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| Devon and Cornwall Record Society | |
|---|---|
| Name | Devon and Cornwall Record Society |
| Formation | 1920s |
| Type | Text publication society |
| Headquarters | Exeter |
| Region served | Devon and Cornwall |
| Language | English |
Devon and Cornwall Record Society is a regional text publication society concerned with the transcription, editing, and publication of primary sources relating to Devon, Cornwall, and the surrounding South West England counties. It works alongside county archives, local history groups, and national repositories to make manuscripts, court rolls, parish registers, and estate records available to researchers of British Isles history. The Society's output informs studies of medieval England, early modern England, and Victorian era local administration.
Founded in the early twentieth century amid a resurgence of interest in local antiquarianism, the Society developed in the context of contemporaneous organizations such as the Surtees Society, the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Early patrons included figures associated with the Exeter Cathedral, the Earl of Devon, and scholars linked to the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and University of Exeter. The Society's editorial practice evolved as palaeography standards advanced during the twentieth century, influenced by methodologies used by the Royal Historical Society and the Selden Society. Wars and economic crises, including the Great Depression and the Second World War, affected production, but postwar collaboration with the Public Record Office and county record offices restored momentum.
The Society aims to transcribe and publish documentary sources for regional history to support scholarship on topics such as manorial administration, maritime trade, mining in Cornish mining, and parish life. It conducts scholarly editing comparable to practices at the British Academy and publishes annotated volumes used by researchers working on subjects tied to the Domesday Book, Hundred Rolls, and Feet of Fines. Outreach activities include lectures often held in partnership with the Devon County Council, the Cornwall Council, local museums like the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, and university departments in Plymouth and Truro. It has collaborated with national projects such as the Victoria County History and the People of Medieval England databases.
The Society issues critically edited volumes, often with diplomatic transcriptions, translations, and indexes, resembling the editorial standards of the Selden Society and the Early English Text Society. Typical publications include edited collections of parish registers, magistrates’ court records, estate papers, and shipping logs from ports such as Plymouth, Falmouth, and Bideford. Notable types of source editions mirror works produced for the Somerset Record Society and the Wiltshire Record Society. Contributors have included academics from King's College London, University College London, and regional historians affiliated with the National Trust and the Royal Geographical Society.
Governance follows a committee model comparable to learned societies such as the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Historical Society, with editors, a secretary, a treasurer, and a president or chair drawn from the ranks of university historians, county archivists, and experienced antiquaries. Meetings often take place in venues associated with the Exeter Cathedral Library, county record offices in Exeter and Truro, or lecture theatres at the University of Plymouth. Editorial standards are informed by cataloguing practice at institutions like the National Archives (United Kingdom) and the Bodleian Library.
Membership combines private subscribers, institutional members including university libraries, and corporate supporters such as heritage bodies and trusts. Funding streams have historically included subscription income, sales to institutions like the British Library, donations from local benefactors connected to families such as the Courtenays of Devon and grants from cultural funders analogous to the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The Society markets volumes through antiquarian booksellers and academic publishers with distribution networks used by the Cambridge University Press and specialist regional presses.
Significant projects include edited editions of medieval manorial records illuminating feudal tenure in Tavistock Abbey lands, transcriptions of mining records relevant to the Cornish mining industry and the Industrial Revolution, and annotated parish register series that have aided genealogists tracing families connected to ports such as Barnstaple and Saltash. The Society's publications have informed scholarship on figures and institutions such as Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, the Duchy of Cornwall, and local ecclesiastical institutions including St Petroc and St Michael's Mount. Collaborative projects with the Institute of Historical Research and digitization pilots with regional archives have increased accessibility for users of platforms like the People's Collection Wales model.
The Society maintains close working relationships with county record offices in Exeter and Truro, national repositories such as the National Archives (United Kingdom), learned bodies including the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London, and neighbouring county societies like the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. Partnerships extend to museums such as the Royal Cornwall Museum, the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, and heritage organisations such as the National Trust and English Heritage. These networks support source access, editorial collaboration, and promotion of regional historical study.
Category:Historical societies of the United Kingdom Category:History of Devon Category:History of Cornwall