Turvey Churchwardens' Accounts 1551-1552

Summary

Because of the rarity and importance of early churchwardens’ accounts, the surviving Bedfordshire material was published by the Society in 1953. Elizabethan Churchwardens’ Accounts edited by the Rev. J.E. Farmiloe and Rosita Nixseaman (BHRS Vol. 33) included full transcripts of the accounts for three parishes in the east of the County, namely Clifton 1543, 1589-1608, Northill 1561-1612, and Shillington 1571-1604. The volume also included an analytical introduction.

When these accounts were published in 1953 the existence of the Turvey accounts for 1551-2 was unknown. They survive among the Stopford-Sackville manuscripts at the Northamptonshire Record Office (ref: SS 1808), and consist of three pages tom from an account book. The pages are 12 inches high and were originally about 4½ inches wide. The inclusion of the accounts in this volume completes the publication of the Bedfordshire material of the period before 1600.

Editorial method

The entries are dated 1551-1552 and are written partly in English and partly in Latin, all in a difficult hand. The Latin passages, which have been translated into modem English, are shown in italics. They usually deal with formal matters such as meetings and statements of accounts. The original spelling has been retained for the passages in English, although contracted forms of Christian names have been replaced by the full names in modem spelling.

The accounts

Although they cover an unsettled period in English religious history, these accounts contain little to indicate the prevailing climate of uncertainty and change. There are, however, clues. In addition to the name of Richard Woodford, the Rector, and his churchwardens, the accounts also mention the ‘collectors of the towne rentes’ suggesting that the church was well endowed with property, and in 1551 there is a reference to the ‘wardens of the sepulcre lyght’.

In 1552 there is a payment of two shillings and ten pence ‘in hamyst [earnest] at Bedfforde a Fore the Kinges Jstys [Justice] ffor … chorche goodes the exspenses’ — undoubtedly a reference to the compilation of the Edwardian Inventories of church goods in that year. Sadly the actual return for Turvey has not survived.

In general, however, the accounts deal largely with routine matters such as Visitation expenses, minor repairs to the church, work on the bells, washing the surplice, and purchase of bread and wine for the communion.