Suffolk History

The Suffolk Traveller: or, A journey through Suffolk; 1735 By John Kirby

General View of the Agriculture of the County of Suffolk: drawn up for Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement (Google eBook) By Arthur Young, Board of Agriculture (Great Britain), 1797. 314 pages

Population Study 1776 to 1795; pages 279 to 286

General view of the agriculture of the county of Suffolk: drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement (Google eBook) Arthur Young, Great Britain. Board of Agriculture; Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1813. 432 pages

On the agriculture of Suffolk Including the Report to which the Prize was awared by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (Google eBook) By William Raynbird, Hugh Raynbird, 1849. 324 pages

Pictures of Suffolk as seen through the eyes of photographers.

Historical Timeline of Events Specific to Suffolk

Events in English history that relate to Suffolk. For more detail, see England History Page.

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500 Suffolk was part of the kingdom of East Anglia which was settled by the Angles

1531 Henry VIII recognized as head of the newly created Church of England. All ties with the Pope and the church in Rome severed.
1538 Thomas Cromwell ordered all parish ministers to keep records of christenings, marriages, and burials. These records became known as parish registers.
1598 Parish ministers were required to keep their registers on parchment, and previous registers were copied onto parchment. Parish ministers were also required to send copies of their registers to the bishop of the diocese. These became known as bishops' transcripts.
1642-1660 Civil War took place in England. Charles I was executed in 1649. Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of England. Bishop's courts were abolished. Civil war caused political and religious upheaval. Parish registers were poorly kept. Many other changes affected record keeping. During this period an attempt was made to create a civil registration of births and marriages but it was not very successful.
1660 Charles II was restored as monarch, ending civil strife. Bishop's courts were restored.

1695-1706 A tax was assessed on parish register entries. To avoid the tax, some people did not register events.
1733 English replaced Latin in official records.
1754 Lord Hardwicke's Act outlawed marriage outside the Church of England (except for Quakers and Jews) and required that separate registers for marriages be kept. Common law marriages were also outlawed.
1756-1765 The first English navigation canals appeared. The industrial revolution began, and cities grew with the invention of the steam engine and the spinning jenny.
1778 Laws against Roman Catholics were repealed, and many priests started to keep records.
1783-1794 The Stamp Duty Act again assessed a tax on parish register entries. Only paupers were exempt, so many people were recorded as paupers when they were not. Others did not have their children baptized until after the act was repealed.
1803-1815 The Napoleonic Wars occurred. Numerous battles across Europe involved 365,000 British soldiers and 300,000 seamen. These battles included the Peninsular Wars in Portugal and Spain. When the wars ended, the soldiers returned to Britain to find that many traditional occupations had been eliminated by the Industrial Revolution.
1812 The George Rose Act required Church of England christening, marriage, and burial records to be kept in separate registers on preprinted forms, starting 1 January 1813.
1830 The first railways appeared in England.
1834 Poor law unions took poor relief responsibilities away from parishes. Workhouses were established.
1837 Civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths began on 1 July. However, events could still be recorded in parish registers. Bishops' transcripts were kept less frequently. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. First missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began preaching in the Preston, Lancashire area.