322 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd g. No 69., April 25. '57. 



perishing and unheard-of for more than thirty 

 years. 



East Norton, same county. The oldest register 

 was taken away some years since by one of the 

 former vicars, and no one now can tell where it is 

 to be found. The present one is not of an earlier 

 date than about 1780, 



Bigland, in his observations on parish registers, 

 17G4, mentions his having occasion to consult a 

 register, and was directed to the cottage of a poor 

 labouring man, as clerk of the parish ; he not 

 being at home, Mr. B. informed the children of 

 his desire, upon which they pulled out the drawer 

 of an old table ; where, among much rubbish of 

 rusty iron, &c., he found the register. In another 

 parish, the clerk was a tailor, and had cut out 

 more than sixteen leaves of the old register, in 

 order to supply himself with measures. 



Dr. Burnaby, upon one occasion asking to see 

 the register of a parish, was told that they had 

 but the one produced ; that they had had another 

 some time ago, but that it was very old, and quite 

 out of date, of no manner of use, for none of the 

 neighbours could readjt ; and that it had, there- 

 fore, been tossed about in the church till either 

 some workmen or children had carried it away, 

 or torn it to pieces. 



A part of the register of Nuthurst is in the 

 British Museum, as is also the register of Steventon, 

 Berks, 1553 to 1559. There are several registers 

 in private hands, some of them purchased at public 

 sales. 



Godmanston, Dorset. Some of the first leaves 

 of the early register have been lost, and others so 

 much injured by danip,^ or by some corrosive 

 matter, that they crumble to pieces upon the 

 slightest touch. 



Buckhorn Weston, same county. The register 

 is stated by Hutchins, in his history of the county, 

 to have been torn to pieces, and lost some years 

 since. 



Long Critchell, same county. There is a chasm 

 of forty years in the register of marriages. 



Ahbotshury, in the same county. The register 

 begins in 1567 : the first page of baptisms is lost. 

 The second and third register books are much in- 

 jured and defaced, probably by fire, the vicarage- 

 liouse having been twice totally burnt. 



In the minutes of the Stafford Peerage case, it 

 will be seen that the parish register was allowed 

 by the clergyman to be taken away by a person 

 who came to search for entries ; that he requested 

 permission to examine them in private, which was 

 granted (although even his name was unknown to 

 the clergyman) ; and he was absent with it an 

 hour, and committed the forgeries he required. 



In the Huntingdon Peerage case it is narrated 

 that the registers were made into kettle-holders for 

 the curate's wife or widow. 



Mr. William Durrant Cooper (one of the wit- 



nesses before the Parochial Registration Com- 

 mittee), in speaking of the registers in Sussex, 

 mentions three clergymen there (Mr. Gwynne, 

 Mr. Jenkins, and Mr. Crofts,) as being notori- 

 ously negligent ; they either made the entries of 

 baptisms, marriages, and burials in a very defec- 

 tive manner, or (which was often the case) omitted 

 to make the entries at all ! Mr. Crofts kept the 

 old registers in a cupboard, where the children or 

 any one else could get at them ; and the modern 

 ones at the house of the parish clerk, very much 

 exposed to accidental fires. In some of the Sus- 

 sex registers there are parts destroyed, whole 

 leaves being cut out, particularly in the parish of 

 Selmeston, near Lewes. 



" I recollect," says Mr. Cooper, " an instance where the 

 clerk was about destroying the old register, saying it was 

 of no use, but was prevented from doing so; and I recol- 

 lect when a little boy, the parish clerk of another parish 

 saying, that the clergyman used to direct his pheasants loith 

 the parchment of the old registers .' " 



At East Markham, in Nottinghamshire, a late 

 parish clerk made old pages legible with fresh ink, 

 but one date was falsified. The christenings from 

 1773 to 1774 are written on a fresh leaf in his 

 own handwriting entirely. 



At Hanny, in Berkshire, the marriage register 

 from 1754 to 1760 was lost, but some years ago 

 found in a grocer's shop. 



At Castle Bytham, Lincolnshire, by a memo- 

 randum of Wade Gascoyne, who became curate in 

 1758, he states that no register had been kept at 

 Little Bytham and Holywell for the last seven 

 years ; but he inserted a few omissions extracted 

 from the pocket-books of his predecessor and the 

 parish-clerk. 



At Washenburgh, in the same county, there 

 were no burials from 1748 to 1758, the rector 

 being, as was reported, frequently non compos. 



At Waynefleet, same county, the register has 

 been mutilated, apparently to write bills on, as a 

 butcher's bill remains on part of the last leaf. 



At Renhold, Beds., the clergyman says several 

 leaves are very deficient, parts of them having 

 been cut out ; the mutilations having been appa- 

 rently made by children, who have evidently 

 scribbled and drawn figures on these documents. 



St. Pancras. A late curate of this parish con- 

 fessed on his death-bed to having connived at the 

 alteration of l!he St. Pancras register which was 

 to be produced in the case of Lloyd and Passing- 

 ham. 



There are many other recent cases of forging 

 parish registers. 



Birmingham. Mr. Hamper, a well-known an- 

 tiquary, discovered some years since the old re- 

 gisters of one of the parishes in various parts, 

 stowed away under the staircase of the pulpit, and 

 had them bound together and preserved. 



A few years ago a gentleman at the Heralds' 



