The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects by Sedley Lynch Ware

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While in local government itself the parishioners have practically no
voice, the large measure of freedom they enjoy for the devising of
ways and means to meet the demands made upon them (though they have no
option whatever in granting or withholding supplies) gives to the
parish a vigorous entity and a certain autonomous life of its own,
which otherwise it never could have possessed over against the
all-regulating and inquisitorial Tudor machinery of Church and State.

As the reign advanced the parish developed a selfish, jealous and
exclusive gild life of its own, especially under the operation of the
poor laws.

Non-parishioners, or "foreigners," were viewed with the strongest
suspicion. Generally they were discriminated against if they happened
to have dealings with the parish. Wedding or funeral fees were doubled
in their cases.[323] If the parishioners could have had their will no
alien poor could have gained a settlement amongst them--no, not even
after twenty years' residence. In 1598 the West Riding, Yorkshire,
justices were compelled to interfere in favor of divers poor persons
in various parishes, where officers were seeking to expel them as
vagrants born elsewhere, though they had been domiciled in their
adopted communities for twenty years and upwards.[324]

Already that "organized hypocrisy," so characteristic of parish life
in later reigns, shows itself in the many presentments of, and
petitions against, persons supposedly immoral--especially single
women. Not zeal for morality prompts these indictments, but fear that
the community may have to support illegitimate children.[325] Quite
typical of the times is the language held by the inhabitants of Castle
Combe in appealing to the Wiltshire justices against a townwoman in
1606. They are apprehensive, they say, lest "by this licentious life
of hers not only God's wrath may be powered downe uppon us ... but
also hir evill example may so greatly corrupt others than great and
extraordinary charge ... may be imposed uppon us."[326]

Few laws on the statute book were so frequently enforced as the 31
Eliz. c. 7, which required four acres to be laid to every cottage to
be constructed, for there was a powerful local backing behind the law.
When John Fletcher, "a meere stranger lately come into this Parish
with his wife and children," took certain parcels of land in Severn
Stoke in 1593, and was suspected of the intention to build a cottage
without laying to it the requisite number of acres, the parishioners
immediately complained to the Worcester justices, for they wanted to
provide against the contingent liability of having to support the
inmates.[327] Four acres was then the quantity considered necessary to
maintain a man and his family. It was an indictable offence to sublet,
for then there would be two families where only one was before. Nor
could lodgers be taken, for such increase of the inmates of the house
would surcharge the land.[328]

In short, that feeling of distrust and discrimination against the
outside world, which, in the 18th century, led a Lancashire vestry to
dub all outsiders "foreigners,"[329] is already fully developed by the
end of the 16th century. But we must also recognize that this feeling
engendered in the parish itself solidarity of interests, close
fellowship and local spirit.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Richard Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, Bk. viii, 448-9 (ed.
1666).

[2] Coke, 4 _Inst_., 320 (ed. 1797).

[3] See 14 Eliz. c. 5, sec. 16, and 39 Eliz. c. 3.

[4] 37 Hen. VIII, c. 17, re-enacted I Eliz. c. I. "The real effect of
the statute was this--that lay lawyers were substituted for the
clerical canonists of pre-Reformation times." Lewis T. Dibden, _An
Historical Inquiry into the Status of the Ecclesiastical Courts_
(1882), 59. By canon cxxvii of the Canons of 1604 in order to be a
chancellor, a commissary, or an official in the courts Christian, a
man must be "_ad minimum magister artium, aut in jure bacalareus, ac
in praxi et causis forensibus laudabiliter exercitatus_." E. Cardwell,
_Synodalia_ (etc.), i, 236. Cf. Blomefield, _Hist. of Norfolk_, iii,
655-6 (Parker's report, 1563. Officials of the archdeacons not
required to be in orders). E. Cardwell, _Documentary Annals of the
Reformed Church of England_, i, 426 (Complaint in a document of circa
1584 [or later] that excommunication is executed by laymen. In the
answer by the bishops it is stated [_ibid_., 428] _inter alia_, "that
in later times, divines have wholly employed themselves to divinity
and not to the proceedings and study of the law"). To the same effect,
but for a later period, see White Kennett, _Parochial Antiquities_
(Oxon. ed. 1695), 642.

