Non-Conformist Records

Transcription

1 Non-Conformist Records

2 What do we mean by Non-Conformist? Essentially Non-Conformism refers to religious practices that deviate from those of the Established Church of the day. The Church originally meant just the Church of Rome, but after Henry VIII broke ranks with that and instituted the Church of England that then sur-planted the Church of Rome for the rest of his reign, followed by a state of turmoil where each kept replacing the other as the official religion of the state; the term Established Church became used to describe whatever was the then flavour of the month so the historical records are in fact a mixture of records pertaining to both the Church of Rome AND the Church of England.

3 The Extent of Non-Conformity After the advent of the Baptist Movement, other followed - such as Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Congregational, and others. By about 1800, about one third of the entire population were reckoned to be some form of Non-Conformist, plus others observed few religious practices at all. It is estimated that about half of the population were not practising members of the Church of England so could not be relied upon to have Baptised their children - so the recording process had seriously broken down. The fact of this breakdown is rarely adequately reflected in Genealogical instruction.

4 What are Non-Conformists? - 1 I don t intend to try to define such from an ecclesiastical viewpoint but merely try to define to what I m restricting myself in this presentation I m concentrating upon records within England, but similarities exist for Wales and Scotland but probably not for Ireland I m attempting to address records of Birth or Burial that failed to get incorporated into the usual Parish records ignoring Inter-Regnum peculiarities when recording often ceased. I shall also include other records that are useful specifically in respect of Non-Conformists. In this presentation, I m including essentially any religious sect that does not adhere to the doctrines or procedures of the Established Church

5 What are Non-Conformists? - 2 Religions practiced within England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies as well were all essentially Christian, as the Jews had been excluded by Henry II and other practices had not yet surfaced. Jews re-appeared from about Jewish records are quite different, and won t be fully addressed here. Most Non-Conformist religions are therefore merely based on minor procedural differences of no real significance but as with most such differences, the various participants and nonparticipants were involved in heated debates about these, and legislation was enacted to try to suppress the various deviant practices that now included Roman Catholicism, once the Anglican Church finally attained stability as THE Established Church.

6 Does your family have any Non- Conformists? Almost certainly but you may not have found them yet Does it matter? almost certainly yes My researches took a long time to get really started; one of the difficulties was me not addressing the Non-Conformist issues

7 Why religion matters in Genealogy Different religious sects have different customs regarding the recording of acts of Baptism, Marriage, and Burial Determining the religious denomination of one s ancestors can therefore be key to finding the records of their existence, and their parentage. Sometimes, the present holds the key to the past in respect of religious practices, but when mixed marriages occur then often the practices of just one of the parents may govern the subsequent practices of the children and their offspring

8 Non-Conformist Records There s a tendency for Genealogists to be brainwashed by the plethora of instructions as to how to find one s ancestors, by the way that the GRO, IGI, and Parish Record data are introduced. Most approaches never mention Non- Conformist records, seemingly treating these as if they are applicable to just an insignificant minority of people.

9 1837 and the General Register Office Prior to July 1837, almost the only fairly reliable records that existed to shew that a person had ever lived, were the Parish records of Baptism, Marriage, and Burial. The GRO system of recording Births, Marriages, and Deaths came into being because by the early-eighteenth Century, the old system had seriously broken down because ever increasing numbers of the population could not be relied upon to use the Church of England Baptism feature, and the certificate recording such event was prior to 1837 the only means of demonstrating a person s identity and the Parish in which they were entitled to settlement, and hence Parish relief when necessary. Of these features, the Baptismal records are the most important, because in theory everyone should have had such an entry, and these ought to have recorded the parental details, whereas not everyone married, and although in theory everyone would have a burial record, such generally provided very little useful data other than an often incorrect guess at a person s age, and burials could for many reasons have taken place far from those places revealed by other research so often very difficult to locate, and gave no indication of parentage except for children

10 The GRO Records Whilst the records of Marriages and Deaths under the GRO System may be assumed to be very nearly complete, this is not so for Births, as registration was not compulsory until 1888, so Parish Records and records of other types are still important up until at least that date. However, ignorance and poverty still prevailed, and registrations often did not occur because the applications were out of time, or because the parents wished to avoid the fees. Sometimes the birth date was falsified, to appear to be in-date. I have some relatives, where I was told that the birth of an individual had never been registered, and that the certificate of a sibling was produced instead if a certificate was ever required.

