Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/247

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Licence for Eating Meat.

"Martii 13. Anno dom. 1634. A special license, granted by the moste reverende ffather in God, William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his Grace, under his Grace's hand and seale, used in the like grants, dated the nyneteenth day of ffebruarie, Anno dom. 1634, and second yeare of his Grace's translation. And confirmed by the Letters patents of our Sovraigne Lord Charles the King's ma.^tie that now is . . . . Under the Greate Seale of England ffor S^r White Beconsaw of this parish and county of Southton . . . . (and) Dame Edith hys wife ffor the tyme of their naturell (lives) . . . . to eate flesh on the daies p'hibited by the Lawe . . . . (upon condition of their giving to the) poore of the p'ish . . . . Thirteene shillings . . . ."

Whether or no the knyght and his lady were to give the sum yearly, as seems most probable, it is impossible, from the torn condition of the leaf, to say. Their daughter was the noble Alice Lisle. The licence, of course, refers to the prohibition against eating meat on Fridays and Saturdays, and other specified times, first made by Elizabeth for the encouragement of the English fisheries, which had even in her reign begun to decay.^[1] And now that we are on the subject of Church-

↑ Burn, in his History of Parish Registers, second edition, pp. 171, 172, 173, gives several similar instances of such licences. These most valuable books at Ellingham are, notwithstanding the incumbent's care, in a shocking state of preservation. I trust some transcript of them may be made before they quite fall to pieces. Ellingham also possesses another book containing the names of the owners of the different pews in the church in 1672, invaluable to any local historian. In the beginning of this book are inserted a number of law-forms of agreements, wills, and indentures, probably for the use of the clergyman, who was, perhaps, consulted by his parishioners in worldly as also spiritual matters. In the Register there is, unfortunately, no mention of the death of Alice Lisle, as the burials are torn out from 1664 to 1695.

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[1] Burn, in his History of Parish Registers, second edition, pp. 171, 172, 173, gives several similar instances of such licences. These most valuable books at Ellingham are, notwithstanding the incumbent's care, in a shocking state of preservation. I trust some transcript of them may be made before they quite fall to pieces. Ellingham also possesses another book containing the names of the owners of the different pews in the church in 1672, invaluable to any local historian. In the beginning of this book are inserted a number of law-forms of agreements, wills, and indentures, probably for the use of the clergyman, who was, perhaps, consulted by his parishioners in worldly as also spiritual matters. In the Register there is, unfortunately, no mention of the death of Alice Lisle, as the burials are torn out from 1664 to 1695.

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