Chapter II · (continued 2)

[186] By this system, if the accused could get together a certain number of his neighbors (3, 4, 6 or more) to act as oath-helpers, i.e., who would swear that they believed him on oath, he was acquitted. It seems to have been no concern of the judge to weigh the evidence on the facts themselves.

[187] The churchwardens accounts are full of items for horse hire and other expenses for long journeys, for ecclesiastical courts were held at all kinds of places at the pleasure of the judges. See Mr. Bruce's remarks on the Minchinhampton Acc'ts, Archæologia, xxxv, 419 ff. Cf. the Ludlow Acc'ts, Shrop. Arch. Soc. 2nd. ser., i, 235 ff.—in fact any of the accounts of the period that have been printed in detail.

[188] Archdeacon Hale in Crim. Prec., introd., p. lx.

[189] Hale, Crim. Prec., 205 (1591). In Warrington deanery, at the bishop's visitation in 1592, one Grimsford is cited for not living with his wife. On a later occasion he appeared and affirmed that his wife had run away with another man, "whereupon the Judge, having regard to the poverty of the man," absolved him. Warrington Deanery Visit., 190. An ecclesiastical judge in Durham city made this decree in 1580: "Dominus … decrevit scribendum fore Aldermanno … to whip and cart the said Rowle and Tuggell in all open places within the city of Durham, for that they faled in their purgacion, and therefore convicted of the crime detected." Barnes' Eccles. Proc., 126.

[190] A most important piece of evidence—because coming from such a source—is Whitgift's circular and (later) his address to his bishops, already alluded to (note 185) given in Strype's life of him. Whitgift mentions the frequent keeping of officials' or commissaries' courts and the multitude of apparitors serving under them, so that "the subject was almost vexed weekly with attendance on their several courts." He adds that "what with Churchwardens' continual attendance in these courts, which in many places came to more than was by a whole parish for any one cessment made to her Majesty, the poor men who were chosen Church wardens … were in their estates hindered greatly in leaving their day labor for attendance there." These and like complaints, the metropolitan continued, were daily brought to him "with a general exclamation against Commissaries' and Officials' courts." In prophetic language he warned his suffragans that if they were not more zealous for reform all their courts might be swept away. We have further the unceasing complaints and the numberless petitions that were presented in every Elizabethan parliament from 1572 onwards. Some of these are given in Strype, Annals, etc., some in his Whitgift. Mr. Prothero has conveniently gathered some, with references to others, in his Statutes and Constitutional Documents (1st ed.), pp. 209, 210, 215 and 221. See also Heywood Townshend, 110, et passim; D'Ewes, 302, et passim, and the canons and injunctions of the time. Peculiars were doubtless most subject to abuses, as being often exempt from the oversight and corrective discipline of the diocesan. Offenders sometimes fled to these for protection. See Strype, Ann., iii, Pt. ii, 211-12 (Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield complaining in 1582 of peculiars, some of which belonged to laymen, as holders of abbey lands, in the matter of recusants). Cf. Blomefield, Hist. of Norfolk, iii, 557. Camden Miscellany, ix (1895), 41 (Letters from bishops to Privy Council in 1564. Recusants flying to exempt places). On the scandalous neglect of duty of some holders of peculiars see Dean of York's Visit., 199, 201 ff., 324, et passim. See also Mr. W.E.B. Whittaker's article "On Peculiars with special reference to the Peculiar of Hawarden," in Archit. Arch. and Hist. Soc. for Chester and N. Wales, n.s. xi (1905), 66 ff. and records there given. See also Eccles. Courts Com. Rep., 1830-2, printed as appendix to Vol. i of Eccles. Courts Com. Rep. of 1883, p. 198. Lists of peculiars will be found in the above authorities.

[191] Though they were reestablished in 1660 they were forever shorn of their ancient glory.

[192] The names of some of these broadsides, pamphlets, etc., have already been given. To these may be added, The Spiritual Courts epitomised in a Dialogue betwixt two Proctors, Busie Body and Scrape-all, and their discourse of the want of their former imployment. Others will be found in Mr. Stephen's Catalogue.

[193] That is, a portable stone altar which had been consecrated and could be set up anywhere for mass.

[194] See order of the Wilts justices issued against such offenders, Oct., 1577. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. on MSS. in Var. Coll., i (1901), 68.

[195] See indictment of an Essex jury at quarter sessions in 1585 against one Glasscock who spoke lightly of the ceremony of baptism, and rent out of a prayer book certain leaves where the ministration of baptism was set forth. Hist MSS. Com. Rep., x, Pt. iv, 480.

[196] Presentment to the Wilts justices, loc. cit. supra, 69 (1588), For excessive zeal of the justices of assize in Suffolk see State Papers Dom. Eliz., 1591-4, P. 275 (Address of Suffolk gentry to Privy Council in 1592. They complain of indictments against ministers on very trivial pretexts). For the answer of the Council to this petition see Strype, Ann., ii, Pt. i, 268-9 (Lords write to judges to consult the spirit not the letter of law, and add their own suspicions that informers are mainly to be blamed if justice has miscarried).

[197] State Pap., loc. cit.

[198] Indictment of Essex jury, Hist. MSS. Rep., loc. cit. supra.

[199] Ibid.

[200] Information of the Wilts justices against one Dearling, parson of Upton Lowell, loc. cit. supra, 68 (1585). Cf. Chelmsford Acc'ts, Essex Arch. Soc., ii, 212 (An item paid the clerk of assizes for framing the indictment of Chelmsford Hundred "against Puritisme." 1592).

[201] These would be—to cite the principal—the ordinary upkeep of the church with its services and all its appurtenances whatsoever (see previous chapter); the finding of clerk and sexton; the care of the poor; maintaining of the local roads and bridges; purchasing and repair of parish armor, and mustering of parish contingents; contributions for prisoners and maimed soldiers; the keeping of the parish butts and the stocks; the destruction of frugivorous birds and animals (the statutory "vermin"), etc.

[202] The act-books are full of "detections" for being an "uncharitable person," for "not giving to the poor," etc. See pp. 41 ff., supra.

[203] Reference is here made to the occasional seizure of parish lands or funds by the Queen's commissioners for concealed lands. See Strype's strong language in his Ann. of the Ref. (Oxon. ed.), ii, Pt. i, 310. He speaks of the unjust oppressions of courtiers and other griping men, 'harpies' and 'hell-hounds,' who, under the pretense of commissions, "did intermeddle and challenge land of long times possessed by churchwardens, and such like, upon the charitable gifts of predecessors … yea and certain stocks of money, plate, cattle and the like. They made pretence to bells, lead [etc.] …" Strype's words are none too strong, being amply confirmed by much evidence aliunde. See, e.g., the determined attacks in 1567 and subsequently on the Melton Mowbray school lands in Leicest. Archit. (etc.) Soc., iii (1874), 406 ff. Thanks to powerful neighbors the Meltonians won their case. Less fortunate were the parishioners of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, the revenue from whose lands supported church fabric, the poor, etc. For proceedings against them, and the vain appeal by the parish to the lord chief justice in 1572 ff., see Owen and Blakeway's Hist. of Shrewsbury, ii, 350-2. For confiscation of parish gild property and parish lands on a large scale, see examples given in Cambridge and Hunts Arch. Soc., i (1904), 330 ff. We are here told that during Elizabeth's reign at least twelve commissions for concealed lands were sent down into Cambridgeshire (p. 332). See also ibid., 370 ff. for a sale of forfeited lands to Jones and Grey in 1569. The list of lands is very long and only a sample of many such. For attacks (1587) on All Saints, Derby, lands, whose revenues went to church repairs, etc., see J.C. Cox and W.H. St. J. Hope, Chronicles of All Saints, Derby (1881). For informers involving Lapworth, Warwick, in a suit about its parish lands see Robt. Hudson, Memorials of a Warwickshire Parish (1904), 104. The churchwardens acc'ts occasionally allude to the Queen's commissioners, e.g., the Great Witchingham Acc'ts, where they are dubbed by the right name: "for my expenses when I was before the quenes inquisitors for lands and goods" (1559). Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc., xiii, 207.

