Part 6 (1/2)

The present clergy vestry is a fine room, having an excellent dark oak roof with heavy beams and well carved bosses at the intersections of the timbers. The Royal Arms over the fireplace were painted there in 1632. Although usual, the placing of the king's arms in churches was not compulsory until the Restoration; few earlier now remain, and this placing of them in the vestry rather than the body of the church is suggestive of a compromise between opposing factions. A portrait of Walter Farquhar Hook, Vicar from 1828-37 and afterwards Dean of Chichester is hung here.

It seems probable that this was a chapel, perhaps that of the Holy Trinity, to whom an altar was dedicated.

The history, as traced in the church accounts, of the various organs used in the church gives some idea of the fluctuations of opinion as to the propriety of their use. In 1526 John Howe and John Climmowe, citizens and organ makers of London, contracted to provide, for 30, ”a peir of Organs wt vij stopps, ov'r and besides the two Towers of cases, of the pitche of doble Eff, and wt xxvij pleyn keyes, xix musiks, xlvj cases of Tynn and xiiij cases of wood, wt two Starrs and the image of the Trinite on the topp of the sayed orgayns.” In 1570 the ”payer of balowes” were sold, and in 1583 the pipes, ”wayeng eleven score and thirteen pounds, went for fourpence half-farthing the pound.” In 1632 a new one was obtained but its life was short, for in 1641 the Puritan party caused it to be sold ”for the best advantage.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALMS-BOX.]

Once more, in 1684, another was purchased from Mr. Robert Hay wood of the City of Bath for 100; then, in 1732, Thomas Swarbrick of Warwick built one for 600, for which a gallery was erected across the nave.

In 1855 this gave place to a new one by Foster and Andrews of Hull, costing 800; and this was rebuilt by Messrs. Hill and Son in 1900.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: ”English Church Furniture.” (Antiquary series.) J.C. c.o.x and A. Harvey.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHURCH OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST, FROM BOND'S HOSPITAL.]

ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S CHURCH

The church of St. John Baptist has a history quite different from that of the other parish churches and is specially interesting as a building belonging to a very limited cla.s.s, namely, Collegiate Churches owned by a Gild. Though Dugdale says that the ”first and most antient of the Gilds here was founded in the 14th Ed. III (1340)” it is probable that, as in other places, religious gilds had for long existed here and that the royal license or Charter of this date was like that of Stratford-on-Avon in 1332, really a reconst.i.tution or confirmation of the Gild's rights, privileges and possessions.

This earliest one was known as the Merchant or St. Mary's Gild and its first ordinances provided that ”the brethren and sisteren of the gild shall find as many chaplains as the means of the gild can well afford.” Then in 1342 that of St. John Baptist and in 1343 that of St.

Katharine was founded. The former at once founded a chantry of six priests to sing ma.s.s daily in the churches of St. Michael and the Trinity for ”the souls of the King's progenitors and for the good estate of the King, Queen Isabella his mother, Queen Philippa his Consort and their children” and others, besides the members of the Gild. In 1344 this Gild, desiring to have a building for its exclusive use, received from Queen Isabella a small piece of land called Babbelak on which to build a chapel in honour of G.o.d and St. John, two priests being required to sing ma.s.ses daily for the souls ”of her dear lord Edward,” John, Earl of Cornwall and others. Did she seek to satisfy her conscience thus for the woes she had brought upon her _dear lord_? The site thus given measured 117 feet from north to south and about 40 feet from east to west giving room for the chancel only of the present church, this being dedicated in 1350. But in 1357 William Walsheman, valet to the Queen and now her sub-bailiff in Coventry gave further land, added a new aisle and increased the number of priests while the Black Prince in 1359 gave a small plot on which, perhaps, the tower and transept now stand. Within the next ten years Walsheman and Christiana his wife gave to the Gild certain tenements, called the ”Drapery,” in the city to build a chapel in honour of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, St. John, and St. Katharine ”within the Chapel of Bablake.” William Wolfe, mayor in 1375, is mentioned as a ”great helper” in the work at the church, the original nave and aisles being probably built at this time, and some reconstruction of the choir.

