No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Notice of the Register and Churchwardens' Account Book which belonged to Knebworth, Herts, preserved in Dr. Williams' Library
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
The register here referred to is said to have been found among papers in an empty house, but where or when is not stated. As far as the entries of births, deaths, and marriages are concerned, it seems to have been copied partially into the books now preserved at Knebworth, but there are some odd variations here and there. The church register begins in 1602. That preserved in Dr. Williams' library is headed thus:—
”A book or register conteyninge all Christeninges, marriages, and buiyalls within the parish of Knebworth, from the feaste of St. Mychaell Th'Archangell beinge the xxixth daye of September, in the yeare of oure Lorde God 1596, and in the yeare of the raigne of oure Soveren Ladie Queene Elizabethe xxxvii, as followethe, et., et.”
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1880
References
page 231 note * This is a farm in Knebworth, “Three Houses,” still called by the villagers “Three Housen.”
page 231 note † Whether the lady thus designated was an adult or an infant does not appear. The name Lytton introduces the chief landowner in Knebworth, from whom, by bequest of his mother, Mrs. Bulwer Lytton, the heiress of the Lyttons, the late Lord Lytton inherited the estate.
page 232 note * This is the same person who is afterwards called “Sir Rowland Lytton, Knight.” He was Lieutenant of Herts, and commanded the forces of the county, and led them to the camp at Tilbury, in 1588. He was knighted at Belvoir, in 1603, and died 1616.
page 232 note † They also regarded the trees in the churchyard as parish property.
page 232 note ‡ This, I suppose, was what we should call the Poor-house, which formerly existed in every parish. This particular house cannot now be identified. There was one in existence under that name in the adjoining parish of Codicote, which was pulled down in my remembrance, and the site throvyn into the road.
page 233 note * These beasts, perhaps cows, or oxen for agricultural labour, seem to have been let out at a yearly rate of 4ς The same custom occurs in the Brightston, Isle of Wight, accounts, beginning 1566, where there were 10 cows let out at 7 d. each, and 134 sheep at 2 d. The Knebworth rent in 1599 is nearly seven times as much, so that the Brightston people were not unreasonable in trying in 1576 to raise their rents to 2s. 4d. a head respectively; but this was in advance of public feeling, and the old price continued till 1592, when the higher scale was adopted (“Church Quarterly,” vol. iii., 373).
page 233 note † In earlier times these collections were made at Easter and Christmas; not, however, as required by law till 1597.
page 235 note * The number of Communions varies—three, four, and five times a year.
page 235 note † This word is interlined, and here first mentioned.
page 235 note ‡ Six of these names still exist at Knebworth.
page 236 note * These existed thirty years ago; the upper limb being inscribed “Thou shalt not steal;” which nevertheless was stolen one night, and I suppose burnt as fuel.
page237 note * This was very dear; the charge in S. Michael's Bath rolls is always 2d.
page 237 note † Hedges. Eder breche is the trespass of hedge-breaking.
page 238 note * This word is a great trouble. It is spelt “Parrytor,” “Aparytr,” “Aparator,” and at length, 1606, “Apparitor.”
page 240 note * Knebworth was at this time in the Diocese of Lincoln, and the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon. The Bishop held his visitation at Hitchin, no doubt as a larger and more central town; the Archdeacon held his at Baldock, but the registers, at least the copies of them, Were carried to bs deposited in the Archdeacon's muniments at Huntingdon.