"Symson—Because somebody would have done it, if I had not.... Never had a benefice in my life. I have had little petty curacies about £20 or £30 per year. I don't do it for lucre or gain.
"Court—You might have exposed your person had you gone on the highway, but you'd do less prejudice to your country a good deal. You are a nuisance to the public; and the gentlemen of the jury, it is to be hoped, will give but little credit to you."—Burn, op. cit., 55; Ashton, op. cit., 357, 358. On Symson (or Symsen) see also Jeaffreson, op. cit., II, 152.
[1353] Friedberg, op. cit., 341; quoted also by Ashton, op. cit., 359; and Burn, op. cit., 59.
[1354] Pennant, Some Account of London (3d ed., 1793), 232; Ashton, op. cit., 344; also in Burn, op. cit., 16, note.
[1355] Lecky, Eng. in 18th Century, I, 5-31; Burn, op. cit., 8; Friedberg, op. cit., 341, who quotes the following from the Weekly Journal, 1723, June 29: "Several of the above mentioned brandy-men and victualers keep clergymen in their houses at 20 shillings per week each, hit or miss, but its reported that one there will stoop to no such low conditions, but makes at least 500 pounds per annum of Divinity-jobs after that manner." Cf. also Tegg, The Knot Tied, 205, note, for the same extract.
[1356] John Gainham, the "wrynecked parson," as he is frequently called in the contemporary newspapers, rejoiced in the significant title of "Bishop of Hell." When asked by an advocate whether he was "not ashamed to come and own a clandestine marriage in the face of a court of justice," he blandly replied: Video meliora, deteriora sequor. The following lines from the "Morning Walk, 8°, 1751" (Burn, Parish Registers, 155), may be compared with similar lines reprinted by Ashton (op. cit., 345, 346):
Where lead my wand'ring footsteps now? the Fleet
Presents her tatter'd sons in Luxury's cause:
Here venerable Crape and scarlet Cheeks,
With nose of purple hue, high eminent
And squinting leering looks, now strike the eye.
B-sh-p of Hell, once in the precincts call'd
Renown'd for making thoughtless Contracts, here
He reign'd in bloated reeling majesty
And passed in Sottishness and Smoke his time—
Rever'd by Gins adorers, and the tribe
Who pass in brawls, lewd jests, and drink, their days,
Sons of low, groveling riot and debauch.
Here Cleric grave from Oxford ready stands
Obsequious to conclude the Gordian knot,
Entwin'd beyond all dissolution sure;
A Reg'lar this from Cambridge; both alike
In artful Stratagem to tye the noose,
While women 'Do you want the Parson?' cry."
[1357] On Gainham see Burn, Parish Registers, 155, 156; idem, Fleet Marriages, 49-53; Ashton, The Fleet, 344-47; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 339, 340; Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, II, 151.
[1358] Lecky, op. cit., I, 532. See the examples in Friedberg, op. cit., 343, extracted from Burn, Fleet Marriages, 94 ff.; Jeaffreson, op. cit., II, 174, 175; and Ashton, op. cit., 381, 361, 387. Even Lord Chancellor Ellesmere and Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of England, had contracted secret marriages: Friedberg, op. cit., 344; citing Macqueen, Treatise of Marriage, Divorce, &c. (London, 1860), 6.
[1359] There seems to have been much dislike for the publicity of banns even on the part of the aristocracy: see the letter of Horace Walpole to Henry Seymour Conway, May 24, 1753, Letters, II, 334-36; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 342; idem, Geschichte der Civilehe, 15; Fry, Considerations on ... Clandestine Marriages, 8.