Peculiar Jurisdiction

Most of the records in this collection concern the deaneries of the Arches, Croydon and Shoreham, which were the most important Canterbury Peculiars.

Visitation records (VH 52-74)

In the diocese the twice yearly visitation, at Easter and Michaelmas, was carried out by the archdeacon; in the peculiars by the dean of Peculiars. Although it was usual for a bishop to visit his diocese personally every three years it seems that the archbishop of Canterbury visited his peculiars less frequently (see VH 55). The cases arising from the visitation were tried by the dean in his court (see Court Records VH 75 - VH 101). These papers relate to the deaneries of Arches, Croydon and Shoreham, except where otherwise stated.

Court Records (VH 75-101)

The court of the Dean of the Peculiars of the Arches, Croydon and Shoreham exercised a jurisdiction similar to that of the an archidiaconal court. The Dean of the Peculiars usually also held the office of Dean of the Court of Arches, but the Peculiars court should not be confused with the Court of Arches which is the court of appeal for the province of Canterbury.

The cases tried by the Dean of Peculiars fall into two categories, 'ex-officio' and 'instance'. The former were cases usually arising from presentments at visitation, that is cases promoted by the judge by reason of his office. The instance jurisdiction covered litigation between parties in matters over which ecclesiastical courts held cognizance.

The records of the court comprise act books and assignation books, which give a brief chronological record of business transacted by the court, and the loose case papers. These are bundles of papers relating to individual cases and are arranged chronologically within the following groups: cases relating to clergy, parish officials; cases for defamation of character; applications for faculties; matrimonial cases; proceedings against parishioners; testamentary cases; cases concerning church rates, tithes and fees; and a few miscellaneous unclassified cases.

Procedure in ecclesiastical courts was based on a system of written pleas and counter-pleas. This gave rise to a number of documents, examples of all of which are found amongst this collection. The main types of document are: the acts of court, which are drafts for the act books; the proxy or appointment of a proctor; the citation naming the judge, day, place of court, the persons cited to appear and the accusation he or she is to answer; the libel in which the plaintiff lists the material points of the suit; the allegation where the defendant answers these points one by one; interrogatories or questions answered by the personal answers of the principal parties and the depositions of witnesses; bills of costs; and the sentence which merely records the brief, formal decision of the court. There may also be exhibits of documents produced as evidence and retained by the court, certificates and schedules of excommunication and orders of penance.

Prior to 1858, when the Principal Probate Registry was set up, wills were proved in the ecclesiastical courts. The courts of the Archbishop's Peculiars of the Arches, Croydon and Shoreham had jurisdiction over the wills of residents of these three deaneries unless they enjoyed bona notabilia or significant chattels outside the peculiars, in which case their wills were proved the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. From the restoration, the Peculiars of the Arches, Croydon and Shoreham were for the most part administered together.

Testamentary records (VH 95-101)

Wills and administrations for the archbishop's peculiars, parishes in the city of London (deanery of the Arches), Middlesex and Surrey (deanery of Croydon) and Kent (deanery of Shoreham), 1614-1841

All records relating to the peculiars are now filed in one series.

Vicar General Records

Archbishops' Peculiars

Administrative Records

Clergy

VH 1 Subscription Books

VH 2 Presentation Deeds

VH 3 Induction Mandates

VH 4 Resignation Deeds

VH 5 Nominations of Perpetual Curates

VH 6 Nomination of Stipendiary Curates

VH 7 Certificates of Appointment of Curates

VH 8 Non-residence: registers

VH 9 Non-residence: copies of licences

VH 10 Non-residence: petitions for licences

VH 11 Non-residence: notification for non-residence

VH 12 Non-residence: monitions to reside

Benefice Papers

VH 13 Advowson

VH 14 Endowments

VH 15 Augmentations

VH 16 Union of Benefices

VH 17 New Districts

VH 18 Consecration of new churches

VH 19 Consecration of burial grounds

VH 20 Licences for the publication of banns and the solemnisation of marriages

VH 21 Glebe Terriers

VH 22 Exchanges of glebe

VH 23 Leases

VH 24 Mortgages: register

VH 25 Mortgages: papers

VH 26 Returns to Queen Anne's Bounty

VH 27 Miscellaneous records.

