There are few books that provide greater
information or more absorbing interest than these wonderful books of
accounts. It is a sad pity that so many have vanished.
The parish register books have suffered less than the churchwardens'
accounts, but there has been terrible neglect and irreparable loss.
Their custody has been frequently committed to ignorant parish clerks,
who had no idea of their utility beyond their being occasionally the
means of putting a shilling into their pockets for furnishing
extracts. Sometimes they were in the care of an incumbent who was
forgetful, careless, or negligent. Hence they were indifferently kept,
and baptisms, burials, and marriages were not entered as they ought to
have been. In one of my own register books an indignant parson writes
in the year 1768: "There does not appear any one entry of a Baptism,
Marriage, or Burial in the old Register for nine successive years,
viz. from the year 1732 till the year 1741, when this Register
commences." The fact was that the old parchment book beginning A.D.
1553 was quite full and crowded with names, and the rector never
troubled to provide himself with a new one. Fortunately this sad
business took place long before our present septuagenarians were born,
or there would be much confusion and uncertainty with regard to
old-age pensions.
Pages:
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419