Chapter VI: Part 6

On the 20th of November, 1613, a certificate was sent down from Whitehall to "our very loving friends, the Justices of the Peace and compounders for the county of Worcester," which, after the usual "heartey commendations," &c., set forth that "Thomas Gunner, his Majesty's servant, under-tacker for the countie of Worcester, hath delivered for the service of his Majestie and his most hon. house, for the compost of the 11th yere of his Highnes raigne, 20 fatt oxen, 20 fatt muttons, 20 stirks, and 40 lambs, all good and serviceable, and soe wee bid you heartily farewell." There were two certificates in the year 1640--the one "that Thomas Hill, your undertaker for the composition of lambes, hath, on behalfe of the country, delivered into the office of his Majesty's Poultry at the Court, the full number of 150 lambes," due for the year ending the last day of September; and the other, for 20 fat oxen, 200 fat muttons, and 20 stirks, due for the year ending the last day of December. Nash states that the purveyance for this county in 1660 was--20 oxen, or a composition of £4 a head, to be paid June 16th; 200 muttons, or 6s. 8d. a head, paid July 10th; 150 lambs, or 1s. a head, August 15th; and 20 stirks, or 10s. a head, October 8th.

These compositions arose out of the prerogative of purveyance. Mr. John Bruce, F.S.A., in his "Verney Papers," published by the Camden Society (p. 86), says:

"The prerogative of purveyance was one of those ancient rights
of sovereignty which in practice were most annoying to the
people. It consisted of the power of taking, at certain fixed
low prices and with or without the consent of the owner, for
the use of the royal household, any provisions which an officer
called a purveyor thought proper to select. With that wisdom
which distinguished the government of Queen Elizabeth, we find
that this ancient right was not harshly enforced, but made the
subject of a clear arrangement, which avoided in practice all
the heartburnings and contentions which are sure to follow from
carrying out an indefinite authority."

The powers of purveyance having been suspended during the time of the Commonwealth, Charles II at his Restoration consented to resign entirely these branches of his revenue and power, and they were abolished by the statute 12th Charles II, chap. 24, Parliament granting him in lieu an excise duty on beer and ale of 15d. a barrel and a proportionate sum for other liquors. But temporary acts were subsequently passed suspending this statute in favour of the King's royal progresses, and in favour of the navy and ordnance.

Worcestershire Manuscripts.

THE DINELEY MANUSCRIPTS.

Among the valuable manuscripts in existence relating to this county are the Dineley, Jeffries, and Townsend, besides those of Dr. Prattenton, now in possession of the Society of Antiquaries. To preserve these, with a view to publication, should be an object of solicitude to all literary men of the county. The Dineley Manuscripts (now in the possession of Sir T. E. Winnington, Bart., M.P.) consist of three volumes, written between 1670 and 1680 by Thomas Dineley, Esq., a member of one of the oldest Worcestershire families. One of the volumes contains accounts of his visits to many churches in this county as also to adjacent towns and about a dozen cathedrals; pen and ink sketches of monuments, coats of arms, dresses, &c., many of them exquisitely done; copies of inscriptions, both quaint and curious; tracings of pedigrees, &c.; showing the compiler to have been a gentleman well versed in ecclesiastical antiquities, a classical scholar, acquainted with heraldry, and an accurate draughtsman. The second volume is entitled "Observations in a Voyage in the Kingdom of France, being a collection of several monuments, inscriptions, draughts of towns, &c."--date 1675; and the latter part of this volume is devoted to a similar description of Ireland, with a curious dissertation on the manners and customs of the Irish. The filthy habits of that people in the seventeenth century are treated of in rather broad language, not adapted for the present day. The third volume has the following title: "The Jovrnall of my Traveils through the Low-Countreys, Anno D'ni 1674." It appears that in December, 1671, Mr. Dineley went in the suite of "Sir G. Downing, Knt. and Bart., Ambassador from his most sacred Ma'tie to ye States Generall of the United Provinces." His journal is written in a minute but beautiful caligraphy, and denotes habits of judicious observation. In his notice of the town of Dort, in Holland, he alludes to the great abundance of salmon, and mentions a custom which I had long thought was by no means confined to our own city of Worcester: he observes, "It is sayd that prentices and maid servants, before they enter into service, indent not to be oblig'd to eat salmon above twice a week;" and in his account of the Irish (chapter on Limerick) Mr. Dineley alludes to a "salmon weire, out of town, having a castle without timber or nayle, in the middle of the river," where the custom was "to grant tickets for salmon gratis to all strangers who will eat them upon the place; this the corpora'con is obliged to, though they set it for £200 per ann." In some commonplace notes at the end of the volume is the following entry:

"Hops among other things brought into England 15 Hen. 8.
wherefore this rithme--

"Turkeyes, carps, hops, pickerel, and beer,
Came into England all in one year."

