payments for church purposes, are often highly interesting, and should
be carefully preserved. Sometimes they are found entered in bound
volumes, but more often tied up in bundles or tumbled in confusion in
the parish chest. Still more often they are altogether missing. They
can occasionally be recovered from the private dwellings of present
or past churchwardens. The earliest with which we are acquainted, are
those of All Saints’, Derby, which begin in 1465, but they rarely are
found prior to the Restoration.
The CONSTABLES ACCOUNTS, and the ACCOUNTS OF THE OVERSEERS OF THE POOR,
will also sometimes be met with, beginning from a comparatively remote
date, and will amply repay close attention. They throw a similar light
on the secular history of a parish to that thrown on the religious
history by the Churchwardens’ Accounts. The thorough overhauling
of the parish chest, or other receptacles of parish papers, and the
classification of their contents is strongly recommended, even where it
seems to be most unpromising of results. There is no reason why even
such apparently trivial things as the indentures of parish apprentices
(which have the seals and signatures of Justices of the Peace), should
not be preserved, neatly arranged, and docketted. Every scrap of paper
of past generations, showing the inner working of parochial life,
possesses some interest of its own; and future generations will thank
us for their preservation. Moreover, a careful arrangement of parish
papers often meets with more immediate reward. We have ourselves found
missing portions of 16th century registers, highly interesting deeds
as early as the 14th century, royal proclamations and special forms of
prayer, _temp._ Elizabeth and James I., in parochial litter put aside
as valueless.
Of what can be gleaned from these parish annals when tolerably perfect,
we may be permitted to quote that which we have elsewhere written
respecting the records of Youlgreave, a Derbyshire village, that have
recently been classified with some care:--
“The future historian of this parish will find a vast stock of material
ready to hand; and if such a work was ever accomplished it would once
more be seen how the history of even a remote village is but the
history of the nation in little; how national victories were announced
on the church bells, and national disasters by the proclamation of a
form of prayer; how local self-government became gradually developed
in the office of justice, constable, and overseer of the poor; how the
press-gang worked its cruel way to man the ships and fill the regiments
of the Georges; how the good folk of Youlgreave sent forth a spy to
watch the movements of Charles Edward in 1745; and how they prepared
to defend themselves by giving their constable a new bill-head, and
repairing his old one; how unmerciful was the treatment of lunatics:
and how free was the consumption of ale, on the smallest possible
provocation, at the parish’s expense; these, and a thousand other
minutiæ, all of them possessing some point of interest, can be gleaned
from these annals of a parish, to say nothing of the perfect genealogy
of nearly every family, together with an account of their varying
circumstances, that might be constructed by their aid.”
The fullest and best information respecting the parish as a unit of the
national life, with much that pertains to the history of its various
officers from the earliest times, will be found in Toulmin Smith’s “The
Parish; its powers and obligations.” The second and best edition was
published in 1857 by H. Sweet, Chancery Lane.
The history of the village and village officers have not hitherto
received the attention they deserve, for all our municipalities have
developed out of village communities, and their various officials are
but those of the petty rural parish adapted to the needs of an urban
population. It will be well on this point to refer to the useful “Index
of Municipal Offices,” with an historical introduction, recently
published by G. Laurence Gomme.
Lists of parochial CHARITIES are sometimes found in the parish chest,
and more frequently on bequest boards in the church; but the local
annotator should not consider that he has got a perfect or correct list
until the elaborate reports of the Charity Commissioners, compiled
some fifty years ago, have been consulted. In 1843, a most useful Blue
Book was published for each county, being an analytical digest of the
voluminous reports arranged under parishes. Topographical booksellers
can generally procure copies of these, by which a great saving of time
will be effected. There are later Reports with regard to Endowed
Schools.
History of the Church.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, or pre-Norman charters, occasionally give
definite information of a church in a particular parish or district,
but as a rule the earliest mention of the parish church will be found
in the previously described DOMESDAY BOOK. But the Commissioners, not
being specially instructed to make returns of churches, acted on their
own judgment, and in some counties omitted them partially, and in
others altogether.
