Books in the Devon and Cornwall Record Society series

From at least the mid-thirteenth century, the Earl of Cornwall, the wealthiest and most politically powerful lord in the county, employed a special official - called the havener - to supervise the administration of his maritime profits in the county. When the Duchy of Cornwall was created in 1337, the havener's duties were expanded, and he was made a permanent salaried official. The office of havener, for which there was no parallel in medieval Britain, allowed the duchy to manage and exploit its maritime properties and prerogatives in a particularly efficient manner. The accounts of the havener record this management, and survive in summary from the late thirteenth century, but inmore detailed, separate accounts from the early fourteenth century. In focusing on the seventy years from 1287 to 1356, this edition allows readers to trace the impact on Cornwall of such major events as the Hundred Years War (begun in 1337) and the devastating plague of the Black Death in 1348-9. The annual accounts of the havener also offer a wealth of information on the development and prosperity of individual ports, including Plymouth, on fishing andthe fish trade, on piracy and privateering, on shipwrecks and 'royal' fish such as whale and porpoise, and on the overseas trade in wine, tin, hides and other goods. Particularly fascinating are the glimpses we can see of the Spanish, French, Irish and English traders, shipmasters, and fishers who visited Cornish shores, and the insights we gain about the people of medieval Cornwall - merchants, fishers, mariners, wreckers, pirates and even peasants - whomade their living from the sea.

Between 1832 and 1885 West Cornwall was highly unusual in the British electoral system. Throughout the period the division was never contested at a general election, and the Liberals maintained a stranglehold on both parliamentaryseats. Yet this apparent stability disguised an often turbulent reality of party manoeuvring and personal rivalries.Dr Jaggard's book uncovers much that has been so far unknown about this phenomenon. The introduction surveysWest Cornwall politics between the First and Third Reform Acts, suggesting how the Liberals' hegemony was established and maintained. Both the numerical strength of Methodism in the division, together with corrosive rivalries among the county's Conservatives, played a part, but the papers suggest other factors at work too. Prominent among them immediately after 1867 was the Liberal party's organisation, and the prominence within it of men of new wealth such as the miner-banker J M Williams.As a snapshot of the mid-Victorian electoral system in action the papers widen our understanding of local and national politics, particularly reasons for the electoral success of the Gladstonian Liberal party.

These records, of three gentry families from east, west and south Devon, are remarkable for their richness and diversity and provide a unique insight into seventeenth-century life. They illustrate every aspect of the running of the household including the duties of the servants, payments to visiting musicians, purchases of clothing, building accounts and consumption of provisions. In particular the volume includes the kitchen account for Sydenham detailingthe gentry diet, including the importing of wine, the making of venison, woodcock, salmon, quince, lumber and turkey pies, and the purchase of all provisions. The seasons of the year are clearly seen in the accounts including lists of guests for meals at Christmas through Twelfth Night.

The Redvers earls of Devon were one of the leading families of southern England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with large estates in Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Over 200 charters have survived before1217 which relate to them, fully edited for the first time in this volume. The charters record the family's history, its part in national politics, and its estates. They also tell us about the religious houses, towns, economy andpeople of the region.There is a full introduction followed by an edition of the charters, with a summary of each one in English, a careful Latin text, and scholarly apparatus and notes. There are three maps, a genealogical table, a glossary of technical terms and a detailed index.

Exeter possesses the best series of local customs accounts from medieval England, beginning in 1266 and surviving for almost 70 per cent of the years up to 1498. They are also far more complete than other local accounts: listing ships' names, home ports, shipmasters and dates of arrival, as well as the importers and their cargoes. Equally remarkable is their focus on coastal as well as overseas traffic, unlike the better known national customs accounts which recorded only overseas trade. From the Exeter accounts we can follow the movements of foreign and domestic shipping, grain imports during the great Famine of 1315-17, and the identity of the merchants, shipmasters and marinerswho carried on the various kinds of trade.Dr Kowaleski's introduction provides the first detailed account of the port of Exeter and its activities during this period, followed by a complete translation of the surviving accounts from 1266 to 1321. The book also includes a specimen Latin account, a glossary of weights and measures, map, and full indexes.

Exeter has one of the best-preserved medieval city archives in England, and the receivers' accounts are unusually early of their kind. First extant in 1304, they list the income and expenditure of the city corporation each year, thereby throwing light on Exeter before, during, and after the Black Death. The topography of the city, property holding and the economy are all featured, as are city government, law and order and civic entertainments. Important people are mentioned visiting Exeter: judges, bishops, noblemen and royalty such as Princess Joan and the duchess of Brittany. Altogether there is a detailed and delightful picture of life in a medieval city.This edition provides a full translation of the first eleven accounts with an introduction and index, together with specimens of four other early accounts from the 14th century: a city rental, a murage account relating to the city walls, an account of the wardens of the Exe bridge, and the first surviving receiver's account from Barnstaple.

The priory of Launceston was founded in the 1120s and owned a large collection of properties in the Launceston area. Its cartulary gives information about many aspects of the Priory's existence, including its tenants, quarrels over land and boundaries, and dealings with local laypeople. Particularly interesting are the details about the Priory's relationship to local parishes, where we see disputes over church maintenance, lights, and other day to day aspects of parish life.

Beavis Wood (d. 1814) was the Town Clerk of Tiverton for over forty years, from 1765 to 1806. This volume presents a selection of his letters to Nathaniel Ryder, MP for Tiverton for much of this period, and to other correspondents. They give a colourful account of the society, local politics, and economy of Tiverton, and tell us much about urban society and politics in the period.

