4 LIST OF THE INHABITANTS OF MELBOURNE, 1695. 
deliver within six days a true copy to the parson of the parish, who 
was bound, under a like penalty, to read the same in church on 
the following Sunday, immediately after morning service. Appeals 
against the assessment had to be made within ten days after such 
reading in church. The parson was to keep a register in writing 
of all persons married, buried, christened, or born within his 
parish ; to which register the collectors were to have free access, at 
all reasonable times, without payment of any fee. The parson 
neglecting this duty made himself liable to a penalty of £100. 
Parents were bound, under a penalty of £10, to give notice to 
the collectors within five days after the birth of a child. The out- 
going collectors were bound, under a penalty of £20, to deliver 
to the Receiver-General a duplicate copy of the assessment, with 
the names of two collectors for the next year, and a schedule 
on parchment containing the names of defaulters. 
Considering that no less than ten copies of this assess- 
ment were made in every parish in England in the course of 
the five years during which this Act was in force, it might be 
expected that one or more of these statutory lists of inhabitants 
would be found in almost every parish chest. But the fact is that 
they are extremely rare, for the tax was so unpopular that the 
local authorities took pains to destroy the machinery for levying it. 
The parson is the natural guardian of parish records; but the 
clergy, as a body, held this Act and its provisions in special abhor- 
rence, because it imposed on them the invidious duty of furnish- 
ing evidence against defaulting members of their flock. Moreover, 
they had always hitherto kept their registers in their own fashion, 
without fear of being called to account. But this statute em- 
powered the collectors to examine the parish register whenever 
they pleased, without payment of any fee ; whilst any defect in the 
register made the parson liable to enormous penalties, which left 
him at the mercy of every common informer. ‘There were few 
registers, indeed, which could bear the test of official inspection ; 
and when Queen Anne’s ministers were anxious to conciliate the 
clergy, it was found necessary to allay their apprehensions by a 
bill of indenmity, which was passed confessedly on the ground 