[5] Harrison, writing in 1577, says that archdeacons keep, beside two
visitations or synods yearly, "their ordinarie courts which are holden
within so manie or more of their several deaneries by themselues or
their officials once in a moneth at the least." Harrison, _Description
of England_, Bk. ii, _New Shakespeare Soc_. for 1877 (ed. Dr.
Furnivall), p. 17. Between 27th Nov., 1639, and 28th Nov., 1640, there
were thirty sittings in the court of the Archdeacon of London. Hale,
_Crim. Prec_., introd. p. liii. Any casual inspection of the
visitation act-books reveals the fact that the judge sits either in
court or in chambers between visitations, for offenders are constantly
ordered to appear again in a few days or in a few weeks. Compulsory
presentments were, however, limited by law and custom to two courts a
year. See canons 116 and 117 of the Canons of 1604. Also Gibson,
_Codex_, ii, 1001.

[6] See p. 18 and p. 20 _infra_. For the duty to read the injunctions
or the articles based on them see p. 32 _infra_.

[7] See 5 Eliz. c. 3. _Stats. of the Realm_, iv, Pt. i, 411. Also
Visitation of Warrington Deanery in 1592 by the Bishop of Chester in
_Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Soc. Trans_., n. s., x (1895), 186
_et passim_. Hereinafter cited as _Warrington Deanery Visit_. Cf. also
Grindal's Injunc. for the Province of York (1571), art. 17, _Remains
of Grindal, Parker Soc_., 132 ff.

[8] See Visitations of the Archdeacon of Canterbury, _Archaeologia
Cantiana_, xxvi (1904), 24 (1602). Mr. Arthur Hussey has published
copious extracts from the act-books of these visitations extending
over a considerable period in vols. xxv-xxvii of the _Arch. Cant_.
Hereinafter cited as _Canterbury Visit_., xxv (etc.). For
perambulations see p. 27 _infra_.

[9] Cordy Jeaffreson, _Middlesex County Records_, i, 100-1 (Indictment
reciting that John Johnson had had due notice in his parish church,
yet had not sent his wain, etc., 1576). Cf. provisions of the statutes
5 Eliz. c. 13, and 18 Eliz. c. 10, _Stats. of Realm_, iv, Pt. i,
441-3, and 620-1 respectively.

[10] Brownlow v. Lambert, C.B., 41 Eliz., I _Croke Eliz. Rep.,
Leache's ed_. (1790), Pt. ii, 716.

[11] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 23 (1599); _ibid_., 20 (1591). W.H.
Hale, _A Series of Precedents in Criminal Causes from the Act Books of
the Ecclesiastical Courts of London_, 1475-1640 (pub. in 1847), 190
(Schoolmaster of Stock presented in court for defacing the church "in
makinge a fire for his schollers," 1587). This work hereinafter cited
as Hale, _Crim. Prec_.

[12] Constables Acc'ts of Melton in _Leicester Architec. and Archaeol.
Soc. Trans_., iii (1874), 72-3. Chelmsford Churchwardens Acc'ts in
_Essex Archaeol. Soc. Trans_., ii (1863), 225 ff.

[13] Stratton (Cornwall) Churchwardens Acc'ts, _Archaeologia_, xlvi,
200 ff. _s. a_. 1565 and editor's note.

[14] "Sir W.. A.. and I with divers other justices, being met together
at Sondon church" (1582). Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, iii,
Pt. ii, 214. This meeting here may have been in the churchyard.

[15] See in the _Antiquary_, xxxii (1896), 147-8, the inquest held at
St. Botolph Extra Aldgate (1590), and the coroner's judgment delivered
in the church that a suicide should be buried at cross-roads with a
stake through her breast.

[16] For the noisy proceedings in Bow Church and in St. Paul's,
London, see _The Spiritual Courts epitomised_ [etc.], a satire printed
in 1641 at London. For this and similar satires see Mr. Stephen's
_Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires_ in Brit. Mus. (1870).
Cf. Strype, _Life of Grindal_ (Oxon. ed. 1821), 83 ff. (Proclamation
of 1561 for reverent use of churches). Also Augustus Jessop, _One
Generation of a Norfolk House_, 15. Sir J.F. Stephen, _Hist. of
Criminal Law_, ii. 404.

