parish registers were not being made and lodged annually with the Bishop's Archives. The latter point was deemed to be most lamentable if by some disaster the originals were lost or damaged.
At the time of writing Southerden Burn noted that that the first issue, the level of detail kept in parish records was especially woeful, making them largely speaking devoid of interest. This was, however, not always the case, especially in the earliest periods of record keeping, which record 'memoranda of every description', which Southerden Burn wished to illustrate in this publication.
Southerden Burn begins The History of Parish Registers in England by describing from the earliest times - references are made here to biblical records - the origin of parochial records culminating, are far as England was concerned, with the Injunction of Thomas Cromwell in September 1538 instigating the keeping of parochial records as we understand them today shortly after the advent of the Established Church of England. Most parochial records in England hope to trace their origins to this date when there were many more parish churches than there are today. This is followed by the legislation passed through parliament and elsewhere relating to the keeping of parish registers between 1538 and the Act of 1812 and an amendment Bill of 1824. These latter legislative measures set out the standard forms in which parish records were to be kept.
On the state and preservation of parish registers in which many explanations are proffered for large blank spaces in many parochial records as well as many other interesting observations in record keeping in England in general. This is followed by lengthy observations of the many peculiarities that can be witnessed in birth/baptism, marriage, death/burial registers throughout England and Southerden Burn goes into some considerable detail in noting and explaining how these peculiarities arose as well as the plethora of extraneous detail on individuals denoting the culture and customs of particular areas before turning his attention to the parochial records outside of England.
Commenting on the Kirk Session Records of Scotland Southerden Burn noted that of the 850 parishes present in Scotland only 99 were believed to keep regular and correct parish records and of these only but a handful of records pre-dated the start of the eighteenth-century and from these he provides many illustrations of the types of records kept. There follows an analysis of, with the exception of the Religious Society of Friends and the Jewish community, the woeful record keeping for the many dissenting religions present in England. The History of the Parish Registers of England is concluded with a number of chapters on the utility of parochial records in general, general observations and index.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format, John Southerden Burn's The History of Parish Registers in England presents a thorough critique of the parish registers of England, their origins anomalies and uses and is a must for the contemporary user of parish records in England.
Originally published in London 1907 by MacMillan & Co., Ltd., this first edition of the Highways and Byways in Kent, is republished here in fully-searchable digital format. Macmillan began publishing the Highways & Byways series in 1899 and by 1909 had completed almost twenty publications in the series, which extended across the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales, with one publication on Normandy and and another on Ireland. This highly popular series continued until the beginning of the Second World War. In May 2009 Pan Macmillan reissued a one-volume collection of the best of the Highways and Byways series offering a glimpse of the very best of Britain.
The original publication of the Highways and Byways in Kent contains more than 440 printed pages, including a map of Kent, but alas not the route of the author, Walter Jerrold, who chose to take many short trips from a central point, and almost 150 pen and ink illustrations by Hugh Thomson, providing as with all of the Highways and Byways series a wonderful mix of topography, local history and folklore, which perhaps more than ever allows the reader to rediscover parts of Britain that have long disappeared under a morass of concrete.
Walter Jerrold undertook 21 'tours' on which he reported in the Highways and Byways in Kent and these included the following: Canterbury, its Cathedral, city and surrounds; the Isle of Thanet; Sandwich, Deal and the Goodwins; Dover and its neighbourhood; Folkstone and Hythe; Romney Marsh; around Ashford; Cranbrooke and the 'Hursts'; Maidstone and its neighbourhood; Tonbridge and 'the Wells'; Penshurst; Westerham and Sevonaks; Otford and 'the Hams'; Dartford and Gravesend; Cobham, Rochester and the Thames Marshes; Sittingbourne, Faversham and Sheppey and finally Kent near London.
Much of the charm a vigour of the Highways and Byways series which has stood the test of time is down to the travellers and in the case of Kent this is no exception. Walter Jerrold (1865-1929) was born in Liverpool, but spent most of his life in London. Beginning life as a clerk in a newspaper counting house, he became deputy editor of the Observer newspaper and acted as editor for many classics of literature for the newly-founded Everyman's Library. He also wrote many biographies, including those on Charles Lamb and Thomas Hunt and under the pseudonym Walter Copeland published the best-known collection of nursery rhymes of the early 20th century in addition to writing a number of works for Macmillan's Highways and Byways series. The Highways and Byways in Kent are replete with more than 150 pen and ink sketches by Hugh Thomson. Born in Coleraine in 1860, by 1883 Thomson had moved to London and had begun working as the illustrator for Macmillan. Amongst his many credits are the illustrations for more than 70 novels, including those of Jane Austen and by the time he drew the illustrations for the Highways and Byways in Kent Thomson was the most popular and successful illustrator of his time. Much of Thomson's work was purchased by Derry City Council and when originals of his pen and ink sketches come up for sale they command high prices and for this reason alone the many books in the Highways and Byways series illustrated by Thomson - which are the majority - are well worth purchasing and this edition for Kent is no exception.
Printed by the Aberdeen University Press for the Post Office Office Aberdeen Ltd., the Post Office Aberdeen Directory was issued in 1937 and is republished here in fully-searchable digital format.
Containing more than 900 printed pages the Aberdeen Directory is the complete postal and telephone directory for the city of Aberdeen and its suburbs. The first 150 pages of the directory are taken-up by a number of commercial and municipal directories, which provide details on all of the civic, public and private institutions in the city. This section of the Aberdeen Directory includes the Assurance Directory; Banking Directory; Ecclesiastical Directory; Educational Directory; Harbour and Shipping Directory; Legal Directory; Medical Directory; Municipal Directory; Miscellaneous Directory; Postal Directory; Public Revenue Directory; Railway & Public Conveyances Directory and Index to Advertisers.
The above named directories provide a plethora of information and detail. For example, the Municipal Directory, which details the wards of the City, the boundaries of each ward, the councillors elected for each ward and the number of electors present for each. This section also includes the names and addresses of the city magistrates, the officials of the town council, justices of the peace, libraries, the registration districts within the city. The Educational Directory is comprehensive. For the University of Aberdeen the Directory provides the names of all of the academic, from professors down to readers and lecturers. All the higher-level institutions present in the city provide the same level of detail. For primary and secondary schools, the directory provides the name and address for each school together with the names and qualifications of the head teachers.
