PARISH REGISTERS AND CHURCHWARDENS’ BOOKS.
[Illustration: Boldre Church.]
As the monasteries of former days preserved the general records of the
times, so, in a minor degree, do our churches preserve the special
history of our villages. In the social life of the past our Church Books
are the counterpart of our Corporation Books, performing quite as much
for their own parishes as the latter for their boroughs; not only
giving, in the register, a yearly census of the population, but by the
Churchwardens’ Accounts the social and religious life of each period.
Added to this also the clergyman, having nowhere else to chronicle them,
has often entered in his register the passing events of the day; so that
this further possesses, at times, a wider historical interest than could
have been expected, giving us often glimpses of the views of men, who,
however unsympathetic with the changes and fortunes of the hour, still
carry, from their office and position, some not inconsiderable weight.
All these books are far too seldom consulted. The few notes we shall
make are by no means given as examples of what may be elsewhere found,
but must be looked upon only as extracts from the books of a district,
where we naturally could expect little of any general interest.
The New Forest has never been, since registers became the law of the
land, the scene of any of the great events of English history—never the
theatre of the Civil Wars, as the Midland Counties, where entries of
victories and defeats, and battles and sieges, are mixed with the
burials and births.
Various causes, too, especially the scanty and scattered population,
have contributed to the late date at which nearly all the Forest
registers commence.[259] Still, at Eling, there occurs the second
earliest parish register in Hampshire, beginning one year before
Cromwell’s Act has been passed; showing, as was before noticed, that
this part of the Forest was always the richest, and, consequently, the
most civilized.[260] In this register we find the following most
interesting entry:—
“1654. Thomas Burges, the sonne of William Burges and Elizabeth
Russel, the daughter of Elizabeth, the now wife of Stephen Newland,
were asked three Sabbath dayes, in the Parish Church of Eling: sc:
Apriel 16th, Ap^r 23rd, Ap^r 30th, and were marr: by Richard L^d
Crumwell, May xxii^d.”
I need scarcely add that it was under the Protector that an Act of
Parliament was passed in 1653, enabling any persons, after the due
proclamation of the banns in the church or chapel, or in the
market-place, on three market days, to be married by a simple
affirmation before a magistrate; thus in a remarkable way nearly
anticipating modern legislature.[261] The Protector’s son, at the date
of this entry, was probably living at Hursley, about ten miles away to
the north.
Going across to the other side of the Forest, we shall, at Ellingham,
find, in the Churchwardens’ Books, an entry in a different way quite as
interesting. The leaf is, I am sorry to say, very much torn, and,
towards the lower part, half of it is wanting. I give, however, the
extract as it stands, indicating the missing passages by the breaks:—
“Martii 13. Anno dõm. 1634. A special license, granted by the moste
reverende ffather in God, William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his
Grace, under his Grace’s hand and seale, used in the like grants, dated
the nyneteenth day of ffebruarie, Anno dõm. 1634, and second yeare of
his Grace’s translation. And confirmed by the Letters patents of our
Sov̄raigne Lord Charles the King’s ma.^tie that now is ... Under the
Greate Seale of England ffor S^r White Beconsaw of this parish and
county of South̄ton ... (and) Dame Edith hys wife ffor the tyme of their
naturell (lives) ... to eate flesh on the daies p̄hibited by the Lawe
... (upon condition of their giving to the) poore of the pīsh ...
Thirteene shillings....”
