By Ellie Jones, Exeter Cathedral Archivist
In 1538, Thomas Cromwell – England’s Vicar General and an advisor to Henry VIII – declared that all parishes should maintain written records of the baptisms, marriages and burials in their own churches. The measure was not a popular one. People felt it was intrusive and worried it might be used to increase their tax bills, so the records were often kept irregularly and on bits of paper. Consequently, there are very few surviving parish records until the end of the 16th century, when Elizabeth I established a new set of rules. Parishes were required to keep their registers in properly bound durable parchment volumes, with copies to be sent to the bishop. More registers were made, and more have survived from 1598 onwards.
The Cathedral has been keeping its own registers of baptisms, marriages and burials since the 1590s. The registers initially contained only basic data, and were written on blank pages with baptisms, marriage and burials in the same book. This continued until 1813 when the George Rose Parochial Registers Act specified that separate pre-printed books for baptisms, marriages and burials should be used. Information was to be collected in a standardised form which would, for baptisms, now include the names, address and status of both parents (where known), not just the father. The registers were (and are) handwritten (now using high quality permanent black registrars’ ink). Sadly, there is no guarantee of the legibility of an individual’s handwriting!
All the Cathedral’s registers from 1594 to 2019 are now in the Cathedral Archives. It is only the registers of the events which have taken place at the Cathedral that are in the Cathedral Archives, though – the registers for parishes across the Diocese of Exeter are deposited with the South West Heritage Trust or at The Box in Plymouth (for parishes in Devon) or at Kresen Kernow (for parishes in Cornwall).
There is almost limitless storytelling potential within these registers, and doubtless we will return to them from time to time in the future. For now, I wanted to introduce you to John Godwyne (son of doctor Godwyne) and Elianor Rider (daughter of Mr William Rider), the first two children whose baptisms were recorded in “Book 1”. That first page includes 30 children baptised between 1594 and 1601 – three Johns, Graces and Elizabeths, but also two Thomases, a Caleb, an Honor, a Maximilian and others.
If you think your ancestor may have been baptised at the Cathedral, or you are curious about those whose lives are recorded in the pages of these registers, you can contact us directly with your query or, if you have a subscription to the genealogy website FindMyPast.com, you can browse them online.