Briefs in St Leonard’s and St George’s Parishes in Deal in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
By W. E. D. Stebbing, F.S.A.
A paper on this subject appeared in Vol. XIV of Arch. Cant. (1882) under the title "Briefs in the Parish of Cranbrook". It was compiled by W. Tarbutt. These licences, properly known as Church-briefs or King's Letters, were issued out of Chancery to Churchwardens specifically for damage or loss by fire to churches but, as we know, were sent round for other purposes. There seem to have been two types. The Rev. Nicolas Carter at St. George's notes that some appeals were granted to be collected through Great Britain while others only "in Cities, Boroughs and Market Towns and not elsewhere". There must have been a great revival in their issue after Charles II came to the throne. Pepys indignantly noted in 1661, after the fourteenth successive appeal at St. Olave's, Hart Street, "To church where we observe the trade of briefs is come now up to so constant a course every Sunday that we resolve to give no more to them." Their issue was regulated by a Statute in 1704, but when we find that 565 are entered in St. George's Register between August, 1717 and October, 1773, there can be no doubt that, as in the present-day case of too many Flag Days, parishioners often refused to lighten their purses; especially when two Briefs might be published on one Sunday. In one of these cases at St. George's the boxes rattled under people's noses collected 6½d. and 1s., in a second 6d. and nothing, and this was possibly after the Parish Clerk had stood at the door as the congregation left, saying: "Please remember the Brief." The boxes are referred to by both Cowper and Southey and, as the century wore on in St. George's Parish, their appearance had become so distasteful to the burgesses that in 96 cases nothing was collected in church; in the ninety-seventh only ½d. And many of the appeals were doubtless genuine.
At St. Leonard's the Briefs are entered among the Churchwardens' Accounts in the seventeenth century upright parchment-bound volume measuring 15 in. by 6 in. It was kept closed originally by two ties. A torn flyleaf shows the words London, printed for Roger Norttens, and the signature Tho: Knorler Gent. In MS. also appear the words Canterburie April 1637 and Canterbury April 18 1637. The Briefs are entered at the beginning of the back of the book, and are followed by two other entries which are transcribed below.
The earliest Brief is entered separately among these Accounts for the year 1657, and was an appeal for a fire in Leicestershire. The loss was [pg27] assessed at £2,190 but the sum collected by one of the churchwardens and a Collector of the Poor is not given. To this minute is added: "It is Inordered that the Churchwardens are to Ingross all Collections By Letters pattuns iin the Church Booke".
1665 Apr 30th Collected then upon a brief for Grantham the sum of six shillgs: and three pence farthing whereof nine pence farthing in brass money[fn1]
Tho: Walker dept [deputy] receiver
June: 4th: Collected then upon a brief for Gisborough ye sum of 9s—9d: whereof 2 shillings in farthings
Jno Hawksley dept receiver
June 25th. Collected etc for Broughin the sum of 6s: & 6 pence whereof 2s: & 3 pence in farthings
Jn° Hawksley dept. receiver
July: 23rd: Collected etc. for John Wraylott near coltchester the sum of 6 shillgs: & 6 pence whereof one shilling in farthings.
Ja: Smith dept receiver
Die eodem Collected etc. to Robt: Endell the sum of 6 shillings whereof one shillgs: in farthings
Jn° pope dept. receiver
Augst: 20th: Collected etc. for Jn°. Heale the sum of 8 shillings and 7 pence whereof 13 pence in farthings
Jn°: Hawksley dept: receiver
Collected etc. for ye repair of ye parish church of Gun in the countie of Salop: ye sum of 5s: 4d:
Jn° Mosman dept: receiver
Collected etc. for the town of Hartlepoole for the repair of the sd Harbour: ye sum of 4s:
John Mosman dept: receiver
1667 May 5th: Collected etc. for Jn° Osborne the sum of 14s: 1d: 1ob: whereof 2sh: & 11d in farthings
Jn°: Iborne ffrank Borman Recra:
May 26th: Collected etc. for Will: Mum ye sum of 8 shillings and 3 pence whereof 1 shilling and 10 pence in farthings
Tho May dept: receiver
July 7th: Collected etc. for Hinxton ye sum of 4 shillins & 6 pence whereof 18 pence in brass money
ffran: Norman dept. receiver
die eodem Collected etc. for Weymouth ye sum of 4sh. & [pg28] 6: pence half peny whereof 13 pence 1ob: in brass money[fn2]
ffran Norman dept. receivr.
