PARISH OFFICERS AND THEIR BOOKS.
Among the contents of the parish deed-chest wherein registers are
supposed to be safely kept are often found other books and papers,
seemingly of little interest or importance, but in reality very likely
to yield curious and original scraps of information, with glimpses
into the life of the poorer classes during the past centuries. Some
day these old account books, now flung aside as worthless, will be of
great importance in an antiquary’s eyes, for they give lists of all the
residents in the parish, from the squire to the lowest and poorest,
showing the social status of each; and further, are of value when
compared with the parish registers, as giving a clue to the length of
residence of inhabitants who, if of the middle class, sooner or later
served their turn as parish officers; and if paupers, were entered as
recipients of parochial charity.
Previous to this century the churchwardens, overseers, road surveyors
and parish constables held office for one year only, being elected at
the annual Easter vestry; now re-election is _supposed_ to take
place, but the post is usually carried on from year to year without
opposition.
Apparently some rule of yearly income or rental governed the election,
or else certain tenements were represented in rotation by their
tenants, for widows were liable to serve, in which case a son or some
near neighbour was deputed to act in the woman’s name.
Now the custom of yearly change has died out, and a churchwarden once
elected goes on from year to year, until sickness, old age, or death
renders some fresh arrangement absolutely necessary. This statement
was ‘caught up’ by the reviewers of this book, but, nevertheless, it
is perfectly true. Surely, if in those old days, when education was
so sparsely distributed, and even reading and writing looked upon
as sciences--if then it was possible to find men able and capable
of directing local affairs, it seems strange that now so few are
considered fit for the post, when every day-labourer’s son is taught
drawing and essay-writing in addition to his elementary studies.
The office of churchwarden is very old. Now it has lost most of its
prestige, and the churchwarden is almost forgotten except on the
Sundays when collections are made; formerly each villager took a
personal interest in affairs which some day he himself would probably
be called upon to manage.
The two churchwardens of a parish represented the rival interests of
its inhabitants: the parson _versus_ the squire and his tenants.
Each officer had his clients’ interests to uphold and consider. The
most onerous duty before the present system of Poor Law, however, fell
upon the overseer of the poor, in whose hands rested the responsibility
of the proper distribution of the public funds in the shape of bequests
and legacies; to him came applications for relief, and with him also
were mooted all questions relating to the disposal of paupers, both
dead and alive. Edward III. forbade the giving of alms to able-bodied
men, but no regular Poor Laws were invented till Henry VIII. was King.
The first Acts of Parliament relating to Poor Laws were passed towards
the conclusion of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign. It was absolutely
necessary to make some fresh statutes applicable to the new state
of affairs consequent upon the Reformation. Previously most of the
charity had been distributed or directed by the monks, and after these
were dispersed and their lands seized by the Crown and sold, their
unfortunate dependents were rendered still more dependent, and all the
severe laws against vagrancy and beggars made by the Tudor sovereigns
could not abate the nuisance or solve the difficult question, while
doles and gifts of bread or alms served only to increase the evil
through toleration.
Worse and worse the state of things became, till towards the end of the
last century the climax was reached; there were then whole families
of paupers who, generation after generation, made no effort towards
self-support either for themselves or their offspring. These last were
brought up entirely on charity, clothed, fed, and apprenticed, till
finally married by charity, the fees being paid out of the charity
money; nor did the matter end there, for, probably, after the lapse of
years the wedded couple with their children (if they became chargeable
to the parish) were returned to their native village, again to become
recipients of its charity till death claimed them, and the parish paid
the funeral expenses.
The first commission upon the Poor Laws took place in William IV.’s
reign, and since then reform has gradually been at work. In many places
public charity is still abused; but no real good can be effected at
once, and every effort must be proved by long and fair trial, under
which all unsuitable experiments will fail, and only the practical
and beneficial ones will survive the test. Of course, relief and
outdoor assistance were left very much to the discretion and honesty
of the overseer, whose accounts were yearly scrutinized at the Easter
vestry, when the parochial accounts were discussed. Sometimes these
discussions were considered of sufficient importance to be entered in
the parish books. Questions as to the ownership and distribution of
pews in the church, repairs to the edifice, by whom they were to be
done, boundaries, and whose business it was to keep in order certain
roads lying between rival parishes--all such matters came forward for
consideration, and, finally, the officers for the ensuing year were
elected, and the books handed over to the new churchwardens.
Perhaps a further check upon miscellaneous entries being made in the
books was that all the accounts had ‘to be passed’ at the nearest
Sessions and signed by the presiding magistrate, who was some
neighbouring squire.
The parish constable is now replaced by the policeman supplied by the
county, as visible representative of the law in rural places.
