Reference
P65/5/1
Title
Parish Officers' account book, containing:
Date free text
1727-1844
Production date
From: 1727 To: 1844
Scope and Content
Churchwardens' accounts (summary receipts and detailed disbursements) 1728-1732, 1737-1738, 1741, 1775-1844 Churchwardens' accounts (summary receipts and total disbursements only) 1739-1740, 1742-1743, 1747-1774 Note There are no accounts at all for some years Constables' accounts (detailed disbursements, pp.81-93) 1727-1739 Surveyor's accounts (brief summary only, p.94) 1769-1770 Overseers' accounts (summary only, pp.161-174) 1727-1771 Also includes (at front) Note of agreement between the parish and Mr.Wellsted of Kimbolton for use of the fire engine "in case of any accerdent should happen by fire" 16 April 1773, with note of £1 1s. paid to Wellsted by Wm.Bricheno, Churchwarden. Names of Churchwardens, mostly with dates between 1773 and 1834 Regular business of the Churchwardens includes church cleaning, bellringing, vermin payments, Visitation and Confirmation expences, payments for gunpowder and shot and for "field keeping", receipts for rent of Charity premises at Keysoe Row and repairs to property etc., and there are Vestry minutes and memoranda relating to the election of Churchwardens and passing of accounts etc. Occasional business includes: 1730 Powder and shot and gun to keep the field 2 years, 6s. 10d. 1775 Pd Wm Dickins bill for the chansell, £2 3s. 1781-2 Chancel repairs Repairs to the house at Keysoe Row 1784 "Pd to Thos Watts for Cleaning the leds of snow 2s." 1784-99 Detailed accounts, but mainly vermin payments and purchase of powder and shot [for details of payments and some extracts from accounts, see J.Steele Elliott, "Bedfordshire Vermin Payments" (1936), pp.63-5] 1795 Purchase of a pitch pipe for 4s. 6d. 1805 New bell wheel and other jobs at the church, £1 15s. 4d 1807 "Pd Mr.Fowler for strings 9s. 6d." [this appears to be the first of several references to the Church Orchestra] 1809 "Prayers for the Jubilee 1s." and "gave the ringers on that account 2s. 6d." 1813 Purchase of new brasses for the bells from Mr.Taylor [the St.Neots bellfounder] for 18s. 6d. Purchase of an iron chest for the registers, £2 2s. 1822 Making a terrier of "the Church & Parish rights" 1824 Carriage of font bason, the gift of Professor Martyn "Marshall hunting rats 6d." 1825 Carpenter's bill, £12 17s. 1826 Vestry Minute re lease of parish land 1826 Repairs to the steeple: "Paid towards the steeple £43, left to pay £10" 1833 Mr.Edward Hollis elected Churchwarden in 1832, but later dismissed from office in 1833 as "not being too honest a man" 1834 Repairs to the bells, £3 2s. 7d. 1836 Repairs to Church Lane, and purchase of gravel 1839 "Bradshaw for tuneing the organ, 12s." [this is the first payment relating to the organ, which subsequently features regularly in the accounts]
Level of description
item