37 reels
Reference: LER
Contents
| Reel | Description |
| 1 | COMM. I. Presentation deeds and institution papers, 1643 – 1646. These documents belong to the period 1643 – 1646 before the Long Parliament had entirely destroyed the organisation of the Church, and before the new methods of governing the Church had been settled. Until the new system was evolved Parliament had to resort to the old ecclesiastical procedure for presentation and institution in those parts of England under its jurisdiction. According to the old procedure, institution was in the hands of the diocesan official to whom the presentation deed was addressed. During this period the institution to livings within the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and those within the diocese of Canterbury, was officially entrusted to Sir Nathaniel Brent, Vicar General for the Province of Canterbury. A study of these papers has shown that they all relate to livings in the dioceses of the bishops who were impeached in 1643 and 1644. Their sees were thus vacant and by assuming rights of institution Brent was performing his usual function of dealing with ‘sede vacante’ matters. These papers therefore may have come to the library with the other Vicar General archives and not with the Commonwealth records. There are a few miscellaneous papers in the series. They include the grant of an advowson to another party for one turn, deeds of resignation of incumbents, a copy of the Thirty Nine Articles, with the signatures of those subscribing, and testimonials of good behaviour. The papers are arranged in alphabetical order of parishes and there is an index of patrons and incumbents (Numbers 1 – 145) |
| 2 | COMM. II. Presentation deeds and institution papers, 1650 – 1659, Mss. 944 – 947. The presentation deeds in this section date from the period 1650 – 1659 when the Commonwealth had dispensed with the old ecclesiastical system and had developed its own organisation of the Church. By far the largest portion are deeds from private patrons, peers, commoners, a few colleges, and other corporate bodies. The Lord Protector and his son granted the majority of the rest, but about a tenth of the whole were given by the Keepers of the Liberty and, after 1654, by the Trustees. They are in alphabetical order of parishes. Numbers 1 – 200 are on Reel 2 |
| 3 | COMM. II. Numbers 201 – 400 |
| 4 | COMM. II. Numbers 401 – 600 |
| 5 | COMM. II. Numbers 501 – 751 |
| 6 | COMM. III. Registers of presentations and approvals of ministers, 1654 – 1660. Registers kept by the Committee for the Approval of Public Preachers of those qualified to receive augmentations from the Trustees: |
| Register of approved ministers, 3 July 1654 – 6 March 1660. Ms. 968 | |
| Register of presentation deeds and nominations made by the Trustees. II December 1654 – 1655 February 1660 Ms. 983 | |
| Register of admissions 28 April 1654 – 23 March 1655. Ms. 997 | |
| 7 | COMM. III: |
| Register of admissions 28 March 1655 – 6 May 1659. Ms. 996 | |
| Register of admissions 26 March 1656 – 25 March 1657. Ms. 996A | |
| Register of admissions 26 March 1657 – 2 April 1658. Ms. 998 | |
| Register of admissions 26 March 1658 – 25 March 1659. Ms. 999 | |
| 8 | COMM. IV. Trustees Minute Books, 1654 – 1659. The minute books, or ‘Draft Day Books’ are records of all the Trustees’ discussions and decisions, from orders for the payment of augmentations to the discussion of the accounts with the auditors: |
| Minute Book 26 April – 8 May 1654. Ms. 1009 | |
| Minute Book 11 August – 28 December 1654. Ms. 1010 | |
| Minute Book 1 January – 17 May 1655. Ms. 1021 | |
| Minute Book 17 May – 13 August 1655. Ms. 1021A | |
| Minute Book 11 October 1655 – 6 April 1656. Ms. 1021B | |
| 9 | COMM. IV. Continued: |
| Minute Book 14 April – 19 September 1656. Ms. 1021C | |
| Minute Book 26 September 1656 – 20 March 1657. Ms. 1021D | |
