It is not unknown for dedication to get lost post-Reformation and to be
rediscovered in the 19th C. Dedications also get changed in this
period, often as the result of a rebuilding. The best source for late
medieval dedications are wills. Those wills which exist for prior to
the Reformation usually have a bequest of some sort to the local
parish church and in about half the cases the dedication is mentioned.
There are a number of other earlier medieval sources which are also
useful and I could send you alist if it would be of help.
best wishes,
Michael Costen
On Tue, 13 Feb 2001 16:21:25 -0000 David Francis
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> We know from the recently published cartularies of the local priory
> that what was a village church (now a suburban one) on the edge of
> Portsmouth was known as St Andrew's in the early thirteenth
> century. It was substantially rebuilt in 1875, and the rector, writing
> in his magazine at the time reports that someone has discovered
> that the church's ancient dedication was to St Andrew, and he
> proposed to use it for the rebuilt church - the name evidently having
> fallen into disuse sometime in the intervening 650 years. There's no
> tradition that it had a different patron saint in the interim - and the
> rector in 1875 had been there over 50 years, having succeeded his
> father - so the church seems to have been nameless for nearly a
> hundred years, at least.
> Is it common for the patron saint of a church to be apparently
> forgotten? (I think celebrating patronal festivals only became
> common towards the end of the nineteenth century). And is there a
> class of document that might be readily accessible that would
> enable a check on the use of the name of a patron saint to be
> made?
> Any comments/suggestions gratefully received.
> David Francis
> ___________________________________________________
> David Francis, Humanities Librarian,
> University of Portsmouth Library,
> Cambridge Road,
> PORTSMOUTH
> PO1 2ST
> Tel: 02392 843243
> Fax 02392 843233
>
M D Costen MA PhD DMS FSA FRHistS
Centre for the Historic Environment
University of Bristol
43 Woodland Rd
Bristol BS8 1UU
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