Wiltshire Returns to the Bishop's Visitation
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%iItsbi1:e iRern1:h éurietp (formerly the Records Branch of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society) VOLUME XXVII FOR THE YEAR 1971 Impression of 400 copies WILTSHIRE RETURNS TO THE BISHOP’S VISITATION QUERIES 1783 EDITED BY MARY RANSOME DEVIZES l 972 © Wiltshire Record Society 1972 ISBN: 0 901333 O4 2 THIS VOLUME IS PUBLISHED WITH THE HELP OF A GRANT FROM THE LATE MISS ISOBEL THORNLEY’S BEQUEST TO THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Set in Times New Roman 10/ll pt. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE GLEVUM PRESS LTD., GLOUCESTER CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES CITED viii INTRODUCTION The Manuscript . Editorial Method The Bishop . Preparations for the Visitation. Church Services . Dissent . The Parish Clergy 00CJ\'J|-I§~l\J"-"—* THE B1sHoP’s LETTER 15 VISITATION QUERIES I7 RETURNS To THE QUERIES . 19 INDEX 251 LIST OF MEMBERS . 265 PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY 271 V PREFACE THE SOCIETY is indebted and expresses its warm thanks to the Salisbury Diocesan Registrar (Mr. Alan M. Barker) for permission to publish the documents that Form the text printed below; to the County and Diocesan Archivist (Mr. M. G. Rathbone) and the Assistant Diocesan Archivist (Miss Pamela Stewart), in whose care the documents are, for making them available; to the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, for keeping the documents so that Miss Ransome could work on them in its library; to the trustees of the Isobel Thornley Bequest for a most generous grant towards the cost of printing; and particularly, of course, to Miss Ransome for undertaking the edition and completing it promptly. Miss Ransome wishes to record her warm personal thanks to Miss Pamela Stewart, Mr. D. A. Crowley, and Mr. K. H. Rogers for their kind and expert help in solving a variety of problems; and in particular to Miss Elizabeth Crittall, Editor of the Victoria History of Wiltshire, who made available the typescript of parish histories not yet published, and who has generously shared her wide knowledge of Wiltshire in many informal and useful conversations. The documents here published relate rather to the diocese of Salisbury than to the county of Wiltshire. At the time of their compilation Berkshire was part of the diocese, and when Miss Ransome began work on her edition in 1969 it was thought possible that the Berkshire returns might be included. Their inclusion, however, would have required a much larger volume, and one that would have been beyond the Society’s financial means. Inquiries made in 1970 suggested that the organizations in Berkshire concerned with historical records and their publication were unable to share in the expense of a larger volume, and so with some reluctance it was decided to confine the volume to the Wiltshire returns. CHRISTOPHER ELRINGTON May 1972 vii ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES CITED IN THE NOTES Alum. Cantab. J. and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Alum. Oxon. J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses Benson and Hatcher, R. Benson and H. Hatcher, Old and New Sarum or Salisbury Salisbury (1834) (part of Hoare’s Modern Wilts.) Clergy Books, 1783 Salisbury Diocesan Record Office, Clergy Books, 1783 Complete Peerage G. E. Cockayne, Complete Peerage, ed. Vicary Gibbs and H. A. Doubleday D.N.B. Dictionary of National Biography Gents. Mag. Gentleman’s Magazine Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Modern Wilts. (1822-37) Liber Regis Liber Regis or Thesaurus rerum Ecclesiastiarum, ed. J. Bacon (1786) Lond. Mag. London Magazine Pembroke Papers Pembroke Papers, I. 1734-80, II. 1780-94; Letters and Diaries of Henry tenth Earl of Pembroke and his circle, ed. Lord Herbert (1942, 1950) Sarum Dioc. R.O. Salisbury Diocesan Record Office V.C.H. Wilts. Victoria County History of Wiltshire W.A.M. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine . Wilts. Inst. Sir Thomas Phillips, Institutiones Clericorimi in Comitatu Wiltoniae (I825) Wilts. Top. Coll. Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, ed. J. E. Jackson (1862) Worcs. Hist. Soc. Worcestershire Historical Society viii INTRODUCTION THE MANUSCRIPT The present volume contains the returns made by the Wiltshire clergy at the primary visitation of Bishop Barrington in July 1783. Following the practice which had by the mid 18th century become general, Barrington sent out in advance of his visitation a list of questions addressed to the officiating clergy in all the parishes under his jurisdiction, with an explanatory letter and a printed form on which their answers were to be made. The completed forms were subsequently bound up into three volumes—two containing the parishes in Wiltshire and one those in Berkshire. The volumes, which have