An old parishioner of the famous Rev. R. S. Hawker once told him of a very successful run of a cargo of kegs, which the obliging parish clerk allowed the smugglers to place underneath the benches and in the tower stairs of the church. The old man told the story thus:
"We bribed Tom Hockaday, the sexton, and we had the goods safe in the seats by Saturday night. The parson did wonder at the large congregation, for divers of them were not regular churchgoers at other times; and if he had known what was going on, he could not have preached a more suitable discourse, for it was, 'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.' It was one of his best sermons; but, there, it did not touch us, you see; for we never tasted anything but brandy and gin."
In such smuggling ways the clerk was no worse than his neighbours, who were all more or less involved in the illicit trade.
The old Cornish clerks who used to help the smugglers were a curious race of beings, remarkable for their familiar ways with the parson. At St. Clements the clergyman one day was reading the verse, "I have seen the ungodly flourish like agreen baytree," when the clerk looked up with an inquiring glance from the desk below, "How can that be, maister?" He was more familiar with the colour of a bay horse than the tints of a bay tree.
At Kenwyn two dogs, one of which belonged to the parson, were fighting at the west end of the church; the parson, who was then reading the second lesson, rushed out of the pew and went down and parted them. Returning to his pew, and doubtful where hehad left off, he asked the clerk, "Roger, where was I?" "Why, down parting the dogs, maister," replied Roger.
Two rocks stand out on the South Devon coast near Dawlish, which are known as the Parson and Clerk. A wild, weird legend is told about these rocks--of a parson who desired the See of Exeter, and often rode with his clerk to Dawlish to hear the latest news of the bishop who was nigh unto death. The wanderers lost their way one dark night, and the parson exhibited most unclerical anger, telling his clerk that he would rather have the devil for a guide than him. Of course, the devil or one of his imps obliged, and conducted the wanderers to an old ruined house, where there was a large company of disguised demons. They all passed a merry night, singing and carousing. Then the news comes that the bishop is dead. The parson and clerk determine to set out at once. Their steeds are brought, but will not budge a step. The parson cuts savagely at his horse. The demons roar with unearthly laughter. The ruined house and all the devils vanish. The waves are overwhelming the riders, and in the morning the wretches are found clinging to the rocks with the grasp of death, which ever afterwards record their villainy and their fate.
Among tales of awe and weird mystery stands out the story of the adventures of Peter Priestly, clerk, sexton, and gravestone cutter, of Wakefield, who flourished at the end of the eighteenth century. He was an old and much respected inhabitant of the town, and not at all given to superstitious fears. One Saturday evening he went to the church to finish the epitaph on a stone which was to be in readiness for removal before Sunday. Arrived at the church, where he hadhis workshop, he set down his lantern and lighted his other candle, which was set in a primitive candlestick formed out of a potato. The church clock struck eleven, and still some letters remained unfinished, when he heard a strange sound, which seemed to say "Hiss!" "Hush!" He resumes his work undaunted. Again that awful voice breaks in once more. He lights his lantern and searches for its cause. In vain his efforts. He resolves to leave the church, but again remembers his promise and returns to his work. The mystic hour of midnight strikes. He has nearly finished, and bends down to examine the letters on the stone. Again he hears a louder "Hiss!" He now stands appalled. Terror seizes him. He has profaned the Sabbath, and the sentence of death has gone forth. With tottering steps Peter finds his way home and goes to bed. Sleep forsakes him. His wife ministers to him in vain. As morning dawns the good woman notices Peter's wig suspended on the great chair. "Oh, Peter," she cries, "what hast thou been doing to burn all t' hair off one side of thy wig?" "Ah! bless thee," says the clerk, "thou hast cured me with that word." The mysterious "hiss" and "hush" were sounds from the frizzling of Peter's wig by the flame of the candle, which to his imperfect sense of hearing imported things horrible and awful. Such is the story which a writer in Hone'sYear Booktells, and which is said to have afforded Peter Priestly and the good people of merry Wakefield many a joke.
