1731-1868, Bedfordshire, Berkshire & Buckinghamshire
The original Gentleman's Magazine contained articles on a vast array of subjects, including lots of wonderful topographical pieces.
In 1891 George Gomme republished all of these topograhical articles but edited and indexed them into county specific order. Each of Gomme's works contains between two and four separate counties, except for the London volumes.
An absolute goldmine of information about the county, its people and its places.
SEE BELOW FOR A VERY SPECIAL OFFER FOR ALL OF THE VOLUMES.
This is one of the most important resources that we have seen, and one that should be of great interest to all family historians. Published in 1772 it was the handbook of the duties and responsibilities of the Parish Officer.
It includes the duties of the overseers of the poor, the power in relieving, employing and settling, etc. of poor persons; the laws relating to the poor, and settlements, and the statutes concerning masters and servants. The right of Settlement was something that was of great concern to all of our ancestors. Basically, to be able to have right of settlement in a parish, one had to be born there, married there or serving an apprenticeship there. Proof was all-important, especially if a person became destitute and needed support from the parish. Parish officers would have people literally evicted and transported to another parish under such circumstances. What happened about bastardy? What obligations does an apprentice have to his master and vice-versa? This book describes it all, together with the supporting laws.
Other sections of the book include the authority and duty of constables, tithingmen, etc.; churchwardens, how they should be chosen, their duties, church accounts, repairing of churches, etc. There are some very interesting punishments for not attending church and keeping to the rules! There is a section on surveying the highways, Scavengers, methods of taxation of the highways, and laws. And finally, the duties and powers of Watchmen.
A really excellent description and history of Berkshire, its towns and villages and people.
Published in 1806. Illustrated with fine engravings.
First published in London in 1882 and republished here on fully-searchable CD-Rom is the third edition of John Murray's Handbook for Travellers to Berks, Bucks & Oxfordshire. Containing some 383 printed pages, the original title of the publication reads as follows: A Handbook for Travellers in Berks, Bucks, & Oxfordshire. Including a Particular Description of the University & City of Oxford, & the Descent of the Thames to Maidenhead & Windsor.
Travel writing as it is understood today can perhaps be traced to 1828 and Karl Baedeker's Rheinreise von Mainz bis Cöln. This was quickly followed by John Murray's Handbook for Travellers on the Continent and indeed Baedeker and Murray were to collaborate for the formers first publication in English in 1861. Murray's Handbooks for Travellers set the standard for English travellers for the rest of the nineteenth-century until Murray's was taken-over by the Muirhead brothers and their famous 'Blue Guides' in 1915.
John Murray (1809-1892) was educated at the prestigious English public school, Charterhouse from where he enrolled at Edinburgh University and following his studies he travelled extensively on the continent and this was the basis for his development of the first successful modern guidebooks, the Murray's Handbook for Travellers series. This series was begun in 1836 at a time when domestic and foreign travel was opening up, the guides came to cover all of Britain, the continent and further afield. Writers and contributors to these guides included known and unknown correspondents, including Thomas Cook correcting details about the Nile steamer, John Ruskin on Italian hotels and Felix Mendelssohn who recommended a hotel where he lived 'with a party of several ladies'. With their distinctive red covers and gold lettering Murray's handbooks became known and famous throughout the world. By the time the business was sold Murray's had help produce 400 titles and editions in the Handbook for Travellers Series and the company was also responsible for publishing works by David Livingstone and Charles Darwing, amongst many others.
This edition of Murray's Handbook for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, details 28 routes throughout the three counties in question and includes detailed introductory notes on each. The routes begin at Windsor Castle and the Great Park at Windsor in Buckinghamshire - a detailed plan for which is included - and ends in Oxford. Each route is introduced by the overall distance to be travelled, the available modes of transport, typically by rail and provides extremely details topographical, geological and historical information for all of the places of note in between the start and destination. The original is fully-indexed and contains many hundreds of contemporary advertisements, mainly for hotels in the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe.
Republished here in fully-searchable CD-Rom, is a chance to own own Murray's Handbook for Travellers to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, one the publications that set the standard for independent travel literature throughout the English-speaking world.
This book will always be popular with those having Berkshire ancestors.
Written in 1906, it gives a tour around all of the towns and villages explaining their history, antiquities, churches and people. Fascinating reading and great background information for your family history.
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