Funding the Church from Local Taxes

from The Barwicker No.54
June 1999

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This article is based on the detail found in the Parish Accounts Book covering the 1745-46 period. The Accounts Book is held in the West Yorkshire Archives at Sheepscar, Leeds. Until recently it was in too delicate a state to be available for public inspection. It has been restored with funds provided by this society and is available once again for public scrutiny.
 


The earliest Parish Account Books give us the best available description we have of the running of Barwick-in-Elmet's parish church in the eighteenth century. At that time the church served the whole parish including Roundhay, Crossgates, Manston, Barnbow as well as the villages of Scholes and Barwick itself. Being confined to the activities which cost money, the view which we have is biassed away from the spiritual matters of the parish. That aspect is covered by the terriers (a questionnaire from the Archbishop which the rector had to complete) which still survive (see Barwicker No. 18 page 35). One terrier was completed in 1743 which coincides with the period covered by the first accounts book.

In the eighteenth century, there were three churchwardens. They were given money to run the church between them. The office of churchwarden was introduced by the first canon of the Council of London in 1127. There could be any number from one upwards per parish. It was normal for a separate warden to be elected for each township within a parish. It was usual for one churchwarden to be appointed for Barwick and one for Scholes or Potterton; the third was appointed from another part of the parish, usually Roundhay. The wardens were elected by the Vestry Meeting at Easter. Common law compelled any parishioner chosen as warden to serve the office. The money allocated to each churchwarden was raised by a church rate on the whole parish which was decided by the Vestry Meeting.

The whole parish paid for the upkeep of the church irrespective of the beliefs of the inhabitants. In 1743 in the terrier the rector recorded that to the best of his knowledge there were twenty Roman Catholic, two Presbyterian and two Quaker families out of a two hundred and forty families in the parish. This was an aspect of the church being part of the Established Church of England which in the past led to the administration of the parish both lay and ecclesiastical being merged into one comprehensive management structure. The cost was about £15 a year. At the time, one shilling paid for a clergyman to come to the parish to preach in the absence of the rector.

The churchwardens paid for quite a wide range of items, not all associated with the running of the church. As with other parish officers, some of the expenditure of the churchwardens could be found being covered by other officers in other years. This may be because the parish was large and some of the office holders would not be conveniently available when expenditure was needed.

Therefore you could find overlaps with poor-law administration and the Constable's normal duties. The upkeep of the church, and to some extent the school, was mainly on wages, repairing and maintaining the fabric, administration and consumables.

The Parish clerk was paid for by the churchwardens. Sometimes he is named and he was often the schoolmaster. We can tell from the handwriting that the clerk usually maintained the accounts and the parish registers. He was paid £1 2s 6d annually.

The church employed a sexton. It is difficult to establish how much the sexton was paid. In 1751 he was paid £2 2s 6d a year for his main duty. However, from time to time he seems to be paid for extra duties. In that year we have an entry "To Sexton for making fires in Vestry £0 2s 6d". In 1739, the sexton appears to have been paid 10 shillings per annum. In addition in 1751, there is an entry "Sexton's Bill £2 6s 6d".

The accounts also include expenditure for burying people who probably had been too poor to pay for their burial. In 1739, there were four entries showing the cost of burying people, including one boy. The costs were 4s.0d. for each adult and 2s 6d for the boy. We know from other entries that these costs just cover the purchase of a coffin for each one. A further accounts item follows "And one shilling for himself". This probably refers to a payment to the sexton for grave digging. The sexton is not named in the accounts.

Payments were also made to the bell ringers. There were three bells and the ringers were paid 5s 0d each per annum plus an extra 8d each for ringing on special days which seemed to vary from year to year. Among these days were :-King George's Birthday 5th of November 29th May (Oak Apple Day) Admiral Vernon's Birthday (1739/40) Duke of Cumberland's Birthday (1745/46)

Admiral Vernon had captured Porto Bello in the opening phase of the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, but failed disastrously at Cartagena in 1740 when no doubt no bells were rung in the parish. The celebration of Oak Apple Day was quite common throughout England from 1660 until the nineteenth century. It marked the birthday of King Charles II and the day when he re-entered London on his restoration. It commemorates the time when Charles II avoided capture after the Battle of Worcester by hiding in an oak tree There was a special service inserted in the Prayer Book for that day which was retained until the middle of the nineteenth century. The celebration still lingers on in The Chelsea Hospital and in various villages in the country.

In addition to the full ringing of the bells, there was a regular requirement to toll a bell for funerals. In the year 1751 this task cost the church 5s 0d. One annual expense incurred was the renewal of the bell ropes. At a cost 12s 0d, this is an item which is difficult to explain. Why did the church need to replace its bell ropes every year? The question has been put to the Naval Museum at Chatham which has detailed knowledge of the quality of ropes used by the Royal Navy at the time. While the quality of ropes at that time was variable, they were well made and reliable. Had there been an accident in the past which led to the church being cautious? We have no satisfactory answers.

There was one other post which was remunerated with the payment of 5s 0d per annum. The parish paid for a dog whipper. In the eighteenth century, it was normal for, notably, farmers to take their sheepdogs to church with them. From time to time some of the dogs became unruly and the Dog Whipper, equipped with wooden tongs, was employed to remove the offending dogs outside the church. This was a common practice throughout the country. It had died out by the middle of the nineteenth century. The last record of a dog whipper being employed is when Mr. John Pickard was appointed to the post in Exeter Cathedral in 1856.

