THE PARISH
BOUNDARIES
THE TOWNSHIPS
LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH
THE EIGHTEEN
[Illustration: Decoration]
THE PARISH
The church of Grasmere is found when record begins, serving as the
centre of a large and regularly constituted parish. The date of
the creation of this parish is not known; but from the fact that
its southern boundary runs by the Stock Beck--thus cutting the now
thriving town of Ambleside into two parts, one of which belonged to
Grasmere and the other to Windermere--there seems a probability of it
having been delineated at an early period, when the _sæter_ of some
Norse settler was but an insignificant clearing in the forest.
Every parish is but a unit in a complex Church organization, which
passes upwards by rural deanery, archdeaconry, to diocese. In
historical evolution, there is a descent from the greater to the
less; while each successive ecclesiastical demarcation followed as
a rule some political line of kingdom or state. The diocese for
instance was conterminous with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom; the parish
represented the township, or the manor.
But in the vast kingdom of Northumbria the superposition of church
boundaries upon state boundaries was not so simple a matter, and
the subdivisions that took place are not easy to trace. Archbishop
Theodore, when called in by King Egfrith (678) to portion his kingdom
for purposes of church rule, made at least three bishoprics out of
the one whose centre--after a removal to Lindisfarne--was fixed at
York.[27]
[27] Bright's _Early Church History_, p. 291. Bishop Browne's
_Theodore and Wilfrith_, pp. 132 and 690.
Next, the archdeaconries were marked out under Thomas, Archbishop
of York, some time between 1070 and 1100. The archdeaconry of
Richmondshire, lying in the mountainous region west of the old
Anglian kingdom, was a great and peculiar province, and the
archdeacon ruled over it with almost the powers of a bishop.[28]
[28] It may possibly represent an old sub-kingdom of Northumbria,
and is suggestive of Edwin's conquest of a district to the
north-west called by the Britons Teyrnllwg. See Rhys's _Celtic
Britain_ (quoted in "Rydal," _Westmorland Gazette_, May 2nd,
1903). It contained large portions at least of that great church
province which Wilfrid made over to Ripon Minster, which was for
a short time the seat of a bishop. The creation of Richmond as a
centre was a late Norman measure.
The archdeaconry was divided again into rural deaneries, of which
Kendal was one. This deanery embraced ten parishes, Grasmere being
the westermost of them. It appears singular that this group of ten
parishes lay in three different counties,--Yorkshire, Lancashire, and
Westmorland; and from this circumstance it has been argued that here
(as in our own parish) the ecclesiastical division was made prior to
the political one of counties. This probably was so; and it is clear
that the deanery represents in reality another political area, viz.:
that of the barony of Kendal created by William Rufus.[29]
[29] Whitaker's _History of Richmondshire_. Dr. Wilson
(_Victorian History of Cumberland_) gives 1120 to 1130 as dates
between which Henry I. marked out the county divisions as fiscal
areas. In the latter year the new county of Westmarieland was
placed under the jurisdiction of a separate sheriff.
Kirkby Kendale, the _caput_ of the barony, became from this period
the official church centre. There the Synods and Archidiaconal Courts
were held, and all dues were paid which the higher church authorities
exacted from the parishes--Grasmere among them.[30] Thither the
rector or his substitute, along with the churchwardens, annually
repaired.
[30] For the connection between mother churches and chapelries
or vicarages under them, see _History of English Church_, edited
by Dean Stephens, vol. ii., p. 295. ["Walter Gray, Archbishop
of York in 1233 consolidated 10 chapelries in the two parishes
of Pocklington and Pickering into five vicarages, two and two.
Each vicar had two chapels, and was endowed with a sum to support
chaplains at both, while he also paid a small sum annually to the
mother church in token of subjection."] From the rural deanery of
Kendal there were paid the following dues, according to an old
voucher, c. 1320: at Easter 12s. 0d. for Synodalia; at Michaelmas
£4 16s 8d for Procurationes; besides £3 for Presumptiones, and £3
9s 6d in Peter's pence--a goodly tribute this for the Pope from
our mountains lands! Whitaker's _History of Richmondshire_.
