What Are Glebe Terriers?

Glebe terriers are complete lists of all church goods held in the 17th and 18th centuries. They include lists of the land held by the church, any property, the contents of the church and churchyard and the portions of tithes (local taxes on farm land) collected by the vicar.

The practice of producing glebe terriers probably dates back to long before parish registers began, but terriers from earlier than the 17th century rarely exist today. 17th, and more commonly 18th and 19th century glebe terriers can be in books allocated for the purpose, they can survive as loose parchments sheets that were originally kept in the parish chest, or they can be written on spare pages in the parish register.

The glebe terriers that have survived for Snaith in West Yorkshire are written upside down on spare pages in one of the burial registers, recently 'rescued' after being in private hands for several years.