Catalogue description Exchequer: Office of First Fruits and Tenths: Certificates of Livings not Exceeding the Yearly Value of £50

The certificates in this series were returned into the Exchequer by diocesan bishops and ordinaries of exempt and peculiar jurisdictions of the Church of England in England and Wales, pursuant to three statutes concerning the payment of first fruits and tenths of the early 18th century. These discharged from payment of first fruits and tenths all livings certified to the Exchequer before a certain date as worth less that £50 per annum. The returns, once made, were held by the Office of First Fruits and Tenths, which was responsible for the collection of the two charges.

The information required was that of the true annual value of the livings, rather than that stated in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535. Details were collected by commissioners appointed by the bishops and ordinaries, in the form of sworn testimony from two or more 'credible witnesses'. The surviving returns to the 1707 act are the fullest, giving, in many cases, lengthy lists of livings then worth less than £50 per annum. The returns to the 1708 act are usually briefer, containing the names of only those livings within the diocese or jurisdiction which had been omitted on the previous occasion. The same is true of the 1715 returns. The details given are the name of the living, the deanery in which it was situated, and its annual value. The name of the incumbent appears only if he had given sworn testimony concerning value.

An abstract of the returns is contained in the two-volume MS Liber Decimarum, complied in 1709 by John Ecton, deputy remembrancer of First Fruits; this is available for consultation. A duplicate is held at the Church of England Record Centre.