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Harley MS 594

Record Id:

040-002046423

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046423

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000064

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 594

Title:

The first of two volumes with episcopal returns in the diocesan population census of 1563 and 1603

Scope & Content:

This manuscript is the first of two volumes with original certificates from bishops concerning the state of their dioceses in reply to requests for information from the Privy Council for the diocesan population census of 1563 and 1603. In the first census, the Privy Council requested information on the number of households or families in parishes. In the second, it requested information on the numbers of communicants, non-communicants and recusants. The second volume is Harley MS 595.

This manuscript also contains a section with ecclesiastical taxes from the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield dated to the 25th year of the reign of King Henry VIII (1533).

Contents:

ff. 1*verso-16v: ‘The Answer and Certificat of the Reverend father yn God Thomas [Davies] busshop of St Assaphe / To the quenes maiesties most honorable privy Cownsell ther letters to hym addressyd / hereafter folowyth and ys Conteynyd yn xiiij leaves of thys boke’; dated 18 August 1563; signed by Thomas Davies, Bishop of St Asaph, and William Bullock, registrar of the diocese.

ff. 17r-28v: ‘The Names of all and singuler the parishe churches and chapells of ease to the same united in the dioces of Bangor / the names of the Townes wherein the same are scituate [sic] / and the nomber of householdes in every of theym’; preceded by a letter by Rowland Meyrick [Merrick], Bishop of Bangor, to the Privy Council, dated the 13 August 1563.

ff. 29r-36v: Another answer by Bishop of Bangor to the Privy Council, addressing each of their articles separately.

ff. 37r-41r: The answer of Humfrey Morgan, Rural Dean of Arrustley, to Henry Rowland, Bishop of Bangor, in pursuance of the letters of John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, certifying under his hand and seal, the name of each parish, the number of the communicants, non-communicants, recusants, and the names of the several Patrons; dated 20 September 1603.

f. 42r: The answer of Edmund Meyrick, Archdeacon of Bangor; dated 8 October 1603.

ff. 43r-44r: The answer of John Williams, Rural Dean of Dyffren Cloyd and Kynmeche; dated 10 September 1603.

ff. 45r-62v: ‘The Certificat of the Dioces of Bathe and Welles wherin is declared how manye churches that the parochialls have parsons vicars or curattes [etc.]’; an answer to the Articles of 1563 directed to the Privy Council, and subscribed by Gilbert Berkeley, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

ff. 63r-84r: ‘The Certificat of the mooste Reverende ffather in God Matthue [Parker] Archebisshopp of Caunterbury touching the nombre and state of the Churches, parrishes, and hamlects [sic] within his dioces of Caunterbury accoridng to the lettres missive of the Lordes of the Quenes Majesties mooste honorable prevye Counsaill to hym in that behaulfe directed, bearing date the ixth day of July anno 1563’.

ff. 85r-87r: ‘Articles to be enquired upon by the Reverend ffather in God John [Best] Bushoppe of Caerliell, at hte Counsaill’s Commaundement Received the fyvetenth daie of Julie at the Rose Castle in Cumberland at sex of the clocke in thafter nowne’; with the answer of John Best, Bishop of Carlisle, in 1563.

ff. 89v-96v: The certificate of William Downham, Bishop of Chester, to the Privy Council concerning their enquiry; dated 4 August 1563.

ff. 97r-109v: A further answer of William Downham, Bishop of Chester, dated September 1563.

ff. 109r-115v: The certificate of William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, in answer to the Lords of the Privy Council; dated 19 July 1563.

ff. 116r-155r: A collection of ecclesiastical taxes of the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield in Latin, entitled: ’25 H VIII: The Taxacion of the second parte of the Subsidye of the Clergy of the Deiocesse [of] Coventre and Lichefield’; preceded by a Latin letter addressed to John Stokesley, Bishop of London, beginning: 'Reverendo in Christo patri et domino domino Johanni permissione divina London. Episcopo'; dated 24 July 1533.

