Tudor Fiants

Finding Names in Calendars of Tudor Fiants

Thousands of fiants (warrants to the Court of Chancery for grants under the Great Seal) were written under the authority of Tudor monarchs between 1546 and 1603 and subsequently archived. The Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland published calendars of these (summaries of their contents, ordered according to when they were delivered into Chancery) as a series of appendices to his reports to Parliament between 1875 and 1889. Those reports have been collected into several volumes, and those volumes are now available as scans and OCR transcriptions through the Internet Archive (among other places). They contain a wealth of 16th century names. Most of these are Anglicized Irish or English, though a smattering of Anglicized names of people from other areas can be found, as well.

Most of the original fiants were in Latin. (Marginal notes in the calendars mark those that were written in English.) As almost none of the names in the calendar have Latin endings, it is evident that they were altered to some degree during transcription. But it is equally clear that they were not (or at least were not all) fully normalized. Here are a few example headers from the indices.

Place Names	Bynames/Surnames
Bacweston — Backweyston — Bacbieston, co. Dublin Dillon's country, or Magherecoirk (the barony of Kilkenny West), co. Westmeath Ynysteoke. see Enestioke. Nacglanie alias Acknoyeke, co. Mayo Navan — Navon — Novan — Novane — Nowan, co. Meath Slewmarge — Slemarge (the barony of Slievemargy, Queen's co.) Wespaylston — Waspellistown (Westpalstown, co. Dub.)	O Connor — Conor — Chonor Jenyson — Jenison — Genizon — Genyson, Thomas Nagloggin alias M'Shihie, Manus O Molloy — Molmoy — Mollmoye Wellesly — Wessely — Wysley

Evidence of the reliability of given names is less readily come by. (They are not indexed.) I could find many of the common English names I saw (William, Katherine, Thomas, Margaret, Nicholas, and the like) in only one full form. But at least some of those were abbreviated in some entries (as Wm, Tho., Nich., etc.). And the more I perused the indices, the more variants of other given names I found.

Given Name Variants Found in Separate Entries	Given Name Options Listed for Single Individuals
Dermot and Dermod Donell, Donyll, and Donall Ellen and Ellin Ellenor, Ellinor, Ellienor, and Eleanor Garot, Garrott, Garrett, Gerrot, and Gerrod Geoffrey, Geoffry, Jeffery, Jeffrey, Jefferie, and Jeffrie Gyles, Gylles, and Giles Morice, Morris, Morish, and Maurice Ouin and Owen Peirs, Peirse, and Peers Ricard and Richard Rowland and Roland Srowe and Syrowe	Bwoghe or Boagh Ellen or Ellinor Gerald or Garrott Joan or Johanna Moiler or Mullyrie Morogh or Maurice Onora or Onory Peter or Piers Rose or Reix

So it would seem that (barring any errors in the Victorian de-Latinization of names that were Latinized during the Tudor era) the forms in which at least most names appear in the calendars reflect those in which they were used in the vulgate in the 16th century.

The indices make good browsing, and could certainly help a new SCAdian find an interesting 16th century name. I stumbled across a number of intriguing name phrases and constructions in the brief time I spent looking through them. But they're also notable for their potential utility in stunt documenting English and Anglicized Irish bynames and Anglicized Irish place names. Everything except the given names is neatly organized in alphabetical order, with variants within each calendar grouped together and cross-indexed, so checking to see whether a particular version of a name is recorded in any of them is relatively quick and easy. I've put together the links below to make that process as painless as possible. (They point directly to the Internet Archive reader versions of the relevant pages. If you want to use one of the other formats, go to the list of volumes and browse to the appropriate report and page.)

NOTE: Both English and Anglicized Irish are in the English/Welsh Regional Naming Group, as defined by SENA Appendix C. That means that if you want to register a name phrase from one of them with a Gaelic name phrase, you have to document the two within 300 years of each other.

Links to the Calendars and Their Indices

Calendar to Fiants of King Henry VIII

Preface: 7th report, Appendix X (pages 27 - 32)

Index: 7th report, Appendix X (pages 88 - 110) A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

fiants numbered 1 - 542, dated 1521 - 1547: 7th report, Appendix X (pages 33 - 86)
fiants numbered 543 - 548, drawn from abstracts because the originals could not be found: 7th report, Appendix X (page 87)
fiants numbered 6793 - 6798, ". . .found during the arrangement of the Fiants of the Reign of Elizabeth": 18th report, Appendix VI (pages 147 - 148) [These are indexed with the Calendar of Fiants of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Notes there indicate they correspond to Henry VII fiants numbers 64a, 246a, 548, 409a, and 453a.]

Calendar to Fiants of King Edward VI

Preface: 8th report, Appendix IX (page 26)

Index: 8th report, Appendix IX (pages 161 - 230) A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

fiants numbered 1 - 1257, dated 1546 - 1553: 8th report, Appendix IX (pages 27 - 161)
fiants numbered 6798 - 6807, ". . .found during the arrangement of the Fiants of the Reign of Elizabeth": 18th report, Appendix VI (pages 148 - 150) [These are indexed with the Calendar of Fiants of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Notes there indicate they correspond to Edward VI fiants 159a, 223a, 227a, 227b, 330a, 513a, 769a, 807a, 1147a, and 1130a.]

Calendar to Fiants of Philip and Mary

Index: 9th report, Appendix IV (pages 90 - 104) A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

fiants numbered 1 - 90, dated 1553 - 1558: 9th report, Appendix IV (pages 59 - 90)
fiants numbered 6808 - 6811, ". . .found during the arrangement of the Fiants of the Reign of Elizabeth": 18th report, Appendix VI (page 150) [These are indexed with the Calendar of Fiants of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Notes there indicate three of them correspond to Philip & Mary fiants 277, 278, and 279.]

Calendar of Fiants of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth

Introductory Note: 21st report, Appendix III, pages 29-32

Index: 21st report, pages 33 - 254, and 22nd report, pages 255 - 862; A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

Additional References: 22nd report, Appendix VI, page 862 [Gives a few "for this see that" tips that might come in handy if you can't find a particular name.]

fiants numbered 1 - 1614, dated 1558 - 1570: 11th report Appendix 3 (pages 31 - 242)
fiants numbered 1615 - 2935, dated 1570 - 1576: 12th report Appendix V (pages 17 - 194)
fiants numbered 2936 - 4253, dated 1576 - 1583: 13th report Appendix IV (pages 16 - 220)
fiants numbered 4254 - 4935, dated 1583 - 1586; 15th report Appendix I (pages 15 - 174)
fiants numbered 4936 - 5973, dated 1586 - 1595: 16th report Appendix II (pages 17 - 278)
fiants numbered 5974 - 6564, dated 1595 - 1601: 17th report Appendix IV (pages 29 - 276)
fiants numbered 6565 - 6783, dated 1601 - 1603: 18th report Appendix VI (pages 27 - 142)
fiants numbered 6784 - 6792, which, ". . .were met with too late for insertion in their places in the chronological arrangements of the fiants.": 18th report Appendix VI (pages 142 - 146)

This page was written and is maintained by Coblaith Muimnech, who owns the copyright to all portions not attributed to others. Click here to visit the index to her names articles or here to go directly to her home page.

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