Parish Clerk

[fridayschild]

An Ancestor of my Husbands was a the Parish clerk in the village of Froyle in Hampshire in the late 19th/early 20th century, does anyone know what the duties of the Parish Clerk would have been......I did find a thread on Rootschat with what looked like a promising link, but unfortunately the link was broken and didn't take me to the website.

[stanmapstone]

The London Guild of Parish Clerks was incorporated by Henry III in 1232, and became a Livery Company of the City of London.
When their charter was renewed by James I, and later by Charles II it was stipulated that 'Every person that is chosen Clerk of a Parish shall first give sufficient proof of his abilities to sing at least the tunes which are used in parish churches'.
In 1844 an act of parliament deprived the parish clerks of nearly all their duties, which were transferred to curates. Another act of 1894 left them with few responsibilities other than the care of certain documents and maps, which are now handled by the purely secular clerk of the parish council.
There are a number of posts in Rootschat about Parish Clerks, e.g. http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=670019.0
Stan

[stanmapstone]

You can see details of what responsibilities were transferred to the secular parish council in the 1884 Act at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/56-57/73/section/6
See also Parish Clerk in  "A practical treatise of the laws relating to the clergy"  By Archibald John Stephens http://www.rootschat.com/links/0e6k/
Stan