The Parish Clerk Part 10

He married and buried a third with Amen.

Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but then His voice was deep base, as he sung out Amen.

On the horn he could blow as well as most men, So his horn was exalted to blowing Amen.

But he lost all his wind after threescore and ten, And here with three wives he waits till again The trumpet shall rouse him to sing out Amen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD SCARLETT]

The duties of s.e.xton and parish clerk were usually performed by one person, as we have already frequently noticed, and therefore it is fitting that we should record the epitaph of Old Scarlett, most famous of grave-diggers, who buried two queens, both the victims of stern persecution, ill-usage, and Tudor tyranny--Catherine, the divorced wife of Henry VIII, and poor sinning Mary Queen of Scots. His famous picture in Peterborough Cathedral, on the wall of the western transept, usually attracts the chief attention of the tourist, and has preserved his name and fame. He is represented with a spade, pickaxe, keys, and a whip in his leathern girdle, and at his feet lies a skull. In the upper left-hand corner appear the arms of the see of Peterborough, save that the cross-keys are converted into cross-swords. The whip at his girdle appears to show that Old Scarlett occupied the position of dog-whipper as well as s.e.xton. There is a description of this portrait in the _Book of Days_, wherein the writer says:

"What a lively effigy--short, stout, hardy, self-complacent, perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud of his profession, and content to be exhibited with all its insignia about him! Two queens had pa.s.sed through his hands into that bed which gives a lasting rest to queens and to peasants alike. An officer of death, who had so long defied his princ.i.p.al, could not but have made some impression on the minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and other magnates of the cathedral, and hence, as we may suppose, the erection of this lively portraiture of the old man, which is believed to have been only once renewed since it was first put up. Dr. Dibdin, who last copied it, tells us that 'old Scarlett's jacket and trunkhose are of a brownish red, his stockings blue, his shoes black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his feet red. The cap upon his head is red, and so also is the ground of the coat armour.'" Beneath the portrait are these lines:

YOU SEE OLD SCARLETTS PICTURE STAND ON HIE BUT AT YOUR FEETE THERE DOTH HIS BODY LYE HIS GRAVESTONE DOTH HIS AGE AND DEATH TIME SHOW HIS OFFICE BY THEIS TOKENS YOU MAY KNOW SECOND TO NONE FOR STRENGTH AND St.u.r.dYE LIMM A SCARBABE MIGHTY VOICE WITH VISAGE GRIM HEE HAD INTER'D TWO QUEENES WITHIN THIS PLACE AND THIS TOWNES HOUSEHOLDERS IN HIS LIVES s.p.a.cE TWICE OVER: BUT AT LENGTH HIS OWN TURNE CAME WHAT HE FOR OTHERS DID FOR HIM THE SAME WAS DONE: NO DOUBT HIS SOUL DOTH LIVE FOR AYE IN HEAVEN: THOUGH HERE HIS BODY CLAD IN CLAY.

On the floor is a stone inscribed "JULY 2 1594 R.S. aetatis 98." This painting is not a contemporary portrait of the old s.e.xton, but a copy made in 1747.

The sentiment expressed in the penult couplet is not uncommon, the idea of retributive justice, of others performing the last offices for the clerk who had so often done the like for his neighbours. The same notion is expressed in the epitaph of Frank Raw, clerk and monumental mason, of Selby, Yorkshire, which runs as follows:

Here lies the body of poor FRANK RAW Parish clerk and gravestone cutter, And this is writ to let you know What Frank for others used to do Is now for Frank done by another[48].

[Footnote 48: _Curious Epitaphs_, by W. Andrews, p. 120.]

The achievement of Old Scarlett with regard to his interring "the town's householders in his life's s.p.a.ce twice over," has doubtless been equalled by many of the long-lived clerks whose memoirs have been recorded, but it is not always recorded on a tombstone. At Ratcliffe-on-Soar there is, however, the grave of an old clerk, one Robert Smith, who died in 1782, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, and his epitaph records the following facts:

Fifty-five years it was, and something more, Clerk of this parish he the office bore, And in that s.p.a.ce, 'tis awful to declare, Two generations buried by him were[49]!

