[304] E.g., see in St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, Acc'ts, 227-9 and 240-2, long lists of persons from all parts of England who contributed in the years 1592-4 towards the rebuilding of St. Mary's steeple. A host of proctors licenced under the broad seal, or by the justices of the peace, or otherwise, went from parish to parish soliciting contributions for churches, alms-houses, hospitals, etc. They seem to have entered parish churches at service time and disturbed or annoyed the congregations. This probably led to the parish order of Mere, Wilts (Mere Acc'ts, p. 80, in Wilts Arch. [etc.] Mag.), which in 1585 forbade such persons going about the parish or entering the church, but enjoined them all to repair to the Mere churchwardens for contributions to be given at the expense of the parish.
[305] At Winsham, Somerset, a document was drawn up in 1581, apportioning among certain parishioners (by virtue of their holdings), the vicar, and finally the whole parish, how many feet of wattled fence each should keep in repair, or what stiles each was to maintain: Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dor., v, 538. See a similar agreement in Morebath (Devon) Acc'ts, 38. Also in Marsh, Hist. of Calne, 372, the list at Calne. Here are 25 groups of houses and certain individuals charged with making and keeping the churchyard bounds. See also Canterbury Visit., xxv, 34 (Suit brought before the archdeacon against the tenant of a holding whose former owners had for 40 years repaired a portion of the church fence, 1611). For presentments to the courts Christian for non-repair of church fence by individuals, see Dean of York's Visit., 214, 228, 325 (1570-1599).
[306] Canterbury Visit., xxv, 26 (A parishioner of Herne presented for withholding 9s., "which hath always been accustomed to be paid out of a certain house and lands." 1592).
[307] Early History of Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey Arch. Coll., viii, 74.
[308] St. Mary the Great Acc'ts, 148.
[309] Hist. and Antiq. of Leicestershire, by John Nichols (1815), i, Pt. ii, 569 ff.
[310] See in T. Nash, Hist. and Antiq. of Worcestershire, i, pp. lii-lvi, a long list of Pentecost, etc., farthings paid by each parish of the diocese in lump sums varying from 3d. to 3s.
[311] Morebath Acc'ts (ed. Binney), 34, s. a. 1531, seem to offer a genuine example of such a payment of Peter's pence. But the Minchinhampton wardens (Acc'ts in Archaeologia, xxxv, 422 ff.), confuse their payments to the mother church, made in 1575 ff., with Peter's pence. See, e.g., s. a. 1575, the entry: "to the sumner [or apparitor] for peterpence or smoke farthynges sometyme due to the Anthecriste of roome … xd."
[312] See, e.g., Sam'l. Barfield, Thatcham, Berks, and its Manors, ii, 122 (Midgham and Greenham called upon against their will for contributions to mother church). Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 123 (Dispute ending in a suit between St. Oswald and St. Margaret. 1595 ff.). Memorials of Stepney, 1-2 (Parishioners of Stratford Bow forced to contribute to St. Dunstan's, the mother church).
[313] E.g., the vestry of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, London (Minutes, ed E. Freshfield), agree to cess "the parishioners" for money to prosecute a suit for certain parish lands in 1585-6. When the lands were recovered each was to have his money back (Minutes, p. 12). But those assessed numbered only 38 (p. 13), whereas we see by a list (p. 12) that 43 persons were here assessed for the Queen's subsidy; and subsidy men were the wealthier men of the parishes. Cf. assessment at Lapworth for Barford bridge levied on 26 tenements, cottagers not being assessed. Hudson, Memorials of a Warwickshire Parish, 115.