The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects by Sedley Lynch Ware
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Sedley Lynch Ware >> The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects
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[169] Whereby any but a perjured man would be forced to incriminate
himself.
[170] Cf. Maitland, _Canon Law in the Church of England_, chapter,
"The Pope the Universal Ordinary." For proceedings by High
Commissioners see Stubbs in _Eccles. Courts Com. Rep_. to Parliament
(1883), i, Hist. Append., 50.
[171] As to the expense in suing out the writ, and also the slackness
of bailiffs, etc., in executing it, see [R. Cosen], _An Apologie of
and for Sundrie proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall_ (1st ed.,
London, 1591), 64-5. Speaking of the great charges incurred in suing
out the writ Cosen writes: "So that I dare auowe in Sundrie Diocesses
in the Realme, the whole yeerly reuenue of the seuerall Bishops there
woulde not reach to the iustifying of all contemnours ... by the
course of this writte." That temporal judges sometimes set prisoners
under the writ free at their own discretion without notice to the
spiritual judges, see Bancroft's _Petition to the Privy Council_ in
1605, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_. ii, 100. For hostility of temporal judges
for ecclesiastical jurisdiction, see Bancroft, _op. cit_., 85. He
counts up 488 prohibitions during Elizabeth's reign, many of them
awarded without good cause and "upon frivolous suggestions" of
defendants (_Op. cit_., 89).
[172] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 145 ("_Dominus decrevit scribendum fore
regie majestate pro corporis capcione_ [etc.]." The threat subdued the
excommunicate, for 15 days later "_solutis_ xxxiiis.... _pro expensis
contumacie_," absolution was given, and penance enjoined. 1562).
_Ibid_., 172 (Similar threat, we do not hear of the outcome).
Cf. R.W. Merriam, _Extracts from Wilts Quarter Sess_. In
_Wilts Arch. and Nat. Hist. Mag_., xxii (1885), 20 (Affray because
of an arrest under the writ. 1604). See also Whitgift's note to his
bishops in 1583, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 404-6 ("If the ordinarie
shall perceave that, either by slackness of the justices or
waywardness of juries," recusants cannot be indicated at quarter
sessions, then the ordinary shall, after first trying persuasion,
excommunicate the culprits, and after forty days procure the writ
against them). Bancroft writes, March, 1605, that he will use his
"uttermost endeavour" to aid his suffragans in procuring the writ, and
in having it faithfully and speedily served. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_.,
ii, 80. Cf. also the satirical single-sheet, published June, 1641,
entitled _The Pimpes Prerogative ... a Dialogue between Pimp-Major Pig
and Ancient Whiskin_, in Brit. Mus. _Coll. of Polit. and Personal
Satires_. Pig: "Tush, their Excommunications fright not us; but our
Land-ladies (poore soules) lie in most danger; for them they serve
after with _Excommunicato capiendo_, and then our Forts are
beleaguer'd with Under-Sheriffs, Bum-Bayliffs, Shoulder-clappers,
etc., whom we sometimes beat back by violence."
[173] Cardwell, _loc. cit_., 100. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction derived
also much temporal strength from the fact that practically every
bishop was also a justice of the peace. For proof of this see Strype,
_Annals of the Reformation_ (Oxon. ed.), iii, Pt. ii, 451 (Bishop of
Peterboro' complaining that he alone was left out of the commission.
1587). Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, 80 (Bancroft's letter, 1605: "We
that are bishops, being all of us (as is supposed) justices of the
peace"). When commissioning justices Burghley referred to the bishops
for lists of orthodox men. See such lists in Strype, _op. cit_.,
453-60. Also in Strype, _Life of Whitgift_, i, 187-8. _Victoria County
History of Cumberland_, ii, 73-4. _Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll_., ii
(1849), 58-62. Mary Bateson, _Letters from the Bishops to the Privy
Council_, 1564, _with Returns of the Justices of the Peace_, etc., in
_Camden Miscellany_, ix (1895). By 1 Eliz. c. 2, bishops could at
pleasure associate themselves to justices of _oyer and terminer_ or of
assize. Cf. Strype, _Whitgift_, 329.
[174] Presentments on this score are frequent. Take only a single
jurisdiction, that of the Dean of York's Peculiar, between the years
1592-1601, and a number will be found. See _Dean of York's Visit_.,
222 (5 persons); 226, 229, 315, 326, 329 (Remaining excommunicate for
a month); 334 (Over 40 days. Also a person presented for harboring an
excommunicate); 335 (Over a year); 341 (14 days).
