Names in the First Parish Register from Markfield St Michael's Church, 1571 to 1784
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Names in the first Parish Register from Markfield St Michael’s Church, 1571 to 1784 The purpose of this publication is to allow those with a family history, linked to the village of Markfield, a chance to view the names in the very first Parish Register from St Michael’s Church, which dates from 1571 to 1784. Information has been compiled after scanning through innumerable fiches of the original leather-bound register at the County Record Office at Wigston. This booklet can in no way claim to give accurate information as to when families first came into the village. It is hoped that this compilation will though be as accurate as possible for the written records. An often semi- literate village parson, had to cope with what were then illiterate villagers, whose probably only chance to see their name in written form was in the Parish Church register. Strange accents and the complexities of names such as ‘Cicely Jecombottomly’ or ‘Marah Wainwrite’ made it even more difficult to put pen to paper. The present day scribe was herself briefly flummoxed by the surname ‘†ian’, until it dawned that the name was of course Christian. Many of the entries have suffered the ravages of time and some names have vanished in faded page edges, whilst others suffered events of the time and drowned in ink blodges. There are 354 marriage, 1399 baptism and 1125 burial entries included within the surname charts. Only about twenty names made so little sense that they were omitted, and others have a question mark after them. Some surnames have been linked in the count up, as it is known from other research how different spellings have carried through. The surnames have been left as individual entries, if there has been any doubt with their spelling or link up to a similar name. As well as inevitable indiscrepancies of what is there, there are also certain years or blocks of years when nobody appears to have chosen a lifelong partner, borne a child or become dearly departed. With single years this may have been because the parish clerk recorded the day and the month but omitted the year that usually headed the entries. The yearly entries could at some stages have been copied from pieces of paper and did not always therefore go in yearly order. The missing blocks of years were as follows: 1575-1590 1639-1645 1648-1659 1669-1671 1684-1685 In 1576 Anthonie Bridges was the resident rector ‘Meanlie latined & better entered in the scriptures’ and his congregation were apparently not at home with the new ways of worship. The Civil War was from 1640 to 1649 so this could account for ardent Church registrations not being the first priority. The third date from 1648 to 1659 could be accounted for by Mr Hill arriving as rector. He was described as ‘no preacher’ after failing to reach the standard of the Parliamentary Committee for ‘Approbation of Publick Preachers’ and he also became an ‘interloper’ when the puritans forced Mr Purefoy out of his rectory. In 1661 he was tried for public drunkenness and in March 1662 he was again in trouble for performing a clandestine marriage. It definitely must have been a very secret affair if it did take place in our village, as there is no Markfield marriage recorded in the village church for that date. Some churches actually became clandestine marriage centres. The baptism and marriage ceremonies would frequently take place in the presence of the local congregation and often coincided with other marriages and baptisms. Under Anglican Canon Law marriages were supposed to take place in the morning between the hours of 8.00 am and 12 noon and the church was the only place where villagers could get legally betrothed to one another. The Markfield marriages do show the rural seasonality that was experienced in other British villages. There was a marked tendency to marry on harvest related holidays. Out of 352 marriages recorded with a monthly date, 15% got married in October. Just for interest, Elizabeth Taylor got married twice in Markfield on 30th August 1725 to John Worrinton and on 1st February 1733 to George Proudman. After the marriages usually came the subsequent baptisms. In the 16th Century a baptism was very close to birth and it was not unusual to record the date of birth with that of the baptism – 3rd March 1675 Benjamin a son of Robert Breward was born and on 3rd January 1677, Ann another child of Robert Breward is entered as ‘was born’. In the first section of the register it seems that the babies may have actually been baptised on their birth day but by the latter part of the 18th Century there was usually a four week delay between birth and baptism. Sometimes ‘with a great and reasonable cause’ private baptisms would take place in the baby’s own homes, but if the child lived then it would eventually be especially