Online historical research is
an almost expected feature of our digital age.
In recent years the Essex Record Office, in its role as Diocesan
archivist, has made available by subscription the collection of Essex parish
registers. No longer is it necessary to
go to the search room to view microfilm copies.
Technology moves along as does the availability of these records.
When the Essex Archaeological
Society was formed in 1852, one of its earliest projects was to establish the extent
of registers in individual parishes. In
a letter to clergymen dated 25 October 1858, Edward Cutts, Honorary Secretary,
circulated “a paper of Queries, drawn up by members to indicate the points of
interest … [which] will not only be carefully indexed and treasured among the
Society’s papers … but … digested by him into a general paper on the Parish
Registers of the County.” Twenty three
questions were asked.
Within tightly wrapped brown
paper tied firmly with string I found what our Archives Catalogue describes as,
“Collection of returned forms for the Society's parish register survey 1858:
Short returns from Chingford, Colchester St Peter, White Colne, Fairstead,
Frating (and Thorrington), Castle Hedingham, Herongate, Hutton, Latchingdon,
Manningtree, White Notley, Purleigh, Southminster, Stifford, Tendring, Wendon
Lofts (and Elmdon), Wicken Bonhunt, Wickham Bishops and Wickham St Pauls. Fuller returns from Bardfield Saling, Barking,
Belchamp Otten, Birdbrook, Little Burstead, Chadwell St Mary, Colchester St
Leonard, Cold Norton, Faulkbourne, East Hanningfield, Little Horkesley,
Lawford, Messing, Navestock, Roxwell, Thaxted, Theydon Garnon and Great Warley. Also included: copy of a letter from Morant
to the Lord of the Manor of Aldham on the history of the estate, 19 Apr
1763. 2 pages from the St James's
Gazette 5 Jan 1887 regarding the refusal of the tithe payers of Hatfield Broad
Oak to pay their tithes to Trinity College Cambridge. Rubbing of a brass at
Kirby-le-Soken to Rebekah Crease, died 1619, now (presumably) lost.” The latter
items have recently been published on our blog (S/SEC/4/1).
The opening question to
clergymen was the year in which Parish Registers commenced. I compared the returns to ‘The Atlas and Index of Parish
Registers’ (2003) by Humphrey-Smith. All
the earliest dates corresponded which indicated that the Society is not sitting
on a unique record of lost ledgers. That
is not to suggest that these documents are obsolete. The returns give insight into the study of such
things as baptism of Puritan children, proclamation of marriages in
Market-places, “interments specially described as with a coffin, without a
coffin; with a sermon …”, Certificates of Burial in woollen (the topic of a
recent article in Essex Journal), notes of Inductions to supplement “Newcourt’s
Repertorium is often incomplete, especially about the period of the Great
Rebellion, “extracts of events relating to local or general history”. The great storm of 26 November 1703 is
recorded at Purleigh which “layd naked most peoples dwelling houses,
Barns, Stables & all other houses“. A two-month long frost in 1683 is recorded at
Cold Norton “so violent that several people for several days went
backwards and forwards over Fambridge Ferry upon the ice”. The Register at Messing records
the “Provisions and other accomodations for the Army under his Excellency the
Lord Fairfax” during the siege of Colchester in 1648. Other than notes on the registers of Barking
(published in the Transactions, Old Series, Volume II) a general digest was not
produced. Perhaps the survey did not
produce a sufficiently comprehensive record of the county.
At the turn of the twentieth
century we see the efforts of local historians in gaining access to records in
church safes. C F D Sperling included
some parish register transcripts in his manuscript books (S/LIB/9/1-7) and a
note book dedicated to the topic (S/LIB/9/15).
J L Glasscock’s manuscript notebook ‘Notes and gleanings from various
places in Herts and Essex’ (S/LIB/9/28) mentions in 1903 that at Little Dunmow,
“My friend Mr Hastings Worrin of Priory Lodge Little Dunmow kindly invited me …
& shewed me the Parish Reg. from which I made … extracts.” There are many
other examples. “Revd J Monk [Henham,
1906] allowed me to inspect the 1st Vol of Register which contains
Bap. Mar. Bur. 1539 to 1741.” Glasscock also
mentions the “Sheering Book of Rates and Accounts 1680. This old book was
offered for sale to me (May 1914) & I was instrumental in getting its
returned (by a payment from the Rector of Sheering to the owner) to its proper
place the Church Chest of Sheering.” He then goes on to describe its
content. It is now preserved in the
Essex Record Office.