Whether or no the knyght and his lady were to give the sum yearly, as
seems most probable, it is impossible, from the torn condition of the
leaf, to say. Their daughter was the noble Alice Lisle. The licence, of
course, refers to the prohibition against eating meat on Fridays and
Saturdays, and other specified times, first made by Elizabeth for the
encouragement of the English fisheries, which had even in her reign
begun to decay.[262] And now that we are on the subject of
Churchwardens’ Books, let me give some brief extracts from those of
Ellingham:—
“1556. Itm̄ for waxe ix_d._
Itm̄ for a gyrdle iij_d._
Itm̄ for waxe and for makynge of y^e xv_d._
paschall and fontetapers
First payed for a rod (rood) xij_s._
Itm̄ payed for the paschall and ij_s._ viij_d._”
fontetapers
“1558. First payed for the pascall and xxij_d._
fontetapers
Itm̄ payed for frankeincense i_d._”
Such notices well prove how quick and strong was the reaction from
Protestantism to Catholicism when favoured by the State. Again, to still
further show the variety of entries, let me make some extracts from the
Fordingbridge Churchwardens’ Books:—
“1636. I^tm for a fox-head 0 1^s 0
I^tm for one badgers head 0 1 0
I^tm for one fox-head 0 1 0”
Among miscellaneous notices, as giving the average wages of the day, and
the prices of various articles, let me add also the following from the
same accounts:—
“1609. I^tm laide out for a pint of muskadine vii^d”
“1616. I^t for viij dayes’ worke for three men xxiij^s
I^t for a new beel-Rope iij^s iiij^d
I^t for a daye’s worke for three men iij^s iij^d
I^t for a booke of artykeels iij^s
I^t for mates (mats) about the xiij^d
Communyon tabelle
I^t payde the Person for keeping the iij^s iiij^d”
Stocke
These accounts, too, like all others, are full of items for the repairs
of the bells and bell-ropes, confirming what may be found in the
narratives of old French and Italian travellers concerning our English
passion for bell-ringing. The following looks very much like cause and
effect:—
“1636. Itm̄ to the Ringers one y^e Kinges daye ij^s vj^d
Itm̄ for one belroape i^s iv^d”
The “King’s day” was that on which the King ascended the throne. Again,
to show the mixed and varied contents of the Churchwardens’ Books, we
will once more go back to those of Ellingham. Under the date of 1556 we
find:—
“Itm̄ for a baudericke of the great bell xij^d
Itm̄ for a lanterne viij^d
Itm̄ for nailes and sope iij^d”
Under the head of “Layinges out in the secunde yere,” meaning 1557, we
meet:—
“Itm̄ for a pot of claye iij^d
Itm̄ payed for ij bokes x^s
Itm̄ payed for smoke sylver ij^s xi^d”
And, again, under the “Layinges out in the thyrdde yere,” we find:—
“Itm̄ payed for storynge of the xviij^d
tythynge harnesse
Itm̄ for white lether iij^d
Itm̄ for lyme and vj creste tyles xxi^d
Itm̄ for surplus for the clerke iij^s
(clergyman)
Itm̄ for smoke silvar xvij^d”
All these entries, to the church historian, and no less to the general
student, cannot be without peculiar interest. The smoke silver, which so
frequently occurs, is either the money paid for certain privileges of
cutting fuel, which, as we have seen, was formerly the case in the
Forest, or an assessment on the houses according to the number of
hearths, but more probably the former.[263] The general reader will
scarcely care for more, but I trust elsewhere to give further extracts
from these most interesting books.
Turning back to the Registers, let me add from the Ibbesley Parish
Register Book, as so few people have seen a specimen, an entry of an
affidavit of burial in a woollen shroud, in compliance with the Act
passed in 1679, for the encouragement of the woollen manufacture in
England.[264] It thus runs, placed opposite to the entry of the person’s
burial, and written in the same handwriting:—“Jan. 9^th, 1678/79, I
rec^d a certificate from Mr. Roger Clavell, Justice of y^e peace at
Brokenhurst, that Thomas King and Anthony King, sons of Anthony King,
deceased, did make oath before him, the sayd Roger Clavell, that the
aforesayd Antony King was buried according to the late Act of
Parliament.”
And again, opposite to the entries of their deaths, we find—“November
11^th.—Certified by John Torbuck, Vicar of Ellingham, y^t Edward Baily
and Nicholas Baily, of Ibsely, were buried in woollen only.”
Pope’s lines on Mrs. Oldfield need hardly here be quoted. To conclude,
of the parish books in the district let me only say that at
Fordingbridge may be found an inventory of all the church furniture for
1554; and at Ibbesley, lists of collections “towards the redemption of
the poor slaves out of Turkey,” “for the poor French Protestants,” “for
the redemption of captives,” and “for the distressed Protestants beyond
the sea,”—all testifying to the social and moral condition of the
people, without which it is impossible to give the history of any
district or any country.
[Illustration: The Norman Font in Brockenhurst Church.]