f 38v (Payments)
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| payd to the somner | xvj d. |
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The beginning of the accounting year is uncertain. Folio 37v has a head note giving the date 23 April. This is followed by the recording of two debts unrelated to the annual accounts. The formulaic memorandum recording the change in churchwardens follows with no date given and no allusion to the date at the top of the page.
The taxation for this year was £2 13s 2d.
It is the unvarying custom for the churchwardens of Wantage to refer to the 'summoner' of the dean as a 'parrator' and the sum indicates more than a gratuity paid to someone else's employee. The parish seems again to be making an effort to bring in people from the surrounding parishes to take part in their Whitsun celebrations by using a 'crier of the banns.'
Record title: St Peter and St Paul's
Churchwardens'
Accounts
Repository:
Bodl.
Shelfmark: MS. Top. Berks c.44
Repository location: Oxford
The rendering dates of the accounts are not tied to feast days. Before 1600 they were rendered mostly in April but in the seventeenth century they were sometimes rendered later in the year. Four churchwardens were elected each year – two from Wantage and one each from the village of Grove and the combined communities of Charlton and (West) Lockinge. The date when the new wardens were elected and the date when they received the accounts for the preceding year from the old wardens is often not the same, so it is not always possible to provide exact accounting years. The dates of the election of the chuchwardens have been noted in endnotes when they are known.
1565–1656; English; paper; i + 154 + i; 296mm x195mm; modern foliation (including ff 32a and 32b, 36a and 36b); bound in boards with modern maroon vinyl covering, gold-stamped title on spine: 'Wantage Churchwardens Accounts | MS | Top. Berks. | C.44.'