[204] Jas. Copeman in Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc., ii (1849), 64. The Loddon Acc'ts cover the period 1554-1847, some of the donations, or endowments, being made in the 16th and some in the 17th centuries.

[205] Robt. Dymond in Devon Assoc. for Advanc. of Science (etc.) Tr., xiv (1882), 407. These acc'ts run from 1425-1590. For a list of parish properties in 1565, see pp. 460-1. Their yearly rent then amounted to £9 14s. 2d.

[206] Sam'l Barfield, Thatcham, Berks, and its Manors (1901), i. 121.

[207] R.W. Goulding, Records of the Charity known as Blanchminster's Charity, Stratton (1898), 64-5.

[208] In 1562 it is said to have contained only 48 families. John Amphlett, Churchwardens Acc'ts of St. Michael's in Bedwardine (ed. for Worcester Hist. Soc., 1898), introd., p. iii.

[209] Op. cit., 142-3. See ibid., and for the year named, the receipts from these properties. Thus £4 is paid for one and a half years' rental of parish land lying in Severn Stoke parish; 44s. for two years' rent of parish houses in St. Peter's parish, Worcester city, etc.

[210] Op. cit., pp. xxx-i.

[211] Hudson, Memorials, etc., 85 ff. Consult Mr. Hudson's map of the parish lands.

[212] Notes and Queries for Somer. and Dorset, v (1897), 94.

[213] Somerset Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr., xxiii, Mr. Pearson's introd., p. iii, and op. cit., vol. xxvi, 106-9. Cf. A.G. Legge, North Elmham, Norfolk, Acc'ts (1891), 5-6 (Long list of lands managed by wardens in 1549). Also J.H. Butcher, The Parish of Ashburton (Devon), 49 (1580). Owen and Blakeway, Hist. of Shrewsbury, ii, 342 (St. Mary's parish lands with 32 tenants and rental of £6. 7s. 8d. in 1544. The churchwardens were here called "Lady Wardens" as managing the "Rentall of our Lady").

[214] St. Michael's Acc'ts, op. cit., vol. xxvi, 129. The wardens of this parish record among their expenditures many items for the repair of the parish tenements and other property. In early times they received 12d. as a salary for management. Later this was changed into an honorarium of varying amount "pro bono servicio suo." Op. cit., vol. xxiii, intro., p. ii.

[215] Thus at Lapworth, Warwickshire, a trust of parish lands was re-created in 1563 with twenty-two feoffees; and one Collet in 1567 enfeoffed seventeen men of a field of only three acres, fourteen perches, to parish uses. Hudson, Memorials (etc.), 85-6.

[216] E.g., the Grasswardens of St. Giles, Durham, who managed the common lands of the parish, and accounted yearly for them. They made disbursements for many parish expenses which elsewhere churchwardens usually paid out (e.g., for bridges, houses of correction, poor prisoners, armor and musters), yet were themselves distinct from the churchwardens. See Surtees Soc., xcv, I ff. Cf. the bridge wardens of Loughborough, Leicester (W.G.D. Fletcher, Hist. of L., 1883, pp. 40 ff). Also the townwardens of Melton Mowbray, Leicester Archit. (etc.) Soc., iii, 61-2, note.

[217] Hudson, Memorials, etc., 88.

[218] That is (apparently) holdings returning £4 of rent annually.

[219] Pasture.

[220] Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 15.

[221] Editor's (Mr. Barmby's) introd., ibid., 4.

[222] (Dean) G.W. Kitchen, The Manor of Manydown, Hants Rec. Soc., 1895, 171. For other examples both of parish cows and sheep: see Hale, Crim. Prec., 221 (40 parish sheep of Billericay, Essex, for the relief of the poor. 1599). Littleton, Worcestersh. Acc'ts, Midland Antiquary, i (1883), 107 (Purchase of cow for parish in 1556). Ibid., 108 (Wintering of a church heifer). Morton, Derbysh., Acc'ts, The Reliquary, xxv, 17 (Same as above. 1593). Owen & Blakeway, Hist. of Shrewsbury, ii, 342 (St. Mary's had in 1544 ten cows and three sheep renting for £1 1s. 8d. yearly). Rotherfield Acc'ts, Sussex Arch. Coll., xli, 26, 46. St. Michael's, Bath, Acc'ts, Somerset Arch. (etc.) Soc., xxiii, introd., et passim. Great Witchingham, Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc., xiii, 207 (Cows in 1604). Hartland, Devon, Acc'ts, Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., v, Pt. i (1876), 573a (Custom circa 1601 for poor to leave sheep to church by will). Hudson, Memorials, etc., 106-10 (Parish meeting about renting out of cows. Surety bonds given by hirers in 1580 ff.). Many other examples will be found in the wardens acc'ts and elsewhere.

[223] See Hudson, op. cit., supra, 106. In 1595 two cows were bequeathed to Lapworth to be rented out at 20 d. yearly. The proceeds of one to mend a certain parish road, of the other to support the poor (ibid., 109).

[224] Art. xxv, Cardwell, Doc. Ann., i, 189 ff. So in the Visitation Articles of the same year (ibid., 213) we read: "Item, whether the money coming and rising of any cattle or other movable stocks of the church [etc.] … have not been employed to the poor men's chest."

[225] In North Elmham the term "office land" seems to have been used for lands set apart for the remuneration of parish servants. See A.G. Legge, North Elmham Acc'ts, 81, s.a. 1566: "It[e]m for office Land of the ten[emen]te fost[er] … vij d." Cf. Mr. Legge's note (p. 129). He cites other examples in Norfolk parishes, viz., "Constable Acre" in Stuston, "Constable Pasture" in Fralingham, "Dog Whipper's Land" in Barton Turf. Cf. J.L. Glasscock, Records of Bishop Stortford, 55 ("sexten's meade," 1563). In an early year temp. Henry VIII one Jesop left two tenements to Mendlesham, Suffolk, "to ye fyndyng of a clarke to pley att ye organys for a p[er]petuite." Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., v, Pt. i (1876), 596a. See also Shrop. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., iii, 3rd ser. (1903), 315 (26s. and 8d. and 12 bushels of rye issuing annually out of Idsal rectory for the poor and the maintenance of a clerk). E. Freshfield, St. Christopher-le-Stocks' Acc'ts, 38 (Bequest of a perpetuity of 20s. annually for clerk and sexton. 1602).

[226] Swyre, Dorset, Parish Acc't Book in Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dorset, iii (1893), 293 (Lands allotted by parish for support of a blind man).

[227] E.g., St. Christopher-le-Stocks' Acc'ts, 38 (Yearly perpetuity of £3 4s. in bread and money to poor. 1602). St. Michael's in Bedwardine Acc'ts, 99 (House left to parish, 12s. of whose rental to go to poor, and 1s. to the churchwardens. 1590).

