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| 1538 | Thomas Cromwell ordered the minister of each parish to record every baptism, marriage and burial. Most entries were made on paper, many on loose sheets. Only a few of these early registers survive. |
| 1598 | Register entries were made in parchment books. Previous entries were supposed to be copied into the new books. Many clergymen only copied up entries from 1558, the year of accession of Queen Elizabeth. |
| 1754 | Following Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753, marriages were entered in a separate register. Bound volumes of printed forms were introduced. These forms included spaces to record the occupation of bride and groom, where they lived and the names of two witnesses. Under this act, marriages in the Halifax area were only allowed at Halifax, Elland and Heptonstall chapel until 1837. |
| 1813 | The Parochial Registers Act or Rose’s Act of 1812 instructed that baptisms and burials were to be entered in separate registers. Baptism entries were to record the name, residence and trade or profession of the father. Burial entries were to record the name, age and residence of the deceased. |
| 1837 | The Marriage Act of 1836 and the Births and Deaths Registration Act of the same year established the system of civil registration. All marriage registers were to record the name, age, occupation and residence of the bride and groom, and the name and occupation of the respective fathers. |
| 1978 | Parochial Registers and Records Measure passed by the General Synod of the Church of England. This meant that many registers and other parish records were deposited in local record offices. However, recent registers and records may still be kept by the parish, and in some cases all the records have been retained. |
Bishops Transcripts
In 1598, ministers were ordered to send a copy of the entries in their parish registers once a year to a more senior clergyman, usually their diocesan bishop. These records are known as “Bishops Transcripts”. They are helpful when the original parish register has been lost or damaged. This practice carried on until the late nineteenth century, although marriage returns ended after the introduction of civil registration in 1837.
Most bishops transcripts for West Yorkshire are held at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research in York. West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds holds bishops transcripts for the Yorkshire portions of the area known as the Archdeaconry of Richmond, and a few for other parts of the Diocese of Ripon. For further information on Bishop's Transcripts held by Wets Yorkshire Archive Service see Collections Guide 3 (pdf)
Marriage Licences and Banns Registers
Until the introduction of civil registration in 1837, the Church of England was responsible for most marriages in England and Wales. Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1754 allowed Jews and Quakers to be married in their own places of worship.
Before a marriage could take place in the Church of England, one of two procedures had to take place:
The 1754 Marriage Act ordered that only marriages which took place in the Church of England were legal. The two exceptions were the marriages of Jews and Quakers. Most members of other churches (known collectively as “nonconformists” or “dissenters”) were therefore married in their parish church. Records of these marriages will be found in the Church of England registers. However, nonconformists often kept their own records of births or baptisms, and burials.
In 1837, nonconformist churches were asked to send their registers to London. These registers were kept permanently with the Registrar General after an Act of 1840. A further Act of 1858 brought in more registers. All these records are now held by the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
The public libraries in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield have microfilm copies of those registers which relate to their districts. Leeds Central Library has copies of all the Yorkshire registers.
After 1837 marriages could take place in any registered place of worship. But the registration of the marriage was undertaken by the district registrar, who travelled to the chapel. There was therefore no reason apart from convenience for nonconformist chapels to keep marriage registers. Where such registers exist, they are wholly unofficial.
The 1898 Marriage Act gave nonconformists the right to ask the Registrar General to authorise a member of their congregation to act as registrar of marriages. This authorised person made returns of marriages at the chapel to the superintendent registrar. A duplicate register was kept at the chapel. Thus many nonconformist marriage registers begin in 1898.
In West Yorkshire nonconformist places of worship were more numerous than those of the Church of England. West Yorkshire Archive Service holds registers of over 800 nonconformist chapels. For a detailed list of registers held by West Yorkshire Archive Service see Collections Guide 2 (pdf). The main groups were Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians and Quakers. Smaller sects included Inghamites and Moravians.
The first Baptist church in England was founded in 1612. Each church governed itself and supported its own minister. Sometimes a Baptist church belonged to a voluntary association with other Baptist churches. Few records survive before 1688, and most West Yorkshire Baptist records date from the nineteenth century. A few Baptist churches surrendered their registers to the Registrar General in 1837, and these are now at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
It is important to remember that baptism registers here record details of adult rather than infant baptism.
