Devon
Contents & Search
These subscriptions are recorded in seven rolls, most of which contain a number of long parchment sheets ("membranes"), the largest roll having 18 membranes. Many of the membranes are original, but some are contemporary copies. The Devon Record Office catalogue, which currently just has a single brief entry for each roll, states that in theory these rolls list all the population over the age of 18. The text is partly in Latin.
Each membrane contains one or more lists of subscriptions, with each list consisting of a jumbled mixture of names from various parishes, among which occur occasional sequences of names from the same parish, recorded at a given court session. These lists are in two columns, with a given entry consisting of a name, a signature and then either a parish name, or in the case of sequences some form of "ditto". (Hence a sequence of names from the same parish stand out pretty clearly.)
The rolls have never been transcribed or indexed, and it is not at all easy to search them even for sequences of entries, leave alone for all entries, corresponding to a given parish, or for any particular individual. However, it is to be presumed that most if not all subscriptions were recorded at a nearby court session. Hence the following listing of court locations and dates, which has been prepared by Susan Laithwaite of the DRO, and Jonathan Frayne, will it is hoped be of some assistance in estimating the geographical coverage of each roll, and hence in making the information they contain somewhat more accessible. (More detailed indexing, and transcription, will have to await the microfilming of these rolls - until this has been done, searches for any particular named individuals are highly impracticable, and it is not possible for the Record Office to provide photographic copies of any of the rolls. )
The listing is made available here in GENUKI/Devon by kind permission of the County Archivist.
Last updated 20 Aug 2002 - Brian Randell.
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