Episcopal Court Records 1560-1595 including wills

 

The box with the above title is held at the Manx National Heritage Library in Bay 4 Shelf 12 Level 5 under reference MS10216. It contains original documents organised into folders. I have assigned folio numbers to each double page within a folder for ease of reference, although no such numbers appear within the original archive. The different folders are summarised below, followed by links to high-resolution images of each of the folios in order. Folio number 000 is used only for an image of the folder itself. (The folder title's are written in pencil which can make them hard to read.) Folio numbers appended with a letter (eg 003a) are typically used when a small note or other insert appears between two folios.

 

All of the images here are provided by kind permission of Manx National Heritage.

 

 

1560 [archdiaconal]

 

This bundle consists of about 30 wills over 20 pages. It also includes some court records. Based on the (winter) death dates recorded these are archdiaconal wills. The preambles to the wills are in latin.

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009
010

 

1563

 

This bundle consists of about 30 wills over 30 pages. It also includes some court records. Based on the handful of readable (winter) death dates recorded these appear to be archdiaconal wills. The preambles to the wills are in latin.

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009
010	011	012	013	014	015

 

1565-1568

 

This bundle consists of about 60 wills over 75 pages and is in very poor condition. It also includes some court records. In appears to contain a mix of years (between 1565 and 1569) and (based on the handful of death dates) a mixture of constitutory and archdiaconal wills. The preambles to the wills are in latin.

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009
010	011	012	013	014	015	016	017	018	019
020	021	022	023	024	025	026	027	028	029
030	031	032	033	034	035	036	037

 

1571-1574

 

This bundle consists of about 120 wills intermixed with court records over 120 pages. Based on the (winter) death dates recorded these appear to be archdiaconal wills. The preambles to the wills are in latin.

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009
010	011	012	013	014	015	016	017	018	019
020	021	022	023	024	025	026	027	028	029
030	031	032	033	034	035	036	037	038	039
040	041	042	043	044	045	046	047	048	049
050	051	052	053	054	055	056	057	058	059
060

 

1575-1577

 

This bundle contains 115 neat abstracts of wills over 40 pages. All of the abstracts are in English. The recorded death dates cover both archdiaconal and consistory courts. It appears that this represents a deliberate (albeit temporary) attempt to separate wills from the other business of the spiritual court.

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	005a	006	007	008
009	010	011	012	013	014	015	016	017	018
019	020

 

1575 consistory court

 

This bundle contains only 4 wills amidst 30 pages of Constituuory Court business. Three of these four wills have death dates in October and one has a date of November. This latter one is outside of the normal period during which the Bishop presided over the Chapter Court. The abstract preambles are all in latin.

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009
010	011	012	013	014	015	016	017	018	019
020	021	022	023	024	025	026	027	028	029
030

 

1576

 

This small booklet contains only 45 neat abstracts over 18 pages. It is consistent both in year and format with the contents of the 1575-1577 folder and would appear to be naturally part of that bundle.

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009

 

1576-1577

 

This bundle contains about 50 wills over 70 pages intermixed with Constituory Court records. The (summer) death dates are consitent with constitutory wills. Most but not all of the abstract preambles are given in latin. Possibly the exception is a loose page from another year.

 

000	001	002	003	003a	004	005	006	007	008
009	010	011	012	013	014	015	016	017	018
019	020	021	022	023	024	025	026	027	028
029	030	031	032	033	034	035	036

 

1580-1585

 

This bundle contains about 230 wills intermixed with court records over the above period. Both consistory and archdiaconal wills seem to be included, although I have not checked exactly which periods are covered. The abstract preambles are in latin.

 

001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009	010
011	012	013	013a	014	015	016	017	018	019
020	021	022	023	024	025	026	027	028	029
030	031	032	033	034	035	036	037	038	039
040	041	042	043	044	045	046	047	048	049
050	051	052	053	054	055	056	057	058	059
060	061	062	063	064	065	066	067	068	068a
069	070	071	072	073	074	075	075a	076	077
078	079	080	081	082	083	084	085	086	086a
087	088	089	090	091	092	093	094	095	096
097	098	099	100	101	102	103	104	105	106
107	108	109	110

 

1584

 

This is a single loose will which probably belongs in the 1580-1585 folder

 

001	002

 

1595

 

This bundle contains 54 wills within 80 pages recording (at least some of) the archiaconal and constitutory court business of 1594-1596. The abstracts of wills now begin with a preamble in English (rather than latin).

 

000	001	002	003	004	005	006	007	008	009
010	011	012	013	014	015	016	017	018	019
020	021	021a	022	023	024	025	026	027	027a
027b	028	029	030	031	032	033	034	035	036
037	038	039	040	041