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    Clerical Terms Lay terms


Clerical terms

Almoner:  A minister or church officer in charge of distributing money to the deserving poor.  The term was not used in St Saviour parish, 'overseers of the poor' being the preferred phrase.  Almoners were also important offices in the livery companies of the City of London, charged with overseeing the needs of the members. 

Archdeacon:  A senior cleric, responsible for administration within an archdeaconry, which is the principal subdivision of a diocese.  One of an archdeacon's responsibilities is to have jurisdiction over probate matters, administered through an Archdeaconry Court. 

Chaplain:  Strictly speaking, a clergyman whose work is not principally with a parish or a congregation, but rather with a secular entity such as the household of a member of the nobility or monarchy, or a hospital, or the military.  In our period, however, the term is used more loosely to refer to other clerical obligations as well. 

Clerk:  Though the word can mean simply a scholar or learned person, its primary meaning (see OED) is ecclesiastic, denoting a person ordained to the ministry or service of the church, that is, a deacon or minister.  It can also refer to a layman who performs offices pertaining to churches, e.g. the parish clerk, who is the lay officer of a parish church, who has charge of the church and precincts.

Commissary:  A person, lay or clerical, who has received a ‘commission’ to exercise the administrative functions of a bishop at those times when the bishop is unable to, or does not wish to, perform them.  The commission expires when the bishop elects to resume those duties.  A commissary's commission is administrative only, and does not permit him to perform episcopal functions such as ordinations. 

Curate:  A clergyman (a deacon or a minister) appointed to assist the incumbent of a parish, or to take charge of a parish temporarily during a vacancy, or while the incumbent was unable to perform his duties.  Often a curate would be given a parish where the living was not good enough for a rector or vicar.  He was appointed to his post by whoever had the right to nominate a clergyman for the parish in question.  Once appointed, a curate could not be easily removed.  The word ‘curate’ refers to the care, ‘cure’, of souls.  Unlike the French curé, however, whose duties are primary, an English curate is always an assistant. 
(Perpetual Curate):  A minister nominated by a lay rector to serve a parish in which there was no endowed vicarage.  The appointment, when licensed by a bishop, was in perpetuity (hence the name) and the incumbent could not be removed.  [See Trollope's Last Chronicle of Barset for Josiah Crawley, the perpetual curate of Hogglestock.] 

Deacon:  A deacon is a minister-in-training, and ranks just below minister.  A new cleric begins his ministerial work when he becomes a deacon, and for this he must have been accepted for some ecclesiastical post.  As a deacon, the young cleric may not celebrate the Eucharist, give absolution or pronounce the blessing.  Appointment as a deacon generally lasts for one year.  Glebe:  A portion of land assigned to a member of the clergy as part of a benefice.  Source: OED. 

Incumbent:  This is the term used for the clergyman who has primary administrative, pastoral, and liturgical responsibilities in a parish.  An incumbent is usually referred to as the rector. 

Lay Impropriator:  The ‘parish’ system in England required that parish properties have owners.  Before the Reformation this would have been the ‘parochianus’ or parson/rector, who was sustained by the benefice income.  In time the benefice came to be considered a piece of property whose holder could discharge the spiritual responsibilities by a deputy, who was often known as the ‘vicar’.  After the Reformation, ‘impropriation’ allowed for the recipient of the tithes to be a layman or secular corporation, so long as he or it provided a cleric to serve the parish and provided for his maintenance.  By 1603, of a total 9,284 benefices, an estimated 3,489 were in the hands of impropriators or lay rectors [Wikipedia].  By custom, they were obliged to maintain the chancel in good repair.  The daybooks from the parish of St Botolph Aldgate offer fuller information about lay impropriators. 

Lay Rector:  A layman who receives the tithes of a parish or in whom the rectory is vested; see Lay Impropriator. 

Lecturer:  One of a class of preachers in the Church of England, usually chosen by the parish and supported by voluntary contributions, whose duty consists mainly in delivering afternoon or evening lectures. 

Minister:  A generic term signifying any person appointed to perform a liturgical duty or other service in the church; a member of the clergy; an ordained pastor.  After the example of Calvinist use, ‘minister’ was often employed in deliberate preference to priest, to imply that officiating at the commemoration of the Lord's Supper did not constitute the offering of a sacrifice.  Priest and minister are used interchangeably in early editions of the Book of Common Prayer, but 'priest' never appears in the records of St Saviour parish. 

