Most parish registers solemnly list the names of those who were baptised, married or buried in the church, and whilst this volume contains a wealth of family history, it has hidden secrets to those whose gaze lingers on more than just the names.
This register (reference OCY/1/1) started life in the parish church of Ockley, St Margaret, which was probably built sometime in the late 1200s or early 1300s with its square tower rebuilt in the 1700s. The register itself is rather unassuming, covered in brown leather with a single floral cartouche impressed in gold leaf in the centre of the line-bordered front cover. It shows its age with flaking leather and the cartouche missing from the back cover, revealing the binding board beneath. It has obviously lived a long life.
The first entries in the register date from 1539, with the heading, 'In the One & Thirtyeth year of [our] sov[er]igne Lorde Kinge Henrye the Eighte of England Frannce & Ireland Defender of the faithe [etc]'.
This register records baptisms, 1540 to 1663, marriages, 1593 to 1663, and burials 1539 to 1663, and the first part of the volume seems to have been copied from an older register, now lost. Some years were more eventful than others: 1565 only recorded four baptisms whilst in 1639 there were nine baptisms, three marriages and eleven burials. The last entries in the register are from April and May 1663.
The Margesson family
Somehow, from the safety of the church, it found its way into the possession of the Margesson family, some of whom lived at Redford, a house on the edge of Ockley, while other family members lived at nearby Vann in Hambledon. The first time the Margessons appeared in the Ockley parish registers was in 1572 with the marriage of John Margesson to Margaret Bixley. The family obviously stayed in the area as their names appear in the registers until 1779, when William Margesson (of Southwark) was buried. Another branch of the family had their children baptised in the church between 1827 and 1835.
Someone in the Margesson family had started to write down notable family dates in this register, sometimes adding the event at the bottom of the year, such as "William Margesson and Marye Constable weare maryed the xxiiith [23rd] daye of June 1634". In its own section below the last official entries from 1663 are listed the baptisms of the children of Richard Margesson between 1693 and 1707.
It is hard to work out when exactly the register fell into the possession of the Margesson family and difficult to see who is related to who. The baptism entries in this and the other early registers record only the father's name, and most of the fathers and sons are named William, Richard, John or Thomas!
Quotes, poems, accounts and notes
Along with the family records there are other notes scribbled (and I don't use that word lightly) across the pages, whether or not they contain the village's baptisms, marriages and burials. These notes include farm accounts and calculations of who owed the writer amounts of money! The writing is in many different orientations, even upside down! This probably shows that the writer didn't have much, if any at all, respect for the register. It appears that in some places it has been used for handwriting practice, with the numbers from 1 to 45 written neatly in a block on one page, amongst a few lines of 8s scattered in any free space.
Some of the notes are rather odd. "John Margesson His Book Given Him By Nobody" is written on one page. There seems to have been a succession of 'owners' of the register, or a disagreement about who exactly owned it, as William son of Richard and John have claimed ownership in several different places between the pages. Who knows if it is the same William and John all the way through! There are many other names also written throughout the book, so who were these people? Were they friends of the family, scribbling their names in the book for posterity. Names include John Lipscom, John Longhurst and Young Roger Pichard.
There are also quotes and sayings scattered through the book. A version of a bible quote from Exodus 20:2 reads, "The Lord thy God/Am a Jelouis God/Who Brought Out of/The Land of Egypt out/Of The House of Bondage".
On the first page of the register reads a version of a very familiar poem that appears every November:
"Remember Remember ye
5th of November is gunpowder
Treason and plot
I know no reason
why gunpowder treason
should be forgot
ever"
There are several other poems in the register, one starting with the line, "Mans Body is Like a house", and another, "Poor man when Threescore winters he has told". It is possible that these are poems written by members of the Margesson family, and many are homilies about living your life wisely; not even the innocence of childhood is left out:
"The New born Infants in the cradle lies; And when it sleeps not; fills
Our ears with Cries; Being grown big with foolish spoorts and play
The first ten years of life are thrown away; yet he Injoys;
Till those ten years are over; That Inocence which he must boast no more."
At some point since then the register must have made its way back into the hands of the original church as it was deposited by the vicar and parochial church council in Surrey Record Office in 1953. Here in the archive it is safe from the wandering scribble of a pen, stored in the climate-controlled strongrooms, and available to researchers to consult under the watchful eye of an archivist or heritage assistant. The register has had quite the life and I am sure it is glad of its retirement!
Images
Select image to view a larger version.
- St Margaret's Church, Ockley, circa 1830s, artist unknown (reference 9043/2/23/2)
- Front cover of the register (reference OCY/1/1)
- A page of the register with annotations around the baptism, marriage and burial entries
- 'Remember, Remember' poem in register
