Robson, who five years previously had become vicar, being a bachelor of
divinity, demanded that the parish should provide him with a hood proper
to his degree. The parishioners objected on the ground that such a claim
had never been made before, the previous vicars having provided their own
hoods, and that Mr. Robson had on all proper occasions, as required by the
canons, worn a hood of his own until within half a year of the dispute
arising. A case was stated and a legal opinion taken; the result was
entirely against the vicar, who made his position worse, inasmuch as it
was laid down that while the churchwardens were not to provide the hood,
they could be the means, through the ordinary, of compelling a priest who
was a graduate to wear his hood, according to the 58th canon. Another
instance of a clergyman going to law with his parishioners was that of the
Rev. John Benison, vicar of Burton, who was dissatisfied with the payments
of the vicarial revenues. The dispute found its way into Chancery, and
Benison, in 1732, secured the following scale of payments:--"For burial in
the church or churchyard shall be paid 1s., except for women who die in
childbirth, for whom nothing is due. The modus for tithe lands shall be
double for the two first years after the induction of a new vicar, and
every person keeping a plough shall pay yearly 1d. in lieu and full
satisfaction of agistment of barren cattle."
Bishop Nicolson has left some curious pictures of the parsons in the
diocese of Carlisle at the time when he made his visitation in the early
years of the eighteenth century. The clergy of that time were for the most
part not remarkable for their learning, although there were some notable
exceptions. These were the victims of circumstances; they lived in what
was really a dark age, and no one can feel surprised that so many gave way
to drinking and other unclerical habits. Several, either openly or in the
names of their wives, kept ale-houses; there was one rather glaring
instance of this kind on the western side of Cross Fell. Poverty was
continually their share; an instance of the life some of them led is
recorded by James Clarke,[7] of Penrith:--
"Langdale is as poor as any in these parts, except for the slate
quarries, and the slaters (like the miners in Patterdale) debauch the
natives so far that even the poor curate is obliged to sell ale to
support himself and family. And at his house I have played 'Barnaby'
with him on the Sabbath Day morning, when he left us with the good old
song--
'I'll but preach, and be with you again.'"
William Litt (1785-1847), the author of "Henry and Mary," a story of West
Cumberland life, which was very popular a generation ago, says:--"It is a
well authenticated fact that a rector of Arlecdon left his pulpit for the
purpose of bestowing manual correction on one of his parishioners, whom he
conceived was then insulting him. The surplice, however, was such an
impediment to his usual lightness of foot that his intended victim, after
a severe chase, effected his escape, and for that time eluded the
chastisement intended for him by his spiritual pastor." Although nothing
is known as to the identity of the cleric who thus endeavoured to deal
with a supposed offender, possibly it was Thomas Baxter, who was incumbent
for 62 years (1725 to 1787). He figures by name in "Henry and Mary," and
is represented as on one occasion reprimanding Squire Skelton, of Rowrah,
very severely for swearing.
In 1653 George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, visited
Cumberland. One Sunday afternoon he entered the church, and standing on a
seat, he preached three hours to an overflowing congregation; he says in
his journal, "Many hundreds were convinced that day." A short time
afterwards he again visited the church on a Sunday morning, and entered
into a long theological argument with Mr. Wilkinson, the vicar, who lost
his dinner in consequence. The discussion continued almost to nightfall;
the result seems to have been the conversion of the vicar and the majority
of his congregation, as it is on record that Mr. Wilkinson afterwards
became a distinguished minister of the Society of Friends.
