1,090 baptisms  at Durham St. Margaret of Antioch, a chapelry in the parish of St. Oswald. The baptisms for 1765 – Mar 1768 and Apr 1769 - Mar 1770 are from the Bishop’s Transcript; the rest are from the parish register. Occupations were not recorded in this period here, except when the father was a soldier – for some reason, the clerk felt it necessary to record that fact. Some samples:

• 3 Feb 1765 Stephen Ross, son of William Ross & Margaret
• 22 Sep 1773 Rebeckah Brown, born 1771, daughter of William Walker (being the reputtative father) & Margaret Brown, A B [a bastard]; this child is about 2 years old at this time
• 15 Dec 1776 Bolton Ridson, son of Bolton Ridson (a soldier) & Mary
• 20 Apr 1783 Charles Denby, son of Charles Denby (a Soldier in the 68 Ridgement) & [blank]
• 16 Mar 1787 Jane Clamp, daughter of John Clamp & Jane

1,135 burials at Durham St. Margaret of Antioch, a chapelry in the parish of St. Oswald. This register was in very bad condition; parts of 1773-74 were so faded they were unreadable and there are lots of blank spaces and partial entries.  A few entries had only the date entered, with no names or descriptions attached.  We transcribed from the parish register for Jan-Mar 1765 and Mar 1770-Dec 1787, working from both the microfilm and from the original register when the film was unreadable. Only Apr 1765-Mar 1770 is from the Bishop’s Transcript.

Some samples of one useless and several useful entries:

• 4 Jan 1765 [blank], a strainger child
• 8 Jun 1766 Margaret Busby, widow of Livley Busby
• 15 Jul 1771 Ann Rickaby, daughter of Richard Rickaby
• 9 Apr 1775 George Hines, son of widow Hines
• 28 Mar 1780 Paul Nailer, soldier
• 18 Jun 1784 Thomas Heart, age: 118 years
• 18 Jan 1787 Thomas Coates, lunatick, pauper

Replaced the index to marriages at Whickham St. Mary for 1579-1749 with full details so those 3,199 marriages are now instantly available, including 12 we missed the first time around. Some samples:

• 15 Nov 1579 Anthony Grundy married Flanders Dalkin
• 23 Nov 1650 John Close married Barbary Taylor
• 6 Nov 1701 John Robinson (a soldier) married Jane Harrison, of Whickham, by licence
• 1 Aug 1749 George Bambrough married Elizabeth Wheatly

The third marriage provides a good lesson on how it pays to check the marriage bond when you see that a marriage is by licence. The accompanying bond adds the following useful details:

• 6 Oct 1701 John Robinson (yeoman), of Byermoor Lane, Whickham obtained a licence to marry Jane Harrison (widow), of [Whickham]