TAXATIO ECCLESIASTICA P. NICHOLAI IV.--Pope Nicholas IV. (to whose
predecessors in the See of Rome the first-fruits and tenths of all
ecclesiastical benefices had for a long time been paid) granted the
tenths, in 1288, to Edward I. for six years, towards defraying the
expenses of a Crusade; and that they might be collected to their full
value, the King caused a valuation roll to be drawn up, which was
completed in 1291, under the direction of John, Bishop of Winchester,
and Oliver, Bishop of Lincoln. There are two copies of this Roll at
the P. R. O., both of which appear to have been written in the reign
of Henry IV., and there is a third, which is by far the oldest, among
the Cottonian MSS. of the B. M. These three copies were collated and
printed in a folio volume by the Record Commission in 1802. There are
one or two other old copies of this Roll in private libraries; one in
the Chapter Library, Lichfield; and another, in excellent condition, in
the muniment room of Lincoln Cathedral.
VALOR ECCLESIASTICUS. The taxation of 1291 held good, and all the
taxes from the benefices, as well to our Kings as to the Popes,
were regulated by it until 27 Henry VIII., when a new survey was
completed. Henceforth the first-fruits and tenths ceased to be
forwarded to Rome, and were transferred to the Crown. In 1703 the
receipts were appropriated, under the title of Queen Anne’s Bounty,
to the augmentation of the smaller livings. The original returns of
the King’s Valor are at the P. R. O. They were officially published in
six folio volumes between the years 1811 and 1834. In the latter year
an “Introduction” of no little value, was also published in an 8vo.
volume, written by the Rev. Joseph Hunter.
CERTIFICATES OF COLLEGES AND CHANTRIES. About ten years after the
completion of his ecclesiastical survey, Henry VIII. decided on
appropriating the revenues belonging to Collegiate Churches and
Chantries. As a preliminary measure to their sale, he appointed a
commission, in the 37th year of his reign, to re-value this property,
and to take an inventory of the chattels. The whole subject of the
suppression of the Chantries, as conceived by Henry VIII. and finally
carried out by Edward VI., is ably and exhaustively treated in the
introduction to the volumes of the Cheetham Society, which treat of
the Lancashire Chantries. The reports, or “Certificates,” furnished
by Henry’s Commission with respect to the different chantries, are
preserved at the P. R. O., and are entered on rolls arranged in eight
parallel columns, in answer to a like number of queries. There are also
abridged rolls on paper of some counties. Further information about
chantries may be sometimes gleaned from certain MS. volumes at the P.
R. O., entitled “_Particulars for the Sale of Colleges and Chantries_.”
In the B. M. (Add. MSS. 8,102) is a valuable roll of Fees, Corrodies,
and Pensions, paid to members of the suppressed chantries and religious
houses, out of the Exchequer, 2 and 3 Philip and Mary. The pensions for
the different counties are on separate skins, so that it is easy of
reference.
INVENTORIES OF CHURCH GOODS. There are various Inventories of Church
Goods in the P. R. O., taken by Commission at the beginning of the
reign of Edward VI., some on detached slips of parchment, others
in paper books. The inventories are not absolutely perfect for all
parishes in any one county; in several counties the churches of one or
more Hundreds are missing; for others, such as Somerset, Sussex, and
the North Riding of Yorkshire, there are none extant. Nor are there
any for Lincolnshire; but there is a MS. return of Church Furniture
and Ornaments of 150 churches of that county, taken in 1566, in the
Episcopal Registry at Lincoln. This was published in 1866, by Edward
Peacock, F.S.A. There are also some special Inventories connected with
other dioceses, which space forbids us to mention.
GUILDS AND FRATERNITIES. Guilds and Fraternities of a more or less
religious character, and usually directly connected with a special
altar at the parish church, will naturally come under the history
of the Church, provided any can be detected in connection with the
particular parish. It used to be supposed that these guilds were only
found in cities or boroughs, but later researches show that they also
occasionally existed in quite small villages. The Parliament of 1381
directed writs to be sent to the sheriffs of each county, calling upon
them to see that the Master and Wardens of all Guilds and Brotherhoods
made returns to the King’s Council in Chancery of all details
pertaining to the foundation, statutes, and property of their guilds.
