Chancery: Surveys of Church Livings

C 94

1650-1658

Returns made by parish juries to a commission of inquiry of 1650-51 investigating church livings in England and Wales.

Included in the scope of the inquisitions was the nature of the church and living, the name and character of the incumbent, the amount, source and nature of his maintenance, the nearness or otherwise of the parochial chapelries, and the advisability of parochial unions or divisions.

A few returns from later inquisitions are also included.

Twenty-four large volumes survive in the Lambeth Palace Library, consisting chiefly of official copies of the returns in this series made shortly after the originals, which supply many of their deficiencies.

There are some fragments of returns for Rutland and Huntingdon in

SP 46/96

Public Record(s)

English

3 volume(s)

Since 1642 Parliament had wanted information on the volume of church livings in each county in England and Wales. It was not until 6 June 1649, however, that an ordinance of Parliament empowered the commissioners of the great seal to issue commissions to conduct such a survey.

In each county commissioners were nominated who conducted their inquisitions by jury. Although completed during 1650 and 1651, the survey was not acted upon until 1654, when an ordinance of Cromwell and the council empowered the trustees for the maintenance of ministers to make use of the survey's findings.

Subsequently, as a result of the trustees' deliberations, numerous ordinances were passed, both dividing and uniting parishes. In each case the decision was made either upon the strength of the original survey or, should the correctness of the survey be challenged, as a consequence of fresh inquisitions of survey issued under the great seal during the years between 1655 and 1658.