The commercial and municipal section of the Aberdeen Directory is follows by the A-Z General Directory of the City of Aberdeen and District, which provides in just over 450 pages an alphabetical list of individuals, their named, addresses, trades and telephone numbers were relevant. There follows a 130-page A-Z trades directory. The A-Z Street Directory, together with the names of chief residents occupies, which occupies some 300 pages of the Aberdeen Directory. The Directory is concluded with three self-contained directories for Bucksburn and District, Lower Deeside and District and Aberdeen Suburban District.
For anyone interested in Aberdeen, its residents, businesses, civic and municipal institutions present in the City of Aberdeen in 1936-1937, this fully-searchable digital editionwill prove an invaluable resource.
Originally published in London 1903 by MacMillan & Co., Ltd., this 1914 reprint of the Highways and Byways in South Wales, is republished here in fully-searchable digital format. Macmillan began publishing the Highways & Byways series in 1899 and by 1909 had completed almost twenty publications in the series, which extended across the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales, with one publication on Normandy and and another on Ireland. This highly popular series continued until the beginning of the Second World War. In May 2009 Pan Macmillan reissued a one-volume collection of the best of the Highways and Byways series offering a glimpse of the very best of Britain.
The Highways and Byways in South Wales contains more than 400 printed pages, including a map of the route taken by the author, Arthur Grenville Bradley, who undertook an almost circular tour of south Wales beginning at Radnor, and includes almost 100 pen and ink illustrations by Frederick L. Griggs, providing as with all of the Highways and Byways series a wonderful mix of topography, local history and folklore, which perhaps more than ever allows the reader to rediscover parts of Britain that have long disappeared under a morass of concrete, motorways and bypasses.
Arthur Bradley undertook only thirteen 'tours' on which he reported in the Highways and Byways in South Wales, reviewed in the chapters of this publication, although in reality the divisions are only created by the major stops in Bradley's tour, such as Radford; Builth;Lampeter; Cardigan; Fishguard; St. Davids; Pembroke; Kidwelly; Llandeilofawr and Brecknock.
Much of the charm a vigour of the Highways and Byways series, which has stood the test of time is down to the travellers and in the case of South Wales this is no exception. Arthur Granville Bradley (1850-1943) was a renowned English 'traveller' in the Victorian sense of the word as well as well-published author, with popular works such as The Fight with France for North Africa, Sketches of Old Virginia, a History of Marlborough College as well as a biography of Captain John Smith to his credit. The Highways and Byways in South Wales is replete with more than 100 pen and ink sketches by by Frederick Landseer Griggs (1876-1938). A native of Hertfordshire, this was one of thirteen books illustrated by Griggs in the Highways and Byways series. An architectural draughtsman, illustrator, early conservationist, associate of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds, Griggs was the most distinguished etcher of his age and the first etcher to be elected to full membership of the Royal Academy. His illustrations from this period 'capture a vanishing England of a brooding spiritual intensity, harking back to an idyll of vanished dreams' and as such fit very well with the general themes of the Highways and Byways series, that of a vanished or forgotten heritage. The presence of so many of Griggs' sketches in one place is sufficient reason to purchase any of the series in which he was the illustrator.
William White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland was originally published in Sheffield in 1846 and is republished here in fully-searchable digital format. Containing more than 700 printed pages, the full-title of this publication gives a good indication as to the scope of the work: History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Leicestershire, and the small County of Rutland; together with the adjacent towns of Grantham and Stamford; comprising Surveys of both Counties, and Separate Historical, Statistical and Topographical Descriptions of all the Hundreds, Towns, Parishes, Townships, Chapelries, Villages, Hamlets, Manors, Liberties and Unions. Indeed, the title goes on to state that the History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire also contains alphabetical listings of residences, gentlemen's seats as well as all of the churches, chapels, patrons and values of the parishes in the counties covered by the directory.
In his preface, William White offered this publication to the public as 'the first essay towards a popular history, topography and directory of the counties of Leicester and Rutland' and to a great extent White was successful in his aims. White claimed that every parish in Leicestershire and Rutland had been visited during the compilation of his publication and he also claimed 'that almost every house in both counties' had also been visited, which was probably somewhat of an exaggeration. However, the scope of the publication cannot be denied. The History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland is introduced with general historical and descriptive surveys of Leicestershire and Rutland. These record the extent and population of each, mainly taken from the statistical abstracts of the 1841 Census and also describes the nature of industry and agriculture, gentlemen's seats as well as those of the nobility, clergy and magistrates, for both counties.
The majority of the History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland is comprised of the alphabetical gazetteer and directory; initially arranged by hundred and then by parish, these contain topographical, historical details on all of the towns, villages and hamlets in the county, providing the population of each parish, township, chapelry and extra-parochial liberty, together with their 'owners of the soil', Lord of the Manors and nature and value of the church livings, places of worship, their patrons and incumbents. In addition, information is provided on public and other buildings of note, public charities, institutions, trade and commerce, communications, remarkable local occurrences, objects of interest and curiosities. The directory portion for each denomination contains an alphabetical listing of the seats of the gentry and other principal residents as well as a classification of trades and professions.
For principal places such as the town of Leicester in addition to the information detailed for other locations, White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland also provides an alphabetical directory of names, trades, professions and residences, which in the instance of the town of Leicester runs to some forty-eight pages.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format, Whites History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland has to be one of the best and one of the earliest directories for the county and is a highly recommended purchase for anyone with a historical or genealogical interest in the county.
Printed and published by Kelly & Co., in London in 1875, County Topographies: Hampshire contains in excess of 450 printed pages and includes an extensive section on the Isle of Wight. Republished here in fully-searchable digital format, topographical directories usually provide a plethora of fascinating local information on the areas on which they treat and this publication is no exception.
The general preface to this publication notes that the information contained therein was directly extracted from Kelly's recently published Post Office Directory for Hampshire, but was reissued in this form to meet the wishes of many who desired a publication on the county without the names and addresses of the inhabitants of the county. Hampshire, a county of some 1,032,105 acres with a population in 1871 of over 540,000 ranked at the time of the publication as one of the largest counties in England by population. Containing 351 Civil Parishes, 22 market towns and the City of Winchester, this county topography provides all of the details on all of the towns, villages, hamlets and liberties of Hampshire provided in Kelly's Directory, without the addition of residents. This entails detailed descriptions of principal buildings, geographical objects of interest, ecclesiastical divisions of the county with descriptions of all of the churches, cathedrals the value of the livings, parochial incumbents and patrons, principal seats, civil and local administration of the county with full information on county courts, districts fairs, markets, county hunts as well as communications such as rail and post.
