Page:A transcript of the first volume, 1538-1636, of the parish register of Chesham in the county of Buckingham.djvu/21

 at Bellingdon. The latter was pulled down before 1766. The former seems to have been occupied as a lay residence as lately as 1793. There is some ground for the conjecture that soon afterwards, having become too dilapidated to live in, it was used for a time as a substitute for a tithe-barn. The remains of the building disappeared long ago.

The former holding of the benefice in medieties probably explains a peculiarity in this volume of the Register. For the years 1630, 1632, 1634-1636, during which time two vicars were in office, the entries are written in two distinct hands. The writer of the first entries of each month in these years appears to have left space for the completion of the record for that month by a collaborator-a space which in some cases was insufficient, so that the second writer had to put his final entries in the margin. It would seem that at this period the vicars, or, possibly, their respective clerks, severally posted up the Register at different times.

In this connexion, it may be noticed that of six parish-cierks who are named in the book, five are described either as clerk of Chesham Leicester or as clerk of Chesham Woburn; whence it may be inferred that there were usually two clerks in office, one of whom was attached to each of the vicarages. This would seem to have been the case even when both vicarages were held by the same minister.

The contents of some of the appendices have been already mentioned. In others will be found a list of the vicars of Chesham Leicester and Chesham Woburn for the period covered by the volume; a list of the churchwardens whose names occur; and a list of entries in which no surnames are stated.

The Index records all the occurrences of every name, the total number of references being not far short of 20,000. The variants of surnames are given with them, and forms which differ much from their respective head-words are also entered in their own alphabetical order, with cross-references. Crossreferences have likewise been added in all other cases in which they seemed needed for the guidance of searchers.

In the trimming of the leaves of the Register in the process of re-binding, a few names at the foot of pages were cut through. Two such entries are almost wholly excised, but enough remains of the others to make them decipherable with the probability of correctness. A very few names are not clearly legible by reason of fading of the ink, or bad or blotted writing, or some defect in the parchment. All these cases are noticed in the transcript where they occur.

In some places where words begin with the letters d, k, l, m, n, w, it is difficult to determine whether they were intended for capitals or small letters. I have been obliged to use my own judgment as to the form in which they should be entered in the transcript, and I cannot hope to have altogether avoided error and inconsistency.

With the exceptions to which the foregoing remarks relate, I venture to think that this transcript may be taken as a correct verbatim et literatim reproduction of the Register for the period.

In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Rev. Charles Eustace Boultbee, M.A., Vicar of Chesham, for his kindness in facilitating my work by giving me the