The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

NOTES AND QUERIES
FOR
Worcestershire.

By JOHN NOAKE,

AUTHOR OF "THE RAMBLER," &c.

LONDON:
LONGMAN AND CO.
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
MDCCCLVI.

PRICE FIVE SHILLINGS.

DEDICATED BY PERMISSION

TO

JOHN GOODWIN, ESQ.,

TWICE-ELECTED MAYOR OF WORCESTER;

AND UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF

THE VERY REV. DR. PEEL, DEAN OF WORCESTER,

THE RIGHT HON. EARL BEAUCHAMP,

J. H. H. FOLEY, ESQ., M.P.,

AND

R. PADMORE, ESQ.

In winter's tedious nights sit by the fire,
With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
Of ages long ago betid.

Preface.

Another trifling instalment towards the history of Worcestershire is now respectfully presented to its inhabitants, and the Author ventures to express a hope that it may meet with the general favour of the reading public, equal to that which his previous works have elicited.

The materials of historical works usually consist of tables of pedigrees, charters, battles, sieges, enumerations of manors, with their successive owners, statistical details, and other tedious though useful information. These, however, are but the dry bones—the skeleton of history. The spirit of the past can only be evoked by a deep and extensive research among documentary and traditional evidences—by careful comparison and analysis—by judicious deduction and inference. To perform this effectually, even for the limited area of a county, the coöperation of many minds is almost indispensable. Let us take Worcestershire as an instance. Habingdon, Nash, Thomas, Green, and others, have accumulated large masses of the matter which conventionally passes for history, and I would not for one moment desire to detract from the merit of their labours: yet the history of Worcestershire remains to be written. What do we yet know of the manners and customs, the hopes and aspirations, the social every-day life, the habits and thoughts, of our ancestors? Yet surely this is not the least considerable feature of the times of which we would fain glean tidings. Who would not vastly prefer an hour or two's conversation with one who was in the flesh some centuries ago—could that be possible—to studying the pages of the most intelligent contemporaneous historian? Education had rendered the world dissatisfied with the old modes and precise forms of this department of literature, when such pens as Macaulay's were soon ready to supply the new want. Yet Macaulay could have done but little service in this way had he been content to receive old stereotyped facts which had for centuries been lazily copied by preceding writers. It was by industriously and perseveringly investigating public and private libraries, hunting up all available resources, and systematically comparing and arranging the information thus obtained, that he was enabled, by the potency of his genius, to erect on a new foundation a superstructure that has delighted and astonished all beholders. That great man's industry, at all events, if not his genius, may, and must be, imitated by all who would successfully labour in the field of history for the future. The annals of even so circumscribed an area as a county must not be written without at least searching the records of its principal courts of judicature, nor that of a city before consulting the dusty relics in the parochial chests and the municipal closets. Yet these fertile sources of authentic information have been almost entirely neglected by Worcestershire historians. The Author of this little work has made a commencement, humble though it be, towards furnishing data for the required undertaking; yet how much remains to be done! Nor can a single individual, confined to the requirements of an absorbing profession, be expected, alone and unaided, to achieve much. If some one in each parish would undertake to search the register, the old vestry and churchwardens' books, and any manuscripts or other material that may exist in the parish; if others would investigate the archives of the municipal towns, the Assize records (which I presume are in the possession of Mr. Wilde, at Clifford's Inn), the MSS. and rare books which may be found in the libraries of private gentlemen and the British Museum, and, though last, the most important of all, the ancient ecclesiastical registers and other records in Edgar Tower—the labour of a life—some material would then be gleaned from which a competent editor might produce a history worthy of the county—a picture of the life and manners of our ancestors, and not a mere record of names and dates and crude undigested facts.

The fragments which the Author has rescued from the accumulating dust of past ages are here presented, in the hope that others more competent will be stimulated to similar exertions in the various departments above indicated. Two insuperable reasons prevent his undertaking the task himself—first, that it would prove overwhelming and impossible to one who can spare only an occasional hour for the purpose, while, if divided amongst many, the accomplishment would be easy; and secondly, that much of the work to be done—especially the examination of ancient ecclesiastical documents—requires far greater scholastic attainments and a more intimate knowledge of the middle ages than he possesses. "Divide and conquer" must be the motto, if the work is to be done.

Meanwhile it will be noted with satisfaction that every successive exploration into the past indicates more distinctly the decided progress we have made, and exposes the fallacy of the belief in the "good old times:"

"The good of ancient times let others state:
I think it fortunate we're born so late."

In the few sheets here collected, evidence is given of civil and religious strife, such as we are now happily exempt from; of coarse habits, and a reckless expenditure of public funds on gross sensuality; the primitive state of the highways and the miserable travelling consequent thereon; the infancy of science in almost every department, and the greater prevalence of disease; superstition pervading all classes; women flogged in public, and the gaol a very specimen of barbarism; the poor hunted out of their cottages in every parish like wild beasts, and nearly all descriptions of trade fettered by absurd restrictions; nonconformity persecuted, and constitutional liberty, as we now understand the term, unknown. Nor were the manners and customs of our ancestors much more desirable than our own, although there was a greater heartiness in them and apparently a more general mixing of classes. When Parry was searching for the north-west passage, a boat was one day sent on shore, under charge of a petty officer, who received, besides the usual instructions to keep a look-out for anything remarkable, a printed form, on which, under the heads of "Manners," and "Customs," to record what he saw among the natives. In due time the boat returned to the ship, the man delivered in his report; and an extraordinary one it was for pith and brevity, running thus:

That the same report might have been truthfully applied even to English society in the last and preceding centuries the following pages prove, and still more conclusively might the charge have been brought home had the author felt himself justified in printing in extenso some of the documents he has consulted, especially among the county rolls. Let us, however, not quarrel with our predecessors, but rightfully appreciate the blessings of advanced civilization by endeavouring, each one in his limited sphere, to inculcate contentment with our lot and an earnest desire to assist in the great work of human progress, both physical and moral.

In conclusion, the Author begs to offer his warm thanks to the patrons of this book (individually named in the dedication), without whose kind promises of support the work would not have been published; to Sir T. E. Winnington, Bart., M.P., for the inspection of many interesting manuscripts; to the clergy and churchwardens of the city, for their courtesy in permitting the examination of the registers and other parish books; to Mr. Carrington, barrister-at-law, for several valuable contributions and highly prized literary assistance; to Mr. Lewis, of the County Clerk of the Peace's office, for the trouble he so willingly incurred in displacing and re-arranging the Sessions' rolls; and lastly, to the general body of subscribers, who have so numerously signified their intention to take copies.

Index.

Abberley, [161], [240], [255], [289].
Abberton, [207], [297].
Abbot's Lench, [253].
Abbot's Morton, [177].
Abington's Manuscripts, [144].
Acton family, [264], [267], [270], [293], [315].
Acton Beauchamp, [159], [173].
Affiliations, [20], [42], [54].
All Fools' Day, [210].
All Saints' parish, [60], [222], [227].
Alfrick, [157], [173], [200], [204], [249], [289], [316].
Alvechurch, [102], [109], [132], [241], [253], [256], [271], [316].
Anabaptists, [117].
Ancient Inns, [258].
Archaic words, [251].
Areley, [202], [294].
Ascension Day, [208].
Assize notices, [273].
Astley, [80], [166], [246], [261], [289], [295], [310], [312], [313].
Astwood, [189].
Babes of Bethlehem, [205].
Badging paupers, [19], [41], [63], [68].
Badsey, [316].
Balls at Assizes, [279].
Baptisms, [176], [206].
Barneby family, [155].
Bearcroft family, [311], [315].
Bees, [179].
Belbroughton, [125], [182], [132], [254], [260], [310].
Bells, [17], [34], [47], [48], [52], [64], [177], [214], [240].
Beoley, [104], [126], [187], [132], [228], [253], [254], [316].
Berkeley family, [159], [160], [267], [293], [325].
Berrow, [253].
Besford, [234], [295].
Bewdley, [15], [75], [76], [100], [103], [125], [145], [150], [162], [173], [185], [198], [215], [232], [239], [245], [247], [253], [258], [264], [268], [301], [308], [318], [322], [328].
Birlingham, [125], [126], [315].
Birtsmorton, [203].
Bishampton, [101], [241], [272], [294], [314].
Bishop Skinner's Memoirs, [151].
Bishop Swinfield's Roll, [145].
Bishop Thornborough's monument, [287].
Black pear of Worcester, [228].
Blockley, [126], [272], [312], [315].
Bloody pond, [263].
Blount family, [120], [310].
Bockleton, [155], [315].
Brawling, [110], [118].
Bredicot, [297].
Bredon, [111], [126], [249], [256], [311], [313].
Bredon's Norton, [112].
Bretforton, [102], [199], [241].
Bricklehampton, [90], [316].
Bride ales, [218].
Bridges and highways, [130].
Broadheath, [64].
Broadwas, [208].
Broadway, [98], [238], [252], [266], [301], [312], [317].
Bromsgrove, [52], [65], [75], [84], [85], [100], [102], [106], [110], [113], [117], [124], [125], [198], [200], [132], [133], [235], [240], [260], [266], [268], [271], [289], [294], [296], [301], [305], [310], [312], [313], [316], [321].
Broughton Hackett, [203].
Burying in woollen, [26], [50].
Bushley, [295], [312].
Carriers, [101].
Cast-iron grave slabs, [231].
Castle Morton, [100], [129], [172], [290], [312].
Cathedral and precincts, [3], [9], [11], [12], [23], [25], [64], [96], [149], [152], [182], [196], [131], [142], [143], [206].
Catherning, [215].
Cattle market, old, [38].
Chaddesley, [106], [125], [126], [130], [182], [201], [217], [253], [255], [271], [290], [310], [312], [314].
Charlton family, [94].
Charms, [180].
Chaseley, [316].
Chimney money, [25], [28].
China trade, [254].
Christmas customs, [219].
Church and the people, [105].
Churchwardens of Worcester, [17], [26], [39], [45], [51], [56], [59], [62], [66], [69], [73].
Civil Wars, [10], [126], [318].
Claines, [70], [93], [271], [295], [311], [313].
Cleeve Prior, [316].
Clent, [196], [206], [240].
Clergy of seventeenth century, [108].
Clerks and sextons, [17], [259].
Clifton-on-Teme, [159], [161], [195], [137], [301].
Clothing trade, [305].
Club-men of Worcestershire, [324].
Cofton Hackett, [153], [132], [311].
Collins's fire, [60].
Comberton, [79], [127].
Communicants in 1548, [270].
Compositions to the king's household, [133].
Cookes family, [313].
Corn trade, [99].
Costume of the bar, [273].
Cotheridge, [229], [293], [315], [325].
Council of the Marches in Wales, [8], [15], [47].
County Sessions Records, [74] to [134].
Coventry family, [10], [18], [75], [87], [100], [122], [275].
Crabbing the parson, [206].
Crime, [82].
Cromwell pilloried, [229].
Cromwell's parliament, [292].
Cromwell's property tax, [264].
Croome, [75].
Cropthorne, [102].
Crowle, [188], [311].
Cuckolds, [84], [106].
Curfew, [214].
Cutnal Green, [181], [189].
Daylesford, [297].
Defford, [108].
Diary of Joyce Jeffries, [137].
Dineley family, [93], [135], [264], [310], [314], [323].
Dineley Manuscript, [135].
Dissenting meeting-houses, [124].
Distemper in cattle, [51], [103].
Doddenham, [289].
Dodderhill, [57], [125], [253], [312].
Doddingtree Hundred 200 years ago, [154].
Dogs and cats, slaughter of, [317].
Doverdale, [102], [297].
Dowdeswell family, [87], [122], [310].
Dressing a parson in 1627, [9].
Drinking healths, [210].
Droitwich, [11], [108], [115], [146], [203], [208], [243], [271], [289], [290], [294], [297], [301], [305], [308], [312], [313], [317], [321].
Dr. Prattinton's papers, [232].
Dudley, [75], [91], [100], [114], [125], [126], [171], [184], [185], [204], [231], [240], [267], [301], [319], [329].
Dunclent, [127].
Easter tokens, [16].
Eastham, [158], [236].
Echoes, [289].
Eckington, [245].
Edvin Loach, [159], [297].
Eldersfield, [265], [272], [314], [316].
Elmbridge, [291], [295], [310].
Elmley Castle, [142], [234], [266], [289].
Elmley Lovett, [79], [290], [312].
Evesham, [15], [75], [102], [126], [147], [196], [208], [238], [239], [248], [264], [272], [288], [293], [294], [301], [302], [305], [308], [319].
Excommunications, [32], [105].
Feckenham, [41], [75], [105], [118], [132], [148], [201], [242], [255], [258], [259], [313], [314].
Fees of Clerk of Peace in 1753, [76].
Female scolds, [106].
Fifth monarchy men, [116].
Figures, introduction of, [13].
Fishermen of St. Peter's parish, [40].
Fladbury, [102], [180], [240], [289], [295], [314].
Floods, [67], [239].
Flyford Flavel, [207].
Foley family, [92], [159], [264].
Foresters of Feckenham, [148].
Four children at a birth, [296].
Frankley, [266], [316], [328].
Funeral customs, [208].
Gaols, [37], [85].
Garden and butter markets, [38].
Ghosts, [187].
Giants, [237].
Gloucester city gates, [258].
Good Friday, [178].
Grafton, [124], [126], [241].
Graveyard punning, [265].
Grimley, [294].
Guy Faulx, [209].
Halesowen, [125], [200], [218], [233], [241].
Hallow, [253], [313].
Hampton Lovett, [271].
Hanbury, [15], [57], [102], [124], [147], [295], [311], [313].
Hanley Childe and William, [158].
Hanley Castle, [100], [104], [254], [310].
Hartlebury, [75], [125], [142], [154], [175], [180], [205], [210], [211], [232], [246], [248].
Harvington, [148], [215], [219].
Heaving, [211].
Hemp and flax, [102].
Henry the Eighth's obsequies, [5].
Hermitages and caves, [246].
Himbleton, [125], [231], [234], [241], [253].
Hindlip, [23].
Holt, [189], [256], [293], [295].
Holy loaf, [233].
Honeybourne, [102], [238].

Hop cribbing, [222].
Hop-pole hotel, [35].
Hops, [228].
Hopton family, [322].
House of Industry, [38], [43].
Housling pence, or Sacrament money, [31].
Huddington, [188], [205].
Iccomb, [95].
Image, destruction of at Worcester, [285].
Incumbents of Worcester, [17], [26], [39], [45], [51], [56], [59], [62], [66], [69], [73].
Inkberrow, [78], [83], [125], [177], [132], [218], [253], [311], [315], [316], [321].
Javelin men, [281].
Jeffries' Manuscripts, [136].
Kempsey, [15], [131], [147], [245], [271].
Kidderminster, [3], [14], [75], [100], [103], [125], [127], [151], [184], [185], [201], [211], [217], [249], [264], [268], [271], [293], [302], [305], [308].
King Charles's coins, [228].
King Charles's staff, [236].
King's Norton, [96], [103], [104], [113], [132], [203], [210], [240], [254], [260], [265], [271], [283], [292], [294], [310], [313], [314], [316].
King's tax, [27], [234].
Kington, [4], [80].
Knighton, [156], [272].
Knights of the Royal Oak, [266].
Knightwick, [128], [142], [166], [200], [252], [326].
Knightwood, fines for not taking, [309].
Kyre, [158], [161].
Lechmere family, [104], [122], [264], [292].
Lee, Rev. Dr., [261].
Legends and traditions, [193].
Leigh, [95], [185], [188], [215], [235], [253], [272], [289], [312].
Lindridge, [112], [147], [149], [156], [157], [142], [294].
Littletons, [102], [315].
Longdon, [90], [220], [240], [259], [311], [312], [314].
Longevity, [255].
Love spells, [189].
Lulsley, [158], [200], [253].
Lygon family, [37], [87], [88], [121], [123], [184], [264], [267].
Lyttelton family, [266], [267], [286], [294].
Magistrates in 1483, [267].
Malvern, Great, [126], [133], [147], [171], [186], [195], [256], [264], [311], [313].
----, Little, [154].
Mamble and Bayton, [83], [165], [210], [255].
Manuscripts, county, [135].
Marine store dealers, [228].
Martin Hussingtree, [255].
Marriage custom, [208].
Marriages by Justices, [57].
Martley, [129], [160], [165], [252], [255], [257], [310], [313], [326].
Mathon, [169], [181], [253], [263].
May-poles, [112], [210].
Memory, fine, [259].
Milward evidences, [230].
Morris dancing, [213].
Mortuary Cloth of Clothiers' Company, [305].
Moseley, [126], [265], [294], [317].
Mothering Sunday, [210].
Nash family, [37], [57], [119], [121], [123], [265], [310].
Naunton Beauchamp, [207].
Needle trade, [228].
New Year's customs, [221].
Nicknames, [218].
Nonconformity, [268].
Norbury family, [119], [120].
Northfield, [125], [132], [241], [253], [310].
Norton-juxta-Kempsey, [131].
Norton near Evesham, [205], [239].
Oddingley, [128], [202].
Offenham, [179], [210], [215], [253], [298], [313], [315].
Oil lamps first set up, [38], [41], [55].
Oldberrow, [297].
Oldbury, [116], [305], [313].
Old customs, [205].
Old family, [239].
Old sayings, [238].
Oldswinford, [80], [271].
Ombersley, [128], [266], [295], [310].
Organs at Cathedral, [152].
Orleton, [158].
Overbury, [262].
Oxford circuit, [275].
Pageant-house, [232].
Pakington family, [71], [122], [130], [270], [294], [310].
Paper, early mention of, [284].
Papists, [31], [75], [112].
Pensax, [155], [165], [288].
Pensham, [315].
Peopleton, [270].
Perambulations, [13], [22], [29], [41], [51], [55], [64], [68], [72], [222].
Pershore, [125], [174], [179], [239], [245], [252], [265], [270], [271], [303], [310], [311], [314].
Pillory, [84], [230].
Plague, [132].
Plum-pudding and pancake bells, [215].
Plymouth, Earl of, [87], [93].
Poor, [89].
Population of Worcester parishes, [17], [26], [39], [45], [51], [56], [59], [62], [66], [69], [73].
Powick, [55], [64], [253], [289].
Primitive Cathedral customs, [206].
Printer, first at Worcester, [236].
Quakers, [36], [39], [53], [112], [114].
Queen Elizabeth, [292], [298].
Queries, [228].
Rats, old English, [284].
Records of the City of Worcester, [1] to [73].
Redditch, [132], [228].
Redmarley, [261], [272], [311], [312], [315], [316].
Reformation, [4].
Ribbesford, [75], [163], [165], [193], [272], [294], [315].
Ridley the martyr, [261].
Ringing for the parson, [205].
Ripple, [75], [237], [272], [289], [314].
Rock, [150], [161], [204], [255], [256], [257], [272], [312], [314].
Roundhead's description of Worcestershire, [249].
Rouselench, [235], [316].
Royalists compounding, [292].
Royal oak day, [209].
Rushock, [79], [102], [182], [314].
Rushout family, [87], [122].
Saddle silver, [66].
Saffron, [237].
Salt, [36], [101], [297].
Salwarpe, [57], [85], [187], [271], [282], [291], [295], [312].
Sandys family, [123], [266], [295].
Sapey, [159].
Sculptures on churches, [235].
Seabright family, [295].
Seal of Worcester, [284].
Sedgberrow, [289].
Severn Stoke, [2], [13], [15], [271], [294], [313].
Shelsley, [75], [137], [159], [160], [185], [187], [199], [253], [256], [297].
Ship money, [308].
Shipston, [77], [303], [322].
Shrawley, [80], [166], [180], [293], [311].
Small parishes, [296].
Social regulations, [97].
Somers, the great Lord, [1].
Spetchley, [126], [228].
St. Alban's, [56].
St. Andrew's, [45], [197].
St. Clement's, [66], [197], [225].
St. Helen's, [52].
St. John's, [61], [285], [294], [312], [313].
St. Martin's, [57].
St. Michael's, [1], [131], [295].
St. Nicholas, [26].
St. Peter's, [39], [131].
St. Swithin's, [17].
Stanford, [137], [142], [145], [154], [161], [204], [248], [252], [314].
Star and Garter hotel, [35].
Staunton, [314], [316].
Stewponey, [232].
Stockton, [165].
Stoke Prior, [102], [132], [180].
Stone, [240], [249], [293], [314].
Stourbridge, [75], [100], [103], [124], [125], [133], [161], [182], [186], [206], [218], [231], [232], [233], [240], [253], [271], [304].
Stourport, [289].
Stourton Castle, [127], [232], [328].
Strensham, [256], [294], [295], [314].
Suckley, [158], [173], [249], [272], [296], [310], [314], [316].
Sunday schools, [38].
Superstitions, [167].
Talbot family, [266], [282], [295].
Tardebigg, [102].
Tenbury, [75], [103], [125], [142], [147], [149], [158], [180], [200], [220], [237], [238], [239], [255], [256], [272], [304].
Tenure, [218].
Theatres, [132].
Tibberton, [203], [313].
Tobacco, [103], [242].
Touching for King's evil, [27], [181].
Townsend Manuscripts, [141].
Traces of the Stuarts, [318].
Tradesmen's tokens, [298].
Traveller's passport, [129].
Tredington, [240], [312].
Trial by combat, [147].
Trumpeters at Assizes, [282].
Tything, [93].
Upton-on-Severn, [75], [85], [125], [130], [146], [270], [311], [313], [314].
Upton Snodsbury, [61], [245].
Upton Warren, [132], [253].
Vacarius' Roman law, [143].
Valentine's Day,

[212].
Vernon family, [264], [295].
Versified will, [262].
Vineyards, [288].
Virtuous parish, [296].
Wages of Magistrates, [291].
Waits, [213].
Wake at Claines, [72].
Ward, Lord, [87].
Watchman, the last, [38].
Weather rhymes and sayings, [306].
Welland, [57], [126].
Whipping, [84].
Whitbourne, [128].
White Ladies, [212], [256].
Whitsun farthings, [14], [23], [56], [65], [69].
Whoop custom, [217].
Wichbold, [312], [313].
Wichenford, [295], [315].
Wick, [207].
Winnington family, [87], [123], [137].
Witchcraft, [78], [183], [142].
Witley, [75], [125], [160].
Wolverley, [142], [201], [259], [311], [325].
Yardley, [313], [314], [316].

PARISH RECORDS
OF
THE CITY OF WORCESTER.

St. Michael's.

The register of this parish commences with the year 1546, but as the entries for about half a century are apparently in the same handwriting, it is probable that in or soon after the year 1597, when an order was issued that all parochial registers should be transcribed on vellum, an older register of St. Michael's was copied on that now existing. It is on vellum and in excellent preservation—which probably will not be said some two or three centuries hence respecting the common and perishable paper registers now in use by Government authority. The first entry which attracted my attention in this register was—

"1648.—John Somers, gent., and Katherine, the daughter of John Seaverne, gent., and Mary his wife, were married Nov. 13."

And among the births are the following:

"1650.—John the sonne of John Somers, gent., and Katherine his wife, was born the fourth day of March."

"1653.—Mary, daughter of John Somers, gent., and Katherine his wife, was born 15th Oct."

"1655.—Katherine, daughter of John Somers, gent., and Katherine his wife, born 7th April."

Here, then, are the means of deciding a fact which has long been the subject of dispute. Mr. Cooksey, in his "Life of Lord Somers," asserts that he was born at the White Ladies; but Dr. Nash mentions the tradition that the famous Lord was born in the College Churchyard, in a house since pulled down, adjoining the south side of the old church of St. Michael; "but as during the Civil Wars (says that veracious and painstaking chronicler, Chambers) the registers were discontinued, or very irregularly kept, though the Doctor diligently searched, his birth could not be found, either in the parishes of Severn Stoke, St. Michael, St. Helen, St. Peter, or the Tything." The "diligence" of the Doctor's search must now be a matter of doubt, as the four entries copied above are not only easily observed, but are somewhat prominent. The "John Somers, gent.," whose marriage with Katherine Seaverne is recorded in 1648, was unquestionably the attorney who resided for some time at the White Ladies, and afterwards within the Cathedral precincts; and their first-born, who was introduced to the world on the 4th of March, 1650, was afterwards the celebrated nobleman who became the head of the Whigs and Lord High Chancellor of England—whose eloquence, knowledge of the law, inflexible integrity, and great capacity for public business, made him an ornament to his country—and whose defence of the seven bishops, in opposition to the tyranny of James II, entitles him to a place in the foremost rank of the defenders of our constitutional liberty. The death of his parents is not entered in St. Michael's register, as they both died and were buried at Severn Stoke. Lord Somers himself was buried in Hertfordshire.

