Davis’s Introduction
EARLY CHURCHWARDENS’ ACCOUNTS OF WANDSWORTH, 1545 TO 1558. BY CECIL T. DAVIS, LIBRARIAN OF THE WANDSWORTH PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
THE parish of Wandsworth is most fortunate in having nearly a complete set of its Churchwardens’ Accounts, dating from 1545. The earliest book contains those of the years 1545–1583. The accounts are written on paper 12⅛ in. by 8⅛ in., and the book is in a very good state of preservation. Before Page 1 a leaf has been torn out, a part of the reverse shows some money, but there is no clue as to whether it was for receipts or for expenditure. The book is covered by a parchment page taken from a missal, and in later years, a stiff paper has been placed over the parchment. In a few instances the leaves have been mutilated, as will be noticed in the following transcript. We do not find any illuminated capitals or borders, though on Page 9, the “P” of “Payments” and the “I” of “Itm” are somewhat elaborate.
This parish had a stock of cows, which were let out on hire, a practice not unusual in some other parishes.1
The osiers were, as may be supposed, land lying on the banks of the Thames, between Frying Pan Creek and the mouth of the Wandle. They were parish property till quite recent years, when they were sold.
1 See A. R. Bax, on “Horley Churchwardens’ Accounts.” Surrey Archæological Collections, VIII, 245.
In the south aisle of Wandsworth Parish Church was a brass plate, on which was this inscription:—
Of your charitie pray for the sowle of Elizabeth Gale, Widow, the whiche decessed in this paryshe the 21 day of Januarie M…CXLV…, Upon whose sowle and al Christen sowles have mercy. Amen.
Davis prints this in an antique blackletter type to evoke the brass’s own lettering; the exact form of the date numerals is not fully certain from the scan.
The will of “mysterys gale” is in P.C.C., F. 4 Alen. “Nic’us Wyllfurd” is very possibly “Nicholas Wilfford” of London, who married Elizabeth Gale, and was father of “Thom. Wilfford of Wansworth.”1 The list given on Page 5 affords an insight into the number of inhabitants in 1544. One man is assessed at viijd, one Walter Smythe, who was tenant of much of the church property, paying £1 : 13s. 4d. for rent. William Jacson, who paid rent for church property amounting to £1 : 3s. 0d., is assessed at ijd. Sixteen are assessed at iiijd, twenty-eight at ijd, and as the leaf has been unfortunately torn, we cannot arrive at a complete list of those assessed.
On Page 57 is another list of those of the parishioners who contributed to the repair of the church in 1556–7.
It is very interesting to notice how the church goods were sold and otherwise disposed of in Edward VI’s reign, and yet in the next the parish is put to the expense of replacing some of them. The clerk who wrote the accounts on Page 56 and the following pages has made use of spelling which is neither euphonic nor similar to any on the preceding pages.
These form the only record left of burials in the parish, for the registers first mentioned on Page 13 have been lost: it may be noticed that the Churchwardens frequently pay for keeping these registers.
The Accounts which follow are transcribed for the years 1545–6 to 1557–8, and cover the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I, with the concluding year of Henry VIII’s reign.
1 See Visitations of Surrey. Harl. Society, vol. 43. In the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LXI, Mr. Pollard calls attention to the confusion which has arisen between three contemporary Thomas Wilfords. The one mentioned above was Chamberlain of London and President of the Company of Traders to Spain and Portugal, Vol. XV.
