of that century, in a good plain hand, except during the Puritanic
period, when the rough scribbling of clerks or ill-educated ministers
greatly disfigures the book. Much confusion and extensive omissions
also occur from the year 1633 till after the Restoration, and from
1749 to 1761, from which time, however, to the present the register
is regularly kept and in as good order as any I have seen. The only
curious entry in them is dated January 24, 1736; when "Thomas, bastard
son of Ann Husel, was baptised. This Ann Husel was a common strumpet,
but pickt up and maintayned in a very gallant manner by one Baker, a
rakish spark of 3 or 400 a year, by whom he had the bastard Thomas, as
generally supposed. They lived together as man and wife in defyance of
God and man, tho' under ye nose of ye Consistory Court, at the Hill."
A memorandum is likewise made of the following benefactions, which I
believe are still administered: Mr. William Norton, in February, 1721,
left lands to the value of £7 yearly, the rents and profits of which
thus to be distributed: "20s. every year to the minister for preaching
a sermon on such day of the month yearly as I shall be buried;" 20s.
in twopenny household bread to the poor who should attend and hear the
said sermon; and the residue to clothe five poor men of the parish that
usually attend the church and also hear the above-named sermon. Mr.
William Swift also left houses and land to provide 12 penny loaves of
wheaten bread every Lord's day, and 24 more such loaves at Christmas
Day, Easter, and Whit Sunday, to be given to 12 poor aged people
after service, and the overplus to the minister. Another book records
that St. George's chapel, in this parish, was consecrated by Bishop
Cornewall on October 26, 1830, and the Rev. J. B. Tyrwhitt appointed
its minister by the Rev. E. W. Wakeman, then perpetual curate of
Claines.
The oldest account book commences with the year 1668. Besides the
churchwardens and overseers, two sidesmen, supervisors of highways, and
"destroyers of noisome fowls and vermin," were regularly appointed.
Foxes and urchins still abound in this parish; and as to "noisome
fowls," entries frequently occur of sums paid for shooting kites, and
in 1678 Sir J. Pakington's man was paid 1s. for killing a fox (_tempora
mutantur_). In regard to the appointment of churchwardens there seems
to have been a dispute between the incumbent and the parishioners, as
set forth in the following entry:
"Mr. Phidkin, the curate, pretending a right, by virtue of the
canon, to elect a churchwarden, the parishioners procured an
order from the Consistory Court for the parishioners to meet,
which they accordingly did, and chose two new wardens, and made
their return to the said Court, but Mr. Phidkin insisted on the
canon, and prayed that the churchwardens should be sworn; but
the chancellor declaring that the court had not the power of
trying the custom, a mandamus was obtained at the King's Bench
to swear the two churchwardens elected by the parish."
It appears from another entry that the ancient custom was "for the
minister, together with the consent of the parishioners, to choose the
low churchwarden to be head churchwarden for the year." The parochial
officers--as was the case in most parishes--were occasionally checked
in their tendency towards an extravagant expenditure, one of the
vestry meetings ordering that no more than 10s. should be spent at
the visitation, besides fees; no more than 2s. 6d. to be allowed
for ringing on any occasion; and only 2s. each to the officers for
attending Sessions. The perambulation expenses in 1732 were £1. 10s;
three days were usually occupied in beating the bounds, and they dined
at the Tavern (Query, the present Virgin's Tavern?). May day was
likewise kept as a festival, and money allowed in these accounts for
the celebration of it. In the year 1750 the principal inhabitants,
in vestry assembled, agreed to forfeit 40s. each if they did not use
their "utmost endeavour to put a stop to the evil practices commonly
committed on our wake Sunday." The wake was held on Trinity Sunday;
and notwithstanding the above combination, old custom proved stronger
than the sense of propriety, for until within the last twenty or thirty
years the wake was continued, and I am told that some extraordinary
scenes were usually witnessed here: even on the graves, travelling
vagabonds plied their profession, and
"Many a youth the glittering snuff-box eyed--
Paid for his stick forthwith and boldly shied."
Such scenes of fighting, drunkenness, and debauchery, were probably
never witnessed in the parish but at those times, and close beneath the
shadow of its old church too. The clergy, aided by the indefatigable
exertions of the present respectable clerk, Mr. Williams, at length
rooted out the evil; and a little dancing which is still carried on at
Fearnall Heath on the Monday is all that remains of Claines wake.
