The originals were nearly lost.
Somehow they came into the possession of the Buckinghamshire
Archaeological Society. The volume was lent to the late Rev. F. Lee, in
whose library it remained and could not be recovered. At his death it
was sold with his other books, and found its way to the Bodleian
Library at Oxford. There it was transcribed by Mr. Patterson Ellis,
and then went back to the Buckinghamshire Society after its many
wanderings. It dates back to the fifteenth century, and records many
curious items of pre-Reformation manners and customs.
From these churchwardens' accounts we learn how our forefathers raised
money for the expenses of the church and of the parish. Provision for
the poor, mending of roads, the improvement of agriculture by the
killing of sparrows, all came within the province of the vestry, as
well as the care of the church and churchyard. We learn about such
things as "Gatherings" at Hocktide, May-day, All Hallow-day,
Christmas, and Whitsuntide, the men stopping the women on one day and
demanding money, while on the next day the women retaliated, and
always gained more for the parish fund than those of the opposite sex:
Church Ales, the Holy Loaf, Paschal Money, Watching the Sepulchre, the
duties of clerks and clergymen, and much else, besides the general
principles of local self-government, which the vestrymen carried on
until quite recent times.
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