TheYear Bookis always full of interest, and in the same volume I find an account of a most worthy representative of the profession, one John Kent, the parish clerk of St. Albans, who died in 1798, aged eighty years. He was a very venerable andintelligent man, who did service in the old abbey church, long before the days when its beauties were desecrated by Grimthorpian restoration, or when it was exalted to cathedral rank. For fifty-two years Kent was the zealous clerk and custodian of the minster, and loved to describe its attractions. He was the friend of the learned Browne Willis. His name is mentioned in Cough'sSepulchral Monuments of Great Britain, and his intelligence and knowledge noticed, and Newcombe, the historian of the abbey, expressed his gratitude to the good clerk for much information imparted by him to the author. The monks could not have guarded the shrine of St. Alban with greater care than did Kent protect the relics of good Duke Humphrey. His veneration for all that the abbey contained was remarkable. A story is told of a gentleman who purloined a bone of the Duke. The clerk suspected the theft but could never prove it, though he sometimes taxed the gentleman with having removed the bone. At last, just before his death, the man restored it, saying to the clerk, "I could not depart easy with it in my possession."
Kent was a plumber and glazier by trade, in politics a staunch partisan of "the Blues," and on account of his sturdy independence was styled "Honest John." He performed his duties in the minster with much zeal and ability, his knowledge of psalmody was unsurpassed, his voice was strong and melodious, and he was a complete master of church music. Unlike many of his confrères, he liked to hear the congregation sing; but when country choirs came from neighbouring churches to perform in the abbey with instruments, contemptuously described by him as "a box of whistles," the congregation being unable to join in themelodies, he used to give out the anthem thus: "Singyeto the praise and glory of God...." Five years before his death he had an attack of paralysis which slightly crippled his power of utterance, though this defect could scarcely be detected when he was engaged in the services of the church. Two days before his death he sang his "swan-song." Some colours were presented to the volunteers of the town, and were consecrated in the abbey. During the service he sang the 20th Psalm with all the strength and vivacity of youth. When his funeral sermon was preached the rector alluded to this dying effort, and said that on the day of the great service "Nature seemed to have reassumed her throne; and, as she knew it was to be his last effort, was determined it should be his best." The body of the good clerk, John Kent, rests in the abbey church which he loved so well, in a spot marked by himself, and we hope that the "restoration," somewhat drastic and severe, which has fallen upon the grand old church, has not obscured his grave or destroyed the memorial of this worthy and excellent clerk.
The virtues of many a parish clerk are recorded on numerous humble tombstones in village churchyards. The gratitude felt by both rector and people for many years of faithful service is thus set forth, sometimes couched in homely verse, and occasionally marred by the misplaced humour and jocular expressions and puns with which our forefathers thought fit to honour the dead. In this they were not original, and but followed the example of the Greeks and Romans, the Italians, Spaniards, and French. This objectionable fashion of punning on gravestones was formerly much in vogue in England, and such a prominent official as the clerk did not escape the attention of the punsters. Happily the quaint fancies and primitive humour, which delighted our grandsires in the production of rebuses and such-like pleasantries, no longer find themselves displayed upon the fabric of our churches, and the "merry jests" have ceased to appear upon the memorials of the dead. We will glance at the clerkly epitaphs of some of the worthies who have held the office of parish clerk who were deemed deserving of a memorial.
In the southern portion of the churchyard attachedto St. Andrew's Church, Rugby, is a plain upright stone containing the following inscription:
In memory ofPeter Collis33 years Clerk ofthis Parishwho died Feb'y 28th 1818Aged 82 years
[Some lines of poetry follow, but these unfortunately are not now discernible.]
At the time Peter held office the incumbent was noted for his card-playing propensities, and the clerk was much addicted to cock-fighting. The following couplet relating to these worthies is still remembered:
No wonder the people of Rugby are all in the dark,With a card-playing parson and a cock-fighting clerk.
Peter's father was clerk before him, and on a stone to his memory is recorded as follows:
In memory ofJohn Collis Husband ofEliz: Collis who liv'd inWedlock together 50 yearshe served as Parish Clerk 41 yearsAnd died June 19th 1781 aged 69 yearsHim who covered up the DeadIs himself laid in the same bedTime with his crooked scythe hath madeHim lay his mattock down and spadeMay he and we all rise againTo everlasting life AMEN.
