"Articles" were "exhibited" (that is, an information was laid) in the year 1655, against Walter Moyle, of Ombersley, yeoman, for being a profane man, and for that "one day he publicly drank the health of the devil, and fell down as one dead, to ye amazement and terrour of ye beholders; and that in the time of the late war he did threaten his neighbours, when the king's forces were in rendevouze at Oddingley Heath, with plunder unlesse they would repaire in armes to that randezvooze."
On the 5th of October, 1685, John Bartlam, of Whitbourne, laid an information that "in hay harvest last (before this neighbourhood heard that Monmouth was routed), this informant, riding upon the road near Knightsford bridge, there met a man that tould him that Monmouth was then the head man in England, and that it was in every man's mouth in Worcester, and that any man might speak it, and that he would proclaim it at Knightsford bridge (as he had at Broadheath, Martley, and other places, as he came along), although it was so near Captain Clent's; and that if any one questioned it he would be at Knightsford bridge to answer it; that his name was Kent, and he lived in Powick's Lane, Worcester." In 1687, Thomas Knight, of Castlemorton, was summoned to appear at the Sessions, and to give evidence against Charles Jakeman for drinking the Duke of Monmouth's health.
A Traveller's Passport.
The following document, included among the rolls, is dated 1680, from Whitehall:
"Dame Mary Yate, having asked his majesty's permission to pass beyond the seas, for the recovery of her health, his majesty was most graciously pleased to grant her request, under the usual clauses and provisoes, according to which ye said Dame Mary Yate having given security not to enter into any plott or conspiracy against his majesty or his realms, or behave herself in any such manner as may be prejudicial to his majesty's government, or the religion here by law established, and that she will not repaire to the city of Roome, or return unto this kingdome without first acquainting one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, and obtaining leave for the same, in pursuance of his majesty's commands in council hereby will and require you to permit and suffer the said Dame Mary Yate to imbarque with her trunkes of apparel and other necessaries not prohibited at any port of this kingdom, and from thence to pass beyond the seas, provided that shee departe this kingdom within 14 days after the date hereof"—April 14.
If the above refers to the celebrated Lady Mary Yate (a daughter of the house of Pakington) who is commemorated on a monument in Chaddesley Church as having died in 1696, at the age of 86, she must have been 70 years old when these precautions were taken by the Government against the poor old lady attempting to invade the country or to comfort the Pope with her presence and support. Dame Mary Yate was no doubt a Roman Catholic, and the permission above referred to was granted under the 7th section of the statute 3rd James I, chap. 5, which was virtually repealed by the statute 43rd George III, chap. 30, which exempted Roman Catholics from all the penalties and restrictions mentioned and enjoined in the older acts, if in one of the Courts at Westminster or at the Quarter Sessions they made a declaration which to them was unobjectionable.