In 1715 Aldington took its part in preparing to resist the Jacobites, and the following record is copied from an old manuscript:
A BILL FOR Y^e CONSTABLE OF ANTON DUN BY ME WM. PHIPPS.
£ s. d.
1 musket and bayonet……………………………. 0 0
1 cartridg box at………………………………. 0 3 6
1 belt at……………………………………… 0 5 0
for 1 scabard and cleaning y^e blad and
blaking y^e hilt……………………………… 0 3 6
———-
1 12 0
(On the back.)
Three days pay…………………………………. 0 7 6
half A pound of pouder………………………….. 0 0 8
for y^e muster master ………………………….. 0 0 6
for listing money………………………………. 0 1 0
for drums and cullers…………………………… 0 3 0
———-
2 4 8
Thos Rock Con^{ble} 0 12 8
(IN) A TRUE ACCOUNT OF Y^e CONS^{BL} OF ALDINGTON CHARGES FOR Y^e
YEARE 1716/5 NOV. Y^e 7 & 8 1715 Y^e CHARGES FOR ATENDING AS
CONS^{BL}
s. d.
bringing in y^e Train souldiers………………….. 3 0 spent when y^e soulders whent to Worcester………… 1 6
One can picture the scene in the little hamlet as Thomas Rock collected his forces at the gossip corner; the little crowd of admiring villagers and the martial bearing of the one recruit, as with "cullers" flying and drums beating he marched away, followed by the village children to the end of the lane.
William Tindal, in his History of Evesham, 1794, records the fact that in 1790 Aldington belonged to Lord Foley, but history is silent as to local events from that date until modern times, when, in the first half of the next century, the Manor became the property of an ancestor of the present owner. There is a tradition that the Manor House was a small but beautiful old building, with a high-pitched stone-slate roof and three gables in line at the front; but these disappeared, the pitch of the roof was reduced, and about 1850 the modern part of the house was added at the southern extremity of the old structure.
As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a member of the Washington family. It is particularly of interest at the present time, more especially to Americans, and it has not, as far as I am aware, previously appeared in any other book.