View report page

103
man" two weeks, and perhaps the woman that looked after
"George Wood, distracted" fully earned the 5/- she received
for that duty. We learn from other entries that 15/- were
given to two men that "kept the madman in the Hay
Markett," that a poor man "yt was hurt wth a coach"
received a solatium of 1/6 from the poor rate, and that
"goeing into London" cost 1/6, and that two bibles were
purchased for 7/-.
The Accounts, like the literature of the period, do not give
us a very exalted idea of the then condition of public morals,
but perhaps such items as the following afford the strongest
testimony on this point—" Paid towards the lying in of Mr.
Woodburn's Man's—" 14/- (the word given in the
original is not now used in polite society, but occurs with
tolerable frequency in the early accounts of the parish).
A few miscellaneous items from the accounts for subsequent
years may be given. In 1686 the sum of 1/6 was
paid for a "chaise to carry a sick man into Cock and Swan
Ally," 2/- for "nursing the drayman's child," 1/6 for a shroud
"for the child taken up in the Pall Mall," and 5/- for poor
people in the Watchhouse. This year the Overseers borrowed
£100, for which £6 interest was paid, legal expenses for
bastardy and settlement cases cost £7 9s. 8d.; a boy was put
apprentice to a chimney sweeper with a premium of 10/-; the
Churchwarden's expenses one pay-day cost £1 11s., and the
Overseers spent£3 "at severall meetings;" two days "rateing
the bookes" cost £5 12s. 6d.; and the audit dinner £3, while
each of the Churchwardens and Overseers made a charge
varying from £2 10s. 6d. to JS4 8s. for "parish business."
Judging by the following entries, payments to medical men
would almost appear to have been based on the principal of
no cure no pay—one "chirurgeon" received £1 for "cureing
Godding's knee, a poore woman of this Parish," another £2
for "cureing a poore woman's sore breast," and a third 12/-