ffebr: 9th: Collected etc. for Bishops Clift ye sum of 4 shill & 6 pence whereof 6 in brass money
ffran Norman dept. receivr.
die eodem Collected etc. for poole the sum of 4 shillgs. & 3 pence whereof 8 pence in brass money
ffran Norman dept. receivr.
1688 May 31st: Collected etc. for Bradninch ye sum of 8 shill: and 9 pence whereof 3 shill: & 9 pence in farthings
Hen: Smith dept receivr.
1668/9 ffebr: 14th: Collected etc. for Cliff in Kent the sum of 12 shillgs: & 6 pence whereof 8 groats in farthings
Hen: Tassell dept. receivr:
(In 1676 9s. was collected at Cranbrook for Cliff.)
Aprll: 3d: 1670 Collected for the acct of 3 Dover men Captives the sum of 2li: 11s: 9d: whereof 9sh: in brass
June: 19th: Collected for the acct. of a brief for Michael ffowler of great Chart the sum eight shillgs & 7 pence farthg. whereof 4sh. & 7d. farthg. in brass money
(5s. 2d. was collected for this man at Cranbrook.)
Augst. 21: 1670 Collected for the acct. of a brief for Isleham in ye Countie of Cambridge the sum of twelve shillings whereof there is 3 shillgs. in farthings
(8s. was collected at Cranbrook.)
Septr: 11th. Collected etc. for the redemption of Captives out of Salley the sum of 2li & 2sh whereof 4 shillgs: in brass money.
Decemr: 25: 1670
Collected then in the Church of Strangers unknown and supposed to have contributed before in the place of their abode as to the brief for Captives
£ s. d.
00: 13 : 9
(Follows a list of local contributors to the Brief.)
Jan: 3d:
li s d
Capt Jn°: Titus 00—10—00
Mr Edmund Ibbot Minister 00—10—00
Mr Jn°: Clark deputy pilot 00—05—00
Mrs Bennison 00—02—06
[Name erased.]
[pg29]
li s d
Richd: Walls 00—01—00
Tho: Scarlet senr pilot 00—01—00
Wm: pittock 00—01—00
Following are 50 names including 10 pilots, Ben: Hulk and Tho: Mumbray. 6d. is the smallest sum paid.
Jan: 4th: List of 53 names including 3 pilots. Other people of some local importance are Elizth: Pittock widdow, Jn°: Taverner, Geo: Hulck and Jn°: Nyles Corpll:. The largest contribution in this list was 5s.
Jan: 5. List of 105 names including 6 pilots with "Richd: Smith—Vintner, Wm: Hulck, Mr. Balteshazzar St Michell Junr:, Tryphenee Diaper, Mary de Masters widdw: and Constant Woodman, widdw:." 5s. again was the largest sum.
Jan: 9th: 100 names including 4 pilots, 2 bakers and 2 carpenters. Several entries are of a man and his wife; James Costen is entered with his two daughters; Ann and Mary Bushell subscribe as sisters, and there is a man, his son and his grandson. Mr John Gookin Gentlem gives 10s., as does Tho: ffassome & his wife. Elizth: Samson is "of London". The list is closed by Daniel Smith pish Clerk. Unusual names are Paretree and Isabella Merry wether.
