443 



The bottom of the page for 1678 is signed by "Th : Powell," 

 Under the date, " Sep. 10th, 1681," there is the entry of his death — 



"Sap. 10, Johannes Powell, Rectr de Wrington," 

 and the bottom of the page is signed with the name of " iEgidius 

 Pooley, Ref." " ^Egidius " being the Latinized form of " Giles ;" 

 the remainder are signed simply " Giles Pooley, Rector." His 

 writing is peculiarly clear and neat, but it ceases in the year 1693, 

 when he seems either to have left Wrington to the charge of a 

 curate, or not to have made the entries himself, for I find the page 

 containing the entries under the year 1701 signed " Mr. Thomas 

 Goddard, Curate," and the succeeding ones are so signed to 1707. 

 Under the year 1709 the Christian names ai'e put in a separate 

 column, where the dates had before been put, and this continues to 

 1720, after which no line is ruled or any space left, but the entry 

 is simply a record in one line. The writing now becomes clumsy 

 and ill formed, more as if the entries were made by an uneducated 

 hand, and the spelling is incorrect. Thus the female name 

 " Agripina" is written " Eggripiney" or " Egrapiny," and " Henry" 

 is spelt " Hennery" with two (n)'s. The Rev. Jno. Rogers died in 

 1720, but he seems to have made no entries with his own hand 

 after the month of Jan. 1716, and the entries after that, though 

 clear, are very slovenly written until Nov., 1731, i.e., three years 

 after Dr. Waterland came into possession of the living. The hand- 

 writing then becomes very clear and scholarlike, and the handwriting 

 is the same to 1752. The Book is then reversed, and the entries 

 made on the opposite side to where they were begun, but in a less 

 educated hand, these are continued on to the year 1807, till they 

 touch the erased entries of marriages, which I before mentioned. 



This ancient Register Book is perhaps one of the most perfect in 

 the kingdom, and the entries for the most part have been made 

 with much care, while the handwriting is in mo.st instances very 

 good. It manifests how very simple was the first system of 

 registry in our parish churches, and how it gradually developed 

 into the present accurate and elaborate mode of entry. But it is 

 clear that the more pei-fect the system has been made the more the 

 handwriting has deteriorated, and the less the interest taken in the 

 Register. The modern Registers of Wrington are however an 



