ESAH Archives: S/LIB/9/50

Essex Society for Archaeology and History

Archives

S/LIB/9/…

Research Papers

This class of books and papers do not relate directly to the history of the Society but have been deposited by members or their beneficiaries.  The index is being made publicly available for the first time.  We welcome enquiries from members of the Society.

S/LIB/9/50

Parish Register Transcripts and Indexes

Now superseded in this county by Essex Ancestors, the Essex Archaeological Society engaged in a number of projects to transcribe Parish Registers, including its early survey of 1858 (S/SEC/4/1), the work by Sperling during the 1930s to transcribe Marriage Registers, and Peter Boyden’s work in the 1970s to catalogue the Society’s holdings of Parish Registers etc in Hollytrees Library.  We must remember that, until Registers were deposited in the Essex Record Office in the mid twentieth century, these documents were kept in the church safe and could usually only be viewed with the permission of the parish incumbent.

The collection has been collated into a box.

Contents:

1.       Three photocopied sheets listing availability of Parish Registers in Essex.  ‘Essex Arch Soc’ mentioned many times.

2.       Single sheet, Extract from Halsbury ‘Laws of England’ (Vol 13, 1955 edition) setting out ecclesiastical law regarding the searching of Parish Registers

3.       Alphabetical list of parishes and independent townships, etc, in Essex, circa 1400-1881, pp4, typed, with note, “5/9/68 from Mr Newton ERO. This list is still used and not been superceded”

4.       ‘Colchester Church Registers in the care of the Vicar of St Botolph’s’, pp1, date stamped “24 Jan 1972”

5.       Red booklet.  ‘List of Copies of the Parish Registers of Essex’.  1930s.  An alphabetical list of registers “in the Library of the Essex Archaeological Society, at Holly Trees, Colchester”.  Includes a letter from CFD Sperling, Ballingdon Hall, dated 24 Oct 1935: “ I send herewith for the Essex Arch Soc the following [14] marriage Register transcripts”.

6.       Green booklet. “Essex Archaeological Society. Its manuscript collection of Parish Registers & Monumental Inscription Transcripts, at Hollytrees, Colchester”. “J. B.-B. 9-8-[19]78”  Alphabetical list by parish.

7.       Parish Register Transcripts. Shelf List. pp20

8.       Parish Registers, listed alphabetically by parish, on computer paper. 1970s?

9.       Envelope containing the work of CFD Sperling and C Partridge in obtaining transcription of Parish Registers.  Includes (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!

10.   Envelope.  Peter Boyden’s draft of “the first attempt to publish a detailed listing to the Society’s collection of transcripts”.  MS on scrap paper, c1978.

11.   Parish Registers transcript – Layer-de-la-Haye.  Typed, crudely stapled onto scrap paper (1) Baptisms, Vol. 1 1767-1812, pp8 (as ERO D/P 255/1/1); Marriages, Vol. 2, 1755-1812, pp5 (as ERO D/P 255/1/2); Burials,Vol. 1, 1767-1812 (as ERO D/P 255/1/1)

12.   Parish Register transcript – Tarring, Sussex. Typed, pp5. Extract covers BMD 1676-1680 including, 1678, “burials to be in woollen. An Affidavit had to be sworn before a Parson, Vicar, Curate and brought within 8 days of burial. This Act was passed in order to encourage the woollen and paper industry, but it was found to act prejudicially, and was subsequently withdrawn”. Burials in the Register are noted “flannell”.

13.   Parish Register transcript – Great Wakering Congregational Church. Baptisms 1849-1873, Marriages 1851-1902, MIs 1822-1945. (indexed). Transcribed and copied by Gwendoline M Rawlingson 1980 for the Essex Society For Family History

14.   The Monumental Inscriptions in the Churchyard of Ridlington Church, Norfolk. Transcribed by R & P Jellis. Published in 1981 by Ronald Jellis

15.   Parish Registers transcript – Great Bardfield. Transcribed and Indexed by Jack H Baxter, 1975. (1) Baptisms 1813-1846 (as ERO D/P 67/1/6); Burials 1813-1859 (as ERO D/P 67/1/8); Baptisms 1847-1876 (as ERO D/P 67/1/10).