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WARSOP 
PARISH  REGISTERS 


HSBNBMaHaMM 


M.  L 


GENEALOGY  COLLECTIOhJ 


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^L^/t^/^Xy 


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J 


arsojj  IParisfi  Icgisttrs. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Allen  County  Public  Library  Genealogy  Center 


http://www.archive.org/details/worsopparishregiOOking 


THIS     LITTLE     BOOK 

is  Belitrateti  to  tfjc 

ISith.  la.  Jit^=f^er6frt,  Eector  of  SEarsop, 

not  from  iiiiy  wish  to  make  liim  responsible  for  the  state- 
ments contained  in  it,  but  as  a  simple  acknowledgment  of  the 
great  interest  he  has  taken  in  its  preparation  and  publication. 


WARSOP^ 
PARISH   REGISTERS, 


WITH 


f  tii^s  Hitb  |Hii$li|nf}rtn0, 


BY 


RICHARD    J.    KING, 

Curate  of  Warsop  and  Diocesan  Inspector. 


^ 


MANSFIELD : 

PRINTED  BY  WILLIA^NI  GOUK,  3,  WESTGATE. 
1884, 


WARSOP  PARISH  REGISTERS, 

WITH.   1357309 

NOTES   AND    ILLUSTUATIONS. 


^aiisj)  Htgistcrs. 


From  the  earliest  times  public  registers  as  well  as  private 
registers  have  been  kept  by  various  nations  of  the  world. 
They  were  common  among  the  Jews,  Grreeks,  and  Romans  ; 
and  long  before  the  Reformation  most  of  the  religious  houses 
in  England  kejit  registers  of  public  as  well  as  of  pi'ivate 
transactions.  Marriages  and  burials  were  often  recorded  too 
in  the  Missals  and  Psalters  of  parish  churches.  But  it  was 
not  till  the  year  1538  that  Parish  Registers  were  ordered  by 
law  to  be  kept  in  this  country.  The  monks  had  been  the 
principal  registrars,  and  therefore  upon  their  dispersion  after 
the  suppression  of  the  lesser  monasteries  in  1536,  it  was 
highly  necessary  that  the  State  should  take  steps  to  enrol  and 
preserve  the  parish  records.  Accordingly  Thomas  Lord 
Cromwell,  in  the  year  1588,  issued  an  injvmction  to  the  clergy 
that  Parish  Registers  should  be  kept  in  every  parish  through- 
out the  land.     It  runs  thus : — 


2  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

"  In  the  name  of  Grod,  Amen.  By  the  authority  and  commis- 
"  sion  of  the  excellent  Prince  Henry,  by  the  grace  of  G-od, 
"  King  of  England  and  France,  Defensor  of  the  Faith,  Lord 
"  of  Ireland,  and  in  Earth  Supream  Head  under  Christ  of  the 
"  Church  of  England.  I  Thomas  Lord  Cromwell,  Privy  Seal 
"and  Vicegerent  to  the  King's  said  Highness  for  all  his 
"jurisdiction  ecclesiastical  within  this  realm,  do  for  the 
"  advancement  of  the  true  honour  of  Almighty  God,  increase 
"  of  vertue,  and  the  discharge  of  the  King's  Majesty,  give  and 
"  exhibit  unto  you  these  Injunctions  following,  to  be  kept, 
"  observed,  and  fulfilled,  upon  the  pains  hereafter  declared  : 
"  First,  That  you  shall  truly  observe  and  keep  all  and 
"  singular  the  King's  Highness  Injunctions  given  unto  you 

"  heretofore    in   my   name Item, 

"  That  you  and  every  parson,  vicar,  or  curate,  for  every 
"  church  keep  one  Book  or  Register  wherein  he  shall  write 
"  the  day  and  year  of  every  Wedding,  Christening,  and 
"  Burial,  made  within  your  parish  for  your  time,  and  so  every 
"  man  succeeding  you  likewise,  and  also  there  insert  every 
"  person's  name  that  shall  be  so  wedded,  christened,  and 
"  buried.  And  for  the  safe  keeping  of  the  same  Book,  the 
"parish  shall  be  bound  to  provide  of  their  common  charges 
"  one  sure  coffer  with  two  locks  and  keys,  whereof  the  one  to 
"  remain  with  you,  and  the  other  with  the  Wardens  of  every 
"  parish,  wherein  the  said  Book  shall  be  laid  up,  which  Book 
"  ye  shall  every  Sunday  take  forth,  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
"  said  Wardens  or  one  of  them,  write  and  record  in  the  same 
"  all  the  Weddings,  Christenings,  and  Burials,  made  the 
"  whole  week  afore,  and  that  done  to  lay  up  the  Book  in  the 
"  said  coffer  as  afore  ;  and  for  every  time  that  the  same  shall 
"  be  omitted,  the  party  that  shall  be  in  the  fault  thereof 
"  shall  forfeit  to  the  said  Church  iij^  iiij'^-  *  to  be  employed 
"  on  the  reparation  of  the  said  Church." 

*  3s.  4d. 


WARSOP    PARTSII    REaiSTERH.  3 

In  consequence  of  this  injunction  parish  registers  began 
to  be  kept  very  generally  ;  and  there  are  still  some  eight 
hundred  parish  registers  which  date  from  this  period.  Of 
these  about  forty,  however,  contain  entries  prior  to  1538. 
The  Registers  of  the  neighbouring  parishes  of  Perlethorpe 
and  Carburton,  for  instance,  begin  in  1528,  and  contain  one 
or  two  entries  for  each  succeeding  year  down  to  1538. 

The  injunction  was  repeated  in  more  vigorous  terms  on  the 
accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  1558;  but  not  being  regularly 
observed,  it  was  ordained  in  the  following  year  that  parch- 
ment register  books  should  be  purchased  at  the  expense  of 
every  parish,  and  that  all  names  should  be  transcribed  in 
them  from  the  older  books  which  were  mostly  of  paper. 
Hence  it  happens  that  so  many  parish  registers,  like  those  of 
Mansfield,  begin  with  the  year  1559. 

The  Warsop  Parish  Registers,  however,  date  from  the 
earlier  period.  They  are  five  in  number  and  are  all 
save  one  in  good  preservation.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  unrecorded  years,  they  contain  presumably  a  list  of  all 
baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials,  which  have  taken  place 
in  Warsop  and  Sokeholme  from  that  year  down  to  the  present 
time.  Register  A,  the  oldest,  consists  of  one  parchment 
volume,  and  contains  the  baptisms  from  1539  to  1637  at  one 
end,  and  the  burials  and  marriages  from  1538  to  1637  at  the 
other.  There  are  no  baptisms,  however,  recorded  in  1555 ; 
no  burials  from  1551  to  1556  inclusive  ;  and  no  marriages 
from  1543  to  1578  inclusive.  In  size  it  is  about  15|in  x  7in. ; 
and  it  is  bound  with  a  single  sheet  of  parchment  with  the 
edges  turned  in.  Register  B  consists  also  of  one  parchment 
volume,  and  contains  the  baptisms  from  1638  to  1742  at  one 
end,  and  the  burials  and  marriages  for  the  same  period  at  the 
other.  No  entry  of  any  kind,  however,  is  made  for  the  year 
1645.  The  binding  is  similar  to  that  of  Register  A,  with  a 
lining  of  coarse  brown  paper.  Its  size  is  20^in.  x  8in. 
Register  C  consists   of   two   parchment  volumes.     Vol.  I., 


4  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

20in.  X  lOin.,  contains  the  baptisms  from  1743  to  1812  at  one 
end,  and  the  burials  for  the  same  period  and  marriages  from 
1743  to  1776,  at  the  other.  Vol.  II.,  13|  x  7in.,  contains  the 
marriages  with  banns  from  1754  to  1812.  They  are  both 
strongly  bound  in  calf.  Register  D  consists  of  three  paper 
volumes  adapted  to  the  Forms  prescribed  in  the  Act  of 
Parliament  of  1812,  which  will  be  referred  to  later  on. 
Vol.  I.  contains  the  baptisms  from  1813  to  1855 ;  Vol.  II., 
the  burials  from  1818  to  1875;  Vol.  III.,  the  marriages  from 
1813  to  1837.  Register  E  consists  also  of  three  volumes  : 
Vol.  I.  contains  the  baptisms  from  1855  to  present  time  ; 
Vol.  II.,  the  burials  from  1875  to  present  time ;  Vol.  III., 
with  duplicate,  the  marriages  from  1837  to  present  time. 


l^flisttr  ^. 


The  greater  part  of  this  vokiine  is  a  transcript  from  old 
paper  registers.  This  is  evident  from  the  former  of  the  two 
following  memoranda  which  appear  on  the  flj  leaf  before  the 
baptisms  : — 

JHemorantlUm  I* — "Warsoppe.  a  Eeglster  book  con- 
tayneing  all  christenings,  marriages,  and  burialls,  since 
1539  (sic)  as  they  were  trewlie  copied  out  of  old  paper 
books.    Written  or  copied  Anno  1612. 

Per  Thomam  Lions,  pedegogus. 

Churchwardens  then  j  ^f'''Lj^}'T^^i''  „ 
I  Tho.  Whiteheade. 

JHemorantlUm  M. — "An  agreement  made  betwixt  the 
Inhabitants  of  Warsoppe  and  Soukeholme  concerning 
Church  levys.  November  the  tenth.  Anno  Domini  1626. 
Whereas  heretofore  there  have  been  divers  differences 
betwixt  the  Inhabitants  of  Warsoppe  and  Soukeholme 
concerning  the  payements  of  Soukeholme  men  to  the 
Church  levys,  it  is  now  agreed  betwixt  them  as  f  olloweth : 
That  Soukeholme  men  shall  paye  to  the  Chiu'ch- wardens 
of  Warsoppe  the  fourth  part  of  all  charges  to  wind  and 
weather,  and  to  the  keeping  of  the  bells  in  repayre,  and 
to  the  charges  at  the  visitations  :  And  in  lieu  of  all 
other  charges  Soukeholme  men  do  allow  to  Warsoppe 
men  the  beuefitte  of  all  bui'ialls  within  the  Church :  And 


b  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS, 

upon  the  agreement  there  is  a  seat  appoynted  for  Souke- 
holme  hall  above  the  long  seates  for  woemen,  on  the  North 
side  before  the  ptilpitte,  vearging  to  the  crosse  alley  by 
the  hall  seates  of  Warsoppe.  And  this  is  entered  in  this 
booke  by  the  consent  of  William  Spurr,  Eector  of 
Warsoppe,  James  Clarke  and  William  Deane,  Church- 
wardens then  being,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  In- 
habitants of  Warsoppe,  as  also  by  the  consent  of  Henrie 
Lukin,  gentleman,  Henrie  Wode,  and  the  Inhabitants  of 

Soukeholme. 

William  Spurr,  Clk. 

James  Clarke,  )    Church 
Willm,  Deane  )  Wardens. 

S'^^'^w^'^lofSoukholme." 
Henry  Wood,  ) 

The  latter  of  these  two  memoranda  is  almost  illegible. 
The  agreement  mentioned  therein  together  with  the  "  divers 
differences,"  alas  !  continued  to  exist  down  to  the  abolition 
of  Church-rates,  in  1868.  By  "  wind  and  weather  "  was 
meant  any  injury  which  might  happen  to  the  fabric  by  the 
action  of  those  elements. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the  history  and  character 
of  the  old  church  bells  of  Warsop,  but  unfortunately  they 
are  no  longer  in  existence.  Those  in  present  use  are  four 
in  number  and  of  the  following  pitch : — J),  C,  B,  A. 
Bell  D,  the  weight  of  which  is  about  4^  cwt.,  bears  the 
maker's  name  and  the  date  of  its  casting,  "  S.  Mid  worth, 
Mansfield.  1812."  Bell  C,  the  weight  of  which  is  about 
4|  cwt.,  bears  the  legend,  "  Grod  be  our  speed.  1747." 
Bell  B,  the  weight  of  which  is  about  6  cwt.,  bears  the  legend, 
"  Ut  tuba,  sic  sonitu  Domini  conduce  cohortes.  1615,"  which 
may  be  translated.  As  by  a  trumpet  so  by  my  sound  I 
assemble  the  hosts  of  the  Lord.  This  bell  has  upon  it  the 
trade  mark  of  Henry  Oldfield,  who  had  a  well-loiown  foundry 
at  Nottingham,  established  there  for  many  centuries,  at  the 


WAR80P    PARISH    REOI8TEK8.  7 

back  of  the  Long  How,  where  the  name  of  Bell  Founderw' 
Yard  still  appears.  The  mark  in  question  is  a  Calvary  Cross 
with  the  letter  h  on  the  left  hand  side  of  the  upright  branch 
of  the  cross  and  a  crescent  over  it ;  and  o  on  the  right  hand 
side  with  a  star  over  it.  The  crescent  and  star  are  part  of 
the  arms  of  Nottingham.  Bell  A,  the  weight  of  which  is 
about  7  cwt.,  bears  the  date,  "October  14.  1737,"  and  the 
following  legend : — 

"  You  that  hear  my  doleful  sound 
Repent  before  you're  laid  in  ground." 

Sokeholme  Hall  Pew  is  still  remembered  by  some  of  the 
oldest  inhabitants  of  Warsop.  The  hall  itself  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  farm-house  which  is  commonly  called  "  Eyre's  Farm," 
or  more  correctly  Hall  Farm.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century  part  of  the  old  hall  was  still  in  existence, 
and  one  of  the  upper  rooms  went  by  the  name  of  "  Lukin's 
Garret,"  and  was  said  to  be  haunted  by  the  ghost  of  a  certain 
member  of  the  Lukin  family,  who,  according  to  tradition, 
committed  suicide  there.  A  brass  tablet  to  the  memory  of 
Henry  Lukin,  of  Sokeholme  Hall,  may  be  seen  in  Warsop 
Church,  from  which  tablet  we  learn  that  he  was  born  at 
Great  Baddow,  Essex,  in  1586,  and  died  at  Sokeholme, 
in  1630. 

Henry  "Wood,  the  other  person  who  signed  the  agreement 
on  behalf  of  Sokeholme,  was  a  miller  and  farmer  of  that 
place.  His  descendants  continued  to  reside  in  the  parish 
down  to  the  middle  of  last  century,  when  they  appear 
to  have  died  out.  The  old  mill  was  pulled  down  some 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  It  stood  on  the  site  of  the  farm- 
stead which  still  bears  the  name  of  Mill  Farm,  although 
nothing  now  remains  to  mark  its  history  of  centuries  save  a 
few  boulders,  with  hollowed  holes  in  which  the  spindles  used 
to  turn,  and  a  broken  millstone.  Mr.  Johnson,  whose 
father  was  the  last  miller  of  Sokeholme,  has  a  water  colour 


8  WAKSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

painting  of  it,  and  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  was 
of  the  most  primitive  structure,  and  probably  one  of  the 
oldest  mills  of  the  kind  in  England. 

The  fly-leaf  before  the  burials  and  marriages  contains  the 
following  memorandum  of  an  allotment  of  seats  to  the 
several  families  living  in  Warsop  and  Sokeholme,  in  1615. 

JHemOrantlUm  MUt. — "  The  22nd  of  January.  1615.  By 
a  General  Consent  of  the  parishioners  of  Warsope,  it  was 
agreed  that  Mr.  Willm.  Spurre  parson  there  with  the 
two  churchwardens  then  beeinge  with  the  assistance  of 
Robt.  Remington,  John  Whitehead,  Cr.  Cove  and  Willm. 
Bai'ker,  by  the  said  parishioners  men  indiferently  therein 
chosen,  should  sett  forth  and  appoint  to  the  Inhabitants 
of  the  said  parishe  their  seats  and  places  in  the  Church 
both  for  the  men  and  wifes,  and  how  much  every  seat 
and  place  shall  paie  towards  every  single  levy  or 
assessmt.  for  the  use  of  the  Church  so  proportionally  to 
be  increased  and  diminished  as  need  shall  require.   .    .    ." 

We  wish  we  could  give  the  names  and  places  of  the  several 
persons  mentioned,  but  after  many  fruitless  attempts  we 
have  been  obliged  to  give  up  the  task  as  hopeless,  owing  to 
the  indistinctness  of  the  writing.  It  will  be  seen,  however, 
from  the  accompanying  diagram  which  represents  a  plan 
of  the  arrangement  of  seats  according  to  this  allotment, 
that,  with  four  exceptions,  the  men  and  women  sat  in 
different  parts  of  the  Church.  This  was  the  usual  custom 
in  English  Churches  at  that  time,  althoiagh  it  is  not  very 
clear  how  the  custom  originated.  Some  persons  have  held 
that  it  is  in  accordance  with  primitive  practice,  and  that  the 
early  Christians  adopted  it  on  Biblical  grounds,  after  the 
pattern  of  the  Temple  arrangements  at  Jerusalem.  Certain 
it  is  that  a  separation  of  the  sexes  was  made  in  the  Temple 
arrangements  j  and  even  at  the  j) resent  day  Jewish  men  and 


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Plan  oF  the  AHoLmenL  of  feats  in  Warsop  Church, 


1615. 


WARSOP    I'AKISH    RBOIMTEB8.  W 

women  aro  not  allowed  to  sit  together  in  their  pla^;eH  of 
worship.  Others  think  that  it  is  a  comparatively  modem 
custom,  and  that  it  was  adopted  simply  because  it  was  thought 
to  be  convenient  and  conducive  to  order  and  reverence.  But, 
be  this  at  it  may,  there  is  no  questioning  the  fact  that  a 
separation  of  the  sexes  was  made  in  the  allotment  of  seats  in 
Warsop  Church  in  1615.  For  the  sake  of  convenience,  we 
have  lettered  the  seats  set  apart  for  men,  a  ;  those  for 
women,  b;  leaving  the  unapproj^riated  seats  unmarked.  The 
seats  next  the  chancel  on  the  south  side,  numbered  1,  2,  3, 
were  those  allotted  to  "  Mr.  Digby,  Jarvis  Wilde,  and  their 
wives,"  to  "  Mr.  Ffoster,  Robt.  Remington,  and  their  wives," 
and  to  "  John  Whitehead,  Ffra.  Kitchen,  and  their  wives," 
respectively;  whilst  the  seat,  numbered  4,  near  the  tower,  or, 
as  it  is  called  in  the  memorandum,  the  "  Belhouse,"  was 
allotted  to  Warsop  Hall. 

The  Mr.  Digby,  whose  name  is  here  mentioned,  was  the 
owner  of  Park  Hall,  and,  therefoi'e,  a  parishioner  of  Warsop 
as  well  as  of  Mansfield  Woodhouse.  He  was  high  sheriff 
for  the  county  of  Notts,  in  1622.  A  Sir  John  Digby,  another 
member  of  this  family,  commanded  a  regiment  of  foot- 
soldiers  under  Prince  Rupert  and  took  part  in  the  relief  of 
Newark  in  1644.  Park  Hall  continued  in  the  hands  of  the 
Digby  family  down  to  the  year  1736,  when  it  was  bought  of 
the  co-heiresses  of  another  Sir  John  Digby  by  Mr.  John  Hall, 
ancestor  of  the  present  owner.  Monumental  effigies  of  Sir 
John  Digby  and  his  lady  may  be  seen  in  the  Digby  Chapel 
in  Mansfield  Woodhouse  Church. 

Jarvis  Wilde  or  Gervase  Wylde,  as  the  name  is  more 
commonly  spelt,  was  a  man  of  great  note  in  his  day.  In 
early  life  he  had  been  a  merchant  and  resided  in  Andalusia 
in  Spain.  When  England  was  threatened  by  the  Spanish 
Armada  he  was  living  at  Nettleworth,  and  at  once  hastened 
to  place  his  services  at  the  disposal  of  his  sovereign.  At  his 
own  cost  he  fitted  out  a  ship  and  joined  the  English  Fleet, 

B 


10  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

and  in  the  engagement  that  followed  he  is  said  to  have  made 
use  of  arrows  tipped  with  iron  heads,  which  he  shot  at  the 
enemy  out  of  muskets.  After  the  defeat  of  the  Spaniards 
which  took  place  in  1588,  he  conducted  a  certain  "  barbarian 
am.bassador  "  home  at  his  own  charge.  Upon  his  return  to 
Nettleworth  he  married  Margaret,  widow  of  Anthony  Burgess 
of  Nottingham,  and  by  her  had  a  large  family — six  sons  and 
three  daughters.  In  the  State  Papers  of  the  reign  of 
James  I.,  there  is  a  petition  from  Gervase  Wylde  to  the 
Council  for  continuance  in  his  office  as  Muster  Master  for 
the  counties  of  Notts,  and  Derbyshire,  in  which  he  refers  to 
his  previous  services.  It  appears  that  the  appointment,  as 
far  as  concerned  Derbyshire,  had  been  given  to  some  other 
person  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  desirable  that  one  man 
should  hold  the  office  for  both  counties.  The  Lord  Lieutenant 
and  the  Commissioners,  however,  favoured  his  petition,  stating 
that  he  had  well  "  discharged  his  place,"  and  his  appoint- 
ment was  accordingly  renewed.  In  another  petition  he  asks 
to  have  his  rights  to  a  fee  deer  and  a  fee  tree  restored  to 
him,  from  which  it  would  seem  that  he  was  also  at  one  time 
a  verderer  of  Sherwood  Forest.  He  died  at  Nettleworth  at 
the  advanced  age  of  93  years. 

Mr.  Foster,  who  was  allotted  part  of  the  second  seat,  was 
a  gentleman  living  at  Sokeholme  Hall  before  Mr.  Lukin 
resided  there.  The  three  others  who  were  allowed  the 
privilege  of  having  their  wives  in  the  same  seats  with  them- 
selves were  all  yeomen  of  Warsop  and  men  of  good  position. 

©Itl  ,Stgl0»  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  during  the  period 
comprised  in  this  register,  and  indeed  down  to  the  year  1751, 
the  common  year  instead  of  beginning  as  now  on  January  1st 
began  on  March  25th.  This  was  in  accordance  with  the 
Julian  method  of  calculating  the  length  of  the  year,  or  the 
Old  Style  as  it  is  called.  The  alteration  was  made  in  1751 
because    it    had     been  proved    by    astronomers    that    this 


WABSOP    PARISH    BEOISTEB8.  11 

inetliod  waH  defective — the  error  arising  therefrom  having  at 
that  time  amounted  to  eleven  days.  An  Act  of  Parliament 
was  therefore  passed  to  amend  the  calendar ;  and  by  this 
Act  it  was  enjoined  that  the  year  henceforward  should 
commence  on  January  1st,  an<l  that  eleven  days  in  September, 
1752,  should  be  nominally  suppressed  in  order  to  bring  the 
calendar  into  unison  with  the  true  solar  year.  The  great 
body  of  the  English  people,  however,'  regarded  the  change 
with  distrust,  whilst  most  of  the  lower  classes  throughout 
the  land  thought  that  they  had  been  cheated  out  of  eleven 
days  and  eleven  days'  wages,  and  in  London  and  several  of 
the  large  towns  crowds  assembled  and  marched  in  procession 
through  the  streets  with  banners  bearing  the  words,  "  Give 
us  back  our  eleven  days." 

lExtraCtS*  Among  many  curious  and  interesting  entries 
made  in  this  register,  the  following  are  perhaps  the 
most  noteworthy.  They  are  nearly  all  in  Latin,  but  for 
the  convenience  of  our  readers  we  give  them  in  English. 

1538. — "Buried  Miles  Baynebrigg  who  was  found  killed." 
1546. — "  Buried  two  youths." 

It  would  be  utterly  impossible  to  convey  to  others  the 
sense  of  sadness  which  we  ourselves  experienced  on  the  first 
perusal  of  this  simple  record  among  the  long  list  of  persons 
who  lived  and  died  some  three  hundred  years  ago,  and  of 
whom,  if  we  know  but  little,  we  do  know  at  least  their  name 
and  place  of  residence.  Of  these  two  youths  however  we 
know  nothing — not  even  their  name  ;  and  it  would  seem  that 
nothing  was  known  of  them  by  the  registrar  of  that  day. 
Probably  they  were  strangers  in  the  parish ;  but  whether 
brothers,  or  mere  chance  acquaintances  of  the  road,  we  have 
no  means  of  ascertaining.  We  have  not  even  the  melancholy 
satisfaction  of  knowing  the  cause  of   their  death — whether 

B  -2 


12  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

they  were  cut  off  by  some  sudden  accident,  or  by  one  of  those 
terrible  plagues  with  which  Warsop,  like  other  parts  of 
England,  used  to  be  so  frequently  visited  :  all  that  we  know 
about  them  is  that  they  died  and  were  buried. 

1547. — "  Joan  Massie   was   born,  baptized,  and  buried,    on 

the  same  day." 
1556. — "  Baptized    Simon   Barker   whose    godfathers    were 

G-eorge    Pettingar    and    G-eorge    Barker,    Elizabeth 

Ffretwell  being  co-mother." 

In  the  following  year,  1557,  there  are  seven  other  entries 
of  baptisms  in  which  the  godparents  are  mentioned — the 
godfathers  being  called  "  co-fathers "  and  the  godmothers, 
"co-mothers;"  and  the  number  in  every  case  agrees  with  the 
requirements  of  the  rubric  in  the  Baptismal  Service  in  the 
Prayer  Book.  In  no  other  place  throughout  the  whole  set  of 
registers  are  godparents  mentioned  except  during  the  short 
incumbency  of  the  Eev.  AUeyne  Fitz-Herbert  in  1859  and 
1860. 

1563. — "  September  22nd.     Henry  earl  of  Eutland  is  dead." 

In  olden  time  it  was  not  an  unusual  thing  to  enter  in  the 
register  of  burials  the  death  of  any  remarkable  man  connected 
with  the  parish  or  county,  even  if  he  were  not  buried  there. 
The  earl  of  Rutland  whose  death  is  here  recorded  was  lord  of 
the  manor  of  Warsop  and  patron  of  the  living.  He  was  also 
a  man  of  considerable  importance.  He  was  the  great  grand- 
son  of  the  sister  of  King  Edward  IV.,  Constable  of  Nottingham 
Castle,  and  Chief  Justice  in  Eyre  of  Sherwood  Forest.  His 
death  took  place  on  Sopteml^er  17th,  1563;  but  owing  to  the 
means  of  communication  between  distant  places  being  so 
difficult  in  those  days,  it  was  probably  not  till  the  twenty- 
second  of  that  month  that  news  of  his  death  was  received 


WAE80I'     I'AlilHir     RKOISTERS.  18 

at  Warsop.    He  was  huriod  at  Bottesford,  whero  a  handHome 
monument  to  his  memory  may  still  be  seen. 