[228] Butcher, Parish of Ashburton, 46 (Land given to buy shirts and smocks for the poor. 1575).

[229] T.P. Wadley, Notes on Bristol Wills (1886), 230 (£20 for a stock of money to remain for ever "in the howse of correction" for the maintenance and "settinge on work of such people as shalbe therevnto co[m]mitted for their mysdemeanors." Thos. Kelke's will. 1583).

[230] Wills and Inventories, Pt. ii, Surtees Soc., xxxviii, 83 (Keyper school of Houghton and its endowment of £240. 1582).

[231] Examples among many are the Edenbridge, Kent, lands. These bridgewardens held lands in three parishes. Arch. Cant., xxi (1895), 110 ff. Also Burton's Charity lands at Loughborough. The "bridgmasteres" here in 1570 collected £33 18s. 6d., and disbursed £16 12s. 11d. Fletcher, Hist. of Loughborough, 41-2. Also Hayward bridge lands, Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dorset, iv (1895), 205-7.

[232] Legge, North Elmham Acc'ts, 87-90. So too at Eltham, Kent, where the "Fifetene peny Lands" have special wardens who account for their revenue. Archaeologia, xxxiv, 51 ff.

[233] Statutes of the Realm, iv, Pt. ii, 968-9.

[234] Cardwell, Doc. Ann., i, 189 ff.

[235] Dr. Pilkington's will, Surtees Soc., xxii, Append., p. cxxxviii. For a few other examples of bequests for parish utilities see ibid., p. ciii (George Reyd's will, 1559). Ibid., p. cx ff. (William Birche's will of 1575 in which are many bequests to poor artificers, to prisoners—a very frequent bequest—to "needfull briggs or highe waies," etc.). See also Benefactions to Dorset Parishes, Churches, etc., in Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dorset, x, 164 ff. Also T.P. Wadley, Notes on Bristol Wills, passim (e.g., Thos. Kelke's will of 1583, on p. 230. He leaves £13 to Newgate prisoners, a frieze gown to 12 women and 12 men—a frequent bequest—6s. 8d. each to 52 poor maidens for their marriage, etc.). Also Wills and Inventories, Surtees Soc., xxxviii, Pt. ii, passim. Surrey Wills in Surrey Arch. Coll., x (1891), passim.

[236] The crie of the poore for the death of the right Honourable Earle of Huntington (printed 1596), Joseph Lilly, A Collection of Seventy-Nine Black-Letter Ballads and Broadsides, 1559-1597 (1870), 230.

[237] Ibid., 263.

[238] The poore people's complaynt, Bewayling the death of their famous benefactor, the worthy Earle of Bedford (Died 1585). Bedford was described as "a person of such great hospitality that Queen Elizabeth was wont to say of him that he made all the beggars." Clark, Shirburn Ballads, 256.

[239] J.C. Cox, Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals, i, 136.

[240] E. Freshfield, St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Acc'ts, s.a. 1598, et passim. Freshfield, St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Book, 32 (1595). St. Margaret's, Westminster, Overseers' Acc'ts in The Westminster Tobacco Box, Pt. ii (1887), e.g., s.a. 1572-3, where we find donations from Lord Burghley, the Lord Chief Justice, the Dean of Westminster, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Hertford, etc.

[241] Though by 37 Hen. VIII c. 9, sec. 3 (Stats. of Realm, iii, 996) interest up to 10 per cent. per annum was permitted, all interest was prohibited by the 5 & 6 Ed. VI, c. 20, sec. 2 (Stats. of Realm, iv, Pt. i, 155). Interest is here dubbed usury, "a vice most odyous and detestable." Interest up to 10 per cent. was, however, again made lawful by the 13 Eliz. c. 8, sec. 4 (Stats. of Realm, iv, Pt. i, 542) which, however, stigmatizes usury as sinful.

[242] Examples are, Vestry Minutes of St. Margaret, Lothbury, 32 (Gift of £20 in 1595 to be employed in wood and coal for the use of the poor. A committee of four was appointed to invest and make sales. See their account for 1596, p. 34). The Westminster Tobacco Box, Pt. ii, 22 (One of the overseers of St. Margaret's to keep a gift of £42 "untill the same may be bestowed upon somme good bargaine as a lease or somme other such like commoditie w[hi]ch may yeelde a yerely rente to the pore." 1578). Cf. St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Acc'ts Books, 3 ff., where in 1598, and regularly in subsequent years, appears the item: "Alowed to this account for the geft of the Lady Wilfordes xx li for the pore xx[s]." Also another item, likewise of 20s. yearly, on Mr. Nutmaker's £20—in other words, 10 per cent. in each case every year. Cf. Jas. Stockdale, Annals of Cartmel (Lancashire, pub. 1872), 37-8 (£65 6s., money belonging to Cartmel grammar school "placed" in the hands of various persons, some of whom give pledges, others mortgages, for repayment. The revenue from this is £6 10s. 7d., i.e., 10 per cent. in 1598). In 1613, in allowing the overseer's accounts of Swyre, Dorset, the local justices indorse: "Upon this condition that from henceforth the overseers and Churchwardens do yearlie charge themselves with the some of xxs. for thuse of a stocke of xli [i.e., 10 per cent.] giuen to the poore by the testam[en]t of James Rawlinge." The practice above illustrated is simply that enjoined by 18 Eliz. c. 3, amended and completed by 39 Eliz. c. 3 and 43 Eliz. c. 2, with an object of making the poor administration self-supporting as far as might be. The fact that Elizabethan poor laws were based on the best-approved parish customs made them perdurable. For a model administration of parish stock according to the poor laws see the Cowden Overseers Acc'ts, Sussex Arch. Coll., xx, 95 ff. (1599 ff.).

[243] E.g., in St. Michael's in Bedwardine (Acc'ts ed. John Amphlett) one Stanton left 50s. to the poor in 1588 (Acc'ts, p. 97-8). Robt. Chadbourne paid 5s. for the use of this money for several years (Acc'ts, p. 108, etc.). It then was loaned to John Brayne, an entry being made from time to time that the principal was owing as well as the interest (Acc'ts p. 108). Brayne paid the 50s. to the wardens in Sept., 1595. Cf. preceding note (Cartmel school money).

[244] St. Michael's in Bedwardine Acc'ts, supra, 96 (One Fletcher loaned 30s. in 1586, he depositing with the wardens "a gilt salt with a cover"). For numerous gratuitous loans of parish money, see the Mere Acc'ts, Wilts Arch. and Nat. Hist. Mag., xxxv (1907), passim. Cf. also the document of 1586 relating to the parish of Heavitree, in Devon Notes and Quer., i (1901), 61, where it is stipulated (inter alia) that if any parishioner of good character upon reasonable cause shall desire to borrow from any surplus funds of the church for a season, "such a one shall not be denyed."

[245] See Wilts Arch. Mag., xxxv. Cf. J.E. Foster, St. Mary the Great (Cambridge) Acc'ts (1905), 208.

