Bastardy was another issue for the parish officers. They had to discover who the father was and make him responsible for the child’s upkeep, in order to reduce the burden on rates. A bond would be entered into whereby the father would agree to pay for his child, if he could not be persuaded to marry the mother. Alternatively he could pay a lump sum to the parish in order to discharge all responsibility. Parish records often include reference to such practices and bastardy bonds survive.

It is important to note that many of a parish’s poor are not recorded in these documents. Many survived with the help of friends, family and neighbours. Some resorted to petty theft. Private charity helped some. Not all were assisted by the parish. Even where records do survive, they may only list parish officers, attendees at meetings and total expenditure and income, rather than listing payments and recipients. Bastardy might result in a private financial agreement which went unrecorded in parish records.

Apprentices have already been mentioned. Children who were orphaned were sometimes apprenticed, either to another parishioner or outside the parish, often prior to the usual age of apprenticeship, which was 14 years. This was in order to remove the child from the parish’s responsibility and so ease the burden on the rates. Vestry minutes and apprenticeship indentures should give details of child and master, the latter’s trade, the date and the sum of money given to the new master. They should also detail other conditions in the agreement between parish and master. Complaints about the ill treatment of children were sometimes discussed in vestry minutes.

Constables, churchwardens and surveyors of the highways also kept account books, but their survival is less extensive. It seems that churchwardens’ accounts are more likely to exist from before the eighteenth century in the south of England, and that constables’ accounts survive least well of all the parish officers. These accounts rarely mention individuals, except of course those who held that particular office in any one year. If your ancestor was a parish officer, you will find an insight into his duties in these books, assuming of course that they are itemized, which is not always the case.

The churchwardens were the senior officers, and were responsible for the upkeep of the church fabric. Repairs of the building and any other expense concerning the place were their duty. They also paid the bell ringers to ring on auspicious dates, such as royal anniversaries or military victories. Surveyors were to oversee repairs to parish roads and bridges and the constable dealt with evildoers. His duties also included taking prisoners to the county gaol or attending trials, searching the parish for vagrants and, in times of war and rebellion, supplying men or arms for the militia.

All this expenditure was financed by rates levied on the parishioners and these will be discussed be Chapter 10.

Miscellaneous Parish Records

Apart from the main classes of records, there are many miscellaneous ones which appear among some parish archives. Charity records are one such. Wealthy parishioners often left money in their wills to buy land or stock and then to have the interest used to feed, clothe or educate the local poor. The clergyman and vestry often administered these charities; names of the charitable can often be seen on boards in the church, detailing the bequests. However it is relatively unusual for lists of recipients to have been made. There may be copies of the censuses of 1801–31 which were compiled by the parish officers, and are dealt with in Chapter 11. There may be legal records concerning disputes which the parish entered into, perhaps over tithes or charities. Papers concerning disagreements with other parishes over settlement might exist. Deeds and charters may survive. There may even be medieval documents. Lists of pew rents may also exist: names of wealthy parishioners who paid fees for the best pews. As with much in archival research, looking through the catalogues of deposited archives, whether online or in paper form, can be a useful exercise, if documents can be located which cover, or might cover, the time span that your ancestors were residing in the parish. Some parishes were very good at preserving their archives, but this is not always the case. It is certainly worth looking beyond parish registers, and looking at other material, too. All these will be found at the appropriate county or borough record office; some have been microfilmed but most have not, so you will be able to view centuries-old documents.

Nonconformists and Catholics

Although by the seventeenth century the vast majority of the population were Anglican, it is worth noting that not all were. After the Act of Supremacy in 1559, Catholics and members of various forms of Protestant Dissent became marginalized and at times subject to fines, imprisonment and discrimination, which declined after 1689 for Nonconformists but only in the late eighteenth century for Catholics. Despite this, Catholicism remained relatively strong in Lancashire, Northumberland, Hampshire and London, but there were also pockets throughout the country. Nonconformists were more numerous, and especially so in the South-West, the eastern counties, Yorkshire, and London. As stated, they will often be recorded in burial registers, but their chapels created their own archives, too.

Surviving Nonconformist registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths up until 1837 are often held at TNA. Unlike Anglican registers, the baptism registers note the mother’s maiden name. They can be searched for online under ‘Select More Records and Documents’ and then choose ‘Non-Conformist registers’, and these can be searched for by name. There are a few registers of pre-1837 Catholic churches at TNA, though most are for the north of England (RG 4) We should remember that Anglican registers often recorded the baptisms, marriages and burials of Nonconformists and Catholics, too, especially for marriages, 1754–1837. Online Nonconformist registers can also be seen at bmdregisters.com and indexes are at Familysearch/IGI. Most Catholic registers date from 1791, when practising the religion was no longer penalized; most of the registers are still with the churches, but some have been deposited and the Catholic Record Society has published some (available at TNA and elsewhere).

Parish registers are one of the most important records for genealogy for the period 1538–1837, because almost everyone will be recorded here somewhere and sometime. But it must be stressed that parish registers are not the only fruit of the parish. Poor law records are also important, as are other records which once lay in the parish chest and which are now mostly in county record offices.