The overseers in 1678 were ordered to deduct the third part of the pay
of such poor as should be found tippling in alehouses upon Sundays, for
the space of a month after they should be found so tippling. Among the
curious entries in these books are the following:
1669.--"Given to one whose dwelling was drowned by the sea
coming too late to church, 1s."
1713.--"Whereas several pack horses hath spoiled the road
leading from Dean Green to Claines Church, not having any right
to travel the said road, being no inhabitance of the said
parish, we order that there be a barr with post and railes set
upp to prevent it over against the house of Richard Onions."
An interesting document relative to the liability of Claines to pay to
the relief of the poor of the Tything of Whistones will be found under
the head of "County Sessions Records--The Poor."
The Rev. W. Crowther is the present perpetual curate of Claines;
churchwardens, Mr. Moon and Mr. Martin Curtler. Population in 1851,
1373.
[Illustration]
COUNTY SESSIONS RECORDS.
"Thoughts shut up, want air,
And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun."
The Sessions rolls, now in the custody of the Clerk of the Peace,
consisting of recognizances, presentments, informations, memorials,
grand jury bills, &c., commence with 1600, but the order books do
not go further than 1693. From the latter it appears that a great
portion of the county business was transacted at inns and private
gentlemen's houses. The Talbot, in Sidbury, for a great number of
years enjoyed the magisterial patronage, adjournments being regularly
made from the Guildhall (where the County Assizes and Sessions were
then held) to that respectable old hostelry, where no doubt the
magnates compensated themselves for the dry and tedious work in hand
by generous and stimulating potations, as was the custom with the city
authorities. Several Sessions were adjourned to Hooper's coffee-house
at the Guildhall, which is first mentioned in 1767 as being kept by
Lucy Hooper, and also to the Trinity Hall (an old building occupied by
various trading "companies" or "guilds," on the site of which now stand
Messrs. Freame's warehouses near St. Swithin's church). A committee of
magistrates were ordered to inspect this hall in 1796, to consider the
propriety of purchasing it and converting it into an office for the
Clerk of the Peace; but this seems to have fallen to the ground. The
Talbot, Claines (Tything), was preferred for some time, the Star being
occasionally used; then the Crown inn was chosen in 1792 by a formal
vote of the bench; and in the early part of the present century the
Hop-pole came in for its share. During all this period, however, on
many occasions, adjournments were made to other towns and villages. The
Earl of Coventry was frequently visited in this way at Croome; the Hon.
H. Herbert, at Ribbesford (1710); Rev. Dr. William Lloyd, at Ripple;
William Hancock, Esq., at Bredon's Norton, and the Bishop's Palace at
Hartlebury (1715); Lord Herbert, at Ribbesford (1721); and in 1723 a
circuit seems to have been taken on many consecutive days to the Crown,
Evesham; Crown, Blockley; George, Shipston; Angel, Pershore; Talbot,
Feckenham; Crown, Bromsgrove; George, Bewdley; Lion, Kidderminster;
Talbot, Stourbridge; Bush, Dudley; Hundred House, Witley; Crown,
Tenbury; the house of Mrs. Collins, Shelsley; and the Sun, Upton. By
the statute 9th George I, chap. 24, all persons who were Papists, and
all persons who had not taken the oath for securing the throne to the
House of Hanover, were to do so before the 25th of December, 1723,
in one of the courts at Westminster or at the Quarter Sessions. This
was no doubt the cause of the adjournments of the Quarter Sessions in
that year. In modern times it often occurs that the Quarter Sessions
are adjourned to different places in the county for the convenience
of newly-appointed magistrates being sworn into office. In the year
1809, Sir Harry Lippincott, Bart., was appointed a magistrate for
Gloucestershire, and he was sworn into office at an adjournment of the
Gloucestershire Quarter Sessions--the Sessions being adjourned to the
White Lion, the principal inn at Berkeley (now the Berkeley Arms), the
late Earl of Berkeley taking the chair, and administering the oaths to
the hon. bart. In 1697, Lancelott Jewkes, the Worcester county gaoler,
was fined £20 "for not attending this court to do his duty, the court
having had several occasions for him." It was ordered in 1716, "that
the Sheriff for the future do not return any freeholders within the
burrough of Bewdley to serve on jurys for the County Sessions, they
having Sessions of their own." Another order was made in 1723, "that
there be an advertisement in the Worcester newspaper, to give notice to
people lyable to serve on jurys not to give money to the bayliffe to
excuse them, and that the treasurer doe pay for the advertisement four
weeks successively." The following is a table of fees ordered in 1753
for justices' clerks, in pursuance of an act of the previous session:
s. d.
