no 



VII. — The Green Booh of St. Columh. — By E. N". Worth, Plymouth. 



Head at the Autumn Meeting, Novemher 30, 1868. 



rpHE parochial records in many of our counties contain, as is 

 -L well known, a large quantity of valuable inedited matter, 

 which will yet yield a rich harvest to industrious antiquaries. 

 This is certainly, I think, to a large extent, the case in ConiAvall ; 

 and, in order to contribute somewhat towards the work of 

 research, I desire briefly to call the attention of the members of 

 this Institution to what is locally known as " The G-reen Book of 

 St. Columb." This " Green Book " is a large folio volume, bound 

 in green leather, in which the accounts of the parish have been 

 kept, with a few intermissions, from the year 15.85, and are indeed 

 still kept ; the original supply of paper being, after the lapse of 

 nearly three hundred years, far from exhausted. The book is in 

 excellent condition, and the writing in the earlier entries is 

 characteristic of the period, and uncommonly good. At present, 

 the volume is merely used as a record of the parish accounts ; but 

 its former custodians occasionally jotted down memoranda of such 

 general matters as they considered noteworthy, and consequently 

 it contains many curious illustrations of bygone manners and 

 customs. I purpose merely to lay before the meeting the results 

 of a cursory examination of the volume, in the hope that some 

 one far better qualified for the task than myself may enter upon 

 a fuller investigation. 



The book begins as follows : — " Liber Compti. The generall 

 accompte of this p'isshe of St. Columb Major taken before the 

 xij of the same p'isshe in the presence of the whole p'isshone''^ on 

 the daye of the feaste of St. Andrewe the apostle, being the laste 

 daye of November, in the yeere of our Lorde God 1585 and in 

 the xxviij yeere of the rayne of our Sovraigne ladye Elizabeth, 

 the Queenes Ma*'*" that now is." 



Then follow the wardens' names. The " twelve " were of course 