There is another of Mr. Dineley's volumes in the collection of the Duke of Beaufort, at Badminton; it describes a tour through Wales with the President of the Marches, an ancestor of the Duke's. It is mentioned in Blakeway's History of Shrewsbury.

THE JEFFRIES MANUSCRIPTS.

Henry Jeffries (who died in 1709), the last heir male and proprietor of the manor of Clifton-on-Teme, was a man of some learning, and left a manuscript memorandum book in which he had jotted down his own observations _de omnibus rebus_, and generally in so easy and familiar a way as to render them agreeable as well as instructive. This relic likewise belongs to Sir Thomas Winnington, one of whose ancestors married the heiress of the Jeffries family about a century and a half ago. Specimens of its multifarious contents are given in vol. ii of "The Rambler in Worcestershire," from which they appear to be invested with great local interest to the neighbourhood of Clifton, Stanford, and Shelsey, as also to the general antiquary.

DIARY OF MISTRESS JOYCE JEFFRIES.

There is also a Manuscript Diary of Miss Joyce Jeffries in the possession of Sir T. Winnington. The diary contains an account of the state of domestic life among the upper classes, during the reign of Charles I, in the counties of Worcester and Hereford, and relates to Ham Castle, in the parish of Clifton-on-Teme, where this lady resided, and the siege of the city of Hereford, where she also possessed a residence, during the calamities of civil war. It is hoped that the Manuscript will be published, and no one can be found more able for the task of editor than the Rev. J. Webb, of Tretire, near Ross, who has already published a most valuable work, of local as well as general interest, on the Household Roll of Bishop Swinfield of Hereford, of which I have given an abstract further on.

Mistress Joyce Jeffries was the half-sister of Humphrey Coningsby, 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.

In the Bodleian Manuscript, Tanner 45, fol. 19, is a letter to Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury, interesting, though trivial, as applicable to the affairs of Worcester Cathedral.

"May it please your Grace,--Tandem aliquando I present your
grace with all the papers that make (and as with humble
submission, I conceive) are requisite in Mr. Deane of
Worcester's defence against Mr. Hathaway's pretences and
allegations about the choire organ made and fixt, and the
great organ to be made, but now bargained for. And the reason
I sent these papers up no sooner was my longing hope and
endeavour to have made Mr. George Dallow's testimonie more
pregnant and evident touching the promise of Hathaway and Dr.
Gibbons to help him to this organ-worke at Worcester, but,
to my satisfaction, there is more than probabilitie there
had been monie enough to have satisfied Gibbons and Hathaway
and Talbott, had it been in the Deane's power to have made
a bargain, they well knew Mr. Deane's (Dr. Warmstrey) utter
ignorance in re musica. They knew he was, as it is in the Greek
proverbe, #onos pros lyran#, had no more skill in an organ than
a beast that hath no understanding, and 'tis very considerable
that Hathaway should dare to addresse a complaint at Council
Board, when for above a whole yeare, Mr. Deane having forbidden
him to proceede to the worke of the great organ, he never
applied himselfe neither to Mr. Deane nor to the Chapter, nor
to the Visitor, continuing his visitacion for nine months at
least, no complaint all this while ever heard of, and for ye
materials provided it signifies nothing, unlesse it did appeare
they were provided for this organ, when soone after he had
made the choire organ he was forbidden to proceed any farther.
With Mr. Harrison (who was old Dallow's servant and married
his daughter) I twice conferred about his testimonie, and he
told me he would make good all he said upon oath, and make it
good to all the organists in England, and if your grace shall
secretly object, old Hesiod's testimonie in ye case, #kai
kêramius kêramei phthoneuei#, an artist malignes his brother
artist. I rely very much on Mr. Tomkin's skill, bred in his
cradle and all his life among organs, who is an excellent
organist, and has ever maintained an organ in his house, his
letter will show what his judgment was before this difference
was started. Little reason have I had to interpose in the least
in Mr. Deane's case, but I cannot forbear to stand up for
innocence, though joyned with much follie. I have returned a
certificate to his Majestie's instructions about hospitalls,
and by the grace of God shall returne a full answer to your
grace's instructions about church affaires in ye due time.
The Lorde in the meane time preserve your grace in health and
safetie and ye comforts of his blessed spirit.

