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Clerks and Clergy in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Gloucestershire (1504-1516)
The register of bishop Richard Mayew of Hereford, containing general diocesan business, but also including ordination lists for monks and clergy. Only a small proportion of the clerks went on to acquire benefices and remained celibate. Hereford diocese covered almost all Herefordshire, southern rural Shropshire, a westward arm of Worcestershire, and a northwestern slice of Gloucestershire.
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Clerks and Clergy in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Gloucestershire
 (1504-1516)
Murderers sheltering in Durham Cathedral: and their victims (1464-1524)
Criminals could evade pursuit by claiming sanctuary in Durham Cathedral. Persons who took refuge fled to the north door of the cathedral, and knocked for admission. There were two chambers over the door in which men slept, for the purpose of admitting fugitives at any hour of the night. As soon as anyone was so admitted, the Galilee bell was immediately tolled, to give notice that someone had taken sanctuary. The offender was required to declare before witnesses the nature of his offence, and to toll a bell in token of his demanding the privilege of sanctuary. He was then provided with a gown of black cloth with a yellow cross, called St Cuthbert's Cross, upon the left shoulder. A grate was provided near the south door to sleep upon, and for 37 days sufficient provisions and bedding were provided. But within 40 days he had to appear before the coroner, clothed in sackcloth, and be branded on his right hand with the sign of the letter A. This signified that he was swearing to abjure the realm: he was then free to leave the country unhindered. The petitions for immunity were entered in the diocesan registers, usually with the marginal note 'Peticio Immunitatis': those from 18 June 1464 to 10 September 1524 (the privilege was finally abolished in 1624) were edited and printed by the Surtees Society in 1837 under the title Sanctuarium Dunelmense. Some of the criminals came from a considerable distance: the great majority were murderers or homicides. Each entry usually gives full name, original address, (often) trade, a brief description of the crime, often with date, and usually the name of the victim, as well as the witnesses to the petition. This index covers all the surnames given.
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Murderers sheltering in Durham Cathedral: and their victims
 (1464-1524)
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.
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Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries
 (1546-1548)
Tradesmen of York (1272-1558)
No man or woman could trade in the city of York without having obtained 'freedom' of the city.Their names were recorded on the 'Freemen's Roll', or Register of the Freemen of the City of York, which contains about 19,900 names for this period. A list of names was prepared for each year, the year being here reckoned as starting at Michaelmas (29 September) until 1373, and thence at Candlemas (2 February). Each annual list starts with the name of the mayor and the camerarii or chamberlains. The chamberlains were freemen charged with the duty of receiving the fees of the new freemen; of seeing that only freemen traded in the city; and of preparing this roll, which was compiled from the names on their own account books from the receipts for the fees. There are three groups of freemen: those who obtained freedom after serving out an apprenticeship to a freeman; the children of freemen; and those who claimed freedom by 'redemption', i. e. by purchase or gift from the Mayor and Court of Aldermen.
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Tradesmen of York
 (1272-1558)
Tenants of the Bishop of Durham (1580)
'A Booke of Surveighe and an Abstract out of the Rentale of all the Landes, Tenementes and Revenews that belonge to the Cathedrall' Churche of Durism' with the perfect and perticuler State therof, mayd anno Reginae Elizabethae vicissimo secundo, 1580' was edited by John Booth and printed by the Surtees Society in 1886. The bishopric had an extensive rental in the city and county of Durham; eight places in Northumberland are mentioned; and then there are glebe rentals from rectories in county Durham and Northumberland in the bishop's hands. Greater detail is then given of the tenants of the manors in county Durham held as of the cathedral priory - Aycliffe, Bellasis, (Newton) Bewley, Billingham, Burdun, Chilton, Coupon, Dalton, Edmondbyers, Ferry (Hill, or Ferrycliffe), Fulwell, Harton, Hebburn, Hedworth, Hesledon, Heworth, Jarrow, Kirk Merrington, East Merrington, West Merrington and Mid Merrington, Monkton, Moorsley, Newton Ketton, Nunstanton, North and South Pittington, East and West Rainton, Ravensflat, Shields, Southwick, Spen, Usworth, Wallsend, Wardley, Wearmouth, Westoe, Willington and Wolviston. Finally, there is a list of new leases granted out at lotteries by the late dean of Durham and the prebendaries there; fines received but not yet paid into the cathedral funds; and the names of tenants (of the priory) claiming tenant right and refusing to take leases.
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Tenants of the Bishop of Durham
 (1580)
Quarter Sessions for the North Riding of Yorkshire (1605-1612)
The Quarter Sessions minute books for the North Riding from April 1605 to July 1612 were edited by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson for the North Riding Record Society and published in 1884. This is a calendar of sessional orders, minutes of criminal cases, memoranda and other entries of record concerning the administration of the riding, for the quarter sessions and special sessions held at Thirsk, Stokesley, Richmond, Malton, Helmsley, Northallerton and Topcliffe. Recusants (persons refusing or neglecting to attend parish church services) are listed in the summary of prosecutions on pages 4-5, 10, 17, 21, 42, 55-56, 61, 65, 69, 72, 79, 82, 95, 99, 113-115, 122, 131, 153-155 and 176.
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Quarter Sessions for the North Riding of Yorkshire
 (1605-1612)
Lancashire and Cheshire Marriage Licences (1606-1616)
Licences for intended marriages in Chester archdeaconry, which covered Cheshire and Lancashire south of the Ribble (by far the most populous part of that county)
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Lancashire and Cheshire Marriage Licences
 (1606-1616)
Lancashire and Cheshire Marriage Licences (1616-1624)
Licences for intended marriages in Chester archdeaconry, which covered Cheshire and Lancashire south of the Ribble (by far the most populous part of that county)
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Lancashire and Cheshire Marriage Licences
 (1616-1624)
Merchants and traders in Aberdeen (1399-1631)
A. M. Munro searched the council registers of the royal burgh of Aberdeen, and compiled this list of burgesses admited to the borough. The entries prior to 1591 were contained in lists engrossed in the council registers at the close of the minutes for the year ending at Michaelmas, but after that date in addition to the annual lists, which are continued, there is almost always a separate minute of admission under the respective dates. The records before 1591 are not only sparser, often with no more than a name, but are also lacking for 1401-1405, 1413-1432, 1434-1435, 1518-1519, 1557 and 1562-1564 - other blanks were filled in from the guildry accounts where such existed. Guild burgesses were allowed unfettered trading rights in Aberdeen; simple burgesses could only deal in Scottish wares (so being barred from the lucrative English and Flemish imports and exports); trade burgesses were limited to their own particular trades; and the council was able ex gratia to create honourary burgesses, who were accorded the full privileges of burgesses of guild and trade, and among whom numbered members of almost every family of note in Aberdeenshire. Burgesses could thus be created by descent, by apprenticeship into a trade, or ex gratia, and in the later portions of this roll the precise circumstances are usually given, sometimes also with the name of a cautioner or surety. Burgesses, masters and cautioners are all indexed here.
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Merchants and traders in Aberdeen
 (1399-1631)
Lancashire and Cheshire Marriage Licences (1624-1632)
Licences for intended marriages in Chester archdeaconry, which covered Cheshire and Lancashire south of the Ribble (by far the most populous part of that county)
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Lancashire and Cheshire Marriage Licences
 (1624-1632)
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