The exact relationship between the central church at Kirkby and the
churches of Grasmere and Windermere in early days is hard to make
out. They were considered in some sort as dependencies, and were
called chapels after they had become parish churches. This uncertain
position recalls the constitution of the early British church. And
it must be remembered that Theodore's _parochia_ was not a parish
but a diocese. Again, the laws of Edgar (959-975) place churches in
three classes: first, the ancient church or monastery of a district;
second, the church with a corpse-ground; and third, the church
without a corpse-ground.[31] Tithes moreover were enjoined to be paid
to the ancient or central church.
[31] Selden's _History of Tithes_. Easterby's _Law of Tithes_,
pp. 4, 8, and 13.
Now Grasmere may at first have ranked in the third order, as a
mission church (_capella_). It would in that case pay its tithes,
or a large proportion of them, to Kirkby Kendal, and bury its
christian dead within the consecrated soil of that church. It may not
have acquired the right of burial until the lord created a demesne
there.[32] This view is strengthened by the fact that the church of
Kendale claimed certain dues from Grasmere and Windermere down to
a late date. One was a pension of 13s. 4d. (one mark) paid to the
vicar out of the tithes of the parish. The other was a mortuary fee,
exacted by him as late as the seventeenth century.[33]
[32] The early practice of burial in distant churches is
inexplicable to this age. But it should be remembered that in
early days man was a peripatetic animal, to whom the distance
between Grasmere and Kendal, or Hawkshead and Dalton, would be
slight; and that a corpse wrapped in a winding-sheet would be
much lighter than one coffined.
[33] Of the first, still paid, there is plenty of evidence. It
was even allowed during the Commonwealth. In 1645 the Rydal
Hall account-sheets show that arrears were paid to the Kendal
parson out of the tithes "upon order for 5 yeares stypd out of
Gresmire," amounting to £3 6s 8d or five marks. Next year is
entered "Rent due to mr. M. out of Gresmire tithes" 13s 6d. The
order came from the Puritan Committee at Kendal.
A mortuary, or corpse present, was distinct from a burial fee,
and was supposed to cover any obligation forgotten by the dead
man to church or priest. The claim anciently was upon his second
best animal, the best going to his feudal lord; but it came to be
paid in coin; while a law was passed (21 Henry VIII.) limiting
the sum to 10s., and that only when the deceased owned goods to
the value of £40. Dr. Cox, _Parish Registers of England_. The
following receipt is in existence for a fee paid to Kendal on the
death of Edward Walker of Rydal, who was buried in his parish
church of Grasmere:--
"Jan; the 2nd Anno Domj 1652.
Rec. p. fr ye Executors of Edward Walker ye Sume of ffive
shillings in full satisfaction of a Mortuary due to ye Vicar
of Kendall by me Tho: Willain I say received the day and yeare
abouesd by me Tho: Willain ye aforesd sume of 5s 0d."
BOUNDARIES
The boundary of the parish of Grasmere followed geographical lines.
Starting from the point where the Rothay and the Brathay unite for
their entrance into Windermere, it ascended the first river for a
short distance until it reached the tributary, Stock beck. This it
ascended until, near the source, it struck upwards to the line of
the watershed. It then followed a devious course along the mountain
tops, as "heven watter deales" (divides), according to the quaint
old boundary phrase. Always clinging to the sky line between waters
flowing north and south, it dropped to Dunmail Raise, to rise to
the tops again. From these lonely heights it made another short
artificial course to reach Little Langdale beck near the source, and
with these waters--named Brathay after emerging from Elterwater--it
continued to the uniting place of the two rivers at Bird-house Mouth.
Thus, with the exception of the right bank of the Brathay, the parish
embraced the whole area of the two valleys of the Rothay and Brathay
and their confluents. Its boundary marched with that of parishes
in Westmorland, Cumberland and Lancashire. Its northern line was
for centuries the boundary between the Anglian rule, and the Celtic
kingdom of Cumbria. Its circuit counted some thirty-five miles by
flat measurement; but much of it lay on summits that reach to a great
height.
THE TOWNSHIPS
This parish--a wild tract of fells, becks, and tarns, was divided
into three component parts.
