vish expenditure at times in the
luxury of law[suits]."[210] Lapworth, Warwickshire, had many acres of
parish land.[211] The churchwardens of St. John's, Glastonbury,
Somerset, return in their accounts the rent of the parish lands in
1588 at L9 13s. 10d.,[212] and, as these accounts show, they
occasionally received important sums for fines on changes of tenants.
The various properties managed by the wardens of St. Michael's, Bath,
numbered thirty-seven in 1527, yielding a revenue of L11 8s.;[213] and
even in 1572 the rent amounted to L11 8s.[214]

Indeed, though parish lands and houses were generally vested as to
title in trustees (often a numerous and cumbersome body),[215] the
churchwardens themselves and sometimes other accountants,[216] who
like the wardens were appointed from year to year, usually exercised
the actual management. The feoffees existed chiefly for the purpose of
making it difficult to alienate the parish properties, "and the larger
the trust body the more difficult such alienation was supposed to
be."[217]

Contenting ourselves with the above examples, which could easily be
multiplied, we pass on under this same head of general endowments to
an interesting form of personal property, viz., cattle, for not only
did the wardens derive receipts from parish holdings of real estate,
but also from _Endowments of Cows or Sheep_. The Pittington, Durham,
Twelve Men, a sort of parish executive and administrative body, enact
in 1584 "that everie iiij pounde rent[218] within this parrishe, as
well of hamlets as townshippes, shall gras[219] winter and somer one
shepe for the behoufe of this church;"[220] and we are told that these
"Church Shepe," as they were called, were here one of the chief means
of raising funds for parochial purposes.[221] It was the custom of
pious donors, especially among the lowly, to leave one or more sheep
or cows to their parish. In the year 1559 twelve sheep were thus given
or bequeathed to Wootton Church, Hants, by ten donors.[222] These
sheep, as well as the parish cows, were often hired out to
parishioners, who gave security for their return. Sometimes they were
given to poor men at a reduced rent, and thus they served to support
the poor.[223]

That the keeping of cattle was a well-recognized source of parish
income is seen by the Queen's Injunctions of 1559 in which she alludes
to "the profit of cattle" among other sources of parish revenue to be
devoted to the poor, "and if t