^ecoxb $ociefp of & <?:,o Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Brigham Young University http://www.archive.org/details/marriagelicenses77ches ^ 'AK^ THE RECORD SOCIETY FOR THE Publication of (Original Oocumcnts « RELATING TO LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE. VOLUME LXXVII P - BEING THE \j^LUME FOR THE YEAR 1922—3. Xicenccs flftarriage / / GRANTED WITHIN » XTbe Hrcbbeaconi^ of Cbesler IN THE Biocese of Chester. V'OL. VIII. — 1691 1700. EDITED BY W.M. FERGUSSON IRVINE, M.A., F.S.A. / PRINTED FOR ^ The Record Society. 1924. > gNCTHU) ORICAL SOCIET Y. I THE LIBRARY dfUGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO. UTAH -- ^^>j( PREFACE This volume is the eighth of the series printed by this Society, covering the period of the Act Books at the Diocesan Registry at Chester, between the years 1606 and 1700. As will be seen by the detailed list printed below it includes part of the Manuscript Vol. VII and the whole of Vol. VIII. As has been pointed out in previous volumes, these Act Books are often very imperfect records for the period they cover, and no search should be considered complete without reference to the original Marriage Bonds which are filed in yearly bundles at the Diocesan Registry for the period 1661-1700. The present volume is one that must be used with especial caution as the Registrar appears to have entered up the bonds in his Act Book in a more than usually perfunctory manner. This is true particularly in the matter of year dates. The Registrar seems to have received the Bonds from the different Surrogates at no special time. Occasion- ally a Surrogate would delay sending in his returns for two or three years, and when this happened the Registrar did not always trouble to enter them under the correct year, but simply " bunched them " into the Volume at the date when they arrived. The editor has done his best to check such dates by reference to the various Parish Registers that exist, but this has not always been possible, so that caution should be used, and a reference to the original bond made if a searcher wishes to be accurate. The attention of the reader is drawn to pages 19-22, 38-41, 65-67, 119, 153-155, 187, 295-308. For the convenience of readers the details are here repeated of the Marriage Licence Act Books and Bonds now remaining in the Diocesan Registry at Chester. PREFACE VI Dates of the Volumes of Marriage Licence Act Books now remaining in the Diocesan Registry at Chester. Vol. I. July i8, 1606, to March 22, i6i5[-6]. (Vol. 53, Rec. Soc. L. and C). II. April II, 1616, to May 17, 1624. (Vol. 56, Rec. Soc. L. and C). III. May 18, 1624, to March 24, i63i[-2]. (Vol. 57, Rec. Soc. L. and C). Hiatus March 25, 1632, to March 30, 1639. IV.^ March 30, 1639, to October 21, 1644. (Vol. 61, Rec. Soc. L. and C). Hiatus October 21, 1644, to June 22, 1661. V. June 22, 1661, to February 8, i666[-7]. (Vol. 65, Rec. Soc. L. and C). VI. February 9, i666[-7], to March 24, i679[-8o]. (Vol. 69, Rec. Soc. L. and C). VII. April 6, 1680, to December 27, 1694. (April 6, — 1680 March 31, 1691, Vol. 73, Rec. Soc. L. and C). Hiatus December 28, 1694, to March 24, i694[-5]. VIII. March 25, 1695, to August 31, 1700. (April i, ,, 1691-August 31, 1700, Vol. 77, Rec. Soc. L. and C). Hiatus August 31, 1700, to 1719. From this date it became the custom to enter the licences in the Act Books as and when the affidavits were returned into the Registry by the Surrogates. The dates therefore overlap a good deal; this is especially the case between the dates 1733 and 1772. Vol. IX. 1719 to 1726 X. 1726 „ 1732 XI - 1733 „ 1772 ^11 - 1733 » 1745 ^III - 1754 1757 ,> ^The entries at the end of this volume following the entry of licence (John Baxter and Dorothy Brooke) on the 27th June 1642, and extending to 2ist October 1644, appear to have been irregularly entered, and probably do not include all the licences issued for this period.