Page 709 Appendix V In Thomas Holloways Accounts he refers to his rectorial tithes and his curates. Though not of interest to everyone nevertheless they were very important to the Holloway's income and expenditure. Lay Impropriator's tithes and the Vicar's Curates. A rector could appoint a vicar to look after his parish. The great tithes arising out of that parish belonged to the rector and the small tithes to his vicar. The bishop of Lincoln had been the rector for Cropredy until the estates were surrendered to the Crown. The great tithes coming from Cropredy were sold to lay impropriators. The small tithes continued to be paid to the vicar of Cropredy. As the lay impropriator of the rectorial tithes Calcott Chambres of Williamscote House farmed out several moieties which covered the tithes for the ecclesiastical parish of Cropredy. Briefly the lessees had to collect in the corn and pay the following rent:
In 1650 the rectorial great tithes were leased to Calcott Chambres senior and assigned to George Chamberlaine and Ambrose Holbech in trust for the lives of Mr E.Calcott Chambre jnr son of Calcott Chambre and Mary daughter of said Calcott and Robert Sandford eldest son of ffrancis Sandford, Salop, gentleman. The former rectorial tithes included the Parsonage Close to the south of the church let to the vicar and a small holding below Springfield farm where Hunt the weaver had lived [5]. The ancient tithe barn, which no longer exists, may be the "Parsonage" barn referred to by Thomas Holloway then standing in the Parsonage Close. The close had been taken from the communal Green while in the ownership of the rector, the bishop of Lincoln, who was also at that time Lord of the A Manor. In the Easter Oblations folios Thomas Holloway made a note of his quarterly parsonage payments, due on the Parsonage Close and churchyard, to William Hall[6]. Thomas also added some notes in the columns alongside the Hall's [6] household in the Easter Oblations: In 1616 William Hall paid 1s-2d and Thomas added "I payd him for/ the p'sonage for/ my candlemas/ & this lady day ijs/." In 1613 when Mr Hall paid 1s-8d Thomas wrote "payd/ my rent and/ recd viijd wch Clement hyron/ putt vid his portion/" [MS.dd par Cropredy c25/7 f18 & f1]. Was Clement the tenant of a second Parsonage Close next to Palmer's [59] on the western side (2 on Fig 28.1)? Page 710 Rector of Hampton Poyle (1591-1619). Thomas Holloway had another parish church at "Hampton Poyle distant xiiij myles" where he was the Rector. There appeared to be no other connection between the two parishes. How did he acquire two parishes? Holloway set the Hampton Poyle glebe and parsonage house. He employed a preaching minister using part of the tithes for his salary [c25/2 f9].
For some reason another reference concerning this rent was saved by the vicars [f15v]:
The revenues from Hampton Poyle came to £24- 13s- 8d for the Glebe, house and orchard and to this was added the rectorial tithes of £23- 13s- 4d. A total of £48 less the curate's wage of £8. His wages were two pounds lower than Claydon [c25/10 f1v]. It was far more convenient for Holloway to compute the tithes into a cash payment rather than having to sell the corn, or riding over to collect waggon loads of barley, wheat, oats and peas. Somehow he had managed to get the farmers to pay the value of an average load,or else it was calculated by the sale value for that season? The farmer would then take the cost of the sale into consideration. The people of Hampton Poyle had a poor exchange for their tithes when Holloway put in a lowly paid curate, who may not always have a licence to preach. The advantages were only for the Holloways who had another steady source of income. Page 711 Rectorial Tithe Rents from Prescote. (Including the rents Holloway paid for land he had leased). See explanations below.
Prescote being enclosed was divided between two owners and had few parishioners. Those who lived at Upper Prescote were the farm bailiff and a miller. The Gorstelows with their staff lived at the manor house. From the Easter list of 1615 we find Wam Bredon, his wife, daughter and two sons, Allen and George living in Upper Prescote farm. The vicar leased some of Sir Rychard ffarmer's land in Prescote upon which his widow owed Brouncker £11 in tithes. He also farmed a yardland from French's [4] in Cropredy and owed his own tithes for the parsonage, churchyard and close to Mr Chambres. The William Breedon who farmed Prescote for Gorstelows also collected Sir Richard ffarmer's rents. The half year rent expected from a yardland was around £4-16s-8d. Thomas received £9-13s-4d for his yardland at Claydon and if Hampton Poyle Glebe was two and a half yardlands then the rent was similar there. The half year's "rent" for the yardland sublet from Thomas French is rather like a computed rectorial tithe. If this was a real rent then he will have paid a hefty entry fine leaving a token yearly payment. Thomas himself states he had three quarters of a yardland in Cropredy, yet all other references to this land amount to only 5 acres. It must have proved insufficient for the vicar took on besides the yardland from Thomas French [4], one from John Hunt who lived on the Green [16]. When Thomas Holloway took on extra land in 1587 he did this with two of his sons sharing the profits, "betwixt us," and his accounts begin from that year to prove the dividing of the finances, and to teach them perhaps the business of farm accounts? Walter Gorstelow worked out that the whole of Cropredy's Ecclesiatical parish rectorial tithes were worth six or seven hundred pounds per annum (this may be exaggerated), which maddened some of the townsmen who had to pay them to non clergy [Gorstelow W. Charls Stuart and Oliver Cromwell United. 1655 p204]. Page 712 Ministers.