With  respect  to  tlie  manor  of  Warsop,  we  may  mention 
here  that  before  the  Norman  Conquest  it  belonged  to  three 
Saxon  thanes  named  Godric,  Lemot,  and  Ulchel.  After  that 
event  it  was  for  the  most  part  of  the  fee  of  one  Roger 
de  Busli,  a  Norman  baron,  to  whom  the  Conqueror  gave 
no  fewer  than  one  hvmdred  and  seventy-four  manors  in 
Nottinghamshire.  By  some  means  it  fell  later  on  into  the 
hands  of  King  Henry  III.,  whose  queen  Eleanor  was  for  a 
short  period  lady  of  the  manor  of  Warsop.  In  1233  Henry 
III.  made  a  grant  of  the  manor  of  Warsop  to  Robert  de 
Lexington,  an  ecclesiastic  of  great  dignity,  who  bequeathed  it 
to  his  brother  John  de  Lexington.  John  de  Lexington 
married  Margery  de  Merley,  and  dying  without  issue  left  it 
to  his  widow  during  her  lifetime,  and  after  her  death  to  his 
nephew,  Robert  de  Sutton,  between  whom  and  the  king  there 
was  a  great  dispute  concerning  the  right  of  presentation  to 
the  living.  It  was  probably  whilst  this  family  was  in 
possession  of  Warsop  that  the  North  aisle  of  the  church  was 
huilt.  The  Lexington  coat  of  arms — Argent  a  cross  patonce 
azure — formed  part  of  the  old  East  window ;  but  at  the 
restoration  of  the  church  in  1877  it  was  removed,  and  has 
since  been  placed  for  better  preservation  in  one  of  the  vestry 
windows.  It  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  finest  pieces  of  heraldic 
glass  in  the  whole  county  of  Nottinghamshire.  In  1329 
John  Nunnes,  of  London,  acquired  possession  of  the  manor 
of  Warsop  and  claimed  the  right  of  holding  a  market  everv 
Tuesday,  "  with  toll  and  stallage  and  other  things  belonging 
to  a  market."  The  following  year  the  manor,  together  with 
the  advowson  of  the  church,  passed  into  the  hands  of  John 
de  Roos,  but  whether  by  gift  or  bequest  seems  imcertain.  In 
1379  King  Richard  11.  granted  a  confirmation  of  the  right  to 
hold  a  market  and  a  fair.  In  1508  Edmund  de  Roos  having 
died  without   lawful   issue,  the   manor  with    the    advowson 


14  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS, 

passed  into  the  female  line  of  the  family  and  so  came  into  the 
possession  of  the  earls  of  Rutland.  In  1675  it  was  bought  by- 
Sir  Ralph  Knight  of  the  trustees  of  the  late  Lord  Willonghby 
of  Parham,  who  had  inherited  it  from  his  maternal  uncle, 
George  seventh  earl  of  Rutland ;  and  it  continued  in  the 
possession  of  the  Knight  family  down  to  1846,  when  Mr, 
Henry  G-ally  Knight  left  it  by  will  to  Sir  Henry  Fitz-Herbert 
of  Tissington,  father  of  the  present  lord  of  the  manor, 

1586. — "  Richard  Clifton,  Minister,  married  Anna  Stuffin," 

There  is  nothing  to  show  who  this  Richard  Clifton  was;  but 
the  Stuffins,  or  Stuffyns,  were  a  Warsop  family  of  yeomen, 
and  probably  akin  to  the  Pleasley  family  of  that  name,  one 
of  whom,  a  cavalier  who  afterwards  "  yielded  up  his  loyal 
life  "  fighting  for  Charles  I.,  planted  a  wood  which  was  called 
"  Stuff yn's  Wood  ;  "  from  which  name  the  word  "  Stuff yn- 
wood  is  derived." 

1587. — "Buried  John  Parker  a  helpless  old  man  who  was 
found  dead  in  a  place  called  Nether  Breck." 

"  Buried  a  certain  beggar  boy  who  died  in  the  house 
of  William  Coo," 

"  Buried  Ellen  Jonson  who  had  been  a  prostitute." 

The  field  called  Nether  Breck  in  which  John  Parker  was 
found  dead,  was  one  of  the  fields  belonging  to  Brook  Farm, 
and  was  not  far  from  the  old  forest  boundary, 

1591. — "  Buried  William  Kitchen  of  the  Mill  houses  who  was 
killed  by  the  kick  of  a  mare." 

The  Kitchens,  of  Warsop,  were  yeomen,  and  probably 
owners  of  the  Warsop  Mill,      Thoroton,  in  his  History  of 


WAE80P    PARISH    REOI8TER8.  15 

NottingJiamehire,  j^ivoa  the  name  of  a  William  Kitchen  as  one 
of  the  hin<l('(l  proprietors  of  Warsop  in  lfJ12. 

It  is  recorded  in  Doomsday  Book  that  at  the  time  of  the 
Norman  Conquest,  Warsop  contained  "a  priest,  a  church, 
and  a  mill,"  and  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  mill  has  a 
history  older  even  than  that  of  the  church.  The  very  name 
Warsop  seems  to  point  to  some  connection  with  a  mill.  It 
was  anciently  spelt  Warechip,  Wareshop,  Waresope,  and 
Waresoppe,  the  derivation  of  which  is  from  two  Anglo-Saxon 
words — weave,  a  weir  or  dam,  and  sceop,  a  storehouse.  So 
that  Warsop  would  mean  the  storehouse  by,  or  near  the  weir. 

1596. — "  Thomas  Woomwell  slayne  with  a  wayne." 

This  so  very  quaint  entry  is  recorded  in  English  just  as 
here  given. 

1600.— "  Buried :  Oct.  30,  John  Cham.  Nov.  1,  Margery 
Cham.  Nov.  28,  William  son  of  John.  Nov.  30, 
Eobert  Cham  son  of  the  same  John,  and  Anna  daughter 
of  Henry  Woode  and  servant  of  the  same  John  Cham 
— on  the  same  day  and  in  the  same  grave  ;  also 
Margaret  daughter  of  the  same  John  Cham  on  the 
same  day." 

Warsop  it  would  seem  has  never  been  a  very  healthv 
place.  The  recognised  average  duration  of  life  is,  we  believe, 
forty  years.  But  the  average  duration  of  life  in  Warsop — 
deduced  from  the  recorded  ages  at  death — has  been  for  the 
last  twenty  years  only  thirty-five  years.  At  the  end  of  last 
century,  1784  to  1804,  it  was  but  thirty  years.  Prior  to  this 
pei'iod  the  ages  are  not  given,  so  it  is  impossible  to  make  anv 
definite  calculation;  b\it  we  think  it  probable  that  the  average 
duration  of  life  in  early  times  must  have  been  pretty  much 
the  same  as  it  was  at  the  end  of  last  century.     In  1558  and 


16  WAKSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

1569  tte  mortality  in  War  sop  was  extraordinarily  great — 
above  a  hundred  deaths,  or  more  than  one-seventh  of  the 
entire  population.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  only  one 
other  period  when  the  number  of  deaths  was  so  great,  namely, 
in  1591  and  1592, — the  number  in  both  cases  being,  by  a 
strange  coincidence,  the  same.  We  find  from  Bailey's 
Annals  of  Nottinghamshire  that  a  great  plague  was  prevalent 
throughout  England,  in  1558,  especially  during  harvest,  when 
much  corn  was  lost  simply  for  want  of  labourers  to  gather  it 
in;  and  from  Dr.  Short,  who  published  in  1767  a  Comparative 
History  of  the  increase  and  decrease  of  manJcind  in  England, 
we  learn  that  the  years  1558  and  1559  were  noted  for  a  con- 
tinued endemic  with  hot  burning  fevers  and  agues,  whilst 
those  of  1590  and  1591  were  noted  for  a  great  plague  in 
London,  and  throughout  the  whole  of  England  a  great 
drought  attended  with  plague. 

Doubtless  the  several  members  of  the  Cham  family  whose 
burials  are  here  recorded  were  swept  away  by  some  such 
plague,  in  1600.  It  is  hard  to  find  in  such  a  record  as  this 
anything  bright  or  cheering,  and  yet  the  fact  that  Robert 
Cham  and  Anna  Wood,  daughter  of  Henry  Wood,  miller  of 
Sokeholm,  were  buried  in  one  grave,  whilst  Margaret  Cham, 
the  sister,  was  buried  apart  by  herself,  seems  to  speak  not  only 
of  love  and  faith  here,  but  of  love  and  hope  hereafter  when 
disease  and  death  shall  be  done  away,  and  the  Tree  of  Life 
shall  for  ever  put  forth  its  fruit  and  fragrance  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations. 

1602. — "  Baptized  a  certain  base-bom  Elizabeth." 

Concerning  the  state  of  morality  in  Warsop  for  the  last 
three  hundred  years  it  is  impossible  to  speak  as  one  would 
wish  in  terms  of  praise.  At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  proportion  of  illegitimate  children  baptized  was 
six  per  cent,  of  the  whole;    at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 


WAR801'    I'AIUHir     UEaiSTERS.  17 

century  ihc  pro])()rii<)ii  wuh  six  jiihI  ii,  half  por  cent. ;  whilHt 
diirin^f  the  last  twcMity  yuars  it  lias  l>(x;n  iKjarly  s«;v<;ii  j>or  cent. 
It  will  1)0  seen,  tliwijioro,  that  in  this  respect  Warsoj;  stands 
in  rather  an  unfavourable  li^^ht.  It  is  is  true  that  it  is  no 
worse  than  the  average  of  places  in  Nottinghamshire  and  is 
better  than  some,  but  compared  with  the  rest  of  Enj^land  it  is 
much  worse  than  the  average — the  proportion  of  illegitimate 
children  born  in  England  being  only  something  about  five 
per  cent  of  the  whole. 

1605. — "  Baptized  Edmund  son  of  Edmund  Claye  of  London." 

A  record  like  this  carries  us  back  to  the  days  when  coaches 
were  just  beginning  to  be  used  in  England,  when  travelling 
was  mostly  on  horseback  and  ladies  rode  on  pillions  behind 
their  servants,  and  when  a  journey  from  London  to  Warsop 
was  such  a  difficult,  not  to  say  dangeroiis,  Tindertaking  that 
very  few  persons  would  think  of  attempting  it.  Were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  there  was  a  "Warsop  family  of  yeomen 
named  Claye  living  at  this  time,  we  should  be  at  a  loss  to 
account  for  the  presence  of  Edmund  Claye  in  Warsop ;  but 
such  being  the  case  we  may  fairly  infer  that  he  was  a  relative 
on  a  visit  to  some  of  his  friends. 

The  last  representative  of  this  family  was  one  Hercxiles 
Clay,  a  farmer  and  miller  of  Sokeholme,  who  died  in  1792. 
He  was  so  called  after  a  kinsman  who  was  Mayor  of  Newark, 
in  1644,  when  that  town  was  besieged  by  Prince  Kupert. 
During  the  siege  this  Hercules  Clay  is  said  to  have  di-eamt 
three  successive  nights  that  his  house  was  on  fire.  On  the 
third  occasion  he  was  so  perturbed  by  his  dream  that  on 
awaking  he  immediately  got  up  and  with  his  wife  and  family 
left  the  house.  Before  he  had  gone  many  steps,  however,  he 
was  startled  by  the  explosion  of  a  bombshell  and.  turning 
round  to  see  what  had  happened,  found  that  it  had  fallen, 
strange  to  say,  on  the  very  house  he  had  just  quitted  and  had 


18  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

set  it  on  fire.  In  commemoration  of  this  wonderful  preserva- 
tion he  left  at  his  death  a  sum  of  money  to  be  put  out  to 
interest,  and  directed  that  the  interest  should  be  given  away 
for  ever  in  part  to  the  Vicar  of  Newark,  for  a  sermon  on  the 
anniversary  of  his  preservation,  and  in  part  to  the  poor  of 
Newark  on  the  same  day. 

1609, — "Baptized    William    son    of    Thomas    Bawdwin    of 

London." 
1611. — "Buried  James  Hodgkinson  School  Master  of  Warsop." 
1617. — "  Baptized  John  the  son  of  an  unknown  woman." 
1620. — "  Baptized  Jane  the  daughter  of  an  unknown  man." 
1622. — -"Buried   Thomas   son   of   Thomas  Jepson  who  was 

killed  by  an  axe." 
1623. — "  Buried  Mr.  Wilham  Lonedale  the  Doctor." 
1626. — "  Buried  Elizabeth  Ashmore  an  unknown  girl," 
1629. — "  Baptized  Ahce  the  daughter  of  a  poor  stranger." 
1630. — "Buried  Leonard  Silleot  a  centenarian." 
1631. — "  Buried  Joanna  Eyall  a  wandering  beggar." 

Some  of  the  foregoing  entries  are  quaint  enough  to  provoke  a 
smile,  but  to  a  serious  mind  they  supply  ample  food  for  sober 
meditation.  Take  the  last  entry  for  instance.  It  needs  no  great 
stretch  of  imagination  to  picture  in  one's  mind  the  history  of 
this  poor  woman ; — to  see  her  in  the  first  blush  of  womanhood 
leaving  home  for  service  full  of  trust  and  hope ;  then,  home  and 
its  lessons  forgotten,  a  too  fond  victim  of  some  heartless  villain ; 
then,  in  some  distance  city,  cast  away  Uke  the  orange  peel  when 
one  has  sucked  its  contents  ;  then,  like  the  prodigal  in  the 
parable,  coming  to  herself  and  reisolving  to  ret^^rn  home  if 
but  to  die ;  then  begging  her  way  wearily,  and  sorrowfully, 
and  painfully,  until  at  length,  amidst  strangers  and  perhaps 
babbing  of  the  scenes  of  her  childhood,  she  is  struck  down 
by  the  hand  of  death.  Strangers  would  then  close  her  weary 
eyes  to  sleep ;    strange  hands  compose  her  weary  limbs  to 


WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS.  19 

rest;  8tranp(!rs  carry  licr  to  iicr  hiirial  ;  and  amidst  strangers 
bIk'  would  1k!  laid  in  God's  Acn; ;  wliil*-  ov(;r  her  silent  dust  a 
straiiye  voice  would  }^iv(!  thanks  to  God  for  having  delivered 
a  sister  out  of  the  miseriea  of  this  sinful  world ;  and  when 
the  priest's  office  was  finislu'd  all  that  cinild  be  recorded  in 
the  parish  register  was  sim]>ly  this  : — "  Buried  Joanna  Ryall 
a  wandering  beggar." 

,SurTl2lttt0jS*  The  following  well-knownWarsop  and  Sokeholme 
surnames  appear  in  this  register,  and  continue  to  appear 
at  short  intervals  throughout  the  whole  set  of  registers 
down  to  our  own  day.  The  dates  prefixed  to  the  names 
denote  the  time  when  they  are  first  mentioned,  and  the 
various  spellings,  the  forms  under  wliich  they  are  found. 

1538.— Smith,  Smithe,  Smyth. 

In  an  old  Warsop  terrier  of  1722,  the  name  of  "Widow 
Smith  is  mentioned  as  farming  twenty  acres  of  land,  for 
which  she  paid  a  yearly  rent  of  ^£5  10s.  At  the  end  of  last 
century  there  were  three  distinct  branches  of  this  family 
living  in  Warsop.  Their  representatives  were  John  Smith  of 
Butt  Lane,  a  wheelwright  and  parish  undertaker ;  Samuel 
Smith  of  Burns  Green,  a  labourer ;  and  John  Smith  of  Low 
Street,  a  labourer  likewise.  John  Smith,  the  wheelwright, 
had  a  brother  called  Thomas,  who  was  the  owner  and  land- 
lord of  the  White  Lion  Inn.  He  was  a  very  short  man  and 
very  spirited,  and  so  got  the  nick-name  of  "  Tommy  Tit." 
A  story  is  told  of  this  Tommy  Tit  which  is  perhaps  worth 
relating  as  it  gave  rise  to  a  proverb  in  Warsop.  It  would 
seem  that  one  Sunday  moiming  a  hona  fide  traveller  called  at 
his  house  for  a  pint  of  ale  ;  his  wife  waited  upon  him  and 
showed  him  into  the  parlour  where  a  pot  was  boiling  on  the 
hearth.  Whilst  her  back  was  turned  the  man  lifted  the  pot, 
abstracted  a  large  dumpling,  and  quietly  made  off   with  it. 


20  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

The  good  housewife  coming  in  to  attend  to  her  cooking, 
discovered  to  her  amazement  that  the  dumpling — her  hus- 
band's tit-bit — was  wanting.  He,  having  been  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  state  of  affairs,  immediately  ran  after  the 
culprit  and  catching  him  up  flew  at  him,  like  a  little  bantam 
cock,  and  knocked  him  down  when  the  dumpling  rolled  out 
into  the  gutter.  A  neighbour  who  was  passing  at  the  time 
and  was  highly  amused  at  the  scene,  asked  "  What's  the 
matter,  Thomas?"  "Matter  enough,"  he  replied  pointing  to 
the  tit-bit,  "  its  a  poor  dog  that  wont  fight  for  his  own 
dumpling." 

The  Warsop  families  of  Mekin  and  Slaney,  are  connected 
with  this  family  by  marriage.  In  1821  William  Mekin 
married  Sarah  Smith  of  the  Burns,  and  in  1833  John  Slaney 
married  Sarah  Smith  of  Butt  Lane. 

1583.— Warde,  Ward. 

In  1611  we  have  the  death  recorded  of  a  William  Warde, 
yeoman  of  Warsop.  Coming  down  to  more  recent  times  we 
meet  with  several  members  of  this  family  who  have  been 
engaged  in  husbandry  and  handicraft.  About  the  middle  of 
last  century,  one  Samuel  Ward,  a  shoemaker,  married 
Elizabeth  Fetherstone  of  Warsop,  and  had  a  family  of  four 
sons  and  two  daughters  :  the  sons  were  brought  up  to  their 
father's  trade ;  Wilham,  the  youngest,  however,  never  cared 
for  shoeniaking,  and  after  his  marriage  began  life  as  a  pig 
jobber.  Not  succeeding  very  well  in  this  he  made  another 
change,  and  got  together  a  gang  of  boys  with  whom  he  used 
to  weed  fields,  hoe  turnips,  and  such  like,  for  the  neighbour- 
ing farmers.  Like  so  many  more  of  the  old  Warsop  worthies, 
our  friend  William  was  rather  too  fond  of  his  glass,  and  when 
excited  would  frequently  start  up  and  dance  about  the  room, 
saying,  "I'll  show  you  some  waxworks ;"  from  which  he  got  to 
be  called  "  Waxwork  Ward."     He  was  not  other  than  a  well- 


WAHHOI'     I'AIUHM     RKOISTEES.  21 

disposed,  kindly  man,  and  as  such  was  much  liked  by  his 

noif^dil)()urs.  One  of  his  ^ntut  delights  was  to  call  a  number 
of  cliildnm  around  liim  and  set  them  runninf^  rac<3H  for  swe^jts 
and  pence.  When  quite  an  old  man  he  was  carried  in  a  chair 
by  four  men,  at  the  request  of  the  members  of  the  women's 
friendly  society,  in  their  annual  procession  to  church  on  Whit- 
Tuesday,  An  excellent  trait  in  his  character  was  his  resjiect 
for  the  Lord's  Day.  On  that  day,  no  matter  what  the 
temptation  might  be,  he  would  never  do  a  stroke  of  business 
or  enter  a  public-house. 

1538.— Wilson,  Willson. 

About  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  there  were  two 
branches  of  this  family — one  living  at  Sokeholme  and  the 
other  at  Warsop.  At  the  middle  of  last  century  there  was  a 
William  Wilson  of  Sokeholme,  and  a  William  Wilson  of 
Warsop.  Wilham  Wilson  of  Sokeholme,  was  a  farmer  and 
the  ancestor  of  the  present  Wilham  Wilson,  of  Sokeholme. 
He  had  three  sons,  John,  Thomas,  and  Wilham.  John  and 
Thomas  both  left  home  and  went  to  Hve  at  Skegby.  Here 
John  got  into  a  lawsuit  with  a  man  about  a  bhnd  horse  of  his 
which  fell  into  a  stone  quarry.  The  case  was  tried,  and 
judgment  was  given  against  him ;  but  John's  blood  was  up 
and  being  very  tenacious  of  purpose  he  took  his  suit  from  one 
court  to  another  until  he  was  utterly  ruined.  To  escape 
imprisonment  for  debt  he  secreted  himself  in  the  house  of  a 
relative  at  Mansfield  Woodhouse,  where  he  remained  till  the 
day  of  his  death  in  an  upstairs  room.  His  relatives  had  some 
difficiilty,  we  believe,  in  disposing  of  his  body,  and  for  fear  of 
distraint  induced  the  vicar  of  the  parish  to  consent  to  its 
being  buried  at  night. 

1539,— Ffox,  Ffoxe,  Foxe,  Fox, 


22  WAESOP    PARISH    EEGISTEES. 

A  William  and  Fanny  Fox  about  the  end  of  last  century 
lived  in  a  long  thatched  cottage  of  one  story  where  Messrs. 
Websters'  shop  now  stands  in  Butt  Lane.  They  had  two 
sons,  John  and  Benjamin,  who,  with  their  father  worked  on 
the  farm  at  Eastlands.  After  her  husband's  death,  Fancay  was 
employed  on  the  same  farm  to  repair  the  corn  sacks,  but  she 
always  Hke  to  make  a  mystery  of  the  matter,  and  accordingly 
when  asked  by  her  too  inquisitive  neighboui's  what  she  was 
doing  so  often  at  Eastlands,  she  would  reply  that  she  went 
there  to  "  darn  Mrs.  Jackson's  golawns  and  mushns."  The 
present  representative  of  this  family  in  Warsoj)  is  Mrs. 
William  Mitchell  of  Burns  Green. 

1540.— Turner. 

About  the  end  of  last  century,  one  Samuel  Turner  of 
Warsop,  was  a  weaver  by  trade,  and  carried  on  his  business  in 
a  house  of  his  own  in  High  Street :  his  brother  John  was  a 
farmer  and  lived  in  Low  Street. 

1542.— Wylde,  Wyld,  Wilde,  WHd. 

The  manor  of  Nettleworth  was  formerly  the  property  of 
this  family.  We  have  had  occasion  already  to  speak  of  G-ervase 
Wylde  :  he  was  probably  the  son  of  WilUam  Wylde  who 
built  the  old  hall  in  1566,  and  whose  son  John  was  baptized 
m  1542.  The  date  1566  together  with  the  initials  WW  may 
be  seen  to  this  day  on  a  stone  in  a  back  part  of  the  building. 
Members  of  this  family  are  mentioned  in  Bailey's  Annals  of 
Nottinghamshire  as  having  fought  on  the  king's  side  in  the 
great  civil  war.  In  1 785  the  old  hall  was  partly  destroyed  by  fire, 
and  the  present  mansion  built  on  its  site  by  another  William 
Wylde  of  Nettleworth.  Ann  Wylde,  in  1793,  left  a  sum  of 
<£20  to  be  put  out  to  interest,  and  directed  that  the  money 
arising  therefrom  should  be  given  to  six  single  women  every 


WARSOl"     I'ARIHH      RKOIHTKKH.  23 

Oliristnuis  Eve  for  ever.  Register  C.  coiitain.s  a  copy  of  her 
will  as  far  as  it  relates  to  this  benefaction.  Brass  tablets  to 
tlio  memory  of  various  iiK-inlx-rs  of  this  fainily  may  be  seen 
Warsop  Church  with  the  following  inscriptions  upon  them; — 

"William  Wyld,  the  infant  son  of  William  Wyld  of 
Nettleworth,  gent.,  died  Sept.  23rd.     A.D.  1694. 

Here  in  calm  jjoaco  a  sinle.s.s  infant  rests; 
The  sweet  delight  of  heaven  all  in  the  dnst  doth  lie  : 
Like  to  an  angel  from  on  high  sent  down,  he  came, 
And  straightway  to  his  blessed  home  returned." 

"  Here  lieth  the  body  of  Hannah  the  wife  of  William 
Wylde  of  Nettleworth,  who  departed  this  life  the  5th 
day  of  May,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1773,  aged  60 
years.  Also  near  this  place  lieth  the  body  of  William 
Wylde,  Father  of  the  above  William  Wylde,  who  died 
in  the  year  1696,  aged  28  years." 

"  Here  lieth  the  body  of  William  Wylde  of  Nettleworth, 
who  departed  this  life  the  11th  day  of  January  1779, 
aged  82  years." 

"  Here  lieth  the  body  of  William  Wylde  Esq.  of  Mans- 
field, eldest  son  of  the  late  William  Wylde,  Esq.,  of 
Nettleworth.  He  died  March  11th  1787,  in  the  53rd 
year  of  his  age. 

Safe  in  the  Hand  of  one  Disposing  Power 
Or  in  the  Natal  or  the  Mortal  Hour." 

This  tablet  contains  the  arms  of  the  family : — Quarterly; 
first  and  fourth,  Or,  a  fesse  between  three  bucks'  heads 
erased  sable,  attired  gules  ;  second  and  tliird.  Sable,  a 
chevron  engrailed  argent,  on  a  chief  of  the  lust,  three 
martlets  of  the  field. 


24  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

"  Here  lieth  the  body  of  Ann  Wylde,  sister  of  the  above 
William  Wylde,  who  died  Jan.  11th,  1793,  aged  60 
years." 

"  Here  lieth  the  body  of  Catherina  Wylde  of  Nettle- 
worth  who  died  the  24th  day  of  November,  1801,  aged 
61  years." 

About  seventy  years  ago  Nettleworth  changed  hands  and 
passed  into  the  possession  of  Mr.  Hemy  Gaily  Knight,  who 
in  1846  bequeathed  it,  together  with  the  manors  of  Wars  op 
and  Sokeholme,  to  Sir  Henry  Fitz-Herbert,  of  Tissington,  his 
kinsman. 

1543.— Newton. 

In  1611  we  have  the  death  recorded  of  one  John  Newton,  a 
carpenter  of  Warsop,  and  in  1637  that  of  Nicholas  Newton, 
a  husbandman.  Nathan  Newton  was  churchwarden  in  1737, 
1748,  1759,  and  1769.  Eichard  Newton  was  churchwarden 
in  1748,  1757,  and  1769. 

In  the  old  terrier  of  1722,  Daniel  Newton  is  mentioned  as 
farming  five  hundred  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental  of  =£74 
12s.  6d.  He  lived  where  Dr.  Stein  now  lives  in  the  High 
Street.  Peafield  Farm  belonged  to  him,  and  it  was  his  custom 
to  have  the  bread  consumed  by  his  servants  at  that  farm 
made  of  barley  meal,  in  large  loaves,  baked  in  Warsop.  These 
loaves  were  commonly  carried  home  on  the  servants'  shoulders 
on  the  top  of  a  stake.  A  brass  tablet  to  his  memory  in  the 
church  states  that  he  was  coroner  for  the  county  of  Notts. 
twenty-eight  years,  and  that  he  died  in  1764,  aged  seventy.  A 
romantic  story  is  told  of  the  coroner's  grand- daughter  Mary 
or  Molly  Newton.  It  seems  that  Miss  Molly  fell  deeply  in 
love  with  a  Mr.  Parnell  of  Maltby,  who  fully  recij^rocated  her 
affection.     Miss  Molly's  friends,  however,  did  not  approve  of 


WARHOI-      I'ARIHH      KKOIHTKK8.  25 

luii-  Hnilor,  and  w(j\il<l  not,  licar  of  their  inarryiii|^.  The  result 
was  t.liat  Mr.  I'arucll  l)(!<;aiii(!  very  low  Hpirit<,'d,  iH;^l<;ct<id  hia 
buaiuoss,  and  in  a  short  time  went  out  of  liis  mind  and  died 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-eight  years.  Miss  Molly  survived 
him  twenty  long  years,  but  refused  to  he  comforted.  During 
the  whole  of  that  time  she  would  neither  visit  her  friends  nor 
receive  visitors,  but  kept  her  room  and  would  allow  no  one  to 
speak  to  her  in  tones  above  a  whisper.  She  died  in  1826  ;  and 
in  accordance  with  her  expressed  desire  was  buried  in  the 
same  grave  with  the  beloved  object  of  her  choice.  Thus 
though  parted  for  a  while  during  life,  yet  in  death  they 
were  not  divided.  A  large  neglected  monument  to  their 
memory  may  be  seen  in  the  churchyard. 

1543. — Stubbinge,  Stubbing,  Stubbings,  Stubbins. 

William  Stubbings,  a  member  of  this  family,  was  a  wood 
sawyer  on  the  Warsop  estate  during  the  latter  part  of  last 
century.  His  son  John  enlisted  in  the  1st  Dragoon  Guards, 
rose  to  the  rank  of  corporal,  and  took  part  with  his  regiment 
in  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  at  Waterloo.  On  that  occasion 
he  greatly  distinguished  himself  in  a  hand  to  hand  encounter 
with  a  French  soldier,  during  which  his  horse  had  one  of  its 
ears  cut  off  by  the  Frenchman's  sabre,  and  he  himself  only 
just  escaped  being  Avounded.  After  the  battle  was  over  he 
was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  sergeant ;  and  on  his  retirement 
from  the  army  in  the  following  year  received  a  medal  and  d£20 
prize  money.  The  medal  is  still  preserved  in  the  family  as  an 
heir-loom.  Strange  to  say,  some  two  years  after  his  retire- 
ment, a  detachment  of  his  old  regiment  passed  through 
Warsop  and  vrith.  it  his  dear  old  horse.  The  meeting  between 
the  two  was  most  affecting ;  the  detachment  halted  in  front  of 
the  Hare  and  Hounds ;  and  the  Wllagers  turned  out.  to  a 
man,  to  see  "  the  one  eared  horse  on  which  John  Stubbings 
rode  at  Waterloo." 


26  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

1546. — Bradley,  Bradlay. 