[175] Cosen, _An Apologie_, etc., 64. As has been above stated, an
excommunicate could not attend service. P. 47 _supra_.
[176] According to 23 Eliz. c. i, sec. 4 and sec. 6.
[177] See _A.P.C_., xiii, 271-2 (1581). Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 406
(Whitgift alludes to the "waywardnes" of juries).
[178] Not suspension from office (as might be supposed) but from
service and sacraments.
[179] P. 19, note 33, _supra_.
[180] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 150 ("_Contra_ ... Because he will not be
churchwarden accordinge to the archdeacon's judgment." Excommunicated.
1566). Ibid., 162 ("_Contra ... Detectum_ that he obstinately refuseth
to be churchwarden, notwithstanding he was chosen by the consent of
the parson and parishioners." Excommunicated. 1576). Cf. ibid., 183
(Presentment for refusing to be sideman), and ibid., 207 (Refusing
churchwardenship).
[181] In equity specific performance is nothing more than the giving
of an instrument transferring title after all has previously been done
on both sides, but this, to complete the transaction.
[182] Denunciation "in many poyntes resembleth a Presentment," Cosen,
_An Apologie_ (etc.), 70. See his book for the modes of proceeding.
Cf. also Hale, _Crim. Prec_., Introd., p. lviii. In commenting on
Archdeacon Hale's book, which we have so often here cited (_A Series
of Precedents in Criminal Causes from the Act Books of Ecclesiastical
Courts of London_, 1475-1640 [pub. in 1847]), Sir J.F. Stephen in his
_History of Crim. Law in England_, ii, 413, makes these observations:
"It is difficult even to imagine a state of society in which, on the
bare suggestion of some miserable domestic spy, any man or woman
whatever might be convened before an archdeacon or his surrogate and
put upon his or her oath as to all the most private affairs of life;
as to relations between husband and wife; as to relations between
either and any woman or man with whom the name of either might be
associated by scandal; as to contracts to marry, as to idle words, as
to personal habits, and, in fact, as to anything whatever which
happened to strike the ecclesiastical lawyer as immoral or
irreligious."
[183] The case of John Johnson in the official's court in Durham city
forms an excellent commentary on the whole system. He was presented as
suspected of incontinency. After repeated citations and a threat of
excommunication, he appeared, denying the charge and alleging that a
churchwarden with others had falsely concocted it. At the petition of
an apparitor, who acted as public prosecutor, seven of Johnson's
fellow-parishioners were cited to swear not to the _fact_ of his
guilt, but to the general _belief_ in it. Articles were then drawn up
upon which depositions were taken and published. The case was
adjourned repeatedly so that the many formalities of procedure might
drag out their weary length. The oath _ex officio_ was forced on
Johnson, but he denied all guilt. Finally, he was enjoined to procure
three compurgators. These swore that they believed _"in animis suis"_
that Johnson had sworn to the truth. Though pronounced innocent,
Johnson was condemned to pay the costs of all the formalities that the
apparitor had set in motion against him, and a last time was dragged
into court in order to be admonished under pain of excommunication to
pay these fees, amounting to L1. 3s. 4d., within a month! The case had
extended from 11th June, 1600, to 22nd May, 1601. _Surtees Soc_.,
lxxxiv (1888), 359-362. Cf. also the following: "payed for annswerynge
dyuerse faulse vntrothes suggested by [five names] to the sayd
Commyssyoneres vj s. viij d." Minchinhampton, Gloucester, Acc'ts,
_s.a._ 1576 (archbishop's visitation), _Archaeologia_, xxxv. "pd. for
our charges to lycoln when we were p[re]sented by the apparytor
unjustly for that our church should by [be] mysvsed vs. vjd."
Leverton, Lincoln, Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1579, _Archaeologia_, xli, 365.
Under 1595 the Leverton wardens have the entries: "pd. to the
apparitor for fallts in the churche ijs. viijd.," and: "for playing in
the churche iijs. viijd." The last is explained by a third entry: "to
the apparator for suffering a plaie in the church." (_Op. cit_., 367.)
This looks like bribery, or blackmail, or both. For examples of
bribery see Wing Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1561, _Archaeologia_, xxxvi ("to ye
S[um]m[o]ner to kepe us ffrom Lincoln for slacknes of o[u]r auters").
