Weston Styleman Walford

“ The issue of the founder should seem to have failed, and the remote heir, feeling probably but little interest in the matter, or yielding perhaps to the importunity of a husband who felt none, joined with him in alienating this advowson. By the acquisition of it the guild obtained virtually a permanent chantry 'of their own, including priest, altar, and endowment; for they, no doubt, arranged with the clerk whom they presented, that he should be also their chaplain, and should say from time to time at the same altar the requisite prayers and masses for deceased members of the guild. ”

“ The company had existed long before; and the charter is confined to the establishment of a guild among themselves (de se) , which they had commenced without the requisite royal licence, and which is throughout treated as a guild of the religious kind exclusively. The charter even seems to have contemplated persons becoming members of the guild, who did not belong to the company. The Armourers are in possession of a silver matrix of a seal, apparently of the early part of the fifteenth century, which has been supposed to be the common seal of the guild, made on its incorporation by this charter ”

“ But all these modes of obtaining the benefit of such prayers and masses were open only to the wealthy. The great body of the people had not individually the means of providing religious observances for the repose of their souls, and would have felt themselves in a very melancholy predicament, had not some method been devised for securing to them the consolation of having taken such precautions for their relief in purgatory. ”

“ Many of the tenants employed in cultivating the soil held their pieces of land and cottages at the will of the lord; and these became the copyholders of later times. Long before the date of this grant, as is well known, surnames had, with few exceptions, ceased to be any indications of the social positions of those who bore them; and, doubtless, Richard Acreman occupied a place in society to which his ancestors who acquired the surname never aspired. ”

“ Whether from political considerations or less worthy motives I will not pretend to determine, but the cost of obtaining from the Crown the requisite licence for such gifts became after a while so great as to amount almost to a refusal; and as land was, we must remember, in those days the only kind of property from which a permanent income was derivable, it was a great obstacle, where perpetual masses were desired, not to be able to provide for them by gifts of land or rents. ”

“ At that time free laborers were few, and money wages rare: the demesnes of a manor, those parts which the lord retained in his own hands, were cultivated almost exclusively by men attached in various degrees of serfdom to the soil, who were allowed to occupy for their own benefit small pieces of ground, at low and sometimes almost nominal rents, and on the produce of those plots they chiefly subsisted. ”

“ Should it be suggested that the i at the end of Bastardi in the deed exhibited is in reality a mark of contraction used after d to supply a final e, besides that it more resembles an i, all doubt on this point is removed by the original deed by which this Richard and his wife conveyed the advowson to Coburley and Burghille. On examining that, I found he is there called Ricardus Bastardus de Bedford' Armiger. [25] Now, had Bastard been a family surname in either case, it would hardly have been latinized ”

“ In many country parishes portions of the guild-houses or guild-halls still exist near the respective churches, and retain their name, which has been a puzzle occasionally to persons who were not aware of the nature and prevalence of such fraternities. ”

“ The conveyance to Acreman is also in the possession of the Armourers' Company. It is dated the 12th of March, 21 Henry VI. (1446) , and by it Coburley and Burghille granted to Acreman, his heirs and assigns, the odvowson only. There are no witnesses. Two small seals are appended; one has on it a bird with the legend, Thomas Coburley: the other a hedge-hog with a legend obscure. The parties to the deed are the only persons mentioned in it, and no place of residence is subjoined to any of the names. ”

“ A few observations, explanatory of this state of things, may not be thought irrelevant, as they will render the purpose of the deed exhibited more intelligible.
After the doctrine of purgatory and the efficacy of prayers and masses for the dead had taken possession of the public mind, it had great influence in divers ways, and various were the means resorted to for procuring those supposed benefits. It was necessary to propitiate the living in order to induce them thus to serve the dead. ”

“ He died, it should seem, on the 8th of May, 1320; for on that day was his obit to be kept, as appears by the endowment, which we have seen, took place by the grant of his widow in January 1320-1. [21] He left no male issue; an only daughter named Joan married Thomas de Halughton, and had issue a son, Sir Nicholas de Halughton, who died in 1338, seized of estates at Ockendon Chadwell, and other places in Essex. His wife, whose name was Margaret, survived him. He probably died young, for his heirs were two infant daughters, Margaret and Joan, of the respective ages of two years and one year ”

“ Monasteries were founded or enlarged to secure these advantages for the benefactors; and kings and other influential persons were included in the prayers and masses so purchased to obtain their patronage and protection. From a like motive were churches occasionally erected, but more frequently were chantries founded in existing churches. ”

“ Such arrangements with religious houses to secure masses for deceased persons became probably not uncommon, in consequence of the difficulty and expense of procuring a license to put lands in mortmain for endowing a chantry. ”