The period of the Civil Wars is distinguished by blank pages, but regularity again commences in 1660. The burial of "Sir Gilbert Jerrard, governor of Woster," is recorded on the 20th of January, 1644; and that of John Cox, master of the College school, on the 30th Dec., 1663. The prisoners and debtors who died in the Castle (the old prison stood on the site of the Castle, near the Cathedral, now converted into gardens) were buried at St. Michael's. It appears likewise that St. Michael's was considered the parish church for the whole of the College precincts, and that if any marriages were performed at the Cathedral, they were duly entered in St. Michael's register, and the incumbent of course received the fees.

"Mr. Richard Smith, minister, and Mrs. Anne Foulks, were marryed in ye Cathedrall on ye 13 day Feby., 1676."

"Jonathan Dixon of Kidderminster and Mary Henzey of this parish were married at the College by me, Oct. 7, 1737, by license. Thomas Smith."

An archdeacon was also married in the chapel of the Bishop's Palace at Worcester, and an entry in this register duly records the fact. Marriages were solemnized here between persons belonging to almost every town or place in the county, and entries of those occurrences are more numerous than in any other register of the city. The list of marriages closes with this note:

"See a marriage register book from the year 1754, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament passed in the 26th year of King George III, which restriction commences from the 25th March, 1754."

In the birth department the children of dissenters were for some years put under a separate head, and specified as such, and there are frequent records of "children left," and "children picked up" in the parish. Lastly, there is mention made of Henry Humphreys having, by will in 1729, left £4 yearly to the incumbent of St. Michael's and £1 to the clerk, on condition they take care that his grave shall not be opened or touched except for the burial of his wife. This money was payable out of "a freehold messuage or tenement, lands, and premises in the parish of Kington, Worcestershire;" but the bequest has long been lost sight of and the estate is not known; there is, however, no doubt that the identification of the estate might be readily made out if its present owners were inclined to do justice to the claims of the church. Perhaps a former owner compounded with the then incumbent for a sum of money or other consideration.

By far the most interesting and valuable of all the parochial records in the city are those of St. Michael's, the oldest account book going back to the year 1543, and, with the exception of from 1611 to 1640, which years are omitted, the records come up to the present century. As these books take us back to a period before the completion of the Reformation, they contain evidence of religious ceremony and social custom which entitle them to the first place in this work. Among the ceremonials of the unreformed Church, the most conspicuous was that at Easter, when the Resurrection was represented. For this purpose a tomb or sepulchre was arranged in the chancel (a recess still to be seen in the chancel wall of most old churches), in which the effigy of the Saviour was laid, and watched day and night by persons appointed for the purpose, as well as by religious devotees, till it was raised out of the tomb on the morning of Easter Sunday, when the previous darkness in the church suddenly ceased, and a flood of light, together with the richest music, incense, and every sign of rejoicing, celebrated the event. In St. Michael's church, the clerk was paid 2d. (worth 2s. 6d. now) for watching on Easter eve, and also was presented with a pair of gloves. "Tacketts (small nails), pynnes, and thrydde, to dresse the sepulchre," were charged 2d., and 4d. for the labour of dressing, great pains having evidently been taken. Arras tapestry hangings or curtains were provided for the tomb, large wax lights and flowers were arranged on the altars (of which there were three in St. Michael's church), and the rood, which was a carved representation of the Crucifixion, elevated on the chancel arch, was also splendidly lit up and decorated with flowers, as were the niches containing figures of the saints. Oil, frankincense, and robes, are charged for in the accounts, the lighting of the rood and sepulchre amounting to as much as 7s. 1d.; for making 25 lbs. of wax, 12d., and for flowers for the tapers and rood light, 2d. A taper was also fixed over the font. The celebration of this festival did not terminate with the church, as the wardens on the same day (Easter Sunday, 1543) spent the sum of 3d. at the tavern. There is likewise an entry of 2d. paid for "nayles and pynnes for the sepulter on Palme Sunday, and wyer for the curteynes for the sepulter at Ester." The following obsequies were observed at St. Michael's church on the death of Henry VIII:

"At the kyngs highnes dirige and masse.

The progress of the Reformation during the reign of Edward VI is distinctly marked in these records, by the mode in which the churchwardens were compelled to set their house in order. A man named John Davyes was employed to "hewe downe the seates of the images in the church and to whytelyme it," for which he received 15d.; "an ares cov'yng (arras covering) wh. was used at the sepulter" was sold to Mr. Bland for 6s. 8d.; the lamp and censer, weighing 20 lb., for 4s.; "two standerdes of brasse, two cansticks, and a tynacle of brasse for holly (holy) water, weying 3 lb.," 14s.; "a coppe crosst," (the priest's cope, with a cross on it) 2s.; a platter, 18d.; "a holy water pott of led, and certein organne pypes of led, weying half C. and 12 lb.," 2s. 10d.; for "13 lb. of pewter of organne pypes and shelles for tapers, at 2d. a lb.," 2s. 2d.; two small bells were sold for 9d.; the top of the pulpit went for 2s., and the foot for 2d.; the organs, the "fayle and old clothes to cover the saynts," the tables that stood on each of the altars, the "trymmer" of the high altar, the altars themselves, and all the other appointments, disappeared like useless lumber. Two inventories of the church goods were written out for the commissioners, and the churchwardens and their friends made merry on the occasion at the tavern. Instead of the gorgeous altars, two "frames," or trestles (or "oyster boards," as the Bishop of Exeter would term them), were provided for the Lord's Supper; and in lieu of carved saints and mural emblazonments, a man was engaged to "write the Scriptures and paint the church at 2d. the yard," on those parts of it, at least, where the whitewasher's brush had not taken the precedence. In the fifth year of King Edward, the old churchwardens handed over to the new ones the church goods, of which the following is an inventory:

"A chalice, two pattens, the cover of a pyx, foot of a silver cross, a crucifix that was on the cover of the pyx, a little silver bowl, the little bowl of the pyx that the crucifix stood on, six pieces of silver and gylte, and a little image of St. Michael of silver gylt, a little bell without a clapp., two brasen canstycks, two painted clothes, a pawle of silk, two sirplices for children, two aubs (albs), a table cloth, five towels, the parson's sirplice and the clarks sirplice, a course pawle, and bere cloth."

Under the reign of Mary, old customs were partly revived, as charges were again made for the pascal taper, wax, frankincense, and charcoal in Lent; Mr. Blunt's man was remunerated "for his paines when he sett the cross and the rest of the stuffe;" Father Charlemayne was paid 6d. for mending the crysmatory; 7d. was charged for chains for the censer; "Raffe Pynner" mended the pyx; and apparently the high altar was reinstated, for after the death of her Majesty, 6d. was paid for taking down the altar, and 3s. "for paving the place and making clean of it." The parish went to but small expense in solemnising Queen Mary's death, 9d. only having been spent "for quene majesty's obit." The Paraphrases of Erasmus had been previously purchased at a cost of 11s., and, with a Bible in English, chained to a lectern. The rood loft was now pulled down, and sold as old timber for 3s. This was in 1561, at which time another inventory of the church goods was furnished, as follows:

"A processional, the portuas in two parts for the whole year, a missal, a manual, a book for christening and burying, a pall lyned, and a old pall onlyned, an old vestment of silk, a front of an alter of red and white satten, with flourdelich (fleur de lis), two albes, two surplices for childern, a little pillow of green, two towels with blew thredd, a bible, a book of comon ——, six stoles for the neck and arm, a book of the paraphrasis, two parelles for albes, a lamp, and certaine pieces of an old lamp, two iron roddes with stockynns upon them, and two curteins of red and yellow, the pastall tapur and eight endes of other tapurs, the sepultre without a hedd, a cross cloth of green silk, a corp —— case, a chalis and patten, two table cloths, two surplises for men, one old cloth to cover the com'n bord."

A "cupp and pott for the com'n bord" was purchased in 1566 at a cost of 3s., and 6d. for the carriage of it from London. The "frame where our little bell hanged"—probably the sanctus bell—was taken down in 1580. Fifteen years later, Nicholas Archbold, the churchwarden, chargeth himself with 7s. 9d. "received from Fowlke Broughton for the old bible of the church, and also with 12d., which this accountant, before the sale thereof, received of one Mr. Morrys, a relator to the Council in the Marches of Wales, in earnest of the said bible, which 12d. was forfeited by him, for that he fetcht not the book as he p'mised." Mr. Morris, no doubt, was more punctual in his subsequent dealings with churchwardens. The old communion book was also disposed of for 3s. 4d.; but "a newe fayer Englishe bible of the last translacon authorised in the church" was purchased for 16s., and a new communion book for 6s. 8d.

Sittings in the church were paid for yearly, at the rate of from 4d. to 6d. each. In 1567, a Mr. Doctor gave 5s. for a seat "which the parishioners promised should remain to his house for ever." Also, in the same year, "received of Mrs. Bland for the seat that her husband paid for her frendes to knele in, 12d.;" and the keeper of the Castle (then the county gaol) paid the like sum for himself and wife. A Mr. Richard Jones was paid 3s. 4d. for preaching two sermons on Palm Sunday in the year 1624; but the usual mode of paying ministers who did not belong to the parish when they preached was by treating them with a quart of sack, claret, or other wine. The Bishop sometimes preached here; and on one occasion the vestry treated his lordship to a rundlett of sack, costing £1. 10s. 10d., besides a quart of sack and a quart of white wine—the rundlett probably for the use of the numerous suite which bishops in those days always brought in their train, and the other for his lordship's own dinner table on the day that he honoured St. Michael's pulpit. On the same occasion a silk girdle, costing 8s., was given to Mr. Parr, one of the Bishop's chaplains, for preaching twice. The number of needy and itinerant preachers in the seventeenth century must have been considerable, judging from the frequent relief allowed them. Probably one of these is referred to in the following curious entry:

"Given to one that come with Tres patents out of Turkie, that had bin long in prison for the maintenance of the ghospel, vid."

Muscadell was used for the communion wine. At Christmas the church was decked with rosemary and bays, sometimes with ivy and holly. A curious illustration of the poorness of the living occurs in these books. It seems that about the year 1551, the living, which was a peculiar, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter, lapsed to the Crown, and has so continued ever since, it not being worth while to pay the expense of the seals, &c., on account of the smallness of the rectory. The custom, therefore, was for the parishioners to make a present of 40s. annually to the parson—a sum equivalent to £20 of present money. In addition to which, in the year 1627, their benevolence expanded into the donation of a suit of clothes to his reverence, Mr. Hoskins. For this purpose they purchased, "by general consent," five yards of "russett kersey," three yards of white cotton, half an ell of "russett bayes," an ell and quarter of linen cloth, three dozen buttons, and silk, also a sheepskin to make him pockets; all of which, including the making, cost £1. 5s. A yearly pension was also paid by the church of Worcester (the Cathedral) to one Roger Follyott, for the use of the parson of St. Michael's, but about the year 1590 the said Roger fell into arrears; a great controversy arose, which was settled by the Dean ordering him to pay 50s. to the churchwardens. Much care seems to have been taken of the parish records, and in 1630 a memorandum specifies that "the church and parish evidences and writings were removed forth of the old chest, and brought and put into the new frame of cubbords or boxes by the feoffees of the lands belonging to the church and parish, and by the churchwardens and divers others of the ancient and better rank of the parish, on Sunday, Nov. 5," and five keys were distributed amongst them with abundant precaution. The period was approaching in which all their care and solicitude were necessary. The first indication of the troublous period of the Civil Wars was the outlay of 12d. for a book of "prayers for the Parliament for a fast." Then, in 1642 (the year of the siege of Worcester), on the 24th of September, being the day when the Earl of Essex took possession of the city, after defeating the Princes Rupert and Maurice, and driving them, together with Lord Coventry, Sir William Russell, and their forces, over the bridge towards Herefordshire, a general pillage ensued, but the churchwardens of St. Michael's apparently compromised the matter by "giving to captains and soldiers for preserving our church goods and writings," 10s. 4d. Widow Ward's chimney, however, was broken down by the soldiers, and its reparation cost 12d.