Thomas Holloway's area was too large for him and with four churches requiring Sunday services, he preached in them quarterly and put in curates for the rest of the year, though Mollington's Mr Man signs himself as "preacher of the word there." The rent from Claydon's yardland paid for a minister and in addition the vicar allowed him the fees for weddings and churchings. A house, backside and the use of the churchyard grazing completed his stipend. Mollington also had £10 in money, a house, backside, the churchyard and its "lees" as well as tithe hay from the closes. This minister had half the register book takings for weddings and christenings, all else to the vicar. Only the Wardington man sometimes went into lodgings in "The curate's house" and received only £4 with wedding and churching fees. The parish burial fees nearly all went to the vicar. Thomas let the Wardington glebe of two yardlands for around £20, less the curate's board. When his son-in-law John Clarson was minister at Wardington did he have the curate's house? The Minister for Mollington.
Mr Man must have had the vicarage at Mollington, but he did not have any of the glebe land there except some hay. The previous year Thomas paid
with no explanation of how he had earned this extra amount, unless like Syr Arledge he had been to the bishop for his ordination. The title of "Mr" or "Sir" was often conferred on a man who had gone through the university. A married minister Rychard Meacocke who preceded Man died in 1608. Before him Claydon's minister had to help out. Rychard Meacocke acted as scribe for his parishioners, but he was too ill to write his own will which was hastily written by Holloway on the 15th of July and witnessed by John Clarson then curate of Wardington. Page 713 The Minister for Claydon. Richard Polley was curate from 1577 to 1585 and followed by Christopher Polley who was there in 1590. William Saunderson arriving in 1594:
Dr Brouncker when he became vicar had curates in Cropredy, Claydon, Mollington and Wardington. He used the town tithes to pay them. "Out of this Curatts" £48. In Claydon Mr Saunderson was paid £10 per annum as presumably were the Cropredy and Mollington curates, but as Arledge in Wardington received only a small payment, how then did it come to £48? Thomas Holloway settled the payment of Claydon tithes. In [c25/4 f32v] he wrote
The Reverend Saunderson took the Mollington services from 1594 to 1604 according to the Subsidy Rolls. The two parishes remained separate for some time after this. In 1619 William Saunderson presented "our Church yard mounds to be out of repayre but whose defaultes I knowe not, for that I am not acquanted of everye mans parte." The rest of the Claydon churchwardens presentations concern parishioners. The minister did catechise the youth many times "yet he hath not Catechised them every Sondaye and holy daye" which the more pious protestants in his church believed very necessary. Most clergymen appear to leave this to a minimum of occasions. Mr William Saunderson died in November 1633, his wife Jone was buried on the 24th of December 1619 as the wife of William Saunderson [Holloway [21] died on the 13th, Coldwell [50] the 15th, Gibbs [25] on the 18th, Sheeler the shepherd [50] the 20th and then Jone on the 24th]. Page 714 The Minister for Wardington. Thomas's third minister served him in the Wardington parish which included the Wardington part of Williamscote and Coton. Wardington was divided into Wardington upper end and Wardington nyther end in their 1614 to 1616 tithe book and poultry tithes c1611 to 1619. The tithes in these account books all coming to the vicar [c25/5 & c25/6]. In 1615:
The evidence for the Hills leasing the curate's house and giving board and lodging to Mr Arledge appears in the Wardington tithe book [c25/5 f11v]. That house may be the one which backs onto the churchyard. The upstairs window or windows were without glass until perhaps a curate fell ill, or the rest of the house was glazed, and the shutters being insufficient the vicar pays for the "glasinge" of the curates window:
Page 715 William Arledge was at the Cropredy vicarage to witness Thomas Holloway's will in 1619. If Thomas did have a fever Arledge did not catch anything from him. In a Bourton will Alice Wallis nee Arledge, the blacksmith's widow left "a blanket and pillow and a payre of sheets" to William Arledge a minister in April 1623 [MS. Will Pec. 54/2/28]. The next Vicar Dr Brouncker, who lived in Ladbroke, wrote in [c25/10 f1v]:
Was he from the miller Arledge's family? The Cropredy area had many millers who allowed their sons, if they were drawn by lot, to attend the free school at Williamscote. John Arledge had two sons, William born 1592 and John 1594, both of whom were scholars in the 1604 list. Could they have gone on to Oxford university? The registers and the churchwardens' presentments for the Banbury Peculiar [Oxon. Archd. papers, Oxon b.52] reveal other ministers, but the dates are very uncertain:
These were nearly all non preaching, that is curates without a licence from the Bishop. They had to swear they would not preach publicly "I shall interpret, but only read that which is appointed by public authority." |