Easter was the time when the officals of the parish, the bottom rung of local democracy, were appointed. This month I am looking at the parish officers and what their duties were. My examples of course, are from the dales, I don't know if they would have indulged in a Vestry Dinner at their appointments - the print below is from the Lewis Walpole collection dated 1795 ref lwlpr08535. There is a notice on the wall behind the diners which is their Vestry Creed "... see and say nothing. Eat, Drink and Pay Nothing" which is not unlike the Yorkshireman's Motto "Hear all, see all, say nowt; eat all, drink all, pay nowt. And if tha does owt for nowt do it for thi'sen." Which is why some pubs are called The Four Alls. Back to the Vestry Meeting. Laymen were important in the running of the parish on both a civil and an ecclsiastical level. At Easter the members of the meeting were appointed and out of their number they elected the Churchwardens, the Parish Constable, the Surveyor of the Highways, the Overseer of the Poor and a Sexton and a Beadle, who sometimes also was the dog whipper. The post of Churchwarden gave its name to a long stemmed pipe, and here is a Churchwarden smoking away. This is a print dated 1812 - 1817 and I am surprised he was not bewigged. Also from the Lewis Walpole collection ref 812.0000106 What did the officers do? A handy book of rules was printed in 1772 called "The Complete Parish Officer" which laid out duties and responsibilities. The churchwardens were a link between the clergy and the parishioners, they had to look after the fabric of the church and answer to the Bishop or his representative at the annual Visition. This is where Churchwardens had to take authority over the morals of the parishioners. Churchwardens signed the parish registers and the copies that were sent to the Bishop, called Bishops' Transcripts. In very large parishes there would be several churchwardens and other officers. If a parish was very large and had a Chapel of Ease then the wardens for that place of worship were called Chapelwardens, they were still Anglican, not non-conformist. Thus the above are called Chapelwardens. These were in Barnard Castle, which was part of a larger parish of Gainford. The top image is from 1818 and the lower one for 1820, so you can trace who served when at the time that the registers were signed. This is St Andrew's Parish Church,Kirkby Malzeard. The churchwardens' accounts survive and detail what they spent money on and their duties. The expenditure and receipts of William Storry, Richard Fryer, Thomas Ashbridge and John Watson, churchwardens of the parish of Kirkby Malzeard in 1834. They had to keep the church clean, pay a washerwoman to clean the surplices, buy candles, look after the clock or pay a clockmaker. In this account they bought soap and washcloths and paid Margaret Tesseyman and Nancy Chandler for doing some washing and paid Richard Morland for looking after the clock. In 1847 after the Court fees at Masham they had the expence on 30th November of the Twenty Four, i.e. all the Vestry Meeting, at Mr Woods' St Andrews Day, this cost £1 12s 6d. I don't know which pub Mr Wood had but I hope they had a good dinner. Another print from the Lewis Walpole collection dated 1795, ref lwlpr08597. The Churchwardens had a very serious side to their job. At the Visitation they had to answer a whole series of questions and report to the Bishop about any lapses in the morality of either clergyman or parishioners. At various times in history they were the ones who reported on Recusants or anyone who was absent from church. This is Holy Trinity, Coverham. At the presentments made by the Churchwardens on 12th April 1624 they gave a whole list of names of those who did not come to church to take Holy Communion at Easter. It was illegal to be a Catholic at this time but there were many Catholic families in the dales and some of these were taken to court. The documents were signed with the names of the outgoing churchwardens - Henry Becke, George Yeoman, William Winn and Thomas Lobley, and then the new appointees - William Watson, Henry Hawmond, Richard Atkinson and James Geldart. An early account for Coverham, 1629 had reported that they did not have a chest (written chyst) for keeping the church books in, which is a good excuse for the disappearance of the Parish Registers. None survive for Coverham before 1700. They also reported that the inside of the church was not as it should be. The aisles were uneven because of the corpses buried underneath and that they had not been paved over in a decent manner. They had to get it sorted before St Michael's Day This is the beautiful church of St Chad in Middlesmoor in Nidderdale. This photograph is from the Upper Nidderdale Landscape Partnership website. Here some of my ancestors lie sleeping in the churchyard. This was a chapelry within the huge parish of Kirkby Malzeard, so the wardens were called Chapelwardens not Churchwardens. Middlesmoor came under the jurisdiction of St Mary's in Masham which was a Peculiar. That means it was outside the authority of a diocese and Bishop and