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Bedfordshire Historical Record Society (BHRS) was established in 1912 as a focus for the study of Bedfordshire history.

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94 results in Publications Bedfordshire Hist Rec Soc

Page 3 of 5

The Marchioness Grey of Wrest Park
  • Joyce Godber
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Although described in the introduction as 'a life', this book, written as a guide to more than 7000 letters held in Bedfordshire Archives, is far more than that. It is a biography of Jemima, Marchioness Grey (1722-1797), mainly pieced together from the voluminous correspondence between the Marchioness and her two daughters. It recounts her life from infant to grandmother.

The Navigation of the Great Ouse between St Ives and Bedford in the Seventeenth Century
  • Thomas S. Willan
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • During the seventeenth century attention was given to improving river navigation in several parts of the country, in return for tolls from boats carrying cargo on the river. Before the civil war the improvements to the River Ouse were mainly carried out by Arnold Spencer of Cople, who overstretched himself and was in debt, so that the patent for the navigation was passed to others. The toll books have not survived and the author is only able to make an estimate of income and tonnage using the river. The introduction gives an account of the improvements to the river by, e.g. sluices, scouring the river, ditches and tow paths etc., and of the people who undertook them. The story is told through transcriptions of 104 documents from the Francklin manuscripts and one from the Whitbread manuscripts at Bedfordshire Archives.

The Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
  • Volume 8
  • William Austin, Jannion Steele Elliott, G. Herbert Fowler, Hilary Jenkinson, Frederic Augustus Page-Turner
  • Edited by Joseph Hight Blundell, C. W. Foster, Fred. Puttnam, Robert Richmond
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Contains 'Stagsden and Its Manors', by J. Steele Elliott.
    'Three Records of the Alien Priory of Grove and the Manor of Leighton Buzzard', by Robert Richmond.
    'Ancient Bedfordshire Deeds, no 3: Northill, Southill, Old Warden, etc', by F. A. Page-Turner.
    'Harlington Churchwardens' Accounts', by Joseph Hight Blundell.
    'Some Bedfordshire Assessments for the Taxation of a Ninth, 1297, by Mrs. Hilary Jenkinson.
    'Institutions to Ecclesiastical Benefices in the County of Bedford, 1535-1660', by The Rev. Canon C. W. Foster.

    Notes: I 'Declaration of Common Rights, Eaton Bray and Totternhoe, 1475', by Fred. Puttnam; II 'Catsbrook at Biscot near Luton', by William Austin; III 'Wingate of Streatley and Harlington', by Joseph Hight Blundell; IV 'Variant spelling of Thurleigh'; V 'The Meeting Place of Manshead Hundred', by G. Herbert Fowler.

The Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society

Elizabethan Churchwardens' Accounts
  • Edited by James Ernest Farmiloe, Rosita Nixseaman
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Churchwardens were parish officers responsible for keeping the church and representing the people in parochial matters. They gradually took on more administrative responsibilities during the sixteenth century. Most parishes had two churchwardens who were appointed annually. They normally kept accounts of their income and expenditure on behalf of the parish. The earliest surviving accounts for Bedfordshire parishes have been included in this volume: Clifton, 1543, 1589-1608; Northill, 1561-1612; and Shillington, I571?-1604. Income from rents for church lands and from individuals is recorded. However the main focus is on expenditure for, e.g. church maintenance, ecclesiastical visitations, and communion bread and wine, church ales and, in Northill, on May festivities.

    The volume begins with a tribute In Memoriam for John Arnold Whitchurch, President of BHRS, 1945-1953.

The Railway Age in Bedfordshire
  • F. G. Cockman
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • This is an account of the impact made by railways on Victorian society in Bedfordshire between 1846 and 1890. There are chapters about the main railway lines through and within the county; schemes that failed; contractors and navvies, travelling by rail; accidents; railwaymen; and crime. Two maps illustrate railways built 1846-1872 and those proposed but not built 1844-1910. Appendices contain a selection of timetables and fares (including five special excursion timetables) of LNWR, MR and GNR and their branches.

