THE AUGMENTATION BOOKS. 49 



during the Commonwealth to deal with ecclesiastical affairs. 

 Some of the books have indexes of places, upon which, how- 

 ever, not much reliance can be placed, but the majority 

 of them have none at all. 



To understand thoroughly the work these Trustees did, it 

 is necessary to consult Dr. W. A. Shaw's most interesting 

 " History of the English Church during the Civil War and 

 under the Commonwealth, 1640-1660." (2 vols. Longman 

 and Co., 1900), which goes most exhaustively into ecclesias- 

 tical affairs during the period named. 



After some two years' steady work on these " Augmentation 

 Books " at Lambeth, I transcribed in full all the entries 

 relating to Dorset, which I afterwards typed and forwarded 

 to the Hon. Secretary of the Field Club in order that he 

 might determine if they could be printed, and thus be 

 accessible to all interested in the subject. It was, however, 

 found that though most interesting, the greater part of the 

 Trustees' work w r as of too detailed a character for inclusion 

 in our Proceedings, and it was ultimately decided that, for 

 the present at all events, only two sections out of the seven 

 into which the 59 volumes of the Augmentation Books can 

 conveniently be divided, should be taken in hand, namely, 

 Section No. IV. dealing with the Approbations, Nominations, 

 and Admissions to Livings, and No. VI. dealing with the 

 Union or Division of Parishes. 



These Augmentation Books are numbered 966 to 1021, 

 but are in no particular order, either chronological or under 

 subjects, and the first thing to be done was to compile a table 

 of subjects by which to ascertain their contents, and arrange 

 it as far as possible in chronological order under the various 

 subjects dealt with by the Trustees. The result of this 

 preliminary work is shewn in the classified and descriptive 

 arrangement here given of the various sections, in which 

 I was greatly assisted by Dr. Shaw's book previously 

 mentioned. 



There is another important source of ecclesiastical infor- 

 mation collected also by direction of the Trustees, but not 