Congregational and Independent Records
In the sixteenth century a group of Protestant extremists, known as the Separatists, wanted bishops to be abolished, and opposed close relations between the Church of England and the state. One of these extremists, Henry Browne, set up a Congregational Society in Norwich before being forced to flee with his followers to Holland. In 1616, the movement was re-established in London. Societies, known as Independents, were founded in different parts of the country. Like the Baptists, each church was a separate body supporting its own minister, but might belong to a voluntary district association.
The difference between Independent, Congregational and Presbyterian churches became blurred. One chapel might at different times be called Presbyterian, Independent or Congregational. In 1831, the Congregational societies joined together to form the Congregational Union of England and Wales. In 1972, the Congregational Union joined with the Presbyterian Church to form the United Reformed Church in England and Wales. Some churches chose to remain outside this new union.
Registers of Congregational and Independent churches seldom start before the eighteenth century, and most do not begin until the nineteenth. Some registers were surrendered their registers to the Registrar General in 1837, and these are now at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
But many registers were retained by individual churches. A number of local churches have now deposited their archives with the West Yorkshire Archive Service.
Benjamin Ingham was a Yorkshire evangelist. He was originally a Methodist, but later joined the Moravians. He founded many Moravian congregations. Eventually eighty of these formed a separate church, known as the Inghamites. The church broke up in the later eighteenth century, and most Inghamite people joined the Methodists.
Few Inghamite records survive. Eight of the churches sent their registers to the Registrar General in the nineteenth century, and these are now at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
The founder of Methodist, John Wesley, began a series of preaching tours in 1739. He visited Yorkshire on many of these tours, and Yorkshire became one of the great Methodist centres. Many Methodist churches in Yorkshire can trace an unbroken history from an initiating visit by Wesley himself.
Differences of opinion within the Methodist church led to several break away groups forming over the years. These included:
The Methodist New Connexion, which separated in 1797; the Independent Methodists in 1805; the Primitive Methodists in 1810; the Bible Christians in 1815; the Wesleyan Methodist Association in 1835; the Wesleyan Reformers in 1849. The last two groups became the United Methodist Free Church in 1857 and joined with the Methodist New Connexion and the Bible Christians in 1907 to form the United Methodist Church. This body, together with the Wesleyan Methodists and the Primitive Methodists, formed the Methodist Church of Great Britain in 1932.
Methodist churches are grouped into circuits with a superintendent minister and usually with a head church. Several circuits form a district. District assemblies or synods send representatives to the annual conference. Tracing the history of Methodism in a locality can be quite complicated, as many circuits changed greatly over the years, and churches and chapels may have been in different circuits at different times.
Originally Methodists believed that their aim was to revitalise the Church of England from within. They did not regard themselves as dissenters. They continued to attend their local Anglican (Church of England) churches where their baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded in the parish registers. But from the mid-1760s they began to break away, gathering in their own chapels and meeting houses.
Most early Methodist registers held by West Yorkshire Archive Service begin between 1810 and 1820. The majority are for baptisms only. Marriages of Methodists continued to take place in Anglican churches until 1837. Most Methodist marriage registers do not start until 1898.
Over 800 early Methodist registers were surrendered to the Registrar General in 1837, and these are now at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
However, many more were retained by the Methodist circuits, usually by the head church of the circuit rather than the individual church. Many circuits have deposited their records with local record offices. West Yorkshire Archive Service holds the records of over 700 Methodist congregations.
The Moravians trace their origins back to fifteenth century Bohemia and Moravia. In 1728 three Moravian societies came to London and Oxford. John and Charles Wesley were converts shortly before they launched the Methodists.
A number of local libraries have microfilm copies of the records of local Moravian Churches in their local history departments.
Presbyterians advocated a national church which had no bishops and where congregations elected clergy. Groups of elders (or presbyteries) replaced church courts. Presbyterians were persecuted for their views in the sixteenth century. After the accession of James I in 1603, English Presbyterianism experienced a gradual revival because of closer links with the Scottish Presbyterian church.
Presbyterianism enjoyed its greatest influence in the 1640s. After the Restoration it went into decline. There was a further revival in the nineteenth century. In 1876 the English congregations of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the English Presbyterians joined together to form the Presbyterian Church of England.
In 1972 the Presbyterian Church of England joined with the Congregational Church of England and Wales to form the United Reformed Church in England and Wales.
The majority of older Presbyterian churches surrendered their early registers to the Registrar General, and these are now at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, began to preach about 1647. Quakers were persecuted until the Toleration Act of 1689 relieved some of their worst restrictions.
