i 
155 
and replaced in the living; but the Rev. H. Whitehead proves 
this to be erroneous. I was led to accept the error myself, from 
observing the name of John Hastie in the list of debtors to the 
parish stock up to 1661; but that was evidently another John 
Hastie, perhaps son of the old vicar. 
Returning to Roger Baldwin and the old book, we find in the 
first list of receipts from interest on the church money lent out, 
called “use money,” two or even three years’ arrears are got in, 
apparently as one of the results of Roger Baldwin’s clean sweeping. 
On the other side of the account there is a heavy expenditure for 
repairs of the church, and a general putting in order of things 
parochial, shewing that the old parish church was being well cared 
for under Puritan rule. I have always supposed that Puritans of 
that period had a great aversion to church bell ringing ; I suppose 
I must have got wrong information, for the very first item of 
expenditure is for new ropes for the chimes, and various items for 
mending the fittings of the five bells then in the tower. 
A curious page in the year 1655 is an account of fines. It is 
headed, “Recd. of Thomas Langhom, Esaqr., justice of the peace 
for the county, as penalties inflicted upon several offenders, to be 
distributed to the poor people of the parish.” These fines are for 
Sabbath-breaking, swearing, and drunkenness, and vary from one 
shilling to half-a-crown. 
Some of the offenders are from neighbouring places—Greystoke, 
Lowther, Askham, and Plumpton. These must have been dropped 
upon on market-days; consequently, under Puritan rule, the 
market-day people had to mind their P’s and Q’s when they came 
into Penrith. The ladies did not escape: one offender, Ann, the 
wife of William Davison, had to pay a shilling for swearing. Now 
a shilling was then no trifle; for a skilled mechanic’s wages for a 
day was a shilling, and a labourer’s eightpence ; therefore, if Ann’s 
husband was a mechanic, she would begin to think when a whole 
day’s wages went, that swearing was likely to become an expensive 
luxury. 
There was, it appears, a custom for well to do people to pay 
what one may call a mortuary tax. On the death of a member of 
