1513 Church Rate, for repairing St. John's Church (Grand)

1516 Church Rate, for repairing St. John's Church and rebuilding fences of St. Margaret's Burial Ground (Grand)

1881

1882

...

1883-4-5

1815 160

1815

1815

1818

1818

1818

1819

1819

1819

1822

1822

1822

1823

1823

1522 Church Rate, for the repair of "any Church" in the parish.

AUDITORS' ALLOWANCE OF CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS, 1618.

[Eight of the Auditors attest by their 'marks.')

1531 Church Rate, for the repair of "any Church" in the parish

Year. Shelf.

1551 Rate for repayment of loan borrowed on Church Rate, and

Church Rate (Grand)

1830

...

1830

1562

(Grand)
(Absey)

(Knightsbridge)

1st part (St. John)

1561 Church Rate, for repair of St. John's Church (St. Margaret) (St. John)

1563 Church Rate, Petty Sessions List of defaulters (Grand)

...

1831

1832

1832

...

1832

1832

...

1648 to 1694

1707 to 1813

1570 Collections on Briefs in St. Margaret's Church.
1571 Collections on Briefs in Christ Church.
1572 Collections in St. Margaret's Church for use of poor children
of Grey Coat Hospital

...

...

1698 to 1768

1573 Collections on Briefs in St. Margaret's Church, and from house

to house

...

1694 to 1731

" laid in the parish

[Nos. 1570, 1571, 1573, and 1575 are "Registers of Briefs
between 1644 and 1793. The collection of money by "Briefs," which were simply
licenses to beg, was customary long before the Reformation-

When priests, with bulls and briefs, and shaven crowns,
And griping fists, and unrelenting frowns,

Legates and delegates, with powers from hell,
Though heavenly in pretension, fleeced thee well;
And to this hour, to keep it fresh in mind
Some twigs of that old scourge are left behind.

COWPER.

They were known as "Church Briefs," "Fire Briefs," "Walking Briefs," and
"Parish Briefs," and gave rise to a variety of abuses, which Shenstone, Dryden,
Herrick, Cowper, Churchill, and other contemporary writers denounced. The
subject is exhaustively dealt with by Mr. W. A. Bewes, in his volume on Church
Briefs (1896); and these Registers are fully examined in Bygone Briefs, by the
present writer (1896), to whose essay on the system generally is appended a
schedule of 1021 briefs laid in this parish, with the object of and amount raised
on each, between 1644 and 1793. The utility of the machinery is shown by the
fact that as much as £868 was at one time raised in this parish by its means
(see note on page 73), while the popular disfavour with which it was regarded for
upwards of a century is shown by the fact that in the majority of cases the sums
realised were less than £1. Herrick (circa 1650) wrote:-

Cuffe comes to church much; but keeps his bed
Those Sundayes onely whenas briefs are read.
This makes Cuffe dull; and troubles him the most,
Because he cannot sleep i' th' Church free-cost.

Hesperides.

The inimitable Pepys, ten years later, notes in his Diary :

30 June, 1661 (Lord's Day).-To church, where we observed the trade of
briefs is now come up to so constant a course every Sunday, that we
resolve to give no more.

And Churchill, who wrote a hundred years later, ridiculed the exaggerated claims
so often put forward by them :-

Now, to the wonder of all people,
A church is left without a steeple;
A steeple now is left in lurch

And mourns departure of its church,