[17] In the Canons of 1571 the churchwardens are called "_aeditui_,"
in those of 1604 "_oeconomi_." In the older churchwardens accounts
their Latin designations are "_gardiani_" and "_custodes_," sometimes
"_prepositi_" (or 'reeves'). English equivalents are churchmen,
highwardens, stockwardens (alewardens even), kirkmasters, church
masters, proctors, etc. Sidemen are called also questmen, assistants
and (apparently) sworn men or jurates. They do not always appear in
small country parishes, neither are they generally found before the
latter half of Elizabeth's reign. Their Latin appelation was "_fide
digni_" and they were chosen from among the parishioners to the number
of two, four, six or more to present offences along with the
churchwardens, or offences which the wardens would not present
(Gibson, _Codex_, ii, 1000). The sidemen went about the parish during
service time with the wardens and warned persons to come to church
(See p. 23 _infra_). For rector, etc., see p. 30 _infra_.

[18] Toulmin Smith, _The Parish_ (2d ed., 1857), 69 ff., strongly
insists that churchwardens "never were ecclesiastical officers." But
the authorities he cites are post-Elizabethan. The courts in
Elizabeth's time held that the execution of the office "doth belong to
the Spirituall jurisdiction" (See Brown v. Lother, 40 Eliz., in _J.
Gouldsborough's Rep_., ed. 1653, p. 113). Lambard (_The Duties of
Constables_, etc., ed. 1619, p. 70) says that wardens are taken in
favor of the church to be a corporation at common law for some
purposes, viz., to be trustees for the church goods and chattels.

[19] See "The Othe which the Parsons ... shall minister to the Churche
Wardens," of which the text is given in Bishop Barnes' Injunctions and
other Ecclesiastical Proceedings, _Surtees Soc_., xxii (1850), 26
(Hereinafter cited as _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_.). The wording of this
oath is evidently very similar to, if not identical with, that of the
oath administered to the wardens by the archdeacon.

[20] For a number of examples clearly illustrating this point see
Visitations of the Dean of York's Peculiar, _Yorkshire Archaeological
Journal_. xviii (1905), 202, 221, 222, 224, _et passim_. Hereinafter
cited as _Dean of York's Visit_. We have a number of these articles of
inquiry formulated by archbishops or bishops. _E.g._, see in T. Nash,
_Hist. and Antiq. of Worcestershire_, i, 472 (Wardens of Grimley make
answer to the 5th and 6th articles inquired of by the bishop in 1585).
Cf. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann._, ii, 13-16 (Whitgift's Articles of 1588).

[21] _E.g., Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 12 (Birchington wardens arraigned
in court "for that they have not presented divers faults Committed
within the parish." 1591). Act-Books in _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 118
(A warden of Long Newton detected to the official because "he refused
to present faltes with his fellowe churchwardone, _et fatebatur
delationem_, viz., that he wolde not present his owne wief." 1579).
_Ibid_., 129 (1580). See also _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 188
("Departing and not exhibitinge there presentments"). W.H. Hale,
_Precedents in Causes of Office against Churchwardens and Others_
(1841), 81 (Wardens of Sarratt [Herts] excommunicated for not
exhibiting their "_billas detectionum_." 1577). The last named work
hereinafter cited as Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_.

[22] For numerous examples of excommunication for non-appearance, see
_Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 29 ff. Under the heading of each parish we
see "_aegrotat_" or "_excusatur_," or "_nullo modo_" (_sc. comparuit_)
placed after the name of each person cited to attend from that parish.
Incumbents, wardens and sidemen were almost always in attendance.
Schoolmasters usually so when there were such. Delinquent parishioners
were of course cited in person, or remanded to appear at the next
court day holden elsewhere. Upon non-appearance the formula usually
entered by the registrar or scribe in the act-book was "_et omnes et
singulos hujusmodi non comparentes [judex] pronuntiavit contumaces et
eos excommunicavit in scriptis_." At Alnwick in 1578 fifteen persons
were excommunicated for non-attendance. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 41.
Cf. Hale, _Crim. Prec., passim_.

