Acknowledgements
We are pleased to acknowledge the generosity of Mrs Diana Grant
in making the data in this online index available.
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Index to nominations of parish clerks for licences, Diocese of Lichfield and
Coventry, 1691-1836, and Lichfield 1836-1916
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Background
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Parish clerks were responsible for assisting the minister of the parish in a
variety of ways – reading scriptures, leading the singing during divine
worship, leading the congregation during responsive prayers, tolling the bell
and digging graves for burials, and assisting the minister in maintaining the
parish registers of baptism, marriage and burial. It is this final function for
which they are best remembered today.
Extracts from Canon 91 of the “Constitution and Canons Ecclesiastical of the
Church of England, 1604”
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“Parish Clerks to be chosen by the Minister. No Parish
Clerk upon any vacation shall be chosen … but by the Parson or Vicar; or … by
the Minister of that place for the time being. ...And the said Clerk shall be
of twenty years of age at the least, and known to the said Parson, Vicar, or
Minister, to be of honest conversation, and sufficient for his reading,
writing, and also for his competent skill in singing, if it may be.”
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Parish clerks were paid fees that were customary in their own parish. Fees
might be applied to any aspect of their work, such as marriages, burials, the
churching of women, winding the church clock, etc. Additionally, rates might be
levied on householders or landowners, according to the extent of their property
in the parish. Sometimes special perquisites were due at Easter, such as eggs.
Specific details of all of these fees are often included in parish glebe
terriers.
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Scope of this index
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This index covers the area of the diocese at any given time during the period
covered by the index (1691-1916). However, the extent of the diocese was
reduced several times :
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Between 1691 and 1836 the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry comprised
Staffordshire, Derbyshire, north Warwickshire and north Shropshire.
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In 1836 north Warwickshire (Archdeaconry of Coventry) was transferred to the
diocese of Worcester and the name of the diocese changed to Lichfield.
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In 1841 some parishes in eastern Shropshire (Deanery of Bridgnorth) were
transferred to the diocese of Worcester.
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In 1884 Derbyshire (Archdeaconry of Derby) was transferred to the new diocese
of Southwell.
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In 1905 a series of boundary changes were effected by exchanges of certain
deaneries in Shropshire between the dioceses of Lichfield and Hereford;
transfer of the Deanery of Handsworth to the new diocese of Birmingham;
transfer of parish of Upper Arley to the diocese of Worcester.
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About this index
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The surviving nomination papers are comparatively few in number, around 300,
and therefore represent only a small fraction of the people who served as
parish clerks across the hundreds of parishes forming the diocese over the 220
years covered here.
The index contains parish, surname, forename, year, the reason for the
appointment (e.g. death, ill-health, retirement or dismissal of predecessor),
and occasionally further information, such as occupation or age.
Some of the parish clerks are noted to be sexton as well. The sexton (derived
from sacristan) was responsible for the practical side of things, such as
opening up the church, upkeep of the burial ground, tolling the bell for
funerals, etc.
All of the parish clerks in this index are male, bar one. She was Emilie
Carmille Julie Ilott, wife of the Rev. Percy Ilott, incumbent of Bushbury,
Staffordshire, nominated in 1915.
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Copyright
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| The contents of this database are copyright of Staffordshire
and Stoke on Trent Archive Service and may not be reproduced by any means
whatsoever without permission. |
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