WAS YOUR ANCESTOR INVOLVED IN PARISH ADMINISTRATION?

Until the late 1800s the parish clerk was one of the most important roles within the church and parish. During church services he read the lessons, led the hymn singing and the responses and was the altar server. He was also responsible for church security as the holder of the keys and undertook a myriad of other administrative duties including maintaining of the registers (although this was a legal requirement of the incumbent) and other church documentation.

The parish clerk was an ancient office dating back to 975. From the twelfth century, a parish priest was required to have ‘a fitting and honest clerk’ to assist him. Before the Reformation, he was usually chosen by the incumbent from among the parishioners. By the sixteenth century, many parish clerks held the position for life. As part of his role, he accompanied the incumbent on pastoral visits to the sick. Many parish clerks were also lay clergy fulfilling other pastoral roles as well. Church services after the Reformation were focused much more on the congregation. The Book of Common Prayer required the incumbent to read the service and for the congregation to make set responses.  As many parishioners were illiterate unable to read the responses, the clerk led the responses.

After the Reformation the clerk was usually (although not always) a layman. He had to be at least twenty years of age and of honest conversation, proficient in his reading, writing and competent in singing. In some dioceses, nominations were sent to the bishop. The office was a respectable and coveted position. It was also not unusual for the role of parish clerk to be held by the same family for generations.

The other duties of the parish clerk may have included washing the surplices and communion table linen, cleaning the plate, ringing the bells, winding the clock and assisting in the keeping of the churchwardens’ accounts. Sometimes their duties took on a secular role such as publishing parish notices, announcing manorial courts on behalf of the manor steward and arranging local fairs and events. Parish clerks were servants of the parish, it being a paid position, but they sometimes also had other employment using their literacy and earn money by writing a will for illiterate parishioners. Many also taught in schools, either as part of their responsibilities or on an independent basis.

The role of sexton was usually combined with that of the parish clerk particularly in in the country parishes. They were responsible for the care of the church, the vestments, keeping the church clean, ringing bells, opening/closing doors, digging graves and care of the churchyard. When a death occurred in a parish, the sexton would toll the “passing bell” nine times for a married man, eight for a bachelor, seven for a married woman, six for a spinster, five for a boy and four for a girl. In some cases they would continue to toll the bell once for each year of the deceased´s life.

A parish clerk's wages were normally the responsibility of the churchwardens and records and details of other perks will appear in the churchwarden’s accounts. From the medieval period, the parish clerk’s wages were often raised by holding ‘clerk’s ales’ but the puritans ended such events substituting these with a compulsory church rate. When church rates were abolished in the late 1860s it led in many parishes to the office of parish clerk ending as there was not alternative funding source.

Finding records of ancestors who were parish clerks

Records of parish clerks can be located at local level. Nominations are found among diocesan records. Upon death, parish burial register entries may well record the fact that they held the office. Many also left wills and in any case may be identified as the witnesses of wills and as appraisers of probate inventories. Their wages are recorded in churchwardens’ accounts.

The role of churchwarden dates to the fourteenth century. Originally, their duties included maintaining the church building and its goods, but these responsibilities transferred to the parochial church councils in 1921. Churchwardens were a vital link between the clergy and the parishioners. Churchwardens' duties may vary depending upon the customs of the parish.

The churchwardens' accounts document the financial activities and are a valuable often underused source of information about parish life.

In most parishes there were two churchwardens - one nominated by the incumbent the other annually elected by the parishioners at the open vestry meeting. In many parishes the churchwardens would typically serve for a term of up to six years.

Churchwardens were lay officials (unpaid) responsible for the routine running and maintenance of parish churches. They served in a voluntary capacity, overseeing the church's finances, property and the upkeep of the building.

The churchwardens had specific roles and functions including:

Holdng a key to the parish chest – there were normally three keyholders in a parish churchwarden, incumbent and parish clerk

Keeping accounts of income and expenditure

Care for parish property and income

Maintaining church fabric particularly the chancel and church rails

Allocating pews for worship

Assisting with maintenance of parish records

Ensuring parishioners regular attendance at church

Arranging the burial of strangers and baptism of foundlings

Attending the Archdeacons' (or Bishops') visitation courts

Reporting failings by incumbent such as undue absence, irregular frequency of church services, etc. If an incumbency is vacant, the bishop or the archdeacon acting on his behalf will usually appoint the churchwardens as sequestrators of the parish until the bishop appoints a new incumbent. The sequestrators ensure that a minimum number of church services continue to be held in the parish. Bishops will frequently consult with the churchwardens before appointing a new priest to take over the parish

Presenting offenders at ecclesiastical courts for such offences as non-attendance at communion, non-payment of church rates/tithes, immorality, lewd women, bastardy, incest, drunkenness, etc.

Representing parishioners if required

Supervising education and relief of the poor in conjunction with the parish overseer

Caring for parish arms and pay the soldiers

Extermination of vermin

 Appointing a dog whipper

 Witness ecclesiastical orders served on parishioners

The appointment of churchwardens along with those of constable, surveyor and overseer can normally be found within the vestry minutes which form part of the parish chest collection.

