Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor Account Books (AC)

The title page of a churchwardens' accounts London Metropolitan Archives, St Botolph Aldgate, Churchwardens' Accounts, 1731-59, 9235/4, LL ref: GLBAAC100040005.

Introduction

Account Books made the world of eighteenth-century local government work. Every churchwarden and overseer of the poor had their account book, and every workhouse its paying-in book, day book and clothing accounts. Most of the books included under this AC category are formal churchwardens' or overseers of the poor's accounts. Also included are a number of petty ledgers, which served as a less formal, working version of an account book.

Churchwardens

Churchwardens' accounts include expenditure on the repair and maintenance of the church fabric, and on most other forms of parochial expenditure (excluding poor relief). Keeping these accounts was normally done by the churchwarden himself, or in the case of larger urban parishes, by the parish clerk (one of the earliest forms of paid parochial employment). The position of churchwarden was undertaken by the wealthier male inhabitants of the parish, and changed annually, with the money in hand or in deficit being passed from one office-holder to the next at Easter each year. Churchwardens' accounts therefore normally run from Easter to Easter, and were summed and approved at an annual vestry meeting. Because the penmanship and accounting practices of individual churchwardens was variable, the form of the accounts could change rapidly with changing personnel.1

Overseers of the Poor

Overseers of the poor were also chosen annually from the better-off male inhabitants, and like churchwardens inherited either a financial surplus or deficit from their predecessors. Overseers' accounts include all expenditure on poor relief, including workhouse expences and those associated with Settlement, Bastardy and Vagrancy Examinations (EP) and appeals, and all subsequent legal activities. Unlike churchwardens, the appointment of overseers was confirmed by the Justices of the Peace in Quarter Sessions (rather than the vestry and minister), and their accounts needed to be audited and signed off by two Justices at the end of the accounting year at Easter.

Both churchwardens' and overseers' accounts were public and any parishioner could demand to see them. The precise boundary between the two types of accounts should not be overstated. Churchwardens were authorised to act as overseers, and many items of expenditure in churchwardens' accounts might equally be found in an overseer's account.

A page of churchwardens' accounts London Metropolitan Archives, St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' accounts, 1689-1720, Ms 4215/1, LL ref: GLDBAC300000370.

Regardless of the purpose for which they were created, eighteenth-century account books could take a variety of forms.2

Running Expenditure Accounts

Running expenditure or income accounts are those in which outgoings and income are separately listed on different pages or in completely different volumes and summed up and compared only at the end of the month or even the year. These are normally organised into three columns with the date on the left, a description of the form of income or expenditure in the middle, and the amount involved on the right, with a sum "brought forward" from the preceding page at the top of the right hand column, and a running sum at the bottom. This pattern could be disrupted by sections of prose (recording, for instance, the approval of the accounts at a vestry meeting), or sets of signatures.

Petty Ledgers

Petty ledgers group expenditure according to its purpose and intent. The most common use of this kind of ledger was to group expenditure on a single pauper on a single page. These kinds of ledgers are very much working documents, and include greater detail about minor expenditure than is normally found in formal churchwardens' and overseers' accounts.

A page of a churchwarden's petty ledger London Metropolitan Archives, St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwarden's petty ledger, 1788-90, Ms 4222/7, LL ref: GLDBAC300030016.

Accountancy

This variety of practice resulted in part because accountancy was itself rapidly changing and becoming more sophisticated in the eighteenth century, a period that witnessed the growth of explicitly commercial education and the publication of an extensive self-help literature and blank, pre-printed account books.3 Although originally codified by Luca Pacioli in 1494, formal double entry book keeping was not in common use within British local government in our period, though it was rapidly becoming the norm in business accounting.

A variety of ad hoc forms of accounting can be found in almost any eighteenth-century archive. Most of these accounting variations were preserved because they worked for the specific job in hand. An overseer responsible for a small number of paupers might choose to use a petty ledger approach which gave him easier access to information about individual recipients, only later transferring the information to a more formal account book at the end of the year. Similarly, an overseer more comfortable with the small cash flows of a shopkeeper might prefer a separate account book for the major job of collecting the rates from his social equals and superiors, and another pocket book for the minor daily responsibility of doling out a penny here or there to his social inferiors.