The Exeter Cathedral Fabric Accounts document the history of Exeter Cathedral during a period when it was being extensively rebuilt by a series of active bishops. They show how the rebuilding was financed and give a detailed account of what was involved in a medieval building project, listing workers' wages, the cost of materials, and they show how building materials were transported to Exeter from Devon and from other parts of England. This informationtells us much not only about the history of Exeter Cathedral and its bishops, but also about the relationship between the Cathedral and the surrounding area, and the economic history of the region. This volume presents the accounts from 1328 to 1353, and Volume One (new series 24) presents the accounts from 1279 to 1326.

The Exeter Cathedral Fabric Accounts document the history of Exeter Cathedral during a period when it was being extensively rebuilt by a series of active bishops. They show how the rebuilding was financed and give a detailed account of what was involved in a medieval building project, listing workers' wages, the cost of materials, and they show how building materials were transported to Exeter from Devon and from other parts of England. This informationtells us much not only about the history of Exeter Cathedral and its bishops, but also about the relationship between the Cathedral and the surrounding area, and the economic history of the region. This volume presents the accounts from 1279 to 1326, and Volume Two (new series 26) presents the accounts from 1328 to 1353.

This volume presents early insurance registers kept by the Sun Fire Office, which list and value the goods of cloth manufacturers. The textile industry was an important part of Devon's economy in this period and these documents survive in greater numbers for Devon than for any other area outside London. They tell us much about an important eighteenth-century industry, as well as about economic history and the history of business and insurance.

This volume presents eight tax returns for the city of Exeter dating from the Tudor period. It includes the assessment of 1522, which also lists men with few assets and so offers one of the most detailed surveys of population surviving from the period. It will interest family historians, economic and social historians working on the history of towns, and historians of Tudor government.

The Exeter Assembly was founded in 1691 as a meeting place for Nonconformist ministers in Devon and Cornwall. Its Minutes, edited here with an introduction, provide evidence of Nonconformist activity in the two counties in their most active period. They include information about the education and ordination of potential ministers, church finances, and religious controversies. They will interest historians of religion in the period, and particularly Nonconformity, as well as scholars interested in the history of Devon and Cornwall.

John Lydford was a fourteenth-century canon lawyer and cleric who acted as an advocate in the church court at Canterbury and held various official positions in the English church. He left a book of notes and documents relating tocanon law, which are edited here with an introduction. Its contents include legal formulas for use in court cases, notes about points of law, and records of particular cases drawn from the church courts of Oxford, Hereford, Winchester and Exeter. John Lydford's book therefore offers an unusual insight into the workings of the medieval English church and its courts.

This carto-bibliography of over 1300 Devon manuscript maps published in two volumes contains details not only of the maps themselves, extracted from 30 separate repositories in addition to some in private hands, but also biographical information on the surveyors who made them, over a third of whom have not appeared in any national cartographic reference book. There is also an Introduction which explains the significance of these, mostly large-scale, Devonmaps and how they fit into the national cartographic picture. The detailed list of maps is arranged in alphabetical order of parish for ease of reference and there is a Personal Names index. There are coloured illustrations of some of the maps and the two volumes will be presented in a slipcase. The volumes will be an indispensable reference tool for all interested in the social history, the landscape and archaeology of Devon.

The documents printed in this volume comprise parish tax records for eighteen parishes across Devon. These 26 church rates, 1 clerk rate, 13 Easter books, 5 military rates and 21 poor rates not only show the range of taxes payablein the county but also show how differently they were organised from one parish to another. The documents have been drawn from archives in Devon, London and Somerset and have not been previously published. This series will provide details on thousands of Devonians who are otherwise unrecorded.

This volume for 1997 contains transcriptions of all the 266 probate inventories that could be traced for the parish of Uffculme, Devon, together with abstracts of the accompanying wills and administrations which have survived. Added to these are 322 further abstracts of wills and administrations under the Salisbury jurisdiction (and now housed at the Wiltshire Record Office in Trowbridge) which have no surviving inventories. These further wills and administrations extend to the end of the year 1800 (with a few in the Dean of Salisbury's list beyond that date). Where possible, notes are included on related burial and marriage entries taken from the Parish Registers.The survivalrate of probate inventories for Devon is poor, as so many perished with the wills when the Exeter Probate Registry was destroyed in the Blitz in 1942. The Uffculme ones escaped because Uffculme was a Peculiar Parish in the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Salisbury and were kept in Salisbury during the war. The publication of this volume will give an insight into the sort of information the historian may gain from this type of document as well as providing aspects of life in Uffculme and farming and woollen cloth-making

This volume presents the second half of the survey conducted of manors in the Duchy of Cornwall in 1650, covering twenty-seven manors in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, and west Devon. It gives much information about the spread ofpopulation and the Duchy's tenants, and is of particular interest to economic, social and family historians, as well as for the study of Cornish place names. The first volume of the Parliamentary Survey is published as DCRS newseries, vol. 25.

This volume presents the second half of the survey conducted of manors in the Duchy of Cornwall in 1650, covering thirty-seven manors across the Duchy. It gives much information about the spread of population and the Duchy's tenants, and is of particular interest to economic, social and family historians, as well as for the study of Cornish place names. The second and final volume of the survey is published as DCRS new series, vol. 27.

Exeter's tax assessments from the seventeenth century give an important insight into the population and economy of one of England's principal cities in this period. They tell us about housing, population density, the distributionof wealth across the city, and the incomes of Exeter's citizens. They also show the ways in which the wealth of Exeter's citizens changed during the course of the century. These accounts, edited with an introduction by the well-known Devon historian W. G. Hoskins, will interest historians of early modern towns and society, as well as local historians.