For those unfamiliar with topographical directories such as this or indeed directories and gazetteers such as Kelly's Directory the treatment by this county topography on one of the many villages noticed serves to illustrate the general extent of the detail contained therein. Burghclere is described as a parish and village 3 miles south of Newbury station, 4 miles west from Kingsclere and 58 miles from London. Situated in the diocese and archdeaconry of Winchester and the rural deanery of Andover the parish contained two churches. The older of the two, that of All Saints, was completely restored in 1861 and its registers date from 1559. The newer, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, was built in 1838 and greatly enlarged under the patronage of the Earl of Carnarvon. The Living was a rectory with an annual value of £1,200, with a residence and glebe of 188 acres held by the Rev. Portal, domestic chaplain to the Earl. Petty sessions were held monthly at the 'Carnarvon Arms'. The place was probably a Roman Station, the soil mainly of wet gravel and principal crops of wheat, barley and oats grown on its 5,080 acres. With a population in 1871 of 765, the parish contained a number of gentlemen's seats and mansions, such as Adbury Park, the handsome manor of William Fox, J.P., one of the principal landowners in the parish, together with the Earl of Carnarvon. Beginning with the village and parish of Abbott's Ann and ending with the Yaverland, the parish and liberty on the Isle of Wight, the level of detail provided in the for each is commensurate with that given for Burghclere.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format, Kelly's 1876 County Topography for Hampshire must appeal to anyone interested in the topographical description of this large and important county, its towns, villages and hamlets.
Republished here in full-searchable digital format is Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire, which was published in 1903. Containing some 380 printed pages, Kelly's Directory, as the then editor, A. Lindsay Kelly correctly noted, was primarily a directory, but also served as the gazetteer for every county for which Kelly's Directory was published, and this Buckinghamshire edition is no exception.
This directory, published with a coloured map of the county, includes every parish in the county and provides a thorough topographical description of every town, parish, village and township, describing the principal buildings and geographical objects of interest in each. Great care is also taken in Kelly's treatment of the ecclesiastical divisions of the county with descriptions of all the churches, cathedrals the value of the livings, parochial incumbents and patrons. The same level of detail is provided for the civil and local administration of the county with full information on county courts, districts fairs, markets, county hunts as well as communications such as rail and post throughout the county.
Beginning with Ackhampstead and ending with Wyradisbury, for those who might be unfamiliar with a directory such as Kelly's the degree of information contained on each village can be gleaned from the description of just one of the places entered in the Towns and Villages section of the directory, the now very familiar Milton Keynes. In 1903 Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire is described as a parish and village separated from Great and Little Wolston by the river Ouzel and situated 3½ miles from the Newport Pagnell terminus of the London and North Western railway. The parish was situated in the Northern division of the county and within the county court district of Newport Pagnell, rural deanery of Bletchley, archdeaconry of Buckingham and diocese of Oxford. The parish church of All Saints is described in some detail as are some of the of the notable members of the parish buried within the precincts of the church, such as Louis Atterbury, D. D., buried in 1693, the father of the Bishop of Rochester. The parish registers for the church are recorded as dating from 1559 and the living a rectory with an annual value of £300 with 48 acres of glebe. Lord of the manor was The Rt. Hon. George Henry Finch, who was also the principal landlord. The soil of the parish was mainly clay, with subsoil of gravel and sand on which the crops of wheat, beans, barley and oats were the main crops. The parish contained 1,899 acres with a population in 1901 of 219, primarily situated in the village. The village itself contained a shop, post office and elementary school for 60 children, with 34 pupils in daily attendance. The entry for Milton Keynes is concluded by a list of the principal residents and commercial interests in the parish. While Milton Keynes was, in 1903, is a relatively small hamlet within the county of Buckinghamshire as a whole, the level of detail recorded here is typical throughout the directory.
This edition of Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire is prefaced by a topographical and geological description of the county and is concluded with an extensive alphabetical list of the county's chief residents and commercial interests, which could be found across the length and breadth of the county in 1903. In addition to these expected but key features of any useful directory this edition also includes some 64 pages of full and half-page advertisements, many containing useful sketches and photographs from the period.
For anyone with even the slightest interest in the residents, topography of descriptions of the county of Buckinghamshire this fully-searchable 1903 edition of Kelly's Directory of Oxfordshire is heartily recommended.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format is the 1894 edition of Kelly's Directory of the City of Bristol & its Neighbourhood. Containing nearly 480 printed pages the City and Neighbourhood Directory for Bristol is a principally a street directory for the City of Bristol, but as with all of Kelly's Directories also serves as a gazetteer for the city and county.
Kelly's Directory of the City of Bristol and its Neighbourhood is introduced by a topographical and statistical description of the city and its principal suburbs of Bedminster and Clifton. This provides a record of the principal events in the City's history, descriptions of the landmark municipal, ecclesiastical and private buildings, parishes, civic institutions and statistical data, predominantly drawn from the 1881 and 1891 Statistical Abstracts of the Population Censuses. There follows the Street Directory for the City of Bristol. Alphabetically arranged this provides the name and street number of the principal resident of all of the private dwellings in the city and in many instances the occupation of the chief resident is also given. The Street Directory is followed by an alphabetical directory for the suburbs and neighbourhood of the city recording thorough topographical and statistical descriptions of all of the religious, educational, civil and municipal institutions contained in each. In most instances the directory also provides a brief historical account of the village or town under consideration, which often includes important events and personages connected with the locality. Beginning with the parish of Abbot's Leigh and ending with the parish of Westbury-on-Trym, the suburban section of the 1894 Directory of Bristol provides a relatively detailed account of the history, buildings of note and religious and civic institutions as well as the principal private residents and commercial interests situated in the villages and parishes not in the city proper.
More than half of the Bristol Directory is taken-up by the 'Court Directory', an alphabetical listing of all of the principal private residents of Bristol and its suburbs and the 'Trades Directory', an alphabetical listing by trade of all of the businesses, including doctors and lawyers and the like, present in the city and its suburbs. The 1894 edition of Kelly's Directory of Bristol and its Neighbourhood is concluded by 64 pages of advertisements, many full and half page accompanied by sketches, drawings and photographs.