Quakers have no special class of ministers. Their structure is like a pyramid. At the lowest level the congregation is called a particular meeting. A group of particular meetings form a monthly meeting. These in turn combine to form meetings which were known as quarterly meetings until 1966 (now called general meetings). At the top of the pyramid is the yearly meeting. The central executive committee is known as the ‘Meeting for Sufferings’.
Quaker records are usually meticulous. They often begin in 1669. In 1776, birth and burial notes were introduced. Quaker marriage ceremonies, performed in the absence of a minister or clergyman, were recorded in great detail with many witnesses. Quarterly meetings kept duplicate registers of details supplied by particular and monthly meetings, many of whom also made copies of their own registers.
Almost all meetings surrendered their early registers to the Registrar General in the nineteenth century, but not before ‘digests’ of each were prepared in duplicate. One copy remained with the Society in London, the other was sent to the local quarterly meeting. The original registers are now at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
After 1837 birth and burial registers stopped being used. But the practice of compiling birth and burial notes continued. From 1860 central registers of all Quaker births, marriages and deaths were maintained by the Society in London, but this practice has ceased within the last thirty years.
Comparatively few Quaker records are deposited with West Yorkshire Archive Service. Exceptions are the records for Ackworth School and material from Pontefract Monthly Meeting. Information on all the Quaker records in Yorkshire can be found on the Yorkshire Quaker Heritage project website.
In 1534, Henry VIII cut the links between England and the Roman Catholic Church, and established the Church of England. But it was not until the Act of Uniformity in 1662 that the Church of England firmly secured its position as the state church. Catholicism lingered on in many parts of the country, but was in decline. In the nineteenth century, the Catholic faith enjoyed a revival.
Initially, legal restrictions made it difficult for Catholics to worship, so information about Catholics is to be found chiefly in the records of the Church of England and in Quarter Sessions records. In 1778, the Catholic Relief Act gave Catholics some minor concessions in return for swearing an oath of allegiance to the Crown. In 1791, some further concessions in the Toleration Act of 1689 were extended to Catholics. Catholic worship was legalised on the condition that they registered their churches and the names of their priests with Quarter Sessions. The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 removed all major restrictions and enabled Catholics to sit in Parliament, to vote at elections and to hold property unconditionally.
In West Yorkshire a small number of old Catholic chapels existed discreetly under the protection of local Catholic gentry. But the majority of Catholic churches were not established until the middle of the nineteenth century, largely as a result of immigration, most notably from Ireland.
Catholic congregations kept unofficial registers of births, marriages and deaths, but most of these are no older than the Act of 1778. Catholic registers were not usually forwarded to the Registrar General after 1837. But in Yorkshire, Bishop Briggs insisted that they should be. The registers of 45 Yorkshire Catholic churches are therefore now at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Further information about these registers can be found at
www.pro.gov.uk/research/easysearch/certificate_enquiriesnonconformist.htm.
It was common practice after the Marriage Act of 1754 for Catholics to go through the form of Church of England rites before being married by a Catholic priest. In these cases, marriages are recorded in Church of England registers.
Most Catholic registers have been retained by their churches in West Yorkshire. However, a microfilming scheme has been started by the Diocese of Leeds and West Yorkshire Archive Service. The microfilmed registers are available at West Yorkshire Archive Service offices in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield, and at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds.
They are subject to a 100 year closure period.
Useful Dates
| 1534 | Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy established the Church of England |
| 1661 – 1665 | The Clarendon Code was a series of 4 Acts of Parliament, including the Act of Uniformity, designed to settle the religious problems of the Restoration. Those Protestants who chose not to follow the Church of England became known as “dissenters” or “nonconformists”, and were excluded from holding public office. |
| 1689 | Toleration Act made concessions to nonconformists, giving them the right to have their own places of worship, teachers and priests subject to the swearing of oaths and declarations. Catholics were excluded from the terms of the Act. |
| 1715 & 1717 | Catholics were required by two Acts to register their names and estates with the Clerk of the Peace of the county where they lived. |
| 1754 | Quakers and Jews were exempted from the terms of Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act (1753) and were able to marry outside the Church of England. |
| 1791 | The Catholic Relief Act allowed Catholic chapels and schools to be registered with the Clerk of the Peace. Catholics who swore a prescribed oath were allowed to exercise their faith. |
| 1829 | The Catholic Emancipation Act enabled Catholics to worship freely, to sit in Parliament, to vote at elections and to hold property unconditionally. |
| 1836 | By the terms of the Marriage Act, nonconformist churches and chapels could be licensed for the solemnisation of marriages. Each marriage ceremony had to be conducted in the presence of the district registrar who was to record the details in a separate register. There was no necessity for a church to keep a register of its own. |
| 1837 | A Royal Commission invited nonconformist churches to deposit their early registers with the Registrar General for enquiry into their authenticity. By Acts of 1840 and 1858 registers sent to the Registrar General were deposited permanently with him. They were transferred to the National Archives (Public Record Office) in 1961. |
| 1898 | The Marriage Act enabled nonconformist churches to request that the Registrar General appoint an authorised person from their congregation to act as a registrar of marriages. Many nonconformist registers commence in 1898 or shortly afterwards. |
The census is a key source for the family historian. The first census was taken in 1801 and every ten years thereafter (except 1941). But the names and personal details of individuals were not preserved until 1841. The 1841 census is not as reliable as the later ones. The census lists names, ages, occupations and addresses, and from 1851, place of birth and the relationship of each person to the head of the household. You cannot look at the census returns until they are 100 years old. Have a look at
Where can I get a copy of a census return and what will it tell me?
