Parish Registers. 45 



christian name : in the second column is the surname and 

 seniority of the infant, also in large characters. The utility 

 of this disposition will appear to any person who has 

 examined parish registers with a degree of accuracy. 



* Lest the object of our inquiry should escape us, how 

 frequently are we obliged to undergo the toil of traversing 

 every line in each page, written perhaps in small characters 

 improperly spelt, and in a hand sometimes scarcely legible ; 

 whereas according to the present form, the reader will be 

 able, with one glance of the eye, to run over the several 

 names in each page ; and will examine, in a few minutes, 

 what otherwise would take several hours to accomplish. 



* In the present form it is hoped that care has been taken 

 to identify the persons ; for when we are told that Robert 

 Lutton, James Creyke, and Elizabeth Dealtrey were 

 baptised ; or that William Strickland, Mary Strangways 

 and Richard Heblethwayte were buried on such a day, in 

 a succession of years how shall we inform ourselves 

 whether the parties were infants, adult or aged, married 

 or single, of what profession, or how they stood related ; 

 circumstances we are too apt, at the time of recording 

 those particulars, to think of no moment, because 

 their consequences are so remote. Nor are our inquiries 

 more gratifying in finding John son of William Fairfax, 

 Mary daughter of Thomas Beckwith, and James son of 

 Robert Anderson, baptised ; or Mr. John Grimston, Mrs. 

 Jane Turner, and James son of William Fountaine were 

 buried on such a day. Was there no necessity for carrying 

 our researches further than twenty or thirty years, the 

 defect might be supplied by the testimony of living 

 witnesses, though perhaps, even then, not without much 

 trouble and inconvenience ; but where it happens that the 



