READING REGISTRATION. 



775 



hie in their actions, and leads to the detection of 

 their robheries. The most usual way in which 

 they are found out, is their making a foolish dis- 

 play of their stolen goods, or offering them for 

 sale in some shop, generally in Poona, the very 

 place where in all probability the article was origi- 

 nally purchased. 



READING; a town of England, in Berkshire, 

 thirty-nine miles west from London, and sixteen 

 from Windsor. It is situated on the banks of the 

 river Kennet near its confluence with the Thames; 

 and on the line of the great western road from 

 London to Bath. Its origin and the derivation of 

 its name are uncertain, but the former may with 

 probability be ascribed to the Saxons, as it is not 

 noticed in history till after the middle of the ninth 

 century, when, according to Asser, the historian of 

 Alfred the Great, Reading was taken by the Danes. 

 The town has received successive -charters from the 

 reign of Henry III. to that of Charles I., the latter 

 having been modified by George IV. The whole,how- 

 ever, was abrogated by the municipal reform act of 

 1835, which vested the government in a mayor, six 

 aldermen, and eighteen councillors. Among the 

 public buildings of the place are the three parish 

 churches, St Lawrence, St Mary, and St Giles, all 

 vicarages, besides various dissenting chapels, the 

 town-hall, originally part of the hospital of St 

 John, rebuilt in 1785, and the county jail, erected 

 about the year 1793. 



The town is of a triangular form, consisting of 

 four principal streets, intersected by others of less 

 importance. Some of the houses are partly con- 

 structed of timber-work, with high gables, in the 

 style of the sixteenth century ; but the buildings 

 in general are of brick, and are spacious and con- 

 venient. The town is well paved ; it is lighted 

 with gas, by a joint stock company, established by 

 act of parliament in 1825; and there is an ample sup- 

 ply of water, furnished by a company established in 

 1694. There is a handsome stone bridge of one arch, 

 over the main stream of the Kennet, in Duke street; 

 north-east of the town is a bridge, called Blake's 

 bridge ; and there are others over branches of the 

 river. A small theatre is usually opened annually, 

 for a month or six weeks. Reading abounds in 

 charitable and educational institutions. Among 

 them may be noticed the benefaction of Mr Juhn 

 Kendrick, an eminent clothier of Reading, who, in 

 1624, gave 7500 in trust to the mayor and bur- 

 gesses, for the erection of a house for the employ- 

 ment of the poor, which purpose was carried into 

 effect at the expense of .2000 ; and in this es- 

 tablishment, which, for some unknown reason, re- 

 ceived the singular appellation of the Oracle, the 

 woollen manufacture was for some time prosecuted 

 with considerable success. On the 27th May, 

 1839, the new royal Berkshire Hospital was opened 

 at Reading. To this institution, Mr Benyon de 

 Beauvoir contributed the munificent sum of 4000; 

 3000 towards its erection, and 1000 to the 

 hospital. The structure is in the Grecian style, 

 from a design of Mr Bryant- 

 Reading sends two members to parliament and is 

 a polling town for the county elections. The trade 

 of the town is more of a general nature than a 

 marked character, and the manufactures are unim- 

 portant since the decay of the clothing trade. The 

 interchange of various commodities between this 

 town and London, Bath, Bristol, &c.. (facilitated 

 by water conveyance and by the Great Western 

 railway), with its large markets, fairs, and an ex- 



cellent local trade, are the chief sources of its pro- 

 sperity, the latter being benefitted most materially 

 by the many wealthy and titled individuals who 

 have seats or residences in the neighbourhood. The 

 principal articles manufactured are a few silk goods, 

 ribbons, pins, sackings, &c. ; there are also some 

 boat- building yards, and it enjoys a good trade in 

 timber, corn and malt. William of Reading, arch- 

 bishop of Bordeaux in the reign of Henry III., and 

 archbishop Laud, were natives o^this place. Popu- 

 lation in 1841, 18,937. 



REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, MARRI- 

 AGES, AND DEATHS. The keeping of parish 

 registers, as a national measure in England, dates 

 from 1538. They were first enjoined to be kept, 

 on the dissolution of the monasteries. The 12th 

 article of Cromwell's injunctions to the clergy in 

 1538 directs that every clergyman shall, for every 

 church, keep a book, wherein he shall register 

 every marriage, christening, and burial; and the 

 injunction directs the manner and time of making 

 the entries in the register book weekly any 

 neglect being made penal. This measure created 

 great excitement. It was surmised that the re- 

 gistry was preliminary to a new levy of taxes. 



In the first year of Edward VI. (1547.) all epis- 

 copal authority was suspended for a time, while 

 the ecclesiastical visitors then appointed went 

 through the several dioceses to enforce different 

 injunctions, and, among others, that respecting the 

 keeping of parish registers, issued by Cromwell 

 nine years previous. The injunction was again 

 repeated in the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, 

 who also appointed a protestation to be made by 

 the clergy, in which, among other things, they 

 promised to keep the register book in a proper 

 manner. One of the canons of the convocation of 

 Canterbury in 1603 (which were confirmed by 

 James I., but never received the sanction of Par- 

 liament) prescribes minutely in what manner 

 entries were to be made in the parish registers. 

 " This canon," says Mr Rickman, " also contains 

 a retrospective clause, appointing that the ancient 

 registers, so far as they could be procured, but 

 especially since the beginning of the reign of Eli- 

 zabeth, should be copied into a parchment book, 

 to be provided by every parish. This wise regula- 

 tion appears to have been carried into full effect 

 at the time ; so that the ancient parish registers 

 now extant usually commence with that queen's 

 reign, and some of them earlier, quite as far back 

 as the date of the original injunction. That part 

 of the canon which directs the register book to 

 be kept in a coffer in the church has not been en- 

 forced, as it was found by expeiience that the 

 book was liable to be damaged by the moisture 

 prevalent in uninhabited buildings, and also to be 

 purloined with the other contents of the church 

 coffer. The register book was heretofore usually 

 kept in custody of the officiating minister, at his 

 own house, if resident on the benefice, otherwise 

 in that of the parish clerk." 



An act was passed in 1694, having for its object 

 a general registration of births, marriages, and 

 deaths, but the motive wbich prompted it was not 

 a consideration of the public and private advan- 

 tages of the measure ; it was regarded solely as a 

 matter of revenue. It is the 6 and 7 Will. III. 

 c. 6, and is entitled "An Act for granting to his 

 Majesty certain Rates and Duties upon Marriages, 

 Births, and Burials, and upon Bachelors and Wi- 

 dowers, for the term of five years, for earning on 



