The sluggard-waker of Trysull

On 17 April 1725 John Rudge left the parish of Trysull twenty shillings a year to pay a poor man to go about the church during the sermon, keeping the people awake and the dogs out. Richard Dovey of Farmcote had left eight shillings a year in 1659 for the same work in Claverley church in Shropshire. Chislet in Kent and Peterchurch in Herefordshire had like provision for keeping dogs out of church, and Wolverhampton paid five shillings for keeping boys quiet in service time.