The name Collis occurs amongst those who held the office of parish clerk at West Haddon. The Rev. John T. Page, to whom I am indebted for the above information[44], has gleaned the following particularsfrom the parish registers and other sources. The clerk who reigned in 1903 was Thomas Adams, who filled the position for eighteen years. He succeeded his father-in-law, William Prestidge, who died 24 March, 1886, after holding the office fifty-three years. His predecessor was Thomas Collis, who died 30 January, 1833, after holding the office fifty-two years, and succeeded John Colledge, who, according to an old weather-beaten stone still standing in the churchyard, died 12 September, 1781. How long Colledge held office cannot now be ascertained. Here are some remarkable examples of long years of service, Collis and Prestidge having held the office for 105 years.
[44]cf.Notes and Queries, Tenth Series, ii., 10 September, 1904, p. 215.
In Shenley churchyard the following remarkable epitaph appears to the memory of Joseph Rogers, who was a bricklayer as well as parish clerk:
Silent in dust lies mouldering hereA Parish Clerk of voice most clear.None Joseph Rogers could excelIn laying bricks or singing well;Though snapp'd his line, laid by his rod,We build for him our hopes in God.
A remarkable instance of longevity is recorded on a tombstone in Cromer churchyard. The inscription runs:
Sacred to the memory of David Vial who departed this life the 26th of March, 1873, aged 94 years, for sixty years clerk of this parish.
At the village church of Whittington, near Oswestry, there is a well-known epitaph, which is worth recording:
March 13th 1766 died Thomas Evans, Parish Clerk, aged 72.
Old Sternhold's lines or "Vicar of Bray"Which he tuned best 'twas hard to say.
Another remarkable instance of longevity is that recorded on a tombstone in the cemetery of Eye, Suffolk, erected to the memory of a faithful clerk:
Erected to the memory ofGeorge Herbertwho was clerk of this parish for morethan 71 yearsand who died on the 17th May 1873aged 81 years.This monumentIs erected to his memory by his gratefulFriendthe Rev. W. Page RobertsVicar of Eye.
Erected to the memory ofGeorge Herbertwho was clerk of this parish for morethan 71 yearsand who died on the 17th May 1873aged 81 years.This monumentIs erected to his memory by his gratefulFriendthe Rev. W. Page RobertsVicar of Eye.
Herbert must have commenced his duties very early in life; according to the inscription, at the age of ten years.
At Scothorne, in Lincolnshire, there is a sexton-ringer-clerk epitaph on John Blackburn's tombstone, dated 1739-40. It reads thus:
Alas poor JohnIs dead and goneWho often toll'd the BellAnd with a spadeDug many a graveAnd said Amen as well.
The Roes were a great family of clerks at Bakewell, and the two members who occupied that office at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century seem to have been endowed with good voices, and with a devoted attachment to the church and its monuments. Samuel Roe had the honour of being mentioned in theGentleman's Magazine, and receives well-deserved praise for his care of the fabric of BakewellChurch, and his epitaph is given, which runs as follows:
ToThe memory ofSAMUEL ROEClerkof the Parish Church of Bakewell,which officehe filled thirty-five yearswith credit to himselfand satisfaction to the inhabitants.His natural powers of voice,in clearness, strength, and sweetnesswere altogether unequalled.He died October 31st, 1792Aged 70 years
ToThe memory ofSAMUEL ROEClerkof the Parish Church of Bakewell,which officehe filled thirty-five yearswith credit to himselfand satisfaction to the inhabitants.His natural powers of voice,in clearness, strength, and sweetnesswere altogether unequalled.He died October 31st, 1792Aged 70 years
The correspondent of theGentleman's Magazinewrote thus of this faithful clerk:
"Mr. Urban,"It was with much concern that I read the epitaph upon Mr. Roe in your last volume, page 1192. Upon a little tour which I made in Derbyshire in 1789, I met with that worthy and very intelligent man at Bakewell, and in the course of my antiquarian researches there, derived no inconsiderable assistance from his zeal and civility. If he did not possess the learning of his namesake, your old and valuable correspondent[45], I will venture to declare that he was not less influenced by a love and veneration for antiquity, many proofs of which he had given by his care and attention to the monuments of the church which were committed to his charge; for he united the characters of sexton, clerk, singing-master, will-maker,and schoolmaster. Finding that I was quite alone, he requested permission to wait upon me at the inn in the evening, urging as a reason for this request that he must be exceedingly gratified by the conversation of a gentleman who could read the characters upon the monument of Vernon, the founder of Haddon House, a treat he had not met with for many years. After a very pleasant gossip we parted, but not till my honest friend had, after some apparent struggle, begged of me to indulge him with my name."
