Parish Officials by Sue Stead

Parish Clerks

Since the Shield family faithfully served the church at Tytherington as Parish Clerks for an unbroken 170 years I thought that it would be interesting to note exactly what this job entailed. The role of the modern parish clerk, (the clerk to the parish council) which since 1907 has been part of the local government, is very different.

The post of Parish Clerk is one of the most ancient and prestigious of the lay parish positions: the Clerk was probably one of the few people in the village who could read and write. The position would very often be passed down from father to son through many generations.

The name is merely the English form of the Latin clericus, a word which signified any one who took part in the services of the Church, whether he was in major or minor orders. A clergyman is still a "clerk in Holy Orders," and a parish clerk signified one who belonged to the rank of minor orders and assisted the parish priest in the services of the parish church. Every incumbent was ordered to have a clerk who shall sing with him the service, read the epistle and lesson, teach in the school, and admonish the parishioners to send their children to the church to be instructed in the faith.

Next in line to the incumbent he would assist in the service and lead the singing. His functions included reading the lessons and epistles, singing in the choir, giving out the hymns, leading the responses, serving at the altar and other like duties. In country parishes such as Tytherington, the post of Parish Clerk was often combined with that of Sexton so he would also be responsible for more menial duties such as grave digging and bell ringing as well as other duties around the church and churchyard. Sometimes the post of Sexton was combined with that of Verger, a minor church official responsible for the care of the church, vestments and vessels, and keeping the church clean.

A wonderful story showing the combination of these roles is given in Peter Hamson Ditchfield’s book The Parish Clerk:

“Not long ago a gentleman was visiting a village church, and was much struck by the remarks of an old man who seemed to know each stone and tomb and legend. The stranger asking him what his occupation was, he replied: "I hardly know what I be. First vicar he called me clerk; then another came, and he called me virgin; the last vicar said I were the Christian, and now I be clerk again”. The ‘virgin’ was naturally a slight confusion for verger, and the ‘christian’ was a corrupt form of sacristan or sexton. All the duties of these various callings were combined in the one individual.”

According to the same book it was deemed "The clerk must be at least twenty years of age and known to the parson as a man of honest conversation and, sufficient for his reading, writing and for his competent skill in singing"

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The Parish Clerk by Thomas Gainsborough R.A.

The Vestry was originally the place where the church vestments, plate and the parish chest containing the parish records were kept. It was in the Vestry that the parishioners met to administer the affairs of the parish and the word Vestry came to be used for that body of parishioners also. In this context the members of the Vestry were entitled to vote on all parish matters and to elect the parish officers such as the Sexton, the Verger, the Churchwardens, the Overseers of the Poor, the Vestry Clerk, the Constable and the Surveyor. To be eligible for the vestry one had to be a contributor to the church rate. The Vestry Clerk was responsible for the Vestry minutes and the organization of the meetings. In small parishes the Parish Clerk would perform this function. Sometimes in small parishes the Churchwardens would also act as Overseers of the Poor.

The positions were largely unpaid but some carried ancient perks such as a piece of land or rights to grazing in the churchyard. The Parish Clerk would earn a small salary and a fixed sum for each marriage, baptism and burial and the Sexton would earn a small sum for each burial. Unlike most parish officers at that time the Parish Clerk was not elected annually but appointed by the incumbent for life.

Being able to sing well and to manage the choir was one of the most important parts of the Parish Clerk’s job.

“When the time for singing the metrical Psalm arrived, the clerk gave out the number in stentorian tones, using the usual formula, ‘Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the one hundred and fourth Psalm, first, second, seving, and eleving verses with the Doxology.’ Then, pulling out his pitch-pipe from the dusty cushions of his seat, he would strut pompously down the church, ascend the stairs leading to the west gallery, blow his pipe, and give the basses, tenors, and soprano voices their notes, which they hung on to in a low tone until the clerk returned to his place in the lowest tier of the ‘three-decker’ and started the choir-folk vigorously. But a pitch-pipe was not usually the sole instrument. Many village churches had their band, composed of fiddles, flutes, clarionets, and sometimes bassoons and a drum. When the clerk gave out the

2 hymn or Psalm, or on rare occasions the anthem, there was a strange sound of tuning up the instruments, and then the instruments wailed forth discordant melody. The clerk conducted the choir, composed of village lads and maidens, with a few stalwart basses and tenors. It was often a curious performance. Everybody sang as loud as he could bawl; cheeks and elbows were at their utmost efforts, the bassoon vying with the clarionet, the goose-stop of the clarionet with the bassoon - it was Babel with the addition of the beasts. And they were all so proud of their performance. It was the only part of the service during which no one could sleep, said one of them with pride - and he was right. No one could sleep through the terrible din.”

