12 S.X. FEB. 25, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 141
LONDON, FEBRUARY 25, 1922.
CONTENTS.—No. 202.
NOTES: Commonwealth Registers, 141 Commonwealth
Marriages and Burials in the Aldeburgh Register Book
142 Sir Richard Willys, Traitor, 145 John Charles
Williams, a Buckinghamshire Parson. 146 "Earthland"
Cumulative Stories Privileges of the Dean and Canons of
Windsor Portraits of Coleridge and Dickens, 148
" Scooter," 149.
QUERIES :" Mayor " as a Woman's Title Aucher:
Depedene Sir Ralph and Sir Edward Bashe : Anne Scot
(nte Bashe), 149 Latin Proverb : Origin sought Thomas
Lovall Jellyman Family : Register of All Saints' Church,
Oxford Pilate's Wife Unidentified Portrait on Wood
Panel Portraits by Vandyck " Once aboard the lugger "
Catherine, Duchess of Gordon Granger's ' Biographical
History,' 150 The Cap of Maintenance John Filmer
Emmett Lazenki Palace, Warsaw : Latin Inscriptions
' The Tale of Two Cities ' : the Drugging of Darnay Chalk
in Kent and its Owners : Rye, Cornhill. Vilers, St. Clair,
151 Poem wanted Reference wanted Authors wanted,
152.
REPLIES : White of Selborne : Portrait wanted, 152
Colonel Charles Whitefoord. 153 Arab (or Eastern)
Horses Pallone, an Italian Game American Humorists :
Capt. G. H. Derby, 154 Prime Minister De Kemplen's
Automaton Chess-player, 155 The Arms of Leeds Land
Measurement Terms The " Chevalier Schaub " Kangaroo
Cooke Heraldic Mottoes, 156 ' La Santa Parantela '
Derivation of Chinkwell Samuel Hartlib, 157 Mrs. Gordon,
Novelist General Nicholson's Birthplace Ewen: Coat of
Arms Quotations in The Tatter Thomas Edwards, LL.D.,
158 Mangles Authors wanted, 159.
NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Grey Friars of Chester' 'A
New English Dictionary on Historical Principles,' X
ZYXT ' A Manual of French.'
Notices to Correspondents.
COMMONWEALTH REGISTERS.
MR. ARTHUR T. WINN'S contribution in
the ' Commonwealth Marriages and Burials
in the Aldeburgh Register Book ' (ante,
pp. 81, 104, 124) suggests a wider field of
historical inquiry. That would be as to
how far Parish Registers in Civil War and
Commonwealth times contain any special
reference to the period, or show signs of
being affected by it. I am induced to make
this suggestion by the results of a thorough
search I made close upon forty years ago
of the registers of my native parish, St.
Mary Magdalene, Launceston.
The volume covering the period under
examination is described on the title page
as 'A true Register of all Marriages
Baptisms and Burialls within ye parish of
Mary Magdalen in Launceston, from ye
yeere of our Lord god 1559 Truely copyed
out accordinge to the old Register this
it yeere 1601. Written by John
Harbert, 1601.' This applies only to the
entries from 1559 to 1601 posted up from
earlier notes ; but the contents of the volume
cover the years from 1559 to 1671. Up to
May, i610, when some of the records were
lost, each child was stated to be
" christened " ; but after the regular re-
sumption of registration in 1620, though
the heading of each page continued to be
" Christenings " the word used in all the
entries was " baptised." This was invariable
until 1651-52, in the entries of which years
there were instances of the use of " borne,"
though these were evidently written in
later. But after July, 1653, the heading was
" Birthes," and " borne " was used in each
entry except three, two in a later hand,
this practice continuing until March, 1657,
when the heading became " Birthes and
Baptismes," the date of christening as well
as of birth being affixed in many cases
after August of that year. The more strictly
Puritan rule was thus breaking down ; and
in July, 1660, and only a few weeks after
the Restoration, the heading was changed
once more to the single word " Baptismes,"
and so remained to the end of the volume.
It is concerning the marriages of the
Commonwealth period that the St. Maiy
Magdalene Register affords the most striking
indications of ecclesiastical dispute. In
August, 1653, Parliament adopted an Act
for solemnizing marriages by justices of
the peace ; and two months afterwards,
according to the Register,
Thomas Reese being before this tyme duly chosen
to bee Parish Register within this borrough in
obedience and according to the late act of this
present Parliament in yt behalf e made & pro-
vided was this present day [October 11] approved
allowed of and also sworne before mee Richard
Grills gentn. maior of this Borrough and one of
ye Justices assigned.
Yet it was apparently not for two years
after that statute was in operation that
justices of the peace actually solemnized
marriages at Launceston. The wedding
entries from 1653 to the closing days of
1655 appear in their customary form ; but,
after one of November 27, 1655, and in a
blank space at the bottom of a page, there
is written in a bold hand " Hereafter follow
marriages by Laymen, according to ye
prophanes and giddynes of ye times,
without precedent or example in any
Christian Kingdom or Comonwealth from
the Birth of Christ unto this very year
1655."
The first of these lay-made marriages,
