This edition of churchwardens' accounts brings together three sets of financial records for one parish, Stratton, Cornwall. These records fall under the general rubric of churchwardens' accounts, although this broad category elides a variety of formats and parish administrations, and indeed the Stratton records illuminate some of the different kinds of documentation that parishes kept. The accounts in question are those of the High Cross Wardens, 1512-1578; the accounts of the General Receivers, 1531 and 1534-1549; and lastly, a second book of General Receivers' accounts, 1557-1581. These records are housed in two different locations. The first two books are in the British Library, while the third is at the Cornwall Record Office, so publishing them together is a welcome consolidation of these interesting records.
The parish of Stratton was the market town for the Hundred of Stratton, located on the boarder of Cornwall and Devon. It not only benefited from the arable land in the area, but also from the sea trade that came in to the coastal town of Bude. By 1545, according to the Lay Subsidies, Stratton was one of the twenty wealthiest parishes in Cornwall.
English canon law required the parish clergy to take care of the chancel, while laity maintained the nave, and supplied its contents, such as liturgical vessels and candles, vestments, and books. Churchwardens' accounts record the money the laity raised and spent to meet their obligations in the parish. Accounts from before the Reformation are less common than those post-dating it, with only about 200 sets surviving, mostly from the archdiocese of Canterbury. Stratton's accounts are noteworthy because they are one of the few sets that straddle the Reformation, delineating something of the financial, liturgical, and social toll of the reforms.
The financial records in this edition are from two components of the parish's administration: the wardens of the High Cross and the General Receivers. They are just a portion of the records that this community likely kept. As evidence, Mattingly has included in an Appendix a draft brewing account made by the High Cross wardens as part of their fund-raising activities, and two draft accounts, the backs of which were recycled for inventories. The High Cross was the most substantial of the many endowments and organizations found in the parish of Stratton. Prior to the Reformation, the High Cross wardens had charge of collecting fees for putting names on the bede-roll for community prayers, collecting the fees for funeral knells, and in-church burials. After the Reformation swept away Purgatory and much of the pre-Reformation liturgy, the High Cross wardens, styled the churchwardens after 1550, still collected fees for burials and knells, but also collected rent from church-owned houses. With the money the parish raised, the High Cross wardens were responsible for much of the building's maintenance, money expended at the annual visitation, repairs to the church house, where ale for church ales was brewed, and various supplies were kept. Thus the High Cross wardens' activities are one manifestation of continuity across the Reformation.
The High Cross wardens were not the only administration raising money. This parish boasted a number of other sub-parochial groups, which varied in their level of institutionalization and longevity. Variously-termed as guilds, stores, chantries, or parish fraternities, membership in these different groups was delineated by different criteria, such as wealth, sex, and/or age. Stratton's young women ran Our Lady's Maiden's store, which included women serving as wardens of the group. There were also guilds dedicated to various saints, including Thomas of Canterbury, George, Andrew, the Virgin Mary, and the Breton saint, Armel, the patron saint of those ill with sweating sickness. Armel had an altar in the church and his image was on the rood screen. Mattingly speculates that charge of his guild may have been in the hands of the parish's young men. There was also a group that put on Robin Hood performances, which involved both the young men and women of the parish.
These groups and their attendant activities are largely invisible in the High Cross wardens' accounts, but they are very visible in the General Receivers' accounts, as they were tasked with collecting the money these groups raised. It is unfortunate that their accounts only start surviving in the 1530s, as it does not afford us the chance to see the development of these various parish interest groups. It is another sign of the quantity of records we have lost. The General Receivers also had some obligations to the church building, and were seemingly responsible for negotiating with artisans who did work for the parish. After the Reformation, the saints and their guilds disappeared, and the General Receivers took up the management of poor relief.
Mattingly includes four Appendices, the draft accounts already discussed, the 1531 contract and bond for the rood loft, three church inventories, and the interrogatories and depositions from a court case regarding the church house. Except for the contract, the documents date from after 1555. Mattingly has also provided a useful glossary, notes on the many individuals mentioned in the accounts, and an index of people, places, and subjects, which add to the volumes' ease of use.
Churchwardens' accounts come in varying detail and depth, and those of the Stratton, even though they only start in the sixteenth century, are filled with details, most notably people's names, making it possible to reconstruct the parish's social and administrative hierarchy, the evolving role of women, and how stage of life shaped parish involvement. As editor, Mattingly is very attuned to these possibilities and so has happily not abbreviated entries or calendared the accounts. The records are largely in Middle English and with sufficient preparation, these would be useful for teaching advanced undergraduates the English Reformation as it progressed on the ground.