Un-identified Harewood Baptisms Parchment
This copy of a parchment is amongst papers that were sent to William L. Stables Jnr of Harrisonburg, USA by his Uncle Alfred Gray Stables in April 2004. It could be one of those referred to in The Notices of the Stables Family (click here to see the reference).
It is unclear exactly what this document actually is. It appears to be extracts from either the parish register, the Bishop's Transcripts of the parish register or some kind of Family Bible. The handwriting appears to be consistent with the style of the 17th and 18th centuries but there are some very strange inconsistencies in the text. For example, if taken literally, it refers to 'Grace the wife of James Stables' being baptised on October 3rd, 1627.
If this were Grace Hardistie, who married James Stable of Stank, she would, according to other records, have been under 4 years of age at marriage! Clearly, this could not be so. However, if it were meant to read 'Grace the daughter of James Stables' , a puzzle still remains, as the earliest recorded James at Harewood was born in 1621.Was there another James living in Harewood at this time?
This document was very kindly provided by William L. Stables Jnr of Harrisonburg, USA.
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[illegible date]
1621 James the sone of William Stable of hetherick was baptised the xxviiith of November 1621. Also buryed [Illegible Word] Grace the wife of James Stables Was baptized the third day of October 1627 frances the daughter of James Stables of hetherick Was baptized vith of September 1646 Rebecca the daughter of James Stables was baptised the xvth Of febbruarie 1649 Grace the daughter of James Stable of hetherick Was baptized the first of Jannuarie 1652 1654 William the sone of James Stables Baptised december the James the sone of James Stables was baptized the 22 of [illegible] 1655 Sara the daughter of James Stables was baptized 1657 marie the daughter of James Stables was baptized 29 of December 1659 1659 commultusallis Anne the daughter of James Stable was baptized. |
A Possible Explanation
The most likely explanation for the inconsistencies in this document is that it is a composite of numerous distinct entries from the Bishop's Transcripts, which have been either manually, or electronically, 'cut-and-pasted', or copied, onto a single sheet, as follows:
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[illegible date]
1621 James the sone of William Stable of hetherick was baptised the xxviiith of November 1621. Also buryed [illegible word]..... |
| .....Grace the wife of James Stables. Was baptized the..... |
| third day of October 1627..... |
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.....Frances the daughter of James Stables of hetherick. Was baptized vith of September 1646..... |
The compiler having mistakenly taken the line after Grace's entry instead of the preceding line, which would have shown the correct context of her entry, or may have omitted both. A similar error may have been made with the entry for Frances, which perhaps also carries the date of the succeeding register entry instead of her own.
It will not be possible to resolve this mystery until the actual Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts for Harewood have been viewed.