Nicholas Bennett, general editor of the Lincoln Record Society and former Vice-Chancellor and Librarian of Lincoln Cathedral, has begun a worthy project to provide us with biographical details for 750 years' worth of Lincolnshire clergy. This first volume, dealing with the parishes of the deaneries of Alascoe and Aveland, records the variety of clerical careers, from those of men who served for most of their lives in a single living (Robert Shawe, rector of Spridlington from 1582 to 1626, p. 150), to those whose lives and livings ranged countrywide and – in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – across the Empire and Commonwealth (Henry Hacon, vicar of Willoughton from 1886 to 1905, previously held six posts in India, p.174). There are tantalising hints of their backgrounds and lives: Robert Abbot dd, rector of Fillingham in 1610, was the ‘son of a clothworker Maurice A.’ who became bishop of Salisbury and his brother George, archbishop of Canterbury. In contrast, William Jenkins ma, rector of Fillingham in 1884, was the subject of various court cases and then ‘ratanning’ by his parishioners: they burned him in effigy. The particular history of the parishes themselves is also indicated: why did Blyborough, for example, see a high number of resignations and exchanges during the early to mid-fifteenth century? A glossary of terms would have been a useful addition to this work as would some indication of the value of the parochial livings. However, this is a valuable volume, interesting in itself but also providing suggestions for further research.