Hi all
seen this, I to was puzzled by the woolen thing, till I read this,
Shropshire: Condover - Parish Registers, Lichfield Diocese
Note to the Reader.
The sixth volume of the Registers of Lichfield diocese is now completed, and, as may be seen, is confined entirely to the long register of Condover.
Readers of this volume may be interested in a few facts connected with the history of parish registers in England.
The first order for keeping parish registers was issued by Thomas Cromwell, under Henry 8th, on 29 Sep 1538 , as is noted on the flyleaf of the first volume of those of Condover (vide p. 198). Cromwell's injunctions were repeated in 1552 and 1558 , and in this latter year were generally obeyed. Cardinal Pole, in 1555 , required the names of sponsors to be given in the register of baptisms, but this order was only occasionally complied with. The register of Frodesley, which begins in 1547 , does not contain a single instance of the addition during the sixteenth century, and Condover has only one or two in the seventeenth (v. p. 60). Selattyn obeyed the injunction, as did a few other Shropshire parishes.
On 25 Oct 1597 , copies on parchment were ordered to be made from the original paper-books, and the copies, known as "Bishops' Transcripts," to be sent to the bishops. These regulations were embodied in the 70th canon in 1603. The order was acted on at Condover apparently in 1613 (v. p. 198).
The Commonwealth introduced several changes with regard to registers. In 1644 births as well as baptisms were ordered to be entered, and in 1653 a "parish register" (or "registrar" as we should call him) was to be appointed to keep the registers. Condover seems to have quietly disregarded both these injunctions, as there is no trace in the registers of either. From 1656 to 1670 the entries are made by various hands, several decidedly illiterate, which seems to show that the vicar wasnon-resident (v. p. 110). In 1654 marriages were ordered to take place before a magistrate, and the banns not necessarily given out in church, but except on p. 111 there is no trace of this at Condover, unless it may account for the very few marriage entries at that period.
In 1667 an Act was passed in the interest of the woollen trade, ordering all bodies to be buried in woollen under a penalty of 50s., and in 1678 an affidavit that such had been the case was ordered to be given within seven days of a burial.
Between 1694 and 1698 a duty was imposed on the registration of births, marriages, and burials, and again between 1783 and 1794 (v. p. 301). In connection with this, it is well to note that the word "pauper" added to an entry simply means exemption from this tax.
In 1754 a new regulation came in with regard to marriage registers, which were ordered to be kept in a separate book, and more fully entered than had formerly been the case (v. p. 350).
In 1751 the civil year, which had been dated from the 25 Mar , was ordered to be calculated from the 01 Jan , the beginning of the historical year. Before 1751 it is not unusual to find two dates given for the period between 01 Jan and 25 Mar , as according to the one reckoning they were the last three months of the year, and according to the other the first three. This double date is not often given in the Condover Registers, but it occurs on p. 228, in 1743 , after which date the year is given by Mr. Podmore as beginning on 01 Jan.
New regulations as to the form of keeping registers came in force in 1813 , and hence 1812 has been chosen as the conclusion of the volumes of printed registers issued by the Shropshire Parish Register Society. Civil registration dates from 1837 , so before that date parish registers supply many items of information not to be found elsewhere.
The cost of printing this volume with its index has amounted to about £75, half of which has been borne by the Society, the other half being the generous gift of the Rev. Prebendary Auden, the present vicar of
