Broadhempston Parish Registers

Introduction

This is a transcript of all the surviving parish registers of St Peter & St Paul Broadhempston 1678-1900, deposited at the Devon Heritage Centre at Exeter. Also transcribed are the surviving Bishop’s Transcripts that pre-date the registers (1597-1671)  & the registers of Banns called 1824-1900, from which I have extracted the marriages that did not take place at Broadhempston. I have also included a series of incomplete lists identifying some of the parish officials.

Where the is a gap in the register post 1678 & the Bishop’s Transcript has survived I have placed this in the appropriate place. I have also on occasions combined the Bishop’s Transcript entry with that of the register where the latter was eroded or illegible, these are noted where they occur.  

The marriage registers are complete 1681-1900, but the following years are not found either in the registers & Bishop’s Transcripts;

Baptisms

1688/1689/1691/1692/1693/1694/1696/1701/1704/1705/1706/1707/1710/1711/1713.

Burials

1680/1681/1686/1687/1688/1689/1691/1692/1693/1694.

I have not “modernised” any dates, therefore prior to 1752 the calendar year runs from March 25th to March 24th. Dates seemingly out of sequence, or that over run the end of the year are as found in the registers or Bishop’s Transcript’s.

The period around 1700-1740 was somewhat difficult to transcribe as the penmanship, spelling & organisation was less than orderly & the papers had suffered a degree of damage. Due to these elements I checked, (for these years only), against the surviving Bishop’s Transcripts & found several inconsistencies, which I have noted where found. I would recommend that you also check any entries that are of interest to you in case there are any that I have missed.

The first register PR1/1 is a collection of loose papers (some repaired) housed within the register. An inside cover inscription reads “This book of registers was repaired at the expense of the parishioners Oct 4th 1856”. They appear to have been sewn together at some point in the past. It contains a rough draft of Baptisms 1777-1822 & Burials 1785-1818. Although these rough drafts have entries missing that are on the registers proper; in some cases however  they may contain more information than the register’s, especially post 1812 when they entries became formalised.

The Broadhempston entries on the IGI are incomplete, being taken from a transcript of PR/1/1 held in the library of the Devon & Cornwall Record Society. Both have the following entries; Baptisms 1681-1703/1714-1734/1777-1822 & Marriages  1681-1736; & the transcript has Burials 1678-1735/1786-1818.

Find My Past has images of all the deposited parish registers 1678-1915 on its website. However during my research I have found that a page from the marriage register for 1756 was missed containing entries 13-16; & that the burial register for 1813-1875 starts at entry number 49 in 1818. All of these missing entries survive on the microfiche at the Devon Heritage Centre & are present in this transcript. 

My thanks to the ever helpful staff of the Devon Heritage Centre at Exeter for allowing me access to the original registers & Bishop’s Transcripts.

Jeff Ellis, Newton Abbot, 2016.