For anyone with even the slightest interest in the residents, topography of descriptions of the City of Bristol and its neighbourhood this fully-searchable 1894 edition of Kelly's Directory of Bristol and its Neighbourhood is heartily recommended.
Samuel Bagshaw's 'History, Gazetteer & Directory of Shropshire' was published in Sheffield in 1851 and the beginning of the full title of the work provides a clear indication of the scope of the publication: History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire; Comprising a General Survey of the County with a Variety of Historical, Statistical, Topographical, Commercial and Agricultural Information, Shewing The Situation, Extent and Population of all The Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, Townships, Villages, Hamlets and Extra-Parochial Liberties; containing more than 700 printed pages and republished here in fully-searchable digital format, Bagshaw's Gazetteer and Directory of Shropshire is one of the best reference aids for the county from this period.
Indeed, Bagshaw's Gazetteer and Directory provides much more than the breviate of its title might indicate as was noted by the editor, Samuel Bagshaw in his introductory preface. In this Bagshaw notes that every parish, township, village and hamlet had been visited to ascertain and authenticate previously published material and confirm all the principal seats and farmhouses in each. The work is introduced with a general history of the county and its principal town, Shrewsbury. Drawing from published material for its history, Parliamentary Reports, Census of Population Statistics, published charitable reports, biographies and topographies a history of the counties geology, topography and history is presented from the earliest times to the present.
The bulk of Bagshaw's Gazetteer and Directory, some 550 pages, is taken-up with an alphabetical topography of the county. Arranged alphabetically by parish and hundred, each town, village and hamlet is represented under its respective parish and the detail provided on each is at least the equivalent of better-known Gazetteers and Directories such as Kelly's. Bagshaw's Gazetteer and Directory provides the population of each parish, township, chapelry and extra-parochial liberty, together with their 'owners of the soil', Lord of the Manors and nature and value of the church livings, places of worship, their patrons and incumbents. In addition, information is provided on public and other buildings of note, public charities, institutions, trade and commerce, communications, remarkable local occurrences, objects of interest and curiosities. The directory portion for each denomination contains an alphabetical listing of the seats of the gentry and other principal residents as well as a classification of trades and professions. For principal places such as Shrewsbury and Oswestry in addition to the information detailed for other locations, Bagshaw's Gazetteer and Directory also provides an alphabetical directory of names, trades, professions and residences, which in the instance of the town of Shrewsbury runs to some twenty pages.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format, Bagshaw's Gazetteer and Directory of Shropshire has to be one of the best directories for the county from this relatively early period and is a highly recommended purchase for anyone with a historical or genealogical interest in the county.
Published in Manchester in 1885 by T. Bulmer & Co., the full title of the Westmoreland Directory amply describes the breadth and depth of this publication: 'History, Topography, and Directory of Westmoreland, Comprising its Ancient and Modern History; A General View of its Physical Features; its Mines, Manufactures and Agricultural Statistics; Historical and Descriptive Sketches of each Town, Parish and Manor; Family History and Genealogical Descent; Biographical Sketches of the Principal Westmoreland Worthies, to which is also added a List of the Seats and Residences of the Nobility, Gentry and Clergy', in short, a completed compendium of Westmoreland in 1885.
Containing just over seven hundred printed pages and republished here in fully-searchable digital format, the Westmoreland Directory is introduced by an historical narrative of the county's settlement followed by a description of its geography and geology. This is followed by a section on all aspects of the county and local government of the county ranging from the constabulary to the county's accounts and the names and seats of the nobility, gentry and clergy of the county. However, this is just a forward to the majority of the directory, which consists of an alphabetical description of all of the villages, towns, cities and parishes contained therein. An example of just one of these will suffice to indicate the breadth, depth and usefulness of this publication. Of the parish of Crosby Garrett, the Westmoreland Directory introduces the parish by providing its gross area and income and population in 1871 and 1881 - which had fallen from 585 to 224 - before providing a topographical and historical description of the parish, which derived its name from 'Cross Town' and its is supposed that Garrett was an ancient owner of the manor. However, as the Directory reports, there is no historical record of the Manor prior to 1296 when it was held by the Soulby family. The parish is dedicated to St. Andrew and the earliest portions of the Church for which there is a detailed description dates from the 12th century. There follows descriptions of the parochial schools and places of worship and the notable hamlets and villages that were situated within the parish, together with all of the residents of note. This level of description and record is to be found throughout the directory and in places even exceeds the quite detailed description provided for Crosby Garrett.
While the original publication contains no overall listing for the nobility, merchants and traders featured in the Westmoreland Directory, as this title is full-searchable this absence is not burdensome. For anyone interested in the descriptions of the places and people of Westmoreland in the late 19th century this is an essential resource.
Published in 1909 by the Wykeham Press, The Parish Registers and Parochial Documents in the Archdeaconry of Winchester was edited by the then Archdeacon of Winchester, William Andrews Fearon, D.D., and the Curate of Burghclere, John Foster Williams, M.A.
Containing some 204 printed pages, the title of this publication, as the authors themselves admit, is a little misleading. On the first count, this publication is, although fascinating, an inventory of the Hampshire parochial records held in the Archdeaconry of Winchester; and on the second count, the inventory conducted by Messrs Fearon and Williams ceases in 1812 for parish registers and 1800 for parochial records. Having said this, this fully-searchable CD-Rom republication had a lot to recommend it, not only for those interested in the available parish and parochial records for County Hampshire.
For readers not solely concerned with the parish and parochial records of Hampshire, but interested in parish records and how and why they were compiled in a more general sense, Fearon and Williams extremely lengthy introduction extending to nearly half of the publication will be of some little interest. Beginning with Thomas Cromwell's injunctions of 1538 instructing every parson, curate and vicar to keep a book of records for every Christening, Wedding and Burial performed the introduction shows how ecclesiastical neglect until 1812 at least, meant that these edicts were summarily ignored. Indeed, the extent of 'missing' Hampshire registers is a case in point. At the time of Cromwell's injunctions there were some 200 parishes in Hampshire, but records for only twenty from this date are extant and the general consensus would appear to be the parish clergy simply dismissed the need to keep records.
