16th CENTURY CLAVERING BAPTISM REGISTERS

Clavering is fortunate to have a set of parish registers that go right back to the 16th century when they were first made compulsory. The early registers are of course now locked away in the ERO for safe-keeping, but easy to consult through fiche copies held at the Essex Record Office and also on sale. The very first Clavering Register begins:

‘Here begineth the register of christenings marriages & buringe of the parish of Clavering in the county of Essex made the first & second of the reign of Philip & Mary Kinge & Quene of England France & Napelles defender of the faith 1554’. This was transcribed by the late Recorder, Eileen Ludgate who notes that this is followed by two lines of very small illegible writing. Here are the very first entries she noted:

‘The VIIIth daye of Auguste was christenyd George Daye the son of George Day Jun.’ Then follows these names for 1554-1555
 

For the rest of 1555 there are a further 19 illegible entries. If anyone else is able to read these from the fiche, please do let us know. The 1556-58 entries are clearer and include the following surnames:

Campion, Cotton, Dane, Dellowe, Dixson, Elys, Frohagg, Goodman, Groute, Hagger, Hanchet, Harbard, Jepps, Meade, Page, Pigge, Rombold, Skott, Smythe, Stalland, Totman, Verley, Waren, Wheler.

And so it goes on down the centuries – thousands of Clavering folk many of them buried in the churchyard although others must have travelled and ended up elsewhere. None of these early surnames is found in Clavering today, but a few continue to turn up until the 19th century – Dellow and Rumble or Rumbold were still common then. In most cases it is virtually impossible to trace a direct line from any particular family right back that far, but if the same names survive, it seems likely there were common ancestors. As an example, there was a Nycholas Barnard baptised in 1604, son of Nycholas – and until recently there was still a Barnard in Clavering, whose family could be traced to the 19th century, but proving a direct descent from the 16th century is difficult.