Reproduced from
DRYPOOL -
Being a History of the Ancient
Parish of Drypool cum Southcoates
by M. Edward Ingram (1959)
by M. Edward Ingram (1959)
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Two years later his compassion prompted him to bury in his churchyard, Sarathe, the daughter of Matthew Rowton of the Charterhouse. "She was buried beinge none of our parish by reason of all her freinds heer before buried." Sadness at times visited his own family. A daughter was buried in 1637, and a son, two years later, after a short life of but two months. The birth of his daughter Jane is entered in full. "Jane the daughter of George Cooke, Clerke and Curate of this towne was borne uppon Midsummer day the 24th of June and baptized on Wednesday being St. Peter's daye and the 29th of the saide Moneth 1636." Fear must have struck his little household in the following year. His servant, Margaret Bell, had gone to Hull, where she had contracted the plague. The poor girl soon died and to prevent the spread of infection" she lieth buried in the Summerghains." This no doubt was the outbreak which accounted for 48 deaths in St. Mary's parish, and for which the vicar there, Maurice Corney, and Andrew Marvel, Lecturer at Holy Trinity and father of the poet, were rewarded for their devotion to duty by gratuities from Trinity House. |
There were other matters to concern the vicar of Drypool, for even in such small communities as this, the political and religious troubles of the century had their repercussions. At one extreme were the Puritans, who were becoming increasingly vociferous. At the other end were the Laudians. Between the two was the vast mass of churchmen, quietly doing their pastoral work, and whose opinions lay somewhere between the two extremes. The Puritans had little use for the sacramental way of life. They abhorred ceremonies, and inclined to a Presbyterian form of Church government and had little respect for tradition or church fabrics, which were derisively termed" Steeple houses." The Elizabethan bishops had had the greatest difficulty in making the Puritans conform and accept the minimum of decency in conducting church services. The Laudians, on the other hand, valued the sacraments. They had a great respect for tradition, and whilst rejecting the excesses of Rome insisted that worship should be performed decently and with dignity. They liked to see the Holy Table properly adorned and treated with reverence. Twice during Coke's incumbency and once during that of his predecessor there are charges of neglect either of the fabric, the churchyard or the furnishings. Whether this neglect was due to the poverty of the parish, or to the Puritanical outlook of the parson and his churchwardens we cannot say. However, these and similar presentments elsewhere show clearly the neglected state into which some of the churches had fallen, and also the difficulty which was still being experienced in seeing them properly furnished. In 1627, Margaret Orrill was presented, " for suffering their part of the Churchyard fence to lye downe this last year." Six years later the Churchwardens, William Malton and Matthew Ford, John Bower and John Humpton, were charged. The" church porch is in |
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