11 Hardwick s Marriage Act of 1754 The quality of details recorded in the Parish records of Baptism, Marriage, and Burial events frequently left much to be desired. For Marriages, not only was the recorded detail often inadequate, but various types of irregular marriages occurred, performed by priests that were not attached to a specific Parish; some of these clandestine arrangements involved non-consenting brides and children as young as 12 or 14. Hardwick s Act tried to rectify the position at least as far as Marriages were concerned by obliging everyone that wanted to have a legal marriage to perform this under the auspices of the Established Church. However, this displeased those that were not of that religious persuasion, but it did much to ensure some integrity of the records then produced. There were always some, that declined to get married in a C of E church. Quakers, and subsequently Jews, were permitted to conduct their own marriages, and records of those are kept separate if they actually survived. Some of these have got into the IGI but many have not. Records of marriages for Jews are retained by the appropriate Jewish organisation. However, these records are not made available for public search, and are of course in Aramaic. Many registers have been transcribed, but I have found no definitive list that indicates how complete or otherwise those transcriptions have been, and NONE of these are in the IGI because the IGI records relate solely to Christians.

12 Dissenters and Hardwick s Act Some dissenters disliked Hardwick s Act so much, (in that attempted to force them to marry in an Anglican church), that they were prepared to go abroad to defeat it. Large numbers went to border towns in Scotland such as (but not limited to ) Gretna Green that were of course outside of English Law Until 1856, no residence qualification was required to marry in Scotland Other dissenters located with easier access to Man, a Channel Island, or Calais may have used those instead, or even Ulster It may be wise to check the on-line index of Scottish marriages for suspected Non-Conformists

13 Burial Records Burial records remained relatively complete, because originally the only place to bury a body was in a Parish churchyard apart from a relatively insignificant number of interments on private land. However, burials could take place in distant Parishes that a researcher would not easily associate, and may therefore be almost untraceable. With the rise of Non-Conformity in religious practices, even the burial recording became unreliable, because newly-formed religious groups began to acquire their own land for burials, and these being beyond the normal statutory controls were usually recorded, but the records not necessarily preserved. Such record books that existed, frequently contained other information, and were often regarded by the ministers as their own property and may have been retained by them when they ceased to officiate. Records of Jewish burials do exist, but are relatively difficult to locate. In the event of a mixed marriage, the spouse of the non-jew was entitled to burial in the Jewish Burial Ground, but was normally interred separately.

14 Baptismal Records Frequently, a Baptismal record was the only record that had provided any sort of reliable evidence as to the existence of a person, and in particular documented the Parish to which they belonged. In the rural areas, Parish priests generally took the trouble to seek-out the parents of children that had not been Baptised, and so the records for small Parishes were generally mostly complete, but as the population grew, the hold of the priests on the population began to fail.

15 The Baptist Movement - 1 The uncertainties caused by Henry VIII in about 1538 breaking away from the Church of Rome, followed by subsequent monarchs reinstating the old faith and rejecting it again several times, gave rise to a widespread dissatisfaction with religious procedures, and in 1622 the Baptist movement was one of the first groups recognised as going it s own separate ways contrary to the laws of the land.

16 The Baptist Movement - 2 Non-Conformity in general, wasn t confined to a specific class of people, but generally to those that had some degree of independence such as tradesmen that were not dependant on the patronage of specific landowners, but landowners were also involved. A hotbed of Non-Conformity arose particularly in Bedfordshire, and in the adjoining areas of Hertfordshire. King s Walden in Hertfordshire is the village from which my ancestors hailed in the 17C, 18C, and early 19C.

