RECORDS OF THE DIOCESE OF BATH AND WELLS
Research & Holdings

Diocesan records leaflet (PDF - new window)
Records of the Anglican Church (Church of England) in Somerset
The Diocesan Collection contains records going back to 1309. It is one of the largest and most important held in the Somerset Record Office, though many items are extremely fragile.

The collection comprises the administrative records of the diocese, the area over which the bishop of Bath and Wells had ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The diocese, which was set up in AD 909, covers virtually the same area as pre-1974 county of Somerset.

Records held include:

Bishops' Registers
Records about Visitation
Records of Ecclesiastical Courts
Records about the Ordination, Appointment and Service of Clergy
Records about the Building and Repair of Churches
Records about Parsonage Houses and Glebe Land
Probate Records
Licensing records, including Marriage Licences
Records of 'Peculiars'
Miscellaneous records collected for registration purposes, including Bishops' Transcripts and Tithe Apportionments

BISHOPS' REGISTERS

The registers are chronological records of the bishops' main administrative decisions. In the medieval period they contain entries relating to the ordination and appointment of clergy, the election of heads of religious houses, visitation, the consecration and patronage of churches, the granting of licences to celebrate masses, and a wide variety of other business, some of it secular in nature. At later periods, entries concerning the ordination and appointment of clergy tend to predominate.

The registers have been published (generally in English translation) for the period 1309-1559 as volumes of the Somerset Record Society.

RECORDS ABOUT VISITATION

The chief records of the visitation process are included with the Act Books of the diocesan courts (D/D/Ca; see 'Records of Ecclesiastical Courts'); the Act Books are particularly informative for the 16th and 17th centuries, and are usually arranged by place. Visitation during the Middle Ages, including visitation of religious houses, is sometimes recorded in the Bishops' Registers (see 'Bishops' Registers'). Other records specifically produced for visitation purposes include:

Church courts dealt with allegations about the disrepair of churches, failures of church attendance and the improper conduct of services, as well as with the correction of moral offences discovered at visitation and at other times throughout the year ('office' business). The courts also heard disputes between individuals relating to defamation, tithe payments, marriage, probate and other matters ('instance' business).

Three main series of records reflect the activities of the courts:

RECORDS ABOUT THE ORDINATION, APPOINTMENT AND SERVICE OF CLERGY

RECORDS ABOUT THE BUILDING AND REPAIR OF CHURCHES
RECORDS ABOUT PARSONAGE HOUSES AND GLEBE LAND

The following are the chief sources in the Diocesan Collection relating to Parsonage Houses and Glebe Land:
PROBATE RECORDS
The story of Somerset's wills is a sad one. Having been centralised at Exeter, most of the county's original probate records before 1858 were destroyed by German bombing in 1942, as were those for Devon. In spite of the losses, many wills and will copies have survived and are available at the Record Office and elsewhere. The complex subject of Somerset's surviving wills and will copies is discussed in the introduction to Sir Mervyn Medlycott's Somerset Wills Index: Printed & Manuscript Copies (1993). This volume is an indispensable guide to the availability of locally-proved wills and contains more than 17,000 entries. It partly reproduces and partly complements the will indexes available in the Record Office searchroom. The following paragraphs provide a simplified description of sources and refer to records surviving in the Diocesan Collection and elsewhere.
Locally-Proved Wills in Existence until 1942
Alphabetical lists of testators (stating names, places and dates of probate) whose wills were proved in the Consistory and Peculiar Courts at Wells up to 1857 are held by the Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London, EC1M 7BA. The lists for the period 1529-1600 have been published by the Somerset Record Society, vol. 62 (continued up to 1648 in typescript, DD/X/SR 8). A similar list of both wills and administrations for the Archdeaconry of Taunton, 1537-1799, and of wills proved in the court of the Royal Peculiar of Ilminster, 1690-1857, was published by the British Record Society, vols 45 and 45a, and is available at the Record Office. Originals of all these wills were destroyed in 1942, although copies survive in some cases.
Surviving Locally-Proved Will Copies
Wills and will copies survive in a wide variety of printed sources and manuscript collections. Researchers should consult Medlycott's Index (see above) and the Record Office's card indexes of wills. The Record Office holds microfilms of the Estate Duty registers of wills (abstracts) and letters of administration, 1805-12, and Estate Duty copy wills (not administrations or 'Peculiar' wills) for the period 1813-57. For details consult the Record Office index to Estate Duty wills or the fiche index to the same material compiled by D.T. Hawkings (Medlycott does not include Estate Duty copy wills).
Surviving Wills not Proved Locally
Those who held property in more than one diocese or who were particularly well off had their wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC), the records of which are now held at the Public Record Office. Somerset wills proved there in the period 1383-1558 have been published by the Somerset Record Society (vols 16, 19 and 21). Printed lists of PCC wills, 1383-1700 and 1750-1800, are available in the Somerset Record Office. Six volumes of Somerset Wills, mainly but not exclusively from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, up to c. 1730, were published by F.A. Crisp from the manuscript collections of the Rev F. Brown, and are also available: there is a separate typescript index to testators. From 1858, the probate of wills and granting of letters of administration ceased to be a matter for local ecclesiastical courts; thereafter, wills must be sought at the Principal Registry of the Family Division, Somerset House, Strand, London. The Record Office has microfiche copies of the index of grants of probate for England and Wales, 1858-1935.

Surviving Probate Inventories

A large collection of probate inventories for the Archdeaconry of Taunton (c. 1630- 1730) survives in the Sheppard Collection (DD/SP), and some further inventories can be found in other collections also held by the Record Office. There is a separate card index. A published index by A.J. Webb (forthcoming) covers probate inventories surviving both in the Somerset Record Office and the Public Record Office.
Other Probate Sources in the Diocesan Collection
Probate and Administration Acts are recorded in the Licence Books (D/D/Ol), 1558-c. 1850 [transcript available]. Administrator's Accounts (D/D/Cta), recording the expenses of administering a deceased person's estate, exist from the late 16th to the early 18th century [list by names and places available].

LICENCES

Licences were issued to couples not wishing the publicity or delay involved in marrying by banns and until the 19th century generally concerned persons of the artisan class and upwards. Among the diocesan records will chiefly be found the records completed before a licence was issued, mainly allegations and bonds. These documents will often supply not only the names and residences of the parties but also occupations, details of bondsmen (sometimes relations) and indicate whether minors were involved. Parchment bonds survive from 1574 to 1717 and are unindexed (apart from 1627-30). Paper bonds from 1645 to 1755 have been published and indexed in A.J. Jewers, Marriage Allegation Bonds of the Bishops of Bath and Wells (1909). Subsequent paper bonds from 1756 are being indexed by volunteers and at the time of writing the index has reached 1811. Bonds have generally been deposited up to 1899. Bonds issued for 'Peculiar' parishes will be found among the records of those Peculiars (D/D/P) and have also been indexed. Diocesan licence books (D/D/Ol) contain references to the granting of marriage licences from c. 1570 and allegations from 1664. Typescript calendars and indexes to these for the years 1583-1676, compiled by Col. H.R. Phipps, are available. No marriage licences were granted during the Civil War and Commonwealth (1642-61). If parties lived in different dioceses, licences had to be obtained from the Archbishop or his Vicar- General. Calendars of many of these are among the volumes published by the Harleian Society.

Protestant Dissenters' Meeting-House Licences exist for 1736-1852 (D/D/Rm)