Ill

M A T T H E W W K E N, D. D.

Tiling undoubted, Can. 26, 113, 117, 118, 1 19. And therefore, is someChurchwardens were cited and censured, for not making due Presentments,although this Defendant knew not ot any of those in the Article named,yet, he humbly conceiveth it to have been but the Direction of Law, and ofthe J 17th Canon, and also, in that Diocese very needful, where some had noRegard at all, their Oath notwithstanding, to make their Presentments as theLaw required. Howbeit, if otherwise than was right, any were molested,he humbly prayeth, that the Fault may not be laid to his Charge', but totheir’s that committed it.

He also denietb, that any of the said Articles were ridiculous, or impossible,2s he doubts not to make it appear, when ever Instance ihall be made in any■°f them.

To the twenty-third Article, this Defendant anfwereth and faith, that asthis Charge doth not any Way concern him, so is it not possible also, forAny Answer to be made to it, until it be expressly declared, how, and bywhom they were inforced to have their Presentments so written, and whatClerks they were that wrote the same.

But this he faith, that the better to induce the Register to take Care, andto fee that none of his Clerks should in any Kind be exactions, this Defen-dant was therefore content to allow him lo great a Proportion of the law-ful Benefit, as is declared in the Article precedent. And that he not onlygave express Warning to the said c Turjit i to beware of Wrong and Opprel-ston, threatning that if any just Complaint came unto this Defendant, hewould be the first and the sorest against them ; but also by his Letters to theChancellor, and by private Intimation to some of the Commissioners, to havea special Heed thereunto, he did all that was in his Power to prevent the fame.He took Order also, that at every Session of the Visitation, a Table of thelegal Fees should be published in open Court, and should there remain uponthe Board to be seen of all that would ; and the Commissioners at the Re-quest of this Defendant, were as vigilant as they could be, that no Clerk shouldmisbehave himself there.

He also gave Order tp the said Register, to cause the Books of Articlesto be sent forth and published in every Parish, and to be delivered to theChurchwardens long before the Visitation, to the Intent that they might havedue Time, not only to peruse them, and well consider what they had to do,but also to prepare their Presentments, and to have them written at Leisure,where, and by whom they would themselves.

Also, he admonished the Ministers to join with the Churchwardens in per-forming of the fame, that so they might not need, all of a sudden, to em-ploy any Clerks to do it for them, at the Time of the Visitation. And last-v> he gave Direction to have it set down, that if the Presentment of anyChurchwarden were so insufficient, as that the Judge should in Court exa-him farther, his Clerk’s Fee for writing the fame, should be but 6 d. orat the most yd. But he hath been since informed, that Complaint being^ade by a Churchwarden at the Visitation against Ægujiine Cullyer , one ofssie Clerks, for exacting 10 d. for writing his Prefentmenr, one of the Com-missioners did in open Court examine the said Cullyer about it, and particu-minded him, which Fee this Defendant had limited to be taken in that; but the said Cullyer made Answer, that to write Presentments was

Part of their Office, and therefore was not liable to the Limitation of theOrdinary ; but that the Churchwarden had sought to him to write it, and^ben he refused, promised to content him for it, and that he valued his Pains

such a busy Time to be no less worth ; wherefore now he had done it, he

would