"Grants of Seats &c by Lord Courtenay 1763. Leave to Mr Thos Byrdell to sit in the seat, which is the 5th from the Reading Desk on that side of the great Ayle."

1766. "To Mr John Farley to erect a Pew behind the South Door, and to sit therein during his Lordship's pleasure. Another to Mr Pike in the same manner and in the same terms. Another to Mr Hannaford and Mr Moss."

There are many similar grants down to 1797; this following example is reminiscent of heartburnings and envyings:

"July 11th 1784. Mr Aaron Tozer & his wife sat in the seat late Mrs Totwill's (by Leave from Lord Courtenay, as Mr Beard, the Hind, told me) for the first time. But are not to displace Mrs Way, her grant being not revoked.

"Thos. Hugo."

"The Foundation Stone of the New Chapel [i.e. St. Leonard's] was laid on the 20th September 1834, amidst a large concourse of people, and was consecrated by Dr. Henry Phillpotts, Lord Bishop of Exeter on Nov. 24th 1836."

[An account of the expenses and a list of the contributors are affixed to the other side in the Register.]

"1842. The Pulpit (newly erected in the year 1832) was removed from the Centre Aisle to the 2nd Pillar on the other side of the Church, and the central portion of the Screen was removed back to the first Pillar, so that a part of the Chancel is now in front of the middle part of the Screen.

"John Bradford."

The recent observance of the tercentenary of Oliver Cromwell's birth by some of his admirers may lend additional interest to some extracts from the Wolborough Registers in the Cromwellian period, which may exhibit to some extent another side of the picture. Persons accurately acquainted with the history of that period are aware that in that period the Church of England was subject to much persecution at the hand of Cromwell and his party, not only in the expulsion from their benefices, etc., of some thousands of the clergy (as affirmed in Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy), but in the prohibition of the public use of the Book of Common Prayer, and of all marriages in churches.

8 See abridgment of WALKER's Sufferings of the Clergy, published by Wertheim and Macintosh, 1863, chap. xvii. p. 214, where we learn that Mr. Walker estimated the number of clergy ejected during the Cromwellian period at about 7000, but possibly this may have been an exaggerated estimate, as the ejection of 2000 in 1662 is believed also to be an exaggeration.

Testimony to some of the hardships inflicted on Churchmen in this period is found in the Wolborough Registers, as also some of a similar character in the neighbouring parish of Highweek, which you may find referred to in a paper read by myself before the members of the Devonshire Association at Newton Abbot in 1884, entitled "Gleanings from a Parish Chest."

Up to September, 1653, marriages appear to have taken place, as usual, in Wolborough Church. Up to that date the entries of marriages, burials, and baptisms are in one handwriting, and the usual form of entry is used. In November, 1653, a new Register is commenced, the entries being made by another hand. This Register bears the following notes on the cover:

"According to a late Act of Parliament touching Marriages and the Registering thereof &c John Selman, Mercer, is sworne and approved to be the Register in the parish of Wolborough this 11th day of November 1653. Given under mine hand.

To which is added:

"Thos. Reynell.”

"According to a late Act of Parliament touching marriages and births and burials, Josias Heycraft is sworne and allowed to bee Register of the Parish of Wolborough in ye place of John Selman this 14 day of November 1657.

"Thos Reynell."

Most of the marriage entries are in the writing of Mr. Thomas Reynell, Justice of the Peace, and nearly all the marriages were performed before him up to 1656. His last entry and signature appear under date March 13th, 1657.

A few earlier and some later entries are signed by "John Beare," but from 1656 a great many are not signed at all. In some the blank spaces left for date of marriage and name of magistrate have not been filled up.

In 1657-8-9 actual marriages are not registered, but an entry is made of the receipt of agreement of marriage, and that the said agreement was published on three Sundays after the close of the morning exercise. Sometimes there is a bare statement that the marriage took place. The last of these entries is dated December 25th, 1659. [N.B.—It will be remembered that Oliver Cromwell died on September 3rd, 1658; that the country was then handed over for a short time to the weak hand of his son, Richard Cromwell; and that the Restoration, with the return of the old constitution of Church and State, took place in 1660, May 29th.]

