HOW TO WRITE
THE HISTORY OF A PARISH.
HOW TO WRITE
The History of a Parish.
BY
J. CHARLES COX,
Author of “Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire,” etc.
“Every man’s concern with the place where he lives, has something
more in it than the mere amount of rates and taxes that he
has to pay.”—Toulmin Smith.
LONDON:
BEMROSE & SONS, 10, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS;
AND DERBY.
1879.
ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL.
TO THE
REV. THOMAS PRESTON NOWELL BAXTER, M.A.,
(LATE FELLOW OF ST. CATHARINE’S COLL., CAMBRIDGE.)
RECTOR OF HAWERBY, AND RURAL DEAN,
WHO FIRST SUGGESTED
THE WRITING OF THIS LITTLE HAND-BOOK,
THESE PAGES
ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
Some of the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln areresponsible for the issue of this booklet. A much-neededcounty history of Lincolnshire is now beingprojected, upon the basis of separate parochialhistories. A circular put forth in one of the ruraldeaneries was good enough to refer in laudatoryterms to the introduction to the first volume of myNotes on the Churches of Derbyshire. This led to mybeing asked to re-publish that introduction; but itapplied so peculiarly to Derbyshire that I felt itwould be of small avail to those outside the county.Hence I decided to put together some hints thatmight prove a help to those who may be desirous of[viii]undertaking parochial history in any part of thekingdom, whether manorial, ecclesiastical, or both.In the first part of these pages I am indebted toThomas’s “Handbook to the Public Records,” andmore especially to Sims’s invaluable “Manual forthe Topographer and Genealogist;” but I have notreferred to any class of documents with which I amnot in some measure personally conversant.
Those who have been engaged in any literarywork are well aware how large a portion of timeis often spent in merely learning the titles andsomewhat of the contents of those books that treatof the different branches of the subject selected.Various books connected with parochial history,especially those that have been proved by experienceto be the best hand-books, are therefore mentionedin these pages to facilitate refer