The old customs peculiar to Cumberland and Westmorland of "Whittlegate"
and "Chapel Wage" have long since passed out of the list of obligations
imposed, although the rector of Brougham might still, if he wished, claim
whittlegate at Hornby Hall every Sunday. The parsons of the indifferently
educated class already alluded to had to be content with correspondingly
small stipends, which were eked out by the granting of a certain number of
meals in the course of twelve months at each farm or other house above the
rank of cottage, with, in some parishes, a suit of clothes, a couple of
pairs of shoes, and a pair of clogs. Clarke gives the following
explanation of the origin of the term:--
"Whittlegate meant two or three weeks' victuals at each house,
according to the ability of the inhabitants, which was settled among
themselves; so that the minister could go his course as regularly as
the sun, and complete it annually. Few houses having more knives than
one or two, the pastor was often obliged to buy his own knife or
'whittle.' Sometimes it was bought for him by the chapel wardens. He
marched from house to house with his 'whittle,' seeking 'fresh fields
and pastures new,' and as master of the herd, he had the elbow chair
at the table head, which was often made of part of a hollow ash
tree--a kind of seat then common. The reader at Wythburn had for his
salary three pounds yearly, a hempen sark or shirt, a whittlegate, and
a goosegate, or right to depasture a flock of geese on Helvellyn. A
story is still (1789) told in Wythburn of a minister who had but two
sermons which he preached in turn. The walls of the chapel were at
that time unplastered, and the sermons were usually placed in a hole
in the wall behind the pulpit. One Sunday, before the service began,
some mischievous person pushed the sermons so far into the hole that
they could not be got out with the hand. When the time came for the
sermon, the priest tried in vain to get them out. He then turned to
the congregation, and told them what had happened. He could touch
them, he said, with his forefinger, but could not get his thumb in to
grasp them; 'But, however,' said he, 'I can read you a chapter out of
Job that's worth both of them put together!'"
There may be other instances of the formal appointment of females to
undertake church work usually performed by the other sex, but the writer
has only met with one local example, which occurs thus in the Kendal
churchwardens' accounts:--"1683, June 29. It is then agreed & consented
too by the major part of the churchwardens that Debora Wilkinson shall be
continued saxton till next Easter, she keeping under her so sufficient a
servant as shall please the Vicar & whole p{r}ish & she to give sufficient
security to the churchwardens for her fidelity. As alsoe it was then
granted by the major parte of church wardens that the said Debora
Wilkinson for her paines herein shall have & receive to her owne use for
every coffin in the church 2s. 6d. (she or her deputy in takeing up of
fflaggs in the church or lying them downe to place them leveally & in good
order, breaking none of them), and the said Debora or her servant shall
make clean the church att all times according to the Vicar's order, and to
keepe the font w{th} faire water, changeing itt every fforthnigh or as
often as the Vicar pleaseth."
The uses of some parts of ancient buildings have puzzled gentlemen
thoroughly acquainted with church architecture, for the simple reason that
certain of the arrangements might have been made for a variety of
purposes. Leper windows are perhaps sufficiently numerous to show the
intention of the builders, but there are instances where that is not at
all easy to define. The side windows in Bolton Church, near Wigton, one of
which has been described by the Rev. Hilderic Friend as a leper window,
was suggested by the late Mr. Cory as being "for such a purpose as giving
out alms or receiving confession," as they always had hinges and bolts for
shutters, but not glass. Chancellor Ferguson put forward the further
theory that as lepers could not come into the church, they made confession
at these windows. Dr. Simpson rejected these statements, and said that
lamps were placed in the low side windows of some churches after funerals
to scare away evil spirits--an interesting addition to North-Country
folk-lore. Leprosy was apparently a serious trouble in the two counties
five or six centuries ago. John de Vetripont gave to Shap Abbey the
hospital of St. Nicholas, near Appleby, on condition that the abbot and
convent should maintain three lepers in the hospital for ever. In 1356 Sir
Adam, rector of Castlekayroke (Castle Carrock), was cited to show cause
why, being seized with leprosy to such a degree that his parishioners dare
not resort to divine service, he ought not to have a coadjutor assigned
him.
There are still to be found traces in some of the older churches of the
rooms of anchorites. Experts have stated that the vestry at Greystoke
seems to have been used as an anchor-hold or reclusorium. It is believed
that two reclusi, or inclusi, sometimes dwelt together there, one living
in the vestry and the other in the room above. The latter apartment may
have been used for a chantry priest, a church watcher, or a sacristan.
