- A Thousand Years of English Terms.
- Feast of St. Michael, September 29: Beginning of the English Year.
- Get Thee to the Mop.
- The Feast of St. Michael: English harvest festival and so much more.
The Feast of Michaelmas, celebrated on September 29, was like our Thanksgiving in that it celebrated a successful harvest. But, for all England was primarily an agricultural economy, a great deal of other business needed doing. Michaelmas Day marking relief from agricultural burdens, then, it also marked the beginning of settling accounts. Farmers were tenants. Rents had to be paid to the owner of the farmland. Lords with wallets fat with annual or semi-annual rents were especially ripe for their own picking: taxes. The king’s exchequer was abustle with activity. Lawyers were furiously consulting together to settle any matters that might be at issue.
The people being more at their leisure, it was the best time
for municipal and county elections. Mayors, aldermen and others were elected
each year just before Michaelmas. The festivities of the moment spilled over
into the inauguration of the winners. In Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, the
following tradition is reported.
On the election of a bailiff the inhabitants assemble in the
principal streets to throw cabbage stalks at each other. The town-house bell
gives signal for the affray. This is called lawless hour. This done, (for it
lasts an hour,) the bailiff elect and corporation, in their robes, preceded by
drums and fifes, (for they have no waits,) visit the old and new bailiff,
constables, &c. &c. attended by the mob. In the meantime the most
respect able families in the neighbourhood are invited, to meet and fling
apples at them on their entrance. I have known forty pots of apples expended at
one house.[1]
This is mindful of All Hallows (Halloween) traditions in
England and Scotland that go back into the Middle Ages. After being elected
(and, in this case, running the gamut), the new mayor and aldermen were much
respected dignitaries of the feast in Kidderminster and elsewhere.
English sheriffs were royal officers however much their
duties related to their counties.[2]
Their final duty of the year was to deliver the tax monies from their counties.
Should the amount not satisfy the Exchequer they were placed under house arrest
within the precincts of Westminster until the full amount arrived (generally in
charge of one of their under-sheriffs).
Once the sheriff’s books were properly settled, their term was
effectively at an end. During the following weeks a new sheriff would be selected
for their county by the Exchequer or directly by the king.
The Sheriffs are nominated and selected in the Court of
Exchequer, with much formality and solemnity. The course in respect of that
ceremony is this. -
On the Morrow of St. Martin (1) (12th Nov.) in every year,
the Lord Chancellor, or Keeper, Lord Treasurer, or Lords of the Treasury, Privy
Seal, the Secretaries of State, President, and other Lords of the Council, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Master of the Rolls, (who are attended by
all the Judges and Barons to furnish them with information acquired in their
various circuits) meet in the Exchequer Court for the purpose of nominating the
Sheriffs of the following year.[3]
A writ would be dispatched to the Lord who held the territory
in question to inform him of the choice. The new sheriff was required to post a
large bond at the beginning of his term which could also be declared forfeit in
order to recover the delinquent tax receipts.
The king’s coffers fat with new coin, it was a good time to
make grants of office to those subjects who had done exceptional and loyal
service or whose powerful support he wished to keep. As the centuries went by,
however, it would be less and less certain that the treasury would remain
sufficiently fat for long enough to actually pay out the associated funds in a
timely manner. The recipient remained responsible to perform the duties, however,
and to pay expenses.
There were actually three “terms,” and during some
historical periods four, in the English year: Michaelmas, Hillary, Easter,
and, sometimes, Trinity. Bi-annual
taxes, rents, expenses, employment contracts were generally scheduled to be
transacted at the beginning of the
Michaelmas and Easter terms.
Thus the Earl of Northumberland’s early Tudor book of Household Regulations did
not only arrange for payment for Gascoigne wine on Our Lady’s Day (March 25,
the beginning of the English calendar year until the 18th century),
in preparation for Easter, and
Michaelmas Day:
…to be payd to the said Richard Gowge and Thomas Percy for
the fyrst payment at Sayntt Andro day afore Cristynmas for the provision of V
ton and j hogishede of Gascoigne Wyne to be bought at the said Sayntt Andro day
to serve my house frome that tyme unto our Lady day in Lentt next foloygne And
xxiiij/. xs. to be payd to theme for the secund paymentt at our Lady day in
Lentt for the provision of v ton and j hogishede of Gascoigne Wyne to serve my
house frome our Lady day unto Michaelmas next after…[4]
All kitchen and most other household supplies were paid on the same days. As you may have noticed, wines and other festive kitchen supplies were also stocked in extra measure on St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, which marked the day preparations were begun in earnest for the feasts of Christmas rather than the beginning of a term.
[1]
Hone, William. The Every-day Book and Table Book (1830), I.1337.
[2]
London charters gave them special privileges to elect some of their own sheriffs.
[3]
Price, George. A Treatise on the law of the Exchequer,... (1830). I.125.
[4] The
Regulations and Establishment of the Household of Henry Algernon Percy, the
Fifth
Earl Of Northumberland (1827). 6.
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