[246] In 1564 the parishioners of Chagford, Devon, bought from the lord of the manor for £10 the local markets and fairs, subject to a yearly rent of 16s., which they had always paid as tenants. They then repaired and enlarged the market house. Presumably their venture was a profitable one, for in 1595 the revenue from these markets and fairs was £3 10s. G.W. Ormerod in Devon Assoc. for Adv. of Science, etc., viii (1876), 72. Same, Local Information reprinted from the Chagford Parish Mag. (1867) in Topographical Tracts in Brit. Mus. As it was sometimes hard for the authorities to prevent the churchwardens from utilizing the church for plays, so it was hard for them to keep the wardens from giving up the churchyard or outlying portions of the church structure for fairs and stall-holders. In Herts Co. Rec. Quarter Sess. Rolls (ed. W.J. Hardy, 1905), p. 13, we read, s. a. 1591-2, that a presentment was made that some part of the "fayer of Starford has usually been kept within the compase of the churchyard." See also St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts (ed. H.J.F. Swayne, Wilts Rec. Soc. 1896), introd., p. xxiii (St. Edmund's fair held within and without the churchyard. Wardens receipts from cheesesellers, butchers, etc., for stalls and standings).

[247] As late as 1633 the bishop of Bath and Wells could write to Archbishop Laud: "I finde that by Church-ales hertofore many poore Parishes have cast their Bells, repaired their Towers, beautified their Churches, and raised stocks for the poore." Wm. Prynne, Canterburies' Doome, etc. (1646), 151. Cf. Philip Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses (4th ed., 1595), 110-11. Spudeus: "But, I pray you, how do they bestow that money which is got thereby?" [i.e., by church-ales]. Philopomus: "Oh well, I warrant you, if all be true which they say; for they repaire their Churches and Chappels with it; they buy bookes for service, Cuppes for the celebration of the Sacrament, Surplesses for Sir John [i.e., the parson], and such other necessaries. And they maintaine other extraordinarie charges in their Parishes besides."

[248] Bath and Wells to Canterbury, Prynne, supra, loc. cit. In 1536 at Morebath, Devon, the parish agreed that the clerk should gather his "hire meat" (i.e., so much corn of each one) at Easter, "& then ye p[a]rysse schall helpe to drenke him a coste of ale yn ye churche howse." J.E. Binney, Morebath Acc'ts (1904), 86. When in 1651 at St. Thomas', Salisbury, clerk-ales were abolished, "both the clerk and sexton claimed compensation for the loss of income sustained." The same was true of St. Edmunds' (in the same city) in 1697. Swayne, St. Edmund and St. Thomas Acc'ts, introd., p. xvii.

[249] Stubbes, Anatomie, etc., 110. The above account of church-ales has been derived partly from Stubbes and from a curious little pamphlet, edited by Rev. Fredk. Brown in 1883, entitled On some Star Chamber Proceedings, 34 Eliz. 1592; partly, also, from many churchwardens acc'ts, in particular the Seal Acc'ts in Surrey Arch. Coll., ii (1864), 34-6 (See items in detail for the ale of 1592, and especially the ale of 1611. Expenses for all manner of provisions and delicacies, for minstrels and evidently, too, for a play occur. In 1611 the festivities lasted at least 5 days). Cf., too, the Expenses of the Maye Feast at Dunmow in 1538 (Cooks, minstrels and players mentioned), Essex Arch. Soc., ii, 230. Also Kitchen, Manor of Manydown, 172-3 (Lists of delicacies provided at the Wootton ale in 1600. Expense items for lords' and ladies' liveries, players, etc.)

[250] The Parish of Chagford in Devon Ass. for Adv. of Science, viii, 74.

[251] Wilts Arch. Mag., xxxv (1907), Mere Acc'ts, 30. These have been transcribed verbatim by Mr. T.H. Baker.

[252] Op. cit. Because of greatly increased expenses the wardens here thenceforth resorted to collections according to a book of rates. They also devised other means of income, such as parish burial fees, collections for the holy loaf (i.e., blessed but not consecrated bread), etc. This casting about for new sources of revenue was characteristic of all parishes as the reign advanced.

[253] Op. cit., 26.

[254] Op. cit., 92.

[255] In 1605 and 1606, doubtless to meet some extraordinary expenses, the Mere wardens roused themselves to great efforts at their church-ale, and netted £15 6s., and £20 respectively. Sir Rich. Colt Hoare, Hist. of Modern Wiltshire (1822), i, 21.

[256] Kitchen, Manor of Manydown, 174. At this ale there were six tables and the receipts from each were tabulated separately. For other large receipts see the Wing, Bucks, Acc'ts, Archaeologia, xxxvi, 219 ff. In 1598 the ale here yielded £9 16s. 4d. At Morebath, a small and poor parish, an ale had produced £10 13s. 5d. in 1529. but the receipts from this source fell off here in Elizabeth's time. At Stratton, Cornwall, up to 1547, at any rate, if not later, ales were the chief source of income. Archaeologia, xlvi, 195-6.

[257] Devon Notes and Quer., iii (1905), 224. Cf. the Young Men Wardens' ales at Morebath (Binney, Morebath Acc'ts, 213 [1573], et passim). Also St. Anthony's Gild ales at Chagford. Devon Ass. for Adv. of Science, viii, 74 (1599). Various persons at Milton Abbot sold ale and bread. Op. cit., vol. xi (1879), 218.

[258] Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dorset, v (1897), 48. The same year in these acc'ts we find three conduit wardens mentioned. These are to have "the assistance of William Ellis plomer [plumber]." Of them it is also determined that they "do kepe an alle for the comodetie of the [Transcriber's note: WORD ILLEGIBLE] dytts in the sayd Towne to be kept abowts the tyme of Shrofftyde," [Transcriber's note: WORD(S) ILLEGIBLE] just before Lent.

[259] Butcher, The Parish of Ashburton, 41. It would seem that there were special wardens here for ale drawing. (See p. 44 [1570-1].)

[260] Archaeologia, xxxvi, 235.

[261] "And because John Watts hath ben long sick, hit is agreed that if hee be not able to s[e]rve at the tyme of the Church ale, That then John Coward … shall s[e]rve and be king in his place for this yeare." Mere Acc'ts (Wilts Arch. Mag., l.c., 34) s.a. 1561. Cf. J.H. Matthews, History of St. Ives (1892), 144, et passim.

[262] Bishop Hobhouse, Churchwdn's Acc'ts of Croscombe, Pilton, etc., Somerset Rec. Soc., iv (1890), 80, where he says: "The [Yatton] wardens attended these festivals at Ken, Kingston, Wrington, Congresbury, etc., with more or less regularity, making their contributions, commonly xijd. in the name of the parish and at the cost of the parish …" Cf. Morebath Acc'ts (ed. Binney), 224: "It there was payd a trinite Sonday at the Churche ale at Bawnton [Bampton] for John Skynner … xjd." (1565). Mere Acc'ts (Wilts Arch. Mag.), 60: "Item paied for bread and drink to make the Sum[m]er Lord of Gillingham Drink … ijs. vjd." (1578-9). T. Nash, Hist. and Antiq. of Worcestershire, ii, appen., p. xxix (Halesowen Acc'ts: "Paid when we went to Frankley to the church ale 20d.").

[263] See the precedents given for the Western Circuit in Prynne, Canterburies' Doome, 152. Cf. also, ibid., 128 ff. That these ales died hard in Devon and Somerset is seen by the repeated judicial orders. See also J.W. Willis Bund, Social Life in Worcestershire illustrated by the Quarter Sess. Rec. in Assoc. Archit. Soc., xxiii, Pt. ii (1897), 373-4 (1617). A.H. Hamilton, Quarter Sessions from Elisabeth to Anne (1878), 28-9. Harrison, Descrip. of Engl., Bk. ii, New Shak. Soc., 32. Saml. Barfield, Thatcham, Berks, and its Manors, ii, 105 (Wardens Acc'ts 1598-9: "Item wee were bounde over by Mr. Dolman, Justice, to appeare at Reading Assizes, where it cost T.. L.. and R.. C.. conserning our business wee kept at Whitsuntide xvs. apece, somme xxxs.")