Abbey Parish Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1600, _Shrop. Arch. Soc_., i. 65 ("paid to
Cleaton, the Chauncelor's man for keeping us from Lichfield"). Great
Witchingham Acc'ts, _Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207 ("Simp
the sumner for his fees for excusing us from Norwich"). _St. Mary
Woolchurch Haw_, London, _Acc'ts, s.a_. 1594 ("more unto the paratour
and Doctor Stanhopes man for their favours"). Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 202
("_Fassus est_ that he gave xs. to ... the apparitor to thend that he
might not be called into this corte." 1590). For examples of fees paid
for absolution from an unjust excommunication see _Minchinhampton
Acc'ts, s.a_. 1606 ("layd out [at] Gloucester when we wer
excommunicated for our not appearinge when wee were not warned to
appeere, vj s. viij d"). St. Clement's, Ipswich, Acc'ts, _East
Anglian_, in (1890), 304 ("Payed for owr Absolution to the Commissary,
being reprimanded for that we did not give in our Verdict, where as we
nether had warning nor notice given us of his Corte houlden, ij[s.]
x[d.]:" and: "Payed more ffor the discharg of his boocke, viijd."
1610). Churchwardens accounts are pretty reliable evidence, for they
were subject to the scrutiny of those who had to foot the bills.
[184] See Mr. Andrew Clark's _Shirburn Ballads_ (Oxon. 1907), 306 ff.
Mr. Clark's notes and illustrations drawn from other contemporary
sources are most valuable.
[185] A number of broadsides and pamphlets were published in 1641 upon
the abolition of the spiritual courts. Consult Mr. Stephen's
_Catalogue_ (1870) for those in the British Museum. One of them is
entitled _The Proctor and Parator their Mourning ... Beinge a true
Dialogue, Relating the fearfull abuses and exorbitances of those
spirituall Courts, under the names of Sponge the Proctor and Hunter
the Parator_. In the spirited dialogue between the two _Hunter_ tells
of his ways of extorting money from recusants, seminary priests and
neophytes, "whose starting holes I knew as well as themselves"; also,
he adds, "I got no small trading by the Brownists, Anabaptists and
Familists who love a Barne better than a Church." "Poor Curates,
Lecturers and Schoolmasters ... that have been willing to officiate
their places without licences" are also his special prey. As for minor
offenders "against our terrible Canons and Jurisdiction ... had I but
given them a severe looke, I could ... have made them draw their
purses ..." "I tell you," he concludes, "the name of Doctors Commons
was as terrible to these as Argier [Algiers] is to Gally-slaves."
_Sponge_ admits that he has made many a fat fee by _Hunter's_
procurement. For more serious documents in corroboration see
Whitgift's circular to his suffragans in May, 1601, and also his
address to his bishops a few months later in Strype, _Whitgift_, ii,
447 ff. Among many other and grave abuses he refers to "the infinite
number" of apparitors and "petty Sumners" hanging upon every court,
"two or three of them at once most commonly seizing upon the subject
for every trifling offence to make work to their courts." Cf. Canons
of 1597, can. xi (Multitude of apparitors and their excesses) in
Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 159. Also Canons of 1603/4, _ibid_. Most of the
Elizabethan and Stuart metropolitan and diocesan injunctions call for
the presentment of the abuse of apparitors and other court officials.
See Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, _passim_. Also _Appendix to 2nd Rep. of
the Com. on Ritual_ to Parliament (1870), where a large number of
injunctions from Parker to Juxon (1640) are gathered together.
[186] By this system, if the accused could get together a certain
number of his neighbors (3, 4, 6 or more) to act as oath-helpers,
_i.e._, who would swear that they believed him on oath, he was
acquitted. It seems to have been no concern of the judge to weigh the
evidence on the facts themselves.
[187] The churchwardens accounts are full of items for horse hire and
other expenses for long journeys, for ecclesiastical courts were held
at all kinds of places at the pleasure of the judges. See Mr. Bruce's
remarks on the Minchinhampton Acc'ts, _Archaeologia_, xxxv, 419 ff. Cf.
the Ludlow Acc'ts, _Shrop. Arch. Soc. 2nd. ser_., i, 235 ff.--in fact
any of the accounts of the period that have been printed
in detail.
[188] Archdeacon Hale in _Crim. Prec_., introd., p. lx.