Ordinary:  In a diocese or jurisdiction with more than one bishop, one of them holds primary authority, and is often referred to as the ‘Ordinary’ (always with an uppercase ‘O’).  The word ‘Ordinary’ perhaps refers to the person's power to decide who may be ordained. 

Parson:  The official designation for a salaried minister in charge of a parish. 

Pastor:  An informal term to designate a rector or incumbent.  The Latin root means ‘shepherd’, and connotes pastoral responsibilities. 

Preacher:  Like minister a generic term, denoting a person whose function is to preach the gospel or to deliver sermons.  Sometimes denoting a person specially licensed to preach. 

Priest:  An ordained clergyman who has already been a deacon, and who has both the spiritual power and the legal authority to perform the sacraments.  But see minister. 

Rector:  A rector is the parson of a parish church whose tithes are not impropriated.  He has the charge and cure of a parish, and has the parsonage and tithes.  But if the tithes are impropriated, then the parson is a vicar not a rector.

Recusant:  A person of sixteen years or older who declines to attend the services of the English Church.  Initially the term applied only to Roman Catholics, but toward the end of Elizabeth's reign the term was broadened to include Brownists, Anabaptists, and others, after which the term 'Popish recusant' was used to distinguish a Catholic recusant from the others.

Schoolmaster:  The Governors' Book of the St Saviour Free School reveals that some men who applied for the position of schoolmaster wanted to perform ministerial duties as well, but the bishop would not permit it.  Some applicants clearly wanted the position of schoolmaster to be a stepping-stone to an appointment at St Saviour or elsewhere as clergymen, and some schoolmasters did leave to serve elsewhere as clergymen. 

Sexton:  The church officer charged with the maintenance of its buildings and the surrounding graveyards.  In smaller places of worship, this office is often combined with that of verger.  The word 'sexton' derives from the medieval Latin word sacristanus, 'custodian of sacred objects'.  Amongst the traditional duties of the sexton in small parishes was the digging of graves — the gravedigger in Hamlet refers to himself as sexton. 

Verger:  A person responsible for the order and upkeep of the house of worship, including the care of the church buildings, its furnishings, and sacred relics, preparations for liturgy, conduct of the laity, and grave-digging responsibilities.  In this, its duties often overlapped with those of the sexton.  There seems to have been no such office as 'verger' at St Saviour.  The term comes from the ceremonial rod which a verger carries, a virga (Latin 'branch, staff, rod'). 

Vicar:  From Latin vicarius, literally a substitute or place-holder.  A vicar is the parson of a parish where the tithes are impropriated.  As a parish minister he has the same spiritual status as a rector, holding his spiritual jurisdiction from the bishop. 


Lay terms

Are:  A unit of measurement in the French metric system; a square of which the side measures ten metres, equal to 119.6 square yards. One hundred ares equals one hectare.  Source: OED.

Avery, a corruption of Avenery:  the office of the avener, a chief officer of the stable, who had charge of provender for horses. Source: OED.

Bare, Bare Measure:  Delivered without ingrain.  Source: OED.

Bushel:  A measure of capacity used for corn, fruit, etc., containing four pecks or eight gallons.  Source: OED.

Calsey / Causey:  A causeway or highway.  Source: OED, s.v. 'causey' 3.a.

Car-Room:  The City granted the Company of Carmen license to control the assignment of ‘carrooms’, places in the City for carts to stand and ply for hire, in other words licences to trade.  Woodmongers also had carts, and the City granted them licences as well.  The Carmen ceded their privilege to Christ's Hospital, and paid fees to the School, though the number of carts and ‘carrs’ plying for hire within the City was limited by Common Council.  But by 1605 the Carmen and the Hospital had fallen out, and the Woodmongers secured a charter, which regulated ‘carrooms’ and Carmen until 1665, when Christ's Hospital took over again.

Chalder, Chaldron:  Singular chalder, plural chaldron. A dry measure of 4 quarters or fats, or 32 bushels.  Source: OED.

