re you getting your figures regarding the number of Parishioners > per Parish? > > It seems very underestimated > > Do you have some examples or sources ? Try the statistical analysis of census returns (numerous large libraries have these at least for their own county. Summaries of population tables are also published in Victoria County Histories, where these exist. And yes, villages with 100, 150. 200 'souls' were not uncommon. Most clergy were pretty nosy about the existence and goings on of their parishioners, even those who never darkened the door of a church. Local vicars either went themselves or tended to send their womenfolk round nosing out back sliders. Although commuting has dulled the edge of village gossip, you still get the idle folk who make it their business to spy on and report everything. However, my son says there is nothing local which quite matches the vigour and viciousness of gossip in blocks of mansion flats in Kensington! EVE : >(Paul's comment) > > Not stretching at all. With a parish of, say, 200 souls (and many > > rural parishes were smaller) Author of The McLaughlin Guides for Family Historians Secretary, Bucks Genealogical Society