What Is A Sequestrian

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Sequestration -- sounds nasty, so I concluded it might get your
attention. In actual fact the term relates to money matters, debt,
and legal proceedings; but read on, because finding one of these in
the parish of your ancestors could lead to useful information.

You'll find the word in the list of sources that make up the
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire CD
(http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P2464):
for the last of these counties there are "Wills and Administrations
in the Court of the Bishop of Worcestershire, also Marriage Licences
and Sequestrations." What this contains is an index to names, a date,
and one or two words to define the type of court action, and a good
many are sequestrations.

Doverdale parish Sequestration for Delapidations to Rectory 13 July
1568 Churchehill, M. Colles late incumbent Sequestration 20 March
1565 St. Peter's Worcester vacancy Sequestration 2 April 1569

Sequestration can be defined broadly or within the confines of Church
of England courts. In general terms it means to confiscate or take
possession by force; or to remove property temporarily from the
possession of the owner and hold against a debt. You will see the
word used in Scottish courts and in connection with the records of
the English Civil War period, 1643 to 1660. Both sides sequestered;
for example, Parliament took the estates of Royalists to gain the
revenue; and, after the Restoration, ministers who refused to conform
lost their parishes. In American research the word appears in
connection with the confiscation of Loyalist property at the time of
the Revolution, and in Civil War records.

Here, the subject is sequestration in the courts of the Church of
England, where it was a legal procedure used primarily when a parish
was without a minister, due to the death or suspension of the
incumbent. The bishop was concerned with th...