Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century / A Complete Digest of Facts Occuring in the County since the Commencement of the year 1800

by T. C. Turberville

1827.

That the elections had caused considerable change in the constitution of the House of Commons was made apparent by their coming, early in the session, to a vote adverse to the Catholic claims—the votes of the Lower House on this question having for many years past been favourable to their consideration. A motion of Sir Francis Burdett to remove penalties from the Catholics, though warmly supported by Mr. Canning, was lost by 276 votes to 272. Lord Liverpool’s illness requiring the reorganisation of the cabinet, so much difficulty was experienced in the choice of a prime minister that the country was virtually without a ministry for some weeks. The Catholic question was put forward as the principal difficulty—the chief members of Lord Liverpool’s administration refusing to take office under a Premier who was favourable to the Catholic claims. Immediately that Mr. Canning—whose talents unequivocally marked him out for the position—kissed hands, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Eldon, Mr. Peel, and others of the old cabinet resigned, and Mr. Canning could only hold office by an unprincipled coalition with the Whigs—unprincipled because such a ministry could only be carried on by one party or the other totally belieing their previous political creed. Mr. Canning had always avowed himself the determined foe of Parliamentary Reform and the repeal of the Test Acts, but was popular because of his adhesion to the Catholic claims and the policy he had adopted as Foreign Secretary—separating this country from the Holy Alliance, recognising the South American States, and interfering in defence of the independence of Portugal. Earl Grey was the only member of the Whig party who openly and honestly stood aloof from the new ministry. Immediately after the close of the session, Mr. Canning—irritated, perplexed, exhausted, by the forsaking of all his former friends—died. The new ministry was then reorganised under the leadership of Viscount Goderich—formerly Mr. Robinson. Three per Cents. averaged 84; wheat, 58s. 6d.

January—The celebrated “Horace Bentley” controversy originated in a paragraph which appeared this month in Berrow’s Worcester Journal, stating that the Roman Catholics in Cavan, Ireland, were renouncing the errors of their Church in considerable numbers. In the Journal of February 7, a person signing the initials “W. L.” begged, as an English Catholic, to be informed what were the errors that the Catholics of Cavan were renouncing, and pledged himself that, if any one would point out to him only one error, either in morals or doctrine, which the Catholic Church taught, he would, as soon as possible after, publicly read his recantation in the parish church of B—. In a fortnight after W. L.’s letter had appeared, one was inserted in reply, signed “Horace Bentley,” offering, if the Bible was accepted as the test, to prove that the Church of Rome taught “several fundamental and fatal errors.” W. L. replied that he would “leave Mr. B. to take his own course. He might prove his allegations from the Holy Scriptures, or from any source he might deem expedient—he was ready to join the issue with him.” This, Horace Bentley contended, was an evasion of the requirement—that an absolute test of truth and error should be agreed upon; but, nevertheless, proceeded to prove the existence of what are considered by Protestants to be the principal errors of the Roman Church, by an extraordinary array of quotations from Catholic authors and authorities themselves. The letters were, on all hands, admitted to display singular ability. W. L., at first, questioned the correctness of the quotations, and was evidently astonished at their production. An offer was made by the Catholic party to change their champion, on the ground of W. L.’s incompetence; and, though this was not accepted, yet the last two letters under that signature were plainly from another hand. In these, endeavour was made to show that the doctrines of the Church of England were, in many respects, identical with those of the Church of Rome, and that “every consistent Protestant must be an infidel.” The Protestant party were so delighted with their disputant, that a proposal was made to purchase a piece of plate by subscription. The incognito was, for a long time, most admirably preserved, and the letters of Horace Bentley were pretty generally ascribed to the Rev. Dr. Hook, then Dean of Worcester. It has now, however, long been known that they were written by the Rev. G. Redford, D.D., LL.D., minister at Angel Street Chapel, Worcester. The original W. L. was a machine manufacturer at Bromsgrove.

March 3—A duel took place on Kempsey Ham between John Somerset Russell, Esq., of Powick Court, and Mr. John Parker, master of the Worcestershire Fox Hounds. They fired at each other, but neither of the balls took effect; and the seconds then interfered and effected a reconciliation. An officer came on the ground, armed with a warrant, to arrest the disputants, but of course he was “too late.” The quarrel arose about some matter connected with the hunt.

March 27—Colonel Davies voted in a minority of nineteen on an amendment, moved by Mr. Hume, to admit wheat at all times at a fixed duty of 10s. a quarter. Colonel Davies also succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a committee to inquire into the mode of taking the poll at elections for cities and boroughs.

March—An eccentric fellow at Droitwich cut his throat, having previously left some most singular instructions respecting his funeral, which were obeyed to the letter. He was buried with his shoes on, with a penny in one hand and a halfpenny in the other. Some of the earth surrounding his mother’s coffin was put into his, and his body was wrapped in the sheet on which she had been laid out. The carriers of the coffin and mourners ran, as soon as the funeral was over, at their topmost speed, to a public house, where they sang one song and two psalms, afterwards drinking peace to the soul of the departed till they were all drunk.

June 29—At a meeting of the Worcester Corporation, on the motion of Henry Clifton, Esq., the freedom of the city was unanimously voted to the Right Hon. Robert Peel, “late principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, in testimony of the high sense they entertained of his consummate abilities and inflexible integrity as a statesman, and his unshaken fidelity and attachment to the Constitution in Church and State.”

November 29—Mr. T. A. Knight, only son of T. A. Knight, Esq., of Downton Castle, accidentally shot by John Barneby, Esq., of Brockhampton, while they were both sporting on Mr. Knight’s demesne.

December—The Worcestershire Yeomanry disbanded by order of Government, in common with all those corps which had not been engaged in actual service of any kind for the previous ten years. The regiment was first raised in 1794, by the Hon. Somers Cocks. The Kidderminster troop, which was a separate body, raised in 1798 and commanded by Captain Boycot, was also disbanded.