[Footnote 49: _Ibid_. p. 121.]

It is recorded on the tomb of Hezekiah Briggs, who died in 1844 in his eightieth year, the clerk and s.e.xton of Bingley, Yorkshire, that "he buried seven thousand corpses[50]."

[Footnote 50: _Notes and Queries_, Ninth Series, xii. 453.]

The verses written in his honour are worth quoting:

Here lies an old ringer beneath the cold clay Who has rung many peals both for serious and gay; Through Grandsire and Trebles with ease he could range, Till death called Bob, which brought round the last change.

For all the village came to him When they had need to call; His counsel free to all was given, For he was kind to all.

Ring on, ring' on, sweet Sabbath bell, Still kind to me thy matins swell, And when from earthly things I part, Sigh o'er my grave and lull my heart.

These last four lines strike a sweet note, and are far superior to the usual cla.s.s of monumental poetry. I will not guarantee the correct copying of the third and fourth lines. Various copyists have produced various versions. One version runs:

Bob majors and trebles with ease he could bang, Till Death called a bob which brought the last clang.

In Staple-next-Wingham, Kent, there is a stone to the memory of the parish clerk who died in 1820, aged eighty-six years, and thus inscribed:

He was honest and just, in friendship sincere, And Clerk of this Parish for sixty-seven years.

At Worth Church, Suss.e.x, near the south entrance is a headstone, inscribed thus:

In memory of John Alcorn, Clerk and s.e.xton of this parish, who died Dec. 13: 1868 in the 81st year of his age.

Thine honoured friend for fifty three full years, He saw each bridal's joy, each Burial's tears; Within the walls, by Saxons reared of old, By the stone sculptured font of antique mould, Under the ma.s.sive arches in the glow, Tinged by dyed sun-beams pa.s.sing to and fro, A sentient portion of the sacred place, A worthy presence with a well-worn face.

The lich-gate's shadow, o'er his pall at last Bids kind adieu as poor old John goes past.

Unseen the path, the trees, the old oak door, No more his foot-falls touch the tomb-paved floor, His silvery head is hid, his service done Of all these Sabbaths absent only one.

And now amidst the graves he delved around, He rests and sleeps, beneath the hallowed ground.

Keep Innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right, For that shall bring a man peace at the last. Psalm x.x.xVII.

38.

There is an interesting memorial of an aged parish clerk in Cropthorne Church, Worcestershire, an edifice of considerable note. It consists of a small painted-gla.s.s window in the tower, containing a full-length portrait of the deceased official, duly apparelled in a ca.s.sock.

There is in the King's Norton parish churchyard an old gravestone the existence of which I dare say a good many people had forgotten until recently, owing to the inscription having become almost illegible.

Within the past few weeks it has been renovated, and thus a record has been prevented from dropping out of public memory. The stone sets forth that it was erected to the memory of Isaac Ford, a shoemaker, who was for sixty-two years parish clerk of King's Norton, and who died on 10 July, 1755, aged eighty-five years. Beneath is another interesting inscription to the effect that Henry Ford, son of Isaac, who died on 11 July, 1795, aged eighty-one, was also parish clerk for forty years. The two men thus held continuous office for one hundred and two years. This is a famous record of long service, though it has been surpa.s.sed by a few others, our parish clerks being a long-lived race.

At Stoulton Church a clerk died in 1812, and it is recorded on his epitaph that "He was clerk of this parish more 30 years and much envied." It was not his office or his salary which was envied, but "a worn't much liked by the t'others," and yet followed the verse:

A loving' husband, father dear, A faithful friend lies buried here.

An epitaph without a "werse" was considered very degrading.

CHAPTER VIII

THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS

The story of the City companies of London has many attractions for the historian and antiquary. When we visit the ancient homes of these great societies we are impressed by their magnificence and interesting a.s.sociations. Portraits of old City worthies and royal benefactors gaze at us from the walls, and link our time with theirs, when they, too, strove to uphold the honour of their guild and benefit their generation.

