CURIOSITIES IN OLD ACCOUNTS.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 26, Issue 11, 1 November 1936, Page 5

CURIOSITIES IN OLD ACCOUNTS.

In the good old days m England, church collections (which some people will call offertories) were very rare. The stipends were paid by tithe, and other expenses and repairs were provided for by a church rate, which was only abolished after a bitter struggle m Queen Victoria's time. One cannot wonder that the dissenters disliked it. In one parish m the seventeenth century, these collections averaged about five a year, and were always on a "brief" or official letter from a bishop. (See rubrics.) They are usually for towns or persons suffering from fire, insurance was known, but rare, and these briefs must have been a great help to those who were fortunate enough to get them. It paid to stand well with your bishop m those days. One example is that of a man who got eight-and-sixpence m 1691 from the parish from whose records these notes are taken, because the French

had landed, burnt his house and shop and killed his father-in-law. Several times money was given m this way for the redemption of His Majesty's subjects m Turkish slavery. Charles ll.'s navy was not strong enough to protect the seas. The amounts given ranged between 12/- and £1 7/-. A larger sum was given m 1686 for the relief of distressed French Protestants. Whether this generosity was inspired by love of the Protestants or hatred of Louis XIV. we can leave open. In the eighteenth century churchwardens got into the habit of paying a few shillings out of the rate m place of collecting the Brief. It saved them trouble. Gradually the use of Briefs died out and few church people to-day know what they were.