17 The Baptist Movement - 3 It is not clear to me whether the Baptists ever tried to institute their own marriage ceremonies; some certainly made their own arrangements for burials. However, the most important change that was instituted was the discontinuance of Infant Baptism by the Baptists and other Non-Conformist sects. Of course, some Non-Conformists still went through the motions of having children Baptised by an Anglican Parish priest, but most abandoned the practice altogether with the result that very often no statutory records were produced that recorded the existence of the children.

18 Quakers Quakers were another small group of nonconformists, that kept their own records of births, marriages, and burials. Quakers, and subsequently Jews, were the only break-away groups permitted to conduct their own marriage arrangements.

19 Baptist s Records Although the Baptist movement rejected Infant Baptism, they still performed the Baptismal process but upon mature adults as a mark of their admittance into the Baptist movement, in a process logically equivalent to the combined processes of infant baptism plus the confirmation process that followed Baptism in early adulthood within the Anglican Church. Most Baptist organisations maintained a Meeting Book, in which records of admissions were recorded, and sometimes even recorded the birth of children to members, and also marriages performed in an Anglican Parish Church but these records were not conforming to the legal requirements for Parish Records, have not necessarily been retained for us to examine today, and were not necessarily in register format. Some meetings did decide to maintain a register of BIRTHS, and these may have been preserved by the GRO in their category RG6 to RG8 records.

20 What does concern us here, is that ALL of the Non-Conformist practices were essentially outside of the Law, and did not adhere to the record-keeping requirements for the sacraments of Baptism, Marriage, and Burial.

21 Absence of Records for Birth Events Although the GRO began recording Births from July 1837, registration did not become compulsory until 1888, and even after that registration was never 100%. Fortunately, the LDS continued their transcription of Baptisms after 1837, and into the twentieth century but purely for reasons of their own. Another problem arose from the Birth registration process, in that whilst Baptisms could be performed at any time within a person s lifetime (but indexing problems would arise), Birth registration had by Law to be performed within a specified few weeks of birth, failing which the birth could then no longer be registered EVER so a certificate never then obtainable. The only legal substitute for a certificate of birth is a Statutory Declaration for the event, and there is no process for registering those; we have also had immigrants entering Britain, for whom the birth records (if indeed any) are located elsewhere. This means that between 1622 and 1888, as many as half the births of children may be entirely unrecorded, and significant numbers continue to go unrecorded to the present day. This may well explain why you as Genealogists may experience difficulties locating many births.

22 My Personal Experiences - 1 Although I had overheard comments made by my Father s family, about them being Wesleyan or Chapel, I really wasn t too certain what that meant, so when I began my Genealogical research, I had no idea whatsoever that this would necessitate a completely different approach as opposed to my Mother s family that were typical Church of England people. Moreover, none of my instructional material seemed to even hint that I would need to be using a largely totally separate and different set of records (pre-1837) to find my Father s family, because at that time I was meeting with brick walls no matter where I searched.

23 My Personal Experiences - 2 I began my Genealogy by looking for my namesake, that was granted the Freedom of the City of Great Yarmouth in I hold the original document, but was unable to place the man, because there was no record of his birth to be found and seemingly none for his marriage either. That start was of course quite wrong, as I should have begun from myself and worked back methodically from there but I thought that I could use a short-cut. Although I have now documented my main line back to around 1661, I still have no documentary record for the birth of the holder of that Freeman s Certificate, or direct evidence of his parentage simply because the Family was Non-Conformist.

24 My 3x GGF This is the fellow that began my interest in Genealogy, not just because he was another John Goodwin, but because at age 14 I was given a certificate granting the Freedom of the City of Great Yarmouth to him This document though verified now as valid caused me no end of difficulties, because he was supposedly apprenticed (in his early to mid twenties) to William Palgrave the Younger, that was the head of Customs & Excise at Great Yarmouth; however, during that period, John occupied a large house in the Mile End Road, and was having his family there! Had I not been given the certificate, I would probably have never associated John with Yarmouth.

