St. Mary’s Church, Bedford, possesses its original paper Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials. The Order for keeping Parish Registers was issued by Thomas Cromwell, the Vicar General, on 29 Sep. 1538. In 1597 it was ordered that the registers were to be transcribed on parchment from their beginning “ or at least from the first year of Her Majesty’s reign ”; that would be 1558. A lazy transcriber would avail himself of that permission; and that happened in the case of St. Mary’s register, for the transcript on parchment begins with an entry of 20 Nov. 1558. Generally, the original paper registers were destroyed after being transcribed, but at St. Mary’s this was fortunately preserved. But the register shews signs of its age; the pages for the period 1539-1558 are badly dog-eared top and bottom, some are torn across, and the writing is faint; so that on every count it has become advisable to transcribe it; and to get the register into print whilst it remains possible to read the entries. It has been difficult to recover some of the names, and in a very few instances impossible, but on the whole the result may be regarded as very satisfactory. In every instance I have retained the original spelling, except in lengthening contractions. Although the first entry is for Oct. 1539 I have no doubt the register began in 1538, for the first two leaves have been cut out, and the Oct. 1539 entry is close to the top edge of the page; moreover, the year 1539 is not mentioned, but it is deducible from the entry further on of 1540. The usual statement that it is the register of ____ Church is missing. For these reasons we may safely conclude that it originally began in 1538 as ordered.