276 JANUARY 



The Parish Registers are interesting reading for 

 the genealogist, and are practically continuous from 

 the year 1559, though entries are sparse during the 

 Protectorate. The official transcribers, when copy- 

 ing from the old paper books into the parchment 

 volumes ordered for use from 1603 onward, have 

 omitted many details which they considered trivial, 

 such as burials in woollen and the like, and the 

 Registers are therefore robbed of interest in this 

 respect. But as a collection of names they are 

 very valuable. Perhaps one of the most curious 

 entries is that of a comparatively recent marriage, 

 of which the following is an abstract : 



o 



" Richard Habgood of this Parish, Batchelor, and 

 Hannah Eyles of the Parish of Speen, Widow, were 

 married in this Church by Licence this Sixteenth Day of 

 November in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred 

 and Seventy two, by me T. Shirley, Rector." 



In the margin, in Mr. Shirley's handwriting, are 

 the words " H. Snell," which in the abstract of the 

 marriage register are expanded into " Han. Snell, 

 Soldier." 



Hannah Snell was a famous adventuress who 

 was born at Worcester in the year 1723. In 1744 

 she married a Dutch sailor named James Summs, 

 but owing to his evil conduct and desertion, she 

 was forced to seek her own living, and in the 

 following year, under a sufficient disguise, she en- 

 listed as a soldier in a regiment quartered at 

 Carlisle. Not liking her companions, however, she 

 deserted, and took service at Portsmouth as a 

 marine, in which capacity she seems to have served 

 for five years without any discovery of her sex. 



