Churchwarden's+accounts

CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS OF CRATFIELD Suffolk Records Society (1640-60)by LYNN A BOTELHO

The following is an extract of an unusually full set of churchwardens accounts which offers a detailed view of life in an East Anglian village during the English civil wars. Their survival is remarkable in a time which is considered by many to have experienced a widespread breakdown of local government, and they reveal many aspects of early modern life: of particular interest are the costs of war in a village which committed both men and money to Parliament's cause. The introduction recreates the demographic, economic and social structure of early modern Cratfield, and the volume concludes with a number of appendices, including short biographies of those named in the accounts. The role of the churchwarden was originally ecclesiastical in nature, but was also vital to the functioning of the secular community. His activities were divided into two primary components: `the enforcement of set policy and the provision of information'. In this parish, two churchwardens were normally elected each year, and each submitted a `reckoning' of their activity to the chief inhabitants on 25 March or Lady Day.

[unnumbered] The accoumpt of William Fisk, senior, of what moonyes he have disbursed for the towne, being one of the churchwardens for the yeere of Our Lord 1647 [for 1647-8]
 * Cratfeild**


 * Inprimis £ s. d.**

last reckoning daye the sume of 4 6 4
 * Item** there was due unto William Fisk, senior, from the towne uppon the


 * Item** paid to William Wyith for charges for the towne the sume of 2 0 0

uppon the reckoning daye the sume of 2 6
 * Item** paid to the Widow [Ann] Hayward for her fyer for the townesmen

uppon the reckoning daye the sume of 6 3
 * Item** paid to the Widow [Mary] Brodbank for beere for the townsmen


 * Item** paid to Edmund Milles for lordes rent due att Our Lady 1647 4 6


 * Item** laide out for bread and wine for the comunion 1 0

in the Towne Pitell (A new stile was made to give entry to the pightle, a small field)) the sume of 1 6
 * Item** paid to the Widow [Mary] Brodbank for making of a newe stille

the 22th of Apriell 1647, the sume of 17 4
 * Item** paid to Goodman Wyith for the Mayned Soulders for halfe a yeere,

meate for the ringers the 5th of November 1646[sic], the sume of 4 10
 * Item** paid to the Widow [Mary] Brodbank for beere and bread and

Herclyes wife 6
 * Item** paid to Robert Carter for stowing of a litell wood for [John]

Widow [Mary] Millses boy (An apprentice was bound out, at parish expense. John Newsone mentioned this apprenticeship in his account for the same year.) 10 0
 * Item** paid to John Newson, senior, for bynding forth of the


 * Item** laid out to Edmund Milles for one whole yeere which the towne aloweth him for the releife of his wife, the sume of 1 4 0

in the tyme of her sicknes, the sume of 10 0
 * Item** given to Edmund Millses wife att severall tymes for her releife


 * Item** paid to Ruben Tallen for his yeeres wages the sume of 2 0 0

of the bells 5 0
 * Item** laid out to Symond Waren the 30th of October 1647 for trymig[sic]


 * Item** laid out to Edmund Milles for lordes rent the 8th of November 1647 11 5.5

doore 1 6
 * Item** laid out to Ruben Tallen for weeding of the stones att the porch

napkins 3
 * Item** laid out to Ruben Tallen for washing of the comunion cloath and

releife of her small chilldren the sume of 9 6
 * Item** laid out to the Widow [Elizabeth] Stanard att severall tymes for the


 * Item** paid to Edmund Milles for the whitt rent 4

as appreth by his bill, the sume of 18 11
 * Item** paid to John Williams for moonyes he have laid out for the towne

my note, the sume of
 * Item** laid out att severall tymes to 153 poore pepell [sic] as appreth in 13 11


 * Item** laid out to Goodman [William] Wyith, the constabell, the sume of 2 0

the sume of
 * Item** paid to the poore for 52 weekes colection as appreth by my note, 17 12 0

Sume totall of the disbursmentes for the towne this yeere 1647 is just 33 3 8 Soe there remaine due unto the towne from William Fisk the sume of 6 4 Cratfeild

The accoumpt of William Fisk, senior, being one of the churchwardens, of what moonyes he have received for the towne in the yeere of Our Lord 1647 [for 1647-8]