[189] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 205 (1591). In Warrington deanery, at the
bishop's visitation in 1592, one Grimsford is cited for not living
with his wife. On a later occasion he appeared and affirmed that his
wife had run away with another man, "whereupon the Judge, having
regard to the poverty of the man," absolved him. _Warrington Deanery
Visit_., 190. An ecclesiastical judge in Durham city made this decree
in 1580: "_Dominus ... decrevit scribendum fore Aldermanno_ ... to
whip and cart the said Rowle and Tuggell in all open places within the
city of Durham, for that they faled in their purgacion, and therefore
convicted of the crime detected." _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 126.
[190] A most important piece of evidence--because coming from such a
source--is Whitgift's circular and (later) his address to his bishops,
already alluded to (note 185) given in Strype's life of him. Whitgift
mentions the frequent keeping of officials' or commissaries' courts
and the multitude of apparitors serving under them, so that "the
subject was almost vexed weekly with attendance on their several
courts." He adds that "what with Churchwardens' continual attendance
in these courts, which in many places came to more than was by a whole
parish for any one cessment made to her Majesty, the poor men who were
chosen Church wardens ... were in their estates hindered greatly in
leaving their day labor for attendance there." These and like
complaints, the metropolitan continued, were daily brought to him
"with a general exclamation against Commissaries' and Officials'
courts." In prophetic language he warned his suffragans that if they
were not more zealous for reform all their courts might be swept away.
We have further the unceasing complaints and the numberless petitions
that were presented in every Elizabethan parliament from 1572 onwards.
Some of these are given in Strype, _Annals_, etc., some in his
_Whitgift_. Mr. Prothero has conveniently gathered some, with
references to others, in his _Statutes and Constitutional Documents_
(1st ed.), pp. 209, 210, 215 and 221. See also Heywood Townshend, 110,
_et passim_; D'Ewes, 302, _et passim_, and the canons and injunctions
of the time. Peculiars were doubtless most subject to abuses, as being
often exempt from the oversight and corrective discipline of the
diocesan. Offenders sometimes fled to these for protection. See
Strype, _Ann_., iii, Pt. ii, 211-12 (Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield
complaining in 1582 of peculiars, some of which belonged to laymen, as
holders of abbey lands, in the matter of recusants). Cf. Blomefield,
_Hist. of Norfolk_, iii, 557. _Camden Miscellany_, ix (1895), 41
(Letters from bishops to Privy Council in 1564. Recusants flying to
exempt places). On the scandalous neglect of duty of some holders of
peculiars see _Dean of York's Visit_., 199, 201 ff., 324, _et passim_.
See also Mr. W.E.B. Whittaker's article "_On Peculiars with special
reference to the Peculiar of Hawarden_," in _Archit. Arch. and Hist.
Soc. for Chester and N. Wales_, n.s. xi (1905), 66 ff. and records
there given. See also _Eccles. Courts Com. Rep_., 1830-2, printed as
appendix to Vol. i of _Eccles. Courts Com. Rep_. of 1883, p. 198.
Lists of peculiars will be found in the above authorities.
[191] Though they were reestablished in 1660 they were forever shorn
of their ancient glory.
[192] The names of some of these broadsides, pamphlets, etc., have
already been given. To these may be added, _The Spiritual Courts
epitomised in a Dialogue betwixt two Proctors, Busie Body and
Scrape-all, and their discourse of the want of their former
imployment_. Others will be found in Mr. Stephen's _Catalogue_.
[193] That is, a portable stone altar which had been consecrated and
could be set up anywhere for mass.
[194] See order of the Wilts justices issued against such offenders,
Oct., 1577. _Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. on MSS. in Var. Coll_., i (1901),
68.
[195] See indictment of an Essex jury at quarter sessions in 1585
against one Glasscock who spoke lightly of the ceremony of baptism,
and rent out of a prayer book certain leaves where the ministration of
baptism was set forth. _Hist MSS. Com. Rep_., x, Pt. iv, 480.
[196] Presentment to the Wilts justices, _loc. cit. supra_, 69 (1588),
For excessive zeal of the justices of assize in Suffolk see _State
Papers Dom. Eliz_., 1591-4, P. 275 (Address of Suffolk gentry to Privy
Council in 1592. They complain of indictments against ministers on
very trivial pretexts). For the answer of the Council to this petition
see Strype, _Ann_., ii, Pt. i, 268-9 (Lords write to judges to consult
the spirit not the letter of law, and add their own suspicions that
informers are mainly to be blamed if justice has miscarried).
