The following extracts from the wardens' accounts show how frequently the floor of the church was disturbed and levelled:—

£s.d.
1674

It. for lying Flags of 2 graves in our third

000004
1689

For lying the Grave Flags and mending Forms

000006
1690

All three townships pay for "lying Flags and mending Fourmes."

1713

For Lying ye Flaggs upon Several Graves wh. had fallen in

000100
1728

For mending the Flaggs and Fourms

000202
1729

For flagging and Leavelling ye Church floor

000010
1763

Grasmere mende forms and levell flags, 1s. 6d.; Loughrigg and beneath Moss the same, 1s. 8d.

1772

New flags bought, and extensive work done upon the floor, at a total cost of £9 8s. 13⁄4 d.: the flagging of the "low end" not being completed till next year.

1774

For "mending Furmes in Church & a Soal-tree" 12s. 4d. is paid.

1782

Grasmere purchases an oak tree for seats in her third, 13s. 4d., carpenter 13s. 4d.; with a final 11s. 6d. next year for repair of the old ones.

1783

Loughrigg and beneath Moss proceeds to the same; and two new "Sole-trees" with the railing and repairing of four forms cost £1 9s. 0d., besides 1s. 8d. spent in ale at the public auction of the contract, and 2d. for advertisement of same.

1811

For Levelling Church & mending Windows

 16
1819

To clearing Church of Stones and Rubbish

 16
1828

Outlay unusual. Grasmere shows "To Flags & Flagging in the Church" 19s. 4d. "To repairing seates" 2s. 0d. Loughrigg and beneath Moss "To Ambleside Church-warden paid for New Seats" £2 1s. 6d. Langdale "To Repairing Flags in Church" £1 6s. 6d.; Seats and Wood 19s. 9d.

1833

Grasmere repairs "fermes" in Church, 6d.

The soil beneath the church is thus literally sown with bones, and the wonder is that room could be found for so many. But in this connection it must be remembered that the practice of burying without coffins was the usual one until a comparatively recent period.

No wonder that plague broke out again and again, that the fragrant rush was needed for other purpose than warmth, and that fires within the church could not have been tolerated.

The custom concerning these forms or ferms, as locally pronounced, was rigid. Every man had a right, as townsman or member of a vill, to a recognized seat within the church, which was obtained through the officials of his township. This seat was, of course, within the division of his township. The women sat apart from the men, and even the maids from the old wives. So tenaciously was the hereditary seat clung to, that reference to it may occasionally be met with in a will.[128]

Some serious alteration in the allotment of seats was probably made in 1676, judging from these entries in the wardens' accounts.

lisd
Ittem for Laughrig third for lifting seatts upon Church & when ther names was sent in writting00200
Itt. for grasmyre third for ye like00200

The Squire of Rydal, as soon as the Restoration permitted it, set to work to furnish that part of the church in which he worshipped suitably to the honour and dignity of his family. The family seats had before his time long stood vacant, even if they had been ever regularly used. His predecessor, John, as an avowed Roman Catholic, had preferred to pay heavy fines rather than obey the law in the matter of attendance at the Communion of the parish church; and there is little doubt that the mass was celebrated in private for him at Rydal Hall. John's mother, Dame Agnes, may have attended during her widowhood; but her husband William, the purchaser of the tithes and patronage, must—always supposing him to be a good Protestant—have attended more frequently at Coniston.

But Squire Daniel was a pillar of the church as well as of the State in his neighbourhood, and his accommodation within the building was framed in view of the fact. The following entry occurs in his account book, under July 13th, 1663. The monument referred to is doubtless the brass tablet we now see in the chancel, and it appears to have waited for its fixing for ten years after its purchase in London:—