The editors provide insights into the writers of the registers and also the general forms adopted in the three different categories of records kept: Christenings, Marriages & Burials. Regarding Christenings, the editors point the perfunctory nature of most records, barring those children from important local families and note that levels of literacy in parishes can be gleaned from the numbers of brides and grooms who were able to sign the Marriage Register. Of most interest are notes in parish Burial Registers, which often include ages, causes of death, character of the deceased, descriptions of their funerals and even local gossip.
Some twenty pages or so of the publication are given over to the parochial records of the Churchwardens, the recording of 'Royal Briefs', usually as a result of a natural disaster, the glimpses of daily church life, local customs and parish history that could be gleaned from the parochial accounts and the impact on the records wrought by events such as the Reformation, Civil War and the rule of the Commonwealth and plague. There follows a complete inventory of the extant Parish Registers and Parochial Records for Hampshire down to 1812 and 1800 respectively, concluding with a general index to the introduction.
The Parish Registers and Parochial Documents in the Archdeaconry of Winchester must appeal to genealogists and historians in general with an interest in Hampshire, but the introduction is to be heartily recommended for the light it sheds on the uses and information that may be found parish and parochial records in general and more especially for those of Hampshire.
Republished here in full-searchable digital format is the 1867 edition of Kelly's Post Office Directory of Surrey. Containing nearly 450 printed pages, which includes a map of the county. As with most other directories published by Kelly's, this 1867 Surrey edition, although primarily a directory, also serves as a gazetteer. Originally issued as part of a joint publication for counties Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, this is one of the earlier editions of Kelly's Directory of Surrey.
The Surrey Post Office Directory details every village, town and city in the county providing thorough topographical and statistical descriptions of all of the religious, educational, civil and municipal institutions contained in each. In most instances the directory also provides a brief historical account of the village or town under consideration, which often includes important events and personages connected with the locality. Beginning with the parish of Abinger and ending with the parishes of Wotton Low Hill and Wotton Up Hill, the bulk of Kelly's Post Office Directory of County Surrey for 1867 is taken-up by the alphabetical entries for the cities, towns and villages of the county. For any reader who might be unfamiliar with a directory and gazetteer such as Kelly's the degree of information contained on each village can be gleaned from the description of one of the entries, that of Long Ditton. Noted as a parish and village situated a mile and a quarter from Kingston in the western division of the county and adjoining Thames Ditton, Long Ditton was described as being in the rural deanery of North-East Ewell, the archdeaconry of Surrey and the diocese of Winchester. The Church of St. Mary is amply noticed in both appearance and situation. The living of the parish was a rectory with an annual income of £474 and was the gift of New College Oxford. The principal landowners were the Earls of Lovelace and Egmont, the former being the Lord of the Manor of Long Ditton and the latter of Tolworth. Together with the hamlet of Tolworth the parish had a population of 1,445 in 1861 with an area of 2,116 acres. Also listed are the local post office, receiving house, insurance agents, tax collectors, police and carriers. As with each of the towns and villages noticed, the entry is concluded with an alphabetical list of private residents, a useful adjunct to the 1861 Census, and also an alphabetical listing of the commercial interests of the parish, including larger farmer, public houses and blacksmiths.
The alphabetical list of villages and towns is followed by a county-wide alphabetical listing of Surrey's principal private residents, as well as a Trades and Professional Directory for the County. For anyone with even the slightest interest in the residents, topography of descriptions of the county of Surrey before its was swallowed-up by the expansion of Greater London, this fully-searchable 1867 edition of Kelly's Directory of Surrey is heartily recommended.
Republished here in full-searchable digital format is Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire, which was published in 1894. Containing some 616 printed pages, Kelly's Directory, as the then editor, A. Lindsay Kelly correctly noted, was primarily a directory, but also served as the gazetteer for every county for which Kelly's Directory was published, and this Gloucestershire edition is no exception.
This directory, published with a revised map, includes every parish in the county and provides a thorough topographical description of every town, parish, village and township, describing the principal buildings and geographical objects of interest in each. Great care is also taken in Kelly's treatment of the ecclesiastical divisions of the county with descriptions of all the churches, cathedrals the value of the livings, parochial incumbents and patrons. The same level of detail is provided for the civil and local administration of the county with full information on county courts, districts fairs, markets, county hunts as well as communications such as rail and post throughout the county.
Beginning with Abinghall and ending with Yate, for those who might be unfamiliar with a directory such as Kelly's the degree of information contained on each village can be gleaned from the description of just one of the places entered in the Towns and Villages section of the directory. Iron Acton is described as a parish and village situated on the river Laden, on the Thonbury branch of the Midland railway and road from Bristol to Stroud; bounded by the river Frome its is situated in the Southern Division of the county, within the Grumbalds Ash and Thornbury Hundreds, the rural deanery of Bitton, archdeaconry of Bristol and diocese of Bristol and Gloucester. The parish Church of St. James is described in some detail, as is its clock, bells, number of sittings and graveyard. The parochial records for St. James date from 1570, the living of which is a rectory with an annual value of £640, including 60 acres of glebe, the gift of Christ Church, Oxford. The village also contained Wesleyan and Congregational Chapels. Fairs were held bi-annually on 25th April and 13th September, principally for the sale of cattle, horses, sheep and pigs. The name of Iron Acton is thought to have derived from an ancient oak tree that stood until 1828 in the grounds of Acton House and the iron ore that was mined locally, the village originally being known as Iron Oak Town. The Lady of the Manor was recorded as Miss Castle, the soil of the parish clayey with a subsoil of coal and limestone. The principal crops of the parish were wheat, barley and roots. The population of the parish in 1891 was 1,034 with an area of 2,944 acres. The entry for Iron Acton is concluded by a list of the principal private residents and business in the parish and also those found in the villages of Latteridge and Acton Ilgar. While Iron Acton was a relatively small hamlet within the county of Gloucestershire as a whole, the level of detail recorded here is typical throughout the directory.
This edition of Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire is prefaced by a topographical and geological description of the county and is concluded with an extensive alphabetical list of the county's chief residents and commercial interests, which could be found across the length and breadth of the county in 1894. In addition to these expected but key features of any useful directory this edition also includes some 64 pages of full and half-page advertisements, many containing useful sketches and photographs from the period.
For anyone with even the slightest interest in the residents, topography of descriptions of the county of Gloucestershire this fully-searchable 1894 edition of Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire is heartily recommended.
The Registers of the Parish Church of Cartmel in the County of Lancaster. Christenings, Burials & Weddings, 1559-1661, was published by the Lancashire Register Society from transcriptions taken by Henry Brierley in 1907.
