Prices of food, materials and labour in old England

These books were a help to me in understanding more about ancestors, right back to my 10x great grandfather and how he lived in the late 1500s. 

A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Vol.III

George Taytt (Tait) was a bowyer (and a burgess of Perth) in Scotland in 1570.  Although these are prices in England, it gives me a rough idea, and also how it compared to other craftsmen. Turning to the pages for Prices of Labour and 1570-71, and the cities were all the same, a bowyer gets 1/- (or 1 shilling) for a day's work.

Prices of Labour 1570-1571

There are indexes in the back, one for names of places and a general index. Also information on currency and weights and measures. The beginning of each section tells you how to read the charts. 

This is an example of yearly wages, set down by the justices of peace in 1610 at Rutland, Oakham (between Nottingham and Peterborough)...

Wages at Rutland, 1610, mark 715

Relevant links

A history of agriculture and prices in England 1259-1793

The Doomsday Book

I'm sure most people researching their ancestors in England have heard of the Doomsday Book. The Doomsday Book is a work written in Latin, completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror to make a "great survey" (like a census) of properties and holdings in 31 counties of England tax assessment purposes. You have probably seen references to it in histories of places.

Historic Byways and Highways of Old England 1900, pg 33

Since this ancient book can no longer be consulted by the public it has been made available online and searchable by place at the Open Doomsday site, built by Anna Powell-Smith. They also uploaded the pages to Internet Archive by county.

At Open Doomsday when you do a search your results will give you a translation of the latin text, an image of the original text plus a link to the whole page.

I did a search for the village of Loddiswell, situated on the River Avon in Devon, and where I find my King ancestors in the 1700s. I learn that Lodeswille was a sizable village of 44 households: 20 of villagers, 10 of smallholders, 8 of slaves and 6 of cottagers. There were 12 ploughlands and 10 plough teams, 1 cob (horse), 4 cattle, 6 pigs, 42 sheep and 11 goats. Other resources consisted of 1 lord's land, 13 acres of meadow, half a league of pasture land, 1 league of woodland, and 1 fishery.

Lodeswille, Doomsday Book for Devon, pg xix

It was deemed to be taxed very low for its size at 2 geld units. A unit is described as a hide, which is a measure of land of about 120 acres, thought sufficient to support one household. In 1086 the Lord and tenant-in-chief was Iudhael of Totnes.

When writing about your ancestors, include the history of where they lived.



Relevant Links

Doomsday Book info at Wikipedia

Doomsday Book at National Archive

Open Doomsday

Hull Doomsday Project

Doomsday Book at Internet Archive

Doomsday Book Glossary

The Doomsday Book Online (info)

Serendipity Sunday - The Royals

I came across this book the while researching Royal genealogy...

The Royal Kalendar and Court and City Register for England, Scotland, Ireland and the Colonies 1790

 

 

 

Contains:  

     ~names of Royal families of England, France, Portugal, Denmark and other countries

     ~the Kalendar for the year 1790, with holidays and special days

     ~complete Register; nobles, peers, bishops, house of commons, etc

 

 



 

Next in Line

William and Kate welcome their newborn daughter, who is fourth in line to the throne... following her grandfather Prince Charles who is 1st in line, her father Prince William is 2nd and her brother Prince George is 3rd. Bumped next down the line are Prince Harry to 5th, Prince Andrew to 6th and Princess Beatrice to 7th.  

Charlotte Elizabeth Diana

 

In 1973 a book was published titled The Book of Kings: a Royal Genealogy (in three volumes).  The author was Charles Arnold McNaughton (1930-1979) of Hemmingford, Quebec (I know, seems weird, eh?) .... genealogist for his own family and for the Royals.  Arnold did extensive research for over 26 years to write this book, including travelling to London and meeting with the Queen herself, and others of the Royal family. With no internet or email at that time, Arnold did most of his research by writing letters and anxiously awaiting replies. The forward for his book was written by Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl of Burma. They had become good friends, writing back and forth over the years.  When Arnold got word that Earl Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA in Ireland in 1979, it devastated him and he killed himself.

His work, The Book of Kings is considered "the" authority on Royal genealogy throughout the world, and can be found in most libraries or on inter-library loan.


Relevant Links


Review - The Book of Kings (PDF)

Notes from Arnold McNaughton (meeting the Royal family)

The Jubilee Date Book; the regnal years of the kings and queens of England, from William the Conqueror to Victoria- 1887

A collection of all the wills of the Kings and Queens of England - 1780

Debrett's peerage, baronetage, knightage and companionage - 1893

Letters of the Kings of England, from Royal Archives and other authentic sources 

Christmas Card from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth - 1939

English Coronation Records - 1901

Keep the Faith

When I was quite young, not yet in my teens, my friend asked me to her house to meet her aunt, visiting from Cleveland.  She was a nun. I had never thought of nuns being a part of anyone's family, nor had I ever met one. I was disappointed that she wasn't wearing a habit, she just looked like anyone else's aunt to me.

The first time a saw a religious person not at my church dressed in the trappings of his faith, was a good friend of my grandparents who was a Franciscan Friar in Montreal. My first thought was - he looked like Friar Tuck! Another time I saw a religious person outside the church, was when I was a Ranger (GGC) we had a weekend conference at a retreat. I was exploring the building and entered a room to find an old priest praying and meditating. I was a bit embarrassed to be barging in, but he was kind and invited me in to chat about what we were doing there. I was 15 and only wanted to get back to my friends to tell them what I saw.  Sigh.  If only we could go back and redo some moments that are lost to us forever.