The Gostwicks of Willington and Other Studies
  • Edited by Arthur Geoffrey Dickens, H. P. R. Finberg, John Fines, Gaston Denis Gilmore, Peter L. Hull
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Contains 'A note on the foundation of Northill College in 1406', by Peter Hull. (An introduction is followed by a transcription in Latin of the College's foundation grant.) 'The origin of St. Mary's Square, Bedford', by J. Fines. (Transcription in English of a return to the exchequer by John Maygott, incumbent of the united parishes of St. Peter Dunstable and St. Mary, concerning the site and use to which the materials were put after the demolition of the former church c. 1555.)

    'The Black Book of Bedford', by G. D. Gilmore. (The Black Book contains the constitutions or byelaws of the borough of Bedford made between 1562 and 1603.)

    'Estate and household management in Bedfordshire, c. 1540', by A. G. Dickens. (A transcription of instructions and advice written by Sir John Gostwick of Willington addressed to his son William.)

    'The Gostwicks of Willington', by H. P. R. Finberg. (The Gostwicks were typical of many families in the upper-middle stratum of society. They began as yeomen, rose to the gentry under Henry VIII, then suffered varying fortunes. The article includes a chronology of the family’s activities 1524-1804 and a nine-generation pedigree over three centuries from 1490s).

Sessions of the Peace for Bedfordshire 1355-1359, 1363-1364
  • Edited by Elisabeth G. Kimball
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • The analytical introduction describes the two rolls, the commissions of the peace, the justices who presided over the session, the place and work of the sessions, the offences and the punishment of offenders. The Latin transcriptions of the entries are provided with English summaries. The majority of cases (c. 200) were common law trespasses of one sort or another (assault, fighting, taking goods, disturbing the peace, threatening behaviour, etc.). More serious crimes classed as felonies (petty treason, homicide, larceny, robbery and accessories to these offences) accounted for less than fifty cases. One of these serious offences was by the parson of Eversholt who wounded a man, fled to his rectory, and killed one of the men sent to arrest him.

    The rolls only record the offence and, usually, the outcome. Unfortunately, no evidence is recorded so that the whole story is not told.

The Grey of Ruthin Valor
  • The Valor of the English Lands of Edmund Grey, Earl of Kent, Drawn up from the Ministers' Accounts of 1467-8
  • Edited by R. Ian Jack
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • The valor, or survey, of the finances of the English lands of Edmund Grey, Earl of Kent (also Lord Grey of Ruthin in Wales), was drawn up from the Earl’s accounts in 1467-8. The Earl held estates in eight counties, and nearly half of the manors were in Bedfordshire. The introduction analyses the gross value of, and charges upon, each manor. The text of the accounts includes the rents, tenants’ names, field names and a mass of detail about individual tenant’s holdings. Amongst the more unexpected items of repairs is the cost at 3s 4d for making a new cucking stool in Blunham.

    Other valuations of the estate to 1524 are given in summary.

The Minute Book of Bedford Corporation, 1647-1664
  • Edited by Guy Parsloe
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Minutes of the meetings of the Court of Aldermen, Common Hall and Common Council. They deal with procedure, admission to the freedom of the town, admission of burgesses, appointment of town officials, town property, repairs, the salary of the school usher and litigation. There is a record of the loyal address to the Lord Protector in 1658 but not, it seems, to Charles II in 1660.

The Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
  • Volume 16
  • Lydia M. Marshall
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Contains 'In Memoriam J. E. M.', (Dr John Edward Morris).

    'The Rural Population of Bedfordshire, 1671 to 1921', by Lydia M. Marshall (Based on the hearth tax return of 1671 and the census returns of 1801 and 1921, with a transcription of the Hearth tax return (TNA E 179, 72/301)).