[264] Hale, Crim. Prec., 149 (Hornchurch wardens bringing players into church. 1566). Ibid., 156 ("Tromperie" and "paynted stuff for playes in the chefe parte of the [Rayleigh] church." 1574). Ibid., 158 (Two plays in Romford Chapel by "comon players." Wardens plead in extenuation that proceeds went to "a poore man in decay." 1577). Leverton, Lincolnshire, Acc'ts, Archæologia, xli, 333 ff. (Several examples of plays in the church. 1579-95).

[265] In the Chelmsford Acc'ts, Essex Arch. Soc., ii, 225-6 (1562), is a most interesting inventory showing an elaborate stage outfit. That it was used for miracle plays is seen on p. 227 (" Cotte of lether for Christe," and "lyne for the clowdes," etc.). From various towns the Chelmsford men received in 1563, and subsequently, large sums for the hire of these properties, e.g., £3 6s. 8d. from "Starford" (Bishop Stortford?); 43s. 4d. from Colchester.

[266] Examples are Thos. North, St. Martin's, Leicester, Acc'ts (1884), 80 (Children's morris-dance. 1558-9). Ibid., 85 (Robin Hood play). St. Helen, Abingdon, Acc'ts, Archæologia, i (2d ed.), 15 (1560). J.H. Baker, Notes on St. Martin's (Salisbury) Church and Parish (1906), Wardens Acc'ts, 153 (Whitsun dance in 1588 yielding 13s. 4d.). St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, introd., p. xvii. Also both acc'ts, passim ("Feast of Hokkes," "Childrens daunse." At St. Edmund's £3 12s. collected in 1581 [p. 131]; at St. Thomas' same year £3 6s. 8d. [p. 291]). T.N. & A.S. Garry, St. Mary, Reading, Acc'ts (1893), 28-9, et passim (Whitsuntide and Hocktide money here drop out as early as 1575. There was also here a Christmas gathering).

[267] Examples: Wandsworth Acc'ts in Surrey Arch. Coll., xvii (1902), 158 (1567-8). John Nichols, Illustrations of the Manners etc. of Antient Times (1707) (Great Marlow, Bucks, Acc'ts, 135. 1612), etc.

[268] Wilts Arch. (etc.) Mag., loc. cit. (Mere Acc'ts: brass crocks in inventory of 1584). Chagford Acc'ts in Devon Ass. (etc.), 74. Binney, Morebath Acc'ts, 132. A.E.W. Marsh, History of Caine, 368 (Church furnace, 1529. Wardens expenditures for sowing church lands, mowing them, and carrying the corn and storing it in the church-house). The Antiquary, xvii, 169 (Stanford, Berks, Acc'ts, s.a. 1569: laying corn in church-house, and making malt there). Morebath Acc'ts, 132 (Spits put up in the church-house).

[269] Morebath Acc'ts, 142 (Church stock-taking), Mere Acc'ts (Wilts Arch. (etc.) Mag. loc. cit.), 32, 37, 54, etc. Chelmsford Acc'ts, 217 ("xv dozen pewter & ix peces," and rent of it owing to church. 1560).

[270] St. John's, Glastonbury, Acc'ts, N. and Q. for Som. and Dor., v, 94, s.a. 1588 (Selling ale in church-house). Tintinhull Acc'ts, Somer. Rec. Soc., iv, p. xxii ("The chief source of income [church-house] at T[intinhull] and elsewhere to the end of the 16th Century,") Stratton Acc'ts, Arch., xlvi, 198. Bristol and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Tr., vii (1882-3), 108 (Tenement donated 1532 to Northleach known as "the Churche Taverne." It was rented out, but on the condition that the lessee should "permit the towne to have the use of the same one month at Whitsontyde"). Of the Stratton church-house we are told that men were fined (in 1541) for drinking ale there, because the drinking was not for the profit of the parish. Arch., loc. cit., supra.

[271] Stanford Acc'ts, loc. cit., s. a. 1595. Stratton Acc'ts, loc. cit., 198.

[272] Thus at Calne (Wilts) in 1574-5 no church-ale was had, but a gathering in lieu of it was made from the parishioners. Ales and collections thenceforward alternated here, until church rates were established. Marsh, History of Calne, 372.

[273] See, e.g., Thos. North, St. Martin's Leicester, Acc'ts, 98, where the times of collection are named.

[274] See, among others, Ludlow Acc'ts, Shrop. Archit. (etc.) Soc., iii, 127 (1567), where the name occurs. Also St. Edmund's, Sarum, Acc'ts, Wilts Rec. Soc. for 1896, p. 141 (1592).

[275] E.g., at St. Edmund's, Sarum, or at St. Martin's, Leicester.

[276] See, e.g., J.E. Foster, St. Mary the Great (Cambridge) Acc'ts, 148 ff. Offerings of the masters of arts and of the bachelors form a distinct feature here.

[277] See pp. 41 ff. and 59 supra. In the Morebath Acc'ts (ed. J.E. Binney, p. 178) we read, s.a. 1553-4, as a heading to the receipt items: "Now to pay y'e forsayd dettis & demawndis y'e schall hyre of all our resettis y't we have resseuyed, & how gentylly for y'e moste p[ar]te men have payd of there owne devoc[i]on w[i]t[h] out ony taxyn or ratyng as y'e schall hyre here after." Then follows a list of 30 names. There is evidently some sort of rough assessment here, e.g., Nicholas at Hayne pays 4s. 9d., "consyderyng hys bothe bargayns" (i.e., small farms). Cf. St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, p. xviii and p. 317.

[278] Five years later, the vicar dead, the clerk was ordered to assist the wardens in receiving the 'paskall pence' whether paid at Easter or at any other time of communion. Hill and Frere, Memorials of Stepney Parish, 4-5 and 13-14.

[279] Ordered by St. Edmund's, Sarum, vestry in 1628: "that the bread and wyne for the Communion shalbe paid for by the auncyennt paymentt of the halfepence, and yf it shall com[e] to more … Jt shalbe supplied out of the rest of the mony given after the Co[m]munion." St. Edmund and St. Thomas Acc'ts (Wilts Rec. Soc.), 187.

[280] These levies were 2-1/2d. on each householder at St. Margaret, Lothbury, London; 3d. a house at St. Lawrence Pountney, London (History of St. Laurence Pountney, by H.B. Wilson [1831], 125 ff.). Etc. At Salehurst, Sussex, the fee was 1d. a poll yearly, heads of households being empowered in 1585 to abate that sum from their servants' wages: Sussex Arch. Coll., xxv, 154. At Pittington, Durham, landlords were to answer for their cottagers for a yearly fee of 2d.: Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 29 (1590). Cf. ibid., Houghton-Le-Spring Acc'ts, 269. Leverton, Lincoln, Acc'ts, Archæologia, xli, 368 (A penny a poll for the elements. 1612). In the Abbey Parish Church Estate Acc'ts, Shrewsbury, every "gentleman" is to pay 6d. yearly to the wardens for bread and wine; "the second sorte" of the parishioners 4d. each; "the third or weaker sorte," each 2d.: Shrop. Arch. Soc., i, 65 (1603).

