Records From Church Courts Published

A VOLUME of court cases that passed through the church courts of Tudor and Stuart England has been published by Oxfordshire County Council?s Record Office.
Volume nine in the Oxford Church Courts series makes available the cases that went before the Bishop of Oxford’s court in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Bishop and Archdeacon of Oxford could try cases from Oxfordshire in which any of the clergy were involved, and cases involving the moral conduct of everyone else – from adultery to verbal abuse in the street.

Edited by local historian, Jack Howard-Drake, the volume includes cases such as that of Thomas Hedges and Anne Southam, who planned to sneak off to St Aldates in Oxford to marry while Anne’s father was busy at St Martin’s Carfax, but were betrayed by Anne’s servant, Joan, who fancied Thomas herself and was horrified to learn what the couple had been up to in the cockloft.

More than 800 names appear in the latest volume for 1629-1634, the time when the first rumblings of what would become the English Civil War were being felt.

Oxfordshire County Council archivist, Carl Boardman, said: “Family history is one of the biggest leisure activities in England. The cases in these volumes – earlier ones are still available – really show how your ancestors lived their lives on a daily basis. Never mind some television historian’s interpretation – this is the real thing!”

The book can be bought from Oxfordshire Record Office at St Luke?s Church, Temple Road, Cowley, Oxford OX4 2HT for