This has been created by the Freemen of Norwich to provide a fully searchable and freely accessible online database of all those men, and eventually women, admitted to the freedom of Norwich over the last 700 years. On completion it will amount to some 35,000 entries.
The database will be launched in two phases. The first, on the 6th September 2017, will include the most recent freemen registers from 1714 to the present day, nearly 20,000 entries. These will be followed by the medieval and early modern registers from 1317 to 1713, and in due course by the information on 'citizens', as freemen were also known, from the Enrolled Deeds from 1285.
Each admission provides the name of the new freeman, his trade or occupation, method of entry - be it apprenticeship, patrimony, purchase - the name of the father or master and the date of admission. Taken together, they provide an extraordinary insight into the social, economic, political and cultural structure of Norwich.
Inevitably, the quality and extent of the entries vary over time and from one register to another. To trace these changes, NFRO Introduction provides a detailed description of the individual registers, how they have been edited and prepared for the database. It will also link readers to the Historical Context.
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