110 
Keynsham Briefs. By the Rev. C. W. SHICKLE, M.A. 
(ead January 25th, 1899.) 
By the kindness of the Rev. C. W. Houlston, Vicar of 
Keynsham, I was allowed to inspect the parish chest, and among 
the register books, some of which go back to A.D. 1605, I found 
a well-bound quarto volume labelled ‘ Breifs.” If the spelling 
proves the outside to be the work of some skilful, but unlearned 
workman, though receive and believe, harass and embarrass, still 
puzzle some School Board pupils, one glance at the writing within 
shows the vicar at the end of the Eighteenth Century to have 
been no ordinary penman. The writing is almost like copper- 
plate. For rather more than thirty years the entries were made, 
with here and there a few omissions, with surprising regularity. 
There is an alphabetical index at the commencement of the book, 
but it remains blank ; good intentions were left unfulfilled even by 
this clerk-like vicar, for I conclude the writing was his own. 
Of this good man I know but little. He took his degree B.A., 
May 9, 1743, being then a student of Trinity College, Oxon., and 
became Vicar of Keynsham in 1753. As the book purports to 
begin 1750 he may have originally been curate, but it is more 
probable that the first entries were copied from some other records 
as he styles himself vicar at the commencement of the list. The 
Gentleman’s Magazine May, 1755, records a dispensation for 
Thos. Slater to hold the two livings of ‘‘ Hensham” and Saltford. 
Spelling was bad even among London printers, and a good 
topographical dictionary as difficult of access as in Bath at the 
present day. There is an entry at Kelston of the publication of 
Banns, A.D. 1762, by Thos. Slater, Curate. His monument in 
Saltford Church records that he died Sept. 27, 1794, aged 65 
years, having been 35 years Vicar of Keynsham, and for one less 
Rector of Saltford. Other members of his family were also 
buried there, and one of his daughters left money to the parish. 

