The End is Nigh

Our time in Chester is drawing to a close. Tomorrow will be our last full day in the archives together, though I will do some finishing up on Thursday. In Chester we've read over 600 probate disputes and over 100 wills. We still have parish registers indexes to read and of course hours of analysis await us, but the bulk of our evidence gathering is done.

So we thought we'd end the description of our Chester research with an account of the ecclesiastical court whose records we've been reading. The Cathedral Court of Chester was where the Bishop of the Chester Diocese presided over matters of canon (ecclesiastical) law. Until the 19th century these included matters of religious observance, grievances between lay people, complaints against the clergy, and probate. For our purposes we concentrated on probate cases. Wills began with the phrase "In the Name of God Amen" as seen above and ended with the mark or signature of the testator, as seen here (2 men, 1 woman). Red was the usual color, though if the person was in mourning they might use black. (All of these come from the Cheshire Archives; we've agreed not to reproduce documents, but I figured the signatures are not much use by themselves and don't violate our agreement.)

The real bonus of being in Chester was the opportunity of seeing the best preserved example of the Bishop's Court (also called Consistory Court) as depicted here. Other than the lighting fixture everything in this room was as it would have been when our 18th century people brought their grievances or wills to prove to the court.

The Gloucester Consistory Court was held in a corner of the cathedral now occupied by the gift shop, so it is difficult to imagine what once occurred there. But here in Chester, there was the table where the parties proponent and their advocates laid out their claims, all before the chancellor sitting above them. Too use a technical phrase, it was pretty cool. And nifty.