Add this eBook to your basket to receive access to all 218 records. Our indexes include entries for the spelling downe. In the period you have requested, we have the following 218 records (displaying 11 to 20): 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. Servants of the Scottish crown
(1473-1498)
Under the direction of the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, the earliest Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, under the series Compota Thesauriorum Regum Scotorum, were abridged and published. This first volume, prepared by Thomas Dickson, curator of the Historical Department of the General Register House, was published in 1877. It contains the earliest surving accounts, from 1473 to 1474 in the reign of king James III, and the next, from 1488 to 1489 in the reign of king James IV. These were printed verbatim; but there then follow (page 166 onwards) accounts through to 1498 'considerably curtailed by the omission of unimportant entries'. These accounts are mostly lists of royal expenditure: many purchases of items for the court do not give the name of the merchants from whom they were bought, so the bulk of the personal names in the text are those of intermediaries, messengers, and various servants of the king. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Yorkshire Testators and Legatees
(1484-1508)
Wills and testaments from the diocese of York (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Hexhamshire, Lancashire north of the Ribble, and southwest Westmorland) registered at York. Richmond and Southwell archdeaconries had their own lower probate jurisdictions, so the wills registered at York are predominantly from the East and West Ridings and the eastern part of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In theory, wills dealt with real property and testaments with personal property, but the distinction hardly applies in practice: most of these wills are in Latin, but some are in English. Being before the Reformation, they commonly start with benefactions to churches, chantries, chapels, &c., and with provisions for the burning of candles ('lights') and saying of masses. This publication in 1869 by the Surtees Society as Testamenta Eboracensia iv is an edition by James Raine of selected wills from the period. Some additional material is included from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and the York Dean and Chapter archives. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Kent Charters
(1520-1529)
A large accumulation of documents preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, formerly constituted the antiquarian collections of Anthony a Wood, Roger Dodsworth, Ralph Thoresby, Thomas Martin of Palgrave, Thomas Tanner bishop of St Asaph, Dr Richard Rawlinson, Richard Furney archdeacon of Surrey, and Richard Gough. A calendar of these was prepared by William H. Turner and published in 1878 under the title 'Calendar of Charters and Rolls preserved in the Bodleian Library'. The word 'charters' is here used in a very general sense, including virtually any manuscript or copy of a manuscript, but the bulk of the contents consists of mediaeval deeds of conveyance. Turner's calendar deals with each briefly, naming the principal parties and the nature of the deed, but hardly ever lists the witnesses. Many of these charters were undated (dating of deeds did not become standard until around 1350) or so damaged or defective ('mutilated' is Turner's usual description) as no longer to display a legible date. However, he contrived, from the style of the script and/or the nature of the contents, to estimate dates in such cases. The sample scan is from the start of the Bedfordshire list. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Liegemen and traitors, diplomats and spies
(1540-1542)
The Privy Council of England dealt with many delicate and important matters of state. The surviving records date back as early as the 14th century, but Henry VIII on 10 August 1540, with the advice of the council, ordered that the council should have its own clerk 'to write, entre and registre all such decrees, determinacons, lettres and other such things as he shuld be appoynted to entre in a booke, to remayne alwayes as a leger, aswell for the dischardge of the sayd counsaillours touching such things as they shuld passe from tyme to tyme, as alsoo for a memoriall unto theim of their owne procedings'. The register from that date to 8 April 1542 was transcribed for the Commissioners of the Public Records by sir Harris Nicolas, and published in 1837. Although the council often dealt with petitions from aggrieved subjects, its main function was to oversee internal and external security. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1542-1547)
The Privy Council of Henry VIII was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters
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| 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
| Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1550-1552)
The Privy Council of Edward VI was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters
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| 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.
| Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Common Pleas: Cornwall
(1558)
Pleas at Westminster Michaelmas term, 5 & 6 Philip & Mary and 1 Elizabeth, 1558. The court dealt with civil cases: debt, detinue, slander, assault, theft, breach of covenant, formedon, novel disseisin, &c. Each case is marked in the margin with the name of the county to the sheriff of which the writs were issued. Most often, but not necessarily, this would be the county of residence of the defendant. This calendar of the original formulaic record in abbreviated Latin on parchment has been made by David Bethell, preserving all individual detail from each case. The Latin text is translated: English phrases and passages are preserved literatim, in bold. CP 40/1176 mm.1-100 | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Cornwall Entries in the Common Pleas (1558)
The Common Roll of the Common Pleas records litigation before the justices de Banco from throughout England.
| Sample scan, click to enlarge
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