Esq., of Neen Sollers, a gentleman remarkable for his chivalrous
enterprise as a traveller in the reign of James I. This autograph
account book embraces a period of nine years, and embodies many curious
particulars bearing upon the events, persons, and manners of the age,
also setting forth the writer as the representative of a class now only
to be seen in family pictures of the time. She lived unmarried, had
an income of more than £500 per annum, in the expenditure of which she
was very generous. Her dress was costly; she employed false curls and
curling irons, wore many rings, used spectacles, and carried a whistle
suspended at her girdle by a yard of loop black lace--probably for a
little dog. A Cypress cat was given her by the Lady Dansey of Brinsop,
and she kept a throstle in a twiggen cage. She had many god-children,
to one of whom (Mistress Eliza Acton) she gave £800 as a marriage
portion. Madam Jeffries kept several servants, and went abroad in a
coach drawn by two mares. She was very observant of the festivals and
ceremonies of the church, and contributed to the wassell of the hinds
when they lighted their twelve fires, and made the fields resound with
their revelry; and on Valentine's Day gave Tom Aston, Dick Gravell, or
any other male, a present in money for coming to be her Valentine. She
sent the mayor a present of ten shillings on his law-day, and on one
occasion dined with him, when the waits were in attendance, to whom she
gave money; and she was generous to travelling minstrels and showmen,
as "to a boy that did sing like a blackbird," "to Cherlickcombe and
his jackanapes," and "to a man that had the dancing horse at the
Hereford Midsummer fair." As to what befell her in the troubled time
of the Civil War, the book passes from the year 1638 to the end of
1647, during which England toiled and suffered under intestine strife.
No county was more loyal to the royal cause than that of Hereford. In
1638, Mrs. Jeffries pays ship-money and another impost called "the
king's provision," and finds a soldier for her property in Hereford and
elsewhere. In 1641 she purchases pamphlets and news-books and takes
an interest in passing political events. In September, 1642, when the
Earl of Essex entered Worcester, and sent the Earl of Stamford to
occupy Hereford, she quitted her town house and went to Garnons, the
residence of Mr. Geers, a few miles distant, thinking she would be
there in security; but in the plundering which took place by the Earl
of Stamford's soldiers, immediately upon their arrival, the house of
Mr. Geers was visited and pilfered by Captain Hammond, who carried off
much goods, including her two bay coach mares. At the same time she had
other property secreted and saved in other places. The Parliamentarians
having left the city in December, it was reoccupied by the Royalists,
and her friend and cousin, Fitzwilliam Coningsby, was made Governor;
when, besides her regular assessment, she sent him a present of £50
to pay his soldiers, and a bullock worth £6. In the spring of 1643
he marched with the rest of the commissioners of the county and the
Herefordshire levies to join the little army of Lord Herbert of
Raglan, at Highnam near Gloucester, where they were all captured by
Sir William Waller. Hereford continued unmolested till the month of
April, and Mistress Jeffries returned for a few days to her house, but
the report of the Parliamentarians coming once more to assail the city
under the command of that general drove her once more to her retreat.