About  the  end  of  last  century  this  family  was  represented 
by  one  William  Bradley,  landlord  of  the  Swan  Inn.  One  of 
the  many  defunct  friendly  societies  of  Warsop  was  held  at  his 
house  and  was  called  the  "  Swan  Lodge."  It  seems  to  have 
been  quite  a  common  custom  of  enterprising  publicans  in 
those  days  to  originate  friendly  societies  in  their  houses  in 
order  to  promote  conviviality  and  good  fellowship  ;  of  course 
such  societies  could  not  long  hold  together,  but  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  it  was  from  beginnings  like  these  that  some  of 
our  modern  friendly  societies  have  expanded  to  their  present 
size  and  social  importance.  We  have  a  copy  of  the  rules  of  the 
"Amicable  Society,"  which  was  held  at  the  same  inn  in  1782 
when  Robert  Cutts  was  landlord,  and  from  them  we  learn 
how  very  crude  and  experimental  these  early  friendly  societies 
necessarily  were.     We  subjoin  two  or  three  as  specimens. 

"  Rule  I. — This  Society  shall  meet  on  the  first  Saturday  in 
every  month  between  the  hours  of  seven  and  nine  in  the 
evening,  when  each  member  shall  spend  two-ijence  and  pay 
six-pence  to  the  box ;  and  every  member  who  shall  neglect  to 
appear,  or  send  his  money  by  eight  o'clock,  shall  forfeit  for 
the  first  offence  two-pence,  for  the  second  four-pence,  and 
for  the  third  offence  shall  be  excluded  the  society." 

"  Rule  XI. — This  society  is  to  be  continued  so  long  as  any 
three  members  chuse  to  continue  the  same :  and  if  any  member 
propose  the  breaking  up  of  the  society,  he  shall  be  excluded." 

"  Rule  XIV. — Any  member  having  duly  conformed  to  the 
orders  of  this  society  for  one  year,  and  being  rendered  in- 
capable of  business  by  reason  of  sickness,  lameness,  or  other 
bodily  infirmity,  not  occasioned  by  intemperance  or  vice,  shall 
receive  from  the  box  5s.  per  week  duruig  the  first  year  of  his 
illness,  after  which  he  may  continue  to  receive  2s.  6d.  per  week 
so  long  as  he  remains  incajjable,  even  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
when  d£5  shall  be  allowed  for  his  funeral  expence." 


WAItSOl-     l-ARIHir     KIOaiHTKKH.  27 

"  Eiil(^  XXXVIII.     On  the  Feast  Day  (Whitsun  Monday), 

every  memljer  iu  fJie  town  of  Warsop  shall  aj^jx-ar  by  nine 
()'(!l()ck  in  the  nioniiii<^,  or  forfeit  sixpence ;  and  all  in«iinlxir8 
residiii}^  out  of  the  said  town,  whall  appear  by  half  past  nine 
o'clock,  or  forfeit  two-'pence ;  and  if  not  by  ten  o'clock,  shall 
forfeit  8ix}>ence  to  the  box." 

1646. — Wilkinson,  Wilkenson. 

For  many  generations  this  family  has  carried  on  business 
in  Warsop  as  rope-makers.  A  Valentine  Wilkinson,  about 
the  middle  of  last  century,  was  a  rope-maker,  and  lived  at  the 
Dog  and  Rabbit  Inn,  in  Butt  Lane.  His  son  William  who 
succeeded  him  in  business  did  all  the  rope  work  for  Clumber, 
Sandbeck,  Thoresby,  and  Welbeck.  William  had  a  family  of 
eight  sons  and  one  daughter,  and  it  was  quite  a  little  joke  of 
his  to  tell  people  that  he  had  eight  sons  and  every  one  of 
them  a  sister.  Thomas,  his  eldest  son,  settled  at  Southwell 
as  a  rope-maker;  Richard  followed  the  same  business  at 
Chesterfield  ;  whilst  George  w^as  a  manufacturer  of  women's 
stays  at  Retford.  The  other  sons  all  settled  in  Warsop,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  John  who  was  a  hatter,  helped  their 
father  iu  his  business.  Two  of  them  were  inveterate  poachers. 
Joseph,  the  youngest,  organized  a  regular  band  of  men  with 
whom  he  used  to  go  out  at  nights  with  dogs  and  guns  and 
scour  the  country  far  and  near. 

The  Hooleys  of  Market  Warsop  are  connections  of  this 
family  :  in  1840  William  Hooley  married  an  Aun  AVilkinsou. 

1647. — Heringe,    Herringe,    Hearinge,    Heringe,    Hereing, 
Hering,  Herring,  Herrou. 

In  1597  we  have  the  death  recorded  of  Thomas  Hearinge, 
a  husbandman  of  Warsop,  and  in  1616  that  of  Richard 
Herringe  also  a  husbandman.      John  Herring  was  church- 

c  2 


28  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

warden  in  1638.  Samuel  Herron  filled  tte  same  office  in 
1654,  and  John  Herring  in  1762.  In  the  old  terrier  of  1722, 
Joel  Herring  is  mentioned  as  farming  one  hundred  and 
twenty  acres  of  land  for  which  he  paid  a  yearly  rent  of  ^£25 
14s.  4d.  A  Samuel  Herring  in  1739  married  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Daniel  Newton,  the  Coroner.  He  lived  at  the  old 
Sokeholme  Hall,  the  front  part  of  which  he  pulled  down  and 
rebuilt  in  1748.  A  stone  bearing  this  date  together  with  the 
letters  H.  S.  and  E.,  may  still  be  seen  on  the  front  wall  just 
below  the  roof.  In  1750  he  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his 
wife  :  shortly  after  this  he  was  sadly  reduced  in  circumstances 
through  the  distemper  which  broke  out  among  his  cattle. 
In  one  year  he  lost  considerably  more  than  fifty  head,  and 
in  the  following  year  about  the  same  number.  In  conse- 
quence of  these  losses  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  his  farm. 
He  then  built  for  himself  a  little  house  on  some  waste  land, 
on  the  site  of  that  now  occupied  by  his  grandson,  old  Mr. 
William  Herring  of  Sokeholme,  and  rented  a  few  fields  close 
by  which  now  form  part  of  the  present  farm.  Here  he  spent 
the  rest  of  his  days  in  company  with  his  second  vdfe,  who 
had  been  a  widow  named  Newton,  and  whom  he  married  in 
1771.  For  the  house  itself  and  the  garden  attached  to 
it,  he  had  nothing  to  pay  save  a  shilKng  every  year  as  an 
acknowledgement  to  the  lord  of  the  manor.  And  as  long  as 
the  old  house  stood,  his  son  who  succeeded  him  had  to  pay 
the  same  acknowledgement  and  nothing  more. 

From  an  old  rate  book  we  learn  that,  at  the  beginning  of 
last  century,  Sarah  Herring,  a  member  of  this  family,  kept  a 
public-house  in  Sokeholme,  and  that  the  parishioners  of  that 
parish  used  to  meet  in  vestry  at  her  house  to  pass  the  church- 
warden's accounts  for  the  year. 


WARHOI'     I'AItlHH     UKniHTKUS.  29 

1.549. — Law,  Lawc,  Lowe,  Low. 

The  Laws  of  War.sop  havt;  b(3t;ii  for  many  goncrations  either 
artizans  or  labourers  of  the  better  sort.  About  the  middle 
of  last  century  one  Siimuel  Law,  a  member  of  this  family, 
had  quite  a  reputation  for  liis  sober,  industrious  lialjits.  He 
had  three  sons,  Samuel,  Stephen,  and  George,  who  were  like 
himself  men  of  excellent  character,  and  one  daught<ir  Fanny. 
The  duke  of  Portland  of  that  day  took  notice  of  Samuel  Law 
the  younger,  and  put  him  into  a  snug  apjxjintment  on  the 
Welbeck  estate.  To  Stejjhen  Law  belongs  the  honour  of 
having  been  the  first  to  introduce  a  two-row  drill  into  Warsoj). 
George  settled  at  Clipstone :  and  Fanny  was  married  to  a 
William  Eaton  of  Kand,  Lincolnshire,  and  so  became  the 
ancestress  of  the  present  members  of  that  family  now  living  in 
Warsop.  The  Beans  and  Thorpes  of  Church  Town  are  also 
connected  with  the  Lowe  fanoily  by  marriage.  In  1831  James 
Bean  married  a  Hannah  Lowe ;  and  in  1860  Leonard  Thorpe, 
miller,  married  another  Hannah  Lowe. 

1561. — Jackson. 

Roger  Jackson  in  1632  married  Margaret,  third  daughter  of 
Jarvis  Wilde  of  Nettleworth.  From  the  old  terrier  before 
mentioned  we  learn  that  Robert  Jackson  in  1722  farmed  a 
hundred  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental  of  ^26  17s.;  that 
Richard  Jackson  was  the  miller  and  farmed  forty  three  acres 
of  land,  paying  for  the  mill  a  yearly  rental  of  ^613  8s.,  and  for 
the  land  d£20  10s. ;  and  that  Samuel  Jackson  rented  a  "  tack 
of  ground "  of  four  acres  for  which  he  paid  ^1  5s.  a  vear. 
Richard  Jackson  was  chiu*chwarden  in  1741  and  1762; 
Matthew  Jackson,  in  1746;  Robert  Jackson,  in  1755,  1759. 
and  1767.  The  said  Robert  had  a  son  and  a  grandson  both 
called  Robert  after  himself.  They  all  Uved  together  at  the 
Home  Farm  in  Church   Warsop.      To  distinguish  them  one 


30  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS, 

from  anotlier  tlie  villagers  were  wont  to  speak  of  them 
as  "Old  Bobby,"  "Middle  Bobby,"  and  "Young  Bobby." 
Middle  Bobby  as  he  advanced  in  years  became  a  most 
eccentric  character.  He  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  time 
in  walking  to  and  fro  between  Church  Warsop  and  Market 
Warsop.  He  would  get  up  in  the  morning  as  early  some- 
times as  two  o'clock ;  prepare  and  eat  his  breakfast ;  walk 
as  far  as  the  village  cross,  if  dark  with  a  lantern ;  return  and 
go  to  bed ;  get  up  again  within  an  hour  or  so,  and  repeat  his 
perambulations  several  times  during  the  day ;  prepare  his  own 
tea  about  five  o'clock;  take  his  last  walk,  and  retire  to  rest 
between  six  and  seven  p.m. 

Eastland  House  was  built,  and  the  open  common  which 
once  formed  the  east  side  of  the  parish  was  enclosed  and 
made  into  a  farm  for  Samuel  Jackson  the  youngest  son  of 
"  Old  Bobby."  Samuel  Jackson  married  the  sister  of  Mr. 
Bolton  the  agent  of  the  Warsop  estate,  and  he  himself  after- 
wards acted  as  agent  for  a  short  time.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  a  man  of  most  exemplary  character  and  very  fond  of  the 
pubHc  worship  of  Almighty  God.  The  services  at  Warsop 
Church,  as  in  almost  all  country  churches,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century,  were  most  cold  and  dreary.  The 
officiating  minister  read  mattins,  the  Utany  and  the  ante- 
communion  service,  without  moving  from  the  reading  desk ; 
and  after  the  Nicene  Creed  took  off  his  surpHce  which  he  wore 
over  his  black  gown,  and  laying  it  over  the  side  of  the  reading 
desk  entered  the  pulpit,  preached  his  sermon  and  dismissed  his 
congregation  with  the  blessing.  Samuel  Jackson,  as  church- 
warden, tried  all  he  could  to  improve  this  very  unsatisfactory 
state  of  affairs.  He  got  together  the  remains  of  Bishop 
HalHfax's  choir  which  had  been  celebrated  for  its  excellence, 
and  paid  John  Maxfield  who  had  a  strong  voice  twelve  shilhngs 
a  year  to  start  the  tunes.  The  Old  Hundi-edth  was  the 
favourite.  This  was  sung  at  the  beginning  of  morning  prayer 
nearly  every  Sunday.     An  amusing  incident  connected  with 


WAIIHOI'     I'AHrHIF     UKOIHTKRH.  31 

tliiH  ]>salm  Hini^iii}^'  is  Htill  n!Tn(!Tnl)(!r<!<].  One  momiri)^  John 
Mtixficld  was  iiual^lo  for  Homo  reason  or  othor  to  att<;ud  church; 
and  thero  was  nol^ody  to  start  tho  tune.  The  psalm  was  given 
out  as  usual,  and  after  a  deathlike  sile'n(;e  of  some-  seconds  a 
voice  called  out  from  the  sinj^in}^  pew  to  Samuel  Jackson  who 
sat  at  the  other  end  of  the  church,  "  Pitch  it,  Mr.  Jackson, 
pitch  it."  Mr  Jackson's  death  was  most  heautiful.  He  was 
out  one  day  with  his  do^  and  gun  when  he  felt  the  hand 
of  death  upon  him.  Placing  his  gun  carefully  against  a  hedge 
he  knelt  down  and  committed  his  soul  to  God.  His  sagacious 
companion  went  straight  home  and  brought  some  one  to  his 
assistance,  but  when  found  he  was  quite  dead,  and  supported 
by  the  hedge  still  in  the  attitude  of  prayer. 

"  Suddenly  ho  laid  his  shackles  by 
He  bore  not  a  single  pang  at  parting; 
Ho  saw  no  tear  of  sorrow  stealing ; 
He  heard  not  quivering  lips  that  blessed  him  ; 
Ho  felt  not  hands  of  love  that  pressed  him 
Nor  the  frame  with  mortal  terror  shaking ; 
Nor  the  heart  whore  love's  soft  bands  were  breaking ; 

So  he  died. 
All  bliss,  without  a  pang  to  cloud  it ; 
All  joy,  without  a  pain  to  shi'oud  it ; 
Not  slain,  but  caught  up,  as  it  wore. 
To  meet  his  Saviour  in  the  air ; 

So  he  died." 

Mary  Jackson,  sister  to  the  above,  was  married  first  to 
George  Uuwin  of  Church  Warsop,  and,  after  his  death,  in 
1774  to  William  Beestou  of  Worksop.  From  this  latter 
marriage  the  present  Beestons  of  Warsop  are  descended. 

1566. — Bowriuge,  Bowreing,  Bowring. 

At  the  beginning  of  last  century,  John  Bovrring  of  Warsop 
went  to  live  at  Edwinstowe,  where  he  married  and  settled. 
His  son  William  afterwards  returned  to  the  old  home  and 


32  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

was  for  many  years  a  woodman  on  the  estate.  William 
married  a  Mary  Duckenfield  of  Warsop,  and  by  her  had  two 
sons,  Nicholas  and  John.  Nicholas  enlisted  in  the  45th 
Regiment,  and  after  serving  twenty-one  years  retired  with  a 
pension  of  Is.  lO^d.  a  day.  For  some  years  prior  to  his 
retirement  he  acted  as  recruiting  sergeant  in  the  Mansfield 
district,  and  in  this  capacity  used  to  attend  all  the  neighbour- 
ing fairs  beating  up  recruits  to  the  inspiriting  strains  of  the 
drum  and  fife.  After  leaving  the  army  Sergeant  Bowring  is 
said  to  have  spent  his  time  in  a  most  exemplary  manner, — 
visiting  the  sick  and  in  other  ways  assisting  the  clergy,  in 
Mansfield. 

1567.— Michaell,  Michell,  Michel,  Mitchel,  Mitchell. 

A  member  of  this  family,  John  Mitchell  by  name,  was  a 
soldier  in  the  Royal  Artillery.  He  served  under  Wellington 
in  the  Peninsula  War  and  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Salamanca, 
Vittoria,  and  Nive,  for  which  he  received  a  medal  with  three 
clasps.  At  the  battle  of  Waterloo  he  was  wounded  in  the 
knee  by  a  Frenchman's  bayonet.  He  was  then  discharged 
with  a  second  medal  and  a  pension  of  6d.  a  day.  It  is  said 
that  on  the  death  of  his  old  commander  he  was  greatly 
distressed  in  mind  because  he  had  not  the  wherewithal  to 
attend  his  fujieral.  John  Mitchell  came  of  a  fighting  stock. 
His  father  and  grandfather  before  him  were  both  soldiers. 
His  brother  Samuel  was  a  soldier  likewise  ;  and  his  own  son 
served  in  the  Grenadier  Guards  and  met  his  death  in  the 
Crimea. 

1669. — Aire,  Ayre,  Eyre. 

John  Eyre  a  member  of  this  family  was  churchwarden  in 
1774.  He  rented  the  old  lime  kilns  in  Sokeholme  Lane  and 
employed  several  men  therein.     He  is  said  to  have  been  a 


WARSOJ'     I'AUrHir     KROIHTERS,  33 

thorou^lily  lioiuiHt,  liij^li-priiiciplt'd  riuiii,  iiwl  a  good  churdi- 
man  to  boot.  ITIh  griiiidsoii,  John  Eyn;,  at  th<;  beginning  of 
the  present  (u-ntiiry  was  a  man  of  some  proj>orty  in  Warsop. 
He  was  a  grocer  by  trade,  and  carried  on  Ixisiness  in  one 
of  his  own  houses  at  the  bottom  of  Butt  Lane.  Mount 
Pleasant  belonged  to  liiin.  He  was  very  fond  of  dogs, 
especially  "  snaps,"  of  which  he  had  a  famous  breed,  and 
which  he  trained  to  such  perfection  that  he  rarely  took  a 
walk  on  the  forest  without  bringing  home  a  rabbit  or  two. 
Martha  Eyre,  his  daughter,  was  married  in  1829  to  James 
Radford,  stone-mason. 

The  Eyres  of  Sokeholme  were  nothing  akin  to  the  Warsop 
family  of  that  name.  They  were  descendants  of  the  Eyres  of 
Mansfield  Woodhouse,  one  of  whom,  a  John  Eyre,  was  among 
the  number  of  those  chosen  for  the  honour  of  knighthood 
when  Charles  II.  contemplated  forming  an  order  of  the 
"  Knights  of  the  Royal  Oak." 

1574. — Dunston,  Dunstan. 

Throsby,  in  his  list  of  High  Sheriffs  for  the  County  of 
Nottingham,  gives  the  name  of  George  Dunston  of  Warsop, 
as  High  Sheriff  in  1770.  This  is  evidently  a  mistake,  as  the 
Dunstons  of  Warsop  were  simple  cottagers  and  lived  on  Bums 
Green.  We  believe  George  Dunston  of  Worksop  was  High 
Sheriff  at  the  time  in  question.  Mr.  James  Caudwell,  farmer  of 
Market  Warsop,  is  the  present  representative  of  this  family. 

1574.— Gilbert,  Gilbord. 

Samuel  Gilbert,  a  member  of  this  family,  was  parish  pinder 
diu'ing  the  latter  part  of  last  century.  He  was  a  quiet,  simple 
sort  of  fellow.  He  use  to  say  when  he  thought  he  had  erot 
the  better  of  any  one,  "I've  handled  thee,"  and  so  got  the  name 


34  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

of  "  Handle  Sammy."  When  he  was  qnite  an  old  man  he  was 
employed  by  John  Dnckmanton,  farmer,  to  thresh  corn  in  his 
barn,  but  he  was  so  slow  and  used  his  flail  so  tenderly  that  the 
lads  used  to  tease  him,  and  John  Dnckmanton,  the  farmer's  son, 
who  was  a  bit  of  a  wag,  made  a  wager  with  him  that  he  could 
get  under  the  corn  he  was  threshing  without  being  found  out. 
Accordingly  one  morning  before  the  old  man  came  to  work  he 
slipped  into  the  barn  and  hid  himself  under  the  corn.  After 
Sammy  had  been  threshing  as  visual  for  some  time  without 
perceiving  him,  John  crept  out  of  his  hiding  place,  and  said, 
"  Ha,  ha !  Master  Sammy,  I've  handled  thee."  "  Yes,"  said 
the  old  man,  "  and  I'd  a  handled  thee  if  I'd  known  thou  had 
been  there." 

Another  Samuel  GTilbert  worked  for  the  Featherstones,  at 
the  Brook  Farm,  for  more  than  half-a-century.  For  forty- 
nine  years  he  pitched  the  corn  in  the  harvest  field,  and  when 
he  was  not  allowed,  because  of  his  age,  to  do  it  the  following 
year,  he  burst  into  tears,  and  said,  "I  did  so  want  to  complete 
the  fifty  years." 

1576.— Eevell,  Eevall,  Eevill. 

In  the  old  terrier  of  1722  the  name  of  Francis  Revill  is 
down  for  a  tack  of  three  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental  of 
d£l  8s.  4d.  About  the  end  of  last  century  another  member 
of  the  Revell  family,  a  mason  by  trade,  built  himself  a  house 
on  some  waste  land  near  the  ford  at  Church  Warsop.  When 
called  upon  by  the  lord  of  the  manor  to  give  up  possession 
he  refused,  but  on  the  promise  of  the  use  of  the  old  "  Moot 
Hall"  he  consented,  and  the  house  which  he  had  built  was 
pulled  down.  The  same  man  was  employed  with  a  William 
Downes  to  build  the  buttresses,  splays,  and  battlements,  on 
the  Church  Tower  in  1810. 

The  Dowdall  family  is  connected  with  this  family  by  the 
marriage,  in  1845,  of  William  Dowdall  and  Catherine  Revill. 


WAItHOI'    I'AIU.SH     REOIBTEE8.  36 

1578.— Ryli<',  Uyrhiy,  Riley. 

At  the  Itej^inniii}^  of  the  })resent  century  there  was  a  John 
Riley,  son  of  Clement  Riley,  who  l^y  dint  of  Hh<;er  industry 
and  economy  raised  himself  from  a  lowly  position  to  one  of 
comparative  affluence.  He  began  life  as  a  journeyman 
shoemaker :  he  then  became  master,  and  in  course  of  time 
kejit  two  or  three  apprentices  ;  he  next  opened  a  grocer's  shop 
which  he  carried  on  at  the  same  time  with  his  other  business  ; 
after  that  he  took  the  Hare  and  Hounds,  and  did  remark- 
ably well.  Biit  troubles  came  upon  him  in  his  old  age.  His 
sons  turned  out  badly  and  involved  him  in  continual  losses. 
One  of  them  borrowed  some  <£700  of  him  and  never  repaid  it. 
Prom  that  time  everything  seemed  to  go  wrong  with  the  old 
man ;  he  suffered  loss  after  loss,  and  got  poorer  and  poorer, 
until  at  length  he  was  taken  to  the  workhouse  where  he  died 
broken  hearted  the  very  night  of  his  adinittance. 

A  George  Riley  has  the  unenviable  distinction  of  being  one 
of  the  last  persons  put  into  the  Parish  Stocks.  He  was  not 
a  member,  however,  of  the  old  Warsop  family.  It  would 
seem  that  he  and  some  other  lads  were  caught  bv  the 
constable  playing  at  football  on  the  Sunday  before  Martinmas, 
1821.  Being  summoned  before  the  magistrates  they  were 
sentenced  to  be  put  into  the  stocks  or  pay  a  fine.  George 
and  another  were  put  into  the  stocks  and  one  paid  the  fine. 
The  latter  is  still  alive,  a  hale,  hearty  old  man,  who  teUs  the 
story  with  great  glee.  George  Riley,  poor  fellow  !  came  to  a 
sad  end.  Whilst  engaged  a  few  years  since  in  burning 
thorns  on  the  forest  his  dress  caught  fire,  and  whether 
through  fright  or  infirmity  no  one  can  tell,  but  he  was  unable 
to  extinguish  the  flames  and  was  burnt  to  death. 

1579.— Hall,  Halle.  135 "7309 

This  family  is  extinct  as  far  as  Wai-sop  is  concerned.      But 


36  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

in  1697  one  Jolin  Hall  of  Warsop  left  by  will  the  sum  of  £61 
10s.  to  be  bestowed  in  lands  for  the  use  of  the  poor  of 
Warsop,  and  desired  the  rector  and  churchwardens  to 
purchase  the  same.  He  also  devised  all  his  lands  and 
tenements  at  Newton  in  Lincolnshire,  and  all  his  lands  in 
Warsop,  together  with  the  lands  purchased  as  aforesaid,  to 
Thomas  Fothergill  and  six  others,  and  their  heirs,  on  trust, 
that  they  should  with  the  yearly  rents  and  profits  buy  good 
wheat  and  rye  bread  every  year,  for  ever,  for  the  poor  of 
Warsop ;  and  he  directed  that  the  same  should  be  equally 
distributed  on  every  Sunday  after  divine  service  to  sixteen  of 
the  poorest  people  hving  in  Warsop,  by  the  rector  and  church- 
wardens for  the  time  being.  The  rental  of  this  property  now 
amounts  to  something  more  than  d£100  a  year,  and  in  con- 
sequence of  its  increased  value,  the  benefits  of  the  charity 
have  been  extended  to  a  considerably  greater  number  of 
persons. 

1579. — Cleaton,  Clayton. 

At  the  beginning  of  last  century,  Francis  Clayton  was  a 
yeoman  of  Warsop.  His  name  appears  also  in  the  old  terrier 
of  1722  as  renting  seventy-two  acres  of  land,  for  which  he 
paid  d818  16s.  a  year.  Ann  Clayton,  his  grand-daughter,  was 
married  in  1775  to  the  Rev.  John  Browne,  Curate  of  Warsop. 
A  large  fiat  stone  to  her  memory  and  to  that  of  her  husband, 
who  was  curate  for  thirty-two  years,  may  be  seen  in  the 
churchyard  near  the  South  wall  of  the  church.  William 
Clayton,  a  shoemaker,  was  a  freeman  of  the  old  borough  of 
Retford,  and  is  known  to  have  obtained  for  his  two  votes 
sometimes  as  much  as  twenty  guineas  apiece.  In  1827,  when 
a  Government  enquiry  was  made  into  the  political  corruption 
of  that  borough,  the  said  William  Clayton  was  cited  to  give 
evidence  before  the  House  of  Commons. 


WAHHOV    rAIUHH     ItKOISTEKH.  87 

1579.— Hinde,  Hynde,  Hind. 

James  Hinde,  a  nicinltcr  of  this  family,  was  churchwarden 
in  1761.  He  wiis  a  fell-monger  and  manufacturer  of  leath<.'r 
gloves  and  breeches.  The  same  husiniiss  has  heen  carried  on 
by  his  descendants  down  to  the  jjresent  day.  The  church- 
warden's son,  commonly  known  as  "Jemmy  Hinde,"  was  a 
keen  lover  of  sport ;  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  he  is  said  to 
have  followed  the  hounds  at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety  years. 
Another  bra.nch  of  the  same  family  has  been  engaged  for 
many  generations  in  handicraft  and  agriculture. 

1585.— Woodhead. 

The  Woodheads  of  Warsop  were  for  many  generations 
wheelwrights,  and  lived  at  the  corner  of  Car  Lane.  Francis 
Woodhead,  the  representative  of  the  family,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century  was  an  excellent  workman,  but  very 
masterful  and  very  fond  of  his  glass.  Mr.  Martin,  the  rector, 
said  to  him  one  day,  "  Well  Francis,  how  are  you  and  your 
wife  getting  on  ?  "  "  Oh,"  he  replied,  "  she  can  make  me  do 
as  I  like  any  day  of  the  year."  Poor  little  woman,  she  had  a 
hard  lot  with  him !  Sometimes  when  a  customer  called  to  see 
him  she  would  run  to  fetch  him  from  the  public  house,  but 
she  could  rarely  get  anything  from  him  but,  "Now  Betty  go 
home  and  don't  let's  have  any  trouble  with  you."  His  son 
and  grandson  who  in  turn  succeeded  him  in  the  business  were 
both  good  workmen,  and  might  have  done  well  in  the  world 
but  for  their  love  of  strong  drink. 

1589.— Ball. 

About  the  middle  of  last  century  one  Amos  Ball  lived  in  a 
low  thatched  cottage  in  Car  Lane.  In  social  position  he  was 
nothing  but  a  labourer,    but  in  habits   of  temperance  and 


38  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

thrift  he  was  far  above  the  average  run  of  men  of  his  day. 
By  the  exercise  of  great  carefulness  on  the  part  of  himself 
and  his  better  half  he  managed  to  save  money  enough  to  buy 
a  few  fowls  and  geese  which  he  turned  out  on  the  Cars  to 
shift  for  themselves  as  best  they  could.  With  the  profits 
realised  by  the  sale  of  eggs,  chickens,  &c.,  he  bought  a  cow 
and  rented  a  croft.  Then  not  content  with  the  old  cottage  in 
which  his  father  had  lived  before  him,  he  pulled  it  down  and 
built  himself  a  more  commodious  residence  on  the  same  site — 
the  very  house  in  which  Widow  Ball  now  lives.  And  here  he 
spent  the  rest  of  his  days  in  comparative  ease  and  comfort,  a 
living  example  of  the  truth  of  the  j)roverb,  "  Take  care  of  the 
pence  and  the  pounds  will  take  care  of  themselves."  Thomas 
Ball,  another  member  of  this  family,  served  for  thirteen  years 
in  the  Royal  Horse  Artillery.  He  was  wounded  in  the  shoulder 
at  Waterloo  and  after  his  recovery  was  discharged  with  a 
medal  and  a  pension  of  9d.  a  day.  The  medal  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  family. 

