Researching Rutland
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Archdeacon Edward Irons
The
publication
of
the
notes
of
Archdeacon
Edward
Irons
(1851-1923)
by
the
Rutland
Village
Studies
Group
should
prove
of
tremendous
interest
to
local
historians
and
genealogists.
This
website
reproduces
transcriptions
and
images
of
Irons’s
notes
on
ecclesiastical
court
cases,
bishops’
visitations
and
the
parish
records
of
Rutland,
dealing
with
thousands
of
individuals
stretching
back
to
the
sixteenth
century.
Irons
was
blessed
with
a
neat,
legible
hand,
but
these
are
rough,
working
notes,
summarising
and
translating
his
sources
–
some
of
which
were
in
Latin
–
as
he
went.
It
is
important
to
stress
that
his
notes
were
selective,
and
do
not
provide
a
comprehensive
account
of
their
primary
sources.
Although
a
well-educated
Latin
scholar
he
was
an
experienced
palaeographer,
his
notes
are
not
infallible
and
wherever
possible
the
primary
sources
he
studied
should
still
be
consulted
by
serious
researchers.
However,
Irons’s
notes
have
tremendous
value
because
they
indicate
what
a
clergyman
a
century
ago
found
worthy
of
recording.
Much
of
this
material
related
to
spiritual
offences
prosecuted
by
church
courts
such
as
fornication,
adultery
and
defamation.
These
sources
continue
to
remain
of
central
interest
to
leading
early
modern
historians
such
as
Bernard
Capp,
Laura Gowing,
Martin
Ingram
and
James
Sharpe
in
debating
the
role
of
gossip,
neighbourhood,
conflict-resolution
and
personal
reputation
in
early
modern
communities.
For
local
historians,
they
offer
a
particularly
useful
source
towards
reconstituting
parish
communities,
as
they
throw
light
upon
much
of
the
business
of
parish
government and ecclesiastical discipline.
Irons
was
educated
at
Emmanuel
College,
Cambridge,
graduating
with
an
MA
in
1874,
in
which
year
he
was
also
ordained
a
priest
in
the
Church
of
England.
He
served
as
curate
at
St
Matthew’s
in
Smethwick,
Staffordshire
and
was
employed
as
Assistant
Master
at
King
Edward’s
School
in
Birmingham
until
1895.
Thereafter
he
spent
three
years
as
Headmaster
of
Bishop
Cotton
School
at
Simla,
in
India,
from
1897.
He
returned
to
England
to
become
Rector
of
North
Luffenham
in
1900,
where
he
is
commemorated
in
a
stained
glass
window
of
the
parish
church’s
tower.
He
also
became
Archdeacon
of
Oakham.
There he
developed
his
interests
in
local
and
church
history,
producing
notes
on
the
history
of
Rutland
and
Northamptonshire.
His
collection
of
North
Luffenham
documents
and
notes
is
held
at
the
Northamptonshire Record Office.
Irons’s
Rutland
notes
are
held
in
the
Special
Collections
of
the
University
of
Leicester
Library.
They
were
considered
reliable
enough
to
have
been
extensively
used,
with
acknowledgement,
in
the
Victoria
County
History
of
Rutland
volumes
(1908-1935).
They
were
donated
to
the
University
by
Archdeacon
Irons’s
daughter,
V.M.
Irons,
after
negotiations
with
Professor
Jack Simmons,
chair
of
history
at
University
College,
Leicester
from
1947.
The
date
of
their
deposit
is
unknown
but
is
thought
to
have
been
in
the
1950s
or
1960s,
as
the
collection
was
re-catalogued
in
1978.
The
on-line
and
digital
publication
of
Irons’s
notes
has
been
a
model
of
good
practice.
Transcriptions
have
been
subject
to
two
independent
checks.
Furthermore,
the
website’s
reproduction
of
digital
images
of
Irons’s
original
notes,
published
alongside
the
text
entered
by
the
group’s
researchers,
enables
readers
to
verify
the
transcriptions
without
having
to
travel
to
Leicester
or
consult
the
originals.
The Rutland
Village
Studies
Group
certainly
deserves
warm
congratulation
for
making
this
interesting
resource
so
widely accessible to so many.
Dr Andrew Hopper
Centre for English Local History
University of Leicester
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