The convocation records of the Churches of England and Ireland are the principal source of our information about the administration of those churches from middle ages until modern times. They contain the minutes of clergy synods, the legislation passed by them, tax assessments imposed by the king on the clergy, and accounts of the great debates about religious reformation; they also include records of heresy trials in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many of them connected with the spread of Lollardy. However, they have never before been edited or published in full, and their publication as a complete set of documents provides a valuable resource for scholarship.

This volume contains the convocation records of the modern diocese, detailing day-to-day administration over the last century and a quarter, none of which has been published before. The verbatim accounts of proceedings in convocation give a clear insight into Manx social history during the period. There are also appendixes listing diocesan officials and giving an abstract of the tithe accounts from the commutation of tithes in 1839 to their complete abolition in1946.