[23] Lists of "furniture," implements and books will be found in the
metropolitan or diocesan injunctions of the time. A typical one is
given in _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 25, entitled "The furnitures,
implements and bookes requisite to be had in every churche, and so
commaunded by publique aucthoritie" (1577). Cf. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_.,
i, 287 ff. ("Advertisements partly for due order in the publique
administration of common prayers [etc.] ..." Jan., 1564).

[24] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 184.

[25] That is, Bishop John Jewel's _Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae_,
published in 1560, and his _Defence of the Apology_, published in
1567, sometimes called in the act-books and wardens accounts (where
both works are frequently mentioned) _The Reply to Mr. Harding_.

[26] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 116.

[27] J.L. Glasscoek, _The Records of St. Michael's, Bishop Stortford_
(1882), 63. See also Minchinhampton (Gloucester) Acc'ts,
_Archaeologia_, xxxv, 422 ff. ("Allowynge the regester booke." 1575).
_Shrop. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., 2d Ser., i, Ludlow Acc'ts, _s.
a_. 1585-6 (Record of the new bible and other books).

[28] Glasscock, _op. cit_., 59 (1578).

[29] Hale, _Crim. Free_., 170-1.

[30] Visitations of the Dean of York's Peculiar, _Yorkshire
Archaeological Journal_, xviii (1905), 209.

[31] _Ibid_., 210.

[32] With the exception of the High Commission by the terms of its
commission. See the writ of 1559 in Gee, _The Elizabethan Clergy and
the Settlement of Religion_, 150. Also Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 220,
for the Commission for York in 1559. As a matter of fact, as will
appear from the illustrations cited, fines were virtually inflicted by
way of court or absolution fees. Again, while the canons or
injunctions forbade the commutation of penance for money, an exception
was made for money taken _in pios usus_, such as church repair or the
relief of the poor. Examples of the practice will be found in Hale,
_Crim. Prec_., 232 (Repair of St. Paul's, London); _Warrington Deanery
Visit_., 189 (Poor); Chelmsfofd Acc'ts, _Essex Arch. Soc., ii_, 212
(Paving of church). For fines inflicted for the benefit of the poor
see _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 122 ("For that he gave evill words" an
offender was enjoined by the judge to pay 2s. to the poor and to
certify); Hale, _op. cit_., 198 (An offender to pay a rate of 4d., and
12d. more _"pro negligentia_." 1589/1590) _Cf_. Canons of 1585 in
Cardwell, _Synodalia_, i, 142.

[33] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 24 (1577). In the case of individuals
interdiction or suspension _(i.e_., from service and sacraments) does
not differ in effect from excommunication, except that the former are
temporary penalties and to terminate upon compliance with the judge's
order. See Burn, _Eccles. Law_ (ed. 1763), i, 616 (Interdiction) and
ii, 362-3 (Suspension).

[34] Thomas North, _A Chronicle of the Church of St. Martin's in
Leicester_ (1866), 116 (1568-9).

[35] _Leicester Archit. and Archaeol. Soc. Tr_., iii (1874), 192
(1567).

[36] _Ibid_., 197 (1594-5).

[37] W.F. Cobb, _Churchwardens Accounts of St.
Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate_ (1905), p. 10 (1595) and p. 12 (1604),
respectively. Stanhope was chancellor to the bishop of London.

[38] See p. 46 ff. _infra_.

[39] See _infra_ p. 40, p. 48 (note 169), p. 131, etc. Also Ch. ii,
_infra_. _Cf_. note 32 _supra_ (p. 19).

[40] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 155.

[41] Ordinary is that ecclesiastical magistrate who has regular
jurisdiction over a district, in opposition to judges extraordinarily
appointed. At common law a bishop was taken to be the ordinary in his
diocese, and so he was designated in some acts of Parliament. But as a
matter of fact 'ordinary' signifies any judge authorized to take
cognizance of causes by virtue of his office or by custom. Such were
pre-eminently the archdeacons. These officers, at first merely
attendant on the bishops at public services, were gradually entrusted
by the latter with their own jurisdictional powers, owing to the vast
extent of dioceses, so that "the holding of General Synods or
Visitations when the Bishop did not visit, came by degrees to be known
and established Branches of the Archidiaconal Office, as such, which
by this means attained to the dignity of Ordinary instead of delegated
jurisdiction." Edmund Gibson, _Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani_,
or the _Statutes, Constitutions_ (etc.) _of the Church of England_, ii
(1713), 998. Cf. Richard Burn, _Eccles. Law_, ii, 101-2. As the
ordinary in practice entrusted his office of judge to an official, I
have used the two terms interchangeably. In some places exempted from
the archdeacon's jurisdiction commissaries acted as judges, Burn, i,
391.

