Insights into an Era

[Speedwell]

One of the things that fascinates me are the little extra things recorded in the parish registers. I really wish there was a place to collect these somewhere  e.g.

Anyone else found little notes like this? " A Mother and a Childe (unknown) found dead upon the Heath were buried January the 21."

[pharmaT]

So sad that they could not identify them.

[Girl Guide]

There are a quite a number of extra notes on the transcription of burials for Witham Friary.

e.g. Found dead in stream
       Struck dead by lightning
       Killed by a fall from a wagon
       Accidentally burnt to death (young child)
       Accidentally killed by kick of horse

That's just a few of the extra notes.

[BumbleB]

It was only by seeing the original parish registers that I found an ancestor had been excommunicated in 1792, along with two other "ladies" of the parish. 

[jorose]

The parish priest in one of the parishes my family lived in was obviously quite an opinionated sort - he noted down "reputed father" for several illegitimate baptisms and in the case of one lady who had several children out of wedlock, the last was noted as "yet another b*stard of Mary Smith"...

[Retriever]

The one that stays with me, although stupidly being new to research/recording I didn't note down where I saw it, was:

On this day King Charles the first was beheaded

[Girl Guide]

Below is when and where Charles 1 was beheaded:-

On 30 January 1649, King Charles I was beheaded outside Banqueting House in Whitehall.

So perhaps that might jog your memory Retriever as to where you found it.  Unless of course all the vicars in the country made a note of it in their registers.   

[Retriever]

I did wonder if he was taking a risk making a note of it. If Cromwell’s men had seen it, it might not have gone down too well.

[philipsearching]

Anyone else found little notes like this? " A Mother and a Childe (unknown) found dead upon the Heath were buried January the 21."

This is fairly common in coastal parishes where drowned sailors were washed ashore.  I have also seen burials of unknown soldiers of the English Civil War period.

I have only once seen a burial for an unknown woman found dead (I didn't make a note of it, but it was in Cornwall in the 1700s).  My fisrst thought was "Tess of the d'Urbervilles".

Philip