The Parish Chest. A Study of the Records of Parochial Administration in England.

Great Britain: Cambridge at the University Press, 1946. Hardback. First Edition. The Parish Chest. Foxing to end inside covers. Here is the first single-volume attempt to deal in order and detail with all the variety of civil and ecclestical documents and records lying (often neglected or forgotten) in parish chests up and down England. Mr. Tate's purpose is to illustrate and encourage research into local history by means of surviving documents and fragments, and his book shows how order may be brought out of confusion, and thereby opens a way of actual study for many would-be local historians. Much thought has been given to classification, and comparison; the book is cross-referenced, indexed, and illustrated. It prints many examples of typical records of all kinds, relates them where necessary to the laws and conditions which gave rise to them, and to the society whose reics they are. Mr. Tate takes all England for his field. His knowledge of documents and of the scattered literature dealing with them has enabled him to describe and illustrate the evolution of local government by the very words and instruments of those who were subject and object to it. The book brings the churchyard company to life again; it shows there taxes and their troubles, their standards, their poverty, their patience, and their occupations, not by description but by scraps of evidence left behind by them in the records in their own parish chests.Illustrated. 346 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions, Reference books ,and all types of Academic Literature.). First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall Octavo. Hardback.