Catalogue description SAINT SAVIOUR, SOUTHWARK; BOROUGH HIGH STREET, SOUTHWARK

COVERING DATES OF PARISH REGISTERS DEPOSITED

November 1538 - December 1904 Baptisms

January 1539 - September 1923 Marriages

November 1538 - July [1854] Burials

Later registers of baptisms and marriages to date are at Southwark Cathedral

Various church registers and other miscellaneous parish records

Files P92/SAV/1-34 are

Records of the Parish of St. Margaret, Southwark

P92/SAV/177-321

These books are probably a unique series; they record the names of inhabitants, the number of sacramental tokens issued to each household and the money collected yearly, and are arranged in order the collector went round the parish. They contain the names of several Elizabethan and Jacobean actors as well as important local worthies. Shakespeare's name has not been found in them, but the name of his brother Edmund occurs in a book for 1607.

P92/SAV/358-407

Monthly Bills

Bundles of Monthly Bills of marriages, baptisms, churchings and burials from which the registers were compiled. These bills were tied up in bundles labelled by F. Drewett, 1849. The original labels were preserved.

P92/SAV/358 - 407

NOTE Monthly Bills for this period have been checked against the microfilm of the registers of St. Saviours for the months of March, April and February of each year (to be certain of the OS/NS position) and for further months when necessary. The Monthly Bills P92/SAV/397-400 show considerable confusion in the registers, though the Monthly Bills themselves appear to run consecutively.

Baptisms Monthly Bills Mar 1637/38-Feb 1638/39 are copied correctly, then Monthly Bill Mar 1637/38 is repeated as Mar 1638/39. Monthly Bills April 1639-Feb 1639/40 are copied correctly. Monthly Bill Mar 1638/39 appears as Mar 1639/40. Monthly Bills Apr 1640-Feb 1640/41 are copied correctly. Monthly Bill Mar 1639/40 appears as Mar 1640/41 and is followed immediately by Monthly Bill Mar 1640/41 copied correctly, as Mar 1640/41.

Marriages Monthly bills Mar 1637/38-Feb 1638/39 are copied into the register correctly as 1638, then copied again, still as 1638 then Mar 1637/38 is copied a third time, as Mar 1638/39. Monthly Bills Apr 1639-Feb 1639/40 are copied correctly. Monthly Bill Mar 1638/39 appears as Mar 1639/40. Monthly Bills Apr 1640-Feb 1640/41 are copied correctly. Monthly Bill Mar 1639/40 appears as Mar [2640] and is followed immediately by Monthly Bill Mar 1640/41 copied correctly as Mar 1640/41

Burials Mar [1636/38] in register is left completely blank. Monthly Bills Apr 1638-Feb 1638/39 are copied correctly. Monthly Bill Mar 1637/38 appears as Mar 1638/39. Monthly Bills Apr 1639-Feb 1639/40 are copied correctly. Monthly Bills Mar [1638/39] appears as Mar 1639/40. Monthly Bills April 1640-Feb 1640/41 are copied correctly. Monthly Bill Mar 1639/40 appears as Mar 1640/41, followed immediately by Monthly Bills 1640/41 copied correctly as Mar 1640/41.

'Correctly' above refers only to the dating. From pencil notes in the registers [made by W.H. Challon] it appears that ommissions occur in entries for some months that are repeated, this has been checked in some instances and found to be so.

P92/SAV/845 - 1261

Wardens' Rentals

These are annual account books kept by each warden i.e., Warden of the Great Account, College Warden, Warden of the General Poor (or Rent Warden), Newcomen's Warden, Spratt, Young and Jackson's Warden and Bell Warden. After the Church Rate Abolition Act of 1883 the office of Spratt, Young and Jackson's Warden was abolished, and the number of account books per year drops from 6 to 5. The Series is not complete, volumes for the 18th century being very sparse: some early rentals for the wardens of the General Poor are to be found among the Poor Relief papers (P92/SAV/1383-1414).

P92/SAV/1262 - 1309

Plans

Portfolio of plans and drawings, many of them hand coloured, labelled 'Cleaned and arranged by John Rows, WGA [Warden of Great Account] 1840'.

P92/SAV/1898-1926 1612-1620 Collection of briefs, printed unless noted otherwise, authorising collections for various persons of causes. The briefs contain numerous details about petitioners cases and are for the most part endorsed with a receipt from the collector of the money received

P92/SAV/1953 - 1969

"STRAY" PAPERS

P92/SAV/1970 - 2538

Additional records of the Corporation of Wardens of Saint Saviour, Southwark, formerly kept in the triforium of Southwark Cathedral and in the Strong Room of No.8 Southwark Street.

P92/SAV/2186 and 2385 were found in the Strong Room of Southwark Town Hall among records of the Borough Council.

P92/SAV/1477-1831

PAROCHIAL CHARITIES

In 1846 a vestry committee reported on the charities and published an account of them. Each warden except the Bell Warden controlled his own particular charities, though the administration of certain of these had changed hands in previous years and it was recommended in the report that certain charities should be removed from the control of the Renter Warden (Warden of the General Poor) to that of the Warden of Young, Spratt & Jackson's charities.

