William Dade c1740–1790
Family historians owe this 18th-century clergyman a huge vote of thanks
William Dade was born c1740, the youngest son of Thomas Dade, vicar of Burton Agnes and rector of Barmston in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He attended St John’s College in Cambridge, and received holy orders in 1763. By the time he died in 1790 he had been curate, vicar and rector of five parishes in York and two in the East Riding.
In 1770, while curate at St Olave’s in York, he started compiling very detailed registers for the
parish. In the baptism registers, in addition to the child’s name and date of baptism and names of both parents he recorded: the position of the child in the structure of the family, such as third son and fifth child; date of birth; father’s occupation; the names of all four grandparents and male-line great grandfathers; and places of residence.
A few other parishes then adopted the system. In 1777, Archbishop Markham recommended that Dade’s format should be used throughout the York Diocese. Many parishes maintained the Dade format until 1813, some including even more information; some abandoned it after a few years and others never tried it. Similar registers were introduced by Bishop Shute Barrington in the Diocese of Durham in 1798. Examples of parish registers using either the Dade or Barrington format can also be found in Devon, Essex, Surrey and Wiltshire. More information is available on the site Discover English Ancestors at english ancestors.byu.edu/pages/dade-registers. Clicking a location on the interactive map brings up detailed information about the date coverage and content for that location.