A large number of the original returns (549) still remain in the P.
R. O., where they are known as “Miscellaneous Rolls, Tower Records,
Bundles cccviii. ix. x.” For some counties there are none extant, and
for others only those from a single Hundred. More than one hundred of
these returns have recently been printed or analysed, by Toulmin Smith,
in a volume of the Early English Text Society, entitled “English Gilds.”
HERALDIC CHURCH NOTES. In the different heraldic visitation books,
especially those _temp._ Elizabeth, which have been previously
described, there often occur interesting church notes, which not only
detail heraldic glass in the windows and arms on the monuments, but
also occasionally give inscriptions that have long since disappeared.
These can only be found by a careful inspection of the heralds’
register books of the county in which the parish is situated.
COMMONWEALTH SURVEY. In pursuance of various ordinances of the
Parliament, a complete survey of the possessions of Bishops, Deans,
and Chapters, and of all benefices, was made in 1650, by specially
appointed Commissioners. These interesting returns, filling twenty-one
large folio volumes, are in the library of Lambeth Palace, and numbered
in the catalogue of MSS. from 902 to 922. These surveys have hitherto
been singularly overlooked by county historians and ecclesiologists,
though occasional extracts have been published from a much-abbreviated
and inaccurate summary, based on these documents, which forms No. 459
of the Lansdowne MSS. in the B. M.
The Record Books of the Commonwealth Commissioners for augmenting
Rectories and Vicarages (MSS. 966-1,021); the original Presentations to
various benefices from 1652 to 1659 (MSS. 944-7); and Counterparts of
leases of Church Lands, made by authority of Parliament from 1652 to
1658 (MSS. 948-50), are also in Lambeth Library.
BRIEFS. Royal Letters Patent, authorising collections for charitable
purposes within churches, were termed “Briefs.” Lists of them,
from the time of Elizabeth downwards, are often to be found on the
fly-leaves of old register books, or in churchwardens’ accounts. The
repair or rebuilding of churches in post-Reformation days, until nearly
the beginning of the Catholic Revival, was almost invariably effected
by this method. About the middle of last century, owing to the growing
frequency of Briefs, it was ordered that they should only be granted on
the formal application of Quarter Sessions. Much information as to the
condition of the fabrics and other particulars relative to churches can
be gathered from the petitions to Quarter Sessions, in those counties
where the documents are accessible. The Briefs themselves were issued
from the Court of Chancery, so we suppose they would be attainable at
the P. R. O. At the B. M. is a large collection of original Briefs,
from 1754 down to their abolition in 1828. They were presented to the
Museum in 1829, by Mr. J. Stevenson Salt.
ADVOWSON. The history of the advowson, if the living remained a
rectory, was almost invariably intermixed with that of the manor or the
moieties of the manor. Consequently it will be found, that, in the case
of rectories, various particulars as to the owners of the advowson, and
its value, at different periods, can be gleaned from the Inquisitions,
and from the Patent and Close Rolls to which references have already
been made; or, in the case of litigation, from the Plea Rolls and Year
Books. If the living became at any time a Vicarage, care should be
taken to look through the particulars given by Dugdale and Tanner, of
the religious house to which the big tithes were appropriated, and more
especially to carefully search the chartularies of that establishment,
if any are extant. There is an excellent list of the various monastic
Chartularies, _i.e._, ancient parchment books, containing transcripts
or abstracts of the charters of the different houses, in the first two
volumes of Nichols’ “Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” and a
shorter one in Sims’ “Manual.”
The Ordination of a Vicarage, _i.e._, the official appropriation
of certain parts of the endowment for the sustentation of a vicar,
required episcopal confirmation; and these ordinations will usually be
found in the Episcopal Registers, if they are extant for the date when
the rectory was formally appropriated. These ordinations often contain
information of great interest, and have hitherto been very rarely
searched for, and still more rarely printed.
