Page:A transcript of the first volume, 1538-1636, of the parish register of Chesham in the county of Buckingham.djvu/10

 or, possibly, through entries in family or local records having been copied into the register. Very few, however, of the old registers are complete. And very few contain original entries prior to the year 1597; for Convocation then made an ordinance, confirmed in 1603, and on each occasion ratified under the great seal, requiring every parish to provide itself with a parchment book, into which the entries in the old paper books were to be fairly and legibly transcribed, authenticated on each page by the signatures of the minister and churchwardens. Almost all the records of years earlier than 1597 are, therefore, transcripts made at that time, or in 1603, and this fact is notified in many of the registers.

The ordinance required a copy of the entries of each year to be sent to the bishop of the diocese, for preservation in the diocesan registry. An order to the same effect appears, however, to have been issued previously, for transcripts of much earlier date than 1597 are found in some of the registries. Such transcripts have the advantage over the copied registers of being contemporary records. Unfortunately, this important provision against loss or falsification of the registers was somewhat negligently observed; and, what with default in making the returns, lack of suitable accommodation at the registries, and carelessness of custodians, few, if any, complete bishop's transcripts now exist in a readable condition.

Other noteworthy enactments made as to the keeping of registers between 1538 and 1812, when the first of the Registration Acts now in force was passed, were the following, most of them being of a temporary character:―(1) From 1555 to 1558, the names of sponsors were required to be stated in the baptismal entries; a provision which was of course an essential feature in Spanish registration, but which in England was only partially insisted upon, even during the short time it was obligatory by law. (2) As the result of an ordinance of 1644, the date of birth was for some years stated, as well as that of baptism. (3) During the Protectorate, laymen were appointed in place of the clergy as registrars,—or "registers," as they were then called; and marriages were solemnized before Justices of the Peace. (4) In 1678, an act was passed requiring ministers to notify in the register the receipt within eight days of each burial of an affidavit certifying that the corpse had been wrapped in sheep's wool, in accordance with a law to that effect passed in 1666 for the encouragement of the woollen manufactures of the country. (5) A tax was imposed in 1694, and again in 1783, upon marriages, births and burials, as entered in the registers. (6) In 1753, an act was passed making it felony to destroy or tamper with any register of marriage.

The parish of Chesham, or Great Chesham, so called to distinguish it from the adjoining parish of Chesham Bois, was, until lately divided, one of the largest in England; and, as far back as its records go, it seems to have been more populous than would be inferred from its secluded situation. But the manufacture of leather, leather goods, cloth, woodenware and lace, and the mills for which the river Chess has supplied motive-power since the time of the Domesday Survey, have from an early period drawn labour to the town, and made it more or less a centre of local business.