rendered a tax of that description unnecessary."[204]

Of St. Petrock's, Exeter, we are informed that "the parish became so
well endowed by donations of land and houses as to enable the wardens
to dispense almost entirely with the quarterly collections entered in
the earlier accounts."[205] The editor of the Thatcham, Berks,
Accounts, writes: "In the early years of these churchwardens accounts
the available funds were derived chiefly from the two oldest
charities, one called 'Lowndye's Almshouses,' the first account of
which is for the year ... 1561 ... to 1562; the other known as 'the
Church Estate,' the first account of which begins in 1566."[206]
Summoned by the Bodmin, Cornwall, justices in January, 159-4/5, to
make a report as to the parish stock, the representatives of Stratton
certify at sessions that their stock "am[oun]ts to the now some of
Sixteene poundes, some yeares it is more & some yeares lesse...." And,
they continue, "the vsinge of our sayde stocke is by the two wardens &
the rest of the eight men w[hi]ch for the same stande sworne, And it
is bestowed aboute her ma[jes]ties service, for buyenge of armor,
settinge forth of souldiers w[i]th powder & shott.... And likewise for
the relievinge & mainetayning of the poore...." They thereupon give
the names of the impotent and decrepit persons and orphan children
"wholly relieved" by the parish, ten in number, and add that there are
upwards of a hundred poor "w[h]ich are not able to liue of themselues,
but haue reliefe dayly one thinge or another of the seide
p[ar]ish."[207] The little parish of St. Michael's in Bedwardine,
Worcestershire,[208] possessed lands and tenements in various
parishes, and in 1599 invested £10 in buying two more tenements in
Worcester city.[209] Its wardens accounts, we are told by their
editor, disclose that there was never any lack of money for parish
purposes "in spite of a rather lavish expenditure at times in the