Church Court Records project

Search the York Cause Papers

This online resource allows the York collection of Cause Papers.

The Cause Papers are case records created by the ecclesiastical courts of York 1300-1858, to be searched by type, date of case, names of individuals involved in the case as witnesses or parties and places mentioned in the records.

In many cases, images of the documents themselves are also available to view online.

We are very pleased to acknowledge the support of the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, who funded the cataloguing project June 2007-2010, and the JISC Rapid Digitisation programme 2011, which funded the imaging of the records March-July 2011.

Both projects were managed by the Borthwick Institute for Archives. Technical services have been provided by the HRI Digital at the Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield.

Project details

Read all about the project and the technical methods used.

What are the Cause Papers?

View our Research Guide on the Cause Papers, including an explanation of how the courts worked at York, a glossary of terms relating to the church courts, and an example case.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation