The Parish Clerk Part 12

An early "Bill of Mortality" is preserved at the Hall. It tells of "the Number of those who dyed in the Citie of London and Liberties of the same from the 28th of December 1581 to the 17th of December 1582, with the Christenings. And also the number of all those who have died of the plague in every parish particularly. Blessed are the Dead." There is also preserved a number of the weekly bills of mortality. Referring to the year of the Great Plague, 1665, these doc.u.ments show that at the beginning of the pestilence in April, during one week only fifty-seven persons died; whereas in September the death-roll had reached the enormous number of 6544.

The company seems to have been a useful agency for carrying out all kinds of duties connected with gathering the statistics of mortality, nor do they seem to have been overpaid for their trouble. In the early years of the seventeenth century 3. 6 s. 8 d. was all that they received. In 1607 the sum was increased to 8, inasmuch as they were ordered to furnish a bill to the Queen and the Lord Chancellor as well as to the King. Some clerks endeavoured to make illicit gains by supplying the public with "false and untrue bills," or distributing some bills for each week before they had been sent to the Lord Mayor; and any brother who "by any cunning device gave away, dispersed, uttered, or declared, or by sinister device cast forth at any window, hole, or crevice of a wall any bills or notes" before the due returns had been sent to the Lord Mayor, was ordered to pay a fine of 10 s. and other divers penalties.

The methods of making out these returns are very curious, and did not conduce to infallible accuracy. In each parish there were persons called searchers, ancient women who were informed by the s.e.xton of a death, and whose duty it was to visit the deceased and state the cause of death.

They had no medical knowledge, and therefore their diagnosis could only have been very conjectural. This they reported to the parish clerk. The clerk made out his bill for the week, took it to the Hall of the company, and deposited it in a box on the staircase. All the returns were then tabulated, arranged, and printed, and when copies had been sent to the authorities, others were placed in the hands of the clerks for sale.

The system was all very excellent and satisfactory, but its carrying out was defective. Negligent clerks did not send their returns in spite of admonition, caution, fine, or brotherly persuasion. The searchers'

information was usually unreliable. Complications arose on account of the Act of the Commonwealth Parliament requiring the registration of births instead of baptisms, of civil marriages, and banns published in the market place; also on account of the vast mortality caused by the Great Plague, the burials in the large common pits and public burial grounds, and the opposition of the Quakers to inspection and registration. All these causes contributed to the issuing of unreliable returns. The company did their best to grapple with all these difficulties. They did not escape censure, and were blamed on account of the faults of individual clerks. The contest went on for years, and was only finally settled in 1859, when the last bills of mortality were issued, and the Public Registration Act rendered the work of the clerks, which they had carried on for three centuries to the best of their skill and ability, unnecessary. In the Guildhall Library are preserved a large number of the volumes of these bills which the industry of the clerks of London had issued with so much perseverance and energy under difficult circ.u.mstances, and they form a valuable and interesting collection of doc.u.ments ill.u.s.trative of the old life of the City.

One happy result of the duty laid upon the clerks of issuing bills of mortality in the City of London was that they were allowed to set up a printing press in the Hall of their company. The licence for this press was obtained in 1625, and in the following year it was duly established with the consent of the authorities. It was no easy task in the early Stuart times to obtain leave to have a printing press, and severe were the restrictions laid down, and the penalties for any violation of any of them. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London had mighty powers over the Press, and the clerks could not choose their printer save with the approval of these ecclesiastical dignitaries.

Very strict regulations were laid down by the company in order to prevent any improper use being made of the productions of their press.

The door of the chamber containing their printing machine was provided with three locks; the key of the upper lock was placed in the charge of the upper master, that of the middle lock was in the custody of the upper warden, while the key of the lower lock was kept by the under warden. They appointed one Richard Hodgkinson as their printer in 1630, with whom they had much disputing. Six years later one of their own company, Thomas Cotes, parish clerk of Cripplegate Without, was chosen to succeed him. Richard Cotes followed in 1641, and then a female printer carried on the work, Mrs. Ellinor Cotes, probably the widow of Richard.

The Great Fire caused the destruction of the clerks' press; but a few years later a prominent member of the company, whose portrait we see in the Hall, Mr. John Clarke, procured for them another press with type, and Andrew Clarke was appointed printer. He was succeeded by Benjamin Motte, whose widow carried on the work after his death. An intruding printer, appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London without the consent of the company, one Humphreys, made his appearance, much to the displeasure of the clerks, who objected to be dictated to with regard to the choice of their own official. Litigation ensued, but in the end Humphreys was appointed. He was not a satisfactory printer, and was careless and neglectful. The clerks reprimanded him and he promised amendment, but his errors continued, and after a pet.i.tion was presented to the Archbishop and the Bishop of London by the company, he was compelled to resign.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS COMPANY]

The increase of newspapers and the publication of the bills of mortality in their sheets taken from the records of the clerks materially affected the sale of the company's issue of the same, and efforts were made in Parliament to obtain a monopoly for the company. This action was costly, and no benefit was derived. After the removal of the unsatisfactory Humphreys the printing of the company pa.s.sed into the hands of the Rivingtons, a name honoured amongst printers and publishers for many generations. Mr. Charles Rivington was printer for the clerks in 1787, his brother being a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, to whose son's widow, Mrs. Anne Rivington, the office pa.s.sed in 1790. The printing of the bills of mortality was carried on by the company until 1850, having been conducted by the Rivington family for over sixty years[56].

[Footnote 56: I am indebted for this list of printers to Mr. James Christie's _Some Account of Parish Clerks_.]

In addition to their statistical returns, the Company of Parish Clerks are responsible for some other and more important works which reflect great credit upon them. Foremost among them is a book ent.i.tled:

"_New Remarks of London_; or, a Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, of Southwark and part of Middles.e.x and Surrey within the circ.u.mference of the Bills of Mortality." It contains "an account of the situation, antiquity, and rebuilding of each church, the value of the Rectory or Vicarage, in whose gifts they are, and the names of the present inc.u.mbents or lecturers. Of the several vestries, Hours of Prayer, Parish and Ward Officers, Charity and other schools, the number of Charity Children, how maintained, educated and placed out apprentices, or put to service. Of the Almshouses, Workhouses and Hospitals. The remarkable Places and Things in each Parish, with the limits or Bounds, Streets, Lanes, Courts, and numbers of Houses. An alphabetical table of all the Streets, Courts, Lanes, Alleys, Yards, Rows, Rents, Squares, etc. within the Bills of Mortality, shewing in which Liberty or Freedom they are, and an easy method of finding them.

Of the several Inns of Court, and Inns of Chancery, with their several Buildings, Courts, Lanes, etc.

"Collected by the Company of Parish-Clerks to which is added the Places to which Penny Post Letters are sent, with proper Directions therein.

The Wharfs, Keys, Docks, etc. near the River Thames, of water-carriage to several Cities, Towns, etc. The Rates of Watermen, Porters of all kinds and Carmen. To what Inns Stage Coaches, Flying Coaches, Waggons and Carriers come, and the days they go out. The whole being very useful for Ladies, Gentlemen, Clergymen, Merchants, Tradesmen, Coachmen, Chair-men, Car-men, Porters, Bailiffs and others.

"London, Printed for E. Midwinter at _the_

_Looking Gla.s.s and three Crowns_ in St Paul's

Churchyard MDCCx.x.xII."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTRAIT OF JOHN CLARKE, PARISH CLERK OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL. CORNHILL]

This is a wonderfully interesting little book. Each clerk compiled the information for his own parish and appended his name. Most carefully is the information contained in the book arranged, and the volume is a most creditable production of the worshipful company.

Amongst the books preserved in the Hall is another volume, ent.i.tled "_London Parishes_; containing an account of the Rise, Corruption, and Reformation of the Church of England." This was published by the parish clerks in 1824.