welcomed into the Church or brought into the church for a proper baptism at a later date. Baby Stephen Sutton lived for just 20 days from baptism to burial in 1574 and Joan Kinton (1st March 1592) and William Sikes (4th March 1592) were among many fragile infants who were baptised and buried on the same day. There is one clear case of an adult being baptised, a Benjamin Grudgens on 8th March 1737. Two babies are recorded as being bastards, one is stated to be illegitimate and about seven are baptised without the father’s name. There is also just one ‘repentance case’ on 29th October 1634 –What a God fearing village Markfield may have been so many years ago. If family surnames cannot be found in the table, then it could be the result of considerable religious upheavals within the period. Many villagers could well have turned to non-conformism and in doing so had partially rejected the Anglican form of registration. Many of the names listed in Markfield’s first Parish Register would have been villagers who were comforted in such hard times by John Wesley who preached over twenty times in our village. Markfield village was for its paper registrations linked to the Bishop Street Chapel in Leicester, from 2nd August 1757 (which appears to be the first entry). The Bishop Street non-conformist circuit system appeared to cover Ansty, Bagworth, Barkby, Barrow, Beeby, Great Glen, Griffy Dam, Grooby (old spelling), Knighton, Loughborough, Markfield, Newtown Linford, Mount Sorrell, Ratby, Rearsby, Rothley, Sileby, Thornton, Thrussington, Thurcaston and Wigston Magna. In 1758 the minister came to Markfield to baptise John Taylor son of a coal carrier on 13th May and to perform two marriages three days later of John Leaverack to Mary Bott (from Whitwick) and John Stanley (from Shepshed) to Elizabeth Smith. Out of 639 surnames, 371 occurred only once. Some families had greater residential stability than others, but many more villagers may have lived most of their long lives in the village without even managing to achieve one entry. Some villagers would have been living forever if burial entries are to be trusted as an absolute record of the dearly departed. In the County Record Office there are copies of wills for James Wadington (husbandsmen) 1674, Charles Wornar (labourer) 1686 and a Humphrey Awlsoppe 1558; none of these three surnames are within the first register and emphasize the fact that villagers were living in Markfield without ever acquiring an entry in the Parish Register. A small number of entries relate to villagers who do not live in the central core village area. Inclusions within the baptism records show, 4 from Bardon, 10 from Charley, 1 from Newtown, 1 from Shaw Lane Rise and 1 from Ulverscroft. In the burial entries 8 are from Bardon, 16 from Charley, 1 from Groby, 1 from Groby Parks, 2 from Copt Oak, 1 from Packman Hays, 1 from Ratby, 1 from Stanton, 1 from Thurcaston and 36 are from Ulverscroft. For the marriage section 1 groom is from Anstey, 1 from Bardon, 1 from Burbage, 4 from Leicester, 1 from Loughborough and 1 is from Swannington. Brides arrived for marriage from Bardon, Belton, Cadeby, Peckleton and Whitwick with 2 brides coming from Leicester and 3 from Ulverscroft. Barely an occupation is recorded with just the following listed: 11th Sep 1617 Sir Richard Waldron Knight 23rd Jul 1619 William Purefoy Rector 16th Aug 1696 Richard Leveratt Weaver 21st March 1699 George Barnes Labourer 5th Sep 1699 John Pitcher Yeoman 20th Aug 1721 John Orton Labourer 21st July 1777 Thomas Pegg Doctor 26th Jan 1702 Joseph Cradock Rector This scribe’s occupation has been an enjoyable few weeks sorting through the register entries. One of the actual clerks probably experienced considerable status and satisfaction for being able to put pen to paper, as somebody accomplished a beautiful doodle on the inside of the back cover. The lists on the following pages outline the first date (or part of) a particular surname has been entered, the Christian name (if present), the event (bap-baptism, mar-marriage or bur-burial), the number of registered occasions including the surname and the Christian names used with each surname. To save space the more common Christian names have been abbreviated: A Ann FF Frances Mar Margaret Ab Abigail FM Francis Mart Martha Abr Abraham G George Mat Matthew Al Alice Gab Gabriel Mi Michael And Andrew Gil Gilbert N Nicholas Ant Anthony Gra Grace Nat Nathaniel Art Arthur H Henry P Peter B Benjamin Han Hannah Pat Patience Bart Bartholomew Hum Humphrey Ral Ralph C Catherine Isa Isabel Reb Rebekah Ch Charles J John Ri Richard D Dorothy Jthon Jonathon Ro Robert Dan Daniel Jam James S Sarah Deb Deborah Jan Jane Sam Samuel E Elizabeth Jen Jenny St Stephen Ed Edward Jo Joseph Suz Suzannah Edm Edmund K Katherine T Thomas Ele Eleanor Lyd Lydia W William Est Esther M Mary Wal Walter The most common Christian names were John, Thomas, William, Ann, Elizabeth & Mary.