In 1538 it was ordered that every baptism, marriage and burial performed
by a parish priest should be recorded in a register. Most entries
were made on paper, often on loose sheets, but few registers have
survived from this date. However
Wolverhampton
is fortunate in that the registers for the main church, St Peter's
Collegiate, date back to 1539 for baptisms, marriages, and burials.
Sixty years later the system was improved by the introduction
of 'parchment registers' for the recording of entries. It was also
required that all previous entries be copied into these books.
However, the wording of the measure only required priests to copy
the entries from 1558 onwards and not for the previous 20 years.
Registers of baptisms 1539-1812, marriages 1539-1838 and
burials 1539-1812 have been indexed by surname.
These registers have been transcribed by Pat Galloway and converted into
PDF files by staff at
Wolverhampton
Archives & Local Studies. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat
Reader in order to see the files.
Bilston St. Leonard,
Wednesfield St. Thomas, and Willenhall St. Giles are
also included on this website.