TABLE OF BAPTISMS AND BURIALS.

yearly is about one in thirty-five of the existing population; and the tabular returns give, in some instances, similar results; but, in particular years, a less or greater proportion is observable. Mr. Cooper says further, that about one-half of the population will be under twenty, and one-fourth under ten years of age.

Table of Baptisms and Burials, extracted from the Registers of the Parish of Burslem, from the Year 1702 to 1830, inclusive.

A. D. Baptisms. Burials. A. D. Baptisms. Burials. A. D. Baptisms. Burials.

219

* 1750 70

30 1760 81

24 1763 99

47 1770 114
39 1780 159

57

50

132

*43

110

1790 148 139

1800 184

182

1810 285

160+

1820 391

218

1830 308

175

The above Table extends to the year 1830 only;—that which follows contains the Marriages, as well as Baptisms and Burials, at the Parish Church (St. John's), and the Baptisms and Burials at St. Paul's Church (consecrated in Jan. 1831), for the eight subsequent years complete.

* The entries marked (*) where filled up, are evidently inaccurate. The year 1763 was one of great mortality; that and the two following years average 86 deaths per annum.

+ This year gives a rapid increase of births, but a decrease of deaths. We suspect some of the latter were omitted to be registered, as also in the years 1820 and 1830.

We give the following remarkable instances of longevity, in this parish, on the authority of a memorandum of the late Charles Tollet, Esq., of Betley Hall, dated in 1756.

Richard Bennett, died August 22, 1729, aged 109.
Margery, his wife

103.

Richard Robinson, her father

114.

Elizabeth Robinson, her mother

108.

Table of Marriages, Baptisms, and Burials, within the Parish of Burslem, from 1831 to 1838, inclusive.

A. D. Marriages.

1831

108

1832

97

1833 100

1834

92

1835

95

1836

105

1837

79

1838

70

Baptisms at

Burials at

St. John's. St. Paul's. Total. St. John's. St. Paul's. Total.

273

284

275

272

264

268

225

175

49

322

337

88

372

327

126

401

212

136

408

225

146

410

223

204

472

227

196

421

251

186 361 197

41

371

106

433

128

340

135

360

145

368

147

374

188

439

158 355

The first remark which is suggested by this Table, is the apparent decrease of MARRIAGES in 1837 and 1838; and, we naturally concluded, that the new Act,* which authorizes marriages being celebrated in duly licensed places, besides churches,--and has been in operation since the 1st of July, 1837, had occasioned such a falling-off; but, on applying at the office of the Superintendant Registrar, we find, that only four marriages, not solemnized at church, have taken place or been notified in the parish of Burslem, during the year 1858, and the same number the preceding year, and that all these parties were Roman Catholics; so that the decrease must be explained on other grounds. And we have reason to believe it arises from the very reprehensible practice, of young men getting the Banns of Matrimony published in distant country churches, (through the equally reprehensible lack of vigilance in the clergy of those churches,) and so getting married where they are unknown, to prevent any previous notice to their friends,

* 7 William IV. cap. 85.

PARISH-CHURCH OF BURSLEM.

221

or (as they think) to avoid wounding the delicacy of the young women's feelings by giving publicity to the Banns in their own neighbourhood;-little considering how immoral is the conduct of entering into the most solemn engagement of life, by the commission of a gross fraud upon the minister, and violating the laws of their country, which have prescribed the established forms, in order to prevent the evil of clandestine marriages.

With respect to BIRTHS, we find that the total number entered in the District Register for the Parish of Burslem, in 1838, was 527, including of course those baptized at the churches, which form more than two-thirds of the whole; and, (considering the prevalence of sects) mark the strong attachment of the people to their ancient religious rites. In fact, the number of baptisms solemnized at the churches in the years 1837 and 1838, exceeds the number in any two previous consecutive years.

