Archives A to Z - C

The borough was granted a coat of arms in 1575. The earliest surviving common day book of the borough covers the period 1564-77.

The town clerk 1849-6 6, C.H. Cooper (1808-1866) rescued the borough archives from centuries of neglect. He used them extensively for his Annals of Cambridge (4 vols., 1842-52).

In 1928-29, two local historians, W.M. Palmer and E.A. Barnard were invited to list and report on them. Their bare list is in the confused order in which they found them. The descriptions are uneven in accuracy and detail. Despite these defects it remains useful.

The Municipal Borough of Cambridge was created in 1835. Its governing body was to be a Council comprising 10 Aldermen and 30 Councillors who elected a mayor from their number annually. The Borough was divided up in to five wards.

The Borough was accorded city status in 1951. The current Cambridge City Council was created in 1974 following local government re-organisation. 

Records at Cambridgeshire Archives

The royal charters under which the unreformed borough was governed survive from 1207. They are still held by the City Council at the Guildhall.

The proceedings of the corporation that ran the town (called common day books) survive from 1544 onward, with a gap 1582-1610. Other principal records of the medieval and early modern borough include the Cross Book. Important records were copied into the Cross Book from the 14th century onwards. It became a register of the admission of freemen who controlled the corporation. A record continued separately from 1758 onward.

The Borough Treasurers' accounts exist for 1422-37, 1483-1505, 1757-1835. (Other accounts are in the Bowtell Collection at Downing College.) Other financial records survive from the late fifteenth, late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This includes vouchers, taxation assessments, papers about fee farm rents, tolls and rents, and even plague accounts from 1647.

Records relating to the corporation's property make up most records from before 1836. These include deeds, agreements, terriers and plans, etc., from the early thirteenth century onward and a continuous series of lease books 1558-1842.

Other records relate to the corporation's legal proceedings over trade, to Stourbridge Fair, the mills and river, and with the university, elections of representatives to parliament (poll books), and dealing with the poor, vagrant and criminal. The minutes of proceedings of the full council (called Council and Assembly Books) have been deposited up to 1948. There are separate minute books of the several committees of the council from the mid-nineteenth century. In some cases up to 1950 (later volumes being retained at the Guildhall). There are also series of agenda and reports for 1850 and 1897-1946.

The records of the 1835 municipal borough and absorbed authorities are currently being catalogued as part of the Cambridge City Project. The project has been funded by the Cambridgeshire Family History Society. You can view the Catalogue of Cambridge City records online.

The Cambridgeshire Regiment was a volunteer organisation for much of its history. It began in 1860 with the formation of several Rifle Volunteer Corps that met throughout the County.

These were consolidated in 1880 into the 1st Battalion Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps. In 1887 the Battalion became the 3rd (Cambridgeshire) Volunteer Battalion Suffolk Regiment.

Until 1908, volunteers attended training at their own expense. Notably, the Cambridge University Press fielded its own Company. Officers were usually drawn from local families. But since 1887 the Suffolk Regiment provided the Battalion's permanent staff and officers.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 the Regiment was expanded and utilised in Europe continuously from 1915-1919. 77 Officers and 789 other ranks were killed during the conflict.

Between the wars the Regiment reverted to a single Battalion. It remained as such until the outbreak of war in 1939. Then a second battalion, and several Home Guard Companies were formed. The 1st and 2nd Battalions both participated in the defence of Singapore until the general surrender of the British forces on 15 February 1942.

The Territorial Army was reformed in 1947. The regiment remained part of the Territorial Army until it was finally disbanded in 1967. From 1971 to the present day, a Cambridgeshire Company exists as part of the 6th (Volunteer) Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment.

Records

Cambridgeshire Archives holds an extensive, but rather miscellaneous collection relating to the activities of the Cambridgeshire Regiment. This includes:

• order books
• correspondence
• service records
• publications
• press cuttings
• photographs

There is a strong emphasis on the activities of the Regiment during the First and Second World Wars.

The research notes of the former Regimental Archivist, Major Hutt, include personal papers and reminiscences of former Cambridgeshire Regiment soldiers. Much of this focuses on the defence of Singapore and subsequent captivity. Very little in the way of official information has otherwise survived.

Some records have been incorporated into the CALM online catalogue.

The 'Military Sources in Cambridgeshire' guide is available in the Search room. The earlier history of the Regiment is well covered by Riddell and Clayton's 'The Cambridgeshires 1914-1918' (Bowes, 1934). Whereas W. Taylor's 'With The Cambridgeshires at Singapore' (Bevis, 1971) and J.S Cosford's 'Line of Lost Lives' (Gryphon, 1989) both focus on the Regiment during the Second World War. The Territorial Association's 'We Also Served' (Heffers, 1944) provides a comprehensive assessment of the Home Guard's role in Cambridgeshire.