Her house at Widemarsh Gate suffered during his attack on the city,
but she remained in quiet at Garnons until April, 1644. As the county
was now seriously disturbed by the contending parties she suddenly
took flight again, visiting Hereford for the last time, and carrying
off her trunks and chests and servants to Ham Castle, the seat of her
cousin Jeffries, on the banks of the Teme, on the edge of the county
of Worcester. Soldiers were still quartered in her house at Hereford,
and she pays for work done in making bulwarks to defend the city. At
length, in 1645, when the whole of the suburbs were laid bare up to
the walls by order of the governor, Colonel Barnabas Scudamore, her
new house and several others her property without Widemarsh Gate were
pulled down. She takes this as a matter of course, without comment upon
the hardship of the proceeding, and upon all occasions shows a cheerful
and contented mind. In many other respects she felt the effects of
the war, and symptoms of them frequently appear in her accounts. She
contributed to the lecturers introduced into the churches; her cousin's
child was "baptised after the new directory;" and the committee men
laid their hands on her property and straitened her means, though she
still persevered in the unwearied exercise of humanity and in bestowing
her charity on others. As she advances in years her accounts exhibit a
trait or two of her approaching infirmities: she loses various small
articles of value--spectacles and rings, which her servants find and
bring to her, and are rewarded accordingly; and the recurrence of
this excites some suspicion of their knavery. The death of her cousin
Herbert Jeffries, at Ham Castle, in consequence of his breaking his
leg, disturbed her tranquillity, and is described with melancholy
minuteness. Age seems to have neither abated her generous feeling nor
the ardour of her domestic affections. She was always interested in
those events which usually bring joy to families and occasional entries
in our parochial registers. The union of Miss Acton, her goddaughter,
with Mr. Francis Geers, and a christening that took place at Ham
Castle a very short time before her death (the child receiving her own
Christian name), was to her a source of infinite pleasure. She went on,
"giving" to some and "forgiving" others, to the close of her beneficent
career. She died in April, 1648, and was buried in the chancel of the
parish church of Clifton-on-Teme, where her memory is still revered by
those to whom her existence and character are known.
THE TOWNSEND MANUSCRIPTS.
One of the Townsend Manuscripts is in the possession of Mr. G.
E. Roberts, of Kidderminster. It is an interleaved copy of "The
Compleat Justice. London, 1661," in octavo; and consists of 420 pages
letterpress, and 470 in manuscript. It is well bound in calf, with
initials of the Knight ("H. T.") impressed on sides, and autograph on
fly-leaf. Sir Henry's aim may have been to render it a book of legal
reference, as upon one of the first leaves he gives a key to a great
part of the Manuscript in a list of authorities quoted. But amongst
them exists much matter of a more interesting nature. The following
list of the more valuable mems. will afford an idea of their character.
"1. Orders at Quarter Sessions for the raising of monies for
the repair of Worcester after the battle, 13th Jan., 1651.
"2. Sundry criminal cases tried at Sessions, between 1651 and
1662.
"3. Laws respecting 'Alehowses consented to, vpon presentmt of
ye Grand Jury,' within the county, 1660.
"4. Limitation of 'Alehowses' within the county, 1649; with
lists of 'ye certeyn number allowed.'
"5. Forms of binding 'Apprentizes to Husbandry,' 1650.
"6. Copies of Royal proclamation:--17 Jan. 1660, 12 Car. 2.
Commanding all officers to forbear seizing arms or other
munitions without warrant.--26 April, 1662, 14, Car. 2.
Setting rates for all provisions sold within the limits of the
Court.--29 Jan., 1660. Forbidding the eating of flesh in Lent,
and all other fish days.--17 Jan. 1662. The same.--16 Aug.,
1661. Limiting the number of horses in carriers' waggons.--29
Sept., 1662. The same.--19 April, 1661. Against seamen serving
foreign Princes.--13 Aug., 1660. Against duels.--30 Dec., 1661.
For the better discovering of thefts, offering rewards of
knowledge of the offenders.--9 May, 1661. To put in execution
an old statute, for the relief of the poor.--30 May, 1660.
Against profanity.--No date. Against the planting of tobacco.
(With orders of Sessions respecting it, 1662.)--16 Jan. 1660.
Authorising search for seditious papers.--10 Jan., 1660.
Forbidding seditious meetings.
"7. Mems. on the Act of Oblivion, 1660, also notes from Sir E.
Hyde's speech thereon.
"8. Orders of Court respecting bridges at Tenbury, Knightsford,
Home, Stanford, 'Stone bridg in Alfric,' and Haford; also, the
parishes of Hartlebury, Lindridge, and Wolverley exempted from
county payments towards repair of bridges.
"9. 'My Lord Couentry's Letter to ye Justices of ye County,
concerning Certificats about fyre,' 1661.
"10. Heads of the Act of Uniformity, 1662.
"11. Charges of Sir Waddem Wyndham and Sir Robert Hyde, at
Worcester and Gloucester Assizes. (Many.)
