Act Books?

[jane k]

I`ve found an ancestor listed in the Index of the Act Books of the Archbishop of Canterbury on `Ancestry` but don`t understand what the Act Books are!  Can anyone help? He was the organist at Stockwell Chapel.
He also appears under the heading of `Conferment of Degrees` as "Mus D" - presumably doctor of music.

Presumably the actual Act Books are kept somewhere but I don`t know where.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated

Jane

[stanmapstone]

Act Books are records of Ecclesiastical Courts.

Stan

[msallen]

I can only say that the Act Books for the Diocese of Coventry & Lichfield are at Lichfield Record Office, so presumably the ones you want will be in whatever archives holds the records of the diocese to which Stockwell Chapel belongs.

[stanmapstone]

The location of the records are listed in "The Records of the Established Church" published by the British Record Association, and are usually held by each Diocese. Some of the Canterbury records are held in Lambeth Palace Library. Canterbury is the Southern Province of the C of E, and York is the Northern Province, the records of which are held in the Borthwick Institute in York.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

Stockwell Chapel  is in Lambeth, London.

Stan

[jane k]

Thanks.
Does this mean my ancestor had been up to no good or might he just have been mentioned when he was appointed organist?  Also, as there is a section on Conferment of Degrees, does that mean the ecclesiastical courts were able to confer degrees?

Jane

[behindthefrogs]

Stockwell Chapel  is in Lambeth, London.

Stan

Unfortunately it is not quite that simple and it actually depends on which years you are searching.  The chapelry was formed out of part of  Brixton which was in the diocese of Southwark and part of Kennington, in Lambeth which was in the diocese of Surrey.  This may explain why the records seem to have finished up in the Act Books of the Archbishop of Canterbury which confusingly are probably at Lambeth Palace Library.

David

[stanmapstone]

  Also, as there is a section on Conferment of Degrees, does that mean the ecclesiastical courts were able to confer degrees?

Jane

The Peter's Pence Act of 1533 gave the Archbishop of Canterbury the power to grant academic degrees
See http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1025

Ecclesiastical Courts dealt with a wide variety of matters, apart from offences against Canon Law. Non-judicial administrative business of the court is entered into separate volumes, such as those for faculties, marriage licences,  probate records, and inventories.

Stan

[jane k]

Thanks very much everyone - this chap was organist at Stockwell in 1847.

 I was particularly interested to hear about the Peter`s Pence Act - he didn`t come from a wealthy family so I couldn`t see how he could have gone to a university. (How do you know all this stuff Stan?!)

Jane