This description of the parish registers is taken from Volume 11 of Gloucestershire Parish Registers - Marriages, edited by W.P.W. Phillimore, M.A., B.C.L., and published in 1905 by Phillimore & Co.
The spelling, grammar and notes are all as recorded in the original book. Any additions to the original, such as these notes, are shown in blue coloured text.
The Marriage entries at Minchinhampton to 1812 are contained in seven volumes.
Vol. 1, a parchment-bound book of 105 parchment leaves, pp.210, containing Burials 1566-1684, Baptisms 1561-1684, and Marriages 1566-1684. The Marriage entries are kept separate from other entries for 1566-70, on pp. 7 and 8, also those for 1571 on p. 10, and for 1572-3 on pp. 11 and 12. From 1574 to the end of the volume they are mixed up with Baptisms and Burials. It is therefore possible that, in such a mass of entries a few may, in spite of great care, have been overlooked. On the whole the Register has been well kept, and some of the early writing is very good, that of the entries from 1612 to 1617 unusually so. From 1673 to the end of the volume the entries have been made by the Clerk or some illiterate person, and the spelling is very bad, though the writing is tolerable. Here is a specimen of the Clerk's registration :-
"November 1673.
"Margarett Perring wase buryed ye second day.
" of Cooke wase buried the 9th day.
" of Richard Hancock wase buried ye 9th day."
On page 146 is this curious entry :- Resolved uppon the question that all the glass of the windowes and the doores, wainscote and Binchees that are left, remain a deede of gift to the parsonage house of Minchinhampton. Provided allwaies that if thare come any claims or suite of lawe from any succeeding Minister or any other persone what-soe-ever for dilapidation, that then this p'sent act to bee voyde to all intentes and purposes, as if it had never been made. Will. Dolman."
Above is a note that "William Dolman, Minister of Minchinhampton, died the 8th day of Aprill, was buried the 12th day of Aprill 1649".
There are no entries of any civil Marriages before a Justice of the Peace during the years of the Commonwealth, nor any memorandum of the appointment of a Parish Registrar at that period.
The entries are defective 1646-51 (see note under date 1646), and also from May 1653 to 1658-9 (see note 1652).
The volume is headed on p. 1 :- "In Dei nomine : Amen Anno
"Domini 1558 et Anno Regui Dominae nostrae serenissimae
"Elizabetae Dei gratia Angliae Franciae et Hiberniae Reginae fidei
"Defensoria Primo."
The book is in a fair state of preservation and has no leaves lost, cut or seriously torn, but the stitching is giving way, and the binding would last better if it was repaired and stiffened.
The first entry is : -
"Februarie.
"Imprimis the xijth daie of februarie was buried Ric. Tailiar, of
"Forw[? ood], husbandma'."
The last entry on page 209 is:-
"March 1684.
"Timothy, the son of Timothy Bromfeild, Baptized ye 28th day."
Several allusions to the sale by the Churchwardens of "seete plasis in the galery" [seat places in the gallery] are mentioned among the Marriage entries.
Under date 1618 is the following entry :-
"Cernis in his chartis multorum nomina scripta ;
"haec sint in coelis nomina scripta, precor"
Vol. 2 is a parchment-bound book of 138 parchment pages, rather broader than Vol. 1. The first seven pages are written by a Rector in a very minute and neat handwriting ; the rest is of the untidy order of registration. Contains Baptisms, Marriages and Burials mixed up together1684-1718, and appears to be the work of Nathaniel Gardener, the clerk, whose name is so conspicuously mentioned as a witness to the marriage of Giles Pinfold 1699, with "several other parsons". His spelling is very erratic, the name Parker having from his hand the following variations :- Parcur, Parchar, Parkar, and even Parckur. Arundell becomes Arundul, Rundell, Randell, &c. Dudbridge becomes Dudgbridg and Dugbridg quite impartially; and Francis becomes Fransses, Joan Joen. His way of writing C for K as in Cerby and Ceene is peculiar. Whether Cooael (1691) is Sewell or Cole is wholly uncertain. Cemmes 1697 might be Sims or Kemys. Barrows is his version of Burroughs, Wolinton of Wallington, Pritchat of Prichard, Willars of, probably, Villiers (1697), Malar of Maller, Night of Knight, &c., &c. Some of these are likely to give the index maker a good deal of trouble.
Vol. III is of parchment, and contains the Marriages from 1720 to 1750. It contains 92 leaves, and measures 13.5 in. by 7.5 in. The subsequent volumes are after the usual form.