Glebe

This sub sub sub fonds is divided into 4 series as follows:

• Glebe Sales, draft conveyances, papers, correspondence, 1817-1986 [GS]
• Glebe Exchanges, Petitions, commissions and returns, drafts and deeds of exchange, papers, correspondence, 1712-1906. [GE].
• Glebe Leases, draft leases, leases papers, correspondence 1722-1941. Unlisted. [GL]
• Terriers - sub series 1 & 2. [TER]. Viewed in their entirety, the York terriers include details of glebe lands, the church fabric & churchyards, parsonage houses, tithes, church furniture and plate, the parish library, rates, charities, customary fees and offerings and sometimes plans and sketches. However, the amount of information the terriers contain varies considerably from benefice to benefice. First sub series. These surveys of the endowments of livings begin at York in 1608 but there are very few for the early seventeenth century. They survive for most parishes from the late seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. The terriers are arranged by place within their deanery. Second sub series, terriers and inventories numbered 39-1364. 1894-2001.

Sale, exchange and leasing of glebe lands. The sale, exchange and leasing of glebe lands and buildings were closely regulated - according to the nature of the property and the purpose of the transaction - by a mass of parliamentary legislation including the Queen Anne's Bounty Acts 1714, 1803, Gilbert's Act 1776, the Land Tax Redemption Act 1802, the Glebe Exchange Acts 1815-1825, the Church Building Acts 1818 onwards, the Parsonages Act 1838, the Ecclesiastical Leases Act 1842, the Ecclesiastical Leasing Acts 1842 and 1858, the Glebe Lands Act 1888 - and so on.

Terriers. The demand for an accurate and detailed terrier or survey to be made of all glebe lands and other real property of benefices found expression in one of the canons agreed to be the upper house of convocation in 1571. This collection of canons never received the assent of the lower house nor the Queen's conformation and, perhaps as a result, few diocesans appear to have observed this particular provision. The ecclesiastical constitutions and Canons promulgated in the convocation of 1604 under the presidence of Richard Bancroft, bishop of London, reiterated the necessity for a written survey to act as a legal safeguard of church possessions. In addition to terriers deposited at the diocesan registry, copies are also found from time to time preserved among parish registers. The York series of terriers (including those for the archdeaconry of Richmond, the liberties of Ripon & Hexhamshire and Dean & Chapter peculiars in the diocese of Chester) begins in 1608 (Thrybergh) and continues until 1895 (Terrington), the frequency of such records usually being determined by the dates of archiepiscopal visitations.

Hard copy finding aids are available at the Borthwick Institute for the following:

• Glebe sales, listed chronologically [GS]
• Glebe exchanges, listed numerically [GE]
• Terriers, sub series 1 listed by Deanery & sub series 2 listed numerically with a place name index [TER]