| Minute Book 25 March – 25 September 1657. Ms. 1021E | |
| Minute Book 2 October 1657 – 19 March 1658. Ms. 1012 | |
| 10 | COMM. IV. Continued: |
| Minute Book 26 March – 24 December 1658. Ms. 985 | |
| Minute Book 29 December 1658 – 21 October 1659. Ms. 1003 | |
| COMM. V. Day Books, 1652 – 1660. These volumes contain the registrations of general orders issued by the Trustees as a result of decisions made at their meetings (see COMM. IV above). They contain all orders not belonging to any category for which special registers were kept, and they give a wide picture of the variety of business carried out by the Trustees. They include orders to receivers, auditors, the treasurer, and others, to collect arrears of rents from rectories, to make contracts for tithes, to consider petitions, to make new leases, to view the accounts, to ensure that repairs to churches are carried out, to pay various officials, and to return surveys: | |
| Day Book 7 January – 7 May 1652. Ms. 1019 | |
| Day Book 5 January 1653 – 16 June 1654. Ms. 1005 | |
| 11 | COMM. V. Continued: |
| Day Book 26 April – 8 September 1654. Ms. 1017 | |
| Day Book 19 September 1654 – 18 January 1656. Ms. 1008 | |
| Day Book 24 January 1656 – 31 July 1657. Ms. 974 | |
| 12 | COMM. V. Continued: |
| Day Book 1 August 1657 – 17 February 1659. Ms. 980 | |
| Day Book 7 March 1659 – 11 May 1660. Ms. 989 | |
| 13 | COMM. VI. a. Augmentation Order books, 1650 – 1660. Contains the orders issued by the Committees for Plundered Ministers and for the Reform of the Universities, and the Trustees for the Maintenance of Preaching Ministers, directing the receivers to pay, to continue paying, or to renew augmentations: |
| Reform of the Universities Comm. 1650 – 1651. Ms. 979 | |
| Reform of the Universities Comm. 1650 – 1652. Ms. 978 | |
| 14 | COMM. VI. a. Continued: |
| Trustees October 1651 – October 1653. Ms. 976 | |
| Comm. for Plundered Ministers, February – April 1653. Ms. 986 | |
| Trustees 25 March 1651 – 2 May 1654. Ms. 975 | |
| Trustees April – August 1654. Ms. 973 | |
| 15 | COMM. VI. a. Continued: |
| Trustees 5 October 1654 – 13 November 1656. Ms. 972 | |
| Trustees 13 November 1656 – 3 December 1657. Ms. 993 | |
| 16 | COMM. VI. a. Continued: |
| Trustees 3 December 1657 – 28 April 1659. Ms. 995 | |
| Trustees 26 October 1658 – 2 May 1660. Ms. 987 | |
| Trustees 11 December 1655-11 January 1660. Ms. 1004 | |
| 17 | COMM. VI. a. Continued: |
| Trustees 16 October 1654 – 17 November 1657. Ms. 971 | |
| Trustees 15 January 1655 – 31 December 1656. Ms. 970 | |
| COMM. VI. b. Lists and tables of augmentations, 1655 – 1659. Extracted from the Order Books (see COMM. VI. a.) and probably used for reference: | |
| Tabular account of payments, 1655 – 1657. Ms. 981 | |
| Abstract of augmentations, 1655 – 1659. Ms. 994 | |
| Orders for the payment of augmentations, 31 December 1656 – 15 February 1659. Ms. 992 | |
| 18 | COMM. VII. Augmentations approved or ordered by the Protector and Council, 1653 – 1659. Register of orders for augmentations 10 February 1653 – 8 January 1656. Ms. 966 |
| Register of orders for augmentations 4 January 1656 – 3 December 1659. Ms. 977 | |
| Report of the Trustees 9 August 1655. Ms. 1016 | |
| Register of orders by the Council, 8 May 1656 – 29 January 1659. Ms. 1015 | |
| COMM. VIII. Records of the Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel in North Wales, 1650 – 1653: | |
| Register of orders, February – March 1653. Ms. 1006. 2. Tabulated survey of grants. Ms. 1007 | |
| COMM. IX. Charities and pensions, 1651 – 1659. Records of payments made by the Trustees: | |
| Register of orders for payment 1651 – 1654. Ms. 969 | |
| Register of orders for payment 1654 – 1656. Ms. 967 | |
| Tabular summary of grants made to cathedral officers, 1651 – 1659. Ms. 1021F | |
