Lady Mary Teviot, well known family historian, told us about the Parish Chest.
Each parish acquired a large wooden chest in which to keep its records. These were not just the registers of births, marriages and deaths required from 1538, but the records of the churchwardens responsible for the upkeep of the church. Later, other duties were placed on parishes, especially under the Poor Law of 1601, which was only superseded in 1834. Such responsibilities came to include helping the deserving poor; apprenticing poor children; enforcing the maintenance of illegitimate children; and dealing with vagrancy. Parishes were also responsible for maintaining the highways. All records of these various activities might be kept in the parish's chest.
Today parish chest records are normally found in county record offices, with some available on line. What has survived and in what condition, the damp and neglect of centuries, is very variable. However, where records do survive they can offer some extraordinary detail, especially about the lives of our poorer ancestors, as Mary Teviot demonstrated with some vivid examples.
Michael Lucas
Next Meeting
Wednesday 19th April 'Lost in London: Solving your family history problems' by David Annal