fruitless searches and to depart with a non est inventus of what they sought for." Prynne's unvarnished description may be applied with equal force to parochial records, as will hereafter be seen. From the time of Edward VI., when the first compulsory assessment for the relief of the poor was made, and when overseers, under the title of "collectours" were first called into existence, down to the seventeenth year of George IV., there was neither Order in Council nor Statute to regulate the custody and preservation of such records, except as to parish registers, to which a passing reference is made at page 15. In 1744, the churchwardens and overseers, as the principal secular office-bearers of the parish, were placed under penal obligations to deliver to their successors "a just, true and perfect account in writing, fairly entered in a book or books to be kept for that purpose" of all moneys received and paid "and of all other things concerning their said office" of overseer. The accounts so transferred were to be carefully preserved by the incoming officers, and were to be open to inspection upon certain conditions. The enactment was limited in its application to the books and accounts relating to the moneys compulsorily levied. for the maintenance of the poor and purposes incidental thereto. It was not until 1818 that Parliament extended its care to the custody of parish books and documents in general. A comprehensive provision was then inserted in the Act 58 George III., cap. 69, whereby every conceivable description of book or paper in the nature of a record-registers being especially excepted-was placed under the protection of the inhabitants in vestry assembled, heavy penalties being at the same time prescribed in case of wilful damage, obliteration, or unlawful detention. But this was far from sufficient. The zealous discharge of their responsibilities by the inhabitants soon brought the legislative oversight into prominence. The fact had been forgotten that many of the parishes possessed no room or other place for the deposit and safe keeping of the records, and that the inhabitants, acting by the vestry, were powerless to provide such a depository at the expense of the rates; and the defect was not remedied for upwards of forty years. An Act was passed in 1861 (24 and 25 Vict., cap. 125) enabling the overseers to obtain the accommodation; but irreparable losses had by that time occurred through the temporary lodging of the books, or at least those in actual use, at the private houses or business premises of the office bearers. There can be no doubt that the lamentably imperfect sets of parochial records in many places are due to this cause. It is probably the experience of all who have sought a reference to parochial records, other than those in current use, that the nominal custodians are both uninformed and unconcerned as to their value and importance. In more than one London parish the muniments prior to 1855, when the administrative Vestry system was introduced, are still obscured by a century's dust in the tower of the parish church. No one knows what they consist of; there is nothing in the shape of a catalogue; and there is no muniment room at the newly erected "town-hall." These are but typical cases. Elsewhere, in an extrametropolitan parish, the enquirer for the parish records was referred to the rectory. There the books were found on open shelves in the children's play-room, among toy books and waste newspapers. In another country parish, when a request was made for access to the books, the applicants, who were complete strangers in the locality, were directed to a labourer's cottage. There they were handed the keys of the church and told that the books would be found in a chest in the vestry. The door from the church to the vestry was found open, the lock of the chest worn out, and the lid, broken in two pieces, detached from the hinges. The contents of the chest, all more or less mutilated and damaged from rough usage, were left within reach of the ignorant and the mischievous. The numerous instances given by Mr. Thiselton Dyer, Mr. Bigland, Francis Sadler, Burn, and other writers on the same subject, show that this experience was not un common. But quite apart from the carelessness, such cases are interesting as showing the survival to the present day of a custom which was general in the far away past-that of depositing the public records in or in connection with the temple. The earliest of such repositories noticed in history is the house of the rolls or books,* where the treasures were laid up in Babylon B.C. 530. Here the decrees of the Persian kings. were deposited, and, as may be inferred from the writ of Darius, all instruments relating to the domains and revenues of the sovereign. Hardy, in his Description of the Close Rolls, states that as far back as can be traced "the public records were preserved in churches and other religious places. The Greeks paid particular attention to the conservation of their records. The temple of Delos was, according to Pausanias, the general repository of records; and parts of the Arcopagus and the Temple of Minerva were devoted by the Athenians. to the custody of the public instruments. The Romans were not less zealous in this respect than the Greeks, and their most precious archives were deposited in their temples. This custom of preserving records in sacred places was followed in the middle ages, and it is not improbable that in England the 'King's Chapel' was used for that purpose. Hence it was that the Chancellor, as presiding over the Royal Chapel, came to be so much connected with royal diplomas and archives." This same custom prevails generally throughout England to the present day, except in those