[197] _State Pap., loc. cit_.
[198] Indictment of Essex jury, _Hist. MSS. Rep., loc. cit. supra_.
[199] _Ibid_.
[200] Information of the Wilts justices against one Dearling, parson
of Upton Lowell, _loc. cit. supra_, 68 (1585). Cf. Chelmsford Acc'ts,
_Essex Arch. Soc_., ii, 212 (An item paid the clerk of assizes for
framing the indictment of Chelmsford Hundred "against Puritisme."
1592).
[201] These would be--to cite the principal--the ordinary upkeep of
the church with its services and all its appurtenances whatsoever (see
previous chapter); the finding of clerk and sexton; the care of the
poor; maintaining of the local roads and bridges; purchasing and
repair of parish armor, and mustering of parish contingents;
contributions for prisoners and maimed soldiers; the keeping of the
parish butts and the stocks; the destruction of frugivorous birds and
animals (the statutory "vermin"), etc.
[202] The act-books are full of "detections" for being an
"uncharitable person," for "not giving to the poor," etc. See pp. 41
ff., _supra_.
[203] Reference is here made to the occasional seizure of parish lands
or funds by the Queen's commissioners for concealed lands. See
Strype's strong language in his _Ann. of the Ref_. (Oxon. ed.), ii,
Pt. i, 310. He speaks of the unjust oppressions of courtiers and other
griping men, 'harpies' and 'hell-hounds,' who, under the pretense of
commissions, "did intermeddle and challenge land of long times
possessed by churchwardens, and such like, upon the charitable gifts
of predecessors ... yea and certain stocks of money, plate, cattle and
the like. They made pretence to bells, lead [etc.] ..." Strype's words
are none too strong, being amply confirmed by much evidence _aliunde_.
See, _e.g_., the determined attacks in 1567 and subsequently on the
Melton Mowbray school lands in _Leicest. Archit_. (etc.) _Soc_., iii
(1874), 406 ff. Thanks to powerful neighbors the Meltonians won their
case. Less fortunate were the parishioners of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury,
the revenue from whose lands supported church fabric, the poor, etc.
For proceedings against them, and the vain appeal by the parish to the
lord chief justice in 1572 ff., see Owen and Blakeway's _Hist. of
Shrewsbury_, ii, 350-2. For confiscation of parish gild property and
parish lands on a large scale, see examples given in _Cambridge and
Hunts Arch. Soc_., i (1904), 330 ff. We are here told that during
Elizabeth's reign at least twelve commissions for concealed lands were
sent down into Cambridgeshire (p. 332). See also _ibid_., 370 ff. for
a sale of forfeited lands to Jones and Grey in 1569. The list of lands
is very long and only a sample of many such. For attacks (1587) on All
Saints, Derby, lands, whose revenues went to church repairs, etc., see
J.C. Cox and W.H. St. J. Hope, _Chronicles of All Saints, Derby_
(1881). For informers involving Lapworth, Warwick, in a suit about its
parish lands see Robt. Hudson, _Memorials of a Warwickshire Parish_
(1904), 104. The churchwardens acc'ts occasionally allude to the
Queen's commissioners, _e.g_., the Great Witchingham Acc'ts, where
they are dubbed by the right name: "for my expenses when I was before
the quenes inquisitors for lands and goods" (1559). _Norf. and Norw.
Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207.
[204] Jas. Copeman in _Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., ii (1849), 64. The
Loddon Acc'ts cover the period 1554-1847, some of the donations, or
endowments, being made in the 16th and some in the 17th
centuries.
[205] Robt. Dymond in _Devon Assoc. for Advanc. of Science_ (etc.)
_Tr_., xiv (1882), 407. These acc'ts run from 1425-1590. For a list of
parish properties in 1565, see pp. 460-1. Their yearly rent then
amounted to L9 14s. 2d.
[206] Sam'l Barfield, _Thatcham, Berks, and its Manors_ (1901), i.
121.
[207] R.W. Goulding, _Records of the Charity known as Blanchminster's
Charity, Stratton_ (1898), 64-5.
