Records of Peculiar jurisdictions within the diocese of Lichfield

The classification scheme is the same as that used for the Diocesan Records, with some additions, and the prefix P with the initial letter(s) of the jurisdiction. While obvious strays have been sorted into their correct categories, original bundles, and those sorted and labelled at an earlier date have normally been left untouched and marked with an asterisk, appropriate cross-references being given for convenience only. Readers should use the main bundle reference when ordering documents.

Additional information can be found in A. J. Camp's Wills and Their Whereabouts. So far as marriage bonds are concerned, while every effort has been made to sort out strays into their correct jurisdictions, it is still necessary to consult those of the Dean and Chapter, which include some bonds taken out during the Dean's triennial visitations of the prebendal peculiars. There is also a box of marriage bonds unfit for production of which there is a typescript list in the search room. These cover Derbyshire and the Peak (Dean and Chapter), 1615-1728, and other peculiars from 1628 - c.1760, with some Wolverhampton bonds additional to those listed in S.H.C., 1931.

Finally, a few volumes relating to peculiar jurisdictions have been found among the Diocesan Records. The six volumes of the Dean's court books from 1672-1843, which have previously been listed as P/V/1/1 and DC/C/3-7, are now included here as D/C/1/1-6. Cross references are given for the acta of various peculiars, 1667/8-1673, to be found in the first part of the earliest volume which was kept by Geoffrey Glasier as a general visitation book, but was taken over and completed by his successor to the registership, Anthony Nicholls, as a court book. Other classes of diocesan records may also occassionally include material relating to the peculiars, and lists and indexes should always be checked.

These were deposited by the diocesan registrar among the records transferred from the old muniment room in Dam Street when the record office stack room was opened in 1968, although they were not part of the diocesan administration.

Presumably it was only at some later date that these records found their way into the Diocesan Registry, although records of the prebendal jurisdictions during the Dean's triennial visitations, and a few stray prebendal visitations are to be found in the Dean and Chapter muniments, together with most of the records of the Dean's own peculiar, visitations of which appear to have been held concurrently with those of the Dean and Chapter. Some of these are already listed in J. C. Cox's 'Catalogue of the muniments and manuscript books pertaining to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield,' 'Staffordshire Historical Collections', vol.vi, part 2. Other stray peculiar documents to be found amongst the Dean and Chapter muniments relate to Bridgnorth, of which Dean Woodhouse was official principal, and Merevale, of which the Chapter Clerk, Charles Gresley, became registrar in 1847. Only one stray will for Bridgnorth is included amongst the documents listed below.

Before the peculiars were brought under the bishop's control by an Order in Council of 1846, they were exempt from his jurisdiction and each created its own set of records. Even the bishop, as prebendary of Eccleshall, in 1743 made a separate appointment of Richard Smalbroke as his official of the peculiar, although he was also vicar-general of the diocese. They retained the power to grant probate and administration until the general extinction of such rights in 1858, but marriage licences continued to be issued, in the case of Shrewsbury St. Mary until 1888. The records, then, date mainly from the 17th and 18th until the mid-19th centuries, with only a few earlier documents surviving.

The main peculiar jurisdictions were those of the Dean, dignitaries and prebendaries of Lichfield Cathedral and those of the royal free chapels, together with a few manors (see Staffordshire Record Office Cumulative Handlist, Part I: Diocesan, Probate and Church Commissioners' Records in Lichfield Joint Record Office, Appendix 2, p. 45). Each had its own registrar, although the same man might hold more than one office. The diocesan registrarship appears to have been a sinecure, in the 13th century often being held by the bishops' relations, while most of the daily administrative work was done by notaries public who might hold peculiar registrarships as well. Also represented in the cause papers is the ubiquitous hand of John Fletcher, who in 1748 was appointed Chapter Clerk during the will and pleasure of the Dean & Chapter on the death of Edward Short. He was first appointed registrar to the prebendary of Sawley in 1731 at the age of 25 and was still signing the Chapter Acts at the age of 90, three years before his death in 1799.

During his long term of office, some attempt seems to have been made to centralise the records at least of the prebendal jurisdictions. Within a few months of his appointment the Dean & Chapter ordered that the wills, administrations and other records of the prebendal jurisdictions were to be deposited in their registry at the Dean's visitation and all subsequent ones. Whether this was in the room above the consistory court where the muniments were when J. C. Cox listed them in the 1880's, and where he suggests they were kept from the Restoration onwards, is not certain.

In the same year, Fletcher also became registrar of the important peculiar of Wolverhampton, and apparently accumulated many such offices during his lifetime, for in 1799, the year of his death, ten separate patents were granted to his successor as Chapter Clerk, William Mott. Hartington, however, was held by two successive members of the Hand family from 1781-1806, when it was granted direct to William Mott's son, John, who acquired at least four registerships before his father's death in 1826, when patents survive for a further seven.

Evidence of the resulting confusion in the multiplicity of registrars can perhaps be seen in the Gnosall fee book bound up and deposited with the probate records. In this is a note that 'From this time [1728] I [Charles Howard] was register.' However, it is also noted that the wills were received from the executrix of Mr. Nathaniel Hinckes, his predecessor, who did not die until 1731, so these can only have been handed over at least three years after Hinckes ceased to be registrar. Howard apparently also became registrar of Tachbrook on Hinckes' death, when fees begin in his handwriting, and it is from this date that the earliest Tachbrook records survive. The Chapter Clerkship, however, went to Edward Short.