The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects

by Sedley Lynch Ware

[276] See, e.g., J.E. Foster, St. Mary the Great (Cambridge) Acc'ts, 148 ff. Offerings of the masters of arts and of the bachelors form a distinct feature here.

[277] See pp. 41 ff. and 59 supra. In the Morebath Acc'ts (ed. J.E. Binney, p. 178) we read, s.a. 1553-4, as a heading to the receipt items: "Now to pay y'e forsayd dettis & demawndis y'e schall hyre of all our resettis y't we have resseuyed, & how gentylly for y'e moste p[ar]te men have payd of there owne devocon wt[h] out ony taxyn or ratyng as y'e schall hyre here after." Then follows a list of 30 names. There is evidently some sort of rough assessment here, e.g., Nicholas at Hayne pays 4s. 9d., "consyderyng hys bothe bargayns" (i.e., small farms). Cf. St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, p. xviii and p. 317.

[278] Five years later, the vicar dead, the clerk was ordered to assist the wardens in receiving the 'paskall pence' whether paid at Easter or at any other time of communion. Hill and Frere, Memorials of Stepney Parish, 4-5 and 13-14.

[279] Ordered by St. Edmund's, Sarum, vestry in 1628: "that the bread and wyne for the Communion shalbe paid for by the auncyennt paymentt of the halfepence, and yf it shall com[e] to more … Jt shalbe supplied out of the rest of the mony given after the Co[m]munion." St. Edmund and St. Thomas Acc'ts (Wilts Rec. Soc.), 187.

[280] These levies were 2-1/2d. on each householder at St. Margaret, Lothbury, London; 3d. a house at St. Lawrence Pountney, London (History of St. Laurence Pountney, by H.B. Wilson [1831], 125 ff.). Etc. At Salehurst, Sussex, the fee was 1d. a poll yearly, heads of households being empowered in 1585 to abate that sum from their servants' wages: Sussex Arch. Coll., xxv, 154. At Pittington, Durham, landlords were to answer for their cottagers for a yearly fee of 2d.: Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 29 (1590). Cf. ibid., Houghton-Le-Spring Acc'ts, 269. Leverton, Lincoln, Acc'ts, Archæologia, xli, 368 (A penny a poll for the elements. 1612). In the Abbey Parish Church Estate Acc'ts, Shrewsbury, every "gentleman" is to pay 6d. yearly to the wardens for bread and wine; "the second sorte" of the parishioners 4d. each; "the third or weaker sorte," each 2d.: Shrop. Arch. Soc., i, 65 (1603).

[281] See Great Yarmouth Acc'ts, East Anglian, iv (1892), 67 ff. (An item for purchase of 1000 tokens. 1613-14). Also St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Minute Books, 14 (1584). Also Archæologia Eeliana, xix (1898), 44 (Ryton, Durham, Book of Easter offerings. 1595).

[282] St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, 288 (Muscatel and claret). Abbey Parish Church Estate Acc'ts, 62 (same). St. Martin's, Leicester, Acc'ts (ed. Thos. North), 100 (Malmsey and claret).

[283] Rubric § 144 of the First Edwardine Prayer Book directs that as ministers are to find the elements, the congregations are to contribute every Sunday at the time of the offertory the just value of the holy loaf. See E. Freshfield, St. Christopher-le-Stocks Vestry Minute Book, p. vii, et passim. Stanford, Berks, Acc'ts, Antiquary, xvii, s.a. 1582 (2d. collected every Sunday for holy loaf). Mere Acc'ts (Wilts Arch. (etc.) Mag., xxxv, 38), s.a. 1568, et passim.

[284] J.V. Kitto, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields (London) Acc'ts, append. D., Vestry Order of 1590. Parish order of Salehurst (1582), Sussex Arch. Coll., xxv, 153. St. Margaret's, Westminster, Overseers Acc'ts in Westminster Tobacco Box, Pt. ii, 18 (1566).

[285] E.g., at St. Laurence Pountney, London, the "clerk's wages" amounted in 1598 to nearly £30 in the wardens receipt items, but in the expense items to £8 plus various dues for lighting, bell-ringing and church-linen washing, in all £12 12s. Wilson, History of St. Laurence, 125. In the St. Christopher-le-Stocks Acc'ts (ed. E. Freshfield), p. 4, the receipts in 1576 for "Clarkes wagis" are £9 6s. 5d., but we read: "Pd. to J.M. Clarke his whole yeares wagis [etc.] … iij li." In St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Minutes (p. 13) it was decided in 1581 to raise the "clarkes rolle" to £8 a year, but expressly stated that the clerk is to be paid as before, "but That [the] overplus Shall remayn For astocke to the churche to beare owtt such charges as shalbe nessesarye for the same." In St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Vestry Minutes (ed. E. Freshfield) in 1583 it is agreed (p. 27) that the clerk is to pay out of his wages the statutory assessment of 2d. weekly on the parish for maimed soldiers and mariners. Same stipulation at St. Alphage's, London Wall: G.B. Hall, Records of St. Alphage (1882), 25 (1594).