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COMMXIIa11f101

Copies of surveys

Commonwealth Records

The surveys are the largest series of Commonwealth records in the Library. On them the Trustees based their financial administration. The surveys fall into two distinct categories, those for the sale of the lands of bishops, and deans and chapters, and those for the union and division of parishes. Both categories are bound together in roughly alphabetical order of bishopric or county. The first category arose as the result of various 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 surveys in this series are office copies used by the Trustees. 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, in order to ascertain whether the salary was sufficient, and the parish of a size to be served efficiently by one man. The commissioners made recommendations when necessary for the union and division of parishes. 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. The parochial surveys in the Library are office copies made for the Trustees by Thomas Hobson and Thomas Pury. Only surveys made in 1650 are in this series with the exception of a few original surveys bound with them. No originals of the returns for the sale of bishops' lands seem to have survived, with the possible exception of those for the lands of the Archbishop of Canterbury (COMM XIIa/22-24) which bear the signatures of the commissioners. A few original parochial surveys remained in the hands of the Trustees and were either bound with the others (see COMM/12A/20-21) or were found loose (see COMM.128). The remaining originals are in Public Record Office. St Asaph (Dean and Chapter) Anglesey Bangor (D) Bristol (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Bath & Wells (Wells D) Bath & Wells (Bishop & Dean and Chapter) Bristol (Bishop) Bristol (Dean and Chapter) Coventry & Lichfield (Dean and Chapter) Coventry & Lichfield (Bishop) Chester (Bishop) Chichester (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Carlisle (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Buckinghamshire Coventry & Lichfield (Bishop) Chester (Bishop) Cambridgeshire St David's (Bishop) St David's (Dean and Chapter) Durham (county) Dorset Devon Dorset Derbyshire Durham (Dean and Chapter) Ely (Bishop) Ely (Dean and Chapter) Cambridge, Isle of Ely Isle of Wight Rutland Essex Gloucester (Bishop) Gloucestershire Gloucester (Dean and Chapter) Hereford (Bishop) Hereford (Dean and Chapter) Herefordshire (original survey) Hereford (Dean and Chapter) Huntingdonshire Hertfordshire Lancashire Llandaff (Bishop) London (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Middlesex Lincoln (Dean and Chapter) Llandaff (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Norwich (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxford (Bishop) Peterborough (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Pembrokeshire Rochester (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) Wiltshire Salisbury (Bishop and Dean and Chapter) London (Dean and Chapter) Somerset Southampton (town) Winchester (Bishop) Suffolk Westminster Abbey (Dean and Chapter) Windsor Free Chapel (D & canons) Bath & Wells (Dean and Chapter) Winchester (Dean and Chapter) Worcestershire York (Abp) Yorkshire, WR Yorkshire, ER York (Dean and Chapter) York, Southwell Collegiate Church York (Dean and Chapter) Yorkshire, WR York (city) Canterbury (Dean and Chapter) Kent Originals: Beds, Cambs, Lincs, London, Norfolk & Nhants Originals: Norfolk, Oxon, Suffolk & Surrey Canterbury (Abp) As far as possible place names have been rendered in the modern spelling

1647-1657

LPL