Marriage Witnesses.
I liked Janis's term " Frequent Flyers" to refer to the folk who frequently stood in as witnesses. Much better than my own term of " Serial Wits".
Been able to write was not a requirement to standing as a witness... many just made their "mark" of "X".
But we cannot think of a parish/parish church of just been staffed by a vicar and with or without a curate, to do religious services.
Parishes on top of the religious requirements, were also admin centres (before local authorities were created), to handle many aspects of local life...
e.g. the parish rate, security, support of the poor, maintenance of highways, a representative on the board of the Workhouse Union ("Union" of Parishes ! ), later on, a rep on the committee that were responsible for civil cemeteries ( although civil cemeteries were civil... the task of running them was given to groups Church of England parishes.
So each parish might have a staff of officials to look after all this admin...some paid, some volunteers.. and also help out at weddings.....enough already.
(The above is a crude summary that does not do justice to the sophistication and complexities of the typical English Parish)
Michael Dixon
