Try searching for this on the internet, and you will be swamped with links to children's tales, pictures of the Easter bunny, how to make a tie-dyed boiled egg - almost everything except a definition of an Easter Book.
An Easter Book, in genealogical/historical terms, was a list of all the householders in a parish - especially those liable for tithes! (one-tenth of your income) These would be paid to the local priest at - you've guessed it! - Easter.
As you can imagine, such a list would be very useful to a genealogist, giving names from the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth. You could also work out a) how well-off (or not) the parishioners were, and b) how well-off (or not) the parish itself was.
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| Great Coxwell Tithe Barn courtesy ballista |
© 2015 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved
Haven't heard of this before but it would certainly be very useful for pre-18th century records - I wonder how many of them still exist - as I expect many were simply thrown away when churches were having clear outs?
ReplyDeleteI never knew that. I know about tithing but not that it was given at Easter-the priests must have loved this time:) It would be a great way to research names
ReplyDeleteThank you, ros, for this information - the term Easter Book was new to me.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that is what those were called, I knew of the lists, but that is very cool. Thanks for sharing!
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