Books published by Devon & Cornwall Record Society

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Spanning the period 1512-78, the High Cross churchwardens' accounts of Stratton, in Cornwall, are unusually complete and informative. Written mostly in English, they are among only eighteen surviving sets of Pre-Reformation churchwardens' accounts which cover the whole period 1535-70, when most Reformation change took place.