"For buttons and thrid and making the two coates, 3s.
"Paid Goody Bray for keeping of a child layd at her doore three nights, 6d.
"For making of a bond to save ye parish harmless of a childe, 1s. 7d.
"Paid ye biddle for going to bring ye woman and child laid down in the parish, 6d."
That the elementary education of the youngsters was not forgotten is shown by the great fact, that in 1694 the sum of 1s. 6d. was invested in "1 doz. ABC, 3 hornbooks, and one primer." A child's coffin cost half-a-crown; a man's 5s. Badges or marks for the poor, and sewing them on are regularly charged for. "Ye King's Tax (4s.) for buryall of pore people" is first mentioned in 1695, when the duty was probably first imposed. (See a note on this subject in a subsequent part of this work.)
One of the latest instances of touching for the "King's Evil" occurs in 1711, when 11s. were "paid Rogers for carrying of Walker to London to be touched," and even children were taken all the way to town in those days of snail travelling to receive virtue from the royal digits. From hence it would appear that the efficacy of the stroke was not presumed to be promoted by the faith or excitement of the patient (infants being incapable thereof), but purely and solely from the hereditary virtue of the royal touch, per se. In 1684 the churchwardens paid 1s. "for ye King's declaracon touching ye evil." More on this subject appears in a note on Superstitions.
The following entry refers to the "chimney money" for the poor, already mentioned in St. Swithin's chapter:
1683.—"Spent on the chimney men when the certificates were allowed for the poor people," 3s.
There is a curious item of 26s. 4-1/2d. being incurred in 1720, "for attending on Kent when she was sullivated," and a gratifying instance of the best kind of charity—that of enabling the poor to help themselves—occurs in 1710, when 5s. were spent in "teaching Eliz. Harrison to spin and card, and for her lodging for a month." The parochial benevolence does not appear to have been confined to the parish boundary, nor even to the class of paupers, for in 1693 the sum of £5. 2s. 1d. (equal to £30 of the present money) was raised here "towards the relief of Francis Laugher, of St. Peter's, who lost all his corn and other his substance by a sad and lamentable fire." The guardianship of the poor as also the office of churchwarden, although an object of honourable ambition to many, was not welcome to others, for it was found necessary, in 1709, to order that all guardians should have 2s. 6d. allowed to defray the charge of their qualifying; in 1690 Mr. T. Browne offered to be at the expense of putting out a parish apprentice if he were excused from serving the office of churchwarden; Mr. Baddeley and Mr. Weston, in 1720, paid £5 each not to serve as churchwardens, while at other times handsome presents were made to the vestry for the same indulgence. In 1684 an estate at Cradley, called Shewsters, was ordered by the vestry to be purchased for the poor, and the amount paid for it was £143. Fifteen years afterwards the title to the said estate was called in question by one Mr. Millman, and the churchwardens were instructed to defend it. In this they seem to have been successful, as in 1711 the vestry ordered that another lease for three lives should be granted on it. The Shewsters' estate still belongs to the parish, and is occupied by Mr. William Johnson at a gross annual rental of £20.
Before leaving the subject as affecting the poor of this parish, and the benefactions made to them, it may be stated that in 1737 the clothing trade was so reduced here that there was no "young thriving clothier" to be found to whom the sum of £5 could be lent gratis. This and other similar cases afford precedents for vestries to amend and regulate the appropriation of charities when it is no longer possible literally to comply with the stipulations of the donor.