Lincoln Record Society

• Name — Lincoln Record Society • Predecessor — Lincolnshire Record Society • Founded — 1910 • Founder — C. W. Foster • Country — United Kingdom • Distribution — Boydell & Brewer • Publications — Books • Topics — Historic records • Website — www.lincoln-record-society.org.uk

A precursor body was the Lincolnshire Record Society, founded in January 1889, and modelled on other county-based record societies including the Oxford Historical Society (founded 1884) and Somerset Record Society (founded 1886). The society published an edition of the chronicle of Louth Park Abbey in 1891, but this was to prove its only publication, and shortly afterwards it faded from view.

The Society's first two publications, agreed in November 1910, were an edition of early 17th-century Lincolnshire church notes compiled by the antiquary Gervase Holles, edited by R. E. G. Cole; and a calendar of the acts of Bishop Thomas Cooper (1571–84), edited by Foster. The two volumes appeared in 1911 and 1912 respectively. A particularly important series comprised the ten volumes of Registrum Antiquissimum, an edition of the medieval charters of Lincoln Cathedral, with two additional volumes of facsimiles. The first four volumes, published between 1931 and 1937, were edited by Canon Foster (the last being completed and seen through the press after his death by Kathleen Major); and the final six, plus the two facsimile volumes, published between 1937 and 1973, by Kathleen Major. Recent volumes, which illustrate the range of subject-matter addressed, have included: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The society's 100th volume, published to commemorate its centenary in 2010, was a history of the society itself by Nicholas Bennett. All volumes have been issued in a uniform cream binding. Most have been issued in standard octavo format, but a small number, containing facsimile material, have appeared in a larger folio format: these have included the two facsimile volumes of Registrum Antiquissimum (LRS vols 42 and 68); a facsimile edition of extracts from the minute-books of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, 1712–1755 (LRS vol. 73); a volume of town plans of Lincoln (LRS vol. 92); another of maps of the Witham Fens (LRS vol. 96); and another based on an album of photographs of the construction of the Bourne to Saxby railway, 1890–93 (LRS vol. 98).

The nine volumes of the Parish Register Section, which were not included in the society's main numbered series, were published between 1913 and 1925.

The society offers research grants, for sums ranging from £500 to £5,000 (with a possibility of renewal), for projects falling within its areas of interest.