The Eastwell register contains copies of the Protestation of 1642, the
Vow and Covenant of 1643, and the Solemn League and Covenant of the
same year, all signed by sundry parishioners, and of the death of the
last of the Plantagenets, Richard by name, a bricklayer by trade, in
1550, whom Richard III acknowledged to be his son on the eve of the
battle of Bosworth. At St. Oswalds, Durham, there is the record of the
hanging and quartering in 1590 of "Duke, Hyll, Hogge and Holyday, iiij
Semynaryes, Papysts, Tretors and Rebels for their horrible offences."
"Burials, 1687 April 17th Georges Vilaus Lord dooke of bookingham," is
the illiterate description of the Duke who was assassinated by Felton
and buried at Helmsley. It is impossible to mention all the gleanings
from parish registers; each parish tells its tale, its trades, its
belief in witchcraft, its burials of soldiers killed in war, its
stories of persecution, riot, sudden deaths, amazing virtues, and
terrible sins. The edicts of the laws of England, wise and foolish,
are reflected in these pages, e.g. the enforced burial in woollen; the
relatives of those who desired to be buried in linen were obliged to
pay fifty shillings to the informer and the same sum to the poor of
the parish. The tax on marriages, births, and burials, levied by the
Government on the estates of gentlemen in 1693, is also recorded in
such entries as the following:--
"1700.
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