Publications
The Cricket Match at Boxgrove in 1662, by Timothy J. McCann and Peter M. Wilkinson, published 1972 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 110, article, pp.118-122) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2195] & The Keep [LIB/500319] & S.A.S. library
The Westbourne Witch, by Peter M. Wilkinsin, published June 1975 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 4, article) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/4] & The Keep [LIB/500479]
Rough Music, by Peter M. Wilkinsin, published Spring 1976 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 5, article, p.2) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/5] & The Keep [LIB/500479]
Riots in Westbourne [1830], by Peter M. Wilkinsin, published Autumn 1976 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 6, article, p.2) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/6] & The Keep [LIB/500479]
Westbourne's Blackest Year [1609], by Peter M. Wilkinsin, published February 1977 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 7, article, p.3) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/7] & The Keep [LIB/500479]
Genealogists Guide to the West Sussex Record Office, by Peter M. Wilkinson, published 1979 (1st edition, 109 pp., Chichester: West Sussex County Council) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 7326] & West Sussex Libraries
The Parochial Registers and Records Measure, 1978, by Peter Wilkinson, published May 1979 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 13, article, p.11) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/13] & The Keep [LIB/500479]
Genealogists Guide to the West Sussex Record Office, by Peter M. Wilkinson, published 1983 (2nd edition, 123 pp., Chichester: West Sussex County Council) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
West Sussex Poor Law Papers Index, by Peter Wilkinson, published September 1985 in Sussex Genealogist and Family Historian (vol. 7 no. 2, article, pp.53-54) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [MP 6277] & The Keep [LIB/501193] & CD SXGS from S.F.H.G.
Obituary: Mr. J. H. Callow, by Peter Wilkinson, published March 1988 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 8 no. 1, article, p.22) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 10736] & The Keep [LIB/501260] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Is there a computer listening out there?, by Peter Wilkinson, published April 1992 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 49, article, p.8) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/49] & The Keep [LIB/500483]
Retirement of Mrs Patricia Gill, County Archivist, by Peter Wilkinson, published October 1993 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 52, article, p.3) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/52] & The Keep [LIB/500483]
Catalogue of the Horsham Museum Manuscripts, edited by Stephen G. H. Freeth, Ian A. Mason and Peter M. Wilkinson, published 1995 (262 pp., Chichester: West Sussex County Council, ISBN-10: 0862603315 & ISBN-13: 9780862603311) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12994][Lib 12995][Lib 12996] & West Sussex Libraries
The Struggle for a Protestant Reformation 1553-1564, by Peter Wilkinson, published 1 January 1999 in An Historical Atlas of Sussex (pp.52-53, Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN-10: 1860771122 & ISBN-13: 9781860771125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14026][Lib 18777] & The Keep [LIB/501686][LIB/508903] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Population in 1676 and 1724, by David Martin, Brian Short and Peter Wilkinson, published 1 January 1999 in An Historical Atlas of Sussex (pp.66-67, Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN-10: 1860771122 & ISBN-13: 9781860771125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14026][Lib 18777] & The Keep [LIB/501686][LIB/508903] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
West Sussex Land Tax, 1785, edited by Alan Readman, Lionel Falconer, Rosie Ritchie and Peter Wilkinson, published 2000 (vol. 82, 319 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450491 & ISBN-13: 9780854450497) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14404] & The Keep [LIB/500459][Lib/507865] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries View Online
All at Sea, by Peter Wilkinson, published Spring 2000 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 65, article, p.17) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/65] & The Keep [LIB/500489]
Dorothy Howell-Thomas: an appreciation, by Peter Wilkinson, published Autumn 2001 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 68, article, p.32) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/68] & The Keep [LIB/500492]
Genealogists Guide to the West Sussex Record Office, by Peter M. Wilkinson, published 2002 (4th edition, 78 pp., Chichester: West Sussex County Council, ISBN-10: 0862604974 & ISBN-13: 9780862604974) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14732] & The Keep [LIB/501917][Lib/504644] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
