Historic Documents

Most of the surviving church records have been deposited in the County Records Office at Lincoln.  Besides the documents held at Lincoln, the original church warden’s accounts covering most of the years between 1486 and 1536 are held by the Bodleian Library in Oxford. They consist of a calf bound volume of 240 pages. They are mostly in English and a very clearly written. Nevertheless, in their original form they are difficult to read because the spelling and language is of its time. With the help of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund the PCC has obtained a digitalised copy of the accounts.

The original document was bequeathed to the Bodleian by one Rawlinson in the 18th C. This was part of a very large bequest of documents and it is not known how Mr Rawlinson came by the accounts from Sutterton, though on the face of things it is hard to see how they could have been obtained lawfully. There is evidence that in the 19th C the parish considered trying to reclaim them from the Bodleian. Although this came to nothing, in 1870 the librarian of the Bodleian expressed the view that there ought to be a copy in the parish. At last, this has been achieved.

The evidence points to a possibility that a 19th C antiquary, Edward Peacock transcribed the whole of the Sutterton Church Wardens’ Accounts (1486-1536). He certainly says that he did in a paper he published in 1882. This PCC is looking to obtain a copy of the full transcript and will hope to make it accessible alongside the copy of the original version. Meanwhile, Edward Peacock’s summary of the contents of the Accounts is included in this site.

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