The "coming of the princes" had been welcomed by a plentiful ringing of the bells of St. Michael's, but "Colonel Essex" was treated to a pottle of white wine and sugar at the Talbot. The jumbling together of incidents at this period is amusing, for about the same time the sum of half-a-crown was spent upon a Mr. Hackett, "in wine, beare, and tobacko, he reading prayers and preaching with us;" also 17s. "for a musket and bandeleer for the parish use, by command of the Governor and Commissioners, remaining with Abraham Pilkington, trained souldier for the parish." Providing one soldier seems to have been the fixed requirement for this parish, as in 1560 a charge of 3s. 2d. was made "for settyng forthe of a man in the warres to Berwick." The second siege of Worcester was in 1646, but the only allusion to military matters in that year are the donations of 5s. to "a soldier's wife delivered of a child in the Dark Alley, her husband having gone from her;" and 6d. "given in charity to one goodwife Packman, a very pore woman, whose husband was killed at Stowe fight, and she beinge at old Gyles his house in the Colledge, and in great miserie, was recommended by Mr. Moore, one of the committee." The year 1651, when Cromwell's crowning victory put the loyal city of Worcester to so much trouble, left numerous traces of the event in the books of this parish. After an inventory of the church plate and furniture then in their possession, the churchwardens say that "All the rest of the parish goods were plundered by Generall Cromwell's souldiers after the routinge of the Scotish army at Worcester ye 4th September last, viz., one flaggon, a pewter pott of three pints, one carpet of stript stuffe, half silk, being the gift of Richard Wannerton, one fayre carpet of branched green velvet, frindged about with deep green frindge, being the gift of Nicholas Archbold, gent., one holland table cloth for the comm'n table, one covering of fine holland to lay over the cushion upon the com'n table, with buttons at the four corners thereof, one table napkin of holland for the com'n board, two old velvet cushions." It seems that shortly after this sanguinary struggle, a County Session was held at Droitwich, and the sum of £500 was granted for the relief of the poor of Worcester, so much impoverished in the war. St. Michael's churchwardens acknowledge receiving the tenth part of this sum; and at the same time there was also laid out the sum of £2. 9s. 4d. "for buryall of the Scots that were slain and dyed in our parish, the Pallace, the Colledge, the Colledge Green, Castle Hill, and ye precincts of the said several places, and of divers others that were brought out of ye citty of Worcester and layd in the churchyard." From this interesting entry it is evident that large numbers of the combatants in those eventful days are resting beneath the sod of St. Michael's churchyard—

"Their bodies dust—their good swords rust—
Their souls are with the saints, we trust."

Just a century later it was ordered that for all bodies buried in the church the sum of one guinea should be paid, and a brick arch turned "to avoid the offensive smells which the inhabitants too often have been annoyed with;" and in October, 1767, appears the following:

"Ordered, that whereas it appears to us that the sextons of the College having unjustly received for many years past 20s. for the use of the Rev. the Dean and Chapter, and 8s. for their trouble in receiving the same, making in the whole £1. 3s., for every person buryed in the said parish churchyard, not being a parishioner, besides tacking of horses, and tolerating pedlars and other strollers to sell their ware thereon, as also in the passage leading unto the High Street, to the great detriment of the parish and a nuisance to the community in general, ordered that the officers of the said parish do set forth their grievances to the Rev. Dean and Chapter, and humbly request their assistance towards fencing the said churchyard in a decent manner, the said parishioners having been at large expense in repairing and beautifying the parish church, and a numerous poor rendering them incapable of doing the whole."

About a century ago the parsonage house was ordered to be excused from all manner of payments, upon consideration of the minister preaching a sermon on Good Friday yearly; part of this parsonage house was called "the coffee-house," and was probably used for that purpose. An annual guinea was paid to the clerk "for singing a psalm every Sunday between the two services;" the same amount to Mr. Staples to act as parish attorney to give his advice at any time; Mrs. Mary Linton was allowed "to have the sole use of the gallery of the church in her time, to take her scool there, on condition that she be at the expense of a new staircase to the gallery;" and "ordered, that the parish pump be locked down, and not to be used (except in case of fire) without the parishioners who make use of it will contribute towards the late expense of the said pump."

This brings us to the subject of parochial expenditure. The first year that figures are introduced into the accounts (and then only for the dates) was in 1557; small numerals were used in carrying out the sums of the items until the year 1644, when figures regularly superseded them. The churchwardens and their friends met and drank together on Easter Day, chiefly at the Talbot, when new churchwardens were chosen, also at the visitation, at "beating the parish bounds," going to inspect the parish property at Clifton, Severn Stoke, and on many other occasions. In 1624, on account of the perambulation, the church was dressed with boughs and rushes, by the clerk, at a charge of 4d., and the sum of 5s. 8d. was spent at the Talbot; the prisoners of the county gaol received 6d. wherewith to forget their sorrows for a time, bread was given to the poor, money to the ringers (there were three bells and a "tinking bell" at that time); and 8d. was "paid to a bottman for carrienge by water the minister and other of ye p'ishe when they went the p'ambulacon round by the Castle Hill and B'pp's Pallace." The poor had grown so numerous and burdensome by the year 1701, that an order was made for no officer to spend money on any of these public occasions; but the lust of the flesh soon reassumed its ancient sway, for in the succeeding year a meeting of twenty of the parishioners, including most of those who had been so considerate for the parochial purse, ordered that the old custom of spending £1 at the perambulation and election of officers should be revived. Many other subsequent efforts at economy were made, but without any permanent effect; and in 1778 I find that no less than £5 for processioning and 18s. for cakes, besides other sums for various parish meetings, were allowed. The total receipts of the parish in 1657 were £56. 4s. 3d., and the disbursements £55. 2s. 9d., but of the balance in hand the accountant observes—"in which money there was a leaden shilling which had long been in the parish stock, and was now broken to pieces by consent of ye parishioners." The Whitsun farthings paid by the officials from the beginning of these records regularly amounted to 5d. per annum. For an explanation of this item, as also for hoseling or houseling money, which was regularly paid, see some of the following chapters.

It would seem that the poor were cared for as well as the imperfect arrangements of those days permitted. Minute details are given of the "rigging out" of parish apprentices. In 1623, Gervase and William Johnes, two pauper lads, were put out, the former to Thomas Fletcher, who received £1. 6s. with him; and the latter to William Spender, who had £1. 10s.; in one case the indentures cost 4s., in the other 1s. The two suits of apparel given to the lads were made of 8 yards of Kidderminster stuff at 14d., 2 ells canvas to line their doublets, 2 ditto for their hosen, an ell straight lining, buttons and thread, 6 yards cotton at 7d. for their hosen, 1½ dozen points 3d. (Query, what were these?) 6¾ ells "huswife's cloth to make fower shirts" 6s. 9d., making 12d., washing old shirts 2d., making 2 doublets and 2 pair of hozen 5s., 2 pair of stockings 2s., 2 bands 1s., 2 hats 4s., 2 pair shoes 2s. 6d. One Stanton, a waggoner, was paid 7s. in August, 1635, to carry a boy to London, and 2s. more "to let the sister of the boy ride sometimes who went along with him." On the carrier's return he was allowed 4d., "disbursed by him for victuals." Cider was given to Mary Lench, a poor parishioner, in 1722, "to take two doses of physic in for the jaundice, and 6d. to let her blood;" and subsequently, 6d. "to buy alicampane powder and two leeches for her distemper." Mr. Sergeant Groves was likewise treated to a shilling's worth of cider in 1707, "when he was pleased to give his advice for the parish." In 1726, "given to a pore widow near ye Palace, to buy a pair of specktacles to see to work," 6d.; and "a pair of pumps for the foundling" was on two or three occasions charged for, at 10d. each. Did this term denote thin, light shoes? The sum of £5 was received by St. Michael's officers every Christmas during the life of the good Bishop Hough, being their share of £100 annually devoted by his lordship to the poor of this city. There was beside a liberal amount of charitable bequests from property left by benevolent persons, and many small sums to be lent for the benefit of young beginners in trade. The parish possessed houses in St. Peter's and St. Helen's; lands at Hanbury; Beanhall Farm, Kempsey; a small estate at Clifton, in the parish of Severn Stoke, and some other property. The churchwardens also regularly received a small payment "for the Talbot passage," which was probably for a right of way to the Talbot inn, there being a house belonging to the parish close by the top of the Talbot entry. Considerable litigation occurred at various periods with reference to the parochial possessions, especially those at Severn Stoke. The churchwardens had occasionally to ride to Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Bewdley, and Shrewsbury, where the Council of the Marches sat, to obtain judgment in their suits, one of which had reference to the sale of some trees by the churchwardens. More on the subject of the jurisdiction of that Council will be found in the chapter on St. Andrew's. The following looks like a case of grave suspicion, in reference to a period when the character of judges was not like that of Cæsar's wife, and when juries of "honest and true" men did not disdain a "refresher." Robert Walker, the churchwarden in 1573, hands in a "reckoning" thus:

"Paid at Evesham Assizes.

The clerk of the assize, the crier, and others, also had their fees on the occasion.

Besides the regular yearly income of the parish, it appears that lands were left at Synglebarrow, in the parish of Great Horwood, Buckingham, out of which a small payment was made (probably in rotation) to the Corporations of Worcester, Winchester, and Reading, the towns of Calne and Aylesbury, and the parishes of St. Michael and Great Horwood.

In 1779, the citizens being about to petition Parliament to increase the powers under their act for supplying the city with water, paving the streets, &c., and having proposed to extend the said act to the parish of St. Michael, in order to avoid union with the city in the said act, which it was apprehended might prove injurious to them, the several proprietors of lands and houses situate next the city engaged voluntarily to remove obstructions, and to pave their soils from St. Mary's Steps to the College Gates, at their several costs, and a committee was appointed to direct the execution thereof.

The only other entries remaining to be noticed are the following curious ones:

Was this "jack" one of those stuffed figures formerly carried about in processions, like the "Jack-o'-Lent," &c.?

What these tokens were required for at Easter I cannot ascertain, but suppose them to have been for some religious purpose. Tokens for change do not occur before the time of Charles I, and they were made by tradesmen, not parishes, and had nothing to do with Easter.

In the year 1660, John Martin, bell founder, was employed in "casting and hanging the second bell." This was at the Worcester foundry, which was in operation a few years only, which is still called "Bellfounders' Yard," Silver Street. Lastly, in 1769, one of the vestry meetings was attended (or at least the minutes are signed by) seven women and seven men. This introduction of the feminine element, however, seems to have been a very rare exception to the rule in those days.

The present rector of St. Michael's is the Rev. George St. John; churchwardens, Mr. Henry Bennett and Mr. Curtis. Population in 1851, 483. The office of clerk has been in the family of Bond for nearly a century; and the records state that, in 1763, Nathaniel Bond (an ancestor of the present clerk, Mr. Capel Bond) was appointed clerk and sexton, at a salary of £4 a year and fees.

St. Swithin's.

This register commences with the year 1538, but it is obvious from the fact of the items for three quarters of a century being in the same handwriting and the same ink, that it was copied from an older one, for the same reason as in the case of St. Michael's register, before-mentioned. During the Civil Wars there are fewer entries of marriages than usual, but no other feature of interest presents itself.

The churchwardens' account book begins in 1673, and contains much that is noteworthy. In those days the churchwardens seem to have been the regular factotums of the parish. They received from the Mayor, at Midsummer and Christmas, the benefaction known as Lord Coventry's money, and distributed to nine poor persons, whose names are entered in the book, at the rate of 3s. 4d. each; and there is a longer list of those who received charity on St. Thomas's Day. Irish vagrants greatly infested the city, and drew largely on the parochial funds; maimed and disabled soldiers and sailors, and numbers of distressed persons who had seen better days, or who had been "ruinated by fire," constantly appealed to the popular benevolence.

"To a distressed gentlewoman and her company, 14 in all, 2s."

"To 16 Englishmen that were taken by the Dutch and got on land ageine, 2s."

The regular poor seem to have been treated pretty liberally. Pauper children were taught to read:

"For hornbook and primmer for Jenkins' girle to learn to read, 6d."

"To a woman for curing a foundling boy of a broken belly, 10s."

Midwives and "gossips" were paid by the churchwardens, and at the christening the parson received 1s., the clerk 6d., and registration 4d. Minute details of expenses incurred for individual paupers are amusing enough:

"Paid Goodman Dooding for dressing of Mary Leonard's legg, and to buy salve by consent of the parish, 5s."

"Paid Mr. Hill for cloth and thred for two shirts for old Panting, he being full of vermin, 5s. 9-1/2d.; and for making, 8d."

Indications are apparent of the great severity of the small-pox at the close of the seventeenth century, and the physicking for this and other diseases was considerable: a mixture was charged 1s. 6d., a bolus 10d., a "vomitt" and a bottle of syrup 8d., a "cordiall draught" 14d., "a mass of pils" 3s., a glass of tincture 1s., and a "Hipnott (?) mixture" 1s.

"Paid Ald. Tyas' bill for medicines to Mr. Blackwell and Joan Harris' legg wch was cutt off 11th Nov. (1698), broke by Mrs. Hammons' cart, for subsistence in her distress for 20 weeks and her mother-in-law to keep her, £1. 10s."

"Paid Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Sambach for cutting off the leg and curing it, £4."

"For wooden leg for Joan Harris, 3s. 10d."

A charge of 2s. is made on several occasions for "a Spanish bag" for pauper women. Can any of my medical or other readers suggest a solution of this?

