so many have been issued privately or by individuals that reference should be made to the lists in Marshall's Genealogist's Guide (1893) .and Dr Cox's Parish Registers (1910), and even this last is not perfect. The Huguenot Society has printed several registers of the Protestant Refugees, and Mr Moens that of the London Dutch church. There are also several registers of marriages alone now in print, such as that of St Dunstan's, Stepney, in 3 vols. Colonel Chester's extensive MS. collection of extracts from parish registers is now in the College of Arms, London, and the parishes are indexed in Dr Marshall's book. -MS. extracts in the British Museum are dealt with in Sims' Manual.
In Scotland registers of baptisms and marriages were instituted by the clergy in 1551, and burials were ad ded by order of the Privy Council in 1616; but these were very imperfectly kept, especially in rural parishes. Yet it was not till 1854 that civil registration was introduced, by act of parliament, in their stead. Some 900 parish registers, beginning about 1563, have been deposited in the Register House, Edinburgh, under acts of parliament which apply to all those prior to 1819. Mr Hallen has printed the register of baptisms of Muthill Episcopal Church.
In Ireland, parish registers were confined to the now disestablished church, which was that of a small minority, and were, as in Scotland, badly kept. Although great inconvenience was caused by this system, civil registration of marriages, when introduced in 1844, was only extended to Protestants, nor was it till 1864 that universal civil registration was introduced, great difficulty under the Old Age Pensions Act being now the result. No provision was made, as in Scotland, for central custody of the registers, which, both Anglican and Nonconformist, remain in their former repositories. Roman Catholic registers in Ireland only began, apparently, to be kept in the 19th century. »,
In France registers, but only of baptism, were first instituted in 1539. The Council of Trent, however, made registers both of baptisms and of marriages a law of the Catholic Church in 1563, and Louis XIV. imposed a tax on registered baptisms and marriages in 1707.
See Burn, The History of Parish Re isters (1829, 1862); Sims, Manual for the Genealogist (1856, 18853 Chester Waters, Parish Registers in England (1870, 1882, 1887); Marshall, GeneaZogist's Guide (1893); A. M. Burke, Key to the Ancient Parish Registers (1908); J. C. Cox, Parish Registers of England (1910); W. D. Bruce, Account . . of the Ecclesiastical Courts of Record (185); Bigland, Observations on Parochial Registers (1764); Report of fha Commissioners on the state of Registers of Births, &'c. (1838); Lists of Nonparochial Registers and Records in the custody of the Registrar-General (1841); Report on Non-parochial Registers (185); Detailed List of the old Parochial Registers of Scotland (1872). 6. H. R.)
REGISTRATION. In all systems of law the registration
of certain legal facts has been regarded as necessary, chiefly
for the purpose of ensuring publicity and simplifying evidence.
Registers, when made in performance of a public duty, are as
a general rule admissible in evidence merely on the production
from the proper custody of the -registers themselves or (in most
cases) of examined or certified copies. The extent to which
registration is carried varies very much in different countries.
For obvious reasons, judicial decisions are registered in all
countries alike. In other matters no general rule can be laid
down, except perhaps that on the whole registration is not as
fully enforced in the United Kingdom and the United States
as in continental states. The most important uses of registration
occur in the case of judicial proceedings, land, ships, bills
of sale, births, marriages and deaths, companies, friendly and
other societies, newspapers, copyrights, patents, designs, trade
marks and professions and occupations. In England registrars
are attached to the privy council, the Supreme Court and the
county courts. In the king's bench division (except in its
bankruptcy jurisdiction) the duty of registrars is performed by
the masters. Besides exercising limited judicial authority,
registrars are responsible for the drawing up and recording of
various stages of the proceedings from the petition, writ or
plaint to the final decision.1 With them are Bled affidavits,
depositions, pleadings, &c., when such filing is necessary. The
difference between filing and registration is that the documents
filed are filed -without alteration, while only ang epitome is
usually registered. The judicature Act 1873 created district
registries in the chief towns, the district registrar having an
authority similar to that of a registrar of the Supreme Court.
In the admiralty division cases of account are usually referred
to the registrar and merchants. The registration in the central
office of the supreme court of judgments affecting lands, writs
of execution, recognizances and lites pendent es in England, and
the registration in Scotland of abbreviates of adjudications
and of inhibitions, are governed by special legislation. All
these are among the encumbrances for which search is made on
investigating a title. Decisions of criminal courts are said to
be recorded, not registered, except in the case of courts of
summary jurisdiction, in which, 'by the Summary Jurisdiction
Act 1879, a register of convictions is kept. Probates of wills
and letters of administration, which are really judicial decisions,
are registered in the principal or district registries of the probate
division. In Scotland registration is used for giving a summary
remedy on obligations without action by means of the fiction of
a judicial decision having been given establishing the obligation.
See also the separate articles LAND Rsorsrmrion;
SHIPPING; BILL or SALE; COMPANIES; FRIENDLY Socrnrins;
BUILDING Socrsrras; PRESS LAWS; Corvnronr; TRADE
MARKS; PATENTS, &c.
Registration of Voters.-Prior to 1832 the right of parliamentary electors in England was determined at the moment of the tender of the vote at the election, or, in the event of a petition against the return, by a scrutiny, a committee of the House of Commons striking oi those whose qualification was held to be insufficient, and, on the other hand, adding those who, having tendered their votes at the poll, with a good title to do so, were rejected at the time. A conspicuous feature of the Reform Act of that year was the introduction of a new mode of ascertaining the rights of electors by means of an entirely new system of published lists, subject to claims and objections, and after due inquiry and revision forming a register of voters. Registration was not altogether unknown in Great Britain in connexion with the parliamentary franchise before the Reform Acts of 1832. Thus in the Scottish counties the right to vote depended on the voter's name being upon the roll of freeholders established by an act of Charles II.; a similar register existed in Ireland of freeholders whose freeholds were under £20 annual value; and in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge the rolls of members of Convocation and of the Senate were, as they still are, the registers of parliamentary voters. But 'except in such cases as the above, the right of a voter had to be determined by the returning officer upon the evidence produced before him when the vote was tendered at a poll. This necessarily took time, and the result was that a contested election in a large constituency might last for weeks. The celebrated Westminster election of 1784, in which the poll began on the 1st of April and ended on the 17th of May, may be mentioned as an illustration. Moreover, the decision of the returning officer was not conclusive; the title of every one who claimed to vote was liable to be reconsidered on an election petition, or, in the case of a rejected vote, in an action for damages by the voter against the returning officer.
The inconvenience of such a state of things would have been greatly aggravated had the old practice continued after the enlargement of the franchise in 1832. The establishment of a general system of registration was therefore a necessary. and important part of the reform then effected. It has enabled an election in the most populous constituency to be completed in a single day. It has also been instrumental in the extinction 1 The antiquity of registration of 'this kind is proved by the age of the Registrurn Brevium, or r<§ ister of writs, called by Lord Coke “ a most) ancient book of the ommon Law ” (Coke upon Littleton, 159a .