"Swearing every high constable 1 0
Swearing every petty constable, tythingman, &c. 0 6
Every common warrant 0 6
Every warrant to search for stolen goods 1 0
Every warrant of the peace or good behaviour 2 6
Every supersedeas 2 6
Signing every pair of parish indentures 1 0
Every license to sell ale, the fee to the clerk of the peace for
filing ye recognizance, stamp and paper included 5 0
Every recognizance for peace or good behaviour 2 6
Every warrant for the highways 1 0
Swearing the surveyors to their presentment and receiving it 1 0
Every hue and cry 1 0
Every warrant for appointing overseers of the poor 1 0
Signing a warrant to distrain for the poor's levy 2 0
For a warrant to disturb inmates 1 0
An order and copy for removing a person from one parish to
another 2 6
If drawn by another and only signed by you 1 0
Signing a certificate from one parish to another 1 0
Making and signing every original pass. 0 0
Signing every other pass 0 0
Every mittimus 0 0
Taking examn. of a settlement or bastard 1 0
Drawing an order for adjudging the reputed father of a bastard
child 2 0
Signing the same order 1 0
Warrant to levy every penalty or forfeiture 1 0
For a summons for conveaning Quakers, &c. 0 6
Every order thereon 1 0
A warrant upon refusal 1 0
For a summons for a master who refuses to pay his servants'
wages 0 6
For the discharge of a servant from his master 1 0
A warrant to distrain for servants' wages 1 0
Allowing overseers' or constables' levys 0 0
Signing freeholders' lists 0 0
For every warrant to the collector of the land tax for taking
up a deserter. 1 0"
In 1753, William Cooper, of Shipston, was fined £5 for taking money
of William Taylor, of Armscot, to excuse his serving upon the jury at
Sessions. The only remaining item under this head is an order made
in 1789, "that at all future Sessions, business be conducted only by
counsel, and not by attorneys as heretofore; but that in testimony of
the respect due to Wilson Aylesbury Roberts, Esq., for his integrity
and abilities, as well as for the regularity of his attendance and the
assistance this court has received from him through a series of years,
he is from henceforth received and heard as our advocate or counsel, as
if he was a barrister, and as if the said order had been never made."
Witchcraft.
Our county records do not contain evidence of the existence of this
superstition to a great extent, owing to the fact that witchcraft cases
were usually tried at the Assizes. The first instance occurring in the
Sessions rolls is in the year 1601, when Edward Buckland "exhibited
articles complaining of John Genifer, to whom he had lent money,"
and when Buckland's "poor wife" asked for it, Genifer used shocking
language, and "charged her with being a witch, and had deserved burning
seven years sithence, and if she was a midwife was not fitt to bringe a
---- to bed, much less a woman."
In 1633 the recognizance of widow Bellett, of Stony Morton (?) was
taken, to appear at the next Sessions, to answer charges brought by
William Vaughan, of Inkberrow, and others. This document is in some
places scarcely legible, but it appears that the principal charge was
"for the evil artt that shee useth with the ---- wich, and she gives
---- to finde out goodes lost, and using the name of Peter and Paule
therein in profane manner, beinge sayde to be ---- of that sleight
----." I found no account of her trial.
