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The Tinkers Will

"One Sunday evening after a service at the parish church a few of the villagers adjoined to the Red Lion. Whilst talking over their ale a noise was heard outside and the wailing of someone obviously in distress. Looking out it was seen to be traveling tinker who had been taken ill. The man was carried into the inn, but it was obvious his end was near, and he expressed his desire to make his will. This he was able to do shortly before he died.

By his will he stipulated that his barrow and its contents should be sold and the amount realized and added to that in his possession. After the deduction of funeral expenses the balance should be distributed among the twelve poorest men and six poorest women in the parish. Those assembled at the inn carried out his wishes. The barrow and contents were sold for £5 and this was added to the money he was carrying, in all some £25. The funeral expenses were £8 and this left a balance of £17 15s for disposal.

Then arose the question of how the money was to be distributed and who was to benefit by the bequest. Those who had been at the inn on the night of the tinkers death, who were incidentally among the leading villagers of the day, decided to form themselves into a committee and the following day settled down at the inn to go fully into the matter.

The news of the meeting and its object had travelled and the committee were besieged with numerous claimants for participation in the bequest. The committee found that they had undertaken a difficult task and so as the morning wore on it occurred to the self elected chairman that it would help their deliberations if they partook of refreshment, so ale was called for, and at the suggestion of a committee member also was bread and cheese ordered and then churchwardens pipe and tobacco. As the committee was giving their time to the problem of distributing the bequest, it was generally agreed that it was perfectly fair for the refreshments to be paid for out of the tinkers money, and so this was done.

Still more claimants arrived. Still the committee continued their deliberations until late in the afternoon when they felt the need for more substantial refreshment and a course dinner was ordered and duly eaten at the expense of the tinkers bequest. Whilst they were eating their meal the crowd of claimants were also refreshed with ale, bread and cheese whilst they waited. So in this manner the evening drew in. Finally the landlord announced that all the drink in the house had been consumed except for a 36 gallon cask in the cellar. The chairman immediately ordered it be brought up, insisting there were still further claimants who had not partaken of refreshment.

At this stage the committee, who were by then feeling the strain of the days labours, were reinforced by two local farmers who arrived to help them and their arrival led to further discussion. When late in the evening the vicar arrived to find out what was really going on, he was somewhat taken aback and remonstrated with the assembled company, finally inquiring how much of the bequest was left. The chairman peered into the cash-box and announced that there was only sixpence left, "and" he suggested, "as the charitable funds of the parish cannot benefit considerably from it your reverence might drink to the memory of the poor tinker." This the Vicar was persuaded to do and so the tinkers bequest was spent.

There is a moral here somewhere and I can't quite put my finger on it!!

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