Among the architectural curiosities of the two counties may be noted the
church tower of Kirkoswald. The parish church is built at the foot of a
steep hill, facing the Eden, while the old market town is on the sharply
rising ground at the rear. The parishioners would thus have but a small
chance of hearing the bells when sounded for service if they occupied the
ordinary place. Consequently for a very long time--certainly before the
present church was built--the two bells have been placed in a detached
tower on the top of the hill at the rear of the church, and over a hundred
yards away from the building.
Many ecclesiastical buildings, from the cathedral down to the humblest
village chapel-of-ease, would seem to have had curious inscriptions or
pictures upon their walls. Nearly all these have disappeared, and later
comers are indebted for their knowledge of what has been to such
industrious chroniclers as Machell, Burn, and others. The former put on
paper in 1692 the following lines, which were on the walls of the south
chapel of Kirkby Lonsdale Church:--
C. W.
(_Arms_)
16 68.
"This porch by ye Banes first builded was,
Of Heighholme Hall they weare;
And after sould to Christopher Wood,
By William Bains thereof last heyre;
And is repayred as you see,
And set in order good
By the true owner nowe thereof
The fore saide Christopher Wood."
As in our own day the restoration or alteration of a church frequently
caused much ill-feeling in a parish, and there are records of several such
"scenes" in Cumberland and Westmorland in bygone days. One such was at
Sebergham, where the church was rebuilt in 1825-6, and a tower built at
the west end. On the first Sunday that the edifice was opened the
following protest in rhyme was found nailed to the church door:--
"The priest and the miller built the church steeple
Without the consent or good will of the people.
A tax to collect they tried to impose
In defiance of right and subversion of laws.
The matter remains in a state of suspension,
And likely to be a sad bone of contention.
If concession be made to agree with us all
Let the tax be applied to build the church wall.
Churchyard wall now in a ruinous state. Sebergham High Bound, July 12,
1826."
While dealing with the architectural curiosities of North-Country
churches, allusion should be made to a story connected with that at
Ambleside. A piece of painted glass on the north side of the old church
has a representation of what is locally known as the carrier's arms--a
rope, a wantey-hook, and five packing pricks, or skewers, these being the
implements used by the carriers and wool staplers for fastening their
packing sheets together. The tradition is that when the church needed
rebuilding, together with the chapels of St. Mary Holm, Ambleside,
Troutbeck, and Applethwaite, which were all destroyed or rendered unfit
for divine worship, the parish was extremely poor; the parishioners at a
general meeting agreed that one church would serve the whole. The next
question was, where it should stand. The inhabitants of Undermillbeck were
for having it at Bowness. The rest thought that as Troutbeck Bridge was
about the centre of the parish, it should be built there. Several meetings
in consequence were held, and many disputes and quarrels arose. At last a
carrier proposed that who ever would make the largest donation towards the
building should choose the situation of the church. An offer so reasonable
could hardly be refused, and many gifts were immediately named. The
carrier, who had acquired a fortune by his business, heard them all, and
at last declared that he would cover the church with lead. This offer,
which all the rest were either unable or unwilling to outdo, at once
decided the affair. The carrier chose the situation, and his arms (or more
properly his implements) were painted on the north window of the church.
Tradition adds that this man obtained the name of Bellman, from the bells
worn by the fore-horse, which he first introduced there.
Several instances of fonts having found their way from churches to private
grounds have been made known during recent years, one being at Penrith,
and others at Musgrave and Brough-under-Stainmore. On the western side of
the county, in the grounds of Mr. T. Dixon, Rheda, is the ancient font,
dated 1578, belonging to Arlecdon Church. In the third decade of this
century, says the Rev. H. Sugden in his notes on the history of the
parish, it was acting at a farm-house as a trough to catch rain-water from
the roof. Subsequently the font was found by Mr. Dixon in a stone wall at
Rowrah Hall, and was removed to its present place of safety. It seems that
the contractor who rebuilt the church in 1829, was allowed to use or
dispose of any of the material or contents. The font and an ancient
tombstone of the Dixons, were sold by him, and while the font was made
into a water-catcher, the tombstone found its way to a farm at Kirkland,
where it was utilised as a sconce in the dairy. Occasionally churchwardens
were guilty of what would seem to have been vandalism. At Kirkby Lonsdale
(1686), they recorded the last of a Norman font:--"Received for the old
font stone, 6d."
