The Civil War 1642

The Civil War 1642

In the Civil War of 1642, Portland being a Royal Manor fought on the (losing) King’s side. In the course of it, Cromwell’s forces captured the Island in 1643 and burnt the Parsonage House to the ground. With it went the parish records kept there and the Registers of births, deaths and marriages that had become legally compulsory in 1598. Even then the Registers were not necessarily complete for a charge of 1/- was payable, and during the Commonwealth many objected to the changed rites and its new ways.