Page:A transcript of the first volume, 1538-1636, of the parish register of Chesham in the county of Buckingham.djvu/14

 a very imaginative mind to read an occasional tragedy between the lines of these simple entries.

In some years the burials are noticeably much more numerous than in others. In a few instances, several members of the same family seem to have died within a very short time of one another, which suggests the prevalence of some epidemic disease, probably the plague or, towards the end of the period. the small-pox, but there is no mention of this or of any other cause of exceptional mortality; nor do the years when the greatest number of deaths occurred at Chesham coincide with those in which the plague is known to have been especially fatal in London.

That Chesham was generally a very healthy place during the century covered by this volume of the Register may be assumed from the large excess of baptisms over burials. This on the whole period was 46 per cent., and in many years it was at the rate of more than 100 per cent. In 1580. 1581, and 1604 the burials numbered less than one-third of the baptisms. Towards the end of the period, the proportion of baptisms to burials shows some decline.

A considerable number of the persons named are described by mention of their places of residence or their occupations. This was probably done in most cases only for the purpose of distinguishing the persons referred to from others of the same name, and the descriptions are therefore very incomplete. But even partial information as to local nomenclature, and as to the industries of the town at the time may be presumed to have some interest, and I give in Appendices IV. and V. complete lists of all the place-names and all the occupations that are mentioned. In the latter case, I have added the number of persons to whom each occupation seems to be ascribed, but the numbers may not be strictly accurate, because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between persons of the same name-as father and son, for instance-engaged in the same occupation at or about the same time. And it must be borne in mind that, as the great majority of persons are not described at all, these numbers afford a merely conjectural basis on which to estimate the comparative prevalence of the several callings to which they relate.

Setting aside servants and labourers, who together constitute probably the majority of all the persons described, shoemakers seem to have been then, as now, the most numerous class of the community. They doubtless obtained their leather from the local tanners and curriers. Large quantities of material from the same source were probably consumed also by the glovers, who in those times used leather for making not only gloves, but also many other articles of dress or personal utility, such as shirts, breeches and leggings, bags, purses and the like. There were in Chesham 300 years ago many of this trade, but it has long been extinct in the district. Next to the shoemakers, in numerical order, come the weavers and the tailors. Cloth was one of the most important manufactures of Chesham at the time, and the tailors no doubt found it advantageous to settle where they could procure and make up on the spot the materials required for the supply of the London market. No cloth is made in the neighbourhood now, and the only tailors are those who meet the purely local wants. The wheelers, or wheelwrights, are frequently mentioned. Their