Jan: 10th Upper Deale. 48 names here, with several of the gentry with the prefix Mr., Mr: Jn°: Jenkin & his wife Mary, Mr: Tho: Knowler, Mr: Geo: Knowler, Mrs Martha Rust, Mrs: Mary and Mrs Susan Jenkin, Mrs: Gage widdw: & her daughtrs:, Mrs Mary and Mrs: Sarah Hobday Junr:, Mr: Jn°: May & his wife Sarah and Mr: petr: Bridger. The first and last give 10s. Jn°: Mocket and petr: Graunt are in this list. An unusual spelling for the name Cecily is Sicilie.
Jan: 11th: 60 names in this final list with four pilots. Mr: Edwd: Smith—searcher, Mr: Stones—churchwarden, Capt: Jn° poole, and Mr: Hen: Knighte give 5s. each. Four contributors are described as servants, and one as spinster. The names Diggers and Scruggs, with Cawill and Woodriffe, appear for the first time. Seven names from the end Tho: Stone, the churchwarden, signs. The list is closed by the signatures of John Jenkin, Willm: Home and John Culmer.
The Brief appealed for £30,000.
"Received of Mr Edmund Ibbott Rectr of Deale the sum of Twentie Eight pounds seven shillings upon the brief for the redemption of the Captives in Argier to be delivered to Mr. Martin Hirst of Canterbury according to my Lords Grace of Canterbury his appointment
I say Recd by me Henry Ullock Rectr of Mongham
January ye 16th: 70:"
Cranbrook raised £14 1s. 10d. towards the above sum.
"We the Parishioners of Deale whose names are under written [pg30] do acknowledge Mr Henry Gerard to be opprest in his poor Asseßmt and aire willing to abate him 10s pr Asseßmt: wch: before amounted to 1£: 10s Dated ye 8th of May 1696"
Will Boys Deputy
Tho Home | churchwardens
James Neale |
Dudley St Leger
Tob. Bowles
Gab Millison
Jeffery Saffery
Will Ockman
John Pye
Tho: Pye
Samll ffasham
Jos: Lane
Jos: Nicholl
Robt Hughes
Cha: Whiting (a "t" left out)
John Lee
Tho: Brothers
Robert Jefry
John Wildes
John Mount Travers
Robert Wood
Edwd Soles his mark
John Underdown
Arthur Wallinger
Richard Neale
Abra: AW Hudson
Edward Hosellwood
Richard Ciss
William Withhead
John Pickle
Thomas ffox
Will Birch
John Bone
Jn° Smith his mark
Geo Hulk
Antho Bowes
John Carter
Will Mumbray
John Middelton
Henry Parsons his H mark
John Scarlett
Wm Snoad his mark
Seemery Banes
William Cobb
Danll Denne
"Wee Whose names are under written Parishioners of Deale do allow to reimburst Mr Boys Deputy as also other Ensuing Deputyes their Incident Charges Dated ye 8th of May 1696 And (erased) ye Sd reimbirstment to be allowed out of ye Poor Assesmts: not exceeding ye Sum of eight Pounds Part whereof is towards ye Treating ye Goverr. of Dover Castle
(Signed) Henry Gerard Rector"
and thirty parishioners, all of whose names occur in the previous list.
The sub-parish of St. George's had its beginning, with its Chapel, through the great commercial and naval activity which centred in the shipping making use of the roadstead of The Downs from the latter part of the seventeenth century. Ships were becoming more seaworthy, Henry VIII's coast-defence forts were giving a certain amount of protection, and Sandwich, up a winding tidal river, was useless for vessels running for shelter, or for immediate supplies by the ships' chandlers and the bum-boat women. Hence there was a rapid increase in Deal's population on the shingle ridge and immediately behind; still seen in the many late seventeenth century brick houses in Lower Deal.[fn3]
[pg31] In 1699 Deal obtained a Charter of Incorporation. With its growing importance it had been long chaffing under the overlordship of Sandwich which conducted all official business through a Deputy (v. p. 30). Even the vested interests of the Rector (his church was over a mile away) had to acknowledge the altered circumstances, and had to allow that a Chapel of Ease in Lower Deal was a necessity. Such a project became a public and mayoral question in 1706. However, there were many setbacks, of which finance was not the least, till the Corporation in 1712 obtained an Act "for completing a Chapel of Ease in the Lower Town of Deal, in the County of Kent, by a Duty on Water-born Coals to be brought into the said Town". This empowered the collection of a duty of 2s. a ton on such coals. (Full details are given in Laker's History of Deal, 1917, pp. 258-63.) The duty was to remain in force for 15 years but 1s. 6d. is still collected, although not for the benefit of the edifice or of the parish. The Chapel was completed in 1716, and dedicated and consecrated on June 16th by the Archbishop, Dr. Wake, as a "Chapel dependent upon the Parish Church of Deal".
