five indexes supplied with the volume of Inquisitions post mortem, &c., printed for the Society. Particularly we find an abstract of the inquisition taken after the death of John Byset in 1307. He died seised of two carucates in Rood Ashton, with eight free tenants, viz., Nicholas Stake, Richard de Bosco, Thomas le Theyn, William Testwode, John le Jeofne, Roger le Sauser, William Attestone (we shall come later to a grant of lands in "West Ashton and la Stone”), and Richard Rudeman, most of whom occur as witnesses to the foregoing charters. Our documents enable us to draw the following pedigree of this Roger :

A LIST OF BRIEFS FROM THE REGISTER BOOKS OF LANGLEY BURRELL.

Transcribed by the REV. A. B. MYNORS.

DURING the Middle Ages the Church was all powerful in Great Britain, and in many ways was the friend of the people by obtaining funds for various necessary and charitable objects.

Doubtless, therefore, in such calamities as fires, floods, &c., the Church would devise means of affording relief.

Church Charity Briefs were issued as appeals to particular districts or to the kingdom at large. Collections were made at the houses in the district, or, after reading of the Brief at Church. The time for reading Briefs was declared, by a rubric in the Book of Common Prayer, to be after the singing or saying of the Nicene Creed. It is singular that, whilst Briefs were abolished by Act of Parliament in 1828,1 this notice remains.

In the fifteenth century the King granted "Patents of Alms" for like purposes with those of the Charity Briefs of the Church. Such Patents gradually became general under the designation of "King's Briefs," and were really licenses for the collection of money.

The first printed King's Relief Brief known to exist does not relate to a fire, but to a plague visitation. It bears date, 26 June, 1630 (6 Charles I.) Such Brief was addressed :—

"To all and singular Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, Deans and their officials Justices of Peace, Mayors, Sheriffs, Bayliffes,

Constables, Churchwardens

&c."

Briefs were usually issued by the Lord Chancellor under the authority of the King in Council, to those who furnished proof of loss, accompanied by a recommendation from some nobleman or other person attached to the Court.

The earliest Fire Brief now known to exist was issued under

Except in the case of the National Society, the Church Building Society, and the S.P.C.K., for which Briefs continued to be issued till 1853.

A List of Briefs from the Register Books of Langley Burrell. 449

the authority of the Commonwealth, 1653, Cromwell himself coutributing £200.

In the Stamp Act, 1698, Briefs were exempted from all fiscal imposts.

The system of Briefs began to grow into disfavour in the time of Pepys. In his Diary, 30th June, 1661, in which year no less than fifty-one Briefs were granted, he noted::

"To church where we observe that the trade in Briefs is come now up to so constant a course every Sunday that we resolve to give no more to them."

The above notes are taken from Fire Insurance Companies, by F. B. Relton, whilst the footnotes accompanying this list of briefs are from a valuable paper by the Rev. Canon Maddock in The Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, 1899, pp. 84-99. "Records of Church Briefs published and collected in South Holderness parishes." The author very truly says:-"I venture to think that not only by students of local antiquities, but by all who wish to gain an intimate knowledge of the history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, far more attention should be devoted to the subject of Church Briefs than has hitherto been the case. We have been accustomed, perhaps, to regard the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as times of deadness and coldness of heart, but such false impressions are corrected by these records. The large sums of money contributed on the Briefs, whenever an appeal was made for any great and worthy cause, show us that we have no reason to be ashamed of want of generosity on the part of our ancestors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."

It was ordered that "in every parish or chapelry and separate congregation a register should be kept by the minister or teacher there of all monies collected by virtue of such Briefs, the occasion of the Brief and the time when the same was collected." In most parishes, probably, these accounts were kept in separate books, which have for the most part perished, but in many registers lists of such Briefs occur, but it is very rare to find so long and complete a list as this which is here printed.