[42] That is, services and sacraments (except baptism) were suspended
in it. The words of Burn (_Eccles. Law_, i, 616, quoting Gibson, 1047)
are misleading. He says: "But this censure hath been long disused; and
nothing of it appeareth in the laws of church or state since the
reformation." Of course interdiction _temp_. Elizabeth was no longer
the terrible punishment it used to be.

[43] At Shrewsbury.

[44] _Shrop. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., i (1878), 62.

[45] R.W. Goulding, _Records of the Charity known as Blanchminster's
Charity_ (1898), Stockwardens Acc'ts, 68. For other examples of
interdiction of churches or excommunication see Hale, _Churchwardens'
Prec_., 111-12 (Shoreham Vetera interdicted. 1599/1600), _et passim_.

[46] Except in the city of London and some few other places, the
chancel was at the charge of the rector or other recipient of the
great tithes. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, _English Local Government_
(1906), 20, _note_. Also W.G. Clark-Maxwell in _Wilts Arch_. etc.
_Mag_., xxxiii (1904), 358. H.B. Wilson, _History of St. Laurence
Pountney_ (London, 1831), 73.

[47] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 21.

[48] _Ibid_.

[49] _Ibid_., 32. In 1599 the wardens of this parish inform the
archdeacon that both church and churchyard need repairs "which we mean
shortly to do." The next year, too, they make a report in almost
identical words. _Ibid_., 33.

[50] See p. 15 _supra_.

[51] _Dean of York's Visit_., 341.

[52] Numerous other presentments at visitations for failure to supply
the requisites for worship besides those adduced in the text will be
found in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 173 (A warden failing to supply the
elements for communion, 1579-1580) _Ibid_., 154 ("The rode lofte
beame, the staieres of the rode loft standinge, the churche lacketh
whittinge to deface the monuments." 1572), etc. _Barnes' Eccles.
Proc_._, 115 ("The Degrees of Mariage" and "the Postils" lacking.
1578-1579). _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189 ("Cloth for the communion
table." 1592). Visitation of Manchester Deanery in 1592 by the Bishop
of Chester in _Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Soc. Tr_., xiii,
58. (Communion cup lacking). _Ibid_., 62 ("Noe fonte," and
christenings in "a bason or dish"). This source hereinafter cited as
_Manchester Deanery Visit_.

[53] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., _s. a_. 1587 (21st June).

[54] _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 66 (1592). Cf. _Canterbury Visit_.,
xxv, 23 (1600).

[55] Hall, _Crim. Prec_., 13 (1598).

[56] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189.

[57] _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 69.

[58] _Ibid_. Then as now the ale-house was the strongest rival of the
House of God. A very common class of offenders were those who would
not leave their ale cups to go to service (see authorities cited,
_passim_). Men were also great gossipers ("common talkers") in the
churchyard, as a number of presentments show.

[59] Order of the archdeacon, Essex Archdeaconry, to the wardens of
St. Peter's and of All Saints. Maldon, in 1577, Hale, _Crim. Prec_.,
158. For refusing to keep her seat in church according to this order
Elizabeth Harris was presented the next year, Hale, _loc. cit_., 171.

[60] The vestry of St. Alphage's (G.B. Hall, _Records of St. Alphage,
London Wall_, 31) grew highly indignant in Aug., 1620, when the
business of seating the parishioners came up for discussion, that a
Mr. Loveday and his wife should presume to sit "togeather in one pewe
and that in the Ile where men vsually doe & ere did sitt; we hould it
most ynconvenyent and most vnseemely, And doe thinke it fitt that Mr
Chancellor of London be made acquainted w[i]th it [etc]..."

