West Surname Ancestry ResultsOur indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'west'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 2949 records (displaying 141 to 150): Single Surname Subscription | | | Buying all 2,949 results of this search individually would cost £16,990.00. But you can have free access to all 2,949 records for a year, to view, to save and print, for £100. Save £16,890.00. More... |
These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found. Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site. Murderers sheltering in Beverley Minster: and their victims
(1478-1539)
Criminals could evade pursuit by claiming sanctuary in the church of St John in Beverley, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. This liberty of the minster extended a league in every direction from the church door, and was divided into six sections, each giving greater sanctity to the rights of sanctuary, the sixth and innermost section being the presbitery or chancel. Near the altar there was a stone chair called the Frith Stool, seated on which an accused could claim total immunity. The bailiff would receive the oath of the fugitive, and a clerk recorded 'what man he killed, and wher with, and both ther namez'; the bailiff receiving a fee of 2s 4d, the clerk 4d. Sanctuary was afforded for 30 days, with food and lodging, after which the fugitive was protected to the borders of the county. But within 40 days he had to appear before the coroner, clothed in sackcloth, and be branded on his right hand with the sign of the letter A. This signified that he was swearing to abjure the realm: he was then free to leave the country unhindered. At Beverley the clerks kept a separate register of fugitives' petitions, which survives from 1478 to 1539 in Harleian Manuscript 560. It was edited and printed by the Surtees Society in 1837 under the title Sanctuarium Beverlacense. Some of the criminals came from a considerable distance: the great majority were murderers or homicides. Each entry usually gives full name, original address, (often) trade, a brief description of the crime, often with date, and usually the name of the victim. This index covers all the surnames given.WEST. Cost: £4.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Sussex Charters
(1530-1539)
A large accumulation of documents preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, formerly constituted the antiquarian collections of Anthony a Wood, Roger Dodsworth, Ralph Thoresby, Thomas Martin of Palgrave, Thomas Tanner bishop of St Asaph, Dr Richard Rawlinson, Richard Furney archdeacon of Surrey, and Richard Gough. A calendar of these was prepared by William H. Turner and published in 1878 under the title 'Calendar of Charters and Rolls preserved in the Bodleian Library'. The word 'charters' is here used in a rather loose sense, including virtually any manuscript or copy of a manuscript, but the bulk of the contents consists of mediaeval deeds of conveyance. Turner's calendar deals with each briefly, naming the principal parties and the nature of the deed, but hardly ever lists the witnesses. Many of these charters were undated (dating of deeds did not become general until around 1350) or so damaged or defective ('mutilated' is Turner's usual description) as no longer to display a legible date. However, he contrived, from the style of the script and/or the nature of the contents, to estimate dates in such cases. The sample scan is from the start of the Bedfordshire list. WEST. Cost: £4.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Temple Newton Billmen
(1539)
In anticipation of war with France, Henry VIII ordered a general muster of able-bodied men throughout the kingdom. That for the wapentake of Skyrack, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, took place at Wike (near Leeds) before sir William Gascoigne the elder, sir William Middleton and sir William Maleverer, on 26 March 1539. Skyrack wapentake consisted of the ancient parishes of Aberford, Adel, Bardsey, Barwick in Elmet, Bingley, Collingham, Garforth, Guiseley, Harewood, (part of) Ilkley, Kippax, Otley, Swillington and Thorner, as well as the borough of Leeds. This muster roll listing the archers, billmen and spearmen of the wapentake by township or constablewick, was preserved among the State Papers in the Public Record Office; it was edited by W. Paley Baildon, and printed in three issues of the Miscellanea of the Thoresby Society (volumes 4 and 9) through to 1899. For each township there is a list of archers, divided into those fully and those partly ('parcel') armoured ('harnessed'), and a similar list of billmen; a few spearmen also appear. The weapon of the billmen - the bill or halberd - was a blade with a long wooden handle, sometimes with a hook with a cutting edge added at one side. This return includes the hamlets of Halton and Colton.
