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Reference:: D/P 139/1/0
Title:: Register of baptisms, marriages and burials
Level: Category: Parish Records
Level: Fonds: GREAT BURSTEAD, St Mary Magdalene
Level: Sub-Fonds: INCUMBENT
Level: Series: Service of Church: Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials
Scope and Content:: Baptisms : 1559-1654 (few entries 1579-1596)
Marriages : 1559-1578, 1597-1653
Burials : 1559-1579, 1596-1653

Transcript made 1598. Elaborately written title page includes note that Timothy Okeley, vicar for 19 years, neglected to set down the names of those baptised, married or buried 'and that is the reason why this booke is imperfect'. This page and note are signed not by the incumbent but by Walter Farr [possibly to be identified with the Walter Farre, son of Walter of Great Burstead, died 1604, who appears in John Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part 1, volume 2 (Cambridge 1922)].

Includes marriage of 'Christopher Martyn singlm. [single man] and Marie Prowe wid [widow]', 26 February 1606/7 [Martin and his wife sailed on the Mayflower to New England in 1620]; burial of unnamed 'nurse child of London being a man chylde of a saylors', 1599; burial 1599 of Elizabeth Wattes, widow of Thomas Wattes 'the blessed marter of god who for his treuth suffered his merterdom in the fyre at Chelmesford the xxii day of May in anno domini 1555'; burial of 'John Apprie a welch man servant to Mr Ketell', 1602; burial of John Trower 'aged by his owne computation 114 yeares', 1624; burial of unnamed 'iournyman weaver', 1650.
Dates of Creation:: 1559-1654
Extent:: 1 volume
Language: English, with occasional words in Latin (e.g. baptism of a vagrant, 1575).
Physical Characteristics:: Parchment leaves in original, badly stained, parchment cover, with paper endpapers. Some leaves loose, and a number (probably blank) cut out.
Existence of Copies:: Image 9A was added on 12 September 2016, having been omitted in error; images of the covers (images 0 and 72) were added at the same time. For a microfilm of this register see T/R 123/1.
Related Unit of Description:: For a typescript name index, compiled in 1972, see T/R 141/1. A manuscript version of this index is held (2003) by the parish.