Parish Records

VH 28 Licences: doctors and midwives

VH 29 Licences: parish clerks and sextons: Arches

VH 30 Licences: parish clerks and sextons: Croydon

VH 31 Licences: parish clerks and sextons: Shoreham

VH 32 Licences: parish lecturers and preachers

VH 33 Licences: schoolmasters

VH 34 Parish Register Transcripts

VH 35 Poor Rate Returns

VH 36 Church Briefs

VH 37 Dissenters: Registers

VH 38 Dissenters: Certificates

VH 39 Maps

VH 40 Miscellaneous

Records of Officials (registrars for the Peculiars)

VH 41 Appointments: Deans of Arches, Croydon and Shoreham

VH 42 Appointments: Bocking

VH 43 Appointments: Deputy Registrars

VH 44 Appointments: Apparitors General

VH 45 Appointments: Surrogates: Acts of surrogates

VH 46 Appointments: Surrogates: Bonds

VH 47 Accounts: Bocking

VH 48 Accounts: South Malling

VH 49 Accounts: Pagham and Tarring

VH 50 Fees Books

VH 51 Returns and letters

Visitation Records

VH 52 Citations: Arches

VH 53 Citations: Croydon

VH 54 Citations: Shoreham

VH 55 Visitation Articles and Returns

VH 56 Libri Cleri/Call Books

VH 57 Lists of Clergy

VH 58 Apologies for absence

VH 59 Appointments of clergy to preach at visitations

VH 60 Churchwardens' Presentments: Arches

VH 61 Churchwardens' Presentments: Croydon

VH 62 Churchwardens' Presentments: Shoreham

VH 63 Churchwardens' Declarations: Arches

VH 64 Churchwardens' Declarations: Croydon

VH 65 Churchwardens' Declarations: Shoreham

VH 66 Miscellaneous Records of Churchwardens: Arches

VH 67 Miscellaneous Records of Churchwardens: Croydon

VH 68 Miscellaneous Records of Churchwardens: Shoreham

VH 69 Certificates of good behaviour

VH 70 Cliffe-at-Hoo Visitation Papers

VH 71 Specula/Surveys

VH 72 Compton Survey: returns

VH 73 Fees and Procurations

VH 74 Miscellaneous Records

Court Records

VH 75 Act Books

VH 76 Assignation Books

VH 77 Cause Papers: Clergy and Churchwardens

VH 78 Cause Papers: Defamation Papers

VH 79 Cause Papers: Faculties

VH 80 Cause Papers: Matrimonial

VH 81 Cause Papers: Parishioners

VH 82 Cause Papers: Testamentary

VH 83 Cause Papers: Tithes and Church Rates

VH 84 Unclassified

VH 85 Excommunication Schedules

VH 86 Orders of Penance

VH 87 Exhibits: Benn Papers

VH 88 Faculties: Registers

VH 89 Faculties: Papers

VH 90 Sequestrations

VH 91 Marriage Records: Allegations

VH 92 Marriage Records: Bonds

VH 93 Marriage Records: Calendar

VH 94 Marriage Records: Surrogates Letters

VH 95 Testamentary Records: Wills and inventories: Arches

VH 96 Testamentary Records: Wills and inventories: Croydon and Shoreham

VH 97 Testamentary Records: Registers of Wills

VH 98 Testamentary Records: Probate Act Books

VH 99 Testamentary Records: Caveat Books

VH 100 Indexes of testators etc.

VH 101 Certificates of Bona Notabilia

<span class="wrapper"><p>The archbishop's peculiars were administered in London. The visitation and court records of the other deaneries are to be found in the appropriate local record offices. A few of the papers were filed with other records of the Vicar General but the majority appear to have been kept separately, although they are registered in the same act books as the diocesan records.</p> <p>Act Books and Registers of the Archbishops of Canterbury.</p> <p>Documents concerning the Peculiars are entered in the Act Books and Registers relating to the diocese and province of Canterbury. Faculties, leases, consolidations, sequestrations and licences for lecturers, parish clerks, schoolmasters and officials are also entered in the Faculty Registers of the Peculiars.</p> <p>The wills of parishioners with bona notabilia were proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury: these records are in the Public Record Office, and are available on microfilm at the Family Records Centre, 1 Myddelton Street, London EC1R 1UW.</p></span>

'Peculiars' were those parishes or places which were exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop in whose diocese they were physically located, and were answerable directly to another. The Peculiars of the Archbishop of Canterbury were districts outside the diocese of Canterbury, which came within the Archbishop's immediate jurisdiction and were exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese in which they were situated. This peculiar jurisdiction was never defined by law but grew up round archiepiscopal 'seats and possessions' many of which are entered in the Doomsday Book as 'terra Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis'. (See Doomsday surveys of Kent (folios 3a-4a), Sussex (folio 16a), Surrey (folio 30b), Berkshire (folio 56a), Middlesex (fl27a), Buckinghamshire (folio 143b), Oxfordshire (folio 155a) and Suffolk (folio 372b) and also William Sumner Antiquities of Canterbury, London, 1703.) The remaining manors around which the peculiars developed belonged to the Prior and Convent of Christ Church Canterbury, (See Doomsday Surveys of Kent (folios 4b-5a) and Essex (folio 8a) and D.C. Douglas, The Doomsday Monachorum of Christ Church Canterbury, 1944.) and with the advowsons of the six benefices in the deanery of Arches were probably exchanged with the Archbishop for other properties. (Sumner supra. Appendix to the supplement xxiiid page 50.) Most of the lands themselves were granted to the Crown between 1536 and 1547, (See F.R.H. Du Boulay, 'Archbishop Cranmer and the Canterbury Temporalities', E.H.R. 1952, vol. 67, pages 19-36.) and the Archbishop retained only his rights to presentations and ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

The grouping of these lands into the eight deaneries of the immediate jurisdiction was accomplished by the thirteenth century. Each deanery was administered by an official holding a commission from the Archbishop. (See I.J.Churchill, Canterbury Administration, London, 1931, pages 62-81). By the sixteenth century the Dean of the Arches usually exercised jurisdiction in the peculiar of Croydon and Shoreham, and frequently held the position of Vicar General for the diocese of Canterbury also. The other five deaneries were administered separately.

