Plowsilver & The Churchwarden's Accounts
The Churchwarden’s Accounts for Tilney are a wonderful resource to learn about history during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Churchwarden’s Accounts are simply a list of everything that the Church spent and received. The Plough Monday collection was just one of several amounts that the Church received each year. At the time of the Churchwarden’s Accounts things were paid for using pounds, shillings and pence. In fact that breakdown of money lasted in our country until 1971 and it has a very long history of well over 1,000 years. So Tom Hickathrift was probably paid in pounds, shillings and pence, as well as in beer. In the accounts shillings have an s after the number and pence have a d. There were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in the pound. So a pound had 240 pence. The first record we have was from the entry in 1443 which states : Item: receperunt cum aratro (received from the plough) 8s 10d So that year the plough collection was 8 shillings and 10 pence. Doesn’t sound like much but it modern terms it comes to about £350. Image: N. Stockman. Churchwarden's Accounts In Wisbech Museum
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ExercisesThe 8 shillings amounted to about £320, so how much would one shilling be worth?
In 1473 they raised 12 shillings, so how much would that have been worth? If they had collected 20 shillings, or one old pound, how much would that have been worth? If Tom Hickathrift found £100 of old money in the Ogre’s cave how much would that be worth today? |
'Image: LuminArt Photography. Churchwarden's Accounts In Tilney Church
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