Records are wanting of the subsequent alterations which gave it its present form. The north clearstory of the nave shows the original design while that of the choir and the south side of the nave belong to the fifteenth century as do the tower and the cruciform arrangement of the building. Leland's ”Itinerary” gives the following description: ”There is also a Collegiate Church at Bablake, hard within the West Gate (Spon Gate) alias Bablake Gate, dedicated to St. John.... It is of the foundation of the Burgesses and there is a great Privilege, Gild or Fraternity. In this College is now a Master and eight ministers and lately twelve ministers.” Stowe adds that there were twelve singing men and extant deeds mention ”Babbelake Hall” in which the warden and priests lived.

Many interesting entries of expenditure are to be found in the gild accounts showing how the Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve) and other festivals were celebrated before the suppression of the gilds by Edward VI. In 1541 we have the following (the spelling is somewhat modernized):

Expenses on Midsummer Even and on the day,--Item, 2 doz. & a half cakes, _2s. 6d._; spice cakes, _12d._; a cest' ale and 4 gals.

_4s._; 2 gals, claret wine _16d._; 2 gals. malmsey, _2s. 8d._; 2 gals. muskedell _2s. 8d._; to Mr. Mayor _3s. 4d._; the Mayor to offer, _8d._; to priests, clerks and children, _2s. 4d._; the waits, _6s. 8d._; to poor people _6s. 8d._; to the cross-bearers and torch-bearers, _8d._; the bellman, _4d._; the hire of pots, _4d._; boughs, rushes and sweeping, _8d._; a woman 2 days to cleanse the house, _4d._; half a hundred _3d._ nails, _1d._; half a pound of sugar, _4d._; to the crossbearer and torchbearer for St. George Day, Holy Rood Day, s.h.i.+re Thursday and Whit Sunday, _12d._; to 2 children for the same days, _6d._ Summa (total) _38s. 2d._

That these anniversaries and wakes led to much unseemly revelling we have evidence that cannot be gainsaid. The Trinity Gild decided in 1542

that no obite, drynkyng or com'en a.s.semblie, from henceforth shall be had or used at Babalake, except onelie on Trinitie even and on the day, which shall be used as it hath been in tymes past. And that also the P'sts of Babelack shall say _dirige_ on midsum' even and likewise ma.s.se of _requiem_ on the morrowe, as they have used to doo. And that the Meire shall not come down thether to _dirige_ ov(er) night for dyv's considerac'ons and other great busynes they used. And on the morowe thei to go thether to ma.s.se and brekefast, as thei have used to doo.

Dugdale quotes from an old MS. an interesting pa.s.sage bearing on this question:

”And ye shall understond and know how the Evyns were furst found in old tyme. In the beginning of holi Chirche, it was so that the pepull cam to the Chirche with candellys brennyng and wold _Wake_ and come with light toward nyght to the Chirch to their devocions; and afterwards they fell to lecherie and songs, daunces, harping, piping and also to glotony and sinne and so turned the holinesse to cursaydnesse; wherefore holi faders ordeined the pepull to leve that _waking_ and to fast the Evyn.

But it is called _Vigilia_, that is _Waking_ in English and it is called the Evyn, for at Evyn they were wont to come to Chirche.”

In 1362 Queen Isabella helped to procure from the bishop a licence for one Robert de Worthin, priest, to become an anchorite and to inhabit a hermitage attached to the north aisle of the chancel. Traces of the foundations of this have been found on the site of the modern vestry.

When the college was suppressed in 1548 the King granted to the mayor, bailiffs and corporation, on their pet.i.tion, the church and its appurtenances in Free Burgage for ever on payment of _1d._, per annum and gave them ”all the rents, revenues and profits of the said church.”

But these gifts were not sufficient to support the church and its services, so that the latter were irregular and repairs were neglected. In 1608 Mayor Hanc.o.x procured the delivery of a Sat.u.r.day lecture ”for the better fitting of the people for the Sabbath.” In 1641 Simon Norton, alderman, left property to his son Thomas, on trust, the condition being that if at any time St. John's should become a parish church, he or his heirs should pay _13 6s. 8d._ to the minister out of rents of lands in Coundon, and also the t.i.thes of lands in Clifton.

Prisoners from the Scottish army being quartered on the city in 1647, many were confined in this church and wrought much damage and desecration. From this time services were only occasionally held, until 1734, when an Act of Parliament was obtained making it a Parish Church, appointing a district to it and enabling the Master and Usher of the Free Grammar School to be Rector and Lecturer of the church.