Abel Wantner's History
“MARSHFIELD is a noted town for good cakes.”
… or so we learn from Abel Wantner, whose previously unpublished late-1600s History of Gloucestershire is now available on this site. Wantner’s somewhat quirky compilation – preserved as a manuscript at the Bodleian – has long been on the source check-list for serious researchers. The full text (pdf), transcribed by the late John Fendley, can now be consulted with ease. As well as occasional flashes of local colour, as for Marshfield above, the edition includes several useful appendices, such as assessments for Ship Money in 1677 and Poll Tax in 1678, and a list of the main roads of the county.
