Visitations

This volume contains the returns from Bedfordshire parishes to interrogatories circulated to the parish clergy of the diocese of Lincoln by Bishops William Wake and Edmund Gibson on their triennial visitations. Wake was Bishop of Lincoln from 1705 to 1716 (in which year he became Archbishop of Canterbury), and Gibson succeeded him at Lincoln from 1716 to 1723.

Bishops of the established church were bound to follow the medieval practice and every three years go round their diocese to investigate the state of the parishes and clergy, so as to discover and correct any disorders. Between visitations, the archdeacons had the major role in investigating wrongdoing.

Some of the early evidence for the visitation system in Lincoln Diocese is described in The State of the Church, which mentions an episcopal visitation of the Bedford archdeaconry in 1571, and the volume contains also one or two extracts for Bedfordshire from the returns of the episcopal visitation of 1607. At Tempsford, Clement Hales and his wife did not attend church; and at Woburn Henry Bell, the parish clerk, churched a woman in William Astry’s house without leave of the incumbent. This is of particular interest, because by 1706 Woburn is the only Bedfordshire parish omitted from all visitation returns. Through the efforts of the Russell family, Woburn had successfully claimed to be exempt from the bishop’s jurisdiction.

The Toleration Act of 1689 gave the established church a new problem - how freedom of worship had affected the attendance at parish churches. The Compton return of 1676 gave the approximate number of dissenters, papists, and supporters of the established church in each parish in the province of Canterbury in that year, but a considerable time had passed since 1676. Bishop William Wake decided on a new style of episcopal visitation, and in 1706, 1709 and 1712 circulated a questionnaire to his clergy.

The questionnaire of 1706 asked about the patron and the living, and whether it was a rectory or a vicarage; how many families lived in the parish; the number of dissenters and meeting houses; the value of the living; if there were endowed schools or almshouses; the names of local gentry; and (curiously enough) whether there were any antiquities of note in church or parish.

Bishop Gibson’s Questions to his Clergy

Good Brother

The Practice of transmitting Queries to the Clergy, which was begun by my Pious and Learned Predecessor, is of such great and apparent Use, that I should think my self much wanting, not only to my self but to my successors, if I did not continue it; especially, having found the manifold Advantages of it, by my own Experience.

The particular Queries which I send you, are the same that you have usually receiv’d in order to the General Visitations; and I doubt not but you will return your particular Answers at the Time of my Visitation, with the same Exactness that you have hitherto done; particularly, upon those Heads, which relate to the Place of your ordinary Residence, and to the Times of performing Divine Service in the Church.

I must further intreat you, not to reckon your selves unconcern’d in the Presentments of your Churchwardens, but to urge them to a serious Perusal of the Articles of Enquiry; which I have drawn into as narrow a Compass as I could, in hopes that the fewer the Questions are, the more exact and particular their Answers will be. To this end, I beseech you, not only to press upon them the Obligation of their Oath, and to assist them in framing their Presentments; but also to point out to them the particular Persons and Things in your Church or Parish, which you observe to fall under the respective Articles, and which they in consequence are bound to Present.

I am aware, that the Work of Visitation hath been usually accompany’d with the Work of CONFIRMATION. But an ill State of Health which I have labour’d under for some Months past, hath made it hazardous if not impracticable for me to undertake both these together; especially, in this hot Season, to which the long Session of Parliament hath driven the Time of the Visitation. For these reasons, I have determin’d, not to Confirm in the Course of my Visitations, but to come again to you on purpose to perform that Work, when I shall have no other upon my Hands, nor any need of being attended by the Officers of my Court.

Bishop Wake’s Questions to his Clergy

1706

Reverend Brethren,

Having discharged what I was commanded to do, I take this opportunity to desire you when you come to the Visitation, to bring with you in writing the best account you can of your several parishes in the following particulars:

I What is the name of your Parish, and in what Deanery doth it ly?

II Who is the Patron of it? Is it a Rectory or Vicarage? Of what extent? How many familys are there reputed to be in it?

III What Dissenters have you from the Church of England? Of what kinds are they? Have they any Meeting-house within your parish?

IV Is your Living under £80 p. ann.? And what is the usual value of it?

V Is there any Lecture, School, Alms-house, or Hospital endowed within your Parish? And what is the Endowment of it?

VI Doth any Person of Quality or any Gentleman of Estate live, or hath any Seat or house within your Parish?

VII Are there any Monuments of Note in your Parish Church or Chappell?

Or what other Antiquities do you know of within your Parish?

The more fully and particularly you answer to these Querys, or any other Matters that may serve to give me a full knowledge of the state of my Diocese, the more you will oblige, My Reverend Brethren,

Your faithfull Friend and Brother,

W. Lincoln

1709

Good Brother:

Having reduced my last Visitation Articles, which did in effect contain a compleat Summary of the Establish’d Orders and Discipline of the Church of England, to such of them as I esteem most proper for my present Enquiry, I cannot but take this Opportunity to recommend it to you, to assist and excite your Churchwardens, to make such a full and impartial Return to them, and Presentment upon them, as both their Oath requires, and in Duty they ought to do.

Bishop Gibson’s Questions to his Clergy

GOOD BROTHER

Bugden, July 23, 1720.

THE time drawing on for the holding my Second Visitation, I transmit to you the Paper of QUERIES which hath been usually sent before, in order to receive the Answers of the Clergy at the time that I Visit. And I must repeat, on this occasion, one request which I made before; namely, That your Answers may be more especially distinct and particular, upon those Heads which relate to the Place of your ordinary Residence, and to the Times of performing Divine Service in the Church, as being Heads of greatest Importance, and which it more especially concerns me to be acquainted with.

As to the PRESENTMENTS of the Church-wardens; I earnestly intreat you, as I did before, that you will not think your selves unconcern’d in them, but that you will urge them to a serious Perusal, and Consideration, not only of the Articles of Enquiry upon which they are to ground their Presentments, but also of the Oath which they are to take, and of the CANONS of the Church for making them regularly and conscientiously, which I have printed at length for their direction therein: And further, that you will assist them in framing their Presentments, and point out to them (if need be) the particular Persons and Things in your Church and Parish, which you observe to fall under the respective Articles, and which they in consequence are bound to Present.

If any Presentments which were made in my last Visitation, have either not been prosecuted at all, or not in a due and effectual manner, I desire to be inform’d of it at the conclusion of this Paper; where you are invited to communicate to me, among other things, any Neglects or Abuses which you have observ’d in the Officers of the Ecclesiastical Court; to the end, I may make due enquiry into the Cause and Occasion of such Omission or Neglect.

The Promise which I made you, to come to you on purpose for the work of CONFIRMATION, hath been perform’d by me; I hope, very effectually. And, considering at how many Places I have held Confirmations, and what great Numbers have been Confirm’d; there can be no present need, any where, of a General Confirmation.