Quarter Sessions Records
In 1361 the Statute of Westminster established Justices of the Peace (JPs) in each county to hear court cases. Each county also had a Clerk of the Peace to help out the Justices and to look after the court records. The Justices met four times a year – at Quarter Sessions.
By the early eighteenth century, the Justices were responsible for much more than just law and order, including:
Records of the West Riding Court of Quarter Sessions are held at our Wakefield office. Some boroughs ran their own Quarter Sessions, but fewer of their records have survived:
Coroners’ Records
From 1752, coroners had to send inquest returns to Quarter Sessions in order to claim their expenses. These returns are preserved in the Sessions files. They record:
The returns do not give any other details about the death. Local newspapers may give further information.
You cannot look at coroners’ records for 75 years after the inquest.
Apart from some nineteenth century material for the Liberty of Ripon area, full inquest papers (giving much more detail than the inquest returns to Quarter Sessions) only survive from the late 1940s. Our Wakefield office however holds a set of notebooks belonging to one Thomas Taylor, who was County Coroner and coroner for the Honor of Pontefract in the late nineteenth century. These notebooks are a personal record of the cases where he presided.
Indictment Books
Indictment books record all serious criminal charges brought before the county magistrates in Quarter Sessions from 1637 until 1971. The series is almost complete, although there is a gap between 1642 and 1647. Until 1733 the indictments are all in Latin except for the years 1651-1660. Each book is indexed by personal name and every entry gives:
Land Tax Returns
In 1780 it became necessary for all voters to be assessed for Land Tax to confirm their right to vote, for which they needed to possess a freehold worth at least forty shillings a year. Copies of these Land Tax assessments were held by the Clerk of the Peace. These assessments were used for electoral purposes until 1832 when electoral registers began to be compiled. The returns list:
The detail of each return varies from place to place and time to time. R. W. Unwin has produced the Search Guide to the English Land Tax, which uses West Yorkshire Archive Service material to show some of the uses to which these records can be put.
Militia Lists
The Clerk of the Peace was responsible for arranging the publication of a list of newly commissioned officers in the London Gazette. Lists for the West Riding survive for 1790, 1797-1829. The Clerk also received details of the annual strength and period of training of the militia, and these are present for the years 1811-1814.
Recusants
From 1714 people suspected of being Catholics were required to take oaths of abjuration, allegiance and supremacy. Those who didn't were certified to the Quarter Sessions as recusants. Lists of recusants and certificates survive for the years 1714-1716 and 1722. Between 1715 and 1791 Roman Catholics had to register their names and estates with the Clerk of the Peace.
From 1858 onwards, there has been a national probate system in operation. The national probate index can be consulted at our Wakefield office. The Wakefield office also holds volumes of registered wills from the West Riding Probate Registry from 1858 to about 1960. Copies of wills may be ordered from a local probate registry:
www.courtservice.gov.uk/cms/3734.htm
For further information on post-1858 probate for family history can be found at:
www.courtservice.gov.uk/cms/3800.htm
Before 1858, probate jurisdiction was the responsibility of the Church of England. Most Yorkshire wills prior to 1858 were proved in the courts of the Archbishop of York, and are now held at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research. An index to the Borthwick wills 1688-1857 is held at our Wakefield office.
Our Leeds office holds pre-1858 probate records for various areas now mostly in North Yorkshire. For further information on the wills held at Leeds, download our Collections Guide 4 (PDF).