Parish Registers (Part 4): Time and Careless Custodians at Stondon Massey

An extract from ‘A History of Stondon Massey in Essex’ by Rev. E.H.L. Reeve, M.A., published 1900.

The following order to the Churchwardens from the Archdeacon’s books is interesting, and gives a peep into the Church in 1683:

“The paveing in ye Chansell to be newe layd.
2 Locks for ye chest; and ye Register Book to be kept in’t.
The seates in ye Chancell to be mended.
The Communion Table to be mended and sett in its place.
The raine water to be prevented comeing in at ye chancell doore.
The Church to be whited.
The ffront to be removed to the Northe doore and that part of the floore to be brickt.
The wheels of the Bells to be mended.
The bushes to be taken out of ye Churchyard.
The Churchyard wants a new gate.
The ffence belonging to Stondon hall, now in the tenure of Col. Nathaniel Rich, wants reparation.
There wants a new Communion Prayer Book and Table of the Degrees of Marriage”.

The Missing Register

Time and careless custodians have dealt hardly with us. In 1683 the Archdeacon at his visit ordered “2 lockes for ye chest, and ye Register Book to be kept in’t;” but even the very chest has utterly disappeared!

Our earliest extant book dates from 1708, and for a century after this the entries are far from being complete or satisfactory. I am glad to say that by careful search among the ancient wills at Somerset House and other sources I have been able in some measure to repair the deficiency as regards burials at least, and have succeeded in recovering about 70 names, a few of them dating from the 15th century.

Rector Thomas Smith and the Registers

Our Rector, Thomas Smith cannot, I fear, be acquitted of the charge of culpable carelessness. We find entries in his handwriting inserted here and there apparently just where space seemed to offer itself, quite regardless of dates; and, while he gives us abundant information in some cases, he makes a note of others with a brevity which is, to say at least, timesome and perplexing.

There are, however, one or two points on which a few words may be said. And first I would like to call attention to the singular state of the early marriage register.

Out of 121 marriages between 1708 and 1754 entered in the book only 17 show one of the parties to have belonged to Stondon. In every other case both bride and bridegroom belonged to outside parishes.

And this is the more strange seeing that in the succeeding 37 years after 1754 no fewer than 68 marriages are entered showing either a Stondon bride or bridegroom.

Sometimes, again, a wedding is entered when a ceremony took place elsewhere. Mr Thomas Smith united the Curacy of Blackmore in 1756 to his other cures, but it is embarrassing to find the following in the Stondon books in 1744:

July 18th. “Married at Blackmore John Baker Batchelor and Martha Belcher Spinster, Both of the Parish of Danbury in this County”.

One wonders whether other Rectors were as much in request for tying the nuptial knot as Mr Smith, and whether, in cases where the entries were merely records of their work done in other parishes, the parishes interested were favoured with a copy for their own books.

Otherwise the work of hunting up materials for a pedigree must be felt to be a harder one than has been realized hitherto.

Marriage Before and After 1754

It is, I fear, extremely probable that our Rector was known to be a man who would ask no awkward questions.

Previous to 1754 any marriage performed by a priest was accounted valid, though it might not be legal; and, although the officiating clergyman was liable to heavy penalties in such a case, the law was not often put in force, if the parson could be found ready to run the risk.

The increase in so-called “Stondon” marriages after 1754 points some way, and tends to show that somehow Mr Smith still contrived to remain a popular clergyman.

A Double Marriage in 1789

An amusing incident appears in 1789, attended no doubt with distress and inconvenience at the time.

In the Church Marriage Book the marriage of the same couple is entered both on Feb. 7th and on May 1st. The Clerk’s informal book notes the double ceremony also, but in the second instance, I think, somewhat naively adds “at eleven o’clock in the morning”.

The inference, I think, therefore is obvious, that on the first occasion time and the fates were against the young people, and mid-day sounded before the ring could be safely placed on the bride’s finger.

Burial in Woollen

Among the entries of Burial we frequently find it mentioned that the “Affidavit was duly made.”

This affidavit was required by an Act of Parliament passed in 1678 attesting that the body to be buried “was not wrapt in any material but what was made of sheep’s wool,” the object of the Act being to encourage the woollen trade.

The Act was repealed in 1814, but had long before fallen into disuse. The penalty attached to neglect of it was £5, half to be paid to the informant, and half to the Poor of the Parish.

Stondon’s Oldest Recorded Inhabitant

Our oldest inhabitant known to the Registers is Mr William Smith, “late Farmer in the Parish, who was buried Nov. 10th, 1749 in the hundredth year of his age”.