Highways and Byways in LincolnshireRawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
History
Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire
Rawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
Lincolnshire (England) -- Description and travel
He collected the Easter gratuities of the neighbours in the parish; he
got twenty shillings a year for looking after the clock, “to be paid by
the churchwards.”
“For skowringe and furbishinge the eagle or ‘brazen lectorie’
2/6 by the yeare. Sixpence for ‘evry marriadge,’ fourpence ‘for
the passinge bell ringeinge for every inhabitant &c. that are
deceased.”
And “Item the privilege of makeinge the graves for the deceased
before any other yf he will take the paines and canne doe yt.”
[Sidenote: THE PARISH CLERK]
Evidently the clerks were old men and not always capable of wielding the
spade and pick; and now comes an entry which lets one into the secret
of why the registers were often so ill-kept. Instead of the entries
being made by the parson at the time, the clerk put them down “from time
to time,” and they were copied from his notes once a year. Under this
system, of course, there were both mistakes and omissions, often for many
months and even years together.
This is the entry:—
“Itm for the Register keepinge from tyme to tyme of all
Christnings Marriadges and burialles from Ladyday to Ladyday
until they be ingrossed: two shillings and sixpence a year.”
Possibly “from tyme to tyme” may mean on each occasion, but it sounds
precarious.
His fixed salary, besides fees, was, in 1773, thirty shillings and two
strikes (—4 bushels) of corn out of the two quarters (—sixteen bushels)
which was given from the glebe every Easter to the poor by the parson.
The Sexton’s wages at the same date were given thus:—
as Sexton 2. 10. 0.
for dogs wipping 0. 7. 6.
Dressing church round 0. 2. 0.
For oyle 0. 2. 4.
For ringing the bell at 8 and 4 1. 0. 0.
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04. 01. 10.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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