Welsh Journals

AN UNUSUAL CHURCHWARDEN'S ACCOUNT BOOK Churchwardens' account books have been kept and bound in many curious and eccentric ways. They are replete with odd items which fill antiquaries with affectionate mirth at the simple rule of thumb which the rude forefathers of a parish found good enough. There is nothing that a modern searcher into the past likes more than to find churchwardens acting as pest officers.' The entry of fourpence for a vixen or eightpence for a badger' is noticed with naive exuberance. And, no doubt, such entries and others about the brewing of ale or beer for the singers or oil for the ringers provide light relief, amidst the dreary waste of dull figures, to both searchers and readers. The binding of these accounts, too, is done in divers and casual ways. Some are just pinned together others have been roughly sewn into a parchment covering. Later ones are well bound but in all shapes and sizes. A churchwarden's account book which is almost unique was discovered some time ago in a public house at Llandyssul. John Evans, the landlord of the King's Arms,' kept the Churchwarden Account for the Parish of Llandyssil from Easter 1847 to the beginning of the following year. The kind of book he used is usually described as a pocket-book. It measures six by four inches and is bound in leather and has a narrow flap which fits into a slot when the book is closed. On the inside of the cover and first page there is an almanack for 1847. This gives information useful in everyday business, such as Dates, Indentures, a Concise Ready Reckoner, and A Rule for Calculating Interest at Five per Cent. It also assures its readers that In the year 1847 there will be two Eclipses of the Sun and two of the Moon'. It will be remembered that all this was in The Hungry Forties'. It may have been in the bar of the King's Arms that, on a day in April 1847, the churchwarden made his first entry £ s. d. Paid at Lampeter in Presenting the papers o 10 o And my expenses to Do. 0 9 0 This, probably, had something to do with the Archdeacon's Visitation and the swearing-in of churchwardens and sidesmen. The next entry is full of mysterious implications which cannot be confirmed or even adequately explained Paid for Shirts from Carmarthen as pr Bill on 19th of June by Mr. James Orders. The cost of the shirts is not recorded and as a first guess it might not be entirely foolish to suggest that the churchwarden wrote shirts