A quarter of lamb was 1s. 10d.; 5 lb. of candles for ye parish
lanthorn, 9d.; two fat pigs, 5s.; a leg of mutton, 1s. 8d.; capers,
4d.; orange and lemon, 4d.; and a soft cheese (probably cream cheese)
is charged 1s. in 1691; 2 lb. "candles to burn by ye church side
winter nights," 8d.; and "four tunnes and a halfe of coles att 6s.
4d. pr tunn," £1. 8s. 6d. Dinners or drinking bouts, or both, were
given on procession days, visitation days, and at "the assessing the
rolls"--that is, when the poor-rate (if so it might be called) was
assessed on the parishioners. The "processions" probably were the same
as the perambulations, or "beating the bounds," the churchwardens
apparently taking a personal survey of the parish boundaries once a
year, in the month of May, and immense preparations were made for that
purpose, including (in 1674) half a gross of pipes, 6d.; half a pound
tobacco, 10d.; and "paid for ale before our own was tapped," 4d. Each
parish in those days kept its own "church ales." Charges are made
for dozens of "white _poyntes_ for the boyes" in these perambulation
accounts. Were these wands, or what else? The perambulating party
generally wound up the day at the Globe, where they dined.
Rentals accruing to the parish in 1695 amounted to £74. 18s. 7d., which
included £2. 3s. a year for the "oatmeal market" (Mealcheapen Street),
also the rents of the Pheasant, the "baccon market," and some meadows
at Hindlip. In 1705 the rents were under £60. Charges were made "for
work done at the oatmeale bench," probably a bench fixed outside the
east end of the church for the use of the dealers in meal; likewise
"for laths and nails for mending ye church penthouse." This penthouse
was perhaps the "purpresture"--a name then given to booths or stalls
placed in the streets for the exhibition or sale of goods, and for
which encroachment on the highway a pecuniary acknowledgment was paid
to the corporation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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