The first Brief given under the Great Seal of England and authorised by both Houses of Parliament, was that for the town of Marlborough. Canon Maddock notes in the register of Humbleton (Yorks), the following entry:

"Collected in the parish of Humbledon according to an order from the Council of State dated May 16th, 1653, for ye relief of the Town of Marlborough, wherein were consumed by fire 224 houses, one of the churches and the Market House April 28th. The whole loss amounting to Three score and ten Thousand pounds and upwards. The sume of nineteen shillings and two pence." Under this brief £18,000 was collected. Trans. East Riding Ant. Soc., vii., 86.

COLLECTIONS FOR BRIEFS, ANNO 1661.

28

Ap. 7 for Milton Abbas in Dorset, by virtue of a brief
for Watchet in Somerset ; towards their relief acc.
to the intent of the brief

3 4

3 5

May 19 for Walter Hughes late of Whatley in Oxon, inn-
holder

2 10

June 2

for East Hackbourne in Berks [Hagbourne]

9

for Ilminster in Somerset

1 2

16

for Henry Harrison for a ship? cald? the Patience 1

for a fire in Fleet St.

1

07285

Sep. 8

for the Church of Rypon in the County of York
8 for David Long of Norrington in the County of
Wilts

1 11

1 9

"This was

more

For the relief of the Protestants in Lithuania. especially to defray the cost of translating and printing the Bible in Polish Lithuanian for the use of 100 Protestant Churches in Lithuania. The translation was made by Chilinski, and was published in London in 1660, and is still recognised as one of the standard works in that language. This collection on behalf of the Lithuanian Protestants was followed by other Briefs on behalf of the Protestants in Polish or Russian provinces." Trans. E. Riding Ant. Soc., vii., 91.

Anno Domini 1662.

Aug. 10 for the designe of the fishing trade 1

Sept. 7 for Anne Royston widow of Shaw in Berks

for Anne Walter widow of Redriff? in Surrey

19 for the parish Church of Gravesend

4 5

11

11

4

Mar. 15 for some houses in S. Martin's in the fields, London 9 Anno Domini 1663.

Ap. 20

for a fire in Fordingbridge in Hampshire

Jan. ye 10 for a fire in the towne of Granhan in ye countie of Lincolne

ye 17

for a fire Witheham in the countie of Sussex Mar. 13th for a fire in Holborn in the county of Middlesex 20th for repairing of S. Michael Church in the county of Somerset

Aug. 23 for a fire in the towne of Hexham in the county of Northumberland

Anno Domini 1664.

Ap. 17

for repairing of the haven in Great Grimsby in
the county of Lincoln

2 1

27

Sep. 11

for a fire of East Hendred in the county of Berks
for Henry Lyt of Gisborough his loss by fyer [?]

2 10

"The Brief on behalf of the Royal Herring Busse Fishings, a scheme taken up with great warmth by Charles I. with a view to giving employment to families out of work and for the breeding of Country Youths to be made Serviceable Mariners in a short time.' The scheme was supported by collections in the time of the Commonwealth, and on the Restoration was revived by Charles II., who granted a Brief by Letters Patent for collections throughout England 'for the building of Wharves, Docks, Storehouses, and Granaries in all ports of our Kingdomes, which shall be for the benefit of all those that shall build Busses and Imploy their stocks in the said Herring Fishings, so that the Busses or Fishing Vessels may all go forth to our island of Shetland as their rendezvous, to keep together in their fishing seasons, according to certain orders prescribed in the said book called the Royal Herring Busse Fishings.' This Brief was to continue three years and to be collected both in the Parish Churches and from house to house. Pepys who, in 1664, was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Fishery frequently mentions the subject in his Diary. 'Oct. 10 (1664)

Sat up till past twelve at night to look over the account of the collections for the Fishery, and the loose and base manner that monies so collected are disposed of would make a man never part with a penny in that manner.'' Trans. of E. Riding Ant. Soc., vii., 90.