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The Genesis of a Godly Community: Two York Parishes, 1590–1640

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Claire Cross*
Affiliation:
University of York

Extract

The inside cover of the Elizabethan register of St John’s, Ousebridge, York contains the following entry:

Memorandum that John Stoddart, clerk, began to serve in this parish of St John’s at Ousebridge end in August 1591 and doth still serve the same, who also did rule this same parchment book in such form and sort as it is, of his own proper cost, after that it was bought by James Cristalson, being churchwarden, in the year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth etc. 41, anno domini 1599 … price vii s.

The corresponding register of the adjoining parish of All Saints, North Street, where Stoddart became the pluralist rector in March 1594, begins very similarly. These (at least for York) uniquely full registers, supplemented by a set of churchwardens’ accounts from St John’s and the eighty or so wills which can now be traced for the two parishes make it possible to chart the development of a loosely associated group of committed protestants in an area of central York which the arrival of a resident minister stimulated in both a positive and, less predictably, negative way. The story of voluntary religion which emerges is not one of high drama, faction-fighting, or even separation between the godly and the rest, but rather of a sustained and ultimately triumphant attempt of a minority to enrich the spiritual life of their parishes.’

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1986

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References

1 Borthwick Institute, York PRY/Ji inside parchment cover; PRY/ASNi fol Iv (all spelling has been modernised throughout); and see Collinson, P., The Religion of Protestants: the Church in English Society 1559-1625) (Oxford 1982)Google Scholar esp chapter 6.

2 Cross, C., ‘Priests into Ministers: the Establishment of Protestant Practice in the City of York, 1530-1630’, in Brooks, P.N. ed Reformation Principle and Practice: Essays in Honour of A.G. Dickens (London 1980) pp. 203225 Google Scholar; Cross, C. ed York Clergy Wills 1520-1600: 2 The City Clergy (Borthwick Texts and Calendars; Records of the Northern Province) forthcoming; Al. Cant, pt 1,4 p. 165; Carlisle Episcopal Registers, Barnes pp. 107, 117-18, 148, 165-6; Valor Ecclesiasticus Record Commissioners (London 1825) 5 p. 279.Google Scholar

3 Borthwick PRY/ASN1 fols 11r, 3V, 641-, 651-; PRY/J1 inside parchment cover.

4 Borthwick PRY/J17 fols 9V-57V; PRY/ASNi fol iir; York Minster Library J. Torre ms City Volume p. 601.s

5 Borthwick V 1575 CB1 fols 6r-7v; V 1577 CB1 fol 12v; V 1586 CB1 fol 6r; J.C.H. Aveling, Catholic Recusancy in the City of York, 1558-1791 Catholic Record Society (1970) pp. 70, 168, 184-5, 189,190, 199, 200-1, 205, 206, 210, 211, 212, 225, 227, 232.

6 Borthwick Prob. Reg. 19 fols 296V-2971; PRY/J 1 fol 27V.

7 Borthwick Prob. Reg. 26 fol 354V.

8 Borthwick PRY/ASN1 fol 3v; Prob. Reg. 37 fol 432V; York City Library R.H. Skaife, ms ‘Civic Officials of York’ I pp. 40, 62-3, 102-3, 125; 2 pp. 360-1.

9 Borthwick Prob. Reg. 26 fols 310v-311r; Prob. Reg. 27 fols 98v-99r; Prob. Reg. 29 fols 499V, 504v-505, 609r; Prob. Reg. 30 fols 13r, 488r-v; Prob. Reg. 31 fols 66yr-v, 796V; Prob. Reg. 33 fols 694v-695r, 736V; Prob. Reg. 34 fols 267r-v, f 606r-v; Prob. Reg. 36 fols 350r-v, 655v-656r; Prob. Reg. 37 fols 61r-v, 116v, 296r-297r, 555v-556r; Prob. Reg. 38 fols 377v-378r; PRY/J 1 fol 29r.

10 Aveling, Catholic Recusancy in the City of York p. 194; Borthwick PRY/AS1 fols 4r, 64r-v, 65r.

11 Palliser, D.M., ‘Epidemics in Tudor York’, Northern History 8 (1973) pp. 4563 Google Scholar; Borthwick PRY/ASN1 fols 5r, 43v, 66r-6yr; PRY/J 1 fols 30r-31r.

12 Borthwick Orig. Wills Sept 1646-7 (Harrison); PRY/ASN1 f 5v; J.S. Purvis, ‘Stuart Crockford’ sub Stoddart; York City Library Skaife, ‘Civic Officials’ I pp. 28-9, 148-9, 264, 2 p.705; Venn, Al Cant pt I, 4 p. 165.

13 Borthwick PRY/J1 inside parchment cover; PRY/ASN1 fol y2r; Prob. Reg. 30 fol 488r-v; Prob. Reg. 33 fols 763v-764 Prob. Reg. 36 fol 350r-v; C. Cross, Urban Magistrates and Ministers: Religion in Hull and Leeds from the Reformation to the Civil War Borthwick Paper 67 (York 1985) p. 23.

14 Borthwick Prob. Reg. 27 fol 722r-v; PRY/ASN1 fols 68r, 69V, 70v-71r; York City Archives Housebook 1626-1637 fol 156.

15 Borthwick PRY/J 1 fols 33V-34V; Prob. Reg. 38 fols 238v-240r; Lambeth Palace Library Ms 919 fol 574.

16 Borthwick DR/CWP; Orig. Wills June 1642-3 (Atkinson); M. Stephenson, ‘Monumental Brasses in the City of York’ Yorkshire Archaeological Society 18 (1905) pp. 9-10.

17 Borthwick PRY/J17 fol 235V; Orig. Wills Ap 1640 (Elizabeth Mosley); York City Library Skaife, ‘Civic Officials’, 2 p. 519.

18 P. Collinson, The Religion of Protestants esp pp. 189-241; Borthwick V 1613 CB2 fol 48V; V 1615 CB2 fol 22v; V 1640 CB1 fol 2a.

19 1 Cor. 5 v 6; R.A. Marchant, The Puritans and the Church Courts in the Diocese of York, 1560-1642 (London 1960) p. 277.