The Williamson Letters 1748-1765
  • Edited by Frederick Joseph Manning
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • This is a selection of the letters to Edmond Williamson, rector of Millbrook from 1740 until his death in 1775 and also rector of Lolworth in Cambridgeshire. Williamson was from a Bedfordshire family. He was educated at Westminster and Trinity College Cambridge. About 300 letters addressed to Edmond Williamson have survived. Of the 182 printed here, about half are in full, the remainder abbreviated.

    Most of the letters were from Edmond's brother Talbot, who lived in London, and whose property in Husborne Crawley Edmond looked after. Others were from their sister Christian who was married to a retired naval captain; a few from a cousin Edmond Horne; and one or two from other people. The letters tell of family life, house improvements and decoration, food, dress and fashion, marriage, bringing up children, books, estate management, enclosure, the reaction of local gentry to the park-making activities of the Duke of Bedford, pluralism, travel, highwaymen, poverty, war, George II's funeral and George III's coronation.

    Despite the one-sided nature of the correspondence, Williamson's life is revealed as well as that of his correspondents.

The Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
  • Volume 17
  • Edited by G. Herbert Fowler
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Contains 'Records of Harrold Priory', edited by G. Herbert Fowler. Harrold Priory, founded c. 1136 for nuns, was established as a house of the Abbey of Arrouaise in northern France. Its history is outlined on Bedfordshire Archives' Community History pages. The Priory's cartulary was compiled c. 1417 and is in the British Library. Additional documents relating to the Priory are in the Trevor Wingfield collection which was donated to Bedfordshire County Record Office in 1932.

    This book contains Latin transcriptions or abstracts in English of the cartulary; transcriptions in Latin or Anglo-French of documents from the Trevor Wingfield collection at Bedfordshire Archives; and earlier charters from other sources. There are detailed notes.

The Publications of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
  • Volume 4
  • Edited by J. E. Brown, G. Herbert Fowler, Frederic Augustus Page-Turner, R. M. Serjeantson
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    18 July 2023
  • Includes 'The Will of Roger Benetheton, 1438/9', edited by the late Rev. R. M. Serjeantson (A Latin transcription with English translation of a will entered on the court rolls of Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire.).

    'Ancient Bedfordshire Deeds II: Deeds relating to Elstow,' by F. A, Page-Turner (Sixty-six deeds made between 1553 and 1665, transcribed, translated, abstracted or listed.).

    'Ancient Indictments, 1341-2,' by G. Herbert Fowler (Latin transcriptions with English translations of Indictments in the court of King's Bench, with an introduction.).

    'Selections from Jury Lists,' by the Rev. J. E. Brown (Jurors are listed by parish for 1780, 1785, 1791, 1798, 1800, 1810, 1820 and 1830. Most parishes are included but a notable exception is Bedford itself. The introduction summarises the qualifications for serving on a jury.)

The Life and Letters of Sir Lewis Dyve 1599-1669
  • H. G. Tibbutt
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    14 July 2023
  • Sir Lewis Dyve was born in Bromham on 3 November 1599; matriculated at Oxford in 1614; and was knighted in 1620. He was an MP, although not sitting for Bedford or Bedfordshire. During the Civil War he was a staunch royalist. His correspondence and other papers are transcribed in this volume and arranged to recount his life under the headings: early years; life in Dorset and London; the approach of war; first campaigns; war in Bedfordshire; war in the south-west; the siege of Sherborne; imprisonment in London; Preston, the Isle of Man, Ireland; the Low Countries and Paris; France; France and Italy; London and Somerset.

Bedfordshire Wills 1480-1519
  • Edited by Patricia Bell
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    14 July 2023
  • These are the 194 wills in Latin in the earliest surviving register of wills proved in the Court of the Archdeacon of Bedford. The register is held by Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service at ABP/R 1. The wills are presented as abstracts in English except for four which have been translated in full to show the form of the originals. The English wills in ABP/R/1 are published in volume 37.

