As family historians, we read through thousands of pages of often illegible Parish Registers, kept over the centuries by the incumbent priest. It can be exhausting work, straining the eyes and testing our ability to read ancient scripts.It’s always a pleasure when you come across something a little different among the endless entries recording baptisms, marriages and burials.

Today I came across this little gem which suggests the priest had doubts as to the sincerity of the parents of little John Newton:

In the early 18th century, there were also clearly some hard feelings regarding the Old Catholic Church..