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 or. Lord God 1587, beynge the thirtyeth yeare of
the raigne of or. sov'aigne ladie Queene Elizabeth." The book (which,
as a memorandum on it states, cost xii pence) ends with 1631; it is on
thin paper, with parchment covers. Two other books, both belonging to
a later part of the seventeenth century, give the accounts of what was
received and "disbusted" for church and poor. This is therefore one
of the oldest parochial records in Worcester, and as may be expected
contains much that is interesting. As usual small Roman numerals are
used in the accounts, figures making their appearance about the year
1600, but these were apparently considered so awkward or unintelligible
as to lead to their abandonment, and many years elapsed before they
were finally introduced. How the venerable guardians of the church
could have persisted in the use of such an impracticable method of
arithmetic in the face of so great an invention as that of figures, is
only to be accounted for by the blind and obstinate attachment of human
nature to traditional usages.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth the seats in this church were let, at
the rate of from 6d. to 1s. per annum each sitting, and some instances
occur of sittings for a man and his wife being charged 3s., and
regularly every year a large number who removed from their seats to
others were charged 4d. for each removal. The church was whitewashed
at Easter Eve, at a charge of 7s. each time. In 1600 occurs an item of
43s. "layed out in bildinge ye new porch," and four years afterwards
5s. "for painting the king's arms." In 1617, "Paid for mendinge ye
chimnie to keape out smoke out of ye church, 2s." The smoke nuisance
however was not abated, for two years later the sum of 2s. 6d. was
"paid to the goodman[1] Bushell for a day's work and a halfe for him
and his man to stopp the smooke of the church." The "steeple" is
frequently mentioned, and in the year 1618 was "Paid for repayringe and
mendinge of ye wether cocke, 5s. 10d.; guilding ye cocke, £1." A fatal
accident occurred at this time, as sums are charged for the "buriall of
the man who undertook payntinge of ye steeple," and "for coveringe the
grave where the man was buried that was misventured in the church."
[1] Goodman and goodwife were in those days used in the same way as Mr.
and Mrs. are now.
Bells were in those days of universal ringing a source of very
great expense, year after year heavy items being charged for ropes,
ball-ribbs, clappers, or recasting the bells themselves. In 1589 is
this entry--"Laide out on the singinge men of the Colledge for hearing
the tune of the belles, 6d." Some of the bells were probably recast
on that occasion, and the Cathedral choir were invited to lend their
professional ears at the tuning of them. "Likewise (in the same year)
the said churchwardens desire to be allowed of divers summes by them
laid out in costes and charges expended at the Councell in the M'ches
in ye parishes cause, concerninge the castinge of their fowerth
bell, altogether 18s. 8d." I have been unable to ascertain what took
this cause to the Council of the Marches instead of to the Worcester
Consistory Court. At that time the Council usually sat at Ludlow, but
for the greater despatch of business sometimes assembled at Bewdley and
Shrewsbury. "The court of the President and Councell in the Dominion
and Principality of Wales" is mentioned by Lord Coke in his "Fourth
Institute," p. 242, as a court of equity, held before the President
and Council, under the authority of the statute 34th Henry VIII, chap.
26; and his lordship says "They sit by force of the King's Commission
and Instructions, and proceed as in a court of equity, by their
wisdomes and discretion. Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, and
Gloucestershire, are included in this Commission, pretending these four
shires are within the Marches of Wales"; but to show that these four
shires were no part of the Marches of Wales, but were English counties,
he cites many authorities, including a decision of all the Judges
of England and Barons of the Exchequer in Lord Zouche's case, in
Michaelmas Term, 2nd James II. In reference to St. Andrew's bell, some
one must have sued the churchwardens in this Welsh court of equity.
I find that in 1577 two oxen were given to the bishop on coming to
this city, he being Lord Vice-President of the Queen's Council of the
Marches.
A regulation was laid down in 1595 that the bells should be "charged
at every churching and wedding, by consent as aforesaid--4d. at every
churching, and 6d. at every wedding; and if any not inhabiting within
this parish shall require to have ringing hereafter at their wedding,
they shall paye towards the reparation of the belles, xii_d._" 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, x_s._
vi_d._" 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, xxiii_d._" 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.