T. R. BROWN.
Parish Registers (Vol. iv., p. 473.; Vol. v., pp. 36. 141.).
—Notwithstanding the high legal tone which pervades the replies you have received on Parish Registers, I cannot acquiesce in the conclusion that "the genealogical or archæological inquirer has in general no right to inspect," much less to copy, the Register Books. What object could there be in enforcing the keeping and preservation of registers by the officiating ministers, even under the pain of transportation for fourteen years of any person wilfully injuring them, and the cost to parishes for providing iron chests, except it be "for the inspection of persons desirous to make search therein, and obtain copies from and out of the same." (52 Geo. III. cap. 146.) And by the act just quoted, the minister and the public are bound with regard to fees due on searching, and for copies. He is entitled "to all due legal and accustomed fees on such occasions, and all powers and remedies for recovery thereof." And by the 49th section of a more recent Registration Act (6 & 7 Wm. IV.), registers of baptisms and burials may still be kept, and, by inference, the fees are included; because by the 35th section the fees for the examination of the registers created by this last act are defined; but then they apply only to those registers, the power of that act being only prospective, not retrospective.
The following note, made many years ago, from Phillip's Law of Evidence (which, from the number of editions it has passed through, must be supposed to be a work of considerable weight), will probably set the question at rest, as he refers to adjudged cases:
"Parish registers are public books, and persons interested in them have a right to inspect and take copies of such parts as relate to their interest.—Geery v. Hopkins, 2 Lord Raym. 850.; Warriner v. Giles, 2 Stra. 954.; Mayor of Lond. v. Swinhead, 1 Barnardist. 454."
The reply, therefore, to the Query of D. (Vol. iv., p. 474.) seems to be, that any person has a right to consult the parish registers, not gratuitously, but on payment of the accustomed fee.
H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Clyst St. George.
It may be of use to D. (Rotherfield), to be referred to the Justice of the Peace for 31st January, 1852, wherein, at p. 76., he will find an opinion given, that, for the search the clergyman has a right to charge 1s. and no more, whatever may be the number of names, unless the search extended over a period of more than one year, when he would be entitled to 6d. extra for every additional year.