The courts of true love, by Peter Wilkinson, published 2014 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 152) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18617] & The Keep [LIB/508097] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:The story of Richard Tayler and Margaret Osborne has two important elements. First, it tells in vivid detail the vicissitudes of a relationship spanning the first 18 years of the 17th century. The events are mainly recounted by observers, ostensibly from the neutral stance of a court witness, yet in many instances revealing their own involvement and sympathies. The range of the subject matter is remarkable. The initial tensions between gentry and yeoman families lead into a saga: courtship, elopement, parental opposition which produces a legal battle, the imposition of an arranged marriage, a young woman's resistance and eventual desertion and, finally, a further legal battle to achieve the remarkable denouement of annulment (divorce in modern terms) and remarriage. Secondly, the medium through which the story is delivered is as significant as the events themselves. The ecclesiastical court process provides a series of witness statements aimed at establishing an impartial narrative of events, rather than a condemnatory description of crime. The court's principles are based on compromise and negotiation rather than the determination of incontrovertible guilt or innocence. But its final decisions demonstrate real power (underestimated by many modern commentators) to enforce major life changes on the litigants who opted to use the system.
Trades People of Westbourne 1845-1938, by Peter Ellacott and updated by Peter Wilkinson and Peter Barge, published September 2015 (Westbourne Local History Group) accessible at: Westbourne Local History Group
Abstract:Tradespeople of Westbourne 1845-1938 shows how businesses have come and gone during that time. They range from specialists such as wheelwrights and watch repairers to "all-in-one" shops such as Comber's. In 1895, this latter advertised itself as family grocer, baker, pork butcher, corn and provision merchant, and also offered British wines, patent medicines, Crosse and Blackwell's specialities, tinned meats and fruits, as well as brooms and brushes.
Everyday life in Westbourne over almost a century is cleverly illustrated by the latest publication from the village's local history group.
The book was originally compiled by Peter Ellacott in 1981, with a series of tables showing which traders were operating at any given date. It has now been updated by Peter Wilkinson and Peter Barge, with new indexes of individual trades and more than 300 surnames of those who followed them. There are also new illustrations and photos.
Everyday life in Westbourne over almost a century is cleverly illustrated by the latest publication from the village's local history group.
The book was originally compiled by Peter Ellacott in 1981, with a series of tables showing which traders were operating at any given date. It has now been updated by Peter Wilkinson and Peter Barge, with new indexes of individual trades and more than 300 surnames of those who followed them. There are also new illustrations and photos.
Paddy Gill, by Peter Wilkinson, published 2016 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 84, article, p.32) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/84] & The Keep [LIB/509448]
Chichester Archdeaconry Depositions 1603-1608, edited by Peter M. Wilkinson, published June 2017 (vol. 97, xlviii + 310 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-13: 9780854450794) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 19218] & The Keep [LIB/509529] & West Sussex Libraries View Online
Abstract:In April 1604, Robert Johnson, rector of West Chiltington, had a difficult Sunday. His brother Henry's wife, 'having a child in her arms' dumped it near the rector's seat while her husband shouted, 'Here is your child; take it, for it is none of mine' - and left. Robert's response was to bring an action for defamation, and members of the congregation were called to testify. Their eye-witness accounts of the event are recorded in the deposition books of the bishop of Chichester's consistory court ¬along with those from hundreds of other cases heard in the 16th and 17th centuries. The depositions of such courts provide a unique record in describing such incidents which figure nowhere else in local or national archives. The consistory court proceedings rarely involved major events of the great or even the good: they focused on disputes between individuals over relatively mundane matters, principally matrimonial disagreements, the making of wills and the collecting of tithes - and of course defamation. But by their faithful recording of the witnesses' statements they have preserved a rich legacy of minor but often unique incidents which paint a picture of everyday life (and often its seamier side) in rural Sussex.
