THE PUBLICATIONS

OF THE

THORESBY SOCIETY.

(ESTABLISHED IN THE YEAR MDCCCLXXXIX.) `

VOLUME XI.

MISCELLANEA

CONSISTING OF PARTS PUBLISHED IN

1900, 1902 AND 1904.

LEEDS: 1904.

PREFACE.

THE Council of the Thoresby Society have pleasure

in presenting to the Members the fourth volume of the "Miscellanea," and the eleventh of the publications of the Society, consisting of the "Miscellaneous" parts issued for 1900, 1902, and 1904.

The important work of which the various papers of these issues is the outcome, merits the gratitude of all those who are at the present and those who will be in the future interested in the history of Leeds and district.

An important addition has been made to the history of early families of the district by a paper on that of Leathley, in which will be found a remarkable record of benefactions to Kirkstall Abbey, Fountains Abbey, and other Yorkshire religious houses. The series of Leeds wills extracted from the probate registry at York has been carried on from 1531 to 1537. These, with the Yorkshire Lay Subsidies of the year 1545 for the Wapentakes of Aggbrigg and Morley, provide material for a picture of the personal life and a history of the development of surnames in the sixteenth century; while the seventeenth century is represented by documents relating to the Leeds manor, to the pulpit, to the police court, and to military expenses.

Captain Pickering was sworn in 1656 into the office of Justice of the Peace, and his note-book brings back in racy fashion certain picturesque and disreputable events of that and the following year.

vi

Two maps, one of 1806 and one of 1815, are added to those previously published, so that there are now in the "Miscellanea" five prints of Leeds maps of different periods. There are reproductions of these, or portions of them, issued at the same size, so that they can be procured in series, and they are described in articles which exhibit the fullest local knowledge.

A somewhat audacious attempt was introduced into the second part of this volume, work of a more general archæological character being undertaken in those pages. The Churchwardens' Accounts for Methley were made to form the text for an article on churchwardens, which may, it is hoped, prove of occasional value for reference, if not sufficiently attractive for general reading.

The Civil War Accounts, 1647-1650, are printed from a document in the possession of the Society, and which is alluded to in the "English Historical Review" as being of great interest to military historians.

The Rev. Richard Stretton, first minister of Mill Hill Chapel, 1672-7, is fully described, and in the Survey of the Leeds Manor, 1612, will be found an immense amount of most interesting matter, vitally important to the history of the geographical development of Leeds. The Council fully appreciate the kindness by which the Headmaster and Governors of the Leeds Grammar School have enabled them to use this copy.

The Excursions of the Society continue to attract large parties, and the Council are considering a request made by Members attending them, to reprint full programmes of the first fifty, when carried out, in a subsequent "Miscellanea."

E. K. C.