The accounts give a great deal of detail on the upkeep of the fabric of the church and also the school. The 1751 accounts present an interesting range of building maintenance expenditure (the spelling is as written):
  £  s  d 
Lime and Sand getting into Church     1  3 
ffour Gluts of Cinders at 1s 4d each     5  4 
Setting School Range brick and lime     1  6 
A new Lock for vestry Chest     3  2 
Cleaning Snow of Church Cieling     1  10 
Slate pointing inside the Church 189 yds at 2d per yard   1  11  6 
Candles for doing the same     2  6 
Sand, Hair, Lime and ffetching     11  6 
ffor shovelling away the snow to get to Church       8 
A Brush for sweeping Church     9   0  
ffor cleaning Church-Yard     1  0 
ffor mowing and cleaning Church Yard     1  6 
5 Tun and two load of fflags to Church Yard   3  3  0 
One Load and Six sacks of Lime     11  0 
47 yards of fflagging at 6d per yard   1  3  6 
Levelling Church Yard & sand getting in     3  0 
Glazing Church and School Windows     13  0 
Blacksmith's Bill     7  1 


The mid eighteenth century appears to have had a series of severe winters. We have been unable to find any records of the climate in this country for this period. Tree ring data shows that the middle of the century marked the end of a century or so of lower temperatures. So it is difficult to know how often "Cleaning Snow of Church Cieling" was normal but it is the only reference in the period covered by the first accounts book. From this item and from the payment to clear the snow "to get to Church", it is probable that 1751 was exceptional. However, in 1741 the accounts refer to the installation of heating and a chimney in the vestry. The installation of a chimney infers that there was no heating there already. In 1736, the accounts of the Surveyors of the Highway refer to a "horse and sledge" being used. There was sufficient snow to need to use horse drawn sledges.

The laying of flags in the churchyard was obviously an exceptional item of maintenance. However, other years record equally heavy expenditure. In 1739, John Taite was paid 16s 0d for "Church Wall amending" and Thos. Taite was paid 1s 4d for "repairing Horse Block". The glazing of the church and the school occurs in the accounts every year. Was vandalism more rife than today? Note that materials were far more expensive than labour costs. The flags, lime and sand for the churchyard cost £4 14s 0d and the labour for laying them was half at £2 6s 6d.

A sheet of parchment for the parish register cost 11d while the clerk's salary for the whole year was £1 2s 6d. Similar differences can be seen for cleaning when a brush cost 9s 0d and the annual bill for cleaning the church yard was 1s 0d. There is no specific cost allocated to the cleaning of the interior of the church and school; presumably this was part of the sexton's job. Surplice washing and plate cleaning were itemised and cost 10s 0d although we do not know who undertook the task.

The direct costs of church services are few. In 1751, new surplices were made. 12 yards of "Holland" were purchased at 4s 6d a yard, a total of £2 14s 0d, and 7s 6d was paid for making them. This would probably only be sufficient to make a few surplices, certainly not for a choir. On a regular basis wine and bread was collected for the celebration of communion. The accounts do not record where the wine and bread was acquired. We know how much was spent each time and that communion was celebrated on the following holy days:

sd.
Michaelmas 10 3
Christmas 13 3
Good Friday 7 3
Easter Day 10 3
Whit-sunday 10 3
July 26th 3


The entry for communion on July 26th is unclear. That date is the feast day of Saints Joachim and Anne. It is unlikely that the church would choose either of these saints for a feast day. As there was no special peel of bells mentioned in the accounts for that date there does not seem to be a significant national cause for celebration on that date.

The Visitation mentioned in 'The Barwicker' No. 1
March 1986 page 35 appears in the accounts as a regular procedure involving a significant cost. The 1751 accounts show £1 4s 8d was spent on the Visitation covering the following costs:-

s d
Charges at the Visitation 17 0
Court ffees at Visitation 5 0
Horses, Hay and Hostler 1 8
A Horse for Clark to the Visitation 1 0


From time to time the rector seems to be absent and the Church obtained the services of a visiting preacher. In 1735 the accounts show:

s d
Spent when Mr Weighton preached here 20
Spent when Mr Ray preached here 10
Spent when Mr Hopkins burying a child 1s when preaching 2 0


The disparity of Mr Weighton's 2s 0d compared with the 1s 0d spent on the other two preachers is not explained.

As with other parish officers' accounts, the churchwardens paid for items which would more properly have been paid by those other officers. The Poor House at Potterton (see 'The Barwicker' No.52 page 65) was maintained by the churchwardens from time to time. In 1751, the church paid 11d for "Thatching the Poor House at Potterton". At other times repairing the drainage at the same house was paid for by the churchwardens. Another inappropriate activity financed in 1751 was "Two sacks of Coals to the Bone ffire 1s 3d". As the accounts entries are not dated we do not know what occasion was celebrated by such generosity.

This article was based upon a small sample of the churchwardens' accounts and there is scope for further examination of them. Another article reveals when the churchwardens financed the construction of what must be the first (and only?) parish vehicle.
HAROLD SMITH


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