One "Jones of St. John's" is commemorated as the recipient of various supplies of "strong waters," but what the following entries mean is not very clear:

"Given to Jones of St. John's to buy her husband 2 galls of strong waters and send him abroad that he may not be too chargeable, 6s."

"For a gall. of strong waters to send Jones of St. John's away to save him from arrest, 3s. 4d."

Nor were the poor forgotten in their deaths: charges were regularly made for "rosemary and bayes" to put on corpses, and in one instance the churchwardens paid for the deceased pauper "an alehouse scoare for her 4d., for a plaster for her 2d., and for the old woman that layd her out 4d." In the year 1697 a charge of 8d. was made "for an act of Parliament for badging the poor," which was a copy of a statute for distinguishing paupers by fixing a badge on their clothes. Probably mendicancy was becoming a serious charge, and the legislators of the day thought to reduce it by rendering the recipients of charity as conspicuous as possible. The act of Parliament which directed that every pauper should wear a badge was the statute 8th and 9th of William III, chap. 30, sec. 2; it was passed in the year 1697. It was not at all observed for many years previous to its repeal, which was in the year 1810, by the statute 50th of George III, chap. 52. The badge contained a large Roman "P" (for poor) and the initial letter of the parish to which the pauper belonged. Great exertions were made by the parochial authorities to shift off the burden of pauperism from their own shoulders to other parishes, especially in cases of illegitimate offspring. It is said that whenever the plague prevails in the East, the afflicted sons of Islam beseech Heaven to relieve their locality and send the scourge to the next town. Our own parish registers prove that Christians share the same feelings in common. Here are instances:

"Given to Ann Hector, she being ready to cry out for a midwife, and to lodge her in St. Martin's parish, 2s."

"Paid Fabian Lancett's wife and another woman for watching a woman a night and a day for fear the woman should lye in our parish, 2s. 6d."

"Paid for a lycence to marry Mary Paine (she being big with child) to Sam. Sarles, to prevent more charge to the parish, £1. 1s. 4d."

"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

"Paid to a woman and her husband that lay in at the widow Winn's, 1s."

The love of feasting at the public expense is as apparent in this churchwardens' book, though on a small scale, as in the old corporation archives, which I have already published. A dinner was always provided to commemorate the election of the churchwardens. When Mr. Thomas Shewring and Mr. Thomas Elcox were appointed, in 1673, the following provision was made:

"A crop of beefe, wtt, 47 lb., att 2-1/2d., &c., 10s. 3d.

"Two quarters veale, 9s. 10d.

"A dozen piggeons, 18d.

"Butter, flour, making, and baking, altogether, 4s. 9-1/2d.

"9 lb. baccon of the ribbs at 5d., 3s. 9d.

"Mr. Ferryman for tobacco, 3d.

"Mr. Thomas Vicaris for bread, beare, pipes, tobacco, and all other materials, and to cleane the house, and for dressing the dinner, £1."

A quarter of lamb was 1s. 10d.; 5 lb. of candles for ye parish lanthorn, 9d.; two fat pigs, 5s.; a leg of mutton, 1s. 8d.; capers, 4d.; orange and lemon, 4d.; and a soft cheese (probably cream cheese) is charged 1s. in 1691; 2 lb. "candles to burn by ye church side winter nights," 8d.; and "four tunnes and a halfe of coles att 6s. 4d. pr tunn," £1. 8s. 6d. Dinners or drinking bouts, or both, were given on procession days, visitation days, and at "the assessing the rolls"—that is, when the poor-rate (if so it might be called) was assessed on the parishioners. The "processions" probably were the same as the perambulations, or "beating the bounds," the churchwardens apparently taking a personal survey of the parish boundaries once a year, in the month of May, and immense preparations were made for that purpose, including (in 1674) half a gross of pipes, 6d.; half a pound tobacco, 10d.; and "paid for ale before our own was tapped," 4d. Each parish in those days kept its own "church ales." Charges are made for dozens of "white poyntes for the boyes" in these perambulation accounts. Were these wands, or what else? The perambulating party generally wound up the day at the Globe, where they dined.

Rentals accruing to the parish in 1695 amounted to £74. 18s. 7d., which included £2. 3s. a year for the "oatmeal market" (Mealcheapen Street), also the rents of the Pheasant, the "baccon market," and some meadows at Hindlip. In 1705 the rents were under £60. Charges were made "for work done at the oatmeale bench," probably a bench fixed outside the east end of the church for the use of the dealers in meal; likewise "for laths and nails for mending ye church penthouse." This penthouse was perhaps the "purpresture"—a name then given to booths or stalls placed in the streets for the exhibition or sale of goods, and for which encroachment on the highway a pecuniary acknowledgment was paid to the corporation.

The receipts of the churchwardens in 1680 amounted to £53. 1s. 3d.; disbursements, £57. 13s. 5d. In 1683, receipts, £117; disbursements, only £48. In 1684, receipts, £144; expenditure, £62. In 1705, receipts, £131; expenses, £154. Pentecostals (a sum raised at a farthing per head from the householders in a chapelry or dependent church, and paid to the mother church at Whitsuntide—hence called "Whitsun farthings") were paid to the Dean and Chapter, St. Swithin's being a rectory in the gift of that body. Dr. Burn in his "Ecclesiastical Law," vol. iii, p. 110, says—"Pentecostals, otherwise called Whitsun farthings, took their name from the usual time of payment at the feast of Pentecost. These are spoken of in a remarkable grant of King Henry VIII [dated January 25, 1541] to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, in which he makes over to them all those oblations and obventions, or spiritual profits, commonly called Whitsun farthings, yearly collected or received of divers towns within the archdeaconry of Worcester, and offered at the time of Pentecost. From hence it appears that Pentecostals were oblations." "These oblations grew by degrees into fixed and certain payments from every parish and every house in it, as appears not only from the aforementioned grant of King Henry VIII, but also from a passage in the Articles of the Clergy in the Convocation in the year 1399, where the sixth article is an humble request to the archbishops and bishops that it may be declared whether Peter's Pence, the Holy Loaf, and Pentecostals, were to be paid by the occupiers of the lands though the tenements were fallen or not inhabited, according to the ancient custom when every parish paid a certain quota. These are still paid in certain dioceses, being now only a charge upon particular churches, where by custom they have been paid; and if they be denied where they are due, they are recoverable in the spiritual court." A table of the Whitsun farthings payable in every parish in the diocese of Worcester is given by Dr. Nash in his "History of Worcestershire," vol. i. The clerk's wages in 1690 amounted to £2. 4s. 8d.; the sexton's, 18s.; and the ringers seemed to have had a perpetual license to make as much noise as they liked, and on all occasions, however contradictory: for instance—

"1688.—May 29. Wringing for the birth of the Prince of Wales, 10s.

"Paid for the discharging of the bishopps, 10s.

"July.—Wringing on the day of the late king's nativity, 5s.

"Wringing for proclaiming the King and Queen, £1.

"At ye news from Ireland, 2s."

Mr. W. Riley, in 1736, presented an organ to St. Swithin's church, and up to the present century it was the only church in the city that could boast of either organ or chimes. I find that at least half a century before Mr. Riley's presentation was made, there was an organ here; for in 1692 Mr. Birch charges £3 for mending it; and the organist, Mr. Browne, receives £5 a year salary. Wine for the communion for the whole year (1672) cost £1. 16s.; bread for ditto, 1s. 5d. The offerings at the sacrament varied from 9d. to 12s., but there is the following entry for 8th June, 1673, when the Test and Corporation Act first required all officers, civil and military, to receive the sacrament according to the Church of England:

"Received at the great communion, when Mr. Mayor and the greatest part of the Chamber received the Lord's Supper according to an act of Parliament to that purpose, £1. 7s."

St. Swithin's was probably the then parish church of the mayor. I suppose the mayor did not attend the Cathedral officially on public occasions before 1 Edward IV, as on the 20th of January in that year the Prior of Worcester granted the corporation a permission to attend divine service at the Cathedral, attended by their officers.—See "Nash's Worcestershire," vol. ii, p. 309.

Entries frequently occur of "chimney money" paid for poor widows and others during the reign of James II. Was this a national or local tax? Returns were ordered by parish constables, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, of all fire hearths and stoves in every house rateable to church and poor, and this was probably in reference to the "chimney money" above alluded to—being a tax which poor widows and others, not being absolutely paupers, were unable to pay. The ministers who preached here—probably on special occasions only—had each a bottle of wine given them; and means were taken to prevent any "backing out" on the part of the juveniles when the sermon was commenced; vide:

"Paid Henry Richards for timber, boards, and works, for mending gallery stayers and stoping the boyes ffrom creeping down, and making Mr. Panting's stayers to his reading pue, 12s. 7d."

Among the noticeable miscellaneous entries are the following:

(1680.) "Paid Mr. Evans for common prayer book for the church, 14s. 6d."

(1681.) "Paid for engrossing Mr. Mayor's warrant for burying in woollen. 1s." [I believe an act was passed about this time for the encouragement of the woollen trade by compelling burials in woollen.]

(1682.) "Paid 1s. for charcoal to dry the writings in the treasury" (chest).

"Rosemary and bayes at Christmas, 2s. 6d."

"2 lbs. hogg's liquor (Query, lard?) for the chimes, 7d."

"Paid Ginks to carry the bones to the scullhouse, 3s."

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.

"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.

The disbursements made by the churchwardens in the year 1678 were but £46. 15s. 8d.; in 1685 they amounted to £357. 14s. 8d. owing to extra assessments for the repairs of the church; but after that period they usually reached to upwards of £100 per annum. This increasing expenditure occasioned a movement for economy and a suspicion against the men in office, who were repeatedly tied down by the vestry to spend no more than 20s. on the perambulation day, or the excess would not be allowed them. No practical result however followed, as the injunction seems to have been regularly disregarded, and four or five times that sum not unfrequently spent. The outlay was of course popular with the people, and hence the impunity. Five shillings were generally spent in cakes for the boys, and 6d. given to the person who "carried the bush."

As late as 1798 an order was made for the usual perambulation, but "no dinner at the parish expense." Holy Thursday was the day for this processioning, or going over the parish boundary, and the "holy" day was usually terminated either at the Fish, the Green Dragon, the Falcon, the George, the Talbot at the Cross, or the Crown and Sceptre "near the Foregate." A transcript of one of these processions may not be uninteresting:

"Holy Thursday, May 5, 1692, the minister, chwdns and p'ishioners of ye p'ish of St. Nicholas did goe ye perambulacon, and did remarke ye p'ticular places and bounds of ye said p'ish, viz., from the church to Mr. Stirrop's parlour window in Angel Lane, over against a stone in Mr. Savage's wall, from thence back again round by the Cross to Mrs. Powell's house, widd., now inhabited by Nichs. Nash, mercer, at the hithermost part of the shop where the ground-sill of the house will show an old passage or dore case, at which place there was formerly an entry, and the p'ishioners in ye yeares '61-2-3 and 4 did passe throw ye said entry, at which time one Mrs. Cooksey lived there, to Mr. Huntbatche's, farther parte of ye house, then to that parte of ye house next the Crosse, being the back parte of Mr. Millington's house, then to the hithermost parte of the White Harte, then down the Trinity to the marke in a wall neare ye old goale, from thence throw Mr. Blurton's garden, then to the joynt in Mr. Blurton's malthouse, then up Sansonie Field from that joynt, and soe throw to ye liberty post, then downe ye Salt Lane to the stile at Marten's workehouse and soe back to the church."

Besides the large sums spent on the processioning day, the day of accounts, the election of officers, and assessing the rolls, charges were constantly made which would sound oddly enough in the ears of the present generation, for even services in the cause of charity and religion were not deemed complete without the unction of large quantities of drink swallowed at the parish expense. Here are specimens:

1687.—"Spent at the Ffish after the French Protestants' money was gathered," 6s. 8d.

"Ditto, ditto, when the money was paid in," 2s. 4d.

"Spent at Ffish with severall p'ishioners abt ye comandments," 1s. 6d.

Among other curious sources of expenditure are the following:

1681. "Paid Mr. Lea for howsling pence (or huslinge money, as it is elsewhere called), 11d."

This probably means what is now called Sacrament-money. Howsel, an ancient name for bread, was in former times applied to the sacrament of the eucharist, as before the Protestant Reformation the sacrament of both kinds was restricted to the clergy, and the sacramental cup was forbidden to the laity. In the certificates of colleges and chantries for Worcestershire, 2 Edward VI, the persons who received the holy communion are called "howsling people"; and in the line in Hamlet, where the Danish prince, after complaining that his father had been sent out of the world before his time, adds—

"With all his imperfections on his head,
Unhouselled, unanointed, unannealed,"

he evidently means that his royal sire had not received the last offices of religion; "unhouselled" meaning that he had not received the sacrament of the eucharist; "unanointed" that he had not received the Roman Catholic sacrament of extreme unction; "unannealed," or as it should be unanknelled, that he had not had the passing bell tolled for him as he was dying, to cause all pious Christians to pray for his soul.

