John Ridgway, _Bricklar_ and Mary Chart _widdow_ according to _a_ Act of Parliament _baringe_ date the 24. August 1653, _was_ three several times _publissed_ in the market-place, and afterwards _maried_ by _mee_ upon Tuesday, the _six_ of December, 1653. "THOMAS ATKIN." "1707. Married William Thunder and Eliz. Horscraft as is reputed but not certainly known _Anab.: Chiddingly._ "1718. M{r}. Thomas Shirley, a young Gentleman of great hopes, who in all probability had he lived longer would have been very useful to his country and neighbours." _Ibid._ "1722. This day were married by M{r}. Holloway, _I think_, a couple _whose names I could never learn_, for he allowed them to carry away the license." _Lincoln's Inn Chapel._ "1705. Buried M{r}. Matt. Hutchinson, vicar of Gilling, worth £50 a year. 1706. M{rs}. Ursula Allen worth £600." _Richmond, co. York._ Many of the entries respecting local events are very curious; but as they belong still less than the foregoing to my subject, I must resist the temptation to transcribe any of them. To these several principal sources of genealogical materials may be added the private memoranda preserved in many families, correspondence, entries in family bibles, and others which it is unnecessary to mention. * * * * * There are some persons who cannot discriminate between the taste for pedigree and the pride of ancestry. Now these two feelings, though they often combine in one individual, have no necessary connexion with each other. Man is said to be a hunting animal. Some hunt for foxes; others for fame or fortune. Others hunt in the intellectual field; some for the arcana of nature and of mind; some for the roots of words or the origin of things. I am fond of hunting out a pedigree. _Parva decent parvum._ Family pride, abstractedly considered, is one of the coarsest feelings of which our nature is susceptible. "Those who on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt instead of their discharge." A great and wise man among the antients said "----Genus, et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipsi, Vix ea nostra voco." "The glory of ancestors," says Caius Marius, "casts a light indeed upon their posterity, but it only serves to show what the descendants are. It alike exhibits to full view their degeneracy and their worth." "Boast not the titles of your ancestours, Brave youths! They're _their_ possessions, none of _yours_; When your own virtues equall'd have their names, 'Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames, For they are strong supporters; but, till then, The greatest are but growing gentlemen." _Ben Jonson._