 * Inprimis £ s. d.**

due att Mychallmas 1647, the sume of
 * received** of Richard Royden for his yeeres rent for the Towne Mydowes 6 10 0

Mychallmas 1647, the sume of
 * received** of Francis Alldus for his yeeres rent for Benclins due att 18 0 0

the mydow due att Mychallmas 1647, the sume of
 * received** of John Williams for his yeeres rent for the Towne Closse and 4 0 0

and the scoolehowse pitell due att Mychallmas 1647, the sume of
 * received** of Samewell Hayward for his yeeres rent for the scoolehowse 2 0 0

Towne Pitell due att Mychallmas 1647, the sume of
 * received** of the Widow [Mary] Brodbank for her yeeres rent for the 1 0 0

the sume of
 * received** of John Newson, junior, my partener, the 19th of March 1647, 2 0 0

Sume totall of the receiptes for this yeere 1647 is just 33 10 0

Notes

//Assistance for the poor// During the seventeenth century, four general categories of assistance were available in Cratfield, all of which were recorded in the churchwardens' accounts: pensions (albeit incompletely), rents, firewood and medical treatment. The first decade of the printed accounts (1640-50) was a very difficult period for Cratfield, because `of the cheapess of comodtyes and the hardness of the tymes'. The number of full-time pensioners rose sharply in 1650 to eleven, then dropped precipitously for a few years, before rising sharply again. Under normal conditions roughly 50 per cent of Cratfield's poor relief took the form of weekly pensions, but in the 1650s the figure rose to 82 per cent. Significantly, the 1650s were a time of high mortality in the parish, with burials exceeding baptisms from 1654 onwards. Disease was probably responsible for both Cratfield's high mortality and extensive poor relief. Small pox struck East Anglia forcefully in the late 1640s and early 1650s, prompting the Essex clergyman Ralph Josselin to call it a `wonderful sickly time'.49 Ague or intermitting fever ravaged the south-east of England in the autumn of 1657, and a series of influenza epidemics followed at the end of the decade.50 While the churchwardens clearly provided their traditional assistance during these years, the bulk of parochial relief was directed into weekly pensions and towards the very weakest members of the community. The 1660s, however, witnessed a return to more typical spending patterns.

Impact of the Civil War In 1645, the year when Charles surrendered to the Scots, Cratfield made up a rate of 4s.7d. to assist Scotland, another of 2s.2d. for `the Scotts our well afected bretherin', and a third of 4s.4.5d. for `our good bretherin of Scotland.99 Furthermore, an additional rate was collected on behalf of the `British armye', an unusually positive wording to describe the Anglo-Scottish forces in Ireland. Generally, the town spent its extra money on co-religionists and political sympathisers, such as the shilling given to `21 poore pepell whose howses wer burnt in the borders of Walles by the Cavellers', or the money given to eleven poor people `being fyred by the enemey in Hampshire'. All the while, Cratfield continued to finance both regular soldiers and auxiliaries, as well as five garrisons of the Eastern Association.101 During the most intense phase of the Civil War, 1642-1645, the parish maintained up to five trained men ready to serve `parliament's cause', in addition to supporting the `good bretherin' of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. After June 1646 and the end of the first Civil War, marked by the surrender of the royalists at Oxford, Cratfield was able to scale back its war efforts. The political world of the 1650s had a very different effect upon the village. Cratfield remained in a state of readiness, training its soldiers, and repairing their weapons and the town's butts, but as the spectre of armed conflict began to fade, so too did the sense of urgency that had been so clearly conveyed in the earlier accounts. That was until 1659. In that year, Thomas Johnson, William Aldus, Robert Pacy and Edmond Mills, the knacker, were all sent to Blythburgh as soldiers. Cratfield readied itself to put down any royalist uprisings that might occur in East Anglia, such as those in Cheshire. Up to this point in the hostilities, Cratfield had fielded a total of thirteen men who served a combined eighteen years in arms. But this was not to prove a long, protracted affair. Following the political machinations of General Monck, and indeed his certificates, Cratfield welcomed the restoration of Charles II with bells, `ringing that the king was com into England'.'