The Parish Clerk

P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

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• Publié par: lulaz
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 27
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Project Gutenberg's The Parish Clerk (1907), by Peter Hampson Ditchfield This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Parish Clerk (1907) Author: Peter Hampson Ditchfield Release Date: September 3, 2004 [EBook #13363] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARISH CLERK (1907) *** Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE PARISH CLERK. By Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. THE PARISH CLERK BY P.H. DITCHFIELD M.A., F.S.A. WITH THIRTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS First Published in 1907 . CONTENTS CHAPTER I. OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS II. THE ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE OFFICE OF CLERK III. THE MEDIÆVAL CLERK IV. HIS DUTIES OF READING AND SINGING V. THE CLERK IN LITERATURE VI. CLERKS TOO CLERICAL--SMUGGLING DAYS AND SMUGGLING WAYS VII. THE CLERK IN EPITAPH VIII. THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS IX. THE CLERKS OF LONDON: THEIR DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES X. CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS XI. THE CLERKS AND THE PARISH REGISTERS XII. THE CLERK AS A POET XIII. THE CLERK GIVING OUT NOTICES XIV. SLEEPY CHURCH AND SLEEPY CLERKS XV. THE CLERK IN ART XVI. WOMEN AS PARISH CLERKS XVII. SOME YORKSHIRE CLERKS XVIII. AN OLD CHESHIRE CLERK AND SOME OTHER WORTHIES PAGE 1 16 31 48 63 79 90 104 115 130 140 154 169 179 195 201 206 225 XIX. THE CLERK AND THE LAW XX. RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR WAYS XXI. CURIOUS STORIES XXII. LONGEVITY AND HEREDITY--THE DEACONCLERKS OF BARNSTAPLE XXIII. CONCLUSION INDEX 245 255 306 318 333 335 [pg vii] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Parish Clerk. By Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. From the original in the National Gallery The Village Choir. By Thomas Webster From the original in the Victoria and Albert Museum The Mediæval Clerk: The Clerk In Procession From old engravings The Clerk Bearing Holy Water And Asperging The Cook, And Others From old engravings The Old Church-Houses At Hurst And Uffington, Berks By permission of Messrs. G.J. Palmer and Sons The Clerk And Priest Visiting The Sick And Administering The Last Sacrament By permission of the S.P.C.K. Old Beckenham Church. By David Cox From the drawing at the Tate Gallery Old Scarlett From "The Book of Days " By permission of Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, Ltd. Entrance To The Hall Of The Company Of Parish Clerks. The Master's Chair At The Parish Clerks' Hall Portrait Of William Roper, Son-In-Law And 104 106 98 60 46 28 8 Frontispiece 18 42 Biographer Of Sir Thomas More, Benefactor Of The Clerks' Company The Grant Of Arms To The Company Of Parish Clerks Stained Glass Window At The Hall Of The Parish Clerks' Company, Showing Portraits Of John Clarke And Stephen Penckhurst A Page Of The Bede Roll Of The Parish Clerks' Company. The Organ At The Parish Clerks' Hall A Page Of An Early Bill Of Mortality Preserved At The Hall Of The Parish Clerks' Company Interior Of The Hall Of The Parish Clerks' Company Portrait Of John Clarke, Parish Clerk Of The Church Of St. Michael, Cornhill Old Map Of Clerkenwell A Mystery Play At Chester From a print after a painting by T. Uwins The Descent Into Hell From William Hone's "Ancient Mysteries " The Sleeping Congregation. By W. Hogarth From an engraving at the British Museum The Clerk Attending The Priest At Holy Baptism By permission of the S.P.C.K. The Duties Of A Clerk At A Death And Funeral By permission of the S.P.C.K. The Vicar Of Wakefield. By W.P. Frith From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co. Portrait Of Richard Hust, The Restorer Of The Clerks' Almshouses 199 198 196 136 182 122 126 128 130 132 112 110 111 114 121 200 The Church Of St. Margaret, Westminster After an engraving from a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co. William Hinton, A Wiltshire Worthy. Drawn by the Rev. Julian Charles Young By permission of Messrs. Macmillan and Co . Sunday Morning. By John Absolon From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co. The Parish Clerk Of Quedgeley By permission of Miss Isabel Barnett James Carne, Parish Clerk Of St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, The Oldest Living Clerk From a photograph by Mr. R.P. Griffith, Newquay 210 239 270 280 320 [pg ix] PREFACE The race of parish clerks is gradually becoming extinct. Before the recollection of their quaint ways, their curious manners and customs, has quite passed away, it has been thought advisable to collect all that can be gathered together concerning them. Much light has in recent years been thrown upon the history of the office. The learned notes appended to Dr. Wickham Legg's edition of The Parish Clerk's Book , published by the Henry Bradshaw Society, Dr. Atchley's