[208] In 1562 it is said to have contained only 48 families. John
Amphlett, _Churchwardens Acc'ts of St. Michael's in Bedwardine_ (ed.
for _Worcester Hist. Soc_., 1898), introd., p. iii.
[209] _Op. cit_., 142-3. See _ibid_., and for the year named, the
receipts from these properties. Thus L4 is paid for one and a half
years' rental of parish land lying in Severn Stoke parish; 44s. for
two years' rent of parish houses in St. Peter's parish, Worcester
city, etc.
[210] _Op. cit_., pp. xxx-i.
[211] Hudson, _Memorials_, etc., 85 ff. Consult Mr. Hudson's map of
the parish lands.
[212] _Notes and Queries for Somer. and Dorset_, v (1897), 94.
[213] _Somerset Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., xxiii, Mr. Pearson's
introd., p. iii, and _op. cit_., vol. xxvi, 106-9. Cf. A.G. Legge,
_North Elmham_, Norfolk, _Acc'ts_ (1891), 5-6 (Long list of lands
managed by wardens in 1549). Also J.H. Butcher, _The Parish of
Ashburton_ (Devon), 49 (1580). Owen and Blakeway, _Hist. of
Shrewsbury_, ii, 342 (St. Mary's parish lands with 32 tenants and
rental of L6. 7s. 8d. in 1544. The churchwardens were here called
"Lady Wardens" as managing the "Rentall of our Lady").
[214] _St. Michael's Acc'ts, op. cit_., vol. xxvi, 129. The wardens of
this parish record among their expenditures many items for the repair
of the parish tenements and other property. In early times they
received 12d. as a salary for management. Later this was changed into
an honorarium of varying amount "_pro bono servicio suo." Op. cit_.,
vol. xxiii, intro., p. ii.
[215] Thus at Lapworth, Warwickshire, a trust of parish lands was
re-created in 1563 with twenty-two feoffees; and one Collet in 1567
enfeoffed seventeen men of a field of only three acres, fourteen
perches, to parish uses. Hudson, _Memorials_ (etc.), 85-6.
[216] _E.g._, the Grasswardens of St. Giles, Durham, who managed the
common lands of the parish, and accounted yearly for them. They made
disbursements for many parish expenses which elsewhere churchwardens
usually paid out (_e.g_., for bridges, houses of correction, poor
prisoners, armor and musters), yet were themselves distinct from the
churchwardens. See _Surtees Soc_., xcv, I ff. Cf. the bridge wardens
of Loughborough, Leicester (W.G.D. Fletcher, _Hist. of L_., 1883, pp.
40 ff). Also the townwardens of Melton Mowbray, _Leicester Archit_.
(etc.) _Soc_., iii, 61-2, _note_.
[217] Hudson, _Memorials_, etc., 88.
[218] That is (apparently) holdings returning L4 of rent annually.
[219] Pasture.
[220] _Surtees Soc_., lxxxiv, 15.
[221] Editor's (Mr. Barmby's) introd., _ibid_., 4.
[222] (Dean) G.W. Kitchen, The Manor of Manydown, _Hants Rec. Soc_.,
1895, 171. For other examples both of parish cows and sheep: see Hale,
_Crim. Prec_., 221 (40 parish sheep of Billericay, Essex, for the
relief of the poor. 1599). Littleton, Worcestersh. Acc'ts, _Midland
Antiquary_, i (1883), 107 (Purchase of cow for parish in 1556).
_Ibid_., 108 (Wintering of a church heifer). Morton, Derbysh., Acc'ts,
_The Reliquary_, xxv, 17 (Same as above. 1593). Owen & Blakeway,
_Hist. of Shrewsbury_, ii, 342 (St. Mary's had in 1544 ten cows and
three sheep renting for L1 1s. 8d. yearly). Rotherfield Acc'ts,
_Sussex Arch. Coll_., xli, 26, 46. St. Michael's, Bath, Acc'ts,
_Somerset Arch_. (etc.) _Soc_., xxiii, introd., _et passim_. Great
Witchingham, _Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207 (Cows in 1604).
Hartland, Devon, Acc'ts, _Hist. MSS. Com. Rep_., v, Pt. i (1876), 573a
(Custom _circa_ 1601 for poor to leave sheep to church by will).
Hudson, _Memorials_, etc., 106-10 (Parish meeting about renting out of
cows. Surety bonds given by hirers in 1580 ff.). Many other examples
will be found in the wardens acc'ts and elsewhere.
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