By Imogen Russell, Archives Assistant
We all tend to have a favourite seat in places we visit frequently but invariably sit somewhere else when it’s occupied. But what would happen if someone sat in a seat you legally purchased, and they refused to move when asked? Would you find somewhere else, or would you complain? Well, in August 1851, Mr Rawlinson chose to complain when one Sunday he found the pew he legally owned was already occupied, and they refused to move.
The pew in question had been made empty in January 1851 following the death of Sophia Smith and, following this, it was the subject of confusion and various consistory court cases held between 1851-1853. The plaintiff in the case, a Mr John Rawlinson, and with the approval of a churchwarden, had taken possession of the pew in February 1851. He continued to use the pew with the knowledge of the Rector and two other churchwardens until August 1851, when the defendant’s sister, Miss Dorothy Hurst, inherited Miss Smith’s home. She believed the pew descended by right of property inheritance subsequently took possession of it, without appealing to the churchwardens.
The occupancy of a pew in church today is very different compared to their occupancy in the last few centuries. Nowadays, you can attend church and sit anywhere you like, often in the same place each week, but with the knowledge they can be occupied by anyone, without complaint or right to them.
An article on the Church Times website suggests pews or seating in churches was a lay invention, created during the Medieval period with congregants being laid out according to social precedence. For example, placing the gentry and merchants in the chancel or side chapels, yeomanry or citizens in the front or nave and poorer people in the back. A good example of this seating arrangement can be found under Par 8/4/1.
From around this time and the time of the Reformation, pews tended to reflect the status and social hierarchy of parishioners, and pew rights were attached to houses or pieces of land. Consequently, the renting of pews developed so naturally that it sometimes led to the evolution of freehold pews, kept under lock and key.
Indeed, one incident reported in the Sussex Advertiser (23rd August 1824), reported a brawl between the churchwarden and the vicar of Herstmonceux, both of whom claimed to occupy the same pew. The vicar had placed a lock on the pew door preventing the churchwarden from entering.
One of the arguments in the Horsham case was that the practice to buy and sell pews was so prevalent in the parish and had been for at least 50 years, that a separate register was kept. The Horsham pew register, catalogued as Par 106/4/1, records the ownership of pews from at least 1723.
According to one witness (Mr Collins) in the case, the pew was sold in 1800, and this was how it became connected to Miss Smith’s property. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find this entry in the pew register, but hopefully the images above show the exchange of pews from one party to another. One Horsham churchwarden, cited in the case, believed that parishioners had a prescriptive right to buy and sell pews or hand them down to their successors.
The sale particulars found in Hurst Acc. 4539/61 shows the sale in 1848 of three pews attached to a property near Carfax, Horsham, and letters in the same collection also show the rector and churchwarden reprimanding the seller, Pilfold Medwin, for advertising the sale of these pews, calling it illegal.
The judge in the Horsham case set out the legalities of pew allocation, ruling in favour of Mr Rawlinson, with the defendants paying the court fees. He cited that, according to the general law, there can be no property in seats and that the sale and lease of them is wholly illegal and all private rights to pews must be held by virtue of a faculty.
Following the judgment, a writ was issued by the judge condemning Horsham in the purchase of pews and records held in Par 106/4/5 suggest that, following the restoration of the church in the 1860s, the allocation of pews was by individual and not residence and given up by death or disuse. However, it was not until Christmas 1923 when the formal allocation of seating was given up.
If you are interested in exploring further, W E Tate’s The Parish Chest and Martin Ingram’s Church Courts, Sex and Marriage 1570-1640 offer some interesting insight into this fascinating subject. Both books can be found on our open shelves in the Searchroom.
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