Parish Clerk and his Right to Read the Liturgical Epistle (Alcuin Club Tracts), and other works, give much information with regard to the antiquity of the office, and to the duties of the clerk of mediæval times; and from these books I have derived much information. By the kindness of many friends and of many correspondents who are personally unknown to me, I have been enabled to collect a large number of anecdotes, recollections, facts, and biographical sketches of many clerks in different parts of England, and I am greatly indebted to those who have so kindly supplied me with so much valuable information. Many of the writers are far advanced in years, when the labour of putting pen to paper is a sore burden. I am deeply grateful to them for the trouble which they kindly took in recording their recollections of the scenes of their youth. I have been much amused by the humorous stories of old clerkly ways, by the facetiæ which have been sent to me, and I have been much impressed by the records of faithful service and devotion to duty shown by many holders of the office who won the esteem and affectionate regard of both priest and people. It is impossible for me to publish the names of all those who have kindly written to me, but I wish especially to thank the Rev. Canon Venables, who first [pg x] suggested the idea of this work, and to whom it owes its conception and initiation [1]; to the Rev. B.D. Blyn-Stoyle, to Mr. F.W. Hackwood, the Rev. W.V. Vickers, the Rev. W. Selwyn, the Rev. E.H. L. Reeve, the Rev. W.H. Langhorne, Mr. E.J. Lupson, Mr. Charles Wise, and many others, who have taken a kindly interest in the writing of this book. I have also to express my thanks to the editors of the Treasury and of Pearson's Magazine for permission to reproduce portions of some of the articles which I contributed to their periodicals, to the editor of Chambers's Journal for the use of an article on some north-country clerics and their clerks by a writer whose name is unknown to me, and to the Rev. J. Gaskell Exton for sending to me an account of a Yorkshire clerk which, by the kindness of the editor of the Yorkshire Weekly Post , I am enabled to reproduce. [1] Since the above was written, and while this book has been passing through the press, the venerable clergyman, Canon Venables, has been called away from earth. A zealous parish priest, a voluminous writer, a true friend, he will be much missed by all who knew him. Some months ago he sent me some recollections of his early days, of the clerks he had known, and his reflections on his long ministry, and these have been recorded in this book, and will now have a pathetic interest for his many friends and for all who admired his noble, earnest, and strenuous life. [pg 1] THE PARISH CLERK CHAPTER I OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS A remarkable feature in the conduct of our modern ecclesiastical services is the disappearance and painless extinction of the old parish clerk who figured so prominently in the old-fashioned ritual dear to the hearts of our forefathers. The Oxford Movement has much to answer for! People who have scarcely passed the rubicon of middle life can recall the curious scene which greeted their eyes each Sunday morning when life was young, and perhaps retain a tenderness for old abuses, and, like George Eliot, have a lingering liking for nasal clerks and top-booted clerics, and sigh for the departed shades of vulgar errors. Then and now--the contrast is great. Then the hideous Georgian "threedecker" reared its monstrous form, blocking out the sight of the sanctuary; [pg 2] immense pews like cattle-pens filled the nave. The woodwork was high and panelled, sometimes richly carved, as at Whalley Church, Lancashire, where some pews have posts at the corners like an old-fashioned four-posted bed. Sometimes two feet above the top of the woodwork there were brass rods on which slender curtains ran, and were usually drawn during sermon time in order that the attention of the occupants of the pew might not be distracted from devout meditations on the preacher's discourse--or was it to woo slumber? A Berkshire dame rather admired these old-fashioned pews, wherein, as she naively expressed it, "a body might sleep comfortable without all the parish knowin' on it." It was of such pews that Swift wrote in his Baucis and Philemon: "A bedstead of the antique mode, Compact of timber many a load, Such as our ancestors did use Was metamorphosed into pews; Which still their ancient nature keep By lodging folks disposed to sleep." The squire's pew was a wondrous structure, with its own special fire-place, the fire in which the old gentleman used to poke vigorously when the parson was too long in preaching. It was amply furnished, this squire's pew, with armchairs and comfortable seats and stools and books. Such a pew all furnished and adorned did a worthy clerk point out to the witty Bishop of Oxford, Bishop Wilberforce, with much pride and satisfaction. "If there be ought your lordship can mention to mak' it better, I'm sure Squire will no mind gettin' on it."