The parish officials of the Elizabethan and Stuart period were the constable,
church wardens,
overseers of the poor, surveyor of the highway and bridgewarden.
ISBN 085036-289x:p.315
As a rule the gentry considered these posts below their dignity and they usually fell to the
yeomanry. The parish officials were unpaid and often had to wait for many years to recover
their costs, their official function was a great inconvenience to the freehold farmers.
ISBN 085036-289x:p.315
Any of the parish officials could be presented at the quarter sessions for not performing their
duties properly and, as the duties of these officials often overlapped, this often caused
confusion.ISBN 085036-289x:p.315
It has been said, that if all other records had been destroyed, the leading facts of British
history since 1538 could be gleaned from the Parish Registers which were made compulsory in
that year by Thomas Cromwell,
Henry VIII's Vicar General:
GD:KENT:TCOSCOR-AR-1990:p.20
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Item that you and every parson vicare or curate shall for every churche
kepe one boke or register wherein ye shal write the day and yere of every
weddyng christenyng and buryeng made within yore parishe and so every man
succeeding you lykewise.GD:KENT:TCOSCOR-AR-1990:p.20
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...the new registers become more valuable yearly as they are the only records
available for many centuries until the present system of civil registration
was introduced in 1837.GD:KENT:TCOSCOR-AR-1990:p.20
see also: Parish Records
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Churchwardens' Accounts, presented annually,
are a valuable source of
information about life in previous times as are
Parish Registers. They include not only payments made in connection with the church, but
also items such as payements to bellringers to announce news and money distributed to the poor.
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In 1559, 21 years after the introduction of parish registers, the Convocation of Canterbury
ordered that parchment registers be provided "for the more careful
keeping of the records". It also directed that all the old paper registers be copied onto
the new parchment.GD:KENT:TCOSCOR-AR-1990:p.20
With the introduction of burial in woollen during the 17th century, many parishes kept separate
"Woollen Registers" which contain
the necessary affidavits.GD:KENT:TCOSCOR-AR-1990:p.20
The Marriage Act, 1753, during the reign of King George II, entitled
"An Act for the better preventing of clandestine marriages"
saw the introduction of new printed Marriage Register books which required not only the signatures of
the contracting parties, but also those of two witnesses as well; an enterprising young man who wished
to elope with an heiress subsequently had to cross the border into Scotland.
GD:KENT:TCOSCOR-AR-1990:p.20
By Act of Parliament in the early 19th century, new registers were ordered to be used in every parish.
The parish records were also ordered to be kept in iron chests on account of the large number of
these records which were destroyed by fire or other accidents.
GD:KENT:TCOSCOR-AR-1990:p.20
see also: Parish Records