1679.—"For a warrant to take the names of the Papists," 6d.

This was probably in consequence of the excitement following the discovery of Titus Oates's Popish plot.

A subsequent allusion to the Romanists occurs many years afterwards, when it was "agreed that Papist Franks' child be put on the roll," as though it had been a matter of grave deliberation first. I suppose this means, that belonging to Popish parents precluded children from the benefit of being put on the rolls for parochial relief, but that after some discussion this single case (perhaps a pressing one of destitution) was admitted.

1682.—"For paceboard for the excomunicated p'sons," 4d.

1683.—"Charges of the excomunication," £6. 10s.

The above charges were probably for a list of Papists and others who had been excommunicated in the Ecclesiastical Court here, and which list was fixed to the church door. Excommunication may still in some cases form part of the sentence of our ecclesiastical courts, but is now regulated by the statute 53 George III, chap. 127.

The most recent remarkable instance of excommunication was that of the celebrated Mr. Michael Scales, who, in Trinity Term, 1829, was excommunicated for brawling in the church of St. Mary, Stratford Bow, in the county of Middlesex; and in this case Dr. Lushington, in delivering judgment said, "In the year 1813 an act was passed effecting an alteration by changing the punishment annexed to the penalty of excommunication; the court, however, is not released from passing a sentence of excommunication, but the consequences of that sentence are very different from what they were before the passing of the 53 George III, chap. 127. Since the passing of that statute the ancient punishment of excommunication is taken away—the person excommunicated incurs no civil penalties except such imprisonment as the court, in the exercise of its discretion, may think proper to direct, not exceeding six months."

Mr. Scales was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment, but the King's Advocate (Sir Herbert Jenner Fust) said that he would rest contented with the sentence of the court without proceeding to enforce its further execution.

A full account of this case will be found in Dr. Haggard's "Consistory Reports," vol. ii, p. 566.

1691.—"Spent at 2 ffaires for the arresting of Wormington and p'cureing a bond," 18s. 8d.

1693.—"Paid for the prayers for their ma'ties fleete," 6d.

This was probably during an expedition of William III against France.

1703.—"Paid Mr. Cook for printing his sermon," £4. 15s.

1708.—"Ordered (in December) that £5 be paid to Mr. Taylor, the curate, for preaching a sermon every sacrament day in the afternoon since Easter last."

1720.—"Paid for the use of a pillion," 1s. 6d.

"For a litter from Oxon," 2-1/2d.

Rosemary and bayes were very regularly distributed about the church at Christmas. The bread for the communion for the whole year 1678 amounted to but 1s.; the wine, £1. 5s. 6d. Money collected at the communion in 1680, about £2, in seven collections. In 1684—bread, 3s. 6d.; wine, £4. 14s. 7d. Mr. Stephen Ashby, in 1737, "gave 20s. to the rector for preaching a sermon on Good Friday, suitable to the great subject of the day; and it is desired that the inhabitants of St. Swithin's may have liberty to attend the service and sermon, and that the blessed sacrament of the Lord's Supper may be administered that day, if there shall be a sufficient number of communicants." An inventory of the furniture belonging to the church in 1680 included "one English Bible, eleven service books, a book of homilies, Paraphrase of Erasmus, one book Jewell's works, one book called Musculus, one book of the Whole Duty of Man [two years previously three books of the Whole Duty of Man were entered as having been given to the parish], four books given by Mr. Griffith, the rector, being the Companion to the Temple, two parts, the Companion to the Altar, and the Occasional Office of Matrimony, a book of cannons, a book concerninge God and the Kinge," besides books for the poor, communion plate, green carpet, &c. A charge of 1s. 8d. for chaines and staples for the books in the church was made about the same time. In the year 1680 an old vestry order was revived, "That the clerk should buy and maynteyne sufficient ropes whenever required, and to have the benefit of the ringing the bells." The clerk was also discharged from keeping the clock, and it was ordered that some skilful person should be chosen for the purpose and paid 20s. yearly; but some twenty years after that a much more economical arrangement was made with one John Cox, who was paid 25s. "for mending the clock, upon his promise to keep it in order 21 years at 5s. a year." A new ring of bells for this church was cast at Bromsgrove in 1715. Patching up the old church was a frequent source of great outlay for some years before it was determined to build a new one. In 1682 the "pillar near the great door" being much decayed, and endangering the structure, and other repairs being needed, they were ordered to be done. I find that the cost of 400 tiles was 6s. 8d., 20 bushels of hair 6s. 8d., 400 Wyer brick 6s. 8d., 5 loads of sand 7s. 6d., eight loads of stone (from Ombersley) £2, lime 5d. a bushel; the workmen generally had 1s. a day, while others had more or less. Green flannel was bought for "the 48 seats," (the corporation), and red tape to be nailed on it. Three years afterwards an order was made to repair the church again at a cost of £150, and two men named Allibone and Pascall "to have ye job," Mr. Emes to give security for its proper performance. Malt was bought to make drink for the workmen. Three and a half yards of damask for the communion table were then charged £1. 2s. 9d. Next year the chancel was out of order, and a buttress was put up. In 1690 the steeple underwent reparation. Then it was found that the accommodation of the church was not sufficient, and in 1697 it was ordered, "That my Lord Bishopp be waited upon by the minister to desier his fyatt for the building a new gallery." The four front seats of this gallery were "put in order and matted fitt for ye gentlewomen to sit in." Only two years elapsed when the old vestry was ordered "to be taken down and removed to next pillar, and to be put in decent order for the parishioners to meet on all parish accounts." Then, in 1707, a new gallery was ordered to be erected under the west window, "in the most decent and workmanlike manner that can be found out and advised by able workmen, and that the pulpit, seats, and font, be removed and made more convenient." At length the old fabric was found not to be worth any further outlay, and it was pulled down in 1728. The vestry meetings were then held in the Berkeley chapel, also at several inns and private houses. [The Hop-pole is first mentioned in 1742, and the Star and Garter in 1748. Mr. G. Woodcock was the landlord of the former, and Mr. William Dyer of the latter.] The trustees appointed under the act for taking down and rebuilding the church were Mr. Thomas, Mr. Weston, Alderman Weston, Martin Sandys, Alderman Vaughan, Alderman Floyer, Mr. Hayles, Mr. John Nichols, Mr. Ashby, Mr. Mence, Alderman Hopkins, Dr. B. Purshall, and the churchwardens. Captain Wingfield, Mr. Sambach, and Mr. Garway, were afterwards chosen trustees to act with the others in carrying on the building. It was ordered that all gifts to the parish should be paid to the treasurer of the trustees, and the parish to pay the interest as directed by the wills of the respective donors. [I mention this in consequence of the bearing it has on a recent church-rate discussion here.] When the trustees should be reduced to thirty, any nine of the survivors were to fill up the number. Sums were borrowed at common interest and others as annuities, and heavy rates were levied. Great difficulty was experienced in raising the amount, the whole expense of the church being £3,345. It was ordered to prosecute all defaulters in the Ecclesiastical Court, except Quakers, who were to be brought before the magistrates; and among other modes of raising funds were the following: Alderman Weston gave £20 for a seat under the south window next the tower; Mr. Sandys and Mr. Mence £100 each for having conveyed and assured to them the two galleries on each side of the tower; and an order was made that the £20 given by Mr. Ashby for preaching a sermon on Good Friday be laid out on building a wall and enclosing the churchyard. The first vestry was held in the new church in 1730, when it was ordered that the seats should have numbers or figures put on them; "the persons to sit in them according to their weekly payments to the poor; and if any one should sit in a seat above his weekly pay he or she shall be immediately charged according to the figure on the seat."

The Salt Market was held in the parish of St. Nicholas. At a parish meeting in 1792 it was agreed "That whereas there is a stage erected before the Salt Market, to the great prejudice and forestalling of the p'ish tenants, who pay considerable rents to the use of the poor of St. Nicholas, that all and every person," &c., should be proceeded against as counsel should advise. The site of the Salt Market was what is now the garden in front of the rectory house, close by the church. There was a stonemason's yard behind, and in the rear of that yard was a house which, by the addition of a new front, has been converted into the present rectory. Mr. Young, who is now living at the age of about eighty-three, informs me that he can recollect a man regularly selling salt at a small open shop or stall on the site in question. Three or four centuries ago the Salt Market was at "the well of Allhallow," near All Saints' church. In 1692 the parishioners were "p'sented for ye repaire of the way from Foregate to the Pound, in St. Martin's, lying near the town ditch," which had hitherto been repaired by the inhabitants living there, or else by the chamberlain of the city, the churchwardens therefore were instructed to litigate the point, and no further entry occurs on the subject. There was also much disputation about some property in the Butts, and at length "Wm. Lygon, Esq., John Price, chancellor, James Nash, of Martley, gentleman, and John Appletree, Esq., were requested to be arbitrators for the parish in a matter between ye p'ishioners and Mary Solley, widow, concerning the retakeing of the gravel butts and setting forth ye said butts and ye boundaries thereof." In 1770 a lease of "the rector's ten tenements at the bottom of Gaol Lane" was granted for fifty years, at a rental of £21. 10s., for a workhouse. This Gaol Lane was the present Nicholas Street, where also were several almshouses, repaired by the parish. The lane led to the old city gaol, which was situate on the site of the gardens and property now belonging to the Avenue House (Mr. Powell's) and cottages adjacent in Trinity Gardens. The entrance to the old gaol was near the premises in St. Nicholas Street, till recently occupied as a savings-bank. St. Nicholas Street—now the principal thoroughfare to and from the railway station—was at that time no street at all, there being no outlet to Lowesmoor except for foot passengers, who had to go through a narrow entry with turnstile. A public house called the Dolphin stretched across the street from the present police station to the point where Mr. Finch's house now stands, and the entry was at the left of that public house, close adjoining Mr. Finch's. The last house which then stood in the lane is still in existence, being occupied by a broker. Its old doorway and timbers speak for themselves. Mr. Finch's premises were then a workshop and timber-yard belonging to a Mr. Powell. The ten tenements above alluded to, as belonging to the rector, were on the opposite side of the lane, and were probably used as a parish workhouse only from 1770 till the building of the present House of Industry, about twenty years later. These tenements are now about to be sold, under an act passed a few years ago, enabling incumbents to sell dilapidated property for its bona fide value, the proceeds to be deposited in Queen Anne's Bounty fund, and the annual value to be paid to the incumbent. The cattle market was held in Gaol Lane within the recollection of aged persons now living. A by-law was made in the time of Henry VII, setting forth that, as the cattle market in Broad Street was a great annoyance, thenceforth the Welsh cattle should be brought to Dolday, and English cattle to Anger (Angel) Lane, and to the "old gayle." The garden and butter markets were also formerly held in front of St. Nicholas' church, having been removed thither from All Hallows Well. A great part of the area in front of St. Nicholas' church is consecrated ground, the boundary being still defined by a line of pavement. At the corner of the churchyard the old watchman's box was formerly placed. Richard Hill, the late beadle of St. Nicholas church, had the honour of being the "last man" of the ancient dynasty of Charleys in this city. He received a concussion of the brain in a night assault, but after lying by for some time he recovered and became beadle of the church. The first mention of public lamps in the churchwardens' books is in 1698; when it was ordered "Yt the lamps in the parish, and to be putt up in the parish, be fedd with oyle, and trimmed and cleaned at the charge of the parish, and that the churchwardens doe take care to have them lighted all dark nights in the winter season." Mention of a Sunday school is made in 1786, when it was agreed that the expense of it should be paid out of the money collected for the poor, and a committee was appointed to manage the affairs of the school. [I find that Sunday schools were ordered to be established as early as 1570, by the Council of Malines.] Present rector of St. Nicholas, the Rev. W. H. Havergal; churchwardens, Mr. F. Shrimpton and Mr. T. B. Burrow. Population in 1851, 2030.

St. Peter's.

