Parish Register of Kempston (1570

This is what Mr FG Emmison wrote, in 1949, as the preface to his transcription of the Kempston Parish Register:

In 1801, the date of the first census, Kempston ranked as the eleventh Bedfordshire parish in order of population; this, combined with the fact that its Register is practically complete from 1570, has resulted in the present volume being somewhat longer than usual.

There are only seven parishes in the county with a larger area than Kempston. The winding course of the Ouse, which is its boundary for nearly four miles, partly accounts for the freakish shape of the parish, which has four long arms stretching north-west, north-east, south-east and south-west. The last extends as far as Buckinghamshire and in the opposite direction it adjoins St. Mary’s in Bedford. The rapid building development of Kempston, at first known as New Town, now joins up to Bedford; it took place long after the end of our period (1812), but the remainder of the parish, turned (since the creation of the Kempston Urban District in 1894) Kempston Rural, is still largely a true description. The dwellings were clustered in numerous "ends", of these seven are named in the Register. Up End and Bell End, now absorbed into the Urban District, were the largest, almost contiguous, and formed the "village", shown clearly on Jefferys’ Map of Bedfordshire, 1765. The mother church (and the only church until St. John’s was built in Up End in 1868) gave its name to Church End, perhaps the smallest "end", which was about half a mile to the west of the main village.

In 1801 the population was 1,035. Its growth since 1570 seems to have been at a fairly normal rate, judging from the slow increase in the number of baptisms; and from the Hearth Tax lists of 1671 it is estimated that the population was then about 750.³ Occupations are recorded for various periods, viz., in the baptisms 1663-67, 1706-32 (supplemented by the "Bishop’s Transcripts", 1699-1706), and 1750-57 (similarly supplemented in 1812); in the marriages 1699-1725; and in the burials 1599-1613, 1662-1732, thereafter less regularly to 1798. The picture is one of a parish almost wholly engaged in agricultural pursuits, with a high proportion of dairymen and shepherds (see Index to Occupations, p.116). Of additional facts, the mother’s name does not occur until as late as 1742, after which it is given regularly to the end; the date of birth is entered 1742-67 and 1783-1812; and the age at death 1764-66 and 1769-76.

In many registers an incumbent has left his mark over the rest by his outstanding zeal. At Kempston, Joseph Margetts, vicar from 1680 to 1724, undoubtedly occupies this place of honour. He wrote all the entries himself in a good hand until shortly before his death, contributed many memoranda, and in a separate thin book (see p.100) recorded several other special items.

The numerous memoranda include three classes rarely found. One is the note of the licence granted in1632 to Thomas Fountaine "for eating flesh during the tyme of his sicknesse" in Lent, a prohibited period. The second refers to "the picturesque custom of treating the king’s evil (scrofula) with the divine power of the royal touch. It was, of course, founded upon the doctrine of the king being the Lord’s anointed... At the Restoration it became more popular than ever, and it is recorded that 90,798 persons were touched between 1660 and 1683... To prevent the abuse of the custom it was provided that sufferers should not enter the royal presence unless they could produce a certificate from the incumbent and wardens of their parish.¹ And so, early in 1684, the King’s Proclamation to this effect duly arrived at Kempston (see p.100); having been publicly read it was displayed in the church. We have a special "register" of the five persons who were given certificates between 1684 and 1688 and of one more in 1704 who was, presumably, treated by Queen Anne, the last monarch to touch. The third memorandum is a register of the vagrant beggars whipped and sent to their place of settlement, 1690-99.²

The scarcity of wheat in 1795, the year of abnormal distress in a decade of deficient harvests, is reflected in the note giving some of the prices at Bedford market (p.99).⁴

The christening of a whole family of children on the same day is a frequent occurrence in Kempston Register. Seven children of one family were baptised in 1696, six in 1775, four in 1776, and three in 1802, 1803, 1809 and 1811. Adult baptisms were common between 1805 and 1812 when eighteen persons were baptised whose ages ranged from 12 to 48 years; in the burials 1801 to 1812 eighty-seven infants were buried unbaptised. These facts may have been partly due to the slackness of the clergy but the great size of the parish may have been a contributory cause, the outlying "ends" being two and even three miles from the church.

Noteworthy items in the Register include the following; (1589) Jeffry Addington senior and junior married Alice Bedels and Mary Bedels respectively on the same day; and (1686) Thomas Ford senior married Mary Neave senior, and Thomas Ford junior married Mary Neave junior. (1776) The marriage entry of George Sanders and Sarah Sanders is signed by 13 witnesses, four of whom were named Dennis; one of the manors of Kempston was in the possession of the Dennis family from 1660 to 1813. (1808) "Elizabeth Jurden widow, nearly 100 years old" was buried, having been married in 1741. (1617) The horoscope is given at the birth of a son of Sir John Fitzwilliam, the last representative of a family which had owned one of the Kempston manors for eighty years. The burial entries of 1607, 1634 and 1671 record benefactions to the poor by members of other substantial landowners.

The only entries of burials in linen, 1725 and 1735, are of two members of the Cater family which, after a brief interval, had succeeded the Fitzwilliams.

In 1799 a man was drowned on returning from his brother's wedding; he was one of nine persons claimed by the river at various times.

At least three generations of Brooks acted as parish clerks; Robert is mentioned in 1750, he died in 1766 aged 75; John died in 1790; and at the end of Volume V the vicar recorded his appointment of William Brooks in 1832.

The Kempston family names which seem to have persisted throughout the greater part of our period are: Barker (1616-1806), Brooks (1599-1812), Cooper (1579-1810), Crowsley (1574-1812), Dennis (1581-1811), Garner (1585-1812), Reade (1579-1797), Stokes (1572-1812), Watts (1609-1808), White (1570-1812), Worrall (1620-1812) and Wright (1588-1812).

The population of the parish in 1801 was 1,035 and in 1931 was 6,490; its area is 5,026 acres. The adjoining parishes are Stagsden, Bromham, Biddenham, Bedford (St. Mary), Elstow, Wilshamstead, Houghton Conquest, Wootton and Cranfield, and Astwood, the last being in Buckinghamshire.

Vol.	Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
I	1570-1653, 1653-61 (Births), 1661-99	1570-1699	1570-1678
II	1700-1762	1700-1754	1679-82, 1689-1761
III	1679-82, 1689-1761		1762-1788
IV		1754-1798
V	1789-1812		1789-1812
VI		1798-1812

The following "Bishop’s Transcripts" supply entries for deficient periods in the original Register:-
Burials
1683-88

These include churchwardens’ accounts and rates, 1617-18, 1678-87, 1732-71; overseers of the poor accounts, 1628-42, 1674-82, 1752-87, 1801-34; poor rate books, 1625-34; select vestry minutes, 1820-34. Some of these records have been deposited in the County Record Office, Bedford.

The editor gratefully acknowledges a donation from the Kempston Urban District Council towards the cost of publication.

¹ W.E.Tate, The Parish Chest (1946), p.156. Mr Tate's statement that there are "many traces in parish records" is not borne out in Bedfordshire and Essex.
² For a similar memorandum, 1678-87, see Milton Bryan (Beds. Par. Reg. xxxvii, p.A41).
³ Lydia M.Marshall, "The Rural Population of Bedfordshire, 1671 to 1921" (Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc., xvi, 124).
⁴ For action taken in an attempt to remedy the distress in Bedfordshire, 1795-1801, see F.G.Emmison, "The Relief of the Poor at Eaton Socon" (Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc., xv, 55-59).