ff. 156r-171v: The certificate of Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, in answer to the enquiry of the Privy Council.

ff. 172r-185v: ‘The State and Regiment of the diocese of Coventrye and Lichfeld’; dated 27 July 1563.

ff. 186r-195r: ‘The Certificate or aunswere of James [Pilkington] Bishop of Duresme [Durham] to a Letre and certayn articles sent unto hym by the Lordes of the quenes Majesties most honorable Prevye consell’; dated 16 August 1563.

ff. 197r-201v: ‘The true Certyficate made by the reverend Father in God Richard [Cox] Bushoppe of Elye of all and singuler the howseholdes and the whole number thereof conteigned in the same dyocesse and Jurisdiction’; dated 20 August 1563; prefixed by a letter by Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, to the Privy Council.

ff. 202r-222v: A certificate of the diocese of Exeter, dated 19 July 1563; preceded by the letter of William Alley, Bishop of Exeter, to the Privy Council, dated 15 July 1563.

ff. 224r-255v: A parchment leaf with the title ‘Gloucester certificat’; followed by a paper leaves, entitled: ‘A true Certificate of a Letter concerning the estate of ecclesiasticall lyvings late sent from the Lord Archbishoppe of Canterbury his Grace unto the reverend father [Richard Cheyney] the Lord Bishoppe of Gloucester’; subscribed by John Jones, registrar.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046423", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 594: The first of two volumes with episcopal returns in the diocesan population census of 1563 and 1603" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046423

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 594 : The first of two volumes with episcopal returns in the diocesan population census of 1563 and 1603

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0594]/040-002046423

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1533

End Date:

1603

Date Range:

1533-1603

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper; parchment (ff. 37, 42, 43, 44*, 116, 224).

Dimensions: leaves of varying sizes, mounted to fit a book measuring 330 x 215 mm.

Foliation: 1* + 255 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 5 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper and 1 unfoliated parchment leaf between f. 56 and f. 57; ff. 38, 92-108, and 116 are leaves that have been folded in half and inserted into the manuscript at their folds; ff. 37, 42, and 43 feature strips of parchment that originally featured seals (now missing); red wax seals affixed to ff. 28v, 36v, 116v, 203v; remains of red wax seals on ff. 62v, 96v; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [iv]recto and f. [257]recto (bibliographical notes).

Script: Gothic cursive; 16th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped at the centres of the outside covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England and Wales.

Provenance:

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: listed in his catalogues as A.132 with Harley MS 595 (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 108; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 131).

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (d. 1722), 3rd baronet and grandson of the former: inherited and later sold the D’Ewes library to Robert Harley on 4 October 1705 for £450; according to a receipt in Add MS 70478 (Portland Papers) [formerly Loan 29/254 packet 2] (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D’Ewes (1966), pp. 60, 91 n. 308; Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), p. xviii n. 3).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, pp. 359-60.

Henry Norbert Bell, The Elizabethan Religious Settlement (London: Bell, 1907).

V. J. B. Torr, 'An Elizabethan Return of the State of the Diocese of Chichester', Sussex Archæological Collections, 61 (1920), 92-124.

Joan Thirsk, ‘Sources of Information on Population 1500-1760’, The Amateur Historian, 4 (1959), 132-33.

Joan Thirsk, Sources of Information on Population, 1500-1760, and Unexplored Sources in Local Records (Canterbury: Phillimore, 1965), p. 5 The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. xviii n. 3.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 60, 91 n. 308, 108

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 131.

Alicia C. Percival and W. J. Sheils, ‘A Survey of the Diocese of Gloucester, 1603’, An Ecclesiastical Miscellany, Bristol and Gloucester Archaeological Society, 11 (1976), 61-102 [for an edition of ff. 224r-255v].

Tim Cooper, The Last Generation of English Catholic Clergy: Parish Priests in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield in the Early Sixteenth Century, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 15 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1999), pp. 58, 109, 152-55.

Alan Dyer and David M. Palliser, The Diocesan Population Returns for 1563 and 1603 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England
Wales