Research Guides

Introduction

This guide offers an overview of the main sources held at Lambeth Palace Library for family history and genealogy.  It is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is it aimed at those who are just beginning their research: Lambeth Palace Library is not the place to start your family history.

If you are taking your first steps in family history or genealogy, we strongly suggest that you look at the GENUKI guide to Getting Started or the BBC Guide and reference books such as Mark D. Herber's Ancestral Trails: the complete guide to British genealogy and family history (Sutton Publishing in association with the Society of Genealogists, 1997), D.Hey's The Oxford Guide to Family History (OUP, 1993) and Peter Christian, The Genealogist's Internet, 2nd edn, (National Archives, 2003).

The sources held at this Library will be of most relevance to those who have already embarked on their research and who need to amplify the information they already know about known people.  This guide lists likely sources of information, and is not a substitute for consulting our catalogues or original documents (or copies of these held at other repositories).  Information about visiting the Library is available from our access page.

As always, researchers should remember that archives and manuscripts were not created with the family historian or genealogist in mind, although they may contain information of great interest.  The researcher will need to think laterally, and take the time needed to use the sources.  The Library staff are not able to undertake detailed research for you; members of societies such as the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives will undertake this for a fee. 

How this guide is arranged

The sources held at the Library for family history/genealogy are not comprehensive, nor do they consistently cover all the counties of England or consecutive periods of time.  You may, therefore, find it most helpful to explore all the sections of this guide, which is structured in four main sections:

• significant events in people's lives: records of baptisms, marriages, divorces, burials; and testamentary records. 
• professions, occupations and interest groups
• notable families and individuals
• places in the UK and abroad

For further information about the specific sources described below, including details of relevant finding aids, please click on the links to our detailed holdings. Use your browser's "back" button to return to this Guide. 

Baptisms, marriages, divorces, burials, testamentary records

Parish registers

England
Prior to the introduction of civil registration in 1837, the records of baptisms, marriages and burials in parish registers are the main source for establishing dates of birth, marriage and death.

Parish registers for England are not held centrally at the Library, but have generally been deposited with local record offices.  To identify the location of parish registers see C.Humphery-Smith's The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (3rd ed., Phillimore, 2003); up-to-date addresses of local record offices are available from ARCHON.  However, the Library holds many published editions of Church of England parish registers in its holdings of printed books; in addition there are a number of editions of registers of other denominations (eg the Protestant French church in London) and bodies (including the Fleet Prison, London).  These can be identified from the catalogue of printed books by searching for the place or parish name, or for the diocese or (historic) county.

Very few baptisms, marriages and funeral services were held in the chapel of Lambeth Palace (the chapel register is MS.2886).  The alternative was the parish church of St Mary, Lambeth (situated adjacent to the Palace): the parish registers for St Mary for the period 1539-1971 are deposited at the London Metropolitan Archives.

The manuscripts collection includes a register of the Dutch church in London, 1575-1621 (MS. 3586)

The Library does hold a few original bishops transcripts (or copies of registers) and one original parish register.  These are in the vicar general archive unless otherwise stated.  The places covered are:
 

Hertfordshire: 
North Mimms, 1592-1627 (Court of Arches, Ff 1)

Kent: 
Bexley 1669-86, 1696-7, 1703-4, 1799-1812
Brasted 1743-4, 1799, 1801-12
Chevening 1670-1673, 1676-1677, 1681-1685, 1799, 1801-1812
Chiddingstone 1670-2, 1674, 1693-4, 1703-1704, 1711-1712, 1800-1810, 1852, 1859
Cliffe 1832-1833
Crayford 1670, 1799-1813
Darenth 1670, 1799-1812
Downe 1678-1680, 1799-1802,  1804-1812, 1845-1847
Eynsford 1669-1671, 1799, 1803-1805, 1807-1812
Farleigh, East 1670-1677, 1680-1685, 1799-1811, 1840
Farningham 1676-1677, 1799-1812
Gillingham 1670-1673, 1799-1813,  1840
Isle of Grain 1753, 1799-1811
Halstead 1672, 1799-1802, 1804, 1806-1807, 1809-1812, 1846-1847, 1849
Hayes 1671-2, 1674-1675, 1799-1811
Hever 1670, 1799, 1801-1812
Hunton 1671-1672, 1674-1682, 1701-1704, 1799-1805, 1807-1812
Ifield 1693-1694, 1799-1800, 1802-1812
Ightham 1669-1673, 1677-1678, 1799-1812
Keston 1670-1673, 1799-1812
Knockholt 1679, 1799-1807, 1809-1812
Malling, East: 1670-80, 1700-1701, 1799-1812, 1851-1852
Meopham 1671-2, 1743-1744, 1799, 1801-1808, 1810, 1812, 1815
Northfleet 1670, 1680-1682, 1743-1744, 1799-1809, 1811-1813
Orpington 1666-1670, 1672-1673, 1711-1712, 1799-1813, 1848
Otford 1669-1678, 1682-1683, 1799-1808, 1810-1812
Peckham, East : 1667-1686, 1693-1694, 1700-1712, 1717-1718, 1799-1813 
Penshurst 1670-1675,  1681-1682, 1700-1701, 1799-1800, 1802-1812
Plaxtol c. 1700, 1799-1812
St. Mary Cray 1670-1674, 1678-1679, 1711-1712, 1799-1813
Sevenoaks 1670-2, 1677-1680, 1799-1813
Shoreham 1670-1673, 1675-1680, 1743-1744, 1799-1812
Stansted 1743-1744, 1799-1812, 1843
Sundridge 1670-1673, 1676-1679, 1703, 1799-1812
Wrotham 1684-5, 1743-1744, 1799-1805, 1807-1812
Back to parish registers section

London (City of)
All Hallows, Bread Street: 1799, 1802, 1804-1811
All Hallows, Honey Lane: see St. Mary-le-Bow
All Hallows, Lombard Street: 1799, 1803-1813
St. Dionis, Backchurch: 1799-1802, 1813
St. Dunstan-in-the-East: 1799-1800, 1804, 1806-1810, 1812-1814, 1837-1839
St. John Evangelist, Watling Street: 1799, 1801-1802, 1804-1811
St. Leonard, Eastcheap: 1802, 1807-1812
St. Mary Aldermary: 1799-1813
St. Mary Bothaw: 1799-1802, 1804, 1808-1811
Mary-le-Bow w. St. Pancras, Soper Lane and All Hallows, Honey Lane: 
1799-1808, 1812
St. Michael, Crooked Lane: 1671-1672, 1802, 1804-1807, 1809-1812
St. Michael Royal: 1799, 1801-1804, 1811-1812
St. Pancras, Soper Lane: see St. Mary-le-Bow
St. Vedast, Foster Lane: 1799-1812
Back to parish registers section

Middlesex
Harrow 1671-1672, 1702-1703, 1799, 1801-1813
Hayes 1671-1674, 1799-1800, 1802-1803, 1805-1813, 1836
Norwood: 1671-1674, 1799, 1808-1812
Pinner 1671-1672, 1799, 1801-1813
Back to parish registers section

Surrey: 
Addington 1845-9
Barnes 1700-7, 1799-1814
Burstow 1799-1812
Charlwood 1700-1, 1799-1812
Cheam 1700-2, 1799-1813
Croydon 1799-1803, 1810-46
Croydon, All Saints: 1830-49
Horsley, East: 1671-1676, 1799-1812
Lambeth Palace: 1750-1952
Merstham 1799-1812
Mortlake 1671-1673, 1700-1705, 1799-1812, 1847
Newington, St. Mary 1799-1812
Putney 1700-1704, 1799-1812, 1835
Shirley, St. John’s Chapel, in  parish of Croydon: 1836-1849
Wimbledon 1671- 1675, 1800-1812, 1843
Back to parish registers section

Sussex
Wilmington 1848, 1849
Back to parish registers section
 

Overseas
The Library holds a few registers and transcripts for churches outside the British Isles as follows:
Europe: Malta 1801-1892 (MSS.1470-1); Danzig, Poland, 1706-1811 (MS.1847); La Rochelle, France (MS.3473, ff.199-202).
Dutch church in London, 1575-1621 (MS. 3586)
Near East: St Peter's Bazra, 1943-1966 (MSS.2505-7, 2675); Mesopotamia, (now Iraq) 1883-1966 (MSS.2669-76); St George's Baghdad (MS.3979)
Africa: Khartoum cathedral, Sudan, 1902-1963 (MSS.2660-3); Atbara, Sudan, 1937-1953 (MS.2782A-4).
Asia: Shanghai, China, 1849-1951 (MSS.1564-84); Shantung, China, 1906-1950 (MSS.1761-4);

Geoffrey Yeo's The British Overseas: a guide to records of their births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials, available in the United Kingdom (3rd edn. Guildhall Library, London, 1995) is the best guide to the location of other similar records held in the UK.

Marriage records other than parish registers

Marriages normally took place following the reading of banns on three successive Sundays, but could also be "by licence" which dispenses with the requirement for the reading of banns.   A licence also needs to be obtained for a marriage service to be performed in a church or chapel not normally licensed for weddings or outside the normal hours (special licence). 