One entry often found among the old accounts was of repairs done to the
village stocks, frequently used to punish petty offences, especially
drunkenness. The pound, too, often needed mending; fines for allowing
animals to stray and become empounded are among the most frequent
entries in old manor court rolls. In many places a hayward was a
regularly appointed officer for this purpose, whose duty it was to
capture the animals and attend to them until they were reclaimed by
their owner or sold to defray expenses. In Berkshire the hayward, or
pinder, gave a tally to the person who brought the beast found on his
land, and he did not deliver the beast until its owner produced the
tally, proving that compensation for damage had been properly paid, as
well as expenses for keep during its detention.
The offices of overseer of the poor and of road surveyor, the latter
called waywarden, are not of any great antiquity; nor are they of
consequence so far as regards the old account books, in which their
elections are often not even mentioned. As to the constable, we only
get a casual glimpse of his duties when we read a list of his expenses
incurred in conveying some delinquent parishioner to the county gaol,
or of journeys taken to distant places to enquire into the antecedents
of paupers, or in taking them back to their own villages.
It is the overseers’ accounts which are really curious--those long
lists of garments bought to clothe the paupers and their children, the
old apprentice forms by which the children were placed out in service
so soon as they were capable of earning a stray sixpence towards their
own keep. Cruel as it seemed to be to send out such young children
to work, it was, in reality, the kindest thing that could be done
for them, for it gave them a chance of thoroughly learning a trade
and so becoming independent and working for themselves. With all our
modern Poor Law organization and schemes of education, I believe in
the end we shall eventually return to the old system of juvenile
apprenticeships--a far more practical method of teaching than any mere
class instruction.
Maybe a bundle of old papers are rolled together among the account
books. These may be the orders for the removal of paupers back to
the village they called ‘home,’ a custom first originated by some
Acts of Parliament passed by Charles II. At the same time the parish
officers were commanded and forced by penalties to provide for paupers
removed back into their parish, and, to prevent fraud, written proofs
as to the proper home or residence of the paupers had to be obtained
and produced; these papers are called ‘settlements.’ Paupers are now
removed back to the workhouse of their own district if they can prove a
certain length of residence.
The parish officers did their best for the welfare of their charges:
they provided the old women with spinning-wheels, so that they could
earn a trifle for themselves, while the men were set to work on the
road; when failing in health they were tended by a parish nurse,
and if sick the doctor saw them. Sometimes they were sent to Bath or
Cheltenham to be cured by the far-famed waters. For many years these
old annuitants lingered on, till we read the last entry paid for
burying Goody or Goodman So-and-so.
Any public event which required to be celebrated by the ringing of the
church bells is sure to be mentioned among the ordinary expenses.
There are in the old books (those of that unsettled time when the
religion of the State varied according to the Sovereign in power,
during the Tudor and Stuart dynasties) many notices of the alterations
wrought both in town and country places. The church goods were first
catalogued by order of Edward VI.’s Ministers; rich vestments, altar
hangings, and numerous vessels are named in the first list, but later
on, under Queen Elizabeth, the parish churches were further despoiled,
till there was little left for the Puritans to remove, and in the later
lists only the old service books and books of religious instruction
are left to the churchwardens to chronicle. Although instances as
early as 1287 are on record, the erection of pews was an innovation
only introduced by degrees after the Reformation. The destruction of
screens and the removal of altars caused altar rails and communion
tables to be used instead. Then came the terrors of civil war. Upon
the churchwardens devolved the duty of providing burial for soldiers
slain in battle. Such burials were not often in the churchyard, but
on the boundaries of parishes, the expenses being defrayed equally
by both parishes; this was probably an old custom in warfare, but it
was carried out as late as the Commonwealth. A battle was a public
calamity, and the responsibility of providing interment for the slain
was therefore a public duty.
After the Restoration of Charles II. the churches were repaired and
the royal arms restored. Later on we find some parsons resigning their
work from nonconforming scruples; at this time, too, are notices
of excommunicated persons. The Puritan zeal was aroused by James
II.’s injudicious attempt to restore Catholicism; and attendance at
church, first commanded by Queen Elizabeth, was further enforced by
an order that taking of the Sacrament should be regarded as a test
of conformity; for disobedience the punishment of excommunication
was inflicted upon the churchwardens’ application to the bishop. The
Recusants, as papists were called, were treated with great severity and
injustice, and heavily fined for their religious beliefs.
Any fresh Act of Parliament with reference to fees or taxes was soon
noted in the parish books. Fees varied in different places, according
to custom. Prior to the eighteenth century fees for burial within the
church were payable to the churchwardens, but afterwards became the
parson’s perquisite. These entries in the churchwardens’ books may
lead to the identification of vaults and interments not noted in the
parish register, and consequently forgotten. The burial of strangers
was always charged for at a higher rate; for paupers the parish paid
the expenses, and the tax of 3d. on each burial, as levied by Act of
Parliament, was not enforced. Taxes were levied on many things under
the Georges, but none were more obnoxious to the people than the birth,
marriage, and death taxes, of which the clergyman was made to act as a
most unwilling tax-gatherer.
The window-tax fell heavily on old manor houses pierced with
innumerable windows and skylights. It was then that many windows were
blocked up to avoid payment.