[45]T. Row stands for TheRectorOfWhittington, the Rev. Samuel Pegge. cf.Curious Epitaphs, by W. Andrews, p. 124.
To this worthy clerk's care is due the preservation of the Vernon and other monuments in Bakewell Church. Mr. Andrews tells us that "in some instances he placed a wooden framework to keep off the rough hands and rougher knives of the boys and young men of the congregation. He also watched with special care the Wenderley tomb, and even took careful rubbings of the inscriptions[46]."
[46]W. Andrews,Curious Epitaphs, p. 124.
The inscription on the tomb of the son of this worthy clerk proves that he inherited his father's talents as regards musical ability:
ErectedIn remembrance ofPHILIP ROEWho died 12th September, 1815,Aged 52 years.
ErectedIn remembrance ofPHILIP ROEWho died 12th September, 1815,Aged 52 years.
The vocal Powers here let us markOf Philip our late Parish Clerk,In church none ever heard a LaymanWith a clearer voice say 'Amen'!Who now with Hallelujahs soundLike him can make this roof rebound?The Choir lament his Choral TonesThe Town--so soon Here lie his Bones.Sleep undisturb'd within thy peaceful shrineTill Angels wake thee with such notes as thine.
The last two lines are a sweet and tender tribute truly to the memory of this melodious clerk.
A writer inAll the Year Round[47], who has been identified as Cuthbert Bede, the author of the immortalVerdant Green, tells of the Osbornes and Worrals, famous families of clerks, quoting instances of the hereditary nature of the office. He wrote as follows concerning them:
[47]No. 624, New Series, p. 83.
"As a boy I often attended the service at Belbroughton Church, Worcestershire, when the clerk was Mr. Osborne, tailor. His family had been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry VIII, and were lineally descended from William Fitz-Osborne, who in the twelfth century had been deprived by Ralph Fitz-Herbert of his right to the manor of Bellam, in the parish of Bellroughton. Often have I stood in the picturesque churchyard of Wolverley, Worcestershire, by the grave of the old parish clerk, whom I well remember, old Thomas Worrall, the inscription on whose monument is as follows:
Sacred to the memory ofTHOMAS WORRALL,parish clerk of Wolverley for a period offorty-seven years.Died A.D. 1854, February 23rd.He served with faithfulness in humble sphereAs one who could his talents well employ,Hope that when Christ his Lord shall reappear,He may be bidden to his Master's joy.This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceasedby a few parishioners in testimony of his worth, April 1855.Charles R. Somers Cocks,Vicar.
It may be noted of this worthy clerk that, with the exception of a week or two before his death, he was never absent from his Sunday and weekday duties in the forty-seven years during which he held office.
He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty years. His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected "to record his worth both in his public and private character, and as a mark of personal esteem--p. 1. F.H. and W.C. p.c." I am told that these initials stand for F. Hustle, and the Rev. William Callow, and that the latter was the author of the following lines inscribed on the monument, which are well worth quoting:
If courtly bards adorn each statesman's bustAnd strew their laurels o'er each warrior's dust,Alike immortalise, as good and great,Him who enslaved as him who saved the State,Surely the Muse (a rustic minstrel) mayDrop one wild flower upon a poor man's clay.This artless tribute to his mem'ry giveWhose life was such as heroes seldom live.In worldly knowledge, poor indeed his store--He knew the village, and he scarce knew more.The worth of heavenly truth he justly knew--In faith a Christian, and in practice too.Yes, here lies one, excel him ye who can:Go! imitate the virtues of that man!
The famous "Amen" epitaph at Crayford, Kent, is well known, though the name of the clerk who is thus commemorated is sometimes forgotten. It is to the memory of one Peter Snell, who repeated his "Amens" diligently for a period of thirty years, and runs as follows:
Here lieth the body ofPeter Snell,Thirty years clerk of this Parish.He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man,and died on his way to church toassist at a wedding,on the 31st of March, 1811,Aged seventy years.
The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to his cheerful memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful services.