The Village Choir

Although entries in the parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials were supposed to be made by the incumbents, there is good evidence that the parish clerks not infrequently kept the registers, especially in later times, and from the beginning they were responsible for the facts recorded. Being one of the few literate people in the parish, before the days of School Boards it was not unusual for the Parish Clerk to teach the children of the working classes the three R's and religious knowledge, charging a fee of twopence per week for each child. Other duties often included the writing of letters and wills and the composing of epitaphs. Master John Hopkins, Parish Clerk at one of the churches at Salisbury at the end of the eighteenth century, issued an advertisement of his various accomplishments which ran thus: "John Hopkins, parish clerk and undertaker, sells epitaphs of all sorts and prices. Shaves neat, and plays the bassoon. Teeth drawn, and the Salisbury Journal read gratis every Sunday morning at eight. A school for psalmody every Thursday evening, when my son, born blind, will play the fiddle.” Hogarth's engraving of The Sleeping Congregation is a parable of the state of the Church of England in his day. The parson is delivering a long and drowsy discourse on the text: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest." The

3 congregation is certainly resting, and the pulpit bears the appropriate verse: "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." The clerk is attired in his cassock and bands, contrives to keep one eye awake during the sermon, and this wakeful eye rests upon a comely fat matron, who is fast asleep, and has evidently been meditating "on matrimony," as her open book declares.

The Sleeping Congregation by Hogarth To prevent people from sleeping during the long sermons a special officer was appointed, in order to banish slumber when the parson was long in preaching. This official was called a sluggard-waker, and was usually our old friend the Parish Clerk with a new title. The clerk in one church used a long staff, at one end of which was a fox's brush for gently arousing a somnolent female, while at the other end was a knob for a more forcible awakening of a male sleeper. The sluggard-waker and dog- whipper appear in many old churchwardens' account-books. Thus in the accounts of Barton-on-Humber there is an entry for the year 1740: "Paid Brocklebank for waking sleepers 2s. " The clerk in his capacity of dog-whipper had often arduous duties to perform in the old dale churches of Yorkshire when farmers and shepherds frequently brought their dogs to church. The animals usually lay very quietly beneath their masters' seat, but occasionally there would be a scrimmage and fight, and the clerk's staff was called into play to beat the dogs and produce order. Nor were dogs the only creatures who were accustomed to receive chastisement in church. The clerk was usually armed with a cane or rod, and woe betide the luckless child who talked or misbehaved himself during service. Frequently during the course of a long sermon the sound of a cane striking a boy's back was heard and startled a sleepy congregation.

4 Overseers of the Poor

In the 16th C the old ecclesiastical parishes were given responsibilities for local government functions, such as repairing the roads and seeing to the poor. The Poor Law Acts of 1598-1601, provided the framework for the Old Poor Law, which survived until the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 created the New Poor Law based on unions of parishes and “Union Workhouses”.

Two unpaid Overseers of the Poor were appointed by the Vestry in Easter week and were the only parish officers bound by civil law. They were usually chosen from “substantial householders” on a rotation basis.

Working closely with the Church Wardens and meeting once a month they were responsible for setting and collecting the poor rate and distributing benefits to those requiring relief. They were required by law to keep detailed account books of income against expenditure. The overseers would also endorse settlement certificates and bastardy bonds, present settlement queries to the justices for examination and effect removal orders. Along with the wardens they would arrange parish apprenticeships for deserving poor children. They were responsible not only to the Vestry but also to the justices of the peace meeting in Quarter Sessions. The office of overseer of the poor carried a local prestige which compensated for the onerous nature of some of the duties.

One of the main difficulties, of course, was in deciding who was “deserving poor” and who was not. In The Compleat Parish Officer, a handbook published in 1734 for those who had to apply the law it states “There are reckon’d three Sorts of poor People, such as are poor by Impotency (the Aged, Decrepit, Lame, Blind, distracted Persons, Infants, etc) such as become poor by Casualty (Persons maimed, undone by Fire, overcharged with Children, etc) and such as have made themselves poor by Rioting, Idleness, Drunkeness, etc.” The poor by impotency were to be relieved, the poor by casualty were to be set to work if possible or else relieved and the third sort were to be sent to the House of Correction and set to hard labour.

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