£75.00 EBook Add to Basket >>

£90.00 DVD Add to Basket >>

Add this eBook to your basket to receive access to all 162 records.

Our indexes include entries for the spelling bett. In the period you have requested, we have the following 162 records (displaying 1 to 10): 

These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found.

Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site.

Tenants of the Bishopric of Durham (1345)
Bishop Hatfield's Survey, a record of the possessions of the see of Durham, made by order of Thomas de Hatfield, bishop of Durham 1345 to 1381, was edited by the Rev. William Greenwell for the Surtees Society and printed in 1856. As appendixes, he also transcribed a bailiff's roll of the manor of Auckland from the 5th year of bishop Richard de Bury, Hatfield's immediate predecessor; several bailiffs' rolls of the 5th year of Hatfield's pontificate; and a general receiver's roll of bishop John de Fordham, Hatfield's immediate successor.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Tenants of the Bishopric of Durham
 (1345)
Inhabitants of Sheffield in Yorkshire (1440-1441)
The Duchess of Norfolk allowed T. Walter Hall to examine the early archives of her Sheffield estates, and in 1926 he published a volume including abstracts (in translation) of the Sheffield manor court roll from October 1440 to September 1441. In this roll was also the Sheriff's tourn 18 April 1441 of the superior jurisdiction of Hallamshire, covering the sokes of Sheffield, Hannesworth, Bradfield, Southawe and Ecclesfield; and this is also printed. Hall found fragments of a Bradfield court roll of 1385; and devoted the latter half of his book to extracts from the Register of Copyholders' Surrenders, showing surrenders and admittances of copyhold tenants of the manor of Sheffield from 1403 to 1634; plus some miscellaneous deeds and documents relating to the manor and to Hallamshire. The index covers all these.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Inhabitants of Sheffield in Yorkshire
 (1440-1441)
Taxpayers in Sussex (1524-1525)
By Act of Parliament of 1523 (14 & 15 Hen. III, c. 16) a general subsidy was raised, spread over four years, from laymen, clergy and peers. In each of the first two years 1s in the £ was raised from annual income from land; 1s in the £ on capital goods worth over £2 and under £20; and a flat payment of 4d on goods worth from £1 to £2, and also by persons aged 16 and upwards in receipt of £1 per annum in wages. In the third year a further shilling in the pound was payable on land worth £50 and upwards a year; and in the fourth year a shilling in the pound on goods worth £50 and upwards. To raise this revenue, returns were required from every hundred, parish or township. In Sussex, the returns for 1524 and 1525 cover the city of Chichester (divided into Estrata, Westrata, Southstrata, North[strata] and Palenta), the borough of Midhurst, and then the rest of the county divided into rapes, within those into hundreds, and within those into boroughs, tithings, liberties, townships or parishes. It is important to note that the cinque ports of Hastings, Rye and Winchelsea were exempt from the subsidy, except for alien inhabitants; and that the town of Westbourne was also exempted 'as the town was lately destroyed by fire'. Aliens are noted as such, sometimes with nationality; and Brighthelmstone (Brighton), which had been burnt by the French in 1514, is only represented fragmentarily. The Sussex Record Society published this transcript and edition by Julian Cornwall of the 1524 and 1525 returns: the 1524 return was used for the main transcript where possible, names peculiar to the 1524 lists being marked with an asterisk, and those with amendments in 1524 with a dagger. At the foot of each 1524 return the new names from 1525 are given. Only the amount of the assessment is printed (m. = marks). Letters prefixed to the sum give the basis of the assessment, no letter (or G) meaning that it was on goods - A, annual wages; D, annual wages of day-labourers; F, fees or salaries of office; L, lands; P, profits; W, wages; x, no basis stated.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Taxpayers in Sussex
 (1524-1525)
Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries (1546-1548)
Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and from 1546 to 1548 the commissioners produced these certificates giving brief details of the establishment and nature of each foundation, with an inventory of valuables and rental of lands. The individuals named in the certificates are thus the founder, the present incumbent, and the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income. All the surviving certificates were edited by William Page for the Surtees Society, and published from 1892.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries
 (1546-1548)
Freemen of London (1540-1550)
