In 1538, Thomas Cromwell, the Vicar General, ordered clergy to keep written records of baptisms, marriages and burials. These records were kept in each parish, in paper books. Sometimes the entries were noted chronologically, and sometimes the books were divided into three sections and baptisms, marriages and burials were entered separately.
Not all the clergy complied with this order, and so there was an injunction in 1597, approved in 1598, which confirmed the mandate and ordered the clergy to copy entries from the paper registers to parchment books. The clergy were expected to copy up the registers from the beginning, but many chose to interpret the ruling to mean that registers were to be copied from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign in November 1558. Each incumbent was also obliged to copy his register every year and send it to the bishop; these copies are known as Bishops Transcripts.
In some parishes, there are large gaps in the registers in the Commonwealth period, between about 1645 and 1660, when some of the Royalist clergy were deprived of their livings. In 1653 Parish Registers were appointed to record births, marriages and burials in their parishes, and they were expected to provide parchment books for the purpose. Only civil marriages after publication of banns were legal, but people often had a church ceremony as well.
The recording of burials was affected by the Burial in Woollens Acts of 1667 and 1678 which required that the deceased were buried in a woollen shroud. An affidavit had to be sworn at, or shortly after, the burial, to this effect. Some parishes kept separate registers of burials in woollen, while others recorded the affidavits in the burial register itself.
An Act passed in 1694, effective from 1695, imposed a tax on the registering of births, marriages and burials. It remained in force until 1706. Paupers were exempt from paying the tax. One effect of the Act was that registers for this period often contain lists of non-conformists who were not baptised in the parish church.
Apart from recording affidavits, or the payment of taxes, there were no rules on the amount of information to be entered in registers at this period. The earliest registers record the barest essentials, for example, some baptism entries record only the child’s name, and some marriage entries record only the groom’s name and his bride’s Christian name. As the parchment pages were blank, the writer could enter whatever facts he chose, so it is not unusual to find a paragraph written on the baptism of the clerk’s child, and only a line on everyone else’s. The incumbent could also resort to writing comments in Latin about his parishioners’ moral failings if he wanted to keep his views secret. The exceptions to this pattern of record keeping are the "Dade" registers, named after Rev. William Dade of Yorkshire. These baptism and burial registers date from the late 18th century to 1812. They record detailed information about the person being baptised or buried, naming their parents and even grandparents.
In 1753 Hardwicke’s Marriage Act was passed to regularise the solemnization of marriages. It was effective from 1754, and meant that couples had to marry by banns in the home parish of one party, or by licence. It prevented clandestine marriages and required that all couples had to be married in the parish church for the marriage to be deemed legal. Only Quakers and Jews were exempt from this ruling because their record keeping was so good. The legal age at marriage was still 12 for girls and 14 for boys, but those getting married by licence had to have the permission in writing of a parent or legal guardian if they were under 21. Baptisms and burials were entered in the same parchment registers as before, but a separate marriage and banns register was kept in each parish from this date. For the first time the bride and groom and two witnesses had to sign the register. Usually the couple’s parishes of residence were given.
The format of parish registers changed again in 1812 when George Rose’s Act was passed. Baptisms, marriages and burials had to be recorded in three separate books with printed pages. This gave the clergy less scope for adding their own comments in the register, but it meant that baptism entries had to record the child’s name, the parents’ names, abode and father’s occupation, and burial registers recorded the deceased’s age and abode. Baptism and burial registers were unaffected by the introduction of civil registration in 1837, but marriage registers changed to conform with civil marriage registers.
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