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‘The Antiquities of Warwickshire' by Sir William
Dugdale, written in 1656, is a famous book and we often refer to it. There are two volumes
of it, in a modern reprint, in Alcester Library and in many others. A few words
about it may be useful to readers who may want to have a look at it. The following are
anotations from press articles written a few years ago by one of our Society members, the
Rev.J.A.Thomson, who lives in retirement at Salford Priors.
The library edition referred to ‘is not, however, Dugdale’s original edition of
1656 but a revision put out by Dr William Thomas in 1730. All the better for that, though,
for to quote from the title page, it is “the whole, revised, augmented and continued
down to he present time”. Dr Thomas was Rector of Exhall (near Alcester) and it was
while there that he began his work. The books (two volumes) are illustrated by the
original copper plates and the maps of the “Hundreds” show “the boundaries
and divisions, the rivers, brooks and rills, the Roman roads and stations, the parish
churches and chapels from an actual survey made by Henry Beighton FRS” in the year
1725. The mansions and churches are delineated in miniature drawings that are exact enough
to be immediately recognised and these maps alone are worth the effort to get the books.
Exhall is a tiny village and must have been even smaller in Thomas’s day. If it had been a larger parish he would not have had the time for the tremendous work entailed, for he had to travel over the whole county; but he was a Warwickshire man and a great scholar, adding the Saxon language to his knowledge of Latin and Greek. He had contacts with all the clergy; many of the land-owners were ready to provide him with records of their properties.
Dr.Thomas is known as a “continuator”, for he was able to expand and in some instances correct Dugdale’s findings, as well as to add fresh information. It was said of William Thomas that “his industry in his studies was unremitting, hardly allowing himself time for sleep, meals or amusement”. And no wonder, for in the book there are details of no less than 500 villages and hamlets, besides the towns. There are derivations of place names and lists of Sheriffs from the reign of Henry II and of Members of Parliament from that of Edward I. From Domesday Book are given values of mills, measurements of woods and meadows, the number of farms and houses and plough-teams and the much-discussed meaning of the word “Hundred”. For the rest, the survey takes us through 700 years of documents, lines of descent, heraldry and customs. It is a treasure for every history society.
Dugdale’s method of getting round the county was to follow the rivers and their branches and the Roman roads, such as Watling Street and the Fosse, deviating to right or left to take in the hamlets until he covered the four Hundreds. Both the original author and his continuator were forthright men and needed to be so in their approach, for so many people are careless of documents relating to the past, dispensing with them and contending that it is the present that must take precedence over the past.
Thomas closes his Preface with a beautiful tribute to Truth, describes himself as a “Lover of Antiquity” and appropriate ly commits himself to the “Ancient of Days”. Dedications differ from Prefaces, in that a Preface is to commend the book but a Dedication is to commend the Patron. So Dr.Thomas writes to his bishop: “Under the benign influence of your government, what peace and serenity is there among all your clergy? How cheerfully do they go on in their labours? How happy and secure do they conclude them— selves under your inspection, from who they meet with nothing but good looks or kinder expressions?”.
Thomas died in 1738 at the age of 68 and was buried in the cloister of the Cathedral; but the inscription on the stone of this transcriber of epitaphs is now hardly legible.’
© Alcester & District Local History Society