My grandfathers family were Methodists and belonged to the Salvation Army in Montreal. My great grandmother was a Major, and my great-grandfather was in the Citadel Band, along with my grandfather and his brother. I didn't know anything about this until after my grandparents had died and I found this 1907 newspaper clipping of the band. My grandfather quit them when he came back from WWI.  I am still searching for information on them being in the Salvation Army.

My husband's aunt was a nun with the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.  I took a shot at emailing the order with what information I had (parents names and birth date) and received a reply that my request was being sent to the archivist.  The sister at the archives sent me a very nice email with all the information and dates they had on Sister Thérèse Joséphine. With that info I made this Memory Card for her.

There are many publications from churches, local and global, that may contain the names of your ancestors.  They not only name the religious leaders, but some give lists of the church members, donations made for building perhaps, ministers that died the previous year, etc... I have listed some of these publications below. 

To look for mention of your ancestor, go to Internet Archive and search "year book church", "centenary Church", "[state] church", "[religion] church [town]" - get creative!




Relevant Links:


Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in the Northwest: 1859-1909

The Grey Nuns in the Far North - 1867-1917

The English Franciscan Nuns 1619-1821 : Friars Minor of same Province 1618-1761

Catholic Record Society - Nuns of London 1914

Roman Catholic Religious Sisters and Nuns by Order

Druids

Toland's History of the Druids

Canadian Methodist Ministers

Bygone church life in Scotland

Ecclesiastical Chronicle for Scotland, with catalogue of Scottish Bishops

The English Church and it's Bishops 1700-1800 Vol 1

The English Church and it's Bishops 1700-1800 Vol 2

A Roll of Honour: Irish prelates and priests of the Last Century - 1905

The Irish Priests in the Penal Times (1660-1760) 

Irish Catholic Directory 1900

Love Letters of a Priest (abt 1912) Australia

Bahai Revelation 1913

Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in the Chinese literary language 1902

Records of Romsey abbey: the Benedictine house of nuns, (A.D. 907-1558)– 1906

Presbyterian Year Book and Almanac - Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland 1875

The Methodist Year Book - USA (several years)

Methodist Church - Clergy: A gallery of distinguished men.

Church Year Book, history and Directory of Stoney Creek (1776), Shiloh (1913), Burlington Second (1913) Presbyterian Churches, May 1933 (NC)

Year Book Trinity Church 1922, Woodbridge, NJ

Year Book St Andrew's Church, Ann Arbor, MI 1891

Year Book to the Salvation Army, Detroit, MI 1971-1972

The Church of Scotland Year Book 1885

The Official Year Book of the Church of England (a few years)

Year Book of the First Mennonite Church of Berne, Indiana (several years)

Directory and Year Book: Graves Memorial Presbyterian Church, NC 1929

Year Book, Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal Church (1888+)

The old non-parochial registers of Dudley : comprising those of the Society of Friends, the Old Meeting House, the Independents, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Baptists, and the Methodist new connexion. 1899

An alphabetical arrangement of all the Wesleyan Methodist ministers and preachers on trail in connexion with the British and Irish Conferences; also, a list of the presidents of the Conference from 1791to 1892; and an alphabetical list of the ministers who have died in the work

St. George's Parish Church, St. Catharines, ON - jubilee celebration 1892

The Story of St. Paul's parish, Toronto - 1922

Saint John Methodism and history of Centenary Methodist Church St. John, NB 1890 

The American Church Almanac and Year Book 1911

The Lutheran almanac for the year of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 1870

The Canadian Catholic directory and ecclesiastical register 1904

Ireland - Catholic Directory, almanac and registry for 1853

Catholic Order of Foresters - Montreal Souvenir Book 1892

Protestant Episcopal almanac and church directory - US 1875

Year Book and Membership, First Presbyterian Church Plymouth,PA 1907

West Grove Monthly Meeting (Wayne Co., Ind) Membership 1843

Liste chronologique des évêques et des prêtres, tant séculiers que réguliers, employés au service de l'Église du Canada depuis l'établissement de ce pays; et aussi la liste des évêques des autres possessions britanniques de l'Amérique du Nord. - 1834 /

(Chronological List of bishops and priests, both secular and regular, employed in the service of the Church in Canada since the establishment of that country; and also the list of bishops of the other British possessions in North America. - 1834)

Genesis of Churches in the United States, Newfoundland, and Canada - 1907

Canadian Congregational Church 1910-11 - names of contributors and also graduates of the congregational college.

List of Deacons Ordained in the Protestant Episcopal Church 1785-1857

The 23rd Annual Report of the Newfoundland Church Society 1864

1st report of the Wesleyan Home Mission and Contingent Fund, South Australia 1867

Sadliers' catholic directory, almanac and clergy list quarterly 1869 (United States, Canada and British North America)

Serendipity Sunday - Making a list, checking it twice....

While I was searching for information and links for WWI I was taken to the Mocavo blog post about WWI diaries. Just what I was looking for! But on the same page was a post about this broadside from Library of Harvard University. It is called the Eleventh Blacklist and was printed in the year 1706, consisting of a list of prostitutes, drunks and pick-pockets in the London area. The abbreviations used are at the bottom of the page.
If your ancestor is on the list, you sure have some colourful characters on your tree! 

Click on the image to go to the Houghton Library page. While there visit their Archive to see some pretty awesome photographs and illustrations. Then change month at top menu.

Below are some links to a couple of other sites that have images or stories of some "unsavory characters"!


Also search Pub Blacklist 1903..1906 on Google Images


1904 Birmingham Pub Blacklist (sorry, this site has been taken down, try a search)

1902 Birmingham Pub Blacklist

Lost Weekenders - more Blacklist

Birmingham Pub Blacklist 1903-1906 - Ancestry $