In May, 1660, the examination of Elinor Burt was taken before Gervase
Bucke and William Collins, Esqrs., and "being examined whether she
hath not taken upon her to cure several persons afflicted with several
diseases and distempers in their bodyes, ansheareth and saith, that
shee did not take upon her soe to do, but confesseth that when diverse
had come to her that hath aches in their heads and other infirmities,
she had and hath a gifte from God, by good prayers and laying her
hands upon their heads or faces, oftentimes to recover and heal them
of their diseases; and being examined what other means she useth to
recover sick persons, saith, noe other means but good prayers; and
further doth not materially confess." As the Sessions order book does
not commence till 1693, there is no means of ascertaining the result
of this and other cases prior to that date which are mentioned in this
abstract of the records; but in the same year (1660) it is stated
that "Joane Bibbe was bound for good behaviour for beinge of evil
fame, and suspected for wychcrafte, butt not as yet charged." This is
undoubtedly Joan Bibb, of Rushock, who (as stated in a MS. note-book
of Mr. Townsend, of Elmley Lovett, who was a county justice at that
time) "was tyed and thrown into a poole, as a witch to see whether shee
could swim." But she brought her action against Mr. Shaw, the parson,
for his share in this transaction, and recovered £10 damages, and Mr.
Townsend compounded for her and others with Mr. Shaw for £20. The same
MS. records the bringing of four other persons from Kidderminster that
year, and ducking them in the Severn at Worcester, but the details of
their cases have already been published by Nash.
Elizabeth Ranford, of Great Comberton, widow, lays an information
before the magistrates on the 26th of September, 1662, "that she heard
Joane Willis, wife of Thomas Willis, of Great Comberton, say that
shee will take her oathe that shee, the said informant, is a witch,
and bewitched to death one Thomas Right's wife and one Robert Price's
child, both of Comberton aforesaid; and that shee behegged one of the
said Joane Willis her children; likewise the said informant informeth,
that shee, the said informant, was gooing to one Margaret Willis her
house, in Comberton aforesaid, about her business, and the said Joane
Willis came violently upon her and gave her several blows with a
staffe, and ripped her quaife of her head, and prophanely did swear,
blood and wounds shee would kill her."
In the month of August, 1666, Ann Powell, spinster, of Kington, lays
an information that "upon St. James's Day last she and one Elizabeth
Daffye, widow, having discours together concerning Mary, the wife
of Anthony Slater (being this informer's dame), the said Elizabeth
then told this informer, in the presence and hearing of others of the
neighbourhood, that shee had late before had a heifer strangely amisse,
and supposing shee might be bewitched, she went to a telster or wise
woman (as shee termed her), who told her, the said Elizabeth, that
the said Mary, the wife of the said Anthony Slater, had done the said
heifer harm, meaning, as this informer conceaveth, that the said Mary
had bewitched the said heifer; and further this informer sayth, that by
reason of the speaking of the said wordes, her said dame hath been much
scandalized in the neighbourhood, and several quarrels and fighting
between her and others of her neighbours have ensued thereupon."
Although unable to give the result of this charge, the information
will be sufficiently interesting of itself, as affording us an insight
to the state of society at that time. Joseph Orford, of Oldswinford,
nailer, was presented in the year 1687, "for being a common disturber,
and for charging Thomas Barnes, a person of good repute, with being
guilty of witchcraft, and that he hath boasted that he would have the
said Barnes and his wife duckt for witches, and he would procure one
John Johnson, a drummer, to be present at the doing it, to make the
more sport." But here comes a case with more curious detail.
At the Midsummer Sessions of 1698, Martha Farmer, of Astley, deposed
before Mr. James, a magistrate, that Margaret Hill, of Shrawley, came
to deponent's house about Midsummer three or four years ago, during
her absence, and required her child, who was only seven or eight
years old, to sell her some oaten meal, but as the child would not do
so in her mother's absence, "shee pluck'd the child to her and hurt
her finger, causing blood to come from it. In the morning the child
fell ill, and continued in a sickly manner for some days, till a
strange woman came to the dore and told her the child was bewitched;
and Margaret Hill was sent for to come and pray over the child. She
at first refused, but at length being prevailed on, shee said her
prayers and the child recovered; but after some time it relapsed
into its former sicknesse, and lay screeching and crying." Margaret
Hill was sent for the second time, but would not come till after she
had been "threatened by Farmer that if the child died she would have
life for life. Then shee prayed by the child, which recovered, and
continued well." During the child's illness Hill's daughter came to the
deponent's house and offered to go for a doctor, and returned the same
day, bringing some water in a bottle to cure a surfeit which she said
the child had, and desired her not to be angry, for if her mother had
injured the child she was sorry for it. Ann Farmer also deposed that
when she went to fetch Margaret Hill "the latter called her a Judas
b----, and told her she should not be well whilst she lived, whereupon
she fell lame, and continues to be soe, beinge fairly persuaded that
Margaret Hill was the occasion of her lameness." Mary Wall made oath
that "Margaret Hill came to her house and begged for butter-milk, but
she had none, and the same afternoon the cow which gave the milk fell
ill, and they sent for a man skilled in distempered cattle, who told
her that the cow was bewitched; whereupon they sent for Margaret Hill,
who came and prayed over the cow. My husband went to a wiseman at
Worcester, who said his cow would be dead before he got home (and it
was soe), and told him to keepe all suspected persons out of his house.
