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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ash ford . Kent > Sir , August S , 1821 . YOUR correspondent V . M . H . ( p . 218 ) seems desirous of knowing " what became of the parochial
registers framed under the government of Oliver Cromwell . " To this , as a general question , I can give no satisfactory reply ; but I can inform him of the fate of one of them , viz . the register that was then kept in the parish of Bethersden , in Kent .
This register , which I have myself seen by favour of the present vicar , is still in the number of the register books of the said parish , and is in a good state of preservation . Its title is as follows : " The Register of all the Marriages , Births , and Burials , within the Parish of Bethersden , since the 29 th
Day of September , 1653 . " The first entry , which is that of a birth or christening , bears the date of October , 1653 ; but from the tenor of the title , as well as from some other internal evidence , it seems likelv that the book
was uot procured till the beginning of the following year , and that all the previous entries were then inserted at once from memorandums . The last entries bear the date of October , 1660 . The chasm in the regular register corresponds to these dates , commencing in September , 1653 , and terminating in October , 1660 . In the chasm there is
inserted a memorandum , by the first vicar that was instituted after the Restoration , stating that the temporary register was then in his possession , though previously it had been kept by an officer called the Parish Register .
In the entries of marriages , the banns are not said to have been published in the church , but in the public assembly ( which was held , as I suppose , in the church ) on three Lord ' s days ; and in
one case they are said to have been published on three market days . The marriage ceremony was performed for the most part by a Justice ; but in one entry it is said to have been performed by the minister pf the parish .
The above is the only register of this sort that I have ever either seen or heard of , though it is likely that many others are still in existence , and in the custody of the incumbents or churchwardens of the parishes to which they respectively belong . If you should think that this account
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of an individual register has any chance of being acceptable to your correspondent , I will thank you to give it a place in your Repository . A . C .
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No . CCCLXXXI . The first Reception given to the pious and elegant Moralist , Francis Hutcheson , as a Preacher , in his Father ' s neighbourhood . ( From " Stuart's Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh . " )
After six years spent in study at Glasgow , he returned to his native country , and preached as a probationer before various congregations , some of which were highly pleased with his eloquent discourses , while others totally
disapproved of his doctrines . At Armagh , his father , who laboured under a slight rheumatic affection , deputed him to preach in his place , on a cold and rainy Sunday . About two hours after Francis had left Ballyrea , the rain abated—the sun shone forth—the
day became serene and warm—and Dr . Hutcheson , who found his spirits exhilarated by the change , felt anxious to collect the opinions of his congregation on the merits of his favourite son , and proceeded directly to the city . / tlow was he astonished and chagrined when he met almost the whole of his
flock coming from the meeting-house , with strong marks of disappointment and disgust visible in their countenances ! One of the elders , a native of Scotland , addressed the surprised and deeply mortified father thps : " We a * feel muckle wae for your mishap ,
Reverend Sir ; but it canna be concealed . Your silly loon , Frank , has fashed a the congregation wi' his idle cackle ; for he has been babbling this oor about a gude and benevolent God , and that the sauls of the Heathens thenasels will gang to heaven , if they
follow the light o * their ain consciences . Not a word does the daft boy ken , speer or say about the gude auld comfortable doctrines of election , reprobation , original sin ; and faith . Hoot mon , awa * wi' sic a fellow . " J
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4 76 Gleanings .
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GLEANINGS ; OR , SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1821, page 476, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2503/page/36/
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