332 On some Curiosities and Statistics of Parish Registers. 



Brillanaa, Mertila, Reaboeka, and Althemire. The modern ''Minye" 

 occurs (thus spelled) as early as the sixteenth century, and Maryana 

 similarly anticipates her appearance in the moated grange. The 

 names of Harrye and Jehoyda are given to girls, and AfFabell to a 

 boy. But the most curious thing in the baptismal register of St. 

 Peter^s Cheap, is that in the case of foundlings they are almost in- 

 variably baptized by the name of Peter — the name of the street or 

 lane in which they were found being given as a surname. In St. 

 Matthew^s, on the other hand that name is generally given as a 

 surname, the Christian name varying. One however in the last 

 century, found on a Monday, appears in the register as Matthew 

 Monday — following the precedent set by Robinson Crusoe. Apropos 

 of the man Friday, the following names occur in the register of 

 Golden Grove Church, Jamaica, as having been bestowed during the 

 last centmy on some of that distinguished person's fellow country- 

 men. Girls : Penina Almona, Francena Aramanda, Margaret 

 Abijah, and Caroline Celeste Celestina Minima Constantina. And a 

 boy, John Hezekiah Barjona Thomas ! 



Careless and eccentric spelling is, I need scarcely say, very com- 

 mon in old registers. I find one child at Cherhill " paptized " in 

 1732, and to restore the balance of duty between the two letters, 

 another is "Babtized" ten years later. An entry in 1794 is dated 

 the 3'3rd day of Junly ; and " his wife " is spelled " is wfife " in 

 1795. The most unintelligible name that I find is that of Dillaziver, 

 for a girl, in 1776; and the most incredible statement, that a girl 

 was born on the 28th September, 1799, aged four-and-a-half years : 

 which reminds me of the answer to an enquiry as to when the late 

 Mr. O'Sullivan died, that " if he had lived till to-morrow, he would 

 have been dead a month ! " Men are always stated in the Cherhill 

 register to have married their wives, except in one instance, where 

 the wife is recorded in 1811 as having married her husband. This 

 entry is moreover in an entirely different handwriting to that in 

 which any of the other entries for several years before and after are 

 made; so that the only supposition must be that the grey mare 

 got at the books and expressed her own will and intention. 

 No subsequent records of this family are, I regret to say, handed 



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