A Topographical Directory of England by Samuel Lewis (1831)
The Genealogical Publishing Company has done the historical world a very great service in making available the first edition of this splendid work which every serious local historian and genealogist should have on his or her shelf. I was very lucky some twenty-five years ago to purchase a copy of the fifth edition printed in 1844 (although I see from the British Library the fifth edition first appeared in 1842) but it doesn't include maps, which appear to have been placed in a separate supplementary volume in the later editions. The original editions have now become extremely scarce and the topographical maps removed and framed. (The last edition appears to be 7th edition in 1849).
Arranged in alphabetical order, practically every county, city, borough, market town, post town, parish, chapelry, township, hamlet, and some tythings in England are accurately recorded and described. For counties the information normally includes the situation, extent, and population of the county; statistics and history of all civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions; and accounts of the courts of assize and quarter sessions. With respect to cities, boroughs and market towns, information given includes: situation and bearing from nearest county town; population and local institutions; and markets, municipal government, courts, and religious establishments. Concerning parishes, data provided covers the townships and chapelries, which the parishes comprise, their archdeaconries and diocesan, and, if of exempt ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the peculiar court to which the parish belongs, extremely important information to track down probate and associated records.
The first edition has a distinct place in that it records parishes before the great changes at the beginning of the nineteenth century. For instance I looked up Blean. The first edition gives 'Blean, county of Kent, see Cosmus (St) & Damian', whilst the 1844 edition omits county of Kent. 'COSMUS (ST) and DAMIAN in the Blean, a parish in the hundred of Whitstable, lathe of St Augustine, county of Kent, 2¼ miles (NW by N) from Canterbury, containing 438 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage...