Consistory Court of London

DL/C

Consistory Court of London

1362 - 1963

Surviving records include act books office and instance 1496-1765, vicar general's books 1520-1685, allegations, libels and sentence books 1670-1817, deposition books 1467-1817, personal answer books 1617-1808, matrimonial and testamentary cause papers 1703-1817, registers of wills and indexes 1362-1858, and original wills 1507 - 1858.

The records have been arranged into the following series:

Instance act books 1 DL/C/1-54

Acts of court DL/C/55-83

Interlocutory Acts DL/C/84-86

Assignation books 1 DL/C/87-141

Allegations, libels and sentence books DL/C/142-191

Personal answer books DL/C/192-204

Deposition books 1 DL/C/205-299

Office act books 1 DL/C/300-329

Vicar general's books DL/C/330-345

Indexes to wills and administrations 1 DL/C/346-353

Registers of wills and administrations DL/C/354-417

Original wills and administrations DL/C/418-544

Matrimonial and testamentary cause papers DL/C/545-578

Stray documents DL/C/579-582

Indexes to deposition books 1 DL/C/583-602

Miscellaneous 1 DL/C/603

Indexes to wills and administrations 2 DL/C/604-606

Instance act books 2 DL/C/607-613

Office act books 2 DL/C/614-626

Index of causes 1 DL/C/627

Deposition books 2 DL/C/628-641

Indexes to deposition books 2 DL/C/642

Appointments with proctors DL/C/643

Indexes to wills and administrations 3 DL/C/644-645

Caveat book DL/C/646

Consistory Court exhibita DL/C/647

Miscellaneous 2 DL/C/648

Instance act books 3 DL/C/649

Assignation books 2 DL/C/650-659

Chancellor's notebooks DL/C/660-662

Index of causes 2 DL/C/663

Statistics DL/C/664

Registry DL/C/665

<span class="wrapper"><p>For a description of the functions and administration of the Court reference should be made to:-</p> <p>1. Notes from the Ecclesiastical Court Records at Somerset House by F.W.X. Fincham. Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. 4th series, vol IIII. 1921 pp. 103 - 139</p> <p>2. An Introduction to Ecclesiastical Records by the Rev. J.S. Purvis. St. Anthony's Press, London 1953</p></span>

English

33 series

TRANSFERRED FROM THE PRINCIPAL PROBATE REGISTRY, SOMERSET HOUSE, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. 2 TO THE LONDON COUNTY RECORD OFFICE, THE COUNTY HALL WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, S.E.1 IN JANUARY 1956 and August 1957, Acc/56.14 and Acc/57.56

If the following list is compared with the schedule presented to the Royal Commission on Public Records Appendix 77 2. 2nd Rep Vol. II. Pt. II. pp. 199 - 204 in 1914 will be seen that all the volumes prior to 1500 and several whole classes have now disappeared.

The Consistory Court of London, or court of the Bishop of London, was the principal court within the Diocese of London. It was by far the largest canon law court operating in the south of England and had jurisdiction over the City of London, the Counties of Middlesex and Essex, and a greater part of the County of Hertfordshire. The business which came before the court was varied and the records are an important source for the study of the social, religious and economic history.

From the early medieval period, the bishop was regarded not only as the spiritual leader of his flock, but also as arbitrator and judge in ecclesiastical matters. Primarily the Bishop was responsible for maintaining the moral and spiritual discipline of both clergy and parishioners. Cases resulted from perceived lapses in practice, including Sabbath-breaking, non-attendance at church, recusancy refusing to conform to the practices of the established church, and more generally, acts of immorality, which covered a multitude of cases. The high number of cases concerned with matters of sexual morality meant that the courts were often known as 'bawdy courts'.

The court would also deal with business resulting from the general administration of the diocese. This included the granting of licences, the maintenance of church buildings, the granting of faculties and the administration of church revenues.

Until 1858, church courts also heard many matters which would now be dealt with by the civil courts, such as the proving of wills, cases of defamation, and matrimonial cases including separation and divorce. By the eighteenth century the Consistory Court of London had gained a reputation as the main court for matrimonial breakdowns, with cases of separations doubling in numbers between 1750 and 1820. This was largely at the expense of other provincial consistory courts, and may be explained in terms of the rapid growth of the metropolis and the transfer of local legal business to where the most skilled lawyers and judges were to be found. The short residency requirements for having a case heard at the Consistory Court of London meant that many litigants travelled to the capital in order to obtain separations from their partners. As a result the collection is particularly useful for the study of marital relations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.