Title The registers of Dewsbury, Yorkshire
Authors Chadwick, S. J. (Samuel Joseph) (Main Author)
FHL BRITISH Film 100089

The Register of Dewsbury Yorkshire
Vol. 1, 1538 to 1653
Edited by
Samuel Joseph Chadwick, F.S.A.
Honorary Secretary of the "Record Series" of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society
Printed by Joseph Ward and Co., Caxton Square, Dewsbury

Page 1
DEWSBURY PARISH REGISTERS
Notice to our Readers

It is proposed to devote a leaf of the Magazine each month to the Old Registers of the Parish Church, and to other matters of local interest which it may be possible to print. As considerable expense will be incurred in carrying out this Scheme, it is hoped that the members of the Parish Church Congregation and other firiends who may be interested in local history will do the best to increase the sale of the magazine. Much interesting information can be easily printed if sufficients funds can be raised for the purpose. Among the most valuable records of the past are the Parish Registers which date back to the year 1538, and which on the whoe are in very good order. The first volume extends from 1538 to 1588, and owning to the leaves being loose for many years and having become very friable, thay have crumbled away at the edges and some of the writing has perished. This volume was, however in the year 1840 copied by Mr. J. J. Hemingway, Surgeon, Dewsbury, into a small 4to volume, which is now kept in the vestry, and from which some words can now be made out which have disappeared in the original register. Implicity reliance cannot, however, be placed on the copy, as there are many errors in it, apparently owning to the difficulty which was experienced in reading the original. These errors will be corrected as far as possible in the copy printed in this Magazine. Mr. Hemingway tells us that he copied the first two pages of his transcript "from an old copy of the registry, some fragments of which are now (1840) along with the original Registry, loose in old backs."

A great part of the first two pages of the original has disappeared, and the remainder consists of an almost curcular part of the centre of the leaf from which it has been impossible to check and correct part of Mr. Hemingway's copy. Thie copy has the following note on the first page:-

Copy of Book A (from 1538 to 1599) of the Registry of Marriages, Baptisms, and Burials within the Parish of Dewsbury, transcribed and given to the Parish Church of Dewsbury by Henry Johnson Hemingway, Surgeon, A. D. 1840, et Anno Regni Reginae Victoriae Quarto. Revd. Thomas Allbutt, M.A., Cantab, Vicar. Revd. William Milton, A.D., Oxon, Curate

P.S. This book has been gratuitously bounded by Mr. Wilkinson, Stationer, Market Place, Dewsbury.

The original "Book A" was carefully re-bound at the Public Record Office in London 4 or 5 years ago, and every leaf was carefully mounted and protected, so that with ordinary care it will last now for many years.