The stories they tell can be unexpected, often entertaining, and sometimes puzzling. Is there some recorded naval history behind the case of Agnes Daniell of Selsey, accused of bearing 'barters' by her profligacy with 'men of war'? Elsewhere they can tell of social tensions - evidenced by the road rage spat between James Pellett, vicar of Madehurst, and Richard Hobbes, one of the local gentry, who demanded: 'God's blood or God's wounds, will thou not give way: I am a better man than thou' - to which the vicar retorted that Hobbes 'not long before was but a capmaker.' Many of the cases reveal the serious impact of local gossip, particularly that involving the reputation of women. Agnes Nashe of Middleton understandably contested rumours that after a dubious sojourn in London she had 'burned' local Sussex men with venereal disease.
Thomas Herold of Pulborough reacted to a different kind of gossip when a neighbour asserted that 'he was a witch and did bewitch her husband's cattle'.
These nuggets of local material can also provide serious contributions in major historical areas - particularly in documenting farming activities. A dispute about tithe in Kirdford furnishes one of the earliest accounts of 'devonshiring' by which Wealden heathland was burnt and grubbed to produce improved agricultural land. Another tithe dispute in Oving describes how sluices were built to prevent tidal overflow from ruining the hay on the marshland.
While records of this period in other archives reflect the activities of the rich and owners of property - or the misdeeds of the seriously criminal - those of the church courts depict something much closer to the everyday life of the lower classes. Although their stories have survived in the archives of many English dioceses, they have not yet been fully exploited by historians: the secretary hand of the clerks does not make for easy reading and the patches of formulaic Latin can seem forbidding. But the difficulties can be overcome; the stories that emerge can be moving and entertaining; and above all they help us to hear the words of ordinary people and to see life through their eyes four centuries later. This book enables us to share the range of their experiences by publishing all the depositions from a register that covers the years 1603 to 1608. Perhaps these accounts of everyday life in rural Sussex may encourage others to mine such records in this county and beyond.
The stories they tell can be unexpected, often entertaining, and sometimes puzzling. Is there some recorded naval history behind the case of Agnes Daniell of Selsey, accused of bearing 'barters' by her profligacy with 'men of war'? Elsewhere they can tell of social tensions - evidenced by the road rage spat between James Pellett, vicar of Madehurst, and Richard Hobbes, one of the local gentry, who demanded: 'God's blood or God's wounds, will thou not give way: I am a better man than thou' - to which the vicar retorted that Hobbes 'not long before was but a capmaker.' Many of the cases reveal the serious impact of local gossip, particularly that involving the reputation of women. Agnes Nashe of Middleton understandably contested rumours that after a dubious sojourn in London she had 'burned' local Sussex men with venereal disease.
Thomas Herold of Pulborough reacted to a different kind of gossip when a neighbour asserted that 'he was a witch and did bewitch her husband's cattle'.
These nuggets of local material can also provide serious contributions in major historical areas - particularly in documenting farming activities. A dispute about tithe in Kirdford furnishes one of the earliest accounts of 'devonshiring' by which Wealden heathland was burnt and grubbed to produce improved agricultural land. Another tithe dispute in Oving describes how sluices were built to prevent tidal overflow from ruining the hay on the marshland.
While records of this period in other archives reflect the activities of the rich and owners of property - or the misdeeds of the seriously criminal - those of the church courts depict something much closer to the everyday life of the lower classes. Although their stories have survived in the archives of many English dioceses, they have not yet been fully exploited by historians: the secretary hand of the clerks does not make for easy reading and the patches of formulaic Latin can seem forbidding. But the difficulties can be overcome; the stories that emerge can be moving and entertaining; and above all they help us to hear the words of ordinary people and to see life through their eyes four centuries later. This book enables us to share the range of their experiences by publishing all the depositions from a register that covers the years 1603 to 1608. Perhaps these accounts of everyday life in rural Sussex may encourage others to mine such records in this county and beyond.