| Description | These are summonses to appear in court, and nearly all original files. The first thirty-nine bundles are addressed to individuals and they consist of citations, decrees and monitions, with some excommunications, letters and miscellaneous documents which may be court exhibits, notably certificates of amendment, arising from visitations, and some presentments by churchwardens (mainly of the Bishop's 'Peculiars', and clergy. The citations are mostly for individuals, and 'office' and 'instance' causes are mixed. In some of the bundles there seems to be visitation business as well. Bundles D1/41/1/40 onward deal exclusively with visitation business: there are citations of a number of people together - 'quorum nomina' - grouped into parishes and deaneries and arising directly from the presentments of churchwardens at the last visitation. The citations are for appearance at the bishop's court in Salisbury. |