The first "Perpetual Curate" (since 1852 St. George's has been a separate parish with its own vicar) was a William Squire. He resigned in March 1718 on collation to Reculver but must have been non-resident for some little time before as the earliest entry in the Register of Marriages and Burials (the latter only from 1737) records in the handwriting of his successor Carter that "Henry Alexander Primrose & Margarett Bowles both of Deal were married May ye 5th. 1717 (Licence)."[fn4] However, the interest of this quarto vellum-bound Register is in the following use. While on one cover appears "Deal Chapel Registers" on the other is the word "Briefs", and inside on the first leaf is written in a copy-book hand "A Register Book for Briefs published in ye Chapel at Deal in the County of Kent; bought August ye 1st 1717 [? 1716] by
Joseph Lane
Anthony Glover } Chapel-Wardens
Nicholas Carter, Minister.
Nicolas Carter, his son-in-law Thomas Pennington, or others who eased his duties towards the end of his life—he was a pluralist—enter every Brief with the date of collection, and sign them, but when the entry states that nothing was "collected in ye Chapel because to be collected from House to House by Minister & Churchwardens of the Parish", the amounts only appear in seven early entries. At Cranbrook on the other hand we find this information invariably given. [pg32] In St. Leonard's Parish, where between 1719 and 1774 there were 455 appeals, the churchwardens charged 3s. for this method of collection.
Carter, a controversialist, and not averse to calling a spade a spade did not hide his feelings in his written utterances. In November 1720, 8s. 1d., as against St. Leonard's 3s. 9½d., was gathered towards the estimated loss of £1,609 at Shrawdine Church and Parsonage in Salop. He thus lets us into his political sympathies. "In ye civil wars anno 1644 Shrawdine Castle was made a Garrison by ye King's Forces & while ye said Garrison continued there they burnt ye greatest Part of ye Town & demolished ye Steeple, Chancel, & most of ye Church together wth. ye Parsonage House, for yer Safty against ye Rebells."
In 1732 the damage at Stourbridge Church was £2,000 or so. St. George's gave 1s. 11d., St. Leonard's 2s. 6d. Carter comments "This Brief was for ye building of a new Church or Chapel of Ease in Stowerbridge in ye Parish of Old Swinford; & not for ye Repairing of an old one: and therefore unusual, if not unreasonable."
In July, 1749, a Brief to aid an assessed loss of £1,177 at Berkeley Church, Glos., came under Carter's ire. Nothing was collected perhaps because he animadverted, "The Title of this Brief is—Berkeley Church whereas the Brief itself is not for ye Church, but for ye Tower of ye Church, and which Stands about 40 yards from ye Parish Church. Nor is there one word in ye Brief mentioning ye use of such Tower. Quare why then was there a Brief to rebuild such Tower?" Towards this appeal Cranbrook subscribed 3s. 2½d.
On August 1st, 1742, Carter noted that he "read in Deal chapel his Majesty's Letter to ye two Archbishops, & the Archbishop of Canterbury's Letter to his Clergy concerning a Collection to be made for ye Use of ye Corporation for ye Propagation of ye Gospel in foreign Parts". This Society had its origin in 1701.