The life of this clerk was just threescore and ten,Nearly half of which time he had sung out Amen.In his youth he had married like other young men,But his wife died one day--so he chanted Amen.A second he took--she departed--what then?He married and buried a third with Amen.Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but thenHis voice was deep base, as he sung out Amen.On the horn he could blow as well as most men,So his horn was exalted to blowing Amen.But he lost all his wind after threescore and ten,And here with three wives he waits till againThe trumpet shall rouse him to sing out Amen.
Old Scarlett.
The duties of sexton and parish clerk were usually performed by one person, as we have already frequently noticed, and therefore it is fitting that we should record the epitaph of Old Scarlett, most famous of grave-diggers, who buried two queens, both the victims of stern persecution, ill-usage, and Tudor tyranny--Catherine, the divorced wife of Henry VIII, and poor sinning Mary Queen of Scots. His famous picture in Peterborough Cathedral, on the wall of the western transept, usually attracts the chief attention of the tourist, and has preserved his name and fame. He is represented with a spade, pickaxe, keys, and a whip in his leathern girdle, and at his feet lies a skull. Inthe upper left-hand corner appear the arms of the see of Peterborough, save that the cross-keys are converted into cross-swords. The whip at his girdle appears to show that Old Scarlett occupied the position of dog-whipper as well as sexton. There is a description of this portrait in theBook of Days, wherein the writer says:
"What a lively effigy--short, stout, hardy, self-complacent, perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud of his profession, and content to be exhibited with all its insignia about him! Two queens had passed through his hands into that bed which gives a lasting rest to queens and to peasants alike. An officer of death, who had so long defied his principal, could not but have made some impression on the minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and other magnates of the cathedral, and hence, as we may suppose, the erection of this lively portraiture of the old man, which is believed to have been only once renewed since it was first put up. Dr. Dibdin, who last copied it, tells us that 'old Scarlett's jacket and trunkhose are of a brownish red, his stockings blue, his shoes black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his feet red. The cap upon his head is red, and so also is the ground of the coat armour.'" Beneath the portrait are these lines:
YOU SEE OLD SCARLETTS PICTURE STAND ON HIEBUT AT YOUR FEETE THERE DOTH HIS BODY LYEHIS GRAVESTONE DOTH HIS AGE AND DEATH TIME SHOWHIS OFFICE BY THEIS TOKENS YOU MAY KNOWSECOND TO NONE FOR STRENGTH AND STURDYE LIMMA SCARBABE MIGHTY VOICE WITH VISAGE GRIMHEE HAD INTER'D TWO QUEENES WITHIN THIS PLACEAND THIS TOWNES HOUSEHOLDERS IN HIS LIVES SPACETWICE OVER: BUT AT LENGTH HIS OWN TURNE CAMEWHAT HE FOR OTHERS DID FOR HIM THE SAMEWAS DONE: NO DOUBT HIS SOUL DOTH LIVE FOR AYEIN HEAVEN: THOUGH HERE HIS BODY CLAD IN CLAY.
On the floor is a stone inscribed "JULY 2 1594 R.S. ætatis 98." This painting is not a contemporary portrait of the old sexton, but a copy made in 1747.
The sentiment expressed in the penult couplet is not uncommon, the idea of retributive justice, of others performing the last offices for the clerk who had so often done the like for his neighbours. The same notion is expressed in the epitaph of Frank Raw, clerk and monumental mason, of Selby, Yorkshire, which runs as follows:
Here lies the body of poor FRANK RAWParish clerk and gravestone cutter,And this is writ to let you knowWhat Frank for others used to doIs now for Frank done by another[48].
[48]Curious Epitaphs, by W. Andrews, p. 120.
The achievement of Old Scarlett with regard to his interring "the town's householders in his life's space twice over," has doubtless been equalled by many of the long-lived clerks whose memoirs have been recorded, but it is not always recorded on a tombstone. At Ratcliffe-on-Soar there is, however, the grave of an old clerk, one Robert Smith, who died in 1782, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, and his epitaph records the following facts:
Fifty-five years it was, and something more,Clerk of this parish he the office bore,And in that space, 'tis awful to declare,Two generations buried by him were[49]!
[49]Ibid. p. 121.