had their folios numbered in a single sequence, are in the Diocesan Record Ofiice at Salisbury. They have half-calf bindings and marbled end-boards, each volume being ll§ inches high and 91} inches broad. Included in the two volumes of Wiltshire parishes are fourteen Berkshire parishes, and a note inside the front cover of the Berkshire volume states that these have been bound up with the Wiltshire parishes by mistake. The parishes are bound in alphabetical order, which has not, however, been strictly kept. Each parish return consists of two double sheets, folded to form eight pages. Pages l and 2 are filled by the bishop’s letter (with the names of parish and deanery filled in by an ofiicial) and the list of places and times of visitation and confirmation; pages 3 to 8 contain the queries, printed on the left-hand side, with space left for the answers, and with the postscript at the end. At the foot of page 8, on the right-hand side, is the address, ‘To the ofiiciating minister, rector, or vicar of —,’ the name of the parish being filled in by an official. The whole eight pages were presumably folded, with the address outside. In some returns the bishop’s letter, with the names of the parish and deanery, is missing and the names have been written across the top of the answers, always in the same hand—presumably again by an oflicial. The handwriting of the answers varies greatly, ranging from small, neat, scholarly hands and beautiful italic script, through free but well formed hands, to unformed, childish scrawls. The majority, however, are clear and easy to read. There is little variation in the spelling and few spelling mistakes, but certain archaic forms are used by most of the clergy. Some returns have no signature, and a considerable number of those that were signed by curates do not name the incumbents. EDITORIAL METHOD The returns printed below are confined to Wiltshire, and omit all those for Berkshire. Each parish has been given a serial number, printed before the name of the parish in bold type. Following the name of the parish are the 2 VISITATION RETURNS, I783 number of the folio on which the return for the parish begins and the name of the rural deanery. The bishop’s letter and the queries are printed at the beginning of the text, and are not repeated in each return; for ease of under- standing the returns, the queries have also been printed at the back of the volume on a sheet which folds clear of the other pages. The more complex queries, and where appropriate the answers to them, have been subdivided with letters in square brackets, for greater clarity. The text has been edited by extending some abbreviations, by adopting others as standard even where they are not used in the manuscript, and by rationalizing the spelling, the use of initial capital letters, the expression of sums of money and of dates giving the day of the month, and, where possible, the punctuation. The inconsistent use in the manuscript of figures and words to express numbers has been left unaltered other than in sums of money and dates, partly because of the impossibility of achieving a consistent usage that would retain the actual words (as distinct from the written symbols) of the original returns. Words underlined in the manuscript are printed in italics. The spelling of surnames and place-names has been kept as in the manuscript, except in the headings to each return. In those headings a form in the manu- script that is markedly different from the modern form is given in brackets. The deanery names are also printed in their modern forms; the manuscript usually omits an ‘e’ from Chalke, Malmesbury, Potterne, and Wylye. Other editorial additions and corrections to the text are enclosed in square brackets. Footnotes are used to indicate the absence of the bishop’s letter from the beginning of a return, to supply missing names of curates and incumbents, and generally for purposes of identification, explanation, and cross-reference. The missing names are taken from the Clergy Books for I783 in the Diocesan Record Office; the names of colleges and dates of matriculation enable the reader to refer to the relevant entries in J. Foster’s Alumni Oxonienses and J. and J. A. Venn’s Alumni Cantabrigienses. THE BISHOP Shute Barrington was one of the aristocratic bishops who were increasing in number in the second half of the 18th century.1 He was the youngest son of the first Viscount Barrington, and his eldest brother, the second viscount, was Secretary at War during the war of American Independence. After Eton and Oxford he became, through his brother’s influence, chaplain in ordinary to George III at the age of twenty-six, and a canon successively of Christ Church, Oxford, St. Paul’s, and Windsor. He became bishop of Llandaff in I769, was translated to Salisbury in 1782, and in 1791 to Durham, one of the richest sees, which he held until his death at the age of ninety-one in 1826.