Ted Udall was the speaker at the April meeting of the Frome Family History Group.
Christine Featherstone, chair and publicity for Frome Family History reports, “He is a familiar face at our meetings and always very popular, speaking this time on the social history of parish registers.
“Henry VIII issued an order that every parson, vicar or curate was to enter into a book every wedding, Christening and burial in his parish. However, where the clergyman obeyed, the entries were made on scraps of paper, supposedly on a Sunday in the presence of a church warden. Very few of these records survive.
“In 1558, Queen Elizabeth I passed another law requiring records to be kept and a few more of these survive, but they are written in Latin and very difficult to read. They were required to be kept in the parish chest and were the property of the incumbent minister of the parish. By 1597, registers were to be made of parchment and annual reports of all entries were to be sent to the appropriate Bishop. These were known as Bishop’s Transcripts.
“The Burial in Woollen Acts of 1666-80 required that all corpses, except those that died of the plague, should be buried in woollen shrouds. But the wealthy ignored the requirement and paid a fine for burying their dead in linen. This was an attempt by Charles II to help the ailing woollen industry, however it was widely ignored, particularly in the final 50 years and was repealed in 1814.
“Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1754 required separate registers for marriages and they were recorded on printed forms for the first time. The act exempted only Quakers and Jews from being married in the Church of England, Catholics and other non-conformists all had to be married by a Church of England priest. Marriages were to be declared by banns on three successive Sundays or by licence.
“A statute of 1812 known as Rose’s Act required parish incumbents to use specially-printed registers, with baptisms, marriages and burials to be recorded in separate books. Baptisms were permitted to be conducted at home, usually if the child was too ill to be taken to church. Midwives were able to perform the ceremony.
“Ted illustrated his account with many amusing stories of detail from the register, often written in the margin by the priest. For example, one unfortunate couple were described as rogue and whore of this parish. Ted was thanked for a very informative and entertaining evening.
“Our next meeting will be on Tuesday May 29th and will be Ian Cassie talking about the SS Great Britain. Regular family history advice sessions continue on the first Saturday in the month in the library.”
