Online Encyclopedia

DOLE (from Old Eng. dal, cf. mod. " d...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 387 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DOLE (from Old Eng. dal, cf. mod. "
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deal ")
  , a portion, a distribution of gifts, especially of food and
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money given in charity . The derivation from O . Fr. doel,
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Late
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Lat. dolium, " grief," suggested by the custom of funeral doles, is wrong . In early Christian days, St
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Chrysostom says: " doles were used at funerals to procure the rest of the soul of the deceased; that he might find his judge propitious." The distribution of
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alms to the
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local poor at funerals was a universal custom in the
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middle ages . The amount of doles was usually stated in the will . Thus in 1399 Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, ordered that fifteen poor men should carry torches at her funeral, " each having a
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gown and hood lined with white, breeches of blue
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cloth, shoes and a
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shirt, and twenty pounds amongst them." Later doles usually took the form of bequests of
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land or money, the
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interest or
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rent of which was to be annually employed in charity . Often the distribution took place at the
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grave of the donor . Thus one William Robinson of Hull at his
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death in 1708
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left money to buy annually a dozen loaves, costing a
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shilling each, to be given to twelve poor widows at his grave every Christmas . Lenten doles were also formerly
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common . A will of 1537 bade a barrel of white herrings and a case of red herrings be given yearly to the poor of Clavering, Essex, to. help them tide over the fast . One or two
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London doles are still distributed, e.g. that of St Peter's, Walworth, where a Christmas
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dinner is each
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year served to 300 parish poor in the crypt . No one under sixty is eligible, and the dinner is unique in that it is cooked in the church .

A

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pilgrim's dole of
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bread and
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ale can be claimed by all wayfarers at the Hospital of St
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Cross, Winchester . This is said to have been founded by William of Wykeham . Emerson, when visiting Winchester, claimed and received the dole . What were known as Scrambling Doles, so called because the
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meat and bread distributed were thrown among the poor to be scrambled for, were not uncommon in England . Such a dole existed at St Briavel's, Gloucestershire, baskets of bread and cheese cut into small squares being thrown by the churchwardens from the gallery into the
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body of the church on Whit
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Sunday . At Wath near Ripon a testator in 1810 ordered that
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forty penny loaves should be thrown from the church leads at midnight on every Christmas
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eve . The best known dole in the
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United States is the " Leake Dole of Bread . John Leake, a millionaire dying in 1792, left £1000 to Trinity Church, New York, the income to be laid out in wheaten loaves and distributed every
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Sabbath
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morning after service . The dole still survives, though the day has been altered to Saturday, each week sixty-seven loaves being given away .

End of Article: DOLE (from Old Eng. dal, cf. mod. " deal ")
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