The disastrous period of the Civil War and the Commonwealth caused
great confusion and many defects in the registers. Very often the
rector was turned out of his parish; the intruding minister, often an
ignorant mechanic, cared naught for registers. Registrars were
appointed in each parish who could scarcely sign their names, much
less enter a baptism. Hence we find very frequent gaps in the books
from 1643 to 1660. At Tarporley, Cheshire, there is a break from 1643
to 1648, upon which a sorrowful vicar remarks:--
"This Intermission hapned by reason of the great wars obliterating
memorials, wasting fortunes, and slaughtering persons of all
sorts."
The Parliamentary soldiers amused themselves by tearing out the leaves
in the registers for the years 1604 to the end of 1616 in the parish
of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire.
There is a curious note in the register of Tunstall, Kent. There seems
to have been a superfluity of members of the family of Pottman in this
parish, and the clergyman appears to have been tired of recording
their names in his books, and thus resolves:--
"1557 Mary Pottman nat. & bapt. 15 Apr.
Mary Pottman n. & b. 29 Jan.
Mary Pottman sep. 22 Aug.
1567
From henceforw^{d} I omitt the Pottmans.
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