Southwick, near Oundle.
_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.