Parish Registers of Etchilhampton. 189 



of Cote, contayning by estimacon three acres and a half;" the 

 same was to be " hayned " at Candlemas, and cut or fed by Lammas, 

 and afterwards to belong to the inhabitants ; — (3), " One Rige 

 (Ridge ?) of land lying in Shortland's Field." 



Parish Registers. 



The Registers are well preserved, though the earliest of them 

 does not go further back than the year 1630. In the year 1644, 

 during the time of the Civil War, there is but one entry — that of 

 a baptism. Then, with the exception of the entry of the birth of 

 Edward, son of Walter and Martha Ernie, in 1649, there is another 

 hiatus till October, 1650. In 1651, the birth of another son of 

 Walter Ernie, who bore the same Christian name as his father, is 

 registered. As in the case of the All Cannings Register, the entries 

 at that period are exclusively of births, not of baptisms ; one "John 

 Willis " as we are informed, being the duly appointed " Register." 

 A portion of a leaf has been cut out relating to the year 1653. 

 Through the Protectorate the Register was well kept, and all the 

 various entries seem to have been made contemporaneously with 

 the event recorded. 



The following are some of the names occurring in the early 

 register, for our enumeration does not extend beyond the end of 

 the 17th century : — Dorchester, — Bayley (the first notice of this 

 family is in 1633), — Harding, — Noyes, — Raymond, — Ernie, — 

 Trafels, — Fettiplace, — Swanborough, — Heale, — Lancaster, — Hay- 

 ward, — Maundrell, — Hazell, — Lavington. The number of the 

 names occurring in the earliest register which are still retained in 

 the parish is very small indeed. Of names of families that have 

 been for some little time connected with the place we may men- 

 tion Burden, — Rudman, — Hiscox, — Stevens, — Witchell. 



There are contained in the Registers, records of some twenty 

 small charitable collections for various objects. In 1673, the sum 

 of two shillings and nine pence was " gathered for Nether Wal- 

 lop ; " and two shillings " for St. Katherine's in London." In the 

 same year also the sum of "Two shillings and sixpence was gathered 

 for the fire which began in London at the Royal Theatre, 25 th 



