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:
1548.--"Paid Robert Browne for a jack, two s----, and a byll. ix_s._
Paid for another jack to the tayler at Knowle End. v_s._ iv_d._"
Was this "jack" one of those stuffed figures formerly carried about in
processions, like the "Jack-o'-Lent," &c.?
1559.--"For ledd, and making of tokens at Easter vi_d._"
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: