In the past the Church played a much wider part in the regulation of society than it does today and it had considerable jurisdiction over the moral behaviour of individuals as well as requiring a considerable administrative structure to maintain its properties and estates. Most surviving ecclesiatical records for Devon are deposited in the Devon Record Office. This page is compiled by the Library Service to provide complete coverage of historical sources. It is not intended to replace the more detailed information available from the Devon Record Office.

These were received from the Diocese in 1954 and have a complex series of listings which are explained in a DRO leaflet. Some of the main groups include:

Bishops registers 1257-. This is the record of the official acts of the Bishops together with correspondence and other records. Those of most of the pre-Reformation bishops have been calendared, those from Bishop Walter Bronescombe in 1257 until Bishop Edmund Lacey 1455 edited by F.C.Hingeston-Randolph between 1889 and 1909 and that of Bishop Lacey more fully edited by G.R.Dunstan and published by the Devon and Cornwall Record Society in five volumes between 1963 and 1972.

Act Books of the Diocese are registers of business including alterations to churches and a range of other licences. They are in nine volumes and cover the period 1568-1734.

As expected, a wide range of records relate to the clergy. These include licences to preach, licences, registers and papers relating to ordination starting in 1571, licences and registers for non-residence starting in 1804 and also records of complaints against the clergy.

Bishop's transcripts of parish registers. These are discussed under the section for parish registers (3.311). A related type of record are marriage bonds (1660-1823), allegations (1755-1842) and licences (registers 1734-1918). Licences exempted those intending to marry from the calling of banns in the parish church and were normally used if both partners were not resident in the same parish or if either partner was a minor. From 1523 to 1734 licences did not have their own registers but were recorded in the Principal Registry Act Books. Typescript indexes to this scattered mass of material are available to members of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society in the Society's library in the Westcountry Studies Library and the DRO produce a leaflet guide to this class of records.

Church property has various types of records, including licences to alter church structures and fittings and enquries about parsonage houses. Church land or glebe is the subject of records such as glebe terriers or glebe exchanges. Records of episcopal estates have been transferred from the Church Commissioners and there is also a collection of deeds and documents relating to Exeter Cathedral as well as manor court books, leases and rentals for Bishop's manors in the diocese.

Bishops' visitations which survive between 1622 and 1919 are regular inspections of the diocese made by the Bishop. Replies to bishops queries prior to visitations were made by local incumbents on a range of parish matters such as dissenters, schools, the poor, population. Those for the visitation of 1821 are transcribed in The diocese of Exeter in 1821, edited by M.Cook (DCRS)

Beside the control over the established church, an eye was kept on nonconformist congregations with registers of licences to meeting houses (1739-1852) as well as certificates 1791-1852). The Diocese also had jurisdiction over other areas of life and among less expected classes of records are licences for schoolmasters, and surgeons.

The Bishop of Exeter's Consistory Court. 1513-1933. Dealt with ecclesiastical matters, wills, tithes and morals. The Act Books survive from 1513 and other categories of records reflect the legal nature of this body's work: depositions, exhibit books, cause papers and precedent books. The DRO has published The records of the Bishop of Exeter's Consistory Court to 1660, by Donald Vage (Handlist no. 1, 1981).

Most of the records of the Archdeaconries of Exeter and Totnes were destroyed in 1942. The records of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple for the period 1570-1857 are held in NDRO. The earliest records have been edited by Peter Christie in Of chirch-reeves, and of testamentes: the church, sex and slander in Elizabethan north Devon, 1570-1579 (1994).

Further reading:

Tarver, A. Church court records: an introduction for family and local historians (1995).

These are smaller administrative units of the diocese Presentments, mandates and papers from rural deans survive from 1662 to the present century and records of individual deaneries, such as Ottery are also available.

Registers of nonconformist congregations prior to 1837 were called in by the Registrar General and are now in the Public Record Office. DCRS has microfilms of these registers and most are included on the IGI. An excellent introduction to nonconformist registers is provided by Hugh Peskett in his Guide to the parish and non-parochial registers of Devon and

Cornwall 1538-1837 (1979). Many records are deposited in DRO and for the Methodist denominations there is a special guide by Roger F.S.Thorne, Methodism in Devon: a handlist of chapels and their records (DRO Handlist no. 2, 2nd ed., 1989).

5 Probate records. These are discussed here because until 1858 most wills were proved in a variety of ecclesiastical courts depending largely on the area in which property was held. The main courts in Devon were the three Archdeaconry courts of Exeter, Totnes and Barnstaple and the Bishop of Exeter's Consistory Court. All of these records were destroyed in 1942 air raids. No list survives of the wills in the Archdeaconry Courts of Exeter and Totnes, for Barnstaple there is a typescript listing in WSL and for the Consistory Court there is a published calendar by E.A.Fry Calendar of wills and administrations relating to the counties of Devon and Cornwall proved in the court of the principal registry of the Bishop of Exeter, 1599-1799 (British Record Society Index Library, 1908-14) but this gives no details other than name, place and year. Selections of Devon wills were summarised by Olive Moger and Sir Oswyn Murrary before the secons World War and the typescript volumes are available in WSL. DRO has a card index of copies of individual wills. Many of these will are copies from the registers of the main English probate court the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, whose records survive in the PRO with a series of published indexes up to the 18th century. From 1796 to 1812 copies of Devon wills are available at the PRO. DCRS has a microfilm of the PRO calendar of these wills. From 1812 to 1857 there is a complete series of copies of Inland Revenue will transcripts in the DRO. From 1858 wills have been registered centrally at the Principal Probate registry in London, with listings available in district registries. Invaluable social documents attached to wills are probate inventories, full listings of household goods. Of the very few that survive for Devon many have been transcribed by Margaret Cash in Devon inventories of the 16th and 17th centuries (DCRS new series, vol. 11, 1966).

Further reading:

Camp, A.J. Wills and their whereabouts (1963)

Gibson, J.S.W. Probate jurisdictions: where to look for wills. 4th ed (1994)