"12. Order of Sessions, 3 Jan., 1660. That all cottages erected
in the time of the late wars be plucked down.
"13. Table of fees agreed on, Worcester Sessions, 15 April, 9
Car., for Clerk of Assize; also fees for Clerk of the Peace,
1662.
"14. Orders and mems. respecting the County Gaol, 1660.
"15. Inquiry by a Royal Commission into the Cathedral School at
Worcester, 1653; and results in detail.
"16. Orders of Sessions respecting the New House of Correction,
1659, and against making of malt within the county, 6th Car. 2.
"17. Orders respecting the pensions of the Muster Master and
Provost Marshall, 1660.
"18. Punishment of Quakers at Sessions, 1661.
"19. Orders of the King's Majesty, made 1636, concerning the
plague.
"20. Orders of Sessions respecting the poor people of this
county.
"21. Charges of Mr. Baron Atkins, Worcester, 1683-4.
"22. Orders of Sessions for payments to wounded soldiers, 1651.
(Many.)
"23. Heads of the charges delivered by Bp. Gauden, Worcester,
1662.
"24. Interesting notes on witchcraft, and trial of witches."
The original Diary of Mr. Henry Townsend, of Elmley Court,
Worcestershire, for 1640-2, 1656-61, is in the possession of Sir T.
Phillipps, Bart., and has been recommended to the Camden Society to be
edited by Mrs. Mary Ann Everett Green, whose intention, I believe, it
is to do so this year (1856).
VACARIUS' ROMAN LAW.
A Manuscript was recently discovered in the Worcester Chapter library,
which is believed to be unique in this country--at least there is
no record of any similar one having ever been found here--it is
Vacarius's Epitome of the Roman law. A description of this valuable
manuscript was recently published in the "Legal Examiner" by Mr.
Hastings, barrister-at-law, of Worcester. Vacarius was a celebrated
Italian doctor of law, a native of Lombardy, who it is supposed was
brought to this country by Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
became professor of law at Oxford, in the reign of Stephen. There he
introduced the study of the Roman law, just then reviving throughout
Europe, after the discovery of the Pandects at Amalfi; there also he
wrote his famous work, comprising an epitome of the whole Roman law,
for the use of his very numerous pupils. At length, either through
jealousy or Papal influence, he was forbidden to lecture, was banished
from the University, and his books ordered to be destroyed. It is
supposed that he himself took holy orders and retired to a monastery.
Although his numerous pupils, on leaving Oxford, had each, no doubt,
for the most part secured a copy for themselves, no record exists of
one having ever been found in England during the seven centuries which
succeeded, so effectual was the royal mandate for their destruction.
The only instance in which Vacarius is known to be mentioned by any
of our legal writers is by Blackstone, who merely states the fact of
the introduction of the civil law into England by such a personage,
and for a long time Vacarius was thought to be nothing more than a
mythological embodiment of the introduction of Roman law into this
country. On the continent the only four copies of his work known to
be in existence are deposited in the libraries of Konigsberg, Prague,
and Bruges, and one in the possession of the Emperor of Russia.
Great search has been made in our public libraries, and those of the
cathedrals especially, as it was thought that had any copies survived
the order for their destruction, they would have been stored in the
monasteries, and from thence been transferred to our cathedrals at the
Reformation; but the inquiry was entirely unsuccessful until a few
months ago, when a copy was found in the Worcester Chapter library,
concealed under the name of the "Code of Justinian." Every reasonable
proof of its identity has been given, although the title is missing.
It is otherwise in good preservation, and beautifully written and
illuminated. It need not be added how valuable the manuscript is as a
monument of the first introduction of the Roman law into England after
the Norman Conquest. The manuscript should be preserved, newly bound,
and the missing portions supplied by copying from one of the other
existing manuscripts. Then some enterprising publisher should give it
to the world in English (as Mr. Bohn has done for the Norman and Saxon
Chronicles).
ABINGTON'S MANUSCRIPT.
