The passing of the parish clerk causes many reflections. For a thousand years he has held an important position in our churches. We have seen him robed in his ancient dignity, a zealous and honoured official, without whose aid the services of the Church could scarcely have been carried on. In post-Reformation times he continued his career without losing his rank or status, his dignity or usefulness. We have seen him the life and mainstay of the village music, the instructor of young clerics, the upholder of ancient customs and old-established usages. We have regretted the decay in his education, his irreverence and absurdities, and have amused ourselves with the stories of his quaint ways and strange eccentricities. His unseemly conduct was the fault of the dullness, deadness, and irreverence of the age in which he lived, rather than of his own personal defects. In spite of all that can be said against him, he was often a very faithful, loyal, pious, and worthy man.
His place knows him no more in many churches. We have a black-gowned verger in our towns; a humble temple-sweeper in our villages. The only civil right which he retains is that the prospectors of new railways are obliged to deposit their plans andmaps with him, and well do I remember the indignation of my own parish clerk when the plans of a proposed railway, addressed to "the Parish Clerk," were delivered by the postman to the clerk of the Parish Council. It was a wrong that could scarcely be righted.
I would venture to suggest, in conclusion, that it might be worth while for the authorities of the Church to consider the possibility of a revival of the office. It would be a great advantage to the Church to restore the parish clerk to his former important position, and to endeavour to obtain more learned and able men for the discharge of the duties. The office might be made again a sphere of training for those who wish to take Holy Orders, wherein a young man might be thoroughly educated in the duties of the clerical profession. It would be an immense assistance to an incumbent to have an active and educated layman associated with him in the work of the parish, in teaching, in reading and serving in church, and in visiting the sick. Like the clerk of old, he would be studying and preparing for ordination, and there could be no better school for training than actual parish work under the supervision of an earnest and wise rector.
The Church has witnessed vast changes and improvements during the last fifty years. The poor clerk has been left to look after himself. The revival of the office and an improvement in the position and education of the holders of it would, I fully believe, be of an immense advantage to the Church and a most valuable assistance to the clergy.
Absolon, Chaucer's portrait of,
26
David, clerk of Great Yarmouth,
185
"Acts," a Christian name,
264
Addison, on clerks,
64
Advent, a carol for,
168
"Ales," clerk's,
42
Allington, Kent,
230
Alnwick, Turner, clerk of,
232
"Amen" epitaph,
97
Ancient Mysteries
,
137
Andrews, W.,
Curious Epitaphs
,
100
Curiosities of the Church
,
188
Antiquity of clerk's office,
16
, etc.
Apostles, complimenting the,
265
Appointment, the right of,
246
Aquæbajalus
,
27
Arms of the Company of Clerks,
111
Art of Politicks
,
184
Art, the clerk in,
195
, etc.
Ashford, Isaac, the story of,
68
Aston, Yorks,
5
Astronomical clerks,
209
,
258
Atchley, Dr. Cuthbert,
49
Atkinson, Rev. Canon,
302
,
303
Atkins, Thomas of Chillenden,
236
Augustine of Canterbury, St.,
16
,
35
Avington, female clerk at,
202
Badger, H.W., of Mallow,
319
Baker, Anthony, deacon-clerk,
329
Bakewell, the Roe family of,
93
Barkham,
143
,
312
,
331
Barnet, East, clerk of,
60
Barnstaple, clerks of,
61
,
327
Barrel-organs,
5
Barton Turf, Norfolk, dog-whippers land at,
34
Beating the bounds at Ringmer,
34
Bede Roll of the Company,
113
Bede, Cuthbert,
91
,
161
,
201
,
317
,
327
Bells to warn travellers,
83
Belbroughton,
96
Belts Life
, in the pulpit,
231
Belton, Suffolk, Noah Pole, clerk of,
311
Bennet, John, of Woodstock,
163
Beresford Hope on old services,
8
,
170
Besant, Sir W., description of old clerk,
21
Bilby, Thomas, author of hymn,
154
Bills of Mortality,
123
Bingley, Hezekiah Briggs, of,
100
Bletchley, clerk of,
59
Bly, Sarah, sexton,
201
"Bobber," or sluggard-waker,
204
Bond family of Worcester,
318
Boniface, Archbishop, constitutions of,
30
Borne, Hooker's parish,
24
Borough, The
, by G. Crabbe,
66
Bradford-on-Avon,
158
,
194
Bramwells of Chapel-en-le-Frith,
319
Bristol, St. Nicholas,
28
,
50
Broadway, the Tustins of,
318
Bromfield, Salop,
280
Bromham, the clerk of,
190
Bromsgrove, Rose family of,
318
Burrows, Mrs., recollections of,
283
Buxted, clerk of,
55
Caistor, Lincolnshire,
227
Calculating clerk, a,
211
Cambridgeshire curate, a,
15
Canes in churches,
190
Canterbury, Guild of Clerks at,
105
Carley, Thomas, of Grafton Underwood,
152
Carne, James, oldest living parish clerk,
319
Carshalton, register of,
141
Catechising,
228
Catechising in church by the clerk,
59
,
274
Catwick, Thomas Dixon, of,
206
Celibacy of clerks,
18
Chanter, Rev. J.F., on clerks of Barnstaple,
327
Chapel-en-le-Frith,
319
Chapple, William, of Swymbridge,
174
Charman Dean, smuggling at,
84
Charters of Company of Clerks,
106
,
109
Chaucer's portrait of frivolous clerk,
26
Cheshire clerk, an old,
225
Chess in a village,
242
Chester, plays at,
134
Sir Robert, spoliator of Clerks' Company,
108
Chillenden, Kent,
236
Choirs, old-time,
1
,
3
,
4
,
198
,
213
"Chosen people," 235
Church, description of an old,
1
Churching of women,
231
Churchwardens' Account books,
19
Clark, John, the register book of,
145
Clarke, John,
111
Clarkson, David, of Feckenham,
318
Claverley, Shropshire,
188
Clergy, defective readers,
58
Clerk's ale,
42
house,
33
Clerks Book, The
,
52
,
248
Clerks, too clerical,
79
, etc.
Clerk's Latin,
242
Clerkenwell and clerks' plays,
130
, etc.
Clerkship, stepping-stone to higher preferment,
32
Coaching days,
241
Collis family of clerks,
91
Collumpton, female clerk at,
202
Company of parish clerks,
104
, etc.
Cornish parsons,
180
Cornish wreckers,
84
Coronation changes in the Prayer Book,
314