£75.00 EBook Add to Basket >>

£90.00 DVD Add to Basket >>

Add this eBook to your basket to receive access to all 172 records.

Our indexes include entries for the spelling bigge. In the period you have requested, we have the following 172 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.

Grantees of royal lands and pardons (1176-1177)
The Great Rolls of the Pipe are the central record of the crown compiling returns of income and expenditure from the sheriffs and farmers of the various English counties or shires. This is the oldest series of public records, and the earliest surviving instances of many surnames are found in the Pipe Rolls. This is the roll for the 23rd year of the reign of king Henry II, that is, accounting for the year from Michaelmas 1176 to Michaelmas 1177. Most (but not all) of the entries in which names appear relate to payments for grants of land and fines or pardons. The large number of payments of fines for forest transgressions has been interpreted as a form of compounding for pardons by those who had rebelled during the recent years of unrest. There is a separate return in each year for each shire, the name of the shire being here printed at the top of each page. Wales was still independent, in separate kingdoms, at this period, and is not included, except for 'Herefordshire in Wales'.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Grantees of royal lands and pardons
 (1176-1177)
Curia Regis Rolls (1194-1199)
The Curia Regis, king's court, of mediaeval England took cases from throughout the country, and its records are among the most important surviving from this early period. This transcript of the rolls for October to December 1194 and October 1198 to July 1199 were edited by sir Francis Palgrave for the Commissioners of the Public Records. Most entries have the name of the county in the lefthand margin.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Curia Regis Rolls 
 (1194-1199)
Close Rolls (1234-1237)
The close rolls of the 19th to 21st years of the reign of king Henry III, that is from 28 October 1234 to 27 October 1237, record the main artery of government administration in England, the orders sent out day by day to individual officers, especially sheriffs of shires: they are an exceptionally rich source for so early a period. Most of the contents relate to England, but there are also entries concerning Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France. This calendar was prepared by staff of the Public Record Office and published in 1908. Latin.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Close Rolls (1234-1237)
Pipe Roll (1241-1242)
The Great Rolls of the Pipe are the central record of the crown compiling returns of income and expenditure from the sheriffs and farmers of the various English counties or shires. This is the oldest series of public records, and the earliest surviving instances of many surnames are found in the Pipe Rolls. This is the roll for the 26th year of the reign of king Henry III, that is, accounting for the year from Michaelmas 1241 to Michaelmas 1242. Most (but not all) of the entries in which names appear relate to payments for grants of land and fines or pardons arising from the proceedings of the justices. The text was edited by Henry Lewin Cannon for Yale Historical Publications and printed in 1918. The name of the county is given at the head of each page, and variant spellings, omissions and additions found in the duplicate Chancellor's Roll [C. R.] are given in the footnotes.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Pipe Roll
 (1241-1242)
Patent Rolls: entries for Nottinghamshire (1276-1277)
Calendars of the patent rolls of the reign of king Edward I are printed in the Calendars of State Papers: but these cover only a fraction of the material on the rolls. From 1881 to 1889 the reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office also include calendars of other material from the rolls - about five times as many entries as in the State Papers - predominantly mandates to the royal justices to hold sessions of oyer and terminer to resolve cases arising locally; but also other general business. The calendar for the 5th year of king Edward I [20 November 1276 to 19 November 1277], hitherto unindexed, is covered here.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Patent Rolls: entries for Nottinghamshire
 (1276-1277)
Clerks and Clergy in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and parts of Lancashire (1266-1279)
The register of archbishop Walter Giffard of York, containing general diocesan business, mostly relating to clergy, was edited by William Brown for the Surtees Society and published in 1904. The ancient diocese of York covered all of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, as well as Lancashire north of the Ribble, southern Westmorland, and Hexhamshire in Northumberland. But there are few entries relating to the archdeaconry of Richmond, and few about the peculiar jurisdictions of Southwell, Ripon, Beverley and Hexham. The dioceses of Carlisle and Durham, both in the province of York, are hardly mentioned. Archbishop Giffard spent much of his pontificate away from his diocese, and the register has gaps: but at least it survives, unlike those for his immediate predecessors, Sewall de Boville (1256-1258) and Godfrey de Ludham (1258-1264). Moreover, there are ordination lists (pages 187 to 198) of acolytes, subdeacons, deacons and priests ordained in 1267 to 1274. These usually give full name, and indicate whether the man was 'religious' (a monk or friar), and whether his 'title' (sponsorship) arose from his own patrimony, but 'title' is not usually otherwise specified.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Clerks and Clergy in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and parts of Lancashire
 (1266-1279)
Patent Rolls: entries for Nottinghamshire (1278-1279)
Calendars of the patent rolls of the reign of king Edward I are printed in the Calendars of State Papers: but these cover only a fraction of the material on the rolls. From 1881 to 1889 the reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office also include calendars of other material from the rolls - about five times as many entries as in the State Papers - predominantly mandates to the royal justices to hold sessions of oyer and terminer to resolve cases arising locally; but also other general business. The calendar for the 7th year of king Edward I [20 November 1278 to 19 November 1279], hitherto unindexed, is covered here.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Patent Rolls: entries for Nottinghamshire
 (1278-1279)
Worcestershire Inhabitants (1280)
The Worcestershire Lay Subsidy roll of about 1280 lists lay inhabitants of each township of the shire and of each ward of the city of Worcester, with the amount of tax payable by each. Latin.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Worcestershire Inhabitants
 (1280)
Grantees of offices, commissions and pardons (1272-1281)
The Patent Rolls are the Chancery enrolments of royal letters patent. Those for the 1st to the 9th years of the reign of king Edward I (29 November 1272 to 17 November 1281) were edited for the Public Record Office by J. G. Black, and published in 1901. The main contents are royal commissions and grants; ratifications of ecclesiastical estates; writs of aid to royal servants and purveyors; and pardons.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Grantees of offices, commissions and pardons
 (1272-1281)
Courtroll of Ogbourne, Wiltshire (1296)
King's College, Cambridge, has a series of courtrolls relating to the English possessions of the Norman abbey of Bec. C 11, a single membrane, contains the records of manorial courts from June to July 1296. F. W. Maitland selected pleas from this roll, transcribed them into extended Latin, with an English translation facing, and they were published in 1889 by the Selden Society. Maitland's translation anglicizes or modernizes the surnames, so we have confined our index to the Latin; but that is not without its difficulties, because the 13th-century clerk often latinizes what would have been indigenous English surnames. The courtrolls represented are those of Ogbourne (Wiltshire) 28 July 1296; Weedon Beck (Northamptonshire) 21 July 1296; and Ruislip (Middlesex) 15 June 1296.
Sample scan, click to enlarge
Courtroll of Ogbourne, Wiltshire
 (1296)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18Next page

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