Mr. Cadby, bookseller, of 83, New Street, Birmingham, recently
advertised for sale "Some Memoirs relating to the Church and City of
Worcester, collected by one of the Ancient Family of the Abingtons,
which came to the hands of Robert Dobyns, late of Easbath, and now of
the City of Hereford, Esq., who, out of the Love he bears to the said
Church and City where he was Born and Baptised, _transmitted this Copy
to the Library at Worcester, there to be kept_, supposing the original
to be lost in the late Civill Warrs; small folio, old vellum, neatly
written in contracted German characters, about the period of Elizabeth
and James I, 143 pp., 20 Guineas. The original could not be found when
the above was bequeathed, nor has it been heard of since; consequently
this is the only one in existence, and must now take the place of the
original." I have not myself seen this Manuscript, but a friend informs
me that it wears the appearance of genuineness. After referring to
Worcester in connection with Roman times, its possession by the Wiccian
Kings is spoken of, and then the foundation of the bishopric in A.D.
680. Year by year it records the events in the history of the bishopric
up to 1486, which is the last date. Some reference is also made to the
city, but the bishopric and its various prelates occupy most of the
book. The chief towns and villages in the county are also referred to.
BISHOP SWINFIELD'S ROLL.
"A roll of the household expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop
of Hereford, during part of the years 1289 and 1290." This valuable
Manuscript was discovered about forty years ago by Dr. Prattinton, of
Bewdley, among the muniments at Stanford Court, the seat of Sir T.
E. Winnington, Bart. Dr. Prattinton made an abstract of it, which he
presented, with his other Worcestershire papers, to the Society of
Antiquaries; but it was not till the year 1853 that the roll was edited
and published, when the Rev. John Webb, of Tretire, undertook the
task, and by his extensive research in mediæval history has succeeded
in converting the meagre materials of the roll--presenting as it does
nearly the earliest picture of English life in existence--into a most
interesting detail of the character and events, the manners and customs
of the thirteenth century, so as to attract considerable notice among
antiquaries. The work was printed in two volumes, in 1853 and 1854,
for the Camden Society; and as some portions of the Bishop's itinerary
through his diocese is connected with Worcestershire I shall make a few
extracts and comments thereon:--
Salt was purchased by the Bishop's household (when at Colwall) from
Worcester, and supplied from the pits at Droitwich. His lordship's
cook also made purchases at Worcester, (having been sent from Colwall
for the purpose), and a large supply of ware in cups, plates, and
dishes, was laid in against the Paschal entertainment at Colwall; so
that this city, it would seem, was famous even six centuries ago for
the manufacture of table ware, though composed of a different material
from that which has rendered its products celebrated in the present
day. Here also the prelate sent for a new bridle and saddle, on which
Mr. Webb remarks--"Worcester might then have been, what it certainly in
after times has been, more advanced than Hereford in the arts of life."
The Bishop had some land in this county and a house in the city of
Worcester.
The editor notices the prolific vines that cover the cottages in the
counties of Worcester, Gloucester, and Hereford. Bishop Swinfield's
vineyard at Ledbury yielded seven pipes of white wine and nearly one of
verjuice in the autumn of 1289. Bristol was the great mart for foreign
wine, and the custom was to send a "squire" to make the purchase there
and accompany the cargo up the Severn home, to prevent the malpractices
of boatmen, who it seems were as much inclined to "suck the monkey"
in those days as at present. The wine was usually landed at Upton and
thence conveyed by land carriage to Bosbury, where was the Bishop's
favourite residence. No mention is made of Herefordshire cider in that
century, nor is the date of its introduction known.
John de Kemesye, the Bishop's steward and treasurer (and the writer
of this roll), belonged to a good family who took their name from the
village of Kempsey, four miles south of Worcester. Walter of that
name was instituted to the vicarage of Lindridge in July, 1277, and
presented, in November, 1292, by the convent of Worcester, to the
church of St. Martin, in the same city. Thomas de Kemesye was the
abbot of Tewkesbury who received the benediction from Godfrey Giffard,
Bishop of Worcester, on Trinity Sunday, 1282. The Bishops of Worcester
had a palace at Kempsey, at which Henry II held his Court, and Simon
de Montfort, with his royal prisoner, Henry III, lodged previously to
the battle of Evesham. The writer of this roll was long remembered in
the church of Kempsey, where he founded a chantry well endowed for
masses at the altar of the blessed Virgin, for his welfare in life,
his own soul, those of his parents and benefactors, and of all the
faithful departed. He left rents for a taper to burn before her altar,
and in his grants for these purposes took special heed to secure the
respectability of such as should officiate at these services, by
regulations drawn up with the minutest care.