It is recorded on the tomb of Hezekiah Briggs, who died in 1844 in his eightieth year, the clerk and sexton of Bingley, Yorkshire, that "he buried seven thousand corpses[50]."
[50]Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, xii. 453.
The verses written in his honour are worth quoting:
Here lies an old ringer beneath the cold clayWho has rung many peals both for serious and gay;Through Grandsire and Trebles with ease he could range,Till death called Bob, which brought round the last change.For all the village came to himWhen they had need to call;His counsel free to all was given,For he was kind to all.Ring on, ring' on, sweet Sabbath bell,Still kind to me thy matins swell,And when from earthly things I part,Sigh o'er my grave and lull my heart.
These last four lines strike a sweet note, and are far superior to the usual class of monumental poetry. I will not guarantee the correct copying of the third and fourth lines. Various copyists have produced various versions. One version runs:
Bob majors and trebles with ease he could bang,Till Death called a bob which brought the last clang.
In Staple-next-Wingham, Kent, there is a stone to the memory of the parish clerk who died in 1820, aged eighty-six years, and thus inscribed:
He was honest and just, in friendship sincere,And Clerk of this Parish for sixty-seven years.
At Worth Church, Sussex, near the south entrance is a headstone, inscribed thus:
In memory of John Alcorn, Clerk and Sexton of this parish, who died Dec. 13: 1868 in the 81st year of his age.
Thine honoured friend for fifty three full years,He saw each bridal's joy, each Burial's tears;Within the walls, by Saxons reared of old,By the stone sculptured font of antique mould,Under the massive arches in the glow,Tinged by dyed sun-beams passing to and fro,A sentient portion of the sacred place,A worthy presence with a well-worn face.The lich-gate's shadow, o'er his pall at lastBids kind adieu as poor old John goes past.Unseen the path, the trees, the old oak door,No more his foot-falls touch the tomb-paved floor,His silvery head is hid, his service doneOf all these Sabbaths absent only one.And now amidst the graves he delved around,He rests and sleeps, beneath the hallowed ground.
Keep Innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right, For that shall bring a man peace at the last. Psalm XXXVII. 38.
There is an interesting memorial of an aged parish clerk in Cropthorne Church, Worcestershire, an edifice of considerable note. It consists of a small painted-glass window in the tower, containing a full-length portrait of the deceased official, duly apparelled in a cassock.
There is in the King's Norton parish churchyard an old gravestone the existence of which I dare say a good many people had forgotten until recently, owing to the inscription having become almost illegible. Within the past few weeks it has been renovated, and thus a record has been prevented from dropping out of public memory. The stone sets forth that it was erected to the memory of Isaac Ford, a shoemaker, who was for sixty-two years parish clerk of King's Norton, and who died on 10 July, 1755, aged eighty-five years. Beneath is another interesting inscription to the effect that Henry Ford, son of Isaac, who died on 11 July, 1795, aged eighty-one, was also parish clerk for forty years. The two men thus held continuous office for one hundred and two years. This is a famous record of long service, though it has been surpassed by a few others, our parish clerks being a long-lived race.
At Stoulton Church a clerk died in 1812, and it is recorded on his epitaph that "He was clerk of this parish more 30 years and much envied." It was not his office or his salary which was envied, but "a worn't much liked by the t'others," and yet followed the verse:
A loving' husband, father dear,A faithful friend lies buried here.
An epitaph without a "werse" was considered very degrading.
The story of the City companies of London has many attractions for the historian and antiquary. When we visit the ancient homes of these great societies we are impressed by their magnificence and interesting associations. Portraits of old City worthies and royal benefactors gaze at us from the walls, and link our time with theirs, when they, too, strove to uphold the honour of their guild and benefit their generation. Many a quaint old-time custom and ceremonial usage linger on within the old halls, and there too are enshrined cuirass and targe, helmet, sword and buckler, which tell the story of the past, and of the part the companies played in national defence or in the protection of civic rights. Turning down some dark alley and entering the portals of one of their halls, we are transported at once from the busy streets and din of modern London into a region of old-world memories which has a fascination that is all its own.
Entrance to the Hall of the Company of Parish Clerks.