The  families  of  Coupe  and  Allwood  are  counected  with  this 
family  :  in  1856  James  Coupe  married  a  Mary  Ball,  and  in 
1857  Samson  Allwood  married  a  Hannah  Ball. 

1589. — Ffetherston,   Ffetherstone,    Fetherston,    Fetherstone, 
Featherstone. 

William  Fetherstone  is  mentioned  in  the  old  terrier  of  1722 
as  farming  some  forty-six  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental  of 
=£13  2s.  4d.  He  was  churchwarden  in  1737.  John  Fetherstone 
was  churchwarden  in  1755.  He  too  was  a  farmer  and  hved 
at  the  Brook  Farm  in  Low  Street.  At  the  time  of  the  Scotch 
rebellion  in  1745  a  party  of  rebels  on  their  way  to  Derby  came 
through  Warsop  and  compelled  the  said  John  Fetherstone  to 
spread  straw  in  his  barn  for  their  horses.  A  cannon  ball 
weighing  five  and  a  quarter  pounds  which  is  now  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Blythman,  a  descendant,  was  found  in  the 


WARHOI'     I'AlilHH     EBOISTEES.  89 

house  roof  when  undorf^oirif^  repairs  at  the  end  of  last  century. 
In  1768  Anne  Fetherstone,  ^rand-danj^'ht/er  of  John  F«;th<T- 
stone  was  married  to  John  Snowdciii  of  Ji(;tliamsall,  of  whom 
the   present  Sii()w<lciis  of  Warsop  are  descendants. 

1695. — Barloo,  Barlowe,  Barlow. 

In  1796  Isaac  Barlow,  a  memljer  of  this  family,  was 
accidently  killed  by  the  falling  of  some  timber  upon  him  at 
Shirebrook,  and  in  1830  his  great  nephew,  who  was  called 
Isaac  after  him,  also  met  with  a  sudden  death.  The  latter 
was  a  servant  lad,  and  had  been  sent  by  his  master  with  a 
wagon  to  Nottingham.  Whilst  returning  he  walked  by  the 
horses'  side,  and  in  an  abstracted  kind  of  way  stopj>cd  to  look 
at  a  house  he  was  passing,  when  his  dress  got  entangled  in 
the  wheel  and  he  was  crushed  to  death  beneath  the  wagon. 
James  Barlow,  cousin  to  the  first  Isaac,  made  quite  a  little 
fortune  for  himself,  in  the  humble  employment  of  a 
domestic  servant.  In  early  life  he  had  the  honour  of  being 
engaged  as  footman  by  the  Margravine  of  Anspach.  After 
holding  this  situation  for  some  years  with  much  credit  to 
himself  he  returned  to  England,  where  he  foimd  no  difficulty 
in  bettering  his  condition.  For  eleven  years  he  acted  as 
butler  to  the  Marqiiis  of  Ailesbury,  and  for  a  like  numl>er  of 
years  he  held  the  same  office  to  Sir  Ricliard  Sutton.  With 
his  savings,  which  were  by  no  means  small,  he  then  took  the 
Dolphin  Tavern,  on  Ludgate  Hill,  London,  but  finding  a 
publican's  life  too  irksome,  he  went  back  to  the  service  of  Sir 
Richard  Sutton,  who  at  the  expiration  of  another  four  vears 
settled  a  pension  on  him  for  life.  He  then  returned  to 
Warsop,  bought  some  property,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his 
days  among  the  friends  of  his  youth.  Mrs.  Hill  of  Butt 
Lane,  is  the  last  representative  of  this  family  in  Warsop. 


40  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

1697,— Renould,    Eeanolde,    Reonard,    Eeyniald,     Eeynold, 
Reynolds. 

From  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  down  to  the  end 
of  last  century  there  appear  to  have  been  two  distmct  branches 
of  this  family  ;  one  living  at  Sokeholme,  and  the  other  at 
Warsop.  A  William  Reynold  was  clerk  at  Sokeholme  Chapel 
during  the  early  part  of  last  century,  and  in  1750,  a  George 
Reynolds  was  churchwarden  of  Warsop.  They  were  both 
small  farmers.  A  Henry  Reynolds  at  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century  owned  a  considerable  amount  of  property  in 
Warsop.  He  was  a  farmer  and  butcher,  and  the  landlord  of 
the  Talbot  Inn. 

1620, — Tin  wen,  Unwin,  Unwine. 

George  Unwin,  a  member  of  this  family,  was  churchwarden 
in  1744,  1750,  and  1757.  His  sons  George  and  Matthew 
afterwards  filled  the  same  office ;  the  former  in  1771  and  1772, 
and  the  latter  in  1774. 

The  first-named  George  Unwin  was  a  farmer  of  Church 
Warsop,  and  kept  a  public-house  where  James  Ball  now 
resides.  Some  time  before  his  death,  however,  he  gave  up 
his  license,  and  there  has  been  no  public-house  in  Church 
Warsop  since.  Another  George  Unwin,  a  descendant  of  his, 
was  a  sad  scapegrace.  In  his  youth  he  received  a  good 
education,  but  he  turned  it  to  very  poor  account.  Having 
committed  a  forgery  he  left  the  neighbourhood  for  some 
years.  On  his  return  he  made  a  little  house  for  himself  on 
the  upper  Cars  by  driving  stakes  into  the  ground  and  plaiting 
them  together  with  wattles  and  roofing  the  whole  with  sods. 
Here  he  lived  with  his  wife  until  some  mischievous  lads  and 
men  so  disturbed  them  at  nights  that  they  were  obliged  to 
leave  it.  He  afterwards  became  parish  pinder  and  bellman, 
and  in  this  capacity  he  is  remembered  to  have  gone  round  the 


WAKHOl'    I'ARIHII     HEOI8TEE8,  41 

village  oil  tlic  morning  ol"  the  coronation  of  Qu»;on  Vict^jria, 
ringing  his  bell  and  declaiming  at  the  top  of  his  voice  the 
following  lines  of  his  own  coinj)osition  : — 

"  May  the  rose  of  England  never  blow, 
May  the  cock  of  Scotland  never  crow, 
May  the  harp  of  Ireland  never  sound, 
Till  this  young  lady  she  is  crowned." 

In  1813  Elizabeth  Unwin  of  Church  Town,  was  married  to 
George  Taylor  of  Elksley,  from  which  marriage  the  family  of 
Charles  Taylor  is  derived, 

1622. — Parsons,  Parson. 

In  the  old  terrier  of  1722,  a  John  Parson  is  mentioned  as 
fanniug  some  fifty  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental  of  £14. 
Another  John  Parsons  was  churchwarden  in  1767.  This 
latter  was  a  basket-maker  and  lived  in  Car  Lane.  His  son 
William,  who  succeeded  him  in  business,  was  the  first  to 
plant  the  osier  holt  by  the  river  side  near  the  "  Hills  and 
Holes."  Before  his  time  the  land  there  had  been  used  merely 
as  a  cow  pasture,  and  both  he  and  his  father  had  to  buy  their 
osiers  at  Newark  and  other  p>laces  outside  the  parish. 

1623.— Wasse,  Wass. 

In  1763  Sarah  Wass,  a  member  of  this  family,  was  foimd 
murdered  in  a  house  in  Back  Lane.  There  seems  Uttle  doubt 
that  her  own  godson  committed  the  foul  deed  for  the  sake  of 
some  money  she  had ;  but  the  mystery  was  never  fidlv 
explained,  for  although  he  was  taken  up  on  suspicion  and 
confined  in  Nottingham  gaol,  yet  owing  to  his  death  having 
taken  place  before  the  trial  came  on  there  was  no  conviction. 
One  Aun  Wass  or  "  Nonty  Wass,"  a  woman  of  most  disrepu- 


42  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

table  chai*acter,  couunitted  suicide  about  tlie  same  time,  and 
was  bui'ied  on  the  Clipstone  road  near  the  windmill.  For  many 
years  after,  even  down  to  witliin  tlie  last  fifty  years,  it  was 
tlie  custom  of  passers-by  to  tbrow  a  stone  upon  lier  grave 
from  a  superstitious  dread  of  lier  apj^earing.  Sliakspeare 
makes  mention  in  Hamlet  of  the  same  custom.  Speaking  of 
the  burial  of  Ophelia,  the  priest  says  : — 

"  Her  death  was  doubtful ; 
And  but  tbat  great  command  o'ersways  the  order 
She  should  in  ground  unsanctified  have  lodged 
Till  the  last  trumpet :  for  charitable  prayers, 
Shards,  flints  and  pebbles,  should  be  thrown  on  her." 

Social  COntlittOn  of  t\\t  people.  Concerning  the  social 
condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Warsop  during  the  period 
comprised  in  this  register,  1538  to  1637,  we  are  unable  to 
speak  with  anything  like  certainty  as  nothing  is  recorded 
relating  thereto  before  1607.  Between  the  years  1607  and 
1637,  however,  mention  is  made  in  the  register  of  burials  of 
the  social  position  of  some  few  of  the  deceased,  and  from  the 
data  there  given  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  Warsoj)  must 
have  been  a  purely  agricultui-al  jiarish  at  that  time.  Out  of 
eighty-five  burials  in  which  alone  the  social  status  is  recorded, 
two  were  gentlemen,  fifteen  yeomen,  one  a  doctor,  one  a 
schoolmaster,  twenty-two  husbandmen,  two  millers,  twenty- 
two  labourers,  three  cai-penters,  two  shoemakers,  four  coopers, 
three  butchers,  two  tailors,  one  a  smith,  one  a  weaver,  one  a 
tanner,  and  three  men-servants. 

Now  in  order  to  understand  the  full  significance  of  these 
figures,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  a  few  historical 
features  of  that  and  an  earlier  time.  The  feudal  system  with 
its  divisions  of  the  social  classes  into  gentle,  free,  and  servile, 
had  long  since  passed  away,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  parish 
in  the  land  where  one  might  not  find,  as  in  Warsop,  several 


WAKHOJ'    I'AIUHII     UKdlH'l'EHH.  48 

yc()in('ii  ;ui<l  siiiiiJI  I  rcciliolddi's  in  udditioii  lo  tin;  lord  of  the 
manor.  A  ik-vv  <;lass  of  nifu,  too,  had  H\>rnuy^  up  in  the 
husbandman  or  farmer  wlio  j'lnited  hib  land  of  the  lord  of  the 
manor.  But  the  most  important  chanf^e  of  all  was  the  rise 
of  the  free  lalxmrer  whose  condition,  at  this  period,  although 
infinitely  superior  to  tliat  of  the  old  serf,  was  yet  very  far 
behind  that  of  men  of  the  same  class  at  the  present  day. 
The  old  system  of  fixin<^  the  ]jrice  as  well  as  hours  of  labour 
by  acts  of  parliament  and  public;  jiroelamation  still  continued 
to  exist — the  injurious  tendency  of  which  needs  no  demonstra- 
tion. The  necessaries  of  life  were  so  immoderately  dear 
compared  with  the  rate  of  wages  that  labouring  men  could 
rarely  if  ever  obtain  any  other  bread  than  that  made  of  rye, 
barley,  and  oats,  and  in  many  districts  of  peas  or  beans  ; 
whilst  as  regards  dress  they  thought  themselves  well  off  if 
they  could  provide  themselves  with  a  decent  suit  of  leather 
or  canvas.  Their  dwellings,  too,  were  on  a  par  with  their  food 
and  clothing.  Even  so  late  as  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  the 
English  peasantry  had  nothing  better  to  live  in  than  mere 
clay  built  hovels,  with  no  chimneys  and  no  flooring  except  the 
bare  ground.  Their  beds  consisted  of  straw  which  was 
seldom  renewed ;  their  pillow  was  a  hard  block  of  wood ;  and 
as  for  sheets  and  blankets  they  had  none.  On  the  other 
hand  they  had  certain  privileges  which  the  laboui'ers  of  to-day 
have  not.  They  were  in  little  danger  of  being  thrown  out  of 
employment  as  they  were  engaged  by  contract  for  not  less 
than  a  year  and  could  not  be  dismissed  before  the  expiration 
of  that  time,  unless  some  gross  misconduct  could  be  proved 
against  them  before  two  magistrates ;  they  had  on  the 
average  two  or  three  holidays  a  month  on  account  of  Saints' 
Days  and  other  festivals ;  whilst  the  long  ranges  of  common 
and  unenclosed  forest  laud  furnished  theii*  fuel  gratis,  and 
fed  their  pigs,  ducks,  geese,  and  cow,  if  they  could  afford  to 
keep  one.  Some  writers  indeed,  looking  only  to  these 
advantages,  have  described  their  condition  as  equal  to,  if  not 

d2 


44  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

better  than  that  of  the  same  classes  of  to-day ;  but  we  have 
only  to  study  the  history  of  the  poor  laws  to  learn  what  a 
truly  deplorable  state  they  were  in.  By  a  statute  passed  iii 
the  reign  of  Edward  YI.,  it  was  enacted  that  all  persons  who 
refused  to  labour  and  lived  idly  three  days  were  to  be  branded 
on  the  breast  with  the  letter  V,  and  be  adjudged  the  slaves 
for  two  years  of  those  who  informed  against  them.  The 
master  was  directed  to  feed  his  slave  with  bread  and  water, 
or  refuse  meat  and  drink,  and  to  cause  him  to  work  by 
beating  or  chaining  him.  If  the  slave  absconded  for  fourteen 
days  he  was  condemned  to  slavery  for  life  ;  and  if  he  ran  away 
a  second  time  he  became  liable  to  be  put  to  death  as  a  felon. 
Surely  with  such  a  law  as  that  staring  him  in  the  face,  no 
labourer  would  wish  to  go  back  to  the  "  good  old  days  "  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  The  condition  of  the  yeoman  and 
husbandman  was,  as  might  be  expected,  much  better  than  that 
of  the  labourer.  It  was  on  the  whole  one  of  idle,  coarse 
contentment.  Farms  were  cheaply  rented  if  roughly  cul- 
tivated. An  ordinary  farm  house  was  made  of  timber  with 
walls  of  plaster  and  roof  of  thatch,  but  like  the  labourer's 
hovel  mostly  without  chimneys  and  with  but  few  conveniences. 
The  rustic  house-wife  spun  the  clothing  from  the  wool  and 
flax  produced  on  the  farm.  She  and  her  maids  also  measured 
out  the  corn  and  sent  it  to  the  mill ;  brewed  and  baked  for 
the  household  consumption ;  and  took  care  of  the  cows,  pigs, 
and  poultry,  as  well  as  of  the  garden ;  while  the  men  attended 
to  their  labours  in  the  field.  In  this  way  a  rough  but 
comfortable  subsistence  was  secu  red  even  when  their  stock  of 
money  rarely  exceeded  a  few  shillings,  and  when  rent-day 
arrived  the  sale  of  a  horse  or  cow  had  to  make  up  any 
deficiency.  With  regard  to  food  the  usual  diet  was  the 
produce  of  the  farm  and  dairy.  Tusser,  the  Essex  poet,  who 
lived  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  thus  describes 
the  good  cheer  of  the  English  yeomen  of  his  day : — 


WAUHOI'     l'AI{,I9l[     KhUUHTKltH.  45 

"Good  hrcad  and  good  drink,  a  good  firo  in  tfn:;  Ijall ; 
ISravvn  pudding,  and  Bauce,  and  good  mnatard  withal; 
Boof,  mutton,  and  pork,  slircd  pioH  of  the  best; 
Pig,  veal,  gooHo  and  capon,  and  turkeys  well  drest ; 
Cheese,  apples,  and  nuts,  jolly  carols  to  hear. 
As  then  in  the  country  is  counted  good  cheer." 

Such,  we  may  well  believe,  was  in  a  greater  or  less  de^ee 
the  social  condition  of  the  inha])itants  of  Warsop  during  the 
period  under  consideration.  From  the  secluded  character  of 
the  parish  its  history  has  been  necessarily  agricultural  rather 
than  anything  else.  Approached  by  mere  forest  tracks,  or 
narrow  crooked  lanes,  the  native  population  would  follow  slowly 
the  great  changes  of  the  nation  at  large,  and,  free  from  the 
highest  or  lowest  subjects  of  the  realm,  live  out  their  simple 
lives  and  play  their  part  in  the  great  drama  of  Ufe,  leaving 
behind  them  for  the  most  part  nothing  but  a  name. 


Etgisttr  33. 


This  volume  is  much  mouse  eaten  at  the  top  of  those  leaves 
containing  the  baptisms,  and  at  the  bottom  as  well  as  top  of 
those  containing  the  burials  and  marriages,  so  that  several 
names  and  words  are  unfortunately  wanting.  By  some 
mischance  too,  the  baptisms  from  1644  to  1649,  instead  of 
being  in  their  right  place,  follow  those -of  1702. 


^XttBtCtS*  From  the  many  interesting  records  contained  in 
this  volume,  we  have  selected  the  following ;  among 
which  we  have  thought  it  right  to  include  the  earliest 
entries  we  can  find  respecting  the  various  existing 
families  which  are  mentioned  in  it,  but  not  in  the  former 
volume. 


1641.— "  Buried  Ga Dux  veteran." 

The  intermediate  portion  of  this  entry  has  been  eaten  away 
by  the  mice,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt,  we  think,  that  it  is 
the  record  of  the  burial  of  Gervase  Wylde,  of  the  Spanish 
Armada  incident. 


1643.—"  Buried  Eobard  Tomson,  Souldat." 


WAEHOI'     I'AKIHM     KKOISTBUS.  47 

From  llic  (•li;i,rit(f<'r  oi'  fliisciitry  one  rni^^ht  Huppone  that  it 
waH  the  work  ol'  a  Fn-iichman  ;  and  iiulijod  it  Ih  vi-ry  lik«-ly  that 
such  was  the  case,  for  tliu  Kev,  J.  Condc  who  was  curate  of 
Warsop  at  this  time,  and  who — judging  from  the  hand- 
writing—was  tht' n-gistrar  likcwisf?,  was  most  prol^aldy  one  of 
those  uulortunak'  Hugu  -nols  wlio,  cruelly  p<,'rsecut«,'d  in  their 
own  country,  fled  to  England  for  refuge  after  the  capture  of 
Rochelle  by  cardinal  liichelieu  in  1628. 

1643, — "  Baptised  Henry   son  of  Thomas   Bowet  and   Anne 
his  wife." 

The  above-named  Thomas  Bowet  was  a  husbandman. 
From  his  time  down  to  the  present  generation,  the  Bowets  of 
Warsop  have  belonged  to  the  same  class,  and  several  of  them 
are  mentioned  at  various  periods  as  holding  the  oflBce  of 
churchwarden.  In  the  old  terrier  of  1722,  a  Thomas  Bowet's 
name  is  down  for  some  forty  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental 
of  .29  10s. 

1646. — "  Buried  Mr.  William  Spurre  late  pa  " 


The  concluding  }>art  of  this  entry  has  been  eaten  away  bv 
the  mice.  Enoiigli  has  been  left,  however,  to  show  that  it  is 
the  ix'cord  of  the  burial  of  the  Rev.  William  Spurre,  who  was 
rector  of  Warsop  when  the  allotment  of  seats  was  made  in 
1615.  We  are  inclined  to  think,  too,  that  he  was  the  same 
person  whose  baptism  is  recorded  in  capital  letters  in  1564, 
as  "  William  son  of  Thomas  Spurre,"  a  yeoman  of  Warsop ; 
and  if  so,  he  is  the  only  native  of  Warsop  who  has  been 
I'ector  of  the  parish  since  the  Reformation.  Prior  to  that 
event  we  can  say  nothing.  In  the  fourteenth  centurv  there 
was  one  Robert  de  Warso]>,  an  Augustinian,  who  was  born  in 
Warsop,  and  who  long  resided  at  the  convent  of  Tickhill. 
He  is  said  by  Bale  to  have  been  made  a  bishop  ;  but  as  there 


48  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

seems  to  have  been  no  prelate  of  that  name  in  England,  it  is 
supposed  that  he  was  either  a  suffragan  or  a  titular  bishop  in 
Greece.     He  was  buried  in  Tickhill  about  1360. 

1646. — "  Samuel  the  sonne  of  Richard  Jackson  and  Jane  his 
wife  was  borne  upon  the  26th  day  of  January  about 
the  brake  of  day  in  the  morning,  and  was  baptized  on 
the  31  of  January  the  next  Lord's  day  following." 

"  John  the  sonne  of  George  Wilcocke  and  Anne  his  wife 
was  borne  upon  the  28tli  of  January  about  five  of  the 
clocke  in  the  afternoon,  and  was  baptized  on  the  5th  of 
Ffebriiary  at  Sokeholme." 

"  James  and  John  the  sonnes  of  Gervas  Holmes  and 
Cecily  his  wife  were  borne  upon  the  6th  day  of 
Ffebruary  in  the  morning  before  sunrising,  and  were 
baptized  on  the  8th  day  of  Ffebruary," 

We  insert  the  foregoing  entries  not  merely  on  account  of 
their  quaintness,  or  because  they  are  so  unlike  the  stereotyped 
entries  of  the  present  day,  but  because  they  show  how  very 
necessary  our  forefathers  thought  it  to  have  their  children 
baptized  as  soon  as  possible  after  birth. 

1650. — "  Gervaso  the  sonne  of  Nicholas  Hinchley  and  Eliza- 
beth his  wife  was  borne  March  23rd  and  baptized 
March  31st. 

A  branch  of  this  family  held  the  office  of  wood  steward  on 
the  Warsop  estates  for  several  generations.  A  William 
Hinchliffe,  wood  steward,  about  the  latter  part  of  last  century, 
was  clerk  of  Sokeholme  Chapel,  and  used  to  attend  the  services 
there,  dressed  in  the  lord  of  the  manor's  livery.  In  1849  we 
have  the  marriage  recorded  of  George  Robinson  and  Mary 


WARSOI'     I'ARIHir     RKOIHTEE8.  49 

Hinchliffc;  in  18.5:',,  t!i:i1  d"  Ilcrhi'i-t  VVliannhy  and  p]IizalMh 
HincliliilV ;  and  in  1871,  iliatof  VVilliain  Methcrinpfhain  and 
Sliaduy  Hinchlilff. 

1653. — "  Tliomas  Chadwidcc,  a  Idindc  man,  di»'d  and  was 
Iniriud  April  the  14th  day." 

"Margaret  Chadwicke  his  widdow  died  April  17,  and 
wa.s  buried  April  the  18th  day." 

1655. — "  Two  infants,  a  male  and  a  ffemale,  of  Henry  Silleotts 
of  the  Market  Town  were  borne,  died,  and  bui'ied,  the 
five  and  twentieth  day  of  December." 

1656. — "  John  and  Elizabeth  Infant  children  of  Robert  Ward 
of  the  Market  Town  were  born,  Baptized,  and  died  and 
were  Buried,  April  the  fourteenth  day." 

"John  the  son  of  John  Ffannery  of  the  Market  Town, 
a  sucking  childe,  died  and  was  buried,  November  the 
fourth  day." 

The  foregoing  are  a  few  of  the  many  entries  at  this  period 
which  record  the  death  and  burial  as  taking  place  on  the  same 
day.  To  defer  the  burial  for  any  length  of  time  beyond  a 
day  was  quite  the  exceptional  thing. 

1657. — "Elizabeth  the  daughter  of  Eobert  Mason  of  the 
Moon  of  the  Church  Town  died  August  the  •26th  day, 
and  was  buried  August  the  27th  day." 

Here  we  have  the  name  given  us  of  the  old  pul)lic-house  in 
Church  Warsop  to  which  reference  has  been  alreadv  made. 

1662. — "  Biu-ied  Margaret  daughter  of  Jolm  Hooke  and 
Martiaret  his  wife  of  the  South  Town." 


50  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

During  tlie  latter  half  of  last  century,  one  Robert  Hooke, 
farmer  and  publican,  lived  in  a  house  called  the  "Black  Bull." 
at  the  bottom  of  Butt  Lane.  He  himself  was  a  steady,  sober 
man  enough,  but  one  of  his  sons,  who  was  also  named  Robert, 
turned  out  such  a  ne'er-do-well,  that  the  old  man  thought  it 
best  to  give  up  his  license  and  live  on  the  farm  alone.  Many 
a  story  is  told  of  this  Robei't  Hooke  the  younger,  who  seems 
to  have  been  a  very  whimsical  sort  of  fellow,  full  of  practical 
jokes.  The  landlord  of  the  Hare  and  Hounds  Inn  having 
engaged  a  raw  untrained  girl  as  servant,  gave  Robert 
an  opportunity  of  playing  a  trick  upon  him.  The  custom  of 
publicans  in  those  days  was  to  mark  up  every  evening  each 
person's  score  on  the  chimney  piece.  Coming  in,  therefore, 
first  thing  next  morning  when  "mine  host's"  back  was  turned, 
Robert  called  for  a  pint  of  ale,  and  when  the  servant  brought 
it  him,  scolded  her  severely,  said  that  she  was  a  lazy  slut,  and 
that  the  last  girl  would  never  have  left  the  chalk  marks 
remain  on  the  chimney  piece  till  that  time  of  day.  The  poor 
girl  in  her  confusion  at  once  fetched  a  v/et  cloth  and  wiped 
out  the  scores.  On  another  occasion  he  offered  to  bet 
Woodman  Stubbings,  a  penny  that  he  could  drink  an  exact 
pennyworth  out  of  a  tankard  of  ale.  Now  this  was  by  no 
means  an  easy  feat,  as  the  j)rice  of  a  tankard  of  ale  was 
sevenpence.  Accordingly  Stubbings  took  the  bait.  "Call  for 
the  ale,"  said  wily  Robert,  and  no  sooner  was  it  brought  than 
putting  the  tankard  to  his  lips  he  drained  it  to  the  dregs : 
wherevipon  throwing  down  his  penny  on  the  table,  he  said, 
"There  I've  lost  the  bet  after  all,  Goodbye,  old  fellow!" 
Another  story  is  told  how  he  and  a  boon  companion  after 
spending  all  their  money  devised  a  scheme  to  replenish  their 
purse.  Taking  a  farmer's  horse  out  of  the  paddock  one  night 
they  hid  it  in  Warsop  Wood,  and  when  its  owner  offered  a 
reward  for  its  recovery  they  at  once  fetched  it  him  and 
having  received  the  reward  went  and  regaled  themselves  as 
usual  at  the  Hare  and  Hounds.    The  Hookes  of  Warsoj^  have 


WAESOP    PARISH    RROI8TEE8.  61 

1)('('ii  a  I()n<4'  lived  vncc ;  ]m\  our  i'ri<"ii'l  Rohc^rt  diod  at  t]u- 
coiiipiiratively  early  a^-i'  of  I'oi-fy-oiic  years,  h-aviu;^  heliiiid 
liiiu  a  wife  and  several  small  cliii(lr<;ii  to  do  for  themselves  as 
l)est  they  eould.  His  father  who  survived  him  some  years 
attained  (Ik;  ripe  aj^e  of  niniity-three.  His  f^randfatlier, 
Josei)h  Hooke,  to  whose  memory  there  is  an  ornamental  slate 
slab  in  the  churchyard,  lived  to  tln^  age  of  ninety  years. 

1662. — "  Edward  son  of  John  Eyre  and  Alice  his  wife  of  the 
South  Town  was  l:)ai)tized  March  the  eighth  day." 

"  Elizabeth  the  daughter  of  Samuel  Herron  and  Anne 
his  wife  of  the  North  Town,  or  in  that  in  which  the 
church  is  situated,  was  baptized  March  the  twenty- 
second  day." 

This  is  the  only  p<^riod  throughout  the  whole  set  of  registers 
when  the  two  divisions  of  the  parish  are  so  called.  At  all 
other  times  the  distinction  is  drawn  between  Market  Warsop 
and  Church  Warsop,  or  Market  Town  and  Church  Towu. 