In the year 1275 two questions respecting church property in the
county of Worcester came under the decision of trial by combat: one on
June 25th, in Hardwick Meadow, for the church of Tenbury, which was
adjusted, after all, without duel, in favour of the Abbot of Lyra; a
second, on July 9th, was for the bailiwick of Hembury (Hanbury?) and
here the Bishop of Worcester's champion vanquished the champion of
Philip de Stok. The Bishop of Hereford likewise kept a champion in his
suite, who received regular wages; and when Gilbert de Clare, Earl
of Gloucester, laid claim to the chase on the western slopes of the
Malvern range, the Bishop's representative was prepared to do battle
in the lists if need were; but a jury, composed of men drawn from the
counties of Worcester and Hereford, decided in favour of the church,
and a trench of separation between the two possessions was made by
the disappointed Earl along the ridge of the hill, where it remains a
memorial of the contest to the present day.
Foresters were in general an impudent and abandoned race. Those of
Feckenham, where the king had a palace or hunting seat, incurred his
particular displeasure by their depredations. He dealt summarily with
them in the spring of 1289-90, when he progressed there, by committing
some of them to prison, and some he fined. On April 2nd he admitted all
the latter to bail to appear at Woodstock by the 5th of that month, in
Easter week, and there he fixed their fines. In the following autumn
they insulted the Prior of Worcester, near Herforton (Harvington?) as
he was travelling along the road, robbed his servants of their bows and
arrows, and sounded their horns on all sides against him. But the monk
of Worcester who narrates this circumstance does not tell us what may
be learned elsewhere, and was perhaps one cause of the insult, that
his own Prior had been a trespasser in the said forest, and was fined
for it. The Bishop of Worcester also was a trespasser, and paid 500
while the Prior paid 200 marks. (See further account of this in vol.
iii, p. 149, of the "Rambler in Worcestershire.") In case of trespass
by hunting or border hostility the foresters and others used to shout
and blow their horns, to bring in the country to their aid. Hence the
northern border tenure of cornage.
On occasion of episcopal visitations, the clergy visited were, except
in special cases, bound to provide food, &c., for the Bishop and his
attendants, but sometimes the suite was so numerous as to lead to great
inconvenience. In 1290, Godfrey, Bishop of Worcester, in spite of
canonical prohibition, being at variance with the Prior and Convent
of Worcester, came to visit them with 140 horses and a multitude of
attendants, and continued with them three days; but this was not done
without an appeal on the part of the Prior. The Bishop turned the Prior
out of the chamber; and it seems like an aggressive act that need not
have been committed, if then, as since, the Bishop had a palace hard by
the Cathedral. For remedy of such encroachments the Lateran Council,
under Pope Alexander III, had specially defined the limits of bishops'
and archdeacons' trains. Bishop Godfrey Giffard frequently preached
at visitations, and some of the texts of his discourses addressed to
religious houses are extant in his register; an instance of which
is as follows: "Procurationes Episcopi. Item, die Jovis in crastino
beati Michaelis, dominus Episcopus visitavit apud Sanctum Augustinum
Bristolliæ, et prædicavit ibi, præsentibus priore et monachis Sancti
Jacobi de Bristollia, et magistro ac suis fratribus Sancti Martii de
ordin', cujus thema fuit: 'Videam voluptatem Domini et visitem templum
ejus.' (Psalm xxvi, 4.) Et procuratus fuit eodem die sumptibus domus."
