Church affairs: Wheler Papers

Description

Order of the Court of the Peculiar that Ellinor, wife of Thomas Marshall, cordwainer (presented under the name of Ellinor Biddle, spinster) do penance for ante-nuptial fornication, in the chancel of the parish church on Sunday, 29 March, between 9 and 10 a.m. `before her ordinary and the Churchwardens... and other substantial inhabitants there and make an humble confession of her fault saying after the Minister', etc. 20 March 1718/9. With certificate of the penance having been `most devoutly and solemnly performed' on 29 March, signed by John Cookes, Richard Goode and Michael Evetts, churchwardens, and Thomas Woolmer. Followed by two drafts of the same order, in which the words `in a white sheet' are inserted before `make an humble confession'; endorsed `Elinor Marshalls Private Pennance'. Folios 17, 19, 20.