The long series of mediaeval registers and books of admission of the freemen of London was destroyed by fire in 1786. Thirty surviving charred leaves were gathered together and rebound, becoming Egerton MS 2408 in the British Museum. The order is jumbled and generally speaking none can be dated with certainty, although all belong to the very end of the reign of Henry VIII and the start of the reign of his son, Edward VI. These are pages from the admission books. Each entry here usually gives the name of the person admitted to the freedom; his father's name, address and occupation; his entitlement to the freedom, usually by having served out an apprenticeship to a citizen, naming the master and his trade. Then there may follow a cross-reference to M. or N., being two volumes of another set of official books denoted by the letters of the alphabet, and following each other in chronological sequence, which evidently gave details of entries into apprenticeships. These other books no longer exist: but the dates given for entry do identify the start of the apprenticeship, and so give by implication a date for the eventual admission to freedom. In the margin is the name of the city ward and the total of the fee and fine paid on admission.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Freemen of London
 (1540-1550)
Yorkshire Feet of Fines (1571-1584)
Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in Yorkshire
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Yorkshire Feet of Fines
 (1571-1584)
Lord Willoughby in the Netherlands (1580-1601)
Mrs S. C. Lomas of the Historical Manuscripts Commission prepared this calendar of the manuscripts of the Earl of Ancaster preserved at Grimsthorpe, published in 1907. The records covered are from 1550 to 1737, but the bulk of this volume is given over to an edition of the correspondence of Peregrine lord Willoughby, who was appointed governor of Bergen-op-Zoom in 1586, and spent the next ten years commanding English and Dutch forces against those of Spain. There are also a few pages (449 to 452) dealing with a scattering of ancient deeds (from c.1160 to 1547); some items from inventories (452-459, c.1522 to after 1742) and household accounts (459-482, 1560-1661) which attracted Mrs Lomas's attention; and notes from a muster roll of Baberg hundred, Suffolk, of about 1522, from which some names are given in the text.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Lord Willoughby in the Netherlands
 (1580-1601)
Secretary of State's Papers (1601)
The letters and papers of sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State, deal with all manner of government business in England, Ireland and abroad.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Secretary of State's Papers
 (1601)
Middlesex Sessions (1549-1603)
This printed calendar collates a number of surviving records from Middlesex sessions for the period. Principally these are the Gaol Delivery Rolls (G. D. R.) and the General Sessions of the Peace Rolls (G. S. O. P. R.). Both series cover general criminal indictments (bills) together with the recognizances of the witnesses to attend; but the Gaol Delivery Rolls, by their very nature, tend to deal with the more serious cases - felonies where the accused could not be released on bail. The General Sessions rolls also include the sheriff's lists of bailiffs, sub-bailiffs, high and petty constables in the shire; writs of venire facias for production of jurors, writs of capias, lists of jurors, jury-panels &c. The Gaol Delivery Rolls also include coroners' inquests, writs of supersedeas, and memoranda of proclamations. Special inquiries are recorded in separate Sessions of Oyer and Terminer (S. O. T.) rolls and Inquest or Inquisition rolls (I. R.) Although coverage is good, none of the sequences of rolls for this period is complete. A peculiarity of this calendar is that in the case of actual incidents, the date given at the start of each entry is the date that the incident was alleged to have taken place (for instance, 1 June 11 Elizabeth (1569) in the sample scan) rather than the date of the court proceedings.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Middlesex Sessions
 (1549-1603)
Middlesex Sessions (1603-1625)
Incidents from the Middlesex Sessions Books. These are abstracts of sessional orders, minutes of criminal cases, memoranda and other entries of record taken from the three volumes of Gaol Delivery Register, four volumes of Sessions of Peace Register and two volumes of Process Books of Indictments for the county of Middlesex from the reign of king James I. The references at the end of each item indicate the volume in question, the abbreviations being G. D. for Gaol Delivery, S. P. for Sessions of Peace, and S. O. T. for Session of Oyer and Terminer; occasionally preceded by S. for Special or G. for general, or followed by R. for Roll or Reg. for Register. It should be noted that, in the case of 'true bills' or indictments, the abstract starts with the date on which the offence took place, the date of the conviction &c. being at the end of the entry.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Middlesex Sessions
 (1603-1625)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17Next page

Research your ancestry, family history, genealogy and one-name study by direct access to original records and archives indexed by surname.