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The Great Leet Books

The three Great Leet Books are amongst the earliest records available for the town of Bridgnorth, predating the Great Fire of 1646. They are predominantly written in latin, and contain records of Leet Courts, Bailiff elections, Burgess admissions, and other legal minutiae dealing with the process of local government. They cover the following dates:

The First Great Leet Book: 1434 to 1563
The Second Great Leet Book: 1542 to 1594
The Third Great Leet Book: 1586 to 1684

The entries in the books are not always in strict chronological order - for example, the Second Leet Book jumps around between the different Tudor monarchs a great deal, making it difficult to deduce dates.

Readability in general did improve with time, and so the third of these books is by far the easiest to decipher. It switches from Latin to English in 1651, by an Act of Parliament, but it reverts to Latin in 1660, after the Restoration.

There are several types of record which, amongst the other bits and pieces, occur regularly within the pages of the Third Great Leet Book:

Burgess Admissions

Prior to 1684, when a man was made a burgess of the town of Bridgnorth, his admission would be written into the Great Leet Books as and when it occurred, scattered amongst all the other legal bits and pieces. The full name of the burgess was often noted separately in the margin, in a larger hand, to make it easier to search for a particular record amidst the dense latin text.

This means that, unlike the later Bridgnorth Burgess Book, the burgesses are not grouped together by surname, but by date. This date of admission was usually written separately as part of the heading for that session of the court, rather than in the admission record itself, and so may sometimes be found on a different page.

Many records (but not all) list more than the basic information of name and date, although the type of extra information varies with the type of burgess being admitted. It also varies a great deal over time, and is seemingly dependent on the habits of the then-current clerk or recorder. In any case, one or more of the following items may be included:

his occupation or title.
his place of residence.
the type of burgess he was admitted as (ie foreigner, apprentice, or by birth).
his father’s name.
his father’s title, residence or occupation.
his master’s name. (if an apprentice.)
his pledges’ names and occupations or titles. (if an apprentice or foreign burgess.)
the amount of his burgess fine, and the dates when payments were due.
any special conditions for his admission.

One admission that I came across even gave the name of the burgess' mother - but this was a very rare exception to the norm.

The Third Great Leet Book appears to be the source for one of the other burgess lists on this site, which you can read about here. This other list (the NBB) has already been transcribed and is searchable separately, but it also provides a useful cross-reference for the transcription of admissions between 1637 and 1684.

To read more about burgesses and later burgess records, click .

Which records have been transcribed?

Currently, only the later admissions from the Third Great Leet Book have been transcribed, between 1637 and 1684, with more to follow. Records from this period include the record number of the matching entry in the NBB.

What if my ancestors are mentioned in another burgess' admission?

These records frequently contain names other than that of the burgess being admitted, either as pledges for the burgess fine, or as the master of an apprentice. For this reason, the search form gives you the option of searching for the main surname only, or of searching all surnames mentioned in the record.

Note: For the second kind of search, the surname which is shown in the results table may not be the surname you searched for. In this case, it can be more useful to do an "exact" search for the different variants of the surname, rather than "contains" or "begins with". Otherwise, you will not know exactly which additional surname has been found without viewing the record.

To search those Leet Book Burgess Admissions which have been transcribed, click .

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Oath Rolls

There are two Oath Rolls which are found written into the Third Great Leet Book. The first is dated 1610 and the other is dated 1662. These lists have been transcribed as part of the Oath Rolls collection.

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Bailiff Elections

New Bailiffs for the town of Bridgnorth were elected every year, and the records of these elections were originally written into the Great Leet Books. The bailiff election records in these books have been used to compile and verify the Bailiff List. However, they also contain a great deal more information in the form of jury lists and names of court officials.

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Mainpernor Records

The mainpernor records make a note of who is standing surety for whom with regard to minor offences. They are very brief and formulaic, and generally contain four names: two people standing as pledges for the good conduct of a third person, under penalty of paying a sum of money to a fourth. These records include the names of quite a few women as well as men.

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Memoranda

The pages of the Great Leet Books are interspersed with lengthy Memoranda on a whole range of topics relevant to town government. These are frequently written in latin, but some are written in English - for example, these two short entries from 1646:

"Memorand[um]: 1^o. Aprilis, 1646. Bridgnorth high Town was burnt by Enimies out of the Castle and the High Town Church was then also burnt, and the Treasury Cofer w^ch was in that Church was then likewise burnt, Together w^th the Charters, deeds & Leases of the said Town w^ch were then in the same Cofer."

"Animus meminisse horret Luctuq refugit."

"Memorand[um]: No Leete was kept in this Towne about Easter A^o. 1646 viz^t. w^thin a moneth of Easter according to the law; by reason of the hat warr in takeing this Town & Castle; in which Conflict the high Town was burned. Viz^t. ultimo martij & 1^o. Aprilis, 1646, being Tuesday and Wednesday in Easter weeke A^o. 1646."

This fire, of course, is the main reason why records in Bridgnorth do not go back as far as those of other Shropshire towns such as Shrewsbury or Ludlow.

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Notes

The following table shows the reference numbers of the Great Leet Books 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
First Great Leet Book	BB/F/1/1/1	LB1	---
Second Great Leet Book	BB/F/1/1/2	LB2	---
Third Great Leet Book	BB/F/1/1/3	LB3	---

Note: Any 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.

Note: The record numbers for burgess admissions in the Third Great Leet Book include the page number on which the entry can be found. For example, record LB3-729-B04 is the fourth burgess admission on page 729 of the Third Great Leet Book. This makes it easier to locate the entry if you are planning to visit Shropshire Archives in person.

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