This is not the place to discuss the origin of guilds and City companies, which can trace back their descent to Anglo-Saxon times and were usually of a religious type. They were the benefit societies of ancient days,institutions of self-help, combining care for the needy with the practice of religion, justice, and morality. There were guilds exclusively religious, guilds of the calendars for the clergy, social guilds for the purpose of promoting good fellowship, benevolence, and thrift, merchant guilds for the regulation of trade, and frith guilds for the promotion of peace and the establishment of law and order.
In this goodly company we find evidences at an early date of the existence of the Fraternity of Parish Clerks. Its long and important career, though it ranked not with the Livery Companies, and sent not its members to take part in the deliberations of the Common Council, is full of interest, and reflects the greatest credit on the worthy clerks who composed it.
In other cities besides London the clerks seem to have formed their guilds. As early as the time of theDomesday Surveythere was a clerks' guild at Canterbury, wherein it is stated "In civitate Cantuaria habet achiepiscopusxii burgesses and xxxii mansuras which the clerks of the town,clerici de villa, hold within their gild and do yield xxxv shillings."
The first mention of the company carries us back to the early days of Henry III, when in the seventeenth year of that monarch's reign (A.D. 1233), according to Stow, they were incorporated and registered in the books of the Guildhall. The patron saint of the company was St. Nicholas, who also extended his patronage to robbers and mariners. Thieves are dubbed by Shakespeare as St. Nicholas's clerks[51], and Rowley calls highwaymen by the same title. Possibly this may be accounted for by the association of the light-fingered fraternity with Nicholas, or Old Nick,a cant name for the devil, or becauseThe Golden Legendtells of the conversion of some thieves through the saint's agency. At any rate, the good Bishop of Myra was the patron saint of scholars, and therefore was naturally selected as tutelary guardian of clerks.
[51]Henry IV, act ii. sc. 1.
In 1442 Henry VI granted a charter to "the Chief or Parish Clerks of the City of London for the honour and glory of Almighty God and of the undefiled and most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, and on account of that special devotion, which they especially bore to Christ's glorious confessor, St. Nicholas, on whose day or festival we were first presented into this present world, at the hands of a mother of memory ever to be revered." The charter states that they had maintained a poor brotherhood of themselves, as well as a certain divine service, and divine words of charity and piety, devised and exhibited by them year by year, for forty years or more by part; and it conferred on them the right of a perpetual corporate community, having two roasters and two chaplains to celebrate divine offices every day, for the King's welfare whether alive or dead, and for the souls of all faithful departed, for ever. By special royal grace they were allowed, on petitioning His Majesty, to have the charter without paying any fine or fee.
Seven years later a second charter was granted, wherein it is stated that their services were held in the Chapel of Mary Magdalene by the Guildhall. "Bretherne and Sisterne" were included in the fraternity. Bad times and the Wars of the Roses brought distress to the community, and they prayed Edward IV to refound their guild, allowing only the maintenance of one chaplain instead of two in the chapel nigh the Guildhall, together with the support of seven poorpersons who daily offered up their prayers for the welfare of the King and the repose of the souls of the faithful. They provided "a prest, brede, wyne, wex, boke, vestments and chalise for their auter of S. Nicholas in the said chapel." The King granted their request.
The Master's Chair at the Parish Clerks' Hall.
The original home of the guild was in Bishopsgate. Brewers' Hall was, in 1422, lent to them for their meetings. But the old deeds in the possession of the company show that as early as 1274 they acquired property "near the King's highway in the parish of St. Ethelburga, extending from the west side of the garden of the Nuns of St. Helen's to near the stone wall of Bishopsgate on the north, in breadth from the east side of William the Whit Tawyer's to the King's highway on the south." These two highways are now known as Bishopsgate Street and Camomile Street. They had property also at Finsbury on the east side of Whitecross Street. Inasmuch as the guild did not in those early days possess a charter and was not incorporated, it had no power to hold property; hence the lands were transmitted to individual members of the fraternity[52]. After their incorporation in 1442 the trustees of the lands and possessions were all clerks. Another property belonged to them at Enfield.
[52]The transmission of the property is carefully traced inSome Account of Parish Clerks, by Mr. James Christie, p. 78. He had access to the company's muniments.
