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Archiver > LONDON > 2001-05 > 0988754374


From: "John Henley" <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Whereabouts of Hampstead records
Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 23:01:35 +0100
References: <000101c0d24b$06040200$5a26408b@HWALLIS1>


----- Original Message ----- From: Hugh Wallis <>
and similar from Chris
> >>The church retain their registers (though they should have handed them
> in). And charge substantially for research. <<
> > This sounds immoral (and, dare I say it, unchristian) given that they
are
> apparently profiteering by breaking the law. I sounds like they are guilty
> of much more than ignoring an administrative requirement. Is there no
> authority to whom one could appeal for rectification of this situation or
is
> "the church" above the law in the UK? (or is it just not that important
> compared with catching speeding motorists and stopping people from
watering
> their lawns at the wrong time of day :-,) ? )> SNIP<
> Thanks> > Hugh Wallis

Hi Hugh (and Chris),
There seems to be some confusion in your comments as to
a] what are parish registers
b] what is the law regarding their storage.

a] Parish Registers in England were first ordered to be kept by Thomas
Cromwell in the reign of Henry VIII (1538), recording the baptisms,
marriages and burials occurring in the parish church. Under Elizabeth I in
1598 because of concern over the quality of paper and record-keeping it was
ordered they should be entered on parchment and existing records, especially
those made since the queen's accession in 1558. In addition, from that year,
parishes were required to return quarterly copies of entries to the bishop
(sometimes the archdeacon) - the Bishop's Transcripts or BTs.
Duringt he Commonwealth (1653-1660) the duty of recording was transferred to
a parish official called the Parish Register. The parish had the duty of
keeping the registers safe, usually in the parish chest. Their chief enemies
have been carelessness, fire, theft, damp...
Until 1753 most parishes used one book for entries of all three events.
Hardwicke's Marriage Act that year impose the duty of using separate (in
practice usually pre-printed registers) for marriages.
By the ned of the 18th.century pre-printed regsiters for baptisms were also
in use in some parishes.
In 1812 Rose's Act imposed the use of separate pre-printed registers for
each set of events, with additional detail - the name address of parents and
occupation of father for baptisms, for example. This was a great improvement
everywhere except for a few parishes where a more detailed record was
already being kept, and they changed to the new forms.
In 1837 civil registration was introduced for births, marriages and deaths,
and for the first tiime the government provided the churches with a copy of
the register in which they had to record marriages.
I am not sure when fees for certified copies of entries in registers were
introduced but the 1837 Act standardised the fees for copies of marriage
entries. In the later 19th century and 20th century fparliament
standsrdised the fees for seraching the regiasters and issued certificates
of entries therein, first for parishes without there own customary table and
then for all parishes. Today these statutory fees are set annually by
Parliamentary Order.
These registers are church property, records of church ceremonies made by
the church by order of Act of Parliament . The fees are set by Parliament
and are the only compensation for the cost of the registers (only marriage
registers paid for by the state) , their safekeeping and searching and
supplying certificates. Any fees for these due to the incumbent (as opposed
to the parish church) for carrying out the work are both taxable and
deductible from his fixed stipend.
The fees are set at a level commensurate with those charges by the GRO.

b] Storage. In 1992 a Measure confirmed by Parlament required that all
registers in each diocese witn entries more than 150 years old be deposited
in a record repository designated by the bisop (usually the local county
record office) unless the local church had proper facilities for their safe
storage. The understanding at the time (tho' rarely honoured) was that a
copy would be returned to the parish.
Some parishes, believing that registers were an important part of the
history of the local community and local church life, perhaps many miles
fromt he designated record office (and perhaps mindful of what happened to
records ib Ireland in 1822 when all gathered in one place) went to the
trouble of providing the necessary storage facilities and retained the
registers as they are entitled to do. Most were happy to part with all their
closed registers up until modern times. A few have done nothing - and it is
these cases which usually come to light in these lists - but it would be
dangerous to assume that Hampstead and St.Giles-in-the-Fie;lds have not got
the statutory fireproof, dampproof, theftproof storage facilities, still
less that they are charging more than the statutory fees..
The question of compensation for the loss of fees was never settled.



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