Wateringbury Obit rents (1548)

Post date: Dec 04, 2012 6:54:48 PM

In 1547 the Chantries Act of King Edward VI was passed to correct superstitious beliefs about purgatory and the value of masses for the departed. The rents from land supporting Chantries and masses for the dead were to be redeployed to "good and godlie uses" (foundation of grammar schools etc). Every parish had to return a certificate of in compliance with the 1547 Act in 1548 and Wateringbury's is set out below as shown in the Kent Archaeological Society publication Kent Obit and Lamp Rents (editor Arthur Hussey, 1936)

The parish of Waterynburye

Obite rents there gyvel and bequeathed by the last will of Jamys Williams for one yerelye obit there to be kept for ever.

The same rents are by the yere xiij s. iiij d. wherof to the pore x s. x d.

And so remaneth clere ij s. vj d.

James Williams, Wateringbury, 1522 (Rochester wills, VII, 284).