Parish Register Society of Dublin, The Registers of St. Catherine, Dublin, 1636-1715, 1908

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Printed for the Parish Register Society of Dublin by William Pollard & Co., and first published in 1908 is volume V of the Parish Register Society of Dublin, the Registers of St. Catherine, Dublin, 1636-1715. Republished here in fully-searchable electronic format the registers for St. Catherine are amongst the oldest surviving parish records in Ireland. By Act of Parliament on 1875 the parish registers of the Established Church of Ireland were placed under the Control of the Master of the Rolls. However, by the time of the publication of volume I of the Parish Register Society in 1906, one of the main conditions of the Act, namely the concentration, collection and depositing of the parish registers of the former Established Church in the Public Record Office of Ireland in Dublin, had not taken place. In a sense and with hindsight this transpired to be fortuitous as many of the parochial records that did find their way to the Public Record Office were destroyed in the infamous 1922 fire. In line with the formation of a number of Parish Register Societies in England, it was deemed necessary by the founding members of the Parish Register Society of Dublin to make publicly available the older and more important surviving parish registers of the Established Church of Ireland, beginning with the oldest in the country, those of Dublin City, for the valuable work undertaken by genealogists and local and family historians. There would appear to have been no obligation to keep parish registers in Ireland until the Canon of 1634, although there had been an abortive attempt to introduce a form of public registration as early as 1617. However, this was discontinued in 1620 in a row over fees, the year after the commencement of the St. John's registers, the oldest surviving parish registers in Ireland. The Canon of 1634 required every parish and chapel in Ireland to keep a book wherein must be written the day and year of every Christening, marriage and burial.

The Canon does no appear to have been strictly enforced as no registers in Ireland begin immediately after the date of instruction. Only two registers in Ireland pre-date the Canon, that of St. John's and St. Brigid, Dublin and in only five other instances are registers known to pre-date 1642, amongst these are the registers for St. Catherine extracts for which date from 1636. Although the earliest known parish register for St. Catherine dates from 1636, the first register that has survived in its entirety dates from 1679 to 1744. The earlier periods published by the Parish Register Society of Dublin were extracted from a manuscript held at Trinity College, Dublin, which contained entries for the parishes of Saints Catherine and James dating from 1636 and was supposed that a register had once existed for the parish that was begun in compliance with the Canon of 1634. Unfortunately, the entries taken from the Trinity College manuscript pertaining to St. Catherine constitute only a handful of pages of the Society's publication although they cover the considerable time period of 1636 to 1679. Until 1707 the parish of St. Catherine was united with those of St. James and St. John, Kilmainham, but was separated due to the unwieldy size of this parish. Among the many street and alley situated in the parish are Thomas Street, Patrick Street, Marrowbone Lane, Meath Street, Dolphin's Barn and Cornmarket. The parish was never a fashionable district, but because due to the nature of the patrons of the parish and the landlords that owned it many personages of high rank and status can be found in the parish registers. Included in this publication are extracts taken from the Subsidy Roll of the City of Dublin pertaining to the parish of St. Catherine taken in 1637 and the Hearth Money Roll for the City for the years 1666-7. Included are extensive lists of persons and places appearing in the published register, which contains just over 300 printed pages republished here.

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