More about Church Records

Records of baptisms, marriages and burials have been kept from the earliest of times. However the survival rate for most of the earliest records is very low. In 1538, Thomas Cromwell, the chief minister of Henry VIII decreed that all baptisms, marriages and burials should be recorded. Unfortunately many of these early records were kept on loose sheets and few survive. In 1597 it was ordered that a parchment register should be used and that it was to be kept in a chest with two locks, one key to be kept by the parson the other to be kept by the churchwardens. Also copies should be sent once a year to the Bishops' Office (Bishops Transcripts). It was the responsibility of every priest to keep records however the amount of information actually recorded was left to his discretion. Baptisms, marriages and burials are often mixed up on the same page, many were written in Latin and the handwriting can be very difficult to decipher.

Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1754 was an attempt to prevent clandestine marriages. Until 1837 the only place a couple could be married was a parish church, unless they were Quakers or Jews. Marriages had to be performed by either obtaining a licence or by having banns called out on the three Sundays prior to the wedding. They had to be recorded in a separate book and in a prescribed form that is both bride and grooms full names are given, along with marital status, parish of residence and signature, further two witnesses had to sign. The names of parents were not recorded.

Following the passing of George Rose's Act of 1812 from 1st January 1813 entries of baptism, marriage and burial were entered into three separate register books that were printed to a standard form by the King's Printers. These registers had to be kept in a well-painted iron chest in a dry secure place either at the vicarage or in the church.

As well as the records of baptisms, burials, marriages and banns churches of all denominations keep and have kept various records according to the denomination and its governing rules which will list individuals of the parish/area such as lists of paupers, relief disbursed to the poor, parish apprentices, bastard children, militia substitutes, watchmen, settlement certificates and examinations, pews bought or rented, seat holders in the church, collection accounts, Sunday school attendees, membership lists, transfers from other chapels, names of, vicars, lay preachers, elders, wardens, and so on.