1803. | 
fequent year to the 31ft day of December 
1800, diftinguifhing males from fe- 
males ? 
‘¢ What was the number of marriages 
in your parifh in each year, from the year 
1754, inclufive, to the end of the year 
1800.” 
The clergy of England and Wales were 
enabled to anfwer thefe queftions by hav- 
ing recourfe to the parifh regifters, which 
have been eftablifhed. in the church of 
England ever fince the Reformation, 
When it was enacted in the reign of 
Henry VIII, that the church of England 
fhould be no longer obedient to the Pope, 
Thomas Cromwell was appointed the 
King’s Vicegerent for Ecclefiaftical Jurif- 
diction; and in that capacity iffued cer- 
tain injunctions to the clergy in the year 
1538. 
One of thefe injunctions ordains, that 
every officiating minifter fhall, for every 
church, keep a book, wherein he fhall re- 
gilter every marriage, chriftening, and bu- 
rial ; and the injunction goes on to di- 
rect the manner and time of making the en- 
tries in the regifter-book weekly; and any 
neglect therein is made penal. 
In the firft year of Edward VI.. (Anno 
1547) all epifcopal authority was fulpend- 
ed for a time, while the ecciefiaftical vif- 
tors then ‘appointed went through the fe- 
veral dioceles to enforce divers injunc- 
tions, and among others that refpecting 
parifh-regifters. 
This injunétion was again repeated in 
the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, 
who allo. appointed a proteftation to be 
made by the clergy, in which, among 
other things, they promifed to keep the 
regilter-bcok in a preper manner. 
The canons of the church of England, 
which are now in force, date their au- 
thority from the beginning cf the reign 
of James I. (Anno 1603). One of them 
preferibes very minutely in what manner 
entries are to be made in the parifh-regif- 
ters: herein reciting the injunéction of 
1538, and ordering an attelted copy of 
the regifler of each fucceilive year to be 
annually tranfmitted to the Bifhop of the 
diocefe or his chancellor, and to be pre- 
feived in the {aid bifhop’s regiftry. 
This canon alfo contains a retrofpective 
claufe, appointing that the ancient rezif- 
ters, fo far as they could be procured, but 
efpecially fince the beginning of the reign 
of Elizabeth, fhould be copied into a 
parchment book, to be provided by every 
parifh. This wife regulation was fo well 
obeyed, that moft of the ancient parifh 
regifiers now extant, commence with that 
The Population AB. 
311 
Queen’s reign, and fome of them earlier, 
quite as far back as the date of the original 
injunction, 
That part of the canon which direéts 
the regifter-book to be kept in a coffer 
in the church, 1s not enforced, as it was 
found by experience that the book was 
liable to be damaged by the moifture pre- 
vaient in uninhabited buildings, and alfo 
to be purloined with the other contents of 
the church coffer. The regi{ter-book is 
at prefent ufually kept in cuftody of the 
officiating minifter, at his own houle. 
Many weonveniences having arifen 
from the undue folemnization and regiitry 
of marriages, an act was pafled in the 26 
Geo. II, which dire&is a certain formula 
for the regifiry of marriages, to be at- 
tefted and figned by the minifter officia- 
ting, the perfons married, and two or 
more witnefies; and declares any erafure 
or mutilation of the marriage-regifter, or 
any falle entry therein, to be felony ‘with- 
out beneft of clergy, which implies a ca. 
pital offence ; nor cana marriage be le- 
gaily folemmized in any chapel confecrated 
fince this law was made. | 
This Marriage Aét was not in force 
until the 25th March, 1754, fo that little 
more than 3-4ths of the full number of 
marriages in that year could be brought to 
account under the Popolation A&. 
In England and Wales the regifters of 
baptiims and burials were found to be 
ina ftate fufficiently correét for any ge- . 
neral purpofe ; but as the injunctions of 
Henry VIII. and his fucceflors, and the 
fubfequent canon law do not extend to the 
charch of Scotland, it is not furprifing 
that few correct regilters are to be found in 
that country, 
Even the MarriageA&t above-mentioned 
‘docs not extend to Scotland, and the regif 
try of marriages there (till remains at the 
diicretion of the perfons married, and con- 
fequently is very irregular. 
Concerning the Regifiry of Marriages. 
The folicitude of the female and her 
kindred, aided by the precifion and feverity 
of the Marriage Adt, leaves no occafion 
to fufpect any deficiency in the marriage 
regiltry from negligence; and the deficiency 
from other caules canaot be very impor- 
tant. , 
Some few perfons are known to evade 
the provifions of the marriage aét by a 
marriage in Scotland ; but the regiftry of 
marriages in England is not .much affec- 
ted thereby, becaufe the kindred of the 
* See Parifh Regifter Abftradt, p. 458. 
7 ; femal 
cmalé 
