f 32b v(Rendered 2 May) (Receipts)
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| Item of the Churche ale & other gatheringes | v li. iiij s. iij d. |
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| Item William dasten hath receiued at whitsontide | xxxviij s. |
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f 35 (Payments)
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| payd for malte towardes the Church ale | xiij s. |
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| payd to the vice for the Revell time | iiij s. |
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| payd to the somner | xvj d. |
| paid to Iohn Estmond for lyveries | iiij s. vj d. |
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| paid to Iohn Rowland taberer | xvij s. vj d. |
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The ending of the accounting year is uncertain. The only date on f 32b is 2 May, but it is in a memorandum separate from the the formulaic memorandum about the old and new churchwardens. This memorandum records the payment of a debt by a member of the parish to another member of the parish. Neither is one of the named churchwardens for 1590–1 or 1591–2.
The entries related to the revived festivities are scattered among the expenses for the year and may not all reflect the same event. Receipts from taxation this year fell to 12s in contrast to £4 6s collected in 1589–90 (f 32). Expenses to plumbers and glaziers, as well as to craftsmen competent to cast and hang bells, argue an extensive building project that year that the wardens may have considered sufficient reason to revive the historic practice, despite the earlier objection of the dean of Windsor. It is the unvarying custom for the churchwardens of Wantage to refer to the 'summoner' of the dean as a 'parrator.' It is possible that the 'somner' recorded here was to go to the neighbouring villages as a 'crier of banns' to advertise the revived revel event.
John Rowland was a taborer who was active in the Vale of the White Horse for at least a decade. He is paid three times by Wantage (1590–1, 1594–5, and 1595–6) and by Stanford in the Vale in 1605–6.
The line 'William dasten hath receiued at whitsontide' does not occur in the main receipts section, but further down the folio, like an afterthought.
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.'