It has been pointed out[34] that the ancient church of Northumbria
left certain marks upon the districts she administered which
may yet be distinguished. One peculiarity was the great extent
of the parishes, some of which embraced several--occasionally
many--townships. Another was, that each parish was governed secularly
by a body of men known as the Twenty-four. Now Grasmere conformed
nearly, though not exactly, with these rules; for the controlling
body consisted of Eighteen, not Twenty-four, being in this respect
like the Cumbrian parish of Crosthwaite to the north. But other
parishes of the district had their Twenty-four--as Cartmel and Dalton
in Furness.[35] In the next parish of Windermere, the Twenty-four are
still an active body, and collect at the church every Easter Tuesday,
eight coming from each of the three townships, Under-Milbeck,
Applethwaite and Troutbeck.
[34] Creighton's _Historical Essays_.
[35] At Cartmel in 1642 measures were taken "for the makinge
upp of the twentie-fourte ... that there may be four in everye
churchwardens division as hath formerlie been used." Stockdale's
_Annales Caermoelensis_.
The parish of Grasmere also embraced three townships. One was
Grasmere proper, situated in the basin-shaped vale that catches
the sources of the Rothay, Langdale; the sister valley formed
the second township, which extended to Elterwater; the third was
Rydal-and-Loughrigg (often called Loughrigg and Beneath-Moss) which
included all the rocky mass between the converging rivers, the
compact village of Rydal with part of Ambleside.
From three sides of the parish then, by mountain path and
"horse-trod," the folk wended their way for worship to Grasmere
Church. Those of the vale of Grasmere proper would gather in units or
little groups from all the scattered farmsteads, from Far Easdale and
Blindtarn Gill, from Town Head, Gill Side, and all the houses that
lay "Aboon Beck" as far as How Head and Town End, till they met at
their lych-gate on the north side of the church.
From Loughrigg and Beneath-Moss they would collect by many a devious
track, starting as far back as Clappersgate and Ambleside. From
Ambleside ancient "trods" passed Nook End, and rose from Scandale
Bridge by easy grade to Nab Lane (where Rydal folk would join them)
and White Moss, and thence descending to cross the church bridge to
enter the garth by the present gate, which was specially their own.
The third stream of worshippers flowed from the farthest sources
west, from the recesses of Little Langdale, from Blea Tarn, and
Fell Foot, from Forge and Hackett and Colwith they came, on through
Elterwater, and across Walthwaite Bottom. Mounting the brow, they
would meet a tributary stream of fellow-townsfolk, that gathered
right from Steel End and Wall End, increasing as it flowed down
Mickle Langdale, till it crossed the ridge of Hunting Stile. Dropping
steeply into the vale, they would at Nichols (where stood an inn)
meet a third contingent (from Loughrigg) which, starting at Skelwith,
mounted by Foul Step to Little Loughrigg, passed by the Fold, the
Oaks and Scroggs, to descend by Red Bank to the level of Grasmere
Lake.[36] From Nichols onward the united groups would travel by the
lake, and past the Holy Well, to enter the church garth by a gate
at the north-west angle, now gone, called the Langdale gate.[37]
Here, at Church Stile, stood an important inn, long owned by the
Harrison family. Shelter and a fire must indeed have been often
needed (as well as something for the inner man) after the long
travel--especially at funeral gatherings, when the corpse had to be
borne through ford and flood, or through the storms and deep snows
of winter time. The Ambleside folk, when in 1674 they petitioned
their bishop for the right of burial in their chapel, stated that
"by reason of the heat in summer and the great snowes and sudden
inundations of water in winter it is very difficult and dangerous to
carry their dead thither [to Grasmere] for burial";[38] yet their
distance from the church was nothing like that of the Langdale
folk. There were not infrequent burials from the right bank of Little
Langdale beck, in the parish of Hawkshead or of "Ulverston."