[61] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 241-2: "_Contra Hayward, puellam.
Presentatur_, for that she beinge but a yonge mayde, sat in the pewe
with her mother, to the greate offence of many reverend women." The
child (as the vicar who made the presentment continues should have sat
at her mother's "pewe dore." 1617). Cf. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 122-3
(Janet Foggard cited for that "she beinge a yonge woman, unmarried,
will not sit in the stall wher she is appointed ..."). Cf. Hale, _op.
cit_., 210 (One Clay and his wife "will not be ordered in church by us
the church wardens [etc.]..". 1595).

[62] Examples will be found in the act-books cited _supra_.

[63] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 149 (1566). Cf. _ibid_., 163 (The divine
service not "reverently, plainelye and distinctlye saide..." 1576).

[64] Hale, _op. cit_., 182 (1584). Cf. Whitgift's _Articles for Sarum
diocese_ in 1588, art. viii: "Whether your ministers used to pray for
the quenes majestie ... by the title and style due to her majestie."
Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, 14.

[65] _Dean of York's Visit_., 320 (1596).

[66] Hale, _op. cit_., 159 (1575).

[67] 3 _Rep. Hist. MSS. Com_., 275 (A vicar presented by churchwardens
in the commissary's court at Poddington-apud-Ampthill for not
catechising the youth, etc., though required to do so by one of the
wardens. 1616). For not presenting their minister when he neglected to
catechise on the Sabbath, the wardens of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw,
London, had to pay divers fees to the chancellor. Brooke and Hallen,
_Registers of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw_ (1886), Wardens Acc'ts, _s.a._
1593.

[68] Accordingly, by a later entry in the book we see that the warden
brought in court a certificate that the surplice had been bought and
worn by the vicar. _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 59. For a precisely
similar injunction see _ibid_., 62 (Wardens of Eccles).

[69] See p. 15 _supra_.

[70] For presentments of vicar's (etc.) offences see pp. 31 ff.
_infra_.

[71] L.G. Bolingbroke; _The Reformation in a Norfolk Parish, Norf. and
Norw. Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207-8 (1593).

[72] _Dean of York's Visit_, 231 (1594).

[73] _Ibid_., 315. See also _ibid_., 225 and 229.

[74] _Ibid_., 339 (1602).

[75] See _Queen's Inj. of_ 1559, art. xviii. Also art. xviii of Archbp.
(of York) Grindal's Inj. of 1571, _Parker Soc., Remains of Grindal_,
132. Also Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 337, etc. For the enforcing of the
obligation by the ordinary, see numerous examples in _Canterbury
Visit_., xxv, 22 (1585); 32 (Controversy in 1584 between two parishes
as to bounds); 37 (1594). Also _ibid_., xxvi, 24, 25, _et passim_.
Other examples in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 162, where a parishioner of
Burstead Parva (Essex) is cited at a visitation for ploughing up a
dole (a balk or unploughed ridge), which marked the boundary line
between Burstead and Dunton parishes. Cf. _Canterbury Visit_., xxv,
15, where three parishioners are presented for covering up a parish
procession linch (1617).

[76] See, _e.g_., A.G. Legge, _North Elmham_ (Norfolk) _Acc'ts_
(1891), 76 (1562), 82 (1566 and 1567). Melton Acc'ts in _Leicest.
Archit. and Arch. Soc_., iii, 192 (1566). Ludlow Acc'ts in _Shrop.
Arch. Soc_., 2nd ser., i, _s.a._ 1601-2, etc.

[77] In this year the 39 Eliz. c. 3 was enacted which instituted
overseers of the poor nominated by the licence of the justices, and
placed wholly under their supervision. In spite of the provisions of
an earlier act (14 Eliz. c. 5) giving the justices power to appoint,
or see collectors appointed, the ecclesiastical courts rather than the
justices, as the act-books show, seem to have looked after the matter.
See, _e.g., Manchester Deanery Visit_., 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 68,
etc. Also _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 184, 186, 187, 191, etc. Cf.
the item in the Ludlow Acc'ts, _Shrop. Arch. Soc_., i, _s.a._ 1586-7,
where is recorded an expense item for a payment to "Mr. Chauncelor"
for entering a presentment for collections for the poor.

[78] See act-books above cited. Also Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 165, _et
passim_. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 118, _et passim_. _Norf. and Norw.
Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207-8 (Great Witchingham wardens).

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