1663. — "  James  son  of  Richard  Newton  and  Catherine  his 
wife,  of  the  town  in  which  the  market  used  to  be  held, 
was  baptized  March  29th." 

White,  in  his  Nottinghamshire  Directory  for  1832,  says, 
that  the  market  in  Warsoj)  has  long  since  been  obselete. 
This  entry  would  seem  to  imply  that  it  was  given  up  some 
years  previously  to  1663, — probably  during  the  troublous 
times  of  the  great  Civil  War.  "  Statutes,"  for  hiring  servants, 
continued  to  exist  down  to  the  end  of  last  century ;  and  there 
are  still  three  fairs  held  every  year,  uam<^ly.  on  the  Monday 
before  Whitsiuitide,  on  September  29th  and  on  November  l~th. 

1670.— "  Buried  Edward  Birkbeck  late  of  Orton  in  the  county 
of  Westmorland." 


52  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

The  Eev.  G.  Fotliergill,  rector  of  Warsop  at  this  tmie,  was 
a  Westmorland  man,  and  so  the  prohabiHty  is  that  the 
person  whose  burial  is  here  recorded  had  been  in  his  service, 
or  at  least  introduced  by  him  into  the  parish. 

1671. — "  Baptized  John  sonne  of  Henry  Milnes   alias  Davy 
and  Margett." 

1672. — "Baptized  Elizabeth  of  Henery  and  Margrett  Davy 
alias  Milnes." 

This  is  the  first  mention  in  the  registers  of  the  name  Davy, 
but  the  family  of  Milnes  dates  from  1598.  In  1671  we  have 
the  marriage  recorded  of  Henry  Milnes  and  Margaret  Gilby, 
and  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  they  immediately  adopted 
the  name  of  Davy  for  family  reasons  and  dropped  that  of 
Milnes — a  supposition  which  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that 
in  the  old  terrier  of  1722  the  question  is  asked,  "  Was  John 
Davy's  farm  John  Gilby's  ?  "  To  which,  answer  is  made, 
"  Yes."  The  said  John  Davy  was  in  all  probability  the  very 
same  person  who  was  baj)tized  in  1671.  He  lived  in  Church 
Warsop,  at  what  is  now  called  the  Moorfield  Farm,  and  held 
some  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental  of 
d646.  This  farm  continued  in  the  hands  of  the  Davy  family 
down  to  the  present  century. 

One  of  the  most  pleasing  features  in  the  past  history  of 
Warsop,  is  the  length  of  time  during  which  many  of  the  farms 
have  been  held  by  the  same  families  from  father  to  son,  for 
generations.  Such  a  state  of  things  betokens  a  certain 
amount  of  contentment,  if  not  of  actual  prosperity,  as  well  as 
a  good  feeling  between  landlord  and  tenant — a  feeling  which 
should  not  be  lightly  broken  through.  It  is  seldom  pleasant 
to  see  farms  change  hands.  It  is  seldom  pleasant  to  see 
people  turned  out  of  houses  in  which  perhaps  they  and  their 
forefathers  have  lived  so  long  that  they  have  become  full  of 


WAR80I'     I'AKIHH     IlKOIHT^:US.  M 

t«!n(lcr  itsHociiitioiis  of  j>ii.st,  joys  aiid  past  sorrowH.  It  rnunt 
often  be  so,  of  course,  l>ut  one  lik(;H  to  Hee  families  take  root 
in  a  place  and  live  and  tlirive  there,  one  generation  aft<;r  a 
another,  as  has  been  the  case  in  Warsop. 

1678. — "  This  year  a  law     ....     burying  in  woollen." 

The  intermediate  portion  of  tliis  entry  has  been  eat^in  away 
by  the  mice ;  but  it  evidently  refers  to  the  Act  of  Parliament 
which  was  jjassed  in  this  year,  compelling  people  to  bury 
their  dead  in  woollen  shrouds,  in  order,  as  the  Act  states,  "  to 
lessen  the  importation  of  linen  from  beyond  the  seas,  and 
to  encourage  the  woollen  manufacture  of  this  kingdom."  It 
was  in  allusion  to  this  law  that  Pope  wrote  his  well-known 
lines  on  the  death  of  Mrs.  Oldfield,  the  actress,  who  was 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey  : — 

"  '  Odious  !  in  woollen  !  'twould  a  Saint  provoke  ! ' 
Were  the  last  words  that  poor  Narcissa  spoke ; 
'  No  !  let  a  charming  chintz  and  Briissel's  lace 
Wrap  my  cold  limbs  and  shade  my  lifeless  face.'  " 

1679. — "  Buried  John  Bouskill  an  old  man  of  Solkholm." 

There  is  a  very  curious  little  gravestone  in  the  churchyard 
to  the  memory  of  the  person  whose  burial  is  here  recorded. 
It  is  about  eighteen  inches  iu  height,  with  an  ornamental 
border,  and  wdth  the  following  inscription  upon  it : — 

HEETHEBODY 

OFIOHNBO 
WSKSKILDEAD 

ND  E 

ABVRIED16DY 
OFMEY1679 


64  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

This  is  one  of  tlie  two  oldest  stones  in  tlie  chnrcliyard. 
The  other,  which  is  the  older  of  the  two,  is  a  plain  stone, 
standing  barely  a  foot  high  and  containing  the  following 
inscription : — 

"  K  Middleton  wife  of  Tho  Mid  1649  " 

Inside  the  Church  Tower,  however,  there  is  a  memorial 
stone  neatly  let  into  the  wall  which  bears  date  1512.  This 
stone  formed  part  of  an  old  floor  which  was  discovered  at  the 
Restoration  of  the  Church  in  1877,  and  which  stood  some 
eighteen  inches  below  the  then  existing  floor.  The  marks  in 
the  middle  of  the  stone  shew  that  it  originally  bore  an 
engraving  of  the  Cross,  but  very  little  of  this,  or  of  the 
inscription  round  the  edge,  now  remains.  The  following, 
however,  is  quite  plain : — 

"  ^  t  c  t  a  -i-  r  0  ft  c  r  I  u g  a  b  e  t  u  ^-  o  v  t  iS 

eiu5>5«annolio m°  tccccyii  ^  '* 

We  may  thus  conclude  that  it  covered  the  remains  of  a 
man  and  his  wife.  Of  course  the  wife's  name  being  in  the 
genitive  case  while  the  man's  is  in  the  nominative,  creates  a 
difiiculty  not  easily  surmounted,  but  this  may  possibly  have 
arisen  through  some  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  engraver  or 
of  the  person  who  supplied  the  inscription.  With  respect  to 
the  identification  of  the  individuals,  we  have  consulted 
Thoroton  to  see  if  we  could  find  two  such  persons  connected 
with  Warsop  about  that  time,  and  we  believe  not  imsuccess- 
fully.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  manor  of  Warsop 
then  belonged  to  the  sister  of  Edmund,  Lord  Eoos,  who  died 
without  lawful  issue  in  1508.  Well,  only  a  few  years  before, 
a  member  of  that  family,  one  Robert  Roos  was  living,  who  had 
for  his  wife  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Middleton ; 


WARHOI'     I'AltlHH     ItKOlHTKliH,  .">/> 

iiiid  Hiiicc  ilicn-  is  room  on  IIm-  Htoiic  i'or  only  a  v«;ry  hIioH. 
surname,  and  Uic  (Jlirisf,i;in  nam<;s  of  ilicsc  two  pcrsoriH  a^HMJ 
with  tlic  names  incniionrd  tlicrcon  we.  would  fain  l>clit;v<!  that 
I  his  sl()n<'  was  ori^nnally  laid  down  to  thfir  in(;niory.  If  ho, 
lh(j  iiiscri[)tion  would  run  som-'thinj^  aft^-r  this  manner: — 

*'|L)ic  fa -|- lobcitu  roo^  i^  f  It'gabct  uyovii  eiui  -i*  anno 
Uom    t'f^u  (\jviiti  m°  cttctyii  ►!-  *' 

Or,  iu  plain  English,  "  Horu  lie  Robert  Roos  and  P]lizal>eth 
liis  wife.     In  the  year  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  1512." 

In  connection  with  these  memorial  stones,  the  following 
interesting  features  in  the  history  and  architecture  of  the 
Church  itself  ought  perhaps  to  be  noticed. 

1. — The  Porch  and  Doorway  which  are  considered  excellent 
specimens  of  the  Early  English  style  of  archit^^cture,  and 
date  back  to  the  thirteenth  century. 

2. — The  Norman  Archway  in  the  Tower  with  dog-toothed 
decoration,  hatchet  cut ;  this  dates  back  to  the  eleventh  or 
twelfth  century.  Before  the  galleries  were  removed  in  1872 
this  arch  was  completely  blocked  np  so  that  no  one  knew  of 
its  existence. 

3. — The  plain  semi-Norman  Arch  to  the  North  doorway 
which  is  at  present  blocked  up. 

4. — The  Aisles  w^hich  are  in  the  Early  English,  or  Early 
Decorative  st3^1e ;  that  on  the  North  side  being  the  older  of 
the  two. 

5. — The  magnificent  Chancel  Roof  supported  by  cherubim 
and  containing  a  curious  wooden  pulley  which  was  used  most 
probably  for  a  lamp,  on  the  third  beam  from  the  East  window. 
The  Chancel  itself  is  remarkable  for  its  grand  dimensions. 
The  Priest's  doorway  remains,  biit  is  blocked  uji. 

6. — The  three  Sedilia  within  the  altar  rails,  each  on  a 
different  level,  for  priest,  deacon,  and  sub-deacon. 


66  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

7. — The  Piscina  of  the  quatre-foil  form.  The  Credence 
ledge  is  wanting. 

8. — The  very  fine  East  window  of  the  perpendicular  style 
which  dates  back  to  the  fifteenth  century. 

9. — The  South  East  Chapel,  or  Chantry,  which  is  now  used 
as  a  vestry  and  which  also  dates  hack  to  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  windows  in  this  Chapel  have  lately  been  filled  with 
painted  glass,  the  remains  of  the  old  East  window. 

1680.— "of  William  and  Ann  Eolling 

of  Sokeholme  " 

The  Rollings  appear  to  have  settled  on  their  first  coming 
into  the  parish  at  Sokeholme,  but  within  a  few  years  after 
this  we  find  them  living  at  the  "  Burndels  Farm,"  or  as  it  is 
now  called  Warsop  Cottage,  where  they  continued  to  live  for 
more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  In  the  old  terrier  of 
1722,  William  Rolling,  son  of  the  above,  is  mentioned  as 
farming  one  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land  at  a  yearly 
rental  of  d635  12s.  6d.  Another  William  Rolling  was  church- 
warden in  1760  and  again  in  1771. 

1681. — "Buried    Mr.    John    Rolleston,   an  aged  person,    of 
Sokeholme." 

This  Mr.  John  Rolleston  was  of  the  same  family  as  the 
Rollestons  of  Watnall  Hall  though  not  a  direct  ancestor.  He 
was  private  secretary  to  the  famous  equestrian  duke  of 
Newcastle,  who  for  some  time  was  general  of  the  royal  forces 
in  the  Civil  War  between  Charles  I.  and  the  parliament,  and  he 
himself  took  part  in  the  same.  To  account  for  his  living  at 
Sokeholme  we  must  know  something  of  the  history  of  the 
place.  The  name  Sokeholme  is  derived  from  two  Anglo- 
Saxon  words — soc,  or  soke,  a  pi'ivilege  or  jurisdiction,  and 
holme,   an  island   or  the   rich   land  by  a  stream.     So  that 


WAIlHOr    I'AKIKir     ItKOHSTEES.  •)! 

SokclioliiK!  orif]finally  rnoani  iJn'  rich  l;iri<l  l>y  a  Htroarn 
licicl  in  tenure  by  i)rivil('f^<'.  Bcloro  tli<'  K»;  format  ion  th« 
manor  of  Sokeliolmo  belonged  to  the  Priory  (jf  St.  OHwald 
at  Nostell  in  Yorkshire,  and  was  most  probably  served  by  the 
monies  of  tliat  priory.  Acnordinj^  to  tradition  tli(;n;  was  a 
l)ran(;li  cstablishnumt  of  the  }>riory  settled  at  Sokeholme ; 
and  althouj^h  no  record  of  this  remains,  yet  there  is  the 
significant  fact  that  in  a  field  near  the  road  leading  to  Shire- 
brook  there  are  a  number  of  fine  old  yew  trees  planted  in  the 
form  of  a  quadrangle — just  such  trees  as  one  would  expect  to 
see  near  a  religious  house.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  the 
prior  of  St  Oswald  claimed  all  sorts  of  privileges  in  the  manor 
of  Sokeholme,  but  the  jury  could  not  find  that  "  he,  or  his 
predecessors,  ever  had  the  right  of  gallows,  or  of  infangtheis," 
that  is,  the  power  of  passing  judgment  on  thefts  committed 
within  one's  jurisdiction,  "  or  that  bread  was  ever  baked  there 
to  be  sold  that  he  might  have  had  emendation  of  the  assize." 
After  the  Reformation  "  Sokeholme  with  all  its  appurtenances" 
was  granted  to  the  Leek  family ;  and  from  them  it  descended 
to  the  Cavendishes,  one  of  whom  was  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 
already  mentioned.  This  nobleman  took  a  very  active  part 
in  the  civil  war.  At  the  beginning  of  the  troubles  he 
assisted  his  royal  master  with  a  gift  of  ^10,000 ;  as  well 
as  raised  a  considerable  body  of  horse  and  foot  soldiers 
at  his  own  expense.  As  general  of  the  royal  forces  he 
defeated  the  rebels  at  Atherton  Moor  in  1643 ;  and  in  the 
following  year  kept  the  Scotch  at  bay  till  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax 
coming  to  their  relief  compelled  him  to  retire  upon  York. 
At  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor  his  regiment,  resolute 
to  conquer  or  to  perish,  alone  held  their  ground  and  main- 
tained by  their  dead  bodies  the  same  order  in  which  thev  had 
at  first  been  drawn  up.  After  this  he  retired  to  the  continent 
where  till  the  Eestoration  he  lived  in  great  want  whilst  his 
immense  fortune  was  squandered  by  those  who  had  assumed 
the  reins  of  government.     Out  of  eight  magnificent  estates 


58  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

possessed  by  Mm  "before  the  war,  Welbeck  alone  was  preserved 
from  utter  ruin  by  the  noble  exertions  of  his  secretary,  Mr. 
John  Eolleston  of  Sokeholme  Hall.  From  the  dukes  of  New- 
castle, the  manor  of  Sokeholme  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
dukes  of  Portland;  and  through  them,  by  an  exchange  of 
lands,  to  Mr.  Henry  Gaily  Knight,  and  so  on  to  the  present 
proprietor,  Sir  WilHam  Fitz -Herbert. 

A  handsome  marble  tablet  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  John 
Eolleston,  in  Warsop  Church,  contains  the  following  inscrip- 
tion, nearly  illegible : — 

"  To  the  Memory  of  A  Trusty  Servant,  a  loyal  Subject, 
a  kind  Master,  a  faithfuU  friend,  a  loving  husband  & 
a  good  Christian.  And  now  Eeader  think  not  y  this 
is  to  y  memory  of  Many,  but  wonder  that  'tis  to  that 
of  One.  To  y  of  Mr.  John  Eolleston  of  Eolleston  in 
Staffordshire  well  born  &  well  bred.  Well  Knowne  & 
therefore  well  beloved  by  f  high  &  mighty  W™  late 
L*^  Duke  of  Newcastle  &  his  Noble  Family ;  as  having 
had  y  honour  of  being  his  Secretary  when  He  himself 
had  y  great  one  of  being  Grovernor  to  the  Prince  after- 
wards King  Charles  the  2nd,  as  hkewise  that  of 
Secretary  to  y  Army  under  his  Excellencies  command 
in  y  late  unhappy  warrs.  His  apjjroved  honesty  & 
abihties  in  business  rendered  him  highly  usefuU  to  his 
Master  &  to  his  Country :  particularly  to  the  former 
in  y  management  &  preservation  of  his  Estate  at  a 
time  when  y  Government  itself  was  too  weak  to 
preserve  anything  from  Eapine  &  Euine.  The  advan- 
tages rais'd  to  himself  out  of  a  long  &  meretorious 
service  were  almost  entirely  lost  uj)on  the  dechning 
fortune  of  f  Eoyal  Party  at  Marston  Moor,  &  yet  his 
good  service  in  y  end  mett  w  what  he  valued  above  all 
f  honour  of  having  been  highly  trusted  &  y  comfort  of 
having    honestly    discharged   y   trust.       To   y   many 


WAKHOI-     I'AltlHII     KEOISTEU8.  o\) 

blessings  of  f  Man  here  njiuemborod  was  added  that 
of  a  long  lifo,  lie  having  liv(jd  to  tho  ago  of  84  yoarH ; 
a  long  bnt  to  him  a  glorious  tyino  of  tryal.  He 
departed  this  life  y  22nd  of  December  1681  in  full 
hopes  of  a  joyfull  Ri'surnjetion  to  a  much  l>etter. 

Erected  as  a  monument  of  true  love  }>y  his  entirely 
beloved  wife  &  sorrowfuU  widow  Mrs.  Elizalx;th 
Rolleston  now  living  in  this  Parish  MDCLXXXVI." 

1689. — "  Gartrude  Grace  daughter  of  the  Honourable  Charles 
and  Frances  Stanhope,  born  November  21,  and  bap- 
tized December  3." 

The  Hon.  Charles  Stanhope  here  mentioned  was  the 
grandson  of  the  first  earl  of  Chesterfield  and  son  of  the  Hon. 
Ai'thur  Stanhope  of  Mansfield  Woodhouse,  who  was  M.P. 
for  Nottingham  in  the  Restoration  Parliament.  Correctly 
speaking  he  had  no  right  to  be  called  "  Honourable, "  but  it 
seems  to  have  been  a  common  practice  in  those  days  to  apply 
this  title  indiscriminately  to  all  the  younger  members  of 
noble  families. 

In  1740  we  have  another  entry  relating  to  the  same  family, 
namely,  the  marriage  of  Arthur  Charles  Stanhope  of  Mans- 
field, and  Mary  Thornhagh  of  Osberton.  This  Arthur 
Charles  Stanlioj)e  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Michael  Stanhope,  Canon 
of  Windsor,  and  grandson  of  the  former  Charles  Stanhope. 
His  own  son,  Robert,  by  a  second  wife,  afterwards  succeeded 
to  the  earldom  as  fifth  earl  of  Chesterfield. 

1690. — "Buried   John  of  Ffrancis  and   Sarah  Crooks   of 
Nettleworth." 

About  the  middle  of  last  century  John  Crooks,  tailor  and 
draper,  carried  on  a  good  business  in  a  house  of  his  own  at 
the  top  of  Dawney  Hill.     His  son,  Francis,  who  succeeded 

E  2 


60  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

him,  increased  tlie  business  to  sucli  an  extent  that  he  used  to 
take  sometimes  as  much  as  ^£600  in  the  Martinmas  week. 
As  he  advanced  in  years,  however,  he  fell  into  habits  of 
intemperance — the  bane  of  so  many  old  Warsopians — and  his 
business  went  to  wreck  and  ruin.  His  death  was  sudden. 
When  going  to  church  one  Sunday  afternoon  he  was  seized 
with  a  choking  sensation,  and  turning  back  with  difficulty 
reached  his  home,  where  within  two  hours  he  expired  in  his 
chair.  A  strange  fatality  indeed  seems  to  have  attended  his 
whole  family ;  for  a  few  years  prior  to  his  own  death,  his 
eldest  daughter  whilst  on  a  visit  to  Swanwick,  committed 
suicide  by  drowning  herself  in  a  well ;  his  second  son  hanged 
himself  on  a  tree  in  Edwinstowe  Forest;  his  widow  and  a 
married  daughter  took  a  pubhc-house  at  Blythe,  where  the 
daughter  killed  herself  by  hard  drinking ;  and  his  eldest  son 
Francis  not  long  since  lost  himself  somehow  one  cold  winter's 
night  in  the  snow,  and  was  found  some  days  after  frozen  to 
death  in  a  ditch  in  Lower  Car  Lane, 

1696. — "  Baptized  John   of   Thomas   and   Mary   Halifax  of 
Market  Warsop." 

In  1726  the  above  named  John  Halifax  was  married  and 
living  at  Sokeholme  at  the  farm  which  was  afterwards  held 
so  long  by  his  descendants  ;  but  not  having  an  old  Sokeholme 
terrier,  like  that  of  Warsop,  to  guide  us,  we  are  unable  to 
give  the  original  size  and  yearly  rental  of  this  or  any  other 
farm  situated  in  that  parish.  For  more  than  a  hundred  years 
a  branch  of  this  family  has  lived  at  the  farm  now  occupied  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Hallifax  of  Market  Warsop.  William  Halhfax, 
basket  maker,  a  member  of  this  family,  is  said  to  have  ridden 
one  cold  winter's  night  across  Thoresby  Lake. 

The  Chapmans,  Robinsons,  and  Askews,  aj-e  connections  of 
this  family  by  marriage:  in  1793  William  Chapman  married 
an  Elizabeth  Hallifax;  in  1851  John  Robinson,   miller  and 


WAKHOI'    I'ARrSir    EEOISTEES.  01 

])ak('r,  inai'ricd  I'^lizalx'lli  liiuH'ord,  wIioh*;  mothor  was  a 
llallii'ax,  and  whose  iath<;r,  William  Jtadi'ord,  built  and  owned 
the  Warsop  windmill  and  the  adjoininj^  cotta^'es  ;  and  in  18G2 
SamiUil  Ask(!w,  ]>asket  maker,  married  8arah  Hallifax. 

Th(!  Hallii'axfs  of  Warsop  claim  kinship  with  bishop 
Hallii'ax,  who  died  bishop  of  St.  Asaph  and  rector  of  Warsop 
in  1790 ;  but  we  ourselves  can  find  no  trace  of  the  connection 
either  in  tlie  Warsop  Registers  or  in  those  of  Mansfield  where 
bisho})  Hallifax  was  born.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  speak 
of  the  bishop  again  later  on. 

1697. — "Buried   Sarah   of   John  and  Mary  Duckminton   of 
Church  Warsop." 

About  the  latter  part  of  last  century  one  John  Duckmanton 
was  a  Warsop  yeoman  and  the  local  carrier  between  Worksop 
and  Mansfield.  He  was  a  man  of  some  means  and  owned 
nearly  a  hundred  acres  of  land  in  the  jjarish.  For  several 
years  he  held  the  offices  of  churchwarden,  overseer  of  the 
poor,  and  constable,  in  which  last  capacity  he  was  under  the 
necessity,  sorely  against  his  will,  of  punishing  George  Riley 
and  the  other  lads  who  were  caught  playing  at  football  on  the 
Sunday.  According  to  tradition,  John  Duckmanton,  though 
a  temperate  man  for  liis  time,  would  never  drink  ale — little  or 
much — except  out  of  a  quart  tankard ;  and  a  portrait  was 
once  taken  of  him  by  some  waggish  painter  whilst  he 
was  sitting  in  the  Bowling  G-reen  inn,  at  Mansfield,  dressed 
in  the  old-fashioned  smoek-frock  of  the  period,  leaning  on  his 
stick  and  with  his  favourite  tankard  on  a  table  before  him. 
This  portrait  is  now,  we  believe,  in  the  possession  of  Mr. 
Hemy  Duckmanton  of  Car  Lane. 

1699.—"  Buried  Elizabeth  Knight,  Lady  and  Widow  of  Sir 
Ralph  Knight,  of  Church  Warsop." 


62  WAESOP    PARISH    EEGISTEBS. 

The  lady  whose  burial  is  here  recorded  seems  to  have  had 
a  most  eventful  history.  She  appears  before  us  first  at  the 
altar  as  a  Miss  Barbar  of  Carburton ;  then  for  twenty  years 
as  the  wife  of  John  EoUeston  of  Sokeholme,  who  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  strong  supj^orter  of  the  King  during  the  civil 
war;  next  as  his  "  sorrowfull  widow";  then,  as  the  second 
wife  of  Sir  Ealph  Knight,  an  old  man  of  sixty-eight  years  of 
age,  and  moreover  one  of  her  first  husband's  most  determined 
opponents ;  and  finally,  in  her  nameless  and  unhonoured 
grave,  as  Sir  Ralph's  lady  and  widow.  Poor  Lady  Knight! 
she  is  said  to  have  brought  dissensions  into  the  family ;  but 
we  have  reason  to  beheve  that  the  fault  was  not  so  much  in 
her  as  in  Sir  Ealph' s  grown-up  children,  who  bitterly  resented 
his  second  marriage. 

From  a  memoir  of  the  Knight  family  which  Sir  William 
Fitz -Herbert  has  kindly  placed  in  our  hands,  we  learn  that 
Sir  Ealph  Knight  was  a  descendant  of  an  old  Hampshire 
family  that  used  to  live  at  St.  Denys,  near  Southampton. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  he  took  a  very  active  part 
on  the  side  of  the  parliament,  and  was  present  in  more  than 
one  engagement ;  but  after  the  death  of  Cromwell  he  changed 
sides  and,  as  Colonel  under  General  Monk,  was  instrumental 
in  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  For  his  services  on  that 
occasion,  he  afterwards  received  at  the  King's  hand  the 
honour  of  knighthood,  as  well  as  a  large  sum  of  money,  part 
of  which  he  spent  in  the  purchase  of  the  manor  and  advowson 
of  Warsop,  as  has  been  related.  He  died  in  1691  in  the 
seventy- second  year  of  his  age. 

Elizabeth  Knight,  Sir  Ealph' s  granddaughter,  who  in- 
herited the  family  estates  in  1768,  was  married  to  the  Eev. 
Henry  Gaily,  D.D.,  a  French  protestant  divine,  who  fled  to 
this  country  for  refuge  after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes.     Her  sons  assumed  the  name  of  Gaily  Knight. 

Henry  Gaily  Knight,  who  died  in  1846,  was  the  last  of  the 
family.     He  was  a  man  of  most  amiable  and  accomplished 


WARSor   r'AJiFHir   ukoihtkiih.  03 

inauiicrs.  Alicr  fiiiiHliin^^  liis  iinivorHity  courBO  at  Cambridffo 
wlicrc  he  Hindi!  llio  a<;(jn;i,iiiliiii(;<!  of  Lonl  J'yron,  lio  w<'rit,  on 
ii  i.onr  iliroii^li  the  iiioHi  iiiicrcstiiif^  proviiicoH  ot"  Turkey  ; 
and  licre,  it  would  Boem,  h*;  ronow(!d  his  acquaintance  with  the 
autlun*  of  Cliildo  Harold,  and,  wanned  by  the  wynipathy  of  a 
kindred  spirit,  conceived  a  serieH  of  Easte-m  tales,  illustrative 
of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  countries  he  had  travelled 
through.  In  1819  he  was  Hif^h  Sheriff  for  the  County  of 
Notts.,  and  in  this  official  capacity  met  the  Judge  at  the 
Assizes,  accompanied  with  twelve  of  his  own  tenants  all  clad 
in  the  Knight  livery— six  from  Warsop  and  six  from  Langold 
and  FirLeck.  He  afterwards  made  a  tour  through  Normandy 
taking  with  him  a  special  artist  in  order  that  he  might  have 
"  the  assistance  of  a  practised  eye  to  examine  the  Churches  of 
that  country  and  a  practised  hand  to  delineate  their  outline." 
On  his  return  he  publislied  a  small  octavo  volume  with  plates 
called  A71  Architectural  Tour  in  Normandy.  In  1831  he  was 
returned  as  M.P.  for  Malton;  and  from  1835  to  1841  he 
represented  the  North  Division  of  Notts.  Dying  without 
children,  he  left  a  sum  of  about  d66000  for  the  building  of  St. 
John's  Church,  Mansfield,  and  the  whole  of  his  Firbeck 
Property,  which  realised  some  .£65,000  or  ^670,000,  to  the 
Ecclesiastical  Commissioners  for  the  building  of  churches, 
and  parsonage  houses,  and  for  the  augmentation  of  small 
livings.  A  brass  tablet  to  his  memory  in  Warsop  Church 
bears  the  following  inscription : — 

"  In  Memory  of  Henry  Gaily  Knight.  Born  1786 :  died 
1846.  The  dutiful  Son  of  a  widow'd  Mother ;  a  Poet 
as  witnessed  by  her  "Portrait";  over  Sacred  and 
Classical  ground  a  Traveller ;  a  man  of  kindness  and 
Benefactor  to  his  Church  and  Kinsmen. 
To  commemorate  the  Eestoratiou  of  this  Church,  re- 
opened July  13th,  1877,  Sir  William  Fitz-Herbert  has 
erected  this  Tablet  to  a  respected  name  in  Warsop." 