Many of the earlier agreements of marriage were published on three market days in the market of Newton Abbot, after which the marriages took place before the Justices of the Peace.

The following seems to be an exceptional entry :

1657. "Mr Ffrancis Courtney, Gentleman, of the Parrish Jan 8 of Wollborogh, and Mrs Rebecka Webb, of Exon, were married in this Parrish of Wolborrogh aforesaid, before Doctor William Peterson, Dean of Exon, in the presence of Sir William Courtney and Mr Thomas Wright and others."

The marriage entries revert to the old form in 1660. The first is dated May 27th, i.e. two days before the entry into London of Charles II. at the Restoration, his father, Charles I., having been beheaded by Cromwell's authority on January 30th, 1649.

In the Wolborough Church Registers, Births are entered from 1653 to 1659. Baptisms are again registered from early in 1660. Burials begin November 11th, 1653, and continue in same writing till March, 1660. The last page of this Register (1653–1676), which is in its original binding, bears the following note:

"John Codner Jun' came in to be the Pish Register, the 29th of September 1676."

Another and later Register contains a list of Rectors from the year 1620. Included in this is the name of W. Yeo, Preacher of Wolborough, under the date 1648. I cannot learn that there is, in the Wolborough Church Registers, any mention of this Mr. William Yeo under the name of Rector, and I suppose, in the unsettled state of things both in Church and State during the Cromwellian period, a regular appointment to the rectory of Wolborough by the legal patron could scarcely be looked for; nor is it clear from the evidence which I have been able to examine whether this Mr. William Yeo was in what the Church of England regards as "Holy Orders" or not. Dr. Calamy, in his Nonconformist's Memorial, states that he was "a native of Totness, bred up at Exeter School; that he pursued his studies for some time at Exeter Coll. Oxford, & removed to Emanuel Coll. Camb.; that removing from the University he was Chaplain in Col. Gold's regiment; but being soon weary of that station he settled for some time at Brighthelmstone [Brighton] in Sussex; and was removed thence by an order of the committee of parliament to Newton Abbot."

There he continued to officiate in Wolborough Church until 1662, when in company with some hundreds of other ministers he declined to conform to the laws of the Church of England, and was therefore called upon to retire, as a much larger number of clergy had some seventeen years before been turned out from their benefices by the party of Oliver Cromwell.

Toleration was not, I suppose, at that time either believed in or practised by any body of religionists.

I venture to repeat my hope that a further search in the Wolborough Registers may be made, and that others of the clergy who have the charge of church registers will copy the example which I ventured to set in the year 1884, when I prepared a paper for the Devonshire Association referring to the parish of Highweek, and which I entitled "Gleanings from a Parish Chest." Many interesting circumstances might thus be brought to light that would be not only welcome for local considerations, but even throw light on the general history of our country.

BARNSTAPLE REGISTERS (CHIEFLY MEDICAL).

BY JOSEPH HARPER, L.R.C.P.

(Read at Great Torrington, August, 1899.)

THE old borough of Barnstaple was co-extensive with the parish of Barnstaple, but the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1834 added a portion of the parishes of Pilton and Bishops Tawton. The report of the Commissioners under the Municipal Corporation Boundaries Act, appointed by order of the House of Commons, April 25th, 1837, states that "the new borough of Barnstaple comprises the entire parish of Barnstaple, and portions of the two parishes of Pilton and Bishops Tawton." It goes on to say that the number of houses in the borough of Barnstaple at that time was:Parish of Barnstaple. 1085 all of which are rated. 276 rated houses.

Part of Pilton parish added
Newport,,

Total

It was at this time that the borough was divided into two wards, viz., the north and south wards, the boundary lines of which are the same as at present.

In 1881 the Parliamentary borough was again extended by 31 and 32 Vic. c. 40, so as to take in a further portion of the parish of Pilton.

There is now a great probability of the borough being once more enlarged by taking in a further portion of Pilton and a portion of the parish of Tawstock; a Local Government inquiry has been held, and the application granted by the Local Government Board, to date from November next.

In 1837 an Act was passed for establishing Civil Registrations of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. The first year we have a complete record is in 1838, but Dr. Longstaff, in his