Of DEATHS, the Church Registers contain, in 1838, 355, and the Registrar's book the same number; so that it is pretty clear that the office of District Registrar, for the Parish of Burslem, is not a very arduous one, and that the Act for Marriages, and the new Registration of Deaths, were rather superfluous pieces of legislation in this part of the United Kingdom. *

The Parish Church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist; and the body of it was rebuilt of brick, in 1717; having before that time been of timber and plaster. The situation, as well as the structure, is very low; and not very conveniently placed, in reference to the principal population. It is almost concealed by the buildings which enclose it on three sides. The church was lengthened twenty-one feet, and new roofed, in 1788. Its present length is, externally, 78 feet, the bow of the chancel 15 feet, and the square

A recurrence to Oliver Cromwell's law, (See p. 119) enabling Justices of the Peace to perform the Marriage Contract, in the few instances where parties might object to the forms of the church, would have answered every purpose of the late "Act for Marriages," and saved a great deal of expence and useless machinery.

of the tower 15 feet; the exterior breadth of the church is 48 feet, and it is calculated to hold about 700 persons, besides seats for children in the organ-gallery. The organ was erected by subscription among the parishioners soon after the church was enlarged; it is placed most inconveniently behind the pulpit, in a small gallery over the chancel. The salary of the Organist is paid out of the income of the market, and has been for many years £30 per annum.

The interior has a neat appearance, surpassing what the exterior indicates. There are no monuments inside the church, with the exception of a small marble tablet to the Memory of Mr. Daniel Haywood, and Sarah his wife.* The floor of the church having been relaid with stone-flags a few years ago, when flues for heating it were constructed under the aisles, all memorials of interments within the church have been removed, except a flat stone near the pulpit, inscribed, "To the memory of the Rev. Richard Bentley, Minister of Burslem, who died April 27, 1780, aged 35;" and, in the vestry, a stone on the floor is thus inscribed :

"Here lies the body of Thomas, brother of John Wedgwood, who died April the 8th, 1776, aged 68; also Mary, the wife of the above Thomas Wedgwood, who departed the 6th of July,....."

The tower is furnished with six bells, which were cast in 1827; two additional ones being then put up. The four old bells, which preceded them, were cast in 1720, and had become cracked and dissonant, so as to render re-casting necessary. They were inscribed as under :

1. Mr. Timothy Keen, Minister, 1720.

2. Prosperity to the Church of England

3. Luke Bennett, Benefactor to the Church and Bells.

4. John Marsh, Ralph Adams, and Samuel Malkin, Churchwardens, 1720.

"The former died November 26th, 1828, aged 91 years; the latter May 6th, 1834, aged 80 years.

"This tablet was erected to their memory by their grateful and affectionate children."

ENDOWMENT OF THE RECTORY.

223

The church-yard contains about two acres, having been enlarged in 1802; but, before the additional cemetery for the new church was provided, it had become very inadequate to the wants of the parish. Among the numerous tombs and monuments in the church-yard, none has claim to especial notice, either for style, legend, or the names recorded, if we except an altar-tomb standing due-north and south, near the south door, which has now lost its inscription, but is well-known to be the tomb of Miss Margaret Leigh, of Jackfield, who (as appears by the Register,) was buried the 1st of April, 1748. It has been attested as an undoubted fact, by old persons, who wellremembered the occurrence, that after the body had been interred some days, it was taken up, and placed in its present transverse position, for the purpose of pacifying the ghost of the deceased, which found no rest until this fortunate expedient was adopted. A very remarkable stone coffin, hewn to the shape of the body, lies exposed in the church-yard, and also some other similar remains of antiquity, brought hither (it is said) from Hulton Abbey, when its foundations were dug up several years ago. The coffin appears, from its narrow dimensions, to have contained the body of a female, being only fourteen inches across the shoulders; but she must have been tall, as it measures, internally, six feet three inches from head to foot. As a monastery was not a usual receptacle for ladies, this coffin has, with much apparent probability, been thought to belong to the Lady Elizabeth, relict of Nicholas, 5th Baron Audley, who bequeathed her body to be buried in the choir of Hulton Abbey, as we have already mentioned.*

The Rectory of Burslem, when carved out of the parish of Stoke, in 1807, was, by virtue of the Act of separation, endowed in perpetuity with the great and small tithes of

See Page 142, and the Pedigree, page 149.