[222] (Dean) G.W.  Kitchen, The Manor of Manydown, Hants Rec.  Soc., 1895, 171.  For other examples both of parish cows and sheep:  see Hale, Crim.  Prec., 221 (40 parish sheep of Billericay, Essex, for the relief of the poor. 1599).  Littleton, Worcestersh.  Acc’ts, Midland Antiquary, i (1883), 107 (Purchase of cow for parish in 1556). Ibid., 108 (Wintering of a church heifer).  Morton, Derbysh., Acc’ts, The Reliquary, xxv, 17 (Same as above. 1593).  Owen & Blakeway, Hist. of Shrewsbury, ii, 342 (St. Mary’s had in 1544 ten cows and three sheep renting for L1 1s. 8d. yearly).  Rotherfield Acc’ts, Sussex Arch.  Coll., xli, 26, 46.  St. Michael’s, Bath, Acc’ts, Somerset Arch. (etc.) Soc., xxiii, introd., et passim.  Great Witchingham, Norf. and Norw.  Arch.  Soc., xiii, 207 (Cows in 1604).  Hartland, Devon, Acc’ts, Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep., v, Pt. i (1876), 573a (Custom circa 1601 for poor to leave sheep to church by will).  Hudson, Memorials, etc., 106-10 (Parish meeting about renting out of cows.  Surety bonds given by hirers in 1580 ff.).  Many other examples will be found in the wardens acc’ts and elsewhere.

[223] See Hudson, op. cit., supra, 106.  In 1595 two cows were bequeathed to Lapworth to be rented out at 20 d. yearly.  The proceeds of one to mend a certain parish road, of the other to support the poor (ibid., 109).

[224] Art. xxv, Cardwell, Doc.  Ann., i, 189 ff.  So in the Visitation Articles of the same year (ibid., 213) we read:  “Item, whether the money coming and rising of any cattle or other movable stocks of the church [etc.] ... have not been employed to the poor men’s chest.”

[225] In North Elmham the term “office land” seems to have been used for lands set apart for the remuneration of parish servants.  See A.G.  Legge, North Elmham Acc’ts, 81, s.a. 1566:  “It[e]m for office Land of the ten[emen]te fost[er] ... vij d.”  Cf.  Mr. Legge’s note (p. 129).  He cites other examples in Norfolk parishes, viz., “Constable Acre” in Stuston, “Constable Pasture” in Fralingham, “Dog Whipper’s Land” in Barton Turf.  Cf.  J.L.  Glasscock, Records of Bishop Stortford, 55 ("sexten’s meade,” 1563).  In an early year temp.  Henry VIII one Jesop left two tenements to Mendlesham, Suffolk, “to ye fyndyng of a clarke to pley att ye organys for a p[er]petuite.” Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep., v, Pt. i (1876), 596a.  See also Shrop.  Arch. and Nat.  Hist.  Soc., iii, 3rd ser. (1903), 315 (26s. and 8d. and 12 bushels of rye issuing annually out of Idsal rectory for the poor and the maintenance of a clerk).  E. Freshfield, St. Christopher-le-Stocks’ Acc’ts, 38 (Bequest of a perpetuity of 20s. annually for clerk and sexton. 1602).

[226] Swyre, Dorset, Parish Acc’t Book in Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dorset, iii (1893), 293 (Lands allotted by parish for support of a blind man).