Part 6

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.

No records of any interest are to be found here. The register begins with 1630, and the account book 1751, in which year the total expenditure for this little parish amounted to £20. 19s. 10d., including £12 for the poor. The Whitsun farthings usually amounted to 6d. per annum, which, at a farthing per head per householder, showed twenty-four subscribers.

The Rev. J. H. Wilding also holds this small rectory; churchwardens, Mr. F. St. John and Mr. Nicholson. Population in 1851, 286.

St. Martin's.

Here I found a register commencing with 1538, nicely copied in one uniform hand for a series of years. An hiatus occurs between 1560 and 1573, where the leaves have been torn out. In the 22nd year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, "John Wilkinson, the parson," caused to be entered on the register his license to one Thomas Heywood, "he beinge very sicke in body," to eat flesh in Lent so long as his illness continued, and no longer. To show the disturbing influence of the Civil Wars, it will be sufficient to state, that only one wedding is recorded in 1643, one in 1644, four in 1645, five in 1646, and so on. About the year 1653 the entries of a peculiar sort of marriages commence of which the following are specimens:

"Mem. John Cartwright of ye parish of Wellan, and Anne Elvinges, of ye parish of Handbure, were joined together man and wiffe by John Nash, justis of peas, by consent, beinge lawfully published 3 severall market dayes in 3 severall weekes, without anie exception, ye 3d of Januarie. Witnesses, Richard Harrise, Marie Salloway, and John Robere."

"Memor. That Thomas Baker, of the parish of Daderhill, and Ann Wallford, of the parish of Sallwarpe, both in the countie of Worcester, weare married the 26th daye of Maye, 1656, by Mr. John Nash, on of the justises of the pease of the cittie of Worcester, being publiclie proclaimed 3 severall market dayes, in 3 severall weekes, in the market plase of the sayd cittie, accordinge to the actt of parliment."

John Roberts signs himself the "register of Martin's." The above description of marriages ceased with the close of Cromwell's protectorate. In 1772 occurs the following:

"N.B.--Through the omission of Mr. John Giles, curate, no regular register was kept from this time till Mr. Pearkes, clerk of the parish, in Oct. 1772, began a private account, from whose copy the following extracts are taken. The intermediate time, from Dec., 1769, to October, 1772, is very imperfectly supplied by a few alterations delivered to the churchwardens in consequence of notice of the above omissions having been given publicly in the church, and by advertising in the _Worcester Journal_."

All the old account books belonging to this parish have been either destroyed or removed into the custody of private persons who have not the honesty to restore them. Vestry orders from 1718 and churchwardens' account books from 1783 are the earliest records, and very little of any interest is to be gleaned from them. Enough, however, remains to prove that the parish of St. Martin was no exception to the general rule observed by men in office of immoderately and shamelessly feasting at the public charge. In 1732 an order was made that no more public money should be spent at the perambulations--or "possessionings," as they were sometimes termed; and the managers of the workhouse were prohibited from spending more than 2s. at any meeting, and that not oftener than once a month. The sum of £5 was frequently paid to avoid serving the office of churchwarden, which in those days drew pretty largely upon the time and attention of the holder. An instance occurred in 1739 of a strangely perverted feeling in reference to the equality of worshippers in the house of God, as an order was made "That the two next seats to the mayor's seat be locked up, and that the clerk of the parish do attend the said seats upon every day of divine service, and not permit any person or persons that do not pay to the poor to seat themselves therein till after the persons who do pay as aforesaid are first seated." How does this agree with the spirit of Christianity, as expounded in the Epistle to James, c. ii, v. 2, "For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in a goodly apparel?" &c.

Great disputes subsequently arose in reference to the free use of seats in the church; and in 1744 an order was made that the seat in the first aisle, occupied by Captain Richard Hemming and his family, should be declared void, and to be used by the parishioners, and that Mr. B. Russell, the churchwarden, should take off all locks from the seats in the church, except such as were held under a faculty. It forms no part of my purpose to expose parochial abuses, or I might fill up a large section of this book with the details of the shameful mismanagement and peculation which in former years prevailed in the finances of St. Martin's. Much however has been rectified by the judicious care and public spirit of Mr. Clapton, one of the churchwardens, but much yet remains to be done. Among other matters, it appears that sufficient property has been at various times bequeathed for the purpose of repairing the church and providing for the celebration of divine worship, but this property has been let on long leases for nominal rents, and thus a source of income which should amount to about £100, and cover all the necessary expenses of the church, has been allowed to dwindle away to a bare trifle. It has often been my misfortune to witness the most unseemly exhibitions of dissention, mob oratory, and hatred to the church, within the walls of this fabric, on the occasion of demanding a new rate. How much would have been spared to the feelings of the incumbent and to the friends of the Establishment if the then churchwardens had faithfully and conscientiously discharged their office in the stewardship of the church property!

Present rector of St. Martin's, the Rev. T. L. Wheeler; churchwardens, Mr. Clapton and Mr. Hyla Holden. Population in 1851, 4718.

All Saints.

