Part 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Paid for the ring, 4s.

"Licence, £1. 8s.

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

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

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

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

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

"Straw for him, 6d.

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. Andrew's.

On the first page of the oldest register book here is the following memorandum: "This register of St. Andrew's parish, Worcester, was found among old rubbish in the churchyard by W. Wormington, rector, 1779." The first entry is under date 1549, and a note in the margin observes, "Four years before the death of Edward the Sixth." A large portion of the book appears to have been copied, and births, marriages, and deaths, are irregularly intermixed. It terminates with the year 1619. The next oldest register commences with 1673. The account book is thus prefaced: "The booke of the accomptes of the churchwardens of the parishe of St. Andrewes within the cittie of Worcester made and begonne this present year of 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."