A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



where at the death of the rector in 1643, an OI "der of the House of 

 Commons prescribed ' that Mr. Daniel Evans shall serve the cure . . . 

 and that the bishop be enjoined not to give any institution, induction or 

 collation to Mr. Bate ' (presented by the lawful patron of the living) 

 ' upon any pretence whatsoever.' Mr. Bate nevertheless became rector, 

 and remained at his post long enough to write ' Laus Deo ' in his parish 

 register above the year of the Restoration. 1 



It was certainly intended that one-fifth of the profits of a seques- 

 tered living should be paid to the wife and family of the ejected incum- 

 bent ; but the order was not always carried out. At Weston Turville, 

 the wife of the rector petitioned vainly for her portion, from 9 August, 

 1645, tiN 2I May, 1647 ; but the minister in possession utterly refused 

 to pay, in spite of repeated orders from the Committee of Plundered 

 Ministers 2 ; he was evidently an undesirable person, even in the judg- 

 ment of his own friends, and after refusing the offer of an exchange, 3 

 was himself finally ejected in favour of the original incumbent.* It is 

 only fair to the Committee to show that real efforts were made to 

 enforce these payments. They had also many elaborate schemes for re- 

 distributing endowments and so raising the value of the poorer livings. 5 

 There was real need for such measures in Buckinghamshire. As many 

 as twenty-three churches or parochial chapels, once appropriated to 

 religious houses, had had no regular endowment whatever since the 

 dissolution of monasteries ; their incumbents received as stipend what- 

 ever the impropriators, lay or clerical, chose to allow them. Twelve 

 churches had an endowment of less than 20, and two others of exactly 

 that amount. There were nine benefices in 1650 (including one where 

 the endowment was as much as 30), which were returned as void for 

 want of proper maintenance for a minister. 6 Between 1646 and 1650 

 an attempt was made to provide for these needs. Those livings which 

 were appropriated to various cathedrals and collegiate churches were 

 augmented from the sequestered chapter endowments ' ; and a scheme 



the spirit to enter the church and openly read to the congregation a proclamation from the king pro- 

 hibiting payment of tithes to the intruded ministers, and charging those who did so with treason. 



1 Records of Sucks, vi. 432-4 (from the parish registers), and Shaw, History of the English Church 

 under the Commonwealth, ii. 310. Matthew Bate was in peaceable possession in 1650 (Parl. Surveys of 

 Livings, iii. 76). 



2 Add. MS. ff. 15669, I33d, i63d, 193, 220; ibid. 15670, 58d. 



3 Ibid. 15670, f. 157. 



4 Ibid. 15671, f. 30. The original rector was in possession still in 1650. 



6 The scheme is stated in a series of volumes in the Lambeth Library headed Augmentations 

 of Livings. 



Great Kimble 10 ; Lee Chapel 2 ; Owlswick chapel .13 ; St. Leonard's chapel, Aston Clin- 

 ton 24 (to be obtained from a farm belonging to the chapel) ; Little Missenden .30 ; the chapels of 

 St. Giles and St. Mary Magdalene, Stony Stratford % and 6 (usually served by chaplains from Wolver- 

 ton and Calverton) ; Stowe .30 ; Dorton, having a stipend of 10 paid by the impropriators ; Choles- 

 bury .8. These and the other details given above are from Lambeth Library, Surveys of Livings, iii. 



7 Datchet, Wyrardisbury and Langley Marish augmented from the endowment of the Dean and 

 Chapter of Windsor ; Buckland and Bierton from those of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln ; Stewkley 

 from those of the Dean and Chapter of Oxford ; Great Marlow from those of the Dean and Chapter 

 of Gloucester ; Haddenham and Cuddington from those of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester ; Fingest 

 from those of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester ; and Little Brickhill from those of the Dean and 

 Chapter of Canterbury (Augmentations of Livings, vol. 979 and 984). Chilton was augmented from the 

 impropriated Rectory (ibid. vol. 970, f. 123). 



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