ST. AUSTELL PARISH GENEALOGY	Genealogy Index Main Menu

PROTESTATION RETURNS

A national protest aimed at Charles I was organised by Parliament in 1641 against an arbitrary and tyrannical government. On 3rd May 1641, it was decreed that members of the House of Commons should make a protestation against all Popery and Popish Innovations. In January 1641/42, the Speaker recommended that the Sheriffs, Mayors and others should also sign.

So it was in March that all men over 18 years of age made the protestation in the presence of two other people selected from the Ministers, Churchwardens and overseers of the poor. Each person signed a declaration of belief in the Protestant Religion, Allegiance to the King and support for
the Rights and Privileges of Parliament. Any person who refused to do so was not befit to hold office in the Church or Commonwealth. A record of names was kept of those refusing to make the protestation.

The document read as follows:

I, _______ do, in the presence of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest to
maintain and defend, as far as lawfully I may, with my Life, Power and
Estate, the true Reformed Protestant Religion, expressed in the Doctrine of
the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations, within this
Realm, contrary to the same Doctrine, and accord to the duty of my
Allegiance, His Majesty's Royal Person, Honour and Estate, as also to the
Power and Privileges of Parliament, the lawful Rights and Liberties of the
subjects, and every person making this Protestation, in whatsoever he shall
do in the Pursuance of the same, and to my power, and as far as lawfully I
may, I will oppose by all good Ways and Means endeavour to bring to condign
Punishment all such as shall, either by Force, or Practice, Counsels, Plots,
Conspiracies, or otherwise, do any Thing to the contrary of any Thing in
this present Protestation contained: and further, that I shall, in all just
and honourable ways, endeavour to preserve the Union and Peace betwixt the
Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland: and neither for Hope, Fear,
nor other Respect, shall relinquish this Promise, Vow and Protestation.

St. Austell Parish officials sent a message to Parliament that all persons required to sign the Petition had done so. To wit:

4th day of March, 1641

To the right honourable the house of Commons now assembled in Parliament. These are to certify that the Protestation decreed by the lawful authoritye of the aforesaid howse of Commons was by the parishioners and inhabitants with a general and free consent on the 8th day of June last taken and acknowledged before us the Minister Churchwardens and Constables of the said parish. And there is not any person within the said parish (required to express that duty) that hath refused the said protestation which is witnessed by the subscription of their several names and markes under their own hands to a schedule annexed to a printed copye of the said protestation which remaineth with us to be shewn whenever it shall be required; and Soe take our leaves Resting.

Josephus Maye          Vicar
John Honny + (his mark)
John Oppy                  Churchwardens
Walter Hodge
George Rescorla
Tristram Carlyan
Richard Paskowe       Constables

No record exists of the signing, nor is such a document recorded. Copies of other Protestation Returns from other Cornish parishes do exist, as do transcripts of these Returns.

The Protestation Returns are described in an article by L.W. Lawson Edwards in Gen. Mag. Vol. 19 No. 3 (Sep 1977) as the nearest we have for England, to a male adult census prior to 1841. The places for which Returns survive are listed in Protestation Returns 1641-1642 and Other Contemporary Listings by Jeremy Gibson and Allan Dell, FFHS.