64  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

1701. — "  Married  John  Elmcoats  and  Elizabeth  Eeonard  of 
Market  Warsop." 

This  seems  to  be  the  first  mention  of  the  family  of 
Elmcoats,  or  as  the  name  is  now  spelt  Amcoats.  The  said 
John  Elmcoats  appears  later  on  in  the  register  as  John 
Hempcoats  and  Hemcoats,  whilst  his  children  are  called 
indifferently  Hamcoats  and  Amcoats.  Thomas  Amcoats 
during  the  latter  part  of  last  century  was  a  Warsop  tailor  and 
draper.  He  was  the  owner  of  several  small  properties  in 
Warsop,  and  carried  on  his  business  in  a  house  of  his  own  at 
the  bottom  of  High  Street.  His  son  and  grandson  both 
succeeded  him  in  the  same  business. 

1704. — "Buried  Benjamin  G-abetas  who  was  killed  by  a  coal 
cart." 

It  was  long  the  custom  of  Warsop  farmers  to  lead  from  the 
pits'  mouth  all  the  coal  needed  for  their  own  use  and  for 
the  use  of  their  labourers.  The  man  whose  burial  is  here 
recorded  was  doubtless  engaged  in  this  task  when  he  met  his 
death.  One  of  the  Duckmantons  was  killed  in  the  same  way. 
He  fell  from  the  top  of  a  load  of  coals,  and  was  crushed  to 
death  beneath  the  wheels  of  the  wagon. 

1708. — "Buried  John  Johnson  a  souldier." 

According  to  tradition  this  poor  fellow  was  one  of  a 
company  of  soldiers  who  passed  through  Warsop  on  their 
way  from  Worksop  to  Mansfield.  For  some  act  of  dis- 
obedience he  was  tied  to  the  old  oak  on  Cuckney  Hill  and 
there  flogged  so  unmercifully  that  he  expired  under  the 
infliction.  His  body  was  brought  on  to  Warsop  and  buried 
without  the  accompaniments  which  usually  attend  a  soldier's 
funeral. 


WAItSOl'     I'ARISM     UKOISTEB8.  65 

1712.— "Baptized    Willi;uii  of  Williiuii    aiirl    Aiim-  VVanlley 
of  the  Markci  Town." 

For  several  generations  different  members  of  this  family 
have  l>een  employed  on  the  Warsoj;  estate  as  woodmen. 
About  the  middle  of  last  century  a  Tliomas  Wardlt-y,  wo<xl- 
man,  lived  in  the  house  where  old  Mr.  William  Wardley  now 
resides  in  Butt  Lane.  He  had  a  saw  pit  in  the  little  phjt  of 
ground  by  the  side  of  the  house,  and  a  shed  in  which  he  used 
to  make  gates  and  other  things  connected  with  his  employ- 
ment. Samuel  Wardley,  one  of  his  descendants,  is  wood 
steward  at  the  present  day. 

In  1854  we  have  the  marriage  recorded  of  John  Mellors 
and  Elizabeth  Wardley ;  and  in  1859  that  of  John  Story  and 
Sarah  Wardley. 

1739. — "  John  Kirk  and  Anne  Reynolds,  both  of  this  parish 
with  l>anns  three  times  published,  were  married  by  me 

Mr.  Mosley  Rector." 

The  John  Kirk  here  mentioned  was  a  noted  gunsmith  of 
Warsop.  He  was  a  man  who  always  took  a  great  interest  in 
church  matters.  At  his  death  in  1767  he  left  a  sum  of  .£30 
to  be  spent  in  the  purchase  of  a  silver  flagon  and  plate  for 
the  service  of  Holy  Communion,  at  Warsop  Church.  He  also 
left  a  further  sum  of  £,60  to  be  put  out  to  interest,  and 
directed  that  the  money  arising  therefrom  should  be  given 
away  in  two  equal  portions  on  Good  Friday  and  St.  Thomas' 
Day,  to  such  poor  inhabitants  of  Warsop  as  the  Rector  and 
Churchwardens  might  think  most  necessitous  and  deserving. 
Strange  to  say,  however,  nobody  seems  to  know  anything 
about  the  latter  of  these  bequests.  The  £S0  were  spent  as 
enjoined  by  the  will ;  and  the  silver  flagon,  alms  dish,  and 
plate,  inscribed  with  the  donor's  name,  are  those  in  present 
use  at  the  service  of  the  altar.     The  Warsop  Church  plate  is 


66  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

'not  very  interesting.  But  at  Sokeholme  Chapel  tliere  is  one 
of  the  oldest  pieces  of  plate  in  the  county — a  small  silver  cup 
and  cover  paten.  The  upper  part  of  this  cup  is  ornamented 
with  a  double  seeded  rose,  a  crown,  and  the  fleur  de  lis  ;  the 
bowl,  with  a  foliated  band  interlaced  four  times  with  the  hour 
glass  curve.  It  bears  the  York  date-letter  L  which  stands 
for  1568-69. 

(I^OntltttOtX  of  t|j0  people*  in  our  endeavour  to  form  a 
correct  estimate  of  the  social  condition  of  the  past  inhabitants 
of  Warsop,  we  found  little  to  aid  us  in  the  former  volume ; 
but  we  find  still  less  in  this.  Nowhere  throughout  the  whole 
register  is  the  social  status  given  of  the  persons  mentioned 
therein  save  in  the  case  of  a  few  solitary  individuals  during 
the  time  of  the  Commonwealth.  Fortunately,  however,  there 
are  other  sources  from  which  we  may  learn  something,  if  not 
of  the  actual  inhabitants  of  Warsop,  yet  of  the  state  of  the 
agricultural  classes  generally  throughout  the  land  during  the 
period  comprised  in  this  register,  namely,  from  1638  to  1742  ; 
and  from  these  we  learn  that  it  was  on  the  whole  one  of 
gradual  but  steady  improvement.  At  the  begimiing  of  this 
period,  and  indeed  all  through  the  seventeenth  century, 
agriculture  was  still  in  a  very  rude  and  imperfect  condition 
compared  with  that  of  to-day.  An  average  crop  of  wheat, 
rye,  barley,  oats,  and  beans,  then  reached  only  some  ten 
millions  of  quarters,  whereas  now  it  is  more  than  thirty 
millions.  The  rotation  of  crops,  too,  was  very  imj^erfectly 
understood  ;  and  cattle  were  still  often  killed  at  the  beginning 
of  winter  and  turned  into  what  was  called  Martinmas  beef — 
that  is,  salted  and  cured — because  there  was  no  means  of 
keeping  them  alive  till  the  following  spring.  The  great 
criterion  of  the  state  of  the  working  classes  at  any  time  is  the 
amount  of  their  wages  compared  with  the  price  of  food. 
During  the  seventeenth  century  the  rate  of  wages  for  agricul- 
tural  laboui-ers,    such   as   were   found   in  Warsop,  did   not 


WARHor     I'AItlHIf     ItEOISTERB.  VJ 

avcni^c  iiHU'c  lliaii  4h.  \\.  vvi'i'k  willi  food,  or  flH.  witliout, ;  and 
the  wa^-es  of  ariizaiiH  were  l»iit  lilllo  belter,  oxeej^t  in  London 
where  firKt-ratc  Iti-idilayers  and  carpeutors  could  <,-arn  2h.  or 
2s.  6d.  a  day.  Tlic  uecessarieH  of  life  were  still  immoderately 
dear.  The  average  price  of  wheat  was  50h.  the  quart<;r;  so 
that  bread  such  aw  is  now  given  to  the  inmates  of  our 
workhoTises  was  then  seldom  if  ever  seen  on  the  table  of  a 
labovirer  or  artizan.  Meat  was  much  ch(?aper  than  at  present, 
but  comj)ared  with  wages  tlie  price  was  so  dear  that  not  one 
half  the  people  could  get  animal  food  more  than  once  a  week. 
Sugar,  salt,  coal,  candles,  soap,  shoes,  stockings,  and  all  kinds 
of  clothing  and  bedding,  were  also  much  more  expensive  than 
they  are  now.  It  was  partly  in  consequence  of  this  miserably 
low  rate  of  wages,  and  dearncss  of  food  and  clothing,  that  the 
amoiint  of  pauperism  at  this  period  attained  to  such  magni- 
tiide.  The  number  of  people  claiming  jiarish  relief  at  the 
present  day,  exclvisive  of  vagrants,  is  estimated  at  about  one 
thirtieth  of  the  whole  population,  whereas,  then,  according  to 
writers  of  that  day,  about  one  fourth  of  the  people  were 
paupers.  Another  thing  which  helped  to  produce  this  truly 
awful  amount  of  poverty,  was  the  very  oppressive  Act  of 
Parliament  which  was  passed  in  1662  to  prevent  poor  people 
settling  in  any  other  place  than  the  one  where  they  had 
previously  resided.  This  was  the  origin  of  the  law  of  settle- 
ment which  continued  to  harass  the  poor,  as  well  as  waste 
parochial  funds  in  litigation,  down  to  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century.  By  this  Act  "it  was  lawful  for  any  two 
justices  of  the  peace,  upon  complaint  made  by  th»^  church- 
wardens and  overseers  of  the  poor,  within  forty  days  after  the 
arrival  of  any  new  comer  in  the  parish,  to  remove  him  by 
force  to  the  parish  wiiere  he  was  last  legally  settled,  either  as 
a  native,  householder,  sojourner,  apprentice,  or  servant, 
\inless  he  either  rented  a  tenement  of  ^£10  a  year,  or  coidd 
give  such  security  against  becoming  burdensome  to  the 
parish  where  he  was  living  as  the  two  justices  should  deem 


68  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

sufScieiit."  It  was  not  till  1795  that  tlie  law  was  amended 
allowing  working  men  to  change  their  abode  as  they  saw  a 
better  chance  of  employment  elsewhere,  so  long  as  they  did 
not  become  chargeable  to  the  parish. 

During  the  whole  of  the  time  this  merciless  Act  was  in 
force,  and  indeed  down  to  the  amendment  of  the  poor  law  in 
1834,  and  the  formation  of  the  Mansfield  Union,  "War sop  had 
not  only  the  sole  management  of  its  own  poor,  but  also  a 
workhouse  of  its  own.  In  those  days  no  one  was  considered 
a  parishioner  who  did  not  fulfil  the  provisions  of  the  said  Act ; 
and  no  relief  was  granted,  save  in  very  exceptional  cases,  to 
anyone  not  a  parishioner,  unless  he  first  gave  the  name  of  his 
parish  or  showed  a  settlement  paper  stating  where  he  came 
from  and  who  were  answerable  for  his  maintenance.  The 
consequence  was  that  many  j)ersons  provided  themselves  with 
settlement  papers  beforehand  so  as  to  prevent  delay  in  case 
of  emergency.  In  a  small  chest,  kept  in  the  vestry,  there  is 
a  number  of  such  settlement  papers  dating  from  1698  to 
1844. 


■BB^MaSr^ffiB^g^IrS 

W^^y^c^^ 

^TT^^^^M 

^^/JmrnluiS^i^iA^M 

^m^^ 

Z^5^^ 

KIuESS#k>"«VL^^ 

^s^v^^'^Tv  >f^     jM 

HwS^m 

Btewfaste^^^ 

Ivtgisttr  C 


Thp;  records  in  this  register  are  not  so  interesting  to  the 
general  reader  as  those  in  the  two  earlier  registers  ;  but  the 
following  are  perhaps  worthy  of  special  notice : — 

1744. — "  George  Singleton  and  Elizabeth  Higgs  with  banns 
three  times  published  were  married  by  Mr.  Browne, 
Curate" 

This  is  the  first  record  relating  to  the  Singleton  family, 
but  from  the  settlement  papers  we  learn  that  the  above- 
mentioned  George  Singleton  came  into  the  parish  from 
Mansfield  Woodhouse,  in  1740.  After  his  marriage  he  lived 
in  an  old-fashioned  house  which  stood  on  the  rectory  grounds 
opposite  the  old  entrance  to  the  churchyard,  and  for  many 
years  held  the  ofiice  of  sexton.  His  son  and  grandson,  who 
were  both  called  George  after  him,  in  turn  succeeded  him  in 
this  ofiice.  So  long  indeed  was  the  ofiice  of  sexton  held  by 
this  family  that  the  inhabitants  of  Warsop  used  to  joke  about 
it  and  tell  their  friends  when  they  were  sick  to  mind  what 
they  were  about  or  they  would  soon  find  themselves  in 
"  Singleton  Park."  The  present  representative  of  this  family 
is  Mrs.  Stocks  of  Low  Street. 

1749, — "Buried  Mary  the  wife  of  James  Rigg  a  stranger." 


70  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

1750. — "Baptized  Jolin  tlie  son  of  Marshal  and  Ester  Fells 
of  Market  Warsop." 

Marshal  Fells  whose  son's  baptism  is  here  recorded  was  a 
farmer  and  rope-maker.  He  was  a  native  of  Thorpe  Salvin, 
in  Yorkshire,  but  having  been  apprenticed  to  Valentine 
Wilkinson  of  Butt  Lane  he  afterwards  made  Warsop  his 
home,  and  on  the  death  of  his  first  wife  in  1754  married  a 
Warsoj)  woman,  Elizabeth  Clarke  of  Gleadthorpe,  and  by  her 
had  a  son.  Marshal,  who  in  course  of  time  succeeded  him  in 
business.  Marshal  Fells,  the  son,  was  churchwarden  for  some 
time  and  was  very  much  respected  by  his  neighbours  on 
account  of  his  quiet,  gentle  ways.  He  lived  at  the  farm  now 
occui^ied  by  Mr.  Sidda,  and  had  his  rope- walk  by  the  side  of 
his  house  and  garden.  A  valuable  mare  called  "Bounce" 
which  belonged  to  him  was  once  stolen  from  the  stable. 
Happening  some  two  years  after  to  be  at  Alfreton  fair  with 
John  Duckmanton,  he  saw  the  very  mare  exposed  for  sale  with 
a  foal  by  her  side.  Turning  to  his  friend,  he  said,  "  Why, 
John,  there's  my  Bounce.  Do  you  go  and  see  if  you  can  get 
her  for  me  without  making  a  row."  Whereupon  John 
Duckmanton  went  up  to  the  dealer  and  began  to  bargain  with 
him  for  the  mare  and  foal,  and  at  length  agreed  upon  a  price. 
Then  after  carefully  locking  them  up  in  the  stable  of  the  inn 
where  he  was  stopi^ing,  he  invited  the  dealer  into  the  house  to 
take  a  friendly  glass  before  paying  him,  rang  the  bell,  and  when 
the  landlord  aj)peared,  asked  him  to  send  for  the  constable  as 
he  had  just  caught  the  fellow  who  stole  his  mare  two  years 
before.  The  dealer  no  sooner  heard  this,  than  bolting  through 
the  open  door  he  made  his  escape  from  the  town  as  fast  as 
possible.  The  two  friends  had  a  good  laugh  over  the  affair 
and  returned  to  Warsop  in  the  best  of  spirits,  accompanied 
by  "Bounce"  and  her  foal.  Mrs.  Thomas  Wilson,  the  grand- 
daughter of  Marshal  Fells,  is  the  only  direct  rejiresentative 
of  the  family  now  living  in  Warsoj). 


WAESOJ'     I'AIUHIt     RKOIHTKHS.  71 

1760. — "Bapt.iz(i(l  Joliu  tin;  mm  of  John  and  Anix;  Jiri^^^H  oi 
Church  Town." 

John  Brif^o-s,  whose  l)ai>t,i,siu  is  liere  recorded,  married  in 
1781,  a  Sarah  Smith,  and  by  her  had  a  lar^e  family,  which  he- 
had  some  difficulty  in  supporting,',  out  of  his  little  fann  in 
Church  Warsoj).  In  1802  he  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his 
wife,  who  died  within  a  f(;w  days  of  the  death  of  our  old 
friend  Robert  Hooke ;  and  whether  it  was  owing  to  this 
coincidence  or  to  the  more  substantial  fact  that  Robert 
Hooke's  farm  was  better  than  his  own,  we  cannot  say,  but  he 
married  the  widow,  and  so  doubled  his  family  at  one  stroke. 
Two  years  afterwards  he  lost  his  second  wdfe,  and  then  for  the 
rest  of  his  days  he  was  veiy  much  hke  the  famous  old  woman 
of  childhood's  romance  who  "  had  so  many  children,  she 
didn't  know  what  to  do,"  Complaining  one  day  of  his 
difficulties  to  some  of  his  friends,  he  remarked  that  he  would 
"  willingly  be  hanged  for  Squire  Knight's  estate,"  and  when 
one  of  them  said,  "  Why,  what  good  would  it  do  you  when 
you  were  dead?"  he  replied,  "There  would  be  the  childer, 
would'nt  there  ?  "  One  of  these  said  "  childer,"  Mary  Briggs, 
a  nice  modest  girl,  was  married  in  1815  to  Isaac  Slack,  and 
so  became  the  mother  of  Mr.  Slack,  farmer,  of  Church 
Warsop. 

1762. — "  John  Renshaw  and  Mary  Chapman  both  of  this 
parish  with  banns  three  times  pubKshed  were  married 
by  Mr.  John  Crutchley." 

About  the  end  of  last  century  Samuel  Renshaw,  possibly 
the  son  of  the  above,  left  Warsop  to  reside  on  a  small  farm  at 
Kirkby  Cliff ;  and  the  story  is  told  how  his  wife  when  in  her 
seventy-sixth  year  used  to  go  some  two  miles  a-millring  with 
the  kit  on  her  head  and  knitting  in  her  hand.  In  a  local 
newspaper    of    that   day,    she   was   described    as   one   who 


72  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

"  knocked  the  dew  oif  the  young  milk  maids."  When  they 
were  hoth  quite  old  they  returned  to  Warsop  and  lived  to  a 
very  advanced  age  with  their  son  John  who  then  kept  a  day 
school  in  the  Baptist  Chapel  in  Butt  Lane. 

1763. — "Thomas  Maxfield  and  Sarah  Jepsoii  both  of  this 
parish  with  banns  three  times  published  were  married 
by  Mr  Clarke,  Curate." 

This  is  the  first  mention  of  the  name  of  Maxfield,  but  the 
family  of  Jepson  which  has  since  become  extinct  in  Warsop 
dates  from  1550.  Thomas  Maxfield  was  the  father  of  John 
Maxfield  who  was  the  leader  of  the  Church  choir  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century. 

1763. — "Buried  Francis  the  son  of  Francis  Peacock  of 
Market  Warsop." 

The  Francis  Peacock  whose  burial  is  here  recorded  was  a 
young  man  twenty  two  years  of  age,  the  only  son  of  his  aged 
father  who  was  a  widower.  In  his  son's  death  the  bereaved 
parent  lost,  as  it  were,  the  object  of  his  life,  and  at  once  made 
over  to  trustees  some  property  belonging  to  him  at  Shirebrook, 
directing  that  the  rents  and  profits  of  the  same  should  be 
given  away  in  bread  to  the  poor  of  Warsop  for  ever  on  the 
second  of  February  and  the  eighth  of  August.  The  name  of 
Francis  Peacock  is  down  in  the  old  terrier  for  some  forty  two 
acres  of  land  at  a  yearly  rental  of  =£11  19s.  For  nearly  two 
hundred  years  a  branch  of  this  family  lived  at  the  Spring 
Farm  Sokeholme. 

1767. — "Baptised  Elizabeth  daughter  of  Thomas  and  Eliza- 
beth Brothwell  of  Market  Warsop." 

The  Brothwells  on  their  first  coming  into  Warsop  were 
millers  and  bakers.  A  Thomas  Brothwell  lived  for  some 
years   at  the   mill   house    in  Church  Warsop.      His  brother, 


WAKSOP    I'AKIHH    EEOIHTERS.  73 

Gorvasc  Brothwoll,  was  a  }>akor  and  carried  on  hi»  buBiness 
in  the  house  where  Mrs.  Reynolds  now  lives  in  Low  Street. 
It  seems  to  have  been  the  custom  in  his  day  for  jK;ople  to 
make  up  their  own  bread  at  home  and  then  bring  it  to  him  to 
be  baked,  and  in  order  to  let  them  know  when  the  oven  was 
ready  Nanny  Brothwell,  his  wife,  used  to  stand  at  her  door 
and  blow  a  bullock's  horn  which  could  be  heard  to  a  j:p-eat 
distance  all  round.  Another  curious  custom  which  he  intro- 
duced was  to  perambulate  the  streets  every  Sunday  morning 
selling  hot  bread.  Warsop  has  long  been  noted  for  its  fine 
breed  of  asses.  But  an  ass  belonging  to  Gervase  Brothwell 
is  still  spoken  of  as  the  "  finest  and  swiftest  runner  of  any  in 
England."  For  two  consecutive  years  it  won  the  silver  cup  at 
Babworth  races  near  Retford.  These  cups,  as  well  as  the 
aforesaid  bullock' shorn  which  is  nearly  two  feet  in  length,  are 
still  treasured  up,  we  believe,  among  the  family  household  gods. 
The  Warsop  families  of  Ilett  and  Nilan  are  connected  with  this 
family  by  marriage  :  in  1822  Mary  Brothwell  a  granddaughter 
of  G-ervase  Brothwell  was  married  to  Charles  Ilett  of  Lincoln, 
and  in  1857  Hannah  Brothwell,  another  granddaughter,  was 
married  to  Thomas  Mian  of  the  county  of  SKgo,  Ireland. 

1772. — "  John  Neep  and  Barbara  Wombell  both  of  this  parish 
with  banns  three  times  published  were  manned  by  Mr. 
Nicholas  Mosley  Cheek,  Curate." 

When  peace  was  proclaimed  after  the  battle  of  Waterloo, 
Warsop,  like  most  other  places  in  England,  was  en  fete  for 
the  occasion.  A  public  tea  was  provided,  at  which  the  child- 
ren were  all  admitted  free,  and,  to  grace  the  proceedings,  a 
mock  king  and  queen  with  six  maids  of  honour  were  chosen 
from  among  the  parishioners.  James  Hinde,  fell  monger, 
was  king,  whilst  Barbara  Neep,  then  a  comelv-looking  old 
woman  with  silver  hair,  was  qiieen.  Dressed  in  snowy  white, 
attended  by  her  maids  of  honour,  also  in  white,  and  accom- 


74  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

panied  by  her  royal  consort,  slie  was  drawn  through,  the  streets 
of  the  village  in  a  cart  amid  the  rapturous  applause  of  the 
assembled  crowds,  and  repeated  shouts  of  "  Long  live  the 
king  and  queen !  " 

The  present  representative  of  this  family  is  Mrs.  Wood  of 
Butt  Lane. 

1778. — "  Baptized  Mary  the  daughter  of  Matthew  and  Mar- 
garet Wilcock,  Chimney  Sweepers,  sojourners  here." 

1780. — "Buried  George  the  son  of  G-eorge  and  Mary  Moor, 
Clerk  and  Schoolmaster,  Bridge-foot  house." 

Here  we  have  the  name  given  us  of  the  old  school-house, 
near  the  mill  at  Church  Warsop.  Before  the  present  stone 
bridge  was  built,  foot-passengers  used  to  cross  the  river  by  a 
wooden  bridge,  whilst  vehicles  went  through  the  water, 
either  a  little  above  or  below  the  mill.  The  wooden  bridge 
was  probably  the  one  referred  to  in  this  record. 

1783. — "  Here  begins  for  the  Stamp  Act." 

From  this  date,  mention  is  made  of  the  "  duty  "  being  paid 
every  year  down  to  1794,  when  the  Act  was  rej)ealed.  But  as 
long  as  it  was  in  force  a  stamp  duty  of  threepence  had  to  be 
paid  for  every  baptism,  marriage,  or  burial,  recorded  in  the 
registers. 

1788. — "  Baptized  William  Henry  the  Son  of  Eobert  Shore 
Milnes  Esq.,  Captain  in  the  Royal  Regiment  of  Horse 
Gruards,  and  Charlotte  Frances  Milnes  his  wife." 

1789. — "  Baptized  Betty  the  daughter  of  Robert  and  EHza- 
beth  Wood,  Soulkholme." 

The  above  mentioned  Robert  Wood  is  said  to  have  come 
into  the  parish  direct  from  Scotland,    and,    seemingly,    was 


WARHOI'    I'AiaSH    EEOI8TERS.  75 

nothiiif,'  akin  to  tlii!  Huiiry  Wood,  who  was  miller  of  Soke- 
liolme,  in  1626,  and  whose  descendants  continued  to  reside  in 
that  place  down  to  within  a  f<;w  y(;ars  of  this  date.  The 
Sirring  Farm  waH  tenanted  by  this  family  for  many  years. 
Betty  Wood,  whose  baptism  is  here  recorded,  was  married  in 
1808  to  John  Pogmore,  a  publican  of  Mansfi(^ld  Wocjdhouse, 
and  lived  to  a  ripe  old  age :  at  her  death,  in  1870,  she  was 
l^iiried,  in  accordance  with  her  wish,  in  Warsop  churchyard, 
where  a  stone  has  been  placed  to  her  memory. 

The  Beards  of  Church  Warsop  and  Nettleworth  are  con- 
nected with  this  family  by  the  marriage,  in  1850,  of  John 
Beard,  farmer,  and  Elizabeth  Wood. 

1789. — "Baptized  Elizabeth  the  daughter  of  William  and 
Eleanor  Herringshaw,  Soulkholme." 

William  Herringshaw,  whose  daughter's  baptism  is  here 
recorded,  was  a  miller  by  profession,  and  succeeded  Hercules 
Clay,  at  the  old  Sokeholme  mill.  After  his  death,  which  took 
place  in  1820,  his  daughter  Elizabeth  bravely  kept  the  mill 
a-going,  until  her  younger  sisters  were  grown  up,  when  she 
passed  it  on  to  James  Johnson,  who  married  her  sister 
Eleanor,  and  who  was,  as  we  have  already  said,  the  last 
miller  of  Sokeholme. 

1790. — "Baptized  Frances  the  daughter  of  Francis  and  Ann 
Pashley.     Sojourners  here.     Poor." 

1792. — "John  Allcroft  in  the  Parish  of  Edwinstowe  &  Ann 
Eyre  of  this  Parish  were  married  by  License  in  this 
Church  this  tenth  day  of  October  by  me  John  Parsons 
Curate." 

By  this  marriage  of  John  Allcroft,  warrener  at  Clipstone 
Park,  with  Ann  Eyre  of  Sokeholme,  the  family  of  Allcroft 

f2 


76  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

tdtimately  came  into  possession  of  all  tlie  Eyre  property  at 
Sokeholme  and  Mansfield  Woodhonse. 

1794. — "Baptized  Catherine  daughter  of  John  and  Martha 
Hartley.     Travelling  Tinkers." 

1794.— "Baptized  Elizabeth  Katherine,  D^  of  the  Eev<i  John 
Ashpinshaw,  and  Elizabeth  his  wife." 

John  Ashpinshaw  was  curate  of  Warsop  at  this  time,  and 
was  very  much  respected  by  his  parishioners,  for  whom  he  him- 
self personally  contracted  a  great  regard.  On  the  death  of  the 
two  maiden  daughters  of  Job  Staunton  Charlton,  the  last 
male  heir  of  the  ancient  family  of  Staunton,  of  Staunton  in 
the  vale  of  Belvoir,  his  wife  came  into  possession  of  the 
family  estates,  under  condition  that  she  and  her  husband 
should  take  the  name,  and  bear  the  arms  of  Staunton  only. 

1794.— "Baptized  John  son  of  John  &  Sarah  Glover.  M.W." 

The  Grlovers  from  this  date  down  to  the  present  time  have 
been  engaged  as  woodmen  on  the  Warsop  estate,  and  have 
always  been  noted  as  steady,  industrious  workmen. 

1794_"  Baptized  Mary  D^  of  Joseph  &  Sarah  Youle.  C.W." 