The terms used in these documents for different sorts of tithes, for
the various produce of the soil, etc., etc., will be sought for in
vain in any ordinary Latin Dictionary; for their explanation it will
be necessary to consult a Glossary of mediæval or monastic terms. The
most handy and accurate is the abridged edition of the Glossaries
of Du Cange, Du Fresne, etc., in six vols. 8vo., published at Halle,
between 1722-1784. Some such work will also be found indispensable in
consulting the monastic Chartularies and many of the Records and Rolls.
The majority of the terms will be found in the last two editions of
Cowel’s “Interpreter,” 1708, and 1737, which can much more readily be
met with than the larger glossaries; but there is great need for a
one volume compendious glossary, and it is hoped that such a work may
shortly be published.
LISTS OF INCUMBENTS. Lists of rectors and vicars, giving the date of
their institution, and the names of their respective patrons, are
indispensable to a complete parochial history. They are, for the
most part, to be obtained from the diocesan registers. This work,
in several dioceses, will be found to involve no small labour, for
Bishop’s registrars were not always particular to separate institutions
from other Episcopal acts, and occasionally placed them in precise
chronological order for the whole diocese, without any regard to
archdeaconries and other minor divisions. But the trouble will be
amply repaid by the numerous quaint and interesting little details
that the searcher will be almost sure to discover. Many of our
episcopal registers, or act books, are of supreme interest, and yet
they are perhaps less known than any class of original documents. The
dates at which these registers begin average about the year 1300.
We give, for the first time in any manual, their respective initial
years:--Canterbury, 1279; London, 1306; Winchester, 1282; Ely 1336;
Lincoln, 1217; Lichfield, 1296; Wells, 1309; Salisbury, 1296; Exeter,
1257; Norwich, 1299; Worcester, 1268; Hereford, 1275; Chichester, 1397;
Rochester, 1319; York, 1214; and Carlisle, 1292. The old registers
of Durham are mostly lost, that of Bishop Kellaw, 1311-18, being the
oldest. None of the Welsh Cathedrals have any registers older than the
16th century.
Gaps are not unusual in the episcopal registers for some time
subsequent to the Reformation, when the books were often kept in a
slovenly fashion. These deficiencies can be generally supplied from the
lists of institutions in the Augmentation Books at the P. R. O.
It is scarcely necessary to say that no list of incumbents should be
considered complete, until it has been carefully collated with the
parish registers.
Catalogues of all the English Bishops are to be found in Canon
Stubbs’s “_Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum_;” and similar lists of Deans,
Prebendaries, and minor dignitaries, in Hardy’s edition of Le Neve’s
“_Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_.” Both of these works may probably be
useful when drawing up the list of parish priests.
Lists of priests appointed to the more important chantries can usually
also be extracted from the diocesan registers, for, except in peculiar
circumstances, they required episcopal institution.
Any facts of interest or importance that can be ascertained respecting
the successive incumbents should be chronicled. For the time of the
Commonwealth, Walker’s “Sufferings of the Clergy” on the one hand, and
Calamy’s “Ejected Ministers” on the other, should be consulted. They
both make mention of a very great number of the clergy.
DEDICATION. The dedication of the church should never be taken for
granted from county gazetteers or directories. Dedications to All
Saints, and to the Blessed Virgin, should be viewed with some suspicion
until firmly established, for in the time of Henry VIII. the dedication
festivals, or “wakes,” were often transferred to All Saints’ Day, or
Lady Day, in order to avoid a multiplicity of holidays, and hence by
degrees the real dedication became forgotten. Ecton’s “_Thesaurus
Rerum Ecclesiasticarum_” (1742), and Bacon’s “_Liber Regis_” (1786),
should be consulted for dedications. Occasionally the patron saints
of the different churches are mentioned in the institutions in the
episcopal registers, and more often in monastic chartularies; but the
surest of all references, in the case of a doubtful dedication, is to
look up the pre-Reformation wills of the lords of the manor or other
chief people of the parish. These wills almost invariably contain an
early clause to this effect:--“I leave my body to be buried within the
church of St. ----.” The time of the wakes or village feast is a good
guide to the dedication, but one which, from the reason stated above,
as well as from other causes, must not be implicitly relied upon.
