But before proceeding to the parish expedients, properly so called, for raising money, it will be well to say something of parish endowments, whether in lands, houses or funds. According as the revenue from these was available for general, or at least for various purposes, or, on the other hand, was impressed with a trust for some specific object, these endowments may be divided into general and special. Parishes well endowed might be able to dispense with some of the devices for money-getting which we shall have occasion to enumerate, but then, after all, endowments might come and they might go;[203] moreover, the financial policy of any one parish would, of course, differ according to the disposition or the ability of those who shaped it. Of Loddon, Norfolk, we are told that "no complaint appears about Church Rates, for there were none, as the revenue of the Town Farm ... rendered a tax of that description unnecessary."[204] Of St. Petrock's, Exeter, we are informed that "the parish became so well endowed by donations of land and houses as to enable the wardens to dispense almost entirely with the quarterly collections entered in the earlier accounts."[205] The editor of the Thatcham, Berks, Accounts, writes: "In the early years of these churchwardens accounts the available funds were derived chiefly from the two oldest charities, one called 'Lowndye's Almshouses,' the first account of which is for the year ... 1561 ... to 1562; the other known as 'the Church Estate,' the first account of which begins in 1566."[206] Summoned by the Bodmin, Cornwall, justices in January, 159-4/5, to make a report as to the parish stock, the representatives of Stratton certify at sessions that their stock "am[oun]ts to the now some of Sixteene poundes, some yeares it is more & some yeares lesse...." And, they continue, "the vsinge of our sayde stocke is by the two wardens & the rest of the eight men w[hi]ch for the same stande sworne, And it is bestowed aboute her ma[jes]ties service, for buyenge of armor, settinge forth of souldiers w[i]th powder & shott.... And likewise for the relievinge & mainetayning of the poore...." They thereupon give the names of the impotent and decrepit persons and orphan children "wholly relieved" by the parish, ten in number, and add that there are upwards of a hundred poor "w[h]ich are not able to liue of themselues, but haue reliefe dayly one thinge or another of the seide p[ar]ish."[207] The little parish of St. Michael's in Bedwardine, Worcestershire,[208] possessed lands and tenements in various parishes, and in 1599 invested £10 in buying two more tenements in Worcester city.[209] Its wardens accounts, we are told by their editor, disclose that there was never any lack of money for parish purposes "in spite of a rather lavish expenditure at times in the luxury of law[suits]."[210] Lapworth, Warwickshire, had many acres of parish land.[211] The churchwardens of St. John's, Glastonbury,