According to the extremely perfunctory introduction the St. Mary's Priory Church, Cartmel, was the most interesting and beautiful in Lancaster, a photograph of the St. Mary's does nothing to contradict this. It is believed that a church has stood at Cartmel since at least the Doomsday Book and the entry for 'Cherchebi', which it is believed refers to Cartmel. The parish of Cartmel consists of the townlands of Upper and Lower Allithwaite, Upper and Lower Holker, Broughton East, Cartmel Fell and Stavely, and most of those featuring in the early parochial records hail from these places.
Republished here in fully-searchable digital format, the Registers of the Parish Church of Cartmel, encompassing 322 printed pages, are the earliest two volumes of Registers.
The Christening Register begins on 6th January 1559 with the Baptism of John Cowpthwait and ends on 18th July 1661 with John, the son of Richard Crewdson of Cartmel Fell who was baptised at Crosthwayte. Not until the beginning of the 1600s do the registers record anything but the child's name and date of baptism. From the 1610s onwards the fathers' names are provided and from about 1620 and address is also provided. Little additional information is provided by the Cartmel Christening Registers, excepting the note of illegitimacy where children are noted as 'base' and the odd instance of twins.
The first entry in the Burial Registers for the dates from 1st January 1559 and the burial of Hugh Simpson and the last entry from 21st December 1659, that of Ellen, the wife of Robert Stott of Walton. In the early decades of the Burial Registers little information is provided apart from the name of the deceased and sometimes an address. Occasionally exceptional events are recorded, such as 10th April 1576, the burial of Richard Taylor, who had been murdered and in the following September the body of an unnamed young man who had been drowned in the Broadwaters. At no time is the age of the deceased mentioned and only on the odd occasion are the given names of married women and children.
The Marriage Register begins on 26th January 1559 with the marriage of John Bensonn to Agnes Caton and end on 6th June 1660. For almost the first two decades that the Marriage Register was kept the brides' entries were unsatisfactorily recorded 'and his wife'. Not until the beginning of the 1620s is an address or addresses consistently given for one or both parties to the marriage. The usefulness of the Marriage Register improves greatly from 1653 onwards when the Register become entitled 'Marriages & Publications'. Henceforth, the Marriage Register includes entries for the publication of banns, providing the names and addresses of both parties, dates on which the banns were posted and the names of witnesses to the posting of the banns.
The original publication includes an index of personal and place named mentioned in the registers and the whole must appeal to anyone with a genealogical interest in the Cartmel area of Lancashire.
In 1885 Alfred Barnard undertook to visit the whiskey distilleries of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales. His publication The Whiskey Distilleries of the United Kingdom, published in 1887, has become a world famous guide for the whiskey industry in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Following on from that success Barnard undertook a similar project with the noted breweries. Published over three years and four volumes The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland is a magnificent insight into the brewing industry at the end of the nineteenth century. The primary aims of the volumes were to make the reader aware of the scale and nature of the brewing industry as well as providing some biographical details on the more eminent brewing families, including the world famous Guinness brewery and many other breweries in Dublin and Cork.
Over 110 breweries are covered over nearly 2,200 pages. Many of the descriptions of the breweries are accompanied by detailed sketches or photographs of the premises. If you like beer or even just have an interest in the brewing tradition then you will love this publication.
This extraordinary book, was a private collection of 20 separately published pieces relating to work by the Committee of Mr. Tuke's Fund. This fund was established in 1882 to assist emigration from the west of Ireland to America, specifically the Unions of Belmullet, Newport & Swineford in Co. Mayo, and Clifden, Oughterard and the Aran Islands in Co. Galway. 9,482 people were assisted by this fund up to 1885, and this book contains a vast amount of detail about the working of the fund, but also about the experience of the emigrants themselves. This includes extensive descriptions of the places where emigrants came from, the emigrants themselves, the process of emigration (including anecdotal reports on their experiences), where they went (USA, Canada and Australia), a detailed list of the specific places they were settled in the US, dates of emigration and sailing details. Most unusually the book contains extensive letters home from the emigrants on arrival. It also analyses what happened to their small holdings in Ireland after they left, giving a full list of emigrants' names and the townlands they came from.
This one-off book also has an inserted hand written letter from James H. Tuke to the Duke of Bedford, President of the Committee, explaining that he was sending him this copy of the Reports to better understand the experience of his fund to that date.
Published by the General Register Office, this study is the first detailed official work on surnames in Ireland. Sir Robert E. Matheson used the 1890 birth registers to compile an authoritative list of surnames and their frequency and distribution throughout the country. He begins with a list of the 100 most common surnames in the country in order of frequency, and then compares this against those in England and Scotland. This book includes a detailed account of the derivation and ethnology of Irish names, tracing each wave of migration from the Celts and Vikings through to the migration of Russian and Polish Jews in the 1880s.
Matheson then lists the main surnames (and numbers of births) for each county, following which he provides a fascinating look at the continued local concentrations of many surnames.
Thereafter the book contains extensive tables of the distribution of over 2,600 surnames in Ireland. These tables give the numbers of births in 1890, and the counties and provinces where these births were recorded.
This publication contains the first edition of this work published in 1894.
Sometimes given the sub title of sketches of the history of the Scottish settlers in Ulster this book was originally published as a series of articles in the Scotsman newspaper in the spring of 1888, which were written by the Edinburgh based journalist John Harrison. Written at a time when Home Rule was becoming increasingly popular this publication attempts to justify the right of the people of Ulster to protest against any separation from the Union with Great Britain.
Harrison traces the history of the Scot in Ulster from the beginning right through the Plantation of Ulster, the Rebellion of 1641, the 1798 Rebellion and beyond the 1801 Act of Union. He emphasises the point that the Scot in Ulster was fundamentally different from the native Irish, that they were in fact two separate races even in 1888. But he hoped that the chasm between the two could be bridged but that would only occur "if they both continue to live in the full communion of that great empire".
This original version also includes the catalogue of the publishers, William Blackwood & sons.
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Charles Hanna's "The Scotch-Irish, or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America" is a vital source for anyone interested in the history of the involvement of Scottish settlers in Ireland or North America. Published in two volumes in 1902, and running to more than 1,200 pages, this resource is packed with details on the origin and migration of Scottish people over the course of twelve centuries. The author did not intent to produce a history of the Scotch-Irish people, as 'such a work would require more time and labor than have been expended upon the present undertaking' (vol. i, p. v). Nonetheless, Hanna succeeded in providing an impressive, lucid and readable account of the principal developments in Scottish, Irish and American history and Scots Irish influenced philosophical thought until the end of the seventeenth century.
