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Middleton Branch Record Book Preface & Apology |
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[ Middleton Branch Staffordshire or Cheshire] A GENERAL RECORD OF
THE PROCEEDINGS OF
THE COUNSILL OF THE
MIDDLEWICH BRANCH
AND ALSO A
REGISTER
Of Baptisms Confirmation Ordinances
Compiled and Transcribed By
THOMAS LEWIS
APOLOGY AND PREFACE
To whom it may concern.
It would have afforded me great satisfaction if I could have written a complete record from the time that this Branch was organised which was in the early part of 1840 but I am sorry to say it is far otherwise, for the first five years after the Branch was organised there is very little on record whereas it is well known that a great amount of business was done by the counsel within this period and all by it recorded, but it has been carelessly lost or wilfully destroyed, but the latter I believe is the case and I could produce a reason why I believe it but I shall forbear moreover. These records that are preserved are sadly deficient for the various clerks that has recorded the minutes at the several meetings have written so ?indefinitely that it has been with much difficulty that I got to know their real meaning and in many places I have been compelled to leave items out because I could not get the meaning thereof, and I considered it a vain thing to write without a meaning.
I hope the reader will not complain and say that he cannot decipher my scribble, for although I am but a scribbler at the best of times and in addition to this my hand trembles very badly through the weakness of my body (being sick of consumption) yet I have indeavoured to make my ?remarks legible, and although I do not understand the rules of grammar, yet I have endeavoured to give plain renderings so much so that I think it will not require a interpreter, however let this be as it may I full inclined to content myself with the idea that I has done my best.
With sentiment of high esteem for all sincere seekers after truth I subscribe myself their brother and fellow labourer in the bonds of the new and everlasting convenant.
Thomas Lewis
[We are awaiting advice to determine if we are able to include the names and data from the book under fair use and expired copyright, particulalry as the record was created in England over 100 years]
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