438 



Under the year 1650, I find this entry, headed in large characters : 

 AKNO 1)0M : 1G50. 

 " John Hill, John Hill sonne of John and Dorothy Hill was bom on the 

 fifth day of April and Baptized on the 16th day of April (the first baptized 

 by me at Wryngton)." 

 And the bottom of the page has the following attestation : — 



" Ffran : Roberts, Rector hujus EcclesisB." 



The handwriting here is of a different character, clear and welL 

 formed, and more resembling that of the present day, and the 

 pages are all headed by the word " Bcqitismes" and all, at the bottom, 

 bear the attestation of " Francis Roberts, Rector," to the end of the 

 year 1653. The names of each person are by him entered in a 

 column in the margin. 



This Francis Roberts has a monument erected to his memory in 

 the church. He appears to have been a laborious and painstaking 

 pastor, and the works he has left behind him attest his deep studies 

 in Divinity. He has left a voluminous treatise on the " Covenants" 

 and " Clavis Biblionim," a copy of each of which is now in the 

 vestry of the Church, along with other Books. These were formerly 

 chained to a desk iu a side chapel of the choir, and lay open for 

 public reading. He was Rector about 26 years, and his monument 

 states, "Faedus juxta Evangelii quod (dum viveret) haud calamo 

 majis quam vita dilucidavit." He also printed a small work entitled 

 " A Communicant Instructed," or " Practical Directions for worthy 

 receiving of the Lord's Sup2Jer," and his Epistle dedicatory of this 

 book is dated from " my study in Wrington, iu Somersetshire, June 

 12, 1651." He died 1675, aged 67 His wife died three years before 

 him, and a monument also recoi'ds her worth in the following lines — 

 " Quae moribus extitit Elizabeth, proli fuit Hannah, 

 Sara viro, mundo Martha, Maria Deo."* 

 In the year 1633 is the following entry at the top of the page — 

 Somerset 



Mr. Robert Rowland of "Wrington approved and sworne Register of the 

 Bayd Parish according to the Act of Parliament, in that Session provided, this 

 15 day of December, 1653. Jo. Buckland. 



* This epitaph is an imitation of one on the tomb of Richard do Clare in 

 Tewkesbury Abbey Church. 



Hie Pudor Hippoliti, Paridis Gona, Sensus TJlissis, 

 .3i!nese pietas, Hectoris Iia jacent. 

 SeeDugd : Baron: 1,213. — "CoUinson's Somerset," vol. iii., p. 148. 