The chief possession of the clerks was the Bishopsgate property. It consisted of an inn called "The Wrestlers," another inn which bore the sign of "The Angel," and a fair entry or gate near the latter which still bears the name Clerks' Place. Wrestlers' Court still marks the site of the old inn--so conservative arethe old names in the city of London. Passing through the entry we should have seen seven modest almshouses for the brethren and sisters of the guilds. Beyond these was the hall of the company. It consisted of a parlour (36 ft. by 14 ft.), with three chambers over it. The east side with fan glasses overlooked the garden, 72 ft. in length by 21 ft. wide. The west side was lined with wainscot. The actual hall adjoined, a fine room 30 ft. by 25 ft., with a gallery at the nether end, with a little parlour at the west end. A room for the Bedell, a kitchen with a vault under it, larder-rooms, buttery, and a little house called the Ewery, completed the buildings. It must have been a very delightful little home for the company, not so palatial as that of some of the greater guilds, but compact, charming, and altogether attractive.
But evil days set in for the City companies of London. Spoliation, greed, destruction were in the air. Churches, monasteries, charities felt the rude hand of the spoiler, and it could scarcely be that the rich corporations of the City should fail to attract the covetous eyes of the rapacious courtiers. They were forced to surrender all their property which had been used for so-called "superstitious" purposes, and most of them bought this back with large sums of money, which went into the coffers of the King or his ministers. The Parish Clerks' Company fared no better than the rest. Their hall was seized by the King, or rather by the infamous courtiers of Edward VI, and sold, together with the almshouses, to Sir Robert Chester in 1548. He at once took possession of the property, but the clerks protested that they had been wrongfully despoiled, and again seized their rightful possessions. In spite of the sympathyand support of the Lord Mayor, who "communed with the wardens of the Great Companies for their gentle aid to be granted to the parish clerks towards their charges in defence of their title to their Common Hall and lands," the clerks lost their case, and were compelled to give up their home or submit to a heavy fine of 1000 marks besides imprisonment. The poor dispossessed clerks were defeated, but not disheartened. In the days of Queen Mary they renewed their suit, and "being likely to have prevailed, Sir Robert Chester pulled down the hall, sold the timber, stone and land, and thereupon the suit was ended"--very summary conclusion truly!
The Lord Mayor and his colleagues again showed sympathy and compassion for the dispossessed clerks, and offered them the church of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in 1552 for their meetings. They did not lack friends. William Roper, whose picture still hangs in the hall of the company, the son-in-law of Sir Thomas More, was a great benefactor, who bequeathed to them some tenements in Southwark on condition that they should distribute £4 among the poor prisoners in Newgate and other jails. He was the biographer of Sir Thomas More, and died in 1577.
In 1610 the clerks applied for a new charter, and obtained it from James I, under the title of "The Parish Clerks of the Parishes and Parish Churches of the City of London, the liberties thereof and seven out of nine out-parishes adjoining." They were required to make returns for the bills of mortality and of the deaths of freemen. The masters and wardens had power granted to them to examine clerks as to whether they could sing the Psalms of David according to the usual tunes used in the parish churches, and whetherthey were sufficiently qualified to make their weekly returns. In 1636 a new charter was granted by Charles I, and again in 1640, this last charter being that by which the company is now governed. By this instrument their jurisdiction was extended so as to include Hackney and the other fifteen out-parishes, and they gained the right of collecting their own wages, and of suing for it in the ecclesiastical courts, and of printing the bills of mortality.
Soon after the company lost their hall through the high-handed proceedings of Sir Robert Chester, they purchased or leased a new hall, which was situated at the north-east corner of Brode Lane, Vintry, where they lived from 1562, until the Great Fire in 1666 again made them homeless. The Sun Tavern in Leadenhall Street, the Green Dragon, Queenhythe, the Quest House, Cripplegate, the Gun, near Aldgate, and the Mitre in Fenchurch Street, afforded them temporary accommodation. In 1669 they began to arrange for a new hall to be built off Wood Street, which was completed in 1671, and has since been their home. Various sums of money have been voted at different times for its repair or embellishment. It has once been damaged by fire, and on another occasion severely threatened. In 1825 the entrance into Wood Street was blocked up and the entrance into Silver Street opened. The hall has been a favourite place of meeting for several other companies--the Fruiterers' Company, the Tinplate Workers' Company, the Society of Porters, and other private companies have been their tenants.