Property in Land in South Bedfordshire, 1750-1832
  • Ernest Oscar Payne
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    14 July 2023
  • In the first part of the book, based on his University of London PhD thesis, the author draws on the correspondence and other writings of Richard How of Aspley Guise (1727-1801?) to present a picture of life in the Bedfordshire village of Aspley Guise in the eighteenth century - the effect of land tax, poor rates, parish disputes and enclosure. The second part is a study of land transfers based on land tax assessments in Tilsworth, Sundon, Milton Byran, Billington, Aspley Guise, Whipsnade, Studham, Chalgrave, Harlington and Toddington. A chart shows the changes in land ownership in Tilsworth between 1797 and 1826.

Colonel John Okey 1606-1662
  • H. G. Tibbutt
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    14 July 2023
  • John Okey was an Anabaptist, London merchant, Parliamentary soldier, active in Parliamentarian politics, a regicide and an MP for Bedfordshire in 1658. This book recounts his life against the backdrop of the Civil War and its aftermath. It draws on Okey’s letters to give a vivid first hand account of military campaigns. After he and other colonels published the Humble Petition of Several Colonels of the Army in 1654, for which he was disciplined and lost his commission, he retired to his estates in Bedfordshire. He lived in the Round House at Brogborough during the 1650s and his estates included the honour of Ampthill, the manor of Millbrook, Brogborough Park and Lodge and lands in Leighton Buzzard. During this period he was active in Bedfordshire affairs and as a Justice of the Peace. He may have been involved in the establishment of John Bunyan’s first Baptist church in Bedford.

    After the Restoration he fled abroad, but was betrayed, arrested and returned to England where he was tried and executed as a regicide. Three contemporary accounts of Okey’s speech at his trial are printed side by side, providing an interesting commentary on different methods of reporting - official, friendly and a newspaper account.

Harrold Priory
  • A Twelfth Century Dispute; and Other Articles
  • Edited by C. R. Cheney, Earl of Cardigan, C. E. Freeman, Joyce Godber, Frederick B. Stitt
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    14 July 2023
  • Harrold Priory: A Twelfth Century Dispute, by C. R. Cheney (Latin texts of nineteen of the documents in a law suit about the patronage of Stevington church, with an introduction. The documents cover the period from the mid-twelfth century to 1206.)

    'Roll of Bedfordshire supervisors of the peace, 1314,' by Joyce Godber (Latin text with brief summaries in English of presentments and plaints from the Bedfordshire hundreds before the supervisors of the peace (forerunners of justices of the peace), with introduction.)

    'A Kempston estate in 1341,' by F. B. Stitt [Latin text of the extent of the manor, identified as Kempston Greys alias Hastingsbury, with introduction.)

    'Elizabethan inventories,' by C. E. Freeman (abstracts of fifteen inventories made between 1562 and 1591, with introduction).

    'Domestic expenses of a nobleman's household, 1678,' by the Earl of Cardigan (An extract from the analysis of expenditure kept by Simon Urlin for the Ampthill estates of Robert Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury.)

The Letter Books of Sir Samuel Luke, 1644-45
  • Edited by H. G. Tibbutt
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    14 July 2023
  • Samuel Luke was the Parliamentary governor of Newport Pagnell from late 1643 to June 1645. Administrative practice was to keep letter books in which a clerk copied in and out letters, warrants, passes, safe-conducts, requisitions, notices etc. Five of the letter books for the period October 1644 to June 1645 have survived. There are 1615 items from the letter books published here. They include letters to and from Parliamentary commanders; Luke's family; the Eastern Association Committee; other governors and area commanders; Luke's own officers and some from other units; and royalist commanders on exchange of prisoners. The letter books reveal details of military life, supplies, royalist prisoners, desertions, effect of war on country life, the progress of the war and disposition of troops.

    The book concludes with 261 reports from scouts from all over the country. Luke later lived at Cople and was a member of Parliament and in London during some of his governorship at Newport Pagnell.

Page 3 of 5