he benefit of posterity down went the candid acknowledgment in
the parish accounts----

L s. d.
Paid at a vestry at Rogersis for licker . . . . . . . . . . 0 3 0
Paid Danl. Docwra what was spent at Easter Monday . . . . . 0 5 0

Danl. Docwra not only kept a public-house in Royston, but also at this
time (1771) was rated for a bowling green as well, and it is possible
that the Parochial Hampdens and their officers, like Drake and the
Spanish Armada, prepared for work by a little play. As to the amount
of "licker" necessary for the efficient control of parochial affairs I
find that the villages had sometimes a different standard, for an entry
in the Therfield parish papers gives ten shillings as the amount spent
at a town's meeting, and a similar amount was entered for Barkway.
Strange as it may appear in these days of Government auditors, {34} the
parish officer then debited something to the parish account at every
turn of his official duty.

Here is one way in which they managed a Parochial Assessment--

"Ordered that six of the principal inhabitants of Royston look over all
the estates in the town, and each send in his own estimated list of
their ratable value to a special meeting, and from those different
lists form a revised list of assessment to be afterwards stuck on the
Church door, allowing objections to be made, and if necessary amending
assessments accordingly, first calling in the assistance of Mr.
Jackson, of Barkway, the land surveyor."

The assessment was evidently a low one, for the highest amount paid for
a shilling rate was 18s., and the lowest 1s. 6d. As to the property
assessed, wool-staplers and maltsters were the principal items. A
shilling rate for Royston, Cambs., produced about one-fourth of what it
does now.

The year 1781 marked a new era in the local Parliament for Royston,
both for the improved local authority then instituted and for the unity
of the town. This was brought about by what, for want of a better
name, I will call the Act of Union, by which the divided parish of
Royston in Herts. and Cambs. was made one for local government
purposes, with one vestry, one clerk, and one beadle, but with separate
overseers and churchwardens. The management of the business under this
Act of Union was placed in the hands of a Committee, consisting of the
churchwardens and overseers, and of eight gentlemen for t