On this day in Wembury — 2 April 1611

The parish registers of Wembury record 2 April 1611 as the first entry for baptisms in St Werburgh’s Church, marking the beginning of continuous formal record-keeping of baptisms in the parish.

This date is significant because it reflects the implementation in practice of the requirement, under the Church of England, that every parish keep registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. Wembury’s baptisms begin reliably on this date; burials also have their earliest entries close by (10 April 1611), and marriages from 21 May 1612.

The start of these records places Wembury in the broader pattern of early 17th-century Devon parishes formalising their registers, following the injunctions and canon laws enacted since mid-16th century (after Henry VIII’s break with Rome and through Elizabethan and Jacobean times). Prior to this, informal or partial records (if any) may have existed, but the registers from 2 April 1611 mark the first systematic recording by name in Wembury parish.