Some time before the cow died, Margaret Hill came and asked witness
whether her husband was gone for help for the cow, although they had
not informed her of his going." Margaret Powell gave evidence that "7
or 8 years ago Margaret Hill came to buy half a qtn. tobacco, and was
refused to trust her, when shee asked witness if shee had any piggs;
and going where they were, the piggs began foaming and tumbling about
and died." Catherine Jones deposed that the accused "also came to her
house 3 years ago to buy a peck of corn, but could not agree as to
price, and presently afterwards deponent had a calf fell ill, lingered,
and dyed." So damning a body of proof, it may fairly be presumed, was
too much for poor Mrs. Hill, but I find no record of the result, the
case having probably been tried at the Assizes, the rolls of which
court, I suppose, are in London. More particulars respecting witchcraft
in this county will be found further on in this volume.
Crime.
From the earliest period to which the county rolls refer, the
constables and churchwardens were charged to present in the Sessions
all persons who regularly absented themselves from the service of the
church and would not receive the sacrament, all innkeepers who made
charges above the scale allowed, all tipplers and houses where tippling
was allowed during divine service, to report whether due watch and ward
was kept and all vagabonds duly punished; besides a variety of other
returns. The beerhouse nuisance was even at that time the most fertile
generator of crime. In 1602 one Edward Pearce was charged for that, "in
November last past, he with one other of his companions were eatinge
of fresherings with two women in an alehouse in Inkberrow, and when
they had done, Pearce went to his chamber and did set a candle lighted
in his window, and when he returned he said that he had done as the
scollers in Oxforde did when they meant to doe aney exployt, to light a
candle, that they might be thought to be at their book; and thereupon
he and his companion in the night went abroade into the field with the
two women very suspiciously;" it was also alleged that they set some
corn on fire, and "riotously drew drink in kettles and drank it with
apples;" and that Pearce drank so long and so hard that a catastrophe
occurred which cannot be mentioned here; lastly, that about the same
time he went into an alehouse and called for drink, and because the
landlady did not make haste he laid her on the fire. A memorial
signed by nineteen inhabitants of Bayton was sent to the Sessions in
the year 1612, setting forth "that John Kempster and Thomas Byrd do
not sell their ale according to the law, but doe sell a pynte for a
penny, and doe make ytt soe extraordynarye strong that itt draweth
dyvers ydle p'sons into the said alehouses, by reason whereof sondrye
assaults, affrayes, blodshedds, and other misdeameanors, are there
daylie comytted by idle and dronken companie which doe thither resort
and there contyneue in their dronckenes three dayes and three nights
together, and also divers men's sonnes and servants do often resort
and contineue drinking in the said houses day and night, whereupon
divers disorders and abuses are offered to the inhabitants of Bayton
aforesaid, as in pulling down styles, in carrying away of yertes,
in throwing men's waynes, plowes, and such like things, into pooles,
wells, and other bye places, and in putting their yokes for their oxen
into lakes and myery places," &c. A nice picture of young England in
the seventeenth century. In the same year (1612) Henry Cartlage was
presented "for hanging a pair of horns at the door of Kenelm Gritt,
at Bromsgrove, insinuating that he was a cuckold," and for other bad
actions. It was a very general custom in the middle ages to signalize
the unhappy husbands of false women by means of horns. The origin of
the custom has always been a matter of dispute. In an old ballad,
called "The Merry Humours of Horn Fair," are these lines:
"The parson's wife rides with the miller;
She said, I hate horns I do declare,
Yet happy are the men who wear them,
My husband he shall have a pair."