The responsibility for maintenance of law and order within a parish rested with the parish constable who was also referred to as a Pptty constable. He was unpaid, part-time and a volunteer elected annually by the parishioners and confirmed by the Justice of the Peace. The office of parish constable originated in the manorial system from the tithing, which was a small unit of local administration. Each tithing was obliged, by frankpledge, to be responsible for the actions of its members. Over the Middle Ages the feudal system had gradually been weakened so by the Reformation, the focus of maintaining local law and order shifted from manors towards parishes. Tithings were consequently a division of the parish and so the petty constables became seen as parish constables.

Parish constables derived most of their powers from their local parish. Traditionally, they were elected but after 1617 they were usually appointed by the magistrates in each county although they never actually chose the person as constable. It was not until 1842 that the power to appoint constables was stripped from manorial courts

Parish constables were a precursor to modern police forces; their duties evolved over time and were the primary means of law enforcement in local areas before the establishment of county constabularies.

They were expected to perform all the main duties then associated with local policing including:

Maintaining law and order by keeping the peace, preventing crimes like trespassing and poaching, and arresting individuals who committed crimes.

Enforcing local regulations related to inns, ale houses, vagrants, and supervised apprentices.

Punishing offenders. They carried out punishments such as whipping vagrants and impounding stray animals.

They also had responsibility for collecting taxes, overseeing the militia muster, and when necessary, acted as the coroner's officer and sending illegitimate children back to their original parish of settlement. They also accompanied individuals or families removed from the parish.

They had responsibility for the village stocks, pillory and cage or lock-up.

Watch and Ward, by patrolling the parish and maintaining security. Night patrols were known as the watch, and daytime patrols were known as the ward, which involved all members of the parish. They raised the “hue and cry” whereby victims of crimes and any witnesses to crimes had to shout an alarm so that all who heard this were required to pursue the felon. If the felon crossed the parish boundary the responsibility for his apprehension rested with the next parish.

Securing prisoners and transporting them to quarter sessions or assizes.

Detaining fathers of bastards.

Local parishioners were also duty bound to assist the constable if he requested it, keeping the community solely responsible for enforcing law and order.

The parish overseer was also a voluntary office and annually elected with the prime responsibility of administering the poor law within the parish. This involved assessing the needs of the poor, collecting the "poor rate", distributing relief and managing the operation of the parish poorhouse. In many parishes there were two overseers appointed.

The overseers determined those eligible for poor relief and the degree of assistance they needed They had to distinguish between the "deserving poor” i.e. those who were unable to work as they were to aged or infirm or suffering from illness, or other disability and the "undeserving poor" , the malingerers able to work but who chose not to do so. The overseers provided either financial or commodity assistance such as food, clothing, and other necessities to individuals and families in need, both within the parish poorhouse and through outdoor relief enabling a degree of independence until able to continue working.

Overseers were also responsible for collecting the "poor rate," which was a local tax levied usually twice a year on parishioners who were not at the time recipients of any form of relief. The purpose was to finance poor relief in the parish.

Overseers also managed the parish poorhouse and enforced other aspects of the poor laws, regarding parish apprenticeships, bastardy and the removal of paupers from one parish to another. The records of the overseers provide a wealth of information for family historians and give a valuable insight into the administration of poor relief and the lives of those who were receiving assistance. The key overseers records include:

Rate books detail the names from which the poor rate was collected

Account books detail payments to named individuals for rent, clothes, health expenses and funeral costs, and often include an explanation to justify the outdoor relief

Payments made to the aged and to widows

Registers of parish apprenticeships of pauper children which detail placements and guardianship of the child

Settlement certificates and removal orders

Bastardy orders enforcing a putative father to be financially accountable for the upbringing of an illegitimate child

The local Quarter Sessions were responsible for supervising the administration of the poor law frequently acting as an appeal court for matters such as disputes over settlement and removal.

A parish urveyor was another annually elected voluntary office with major responsibility. He was appointed by a parish to oversee the maintenance and upkeep of public highways, including all roads, bridleways and footpaths within the parish boundaries. An Act of 1555 formed the basis of road maintenance and placed the obligation for the upkeep of public highways on the parish as a whole.

It was after a subsequent Act of 1691 that each parish had to appoint a Surveyor of Highways (often referred to as a Waywarden). The person nominated would be served with a warrant by the parish constable confirming his appointment as surveyor of the highways for the ensuing year and acceptance of this duty was compulsory. At least three times a year, he was required to view all the roads, byways, water courses and pavements in the parish and report their condition on oath to the Justices of the Peace.

He required owners of land adjacent to the highway to clear them of any obstructions and make sure the gutters and drains were cleansed. Overhanging hedges and trees had to be cut back in order that "from one end of the parish to the other there might be a clear passage for travellers and carriages".

One of his prime roles was to look out for any wagons, wains or carts etc. which were not drawn by the required number of horses or oxen. If he found a defaulter, then on the Sabbath Day, he stood up in the church service once the sermon had finished to name the offenders so that they could be prosecuted.

Each year he also had to organise six days when parishioners had to provide statutory labour with their horses, carts and all necessary tools, to undertake highway repairs. The early methods of road repairs were very basic, loads of rough stone being placed in the more deeply rutted sections. By the end of the eighteenth century, advances were being made in methods of construction.

The person nominated as surveyor could be fined a sum of forty shillings for refusing to accept or neglect his office.