By the Reo. W. C. P lender leath. 327 



This was however not the first time, I may mention, that the 

 revenue officers had taken an interest in the aflPairs of domestic life, 

 for the same three offices of the church had been laid under taxation 

 by William III. in 1695, the duty being proportioned to the rank 

 and means of the person taxed. As the collection of this however 

 was not connected in any way with registration, it scarcely falls 

 within the compass of my subject. The only reference to it that I 

 have anywhere met with is in the Avebury register, where I find, 

 under date 1698, " Henry, the son of John Smith, who was assessed 

 for £600, was baptized Sept. 8." What is perhaps more akin to 

 the matter in hand is that in the time of this same sovereign, the 

 clergy were deprived of their fees for the search of the register books, 

 to which (by 6 and 7 Wm. III., cap. 6) they were bound to allow 

 access without fee or reward. Nor was this most inequitable pro- 

 vision repealed, so far as I have been able to discover, until the 

 passing of Sir George Rose's Act, in 1812, though the very following 

 year (1695) the sum of sixpence was allowed to the clergy for each 

 entry that they made in the register. 



In 1813 the whole system of registration was changed, in accor- 

 dance with the Act of the previous year. Forms similar to those 

 now in use were supplied in paper for baptisms and burials, while the 

 marriages were continued in very much the same form as before. The 

 record of the banns was transferred to another book, and the words 

 *' by consent oi" were added, this blank intended of course to be 

 filled up with the word " parents,^' or " guardians," as the case might 

 be, when the bride was under age. But one wise clergyman has 

 made it read (in 1824) " Wiih. consent oi the parties," iorgetimg 

 that such consent was orally given in every case during the ceremony 

 in facie eeclesia. In 1837 occurred the last change, when the shape 

 of the marriage books was altered, and two volumes were provided, 

 one to be sent, when filled up, to the Registrar of the diocese, and 

 the other to remain permanently in the custody of the Incumbent 

 (6 and 7, Will. IV., c. 36). The books for baptisms and burials 

 remained unaltered. 



I may mention in passing "that besides the parocliial registers 

 which form the subject of this paper, there exist a considerable 



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