Bristol Cathedral Marriages
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MARRIAGES AT BRISTOL CATHEDRAL 1615-1754 Chronological Index & Name Index ROGER PRICE 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I am most grateful to the staff of the Bristol Record Office for their kind help while this index was being prepared. They most generously permitted me to use here some of my photographs of the registers and licences. I am also indebted to my friend and former colleague Eric Boore for his helpful advice. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 - 7 ABBREVIATIONS & CONVENTIONS 8 CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX OF MARRIAGES 9 - 47 NAME INDEX OF MARRIAGES 48 - 131 INTRODUCTION I would state at the outset that I have consulted several published transcriptions for the compilation of this study; but, as far as was practical, I have double checked everything from the orginal manuscript sources. Any errors are entirely my fault. The three surviving registers of baptisms, marriages and burials that took place at Bristol Cathedral are kept at Bristol Record Office (BRO Ref: FCDC/A/10/1(a)1-2). The earliest marriage that is recorded in those volumes took place in June 1670 and the sequence extended up to 1753 (to 1754 in the second volume); but baptisms and burials continued to be entered in the two later registers until 1837. Any earlier register that there may have been was lost many years ago. The three surviving registers were transcribed and published as: C Roy Hudleston, 1933. The Bristol Cathedral register 1669-1837. Bristol: St Stephen s Press Courtesy: Bristol Record Office FIRST MARRIAGES RECORDED IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL REGISTER: 1670 Hudleston provided a faithful (but edited) transcription of the registers. In his preface he commented: While nothing is omitted from the entries which could be of the slightest assistance to the historian of genealogist, I have reduced the entries to their simplest forms, omitting the redundancies of the original ¡ ¢ . In addition, he included a number of observations that were relevant to his study: most importantly, he collated the approximately 600 marriage entries that are found in the registers with details from the corresponding marriage licence bonds that have survived. He also opted to re-order the lists of marriages, christenings and burials as separate sections, which makes his work far easier to use; and he provided an index of names. In all, Hudleston£ s work is a highly useful, and for the most part accurate, transcription that has stood the test of time. However, closer examination shows that there is more to be said on the matter. Hudleston commented that the first Cathedral register had been kept badly. He was correct; but it is not the usual case of poor and otherwise rather impenetrable writing by the clerks: indeed, it is clearer than many other such documents of the period, and a few pages were even set in type, then printed and sewn into the volume. Rather, he meant the thoroughness with which the records were kept. A note on the last page of the register reads: This Register Book consists of Twenty Eight written leaves of Parchment containing mixed entries of Baptisms, Burials and Marriages from March 1. 1669 to July 19. 1753 both inc. preceded by four paper leaves containing sundry Entries and an Index, and terminated by one leaf and three quarters of paper containing two entries of Baptisms this and the su.joined Mema. Mem. A return made, (in conformity with direction of Stat.11.Geo.4.Cap.30. for taking Account of Population &c) of the existence of this Register Book and of its contents as stated above. Joseph Cross. The Book appears perfect, but is deficient of entries for the year 1680 and from 1696 to 1711 both inclusive. Joseph Cross. The reasons for the omissions are not explained, but it is also noted that towards the end of the register is a small list of: Weddings not Registerd in ye naturall Course, by reason of their not being accounted for in due time by the persons who married them. All is not lost, however: a note was entered in register in 1871 which stated that: The Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials in the Cathedral from 1695 to 1710 appear to have been entered in the Register Books of S. Augustine the Less. See the Register Books of that Parish. April 24. 