CHAPTER X

CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS

Parish clerks are immortalised by having given their name to an important part of London. Clerkenwell is the _fons clericorum_ of the old chronicler, Fitz-Stephen. It is the Clerks' Well, the syllable _en_ being the form of the old Saxon plural. Fitz-Stephen wrote in the time of King Stephen: "There are also round London on the northern side, in the suburbs, excellent springs, the water of which is sweet, clear, salubrious, 'mid glistening pebbles gliding playfully; amongst which Holywell, Clerkenwell, (_fons clericorum_), and St. Clement's Well are of most note, and most frequently visited, as well by the scholars from the schools as by the youth of the City when they go out to take air in the summer evenings."

It was then, and for centuries later, a rural spot, not far from the City, just beyond Smithfield, a place of green sward and gently sloping ground, watered by a pleasant stream, far different from the crowded streets of the modern Clerkenwell. It was a spot famous for athletic contests, for wrestling bouts and archery, and hither came the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen at Bartholomew Fair time to witness the sports, and especially the wrestling.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD MAP OF CLERKENWELL]

But that which gave to the place its name and chief glory was the fact that once a year at least the parish clerks of London came here to perform their mystery plays and moralities. "Their profession," wrote Warton[57], "employment and character, naturally dictated to this spiritual brotherhood the representation of plays, especially those of the scriptural kind, and their constant practice in shows, processions, and vocal music easily accounts for their address in detaining the best company which England afforded in the fourteenth century at a religious farce for more than a week." These plays were no ordinary performances, no afternoon or evening entertainment, but a protracted drama lasting from three to eight days. In the reign of Richard II, A.D. 1391, the clerks were acting before the King, his Queen, and many n.o.bles. The performances continued for three days, and the representations were the "Pa.s.sion of Our Lord and the Creation of the World," which so well pleased the King that he commanded 10, a very considerable sum of money in those days, to be paid to the clerks of the parish churches and to divers other clerks of the City of London. Here is the record of his gift:

"_Issue Roll_, Easter, 14 Ric. II.

"11 July. To the clerks of the parish churches and to divers other clerks of the city of London. In money paid to them in discharge of 10 which the Lord the King commanded to be paid to them of his gift on account of the play of the 'Pa.s.sion of Our Lord and the Creation of the World' by them performed at Skynnerwell after the feast of St. Bartholomew last past. By writ of Privy Seal amongst the mandates of this term--10."

[Footnote 57: _English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 397.]

Skinners' Well was close to the Clerks' Well, and it was so called, so Stow informs us, "for that the Skinners of London held there certain plays yearly of Holy Scripture,"

A few years later, in the succeeding reign, 10 Henry IV, A.D. 1409, the fraternity of clerks were again performing at the same place. Stow says: "In the year 1409 was a great play at Skynners' Welle, neere unto Clarkenwell, besides London, which lasted eight daies, and was of matter from the creation of the world; there were to see the same the most part of the n.o.bles and gentles in England"--a mighty audience truly, which not even Sir Henry Irving could command in his farewell performances at Drury Lane.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MYSTERY PLAY AT CHESTER (FROM A PRINT AFTER A PAINTING BY T. UWINS)]

These religious plays or mysteries were a powerful means for instructing the people; and if we had lived in mediaeval times, we should not have needed to fly to Ober-Ammergau in order to witness a Pa.s.sion Play. In the streets of Coventry or Chester, York, or Tewkesbury, Witney, or Reading, or on the Green at Clerkenwell, we could have seen the appealing spectacle; and though sometimes the actors lapsed into buffoonery, and the red demons carrying souls to h.e.l.l's mouth created merriment rather than terror, and though realism was carried to such a pitch that Adam and Eve appeared in a state of nature, yet many of the spectators would carry away with them pious thoughts and some grasp of the facts of Scripture history, and of the mysteries of the faith.