rare instances in which special provision has been made, as in the case of this parish. Here, until recently, the ancient practice was observed with a care that did credit to the successive custodians during more than four centuries. Perhaps the most zealous of the long line were the churchwardens of 1730 (John Atkinson and John Williams) and 1733 (Thomas Noel and John Lock),— "Men so noble, However faulty, yet should find respect For what they have been." Hen. VIII., Act V., Sc. 2. The former, fourteen years before there was any obligation at law upon the subject, collected the whole of the churchwardens' accounts, from 1460 to 1610, and had the annual and biennial numbers bound together in convenient volumes in calf which is still in good condition. The accounts for 1730 contain the following entry relating to it : To Mr. Charles King, for binding up in rough Calves Leather the ... *These are preserved in the Vestry room of St. Margaret's. £10 4s. od. The latter rendered a similar service with reference to the overseers' accounts, as is shown by the tablets upon the covers, and by the following entry in the accounts for 1733 ... ...£11 135. od. To the Execux. of Mr. Charles King, Bookseller, for binding the old parish accounts together collected into volumes The good example so set was followed, though with less uniformity, by their successors; and the missing numbers, as will be seen by the catalogue, are far less since that time than formerly. As the accretions of many years made demands for more space, the records gradually became distributed in half a dozen different places for storage, eleven large cases having been discovered, by accident, so recently as in 1885, in the tower of the Church, where they had lain "time out of mind," for no one could be found who had any knowledge of the time or circumstances in which they were placed there. The other sections remained so scattered until 1883, when the muniment room in the newly erected municipal building was pronounced fit for use. But alas! the intended means of preservation brought about a state of things resembling that described by Prynne (see p. 6) and hastened the destruction of a large quantity. Into an unlighted, unventilated chamber, the walls and floor and ceiling of which were reeking with moisture from the new work, and without a table, or press, or shelf, some nine or ten tons weight of valuable records, many of them unique, and all incapable of being replaced, were cast in huge heaps. There they were allowed to remain until the following year, when the mischief was discovered and, as far as possible, repaired. A large quantity, however, unprotected by boards or covers, resolved itself into its original pulp, and had to be sent to the mills. But notwithstanding this misfortune the contents of the muniment room are claimed to be more complete than in any other parish in London. No less than 3,400 volumes or bundles of books and papers, all carefully numbered, classified and arranged, are here to be found in as good order* as are the contents of a public library, the whole capable of furnishing materials for a local history of rare completeness, affording an insight into the conditions under which our forefathers * Some few have lost title-pages and are otherwise mutilated. performed their part in their day and generation, and reminding us that "England owes more to the grey-goose quill than to the spear; more to the sheepskin than to the banner." Four of the principal divisions are the churchwardens' accounts, the overseers' accounts, the rate books, and the minutes of the Vestry. The first named, which commence with the year 1460, are inscribed for many years on vellum. They contain particulars of the receipts from pew rents and burials in such detail as, in many cases, to enable the pew occupied by a parishioner or the place of interment to be exactly located, and are particularly interesting, in many cases, as giving the jewels, ornaments and property belonging to the church. The second class relates principally to the relief of the poor, showing on the one side the receipts from the rates and episcopally-persuaded "benevolences," and on the other the payments by way of relief, or "boarding out," or education, or nursing. These are at once instructive and interesting, as enabling us to trace the origin, the decadence and the reform of the present poor-law system, and to follow it in its development through inhumanities which cause us to shudder, through acts of indiscrimination which excite surprise, and through abuses which we should deem intolerable. The overseers' accounts, which abound in interest during the sixteenth and two following centuries, gradually transformed themselves into the modern rate-book, which cannot make any pretensions to rival its predecessors in any other respect than bulk and amounts. In the latter respect it is curious to note that the first poor rate that for 1561-62-produced £21 14s, 7d., whereas the last-that for 1899-1900-amounted to £145,546 3s. 4d. The next important series is that of the Vestry minutes, or " orders" as they were sometimes called, consisting of some hundreds of volumes, and extending from 1585, with very few interruptions, to the present day. In these may be seen a lingering, for more than two hundred years, of the close association of the church with the administration of secular or temporal affairs. The officiating minister for the time being was always the chairman; the meetings were held in the room adjoining the church; It is now, though called "Poor Rate,” an 'omnibus' rate, and includes moneys required for County Council, Police, Asylums Board, Registration, Equali şation, and other purposes in no way connected with the relief of the poor. |