West Surrey

Winchester College owned Ash Manor which brought with it the advowson to Ash Parish and the College chose the person who was to be Rector; the Bishop of Winchester appointed that person. Many of the Ash Parish Rectors were absentee clergyman and employed Curates to take care of Ash Parish

“The Gentry tended to be a transient group as properties were bought and sold, people rose to prominence and then faded away, and were often absentee land owners. The Gentry were not members of the nobility but were entitled to a coat of arms, especially those owning large tracts of

In the previous post, we looked at notes and doodles entered into the first Ash Parish Register by George Cobbett, the Parish Clerk during the mid 17th century. The Register dates from 1549 to 1650 but the records we are going to look at here were entered into blank pages

Marriages had taken place in Ash Parish Church for hundreds of years, but the first one to be recorded in a Parish Register at Ash was when Thomas Courtnesse and Rose Gunner were married 30 November 1549. Some Sample Ash Parish Marriages Last Marriages Recorded in Ash Parish Register Volume

Baptism records in the Ash Register from 1548 to 1592 were copied from some earlier source into the surviving leather book in 1592 so the handwriting and style is the same for that period of 34 years. Note that the words ‘baptism’ and ‘christening’ are used interchangeably in the Register

Basic Facts A Note on Images: Original records from the Ash Parish Register are included and transcribed with edits to simplify the language, including names, for the modern reader. Image quality may not be the best as the records were written on parchment over four hundred years ago. Parchment was