Among the regulations made by the Head Jurie of Watermillock in 1627 was
this:--"Item, It is ordered by the jurie that every tennent of this parish
shall sitt in church in their own seats that hath formerly been set forth
to their ancestors. And if any have a desire to sitt in the Lady Porch,
besides such as have their ancient Rooms therein, they shall sitt there
paying yearly for the same to the use of the Church ijd. p{r} Annum." The
churchwardens were evidently kept close to their duties by the same
authority, as may be seen by this entry in the book:--"It is ordered that
the Churchwardens of this Parish shall not be discharged of their office
in any year before the Church Stock be fully answered at the sight and
judgment of the Head Jury for the time being."
This action probably had its origin in the losses of public funds which
had to be deplored in many parishes in consequence of the money being lent
out at interest. "Culyet" is not a word to be found in the standard
dictionaries of our time, although it appears in the parochial records of
Millom. Canon Knowles took the word to mean the free-will offerings made
from house to house, being used at Christ Church, Oxford, as the
equivalent of "collecta," a collection. In some of the parishes which lent
out church funds, rather heavy rates of security were exacted--at Millom
the arrangement was seven and a half per cent. Hence there can be no room
for surprise that so many parishes have had reason to deplore "lost
stock."
Crosthwaite differed from other places in the manner of selecting and
swearing the churchwardens and sidesmen, the form being settled by the
Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes in Queen Elizabeth's time. They
decreed "That yearly, upon Ascension Day, the vicar, the eighteen sworn
men, the churchwardens, the owner of Derwentwater estate, the sealer and
receiver of the Queen's portion at the mines, one of the chiefest of the
company and fellowship of the partners and offices of the minerals, then
resiant at Keswick, the bailiffs of Keswick, Wythburn, Borrowdale,
Thornthwaite, Brundholme, and the forester of Derwent Fells, shall meet in
the church of Crosthwaite, and so many of them as shall be there assembled
shall chuse the eighteen men and churchwardens for the year ensuing, who
shall on the Sunday following before the vicar take their oath of office."
The seating of the men and women on different sides of the church was a
proceeding once so common as to almost remove it from the list of
curiosities. The churchwardens' books of Crosthwaite contain very minute
orders as to where every person in the parish should sit, and in other
places a similar rule obtained. In these days of "free and open churches"
it is interesting to read of the arrangements which the churchwardens and
vicar made so as to allocate every seat in St. Patrick's Church, Bampton,
in 1726. The rule appears to have been based on the land tax, and the list
begins with "The Lord Vis. Lonsdale," who had one complete stall for the
use of the tenants of Bampton Hall, another for Low Knipe, and other seats
elsewhere. The whole of the inhabitants seem to have been provided for,
the catalogue concluding with a statement of the accommodation set apart
for the school-master of Measand and the school-dame at Roughill; the
master at Bampton Grange, being an impropriator, found a place among the
aristocracy on "the Gospel side" of the chancel.
Some quaint entries concerning the provision and cost of wine for sacred
purposes--and for other uses not always answering that description--are to
be met with in several of the parochial records. In the vestry book of
Cockermouth is this entry for June, 1764:--"Ordered that all the wine for
the communicants be bought at one house where the Churchwardens can get it
the best and cheapest. Ordered that no wine be given to any clergyman to
carry home." At one of the meetings of the Cumberland and Westmorland
Antiquarian Society, the late Canon Simpson produced a paper which showed
that very heavy sums, comparatively, had been spent at Kendal in providing
Communion wine. One item was for L6, another L9, and again L11, while
opposite one of the entries was the remark: "That is exclusive of wine
used at Easter." It was customary for the vicar or rector to give the
Easter Communion wine, receiving in return Easter dues. On another
occasion, when the Bishop of Chester was to visit the church, the wardens
ordered a bottle of sack to be placed in the vestry.