Chrisom:  Anciently, a piece of linen laid over a child's head during baptism, to keep the consecrated oil or chrism from accidentally rubbing off. With time, the word came to mean a white mantle covering an infant at the time of baptism, and later to refer to a child who died within a month after its baptism, the chrisom cloth then being used as its shroud.

Cockboat:  sometimes cockleboat; a small boat that accompanies a larger vessel.  Source: OED.

College:  A charitable foundation of the collegiate type; an almshouse founded to provide residence and maintenance for poor or decayed persons elected members thereof.  Source: OED, s.v. 7.

Copyhold (land):  A form of manorial land tenure in which the tenant is given a copy of the relevant lease, the original lease being recorded in the manorial court roll. The tenant is thus said to hold by copy, rather than by custom. The legal holder of the manorial land remained the mesne lord, who was legally the copyholder, according to the titles and customs written in the manorial roll. Copyhold land would not likely appear in a will, because its inheritance was already pre-determined by manorial custom. It could not therefore be given or devised in a will to any other person, but only transferred to someone else by entry in the manorial court roll.

Corrody:  An allowance of board and lodging provided by an abbey for a momineee of the king.

Customary (land):  A form of manorial land tenure in which tenancy is held by ancient custom of the manor, rather than subject to the will of the current manorial lord. Customary tenures, if sufficiently ancient, may or may not be entered in the manorial court rolls, which distinguishes them from copyhold tenures, which are so entered and so subject. Both forms are governed by the customs of the manor.

Damnify:  To cause (a person) to suffer the loss of money, property, or reputation; to injure (a person, estate, interest, etc). Not a variant of 'indemnify'.  Source: OED.

Defalk:  To diminish by cutting off a part, to reduce by deduction or subtraction. Not a variant of 'default'.  Source: OED.

Demesne:  Land possessed or occupied by the landholder himself or herself, by free tenure, and not leased out by him or her to any subordinate tenant. Chiefly in the phrase to hold in demesne. Commonly used to describe manorial lands held directly by the lord of the manor to his own use. 'In his (or her) demesne as of fee' (in dominico suo ut de feodo): in possession as an estate of inheritance.

Demise:  To give, grant, convey, or transfer one's property by will or by lease. Apparently an Anglo-Norman word.  Source: OED.

Deodand:  A personal chattel, animate or inanimate, which, having been the immediate occasion of the death of a human being, was given to God as an expiatory offering, that is, forfeited to the Crown to be applied to pious uses, e.g. to be distributed in alms.  Source: OED.

Distress:  The action of distraining; the legal seizure and detention of a chattel, originally for the purpose of thereby constraining the owner to pay money owed by him or her.  Source: OED.

Dower:  A provision accorded traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support should she become widowed. It was settled on the bride by agreement at the time of the wedding. At common law, dower was a legal declaration of a wife's right to property, while the husband lived, which he would manage; which would transfer to the wife's children when they were born; and which would secure her livelihood were she widowed. A widow’s dower at common law was not liable for the husband's debts. Source: Wikipedia.  See also Jointure.

Escheat:  In feudal law, an ‘incident’ whereby a fief reverted to the lord when the tenant died without leaving a successor qualified to inherit under the original grant. Hence, the lapsing of land to the Crown, or to the lord of the manor, upon the death of the landholder intestate without heirs.  Source: OED.

Exigent:  A writ issued when a man indicted of a felony (or in an action personal if none of his property is available as distress) cannot be found, rendering him liable to forfeit his goods.

Essoin:  An excuse, exemption, or delay.  Source: OED.

Fat:  A quarter of a chaldron.  Source: OED.

Father:  Honorific often given to an elderly male resident of the College for the Poor.

Fee, in fee:  An estate in land (in England always a heritable estate), held on condition of homage and service to a superior lord, by whom it is granted and in whom the landholdership remains.  Source: OED.

Frieze:  A kind of coarse woollen cloth, with a nap, usually on one side only.  Source: OED.

Gavelkind:  A tenure and inheritance practice, found chiefly in Kent, by which inherited land was divided equally among heirs or some combination of heirs. The alternative practice was primogeniture.

Glebe:  A portion of land assigned to a member of the clergy as part of a benefice.  Source: OED.

