CHAP. V.

Croydon Register.

THE first Croydon Register, says Doctor Ducarel, bound in Russia leather at the expense of Isaac Heard, Esq. late of the Herald's office, is still in good preservation. It commences in 1538, when Cromwell, vicar-general, gave an order for parish Registers to be kept throughout the kingdom.

It appears from this Register that the number of persons who died of the plague, and were buried at Croydon in the 17th century, was very considerable; between the months of July 1603 and April 1604, it amounted to 158; in the year 1625, to 76; in 1626, to 24; in 1631, to 74: between the 27th July, 1665, and the 22d March, 1666, the number amounted to 141.

There is in the Register a memorandum, stating, that" from the 11th to the 18th of August 1603, 3054 persons died of the plague, in London and the liberties thereof, and that many died in the highways near about the

citie:" and that also " from the 25th of August to the 1st of September, 3385 persons died."

In the Register are to be found, several instances of longevity; one woman aged 99 years; two women aged 100 years; one man and one woman aged 101 years; one woman aged 105 years.

The Register contains the name of Alexander Barkley, who was buried on the 10th June 1552. He was of Oriel College Oxford, and afterwards became a Monk of the Benedictine Order at Ely, and of the Franciscan at Canterbury. He wrote an imitation of the well known poem of BRANDT, called Navis Stultifera, the Ship of Fools.

It appears from a line of this poem quoted by Warton in his History of English Poetry, that Alexander Barkley lived at Croydon in his early days;

"While I in youth in Croidon town did dwell,”

He published also a work against John Skelton, Poet Laureat to Henry VIII. the lives of some of the Saints, and other performances.

In the Register are entered the funerals of

Archbishops Grindall, 1st August, 1583; Whitgift, 27th March, 1604; Abbot (who was interred at Guildford) 3d September, 1633; Sheldon, 16th November, 1677; Wake, 9th February, 1736; Potter, 27th October, 1747; Herring, 24th March, 1757.

There are to be seen also the following entries: "Elizabeth, daughter of John Kynge, and Clemence (wyfe of Samuel Fynch, vicar, by the space of seven years) mother of five children at several births, of the age of 21 years; deceased the 17th day of Nov. and was buried the 18th A. D. 1589."

"Mem.-That whereas Samuel Fynche, vicar of Croydon, lycensed Clemence Kynge, the wife of John Kynge, brewer, to eate fleshe in the time of Lente, by reason of her sicknesse, which lycence beareth date the 29th of Feb. and further that she the said Clemence, doth as yet continue sicke, and hath not recovered her health; know ye therefore, that the said lycence continueth still in force, and for the more efficacie thereof, ys here registered according to the statute, in the preşence Th. Mosar, churchwarden of the said parish of Croydon, the 7th of March, in the 38th year of the Queens Majs. most gracious reign, and for the registering thereof there is paid unto the curate 4d,”

"December 1607, the greatest frost began the 9th day of this month, it ended on Candlemas eve."

"Francis Tyrrell, citizen and merchant of London, was buried the 1st. of Sep. 1609, and his funeral kept at London the 13th of the same month. He gave £200 to the parishioners of Croydon, to build a new market house, and £40 to repair our church, and 40s. a year to our poor of Croydon, for 18 years, with manie other good and great legacies to the citie of London."

"Feb. 12, 1614-5, this was the day of the terrible snow, and the Sunday following a greater."

"A description of a monstrous birth, born of the body of Rose Easterman, wife of John Easterman, being a child with two heads, four armis, four legs, one body, one navel, and distinction of two male children, and was born the 27th of January 1721-2,

CHAP. VI.

Public Buildings.-The Church.

IN our account of the public buildings of Croydon, we shall have to consider principally such as are of religious and charitable establishment; the church therefore, will be the first object of our attention.

It appears that there was a church at Croydon in the time of the Saxons; for the will of Bythric, and Elfroyth, made about the year 960, and printed in the Perambulation of Kent, is attested by Elffie the priest of Croydon. We learn from Domesday that here was a church in the days of Archbishop Lanfranc; it most probably stood where the church now stands; for if the present had been built upon any other than ground already consecrated, its consecration would have appeared in the Register of the Archbishop in whose time it was built; the rule of the Canon law being never to consecrate a church, unless the former one had been consumed by fire, or the church desecrated, or built upon unconsecrated ground. If a church happened to be polluted by any