[36] There is a tradition that a route from Skelwith Bridge
dropped sharply from the top of Red Bank to the old ford of the
Rothay known as Bathwath (Rydal Hall MSS.), and that it had even
been used for funerals. This seems unlikely, unless the use were
a repetition of a custom that had prevailed before the present
Red Bank road was made; and of superstitious adherence to old
corpse-roads the Rev. J. C. Atkinson (_Forty Years in a Moorland
Parish_) gives instances. There may indeed have been once a
well-trodden path there. In former times a fulling-mill stood on
the left bank of the Rothay, near to the ford, and within the
freehold property of Bainrigg. The mill was owned by the Benson
family in the fifteenth century, but Bainrigg had belonged before
that time to a family of de Bainbrigg, who had at least one
capital dwelling or mansion-house standing upon it. Now a road to
this house or houses there must have been. The woodman recently
found a track leading up from the site of the mill to the rocky
height, which emerged upon the present Wishing-Gate road. On the
line of this (which was engineered as a turnpike road only about
1770-80) the older way doubtless continued towards Grasmere,
past How Top and through Town End. A huge stone standing on this
line was known as the How Stone. Levi Hodgson who lived at How
Top, and who described the route to Mr. W. H. Hills, remembered
fragments of a cottage in the wood. If the Skelwith Bridge folk
ever used it as a church path, they would meet their townsmen
(who had come over White Moss) at How Top. Close by there is
still a flat-topped boulder used for resting burdens upon.
[37] This gate is shown in a map of 1846, as well as the stile
which gave its name to the house then still standing, that was
immediately opposite. Both disappeared at the widening of the
lane from Stock Bridge to the church.
[38] Ambleside Town and Chapel.
Once within the churchyard, the different streams of the townships
mingled as fellow parishioners. The sexes however, divided, the women
seeking entrance (presumably) by the great south porch, and the men
(after business done) herding in by the west door, known as theirs.
Yet once inside, they again fell rigorously into ranks of townships,
as we shall see.
The gathering of the dalesfolk for worship must have been a striking
sight, especially on the great feast days when--four times in the
year--the sacraments were administered. Certainly attendance at
church was obligatory upon every Sabbath Day, and fines were levied
for default. But from the early seventeenth century, if not before,
the dependent chapels in Langdale (at Chapel Stile) and Ambleside
would absorb many of the more distant worshippers. For the four
great celebrations, however, the whole of the adult population of
the valleys, except the sick and infirm, would attend the parish
church.[39] It is of course impossible to compute the number of the
people, especially in early times; but if we accept the statement
made in the Presentment of 1712, that there were then about 200
families in the parish, it may be reckoned that at that time and
for at least a century previously, no fewer than from 500 to 700
communicants would gather for the rite. Besides the master and
mistress of the homestead, there were grown-up sons and daughters,
with farm servants.[40] The garth would be crowded with the concourse
of folk; and when they trooped into the fane, each township to its
own quarter of the building, where men and women again divided to
take their accustomed places upon their separate forms, and the dogs
sneaked in, hoping to escape the dogwhipper's eye as they settled
under their masters' legs, the whole space must have been packed.
[39] It is not easy to discover what was the early practice of
the church concerning the administration of the sacrament, or the
number of times it was received yearly by the laity. As early
as 750, laymen who failed to communicate at Christmas, Easter,
and Pentecost, were not esteemed christians; they were expected
to make offerings four times a year. A later rule, which was
stringent, seems to have been once a year, though a more frequent
attendance--specially at Easter and Christmas, was urged. See
Abbot Gasquet's _Parish Life in Medieval England_, Wall's _Old
English Parishes_, p. 90, and Wordsworth's _Medieval Services
in England_. The sacrament was called _housel_, and the bread
_houselling-bread_. Henry VII's queen, Elizabeth of York, appears
to have communicated three times a year, at the festivals of
Easter, All Saints, and Christmas (Canon Simmon's _Notes to the
Lay Folks' Mass Book_, p. 239). Queen Victoria no doubt clung to
an old custom when she communicated no oftener than three or four
times a year. (See _Life_.)
[40] The population must have been greater when the Kendal trade
in cloth was at its height. There were 1300 "houseling people"
reported for the parish of Windermere in 1549 (Commission quoted
in Mr. Brydson's _Sidelights on Mediæval Windermere_, p. 95),
and there is no reason to suppose that Grasmere was far behind.
