[285] E.g., at St. Laurence Pountney, London, the “clerk’s wages” amounted in 1598 to nearly L30 in the wardens receipt items, but in the expense items to L8 plus various dues for lighting, bell-ringing and church-linen washing, in all L12 12s.  Wilson, History of St. Laurence, 125.  In the St. Christopher-le-Stocks Acc’ts (ed.  E. Freshfield), p. 4, the receipts in 1576 for “Clarkes wagis” are L9 6s. 5d., but we read:  “Pd. to J.M.  Clarke his whole yeares wagis [etc.] ... iij li.”  In St. Margaret, Lothbury, Vestry Minutes (p. 13) it was decided in 1581 to raise the “clarkes rolle” to L8 a year, but expressly stated that the clerk is to be paid as before, “but That [the] overplus Shall remayn For astocke to the churche to beare owtt such charges as shalbe nessesarye for the same.”  In St. Bartholomew, Exchange, Vestry Minutes (ed.  E. Freshfield) in 1583 it is agreed (p. 27) that the clerk is to pay out of his wages the statutory assessment of 2d. weekly on the parish for maimed soldiers and mariners.  Same stipulation at St. Alphage’s, London Wall:  G.B.  Hall, Records of St. Alphage (1882), 25 (1594).

[286] St. Mary, Reading, Acc’ts (ed.  F.N. & A.G.  Garry), p. 56.

[287] Hill and Frere, Memorials of Stepney, 1-3 (1580).  Later, 1606 (p. 50), the same method was employed to pay debts for casting the bells.  Those not paying their assessments were to be deprived of their seats (p. 4).  Other examples of raising money by pew rents are Butcher, Parish of Ashburton, 49 (L6 4s. collected “for the seat rent”. 1579-80). St. Christopher-le-Stocks Vestry Minutes, 71 (Clerk’s wages to be “sessed by the pyews").

[288] Baker, Mere Acc’ts (Wilts Arch, [etc.] Mag.), 33 (12d. for seats for a man and his wife, “which before were his ffather’s.” 1561).  In a sale to a parishioner in 1556-7 it is expressly stated that she is to hold the seat during “here lyfe Accordynge to the old usage of the parishe”:  ibid., 24.  At St. Edmund’s, Sarum, the sale was sometimes for life, sometimes for a lesser period.  A fine was paid for changing a pew, Introd., p. xxi.  Cf. order made at Chelmsford in 1592, Essex Arch.  Soc., ii, 219-20.  See in St. John’s, Glastonbury, Acc’ts, Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dor., iv, 384, s.a. 1574, and op. cit., v, s.a. 1588, many receipts from the sale of seats.  Cf.  Pittington Vestry order, 1584, Surtees Soc., lxxxiv, 13. St. Michael’s in Bedwardine Acc’ts, Introd., p. xvi.  Fletcher, History of Loughborough, Acc’ts, 24 ff.

[289] See, e.g., in St. Martin-in-the-Fields Acc’ts, 214, the long list of receipts “for burialls, knylles and Suche Lyke,” s.aa. 1563-5.  At St. Edmund, Sarum, burials with christenings and banns netted L8 5s. 2d. in 1592-3 (Acc’ts, 141).  At Kingston-upon-Thames in 1579 burials totalled 39s. 8d.:  Surrey Arch.  Coll., viii, 75.  In St. Michael’s, Cornhill, London, Acc’ts (ed.  W.H.  Overall & A.J.  Waterlow), 178-9, the receipts from knells and peals alone were 44s. 8d. in 1589-90.