INTRODUCTION The district covered by the two registers of Brindle and Samlesbury, now presented, forms roughly a triangle between the three towns of Preston, Blackburn , and Chorley ; Brindle, lying almost exactly in the centre of the area , and Samlesbury towards the north on the high road from Preston to Blackburn , being about three miles from the former, and five miles from the latter . It was originally intended to include the registers of Brownedge, which adjoins on the west, but it would have made the volume too bulky . The Brindle registers will be found to be amongst the most interesting of any yet published by the Society . Commencing in 1721-2, whichis about 50 years earlier than the majority of Lancashire registers, there are not only a large number of baptismal entries for each year, but also lists of marriages and burials from the same early date, which is most unusual, and of great importance to the genealogist . There are also lists of conversions which is an uncommon feature, and of confraternities and confirmations . The amount of family information given in the burials 1722-1766when the registers were kept by Dom William Placid Naylor, O.S.B. , is quite unique, and makes one regret that other missioners did not keep their records in the same interesting way. It is only right that a tribute should here be paid to the memory of the late Mr Joseph Gillow, to whom the Society owes such a debt of gratitude. Without an equal in the post -reformation history of Catholicityin this country, he was , of course , especially at home when tracing the fortunes of Catholic families in his own county of Lancashire, very few of the older families of any class not having been the subject of his most interesting notes in the various publications of the Society, and particularly in Volumes IV (Burghley's map of Lancashire) , VI (Recusants under Charles II), and the four volumes of Lancashire registers. Mr Gillow had promised to write the historical notes for both of the missions now printed, and to annotate the entries , but, owing to the unusual time taken in getting this volume through the press , he was barely able to complete Brindle before his last illness overtookhim, and we are left to mourn one who has done yeoman service in the cause of Catholic research, and whose loss , even yet, is hardly realised
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. R.I.P. After the death of Mr Gillow, Dom Joseph Edward Smith, O.S.B., of Ampleforth Abbey, who had alreadyvery kindly corrected all the proofs from the originals , again came to the rescue of the Society, undertakingat short notice to write the historical notes for Samlesbury, and the Society is very greatly indebted to him for the able way in which he has carried out this task. J. P. SMITH. P.S. Re the note on page 305 , attention may be called to the Samlesbury register , in which, out of thirteen baptismal entries of the Hubberstey family (pp. 313-329) no less than fifteen different spellingsare used . The same family appears in the Brindle registers, but Dom Placid Naylor always gives it as Huberche .
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