Daughter and granddaughter have returned to their home. Peace, Quiet and Calm have re-emerged from the corners whence they hid. Good Order has finished chasing her capricious sister Dis around the house and they now sit at either end of the settee, on the arms, eying each other like a pair of wary cats on a fence waiting to see who first blinks. Lego, crayons, pencils, tissues, dolls’ clothes and various other items of craft material have been rescued from beneath feet, chairs, tables, stools, sofas, beds and stored away ready for the next visit. The Study chair is back at its correct height, and the computer screens back in their proper orientation; Rootschat is now available on a screen suitable for reading properly.
First, it was never my intention to mislead. As I posted originally, the original baptism I was investigating was for 1702, but wary of copyright infringements, I only clipped a small section of the page to illustrate my question.
To Andrew, I was intrigued by djm297’s post in reference to planetary hours, and as the table on Wikipedia referred to in his post used the same symbols, it seemed plausible that the planetary hour symbols may be related to those on the PR entries.
However, I think we can finally put this mystery to bed. I have since heard from an Adel historian, Val Crompton, that
in 1685, one Thomas Kirke of Cookridge Hall (1650-1706), undertook to take 'better care of the registers'. He wrote out a system for keeping them more orderly (including a symbol for each weekday) and helped the Parish Clerk, Joseph Athey, write up the entries. Ref. Rector Draper writing in 1908, p103 of 'Adel and its Norman Church'.
I have found an online copy of the book, and the relevant passage is:
Dr. Whitaker writing in 1816, when he issued the second edition of the “ Ducatus,” writes : “That the wood so celebrated a century ago has happily relapsed into something approaching its primeval state, the silva pastura of Domesday.” But we at the present day may be allowed a little pleasure in the thought that even now, more than 200 years after Thomas Kirke’s decease, we are still able to see the traces of that stone border round his oval ‘center,’ which used to give him so much pleasure, and where he and his numerous friends would often stand and gaze down the many vistas which his skill had contrived.
He must have been a man of many interests and fine capacity, for besides the cares of family he spent minute pains on copying the ill - written Registers, filling up gaps in them from the pocket - book of John Oglethorpe ( Parish Clerk, buried 1673 ), which he says, “I mett with in the hands of Will. Tate, of Addle ( 1702 ).” So zealous was he for the better care of the Registers that he himself wrote out a system for keeping them ‘more orderly,’ and for a time undertook to help Joseph Athey, who was ‘clark,’ and of whom he says:--
“The Third Book begins in May 1680, by Joseph Athey, Clark, wch is very ill performed : A very bad hand, uncertain figures, & ill method. In the year 1685 I undertooke to put itt in A better method, and writt part of it myselfe, but hee woud mix with me, soe I left it off. — T. K. ”
In a previous note of his about the same subject he had said :
“ In Aprill comes in a pretty little hand ( perhaps Mr . Clarkson' s ), but itt is but in some pages, yº rest are mixed with differing hands ; ye last of the small hand is in 1650. After yt a very bad hand finishes ye book about ye year 1654 - 5.”
These notes reveal the man himself and are all of a piece with the orderly mind and the kindly heart of him who laid out his woods and invited his friends and even stray travellers to enjoy them with him.
Val also sent an image from what I assume is a transcription of the Adel PRs. Therefore, notwitstanding the apparent errors as identified by previous contributors to this thread, the symbols refer to days.
May I once again thank all those taking the time and effort to contribute to this thread, it made extremely interesting reading, and much to my dear wife's consternation, set me off on yet another research trail.