WEST. Cost: £6.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Wike Billmen
(1539)
In anticipation of war with France, Henry VIII ordered a general muster of able-bodied men throughout the kingdom. That for the wapentake of Skyrack, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, took place at Wike (near Leeds) before sir William Gascoigne the elder, sir William Middleton and sir William Maleverer, on 26 March 1539. Skyrack wapentake consisted of the ancient parishes of Aberford, Adel, Bardsey, Barwick in Elmet, Bingley, Collingham, Garforth, Guiseley, Harewood, (part of) Ilkley, Kippax, Otley, Swillington and Thorner, as well as the borough of Leeds. This muster roll listing the archers, billmen and spearmen of the wapentake by township or constablewick, was preserved among the State Papers in the Public Record Office; it was edited by W. Paley Baildon, and printed in three issues of the Miscellanea of the Thoresby Society (volumes 4 and 9) through to 1899. For each township there is a list of archers, divided into those fully and those partly ('parcel') armoured ('harnessed'), and a similar list of billmen; a few spearmen also appear. The weapon of the billmen - the bill or halberd - was a blade with a long wooden handle, sometimes with a hook with a cutting edge added at one side.
WEST. Cost: £6.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Inhabitants of Calais, and visitors
(1485-1543)
Richard Turpyn, a burgess of Calais, the English enclave on the French coast, compiled (or possessed) a chronicle of events there from 1485 to 1540, a copy of which survived among the Stowe manuscripts in the Harleian collection in the British Museum. This was edited for the Camden Society, together with a number of other papers relating to events in Calais in that period, by John Gough Nichols, and printed in 1846. Many of the persons named in the resulting book are knights and noblemen attending king Henry VII and king Henry VIII when on the Continent on diplomatic or marital business; but there is also a muster roll of the garrison of Calais of 1533 (136-139).WEST. Cost: £4.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Owners and Tenants in Sussex (1546)
Owners and tenants mentioned in deeds of grants and leases of lands, houses and offices registered in the Liber Irrotulamentorum.
WEST. Cost: £4.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Inhabitants of Nottingham
(1485-1547)
The muniments of the borough of Nottingham include extensive mediaeval archives. A selection from these from the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII was prepared and edited by W. H. Stevenson for the Corporation, and printed, with translations of the passages in Latin, in 1885. The principal sources used are the borough Court Books, largely dealing with civil cases, for which an almost complete series survives for this period; Sessions Rolls (92 survive for the two reigns), in which crimes and misdemeanours are recorded; a Mickletorn or Leet jury roll; detailed chamberlains' and bridge-wardens' accounts; and the Hall Books, or council minutes. There are lists of burgesses enrolled; bakers admitted to bake; and fines for licences to trade. A subsidy roll of 1523-4 lists householders by street, and there is an appendix of local deeds, including some material dating back to the 14th century. WEST. Cost: £4.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1542-1547)
The Privy Council of Henry VIII was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters
WEST. Cost: £4.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Tenants of Somerset chantries
(1548)
Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and in 1548 the commissioners in Somerset produced this survey and rental. The individuals named are the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income: occasionally an incumbent is named. The survey was edited by Emanuel Green for the Somerset Record Society, and published in 1888.WEST. Cost: £4.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
| Freemen of London
(1540-1550)
The long series of mediaeval registers and books of admission of the freemen of London was destroyed by fire in 1786. Thirty surviving charred leaves were gathered together and rebound, becoming Egerton MS 2408 in the British Museum. The order is jumbled and generally speaking none can be dated with certainty, although all belong to the very end of the reign of Henry VIII and the start of the reign of his son, Edward VI. These are pages from the admission books. Each entry here usually gives the name of the person admitted to the freedom; his father's name, address and occupation; his entitlement to the freedom, usually by having served out an apprenticeship to a citizen, naming the master and his trade. Then there may follow a cross-reference to M. or N., being two volumes of another set of official books denoted by the letters of the alphabet, and following each other in chronological sequence, which evidently gave details of entries into apprenticeships. These other books no longer exist: but the dates given for entry do identify the start of the apprenticeship, and so give by implication a date for the eventual admission to freedom. In the margin is the name of the city ward and the total of the fee and fine paid on admission.WEST. Cost: £4.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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