In the course of a visitation tour, Bishop Swinfield came to Tenbury,
in the archdeaconry of Salop and deanery of Burford. The Norman abbey
of Lyra held the great tithes; the vicarial amounted to just one
half of them, £6. 13s. 4d. The associate of the _dominus proctor_,
who helped to manage the revenues of the convent, was ready with
his procuration for the party. After visiting Burford, they came to
Lindridge, and visited the church, which had been both a rectory and
vicarage; these, however, upon the recent death of the late vicar,
Walter, in 1288, had been united under the present rector, John de
Buterlee (Bitterley), and were valued jointly at £13. 6s. 8d. per
annum. The reason for this proceeding, illustrative of the state of
affairs in the church, is expressly set forth in the instrument framed
for that purpose; that whereas it had been canonically provided that
ecclesiastical benefices should not be divided; and that such as for
certain causes had been divided, upon cessation of such causes should
on the first opportunity be restored to their integrity, so that it
should be one church, one rector; and that no rector of a parish
church should employ a vicar, but be bound to serve it himself, as
the cure thereof requires; unless a dignity or prebend be annexed to
the said church, when the institution or creation of a vicar might be
allowed. And whereas he (John de Bitterley) professed himself ready
to reside personally on his church of Lindridge as the law required,
there being no reasonable cause why there should be a vicar in the
said church, the vicarage and rectory were perpetually united with all
rights and appurtenances, emolument, burden, and cure. It may however
be added, that this integrity came again, within a few years, to be
more permanently violated by the appropriation of the great tithes
to the Prior and Convent of Worcester, by special grant of the King,
with consent of the Bishop of Hereford. Edward wrote a letter to his
chancellor in French, directing that it might be translated into Latin,
and sent by a clerk of the chancery to the chapter of Hereford; another
instance of the employment of the French language in this reign. The
rector of Lindridge discharged his duty of procuration; and on the
following day (April 15) they moved forward in the direction of Bewdley
to Aka (Rock). The parishes to which the visitor was directing his
attention in this quarter lay within a small compass. Master William
Brun was rector in 1276, and no subsequent incumbent has been detected
up to this year of visitation. The value of the benefice was the same
as that of Lindridge. Out of many of these benefices payments were made
in other quarters; as in this instance: the Prior of Ware was paid £2.
13s. 4d. and the Prior of Conches £2. Out of Lindridge the Prior of
Worcester received £6. 13s. 4d. Procuration was duly furnished here;
and this is the fifth day since any expense on the part of the Bishop
was incurred. On arriving at Kinlet, the visiting party were obliged
to have recourse to Kidderminster for supplies. Robert the carter
was the purveyor; he had a guide to attend him, probably through the
intervening forest of Wyre, and paid for passing the Severn on his way
to and from the town.
I cannot conclude my notice of this interesting Manuscript without
strongly recommending my readers to possess themselves of a copy of Mr.
Webb's admirable publication.
BISHOP SKINNER.
"Memoirs of Dr. Robert Skinner, Bishop of Worcester, who died 1670."
Several manuscript volumes, in the handwriting of the Right Rev.
Dr. White Kennett, Bishop of Peterborough, are to be found in the
British Museum (MS. Lansdown, 986, fol. 135), containing biographies
of distinguished ecclesiastics, one of whom was Bishop Skinner of
Worcester. This prelate was elected to the see of Bristol in 1636,
translated to that of Oxford in 1641, and to Worcester in 1663. While
he lived in the times of usurpation, being deprived of his see, he
remained in his diocese comforting his clergy, and ordaining those
who were willing to enter the church, and was supposed to be the sole
bishop that during that time conferred holy orders. Immediately after
his Majesty's return an hundred and three persons did at once take holy
orders from him in the Abbey Church at Westminster. At his death it was
computed that he had sent more labourers into the vineyard than all his
brethren he then left behind him had done. His biographer observes
that, in the see of Worcester, he became by his many tenants more
esteemed than family or friends because of his goodness as a landlord.
He died an octogenarian, and was buried in a chapel at the east end of
the choir of the Cathedral Church at Worcester; over his grave was soon
after laid a flat stone, at the head of which are engraved the arms of
his family, impaled with those of the see, surmounted by a mitre, and
underneath is a long Latin inscription.