On the first page of the oldest register book here is the following memorandum: "This register of St. Andrew's parish, Worcester, was found among old rubbish in the churchyard by W. Wormington, rector, 1779." The first entry is under date 1549, and a note in the margin observes, "Four years before the death of Edward the Sixth." A large portion of the book appears to have been copied, and births, marriages, and deaths, are irregularly intermixed. It terminates with the year 1619. The next oldest register commences with 1673. The account book is thus prefaced: "The booke of the accomptes of the churchwardens of the parishe of St. Andrewes within the cittie of Worcester made and begonne this present year of or. Lord God 1587, beynge the thirtyeth yeare of the raigne of or. sov'aigne ladie Queene Elizabeth." The book (which, as a memorandum on it states, cost xii pence) ends with 1631; it is on thin paper, with parchment covers. Two other books, both belonging to a later part of the seventeenth century, give the accounts of what was received and "disbusted" for church and poor. This is therefore one of the oldest parochial records in Worcester, and as may be expected contains much that is interesting. As usual small Roman numerals are used in the accounts, figures making their appearance about the year 1600, but these were apparently considered so awkward or unintelligible as to lead to their abandonment, and many years elapsed before they were finally introduced. How the venerable guardians of the church could have persisted in the use of such an impracticable method of arithmetic in the face of so great an invention as that of figures, is only to be accounted for by the blind and obstinate attachment of human nature to traditional usages.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth the seats in this church were let, at the rate of from 6d. to 1s. per annum each sitting, and some instances occur of sittings for a man and his wife being charged 3s., and regularly every year a large number who removed from their seats to others were charged 4d. for each removal. The church was whitewashed at Easter Eve, at a charge of 7s. each time. In 1600 occurs an item of 43s. "layed out in bildinge ye new porch," and four years afterwards 5s. "for painting the king's arms." In 1617, "Paid for mendinge ye chimnie to keape out smoke out of ye church, 2s." The smoke nuisance however was not abated, for two years later the sum of 2s. 6d. was "paid to the goodman[1] Bushell for a day's work and a halfe for him and his man to stopp the smooke of the church." The "steeple" is frequently mentioned, and in the year 1618 was "Paid for repayringe and mendinge of ye wether cocke, 5s. 10d.; guilding ye cocke, £1." A fatal accident occurred at this time, as sums are charged for the "buriall of the man who undertook payntinge of ye steeple," and "for coveringe the grave where the man was buried that was misventured in the church."
[1] Goodman and goodwife were in those days used in the same way as Mr. and Mrs. are now.
Bells were in those days of universal ringing a source of very great expense, year after year heavy items being charged for ropes, ball-ribbs, clappers, or recasting the bells themselves. In 1589 is this entry—"Laide out on the singinge men of the Colledge for hearing the tune of the belles, 6d." Some of the bells were probably recast on that occasion, and the Cathedral choir were invited to lend their professional ears at the tuning of them. "Likewise (in the same year) the said churchwardens desire to be allowed of divers summes by them laid out in costes and charges expended at the Councell in the M'ches in ye parishes cause, concerninge the castinge of their fowerth bell, altogether 18s. 8d." I have been unable to ascertain what took this cause to the Council of the Marches instead of to the Worcester Consistory Court. At that time the Council usually sat at Ludlow, but for the greater despatch of business sometimes assembled at Bewdley and Shrewsbury. "The court of the President and Councell in the Dominion and Principality of Wales" is mentioned by Lord Coke in his "Fourth Institute," p. 242, as a court of equity, held before the President and Council, under the authority of the statute 34th Henry VIII, chap. 26; and his lordship says "They sit by force of the King's Commission and Instructions, and proceed as in a court of equity, by their wisdomes and discretion. Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, and Gloucestershire, are included in this Commission, pretending these four shires are within the Marches of Wales"; but to show that these four shires were no part of the Marches of Wales, but were English counties, he cites many authorities, including a decision of all the Judges of England and Barons of the Exchequer in Lord Zouche's case, in Michaelmas Term, 2nd James II. In reference to St. Andrew's bell, some one must have sued the churchwardens in this Welsh court of equity. I find that in 1577 two oxen were given to the bishop on coming to this city, he being Lord Vice-President of the Queen's Council of the Marches.
A regulation was laid down in 1595 that the bells should be "charged at every churching and wedding, by consent as aforesaid—4d. at every churching, and 6d. at every wedding; and if any not inhabiting within this parish shall require to have ringing hereafter at their wedding, they shall paye towards the reparation of the belles, xiid." Among the receipts yearly the sum of 2s. is regularly mentioned as having been received from the chamberlains for the council bell. This was probably the bell by which the corporation meetings were called together, St. Andrew's being the nearest church to the Guildhall. The receipts for the use of all the bells in the year 1602 amounted to 11s. 8d. A clock and chimes also existed here. Among the occasions for ringing at this church was the following, in 1625:
"Paid by Mr. Maior's appointment for ringinge when there was speeche betwixt our King Charles and the French ladye, 2s. 6d."
