churchwarden

1605 Howe records the gift of Robert Peake, goldsmith, to St Seplulchre church of a communion table ‘all richly gilded over and round about, as well below as above both tressels and footpace and at every upper corner imbost with silver plate.

footpace = a raised platform
THE Priest kneels on the footpace--quite clear of the altar; the Deacon kneels on his step, below the Priest to the right of the latter, the Subdeacon to the Priest's left, on the step below that of the Deacon. The Clerk (who cannot be seen in this plate) kneels in his usual place, facing north. The Taperers stand, one on each side of the entrance to the Choir, guarding (as it were) the approach to the altar. They take up this position during the singing of the Preface (see D. C., p. 37).





















Hence he reached the church without observation, and the door being only latched he entered. The hay-trusser deposited his basket by the font, went up the nave till he reached the altar-rails, and opening the gate entered the sacrarium, where he seemed to feel a sense of the strangeness for a moment; then he knelt upon the footpace. Dropping his head upon the clamped book which lay on the Communion-table, he said aloud--
"I, Michael Henchard, on this morning of the sixteenth of September, do take an oath before God here in this solemn place that I will avoid all strong liquors for the space of twenty-one years to come, being a year for every year that I have lived. And this I swear upon the book before me; and may I be strook dumb, blind, and helpless, if I break this my oath!"

'Cecil Papers: Miscellaneous 1605', Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 17: 1605 (1938), pp. 570-649. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=112256&strquery=peake sepulchre Date accessed: 14 March 2010. >

The alderman's deputy, common council, churchwardens and ancient inhabitants of St. Sepulchre's without Newgate, [London], to the Same. [? 1605].It has lately pleased the King to advance Dr. Androwes, Dean of Westminster, to the bishopric of Chichester, by means whereof a residencer's place in St. Paul's is now void and in his Majesty's gift. They pray that the same may be bestowed upon Dr. Spenser, vicar of the said parish, whose living is very small and insufficient to maintain his family, having charge of 20,000 souls within that great and spacious parish.—Undated. Signed: Ralphe Garfielde deputy; John Matingley, George Pedlar, James Hodgson, Olyver Easton, Ralphe Smyth, Jhon Webster, William Porter, Hennery Callaway, John Odway, Nychollas Robert, Willam Larkine, William Baigley and Thomas Cornish; Henry Bowlind, Thomas Dennis, Robart Peake and John Lowe, churchwardens. 1 p. (197. 88.)