Catholic Parish Registers - Seat Rents

A number of churches in the nineteenth century reserved seats for parishioners in return for payment of a fee. These are very useful in confirming the residence of ancestors in a particular parish and also in identifying where your ancestors sat in the chapel.

The information contained in the original registers can be quite minimal, and varies from parish to parish and indeed over time within each parish. At best, a sent rent register will record the following:

• name of the individual
• date
• location of the seats in the church

Example of a seat rent register (click on image to view the full size)

Greenock, St Mary's: Seat Rent Register, 1837-1904 MP/6/1/13/1 page 15