Archdeaconry of Nottingham Presentment Bills

[Mary from Italy]

I've just discovered, while googling for something else, that the Presentment Bills for the Archdeaconry of Nottingham (1587-1863) are online:

Catalogue of Presentment Bills in the Archdeaconry of Nottingham archive

These are cases brought before the ecclesiastical courts, which can be very interesting, not only because they can be quite amusing, but also because you may find people who were born before parish records began.

For example, I found the following entry for William Parkinson, who is sure to be one of my ancesters (I seem to be related to all the Parkinsons of Sawley):

Stapleford
Michaelmas 1624
Churchwardens present the following: Margarett Henson for that she is begotten with child unlawfully by one William Parkinson of Sawley, Derbyshire, a married man.

As parish registers for Sawley begin in 1654, this should take me a bit further back.

The catalogue's divided into districts and periods, but you can search the whole catalogue at once by putting the following search term into Google (just replace "Fred Bloggs" with the name you want to search for and replace the * with a dot):

"Fred Bloggs" presentment site:www*nottingham.ac.uk

[KiteRunner]

Thanks for that, Mary - looks interesting.

[Lin Fisher]

Thanks Mary. I will have a good look later but looks very interesting.

Lin

[Mary from Italy]

I've added the link to the Wiki.

There's a list of offences here for which people could be brought before the ecclesiastical courts (also known as "bawdy courts"):

Examples of offences - Archdeaconry Resources - Manuscripts & Special Collections - The University of Nottingham