[281] See Great Yarmouth Acc'ts, East Anglian, iv (1892), 67 ff. (An item for purchase of 1000 tokens. 1613-14). Also St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Minute Books, 14 (1584). Also Archæologia Eeliana, xix (1898), 44 (Ryton, Durham, Book of Easter offerings. 1595).

[282] St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, 288 (Muscatel and claret). Abbey Parish Church Estate Acc'ts, 62 (same). St. Martin's, Leicester, Acc'ts (ed. Thos. North), 100 (Malmsey and claret).

[283] Rubric § 144 of the First Edwardine Prayer Book directs that as ministers are to find the elements, the congregations are to contribute every Sunday at the time of the offertory the just value of the holy loaf. See E. Freshfield, St. Christopher-le-Stocks Vestry Minute Book, p. vii, et passim. Stanford, Berks, Acc'ts, Antiquary, xvii, s.a. 1582 (2d. collected every Sunday for holy loaf). Mere Acc'ts (Wilts Arch. (etc.) Mag., xxxv, 38), s.a. 1568, et passim.

[284] J.V. Kitto, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields (London) Acc'ts, append. D., Vestry Order of 1590. Parish order of Salehurst (1582), Sussex Arch. Coll., xxv, 153. St. Margaret's, Westminster, Overseers Acc'ts in Westminster Tobacco Box, Pt. ii, 18 (1566).

[285] E.g., at St. Laurence Pountney, London, the "clerk's wages" amounted in 1598 to nearly £30 in the wardens receipt items, but in the expense items to £8 plus various dues for lighting, bell-ringing and church-linen washing, in all £12 12s. Wilson, History of St. Laurence, 125. In the St. Christopher-le-Stocks Acc'ts (ed. E. Freshfield), p. 4, the receipts in 1576 for "Clarkes wagis" are £9 6s. 5d., but we read: "Pd. to J.M. Clarke his whole yeares wagis [etc.] … iij li." In St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Minutes (p. 13) it was decided in 1581 to raise the "clarkes rolle" to £8 a year, but expressly stated that the clerk is to be paid as before, "but That [the] overplus Shall remayn For astocke to the churche to beare owtt such charges as shalbe nessesarye for the same." In St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Vestry Minutes (ed. E. Freshfield) in 1583 it is agreed (p. 27) that the clerk is to pay out of his wages the statutory assessment of 2d. weekly on the parish for maimed soldiers and mariners. Same stipulation at St. Alphage's, London Wall: G.B. Hall, Records of St. Alphage (1882), 25 (1594).

[286] St. Mary, Reading, Acc'ts (ed. F.N. & A.G. Garry), p. 56.

[287] Hill and Frere, Memorials of Stepney, 1-3 (1580). Later, 1606 (p. 50), the same method was employed to pay debts for casting the bells. Those not paying their assessments were to be deprived of their seats (p. 4). Other examples of raising money by pew rents are Butcher, Parish of Ashburton, 49 (£6 4s. collected "for the seat rent". 1579-80). St. Christopher-le-Stocks Vestry Minutes, 71 (Clerk's wages to be "sessed by the pyews").

[288] Baker, Mere Acc'ts (Wilts Arch, [etc.] Mag.), 33 (12d. for seats for a man and his wife, "which before were his ffather's." 1561). In a sale to a parishioner in 1556-7 it is expressly stated that she is to hold the seat during "here lyfe Accordynge to the old usage of the parishe": ibid., 24. At St. Edmund's, Sarum, the sale was sometimes for life, sometimes for a lesser period. A fine was paid for changing a pew, Introd., p. xxi. Cf. order made at Chelmsford in 1592, Essex Arch. Soc., ii, 219-20. See in St. John's, Glastonbury, Acc'ts, Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dor., iv, 384, s.a. 1574, and op. cit., v, s.a. 1588, many receipts from the sale of seats. Cf. Pittington Vestry order, 1584, Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 13. St. Michael's in Bedwardine Acc'ts, Introd., p. xvi. Fletcher, History of Loughborough, Acc'ts, 24 ff.

[289] See, e.g., in St. Martin-in-the-Fields Acc'ts, 214, the long list of receipts "for burialls, knylles and Suche Lyke," s.aa. 1563-5. At St. Edmund, Sarum, burials with christenings and banns netted £8 5s. 2d. in 1592-3 (Acc'ts, 141). At Kingston-upon-Thames in 1579 burials totalled 39s. 8d.: Surrey Arch. Coll., viii, 75. In St. Michael's, Cornhill, London, Acc'ts (ed. W.H. Overall & A.J. Waterlow), 178-9, the receipts from knells and peals alone were 44s. 8d. in 1589-90.

[290] J.V. Kitto, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Acc'ts (1901), 106, note.

[291] One of the most systematic tariffs I know of is that of St. Alphage, London Wall (G.B. Hall, Records of St. A., 28-30) drawn up in 1613. First there are The Parson's dutyes for Parishioners, for bann-askings, weddings, churchings, etc., as well as a percentage on offerings. Then the burial fees due him, without or with a coffin, in churchyard or in church, etc. Then comes the heading, The dutyes belonging to the Parrish for Parrishioners, a catalogue of fees for burial under various conditions. Then follow The Parrishe's dutyes for the Bells (knells, peals, with small or large bells). Finally, The Clarke his dutyes for Parishioners (Bann-askings, weddings, churchings, grave digging, tolling the bells for funerals in various ways, and on specified occasions, etc.). All the above fees are doubled in case of non-parishioners. See also the Salehurst tariff of 1597, most comprehensive and minute also: Sussex Arch. Coll., xxv, 154-5. Also parish order in St. Martin's, Leicester, Acc'ts (ed. Thos. North), 19 and 128, s. aa. 1570-1 and 1584-5, as to duties for bells. These are regulated according to the rank of the person. St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Min., 2 (Order regulating fees for "weddinges, cristeings, churchinges and berrialls" of 1571). See also the tariff of St. Edmund, Sarum (Acc'ts, 194), of 1608.

For receipt items for palls in the acc'ts, see St. Martin's-in-the-Fields Acc'ts, 317 (1580), where "best cloth" nets 20d. on each occasion, the "worst" but 2d. See also Stepney vestry regulation of 1602 concerning fees to be paid for palls: Memorials of Stepney, 41-2.

For expenses for making parish coffins see St. Martin's-in-the-Fields Acc'ts, s. a. 1546. Cf. St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, introd., p. xx. St. Helen, Bishopsgate, Acc'ts (ed. J.E. Cox), 103 (Ordinance of 1564 that those buried within the church are to be confined). Also the other acc'ts supra. At St. Edmund, Sarum, the wardens sold tombstones for the benefit of the parish (Acc'ts, 135. 1587-8).

[292] Memorials of Stepney, 39-40.

[293] See W.G.D. Fletcher, Hist. of Loughborough (Acc'ts), 24: an order regulating fees for marriage peals in 1588. In St. Edmund, Sarum, Acc'ts, 127, are receipt items, being money turned over to the wardens by the sexton, for banns, christenings, etc. Cf. Introd. to St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, p. xix. Cf. also St. Laurence Pountney Acc'ts (Wilson, Hist. of St. L.), 124 (A marriage offering going to the parish. 1582). Usually marriage and churching dues went to minister and clerk (see tariffs, p. 221 supra). Chrisoms, i.e., white robes put on children when baptized, and given as an offering at churching, occasionally figure in the wardens' receipt items. See, e.g., J.E. Foster, St. Mary the Great (Cambridge) Acc'ts, 156 (1565-7), et passim. St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, 282 (Chrisoms farmed out by the parish in 1562-3. In 1567-8 the value of the chrisom offerings is 40s.). See Introd. to St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, p. xix.