Records at Huntingdonshire Archives

Many local village charities were administered by the parish church. Any surviving records may be found by consulting the relevant parish records catalogue in the searchroom.

Records of charities which have survived into more recent times may be found amongst modern parish council records. In towns charities tended to be administered by the borough corporation or the local board.

Notable collections of charity records held here include:

• Buckden Parochial Charities
• Catworth Town Lands Charity Henson Foundation (Glatton and Holme)
• Huntingdon Municipal Charities
• Huntingdonshire Clergy Charity
• Somersham Feoffees Charity

• Parishes
• Societies' records

The Commissioners are a Church of England body, created in 1948 following the merger of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (responsible for the administration of the landed possessions of the Church of England) and Queen Anne's Bounty (established to augment the income of poor livings).

Estate records carefully collected by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have since been distributed to local record offices by the Church Commissioners.

Records deposited by the Church Commissioners include some tithe maps (accs. 1604-1611, since absorbed into the Map Collection), plans of parsonage houses 1849-1858 (acc. 1822) and some inclosure records (acc. 2878).

We also hold some records of Huntingdonshire estates deposited by the Commissioners' land agents (accs. 2866 and 3106.) 

This is the branch of Christianity that is established by law in England, and is also known as the Anglican Church. Although Protestant in theology it considers itself part of the wider Catholic Church, the 16th century Reformation being interpreted as merely a break with Rome.

As the embodiment of the officially approved state religion, the Church of England has over the course of its history been responsible for many aspects of society now normally considered part of the role of secular civil government: at times these responsibilities have included the proving of wills, the relief of the poor and the elderly, the collection of rates, the upkeep of roads, the official recognition of marriages, and many more.

These functions created a wide variety of records which today offer a rich insight into the lives and beliefs of our ancestors.

The Church of England is 'episcopalian' in government, in that it governs itself by means of bishops. The area under the spiritual jurisdiction of a bishop is called a 'diocese.' 

Cambridgeshire Archives

The diocese of Ely was founded in 1109 covering the Isle of Ely and Cambridgeshire but excluding the parishes of Fordham, Ashley-cum Silverley, Burwell, Cheveley, Chippenham, Wood Ditton, Fordham, Snailwell, Soham and Wicken which belonged to the diocese of Norwich.

In 1837 the diocese was enlarged by the addition of the archdeaconry of Bedford, the county of Huntingdon, the archdeaconry of Sudbury and the Liberty of Bury St. Edmunds. West Suffolk and Bedfordshire were removed from the diocese in 1913 and two 'marshland deaneries' of North-West Norfolk added in 1914.

Cambridgeshire Archives holds parish records for the diocese of Ely and probate records of the Consistory and Archdeaconry courts of Ely but the Ely Diocesan Records including bishops' registers, visitation records, marriage licences and ordination papers together with records of the Dean and Chapter of Ely are deposited in Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR.

Huntingdonshire Archives

No bishops' records are held at Huntingdonshire Archives. Before 1837 Huntingdonshire was in the Diocese of Lincoln, the records of which are now at Lincolnshire Archives Office; after 1837 the area has been in the Diocese of Ely, the records of which are held at Cambridge University Library.

Huntingdonshire Archives is appointed under the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 as the repository for records of the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, its deaneries and its parishes. In addition, we also have records of the parishes of Toseland and Yelling (Archdeaconry of Ely).

During the Second World War County Councils had certain air raid and invasion preparation responsibilities. Surviving records of Huntingdonshire County Council's Civil Defence Department include maps of Luftwaffe bombfalls in the county, log books of the St Neots and Huntingdon incident report centres, spotters guides to German bombs and V-weapons, and Invasion Committee files.

You can view the Civil Defence catalogue online.

This is a large collection of deeds, manorial records, family and estate papers centred on the records of the Heathcote family of Conington Castle from 1752. The 19th century Heathcotes spent all their lives on their estate, 'bestowing on it all the personal care and outlay which a love of country life and a sense of duty would prompt. Without yielding to fads and whims, all that modern science and practice in agriculture sanctioned has been respected and made use of here' (Reminiscences of Albert Pell, 1908).

The collection also includes records of the Cotton family estates 1490-1760, the Mower/Moyer estates in Essex 1400-1651, and the manorial records of Conington, Leighton Bromswold, Upton, Great Stukeley and Little Stukeley manors. The records have been listed in great detail with CON reference numbers, and an index is available.

See Conington Collection online for this collection is available.

These were minor courts which heard lesser civil actions, such as debt recovery. Most of these courts disappeared after the 1873 reorganisation of the judicial system, but two courts (Huntingdon and Ramsey) appear to have kept going for at least a few more years.

The records of Ramsey court do not survive: they were last seen in the 1950s being pushed in a wheelbarrow down Ramsey High Street. The only surviving records of Huntingdon court are the minutes for 1752-1782 and the draft minutes for 1774-1775. 

These records are part of the Huntingdon Borough Archives, reference HB15-17.