At the same time the numbers to collect at one celebration would
be considerably lessened if the Easter communion were spread
over several occasions, as was the case in the late seventeenth
century at Clayworth, Notts, where celebrations were held on Palm
Sunday, Good Friday, as well as Easter Day. All parishioners--to
judge from the rector's careful record--must at this season have
communicated; but at the celebrations of Whitweek and Christmas
(for there was none at Michaelmas) the numbers were much lower.
(_Rector's Book of Clayworth_).
The old, narrow close-set forms seated far more people than the
modern benches, but even they could not have accommodated the crowds
that attended certain funerals. (See Charities.) At Mrs. Fleming's
funeral, for instance, few short of 2000 persons must have been
present, including dole-getters, neighbours and relatives.
SOME LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH
Thus for worship did the folk gather in the church. They came thither
also to bury their dead within consecrated soil--for baptism of their
"barnes" by the priest, and the binding of man and woman in holy
matrimony. But the edifice and the enclosed space about it served in
early times not only for purposes of religion, but of the law. Like
the Roman Forum, it was used for the transaction of public business
and the administration of justice. Bargains were ratified, covenants
were witnessed, and protestations made solemn by an oath taken
upon the Holy Gospel where it lay upon the altar--once a wonderful
script illuminated and jewelled, that is now represented by the
dirty little Testament of the Law Courts. Manor Courts and legal
enquiries or inquests were frequently held within it. Public notices
that concerned the townships--private ones even of auctions and the
like--were proclaimed before the assembled people in the garth or the
porch, if not in the building itself. Punishments for moral offences
were carried out in face of the congregation.[41]
[41] We have no evidence of this to show for Grasmere Church. But
in 1622 "Sir" Richard Pearson, curate of Troutbeck, was empowered
by the rector of Windermere to publicly revoke the sentence of
excommunication under which one Adam Birkhead lay. An edict was
issued from the registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire
as late as 1715, citing a form of penance to be gone through by
George Birkett, who before the congregation of Troutbeck, and in
"penitential habit," was to confess his grievous sin of incest
with his deceased wife's sister. An additional note, however,
empowered Mr. Barton, rector of Windermere, and Mr. Grisedale,
curate, to use their discretion as to the manner of confession,
and to allow the sinner, if properly penitent, to make it "in his
Ordinary apparell" (Browne MSS.). It may have been the dislike
of public penance, with its peculiar habit, that caused the
churchwardens of Grasmere so often, and so incorrectly, to return
a clean bill of morality in their Presentments.
The priests and the clergy acted as legal agents for the unlettered
folk till comparatively recent times. They were versed in the
intricacies of law, as well as ritual, and skilled in penmanship and
the Latin tongue. The higher of them are found acting as agents and
accountants for the holders of the fees into which the barony became
split, as documents which concern our parish show.
Frequently the chaplain or the village priest drew up indentures,
petitions, and secular agreements for the living, as well as the
testaments of the dying. Wills were proved at the church registry
of the diocese, and were stored there. The wills of the parish
of Grasmere went to the town of Richmond, the centre of the
archdeaconry; and not until 1719 were they proved at the secular
courts of Kendal and Lancaster.[42]
[42] _Wills and Inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire_
(Rev. J. Raine). The privilege of probate was withdrawn finally
from ecclesiastical courts by Act of 1857 (Dr. Cox's _History of
Parish Registers_).
Instances of the use of the church fabric for secular purposes in
the neighbourhood may be quoted. A Court Roll of 1443 is headed
"Court of Wynandremere held at the church of Wynandremere 9 July 21
Henry VI."[43] An award concerning a private dispute in 1534 between
George Browne of Troutbeck and Myles Dickson of Applethwaite decrees
that the former pay to the latter "upon the secunde sonday in lente
next comynge O-XLs of able ynglyshe money upon or. layde Alter in
Wyndandermer church betwixe VIII of the clock and XII of the said
sonday."[44] Again, an indenture made 1571 between Mr. John Benson
and his Baisbrowne tenants stipulates that the payment of certain
moneys should be made "in langdaill chappell betweene thoures of
eyght of the clock at aftr. noine" on the 1st of August in the two
ensuing years.[45] In 1601, when Widow Agnes Fleming of Rydal Hall
with her sons sued a Penrith man for debt, the commissioners sat and
examined witnesses in Ambleside Chapel.[46] And within this building
were probably taken down depositions in several other cases.
