The attempt to disguise the Whitsun celebration from the visiting dean of Windsor by including mention of 'corne gathered' was clearly unsuccessful. Payment to a 'parrator' or apparitor (summoner) from the dean appears in the expenses for the next nine years, and the parish had to resort to taxing the parishioners to maintain the fabric of the building.
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.'