THE CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS OF

SOUTH TAWTON.

BY ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

(Read at Lynton, July, 1906.)

INTRODUCTION.

THE accounts of the churchwardens of South Tawton are replete with matter of general as well as local antiquarian interest; for, beginning as far back as 15241-a period prior to the Reformation-they illustrate almost step by step the changes in doctrine, in ritual, in legislation, and in administration of the Church of England, while their quaint language abounds in treasure for the etymologist.

Those of the earlier years-down to 1540-are written in Latin (of a sort!), mostly contracted, and interspersed with English or quasi-English words; but they are not as difficult to decipher as some of the English ones of later years, where the handwriting is more careless and irregular, the words crowded, and lines interlocked in an evident desire to economize parchment, and the spelling so eccentric that some of the most familiar words long defied recognition. I have, however, revised my transcripts by the originals, for unrestricted access to which I am greatly indebted to the kindness of the Rev. J. Foulkes-Clarke, the present incumbent.

Vol. I comprises three divisions, of which the last in order of binding is the earliest in date, being the accounts of the head wardens from 1524 to 1568-with, however, a lamentable hiatus from 1540 to 1555, nine or ten pages having been written on and afterwards cut away. They are continued in the middle division, 1569 to 1612, and again on page 23, as modernly numbered, where they terminate with the year 1613, to be resumed in Vol. II with the year 1648. In the first division of Vol. I the first page after two fly

1 In the parish registers the christenings begin in 1540, the marriages and burials in 1558.

leaves is numbered "5," and ten appear to have been cut out before the next, which is marked "7."

This portion-pages 7-22 (covering the period 1550-71) -is occupied by a distinct class of accounts, namely those of divers "Instaura" or "stores," i.e. stocks of money and goods, dedicated in honour of certain saints to special devotional or charitable objects and administered by their respective wardens, who were appointed in pairs for a twelvemonth, and were answerable to the head wardens.

As to the titles of the wardens, it may be noted that from 1524 to 1540 the keeper of the principal accounts is described as the warden ("custos") of the goods and chattels of the store ("instaur") of St. Andrew. After that he is called the "Hedwarden" (or, as in 1562, "Chief warden "), and separate accounts are rendered by "St. Andrew's Wardyns." In 1556, among the receipts of John Dunning, "Hed Warden," occurs the item of "x s. from St. Andrew's warden." Among the subsidiary warden's accounts we find, in 1552, Simon Downe and John Ascot "gardiani Instaur' Sci Andrei," and a list of arrears names Walt. Gidlegh, Custos bonor' p'ochianor' in Staur' no'is Jhesu', 36 Hen. viii; and Joh. Moore & Joh. Mannyng, Custod' eccl'ie p'ochial' in staur' no'is S'ci Andree, Ao D'ni, 1568. Later, 1569-71, the term "Hedwarden" is replaced by "Warden" ("Custos ")" of the goods and chattels of the parish church" (cf. titles of J. Battishill in accounts of 1601 and 1602), and from 1571 to 1590 by "Warden and Collector [one man] of the goods and chattels of the parish church," while concurrently, from 1586 to 1591, separate accounts are rendered by two men "Receiver(s?) and Collector(s) of goods for the repair of the church," and for some years following, sums are acknowledged from "collectors for the courche," ""for the common store," and "for the reparation of the church"; and long lists of arrears due from parishioners for that object are carried forward. In 1580-2-3 the first warden alludes in his account to two others, "Eccl'ie Custod""; in 1585 he receives from two men a sum "de pecunia collect'." The Rev. Hilperic Friend ("Bygone Devonshire," p. 108), in his notes on the accounts of Milton Abbot, expresses surprise that money gathered about the parish to pay for bread and wine for the Holy Communion "should have passed through the hands of such an official as the Hay-Warden." It would indeed be curious, seeing that the Hay-Warden's duty was to look to the hedges (Fr. "haie"; A.S. "häg") and to impound straying animals, but in this case the word must certainly be inter

preted "High warden." In the same accounts we find the spellings "Hey-" and "Heigh-"; in those of Morebath "Hye-" warden ("Dev. N. & Q.," Morebath, p. 99).

In the Tavistock Accounts (edited by R. N. Worth) I notice first in 1561 two "wardens of the parysche churche"; at an earlier date the head warden (as I suppose), John Nyle, is described as "Governor" ("gubernator") of the church. In the Somerset Accounts two men in 1526 were "hye wardens of the hye store of St. George" (the saint to whom the church was dedicated), and at Pilton, it is stated,1 until the year 1530 a single warden administered the parish funds and alone was responsible to the visiting authority, but under him there were no fewer than four pairs of wardens, viz. "Our Lady Wardens," "Wardens of St. John's Brotherhood," "Warden of the high light on the Rood-loft," and those of the "Key," "Kye," or "Cows." In another Somerset parish, 1525, etc., besides the accounts of the high wardens there are concurrent accounts "of the Five men." 2

To return to South Tawton, it may be observed that the head-warden's account of 1559 is made "coram Joh'i Wyks, Armigero, Will'mo Battishill, Georgio Milford, Ric. Estbroke, Rob'to Wonston," etc., and that succeeding accounts down to 1594 are similarly witnessed or audited by the same or other leading parishioners. These must have included, I think, the "Questmen" or "Sidesmen" (a term generally held to be derived from "Synods men "), who in most large parishes acted as a sort of assistant wardens. At Hevytree, in certain articles dated 1586, four persons (named) "now being Sidemen or ffower men of the same parish" agree to "faithfully deale in churche causes for the best mayntenance of the said church, and other necessaryes concernynge the comon utilitye of the parishe." The "stronge chest" with three locks and three keys, containing "the parishe stock, and all such wrytynge and Evidence as belongeth to the said paryshe"... "shall remayne alwaies in the custody of one of the Sidemen."