could hold its own courts. So the chapelwardens of Middlesmoor and the churchwardens of Kirkby Malzeard and other villages were answerable to the court at Masham. Here they travelled over the tops to Masham to the Court. The Reverend Mr Wm Firth, clerk, curate, was there with the outgoing chapelwardens, Ottiwell Tomlin, Jonathan Spence, Thomas Grainge,and on this occasion they said they had nothing to present. All the good people in Nidderdale were behaving themselves. This was unsual. The incoming chapelwardens were Thomas Spence, Thomas Harrison and Thomas Grainge again, and they were sworn in. They were obliged to report any parishioners who were adulterers, fornicators, drunkards, haunters of alehouses in the time of divine service and a whole list of other moral lapses. Thus my great, great, great, great grandmother was reported to the Church courts in Masham. In answer to a question concerning the behaviour of the parishioners, Lambert Hartley was accused of adultery with Easter Hanley of Masham and pleaded the Act of Grace, i.e. owned up and repented. But also Elizabeth Newton and Mary Gill were accused of fornication. They were unmarried. Mary Gill was reported twice, each time after taking her illegitimate baby to be baptised at Middlesmoor church, Peter in 1746 and John in 1755. For these lapses in her morality (but we know not who the father(s) were) she was excommunicated by the Anglican Church, i.e. she could not take communion. Having been thrown out of the Anglican church Mary Gill's name is on one of the earliest lists of Methodists that exists for Nidderdale. This is the Parish Church of St Mary and St Alkelda in Middleham. The Churchwardens here had another duty. To take up certain offical positions the applicant had to be a paid up member of the Anglican Church, and to prove this had to have a certificate to say that they had recently taken communion according to the Anglican Prayer Book. To become an officer in the Militia, a Justice of the Peace, offical in higher levels of government, Sheriff, Lord Lieutenant etc you had to be an Anglican. This is part of a Sacrament Certificate. We the Curate and Church Wardens of the Parish and Collegiate Church of Middleham etc hereby certify that John Howgill of Askrigg in the County of York on Sunday the 15th Day of April did receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the Collegiate Church aforesaid immediately after Divine Service and Sermon according to the Usage of the Church of England In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our hands the said 15th Day of April 1798. J Cockroft, curate ... John Dixon and Robert Burton, Church Wardens of the said parish. Below this there is also a sworn affidavit of two witnesses who were there - George Severs of Middleham and Lawrence Shore of Bedale. This cartoon is by Thomas Howell Jones and is called select Vestry Comforts, dated 1828, from the Lewis Walpole collection ref lwlpr 13164. Churchwardens could levy a rate on property to raise funds, and here the Select Vestry are enjoying a fine dinner. The bill of fare on the left hand side lists - Item of Expences - visiting the Pauper Children ~~~~~Dinner & Desert £9 -9-0 and goes on to list their beverages Sherry, Punch, Soda, Rose Water, Ice for Wine, 12 bottles of Port, Sauterne etc etc, with a total of £34 -12 - 6. The gentleman on the left has a speech bubble "Don't be afraid of the viands, Gentlemen, although our fatigues are great. I hope we shall convince the parishioners we can do our duties at the table if we do not at the Board." Falling out of the pocket of the gentleman in the foreground "Hush Money from certain Brothells, Flash Houses etc" .... Churchwardens' accounts are actually very interesting. I could find no evidence at all that the Vestry Meeting in Wensley held any kind of dinner. This is a snip from the Wensley Churchwardens' Accounts for Tuesday April 1st 1755. It covers the assessment for raising the parish rate by John Scott and Francis Metcalfe and Michael Brotherick, the churchwardens of Wensley, Leyburn and Preston for 1754. They raised £12 - 10s of which the Wensley proportion was £5, Leyburn £5 and Preston £2 - 10s. However in 1754 the expenditure was £13 - 7s - 11 d & a halfpenny! Henry Blades was paid 5/- for whipping the dogs out of the church. They spent £2 14s 3d on communion wine (it was a big parish), and one shilling seven pence ha'penny on communion bread. They lime washed the church and had to fetch the lime with a man and a horse, they pointed the church and paved the steps, paid the ringers and bought candles and oil. The expences on Easter Tuesday (when the vestry was appointed) was 15 shillings. The picture above is Holy Trinity, Wensley, creative commons. The churchwardens had many responsibilities. Some kept pew plans so that they knew where everone was seated, some kept lists of who took communion at Easter. These are the signatures of those who were on the Vestry Meeting in Wensley in 1754. Another time I will look at some of the other parish officers and what they did.
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