326 Ou some Ciiriosities and Statistics of Parish Registers. 



this was extended to Dissenters^ registrations^ but the whole was 

 repealed in 1794, after having lasted only eleven years. ^ The tax 

 was collected by means of impressed stamps, and in the books of 

 Bremhill parish I find each entry during this period written upon a 

 stamp, with the exception of such as related to paupers, which were 

 kept in a separate book, and unstamped. 



Obedience to this law seems however to have been far from universal. 

 I find no trace of these stamps either in my own books, or in the 

 great majority of such as I have been able to examine. This may 

 however possibly be explained by the fact that the sixth section 

 of the Act empowers H. M. Commissioners to grant licenses of ex- 

 emption in certain cases — or I should perhaps rather say, in uncertain 

 cases, for there would seem to have been no restriction whatever 

 upon their powers.^ In the register book of the parish of Wath, in 

 the county of York, one Thomas Hattersley, Curate, describes him- 

 self as being " licensed to register baptisms, marriages, and burials 

 in books without stamps.^^ 



' It was subsequently re-enacted in a modified form together with an impost 

 upon all bachelors and v-'idows ; and we not infrequently meet with the record 

 of these payments mixed up with the entries which belong more properly to 

 my present subject. 



^The wording of the section is as follows: "Providing always and be it 

 further enacted, that no parson, vicar, curate, or other person shall be subject to 

 any the penalties or forfeitures in this act mentioned for entering or causing to 

 be entered any burial, marriage, birth, or christening in any parish register 

 without any marks or stamps therein, where a license under the hands of three 

 of the Commissioners for the time being, appointed to put this Act into execu- 

 tion, or any,' officer or officers by them impowered, shall have been granted, 

 signifying their or his leave or approbation that the entry of any burial, marriage, 

 birth, or christening be written without any marks or stamps thereon, so as the 

 person or persons having the custody of such registers do from time to time 

 when and as often as he or they shall be thereto required, permit the said Com- 

 missioners, or any of them, or any officer or agent by them or the major part 

 of them for that purpose appointed, to inspect and view such registers, and do 

 also from time to time when and as often as he or they shall be thereto required 

 by the said Commissioners or the major part of them, or any other by them or 

 the major part of them authorized, pay unto the Receiver-General, for the time 

 being, of such duties or such officer or person as the said Commissioners or the 

 major part of them shall appoint to receive the same, all such sum and sums of 

 money which according to the true intent and meaning of this Act ought to be 

 paid in respect of all and every such entry and entries as shall be written in such 

 registers, anything herein contained to the contrary thereof notwithstanding." 



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