And more so! I used to live in Wigan, where the important town documents were kept in the Parish chest - a real, physical wooden chest. These documents included things like Court Leet reports, trials, accounts of fairs, even the Town Charters and a precious demand for recognition by the king of the pewterers Guild to have the power to search (for unfit pewter - like the silver assay office) For many years this chest was not properly locked. A 19th century historian, Sinclair, raged in his writings (From memory c 1870) that the chest was left open and locked so that any passing person could help him or herself to any of the documents, paper was expensive, and use them for writing shopping lists, memos, letters - anything they chose. I do not know if this state of affairs was corrected before or after this tirade. Around 30 years ago I read this in his book for myself. It is not an anecdotal remark on my part. Jean Wood > Message du 20/09/12 07:59 > De : [email protected] > A : [email protected] > Copie à : > Objet : Re: [B&S] Lesson learnt > > From: "Edie" > > > Maybe the more correct of the two between Parish Registers and Bishops > > transcript, would be the Parish Registers. Did you check the Banns > > as well should correspond with the Parish register, or License whichever way > > it went. I understand the Bishops transcripts could have been copied > > anytime up to a month after the event. < > > Edie > > Sometimes a year after the event! Particularly when some clerics were bone idle and didn't > get round to doing the BTs until they suddenly realised the Bishop or the Archdeacon would > be chasing them up and panicked. Or if they were really lazy they'd get the curate or parish > clerk to do it, which is why it is always worth checking both the registers and the BTs if you > possibly can because sometimes they don't agree with one another. > > I have a classic example in my Yorkshire researches in Scarborough where the IGI, which > had been extracted from the BTs, showed my great-great-grandfather as being 18 at > marriage and his wife 20. In fact, when I went to check the registers it transpired that the > nought in 20 was actually a 6, so my great-great-grandmother was actually 26 and some 8 > years older than her "toy boy" husband and not two years older. > > A good friend of mine, Colin Blanshard Withers, another well-known Yorkshire genealogist, > cites a case where the incumbent used to scribble out the details of baptisms, marriages and > burials on the backs of old envelopes, sugar bags and the like and then once a year he'd > write them out properly and send them to the Bishop, presumably storing the envelopes and > sugar bags in a drawer as the original registers! > > > -- > Roy Stockdill > Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer > Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > and that is not being talked about." > OSCAR WILDE > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Correction - the chest was left open and UNlocked! Jean Wood > Message du 20/09/12 10:21 > De : "Jean WOOD" > A : [email protected] > Copie à : > Objet : Re: [B&S] Lesson learnt > > And more so! I used to live in Wigan, where the important town documents were kept in the Parish chest - a real, physical wooden chest. These documents included things like Court Leet reports, trials, accounts of fairs, even the Town Charters and a precious demand for recognition by the king of the pewterers Guild to have the power to search (for unfit pewter - like the silver assay office) For many years this chest was not properly locked. A 19th century historian, Sinclair, raged in his writings (From memory c 1870) that the chest was left open and locked so that any passing person could help him or herself to any of the documents, paper was expensive, and use them for writing shopping lists, memos, letters - anything they chose. I do not know if this state of affairs was corrected before or after this tirade. Around 30 years ago I read this in his book for myself. It is not an anecdotal remark on my part. Jean Wood > Message du 20/09/12 07:59 > De : [email protected] > A : [email protected] > Copie à : > Objet : Re: [B&S] Lesson learnt > > From: "Edie" > > > Maybe the more correct of the two between Parish Registers and Bishops > > transcript, would be the Parish Registers. Did you check the Banns > > as well should correspond with the Parish register, or License whichever way > > it went. I understand the Bishops transcripts could have been copied > > anytime up to a month after the event. < > > Edie > > Sometimes a year after the event! Particularly when some clerics were bone idle and didn't > get round to doing the BTs until they suddenly realised the Bishop or the Archdeacon would > be chasing them up and panicked. Or if they were really lazy they'd get the curate or parish > clerk to do it, which is why it is always worth checking both the registers and the BTs if you > possibly can because sometimes they don't agree with one another. > > I have a classic example in my Yorkshire researches in Scarborough where the IGI, which > had been extracted from the BTs, showed my great-great-grandfather as being 18 at > marriage and his wife 20. In fact, when I went to check the registers it transpired that the > nought in 20 was actually a 6, so my great-great-grandmother was actually 26 and some 8 > years older than her "toy boy" husband and not two years older. > > A good friend of mine, Colin Blanshard Withers, another well-known Yorkshire genealogist, > cites a case where the incumbent used to scribble out the details of baptisms, marriages and > burials on the backs of old envelopes, sugar bags and the like and then once a year he'd > write them out properly and send them to the Bishop, presumably storing the envelopes and > sugar bags in a drawer as the original registers! > > > -- > Roy Stockdill > Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer > Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > and that is not being talked about." > OSCAR WILDE > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message