Ah, thankyou Mike. That would also explain why at the start of this register (1653) the parish clerk is given the title of Parish Register - it did seem a bit odd! Cheers, Lawrence On 09/12/2012 08:03, Mike Fry wrote: > On 2012/12/09 07:24, La Greenall wrote: > >> But why would births be entered in a register and not baptisms? If it >> was due to some law or enactment then surely there would have been some >> sort of note made in the register, but there isn't. > This is where you need to know your English History. Look at the data. 1653. > This is during the Commonwealth when there was an interregnum. England was > virtually a republic and there was the start of a form of Civil Registration. > The established church lost a lot of its powers, including responsibility for > baptisms which were regarded as being 'Popish'. Instead, responsibility was > taken from the Parish and given to Registers; often these were the old parish > clerks who carried on recording everything but according to new rules. >