In this parish the date of the oldest register is 1560, many of the earlier years being evidently copied by the same hand. An entry of the death of Mr. Edward Hurdman, who was the last Bailiff and first Mayor of this city, occurs in 1621: his effigy and that of his wife, in the attitude of prayer, still remain in an arched niche to the south of the chancel. In 1638 is recorded the death of widow Evitt, who buried her husband and her three children of the plague the year before. The dreadful year 1637 was memorable for the fact that in this city no less than 1551 persons died of the plague in ten months, being probably one third of the inhabitants (See "Worcester in Olden Times," p. 198). On March 20, 1645, is recorded the burial of a Mr. Richard Chetell, who is said by a local historian to have been hung before his own door in those troublous times of Civil War, and to have had a flat stone placed to his memory near the south aisle of the church, bearing an inscription to his memory as "the masacred gent." who died March 19, 1645. Comparing the register with the date of death recorded on the tombstone, so sudden an interment would give an air of probability to the tradition. The coat of arms at the bottom of the slab evidently belongs to the family of a Mrs. Rebecca Kyrle, who seems to have been buried in the same vault in 1693. "Collins's fire," an extraordinary event which took place in October, 1703, is entered in a red ink or pencil mark, and the register records that, "James Collins, his wife Ann, with seven children, Ann, James, Thomas, Mary, Charles, Catharine, and Samuel, all which nine persons were burnt together in the fire that burnt their house." This was a singular story. Collins's maid-servant was the only inhabitant of the house who escaped from the fire, but she sustained a broken limb. Afterwards she went into the service of Mrs. Palmer, of Upton Snodsbury, a lady who lived on her property. Mrs. Palmer had a son who was connected with a gang of villains, and in order to obtain her money these wretches murdered Mrs. Palmer and her maid, and burnt the house down. So the poor girl escaped from one fire only to fall into another. The murderers were hung in chains, and Palmer's estates were forfeited to the Bishop of Worcester, who applied one of them to found a school (still existing as Bishop Lloyd's) at Worcester, and the other to charitable uses.

On inquiring for the churchwarden's account books I was informed that since the time when John Dench Wensley (some sixteen or seventeen years ago) so agitated the city and the old city commissioners with his financial squabbles, these books had been missing, and that up to a recent period the accounts had been in a state of great confusion. By the courtesy of the incumbent and churchwardens, I was enabled to explore the parochial chest, and soon found that its triple locks had proved no security against invasion, as not a solitary book relating to the old accounts was left. Only one fragment--consisting of eight or nine leaves, in a piece of brown paper for a cover, and bearing date 1697--remained, and this, on inspection, proved to contain nothing of interest. It is highly probable the abstracted books are not destroyed; and as they are of no use to any one, and the party who has been, whether rightly or wrongly, implicated, being now dead, I trust this will meet the eye of the individual who has them in his possession, and that he will be induced at once to restore them to the church.

A fine black-letter Bible, date 1603, was found in the chest, and being in tolerable preservation, I am glad to hear the churchwardens intend to have it strongly bound with the original wooden covers, which have been torn off.

Rector, the Rev. W. Elliott; churchwardens, Mr. H. Davis and Mr. Kendall. Population in 1851, 2205.

St. John's.

Beginning with 1558, the register of this parish goes on regularly to the present time, with the exception of some omissions in the middle of the seventeenth century. There are no entries in the year 1637: this was the year of the great plague in Worcester, when 1551 persons died here; but as only twenty-six of them were in St. John's it can scarcely be supposed that the vicar would have abandoned his post, or neglected the parochial records, on that account. From 1639 to 1677 all is confusion, entries of various dates being jumbled together as though from recollection, at various times after the Restoration. The greatest part of a century of the early part of the register was evidently copied from an older one. On one of its covers is the following memorandum::

"John Web's Case. "1741.

"Aug. 2. John Web, of this parish, was buried, with my consent first obtained, in his wive's grave, in my freehold, my church. Some time after, his sister, Mrs. Wood, was resolved to lay a large stone upon his grave without my leave or consent; for this purpose she sent a stone into my churchyard and demanded of my clerk the key of my church. My clerk informing me of her intention, I went into the churchyard and commanded Taylor, the stone cutter, to take the stone away; and for the insolence of pretending to break up the soil of my freehold without my consent the stone should not be put over Mr. Web's grave unless Mrs. Wood payd me 40s. After some time, Mrs. Wood being not able to obtain her end by the help of a proctor, she sent the proctor, Mr. Greenbank, to offer me a guinea. I refused the guinea, but told the proctor for peace sake I would take 25s. and not under. This day, Oct. 28, 1741, Mr. John Young, surveyor of the highways, came to me from Mrs. Wood and paid me 25s. I then bid him tell Mrs. Wood that I was satisfied, and gave her leave to lay the stone upon her brother's grave.

"ABDIAS TAYLOR, Vicar.

"Mem. The stone was laid upon Web's grave, Nov. 2, 1741."