Another point worth remembering with regard to dedications, is that
re-consecration was not of unfrequent occurrence. Murder and some other
crimes within the church, as well as special violations of the altar,
rendered re-consecration imperative; and it was also often resorted to
when the fabric was altogether or considerably rebuilt, or even when
a new chancel was added. At the time of these re-consecrations, it
occasionally happened that the name of the patron saint was changed,
not from mere caprice or love of novelty, but because relics of that
particular saint were obtained for inclosure in the chief or high
altar. This should be borne in mind when a discrepancy is found in the
name of the patron saint of the same church at different epochs.
The chapter of Parker’s “Calendar of the Anglican Church,” entitled “A
few remarks on the dedication of English Churches,” is worth reading.
This book is also valuable for the brief account of the saints most
frequently met with in England, both in dedications and otherwise. The
first half of the book has been re-published once or twice, under the
title of “Calendar of the Prayer Book,” but it leaves out the chapters
here mentioned, and is comparatively valueless as compared with the
edition of 1851. Harington “On the Consecration of Churches,” published
by Rivington in 1844, should also be read.
Description of the Church.
Having finished the history of the Church, it will be best to follow it
up by a description of the fabric of the Church, and of all its details.
STYLES OF ARCHITECTURE. In deciding as to the different “periods”
under which to classify the various styles into which almost every
parish church is more or less divided, it is perhaps wisest to confine
oneself to the simple and generally accepted divisions of English
architecture, originally adopted by Mr. Rickman, viz. (1) the Saxon,
from 800 to 1066; (2) the Norman, from 1066 to 1145; (3) the Early
English, from 1145 to 1272; (4) the Decorated, from 1272 to 1377; and
(5) the Perpendicular, from 1377 to 1509. Some competent writers always
speak of three periods of Transition, covering the reigns of Henry
II., Edward I., and Richard II.; whilst others, and this may be well
adopted, speak of only one regular “Transition,” meaning by that term
the period between the Early English and Decorated, or the reign of
Edward I. (1272-1307).
These divisions are generally accepted as sufficing for popular
purposes; but of the more detailed and technical divisions of later
writers, there are none so correct in nomenclature, and so accurate in
separation of style, as the seven periods of Mr. Edmund Sharpe. The
first and second of his periods are the same as given above, but the
third is styled the Transitional, from 1145 to 1190; the fourth, the
Lancet, from 1190 to 1245; the fifth, the Geometrical, from 1245 to
1315; the sixth, the Curvilinear, from 1315 to 1360; and the seventh,
the Rectilinear, from 1360 to 1550. See Sharpe’s “Seven Periods of
English Architecture,” with its excellent series of plates.
There are numerous architectural manuals, but Parker’s “Glossary of
Gothic Architecture” has not been surpassed, and is very comprehensive.
The best edition is the fourth, with the two additional volumes of
plates.
Before classifying the different parts of the building according to the
various periods, a most careful inspection should be made of both inner
and outer walls, when fragments of mouldings, pertaining possibly to an
earlier church than any now standing, may not unfrequently be detected.
MONUMENTS. Inscriptions on monuments now missing, or partly
obliterated, may sometimes be recovered from the Church Notes of
Heraldic Visitations, or other MS. note books of ecclesiologists of
past generations, in which some counties are peculiarly fortunate.
For a list of MSS. of this description, that may be found in our
public libraries, arranged under counties, see Sims’ “Manual.” It may
also be useful to refer to two printed works--Le Neve’s “_Monumenta
Anglicana_,” 5 vols. 8vo. (1717-1719), and Weever’s “Ancient Funerall
Monuments,” the latest edition of which, with additions, is a 4to.
vol. of 1767. The former gives inscriptions on monuments of eminent
persons who deceased between 1600 and 1718, the latter treats generally
of all monuments in the dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester, London,
and Norwich. Bloxam, on “Monumental Architecture” (1834), is a useful
handbook on the general subject of monuments.