LONDON PARISH REGISTERS.
The interleaving, of a little work in my possession, published by Kearsley in 1787, intitled Account of the several Wards, Precincts, and Parishes in the City of London, contains MS. notes of the commencement of the registers of fifty of the London parishes, and of four of Southwark, the annexed list[1] of which may be of use to some of the readers of "Notes and Queries." The book formerly belonged to Sir George Nayler, whose signature it bears on a fly-leaf.
| Allhallows, Barking | begins | 1558 | |
| ————— London Wall | " | 1567 | [1559 Pop. ret.] |
| ————— Lombard Street | " | 1550 | |
| ————— Staining | " | 1642 | |
| St. Andrew Undershaft | " | 1558 | |
| St. Antholin | " | 1538 | |
| St. Bennet Fink | " | 1538 | |
| ————— Gracechurch | " | 1558 | |
| St. Clement, Eastcheap | " | 1539 | |
| St. Dionis Backchurch | " | 1538 | |
| St. Dunstan in the East | " | 1558 | |
| St. Edmund the King | " | 1670 | |
| St. Gabriel, Fenchurch | " | 1571 | |
| St. Gregory | " | 1539 | [1559 Pop. ret., probably an error of transcriber.] |
| St. James Garlickhithe | " | 1535 | |
| St. John Baptist | " | 1682 | [1538 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Katharine Coleman | " | 1559 | |
| St. Lawrence, Jewry | " | 1538 | |
| —————— Pountney | " | 1538 | |
| St. Leonard, Eastcheap | " | 1538 | |
| St. Margaret Lothbury | " | 1558 | |
| —————— Pattens | " | 1653 | [1559 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Martin Orgars | " | 1625 | |
| ————— Outwick | " | 1678 | [1670 Pop. ret.] |
| ————— Vestry | " | 1671 | [1668 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Mary, Aldermanbury | " | 1538 | |
| St. Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street | " | 1712 | [1717 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Mary Mounthaw | " | 1568 | [1711 Pop. ret. A register evidently lost.] |
| St. Mary Somerset | " | 1558 | [1711 Pop. ret. A register missing.] |
| St. Mary Woolchurch, and St. Mary Woolnorth, both in one | " | 1538 | |
| St. Michael, Cornhill, | beg. before | 1546 | |
| —————— Royal | begins | 1558 | |
| St. Mildred, Poultry | " | 1538 | |
| St. Nicholas Acons | " | 1539 | |
| —————— Coleabby | " | 1695 | [1538 Pop. ret.] |
| —————— Olave | " | 1703 | |
| St. Peter, Cornhill | " | 1538 | |
| St. Peter le Poor | " | 1538 | [1561 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Stephen, Coleman Street | " | 1558 | |
| —————— Walbrook | " | 1557 | |
| St. Swithin | " | 1615 | [1754 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Andrew, Holborn | " | 1551 | [1558 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Bartholomew the Great | " | 1616 | |
| ——————— the Less | " | 1547 | |
| St. Botolph, Aldgate | " | 1558 | |
| St. Bride | " | 1653[2] | |
| St. Dunstan in the West | " | 1554 | [1558 Pop. ret.] |
| St. Sepulchre | " | 1663 | |
| Note.—The register prior burnt at the fire of London. | |||
| St. Olave, Southwark. "Register said by Bray's Survey to be as early as 1586. Vide vol. i. 111-607; but on a search made this day it appears that the register does not begin till 1685. Qy. if not a book lost?—5th Oct. 1829." | [1685 Pop. ret.] | ||
| St. George, Southwark, beg. abt. 1600 | [1602 Pop. ret.] | ||
| St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, begins 1548 (Lysons); but from end of 1642 to 1653 only two entries made; viz. one in Nov. 1643, and another Aug. 1645, which finishes the first volume; and the second volume begins in 1653. | |||
| St. Saviour, Southwark, begins temp. Eliz. | [1570 Pop. ret.] | ||
| St. Thomas, Southwark, begins 1614. | |||
Rob. Cole.
FOLK LORE.
Divination by Bible and Key seems not merely confined to this country, but to prevail in Asia. The following passage from Pérégrinations en Orient, par Eusèbe de Salle, vol. i. p. 167., Paris, 1840, may throw some additional light on this superstition. The author is speaking of his sojourn at Antioch, in the house of the English consul.
"En rentrant dans le salon, je trouvai Mistriss B. assise sur son divan, près d'un natif Syrien Chrétien. Ils tenaient à eux deux une Bible, suspendue à une grosse clé par un mouchoir fin. Mistriss B. ne se rappelait pas avoir reçu un bijou qu'un Aleppin affirmait lui avoir remis. Le Syrien disait une prière, puis prononçait alternativement les noms de la dame et de l'Aleppin. La Bible pivota au nom de la dame déclarée par-là en erreur. Elle se leva à l'instant, et ayant fait des recherches plus exactes, finit par trouver le bijou."