Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England

by Edward Lewes Cutts

From the same source we learn that at Boston, Lincolnshire, there were three gilds, one of the Blessed Virgin Mary with five chaplains, whose revenues amounted to £24 a year; one of Corpus Christi with six chaplains, income £32; and one of St. Peter with two chaplains, income £10 13s. 4d.

Alice Lowys, widow of Lowys of Boston, merchant, 1350, leaves bequests to the High Altar, and to the Gilds of Blessed Mary, St. Katharine, St. George, etc. (“Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 175).

Isabella Longland, widow, of Henley-upon-Thames, 1527, leaves “to the hye aulter of Henley Church 20d., and hye aulter of our Ladye a diapur cloth of iij elles and more. To the Fraternity of Jesus in the said church, 4s.; to the Gilde of our blessed lady of Boston in the dioces of Lincoln, whereof I am suster, to have masses of Scala celi and dirge shortly after my departing, 6s. 8d.; to the Brotherhood of St. George and St. Christopher of York for ditto, 6s. 8d. To my sone my Lorde of Lincoln, a standing cup of silver and gilt with a kever, having the image of St. Mighell, and a droigon in the toppe, and borne with iij aungells in the foote.... To my prestes for to bere me to the churche ev’y preste, 8d. She was the mother of John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, 1521-1547” (Ibid., p. 208).

[567] “Valor Eccl.,” iii. 237.

[568] Page 468.

[569] Thus Stamford had in All Saints’ Church the Gild of All Saints, the Gild of St. John and St. Julian, the Gild of Corpus Christi, and Philip’s chantry. In St. Mary’s Church an endowment for stipendiaries and a chantry; in St. Stephen’s Church a chapter; in St. Clement’s Church a gild.

[570] Wm. Trenourth of St. Cleer, Cornwall, 1400, leaves to the store of St. Cleer, three sheep; to the store of St. Mary in St. Cleer Church, two sheep; to the store of Holy Cross therein, one sheep, and the same to the store of St. James (Hingeston-Randolph, “Stafford’s Register,” p. 380).

[571] W. Haselbeche, clark, 1504, leaves to the Fraternity of St. Peter, holden within the Church of Littlebury, Essex, his best brass pot and a dozen of great platters marked with C.

To the Fraternity of Our Lady’s Assumption in the Church of Haddestoo, in Norfolk, toward the buying and building of a hall for the Fraternity, 26s. 8d. (“Essex Arch. Trans.” (New Series), vol. i. p. 174).

In an inventory of the goods at Chich St. Osyth Church, 6 Ed. VI., occurs: “There be the ymplements sometime belonging to the Trinity Gylde. In the hands of the churchwardens—brasse pott, weighing 3 c. 4 li.; brass pott, weying 35 li. (much obliterated by decay), ... spitts remaining; dozen of peuter, waying 31 li. And also in the hands of Sir J. Harwy, church pryst, one garnyshe of peuter” (Ibid., p. 28).