Hatchel:  An instrument for combing flax or hemp.  Source: OED.

Hectare:  A unit of measurement in the French metric system; a measure containing 100 ares, or 2.471 acres.  Source: OED.

Hide:  A measure of land, varying in extent with the nature of the ground. Primarily, the amount considered adequate for the support of one free family. The extent of the hide is uncertain. At an early date it was defined as being as much land as could be tilled with one plough in a year. The consensus today is that it was about 120 acres; but the size of the acre itself varied.  Source: OED; also Maitland, Domesday & Beyond.

Hue and Cry:  Outcry calling for the pursuit of a felon, raised by the party aggrieved, by a constable, etc.  Source: OED.

Ingrain:  A quarter of a chaldron of coal given in for every five chaldrons purchased.  Source: OED.

Interess:  Chiefly in passive, 'to be interessed': To be invested with a right to or share in something; to be admitted to a privilege; to have a right or share.  Source: OED.

Jointure:  (a) The holding of property to the joint use of a husband and wife for life or in tail, as a provision for the latter, in the event of her widowhood. Hence, by extension: (b) A sole estate limited to the wife, being ‘a competent livelihood of freehold for the wife of lands and tenements, to take effect upon the death of the husband for the life of the wife at least’ (Coke upon Littleton, 36 b).  Source: OED, s.v. 4.  See also Dower.

Latten:  A mixed metal of yellow colour, either identical with, or closely resembling, brass; often hammered into thin sheets. Also, iron tinned over, tin-plate; more explicitly white latten. Also, any metal made in thin sheets. Now only archaic and historical.  Source: OED, s.v. 1a, 2.

Lop and Crop:  The smaller branches and twigs of trees, such as are not measured for timber; faggot-wood, loppings. Waste branches cut from timber trees, usually after the trees have been felled.  Source: OED.

Lorimer:  One who makes bits and metal fastenings for horses' bridles.  A lorimer can also be a spurrier.  More generically, a maker of small iron ware and a worker in wrought-iron.  Source: OED.

Mandilion:  a loose outer garment, often worn by soldiers over armor or by servants as an overcoat.  Source: OED.

Metage:  the duty paid for official measuring of coal etc.

Mother:  Honorific often given to an elderly female resident of the College for the Poor.

Ordinary:  (1) A person who has, of his or her own right and not by the appointment of another, immediate jurisdiction in ecclesiastical cases, such as the archbishop in a province, or the bishop or bishop's deputy in a diocese.  Source: OED, s.v. I.1.a.  (2) An inn, public house, tavern, etc., where meals are provided at a fixed price.  Source: OED, s.v. III.12.c.

Pale:  A stake, fence, or boundary.  Source: OED.

Peck:  A unit of capacity for dry goods equal to a quarter of a bushel.  Source: OED.

Pickage:  The money paid for breaking ground to set up booths or stalls in fairs.

Pioner:  A digger or excavator.  Source: OED, which marks it obsolete.

Pottle:  (1) A measure of land equivalent to twelve acres (approx. 4.86 hectares).  Source: OED.  (2) A unit of capacity used chiefly for liquids, equal to half a gallon (approx. 2.3 litres).  Source: OED.

Relict:  A widow, from the classical Latin relictum, that which is left.  Source: OED.

Scavage:  Formerly a toll levied by the City of London, but after 1503 soil or refuse collected by a scavager or scavenger. Source: OED, s.v. 'scavage'.

Scavel-Man:  A digger or ditcher; a shovel-man.  Source: OED, s.v. 'scavel' C.2.

Socage:  The tenure of land by certain determinate services other than knight-service.  Source: OED.

Spittle:  a house or place for the reception of the indigent or diseased (now written ‘spital’).  Source: OED.

Stallage:  The money paid for erecting stalls in fairs and markets.

Waif:  A piece of property which is found ownerless and which, if unclaimed within a fixed period after due notice given, falls to the lord of the manor; e.g. an article washed up on the seashore, an animal that has strayed. Often 'waif and stray'. Source: OED.

Whitster:  A person employed in bleaching cloth or yarn. Now only historical.  Source: OED.

Yard:  An area of land of the extent of a quarter of an acre.  Source: OED, s.v. 10.b.