Originally the plays were performed in churches, but owing to the gradually increased size of the stage and the more elaborate stage effects, the sacred buildings were abandoned as the scenes of mediaeval drama. Then the churchyard was utilised for the purpose. The clergy no longer took part in the pageants, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the people liked to act their plays in the highways and public places as at Clerkenwell. The guilds and fraternities in many places provided the chief actors, and in towns where there were many guilds and companies, each company performed part of the great drama, the movable stage being drawn about from street to street. Thus at York the story of the Creation and the Redemption was divided into forty-eight parts, each part being acted by a guild, or group of companies. The Tanners represented G.o.d the Father creating the heavens, angels and archangels, and the fall of Lucifer and the disobedient angels. Then the Plasterers showed the Creation of the Earth, and the work of the first five days. The Card-makers exhibited the Creation of Adam of the clay of the earth, and the making of Eve of Adam's rib, thus inspiring them with the breath of life. The Fall, the story of Cain and Abel, of Noah and the Flood, of Moses, the Annunciation and all Gospel history, ending with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Final Judgment.

The stage upon which the clerks performed their plays, according to Strutt, consisted of three platforms, one above another. On the uppermost sat G.o.d the Father surrounded by His angels. He was represented in a white robe, and until it was discovered how injurious the process was, the actor who played the part used to have his face gilded. On the second platform were the glorified saints, and on the lowest men who had not yet pa.s.sed from life. On one side of the lowest platform was h.e.l.l's mouth, a dark pitchy cavern, whence issued the appearance of fire and flames, and sometimes hideous yellings and noises in imitation of the howlings and cries of wretched souls tormented by relentless demons. From this yawning cave the devils constantly ascended to delight the spectators and afford comic relief to the more serious drama. The three stages were not always used. Archdeacon Rogers, who died in 1595, left an account of the Chester play which he himself saw, and he wrote that the stage was a high scaffold with two rooms, a higher and a lower, upon four wheels. In the lower the actors apparelled themselves, and in the higher they played. But this was a movable stage on wheels. The clerks' stage would, doubtless, be a fixed structure, and of a more elaborate construction.

The dresses used by the actors were very gorgeous and splendid, though little care was bestowed upon the appropriateness of the costumes. The words of the play of the Creation differ in the various versions which have come down to us. Strutt thinks that the clerks' play, acted before "the most part of the n.o.bles and gentles in England," was very similar to the Coventry play, which cannot compare in grandeur and vigour with the York play discovered in the library of Lord Ashburnham, and edited by Miss Toulmin Smith[58]. But as the north-country dialect of the York version would have been difficult for the learned clerks of London to p.r.o.nounce, their version would doubtless resemble more that of Coventry than that of York. The first act represents the Deity seated upon His throne and speaking as follows:

_Ego sum Alpha et Omega, principium et finis_.

My name is knowyn, G.o.d and Kynge; My work to make now wyl I wende; In myselfe resteth my reynenge, It hath no gynnyng, ne no ende, And all that evyr shall have beynge Is closed in my mende;[59]

When it is made at my lykynge I may it save, I may it shende[60]

After my plesawns."[61]

[Footnote 58: Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1885. A portion of this is published in Mr. A.W. Pollard's _English Miracle Plays_.]

[Footnote 59: Mind.]

[Footnote 60: Destroy.]

[Footnote 61: Pleasure.]

At the close of this oration, which consists of forty lines, the angels enter upon the upper stage, surround the throne of the Deity, and sing from the _Te Deum_:

_Te Deum laudamus, te dominum confitemur_.

The Father bestows much honour and brightness on Lucifer, who is full of pride. He demands of the good angels in whose honour they are singing their songs of praise. Are they worshipping G.o.d or reverencing him? They reply that they are worshipping G.o.d, the mighty and most strong, who made them and Lucifer. Then Lucifer daringly usurps the seat of the Almighty, and receives the homage of the rebellious angels. Then the Father orders them and their leader to fall from heaven to h.e.l.l, and in His bliss never more to dwell. Then does Lucifer reply:

"At thy byddyng y wyl I werke, And pa.s.s from joy to peyne and smerte.

Now I am a devyl full derke, That was an angel bryght.

Now to h.e.l.le the way I take, In endless peyn'y to be put; For fere of fyr apart I quake In h.e.l.le dongeon my dene is dyth."