The Key to the Family Deed Chest: How to Decipher and Study Old Documents / Being a Guide to the Reading of Ancient Manuscripts

by Emma Elizabeth Thoyts

There are in the old books (those of that unsettled time when the religion of the State varied according to the Sovereign in power, during the Tudor and Stuart dynasties) many notices of the alterations wrought both in town and country places. The church goods were first catalogued by order of Edward VI.’s Ministers; rich vestments, altar hangings, and numerous vessels are named in the first list, but later on, under Queen Elizabeth, the parish churches were further despoiled, till there was little left for the Puritans to remove, and in the later lists only the old service books and books of religious instruction are left to the churchwardens to chronicle. Although instances as early as 1287 are on record, the erection of pews was an innovation only introduced by degrees after the Reformation. The destruction of screens and the removal of altars caused altar rails and communion tables to be used instead. Then came the terrors of civil war. Upon the churchwardens devolved the duty of providing burial for soldiers slain in battle. Such burials were not often in the churchyard, but on the boundaries of parishes, the expenses being defrayed equally by both parishes; this was probably an old custom in warfare, but it was carried out as late as the Commonwealth. A battle was a public calamity, and the responsibility of providing interment for the slain was therefore a public duty.

After the Restoration of Charles II. the churches were repaired and the royal arms restored. Later on we find some parsons resigning their work from nonconforming scruples; at this time, too, are notices of excommunicated persons. The Puritan zeal was aroused by James II.’s injudicious attempt to restore Catholicism; and attendance at church, first commanded by Queen Elizabeth, was further enforced by an order that taking of the Sacrament should be regarded as a test of conformity; for disobedience the punishment of excommunication was inflicted upon the churchwardens’ application to the bishop. The Recusants, as papists were called, were treated with great severity and injustice, and heavily fined for their religious beliefs.

Any fresh Act of Parliament with reference to fees or taxes was soon noted in the parish books. Fees varied in different places, according to custom. Prior to the eighteenth century fees for burial within the church were payable to the churchwardens, but afterwards became the parson’s perquisite. These entries in the churchwardens’ books may lead to the identification of vaults and interments not noted in the parish register, and consequently forgotten. The burial of strangers was always charged for at a higher rate; for paupers the parish paid the expenses, and the tax of 3d. on each burial, as levied by Act of Parliament, was not enforced. Taxes were levied on many things under the Georges, but none were more obnoxious to the people than the birth, marriage, and death taxes, of which the clergyman was made to act as a most unwilling tax-gatherer.

The window-tax fell heavily on old manor houses pierced with innumerable windows and skylights. It was then that many windows were blocked up to avoid payment.

In the last century are many entries of payment for the release of men seized for service in the army or navy; when the father of a family went away, his wife and children were left to be provided for by charity, and the first payment by the churchwardens for his release was in the end the cheapest.

A list of rails (spelt usually ‘rayles’) surrounding the churchyard reminds one of another almost obsolete custom, that of each person repairing the rail in the fence next to his property or for which he was liable. The liability was attached to the land, though custom decided whether the owner or the occupier was the person to do such repairs.

Last, not least, in the parish chest were bundles of old papers, technically known as ‘briefs.’ In the account books all church collections were duly entered. Originally collections were more of the nature of voluntary rates, for the name of each donor is given and the sum he gave, varying in accordance with his social position and means.

The origin of church collections is obscure; no doubt the offerings given at the Sacrament were always devoted to the relief of poverty and distress.

To regulate and restrict the right of levying collections Acts of Parliament were passed, and no collection was allowed to be made without a proper license called a ‘brief’; but the issuing of these grew to an alarming extent. Briefs were issued for all sorts of emergencies and disasters, principally for damage by fire, there being then no insurance offices; and the old buildings, once set alight, were seldom rescued from total demolition. A complete list of early briefs would be curious, but would be so extensive as to fill a large volume. The subject has not met with the interest it deserves, but I believe now it is beginning to be studied.

The churchwardens probably kept few, if any, accounts prior to the sixteenth century, therefore any older church collections are unrecorded or only mentioned by chance.