Joseph  Youle,  who  was  parish  clerk  and  schoolmaster  of 
Warsop,  was  the  predecessor  of  Mr.  Eobert  Bowler's  father. 

1798. — "  Baptized  Amelia  Penelope,  daughter  of  Eichard  and 
Penelope  Burden  of  Park  Hall." 

We  have  had  occasion  already  to  speak  of  Park  Hall  which 
once  formed  part  of  the  manor  of  Nettleworth.  For  many  years 
it  was  the  property  of  the  Digby  family ;  but  on  the  death  of 
Sir  John  Digby,  in  1736,  it  was  bought  of  his  co-heiresses  by 


WATIHOP    PARIHTf     REGISTERS.  'Jl 

Mr.  Jolin  Hall,  of  Nottloton  Hall,  in  LirH;oln«hiro,  and  HatfieM 
Poveril,  in  Esh(!x,  and  it,  lias  n;main<i(l  in  tho  posHr-HHion  of 
this  family  ever  since.  Url)an  Hall,  his  son,  aftx^r  serving 
with  much  distinction  in  the  Blues,  and  taking  part,  with  hig 
regiment,  in  the  l)attl('  of  Minden,  retired  from  the  army,  and 
lived  as  a  country  gentleman  at  Park  Hall.  Towards  the 
close  of  his  life,  however,  his  health  was  very  precarious,  and 
he  removed  to  Mansfield  in  order  to  be  near  his  medical 
attendant :  it  was  during  this  enforced  residence  at  Mansfield 
that  the  Burdens  become  his  tenants,  and  lived  at  Park  Hall 
as  stated  in  the  above  extract.  John  Hall,  son  of  Urban 
Hall,  was  also  a  soldier.  As  a  young  man  he  joined  the 
65th  Regiment  and  took  part  in  the  Carib  war ;  and  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact  that  of  all  the  ofiicers  who  entered  on  that 
expedition  he,  with  two  others,  alone  saw  its  termination. 
After  this  he  served  under  the  duke  of  York,  in  Holland ;  and 
took  part,  with  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie,  in  the  Egyptian  cam- 
paign and  in  the  battle  of  Alexandria,  where  Sir  Ralph  lost 
his  Ufe.  On  the  death  of  his  commander  he  left  Egypt,  and 
whilst  retui'ning  to  England  was  captured  by  a  French  man- 
of-war  and  carried  to  France,  where  he  was  detained  for 
some  months  as  a  prisoner  on  parole.  When  peace  was  re- 
stored he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  general  and  put  in 
command  of  the  Glasgow  district,  where,  we  believe,  that 
his  son,  the  present  owner  of  Park  Hall,  was  bom. 

1798. — "Buried  Francis  Woodward  who  died  suddenly  aged 
1^  years." 

About  the  beginning  of  last  century,  the  Woodwards  of 
Warsop  held  some  ofiice  in  connection  with  Shenvood  Forest, 
then  in  the  hands  of  the  crown,  and  wore  the  royal  Kveiy. 

At  that  time  by  far  the  greater  part  of  Warsop  consisted 
of  open  forest  land,  which  was  so  overrun  by  red  deer,  to  the 
sore  injury  of  the  cultivated  part,  that  Mr.  Isaac  Knight,  lord 


78  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

of  the  manor,  with  other  gentlemen  whose  estates  were 
similarly  infested,  presented  a  petition  to  Queen  Anne  and  to 
her  Parliament  praying  for  redress  of  the  grievance.  This 
petition  had  about  four  hundred  signatures  attached  to  it ; 
but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been  well  received,  either  by 
her  Majesty's  ministers  or  the  law  officers  of  the  crown.  In 
1739  Mr.  Ealph  Knight  engaged  in  a  dispute  with  the  head 
ranger  of  the  forest  respecting  a  stack  of  hay  which  had  been 
placed  on  some  forest  land  in  Warsop  parish,  and  enclosed 
for  the  foddering  of  the  deer  which  lay  in  that  part.  Not 
being  able,  however,  to  obtain  any  satisfaction,  he  determined 
to  bring  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  accordingly  directed  a  tenant 
to  pull  up  the  enclosure  and  turn  his  own  cattle  upon  the  land — 
which  was  done.  Law  proceedings  were  threatened,  but  never 
adopted ;  and  within  less  than  a  century  afterwards  the  crown 
had  little  of  the  ancient  forest  left  in  its  possession,  whilst  all 
the  deer  were  destroyed.  Of  the  old  oaks  for  which  Sherwood 
has  been  justly  famed,  one  at  least — the  "  Young  G-reendale 
Oak" — was  in  the  confines  of  Warsop  parish.  This  fine  old 
tree  stood  near  the  site  of  the  Wesleyan  Chapel,  in  Back 
Lane,  and  was  so  much  admired  by  the  duke  of  Portland  of 
fifty  years  ago,  that  he  used  to  buy  the  acorns  which  grew  on 
it  year  by  year  to  plant  on  his  own  estate.  The  "  Old  Churn" 
and  the  "  Parliament  Oak "  which  are  still  in  existence, 
although  in  a  most  ruinous  condition,  stand  within  a  few 
hundred  yards  of  each  other  in  the  boundary  fence,  that 
separates  Warsop  from  Clipstone.  It  is  not  very  clear  how 
the  latter  tree  obtained  its  name.  One  story  says  that 
it  was  called  the  "  Parliament  Oak  "  from  the  fact  that  King 
John  whilst  hunting  in  Sherwood  Forest  in  1212,  here  re- 
ceived intelligence  of  the  revolt  of  the  Welch,  and  hastily 
assembled  his  followers  under  its  wide  spreading  branches  for 
a  parle  or  consultation  as  to  the  best  mode  of  proceeding. 
According  to  another  story  it  was  not  till  1290  that  it  was  so 
called.     In  that  year  Edward   I.  held  a  parliament  in  this 


WAHROI'    PAUIfiH    KKOISTERR.  70 

noighbourliood,  Itut  wlu;ther  at  the  old  royal  palace  at  Clip- 
stone,  or  uudci'  ili<!  oiil<  in  whicli  tradition  lias  f^ivcri  t!i«;  nurtu:, 
is  uncertain.  In  1775  the  Warsop  forest  land  wan  partially 
enclosed  by  Act  of  Parliament — some  two-thirds  of  the  area 
of  the  parish  Ixnn^  after  that  ev»Mit  enclosed  lands,  and  the 
remaining  one-third  still  ioveHt;  and  in  1818  another  Act  was 
passed  to  enclose  the  remainder.  By  this  latter  Act  some 
seven  hundred  acres  were  allotted  to  the  Rectors  of  Warsop 
in  lieu  of  tithes, 

1798. — "Baptized  Azariah  son  of  Thomas  &  Mary  Burton. 
M.W." 

Thomas  Burton  was  a  blacksmith  who  came  into  the  parish 
from  Papplewick  :  he  lived  in  the  house  where  his  descendants 
now  live,  but  had  his  forge  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road, 
on  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  mission-room.  His  wife,  who 
was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  of  very  retiring  habits,  is  said  to 
have  once  quarrelled  with  a  neighbour  and  to  have  kept  up 
the  quarrel  for  some  months  by  means  of  correspondence. 
Azariah  Burton,  as  well  as  his  sister  Mary,  died  young ;  they 
were  carried  ofE  by  scarlet  fever  which  was  prevalent  in 
Warsop,  in  1809. 

1804. — "  Mary  Aim  daughter  of  Joseph  Froom  of  Newtown 
Hampshire  &  Mary  his  wife  received  into  the  Church 
and  said  to  have  been  baptized  at  Leicester  (All 
Saints)  but  not  registered." 

1804. — "Thomas  Moody  &  Ann  Brummitt  "Widow  both  of 
this  Parish  were  married  in  this  Church  by  Baniis  the 
seventeenth  day  of  December  by  me  Sam.  Martin 
Ciu-ate." 

Prom  the  settlement  papers  we  learn  that  Thomas  Moody 
came  from  Kingston -upon-Hull:   he  was  a  shoemaker  and 


80  WAESOP    PARISH     EEGISTEES. 

worked  as  journeymen  with  Jolin  Brum  mitt,  whose  widow 
he  afterwards  married,  and  with  her  obtained  the  "business. 
Ann  Brummitt  was  a  daughter  of  Robert  Cutts,  who  was,  as 
we  have  seen,  landlord  and  proprietor  of  the  Swan  Inn,  in 
1782. 

1806.—"  William  Cowlishaw  &  Elizabeth  Eobinson  both  of 
this  Parish  were  married  in  this  Church  by  Banns  this 
seventeenth  day  of  April  by  me  Sam.  Martin  Rector." 

,  William  Cowlishaw  came  from  Mattersea  and  began  business 
in  Warsop  as  a  saddler:  his  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Dr. 
Robinson,  who  lived  in  the  parish,  and  had  a  good  practice  in 
the  neighbourhood.  The  families  of  Lee  and  Storey  are  con- 
nected with  this  family  by  marriage :  in  1830  Matthew  Lee 
of  Sokeholme,  married  Martha  Harriet  Cowlishaw ;  and  in 
1843  Charles  Storey  of  Harthill,  married  Julia  Anne 
Cowlishaw. 

1812. — "  Buried  Thomas  Whiteman,    M.W.    aged  65  years." 

Thomas  Whiteman  was  a  yeoman  of  Warsop,  who  for 
some  years  held  the  office  of  churchwarden.  At  his  death,  in 
1812,  he  left  a  sum  of  d8400  upon  Trust,  the  yearly  interest  of 
which  was  to  be  used  "  in  educating  certain  poor  children  of 
Warsop,  in  purchasing  proper  school  books  for  that  purpose, 
so  that  such  children  might  be  taught  to  read  the  Bible,  and 
in  purchasing  Bibles  to  be  distributed  amongst  such  poor 
children  where  the  Trustees  should  see  occasion."  Sarah 
Whiteman,  his  widow,  surrendered,  in  1813,  a  copyhold  house 
and  garden  in  Warsop,  and  directed  the  rent  to  be  divided 
twice  a  year  among  eight  poor  widows  and  widowers  ;  and  at 
her  death,  in  1818,  bequeathed  the  sum  of  £50,  the  interest  of 
which  was  to  be  given  to  the  poor  of  Warsop  in  bread,  on  St. 
Thomas'  Day  and  on  the  day  of  her  own  burial,  August  18th. 


Clergs  of  Wiuxmip. 

The  inside  of  the  cover  of  Vol.  I.  of  R<.'^i8ter  C  contains  the 
following  memorandum,  in  leather,  together  with  a  written 
list  of  rectors  from  1638  to  the  present  time. 

IMemOrantlUm. — "Warsop  Register.  The  Revd  Mr. 
Mosley,  Rector;  W'}  Jackson  &  T?  Bowet,  Church 
Wardens.      1742." 

*'  laertors  of  SEarsop/* 

"  1638.     William  Spurre. 
1658.     Oliver  Dand,  S.T.B.,  Minister  verbi  Dei. 
1661.     William  Lacy. 
1663.     George  Fothergill. 
1683.     Thomas  Fothergill,  A.M. 
1703.     John  Mandevile. 
1735.     John  Mosley,  A.M. 
1778.     Samuel  Hallifax,  D.D. 

1790.     Robert  Southgate,  A.M died  Jan.  25,  1795. 

1795.     Francis  Herbert  Hume,  A.M.  died  Feb.  17,  1806. 
1806.     Samuel   Martin,   A.B died  April  4,  1859. 

1859.  Alleyne  Fitz-Herbert   died  Aprd  15, 1860. 

1860.  Philip  Davison  Bland,  A.M., — was  inducted  to  the 
Rectory  of  Draycot  le  Moors,  in  Staffordshire, 
March  25,  1871:  instituted  to  the  same,  Nov.  21, 
1870. 

1871.  William  Alexander   Woodward 1871—1872. 

1872.  Richard  Fitz-Herbert." 


02  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

In  addition  to  the  above  list  of  rectors,  about  whom  we 
purpose  making  a  few  remarks  presently,  we  are  glad  to  be 
able  to  give  a  few  particulars  respecting  some  of  tbe  clergy  of 
Warsop  prior  to  the  earliest  date  on  this  list. 

From  the  Archbishop's  Register  at  York,  we  learn  that 
in  1245  "  Richard  de  Sutton  had  the  Church  of  Warsop 
at  the  presentation  of  John  de  Lexinton."  This  was  no 
doubt  the  Richard  de  Sutton  who  was  prebendary  of 
North  Muskham,  at  Southwell,  and  to  whom,  in  1260, 
the  vicar  of  Southwell  granted  that  when  the  Mass  for 
the  Dead  was  celebrated  in  that  chui'ch,  a  special  petition 
should  be  made  for  him,  and  another  for  the  souls  of  Robert 
de  Sutton,  and  Alice,  his  wife.  A  Chantry  at  St.  Peter's 
Altar,  at  Southwell,  was  founded  for  Richard  de  Sutton's 
soul  by  his  executors,  Ernald  de  Callenton  and  Oliver  de 
Sutton,  canon  of  Lincoln — Oliver  Sutton,  bishop  of  Lincoln, 
being  a  helping  party. 

His  successor  was  Stephen  de  Sutton,  who  died  in  1290. 
On  April  7,  1291,  bishop  Sutton  of  Lincoln,  granted  an 
"  indulgence  for  the  soid  of  our  cousin,  Stephen  de  Sutton, 
archdeacon  of  Northants,  whose  body  lies  in  the  prebendal 
Church  of  Empingham."  He  was  archdeacon  of  Northants 
from  1280  to  1290,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  prebendary 
of  South  Newbald,  at  York,  as  well  as  rector  of  Thoresway 
and  Aston,  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  and  of  Averham  and 
Warsop,  in  the  county  of  Notts. 

In  Register  A  we  have  the  burial  recorded  of  Thomas  Pott, 
rector  of  Warsop,  who  died  in  1550 ;  whilst  in  the  Arch- 
bishoj^'s  Register  mention  is  made  of  his  appointment,  in 
1513,  and  the  death  of  his  jjredecessor  John  Pecke. 

With  respect  to  the  foregoing  list  of  rectors,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  first  eight  names  are  all  in  the  same  handwriting,  and 
to  all  appearance  that  of  Bishop  Hallifax;  but  unfortunately 
the  dates  prefixed  to  the  first  two  names  are  not  in  accor- 


WAR80P     PARIHH     REOI8TEUH.  83 

dance  with  those  f^ivcii  in  tlio  older  registerH.  William  Spurre 
W!is,  iiH  w(!  li;iv(!  already  seen,  rector  of  VVarsop  at  the  time 
oi' tli(.' alloijiiciit  of  seats  in  101.5,  if  not  bcfon-.  His  death 
took  i>la(;('  in  1G46,  and  judj^inf^  from  the  handwriting^  of  the 
records  of  that  time  it  is  most  probable  that  Oliver  Dand  was 
his  immediate  successor.  It  is  certain  that  he  was  r<;ctor 
prior  to  the  date  given  by  Bishop  Hallifax,  for  we  have  his 
own  signature  as  such  in  1653.  The  names  of  Richard 
Southgate  and  Francis  Herbert  Hume  are  also  in  one  hand- 
writing, namely  that  of  John  Ashpinshaw — better  known  as 
Dr.  Staunton  of  Staunton — who  was  curate  of  Warsop 
from  1792  to  1798.  The  other  names  appear  to  be  the 
signatures  of  the  several  rectors  themselves,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  that  of  Philip  Davison  Bland,  which  seems  to  be 
in  the  handwriting  of  W.  A.  Woodward. 

Oliver  Dand,  the  second  name  on  Bishop  Hallifax's  list, 
was  the  son  of  Francis  Dand  of  Mansfield  Woodhouse,  one  of 
the  few  Nottinghamshire  families  mentioned  in  the  Herald's 
Visitation.  He  was  born  in  1605.  His  name  appears  among 
the  baptisms  for  that  year  in  the  Mansfield  Parish  Registers 
as  the  Second  Oliver  Dand  son  of  Francis  Dand — the  First 
having  died  in  infancy  the  year  before.  He  was  rector  of 
Warsop  all  through  the  troublous  time  of  the  Commonwealth, 
and,  as  it  would  seem,  exerted  what  interest  he  had  on  the  side 
of  the  King  and  the  Church.  There  is  a  fine  old  brass  tablet 
to  his  memory  in  Warsop  Church,  surmounted  with  the  arms 
of  his  family — a  griffin  rampant,  and  three  scallop  shells — 
and  bearing  the  following  inscription  in  Latin : — 

"  Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Oliver  Dand,  Bachelor  of 
Divinity,  and  formerly  one  of  the  Senior  Fellows  of 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  Rector  of  this  Church, 
and  a  vigorous  Defender  of  the  lately  down-trodden 
Cause  of  King  and  Religion,  who,  after  gaining  many 


84  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

and  liouoiirable  distinctions  by  his  fidelity,  zeal,  and 
learning,  was  at  length  carried  off  by  paralysis.  May 
4,  1661,  aged  fifty-five  years,  and  now  lies  here  the 
ornament  of  his  own  tomb. 

Heedful  traveller  wouldst  thou  turn 
From  the  speaking  stone  in  fright ; 

Know,  a  sacred  herald's  urn 
A  voice  to  have  is  only  right." 

Brass  tablets  have  been  erected  also  to  the  memories  of 
George  and  Thomas  Pothergill.  A  curious  circumstance  is 
connected  with  the  tablet  to  the  former  of  these  two  rectors. 
When  removing  it  just  lately  from  the  tower,  where  it  was 
lost  to  sight,  to  a  more  prominent  position  on  the  West  wall, 
it  was  discovered  that  the  inscription  exposed  to  view  was 
a  comparatively  modern  one,  and  that  the  original  inscription 
which  contained  the  same  words,  only  in  a  quaint  sort  of  spell- 
ing, had  been  turned  to  the  wall.  We  need  scarcely  add  that  the 
older  inscription  is  the  one  now  to  be  seen.     It  runs  thus : — 

"  Here  lyeth  the  Body  of  Master  George  Pothergill  whoe 
was  Rector  of  Warsop  twenty  yeares  whoe  departed  this 
Hf  e  in  the  seventy  six  yeares  of  his  age  the  twenty  third 
of  August  Anno  Domini  1683." 

The  modern  side  of  the  plate  contains  also  the  arms  of 
the  family — a  buck's  head  couped  within  a  bordure  engrailed 
or.  This  proves  at  once  the  connection  of  these  two  rectors, 
father  and  son,  with  the  old  Westmorland  family  of 
Pothergill — one  of  whom  founded  a  Grammar  School  near 
Eavenstone  dale  in  that  county ;  as  well  as  with  the  Revs. 
George  Pothergill,  D.D.,  and  Thomas  Pothergill,  D.D.,  who 
were  eminent  members  of  the  University  of  Oxford  about  the 
middle  of  last  century. 


WAKSOl'    I'AJaSll     UKOIHTKILH.  H!j 

Jolm  Mo.sloy  was  of  the  Haino  family  aw  tho  MoslcyH  of 
KollcHt.ou  Hall,  near  Burton-on-Trent.  He  was  the  8«jcond 
sou  of  Sir  Oswald  Mosl(;y,  ]iart.,  and  on  the  death  of  hin 
brother,  without  issue,  in  1757,  succeeded  to  the  baronetcy. 
In  1777  he  presented  himself  to  the  living  of  Rolleston  but 
did  not  resign  Warsoj)  till  the  following  year.  He  died  at 
KoUeston,  in  1779,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  of  that  parish. 
During  his  incumbency  as  rector  of  Warsop,  and  before  he 
succeeded  to  the  family  estates  and  title.  Sir  John  seems  to 
have  got  into  a  dispute  with  Mr.  Ralph  Knight,  the  patron  of 
the  living,  concerning  the  right  to  dig  limestone  and  other 
building  stone  out  of  the  glel)e  lands  and  to  sell  it  for  his  own 
jjrivate  profit  and  advantage.  The  case  was  never  brought  to 
trial,  we  believe,  but  covmsel's  opinion  was  obtained  which 
from  its  general  bearing  is  so  very  important  that  we  are 
tempted  to  insert  it  in  full.  "  I  think,"  wrote  the  counsel, 
"  Mr  Mosley  has  no  right  to  dig  limestone  and  other  stone  in 
his  glebe  for  sale,  for  I  take  the  breaking  of  the  surface  of  the 
ground  and  selling  the  soil  to  be  waste ;  from  the  doing  of 
which  he  may  be  restrained  :  and  Mr.  Knight's  proper  method 
will  be  to  file  a  bill  in  Chancery  and  endeavour  to  get  an 
Injunction  to  restrain  Mr.  Mosley  from  committing  any 
further  waste.  I  know  of  but  one  case  that  makes  this  doubt- 
ful, and  that  is  the  case  of  the  earl  of  Rutland  and  Gee,  where 
the  court  refused  to  grant  a  Prohibition  for  digging  Mines  in 
the  parson's  glebe  :  but  admitting  that  case  to  be  law,  it 
seems  to  differ  from  this  ;  for  in  w^orking  Mines,  the  surface  of 
the  ground  is  not  broken  up  and  spoiled,  as  in  dicing  lime- 
stone ;  and  besides  the  limestone  may  be  wanted  for  repairs." 
The  following  copy  of  an  inventory  of  church  goods,  signed 
by  Sir  John  Mosley,  was  found  by  us  in  the  small  chest  con- 
taining the  settlement  papers : — 

"A   Schedule    or    Inventory    of  the  Books,  Vestments 
and  Vessels  belonging  to  the  Parish  Church  of  Warsop. 


86  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

Books :  A  Great  Bible  Newly  Translated  in  the  year 
1610.  Common  Prayer  Books,  Register  of  Parcliment, 
a  Book  of  Homilies. 

Vestments  :  A  Surplice,  a  Carpet  for  the  Communion 
Table,  a  Linnen  Cloth  for  the  Communion  Table,  a 
Linnen  Cloth  to  cover  the  Elements,  a  Cushion  for  the 
Pulpit,  and  Hearse-cloath. 

Vessels :  Which  are  a  Pewter  Flaggon,  a  Chalice 
and  Paten,  of  Silver,  and  Bason  for  the  Offertory  of 
Pewter. 

June  the  21st  1736.     Attested  by  us 

John  Mosley  Rector 
WnHam^Wood  ]  Churchwardens" 

The  old  Bible  mentioned  in  this  inventory  has  long  since 
disapi^eared,  as  has  also  the  Book  of  HomiHes ;  but  the 
Prayer  Books,  although  no  longer  in  use,  are  preserved  and 
kept  in  the  parish  chest.  The  silver  chalice  and  paten,  too, 
as  well  as  the  pewter  flagon  and  bason,  are  still  in  existence, 
but  the  two  latter  vessels  are  no  longer  in  use. 

Samuel  Hallifax  was  the  second  son  of  Robert  Halhfax  and 
Hannah  daughter  of  Richard  Jebb,  maltster  of  Mansfield.  By 
his  father's  side  he  was  connected  Avith  the  old  Waterhouse 
family  of  Halifax,  in  Yorkshire,  and  by  his  mother's  with  the 
celebrated  Sir  Richard  and  Dr.  Jebb.  His  grandfather, 
Robert  Waterhouse  de  Halifax,  was,  we  believe,  the  first  of 
the  family  to  drop  the  patronymic  of  Waterhouse  and  to  call 
himself  simply  Halifax,  from  the  town  with  which  his  family 
had  been   so   long   connected.       The   bishop   was    born   at 


WAUS(JI'    I'AICIHII     KEOIHTKUS.  87 

MtinsficM  ill  171^;},  and  cAucaiUA  in  th<;  Grammar  School  of 
that  town.  At  ilio  early  a}i;<;  ol"  HixUicn  years  h<;  proceeded  to 
Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  where  he  gained  a  sizarHhip,  and 
in  duo  course  graduated  B,A.  in  1754,  and  M.A.  in  1757.  In 
this  latter  year  he  was  also  elected  Dean  of  his  college,  whilst 
in  the  following  year  he  was  nominat<.'d  Lecturer  liy  the 
President.  In  1764  he  took  the  degree  of  LL.D;  in  1768  he 
was  made  Regius  Professor  of  Arabic;  in  1770,  R<.'gius 
Professor  of  Civil  Law;  and  in  1775  he  was  created  D.D.,  by 
royal  mandate.  During  the  course  of  his  professorship  he 
acquired  much  eminence  by  a  work  he  published  on  civil  law, 
in  which  a  comparison  is  drawn  between  the  old  Roman  laws 
and  those  of  England.  For  some  time,  too,  he  was  Chaplain 
in  Ordinary  to  his  Majesty  George  III.,  as  well  as  Master  of 
Faculties  in  Doctors  Commons.  In  1778  he  was  presented  to 
the  living  of  Warsop,  by  Mrs.  Gaily;  whilst  in  1781  he  was 
consecrated  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  and  in  1789  transferred  to 
the  See  of  St.  Asaph.  As  a  prelate  he  was  renowned  for  his 
deep  knowledge  and  great  ability ;  but  as  rector  of  Warsop, 
little  is  known  of  him  beyond  the  mere  fact  that  he  took 
much  interest  in  the  choir  which  he  brought  to  such  a  state 
of  proficieiicy  that  no  choir  for  miles  round  could  bear 
comparison  with  it.  A  story  is  told  how  he  stopped  the  sing- 
ing one  morning  in  the  middle  of  a  psalm,  greatly  to  the  choir's 
disgust,  because  they  were  singing  somewhat  out  of  tune. 
His  second  son,  Richard,  a  Httle  boy  not  three  years  old,  was 
accideutly  scalded  to  death  by  falling  into  a  vessel  of  hot 
liquor  in  a  brew- house,  at  Warsop,  in  1782,  and  was  buried 
in  the  chancel  of  the  church.  A  marble  tablet  to  the  bishop's 
memory  may  be  seen  in  Warsop  Church,  with  the  following 
inscription  upon  it  in  Latin : — 

"  Here  near  to  his  most  dear  little  son  who  was  some 
time  since  snatched  away  by  untimely  fate  the  Very 
Reverend  Samuel  Hallifax  LL.  D  and  S.T.P.  wished 


88  WAESOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

his  paternal  remains  to  be  deposited.  Born  and 
instructed  in  the  first  rndiments  of  learning  in  this 
neighbourhood  he  afterwards  held  the  position  of 
Public  Lecturer  and  Regius  Professor  of  Civil  Law 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  Master  of  Faculties  in 
Doctors  Commons,  Rector  in  this  Church,  and  Bishop 
first  in  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Gloucester  and  after- 
wards in  that  of  St.  Asaph:  through  all  of  which 
offices  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  ability,  pro- 
found learning,  and  wonderful  industry ;  by  his 
unswerving  allegiance  to  the  English  Church  ;  by  the 
power  and  sweetness  of  his  discourses ;  by  the  touch- 
ing grace  and  elegance  of  his  writings  ;  and  moreover 
by  what  he  ever  held  to  be  of  paramount  importance, 
the  uprightness  of  his  life. 

He  was  born  at  Mansfield  Jan.  8.  1733  :  worn  out 
by  stone  he  died  a  prematui'e  death  alas !  March  4. 
1790,  aged  fifty-seven  years.  His  wife  Catherine  being 
left  his  survivor  with  an  only  son  and  six  daughters 
has  erected  this  monument  as  somewhat  of  a  mournful 
solace  to  her  grief." 

The  following  table  drawn  uj)  and  signed  by  Bishop 
HalUf ax,  appears  on  the  fly-leaf  before  the  burials  in  the  same 
volume. 

"  From 
1688  to  1697  inclusive  were  181  Baptisms,  106  Burials 
1741  to  1750  inclusive  189  129 

1771  to  1780  inclusive  281  176 

S.  HaUifax,  Rector." 

Robert  Southgate  has  the  honour  of  having  been  the  first 
rector  who  started  a  Sunday  School  in  Warsop.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  indeed,  he  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  excellent 


WARHOI'     I'AIMHII     KKdlHTKUH.  H'.f 

iriov(!m(!iit  wliic-li  was  Ix-guii  in  1781,  ]>y  Kolxjri  Jiaikos  of 
Gl()U(!(;Ht(!r.  He  was  an  antiquary  of  f^reat  not<i  in  his  day, 
and  is  said  to  havo  spent  most  of  his  time  in  the  British 
Museum,  where  at  tlie  time  of  his  death  he  was  enf^aj^ed  in 
arranging,  for  publication,  a  series  of  notes  on  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  coins. 