[43] Public Record Office Court Roll 207/122.
[44] Browne MSS.
[45] Rydal Hall MSS.
[46] Rydal Hall MSS.
As regards Grasmere itself record is scant. The manorial courts were
occasionally held in the Moot Hall of Kirkby Kendal, as in 1603,[47]
but in early times it would be impossible to summon the holders from
so far; and it is stated in 1436 that two courts were yearly held in
Grasmere.[48] No other building than the church could have contained
this official gathering. The judgment on the 1583 tithe dispute
enjoined that the parishioners were to pay their tithe of lambs in
money every Easter "in the parish church of Gresmier." The church or
chapel was as a rule the schoolroom where the priest taught.
[47] Public Record Office Court Roll 207/111.
[48] Church inquisition post mortem, Henry VI., No. 36.
The churchyard, even more than the church itself, had its secular
and popular uses, which came down from ancient time. The fairs, the
markets, the sports and the wrestlings[49] which took place within
its enclosing walls, and of which we obtain faint intimations, were
but the survival of the festivals sanctioned by the early church,
when the wake, or fair of the patron saint was kept. This again,
with its bull-baiting, its rude sports and its temporary stalls,
may be linked on to the earlier rites of heathen times, when beasts
were brought to the Temple for sacrifice, and when the people built
booths about it, in which to hold a three days' feast. The annual
or biennial fair, and even the Sunday market, were quite usual in
the churchyard, before the boroughs obtained a special privilege for
them. And though an express statute in 1285 forbade the practice,
neither this nor the later injunction of the Church were heeded. In
1300 the town of Cockermouth complained that its market was spoilt by
the bartering carried on at Crosthwaite Church, where not only flesh
and fish were sold at festivals (and this distinctly smacks of an
ancient sacrificial practice); but that corn, linen, cloth and other
commodities were conveyed thither every Sunday for barter. In 1380
the town of Appleby was suffering from a like cause. Merchants were
carrying their goods to sell in the churchyards of the surrounding
district on Sundays, to the detriment of the accredited market.[50]
If this was done in other places of the district, it was certainly
done at Grasmere, for the market town of Kendal was sixteen miles
distant on a road often impassable.[51]
[49] See Coulton's _Chaucer and his England_, where miracle-plays
and dances are added to the list.
[50] Calendar Patent Rolls, 4 Richard II., p. 1.
[51] Browne MSS.
It was not until the seventeenth century that markets were
established in the neighbouring towns of Hawkshead and Ambleside,
after Grasmere had in vain attempted to secure the privilege.[52]
[52] Rydal Hall MSS.
A good deal of informal business besides was conducted in the
churchyard, such as sales proposed or private bargains struck. Of
proclamations and sale notices made within the church or garth we
have abundant evidence; and for these the clerk received generally a
fee of 2d. No doubt the "citation" we hear of for tithe wool due to
Squire John Fleming (1631) was made at the church. The prohibition
against cutting wood in Bainrigg (1768) which the Rev. J. Wilson
suggested should "be given at our church of sunday" and which was to
deprive the holder of his winter fuel, has been preserved.[53] In
recent times, according to Edward Wilson, the notices were given out
by the clerk in the yard, outside the so-called men's or western door.
[53] Rydal Hall MSS.
The officers of the townships transacted business at church; and the
notices still hung in church porches are a survival of the custom.
The overseers of the poor worked in fact in close connection with the
wardens; and the latter were responsible for some county rates which
are found entered in their accounts, such as (1708) "To the Jaylor
at Appleby" and "Prisoner Money." The Overseers' books for Rydal and
Loughrigg show that when they failed to board a pauper within their
township, they paid to the clerk 2d. "for advertising her to let."
