FEMALE PARISH CLERKS.
(Vol. viii., p. 338.)
The cases of Rex v. Stubbs and Olive v. Ingram, mentioned in the following extracts from Prideaux's Guide to Churchwardens, p. 4., may be of service:
"Generally speaking, all persons inhabitants of the parish are liable to serve the office of churchwarden, and from the cases of Rex v. Stubbs (2 T. R. 395.; 1 Bott. 10.), in which it was held that a woman is not exempt from serving the office of overseer of the poor, and Olive v. Ingram (2 Str. 1114.), in which it was held that she may be a parish sexton, there may, perhaps, be some ground for contending a woman is not exempt from this duty."
Russell Gole.
A few years ago (she may still be so) there was a gentlewoman the parish clerk of some church in London; perhaps some of your readers may be able to say where: a deputy officiated, excepting occasionally. But many such instances have occurred.
In a note in Prideaux's Directions to Churchwardens (late edition), the following references are given as to the power of women to fill parochial and other such offices: Rex v. Stubbs, 2 T. R. 359.; Olive v. Ingram, 2 Strange, 1114.
H. T. Ellacombe.
Rectory, Clyst St. George.
I beg to inform Y. S. M. that when I went to reside near Lincoln in 1828, a woman was clerk to the parish of Sudbrooke, and died in that capacity a very few years after. I do not remember her name at this moment, but I could get all particulars if required on my return to Sudbrooke Holme.
Rich. Ellison.
Balmoral Hotel, Broadstairs, Kent.
I am able to mention another instance of a woman acting as parish clerk at Ickburgh, in the county of Norfolk. It is the parish to Buckenham Hall, the seat of the Honourable Francis Baring, near Thetford. A woman there has long officiated as parish clerk, and still continues acting in that capacity.
F. R.
I beg to refer Y. S. M. to the following passage Madame d'Arblay's Diary, vol. v. p. 246.:
"There was at Collumpton only a poor wretched ragged woman, a female clerk, to show us this church: she pays a man for doing the duty, while she receives the salary in right of her deceased husband!"
M. L. G.
At Misterton, near Crewkerne, in Somersetshire, Mary Mounford was clerk for more than thirty years. She gave up the office about the year 1832, and is now in Beaminster Union, just eighty-nine years old.
Herbert L. Allen.