Will and Inventory of Thomas Lodge, 1552

Thomas Lodge, rector of Cliddesden 1535 to 1552

Thomas Lodge appears to have acted as a banker for his parishioners as at his death four men owed him small amounts of money, the sums recorded in his ‘book’. In his will he forgave these debts and was generous in his gifts to the poor people of Cliddesden, Basingstoke, Worting, Dummer, Ellisfield, Farleigh and Winslade. Whilst he died in the Protestant reign of Edward V1, use of the phrase ‘sir parson’ harks back to Catholic times.