The frequency of names in the Church Registers
The Registers begin in 1558 & are more or less continuous. The period of the Commonwealth with its supposed appointment of the Civil Register, an official for whose actual existence I see no real proof, seems to contain selected entries only. Most of these were apparently made at a single sitting in 1665. If a lay official did keep records I think they have been lost.
In the period 1558 to 1740 there are 1800 entries, about 10 p.a. so the record must be incomplete. The commonest, earliest, longest & still surviving name is Smith. Samuel Joseph with Daisy Eleanor lived in Newhouse Farm in 1908/9 & Smiths still occupy ParkView only 800 yds away from the site of Rev Hy Havers old house.
The frequency of the commoner names in this period is:
| Name | Entries |
|---|---|
| Smith | 65 |
| Levitt | 60 |
| Choate vv | 50 of which 3 were Choote |
| Playle | 45 |
| Houlton | 39 |
| Peacock | 37 |
| Gowlett | 29 |
| Barnud vv | 20 |
| Agnes | 15 |
Return to Chapter 3 – The people