Appeals to St. George's for relief outside this country were, in 1729, for Protestants in Copenhagen. No sum is given but St. Leonard's raised £4 6s. 4d. In 1762 help was asked to reimburse a loss of £2,733 Sterling suffered by Saarbruck Church and School; rather later the scholastic claims of the "Colledges" of Philadelphia and New York reached Deal. In 1764 the charitable were urged to help "Philippen Colony in Turkish Moldavia". They raised 7s. 3½d. An earlier appeal which reached St. Leonard's in 1739 came from "Bobi and Villar in ye Valley of Lucerne in Piedmont". They were sufferers to the value of £2,354 by an inundation.
For the study of these Registers and Parish Books thanks are due to the Rector of Deal, the Rev. Canon E. D. Bowser, and the Vicar of St. George's, the Rev. H. W. Lea-Wilson. Also to Mr. W. E. Tate, F.R.Hist.S., who has done much work on the subject. Happily at St. George's the book suffered no damage when the Victorian East window of the church was blown out. How tastes change when the [pg33] design and colouring of this stained glass was described as carried out with much taste and elegance. But 1867 was the low water mark in this branch of art.
Tabular Statement of Kentish Briefs as Entered in the Parish Registers or Books of St. Leonard's and St. George's, Deal, and at Cranbrook in the Eighteenth Century.
[tb][th]Date and Place|Estimated Loss|St. Leonard's|St. George's|Cranbrook[/th]
[tr]1726 Folkestone Fishery|£2,376|2/6½|11/½|[/tr]
[tr]1727 Cranbrook Church|£2,376|9/6 (Collected from house to house)|No sum given as collected from house to house|[/tr]
[tr]1727 Gravesend by Fire|£21,232|£6 2 6 (Collected as above)|" "|£5 0 6½ (No note to this)[/tr]
[tr]1738 Upchurch Inundation|£4,290|14/1|" "|[/tr]
[tr]1741 Medway Oyster Dredgers Loss by frost|£10,943|£2 12 10 (Collected as above)|" "|[/tr]
[tr]1743 Fishermen, etc of Faversham. Loss by frost (a late year)|£9,000|£1 12 8 (As above)|" "|[/tr]
[tr]1744 Eynsford by Fire|£1,661|1/8|6/6½|[/tr]
[tr]1744 Hythe Church by Fire|£1,100|3/8|8d.|[/tr]
[tr]1756 June Newenden and Rolvenden by a hailstorm (a wet summer)|£2,212|£1 16 4|No sum given. (Collected from house to house)|£2 19 3 (As above)[/tr]
[tr]1759 Chalk|£1,231||" "|17/8 (Collected throughout the town)[/tr]
[tr]1763 Sittingbourne Church|£2,089||" "|[/tr]
[tr]1764 Loss by Hail in Kent|£12,798||" "|£5 14 0½ (No note to this)[/tr]
[tr]1765 Tudely Church|||No sum given. (Collected as above)|£1 5 10 (As above)[/tr]
[tr]1773 Warehorne Church|£1,157 10|1/-. (Collected as above)|No sum given. (Collected as above)|18/2 (Collected as above)[/tr]
[tr]1779 West Malling Church||||15/7 (As above)[/tr]
[/tb]
[fn]1|These were probably Traders' Tokens, as an official coinage of copper farthings was not issued till 1672.[/fn]
[fn]2|? 12 pence halfpenny.[/fn]
[fn]3|See Dr. W. W. Hardman, "The Sea Valley of Deal", Arch. Cant., L (1938), pp. 50-59.[/fn]
[fn]4|A Thomas Daniel Primrose, D.L. of St. John's College, Oxford, was instituted Rector of South Warnborough, Hants, on March 27th, 1728, and inducted May 3rd by John Guensay, Vicar of Froyle. He was buried at St. George's in 1761, and his wife Susanna, aged 64, in 1773. In 1729 Henry Alexander owned a Brewhouse in Deal on which, with his house, he was assessed 17s. 4d. In 1732 his wife was paid £1 16s. for beer supplied to the Poor House. He was alive in 1734.[/fn]