2"* S. VI. 152., Not. 27. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



439 



who is not ? I, for instance, take " N". & Q." re- 

 gularlj', but being a military man, and always on 

 the move, I cannot always order it by the post, 

 but generally obtain it through the bookseller of 

 the town in which I may be quartered: the Editor 

 then knows me as a correspondent, but probably 

 not as a regular subscriber. 



I now turn to Mr. Langmeade's valuable com- 

 munication. Church register-books are indeed 

 kept most shamefully insecure, and have been in- 

 famously used and abused in almost every parish 

 in Britain ; and not only these, but equally valua- 

 ble church records, with regard to which subject 

 I extract an interesting paragraph from the Illus- 

 trated London Neivs, Aug. 28, 1858. The in- 

 stances quoted by Mr. L. are melancholy enough 

 to cause all antiquaries and genealogists to keep 

 their beds in grief: — 



" Parish Registers. — In your number of Aug. 14, p. 

 148, }-ou remark on Lord Ellesmere and the records now 

 lying scattered among the various Record Offices in Lon- 

 don. You then add a passage or two bearing on the 

 point to -which I wish to allude, namely — that 'many 

 better records are mouldering in damp chests and neg- 

 lected closets in still damper churches ; ' that ' it is high 

 time a nation loving its peerage records should look 

 after its parish registers ; ' and that ' we are all interested 

 in such memorials of our ancestors and ourselves.' It is a 

 curious fact, but too true, that whilst so much care is 

 taken of these memorials in London, the old registers and 

 the contents of the parish chest in most places lie totally 

 neglected and forgotten. If a stranger, interested in the 

 title to any of the lands in the parish, were to applj' for 

 information to this store, under the hope of finding some- 

 thing bearing on the point in question, the search would 

 be vain. Who should find what he might want amid a 

 mass of chaos and confusion ? In their present state these 

 stores are inaccessible, and therefore useless. In their 

 own localitj' they are highly valuable, or may, on emer- 

 gency, prove to be so. Are they not the archives of the 

 parish .' As such, they are of more consequence than the 

 records in London. The records of every parish, collec- 

 tively, constitute the records of the kingdom. It is of 

 such stuff as this that the history of England is written. 

 It so happens that I have been amusing myself for the 

 last month or two in going over the contents of the old 

 oak chest of my own parish, out of the love I have for his- 

 torical and antiquarian pursuits; and am at this moment 

 engaged in arranging them chronologically, and in mak- 

 ing an index or catalogue of them. The oldest bears date 

 1328, beitig 530 years old. This catalogue I destine for the 

 use of the Vicar and Churchwardens. Such a thing ought 

 to be done in every parish. If there is not to be found 

 in every place a gentleman who will undertake a similar 

 task for his own amusement or the benefit of his parish, it 

 would not cost much to employ a competent person to do 

 ;t. — P. II., Sidmouth." 



Mr. Lang.meade's suggestion that the Society of 

 Antiquaries, and the other kindred societies, get 

 up a petition to Parliament, to be signed by all 

 who take an interest in the preservation of these 

 registers, praying that a Committee may be ap- 

 pointed to examine into the state of our parochial 

 records, and on the feasibility of transferring their 

 custody to the Master of the Rolls, &c. (vide 2"* 

 S. vi. 380. for remainder of the suggestion) ; and 



I shall be happy to add my mite to any subscrip- 

 tion that may be required to commence operations 

 — advertising for signatures, &c. That this is not 

 effected is a disgrace to the nation ; for these mat- 

 ters, being fundamental facts, are as closely con- 

 nected with the history of our country as are the 

 Records in the State Paper Office. By the adop- 

 tion of Mr. L.'s excellent plan, tampering with 

 the registers would be almost an impossibility. 

 Who does not recollect the numerous instances in 

 which falsified, forged, or tampered parish regis- 

 ters have been produced in evidence affecting 

 claims to property or titles ? who does not remem- 

 ber, and how very many to their cost, that pages 

 have been purposely destroyed because they af- 

 forded evidence favourable to a rightful claimant ? 

 Lately there was the claim to the Smith title and 

 estates : previously there was the Hewett ba- 

 ronetcy case, in which a "Wm. Hewett, calling 

 himself Sir Wm. Hewett, claimed the baronetcy of 

 the Hewetts of Headley Hall, York, and Waresley, 

 Hunts. ; whose case, as far as being descended 

 from that family was good, but whose proofs as 

 to succession to the title were bad, inasmuch as 

 the registers at Waresley and St. Neots had been 

 evidently tampered with (as it was proved, I be- 

 lieve, not by him, probably by some unscrupulous 

 persons who were interested in his success), and 

 finally attempted to be destroyed. 



With respect to the destruction of pages, or of 

 falsifications or forgeries, the abstracts of parish 

 registers, deposited in the Diocesan Registry Ofli- 

 ces, though not sent in regularly, and too often 

 likewise carelessly kept, will often supply a 

 hiatus in the original, and also prove any falsi- 

 fication. 



In case of our plan being adopted, it may not 

 be amiss to remind those who avail themselves of 

 the advantage, to be sure, if anything of general in- 

 terest is elicited in mutual correspondence, to send 

 it to "N. & Q.;" for it is absolutely necessary, 

 and " N. & Q." will become indispensable to all 

 genealogists, to support it in every way. I say, as 

 it now stands, what should we do without our " N". 

 & Q. ? " C^DO Illud. 



I am very glad to see that C^do Illud's " sug- 

 gestion " is approved of by so many of your con- 

 tributors, and I cannot refrain from expressing 

 my own approbation of his plan. I, like many 

 others, I suspect, became a subscriber to " N. & 

 Q." chiefly on account of the genealogical in- 

 formation to be derived from it, and I heartily 

 join any plan for the increase of that department 

 of your valuable paper. I have access to a ca- 

 thedral library containing many old and valuable 

 volumes, and shall be happy to make any re- 

 search in return for genealogical information. 



A. M. W. 