An interesting ceremony has long been gone through at Dacre Church in
connection with the distribution of the Troutbeck Dole. The principal
representative of the family now living is Dr. John Troutbeck, Precentor
of Westminster. The Rev. Robert Troutbeck, in 1706, by his will gave to
the poor of Dacre parish, the place of his nativity, a sum of money, the
interest of which was ordered to be "distributed every year by the
Troutbecks of Blencowe, if there should be any living, otherwise by the
minister and churchwardens for the time being." A more curious proviso was
contained in the will of John Troutbeck, made in 1787. By that document
L200 was left to the poor of the testator's native parish, and the
interest was ordered to be "distributed every Easter Sunday, on the family
tombstone in Dacre churchyard, provided the day should be fine, by the
hands and at the discretion of a Troutbeck of Blencowe, if there should be
any living, those next in descent having prior right of distribution. If
none should be living that would distribute the money, then by a
Troutbeck as long as one could be found that would take the trouble of it;
otherwise by the minister and churchwardens of the parish for the time
being; that not less than five shillings should be given to any
individual, and that none should be entitled to it who received alms, or
any support from the parish." The custom was carried out in due form on
the "through-stone" last Easter.
Kirkby Stephen, up to about sixty years ago, had a very curious
custom--the payment, on a fixed day every year, upon a tombstone still in
the churchyard, of the parishioners' tithe. The late Mr. Cornelius
Nicholson, in a now scarce pamphlet on Mallerstang Forest, gave the
following account of the observance:--
"The tombstone is unhewn millstone grit, covered with a limestone
slab, whereon a heraldic shield was once traceable, supposed to
indicate the ownership of the Whartons. Tradition says, however, that
it is older than the tombs in the Wharton Chapel. Among the
parishioners it went popularly by the name of the great 'truppstone,'
a corruption perhaps of 'through-stone.' It is certain, however--and
this is the gist of the story--that for generations, time out of mind,
the money in lieu of tithes of hay was here regularly paid to the
incumbent of the church on Easter Monday. The grey coats of this part
of Westmorland assembled punctually as Easter Monday came round, and
there and then tendered to the vicar their respective quotas of
silver. Some agreement, oral or written, must have been made between
the parties, which does not now appear. The practice became the law of
custom. The payment was called a modus in lieu of hay tithe. I find
that when Lord Wharton purchased the advowson at the dissolution of
monasteries the tithes of corn and hay were excepted from the
conveyance, which points to this customary modus on the 'truppstone.'
If this reference be correct, the curious custom dates back to the
time of Henry the Eighth, and perhaps farther back, and gives it a
continuance of some 300 years.
"We don't know its origin, but we do know its extinction. When the
Rev. Thomas P. Williamson became vicar, in the first decade of this
century, a quarrel arose between him and the tithe-payers as to this
modus. Law proceedings were threatened, and some preliminaries were
taken. The parishioners, notwithstanding, attended on Easter Monday as
before, and tendered their doles. The vicar also attended, but
determinedly refused the money, until his death in 1835, which put a
stop to the custom. After his death, the vicar's widow set up a claim
for the arrears, which had been offered and refused, so she took
nothing by her motion. In 1836 all the tithes were commuted in
England, under the provision of the Tithes Commutation Act, carried
into execution by a Cumberland M.P., Mr. Aglionby, whom I knew very
well, in Lord John Russell's Ministry. These particulars of the
'truppstone' were furnished me by Mr. Matthew Thompson, Kirkby
Stephen, one of the county magistrates, who himself--and this clenches
it as a fact--yearly attended in the churchyard, with his quota, and
who was present on the very last occasion."
An incident which in some respects has had at least one counterpart
within recent years is recorded as happening at Little Salkeld towards the
end of the fourteenth century. The little chapel there was "desecrated and
polluted by the shedding of blood," and as the parish church of Addingham
was a considerable distance, the vicar was allowed to officiate in his own
vicarage-house "till the interdict should be taken off from the chapel."
There is a curious story attaching to some of the wood-work of Greystoke
Church. The misereres under the choir stalls are very quaintly carved, and
one of them, "the pelican in her piety," was for many years used as the
sign of an inn near the church. From this circumstance the hostelry lost
its old name, the "Masons' Arms," and acquired the modern one of the
"Pelican."