Page:Calendar of the Tavistock parish records.djvu/13

 EDITOR'S NOTE.

documents contained in the old parish chest of Tavistock were examined in 1827 by Mr. A. J. Kempe, brother of Mrs. Bray, and partially described by him in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1830; whence Mrs. Bray made sundry quotations in her Tamar and Tavy. They were also consulted by Mr. Edward Smith for his intended History of Tavistock and its Abbey. For over half a century they were then forgotten, until, on the death of Mr. Stannes, for many years churchwarden, it was found that they had been in his keeping.

Having examined this interesting collection, the Rev. D. P. Alford, Vicar of Tavistock, brought them under the notice of his Grace the Duke of Bedford, who desired that a full examination should be made by someone familiar with ancient MSS. This examination I had the pleasure of making; and upon reporting that the records were of very great local interest, and largely in such a state of decay as rendered the preservation of a digest desirable, his Grace liberally directed that a full calendar and abstract should be prepared and printed. Hence the present volume.

While the value of the documents is mainly local, exceptional personal interest attaches to them, from the numerous references to the families of note of whom Tavistock has been the cradle. They supply important genealogical material for more than three centuries before the Tavistock "Church Registers" commence in 1614. Many points touching the social life of a provincial centre in the Middle Ages are also incidentally elucidated.

The records are moreover almost unique in the full picture they present of the progress of an ancient town, in which the Gild never merged into the Municipality; but in which an efficient system of local government developed upon the lines of the Saxon Township and the Feudal Manor.

The earliest dated of the documents is a deed of 1287, precisely six centuries ago. They may be classed generally under two heads: Churchwardens' Accounts; and Deeds and Associated Documents. The Churchwardens' Accounts are very imperfect as a series: but they begin in 1385, with what is believed to be the oldest Warden Roll in existence; and comprise eight anterior to the roll of 1425, with which the records of St. Petrock, Exeter,