[76] See, e.g., A.G. Legge, North Elmham (Norfolk) Acc'ts (1891), 76 (1562), 82 (1566 and 1567). Melton Acc'ts in Leicest. Archit. and Arch. Soc., iii, 192 (1566). Ludlow Acc'ts in Shrop. Arch. Soc., 2nd ser., i, s.a. 1601-2, etc.
[77] In this year the 39 Eliz. c. 3 was enacted which instituted overseers of the poor nominated by the licence of the justices, and placed wholly under their supervision. In spite of the provisions of an earlier act (14 Eliz. c. 5) giving the justices power to appoint, or see collectors appointed, the ecclesiastical courts rather than the justices, as the act-books show, seem to have looked after the matter. See, e.g., Manchester Deanery Visit., 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 68, etc. Also Warrington Deanery Visit., 184, 186, 187, 191, etc. Cf. the item in the Ludlow Acc'ts, Shrop. Arch. Soc., i, s.a. 1586-7, where is recorded an expense item for a payment to "Mr. Chauncelor" for entering a presentment for collections for the poor.
[78] See act-books above cited. Also Hale, Crim. Prec., 165, et passim. Barnes' Eccles. Proc., 118, et passim. Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc., xiii, 207-8 (Great Witchingham wardens).
[79] Stanford (Berks) Accounts, Antiquary, xvii (1888), 169 (Expenses to Oxford "to speke with [the] … Archedyacon for caryeng a strem[e]r in Rogacion weke." 1564). Hale, Crim. Prec., 150 (Wearing of surplice on same occasion. 1567); 152 (Do. 1572). Cf. Grindal's Inj. at York, 1571, in Cardwell, Doc. Ann., i, 337.
[80] Melton Acc'ts, ubi supra, 192 ("Beyng somonyd ffor Ryngng off all Hallodaye att nyght." 1566). Halesowen Acc'ts in T.R. Nash, History and Antiq. of Worcestershire, ii, App., p. xxx (1578). Stanford Acc'ts, ubi supra, 169 (1566). Manchester Deanery Visit., 64 (Wardens of Manchester "ringe more than is necessarie at Burialls…"). Cf. Canons of 1571, Cardwell, Syn., i, 124 (Ordained that wardens must not suffer "campanas superstitiose pulsari, vel in vigilia Animarum, vel postridie Omnium Sanctorum…").
[81] Accordingly some seven weeks later the wardens (or rather their successors) appeared again and reported that the rate had been laid, but not gathered. The court granted them a further space to buy the implements. Hale, Churchwardens' Prec., 2-3 (1583/1584). Similar examples abound in Archdeacon Hale's work, just cited, which covers the period 1557 to 1736.
[82] Ibid., 4 (1584). For other cases see passim.
[83] Hale, Churchwardens' Prec., 98 (1601). Burn, Eccles. Law, i, 268 (citing Gibson, Codex, 196, and 1 Bacon, Abridg., 373), says that if no parishioners appear at a meeting duly called for the purpose of assessment," the churchwardens alone may make the rate, because they and not the parishioners are to be cited and punished in defect of repairs." To these words should be added the qualification that the parishioners were sometimes collectively punished, viz., by interdiction of their church. Thus in St. Alban's archdeaconry the parishioners of Redbourn were directed through the wardens to make a rate to levy £60 "sub pena interdictionis eccl[es]ie sue a divinoru[m] celebratione et sacramentaru[m] et sacramentaliu[m]…[etc]." Hale, op. cit., 89 (1599). In Jan., 1599/1600; we find Shoreham Vetera in Lewes archdeaconry interdicted, and one of its wardens appearing, "humil[ite]r petijt interdicco[n]em … emissam pro defect eccleie ruinos[e] … revocari …" in order that time might be given him to call together the tenants and owners of land in the parish and outlying districts as well as "strangers" who held lands in the parish. Ibid., 111-12. In 1603 the wardens of Northawe are to see a levy made "sub pena interdicti." Ibid., 90. Cf. pp. 36-7.
[84] Examples are: Hale, Crim. Prec., 189 (Mucking, Essex, wardens. 157-6/7). Ibid.,199 (East Horndon, Essex, wardens confess they have not accounted "by reason the parishioners will not come to recken with them." They are warned to make their account and if the parishioners will not audit it, to exhibit it at the next court. 1590). Ibid., 222 (Several parishioners presented for "not receiving" a warden's account. They plead that he was not chosen to be warden by their parson. 1600). See also Canterbury Visit., xxvi, 20, 21, also Ibid., xxvii, 220, et passim. Dean of York's Visit., 335.
[85] "The cases in which the advowson of the parish belonged to the inhabitants, though more numerous than is often supposed, were distinctly exceptional." Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Local Government, the County and the Parish (1906), 34 note.