The Parish Clerk

by P. H. Ditchfield

In 1442 Henry VI granted a charter to "the Chief or Parish Clerks of the City of London for the honour and glory of Almighty God and of the undefiled and most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, and on account of that special devotion, which they especially bore to Christ's glorious confessor, St. Nicholas, on whose day or festival we were first presented into this present world, at the hands of a mother of memory ever to be revered." The charter states that they had maintained a poor brotherhood of themselves, as well as a certain divine service, and divine words of charity and piety, devised and exhibited by them year by year, for forty years or more by part; and it conferred on them the right of a perpetual corporate community, having two roasters and two chaplains to celebrate divine offices every day, for the King's welfare whether alive or dead, and for the souls of all faithful departed, for ever. By special royal grace they were allowed, on petitioning His Majesty, to have the charter without paying any fine or fee.

Seven years later a second charter was granted, wherein it is stated that their services were held in the Chapel of Mary Magdalene by the Guildhall. "Bretherne and Sisterne" were included in the fraternity. Bad times and the Wars of the Roses brought distress to the community, and they prayed Edward IV to refound their guild, allowing only the maintenance of one chaplain instead of two in the chapel nigh the Guildhall, together with the support of seven poor persons who daily offered up their prayers for the welfare of the King and the repose of the souls of the faithful. They provided "a prest, brede, wyne, wex, boke, vestments and chalise for their auter of S. Nicholas in the said chapel." The King granted their request.

The original home of the guild was in Bishopsgate. Brewers' Hall was, in 1422, lent to them for their meetings. But the old deeds in the possession of the company show that as early as 1274 they acquired property "near the King's highway in the parish of St. Ethelburga, extending from the west side of the garden of the Nuns of St. Helen's to near the stone wall of Bishopsgate on the north, in breadth from the east side of William the Whit Tawyer's to the King's highway on the south." These two highways are now known as Bishopsgate Street and Camomile Street. They had property also at Finsbury on the east side of Whitecross Street. Inasmuch as the guild did not in those early days possess a charter and was not incorporated, it had no power to hold property; hence the lands were transmitted to individual members of the fraternity [52]. After their incorporation in 1442 the trustees of the lands and possessions were all clerks. Another property belonged to them at Enfield.

[52] The transmission of the property is carefully traced in Some Account of Parish Clerks, by Mr. James Christie, p. 78. He had access to the company's muniments.

The chief possession of the clerks was the Bishopsgate property. It consisted of an inn called "The Wrestlers," another inn which bore the sign of "The Angel," and a fair entry or gate near the latter which still bears the name Clerks' Place. Wrestlers' Court still marks the site of the old inn--so conservative are the old names in the city of London. Passing through the entry we should have seen seven modest almshouses for the brethren and sisters of the guilds. Beyond these was the hall of the company. It consisted of a parlour (36 ft. by 14 ft.), with three chambers over it. The east side with fan glasses overlooked the garden, 72 ft. in length by 21 ft. wide. The west side was lined with wainscot. The actual hall adjoined, a fine room 30 ft. by 25 ft., with a gallery at the nether end, with a little parlour at the west end. A room for the Bedell, a kitchen with a vault under it, larder-rooms, buttery, and a little house called the Ewery, completed the buildings. It must have been a very delightful little home for the company, not so palatial as that of some of the greater guilds, but compact, charming, and altogether attractive.

But evil days set in for the City companies of London. Spoliation, greed, destruction were in the air. Churches, monasteries, charities felt the rude hand of the spoiler, and it could scarcely be that the rich corporations of the City should fail to attract the covetous eyes of the rapacious courtiers. They were forced to surrender all their property which had been used for so-called "superstitious" purposes, and most of them bought this back with large sums of money, which went into the coffers of the King or his ministers. The Parish Clerks' Company fared no better than the rest. Their hall was seized by the King, or rather by the infamous courtiers of Edward VI, and sold, together with the almshouses, to Sir Robert Chester in 1548. He at once took possession of the property, but the clerks protested that they had been wrongfully despoiled, and again seized their rightful possessions. In spite of the sympathy and support of the Lord Mayor, who "communed with the wardens of the Great Companies for their gentle aid to be granted to the parish clerks towards their charges in defence of their title to their Common Hall and lands," the clerks lost their case, and were compelled to give up their home or submit to a heavy fine of 1000 marks besides imprisonment. The poor dispossessed clerks were defeated, but not disheartened. In the days of Queen Mary they renewed their suit, and "being likely to have prevailed, Sir Robert Chester pulled down the hall, sold the timber, stone and land, and thereupon the suit was ended"--very summary conclusion truly!

The Lord Mayor and his colleagues again showed sympathy and compassion for the dispossessed clerks, and offered them the church of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in 1552 for their meetings. They did not lack friends. William Roper, whose picture still hangs in the hall of the company, the son-in-law of Sir Thomas More, was a great benefactor, who bequeathed to them some tenements in Southwark on condition that they should distribute £4 among the poor prisoners in Newgate and other jails. He was the biographer of Sir Thomas More, and died in 1577.

In 1610 the clerks applied for a new charter, and obtained it from James I, under the title of "The Parish Clerks of the Parishes and Parish Churches of the City of London, the liberties thereof and seven out of nine out-parishes adjoining." They were required to make returns for the bills of mortality and of the deaths of freemen. The masters and wardens had power granted to them to examine clerks as to whether they could sing the Psalms of David according to the usual tunes used in the parish churches, and whether they were sufficiently qualified to make their weekly returns. In 1636 a new charter was granted by Charles I, and again in 1640, this last charter being that by which the company is now governed. By this instrument their jurisdiction was extended so as to include Hackney and the other fifteen out-parishes, and they gained the right of collecting their own wages, and of suing for it in the ecclesiastical courts, and of printing the bills of mortality.