Many a quaint old-time custom and ceremonial usage linger on within the old halls, and there too are enshrined cuira.s.s and targe, helmet, sword and buckler, which tell the story of the past, and of the part the companies played in national defence or in the protection of civic rights. Turning down some dark alley and entering the portals of one of their halls, we are transported at once from the busy streets and din of modern London into a region of old-world memories which has a fascination that is all its own.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This is not the place to discuss the origin of guilds and City companies, which can trace back their descent to Anglo-Saxon times and were usually of a religious type. They were the benefit societies of ancient days, inst.i.tutions of self-help, combining care for the needy with the practice of religion, justice, and morality. There were guilds exclusively religious, guilds of the calendars for the clergy, social guilds for the purpose of promoting good fellowship, benevolence, and thrift, merchant guilds for the regulation of trade, and frith guilds for the promotion of peace and the establishment of law and order.

In this goodly company we find evidences at an early date of the existence of the Fraternity of Parish Clerks. Its long and important career, though it ranked not with the Livery Companies, and sent not its members to take part in the deliberations of the Common Council, is full of interest, and reflects the greatest credit on the worthy clerks who composed it.

In other cities besides London the clerks seem to have formed their guilds. As early as the time of the _Domesday Survey_ there was a clerks' guild at Canterbury, wherein it is stated "_In civitate Cantuaria habet achiepiscopus_ xii burgesses and x.x.xii mansuras which the clerks of the town, _clerici de villa_, hold within their gild and do yield x.x.xv shillings."

The first mention of the company carries us back to the early days of Henry III, when in the seventeenth year of that monarch's reign (A.D.

1233), according to Stow, they were incorporated and registered in the books of the Guildhall. The patron saint of the company was St.

Nicholas, who also extended his patronage to robbers and mariners.

Thieves are dubbed by Shakespeare as St. Nicholas's clerks[51], and Rowley calls highwaymen by the same t.i.tle. Possibly this may be accounted for by the a.s.sociation of the light-fingered fraternity with Nicholas, or Old Nick, a cant name for the devil, or because _The Golden Legend_ tells of the conversion of some thieves through the saint's agency. At any rate, the good Bishop of Myra was the patron saint of scholars, and therefore was naturally selected as tutelary guardian of clerks.

[Footnote 51: _Henry IV_, act ii. sc. 1.]

In 1442 Henry VI granted a charter to "the Chief or Parish Clerks of the City of London for the honour and glory of Almighty G.o.d and of the undefiled and most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, and on account of that special devotion, which they especially bore to Christ's glorious confessor, St. Nicholas, on whose day or festival we were first presented into this present world, at the hands of a mother of memory ever to be revered." The charter states that they had maintained a poor brotherhood of themselves, as well as a certain divine service, and divine words of charity and piety, devised and exhibited by them year by year, for forty years or more by part; and it conferred on them the right of a perpetual corporate community, having two roasters and two chaplains to celebrate divine offices every day, for the King's welfare whether alive or dead, and for the souls of all faithful departed, for ever. By special royal grace they were allowed, on pet.i.tioning His Majesty, to have the charter without paying any fine or fee.

Seven years later a second charter was granted, wherein it is stated that their services were held in the Chapel of Mary Magdalene by the Guildhall. "Bretherne and Sisterne" were included in the fraternity. Bad times and the Wars of the Roses brought distress to the community, and they prayed Edward IV to refound their guild, allowing only the maintenance of one chaplain instead of two in the chapel nigh the Guildhall, together with the support of seven poor persons who daily offered up their prayers for the welfare of the King and the repose of the souls of the faithful. They provided "a prest, brede, wyne, wex, boke, vestments and chalise for their auter of S. Nicholas in the said chapel." The King granted their request.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MASTER'S CHAIR AT THE PARISH CLERKS HALL.]