The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects

by Sedley Lynch Ware

[286] St. Mary, Reading, Acc'ts (ed. F.N. & A.G. Garry), p. 56.

[287] Hill and Frere, Memorials of Stepney, 1-3 (1580). Later, 1606 (p. 50), the same method was employed to pay debts for casting the bells. Those not paying their assessments were to be deprived of their seats (p. 4). Other examples of raising money by pew rents are Butcher, Parish of Ashburton, 49 (£6 4s. collected "for the seat rent". 1579-80). St. Christopher-le-Stocks Vestry Minutes, 71 (Clerk's wages to be "sessed by the pyews").

[288] Baker, Mere Acc'ts (Wilts Arch, [etc.] Mag.), 33 (12d. for seats for a man and his wife, "which before were his ffather's." 1561). In a sale to a parishioner in 1556-7 it is expressly stated that she is to hold the seat during "here lyfe Accordynge to the old usage of the parishe": ibid., 24. At St. Edmund's, Sarum, the sale was sometimes for life, sometimes for a lesser period. A fine was paid for changing a pew, Introd., p. xxi. Cf. order made at Chelmsford in 1592, Essex Arch. Soc., ii, 219-20. See in St. John's, Glastonbury, Acc'ts, Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dor., iv, 384, s.a. 1574, and op. cit., v, s.a. 1588, many receipts from the sale of seats. Cf. Pittington Vestry order, 1584, Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 13. St. Michael's in Bedwardine Acc'ts, Introd., p. xvi. Fletcher, History of Loughborough, Acc'ts, 24 ff.

[289] See, e.g., in St. Martin-in-the-Fields Acc'ts, 214, the long list of receipts "for burialls, knylles and Suche Lyke," s.aa. 1563-5. At St. Edmund, Sarum, burials with christenings and banns netted £8 5s. 2d. in 1592-3 (Acc'ts, 141). At Kingston-upon-Thames in 1579 burials totalled 39s. 8d.: Surrey Arch. Coll., viii, 75. In St. Michael's, Cornhill, London, Acc'ts (ed. W.H. Overall & A.J. Waterlow), 178-9, the receipts from knells and peals alone were 44s. 8d. in 1589-90.

[290] J.V. Kitto, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Acc'ts (1901), 106, note.

[291] One of the most systematic tariffs I know of is that of St. Alphage, London Wall (G.B. Hall, Records of St. A., 28-30) drawn up in 1613. First there are The Parson's dutyes for Parishioners, for bann-askings, weddings, churchings, etc., as well as a percentage on offerings. Then the burial fees due him, without or with a coffin, in churchyard or in church, etc. Then comes the heading, The dutyes belonging to the Parrish for Parrishioners, a catalogue of fees for burial under various conditions. Then follow The Parrishe's dutyes for the Bells (knells, peals, with small or large bells). Finally, The Clarke his dutyes for Parishioners (Bann-askings, weddings, churchings, grave digging, tolling the bells for funerals in various ways, and on specified occasions, etc.). All the above fees are doubled in case of non-parishioners. See also the Salehurst tariff of 1597, most comprehensive and minute also: Sussex Arch. Coll., xxv, 154-5. Also parish order in St. Martin's, Leicester, Acc'ts (ed. Thos. North), 19 and 128, s. aa. 1570-1 and 1584-5, as to duties for bells. These are regulated according to the rank of the person. St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Min., 2 (Order regulating fees for "weddinges, cristeings, churchinges and berrialls" of 1571). See also the tariff of St. Edmund, Sarum (Acc'ts, 194), of 1608.

For receipt items for palls in the acc'ts, see St. Martin's-in-the-Fields Acc'ts, 317 (1580), where "best cloth" nets 20d. on each occasion, the "worst" but 2d. See also Stepney vestry regulation of 1602 concerning fees to be paid for palls: Memorials of Stepney, 41-2.

For expenses for making parish coffins see St. Martin's-in-the-Fields Acc'ts, s. a. 1546. Cf. St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, introd., p. xx. St. Helen, Bishopsgate, Acc'ts (ed. J.E. Cox), 103 (Ordinance of 1564 that those buried within the church are to be confined). Also the other acc'ts supra. At St. Edmund, Sarum, the wardens sold tombstones for the benefit of the parish (Acc'ts, 135. 1587-8).

[292] Memorials of Stepney, 39-40.

[293] See W.G.D. Fletcher, Hist. of Loughborough (Acc'ts), 24: an order regulating fees for marriage peals in 1588. In St. Edmund, Sarum, Acc'ts, 127, are receipt items, being money turned over to the wardens by the sexton, for banns, christenings, etc. Cf. Introd. to St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, p. xix. Cf. also St. Laurence Pountney Acc'ts (Wilson, Hist. of St. L.), 124 (A marriage offering going to the parish. 1582). Usually marriage and churching dues went to minister and clerk (see tariffs, p. 221 supra). Chrisoms, i.e., white robes put on children when baptized, and given as an offering at churching, occasionally figure in the wardens' receipt items. See, e.g., J.E. Foster, St. Mary the Great (Cambridge) Acc'ts, 156 (1565-7), et passim. St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, 282 (Chrisoms farmed out by the parish in 1562-3. In 1567-8 the value of the chrisom offerings is 40s.). See Introd. to St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum, Acc'ts, p. xix.