"Paid for licence for ye marriage of Widow Holmes, £1. 1s. 4d.
"Ale when the match was made, 1s. 6d.
"Gave them to buy necessaries, 2s."
Money was likewise paid to women, as a bribe, to divulge where their illegitimate offspring were born; and one William Pennell seems to have had the task assigned to him of hunting up this class of ladies and escorting them out of the parochial bounds, while Ann Williams enjoyed the not more enviable vocation of "begging clouts" for the unfortunate youngsters. A fellow named Hackluitt, in the year 1680, transgressed the rules of chastity with "ye maid at ye White Heart," and the result was the birth of a boy; but the father had then fled, and the churchwardens were in great consternation at the probability of this illegitimate burden. A considerable number of items are entered in the books of sums spent upon the inquiry after the vagrant sinner and for maintaining his child. At length he was discovered, and negotiation was then resorted to, the putative father, apparently under the influence of drink, acceding to the "points" proposed as the basis.
"Spent at White Heart when he agreed to take away his child, 4d."
But in 1682 this heartless Don Juan had again abandoned his offspring, and another personage appears on the scene:
"Spent in discoursing with old Hackluitt about his sonne's child left in this parish, 2s. 4d."
A considerable expenditure followed, for "whittles and other necessaries" for the child; but as Hackluitt senior does not seem to have seconded the proposition that he should pay for his son's delinquencies, the churchwardens apparently became tired of the onus, and at last—
"Paid to a poor woman for carrying him out of town, 1s."
How the wretched brat was really disposed of does not appear in this rather mysterious record. There was probably a poorhouse or lying-in hospital at the Cross, as various memoranda are made of women being "delivered at the Cross." Was this at the old workhouse at the site of the present Hop Market? There is also one instance of