Volume one of Hanna's work focuses on Scotland and Ireland, and there is little that is not detailed. The plantations of the early seventeenth century, both the private plantations of Antrim and Down, and the state backed settlement of the west-Ulster counties, receive fulsome treatment. Researchers will particularly appreciate that Hanna quotes extensively from source material that can now be difficult to obtain, including George Hill's Plantation of Ulster, Nicholas Pynnar's 1619 survey on the progress of the plantation and from various accounts in the State papers. The development of an organised Presbyterian church during the 1640s is also recounted, and readers unfamiliar with this ecclesiastical development will learn that 'on the 10th of June, 1642, the first regular presbytery of the Church in Ireland was constituted at Carrickfergus' (vol. i, p. 567), and that state payment to Presbyterian ministers, the 'regium donum', commenced in 1672 (vol. i, p. 580). The Williamite Revolution, which included the siege of Derry and the Protestant victory at Enniskillen, also receives extensive treatment (vol. i, pp 582-603).
In volume two, Hanna shifts the focus to North America, and concentrates on the development of Scottish settlements in New England and along the eastern seaboard during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Early censuses and surveys are transcribed, which will assist researchers interested in the development of Scots Irish settlement at this juncture (vol. ii, pp 94-130). Extensive appendices provide important additional information, including the lists of the principal Scottish names (vol. ii, pp 422-440), the location of Scottish families in Ireland (vol. ii, pp 518-527) and a detailed lists of Scottish peers, lords, office holders and members of the Scottish parliament, until it was dissolved in 1707 (vol. ii, pp 440-518).
Like most of our titles, Hanna's "The Scotch-Irish, or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America" is fully searchable, and researchers with an interest in human migration and in the history of Scotland, Ireland or North America will find this an extremely useful resource and thought provoking source, which will stimulate future study.
Published in 1794 this book was a companion to the map produced by Alexander Taylor. Tyner's companion gives "The distance by the great roads from Dublin to every town in the Kingdom, the cross roads, and descriptions of the gentlemen's seats near the road". Not only are the directions and mileages included but also detailed descriptions of the journey, which also include many observations on the surrounding countryside and buildings. Included at the end are the great and direct roads from London to Holyhead. George Tyner had added his own map of Ireland to enhance the publication.
Much like Taylor and Skinner's Road Maps of Ireland this is a remarkable and rare publication. In place of the maps are detailed written directions. As a companion to Alexander Taylor's Map of Ireland this is an essential research tool for anyone studying late 18th century Irish history.
Kevin Kenny’s Manufacturers’ Directory is an exceptionally rare and unusual book. While he includes an exceptionally detailed directory of all businesses throughout the country from ‘Abdominal Belt’ to ‘Zinc Ware’ manufacturers, he includes much more besides. The book contains the most complete directory of local and national press at that time, which he includes to assist businesses to advertise their products and services. It also includes copious industrial statistics for the country, a complete list of Irish Trade Marks registered, and other details.
However, almost half the book is devoted to an analysis of all branches of Irish industry, manufactures and agriculture. From ‘Altar Candles’ to ‘Woollens’ Kenny gives his assessment of the opportunities for development. The book is prefaced with a clarion call for reconstruction of the Irish economy in the wake of World War One, with Kenny’s own analysis of the enormous potential for industrial growth.
This title is on a special discount, normal retail price is €12.26 ex VAT.
This book is considered to be the definitive history of Galway. James Hardiman, an active member of the Royal Irish Academy and sub-commissioner of Public Records at Dublin Castle published it in 1820. As a result the book contains much information now lost as a consequence of the 1922 fire at the Public Record Office. The book is organised into four sections, with additional appendices and other information at the end. These are:
· History of Galway from earliest times to the present in 7 chapters. This is the main bulk of the book and includes copious transcripts of original sources.
· The Corporation of Galway. This section includes lists of all city officials and MPs from earliest times and copies of the charters, etc.
· Ecclesiastical History of Galway.
· Galway in 1820. Details of all official, public and private institutions, governance, education, economic information, etc.
The book also contains many fine illustrations of the city, as well as maps, including a large-scale map of the city in 1651.
The Irish Statistical Survey was carried out under the direction of the Royal Dublin Society. Each county was surveyed with the aim of determining the 'actual state, capabilities and defects of agriculture, manufactures and rural economy'. In practice the surveys contained a vast quantity of local information on almost every aspect of the county surveyed. Because these studies were carried out under central direction the quality of the information provided is good, and given their early date, they remain an invaluable source for the study of each county. They record many details about conditions in pre-Famine Ireland, including social and economic conditions, the growth of population and poverty, education, religion, history, the Irish language and local customs.
Healy Dutton's introduction contains a very stinging rebuke of the wealthy farmers and the gentry for their lack or co-operation in compiling the survey and their "gross ignorance". However, he does also note the remarkable hospitality of the people of the county, though they have yet to learn to "put the cork in the bottle". This is a vital source for anyone with an interest in the history of County Clare.
While this is the second edition of this book it is the first edition published in Ireland. Much of the contents of this book focus on practical issues facing those emigrating to the United States and looks to dispel any of the romantic notions the Irish emigrant may have had towards America. It does contain many useful tips for emigrating, such as surviving the trans-Atlantic crossing, securing employment on arrival, farming, notes on the climate and condition of the land including prices and also general expenses.
The guide also contains very useful tips on travelling once you have arrived as well as notes on the history of the country as well as brief notes on each individual state. The guide also included a copy of the American Constitution as well as general advice and observations on the people and notes on naturalization and citizenship.
The guide concludes with an alphabetical list of the trans-Atlantic steamers and details of the pricing, ports of departure and arrival. This guide was an essential source for those emigrating to America.
This publication was the first full medical directory of Ireland, published in 1852. It includes all medical practitioners who held a qualification, either as an apothecary (pharmacist) or a medical doctor throughout Ireland. There are several thousand names recorded, reflecting the huge growth in the Irish medical profession following the establishment of the dispensaries across the country with the Poor Law Unions. With this development, the discipline changed fundamentally from a small middle-class profession, to allow a much wider section of the population to provide these services. As a consequence the book records an extensive list of people from every walk of life.