1871 Edm, J Gregory Precentor The surviving registers and bishop£ s transcripts for St Augustine the Less are also kept at Bristol Record Office (BRO Refs: FCP/St Aug/R/1(a)1-1(e)6 & FCEP/V/4/24(a)1-2). Those registers list more than 200 marriage ceremonies that were stated to have taken place at the Cathedral or the College; and occasionally at the Bishop£ s Palace (which lay in the Cathedral grounds) or at the Oratory in the Palace. The College was an old term for the Cathedral: so called because after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century, the religious offices at the former of St Augustine£ s Abbey (ie Bristol Cathedral) were overseen by a group of non-monastic priests known as a College of Canons. The name is still familiar in the present-day College Green. Hudleston was well aware of these these other marriages, but (probably wisely) he decided to stick to his brief and just transcribed the Cathedral registers. Fortunately, my research among the St Augustine£ s records was made vastly easier by being able to use the partial transcription that was prepared by Arthur Sabin: A Sabin (ed.), 1956. The registers of the church of St Augustine the Less, Bristol, 1577-1700: together with an abstract of the earliest surviving Churchwardens¤ Book 1669-1739. Bristol: Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc (Rec Section) Courtesy: Bristol Record Office REGISTER OF ST AUGUSTINE THE LESS. EARLIEST SURVING DETAILS OF A MARRIAGE AT BRISTOL CATHEDRAL: 19 Feb 1614/5 As far as is known, all marriages that took place at Bristol Cathedral were by licence; but the truth of that assertion is not actually proven. By good fortune, many of the Bristol diocese licence bonds are still extant ¥ even if quite a lot of them are in extremely poor condition. A valuable study of the marriage licence bonds that survive from the 17th century was published as: Hollis, D & Ralph, E (eds.), 1952. Marriage bonds for the diocese of Bristol, 1637-1700, excepting the Archdeaconry of Dorset. Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc (Rec Section) Furthermore, several people studied the later bonds a number of years ago, and manuscripts of their notes on those from the period 1700-1800 may be consulted at Bristol Record Office. A special note must be made of the work of Edward Alexander Fry and John R Holman. Their studies are particularly valuable because quite a lot of the original documents are now so fragile that they are cannot be made available for study. Moreover, many were not copied onto microfiche, so any researcher who wishes to note the bonds¦ contents must rely almost entirely on those workers¦ notes. On top of all that, I have completed a transcription and index of the bonds for the period 1701- 1710, collated with the actual marriage entries from the various parish registers. That study is available online as a free download via the Bristol & Avon Family History Society website (www.bafhs.org.uk): Price, R, 2014. Bristol marriage licence bonds: 1701-1710 Courtesy: Bristol Record Office MARRIAGE LICENCE BOND: 20 Oct 1660 EARLIEST SURVIVING LICENCE BOND FOR A MARRIAGE AT BRISTOL CATHEDRAL (Marriage took place on 21 Oct 1660) In my present index of the Cathedral marriages, the existence of any surviving licence bond is noted by the insertion of the letter L after the date when the ceremony took place. In those cases where no licence bond has been found, the omission is indicated by the insertion of {Lx}. Following Hudleston§ s lead, I have integrated the marriage entries as found in the registers with all the information on those bonds: including the groom§ s trade, which Hudleston omitted for some reason. It did not § prove practical to include details of the bondsmen, who were frequently members of the brides§ or grooms families; but that information may be found by consulting the published sources or the microfiches at BRO. Details that are found on a licence bond, but are not in the registers, are set in italics. Wherever possible, Christian names have been rendered in their usual modern forms, but I have followed standard practice in transcribing surnames as they were presented in the original. In general, if the groom signed the bond, his own spelling was preferred; but if it seemed worth including, the version given in the register is presented after that - set in Roman type in round brackets. Because the bride was not required to sign the bond, the spelling of her name has usually been kept as in the register; unless any difference found on the licence seemed of interest. Occasionally, the details found on the licence (including even the actual name itself) are quite different from those in the registers. There could be various reasons for that - mostly to do with error on the part of one of the clerks. In general, one might suppose that a licence bond that was witnessed by the groom and bondsman would probably be more reliable than notes copied up by a parish clerk at some later date. Unless the register or bond stated otherwise, it may be assumed that the bride and groom§ s places of residence were local (ie they lived in one of the Bristol parishes or the nearby villages in Somerset/Gloucestershire). For ¨ example, someone said to be of St James§ lived in the parish of St James in Bristol.