Durham Consistory Court records (16th-19th centuries)
| The remit of ecclesiastical courts was extensive: the records of the courts' business include matrimonial disputes, moral lapses (adultery, illegitimacy), tithe litigation, non-conformity and recusancy, disputed wills, and accusations of defamation or even witchcraft. As such they provide an invaluable insight into contemporary social attitudes and (reported) behaviour. Court records until 1733 will be in Latin, however verbal depositions were transcribed in the local English spoken by the witness, and selections from these records have also been transcribed and published by the Surtees Society (vols 21-22).
Further background information | Catalogue of cause papers | Catalogue of allied proctors' papers |
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An excerpt from a Newcastle woman's undated confession to 'turninge the ridle and sheares', a form of divination, in this case pretending to 'a singuler and secret knowledge of lost thinges'. The original text is drawn from a manuscript volume of precedents in Durham Cathedral Library (Raine MS 124, f.167b). The confession was transcribed and published by the Surtees Society in 1847 (vol. 21, p117). |
Fragment of a notice (reused as a wrapper for a will), perhaps prepared for the public penance of a woman accused of witchcraft ('sorcery', 'inchantment'). There is a 1582 case of a woman from Hart, County Durham, who was required to make her penance in Durham market place with 'a papir on her head'. Ref: DPRI/1/1592/R2/2. |