[294] See p. 27 supra. Also p. 35 supra.

[295] Provision for the poore now in penurie Out of the Store-House of Gods plentie, Explained by H. A[rth], London, 1597 (No pagination). "Wednesday suppers" refers to fasting nights appointed by proclamation or by statute. A not uncommon entry in the act-books is "no levy of the fyne of 12d." See, e.g., Manchester Deanery Visit., 57, et passim. Barnes' Eccles. Proc., 119, et passim. Hale, Crim. Prec., passim. Cf. in Bishop Stortford Acc'ts (J.L. Glasscock, Rec. of St. Michael, B. S.), 64, the rubric: "Rec. of defaultes for absence" (9 names follow, each for 12d., except one for 3s.). Dean of York's Visit., 215 (Hayton wardens report to commissary that they have a small sum from absentees yet undistributed to the poor: "But it shalbe shortlie". 1570).

[296] See examples in note 32, pp. 19 supra.

[297] Warrington Deanery Visit., 189 (Penance of three days standing in white sheet for fornication commuted—the offender "humiliter petens"—to 13s. 4d. to be paid to vicar and wardens of Ormschurch to be distributed to poor, etc.). Hale, Crim. Prec., 232-3 (Commutation of a penance for having a bastard into £5 to be paid for the repair of St. Paul's, London, and also into 34s. 4d. to be paid to wardens of Horndon-on-the-Hill for the poor. 1606). See also Chelmsford Acc'ts, 212 (20s. received in 1560 "toward the pavynge of oure churche for part of his penance"). Abbey Parish Church Estate Acc'ts, s. a. 1578 (20s. received for a "purgation" to go to parish poor and to church).

[298] For some interesting receipt items see The Westminster Tobacco Box, Pt. ii, Overseers Acc'ts, 18 ff. (Fines in 1569 from a player beating a drum in service time; for selling coals on Candlemas day; for selling wood on Sunday; for driving a cart on that day, etc. In 1570 fines are received for retailing during service time, from proceeds of forfeitures of pots and dishes, etc., etc.). Wandsworth Acc'ts, Surrey Arch. Coll., xviii, 146 (Receipts for 1599 from fines for bricklaying on Sunday; for being in ale-house at service time—a number).

[299] See John Hawarde, Les Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata. 1593-1609 ed. W.P. Baildon (1894), passim. E.g., p. 91 (Offender fined £10 to use of poor for not laying sufficient ground to his cottages). Ibid. (Ed. Framingham, of Norfolk, fined £40 to use of poor for same offence. Oct. 14th, 1597). Ibid., 71 (Council commend a justice of the peace for condemning a Wilts engrosser to sell his corn to the poor 8d. under the price he paid for it).

[300] Some examples taken from many are North, St. Martin, Leicester, Acc'ts, 119 (Agreement in 1571 by mayor and brethren to fine one refusing to be warden for the first year 10s. to the use of the church). Ibid., 142 (This fine raised in 1600 to 20s.). St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, Introd., p. xi, and St. Edmund's Acc'ts, 121, 129. Mere Acc'ts, 26 (Parish order of 1556-7). St. Margaret, Lothbury, Minutes, 33 (An offer from a parishioner in 1595 of £10 for church repair, "condicynellie that the parish wowld dispence with him for the church warden, Officers and cunstable…"). Ibid., 36 and 45 (Two parishioners each pay £10, being exempted thereafter "from all services as Constableshipp, Churchwarden, syde men and any other offices whatsoever that the parish myght … hereafter Impose uppon them…". 1607). Memorials of Stepney, 44 (Fine for not attending vestry. 1602). Clifton Antiq. Club, i (1888), 198 (40d. fine for absence from St. Stephen's, Bristol, vestry, 1524. For other fines, see ibid.). Clifton Antiq. Club, i, 195 (Same fine for absence from St. Thomas', Bristol, vestry. 1579). St. Margaret, Lothbury, Minutes, passim (Fines for not accounting on a certain day, and for not auditing accounts).

[301] Examples are found in W.F. Cobb, St. Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate, London, Acc'ts, 5 (10s. received of a schoolmaster allowed to keep school in the belfry. 1589). Ibid., same p. ("Receaved of the owte cryar for a quarters rente for settynge of goodes at the churche doore … iiis. iiijd…" 1585). The canons of 1571 forbid this practice: "Non patientur [sc. the wardens] ut quisquam ex … istis … sordidis mercatoribus … quos … pedularios [peddlars] appellant, proponant merces suas vel in coemeteriis vel in porticibus ecclesiarum [etc.]…", Cardwell, Syn., i, 124. St. Michael's, Lewes, Acc'ts, Sussex Arch. Coll., xlv (1902), 40, 60 ("Recd for sarttayn standyngs agaynst the cherche at Whytson fayar xvd." 1588). Similar items to the last are found in many accounts. See also St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, Acc'ts, 215 (Receipt items "for the chirch style before his house"; for the rent of the "p[ar]ishe ground wherevpon his chymney standythe". 1588). Ibid., 203 ("Yt ys also agreyd that goodman Tomson shall from hence forthe paye vnto the p[ar]yshe for hys byldynge into the Churche yarde 12d. by the yeare." 1584).

[302] Thus in 1561 Kingston-upon-Thames church sold brushwood growing upon its land for £14 7s. 8d.: Surrey Arch. Coll., viii, 77. In 1573 the wardens of St. Michael's in Bedwardine (Acc'ts ed. John Amphlett, p. 74) brought a suit for the value of eight trees sold to one Lode, alleging that the defendant had promised to pay the price "for the reparacions of the … church and reliff of the pore…"

[303] For the form and wording of such a licence see Parish Registers and Documents of Kingston-upon-Thames, etc.: Surrey Arch. Coll., ii (1864), 92 (1591). The fee according to royal proclamation was 6s. 8d.: St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Minutes, 9. For receipts from this source see St. Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate Acc'ts, 5, et passim, as well as the other London acc'ts already cited. Cf. Cardwell, Doc. Ann., i, 370-2, for Council's letter to the archbishop of Canterbury on the observance of Ember Days and Lent.

[304] E.g., see in St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, Acc'ts, 227-9 and 240-2, long lists of persons from all parts of England who contributed in the years 1592-4 towards the rebuilding of St. Mary's steeple. A host of proctors licenced under the broad seal, or by the justices of the peace, or otherwise, went from parish to parish soliciting contributions for churches, alms-houses, hospitals, etc. They seem to have entered parish churches at service time and disturbed or annoyed the congregations. This probably led to the parish order of Mere, Wilts (Mere Acc'ts, p. 80, in Wilts Arch. [etc.] Mag.), which in 1585 forbade such persons going about the parish or entering the church, but enjoined them all to repair to the Mere churchwardens for contributions to be given at the expense of the parish.

