UK, Crockford's Clerical Directories

Crockford’s Clerical Directory was first published in 1858 by John Crockford, the son of a clergyman. The directory was published every few years and is still published to this day. The directory contains biographies of Anglican clergy in the UK. It also provides other information such as details about the Anglican churches and benefices in England, Wales, and Ireland.

This database contains a selection of Crockford Clerical Directories, dating from 1868 to 1932. The list of individual years presently covered in this database can be seen in the image browse table below.

A typical biographical entry for a clergyman may include where they studied, when they obtained a degree and a work history of where and when they performed their clerical duties. As with many professional directories those listed may have been actively working, or may have retired. Biographies would only be removed when a person died. The entries often used a lot of abbreviations. Please check the images at the beginning of each book for a list of abbreviations used and other explanatory notes.

As with many compiled sources, mistakes and omissions are inevitable. It appears, however, that a great amount of effort was put in to obtaining as accurate information as possible. In the preface to one of the directories, it states that a circular was sent out to every clergyman in England and Wales asking for revision of the details provided under each man’s own name and that the response was “eminently satisfactory.”