A two-page document from the Surrey History Centre shows the residents of Ash who contributed to, and received help from, the Ash Parish Poor Relief Fund mandated by Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth I. This 1574 document captures all the groups of Ash residents – – the Gentry, the Clergy, the Yeoman Farmers, the tenant farmers, the Labouring Poor, and those who found themselves in need of Parish Relief.
Ash Residents Who Paid the Poor Rate in 1574 ~ Amount Owed Based on Value of Goods ~ Most People Paid 2 to 3 Penc
Justices of the Peace was required to register those who were poor and unwell and distribute relief to those who were in need.
| NAME | NOTES |
| Francis Browne Esquire | Brother of Viscount Montague, Keeper of Henley Manor, and well-documented as a Catholic recusant who was fined for not attending a Church of England church. Amount paid: £3 |
| Walter Cresswell | Cresswell family of Westwood House in Ash; steward for Viscount Montague. Amount paid: £2/5s |
| John Grove | No records found. Amount paid: 5s |
| Henry Stevens | Ash Manor farming family; Henry Stevens, Yeoman, burial in Ash 1606. Amount paid: 5s |
| George Russell | Ash farming family; George Russell married Annis Heather at Ash 1566. Amount paid: 1s |
| John Boylett | Ash Husbandman Farmer; baptised in Ash 1553 and buried in Ash 1599, left a Will. Amount paid: 5s |
| Thomas Monger | Monger Family combined farming with pottery making; Thomas buried in Ash 1579; |
| Robert Purse | Husbandman of Ash; buried in Ash 1599; |
| John Stonner | Buried at Ash 1598; |
| Richard Hamond | Wife Rose buried in Ash 1571; |
| Henry Ockley | Henry Ockley married Joan Russell in Ash 1570 – both from Ash farming families; |
| The Parson (….) | Word following ‘The Parson’ is illegible; Anthony Penrith was Curate of Ash in 1574 employed by the Rector, George Stoughton; the tax would have been levied on the Rector. Amount paid: £2 |
| Richard Bristow | Member of the Bristow Family of Frimley, Yeomen land-owning farmers. Amount paid: 5s |
| John Chewter | Tenant farmer of Cleygate Manor; |
| John Sawyer | Tenant farmer of Cleygate Manor 1576; |
| John Monger | Baptized in Ash 1552; Monger Family combined farming with pottery making; |
| John West | The West family was a Yeoman family of Ash that became prominent in the 1600’s; |
| John Jewer | Baptized at Ash 1551; |
| Thomas Padick | Cleygate Manor records death in 1586; |
| Henry Dincker | Probably Henry Driker tenant farmer of Cleygate Manor 1581; |
| Richard Bayley | Son William baptised in Ash 1578; tenant farmer of Cleygate Manor 1588; |
| Robert Moon | Baptised at Ash 1567; the Moon family were land-owning farmers; |
| Richard Foster | Buried at Ash 1596; |
| Lawrence Purse | Buried at Ash 1583; tenant farmer of Cleygate Manor; |
| Total collected | £8 |
Residents Who Received Poor Relief in Ash in 1574
| NAME | NOTES |
| Webbe’s widow and their children | Robert Webb buried at Ash 1572; |
| Thomas Turner and his wife | Thomas Turner buried at Ash 1582; |
| Thomas Aslett and his wife and six children | No record for Thomas but possibly his daughter Elizabeth Aslett married George Wakeford in Ash in 1599; |
| Alice Dayer widow | Many variations of ‘Dayer’; |
| Goring and his wife and two children | Goring was an Ash family name. Henry Goring’s son John was baptized at Ash in 1574; |
| George Mabank | No record found for George; other members of Mabank family in Ash; |
Debits weekly to each child 12d. The next section was a little hard to read:- .… such dwelling houses and they all doth work towards their livings and many do go about abegging … as nobody is there so as sees
Select Sources
- Surrey History Centre, Woking
- Ash Parish BMD Register Volume 1
- Parliament.UK
- Normandy Historians.org: Cleygate Manor records