General Chat

Our local authority has just released more early parish records of church attendance as well as some baptisms, marriages and burials. There are some quite hilarious statements in baptism registers. - the like of which I am sure everyone will have come across when searching parish records.

Attendance records are good as they make up a sort of early census, eg:

1612 - (name) Parish stall 5 next to pulpit.

1638 - (name) Parish stall 5 North Side.

Someone has been very busy methinks. I, for one, am grateful.

Oooh - personalised church seating - there's posh! :-D :-D :-D

Having said that, my great x 4 grandad (pictured) had his own seat in Romsey Abbey -
but that was only because he was too big to sit in a normal pew. :-S

Lots of (better off?) folk had their own pews which they would have paid for. Some old Churches have pews with doors and the family name on it.
Great if it's a name you are looking for, not any of mine I doubt.

Wonderful information, Maggie, and it It was an agricultural village parish, not the cathedral.

Some priests were more diligent than others - but that sometimes depended on the area's bishop insisting on more than the bare bones when recording information. A cousin pointed out to me the difference in recording as bishops changed a few years ago - it was noticeable in the parish records we were viewing at the time but I am sorry to say that I had not realised that, even though it was hard to miss.

Reading further it seems that the records show ALL (not just the wealthy) of the parishioners' seats in 1612 and 1638 - but mostly with only the names of male head of house unless the head was female.

Still indicative of numbers in parish particularly when viewed alongside births and marriages to gauge numbers in households.

Lovely for folk with ancestors living there then. Alas, I am not one of them.

G x 4 grandad only went to the Abbey because it was the nearest church!
He was also buried there, as, at the time, it was the nearest burial ground.

"The corpse was removed from his house on Friday last, a large opening having been made in the wall below the bedroom window, so as to let out the coffin, which was an immense size, slide down some planks with ropes. It was conveyed to the grave on a truck drawn by a number of men, followed by family and friends and it is supposed that there were about 2,000 people at his funeral. So much time was necessarily employed in removing his body from the house that the Turnpike Road was completely blocked up and the 'Rocket' coach and other vehicles were obliged to go up a back lane."
(a 'truck'
However, after he was buried, a new burial ground was established on the outskirts of Romsey. Later on (about the 1960's) all the 'commoner's gravestones in Romsey Abbey graveyard were removed and used as a path.
Years ago, I found his stone - it was just legible.
When I went to ask one of the Abbey guides if there was a plan showing where he'd actually been buried, I was told he 'Wouldn't have been buried at the Abbey, as he was a commoner'!
I asked, if this was the case, why was his headstone in the grounds?. She couldn't answer - she only knew what she'd been told.:-| :-|

Early parish records are great if the cleric is a bit more forthcoming with recording information.
I have looked at local records for other GR members and remember one particular parish where the vicar must have quizzed all the young women, who brought a child for baptism. Although the mother was recorded as a single woman, as was the case at that time, every child, without exception had a record of the purported father, who was also named.

Lots of those box pews still in evidence in churches on Romney Marsh on the Kent / Sussex border. It felt like sitting in a family playpen, when I attended a service in one once.

Some of our clerics were more forthcoming - that, or the bishop of the time was strict!

Some incumbents wrote a potted history of a particular event.

One entry from the Baptism Register of one of our county's parish churches:

'(1671) ....., daughter of MW (wife of .....) being Whitson Monday. Her husband disowned the child and she (as it is reported) will by noe means declare the name of the father.'

The local gossips must have had a field day but there's some wonderful information recorded.

Original parish records can be a gold mine of information. My gt.gt. grandparents were the only people to have their children baptised on the same day in a small village. However, both were with their respective husband and wife at the time. This was in 1805. Two years later their first daughter was baptised nearby. The mother's name was her married name but no father was recorded. They moved and went on to have more children. Without the sighting of them together in 1805 I could never have been sure that I had the right couple.

A wonderful example of box pews can be viewed on line at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York. In better times well worth a visit - such a peaceful setting so near a very crowded street.