A farthing from 1714.  Other than in this year (1714), no copper coins were produced during Anne's reign.  The lack of copper led to the contemporary belief in the rarity of farthings.
Rare copper farthing, Anne I; reproduced courtesy of and with thanks to Tony Clayton.

Currency

All amounts are normally given in pounds, shillings and pence, which were the basic currency of Britain throughout the period covered by the London Lives project. These have a consistent relationship of 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. Values are generally expressed as £ s d, or else l s d, as in £12 10s. 6d. You may also find references to guineas, with a value of 21 shillings, marks (13 shillings and 4 pence), nobles (6 shillings and 8 pence), crowns (5 shillings), half-crowns (2 shillings and 6 pence), and halfpence and farthings (expressed as 1/2d and 1/4d). For a discussion of the cost of living in eighteenth-century London, see the relevant page in the Old Bailey Online, 1674-1913

Introductory Reading

  • Edwards, J.R. A History of Financial Accounting. 1989.
  • Glaisyer, Natasha. The Culture of Commerce in England, 1660-1720. Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2006, ch. 3.
  • Jones, R. H. Accounting in English Local Government from the Middle Ages to c.1835. In Parker, Robert and Yamey, B. S., eds, Accounting History: Some British Contributions. Oxford, 1994, pp. 377-403.
  • Yamey, B. S.; Edey, H. C.; and Thomason, H. W. Accounting in England and Scotland: 1543-1800: Double Entry in Exposition and Practice. 1963.

Online Resources

For further reading on this subject see the London Lives Bibliography.

Documents Included on this Website

  • St Botolph Aldgate, Churchwardens' Accounts, 1683-1715, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2626, LL ref: GLBAAC10000, Tagging Level: C
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Churchwardens' Accounts, 1689-91, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 9235/2-2, LL ref: GLBAAC10002, Tagging Level: C
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Churchwardens' Accounts, 1720-31, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 9235/3, LL ref: GLBAAC10003, Tagging Level: C
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Churchwardens' Accounts, 1732-59, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 9235/4, LL ref: GLBAAC10004, Tagging Level: C
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Churchwardens' Accounts, 1759-78, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 9235/4, LL ref: GLBAAC10005, Tagging Level: D
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Churchwardens' Accounts, 1779-1805, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 9235/5, LL ref: GLBAAC10006, Tagging Level: D
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Miscellaneous Account Books, 1747-48, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2625/1A, LL ref: GLBAAC10009, Tagging Level: D
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Miscellaneous Account Books, 1752-56, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2625/1B, LL ref: GLBAAC10010, Tagging Level: D
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Miscellaneous Account Books, 1785-91, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2625/1C-5, LL ref: GLBAAC10102, Tagging Level: D
  • St Botolph Aldgate, Miscellaneous Account Books, 1792-1802, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 2625/6-12, LL ref: GLBAAC10103, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Account Books, 1689-1720, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4215/1, LL ref: GLDBAC30000, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1784-88, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/5, LL ref: GLDBAC30001, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1785-86, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/6, LL ref: GLDBAC30002, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1788-90, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/7, LL ref: GLDBAC30003, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1795-98, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/8, LL ref: GLDBAC30004, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Account Books, 1720-29, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4215/1, LL ref: GLDBAC30005, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Account Books, 1729-62, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4215/2, LL ref: GLDBAC30006, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1758-60, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/1, LL ref: GLDBAC30007, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1763-70, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/2, LL ref: GLDBAC30008, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1770-76, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/3, LL ref: GLDBAC30009, Tagging Level: D
  • St Dionis Backchurch, Churchwardens' Petty Ledgers, 1776-83, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. 4222/4, LL ref: GLDBAC30010, Tagging Level: D

Back to Top | Introductory Reading

Footnotes

1 Richard Burn, The Justice of the Peace, and Parish Officer (14th edn, 1780), vol. 1, pp. 443-445.

2 Burn, The Justice of the Peace, vol. 3, pp. 586-580.

3 See for example: Matthew Quin, Quin's Rudiments of Book-Keeping; Comprised in Six Plain Cases, and Attainable in as Many Days, Without the Help of a Teacher (1776).