After the expedition of "his sacred Majesty" to Spain, to woo the Infanta, that match was broken off, and negotiations were begun in 1625 for his marriage with the Princess Henrietta Maria, youngest daughter of Henri IV of France—an union the most unfortunate for Charles and for his country, so adverse were her influences over him, and so unmanly his acquiescence to her. About the year 1590 the following inventory was made "of such stuffe as remayneth in the p'rishe church of St. Andrew at the accompt of John Hiller and Thomas Hemynge, at the daye of choseing wardens, when—A Bible, ii books of Omilies (one is lost), a book of Comon Prayer, a book of Iniuncons (Injunctions), (this is lost), the Paraphraces, Emusculus Comon Places, a Comunion cuppe and a cover, a surples, a cloath for ye Comunion table, ii church pawles with ii pillowes, a Comunion table with a frame and a carpet for the same, iii joyned fearms, ii long and on short, on longe forme with iv feet, a coffer with a locke and a keye, a great cheste with ii locks, the poor men's boxe with ii locks and keyes, ii long laddars of the p'rishes, ii other laddars, on for the clocke and the other for the steeple, a dext (desk), with a frame, sixe bells with a clock, chimes, and the whole furniture thereunto belonging, ii bears (biers), the rejester book (the parson hath it)." The Paraphrases, above alluded to, were those of Erasmus, which Cramner ordered to be set up in every church. "Emusculus's Comon Places" were contained in a work now in the Royal Library in the British Museum, which has the following title: "Common Places of Christian Religion, gathered by Wolfgangus Musculus, for the use of suche as desire the knowledge of Godly truthe, translated out of the Latin into Englishe. Hereunto are added two other Treatises, made by the same author, one on Othes, the other on Usurye. Londini, Anno Domini M.D.LXIII." The imprint at the end of the work (which consists of 1174 folio pages) is—"Imprinted at London by Reginalde Wolfe, Anno Domini 1563." In 1604, "a book of cannons for our parson" was purchased for 16d., and "payed for our Bible 36s." It would appear that the churchwardens sold Bibles in those days, and it is even probable that they let out the church Bible to those parishioners who could not afford to purchase one, for in 1610 occurs this item—"Imprimis, received for our church Bible, xs. vid." These officers were occasionally overhauled for neglect of duty, for in 1612 is this entry—"Payed for the fees of the Consistory Court when we weare called thither for not buying Mr. Jewell's works, and likewise about ye broken bell, xxiiid." Jewell's works were printed in 1609, and the Archbishop Bancroft, in his letter to the Bishops, dated 27th July, 1610 (printed in Dr. Cardwell's Annals of the Reformed Church, vol. 2, p. 154), desires the Bishops, Chancellors, and Archdeacons, with the rest of the preachers and ministers, "to induce the parishioners of every parish to buy one of the works of Bishop Jewel." In 1610 a "Communion table with a form" was bought for 6s. 4d., and in 1616 three trenchers were ordered for the Communion table at a cost of 6d. The cost of bread and wine for the year 1613 was 16s. 8d.; for 1624, £1. 4s. 6d.; and the pence collected at the communion for the year 1619, £1. 11s. 1d. Wine and sugar loaves were given to the strange clergymen who preached occasionally. The vestry resolved in 1598 that 5s. should be paid for every corpse above the age of ten years buried in the church, and under that age 3s. 4d., "and to pave the ground at their own charges." At a later period the act for burying in woollen was rigidly enforced, for the benefit of the woollen trade. In 1692, "paid for a warrant to seize widdow Yates' goods for not making affadavid yt she was buried in woollen, 1s." Pope alludes to this custom in the following lines:
"Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke!
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.)
No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead!
And—Betty—give this cheek a little red."
A "prayer for the navie" was purchased in 1596 at a cost of 4d. This was probably during one of the expeditions against Spain, after the Armada had been disposed of. Of the many "briefs" for collections here, one was in 1693 "for the redemption of captives from ye coasts of Africa," 19s. 3-1/2d.; and another in 1716 "for the cowkeepers about London," 10s. 7d. (probably to compensate them for the loss of cattle by the distemper, which, it will be seen elsewhere, visited this and the adjoining counties a few years later). Rents of parish property, fees for bells, and letting church seats, were the principal sources of income; and as regards expenditure, the parochial authorities seem to have been remarkably self-denying in the matter of eating and drinking, as compared with other parishes. The first mention of processioning is in 1614, when 4d. was "payd for a barge to goe over Severne when the parishioners went in perambulation;" nothing was then charged for feasting; but in 1622, 1s. 4d. was laid out "to make the presession drinke," and 3s. 4d. "to make the parishioners eat and drink when they went the late perambulation." The patriotic accountant of 1701 records that there was spent in that year "at the election of officers according to Magna Carta, £1," and at the perambulation, with ringing, 13s. The perambulation in 1711 cost £1. 10s. 9d. The meetings were held at the Plough and the Cock. Rent was annually paid to the city chamberlains for Lead Lane, afterwards called Pipe Lane. Was this a right of way over corporation property? Here is the cost of an inquest in 1678: "Paid to the jewry that viewed the man that was drowned, 4s.; to the sargeant for warning them, 1s.; the shroud, 2s. 6d.; four men to carry him to church, 1s." The Whitsun farthings paid by this parish in 1589 amounted to 2s. 2d., which, at a farthing per head, would make 104 householders, and this was probably the arrears of two years, as in 1726 only 1s. 1d. was paid.
The present rector of St. Andrew's is the Rev. G. Hodson; churchwardens, Mr. Stallard and Mr. Knight. Population in 1851, 1678.