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This article first appeared in SIGGNL 12  (May 1996)

Some Complicated Indexes
by Tony Rydings

In the report on the West Project which appeared in SIGGnl 10 (p 9-10), mention was made of some additional information, other than the codes for places in Britain as extension to the Chapman county codes, which it might be useful to provide.  Dennis West had compiled a table headed "Dennis optional third column", which had nothing to do with voluntary Quislings, but consisted mainly of the names of saints etc., to which churches are dedicated.  Although this included 346 entries, with a further list of miscellaneous items, it was, as Dennis West knew, far from exhaustive, and it seemed to me that when he had put so much effort into his project it would be a shame not to make this part of it more nearly complete.

When I decided to have a go at modifying this table, I did not realise that I would soon be working with one of the most complicated indexes that I have ever had to use.  At the Shropshire Records and Research Center, I was directed to a three-volume work entitled Studies in church dedications; or, England's patron saints by Frances Arnold-Forester, published in 1899.  Volumes I and II contain a fascinating collection of lives of the saints, relating them to the places and buildings with which they are associated.  The whole of volume III is devoted to tabulated indexes of the preceding text, in which it seemed that I should find all the information needed, and which seemed to be quite straightforward.  One should never make such assumptions of other people's indexes!

Volume III contains three appendices, as follows:

I: Statistical summary of dedications, p 1-26.

II: Index of parishes ... with dedications of their several churches, p 27-320.

III: Index of saints, alphabetically arranged, p 321- 457.

To confound these three headings, an insert explains that, to find the volume and page containing the history of a particular saint, one should refer to Appendix I, "which serves the additional purpose of an index".  In fact, both Appendices I and III are arranged in the same alphabetical order of dedications, though Appendix III does not contain any references to volume and page.

Anyone looking as I did at the names of the three appendices would automatically turn first to III, and would find there the saints' names, systematically arranged, though to find out more about that particular saint they would then have to refer to Appendix I, using it as an index to the two Volumes of text.  Appendix III gives under each dedication a list of the parishes where it may be found, thus:

All Saints.

See also Tout-Saints, and d.d. [= double dedications, of which more later]
followed by the list of parishes, etc., eg:

Acton, South (Middx.)

Acton (Suffk.)

Addington, Great [etc.]

Appendix II lists the parishes and all the churches within each, and under each the county, diocese, and date of dedication, eg:

Acton, South     All Saints          Middx.  Lond.  XIX-2

[i.e.  second half of the nineteenth century]

There is thus a good deal of duplication between the appendices, though with a little practice one learns which to use for different purposes.  It is, however, the arrangement of entries in both Appendices I and III which gave me the greatest difficulty - and I presume I am not exceptional.  This arises from the double dedications, mentioned above, which occur when a church is dedicated to two saints, such as St Helen & St Giles: it should be noted that a dedication may not always be to a saint, but maybe to an object of veneration.  There are many double dedications, but only seven triples, and one lone fourfold dedication ) Winchester Cathedral.  This in itself is not too difficult to understand, but the location of these entries is the real puzzle.

Double dedications are entered immediately after St Dominica and before St Dubricius.  Triple dedications, however, are not entered as one might expect under T, but immediately after the double dedications, and the fourfold ones after the triples.  Not content with this, these are then grouped, those with St Mary and those without St Mary, so that the eventual arrangement is:

Double dedications                     (a) with St Mary

Triple dedications                       (a) with St Mary

Fourfold dedications                   (a) with St Mary

Double dedications                     (b) without St Mary

Triple dedications                       (b) without St Mary

Fourfold dedications                   (b) without St Mary

The above are the actual headings used in the list in Appendix III, but as far as I could see, there is nowhere any explanation of the order of these entries, or the reason for it.  No doubt there is some good ecclesiastical justification for it, but in my revision of the West tables, it will be ignored, and entries will be arranged alphabetically.  For anyone who might be tempted to use an alphabetico-classified index, this example should act as a salutary warning.  I should be interested also if anyone could explain to me the peculiar order of entries as listed above.  No doubt it has something to do with the period in which many English churches were dedicated, and when they were all part of the Catholic community, but I am not sure why this should affect dedications in this way.

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