VOLUME I.

VOLUME II.

VOLUME III.

VOLUME IV.

VOLUME V.

VOLUME VI.

CONTENTS.

HAMPSHIRE PARISH REGISTERS
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Marriages at Eling.
1539 to 1812

NOTE: - The Registers of Eling fill many volumes, of which the first two are naturally the most interesting.  These are of parchment, and from 1539, when the first volume begins, to 1597 and a little later, are all in the same handwriting.  It is probable, therefore, that they were originally written on paper and in 1597, in accordance with the orders then issued, copied by the clerk at that time on to parchment.  This will account for the fact there are some entries missing in the years 1550-1560, with a note by the clerk calling attention to the fact, and some entries imperfectly made, either the day and month or some name being omitted.  Probably, the clerk copying old registers found some of the pages mutilated or illegible, or lost.
     The first Register is a square book of parchment, measuring 12½ x 10 inches, of 300 pages, and with the exception of the last two pages which are torn, is not damaged in any way.  It contains the entries of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials for about 140 years, with thirty-five to forty entries on a page, making about 10,000 entries in all.  For the first hundred years it is very carefully and beautifully written, in old English characters, and is a model of what such a book should be.  In 1638, however, on the death of William Wallon, the "Clarke of ye p'ish," the writing changes from the official to the common hand, and Samuel Crayker, the succeeding clerk, for the first time practices writing, not as an art, but as a convenience.  From this time onwards the writing is sometimes better, sometimes worse, and occasionally so bad as to be almost illegible.
     The second volume is of similar size, 12½ x 8½, and material to the first, but it covers only about eighty years (1673-1750), showing how largely the population of the parish had by this time increased.  The noticeable thing about these books, as compared with those of many other churches, is their size and quality and the very unusual care that must have been taken of them.  A book that was used constantly and by many different hands for 140 or even 80 years, and is yet in almost perfect preservation, must have been very carefully dealt with all the time.
     The subsequent volumes are of the ordinary type.
     These Marriages have been extracted by the Rev. T. Thistle, Vicar of Eling, and are now printed by his permission and under his supervision.
     HAMPSHIRE - VII.