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Other Burgess Records

A Note of Bridgnorth Burgesses

The full title of this record is "A Note of the Burgesses of Bridgnorth from October 1637". This is a very fragile roll of names listed not by surname, but by approximate chronological order. A note next to the name of John Wells states that he is now the Bailiff, which dates the list itself to the year 1697/8 (see the Bailiff List).

Whilst the entries themselves are almost all undated, some helpful-but-as-yet-unknown person has pencilled year numbers faintly in the margin for what I assume is the first entry for that year, and full dates for some of the later entries. I have cross-checked these with dates from the various Burgess Books and admission certificates, allowing an approximate date for each entry. A note of the source for each date has been included under "Comments".

The amount of information included varies from entry to entry, but the place of residence (mostly "of B.") is usually mentioned, and sometimes their profession or father’s name. This extra information is not always the same as that of the equivalent entry in the main Burgess Book.

This list does not appear to have been the work of a single person, as many of the places and professions seem to have been written in en masse by a later hand. Almost all of the earliest entries have been marked "m" in the margin, but progressively fewer of the later ones have this marking. The "m" stands for "mort" and denotes all those burgesses on the list who died before 1697/8 (although I have come across a few who seem to have been marked "m" by mistake).

Any burgesses who were enrolled after 1697/8 but died before 23rd April 1714 will not appear on this list or in the Bridgnorth Burgess Book - although you may find them on some of the Burgess Admission Certificates, in the Poll Books, or on the Suit Rolls.

An unusually large number of burgesses (over 200) were sworn on the third of February in 1678/9 - this was an election date, and the list actually makes a note of whether they were made by Sir William Whitmore, or sworn for Captain Wolryche.

To search "A Note of Bridgnorth Burgesses", click .

UPDATE: It appears that the primary source for these names is one of the Great Leet Books. You can read more about the Leet Books here.

Living Burgess Lists

These are lists which were made of the burgesses still living at a given date, and fall into three categories:

• Resident Burgess Lists, which are limited to those who were resident in Bridgnorth itself. They are organised by street rather than by surname or date of enrolment (a little like the Suit Rolls), and so can give you information on where your ancestors lived. However, they do not mention when a burgess was enrolled, which means that they cannot distinguish absolutely between two burgesses with the same name, unless perhaps their sons are also mentioned. There are lists for 1754, 1774, 1780, 1788 and 1790. There is also a list of burgesses who voted in the Bridgemasters Election in 1767.
• Non-Resident Burgess Lists, which are much like the Resident Burgess Lists, but list the burgesses living outside Bridgnorth according to their town or village of residence.
• Burgess Book by Residence, which is a big book from the early 1800’s giving the same data as the main Burgess Book, including dates of enrolment, occupations, father’s name and date of enrolment. However, like the Resident and Non-Resident Burgess lists, the people in it are listed according to street if living in Bridgnorth, and by town if living outside it. This allows you to see whether a person had moved since enrolling as a burgess. Something else it has in common with the Resident Burgess lists is that it will occasionally list the unenrolled sons living in the household, as well as the registered burgesses. I suspect that this was done in the expectation that they would later become burgesses themselves, but as this was not always the case, this means that this book contains some people not present in the main Bridgnorth Burgess Book.

Burgess Admission Certificates

Certificates were issued when a man was admitted as a burgess. Many of them still survive, but the record is patchy, and there is no guarantee that yours will be there. They are usually written in latin with a high proportion of abbreviated words, making a complete trancription difficult for someone whose latin is as rudimentary as mine! However, dates, names, fathers’ names, professions and places of residence may all be picked out easily. The earliest dates from 1695 and the latest from 1727.

Where there is no individual admission certificate, there may still be an entry on the admission rolls, which are huge, dusty parchment bundles covering all admissions in a given time period. The latest date from the early 1800's.

Notes

The following table shows the reference numbers of these Burgess Records as used by this site, by Shropshire Archives, and (where known) by the Family History Library:

Record Name	Reference Number
	Shropshire Archives	Bridgnorth Lists	Family History Library
Note of Bridgnorth Burgesses	BB/B/4/3/1	NBB	---
Resident Burgess Lists	BB/B/4/4/8/(1 to 6)	RBL	( Film 1911882 ? )
Non-Resident Burgess Lists	BB/B/4/4/9/(1 to 13+)	NBL	( Film 1911882 ? )
Burgess Book by Residence	BB/B/4/3/2	BBR	---
Burgess Admission Certificates	BB/B/4/2/1/(1 to 13), BB/B/4/2/2/(1 to 3), BB/B/4/2/3, and BB/F/3/5/27	BAC	---

Note: The film numbers I have listed for the Family History Library may not be correct, as I have not seen the films myself. They are taken from the online catalogue, and appear to be referring to the same sources that I have used.

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