Nowadays no warden adminsters separate charities individually; the Court of Wardens is responsible for parish charities as a whole. Therefore, while all the records of a single charity have been kept together in this listing, the charities have not been listed by warden but alphabetically under donors' names.

For partial register of confirmations November 1897 to November 1898 see Acc 1611/1.

Church of England, St Saviour Parish, Southwark

Many files, including the majority of parish registers, are not available or unfit for consultation, although microfilm copies exist in many cases. Please check individual files for further information

The Records - The records listed here have been brought together from several sources. The earlier records had been stored in various safes in the vestry of Southwark Cathedral, but other records were kept in the strong room of the Wardens' offices in Southwark Street, together with the records of the Rectory, Newcomen, John Collett and Borough Market Trustees, respectively. A large bulk of records was found in a cupboard in the Cathedral triforium, and two items were recently discovered among the Southwark Borough Council records.

About the middle of the 19th century many of the early papers and books had been sorted into bundles and labelled 'sundry papers' and 'papers of great interest.' Though attempt has been made to restore the archive grouping of the collection, scattered and bundled as it was, I am aware that it falls far short of the ideal. There is an added difficulty in the peculiar constitution of the parish administration, in that the wardens formed the real governing body and the vestry played a secondary part. The attempts of a disgruntled faction in the parish in the 17th century to discredit the wardens were indignantly rebuffed and their accusations of mal-administration refuted. The token books suggest an indefatigable zeal on the part of the wardens of the time in issuing tokens and collecting their dues, for no other similar records seem to have survived elsewhere.

Unlike most other parishes, too, in St. Saviours the wardens were the lessees of the churchyards and the rectory. The records relating to these properties have accordingly been grouped with other wardens' records.

The group of 'stray' papers has been so labelled because it is not evident where they belong. I have thought it better to keep them separate, rather than guess their place in the collection, in the hope that further research will reveal their proper location. I feel, however, that the letter to Robert Dudley is a genuine 'stray'.

Varied and bulky as the collection is, there occurs a curious gap among the wardens' accounts. There are none for the periods 1606-1795, nor does the series of wardens' rentals fill the gap, since they are concurrent with some of the accounts and obviously could not take their place. The many bills and receipts that have survived help to bridge the gap.

All the records listed here (except the charter) have now been deposited on loan, by kind permission of the wardens, with the Greater London Record Office. The first extensive use of the records was made by the London County Council for its Survey of London Vol. 22. Bankside. The current records still remain with the wardens and are not included in the list. Students may also consult in the Greater London Record Office other parish records of St. Saviours, viz., the records of the Governors of Newcomen's Foundation, John Collett's Foundation, the Rectory Trustees and those records belonging to the Borough Market Trustees. Other records of the Free Grammar School are in the custody of the head master of the St. Olave's and St. Saviours Grammar School, Tooley Street.

P92/SAV/3001-3105

Records of St Saviour's Cathedral, Southwark.

Deposited by the Provost in the Greater London Record Office, County Hall, London, SE1 4 July 1973 (ac 73.48)

The Parish - The history of the corporation of wardens of St. Saviour begins in 1541 when the parish of St. Saviour was formed by the union of the parishes of St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalene.

The records of the corporation are older, however, since the wardens inherited the records, as well as the lands, of the Guild of the Assumption of St. Margaret's Church, dating from 1444 (see P92/SAV/1-34). This Guild was incorporated by letters patent in 1449 and gave the parishioners licence to elect 2 or 3 wardens: the wardens of St. Margaret's were subsequently incorporated (Act of Pt. 23 Hen. VIII) for the purpose of enlarging the churchyard. St. Margaret's Church stood in Borough High Street at St. Margaret's Hill and served the Northern part of Southwark, in 1541 its use as a parish church was abandoned. St. Mary Magdalene was built by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, in the 13th century. It stood against the wall of the priory of St. Mary Overy at the foot of London Bridge. On the dissolution of the priory the parishes of St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalene were united, and the priory church became the parish church of St. Saviour. It remained so until 1897 when it became a pro-cathedral, and in 1905 it was constituted the cathedral church of the Southwark Diocese. Since 1937 it has been known as the Cathedral Church of St. Saviour and St. Mary Overy.

The Wardens - The Wardens' ecclesiastical duties were transferred to the Rector's and People's Wardens by the 1899 London Government Act, but they still exist as a corporate body and retain control of the many parish charities. These are administered by the court of wardens as a whole though the old titles are retained, viz. (1) the warden of the great account (who administered the funds for the upkeep of the fabric,) (2) the bell warden, (3) the warden of the general poor or renter warden (who administered funds not appropriated by (4) the College warden,) (5) Spratt, Young and Jackson's warden who dealt with those respective charity funds, and (6) the Newcomen warden who administered the charity of Elizabeth Newcomen. The office of Spratt, Young and Jackson's Warden was abolished by the 1883 Church Rate Abolition Act and a Rector's warden was appointed for the first time in 1884.

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