Wells, Somerset, England, Bishop's Transcripts, 1594-1736

This database contains a portion of the Bishop's Transcripts (copies of parish register entries) that are located in Wells, England. It only includes records coming from parishes with names beginning with the letters A-Hi. Arthur J. Jewers copied the information found within this database from the original transcripts and E. Dwelly edited it. The editor's objective in creating this series was to help accelerate the publication of certain local records, especially those associated with Devon and Somerset. The local records he desired to publish included Bishop's Transcripts, monumental inscriptions in churchyards and churches, parish registers, and nonconformist registers.

Bishop's Transcripts are of particular value to anyone collecting information about a family and knowing the county they belonged to but not the parish or parishes. A search through the transcripts, which are comparatively few in number, will generally, in a very short time, disclose connections with parishes that one might have hunted for in vain for years by going through all the registers in several parishes, in many cases fairly complete for 200 or 300 years, or even longer, to find the required surname did not appear in them at all" (Dwelly, preface p. iii).

The list of parishes and years included in this database can be found at the end of the book.