SURGEONS AND APOTHECARIES Cahoun, Walter, Castle Street Holt, Ralph, Redcross Street Gerrard, Richard, Dale Street DRUGGISTS AND APOTHECARIES Chesshyre, Robert, druggist and apothecary, High Street Parr, Edward, merchant and apothecary, Castle Street LAWYERS Peters, Ralph, Esq. (Deputy- | Eyes, John, jun., Church Street Recorder), John Street Gildart, Francis (Town Clerk), Jenkinson, Henry, Street Fenwick Lake, H. H., Water Street Robinson, Michael, Dale Street Cowherd, Edward, Old Hall Sudell, Thomas, Exchange Street Ellames, Peter, Mersey Street Alley Topping, Roger, Potato Market THE REGISTERS OF ST. MARY'S, BIRKENHEAD, 1721-1812 Transcribed by F. C. Beazley PREFACE THE Registers here printed consist of the two earliest volumes, now in the possession of the Incumbent and Churchwardens. The first volume is a thin folio measuring 12 by 73 inches, and is bound in parchment; the paper leaves of this book are frail, and the edges much frayed. The second volume is also a folio, and is bound in law calf. The entries are very irregular, but it has been thought best to present an exact copy of the Registers, and to note here the years either missing or during which no ceremonies occurred. The earliest Burial took place in 1719, and the earliest Baptism and Marriage in 1721 all three classes of entries have been transcribed down to 1812. No entries occur during the following years : BAPTISMS.-1722, 1723, 1724, 1725, 1727, 1728, 1734, 1735, 1741, 1744, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1769. MARRIAGES.-1722, 1723, 1724, 1725, 1726, 1728, 1731, 1734, 1735, 1740, 1741, 1742, 1746, 1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1755, 1757, 1758, 1769, 1770, 1783, 1784, 1791, 1797, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1810. BURIALS.-1720, 1724, 1725, 1734, 1735, 1740, 1741, 1742, 1743, 1746, 1747, 1748, 1754, 1757, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1778, 1779. It is to be regretted that there are no transcripts at Chester till 1813, so that no comparison can be made; and it is therefore of additional importance that a copy of the original record should be printed, and so placed beyond risk of loss by fire and decay. Of the places mentioned in the Registers calling for notice, we have Toad-Hole, ye Grange, Hinderton Lane, Birkenhead Hall, the Rock House, Derby House, Bridge-end, New Building, Slush Lane, Snuff Lane. And I am indebted to Mr. William Fergusson Irvine, F.S.A., for the following information concerning these: Toad-Hole was the name of the farm which stood about half-way along what is now Bailey Street, between Park Road North and the eastern entrance gates to Flaybrick Cemetery. The foundations can (1906) still be seen a few yards to the north of Bailey Street. The Grange Farm, on the site of the old monastic grange, stood in the area now enclosed by the roads Alfred Road, Grange Mount, Euston Grove, and Westbourne Road. Hinderton Lane is probably now marked by Chamberlain Street, near Green Lane Station, Tranmere, and formerly led to a small knot of cottages on the shore of the Mersey which formed part of the hamlet of Hinderton. Birkenhead Hall stood on the site of the schools at the west side of Priory Street. The Rock House was a farm standing a few yards from the end of what is now Rock Ferry Pier. Derby House still stands in Higher Bebington, and is now the residence of T. W. Oakshott, Esq. Bridge End was the group of cottages which stood where Bridge Street now crosses the rail way. Slush Lane, or Snush Lane, was the road be tween the Halfway House at Prenton and Charing Cross, and included part of what is now Woodchurch Road and the whole of Oxton Road. Snuff Lane is possibly a corruption or misreading of Snush Lane. New Building I cannot identify. F. C. B. FERNHILL, OXTON. THE INTRODUCTION HE Registers here printed relate to the extraparochial chapelry of Birkenhead, and although for the sake of clearness the title describes them as the Registers of St. Mary's, Birkenhead, it is questionable whether this dedication was applied to this chapel before the building of the present church in 1819. Shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a licence was granted' for the performance of Divine Service in the Chapter-House of the Priory of Birkenhead, and the nomination of a lecturer or curate was vested in the grantee of the Priory lands, Ralph Worsley and his successors. There is evidence that service was held here with more or less regularity until the date of the beginning of the Registers here printed. From that time until the present Divine Service has been regularly performed in this Chapel or in its successor, St. Mary's Church. In the payment of Ship Money by the Clergy for the County of Chester, 1635, we find that Charles Adams paid 5s. as the Curate of Birkenhead.2 Sir Peter Leycester in his Historical Antiquities (1673) mentions "Birkenhead Chappel" as a chapel of ease in Bidston Parish, and adds that it is "now in decay." 1 Mortimer's Hundred of Wirral, p. 391. Mortimer gives no authority, but there is nothing improbable in the statement. 2 Rec. Soc., vol. xii. p. 102. |