St. John's poor's book begins with the year 1692, and ends with 1713. The only entry in it worth recording is that of a parish meeting held Aug. 23, 1711, when it was "agreed, that a penalty of 40s. shall be laid upon the overseers that pay any of their said poor that receive weekly pay, except they have the badg fastened visible on the arm, which they are to wear daily at home and abroad; and in case true information be made of any or either of the said poor yt neglect the wearing of the said badg as aforesaid, they are to have no pay for the week wherein they were found defective."

The oldest account book is one bearing the date 1678, and is entitled "a booke ordeined to enter ye churchwardens' accompts of the parryshe of St. John's in Bedwardine, in the county of Worcester, beginninge in the year aforesaid." This book (which extends over about fifty years) divulges the fact that the former inhabitants of this ancient suburb or township were as famous for their feasting and drinking propensities as are their descendants of the present day. The churchwardens and their friends spent large sums of money on every possible occasion--at perambulations, at the choosing of new wardens on Easter Tuesday, at visitations, binding apprentices, and so forth. It is curious to remark, as a proof of the extent to which selfish appetites will mislead men who have no restraint put upon them, that the charge for processioning, or "beating the bounds" of this parish, increased from 3s. in 1678, to £10 in 1818. At first, only one day was spent in the ceremony, and common ale at a penny per quart, indulged in, the minister participating; then the task became too heavy for a single day, and two were accordingly devoted to the purpose; brandy, tobacco, and pipes, make their appearance; and before the close of the seventeenth century three days were occupied in the procession; dinners at "Powick's bridge" and at Broadmore Green, Broadheath, sums given to the servants and children treated with "heavy wet" on the route, formed the principal features of these drunken scenes. A small charge was made for "boatinge over the _newe_ Teame" on these occasions. After inquiry I cannot ascertain the meaning of this term. Three-pence was also usually charged "for putting up the Gospel bushes." These were bushes or boughs carried in the procession and set upright in the ground at every point where a halt was made to read the Gospel. Both the Bishop and Dean were treated with wine whenever they preached here, as was usually the case when any minister preached who did not belong to the parish; and when the Bishop vouchsafed his presence, cushions were borrowed from the Cathedral to accommodate his lordship. The sum of 5s. was spent upon the Chancellor "when he came up to see the reparacon of ye church." Muskadell wine was generally chosen for sacramental purposes, the charge for it during the whole year varying from £1. 3s. to double that amount. Bell ringing entailed a heavy yearly expenditure upon St. John's parish. It seems that they rang all day here when the king was at Worcester in 1687, as a charge of 15s. 11d. was made for the luxury, and also 3s. for ringing "when the Queen was with child." This child was afterwards the "elder Pretender," but at the time of the ringing the nation was looking for the advent of William of Orange.

In 1707 it was agreed that the five bells should be cast into six, but there was a stout contest before this was decided on, there being twenty-five votes for six bells, and eighteen votes for casting one. The churchwardens were empowered to treat with a bell-founder, and 5s. was spent at the Angel during the deliberation. Subsequently 5s. 6d. was charged for horse-hire in going to Bromsgrove to look after the bells; Mr. Richard Sanders, of that town, being the founder selected. Every stage of progress in the transaction was commemorated by drinking bouts. In 1709 a levy of sixpence in the pound was made to defray the charge for casting; and in the following year appears an item of £1. 4s. 11d. for "meat and drink for the gentlemen who gave judgment on the bells." These gentlemen were probably of the Cathedral choir, or some other musical men of the city, called in to give an opinion as to whether the new bells were in tune--as a similar instance, it will be seen, occurred in another parish. Lastly, the sum of £52. 3s. was paid to Mr. Sanders, apparently his whole bill for the casting. The entire expenses of the parish for the year 1680 amounted to £12. 12s. 4d., besides £5 distributed to the poor. A barn at Wick was frequently mentioned as a place where paupers died. Was this used as a workhouse by the parish? The amount paid under the head of "Whitsun farthings" is described as "Pentecostals to the dean and chapter, 2s. 3d." Every year a regular charge of 1s. was made, as paid to the dean and chapter's bailiff for what was termed "saddle silver." This was probably an annual payment for permission to the inhabitants to pass on horseback over certain lands of the dean and chapter. In many places a right of passing on horseback is called "a bridle-way."

A bridge on the north side of the churchyard is mentioned in 1683, and sums paid for bricks and masons' work to mend the same, and for railing and posting it. What bridge was this? Another curious circumstance recorded in this book is, that in 1717 "Mrs. Margery Carwardine, late of this parish, gave £20, the interest of which yearly to be laid out in Bibles for ever, to be delivered to the poorer sort of young people every Easter who have best rehearsed the church catechism in the Lent before; and if there be any overplus it shall be layd out in catechisms to be given to poor children yt go to the reading school." In the year 1702 it was agreed in vestry meeting "that only one churchwarden should be elected year by year, and to continue in his office two years, viz., the first year as under churchwarden and the second year as head churchwarden." The accounts of these officers were regularly entered in the book by a professional scribe, who was paid accordingly.