Samuel  Martin  had  the  spiritual  oversight  of  the  parish 
for  the  unusually  long  period  of  nearly  sixty  years ;  first  as 
curate  in  charge  for  some  six  years  during  Francis  Hume's 
incumbency,  and  afterwards  as  rector  for  fifty-three  years. 
He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  most  extreme  liberality 
and  was  much  beloved  by  his  parishioners.  His  sons,  of 
whom  he  had  several,  took  a  great  interest  in  the  cricket 
club  and  other  parochial  institutions.  Francis,  his  second 
son,  who  was  a  distinguished  member  of  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  a  Senior  Fellow,  and  for  many  years  Bursar,  and 
afterwards  Vice-Master  of  Trinity  College,  bought  and  pre- 
sented the  church  clock  to  the  2:)arish  in  1844.  Miss  Martin, 
daughter  of  Major  Martin,  another  son,  worked  and  presented, 
at  the  restoration  of  the  church  in  1877,  the  beautiftd  altar 
cloth  which  is  now  in  use.  A  brass  tablet  has  been  erected 
to  the  memory  of  Samiiel  Martin,  containing  the  following 
inscription : — 

"  In  the  churchyard  six  feet  from  the  centre  of  the  East 
chancel  window  he  interred  the  remains  of  Samuel 
Martin  rector  of  this  parish  for  a  period  of  fifty-three 
years.     He  died  on  the  4th  April  1859  aged  89." 

Alleyne  Fitz-Herbert  —  the  last  of  the  rectors  we  shall 
notice  in  this  way— Avas  the  third  son  of  Sir  Henry  Fitz- 
Herbert,  Bart.,  and  brother  of  the  present  lord  of  the  manor. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  a  very  able  scholar,  a  good  church- 
man, and  an  excellent  preacher.     Like  his  predecessor,  too,  h« 


90  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

was  a  man  of  great  kindness  and  liberality  to  the  poor ;  so 
liberal  indeed  was  he  that,  according  to  a  Derbyshire  woman 
who  told  us  the  story,  he  once  "  took  the  boots  off  his  own 
feet  to  give  to  a  poor  man  in  his  parish  at  Tissington." 
During  the  short  time  he  held  the  living  of  Warsop  he  re- 
stored the  rectory — raising  the  roof  to  form  a  third  story  and 
otherwise  enlarging  it  to  its  present  comfortable  dimensions. 
A  brass  tablet  to  his  memory  in  Warsop  Church  bears  the 
following  inscription : — 

"  In  Memory  of  Alley ne  Fitz-Herbert  one  year  Rector 
of  Warsoj)  third  son  of  Sir  Henry  Fitz-Herbert  Bt.  of 
Tissington  Derbyshire  and  Agnes  Beresford  his  wife  : 
born  May  9.  1815  :  married  May  5.  1841  AngeHna 
third  daughter  of  James  Haffenden  Esq.  of  Homewood 
House  Tenterden  Kent :  died  April  15.  1860  leaving  a 
widow  with  five  sons  and  six  daughters." 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  Warsop  Clergy,  we  think 
it  only  right  that  we  should  give  an  approximate  list  of  the 
curates  of  Warsop  for  the  last  three  hundred  years  as  far 
as  it  can  be  obtained  from  the  several  registers.  We  prefix 
the  earhest  date  at  which  each  name  appears,  but  we  do  not 
intend  to  convey  the  impression  that  the  interval  between  two 
successive  dates  necessarily  denotes  the  length  of  any  one's 
appointment. 

*'  (fTurates  of  SEarsoi}/* 

1572.  Anthony  Fisher  1762.  John  Crutchley 

1638.  Jo.  Conde  1763.  William  Clarke 

1717.  —Shaw  1772.  Nicholas  Mosley  Cheek 

1726.  Joseph  Brooke  1777.  Thomas  Wilkinson 

1731.  John  Browne  1790.  Edward  Otter 


WAHSOI'     I'AIilHil     KEOI8TEU8. 


01 


"  Curates  of  Wareojt  " — Continued. 


1792.  Jolin  Parsons 

1793.  John  Ash]>inshaw 
1799.  Samuel  Martin 
1842.  James  Atlay  * 
1846.  T.  C.  Grovcr 
1859.  Frank  G.  Lys 
1871.  W.  W.  Brown 


1871.  J.  Parry  Winder 

1872.  James  Fitz-Herbert 

1873.  J.C.WellesleyBumaby 
1875.  Arthur  Bros 

187(J.  Charles  Hallsworth 
1878.  Richard  J.  King 


*  The  present  Bishop  of  Hereford 


^^ 


G-J 


legtsttts  IB  anb  (B. 


These  registers  are  of  quite  recent  date  and  contain  little  of 
interest  to  anyone  except  to  those  persons  whose  families 
are  mentioned  therein.  The  entries  are  all  made  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Forms  prescribed  in  the  Act  of  Parhament 
which  was  passed  in  1812  "  for  the  hetter  regulating  and 
preserving  Parish  and  other  Registers  of  Births,  Baptisms, 
Marriages,  and  Burials,  in  England."  By  this  Act  it  was 
enjoined  that  registers  of  baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials, 
should  not  be  kept  in  one  and  the  same  book  as  had  been  the 
custom,  but  that  a  separate  book  should  be  kept  for  each ; 
that  books  adapted  to  the  Forms  prescribed  in  the  said  Act 
should  be  sent  to  every  parish ;  and  that  a  Ust  of  all  extant 
register  books  should  be  transmitted  to  the  Registrar  G-eneral 
before  the  1st  of  June,  1813.  A  memorandum  in  Register  C, 
in  the  handwriting  of  the  Rev.  S.  Martin,  states  that  a  copy 
of  the  list  of  the  Warsop  Parish  Registers  was  sent  to  the 
Registrar  at  York,  May  31,  1813.  It  was  also  enjoined  that 
annual  copies  of  all  the  register  books  should  be  made  and, 
after  being  verified  by  the  officiating  minister  for  the  time 
being,  transmitted  to  the  Diocesan  Registrar  by  the  church- 
wardens ;  and  that  all  register  books  should  be  kept  in 
custody  of  the  officiating  minister  in  an  iron  chest  provided 
at  the  expense  of  the  parish.  The  churchwardens  of  Warsop, 
we  find,  acted  uj^  to  the  latter  part  of  this  instruction  and 


WAICHfiT     rAUIHM     R  KOIHTPMtH.  93 

l)ouf^lil.  tlic  iron  clx'sl  ill  wliidi  tlir  n-^'iniiTH  an;  still  kept. 
The  lid  of  lliis  clirsi  ()[)ciiH  iipwardH  and  "Ix-arn  tlio  following 
inscrij)iion  in    rais(^d  li.-ttcrB : — 

"  WiirHoj),  1813.      S.  Martin,  K<;(!tor.      J.  Diu.kmanton, 
J.   FctlKjrst-one,  Clnirchvvardcns." 

The  old  "  sure  coffer,"  made  of  oak,  "  with  two  locks  and 
keys," — probably  the  very  same  that  haxl  Ijeen  in  use  from 
the  time  of  Cromwell's  Injunction — was  discarded  and  stood 
for  a  long  time  in  the  Church  tower ;  but  when  the  Church 
was  re-pewed  in  1832  it  was  taken  away,  and  has  since  fallen 
to  pieces. 

In  1836  another  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  to  amend 
that  of  1812.  It  enjoined  that  Register  Books  in  duplicate 
should  be  furnished  to  every  Church  and  Chapel  where 
Marriages  may  be  solemnized ;  that  at  the  end  "  of  every 
quarter  a  copy  of  the  entries  made  during  that  period  should 
be  sent  to  the  Superintendent-Registrar  to  be  forwarded  to 
the  Registrar-Greneral ;  aud  that  one  copy  of  the  Register, 
when  filled,  should  be  delivered  up  to  the  Superintendent- 
Registrar,  and  the  other  kept  with  the  Registers  of  Baptisms 
and  Burials. 


statistics. 

Under  this  heading  we  have  much  pleasure  in  furnishing  our 
readers  with  a  few  particulars  respecting  the  population  and 
mortality  of  Warsop  during  the  last  three  hundred  years. 
We  have  already  touched  upon  this  most  interesting  subject 
when  sj^eating  of  the  extraordinary  mortality  of  the  Cham 
family,  in  1600 :  but  we  venture  to  hope  that  some  additional 
information  will  be  gladly  received  by  all  who  are  interested 
in  the  past  history  of  Warsop.  The  mortality  of  any  com- 
munity is  so  closely  related  to  the  most  important  conditions 
of  its  existence  and  well-being,  that  there  is  little  wonder  that 
the  Legislature  has  taken  so  much  pains,  of  late,  to  ascertain 
as  correctly  as  possible  the  population  and  mortality  of  this 
country.  Prior  to  1801  there  were  no  official  returns  of  the 
population  of  any  part  of  the  British  Isles ;  but  the  estimated 
population  of  England,  based  upon  the  parish  registers  of 
baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials,  is,  for  the  j)eriod  between 
1570  and  1750,  that  given  in  the  following  table. 

lEsttmateti  population  of  ^nglanti. 


Date. 

Pop. 

Date.               Pop. 

1570 
1600 
1630 

4,160,221 
4,811,718 
5,600,517 

1670 

i       1700 

1750 

5,773,646 
6,045,008 
6,517,035 

WARHOI'     ['AltlHII     REOI8TEEH.  .fh 

Diu'i!!^' ilic  ('i<^lit<'(iii  h  (■< 'I  I  in  ry  ii  ^n-iif,  jiifliix  of  the*  niral 
]>()|)iiIii,lioii  .s<'l,  in  iowiirds  f  Ik-  niannriicf  nrin^^  fown.s;  an'l  tliiw, 
conplod  wiili  ili<;  \(>hh  ol"  in»;n  who  Icll  in  tho  AuK-rican  and 
Frcncli  wars,  gave  rise  to  the  impression  that  the  population 
of  En<,'land,  as  a  whole,  had  decreased,  and  was  rapidly  de- 
creasing. The  first  general  census  in  1801,  however,  disjHjlled 
this  idea,  and  showed  that  notwithstanding  all  drawbacks, 
the  population  was  much  greater  than  was  commonly  believed : 
since  that  time  it  has  gone  on  steadily  increasing  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  census  returns  which  we  subjoin. 

(JTensus  i^eturns. 


Date. 

Pop. 

Date. 

Pop. 

1801 

9,334,549 

1851 

17,927,609 

1811 

10,666,792 

1861 

20,066,224 

1821 

12,289,331 

1871 

22,712,266 

1831 

14,166,988  1 

1881 

25,968,286 

1841 

16,914,148 

Through  the  kind  assistance  of  Mr.  Samuel  F.  Wilson  we 
are  enabled  to  publish  a  table  of  all  the  baptisms,  marriages, 
and  burials,  which  have  taken  place  in  Warsop  and  Soke- 
holme,  from  1539  to  1882,  together  with  the  estimated 
population  for  the  same  time,  and  a  diagram  showing  the 
mortality. 


96 


WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 


EMt  of  33aptisms,  JKarriacjes,  anti  Burials, 
from  X539  to  1882,  ixitti)  tje  lEsttmateti  population. 


Date. 

Ol 

;>^ 

O 

d 

Baptisms. 

Marriages 

Burials. 

nS    1=1 

-2.2 

3 

o 

a3 
eg 

r-t 
> 

o 

i 

3 

COED 

5 
6 
5 
4 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
7 
10 
7 
7 

o 

a5 

> 

1539  to  1550 
1551  —  1575 
1576—1600 
1601  —  1625 
1626  —  1650 
1651  —  1675 
1676—1700 
1701  —  1725 
1726  —  1750 
1751  —  1775 
1776—1800 
1801  —  1825 
1826  —  1850 
1851  —  1875 
1876  —  1882 

12 

25 
25 
25 
25 

25 
25 

25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
7 

174 

365 
443 
511 
451 
516 
446 
425 
466 
577 
758 
793 
1041 
10u3 
276 

14 
15 

18 
20 
18 
21 
18 
17 
19 
23 
30 
32 
42 
40 
39 

13 

NO  RE 

104 

137 

124 

107 

80 

97 

122 

152 

168 

169 

193 

167 

49 

123 
289 
441 
397 
363 
541 
396 
349 
344 
365 
443 
471 
651 
712 
154 

10 
12 
18 
16 
15 
22 
16 
14 
14 
15 
18 
19 
26 
28 
22 

lOi 

12 

14 

15i 

16i 

17 

16i 

15 

14 

15i 

17 

21 

24 

261 

25 

580 
670 
780 
860 
920 
940 
920 
840 
780 
860 
940 
1180 
1340 
1460 
1400 

Totals 

344 

8245 

1682 

6039 

WARSOP    I'AKIHTr     IlEOIBTKRH. 


97 


In  the  compilation  of  the  foregoing  tabhj  the  following 
UKithods  have  been  ado{)t<;fl.  First,  all  the  baptismH, 
luarriaf^es,  and  hurialH,  recorded  in  the  various  regiHtfjrt* 
from  1539  to  1882  inclusive,  were  carefully  taken  down  year 
by  year  and  tabulated.  The  results  were  then  grouped 
together  in  periods  of  twenty-five  years,  and  the  averages 
worked  out  to  the  nearest  unit,  as  shown  in  the  table. 
The  corrected  averages  of  burials  have  been  obtained  (i), 
by  casting  out  the  years  in  which  the  death-rate  was  abnor- 
mally high  ;  and  (ii),  ]>y  sinootliing  down  the  irregularities 
still  remaining  in  the  twenty-five-year  periods,  which  was 
done  by  taking  a  second  average  for  every  three  successive 
periods,  instead  of  as  at  first,  for  one  period  only.  The 
estimated  population  has  been  deduced  from  the  corrected 
averages  by  assuming  the  rate  of  mortality  to  have  been 
yearly  eighteen  deaths  per  thousand — an  assumption  which 
agrees  well,  though  undesignedly,  with  the  census  returns 
of  Warsop  and  Sokeholme  sinc(j  1801. 

Census  2^eturns, 


DATE. 

POP. 

DATE. 

POP. 

1801 

944 

1851 

1398 

1811 

1047 

1861 

1426 

1821 

1141 

1871 

1603 

1831 

1281 

1881 

1364 

1841 

1884 

Probably  the  most  remarkable  result  shown  in  this  table  of 
baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials,  is  the  apparent  decrease  in 
the  population  during  the  period  from  1650  to  1750.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  in  fact,  that  there  was  a  serious  decrease. 


98  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

and  that  it  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  extraordinarily  high  rate 
of  mortahty  prevalent  from  1650  to  1682.  But  before  giving 
our  reasons  for  these  conclusions,  it  may  he  well  to  notice  two 
remarkable  facts.  The  first  is  that  the  periods  which  show 
a  very  high  mortality  occur  in  groups  of  two  or  more  years, 
and  are  separated  by  a  longer  or  shorter  interval  with  a 
relatively  even  rate  of  mortality;  and  the  second,  that  in 
those  years,  or  series  of  years,  when  the  rate  was  largely 
in  excess  of  the  average,  the  number  of  marriages  shows  a 
corresponding  depression.  The  former  of  these  facts  is  well 
brought  out  in  the  accompanying  diagram  by  the  tracing 
which  shows  the  mortality  of  Warsop  since  1538.  In 
illustration  of  the  latter  we  may  mention  that  in  1591  there 
was  but  one  marriage ;  in  1680,  none  ;  and  in  1682,  but  one. 
This  inverse  proportion  is  shown  to  have  occurred  on  an 
exceptionally  large  scale  during  the  period  in  question  by 
the  table  of  baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials.  From  1650  to 
1675,  the  proportion  of  burials  to  marriages  was  more  than 
five  to  one,  whilst  the  number  of  deaths  exceeded  the  number 
of  births — a  state  of  things  without  a  parallel  through- 
out the  entire  series.  The  total  number  of  baptisms  from 
1539  to  1882  was  eight  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty- 
five  ;  and  the  total  number  of  burials  (allowing  ninety 
for  the  years  1551  to  1556  inclusive,  which  are  unrecorded), 
six  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine.  Deducting  six 
hundred  and  sixty  for  increase  of  population,  it  is  evident 
that  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-five  ii:ore  persons 
have  left  the  pai'ish  and  died  elsewhez-e  than  have  settled  here 
from  other  places :  that  is,  on  an  average,  more  than  a 
hundred  have  left  the  parish  during  every  one  of  the  fourteen 
twenty-five-year  periods.  Taking  this  into  account,  along 
with  the  excessive  number  of  deaths  from  1650  to  1675,  the 
decrease  in  the  population  is,  we  think,  fully  accounted  for. 
One  thing  seems  certain :  the  causes  on  which  the  rate  of 
mortality  depend    (supply  of  food,    epidemics,    &c.)  would 


^.   .._.      

\1\ 

'  \ 

"^^              'X      ^i  I/^  J  ^ 

r       /"^    s    -  y  4^^"^^  '^^  \  I 

Z   '"^^1  ^"^'^^^^>^  ^^  j_± 

70                            dV                            SfO                         /Ol 

</}    ,,       .        1. 

30                                                              l\l\ 

"r^            l\      l\  y"^L                         /             \         ^ 

:w\r  V\y^  \i\t^  A-,/: 

/<!?                                 ^^^                                 S'O                             /Ol 

30 

' 

^      1        __                        _                _^       _..     __ 

•V7>U_I                  A                   /\                        j*"^^       Ml              A      iV               /\. 

/(T''                          SO                         ^0                       1C 

/in                                               /K         l\ 

: ^'^  ii___t_  j_.  .t 

:/=/^f  __  L\ /$:_! t 

*^     /                 V                        \/ 

ooV-     -1- ■-'                i.j_..      .1          •    '        ' 

/7^                           f*^                           ,90                        /Ol 

VARSOP  SINCE    53i . 

98  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

and  that  it  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  extraordinarily  high  rate 
of  mortality  prevalent  from  1650  to  1682.  But  before  giving 
our  reasons  for  these  conclusions,  it  may  be  well  to  notice  two 
remarkable  facts.  The  first  is  that  the  periods  which  show 
a  very  high  mortality  occur  in  groups  of  two  or  more  years, 
and  are  separated  by  a  longer  or  shorter  interval  with  a 
relatively  even  rate  of  mortality;  and  the  second,  that  in 
those  years,  or  series  of  years,  when  the  rate  was  largely 
in  excess  of  the  average,  the  number  of  marriages  shows  a 
corresponding  depression.  The  former  of  these  facts  is  well 
brought  out  in  the  accompanying  diagram  by  the  tracing 
which  shows  the  mortality  of  Warsop  since  1538.  In 
illustration  of  the  latter  we  may  mention  that  in  1591  there 
was  but  one  marriage ;  in  1680,  none  ;  and  in  1682,  but  one. 
This  inverse  proportion  is  shown  to  have  occurred  on  an 
exceptionally  large  scale  during  the  period  in  question  by 
the  table  of  baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials.  From  1650  to 
1675,  the  proportion  of  burials  to  marriages  was  more  than 
five  to  one,  whilst  the  number  of  deaths  exceeded  the  number 
of  births — a  state  of  things  withoxit  a  parallel  through- 
out the  entire  series.  The  total  number  of  baptisms  from 
1639  to  1882  was  eight  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty- 
five  ;  and  the  total  number  of  burials  (allowing  ninety 
for  the  years  1551  to  1556  inclusive,  which  are  unrecorded), 
six  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine.  Deducting  six 
hundred  and  sixty  for  increase  of  j)opulation,  it  is  evident 
that  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-five  more  persons 
have  left  the  jjarish  and  died  elsewhere  than  have  settled  here 
from  other  places :  that  is,  on  an  average,  more  than  a 
hundred  have  left  the  parish  during  every  one  of  the  fourteen 
twenty-five-year  periods.  Taking  this  into  account,  along 
with  the  excessive  number  of  deaths  from  1650  to  1675,  the 
decrease  in  the  population  is,  we  think,  fully  accounted  for. 
One  thing  seems  certain  :  the  causes  on  which  the  rate  of 
mortality  depend    (supply  of   food,    ejjidemics,   &c.)   would 


INSER 
FOLD-C 
OR   MA 
HERE 


WARBOP  rAnrsiT   uRoiHTEnfl,  99 

appear  to  have  Ixjcome  more  n-^'iilar  in  their  action  from  the 
Le^iiining  ol"  tli(;  ei^litcjcnth  century.  Tlxj  abnormally  hij^h 
rate  at  various  p(;ri(jd8  durinj,'  th(!  present  century,  an  hhown 
in  the  dia^'ram,  was  due  to  th(;  prescnice  of  ej<id(;niicH  whieh,  an 
old  parishioners  will  doubtless  remember,  prevailed  at  the 
periods  in  question,  namely,  scarlet  fever  in  1825,  diphtheria 
in  1858,  small  i)ox  in  1872,  and  low  fever  in  1874-5.  Should 
the  mortality  of  the  neighbouring  parishes  be  worked  out 
"with  equal  minuteness,  as  we  hope  it  may,  it  will  be  of  the 
highest  interest  and  importance  to  ascertain  whether  it 
shows  that  corresiiondence  with  the  experience  of  Warsop 
which  one  might  be  led  to  expect. 

How  much  lies  hidden  in  the  foregoing  statistics ;  how 
many  joys  and  sorrows,  hopes  and  fears ;  how  much  love  and 
hate,  none  can  tell.  The  roll  of  individuals  which  make  up 
the  hfe  of  Warsojj  for  the  past  three  himdred  and  forty-four 
years  is  here  reduced  to  units.  It  is  impossible  to  gaze  on 
this  roll  without  wishing  to  Hft  the  veil  of  obscurity  which 
time  has  drawn  so  closely  over  the  religious,  social  and 
domestic  hfe  of  the  thousands  who  are  gone  before.  In  what 
has  preceded  we  have  endeavoured  to  fill  in  a  few  of  the  more 
interesting  known  details.  It  is  a  mingled  story  telling  us  in 
part  of  sin,  and  sorrow,  and  shame,  but  in  part  also  of  zeal, 
and  honour,  and  learning,  of  duties  heroically  performed,  and 
of  trust  faithfully  discharged.  The  work  of  collecting  the 
simple  anecdotes  and  fast  disappearing  traditions  recorded  in 
these  notes  and  illustrations,  and  of  separating  the  probablv 
true  from  the  obviously  false,  or  at  least  unsubstantiated,  has 
been  no  easy  one ;  but  our  labour  has  been  a  labour  of  love, 
and  if  this  first  attempt  of  the  kind  in  Warsop  sei-ves  but  to 
kindle  m  the  minds  of  its  inhabitants  a  greater  interest  m 
everything  connected  with  their  church  and  parish,  or  better 
still  to  facilitate  some  more  elaborate  and  complete  attempt 
to  give  the  history  of  the  locahty  in  the  future,  we  shall  l>e 
amply  rewarded. 


100  WARSOP    PARISH    REGISTERS. 

It  only  remains  for  us  now  to  tender  our  very  best  thanks 
to  Mr.  S.  F.  Wilson  for  the  great  assistance  lie  has  given  us 
throughout  our  work,  and  to  the  Eev.  Kirke  Swann,  the  Rev. 
F.  Brodhurst,  Major  Lowe,  Mr.  F.  Blythman,  Mr.  W. 
Wardley,  and  other  kind  friends  who  have  helped  us  with 
much  valuable  information  respecting  the  past  history  of  the 
parish  and  its  old  worthies. 


Knirt):. 


A 

Agreement  between  Warsop  and 

Sokeholme,  5. 
Allotment  of  Seats,  8. 
Architecture,  55. 
Ashpinshaw,  John,  76. 

B 
Baptisms,  infant,  48. 
Bells,  6. 
Benefactions  : 

Hall's,  35. 
Kirke's,  65. 
Peacock's,  72. 
Whiteman's,  80. 
Wylde's,  22. 
Burials,  immediate,  12,  49. 
Burying  in  woollen,  52, 

C 
Clat,  Hercules,  17. 
Communion  plate,  65. 
Condition  of  the  people,  42,  66. 
Cromwell's  injunction,  2. 
Curates  of  Warsop  ,90. 

E 
Extracts  from  Register  A,  11-18. 
,',  ,,       Register  B,  46-65. 

„  „      Register   C,  69-80. 


Forest  enclosures,  79. 
Friendly  societies,  26. 

G 
Godfathers  and  godmothers,  12. 

H 
Huguenots,  47. 

I 
Inventory  of  church  goods,  85. 

K 
Knight  family,  61. 

M 
Manor  of  Nettleworth,  22. 
,,         Sokeholme,  56. 
,,         Warsop,  13. 
Memoranda,  5,  8,  81. 
Memorial  stones.  53. 
Morality,  16. 
Mortality,  15,  96-99. 

X 
Nettleworth,  hall,  22. 

,,  manor,  22. 

North  and  South  to\vn,  57. 

O 
Old  churn,  78. 
Old  school-house,  74. 
Old  style,  10. 


102 


INDEX. 


Parish  registers,  1. 
Park  Hall,  9,  76. 
Parliament  oak,  78. 
Population  of  England,  94-95. 

,,  Warsop    and    Soke- 

holme,  96-97. 

E 
Rectors  of  Warsop,  81. 
Robert  de  Warsop,  47. 
Eolleston,  John,  56. 
Ryall,  Joanna,  18. 
S 
Settlement  papex-s,  68. 
Sherwood  forest,  77. 
Sokeholme,  hall,  7. 
,,  manor,  56. 

„  mill,  7. 

Soldier  flogged  to  death,  64. 
Stamp  Act,  74. 
Stanhope,  Hon.  Chas.,  59, 
Statistics,  94. 
Surnames  : 

Allcroft,  75. 

Allwood,  38. 

Amcoats,  64. 

Askew,  60. 

Ball,  37. 

Barlow,  39. 

Bean,  29. 

Beard,  75. 

Beeston,  31. 

Bowet,  47. 

Bowler,  76. 

Bowring,  31. 

Bradley,  26. 

Briggs,  71. 

Brothwell,  72. 

Burton,  79. 

Caudwell,  33. 

Chapman,  60. 

Clayton,  36. 


Surnames  (continued) 
Coupe,  38. 
Crooks,  59. 
Davy,  52 
Dowdall,  34. 
Duckmanton,  61. 
Dunston,  33. 
Eaton,  29. 
Eyre,  32. 
Fells,  70. 
Petherstone,  38, 
Fox,  21. 
Gilbert,  33. 
Glover,  76. 
Hallifax,  60. 
Herring,  27, 
Hill,  39, 
Hinchliffe,  48, 
Hinde,  37. 
Hooke,  49, 
Hooley,  27. 
llett,  73. 
Jackson,  29. 
Johnson,  75. 
Lee,  80. 
Lowe,  29. 
Maxfield,  72. 
Mekin,  20. 
Mellors,  65. 
Metheringliam,  49 
Mitchell,  22,  32. 
Moody,  79. 
•^eep,  73. 
Newton,  24. 
Nilan,  73. 
Parsons,  41. 
Radford,  32,  61. 
Renshaw,  71. 
Revill,  34. 
Reynolds,  40. 
Riley,  35. 
Robinson,  48,  60. 


INDEX. 


103 


SurnaiMOH  (continued) 
Rollinjj,  50. 
Singleton,  61). 
Sliick,  71. 
Slunoy,  20. 
Sniitli,  lU. 
Snowdon,  '.i'J. 
Stocks,  (J!». 
Storey,  (55,  80. 
Stubbiugs,  25. 
Taylor,  41. 
ThoriJB,  29. 
Turner,  22. 
Unwin,  40. 
Ward,  20. 
Wardley,  65. 
Wass,  41. 
Wharniby,  49. 
Wilkinson,  27. 


HumamoH  (continued) 
WilHon,  21. 
Wood,  71. 
Woodliead,  .-57. 
Wyldc,  '.),  22. 
'1' 
Taui.k    of     bajjti.siiiH,     niarriageH, 
&e.,  96 

W 
Wakssop,  fairs,  51. 
hall,  9. 
„         manor,  13. 
„         market,  13,  51. 
„         mill,  15. 
„         parish  registers,  3. 
,,         statutes,  51. 
Y 
Young  Greendalo  oak,  78. 


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7/ 


9 


EERATA. 

Page     S.      For  Cr.  Cove  read  Cr.  Cooe. 
Pao-e  65.     For  John  Storv  read  John  Storev. 


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