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- 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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