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 Stokenham parish register
THE PARISH REGISTERS OF STOKENHAM
This work is dedicated to the Memory of my sister Pattie Vigers who loved Stokenham, where our dear parents married in 1928, and where she first met her husband Simon.

A. The General Scheme of the Transcription.
1. This is a transcription of the registers (apart from a very few illegible parts) of all recorded baptisms, marriages and burials at Stokenham from the earliest years up to and including, in the case of marriages, 1753, and in the case of baptisms and burials 1812. The Devon Family History Society has produced a transcript of the marriages from 1754 to 1837 (but without the names of the witnesses) and of the baptisms from 1813 to 1839 and of the burials from 1813 to 1837 for Stokenham (and there is also a CD index for the marriages from 1754 to 1837 in all the parishes in the Woodleigh Deanery).
2. I have attempted to supply for the purposes of a search the more usual spelling or form of the name (at any rate when the name is clear), but in the column to the right of the names I have set out (but see paragraph 3 below) the exact spellings of all the surnames as they appear in the original register. Even so a search for names such as Geffrey and Jeffrey, Gillard and Jellard, should be made under both names. A gravestone of Nathaniel Gillard of Cotmore states that he died on 16 June 1779 while the entry of his burial on 18 June 1779 reads 'Nathaniel Jellard'.
3. In past centuries there were many manuscript abbreviations, as, for example, would follow the letter p in words beginning pre-, per- and par-. Just about the only abbreviation on the computer keyboard is the apostrophe, and so the only two ways of transcribing such manuscript abbreviations are: either to spell the letters of the word without the abbreviation sign, e.g. pish (for parish), or, which I have usually done, to spell the word in full, e.g. parish, as dictated by the abbreviation. Thus 'Wm' is normally transcribed as William, and usually I have transcribed the full Christian name even if the name is shortened in the original. But surnames I have invariably transcribed letter for letter. Occasionally I have left in a quaint abbreviation, such as '8bris' or '8ber' for October. Usually I have translated 'vid' as widow. And I have resisted transcribing 'ye', quaint though it may be, for 'the', because the letter 'y' was never intended. The difference between a capital letter and a lower case one is not always clear, and so I have consistently used a capital letter for names, places and months in this transcription. It is highly unlikely that any difference is of any consequence, but should it be thought (maybe only by a pedant) to matter, the microfiche of the original or the original register should be looked at, the very operation this transcript is intended to render unnecessary!
B. Names.
4. The notion that there is a correct spelling for every name is soon dispelled by the very process of transcribing. The vicar or his deputy who made the entries in the register must often have been writing the name of somebody who could neither read nor write, and would enter the name as he heard it, and there were times during the process of transcription when the broad Devon accent of an earlier century could almost be heard.
5. Special mention should be made of a period when the writer's spelling can only be described as poor and quaint. The period is around the 1650s 1660s and 1670s and the writer can be identified from his spelling of the month as 'Feberary', and of the name 'Elezabeth'. Examples include Earell for Earle, Numan for Newman, Gorge for George, Onner for Honor, and Elicksander for Alexander. I think 'Grayse Fockes' (burial in 1670) refers to Grace Fox, and 'William Ewene eagd 80 od' (burial in 1672) is a good example. Some are far from clear: should Hinson be Hingston, and should Cowlles be Coles, and should Colle be Cole, and should Cawker be Coker, and should Jone (if clearly not Jane which is often far from clear) be Joan? I think so, but other evidence my readily show that I have opted for the wrong one.
6. In some cases it is easy to recognise the name and for the purposes of the index to give it its usual final form of recent times, such as Trout, Prettejohn, Luist, and Wakeham, however different the spelling may be, whether (in the last case) it be Wakecombe, Wakecome, Wakeham, Wakham, Wacom, Wackham, Wackeham, all of which appear.
7. All the above leads me to mention what is perhaps the most important function of the columns on the left and on the right. On the left I have stated the name as I understand it to be or to have become in more modern times; I may be wrong, but I have suggested it to assist the searcher for entries of that name. On the right I have transcribed letter for letter the surname as it appears in the register. For example, Pitts, on the left, is my reading of 'Peets' being, on the right, the letter for letter transcription (burial in 1670), and Ewen of 'Yewin' (burial in 1661). Without the suggestions the searcher for Pitts or Ewen would not find those entries. I do not claim infallibility, just a wish to assist in the belief that most differences can, with other evidence, lead to the correct name and family, whether confirming or contradicting my suggestions. A good example is the name of Papy or Patey; I have given on the left in all cases 'Patey' although on the right 'Papy' often appears. There clearly was an Ambrose Patey or Papy who had a wife Ibbot; at his baptism in 1697 his surname is written 'Papy'; the surname of his seven children baptized between 1719 and 1735 is either 'Papy' or 'Paty' and at his burial in 1754 it is 'Patey'.
8. Where real doubt cannot even be dispelled by looking at the original registers I have adopted the following:
(i) [?] or ? means that my choice of transcription is doubtful though possible;
(ii) A name in brackets with a question mark, e.g. [?King] means that an alternative name may be correct although I have preferred the first name set out, and sometimes in real doubt two names appear;
(iii) A series of asterisks indicates that the word or words of the approximate length (or a particular letter or letters) denoted by the number of asterisks is illegible in the original register.
(iv) A blank denotes usually a blank in the register itself or occasionally a passage that is missing because of wear or tear of the original.
C. The Forgeries.
9. I have entirely omitted the forged entries containing the surname Angell. Anybody wishing to know more about this strange matter is referred to the article intended to be published which I wrote for Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, Volume XLI part X.

D. Miscellaneous Notes
10. For many years before 1813 the burial register simply gives names with next to no mention whether the person is an infant or adult, wife or widow. I have sought to provide a little more by stating '[MI ]' in square brackets. That is a reference to the work of the late W.A. Roberts 'Records of Family Names' which he published in 1980 and which sets out what is written on the gravestones or other memorial inscriptions at Stokenham. Similarly [PCC Will] indicates that the will of the person buried was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
E. The Vicars of Stokenham.
11. There is after the burials of 1699 the following passage in the register:
'Copied from the opposite side March 24th Robert Holdsworth vicar 1810
Gilbert Laywell was vicar of Stokenham 1578
Robert Barry was vicar 1584
Edward Newcomen minister was buried Septr 2 1611-2
Timothy Basill vicar of Stokenham buried Sepr 19 1632
Jonas Stiles vicar of Stokenham inducted Decr 25 1632 buried June 19th 1663
Nicholas Meese inducted vicar of Stokenham Aug 14 1663
Peter Glub was inducted vicar of Stokenham Feby 7th 1664 was buried Apr 30 Mar 30 1674
Frederick Marker was inducted vicar of Stokenham April 22 1674 was buried Jany 6 1737
Henry Holdsworth was inducted vicar of Stokenham next and left it by cession for the rectory of South Pool April 25 1741
George Langworthy was inducted vicar of Stokenham April 25 1742 & was buried July 19 1767
Thomas Rennell was inducted vicar of Stokenham Sepr 1767
Caleb Rocket was inducted vicar of Stokenham 1802
Robert Holdsworth was inducted vicar June 1807
[There are further entries for later periods.]'
It does indeed appear to be an accurate copy from the 'opposite side' which is not as easy to read.

Peter Cowell 17 October 2016.
cowell_peter@hotmail.com


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Stokenham marriages 1574-1754 (Grooms)
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