338 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 261. 



discontinued some time, but the pieces of money 

 used on those occasions were supposed to retain 

 their virtue. In the next article we hardly know 

 which is most remarkable, the apparent knavery 

 of the parties or the attempted legal formalities of 

 the scribe. 



" 1745. This witnesseth an agreement by and between 

 the parishioners below mentioned, on behalf of themselves 

 and the whole parish, and David Stearns, that he the said 

 David Stearns, for and in consideration of a crown bowl 

 of punch, this day paid by him, shall be excused for the 

 future from paying all parish rates, of what name or de- 

 scription soever they be, for the house he dwells in, the 

 king's tax only excepted." Signed by David Stearns and 

 eight other parishioners, and witnessed by the vestry 

 clerk. 



If the parties in the above agreement had any 

 misgivings as to the legality or honesty of the 

 course they were adopting, we may suppose that, 

 in the words of the old ballad, " they drowned 

 them in the bowl." Being, however, loyal sub- 

 jects, they desired that the king's taxes should be 

 paid. 



The following extracts were transcribed verba- 

 tim from an old rate-book belonging to the parish 

 of Elmstood, near Colchester : 



"April 28, 1704. Paid for the berrill of Jane Hicks, 4*. 

 — April 2, 1707. Paid for two paj'er of britches and a neck 

 of moten, 4s." 



This is an amusing item ; " two pair of breeches 

 and a neck of mutton :" food and clothing jum- 

 bled together in a rather incongruous manner, 

 and all for the small sum of four shillings. 

 Breeches as well as mutton must have been mar- 

 vellously cheap in those days. It reminds one of 

 Shakspeare's saying of King Stephen : 



" King Stephen was a worthy peer. 

 His breeches cost him but a crown ; 

 He held them sixpence all too dear. 

 With that he call'd the tailor — lown." 



By the way, this quotation aptly illustrates 

 Burke's remark, that " there is but one step from 

 the sublime to the ridiculous." Thus, for in- 

 stance, the first line conveys to the mind the idea 

 of a grand and magnificent monarch arrayed in 

 all the pomp of regal splendour; in the next line 

 his majesty's nether garment is exhibited in a ridi- 

 culous light, in the same manner that Hogarth's 

 " Simon Gripe, pawnbroker," holds up that neces- 

 sary article of dress, to satisfy himself that it is 

 neither threadbare nor moth-eaten. And when 

 at the conclusion we find his royal majesty hag- 

 gling with his tailor about sixpence in a pair of 

 crown breeches, we come to the conclusion that 

 he was anything but a liberal monarch. But 

 to return : the next entry we have to notice is 

 under the date of 

 " Oct. 26, 1707. Paid Mr. Phillips for catching a fox, 5s." 



It is evident that Mr. Phillips was no fox-hunter, 

 nor the parish officer who paid him this sum, and 



that too out of the poor-rates. It appears as if 

 the parishioners were resolved to protect their 

 poultry from reynard's depredations, and there- 

 fore set a price upon his head. We may suppose, 

 at the present day, that if any fox-hunter saw an 

 item of this kind in the parish accounts, little 

 hesitation would be felt in drawing a pen across 

 it. 



"Nov. 19, 1710. Paid at Sidnej^'s, for bear at Goodey 

 Inman's berril, Is. — Paid for a wascote for Cramphorne's 

 boy, and bleeding and a purg, 3s." 



The overseer who ordered this was probably a 

 humane personage. It appears that after this 

 poor lad Cramphorne had been well bled and 

 physicked, it being in the dreary month of No- 

 vember, the parish officer generously gave him a 

 waistcoat to keep out the cold. We may say of 

 him, in the words of honest Tom Dibdin, — 



" Prized be such hearts ; aloft they shall go. 

 Who always are ready compassion to show." 



" May 6, 1711. Paid for a cofen for Goodey Keebl, Gs. — 

 Paid to the minister and clerk for berren Goodey Keebl, 5s. 

 — April 4, 1743. It is agreed this day that any towns- 

 man that has a j'earh' servant that shall have any bone 

 or bones broken, to be allowed by the parish the charge 

 thereof. As witness our hands . . . ijf the person cannot 

 pay it himself." 



The concluding proviso shows that the parish 

 officers wished to guard against the imputation of 

 being too liberal in expending their funds. 



"April 11, 1748. An agreement between the townsmen 

 of the parish and Robert Freeman, to take the boy Isaac 

 Hunt for nine years, and to release him double suited, and 

 to give him five shillings in his pocket." 



There are various entries in the book similar to 

 the above. It appears to have been thought a 

 great favour to possess two suits of clothes and 

 five shillings in money after nine years' servitude. 

 The probable inference is, that these were poor, 

 friendless lads, w^hom the parishioners thus al- 

 lotted out amongst themselves according to their 

 own will and pleasure. There is nothing to show 

 that the boys were consenting parties to these ar- 

 rangements. 



"Memorandum. I promise, upon being released from 

 the town rates, to bur^' all, gratis, that are concerned with 

 the parish officer, and'don't pay scot and lot.— Allingtoa 

 Harrison, vicar." 



This clergyman was probably a quiet, easy, good- 

 natured man, who did not wish to keep a debtor 

 and creditor account with his parishioners, and so 

 this plan was adopted to save trouble. 



The following is extracted from Lord Bray- 

 brooke's History of Audley End, in which there 

 are various interesting particulars relating to the 

 town of Saffron Walden. Amongst the extracts 

 which are given from the parish registers we find 

 the following : 



" IGU, May 12. ilartha Warde, a young maj'd coming 

 from Chelmesford on a carte, was overwhelmed and smo- 



