Publications
Quarter Sessions Order Book, 1642-1649, by Brian C. Redwood, published 1954 (vol. 54, Sussex Record Society) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2270] & The Keep [LIB/500431][Lib/504464]
Review by E. R. B [E. R. Burder] in Sussex Notes and Queries, November 1955:This volume has been produced in conjunction with the County Council Record Committees of East and West Sussex, and but for his untimely death would have been edited by Mr. B. Campbell Cooke, the former County Archivist. As it is, Mr. B. C. Redwood is to be congratulated for his careful editing of most interesting material, and for a well prepared introduction. We also welcome the collaboration between our Sister Society and the Local Authority.
The Order Book contains much information with regard to the criminal business of the Court; and, in addition, there are many entries relating to its administrative work, such as the Poor Law, rates for charitable purposes, and for the repair of highways, bridges and clappers (" a raised footpath, often of wood, alongside portions of road liable to flooding " - this fine onomatopoeic word is not recorded in Parish's Sussex Dialect - Lewes 1875.) The Order Book is not, therefore, merely of interest to the legal historian, but also contains much of value to the genealogist, the topographer and the general reader. The late use of Wogham in 1648/9 for Offham in Hamsey is worth noting.
It is to be hoped that further material from the Order Book will be published. There is, for example, a note of a footway going from Withyham to Frant across Robins Croft, with a reference to the proceedings at Easter Sittings, 1652. Robins Croft is not noted in S.P.N., and the full proceedings in 1652 might throw light on a footway which may well long since have been lost.
The Order Book contains much information with regard to the criminal business of the Court; and, in addition, there are many entries relating to its administrative work, such as the Poor Law, rates for charitable purposes, and for the repair of highways, bridges and clappers (" a raised footpath, often of wood, alongside portions of road liable to flooding " - this fine onomatopoeic word is not recorded in Parish's Sussex Dialect - Lewes 1875.) The Order Book is not, therefore, merely of interest to the legal historian, but also contains much of value to the genealogist, the topographer and the general reader. The late use of Wogham in 1648/9 for Offham in Hamsey is worth noting.
It is to be hoped that further material from the Order Book will be published. There is, for example, a note of a footway going from Withyham to Frant across Robins Croft, with a reference to the proceedings at Easter Sittings, 1652. Robins Croft is not noted in S.P.N., and the full proceedings in 1652 might throw light on a footway which may well long since have been lost.
Custumals of Sussex Manors of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1285-1330, by B. C. Redwood and A. E. Wilson, published 1958 (vol. 57, Sussex Record Society) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2273] & The Keep [LIB/500434][Lib/504467]
The Records of Rye Corporation preserved at the East Sussex Record Office: a Catalogue, edited by Richard F. Dell and originally compiled by Brian C. Redwood, published 1962