A licence could be issued by the Archbishop or by the bishop of the diocese in which the wedding was to take place.  Use Jeremy Gibson's Bishops' Transcripts and Marriage Licences, Bonds and Allegations (4th edn., Federation of Family History Societies 1997) to identify the possible issuing authorities if a marriage was by licence. 

Two offices of the Archbishop issued licences, and there are three main series of records at the Library: the vicar general, the faculty office (now the faculty office alone issues licences: information about current licensing arrangements) and peculiar jurisdiction (overseen by the vicar general).  The vast majority of the licences issued by the Archbishop in these series were common licences. 

Indexes to licences issued by the vicar general and faculty office for the period 1694 -1850 are available online (over 670,000 names). 

There are also some other scattered bonds and licences among the Cartae Miscellenee; 12 Somerset: marriage licences, 1812-1819 (Arches Ff 65).

NB  Licences were given to the couple, so the records which are held at the Library relating to licences are the documents created by the process of applying for the licence - these are the allegations and bonds (until 1823).  Bonds do not generally contain information additional to that in the allegation, except sometimes the profession of the bridegroom.

For further information on marriage records at Lambeth Palace Library, see the guide to marriage records. 

Divorces

Prior to 1858 (when the Court of Divorce, Probate & Admiralty was established) matrimonial cases were heard by ecclesiastical courts, including the Court of Arches. Ecclesiastical 'divorces' were really legalised separations. Divorce in the modern sense allowing remarriage was obtainable only by Act of Parliament.

Burial records other than parish registers

Lambeth has very little in the archival and manuscript holdings, apart from records of transfer of remains from the churchyard of St Michael Crooked Lane, London, to other places of burial; 1831-2.  (MS.1717), and some faculty applications and cause papers for the transfer of burials in the records of the vicar general.

Printed holdings contain a great deal of secondary material relating to memorial brasses, tombstones, epitaphs etc; these are listed in the catalogue nationally or by county or diocese or church. 

Testamentary records

Prior to 1858 (when the Court of Divorce, Probate & Admiralty was established) probate could be granted by a number of ecclesiastical authorities, including the Archbishop's peculiar court (records in the vicar general archive) and the Prerogative Court of Canterbury - the records are now held by the Family Records Centre.   Some wills proved by the Archbishop were recorded in early archbishops' registers.

Disputed testamentary cases were also heard in ecclesiastical courts including the Court of Arches. 

Some testamentary records also survive in the Cartae Miscellenee.  MS. 1488 records grants of probate or administration issued principally in peculiar or exempt jurisdictions (16th-19th centuries).

The printed books collections include numerous editions and published indexes to the records of other courts.

Probate jurisdiction is frequently complicated, and we recommend the use of guides such as Jeremy Gibson’s Probate Jurisdictions: where to look for wills (4th edn.; Oxford (Parchment) for the Federation of Family History Societies, 1997), A.J. Camp's Wills and their whereabouts (London, 1974) and Karen Grannum and Nigel Taylor's Wills and Other Probate Records (National Archives, 2004).

The Library holds a fiche copy of the national probate registers, recording all wills proved in England and Wales, from their outset in 1858-1935. These entries will normally cite the date of death.
 

Professions, occupations and interest groups

There are some original records of membership of religious communities: the Order of St Elizabeth of Hungary (MSS.3877-80, 3882), the Community of the Holy Rood (MSS. 3928-33), and the Community of Divine Compassion.  Other membership lists may be included in the printed books collections.

Many clerical and lay people were members of societies such as the Church Union, Church Society, Church of England Temperance Society (MS.2782); Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (MSS.2889-2907, 3320-37), Church Penitentiary Association (MSS. 3691-2), the Band of Hope (MS. 3733), and the Industrial Christian Fellowship (MSS. 4073, 4075-6, 4082) and many others. Some of these and other similar societies had local branches, which often have more detailed records of membership: use the National Register of Archives at the National Archives to locate such records.  Other membership lists may be included in the printed books collections.

The records of organisations for the relief and education of children include the names of those assisted by these societies, for example the Clergy Orphan Corporation, 1808-1952 (MSS.3018-3059) and the Society for the Relief of Poor Pious Clergymen, 1788-1864.

The Library does not hold "personnel" files for staff working at Lambeth Palace, although there are scattered references to the Archbishops' household and officials in the Archbishops' Papers and Temporalities. 

The printed books collections include some materials for members of other Churches, including biographical directories and dictionaries for other provinces of the Anglican communion, as well as the Methodist church, the Miscellanea series of the Catholic Record Society, and Huguenot Society publications.  The manuscripts collection includes a register of the Dutch church in London, 1575-1621 (MS. 3586), Vaudois: MS.928, MS.1028.  The Fulham Papers include returns of papists in London, 1765-1767. There are substantial printed and manuscript sources on the Moravians, Quakers, Presbyterians and others.