The peculiar jurisdiction was abolished during the first half of the nineteenth century. From the abolition of peculiar jurisdictions in 1845, some of the Kent and Surrey parishes were incorporated within the diocese of Canterbury, while others were transferred to the diocese in which they were geographically located (ie. city of London to the diocese of London). An order in Council, 8th August 1845, (See Orders in Council ratifying schemes of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, Vol.III, pages 263-277.) included most of the peculiars of Croydon and Shoreham in the diocese of Canterbury. Shoreham remained in the archdeaconry of Maidstone until transferred to the diocese of Rochester by act in Council of 1905.

For administrative purposes, these parishes were formed into eight deaneries: the Arches (city of London parishes); Bocking (Essex and Suffolk), Croydon (Middlesex and Surrey); Monks Risborough (Bucks., and Oxon.), Pagham, South Malling, and Tarring (Sussex), and Shoreham (Kent).

Deanery of the Arches

Thirteen parishes in the city of London, exempt from the bishop of London. Some of the churches were united with other churches which were not exempt - the latter have been noted in brackets.

All Hallows, Bread Street w. St. John the Evangelist, Watling Street

All Hallows, Lombard Street

St. Dionis Backchurch

St. Dunstan-in-the-East

St. Leonard, Eastcheap w. (St. Benet, Gracechurch)

St. Mary Aldermary w. St. Thomas the Apostle

St. Mary Bothaw w. (St. Swithin)

St. Mary-le-Bow w. (St. Pancras, Soper Lane, and All Hallows, Honey Lane)

St. Michael, Crooked Lane

St. Michael Paternoster Royal w. (St. Martin Vintry)

St. Vedast, Foster Lane w. (St. Michael-le-Querne)

Deanery of Bocking

Parishes in Essex and Suffolk, exempt from the bishop of London and the bishop of Norwich respectively, and under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury.

Bocking, Essex

Hadleigh, Suffolk

Monks Eleigh, Suffolk

Latchingdon w. Lawling, Essex

Moulton, Suffolk

Southchurch, Essex

Stisted, Essex

Deanery of Croydon

With the exception of four parishes in Middlesex (Harrow, Hayes, Norwood and Pinner), all the parishes were in Surrey. The Middlesex parishes were exempt from the bishop of London and the Surrey parishes from the bishop of Winchester.

Barnes

Burstow

Charlwood

Cheam

Croydon

East Horsley

Harrow w. Harrow Weald chapelry

Hayes

Merstham

Mortlake

Newington (Newington Butts)

Norwood

Pinner

Putney

Roehampton

Walworth

Wimbledon

Deanery of Monks Risborough

Parishes in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, originally exempt from the bishop of Lincoln, and under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury.

Halton

Little Brickhill

Newington

Risborough

Wootton Underwood

Deaneries of Pagham and Tarring

Parishes in west Sussex, exempt from the bishop of Chichester, and under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury.

Bersted

Bognor

Chichester, All Saints Pallant

East Lavant

Pagham

Patching

Slindon

Tangmere

West Tarring w. Heene and Durrington

Deanery of Shoreham

Parishes in Kent, exempt from the bishop of Rochester, and under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury.

Bexley w. Bexley Heath

Brasted

Chevening

Chiddingstone

Cliffe

Crayford

Darenth

Downe

East Malling

East Farleigh

East Peckham

Eynsford

Farningham

Gillingham w. Lydsing chapelry

Grain, St. James in the Isle of

Halstead

Hayes

Hever

Hunton

Ifield

Ightham

Keston

Knockholt

Meopham

Northfleet

Orpington

Otford

Penshurst

Riverhead

St. Mary Cray

Sevenoaks

Sevenoaks Weald

Shoreham

Sundridge w. Ide Hill chapelry

Wrotham w. Plaxtol and Stansted chapelries

Deanery of South Malling

Parishes in west Sussex, exempt from the bishop of Chichester, and under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury.

Buxted w. Uckfield chapelry

Cliffe (St. Thomas at Cliffe in Lewes)

Edburton

Framfield

Glynde

Isfield

Lindfield

Mayfield

Ringmere

South Malling

Stanmer w. Falmer

Wadhurst