Norfolk: Church Records
Parish Accounts
This is a brief overview of the main Parish Accounts to be
found covering the period 1597-1837. For more information see
the reference section.
There are a number of parish records which (where they have
survived) can help to show the social structure and
administrative organisation of each parish.
The records which are described here are those from 1597
which taxed the occupiers and then the money was generally spent
in the parish. The following refer mostly to the period up to 1837
although some continued unaltered until well beyond this date.
Parishes elected officials including the posts of Churchwarden,
Overseer, Constable and Surveyor
who had the task of collecting, spending
and then getting their accounts accepted. For information about the
duties of these officials see the descriptions at the
National Archives.
These records include :-
Churchwardens' accounts.
- The earliest appear in the 1650s.
- Income came from rents for church lands (if any) and rates levied
on occupiers of property.
- Disbursements (or payments) were generally spent on church maintenance.
There are a lot of very common entries which appear many times. These
include :- Bread, Wine, Broom, Candle and Oil purchases,
Surplice washing and mending, payments Clerks and ringers etc.
- From one to four people were appointed to this post depending
on the size of the parish (see Notes). Two separate sets of
accounts have occasionally been seen where 2 churchwardens
have been appointed.
- What information can one find in these records?
- Some describe the property occupied eg. The Hall, Heath Farm,
Public House, Lime Kiln and whether it was owned by the occupier.
- Some describe trades eg. Blacksmith, Carpenter, Glazier,
Mason, Plumber, Thatcher or Stone Mason
and may name people.
- Description and prices of materials and their source and transport.
- Some also list the previous occupiers names.
- List of the principal inhabitants who often signed the book when
the churchwardens were picked.
- Schooling for the local children.
- Briefs (which were issued by
royal mandate) to raise money for disasters and other events appear
occasionally in the records. These were read out
in church and a collection made in the church (and sometimes
later in the parish) for the good cause. Some examples of these are
Redemption of Turkish slaves for 1670,
Loss by Fire at Great Massingham and Relief of Protestants in the
Principality of Orange both in 1703.
Overseers' accounts.
These officials raised money to relieve the poor who were settled in the parish.
- The earliest appear in 1597-8.
- Income came mostly from rates levied
on occupiers of property and sometimes from charities.
- Disbursements (or payments) were spent on maintaining their poor
who lived in (and outside via out relief) the parish.
- Some other occasional rates were amalgamated with them in 1738-9.
- From one to two people were appointed to this post depending
on the size of the parish (see Notes).
- What information can one find in these records?
- Some describe the property occupied eg. Bury Hall, Lower Farm, Mill,
Brick Kiln and whether it was owned by the occupier.
- Some describe trades eg. Cloth Seller, Doctor, Shoemaker, Tailor.
- Description of materials and their source and transport.
- Bastardy, Examinations, Removal Orders and Settlement cases.
- Military service substitutes.
- Payments (including many weekly ones) to the needy. Help was given
with things such as apprenticeship (eg.
Poor children of Horstead being placed in trades),
childbirth, clothing, fuel,
illness and burial costs.
- Work done on the local Town House.
- Payments to Houses of Industry.
- Subscriptions to Hospitals.
Surveyors' (also called Waywardens') accounts.
- The earliest appear in the 1650s.
- Income came from rates levied on occupiers of property and in
some places from rents of clay, gravel, sand and water pits eg.
Acle Surveyors Payments for 1828.
- Disbursements (or payments) were spent on highway maintenance.
- What information can one find in these records?
- Some describe trades eg. Labourer, Painter, Publican.
- Description of materials and their source and transport.
- Dates when roads/bridges/signs were built/repaired and when drains
were laid, cut or cleared.
- Some describe the weather conditions eg. clearing the snow.
- Payments for toll roads or turnpikes.
Constables' accounts.
- The earliest appear in the 1660s.
- Income came from rates levied on occupiers of property.
- Disbursements (or payments) were spent on maintaining
law and order.
Notes
- The dates that often appear in the accounts are the Quarter
Days. These days were traditionally used to divide the year
for legal, financial (as in rents) and leases.
They are :-
Date |
Quarter Day |
25 March | Lady Day |
24 June | Midsummer Day |
29 September | Michaelmas |
25 December | Christmas Day |
- Easter (First Sunday after the calendar full moon falling on
or next after 21 March) is seen very frequently as the time
when parish officials are appointed and accounts ran from
and to.
- Rates were levied on occupiers who might live inside or
outside (also known as Out Sitters/Out Setters/Outtownsmen
or similar) the parish.
Occasionally against some of the "Out Sitters" names is given
their places of residence eg.
Starston Overseers Rate for 1801.
Another heading seen is Quartermen eg. in the Worstead
churchwardens' accounts.
- Owners are generally not shown in Norfolk accounts until
some start in the 1800s Surveyors records.
They can be found in the
Land Tax assessments for parishes.
- In some small parishes some of the above posts were combined.
- Women occasionally held these posts.
- A few "Valuation surveys" which show the rents on which
the rates would be calculated survive. An example for 1761 of one
of these
surveys can be found in Starston.
- Other events sometimes find their way into these accounts such as:-
- Sometimes an official was appointed who could not write and the
accounts were written up by someone else.
References
- Cannan, Edwin.
- History of Local rates in England
[1927]
- Tate, W. E.
- The Parish Chest
[ISBN:0 85033 507 8, Cambridge University Press, 3rd ed. 1983]
See also Church Records
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Copyright © Mike Bristow.
March 2009