“All the Bells”

Reference to the Bells of St Giles’ Church, Oxford, in the 1662 Will of William Handy (or Hendy).

An enquiry received at St Giles in January 2014 concerned a Will, signed on 10th March 1622 by William Handy. When we looked at the published description which the enquirer cited, we noticed that it included instructions for “all the bells” of St Giles’ Church to be rung in his memory.

This wording is of interest because (according to Phil Walker’s booklet about the history of the bells) no documentary reference to St Giles bells had been traced before the mid-18th century, when there appeared to be four bells. If there had only been two bells in 1622, the Will would probably have said “both the bells”, rather than “all the bells”; so this wording strongly suggests that there were at least three, and possibly four, in 1622, over a century earlier than the information previously traced.

In 1850, three bells were recast, out of four which were previously in the tower, and two more were added, bringing the total to six. The inscriptions on the four pre-1850 bells were recorded as follows :

Treble 6 - 2 – 12 (740 lb) This bell was made 1605

Second 8 - 1 – 26 (950 lb) This bell was made 1602

Third 10 - 1 - 0 (1148 lb) Sum Rosa Pulsata Mundi Katerina Vocata

Tenor 13 - 3 - 0 (1540 lb) FEARE GOD HONAR THE KINGE 1632

[The ‘Katerina’ inscription on the third pre-1850 bell was repeated on its successor, now the seventh of the eight (with the name now spelt ‘Katerrina’).]

The tenor was the only one of these bells which was not recast in 1850, and it is now the oldest bell in the tower. But note that its inscription shows that it was cast in 1632, so it cannot have been there in 1622. The first and second of the old bells were inscribed to show that they were cast in 1602 and 1605. We can do little more than speculate as to when the third bell was cast, and as to whether the tenor might have had a predecessor, and if so when that was cast; and as to precisely how many bells there were in St Giles’ tower when William Handy signed his will in 1622. But it seems most likely that there were then either three or four (excluding the unlikely possibility that there had ever been a larger number, subsequently reduced).

The enquirer had found the reference to William Handy’s Will in "British Popular Customs Present and Past" by Thomas F. Thiselton-Dyer, on pages 123-4. Identically worded descriptions appeared in both the 1876 and the 1900 editions of this book, in which this item is indexed under ‘Oxfordshire’, though not under ‘Bells’.

The description in Thiselton-Dyer’s book stated that the information had been obtained from “Old English Customs and Curiosities”, 1842, page 249. Copies of four pages from this latter book, by H(enry) Edwards, follow below.

The title page of HE's book in turn states that the information which it contains had been taken from Reports made by the Commissioners for enquiring into Charities in England and Wales; the specific citation to the Reports, at the end of the Handy / St Giles entry, is " VI. p 453 " .

The immediately following entry in HE’s book also relates to William Handy, and says that he made a similar gift to the parish of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford:

" ... but the Commissioners report, that since 1800 nothing has been paid in respect of this Charity; and the name of William Handy has been erased from the Table of Benefactions !! --- VI. p.434. "

The name Hendy [NB: different spelling, but probably the same person] is the first name on the earlier of two charity boards now on the vestry stairs in St Giles’ Church, Oxford. The details there are abbreviated to: “ William Hendy Gave for a /

Sermon 15. to the Clerk 5. the / Ringers 5. the / Poor 15.

Payable the Tenth of March Yearly. “