25 Freeman s Certificate - 1

26 Freeman s Certificate - 2

27 My Personal Experiences - 3 I wasted much time trying to locate the person that I now know to be my 3x GGF, looking for him in East Anglia, because of the Freeman s Certificate, and because of enumerator fraud on the 1881 Census that shewed my GGF to have come from that area also when in fact neither did! (At that time, I presumed these to be father & son). It wasn t until in desperation and having looked at seemingly every set of records available, that I purchased a set of CDs of the BVRI and eventually located there a set of 8 birth records that appeared to relate to my family, and I furthermore shewed that one entire film for Marriages at St. Dunstan s Church had been omitted from the IGI (they were on Paillot s Index), that I eventually began to make some headway and placed the family in East Middlesex. The BVRI (first edition) identifies certain entries as Dr Williams s Library entries, but this annotation is omited from version 2, and when I first encountered such entries the name meant nothing to me. Subsequently, the Non-Conformist involvement became apparent to me. In sheer desperation, I d searched all sorts of records, checking every Goodwin entry. I did spot a John Goodwin entry on a PCC index for 1849, but as this was at Hitchin out of area I ignored it.

28 Doctor Williams s Library - 1 The Non-Conformists realised that certain difficulties could arise for members not having any sort of personal documentation such as a certificate of Baptism, so if they fell on hard times it was difficult to claim settlement in the Parish of their birth. From 1743 to 1837, the Library operated a registration facility to enable Non-Conformists to avoid having to undertake Anglican Baptism to obtain a certificate of Baptism. They issued BIRTH CERTIFICATES at a charge of 2/6d each! Backdated submissions exist from 1715, and there was a sudden peak in the demand immediately prior to July 1837 for reasons that are not apparent to me, but possibly because the new system did not accept backdating and possibly prohibited the older forms of registration.

29 Dr Williams s Library - 2 Each Birth Certificate was signed by the surgeon, midwife, father, and all persons claiming to have been present at the birth including in one of my cases the nine-year-old brother of the infant. Certificates stated the date and time of birth, the, the child s name, mother, and father. Later certificates named the mother s parents, gave their address, the address of the birth, and the father s occupation.

30 Dr Williams s Library - 3 The actual Birth Certificate records are now held by The National Archives catalogued as RG-5, with RG-4 as the index. These are both paper records. The index has been transcribed like a Parish Register by the LDS, but with frequent errors. It is not included in the published IGI, but is included as an extension as part of the British Vital Records Index (versions 1 & 2) and is thus included in the pilot version of the new IGI.

31 Records from Dr. Williams s Library

32 My certificate for John Goodwin

33 My certificate for Thomas Goodwin

34 Other IGI Inclusions Contrary to the general understanding, the IGI is not just an accumulation of Parish Register transcriptions; there are also transcriptions of some Non-Conformist registers there as well. The included Non-Conformist registers, are mostly those that were submitted to the GRO in 1837, and constitute the RG-4, RG-6, RG-7, and RG-8 categories in the archives now held by the TNA. Theoretically, you can call for the GRO to produce certificates for these RG4-RG8 entries. The problem with being able to use these transcriptions, is being able to form the link that leads to those records, as these are not Parochial records and so there may be no obvious connection with people living in an apparently unconnected village. In my case, the registers were for a Meeting House in Hitchin, whilst the residence was at King s Walden several miles away and my connection was via London and without baptismal or parental data.

35 Other Non-Conformist Traits You may find like me that not only can you not find Birth/Baptismal records, perhaps also Marriage, and even Burial records for your Non-Conformist relatives They may have gone to great trouble to exclude themselves from the Censuses, the Death records, and even the regular form of Probate!