The archive of the Incorporated Church Building Society includes references to the work of many notable and lesser-known architects, surveyors and builders.  Some land surveyors may also be found in the surveys and valuations of estates in the Temporalities. The archive of the Queen Anne churches (MSS 2690-2750) includes material on architects etc.

The Archbishop through the vicar general and faculty office issued licences to medical practitioners (including midwives and dentists), and to schoolteachers.

The archives of Doctors' Commons, the Faculty Office, and the Court of Arches include material on ecclesiastical lawyers and notaries public.
 

Notable families and individuals

For Archbishops of Canterbury, see our guides for Archbishops to 1066; 1066-present.

The manuscripts collection includes many groups of family papers, for example the Earls of Shrewsbury (Shrewsbury and Talbot papers), Bacon (MSS. 647-662), Selborne (MSS.1861-1906), Palmer (MSS.2800-57), Lee (MSS.2873-80), Wake (MSS.2931-4), Hale (MSS.4267-9), the papers of several individual bishops, and deposits such as the Keble papers. Of particular importance is the separate archive of Bishop George Bell.

Much correspondence of notable individuals may also be dispersed throughout the Archbishops' Papers, Fulham Papers, and in other archive and manuscript collections.  The detailed indexes will help to locate such items, many of which are included in the National Register of Archives. 

The Faculty Office records include registers of the appointments of noblemens' chaplains, as they were eligible to apply for dispensations to hold more than one benefice ("in plurality").

Places

In addition to those records surveyed in our guide to sources for local history, the following selective examples may also be of interest (NB not an exhaustive list): 

Derbyshire
Bakewell: tenants, 17th century (eg. MS. 705, f.8).

Durham
Durham: recusants, c.1615 (MS.930/123).

Hampshire
Portsea: Sunday school teachers, 1901(MS.4244).

Kent
Kentish wills abstracted from Archbishops' registers, 1327-1589 (MS.1614).
Harbledown: hospital residents, 1715 (MS.941/46).
Ash: inhabitants, 1585 (CM V/26).
Canterbury: parishioners of St Andrew & St Mary Bredman, 1681 (CM I/49-50).
Westgate: parishioners, 17th century (CM VI/18).
Wye: members of the Wye book club, 1755-1886 (MSS.1694-1700).

Lincolnshire
Lincoln diocese: excommunicates, 1598-9 (CM XII/22).

London and Middlesex 
Some monumental inscriptions from London churches, copies made in 1638 (MS.1485).
London: citizens, n.d. but during the period 1193-1205 (CM XI/15).
Lists of confirmation candidates, 1760s (Terrick 5). 
Middlesex archdeaconry: recusants, 1681 (CM II/5-6).

Shropshire
Whitchurch: tenants, 1588 (MS.706, f.186).

Somerset
Somerset: marriage licences, 1812-19 (Arches Ff 65).

Surrey
Guildford: admissions and deaths, Hospital of the Blessed Trinity, 1614-1861 (MSS.1410-14).
Lambeth: assessment for poor rate, 1766 (MS.2441); Stangate estate accounts, 1826 (MS.1779).

Worcestershire
Worcester diocese: recusants and excommunicates, n.d. but during the period1577-84 (CM IV/183).

Merionethshire
Llangelynin, Merionethshire: parishioners, 1665 (CM VI/30).

Scotland
Aberdeen: baptisms and marriages copied from the register of the episcopal church, 1730-52 (MS 1544).

Ireland
Families paying Hearth Tax, 1732 (MS. 1742, ff.43-8).
Kilkenny: inhabitants, 17th century (MS. 611, ff.87-94).

Outside the British Isles
Europe
Registers for Malta 1801-1892 (MSS.1470-1); Danzig, Poland, 1706-1811 (MS.1847); La Rochelle, France (MS.3473, ff.199-202).
German refugees and Prisoners of War (both in England & on the Continent), 1933-56 (Bell 27-36, 39, 41, 56, 64).

Near East: 
Registers of St Peter's Bazra, 1943-1966 (MSS.2505-7, 2675); Mesopotamia, (now Iraq) 1883-1966 (MSS.2669-96); St George's Baghdad (MS.3979).

Africa
Registers of Khartoum cathedral, Sudan, 1902-1963 (MSS.2660-3); Atbara, Sudan, 1937-1953 (MS.2782A-4).

Asia
Registers for Shanghai, China, 1849-1951 (MSS.1564-84); Shantung, China, 1906-1950 (MSS.1761-4).

North America, Carribbean and West Indies
Records of missionary activities and the colonial church (CFS, SPG, Fulham papers).