The Directory also records the location, as well as many details, about every hospital, dispensary, medical school, public health service, society, asylum, and medical institutions in Ireland. There is a list of obituaries at the end, and a list of Spa physicians in Germany that had become popular with the well to do!
This was the first specifically Irish edition of Burke’s Landed Gentry, and is considerably more detailed on Irish families than what had appeared in previous years in the general British series. It contains detailed genealogies of all the ‘landed gentry’ in Ireland. This group represents the Irish landowners, and those aspiring to this status from among the merchant and professional community. But the value of this source is not just for this narrow group, as the genealogies are extensive, covering all collateral lines, junior branches and in-laws, many of whom would have been of more modest means.
The genealogies recorded were overwhelming those developed by the Ulster King of Arms (the Chief Herald in nineteenth century Ireland) and are quite valuable and largely reliable. As a source it is important for all those studying Irish genealogy, especially those whose ancestors were part of this social class.
This series of five volumes was compiled from the existing finding aids at the Public Record Office in Dublin, and published between 1909 and 1920. They contain entries for over 30,000 wills for most of the diocesan consistorial courts of Ireland up to 1800, and many up to 1858 when the administration of wills and probate was removed from church control to the state. Each entry records the testator's name, address and year of probate, as well as frequent reference to social status or occupation. The first two volumes were compiled by William Phillimore Watts. After his death in 1913 the tireless Irish genealogist Gertrude Thrift continued the work. The series was cut short by the destruction of the PRO in 1922.
But given that the vast majority of the original wills were destroyed in 1922, this index is an essential resource for research. While the books were republished some years ago, they have been out of print for some time. The set reproduced here comes from the Library at Trinity College Dublin, and the publication contains high quality images of all 868 pages, which are fully searchable.
The following is a list of diocese covered by these volumes, with the covering dates. We have also listed the counties which are covered by these diocese, with the principal county or counties listed first.
* Ossory, 1536-1800, Cos. Kilkenny, Laois (Queen's)
* Leighlin, 1652-1800, Cos. Carlow, Laois (Queen's), Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow
* Ferns, 1601-1800, Cos. Wexford, Carlow, Wicklow
* Kildare, 1661-1800, Cos. Kildare, Laois (Queen's), Offaly (King's), Wicklow
* Cork & Ross, 1548-1800, Cos. Cork, Kerry
* Cloyne, 1621-1800, Cos. Cork, Limerick, Waterford
* Cashel & Emly, 1618-1800, Cos. Tipperary, Kilkenny, Limerick
* Waterford & Lismore, 1645-1800, Cos. Waterford, Cork, Tipperary
* Killaloe & Kilfenora, 1653-1800, Cos. Clare, Tipperary, Laois (Queen's), Limerick
* Limerick, 1615-1800, Cos. Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry
* Ardfert & Aghadoe, 1690-1800, Cos. Kerry, Cork
* Dromore, 1678-1858, Cos. Down, Antrim, Armagh
* Exempt Jurisdictions of Newry & Mourne, 1727-1858, Cos. Down, Armagh
* Derry, 1612-1858, Cos. Derry, Antrim, Donegal, Tyrone
* Rahoe, 1684-1858, Cos. Donegal
The recommended retail price for this title is €24.71 (ex VAT) or US $29.95, but to celebrate our first anniversary we are delighted to offer this publication for €2.15 (ex VAT) or US $2.95.
The Irish Statistical Survey was carried out under the direction of the Royal Dublin Society. Each county was surveyed with the aim of determining the ‘actual state, capabilities and defects of agriculture, manufactures and rural economy’. In practice the surveys contained a vast quantity of local information on almost every aspect of the county surveyed. Because these studies were carried out under central direction the quality of the information provided is good, and given their early date, they remain an invaluable source for the study of each county. They record many details about conditions in pre-Famine Ireland, including social and economic conditions, the growth of population and poverty, education, religion, history, the Irish language and local customs.
The Donegal survey was carried out by James McParlan, a medical doctor, published in 1802. It covers all of the main topics as well as an extensive treatment of the reasons for the poor condition of many of the rural population, which he firmly blames on the excessive production of whiskey! This book is exceptionally important for Donegal, where information is sparse for the early nineteenth century.
This superb book includes a full commercial directory for the entire country. Organised by Province, and then town, it lists all the principal office holders, gentry, professionals, trades, hotels, schools, public institutions, churches, and even pubs for each town in Ireland.
This is the third edition of Slaters, for the year 1881, and contains 1,580 pages of information including a large-scale map of Ireland.
The book is organised into four sections, by province, with additional details for the four main cities:
· Leinster & Dublin
· Connaught
· Munster, Cork & Limerick
· Ulster & Belfast
These provincial sections can be purchased seperately, to reduce the cost to you, and appear on the relevant county pages.
James Solas Dodd’s Traveller’s ‘Director’ is a less well known guide to Ireland, published in 1801 to cater for English people wishing to holiday in Ireland.
The book begins with a description of Dublin city, including a detailed engraved map. He then tours the country following all the main roads throughout the island. For each place he describes the topography, economy, public buildings, gentlemen’s houses, religious buildings, antiquities, curiosities, and gives a lot of historical information.
The book concludes with a section on the major natural curiosities in Ireland (e.g. the Giant’s Causeway), and a guide to getting to Ireland from England.
The book contains an excellent map of Ireland by Stockdale.
This is a short, yet very rare publication by the Sligo Chronicle newspaper. It contains a complete business directory for Sligo in 1878. It also contains a very detailed set of "Local memoranda" concerning the county, including a history of Sligo county and details about Sligo town, and the towns of Rosses Point, Ballymote, Collooney, Ballisodare, and Easky. This is followed by a comprehensive listing of all the people associated with the various administrative bodies in the county, including MPs, judiciary, Sligo corporation, Harbour Board, Sligo Union, Tobercurry Union, Dromore West Union, Sligo & Leitrim Asylum, County Infirmary, religious establishments, schools and the army.
However the real value of this publication is the range of unusual topics it covers. It has a section on "Profitable thoughts" containing many poems, a section on famous men and women from the county, and more. The book also includes an extraordinary calendar for the year ahead, which contains articles on a divers range of topics both local and international, with 15 illustrations.
While only 84 pages, this is a useful book for those studying Sligo and its people.
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