36 Children of my 3x GGPs 1811 Mary Ann - the Spinster 1815 Clementia - the Governess/Nurse 1818 Samuel - my 2x GGF 1820 John - the Chemist 1824 Daniel - the Ironmonger 1822 Joseph - the Schoolmaster 1828 Ann - Married circa 1850? 1829 Thomas - the Architect

37 Census Records My 3x GGF and his immediate family that were still at home, appeared as a group in 1841, but useful data was not obtainable My 3x GGF and wife died between the 1841 and 1851 Censuses, so the family became fragmented; of the eight children, despite having eight sets of birth records, I tracked just my 2x GGF Samuel moderately easily Samuel was discovered in the 1881 Census, after I had fully documented his eldest child John Henry my GGF

38 1881 Census - 1 It took a long long time to find my GGPs in the 1881 Census; this was due to enumerator FRAUD. The enumerator for Islington, tried to do as little work as possible; he did not deliver the schedules for completion by the householder, but filled these in during the day at the door on his single visit; he recorded details just for persons actually seen except the absent head of household, for whom he fabricated details For my GGPs, two children (unseen by the enumerator) were omitted, and my GGF was recorded as born Ipswich 1836

39 1881 Census - 2 I found my 1x GGPs and family, only by a record-by-record search of all of the surname GOODWIN for the whole of London, subsequently shewn to be necessary just because the enumerator had written-up the entire area by omitting forenames Because the search had now homed-in on just my people, I failed to note the anomaly that about half of the heads of household in Islington had apparently been born in Ipswich Six months of abortive research on Ipswich records, finally revealed the fraud; he had actually been born in Mile End in 1842 just like his wife; up until this point, I was working solely from my own original documents, as I had yet to discover the GRO.

40 1881 Census Census records were eventually found for four other great-great uncles and aunts but still not for Daniel, Thomas and Ann Ann could be missing due to a marriage as yet unidentifiable; Daniel appeared in 1851 living with Joseph and family, but since then has disappeared without trace Joseph is not to be found in 1861, but emerged on a PCC Will in 1870 witnessed by Thomas (giving an address in Clapton); Thomas was also not recorded in or subsequently Joseph s two male children disappeared after leaving college Did these people intentionally get omitted from the Censuses, or is there some other explanation such as travelling abroad still to emerge? Thomas is believed to have participated in the Crimean Wars, but as his medals passed to Samuel is presumed to have pre-deceased him in England. These medals are in an assumed name.

41 John Goodwin s vital records No birth/baptism record has yet emerged, so I have no direct evidence of parents. His marriage was apparently unrecorded or so I thought until I demonstrated that serious omissions have occurred in Phillimore s records of IGI content; St. Dunstan s (and other East End Churches) have NOT been fully transcribed (Paillot s Index shewed this to be so) He did not die in London so death details hard to find. Because he was a non-conformist, he or his executor opted to prove the Will at the PCC!!!

42 Prerogatory Court of Canterbury Prior to 1858, Wills were proved by Ecclesiastical Courts different ones being prescribed according to where the deceased s property was located The term property here relates to anything owned not just to real estate so even Ag. Labs. could have had property to leave, but of course if their possessions were merely household effects and clothing, then it s unlikely that they would have made a Will, and the family would probably have avoided the expenses involved in proving any Will made. If all the property was located in one Parish, then a Will could be proved in the Archdeaconry Court; if held in more than one Parish, then the Bishop s Court was required; if held in more than one County, then the Prerogative Court of Canterbury was required for the South of England (or the corresponding court for the North of England). The executor could opt to have a Will proved in a higher court than strictly necessary, if so desired.