In the last century are many entries of payment for the release of men
seized for service in the army or navy; when the father of a family
went away, his wife and children were left to be provided for by
charity, and the first payment by the churchwardens for his release was
in the end the cheapest.
A list of rails (spelt usually ‘rayles’) surrounding the churchyard
reminds one of another almost obsolete custom, that of each person
repairing the rail in the fence next to his property or for which
he was liable. The liability was attached to the land, though custom
decided whether the owner or the occupier was the person to do such
repairs.
Last, not least, in the parish chest were bundles of old papers,
technically known as ‘briefs.’ In the account books all church
collections were duly entered. Originally collections were more of the
nature of voluntary rates, for the name of each donor is given and the
sum he gave, varying in accordance with his social position and means.
The origin of church collections is obscure; no doubt the offerings
given at the Sacrament were always devoted to the relief of poverty and
distress.
To regulate and restrict the right of levying collections Acts of
Parliament were passed, and no collection was allowed to be made
without a proper license called a ‘brief’; but the issuing of these
grew to an alarming extent. Briefs were issued for all sorts of
emergencies and disasters, principally for damage by fire, there being
then no insurance offices; and the old buildings, once set alight, were
seldom rescued from total demolition. A complete list of early briefs
would be curious, but would be so extensive as to fill a large volume.
The subject has not met with the interest it deserves, but I believe
now it is beginning to be studied.
The churchwardens probably kept few, if any, accounts prior to
the sixteenth century, therefore any older church collections are
unrecorded or only mentioned by chance.
In an old parish book of Sulhamstead are entries of the following
collections:
1670. Collected towards the redemption of English captives in Turkey;
and, again, in 1680, a similar collection took place. It puzzled me
much why such a small Berkshire parish should subscribe so liberally
for the release of slaves; but this was explained on discovering that
Turkish pirates infested the seas, and even landed with impunity on
the Western coasts, and carried off prisoners, both men and women,
to become slaves. The main road to the West ran through Berkshire;
travellers along it doubtless brought tales of such wild deeds,
which lost nothing in the telling, and excited the sympathy of the
country-folk.
In 1699 money was again collected; this time to redeem 300 captives
detained by the King of Morocco.
In 1678 funds were collected towards the rebuilding of St. Paul’s
Cathedral, destroyed twelve years previously in the Great Fire of
London. Many papists all over England added their contributions to this
collection.
1699. Collection was made for the French refugees and Vaudois settled
in Switzerland, who had fled at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
To inhabitants of Sulhamstead village this may have had a keener
interest in that Samuel Morland, afterwards made a baronet, the son
of a former rector, Rev. Thomas Morland, was sent out by Government
in 1655 to inquire into the condition of the Waldenses, and he wrote
thereon a book descriptive of the country and its inhabitants. Martin
Morland, another son of the rector, had returned to his old home--at
the Restoration; he resigned his living in 1665--for here two of his
sons were born.
1687. Brief for loss by fire in Aylesford.
1689. Loss by fire at Bishops Lavington, Wilts.
1690. Ditto, East Smithfield.
Town of Stafford.
Town of Bungay, Suffolk.
1690. In the parish of St. George’s, in the borough of Southwark.
In the Town of St. Ives, Huntingdonshire.
Five collections for fires in different counties made in one small
parish within a year!
In 1703, brief for refugees in the Principality of Orange.
After 1703 the givers’ names are no longer entered.
The parish doctor was regularly engaged by the churchwardens. In 1774
the agreement for Sulhamstead was made and signed by the doctor, and
witnessed that he ‘should do the business of surgery and apothecary,
broken bones excepted, for the yearly sum of five guineas’! No wonder
that these hard-worked physicians lacked skill, and relied more upon
practice than education for what talent they did possess.
The perambulation of parish bounds was another vestry question, upon
which rested disputed tithes. In entries of tithe old field-names,
now forgotten, may often be recovered. The commutation of tithe also
was discussed, and in some places the parson made agreements with his
parishioners on the subject. Visitation fees came before the vestry,
and sending copies of the register to the Diocesan Registry was, or
ought to have been, an annual occurrence. Any dispute seems to have
come within the vestry’s jurisdiction, and all dry subjects were washed
down with plenty of ale, an item regularly entered among the expenses.
Perhaps it was at the vestry that the village urchins came up to claim
rewards offered for the extermination of vermin, their instinctive love
of sport being further developed by their love of gain. Foxes are among
the animals named on the list, together with stoats, sparrows, etc.,
and the prices paid for this wholesale destruction seem very high.
The spelling of many of the old account books is decidedly phonetic
and original, but as a whole they are legible and neatly kept. They
need nothing to explain their meanings as to what class of information
their pages will yield, except a guide such as I have endeavoured to
give, for the books of one parish closely resemble all others.
The history of a parish can never properly be written if the parish
books are missing. The value of these books is not fully appreciated,
and they are too often thrown aside as useless rubbish.
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