330 On some Curiosities and Statistics of Parish Registers. 



by license at the Cathedral of Sea Salter, June 6, 1744. A Caspian 

 bowl of well acidulated glumigrim/^ 



At Eltham, in the same county, on the other hand, is an entry of 

 marriage wherein the description errs by defect , " Johannes Lay ton, 

 duxit in uxorem Letissiman Puellam/' Oct. 18, 1640. And still 

 more shortly at Hoddon, in Northumberland : " Twizzels, man and 

 maid was married on Lady Day, 1706.^' 



There is one curious superstition with regard to marriages, of 

 which not a few old register books preserve the record, viz., that a 

 woman who is in debt at the time of marriage may avoid saddling 

 her husband with her liabilities if she appear at the altar clad in one 

 garment only, and that of the lightest. At Chilterne All Saints, 

 in this county, I find " John Prideaux and Ann Selwood were mar- 

 ried Oct. 17, 1714. The aforesaid Ann Selwood was married in her 

 smock without any cloathes or head gear on." So also at Broad 

 Hinton, " John Farmer and Ann Stagg were married November the 

 17th, 1718. N.B. She was married in nothing but her shift.'' The 

 theory of this curious custom is thus explained by Burns : The 

 husband is liable for the wife's debts, therefore he acquires an absolute 

 interest in the personal estate of the wife. And therefore again he 

 concludes that if the wife has no estate, the husband is not liable. 

 The fallacy of which reasoning scarcely requires to be pointed out. 

 And so, pursues the author, " with more care than refinement he 

 (the husband) lets the world know that the bride brings him nothing. 

 Ex nihilo nihil fit." For this singular statement the writer claims 

 the authority of Bacon's abridgement. But I, on the contrary, 

 having carefully examined that work, can find no other information 

 bearing on the subject than the absolute and unexceptioned state- 

 ment : " The husband is liable for the wife's debts, contracted before 

 marriage, whether he had any portion with her or not." Vol. i., p. 

 708. Compare also Brand's "Popular Antiquities," iii., 305. 



I will now proceed to give a few examples of curious inscriptions 

 which I have met with in parish registers. At Rodmarton, in Glouces- 

 tershire, is the following good advice : " If you will have this book 

 last, bee sure to aire it at the fire or in the sunne thrice or foure 

 times a yeare — els it will grow dankish and rott, therefore look to 



