for the purpose of a prison, and that in 1681, "The White Lion" was in so ruinous a state, that prisoners could not be kept there safely, and, at the quartersessions held at Dorking in January of that year, a committee was appointed, but nothing was done till 1695, when the county prisoners, having been kept in the Marshalsea prison for some years in consequence of the ruinous state of "The White Lion," the sheriff agreed with Mr. Lowman, then keeper of the Marshalsea, for the use of that prison to keep the county prisoners in, and that Lowman should have the benefit of "The White Lion," except of that part of it which had been used as a house of correction; and in 1696 a lease of "The White Lion" was granted to Lowman for fiftynine years.21

When the present Queen's Prison (formerly called the King's Bench) was built, in the year 1758, the old King's Bench prison, which was on the east side of High Street, Southwark, near St. George's Church, became the county prison, and in 1811, after the building of Horsemonger Lane Gaol, the county magistrates sold it under the powers of an act of parliament, and it became the Marshalsea prison.

21 Manning and Bray's Hist. of Surrey, vol. iii. App. p. xi.

VII.

NOTES FROM THE PARISH REGISTERS OF RICHMOND, KINGSTON, AND PETERSHAM, IN THE COUNTY OF SURREY.

BY WILLIAM HENRY HART, Esq., F.S.A.

READ AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, HELD AT RICHMOND, JULY 5, 1859.

It is not improbable that the title prefixed to the few remarks I am about to address to the meeting now assembled, may somewhat impress many that I am proceeding to detail nothing more than a dry list of births, deaths, and marriages; or, in other words, that I merely make myself an animated first column of the Times for the occasion: this is, however, not the case; for I hope to be able to undeceive those who may be under that impression, and to show to them that out of old Parish Registers may be gleaned facts, often of historical importance, which can be gathered from no other source; and also mention of various little incidents of considerable local interest, some of which are even seasoned with a spice of romance.

Parish Registers were instituted in pursuance of an injunction of the Lord Vicegerent Cromwell, dated in September, in the 30th year of Henry VIII., whereby, to use the words of the original,—

"I, Thomas Lord Cromwell, Privy Seal, and Vicegerent to the King's said Highness, for all his jurisdiction ecclesiastical within this realm, do for the advancement of the true honour of Almighty God, increase of vertue, and discharge of the King's Majesty, give and exhibit unto

you these injunctions following, to be kept, observed and fulfilled, upon the pains hereafter declared :-Item, that you and every parson, vicar, or curate within this Diocese, for every church keep one book or register, wherein he shall write the day and year of every wedding, christening, and burial, made within your parish for your time, and so every man succeeding you likewise, and also there insert every person's name that shall be so wedded, christned, and buried. And for the safe keeping of the same book, the parish shall be bound to provide of their common charges one sure coffer, with two locks and keys, whereof the one to remain with you, and the other with the Wardens of every Parish wherein the said book shall be laid up, which Book ye shall every Sunday take forth, and in the presence of the said Wardens or one of them, write and record in the same, all the weddings, christnings, and burials made the whole week afore, and that done, to lay up the book in the said coffer as afore; and for every time that the same shall be omitted, the party that shall be in the fault thereof shall forfeit to the said church iijs. iiijd., to be employed on the reparation of the said church."

Registers were thus confined, properly speaking, to entries of baptisms, marriages, and burials; but in the ancient ones this order was not strictly adhered to; and it was found convenient to make use of these books wherein to enter memoranda of extraordinary events worthy of remark; such as a great flood or tempest, the rebuilding or alteration of the church, gifts of pulpit, altar-cloth, or other ecclesiastical furniture, names of preachers on special occasions, licences for persons to eat flesh in Lent, briefs for collections for charitable purposes; in short, in the early days, when the newspaper was unknown, and the means of perpetuating information not so readily attainable as at the present day, the Parish Register was perhaps the most natural place in which to record events somewhat out of the common course; and, therefore, it is to that custom that at this hour we owe the possession of much local and antiquarian information, which otherwise would never have been handed down to us.

The Richmond Registers commence in the year 1583, and from a memorandum at the head of the first volume, the earlier ones appear to have fallen into confusion and disorder, and thereupon to have been recopied in the first year of the reign of King James I. In the year 1596 is this curious entry :

"Laurence Snowe was buried wch Laurence was executed at Kingstone and by his wife brought to Richmounte and there buried July 24 1596."

We next come to two entries illustrative of the curious custom which prevailed in former times, that of lodging the heart and bowels of a person separately, and in many cases at remote distances from the body, which was buried elsewhere; and to which custom, it will be recollected, many of our early kings conformed.

In pursuance of this fashion, we find the following entry in the Richmond Register for the year 1599:"Nov. 12. Mrs. Elizabeth Ratcliff one of the maides of honor died, and her bowells buried in the chancell at Richmont."

The other instance occurs in the following year. Sir Anthony Poulet was eldest surviving son and heir of Sir Amias Poulet, Knight, and was constituted Governor of the Isle of Jersey on the death of his father, Sept. 26, 1588; he was likewise Captain of the Guard to Queen Elizabeth, who conferred the honour of knighthood upon him. He died in the year 1600, and by his Will, dated in the month of May that year, directed his executors to bury him in the church of the parish where he might happen to die; but by a codicil to his Will, he ordered a tomb to be erected for himself and family in the parish church of Hinton St. George, in Somersetshire, the ancient residence of the family.

In the Richmond Register we find the following entry :

"July 24 1600. Sir Antony Paulet Knight died at Kew, whose bowells were interred at Richmounte."

Thus one part of the directions of his Will was complied with, while the remainder of his injunction was fulfilled by his body being buried in the church of Hinton St. George, where there remains a fine monument to him and his lady.

There are frequent entries of deaths, where the burial has taken place elsewhere, as for example,―

"Sir Edward Gorges Knight dyed Aug. 29. 1625 and was caried to London to be buryed."

"Elizabeth Veere, Countis of Darbie died here March 10. 1626 and at ye Abbye buried.”

This lady was eldest daughter of Edward Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford; she was married to William, 6th Earl of Derby, on the 26th June, 1594, and was buried at Westminster Abbey on the 11th March, 1626, the day after her death.

In these registers, as in most others, are several entries of burials of chrisom children. Thus,

"An

"A chrisom child of Reynald Ashen buried Aug. 24. 1626." Johnson a crisom buried Dec. 10. 1634.” "A crisome of Mrs Best of Kew buried Dec. 7, 1636." "A chrisome of Sir Harbar Lunsons buried March 12. 1650."

There is room for considerable discussion on the proper use of this term "chrisom children," but it would be out of place, and would take too much time here to enter into any arguments on the question; suffice it, for the present purpose, to say, that according to the better opinion, it means those children who die after their baptism, but before the churching of the mother.