The present rector of St. Swithin's is the Rev. R. Sarjeant; churchwardens, Mr. R. West and Mr. F. Inchle. Population in 1851, 906.
St. Nicholas
Begins with 1564, though it is clearly not so old as that date, having apparently been copied at a later period, like the other registers before-named. There is much beautiful writing about the middle and close of the seventeenth century, but nothing else noteworthy except that the marriages fell off considerably about that period. In 1691 a charge of 5s. was made by the churchwardens to the clerk for transcribing forty-eight sides of the register.
The oldest account book belonging to this parish I have been enabled to procure commences in the year 1678; giving first a catalogue of the parochial charities, in which "poor auncient maides" are specially remembered, and "Mr. Bowen's guift in wascoates to poor maides" is mentioned. Male and female paupers were designated by the terms "Goodman" and "Goodwife" or "Goody," in lieu of their Christian names:
"Paid Goodwife Gawler (1684) and her daughter when they went to Malvern to be cured," 3s.
Foundlings seem to have been laid at a great many doors in those days, and the cost of feeding and clothing these poor little outcasts formed considerable items, of which the following are samples:
1683.—"Three yards and a half of cloth to make the foundlinge and Crutchington's child two coates, 5s. 10d.