The oldest register now in this church commences with 1686; but this book is No. 2, and it is written at the commencement that "No. 1 contains entries from 1560 to 1686." No. 1 is, however, missing. In the early part of the eighteenth century, the entries of the births of dissenters' children are placed apart by themselves, as in some other registers which I have inspected. The spirit which dictated this is, unhappily, not yet defunct amongst us. There is an entry in 1716 of the name of "Gibbon, son of Mr. G. Bagnall," who was probably a descendant of that loyal gentleman who facilitated the escape of Charles II from the battle of Worcester by lending him his horse when the king was nearly captured in Sidbury. Several instances of adult baptism are recorded here, among which is the following: "Rebecka Nicholas, aged 23, born and bred a Quaker, was baptised Sep. 3, 1759." Not a few names are to be met with, both in the registers and churchwardens' books a century or one hundred and fifty years or more ago, which are still familiar in the parish—such as Burlingham, Gorle, Jenkins, Darke, John Dent, Daniel George, Luke Wells, Coney, Hartwright, Hickman, Roger Moore, Luke Lench, &c. It is probable that many of the poor fishermen's families here have been identified with the parish for a succession of several centuries, and in particular the name of one of them (Leonard Darke) seems never to have been missing, as far back as the records go. No doubt, among these humble followers of a calling which has been handed down from father to son for many generations, as also with innumerable instances of agriculturists, if they possessed the ambition or the means, they might trace as ancient if not as distinguished a pedigree as any Norman or Saxon lord of the soil.

A few notes from the churchwardens' books will suffice. The oldest of them now to be found begins with the year 1739, and the next with 1770. In the latter, one Charles Geary exhibits his anxiety to acquaint posterity with the fact that the holding a churchwardenship is not incompatible with the loftier aspirations of the poetic muse, thus—

"I bought this book,
And in him the p'ishoners may look
And thear they may see
That he
Was bought by me,
Charles Geary."

On the cover of the same book is the following memorandum:

"I have perused the pleadings in a case between John Berkeley, Esq., plaintiff, and John Sparrow and Thomas Butler, churchwardens of St. Peter's, defendants, and find that the inhabitants, owners, and possessors of lands and tenements within the chapelry of Whittington, in the said parish, are, by the verdict given in the said cause, to pay one fourth part only of all levies and charges for repairing of the said parish church of St. Peter's and the ornaments thereof, and also one fourth of all charges for bread and wine used at the communion there.—John Farmer. July 4, 1752."

Among the charges pertaining to the church, in the same year, a new clock and dial, three feet square, by Mr. John Steight, cost £13. 10s.; and three years afterwards the vestry made an order to "buy a new pulpit of the Dean and Chapter for eight guineas, that they had lately made and was not then in use." No such heavy expenses were incurred in this parish as in St. Nicholas's for perambulation purposes or other feasting, and indeed the scale of the disbursements generally betokened St. Peter's to be much the poorer parish of the two. £3. 9s. was charged in 1761 for "going the bounds." In 1774, I find that the turnpikes to Feckenham cost 3d. for a horse; hire of the animal, 2s.; hay and corn, 6d.; dinner and drink for the rider, 1s. 6d. The lamps first put up in this parish were under the care of the churchwardens, who were ordered to appoint a person to trim them. Mr. Nathaniel Wilkinson—who has been rendered famous by his erection of the beautiful spire of St. Andrew's church—was an inhabitant of St. Peter's; and in 1750 I find an order that Mr. Wilkinson's accounts should be examined, "and if he do not submit them for inspection an attorney be employed." It ever seems the fate of genius to contend with pecuniary difficulties.

I now come to the management of the poor. As in all other parishes to whose records I have had access, the greatest vigilance was exercised to pass on tramps and get rid of paupers, especially that class of females who evidently contemplated an increase of the population, and these are invariably designated by a term which will not exactly suit the fastidious readers of the nineteenth century. In 1739 Leonard Darke is ordered "to have the badche (badge) put upon his sleeve as the act of Parliament directs, before the churchwarden relieves him or his wife; and that all other people that receive reliefe from the parish be obliged to wear the badge." In the same year—"Paid to gett a stranger out of the parish troubled with fitts, 1s." In 1746—"Ordered that the churchwardens do agree with the London carryer in the best manner that he can to take Ann Nelson back to Christ Church parish in London, from which she was sent by a pass directed to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the city of Worcester." See how the authorities of those days enforced seducers to make the amende honourable:

1780.—"Paid to Ann Williams, examination and oath relative to her parish, 2s.

"Her examination and oath touching the father of the child, 2s.

"A warrant to apprehend the father, and expenses of constables and assistants in taking him, £1. 18s.

"Paid for the ring, 4s.

"Licence, £1. 8s.

"Pd parson, clerk, and sexton, 8s.

"For the wedding dinner and drink, 11s. 6d."

There was no middle way left for this description of sinner but a long incarceration in gaol or a procession to the hymeneal altar in company with her whom he had outraged. The prospect of the gratuitous "dinner and drink" no doubt decided the point. Lunatics were treated in an equally characteristic manner.

1753.—"Paid for necessaries for Rd. Strayne, 1s. 6d.

"Two hopsacks for a bedtick for him, 3s. 4d.

"Straw for him, 6d.

"A nurse to look to him, 1s. 6d.

"Paid a man to help to chain him, with expenses, 3s.

"Two staples, a chain, and a lock, 8d."

The small-pox and the itch were the two greatest scourges of pauperism in those days, and it seems that even then (though I was not aware of the fact before) the contract system was resorted to in reference to both the sick and able-bodied poor. In 1779, Mr. William Dunn, apothecary, contracted with St. Peter's vestry to supply the poor of the parish in the workhouse with medicines and proper attendance for the sum of £7. 7s. for three years. Six years later, Robert Tasker, governor of the workhouse, contracted to lodge, clothe, keep, and manage the poor for three years, at £185 per annum: and in 1791 Robert Tasker again contracted for £195, and £10 was then further paid to him "for extras during the last three years and for his particular care and attention to lunatics." But in reference to the workhouse question we must retrace our steps as far back as 1746, when the vestry requested the churchwardens "to take to their assistance others of the parishioners, and draw a scheme for establishing a workhouse in the parish." Ten pounds a year was fixed as the salary of the governor, Zachary Humphries, and "a proper person was to be employed to instruct young persons and others in the workhouse in pareing of leather, sewing of gloves, spinning, or other employments." One shilling a week was allowed to the governor for every person admitted to the house. At the same time it was ordered that "the house now rented by the parish of Mr. Brooker, the minister, be converted into a workhouse, and fitted up in a fortnight." In 1771 it was apparently found that the accommodation was insufficient, as an order was made "That a workhouse be set on foot and established as speedily as may be." Exactly twenty years later it was resolved to concur in the plan of a general workhouse, and delegates were appointed to attend the general committee. Great opposition, however, was raised, in consequence of an outcry against the suppression of the parochial system—as usual, no doubt, by interested individuals having a tender regard for the abuses of the old plan, for this has ever been the experience attending great measures for the public good. In the following year therefore (1792), at a vestry meeting convened to consider the bill for establishing a House of Industry, it was resolved, by a majority of forty-five to reject the bill "as unnecessary for this parish;" and a Mr. James Holyoake, referring to his vote at the last parish meeting respecting this business, "begs leave to observe as to the division of parishes. Out parts of parishes cannot be divided from such parts as in the city. Parishes united or consolidated must remain so, unless altered or divided by act of Parliament; and if this is, or intended to be, a part of the bill, the said James Holyoake doth on his own part protest against such clause being inserted therein; and it is submitted that a review should be taken of all the public acts made and passed by the legislature for the relief, support, and government of the poor in general. Abstract and consider the clauses of these acts of Parliament; consider the acts at large, and give reasons why the ministers, churchwardens, and overseers, should not continue to be the lawful trustees, guardians, and representatives of their churches and parishes for the relief, support, and government of the poor; and determine (if you can) why the ministers, churchwardens, and overseers, should be restrained from representing and doing the duties belonging to their churches and parishes; and why they, or their churches and parishes, should be superseded or directed by any particular set of people on earth. And should not the clause No. lxiii in the said bill, intended for the better relief of the poor of the city of Worcester, conclude thus—'It is intended to be a private act.'"

The year 1793, however, saw the establishment of the general workhouse on Tallow Hill; and in the first year of the operation of the new plan, although the poor were very largely increased above the average of preceding years, the total cost of their maintenance amounted to a less sum than before. The parishes incorporated by this act were All Saints, St. Andrew, St. Alban, St. Clement, St. Helen, St. Martin, St. Michael, and St. Swithin, and the average expenditure of these parishes for the poor for five years preceding amounted to £1525 per annum, as follows: All Saints, £290; St. Andrew, £182; St. Alban, £47; St. Clement, £108; St. Helen, £187; St. Martin, £255; St. Nicholas, £303; St. Swithin, £153. The present Hop Market had been a workhouse (prior to the establishment of that on Tallow Hill) for probably a century, as I find that in 1699 the Foregate was pulled down in order to build a workhouse.

The present vicar of St. Peter's is the Rev. W. Wright; churchwardens, Mr. W. Otley and Mr. R. Allies. Population in 1851, 4025.

St. Andrew's.

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 o^r. Lord God 1587, beynge the thirtyeth yeare of the raigne of o^r. 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.

St. Helen's.

Register commences with 1538, but appears to have been copied in one handwriting from a book of that date nearly a century later. (See remarks on St. Michael's.) The period of the Civil Wars is noted by much confusion, but there is nothing in the book beyond simple entries of births, marriages, and deaths. The account books, however, which date from 1682, possess a fair average amount of interest. In the beginning of last century various minor improvements and renovations were effected in the church and with the bells. The "chambermen's seat" (meaning the corporation), next the reading pew, "was ordered to be enlarged, and the women's seat next adjoining to be kept as large as now it is by adding the next seat to it." A vestry, held September 10, 1706, ordered "that the churchwardens do article and agree with Mr. R. Sanders,[2] bell-founder, or any other founder, for casting the five bells into eight," and voted a sum not exceeding £70 for founding and hanging the same. An agreement was accordingly made with Mr. Sanders. The five bells handed over to him weighed 85 cwt. 1 qr. 1 lb., and the eight recast 80 cwt. 2 qrs. 15 lb., making a difference of 518 lbs., which is charged at 12d. per lb. This famous octave—the inscriptions on which, in honour of Queen Anne and Marlborough's victories over the French, may be seen in all the local histories and guide books—weighed separately as follows: Blenheim, 6 cwt. 0 qr. 27 lb.; Barcelona, 6 cwt. 2 qr. 26 lb.; Ramilies, 7 cwt. 1 qr. 13 lb.; Menin, 8 cwt. 2 qr. 3 lb.; Turin, 9 cwt. 3 qr. 24 lb.; Eugene, 10 cwt. 1 qr. 3 lb.; Marlborough, 12 cwt. 3 qr. 4 lb.; Queen Anne, 18 cwt. 2 qr. 27 lb. A regular charge of 1s. is made for ringing the pye-bell between twelve and one on Christmas Day, which, I suppose, is in some way connected with the proverbial good cheer of that festive season, just as the "plum-pudding bell" of St. Martin's, and "the pancake bell" which was formerly common everywhere at Shrove Tuesday—

[2] Of Bromsgrove; see article on "Bells."

"But hark, I hear the pancake bell,
And fritters make a gallant smell."

"For tolling ye passing bell as ye prisoners passed by" (to be hanged) was also a constant charge, as likewise the bow-bell (curfew) at night. On the 29th of May, 1723, the churchwarden, in the exuberance of his loyalty, records the payment of 5s. "ringing happy, glorious, and miraculous restoration."

The sum of £134 was expended in the repair of the church in the year 1718, and seven years later £2. 8s. for a font, £22. 5s. 8d. for communion plate, and £4. 10s. for a communion cloth. The expenditure for sacramental wine throughout the whole year 1683 was but 9s. 5d., yet the churchwardens could make heavy charges for sack, quarts of "muskadell," and bottles of canary, for their own consumption. In 1727, the sacramental wine cost £6. 12s. 10d. Every strange minister who preached at the church—as was then the custom in all the parishes—was rewarded with a bottle of wine, at a charge of 2s., but whether the guinea fee accompanied it or not the record doth not say. "Ye parson preaching a sermon on the powder deliverance," in 1725, received 10s. 6d.