The churchwardens are to render account annually to the sidemen, and to deliver to them any of the "church store remaining in their hands" ("D. N. & Q.," Vol. I, ii. 37).

In the Chagford accounts, 1521," the Eight men" delivered to (St Michael's) Wardens 48s 4d, "which remain from the hogner's store." . . . The functions of the "Church Council (or "Vestry" in modern parlance) are to be

1 Somerset Record Society, Vol. IV, "Som. Ch. W'dens'. Accts.," edited by Bishop Hobhouse, p. 49. 2 Ibid., p. 210.

gathered, says the editor of the Somerset Accounts (Som. Rec. Soc., Vol. IV, p. xi), from the things entered as done 64 coram parochianis." As to the management of the church fabric or accessories great freedom was left to the people, but they were under the inspection of rural deans and archdeacons, and the wardens (or, according to other authorities, sidesmen) were sworn to the Visitation Court to make presentment of every defect; for the duty of the parish to maintain and furnish the House of God was enforceable in the Church Courts. Wardens and sidesmen were also charged with the responsibility of presentment to the Archdeacon's Court of moral delinquencies in their vicar and the flock.

Among the most constantly recurring expenses in the South Tawton accounts are those for four men riding to Exeter to the Episcopal and Archidiaconal Visitations. conjecture these men to have been the head-warden and sidesmen. That they did not include wardens of subsidiary stores or guild-wardens may, I think, be inferred from an item in one of the subsidiary accounts (1550) alluding under the head of expenditures to "the four men." A similar class of entries relates to the journeys to Exeter of several men (generally four) in charge of moneys that had been levied on the parish, such as the king's subsidies and "Peter's Pence." We also hear very often of “four men" riding to Chagford or to Dunsford, to military musters or on business connected with them, and of their going before justices or commissioners on divers matters. Whether these four men were always the same whatever their mission, or whether the functions of sidesman and of constable or tithing-man or other such offices might be combined in one person, I do not know, but there seems to me to be some indication that one at least of the party of money-bearers was customarily a constable. A Star-Chamber Proceeding (Ph. and M. Bund. I, No. 22) contains the statement that John Wykes of South Tawton, gentleman, was constable of the parish of South Tawton in the reign of Philip and Mary, and in 1572-3, as is recorded in the Court Roll of the Borough of Zeal ("Trans." XXXV, 536), he (“John Wykes Armiger") was elected "bailiff."

In another Star-Chamber Proceeding (Bund. 32, No. 57) it is asserted, more than once, that in 1533 John Battishill, Henry Gidley, Thos. Yeoland, and Richard Waleys were "constables of the Parish."

In the head-warden's account of 1562 occurs the item "to

iij men to ryde to exeter before the co'stabel of the Hundred." In this, as in several similar ones, the ambiguity of the wording leaves me in doubt whether the men accompanied the constable or went to him. William Battishill appears repeatedly in these accounts; e.g. 1555, "paid unto William Battyshell for fettyng home the church harnes." 1556, "to William Battushill & John Donnyng for there expences to appere before the comyssyoners, xv d." 1567 (Subs.), "paide unto Mr Battyshill & Richard Wycks for ffyfty dolle, iiij li. xij s. xd." 1559 (in connexion with expenses of Institution and Induction), "p'd for the chargesse of mayster battyshil & the vicar, xxx."

It is disappointing not to find in the earlier South Tawton accounts any explicit reference to a parish clerk. It is true that the word "clerk" occurs a few times, but as this was a term applied to any person in holy orders in contradistinction to laymen, it might here indifferently designate the chaplain. of Zeal (of whom more anon) or the vicar himself, though a certain item of 1575, the payment of "8d. to the clerke for fetching more tile from North Wyke," would seem to relate to a subordinate. In the Registers of Burials, under date 15 January, 1622, I find (to translate) "James Beard,1 formerly Parish clerk of this church." John Beard was then vicar. Possibly both were sons of the George Beard, who in 1607 contested the vicarage against Henry Bowker ("Trans." XXXIII, 437), the King's presentee, and who is named in these registers as vicar of South Tawton from 1594 to 1604. In 1696 was buried "Richard Marks ye Parish clerk."

In the Decretals of Alexander III it is written: "A Presbyter cannot alone perform the solemn service of the Mass and other offices without the support of an assistant," and Bishop Grosseteste3 (1235-53) commands that "in every Church of sufficient means there shall be a deacon or subdeacon, but in the rest a fitting and honest clerk to serve the priest in a comely habit." The distinction between either subdeacon or colet (acolite) and parish clerk is not a very rigid one, for no one might hold the latter position who was not in one of the minor orders at least (the successive stages 1 In 1615 James Beard married Jane Lug.

In Vol. III of the "Cal. of Early Chancery Proceedings" (undated, but mostly 1485 to 1500), Bund. 118, No. 24, I note "Margaret Berde & James her son, Plaintiffs, v. John Speke K re the manor of Talbottyswyke in North Tawton & three tents. in George Hamme, late belonging to John Talbot, Esq."

2 The Rise of the Parochial System in Eng.," the Rev. O. J. Reichel, Exeter Dioc. Arch. Soc., ser. 3, Vol. II, pt. iii. p. 110.

3 Ibid., citing Brown, Fasc. II, 412.