Added to this also the clergyman, having nowhere else to chronicle them, has often entered in his register the passing events of the day; so that this further possesses, at times, a wider historical interest than could have been expected, giving us often glimpses of the views of men, who, however unsympathetic with the changes and fortunes of the hour, still carry, from their office and position, some not inconsiderable weight.
All these books are far too seldom consulted. The few notes we shall make are by no means given as examples of what may be elsewhere found, but must be looked upon only as extracts from the books of a district, where we naturally could expect little of any general interest.
The New Forest has never been, since registers became the law of the land, the scene of any of the great events of English history—never the theatre of the Civil Wars, as the Midland Counties, where entries of victories and defeats, and battles and sieges, are mixed with the burials and births.
Various causes, too, especially the scanty and scattered population, have contributed to the late date at which nearly all the Forest registers commence.[1] Still, at Eling, there occurs
- ↑ The following dates prior to 1700 of the Parish Registers in the Forest district are taken from the Parish Register Abstract: Accounts and Papers: 1833, vol. xxviii (No. 13), p. 398:—
Eling 1537 | Milton 1654 Christchurch 1586 | Lymington 1662 Milford 1594 | Dibden 1665 Boldre 1596 | Fawley 1673 Ellingham 1596 | Breamore 1675 Bramshaw (loose leaves) 1598 | Sopley 1678 Fordingbridge 1642 | Minestead 1682 Beaulieu 1654 | Ringwood 1692 Ibbesley 1654 | Brockenhurst 1693
