BTs, Parish records, gaps etc. 1583-1700 (Announce)

by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Thursday, February 21, 2008, 22:14 (6118 days ago) @ grahamdavison

Parish registers were started in England in 1538 when Thomas Cromwell, Vicar General to Henry VIII, ordered that clergy should keep written records of all baptisms, marriages, and burials. Up to that date some clergy had recorded events relating to nobility and the wealthy. Cromwell's order required that they keep records for all the people .The Clergy were not happy with this request since they were not paid to keep these records. As a result many either did not comply with Cromwell's order or only sporadically recorded such events.

In 1598 The Provisional Constitution of Canterbury required that all parish registers should be recorded on parchment. This meant that all earlier recorded events had to be copied into the new registers. (previous events had often been written on scraps of paper or in paper registers). Many of the earlier entries that had been recorded on paper were unreadable due to dampness, poor storage or general decay. In many parishes the earlier registers either have not survived in any form or were not transcribed at the time into the registers made of parchment. In some parishes the clergy decided to ignore the earlier records and start at the beginning of Elizabeth I reign. She was on the throne in 1598 and her reign had started in 1558.

As well as the parchment requirement from 1598 each parish was also required to send annual returns to the Bishop responsible for the parish. These returns had to be a complete copy of the previous year's parish register entries. These copies are normally referred to as the 'Bishop Transcripts'or BT's. A few parishes were already submitting copies to their Bishop. As with any 'copy' the accuracy of the transcript can be variable. It can be seen that this was an attempt to make sure the records were being kept and that a 'safe' copy was available if the originals were lost or destroyed. Sometimes Bishop Transcripts can fill in gaps where the parish register entries are missing .

In 1649 following the execution of Charles I an English republic was established. This period from 1649 to 1653 is normally referred to as the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth proper ended in 1653 when Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate was established. Normally there are large gaps in the parish records during this period and weeke was no exception to this. Oliver Cromwell intended to remedy the poor record keeping in parish registers by placing responsibility for the records in the hands of appointed officers called 'Parish Registers'. The records they collected were referred to as Civil Registers but many do not survive .

After Charles II was returned to the throne in 1660 the 'Parish Registers' were dismissed (some of them became parish clerks). Restored clergy in some areas confiscated the Civil Registers and destroyed them. Other clergy simply went round the parish writing down the events by asking the parishioners to remember what had happened in previous years.

Marriages during the period before restoration of Charles II were not allowed to be in church. A plan to marry could be announced at the Market Cross or the couple could go to a Justice of the Peace to be legally married. Many couples did not like this arrangement and secretly went to church to be married if the clergy managed to stay in office.

After the Restoration marriages recorded in front of a Justice of the Peace were just retrospectively legalised. Some clergy simply refused such blasphemy and either forced a second marriage in church or branded the children as illegitimate. This can often explain the rise in the number of aliases appearing in some registers. The clergy simply recorded both the father's and mother's name.

In 1667 and 1668 legislation was passed by Parliament that all burials should be in woollen shrouds. The purpose of this Act was to help the wool trade in England. An affidavit had to be made (usually in front of a Justice of the Peace) by someone of standing in the community that the burial had been made in wool. The Act was not finally repealed until 1814

In 1694 a tax was introduced on every birth, marriage and burial. This required, for example, that all births should be notified to the clergy within 5 days and the clergy were to receive a fee for recording the birth. This tax resulted in some entries not being recorded in the parish records either because the parents could not afford the tax or to avoid it. Occasionally entries would record the family were paupers and could not pay the tax. As can be expected this tax was short lived.

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>