The constable (and there was one for each township) had a far older
connection with the parish church. He caused meetings for his
division to be proclaimed at the church. Among the miscellaneous
duties which he still performed in late times was payment for the
slaughter of harmful beasts and birds. The heads of these were hung,
we are told, on the church gates as visible proof; and Stockdale,
writing in 1872,[54] says that he has seen them so exposed both
at Cartmel and Hawkshead. The same practice no doubt prevailed at
Grasmere. The constable's books for Rydal and Loughrigg record 4d. as
the price usually given for a raven's head, and 3s. 4d. for that of a
fox. In 1786, 5s. 0d. was paid "for one old Fox and two young ones."
Ravens were frequently entered, and as the payments went to William
Parke, we must suppose them to have been taken on the precipice of
Nab Scar. Five were paid for in 1787, and twelve in 1790. These would
decorate the Rydal and Loughrigg gate. Two foxes were paid for in
1793.
[54] _Annales Caermoelensis._
THE EIGHTEEN
Not Twenty-four, but Eighteen represented the interests of the
townships in the parish church. This was the case also at Crosthwaite
in Cumberland, where this ancient body of "sworn" men were swept away
by the Charity Commissioners at the time that they took over the
schools. Of the Eighteen in Grasmere six represented--along with two
wardens--each township. While the wardens, who were all landholders,
took office for one year only, and in rotation, like all other
officials of the village communities, such as constable, overseer,
surveyor of roads, and frithman, the Eighteen appear to have been
freely elected, and they kept office for an indefinite period.
The names of those who served the office at the Restoration are given
in the important document concerning the fabric of the church printed
later, and these names were but slowly altered. In the churchwardens'
books of 1723 is written "Then chosen Edward Brockbank to be an
Eighteen man for Little Langdale in the place of John Brockbank his
father, deceased." Again in 1824 comes "Sides-Man Chosen by the
Minister Churchwardens and Sides-men," followed by their names. A
list of these was but infrequently written out, only an erasure
marking a change, as when in 1708 John Green, serving for Grasmere
"being Very Old and infirm, desired to be excused," and Thomas Green
took his place.
The choice of a new member of the body lay apparently with the
Eighteen themselves, the wardens, and the parson. This is still the
case in Windermere, where (I am told) the choice of a new member of
the Twenty-four is discussed in full vestry, the clergyman, however,
finally nominating.[55] Yet the Eighteen were acting representatives
in church affairs of the folk of the townships. All contracts for the
improvement and alteration of the church were made by them. They were
responsible for the share of their township in its upkeep, and laid
a rate on the landholders to cover the yearly expenses. It is almost
certain that the appointment of a clerk and schoolmaster lay with
them and the wardens, though the parson no doubt sat at the conclave.
We have no means of knowing whether their powers extended further.[56]
[55] From Mr. George Browne, one of the Twenty-four.
[56] At Holme Cultram, Cumberland, a like body--chosen, however,
by the people themselves--were responsible for the care of
the bridges and common wood, besides providing for the upkeep
of the sea-dyke. See "The Sixteen Men of Holme Cultram,"
_Transactions_, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society,
N.S., 3. The Eighteen of Aston, Oxfordshire, were found in 1583
to have control over the common field and meadow, with the
yearly allotments made within them. See "Survival of Archaic
Communities," Prof. F. W. Maitland (_Law Quarterly Review_, vol.
9). Prof. Maitland regards the existence of this body as an
exceptional case, and thinks it dangerous to assume it to have
been a survival of ancient times. Mr. G. G. Coulton in _Chaucer
and his England_ considers that the Black Death of 1348-9 and the
consequent diminution of the clergy may have thrown the people
on their own resources, and caused the lay control over parish
finances which appears to have dated (he says) from the fifteenth
century.
It should be noted that the old name for them was simply "The
Eighteen." They are called Questmen in a contract of 1687, but this
appears to have been drawn up by a stranger. The term Sidesmen occurs
late, and so does "The Twenty-four" which reckons the six wardens,
two for each township, in the number. Strictly, the wardens (of whom
there were eight in Cartmel) should not be included.
[Illustration: Decorative]
[Illustration: Structure of the Interior of S^t Oswald's
Grasmere.]