| 19 | COMM. X. b. Commissions addressed to receivers 1650 – 1651, 1660. To collect arrears of tithes from the lands of bishops and deans and chapters. Ms. 1014 |
| COMM. XI. a. Leases of tithes, rentals and lists, 1650 – 1660. Lists and tables recording the values of the impropriations of tithes, and the details of the new leases made by the Trustees: | |
| Volume 1. “Book of Rents”: Rents and Revenues for the whole of England, except Wales and the North | |
| Volume 2. Tithe rentals. Ms. 1002 | |
| Volume 3. Schedule of Leases 1655 – 1659. Ms. 982 | |
| Volume 4. Leases sealed by the Trustees 1656 – 1658. Ms. 1020 | |
| 20 | COMM. XL a. Continued: |
| Volume 5. Revenues due from the lands of bishops, and deans and chapters. Ms. 1018 | |
| Volume 6. Arrears due from impropriate rectories, 1650 – 1658. Ms. 1020 | |
| COMM. XI. b. Leases of tithes, originals granted before the Commonwealth, 1560 – 1647. Leases of church lands granted during the hundred years before the Commonwealth | |
| 19 Volumes Mss. 947 – 948 | |
| COMM. XL c. Leases of tithes, originals granted by the Trustees 1650 – 1659. These are leases for lands formerly in the possession of bishops, and deans and chapters. Numbers 1 -101. Mss. 949 – 950 | |
| 21 | COMM. XII. a. Copies of surveys 1647 – 1657. The surveys are the largest series of Commonwealth records in the Library. On them the Trustees based their financial administrations. They fall into two distinct categories, those for the sale of the land of bishops, and deans and chapters, and those for the union and division of parishes. Both categories are in roughly alphabetical order of bishopric or county. The first category arose from ordinances issued between 1646 and 1651 for the sale of lands belonging to bishops and deans and chapters. With a view to sale commissioners were appointed by Chancery to survey the estates. The possessions which were not sold were vested in the Trustees in 1649, and the revenues applied to the maintenance of the ministry. The second category consists of parochial surveys made by commissioners set up by ordinances for the union and division of parishes in 1649, 1654 and 1656. These surveys give the value of the living, its size, and the character of the minister. The details given vary according to the county, some giving the bare minimum, others, such as those for Lancashire, giving the names of the families living in the parish: |
| Volumes 1 & 2. St. Asaph – Carlisle | |
| 22 | Volumes 3 & 4. Buckinghamshire – Dorset |
| 23 | Volume 5. Dorset and Devon |
| 24 | Volumes 6 & 7. Dorset – Rutland |
| 25 | Volumes 8 & 9. Essex and Gloucester |
| 26 | Volumes 10 & 11. Hereford – Lancashire |
| 27 | Volume 12. London – Llandaff |
| 28 | Volumes 13 & 14. Norwich – Wiltshire |
| 29 | Volumes 15. Salisbury – Suffolk |
| 30 | Volumes 16 & 17. Westminster – York |
| 31 | Volume 18. York |
| 32 | Volumes 19, 20 & 21. Canterbury – Surrey |
| 33 | Volume 22. Lands belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 34 | Volumes 23 & 24. Archiepiscopal |
| 21 – 34 | COMM. XII. a. Covers Mss. 902 – 922, 922A, b, and c |
| COMM. XII. b. Original surveys 1655 – 1657. A small collection of original surveys for the union and division of parishes | |
| 35 | COMM. XII. c. Registers of the union and division of parishes 1655 -59. These relate to the return of the parochial surveys, and the action to be taken as a result of the findings of the commissioners: |
| Volume 1. Register of the appointment of commissioners. Ms. 1000 | |
| Volume 2. Register of orders to proceed to hear petitions for unions. Ms. 991 | |
| Volume 3. Register of agreements for unions. Ms. 990 | |
| 36 | COMM. XII. c. Continued: |
| Volume 4. Tabular survey of parishes for union of division. Ms. 1001 | |
| Volume 5. A contemporary index of parochial surveys. Ms. 1800 | |
| 37 | Additional material |