ELY was a Benedictine abbey first founded by St. Etheldreda in 673. It had extensive lands and endowments in the Isle of Ely and Cambridgeshire. In 1109 the diocese of Ely was formed (out of Lincoln diocese), and the Abbot of Ely became the first Bishop, the Prior then becoming the head of the monastery. At the Reformation the monastery was dissolved, and a Chapter of a Dean and eight Prebendaries (or Canons) was established. The Chapter (now a Dean and two Canons) remains the governing body of the cathedral.
- The early history of the monastery to the end of the twelfth century is recorded in the Liber Eliensis (EDC 1).
- The medieval monastic administration is documented through a series of obedientiary rolls, kept by the various officers of the monastery (sacrist, almoner, chamberlain etc.).
- The records of the Dean and Chapter (from 1539) include charters of foundation, rights, statutes and endowments, order books (from 1550), recording the deliberations and decisions of Chapter meetings, and leiger books of leases, grants of office, pensions and bedesmen's places, 1537-1841.
- Financial records include treasurer's accounts 1537-1873
- Estate records include long runs of medieval court rolls and bailiffs' accounts for the manors of the Prior and Convent, and extensive court books and papers for the Dean and Chapter estates from 1540. The Dean and Chapter commuted their estates to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1870.
- The bishops' registers, which at first contained all episcopal acts but later recorded only certain important items of business, start with Bishop Montacute's register in 1337. Earlier registers, and those from 1610 to 1702, are lost, but transcripts of some 17th century registers survive.
- From the fifteenth century separate registers and records were kept of various branches of the bishop's administration. Visitation records, periodic inquiries into the state of the diocese, personnel, fabric, endowments and social conditions, survive from the mid sixteenth century. They include returns to visitation inquiries from 1775, and churchwardens' presentments of abuse and things amiss in parishes from 1582. Much of the bishop's business was transacted through his consistory court. The bishops had extensive manorial and other estates and endowments. These were first surveyed and recorded in the Old Coucher book, 1251. For some manors there are long runs of medieval court rolls and bailiff's accounts. In the mid nineteenth century the episcopal estates were commuted to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (now the Church Commissioners [CC]).
Benedictine Houses: