30
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. x. JULY n, 1914.
(if any) there was between the Childs of
Northwick and Mr. Child the London
banker, who purchased Upton House in
the parish of Ratley, Warwickshire, in 1757,
and whose daughter was married at Gretna
Green to John, tenth Earl of Westmorland ?
A. C. C.
"THE D D STRAWBERRY/' (See 11 S. ix. 293.) Will PROF. BENSLY kindly indi- cate where his quotation, " The d d straw- berry at the bottom of the glass," is to be found ?
I have heard it stated that strawberries in a " bowl " absorb alcohol. Is this the meaning ? Further information on the sub- ject would be gratefully received by
W. ROBERTS CROW.
MCJANNET SURNAME. Can any reader suggest the origin of the name McJannet ?
It has been said that the name originated from Maclan, head of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, and that after the massacre one of the sons settled in Carrick, Ayrshire.
R. M. HOGG.
Irvine, Ayrshire.
REGISTERS OF
PROTESTANT DISSENTERS.
(US. ix. 489.)
THESE are at Somerset House, and are described as
" The Xon-Parochial Registers of Baptisms, Births, Burials or Deaths, aid in a few instances ol Marriages, being the Registers or records kept by various bodies and congregations of Nonconformists prior to the general system of registration begun in 1837.
These include the Registers kept formerly at Dr. Williams' s Library, and dating from 1742 ; at the Bunhill Fields burial-ground, from 1713 ; by the Society of Friends, and also at some foreign churches in England. By the Acts 3 and 4 Viet., cap. 92, and 21 Viet., cap. 25, extracts from these Registers stamped with the seal of the General Register Office are accepted as evidence in all civil cases.
In 1841 there was issued an official list of these Non-Parochial Registers, arranged under counties, and in 1857 there was printed a further Report on Non-Parochial Regis- ters. Both these publications are now out of print, and rarely turn up. They should, of course, be reprinted.
Although Dr. Williams's Library has
yielded up its chief Register, there are still
lodged in Gordon Square (i.e., in that
library) a large number of MSS. relating to
Dissenters. These are reported upon iu
the Hist. MSS. Comm. Report, iii. 365-8.
It is as well to remember that the Friends
or Quakers, with their usual care and admir-
able arrangements, had. their Registers
transcribed before yielding them up, with
the result that at Devonshire House,
Bishopsgate, E.G., it is possible to refer to
any name by paying a small fee. I should
like to make use of this opportunity to
xpress an opinion, formed after some
experience, that of all Dissenting bodies,
the Friends are more ready to help
students, and better equipped to do so,
than any other sect. Nothing could exceed
the courtesy which is at once extended by
them to any genuine student.
The Registers of the Friends, the Inde- pendents, and the Baptists are the oldest at Somerset House, and these begin at different seventeenth-century dates. The Bible Chris- tians begin as late as 1817 ; Lady Hunting- don's Connexion in 1752 ; the Primitive Methodists in 1813 ; the Wesleyans in 1772. Bunhill Fields Register begins in April, 1713, although the burial-ground was first used in 1665. Looked at from every point of view, it has been a benefit to have the Non- Parochial Registers lodged in London. They were carelessly looked after locally, and often strayed from the vestry rooms of the chapels into the hands of ministers and deacons. Very many are still thus astray.
The Dissenters have had some grievances with regard to these Registers. By the Stamp Act of 1783, 23 Geb. III., c. 71, a duty of 3d. was imposed upon every entry in the parish registers. The Dissenters were encouraged to hope that if their Registers were impressed with the Government stamp, they would be placed on an equality with, the Parish Registers. Upon this under- standing they consented to share the tax, and in 1785, 25 Geo. III., c. 75, the Stamp Act was extended to all Protestant Dis- senters. By a gross breach of faith, the privilege granting an official value to the Registers was withheld, although the fees were taken. Many years later (18 June, 1838), after a Government inquiry had been held, the Commissioners appointed brought in a report recommending that about three thousand volumes of Non-Parochial Registers which they had collected and authenticated should be deposited with the Registrar-
