Page:A transcript of the first volume, 1538-1636, of the parish register of Chesham in the county of Buckingham.djvu/13

 there is a presumption in favour of the transcript. I have carefully collated all the readings, and the noteworthy discrepancies are indicated where they occur.

The ordinance of 1597 required each page of the new registers to be authenticated by the signatures of the minister and churchwardens, but this has not been done anywhere in the book under notice.

There are a few gaps here and there in the early years, but the only great omission is that of the records during the reign of Queen Mary. This omission is mentioned in the last pre- fatory note, and again where the break occurs in the baptisms, and a reason for it is suggested in both places; but it is not unlikely that the change in the national religion at the time had more to do with the discontinuity than anything else. It will be noticed that in the list of burials the year 1557 occurs in the margin, with at least one entry ascribed to that year: other entries follow with no other year stated, but it seems probable that they belong to 1558 or 1559, and were subsequent to Queen Mary's death.

The dates of the marriages and burials are denoted by the years of the reigning sovereign up to the end of Edward VI. I have entered the annus Domini in brackets for convenience of reference.

In some places the year seems to have been wrongly stated, perhaps by mistake of the copyist. I have entered in brackets what may be assumed to be the right figures, after those that appear to be erroneous.

In regard to the dates, it must be borne in mind that the old style, under which the legal year began on March 25th, obtained throughout the period. The usage was not invariable, however, and the transcriber of 1598 treated the years 1560-1572, among the marriages, and 1561 and 1562, among the burials, as beginning on January 1st. For the sake of uniformity, I have indicated the beginning of these years according to the old style by figures in brackets.

In several entries it is stated that the baptism, marriage or burial took place in another parish. The words "by leave"or "by my consent" are added in some of these cases; and two children are said to have been baptized at Berkhamsted "without my consent." The ceremonies to which such entries relate were in ordinary course recorded in the registers of the parishes in which they were performed, as well as in that of Chesham. In like manner, baptisms, marriages and burials at Chesham of persons belonging to other parishes are frequently found recorded in the registers of those parishes.

Among the persons buried, a considerable number of "nurse-children" from London are mentioned. This illustrates a curious difference in the family relations of the time from those which now prevail. Children received little attention at home, and were generally sent away as soon as possible to spend their early years elsewhere. Londoners who could afford it put them out at nurse with people in the country, ostensibly for the sake of the benefit supposed to be derivable from country air. But that so many of these children should die away from their parents and be buried unnamed, affords ground for conjecture as to the real motives which prompted the sending of them to a place so far from London and so out of the way as Chesham was; and it does not require