“That no tradesmen keep their shops open on Sunday, nor sell any goods; nor any vintners or ale-sellers deliver or sell ale or wine on Sunday, under the aforesaid penalties.”
“Any person who shall inform against transgressors, shall be entitled to one-eighth over and above half of the sums so forfeited, provided he acted out of pure zeal, devoid of self-interest or malice.”
The City Records of Worcester contain some quaint items on the observance of Sunday. We may infer from a regulation made by the local authorities, at the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that the laws were not very stringent respecting Sunday trading. It was resolved that the shopkeepers were to open “only one top window on a Sunday.” “This was,” to use the words of a local historian, “a decided case of huckstership dividing its affection between God and Mammon.”
The strangest circumstances anent Sunday trading remain to be told, and belong to the days of Charles II. It is stated on reliable authority, that a meat market was held at Wigton, Cumberland, on a Sunday, and that the butchers suspended carcases of meat at the church door, to attract the attention of persons attending divine service. “It was,” says the writer from whom we glean these particulars, “even no uncommon thing for people who had made their bargains before the service, to hang their joints of meat over the backs of their seats until the ceremony was concluded.” The practice was so distasteful to the priest, that, being unable to prevent it, he made a journey to London on foot, with a petition to the king to alter the market day to Tuesday, a request which was readily granted.
Sunday trading prevailed for a long period. Adam Clarke was appointed to preach in the Norfolk circuit in 1783, and he says here “multitudes, even those called religious people, bought and sold without any remorse.”
It was the common practice in country districts, even down to the commencement of the nineteenth century, for the parish clerk, on a Sunday morning, to mount a grave stone, and for the worshippers to gather round him and listen to the announcements of coming auction sales, particulars of rewards offered for the conviction of persons who had been guilty of trespassing and committing wilful damage in the district—indeed, all kinds of workaday matters were made known. Some of the old parish accounts contain references to payments made to the parish clerks for services rendered. It appears from the accounts of Newchurch, Rossendale, that the parish clerk stood in his desk in the church, and gave out secular notices, in which the people were supposed to take an interest. There is a legend still lingering in the district, that bull-baitings were amongst the matters proclaimed by the parish clerk of this church. The church accounts state under the year 1804:
| “Parish Clerk in giving Public Notices in the Church | 0 2 6.” |
At Ravenstonedale, when the practice of announcing sales, etc., in the churchyard ceased, the attendance at the ancient parish church diminished. The old parish clerks made many amusing blunders when giving out the public notices, and the following illustration may be given as an example. We are told that he was instructed to make known a change of service, as follows: “On Sunday next, the service in this church will be held in the afternoon, and on the following Sunday, it will be held in the morning, and so on alternately until further notice.” Instead of delivering the preceding notice, he said: “On Sunday next, the morning service in this church will be held in the afternoon, and on the following Sunday, the afternoon service will be held in the morning, and so on to all eternity.”
In the days of yore, stage plays were performed on Sunday, not only in the churches, but in the theatres. Old church accounts contain many items bearing on plays in parish churches. The books of St. Martin’s, Leicester, state:
| “1560. Pd. to the plears for their paynes | vij.d.” |