284 ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 



in one case, and at is. in the other. If the c gurda' con 

 tained 20 Ibs. or thereabouts it must have been still dearer 

 in 1^84. 



More complete and more interesting are the extracts from 

 the ecclesiastical receipts of Bicester vicarage in 1340 and 

 1361. They are derived from documents which are indirectly, 

 perhaps, the earliest instances of parochial registers. The 

 rectory of Bicester in Oxfordshire was the property of the prior 

 and monks of the monastery near the town. The services of 

 the church were performed by a chaplain appointed from or by 

 the fraternity, who gave account of all receipts for clerical 

 services performed by him. As fees were paid for weddings, 

 churchings, and funerals, we have what is in effect a register 

 of the births, deaths, and marriages in this town for two years 

 in the fourteenth century. The originals are in the Public 

 Record Office, and are worth a more exhaustive survey than 1 

 have found it necessary to give them, for I had no need to 

 examine them except for purposes of illustration. 



With one exception the fees extracted from the register of 

 1340 are burials, and vary exceedingly in amount. Bygenhall is 

 probably Bucknell, near Bicester, as Stratton is Stratton Audley. 

 The two, whose burial-fee is each 2^., must have been, we may 

 judge, children of persons of consideration. The burial of an- 

 other child is performed for a fee of only three farthings. In 1361 

 there is a burial for which a fee of gs. d. is paid, for another 

 the sum of \d. is held sufficient. So we have a wedding-fee 

 of 5^. 3</., another of 5^., a third of 35-., a fourth of 3^. 4^.; while 

 churchings, which supply evidence of the births, vary from 

 i.r. ic*/. to %d. The expenses of a funeral at Oxford, the charge 

 for the shroud, the bier, the wax candle, and for tolling the 

 bell, are found in vol. ii. p. 616. ii. for the year 1384. 



There is a singular entry under the year 1262, extracted from 

 the account of Rodestone, vol. ii. p. 576. i. ; a large payment, 

 6d. each day and night, is made to a woman who watched the 

 corpse of the bearer of the Countess' (Isabella de Fortibus) jewels. 

 Such a labour seems to have been more highly paid than was 