[305] At Winsham, Somerset, a document was drawn up in 1581, apportioning among certain parishioners (by virtue of their holdings), the vicar, and finally the whole parish, how many feet of wattled fence each should keep in repair, or what stiles each was to maintain: Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dor., v, 538. See a similar agreement in Morebath (Devon) Acc'ts, 38. Also in Marsh, Hist. of Calne, 372, the list at Calne. Here are 25 groups of houses and certain individuals charged with making and keeping the churchyard bounds. See also Canterbury Visit., xxv, 34 (Suit brought before the archdeacon against the tenant of a holding whose former owners had for 40 years repaired a portion of the church fence, 1611). For presentments to the courts Christian for non-repair of church fence by individuals, see Dean of York's Visit., 214, 228, 325 (1570-1599).

[306] Canterbury Visit., xxv, 26 (A parishioner of Herne presented for withholding 9s., "which hath always been accustomed to be paid out of a certain house and lands." 1592).

[307] Early History of Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey Arch. Coll., viii, 74.

[308] St. Mary the Great Acc'ts, 148.

[309] Hist. and Antiq. of Leicestershire, by John Nichols (1815), i, Pt. ii, 569 ff.

[310] See in T. Nash, Hist. and Antiq. of Worcestershire, i, pp. lii-lvi, a long list of Pentecost, etc., farthings paid by each parish of the diocese in lump sums varying from 3d. to 3s.

[311] Morebath Acc'ts (ed. Binney), 34, s. a. 1531, seem to offer a genuine example of such a payment of Peter's pence. But the Minchinhampton wardens (Acc'ts in Archaeologia, xxxv, 422 ff.), confuse their payments to the mother church, made in 1575 ff., with Peter's pence. See, e.g., s. a. 1575, the entry: "to the sumner [or apparitor] for peterpence or smoke farthynges sometyme due to the Anthecriste of roome … xd."

[312] See, e.g., Sam'l. Barfield, Thatcham, Berks, and its Manors, ii, 122 (Midgham and Greenham called upon against their will for contributions to mother church). Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 123 (Dispute ending in a suit between St. Oswald and St. Margaret. 1595 ff.). Memorials of Stepney, 1-2 (Parishioners of Stratford Bow forced to contribute to St. Dunstan's, the mother church).

[313] E.g., the vestry of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, London (Minutes, ed E. Freshfield), agree to cess "the parishioners" for money to prosecute a suit for certain parish lands in 1585-6. When the lands were recovered each was to have his money back (Minutes, p. 12). But those assessed numbered only 38 (p. 13), whereas we see by a list (p. 12) that 43 persons were here assessed for the Queen's subsidy; and subsidy men were the wealthier men of the parishes. Cf. assessment at Lapworth for Barford bridge levied on 26 tenements, cottagers not being assessed. Hudson, Memorials of a Warwickshire Parish, 115.

[314] Hale, Crim. Prec., 198 (One Spencer presented for not paying his proportion for the ringing on the Queen's anniversary, "being rated at iiijd.") Hudson, op. cit. supra (Barford bridge assessment of 4s. 4d. spread out over 26 tenements).

[315] Canterbury Visit, xxvii, 214 (John Basset "cessed" at 2d. a quarter, but thought well able to pay 3d. for the clerk's wages. Robert Sawyer, ditto. 1577). St. Margaret, Lothbury, Minutes, 16 (ed. E. Freshfield), where in 1584 thirty-four parishioners make a "free offer" of sums from 2d. to 6s. 8d. to pay a lecturer. Ibid., 10 (18 parishioners give from 1d. to £2 towards the erecting of a clock. 1577).

[316] Rates for bread and wine were commonly so levied. See supra, p. 78 and note 80.

[317] See p. 80 supra and note 87.

[318] Houghton-le-Spring Acc'ts, Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 271 (1596). Binney, Morebath Acc'ts, 34 (1531). Ibid., 85 (1536).

[319] E.g., See Hale, Churchwardens' Prec., passim, e.g., where the parishioners of Elstree ("Idlestrye"), Herts, cannot agree in 1585/6, some contending for assessment "by their welthe and goods only, and some others do require that the taxation might be made by the acres of grounde only." Canterbury Visit., xxvii, 218 (2d. an acre). Ibid., xxv, 42 (4d. an acre). Ibid., xxvi, 33 (Ploughland of 140 acres paying 6s. 8d. for clerk's wages). Ibid., xxv, 33 (Two "cesses" at Minster church, one at 20d. the score [of pounds?], the other at 12d.). The Reliquary, xxv, 18 (Levy made in Morton, Derbysh., of 8d. the oxgang of 15 acres).

[320] Order of Wiltshire justices, Michaelmas, 1600, that three of their number shall call certain constables and others before them, "and examine them what overplus of money is remaining in their hands w[hi]ch they have collected of their hundredes for anie service whatsoever, and if there be anie founde remayning the said Justice to distribute the same amongst the inhabitants of the same hundredes according to their discretion." Rec. of Wilts Quarter Sess. in Wilts Arch, (etc.) Mag., xxi, 85.

[321] According to the 22 Hen. VIII c. 5, where it cannot be known who ought of right to repair a bridge, the justices of the district shall call before them the constables of the parishes of the surrounding hundreds, or of the whole shire, and "with the assent of the … constables or [chief] inhabitants," tax every inhabitant of the towns and parishes of the shire (if necessary). This looks like a county bridge tax, but in practice the justices either threw a lump sum on a hundred, or on a parish, and left each parish to raise this sum according to local rating. Such, at least, would seem to be the usual practice according to the churchwardens accounts, which contain many lump payments made to constables for bridges.

[322] See Wilts justices order, 20 Eliz., Wilts Arch. (etc.) Mag., xxi, 80-1. Cf. ibid., 16, the appeal of Hilprington and Whaddon that they have been compelled by the inhabitants of Melkesham to pay a third part with the last named parish of these lump assessments, though the acreage of Melkesham is much greater than either of theirs, "and far better ground."

[323] See p. 81, note 91 supra.

[324] John Lister, West Riding Session Rolls, 85. As early as 14 Eliz. c. 5, sec. 17, city or parish officers might remove alien poor to their places of birth, if such aliens had resided in their adopted parishes not longer than three years.

[325] J.W. Willis Bund, Cal. Worcester Quar. Sess. Rec.,i, p. clxxxii. The appearance of a bastard was a portentous event. See the many ridings to and fro across country to ecclesiastical and civil magistrates in the Ashburton Acc'ts (Butcher, The Parish of Ashburton), p. 47 (1576-7). The Devonshire justices order, Easter 1598, that every woman who shall have a bastard child shall be whipped: Hamilton, Quarter Session from Eliz. to Anne, 32. Cf. the item: "paide for carriage of an Irish woman into Fynsburie feildes who was delivered of a childe under the stockes." Brooke and Hallen, St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw (London) Acc'ts, s. a. 1587.

[326] Wilts Quart. Sess. in Wilts Arch, (etc.) Mag., xxii, 17.

[327] Willis Bund, loc. cit. supra, p. 8. From 1599 to 1642 there were twenty-four indictments for not laying four acres to a cottage at the Worcester sessions. Ibid., Table of indictments for all offences, p. lvii ff. Cf. Wilts Quarter Sess. Rec. in Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. on Var. Coll., i (1901), 66. W.J. Hardy, Herts Co. Rec. Sess. Rolls (1905), i, 5, et passim. Norfolk Archaeology, x (1888), 159. Les Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata (ed. W.P. Baildon), passim.

[328] Bund, loc. cit., p. clxxxiii.

[329] Geo. A. Wade, An English Town that is still ruled by an Oligarchy (Dalton-in-Furness), Engl. Illust. Mag., xxv (1901).