43 John s Property Shortly before his death, John moved to Hitchin in Hertfordshire events unbeknown to me at the time of researching, although I had actually seen and dismissed the index entry for this because it was out of area John owned household effects etc., but also held real estate in the form of ownership of the land in which his wife s remains had been interred Consequently, his Will had to be proved at Doctor s Commons in London

44 The need or wish to use the PCC In John s case, he held property in more than one County, so the Will had to be proved at the PCC. However, the holding of a grave deed relating to another County is the sort of property that researchers might easily overlook. (I wonder how many grave deeds technically come under YOUR responsibility?) More importantly, non-conformists frequently CHOSE to use the PCC Court, because they didn t want the local C of E clergy to have access to their personal details The latter is a very important point to consider, as the possibility of a PCC Will existing for persons of relatively modest means is easily overlooked

45 PCC Records The PCC Record Indices have been available on microfiche for many years, and the actual probate register on microfilm, but in about 2001 the TNA began to transfer these to an on-line database with copies supposedly of the Wills as well The Probate Records had sometime earlier been filmed, and were all available for reference at the Family Records Centre and the TNA. The FRC had an index of these, whereas the TNA fraudulently deny access to this and oblige researchers to pay for access to the digital records. The records were digitised on a piecemeal basis, so a new index was prepared on an ongoing basis as the records became available on-line. Unfortunately - or in my case perhaps I should say fortunately some of the entries were mis-transcribed. In my case, John s Probate was recorded under Mile End (where he lived when it was made) whereas it should have been shewn as Hitchin (where he actually died). I had previously seen the Hitchin entry on the microfiche index but ignored it!

46 John s PCC Will - 1 I couldn t sleep one night, when worrying about ongoing work in The Court of Protection. This was at the time that the 1901 Census data was supposed to be available online, so I thought I d try to get on-line (not knowing then why it had been blocked). I noticed the new site, and thought that I d look. I now found the Mile End entry, and wondered why but eventually I chose to look.

47 John s PCC Will - 2 Having forked-out the 3, I was most annoyed by what I got appearing on-screen. The details were almost totally illegible. However, knowing his name plus that of his wife and eight children, I managed to read this into the garbage that appeared on screen. I dashed off to the FRC to view the Will on film. To my horror, I found that the digitised entry was unreadable, because the film version was similarly unreadable!!!!!

48 John s PCC Will - 3 From there, I had to order the original of the Will to be taken to Kew, and there I was able to read the document. In a way, it was a good thing that I had been obliged to obtain the original document, because the copy that I had tried to view was NOT of course the original Will, but a transcript from it as copied into the probate register (all these records are such). Going to Kew, not only produced the original document of the actual Will, but also a previous Will attached to it, plus another document.

49 John s Wills By viewing the TWO Will documents, this brought together all the previous uncertainties that I was facing. These linked him with William Palgrave (then head of C & E Ireland) so proving the Yarmouth link as factual. Perhaps the best part was that John expressed a desire to be buried at the Particular Baptist Church Burial Ground near to his three named cousins! so despite me to this day not having a document to prove his birth and parentage, I went through the Church Records and traced the family back to Law Hall in about 1661.

50 The Particular Baptist Records On visiting the Church, I had hands-on access to all their original records going back to the early 1600 s. These recorded the births of the children, and interment of the deceased. The births had actually been entered onto the IGI, but of course my 3x GGF s entry wasn t there, and without that link there was no way of connecting to his ancestors. There were also the corresponding marriages recorded from the registers of the Parish Church at Hitchin and King s Walden, as well as some of the earlier burials.

51 To where from here? My records at King s Walden ran out after 150 years. Not altogether unexpected, as families apparently rarely stay in the one place for more than around 100 years unless they hold huge tracts of land. I ve found more non-conformist Goodwins at North Burlingham, Norfolk but nothing yet to link them except two co-incidences. 1) The Palgraves held land adjoining Burlingham 2) Another Goodwin descended from the Burlingham bunch held land just four miles from King s Waldenprior to emigrating to America.

52 To Conclude Pre-1837 data for Non-Conformists, does exist but may be quite hard to tie-in with your ancestors You perhaps need to look for evidence of Non- Conformity from the recent past, as a clue to earlier Non-Conformity, if you can t find any records for a particular branch of your family.