A list is given (in 1683) of the "names of pore persons who had coats, &c., sent by Mr. Fra. Haynes when he was mayor, as were bought with ye Quakers' money." No doubt from the fines which were levied upon that unhappy sect. (See subsequent part of this work.) Considerable attention to the poor is observable in these books. A "Spanish bagg" is ordered for Joyce Moorton in 1691, at a cost of 1s. What this article was I have failed to discover. One Stumps, a female cripple, seems to have occasioned a large outlay: there is "for Stumps's wooden supporters, 3s.;" "for Stumps's new leggs, 2s.;" "paid Stumps when she lay in, 6d.;" "mending Stumps's supporters, 4d.;" "for a new supporter for Stumps, 2s. 6d." and "for buriall, grave, and coffin for Stumps's child, 5s. 4d." In 1732, 2s. 6d. was spent in curing one Panting of a "whorscold" (What disease was this?); and in the same year, "paid Mr. Hooke for bleeding and drawing a tooth, 1s. 6d." A room was hired in 1718, for 4s., for "Captain Hemming's wife to lye in," but how that lady happened to come under the cognizance of the parochial authorities is one of those mysteries which will probably ever remain so. A few years later occurs this graphic entry: "Wincot's wife in ye straw (and he not well), 1s." About the same time 1s. was given "to three poor strangers who were travelling from Lancashire to Somersetshire, and by ye account they gave had been slaves in Africa, permitted by ye mayor to ask alms."

Strenuous exertions were made here, as throughout the city generally, to check the increase of the pauper population. Men were paid to watch vagrant women who were in an interesting situation, and escort them out of the parish—no matter where so that they were not in St. Helen's; but notwithstanding the utmost precautions the number of foundlings and illegitimates was very great. Where the fathers of these were known it was very long odds against their escaping from the wardens, who generally succeeded in tying that hymeneal knot for them which they themselves ought to have fastened some time earlier. The prospect of a capital wedding dinner, all expenses to be paid for them, and a liberal fee put in their pocket, for the most part converted these lascivious libertines into honest Benedicts, and saved the parish the maintenance of the pauper infant. The accounts abound with such items as these:

"Spent with Ben. James, p'swading him to marry Han. Hill, 1s."

"At ye marriage of Bury with Brawler of Powick—for licence, £1. 2s. 6d.; spent at ye wedding, 6s. 6d.; to ye bridewell keeper, 1s.; to ye parson, 5s.; to ye clerke, 1s."

"Expenses for eating and drink, Corfield's marriage with Gould, 3s. 7d.; two men for watching, 2s.; drink when Corfield was taken, 1s. 3d; for ye warrant, 4d.; to cash given ym and marrying, 8s. 6d."

In 1720, the sum of 3d. was paid "to ye clerke for keeping a w—— out of ye parish;" and "expenses in preventing Tomkins marying a w—— of All Saints, 9d." The whole of the parish disbursements in 1682 amounted to but £31. 18s. 1d., but by 1740 they had reached to £273. Perambulation expenses increased during the same period from 12s. to £3. 8s.; and the principal drinking places were the Globe, King's Head, and Adam and Eve. The churchwardens were in the habit of sending the mayor a brace of capons at Christmas "for the house in Dolday," but in 1719 this chief rent was commuted into an annual payment of 2s., being the usual cost of the capons. In 1703 "it was agreed to mayntain the lamps with oyle and dressing from All Hollantide to Candlemas from the Town Hall to the Colledge gates, at the parish charge by the churchwardens for the time being;" and in 1740, a sum was "paid ye clerk for two nights lighting the lamps ye time of ye musick meeting," that being about the period when the Festivals were on the point of being established on a permanent and enlarged basis. What can be the meaning of the following entry?

1727.—"Paid John Speed for putting flower in ye tub of water severall times, 1s."

The Pentecostals or Whitsun farthings paid in this parish in 1701 amounted to 3s., which, at a farthing per head, would show 144 paying householders then in the parish, unless indeed the payment had become a fixed one. There were said to be 255 houses here in 1779. Whitsun farthings (alluded to in pages 14 and 23) have been made from chapelries to their mother church up to a comparatively recent date. In the Castle Morton parish register is an entry of such payment at the commencement of the present century. Nash states that the Whitsun farthings belonging to the Cathedral of Worcester in 1649, when an act was passed for selling the lands, &c., of bishops, deans, and chapters, were estimated at about £5. 5s. per annum. He also gives a list of the amount due from each parish in the then nine deaneries. The share paid by the city of Worcester was 15s. 2-1/2d.

The present rector of St. Helen's is the Rev. J. H. Wilding; churchwardens, Mr. Woods and Mr. T. Bickley. Population in 1851, 1368.

St. Alban's.

No records of any interest are to be found here. The register begins with 1630, and the account book 1751, in which year the total expenditure for this little parish amounted to £20. 19s. 10d., including £12 for the poor. The Whitsun farthings usually amounted to 6d. per annum, which, at a farthing per head per householder, showed twenty-four subscribers.

The Rev. J. H. Wilding also holds this small rectory; churchwardens, Mr. F. St. John and Mr. Nicholson. Population in 1851, 286.

St. Martin's.

Here I found a register commencing with 1538, nicely copied in one uniform hand for a series of years. An hiatus occurs between 1560 and 1573, where the leaves have been torn out. In the 22nd year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, "John Wilkinson, the parson," caused to be entered on the register his license to one Thomas Heywood, "he beinge very sicke in body," to eat flesh in Lent so long as his illness continued, and no longer. To show the disturbing influence of the Civil Wars, it will be sufficient to state, that only one wedding is recorded in 1643, one in 1644, four in 1645, five in 1646, and so on. About the year 1653 the entries of a peculiar sort of marriages commence of which the following are specimens:

"Mem. John Cartwright of ye parish of Wellan, and Anne Elvinges, of ye parish of Handbure, were joined together man and wiffe by John Nash, justis of peas, by consent, beinge lawfully published 3 severall market dayes in 3 severall weekes, without anie exception, ye 3d of Januarie. Witnesses, Richard Harrise, Marie Salloway, and John Robere."

"Memor. That Thomas Baker, of the parish of Daderhill, and Ann Wallford, of the parish of Sallwarpe, both in the countie of Worcester, weare married the 26th daye of Maye, 1656, by Mr. John Nash, on of the justises of the pease of the cittie of Worcester, being publiclie proclaimed 3 severall market dayes, in 3 severall weekes, in the market plase of the sayd cittie, accordinge to the actt of parliment."

John Roberts signs himself the "register of Martin's." The above description of marriages ceased with the close of Cromwell's protectorate. In 1772 occurs the following:

"N.B.—Through the omission of Mr. John Giles, curate, no regular register was kept from this time till Mr. Pearkes, clerk of the parish, in Oct. 1772, began a private account, from whose copy the following extracts are taken. The intermediate time, from Dec., 1769, to October, 1772, is very imperfectly supplied by a few alterations delivered to the churchwardens in consequence of notice of the above omissions having been given publicly in the church, and by advertising in the Worcester Journal."

All the old account books belonging to this parish have been either destroyed or removed into the custody of private persons who have not the honesty to restore them. Vestry orders from 1718 and churchwardens' account books from 1783 are the earliest records, and very little of any interest is to be gleaned from them. Enough, however, remains to prove that the parish of St. Martin was no exception to the general rule observed by men in office of immoderately and shamelessly feasting at the public charge. In 1732 an order was made that no more public money should be spent at the perambulations—or "possessionings," as they were sometimes termed; and the managers of the workhouse were prohibited from spending more than 2s. at any meeting, and that not oftener than once a month. The sum of £5 was frequently paid to avoid serving the office of churchwarden, which in those days drew pretty largely upon the time and attention of the holder. An instance occurred in 1739 of a strangely perverted feeling in reference to the equality of worshippers in the house of God, as an order was made "That the two next seats to the mayor's seat be locked up, and that the clerk of the parish do attend the said seats upon every day of divine service, and not permit any person or persons that do not pay to the poor to seat themselves therein till after the persons who do pay as aforesaid are first seated." How does this agree with the spirit of Christianity, as expounded in the Epistle to James, c. ii, v. 2, "For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in a goodly apparel?" &c.

Great disputes subsequently arose in reference to the free use of seats in the church; and in 1744 an order was made that the seat in the first aisle, occupied by Captain Richard Hemming and his family, should be declared void, and to be used by the parishioners, and that Mr. B. Russell, the churchwarden, should take off all locks from the seats in the church, except such as were held under a faculty. It forms no part of my purpose to expose parochial abuses, or I might fill up a large section of this book with the details of the shameful mismanagement and peculation which in former years prevailed in the finances of St. Martin's. Much however has been rectified by the judicious care and public spirit of Mr. Clapton, one of the churchwardens, but much yet remains to be done. Among other matters, it appears that sufficient property has been at various times bequeathed for the purpose of repairing the church and providing for the celebration of divine worship, but this property has been let on long leases for nominal rents, and thus a source of income which should amount to about £100, and cover all the necessary expenses of the church, has been allowed to dwindle away to a bare trifle. It has often been my misfortune to witness the most unseemly exhibitions of dissention, mob oratory, and hatred to the church, within the walls of this fabric, on the occasion of demanding a new rate. How much would have been spared to the feelings of the incumbent and to the friends of the Establishment if the then churchwardens had faithfully and conscientiously discharged their office in the stewardship of the church property!

Present rector of St. Martin's, the Rev. T. L. Wheeler; churchwardens, Mr. Clapton and Mr. Hyla Holden. Population in 1851, 4718.

All Saints.

In this parish the date of the oldest register is 1560, many of the earlier years being evidently copied by the same hand. An entry of the death of Mr. Edward Hurdman, who was the last Bailiff and first Mayor of this city, occurs in 1621: his effigy and that of his wife, in the attitude of prayer, still remain in an arched niche to the south of the chancel. In 1638 is recorded the death of widow Evitt, who buried her husband and her three children of the plague the year before. The dreadful year 1637 was memorable for the fact that in this city no less than 1551 persons died of the plague in ten months, being probably one third of the inhabitants (See "Worcester in Olden Times," p. 198). On March 20, 1645, is recorded the burial of a Mr. Richard Chetell, who is said by a local historian to have been hung before his own door in those troublous times of Civil War, and to have had a flat stone placed to his memory near the south aisle of the church, bearing an inscription to his memory as "the masacred gent." who died March 19, 1645. Comparing the register with the date of death recorded on the tombstone, so sudden an interment would give an air of probability to the tradition. The coat of arms at the bottom of the slab evidently belongs to the family of a Mrs. Rebecca Kyrle, who seems to have been buried in the same vault in 1693. "Collins's fire," an extraordinary event which took place in October, 1703, is entered in a red ink or pencil mark, and the register records that, "James Collins, his wife Ann, with seven children, Ann, James, Thomas, Mary, Charles, Catharine, and Samuel, all which nine persons were burnt together in the fire that burnt their house." This was a singular story. Collins's maid-servant was the only inhabitant of the house who escaped from the fire, but she sustained a broken limb. Afterwards she went into the service of Mrs. Palmer, of Upton Snodsbury, a lady who lived on her property. Mrs. Palmer had a son who was connected with a gang of villains, and in order to obtain her money these wretches murdered Mrs. Palmer and her maid, and burnt the house down. So the poor girl escaped from one fire only to fall into another. The murderers were hung in chains, and Palmer's estates were forfeited to the Bishop of Worcester, who applied one of them to found a school (still existing as Bishop Lloyd's) at Worcester, and the other to charitable uses.

On inquiring for the churchwarden's account books I was informed that since the time when John Dench Wensley (some sixteen or seventeen years ago) so agitated the city and the old city commissioners with his financial squabbles, these books had been missing, and that up to a recent period the accounts had been in a state of great confusion. By the courtesy of the incumbent and churchwardens, I was enabled to explore the parochial chest, and soon found that its triple locks had proved no security against invasion, as not a solitary book relating to the old accounts was left. Only one fragment—consisting of eight or nine leaves, in a piece of brown paper for a cover, and bearing date 1697—remained, and this, on inspection, proved to contain nothing of interest. It is highly probable the abstracted books are not destroyed; and as they are of no use to any one, and the party who has been, whether rightly or wrongly, implicated, being now dead, I trust this will meet the eye of the individual who has them in his possession, and that he will be induced at once to restore them to the church.

A fine black-letter Bible, date 1603, was found in the chest, and being in tolerable preservation, I am glad to hear the churchwardens intend to have it strongly bound with the original wooden covers, which have been torn off.

Rector, the Rev. W. Elliott; churchwardens, Mr. H. Davis and Mr. Kendall. Population in 1851, 2205.

St. John's.

Beginning with 1558, the register of this parish goes on regularly to the present time, with the exception of some omissions in the middle of the seventeenth century. There are no entries in the year 1637: this was the year of the great plague in Worcester, when 1551 persons died here; but as only twenty-six of them were in St. John's it can scarcely be supposed that the vicar would have abandoned his post, or neglected the parochial records, on that account. From 1639 to 1677 all is confusion, entries of various dates being jumbled together as though from recollection, at various times after the Restoration. The greatest part of a century of the early part of the register was evidently copied from an older one. On one of its covers is the following memorandum::