By the 1930s many members of
the Society had been engaged in making transcripts of Parish Registers.
Our archives include an
envelope containing the work of C F D Sperling and C Partridge in obtaining
transcription of Parish Registers (S/LIB/9/50/9). This contains: (1) Church Registers
Marriages. Alphabetical list compiled by Sperling; (2) Letter from Henry,
Bishop of Chelmsford, Bishopscourt, Chelmsford, dated 2.3.1932: “I am quite
willing to give you permission to borrow the Registers of any parish in this
Diocese, and I authorise the Incumbent to lend them to you for the purpose of
copying them”; (3) Letter from Bishop of Barking, dated 26.9.1931; (4) Letter
from A J Parry from St Peter’s Vicarage, Upton Cross, E7 to the Bishop, dated
7.7.1931; (5) Letter from Wanstead Rectory to the Bishop, 1.7.1931; (6) Letter
from Little Yeldham Rectory to Revd Alfred Young, dated 2.7.1931; (7) Letter
from Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich to Sperling, dated 14.2.1931: “As
requested by Mr Charles Partridge I hereby authorise you to borrow the
registers of any parish in this Diocese”; (8) Notes on Parish Registers
transcribed by C Partridge including a list of 12 refusals by clergy. This
includes Great Bentley: “Bentley Magna.
After correspondence, & after calling several times, I at last found
the Vicar at home – Rev G Colley. He has a transcript from 1558 to (I think)
1717, made by a former vicar. He showed
it to me, but refused to lend it on the ground that our work is “utterly
useless”. He said “You would be better using your time in digging potatoes, or
in working as I do – preaching the Gospel”!
He is quite impossible, an awful bounder, & was so impertinent that
I walked out of the vicarage. I wouldn’t go again should he beg me to go. I
leave him to you and the Bishop!”
In the 1950s there was a surge
in enquiries to the Society from family historians. The Society has a large number of in-letters
to our Secretary. The Essex Record
Office noticed this too and commented in one of their letters (S/SEC/7/4).
These transcripts became a
matter of controversy when forty years later the Essex Record Office was
granted permission to make microfilm copies.
A Mr Whitehead, one the transcribers, objected strongly to copies of his
work being undertaken (S/LIB/7/2). In
the late 1970s Hon Librarian Peter Boyden produced a catalogue of transcripts
held in the Society’s Library (S/ARC/1/1).
The documents have since been deposited at the Essex Record Office.
Parish Registers are the
bedrock for research. One such example
is the essay written for the Third Series, Volume 4, of Transactions (1972):
‘The Plague in Colchester 1579-1666’ by I G Doolittle. “On the basis of an analysis of the
parish registers of St Leonards, St Marys, and St Peters and borough records,
mortality of epidemic proportions seems to have occurred in the
following years: 1579, 1586:, 1597, 1603, 1626, 1631, 1644, and 1665-6.” The volume has recently been digitised by the
Society making retrieval very simple.
The Victorian Parish Register
return to the Society for St Leonards Colchester is silent regarding the
plague. At Barking, “periods of great
mortality” were “1593, 1603, 1625, 1665, 1666, 1729. In these years the
mortality was double the average, or thereabouts: except 1603 by far the most
fatal year, & in which there was more than 3 times the average.” This illustrates the inconsistent reporting
and perhaps why a digest was never produced.
However the exercise was probably the first ever attempt to capture data
on the subject.
Our long history reflects
changes in local history and genealogical research. Today facsimile copies of registers are
available online through Essex Ancestors and some have been cheeky enough to
transcribe them and make them freely available on the Internet. This represents a democratisation of archives
which would make the Rector of Great Bentley revolve in his grave. But as an amateur, under no pressure to
create databases and meet dissertation deadlines, I quite like these brown
paper packages tied up with string.
These are a few of my favourite things.
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