Berkshire, Reading, 1533–4
BRO: D/P 97/5/2

p 191 (29 September–29 September) (Common receipts)

...

Received of men & women at hocktyde the same yere xxxv s. vij d.
Received of f the yong men gatheryd on the ffare day that yere xix d.

p 194 (Common expenses)

...

payd to Master laborne for reformyng the resurreccion play viij s. iiij d.

...

  • Footnotes
    • hocktyde: 13–14 April 1534
  • Glossed Terms
    • gather v inf to collect, here used to refer specifically to the act of collecting money for the parish; gathered, gatherid, gatheryd pass;
  • Endnote

    Martin identifies 'Mr Labourne' as Edward Labourne, conservative curate of the parish of St Benet Gracechurch, London ('People of Reading,' pp 323–4). He seems to have spent time in 1533 in Reading renting a chamber from the parish for 20d in the Michaelmas quarter (BRO: D/P 97/5/2, p 187; Dils, St Laurence Churchwardens' Accounts, pt 1, p 181) and again in the Christmas quarter (BRO: D/P 97/5/2, p 191; Dils, St Laurence Churchwardens' Accounts, pt 1, p 186). He is paid for the 'boke of the resurreccion play' two years later in 1535–6. Martin identifies him as conservative from the attempt by his parishioners in St Benet Gracechurch in 1538 to supplant him 'with a priest "who would preach the gospel to their edifying"' ('People of Reading,' p 324). Karen Sawyer Marsalek (née Karen Elaine Sawyer) discusses later evidence of an Edward Labourne who became vicar of Thame, Oxfordshire (twenty miles north-east of Reading where there is also evidence of a resurrection play) in 1546 and who died three years later in 1549 leaving a will ('The Resurrection of Our Lord: A Study and Dual Text Edition,' PhD thesis (University of Toronto, 2001), 15–16, 22). Marsalek cites Alumni Cantabrigiensis, where the editors suggest this Labourne was '[p]robably of St John's College, as he leaves his books to St John's, and to the poor scholars of Cambridge' ('The Resurrection of Our Lord: A Study and Dual Text Edition,' PhD thesis (University of Toronto, 2001), 16; John Venn and J.A. Venn (comps), Alumni Cantabrigiensis: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900, pt 1, vol 3 (Cambridge, 1924), 57). It is possible that this is the same man, although one would not necessarily expect a graduate of St John's, Cambridge, to be a religious conservative. Unfortunately, Labourne's entry into the priesthood is too early for him (or them) to be found in the Clergy of the Church of England Database (http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk), which covers the period 1540–1835.

  • Document Description

    Record title: St Laurence's Churchwardens' Accounts
    Repository: BRO
    Shelfmark: D/P 97/5/2
    Repository location: Reading

    The churchwardens rendered their accounts on the feast of the Annunciation (25 March) until 1516 when they adopted the Michaelmas–Michaelmas pattern rendering their accounts on 29 September.

    1498–1626; English; paper; 250 leaves; 330mm x 225mm; modern pagination; some display capitals; pp 1–2, 490–3 are separated but have been repaired and put separately in a brown paper wrapper; bound in boards covered in parchment, title on front cover: 'The Book of the | Church-Wardens Accounts | of the Parish | of | St Laurence.'

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