Title: | Website Subject Categories: Version 4 |
Date: | January 2008 |
Introduction
Subject categories have been set up primarily to assist users of the website to browse and access information in the documentary records by subject or topic. They also provide an editorial reference for record compilers on the implications of their use of vocabulary. The categories do not reflect any rigid structuring of the data or use of mandatory key words; subject areas are presented for browsing in the form of results from free text search of all records using the pre-selected search terms shown below for each topic. These pre-selected searches have been chosen to provide easy access and a manageable number of returns [typically between 50 and 250 individual document references] on topics covering a representative range of historical interests.
Because the returns for any topic arise from free text searches, users should be aware that there are some limitations to browsing the records in this way, as follows:
- Some document records may use words other than those included in the pre-selected search terms to describe matters relevant to the topic in question, in which case the results shown will not include those records.
- Some search terms have been avoided on the grounds that they do not discriminate sufficiently and their use would produce too many returns to be useful for normal browsing. Examples include words like ‘lease’ and ‘property’.
- Some search terms have different meanings in different contexts, all of which will be found by a text search; for example ‘lord’ can arise in the ‘year of our lord’, the ‘lord of the manor’ or even as a surname like ‘John Lord’, some of which might not be relevant to a particular subject area. Words with many different meanings have so far as possible been avoided in the search terms used below, though some irrelevant returns may still arise. Conversely, some relevant results within any given topic may have been excluded as a result.
- A variety of other minor anomalies can occur in free text searches which may generate a small proportion of irrelevant results, though these can usually be spotted quite quickly when browsing.
The subject areas and topics defined below are not necessarily exhaustive, and there are many ways to examine history from different perspectives. This website is designed to allow the text of all the records to be searched as flexibly as possible. If the pre-selected searches do not meet your needs, use the site search engine to construct your own tailor-made queries.
1. ECONOMICS & POLITICS
Description: This overall subject area addresses how the people of Ewyas Lacy have been governed and have earned their livings over the centuries..
1.1 Farming
1.1.1 Arable
Search terms: arable, barley, clover, corn, crop, fallow, grain, harvest, oats, potato, turnip, wheat,
1.1.2 Forestry
Search terms: forestry, coppice, wood
1.1.3 Horticulture
Search terms: garden, orchard
1.1.4 Livestock
Search terms : livestock, beast, cattle, cows, horse, meadow, pasture, pig*, sheep, stock
1.2 Government
1.2.1 Feudal Government
Search terms: bailiwick, borough, burgage, commote, “court baron”, “court leet”, demesne, lordship, manor
1.2.2 Modern Government
Search terms: council, county, “county court”, district, parish, township
1.2.3 Officials
Search terms: bailiff, clerk, commissioner, constable, coroner, coroners, escheator, juror, jury, magistrate, overseer, officer, sergeant, sheriff, steward
1.2.4 Prominent People
Search terms: baron, duke, earl, esq*, gent*, king, knight, “lord of the manor”, “marcher lord”, prince
1.3 Industry
Search terms: forge, kiln, mill, quarry, “post office”, shop, workshop
1.4 Revenue and Taxes
1.4.1 Income from land
Search terms: fine, heriot, herriot, rent
1.4.2 Taxation
Search terms: “land tax”, levy, rates, tax*, tithe, toll
1.5 Warfare
Search terms: archer, battle, castle, “civil war”, conquest, footmen, fort, motte, rebel*
1.6 Working Lives
1.6.1 Agricultural workers
Search terms: cowkeeper, farmer, husbandman, labourer, yeoman
1.6.2 Trades and Professions
Search terms: blacksmith, carpenter (joiner), carrier (carter), clergyman (abbot, bishop, canon, cleric, curate, dean, minister, monk, parson, prior, rector, reverend, vicar), cooper, doctor (surgeon), dyer, fuller, glover, innkeeper (“beer retailer”, publican), mason, mercer, miller, quarryman, postmaster (postmistress), servant (maid, gardener), shoemaker (cordwainer, corviser), tailor, tanner, teacher (master, headmaster, headmistress), shopkeeper, turner, weaver (“cloth worker”), wheelwright
2. INFRASTRUCTURE & COMMUNITY
Description: This overall subject area addresses how the people of Ewyas Lacy have brought up their families and lived their lives over the centuries.
2.1 Domestic
Search terms: domestic, birth, burial, census, chattels, child, children, dress, furniture, family, household, inventory, marriage, servant
2.2 Education
Search terms: education, class, pupil, school, schoolmaster, teacher
2.3 Health & Welfare
Search Terms: health, welfare, alms, charity, charities, doctor, guardian, hospital, nurse, pauper, register, registry, “relieving officer”, surgeon, tramp, union, vagrant, workhouse
2.4 Law & Order
Search terms: cell, constable, coroner, coroners, crime, “county court”, felon, justice, police, policeman, prison, punishment, sergeant
2.5 Religion
Search terms: advowson, baptism, baptist, bible, birth, burial, Cistercian, diocese, ecclesiastical, grandmont, grandmontine grave, gravestone, marriage, Methodist, monument
[for clergymen see section 1.6 ‘Working Lives’; for religious buildings see section 3.1 ‘Buildings’]
2.6 Services
Search terms: bridge, bridleway, channel, electricity, footpath, inn*, lane, market, path, railway, road, spring, track, water
3. PROPERTY & LAND
Description: This overall subject area addresses the places and the environment in which the people of Ewyas Lacy have lived and worked.
3.1 Buildings
3.1.1 Business premises
Search terms: bakery, forge, inn*, mill, “post office”, “public house”, shop, workshop
3.1.2 Farms
Search terms : barn, cowhouse, farmhouse, “farm buildings”, granary, “hay loft”, outbuildings, piggeries, shed, stable
3.1.3 Homes
Search terms: cottage, dwelling, house, lodge, mansion, “manor house”, messuage, “property called”, rectory, tenement, vicarage
3.1.4 Religious buildings
Search terms: abbey, chapel, church, monastery, priory,
3.2 Landscape
Search terms: brook, coppice, darren, ditch, enclosure, forest, field, geology, hedge, hill, mountain, pond, pool, river, stream, valley, watercourse, wood
3.3 Land tenure
Search terms: copyhold, customary, estate [not probate], park, freehold, leasehold, “lease for lives”
3.4 Land usage
Search terms: arable, close, common, coppice, corn, enclosure, field, forest, garden, meadow, oats, orchard, parcel, pasture, plock, quarry, waste, wheat, wood
3.5 Natural History
Search terms: fauna, flora, flower, fungi, orchid
Ref: rs_sub_cat _v4