"May it please your grace, I am your grace's most obliged and
most obedient humble servant,

"RO. WIGORN.

"Worcester, Aug. 5, 1665."

The Bishop was cousin of Richard Skynner, of Cofton Hackett, the eldest son of Edward Skinner, of Ledbury, who purchased that manor for him from the Dyneley family, upon his marriage with his first wife, Miss Dyneley; and of Dr. William Skynner, his brother, fellow of All Soul's, Oxford; 1612, LL.D. March 31; 1625, chancellor of Hereford, April 29, 1626; rector of Beckenham, Kent, 1628; and in 1650 deprived of his living by the Parliament in favour of John Soter, and never restored, as he died at Ledbury, 1657, aged 66. This Richard's will showed, by his selection of his executors, and the course pursued by them in the Civil Wars, how friendships were broken; two, his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Lyttleton, Baronet, and Sir Edward Sebright, Baronet, were fined by Parliament as Royalists, and one was Humphrey Salwey, also married to a Miss Lyttleton, whom he styles his dear brother Humphrey Salwey, and whose son sat as one of the judges on the trial of King Charles I, and was M.P. for Worcestershire in the Long Parliament. A younger son of the Bishop's, William, was by his father appointed rector of Hartlebury, and there is a monument to his memory in that church. There was also another member of the Ledbury family connected with this county, as having been a member of the Oxford circuit, the Right Hon. Sir John Skynner, Knight, Lord Chief Baron. He was grandson of Edward Skynner, of Ledbury, and Margaret, his wife. On the 15th March, 1757, he was one of the counsel present in court, at the Worcester Assizes, when, between two and three o'clock, p.m., as Sir Eardly Wilmot began to sum up in the last cause, a stack of chimneys fell through the roof, killing many. The counsel then in court, being five in number, saved themselves under the stout table, and of these, four--Aston, Nares, Ashurst, and Skynner--after became judges; the fifth dying a king's counsel. We find traces of this old Ledbury family in this county, for in Nash's History of Worcestershire, vol. 2, we read that in the east window of the south aisle of Little Malvern Church are the arms of John Alcock, who was Bishop of Worcester from 1476 to 1486, and, in the south part of the same window is written "Orate pro animabus Roberti Skinner et Isabellæ, uxoris ejus, et filiorum suorum et filiarum." Richard Skinner, of Cofton, served the office of sheriff of Worcestershire in the 4th of Charles I (1628), and Edmund Skinner, of Wichenford, in the 12th George I (1726). The arms of Skinner are "Sable, a chevron or, between three griffins' heads argent."

DODDINGTREE HUNDRED TWO CENTURIES AGO.

In Sir Thomas Winnington's library at Stanford is a bundle of manuscripts, being a survey of the parsonages and other church livings in the Doddingtree hundred of Worcestershire, date 1665, or returns made to a visitation by order of the Lord Protector Cromwell. These returns include thirty-three parishes or places, namely, Bockleton, Pensax, Knighton-on-Teme _alias_ Kington, Lindridge, Alfrick, Suckley, Little Kyre, Hanley Child, Orleton, Hanley William, Eastham, Tenbury, Cotheridge, Edwyn Loach, Shelsley Walsh, Lower Sapey, Clifton-on-Teme, Acton Beauchamp, Great Witley, Shelsley Beauchamp, Abberley _alias_ Abbotsley, Stanford, Kyre Wyard, Aka _alias_ Rock, Bewdley, Ribsford, Stockton, Martley, Bayton, Mamble, Dodenham, Astley, and Shrawley. As an abstract of some of the details may be interesting, I here present them.

The warrant from the Commissioners, dated October 20th of the above year, required "fower or five sufficient inhabitants of every parrish to enquier by all good wayes and meanes to finde out the trueth and worth of the true value, by the yeare, of church lyvinges, and the qualityes of the severall incumbants," &c. Accordingly the presentments are signed by constables, churchwardens, and, as it is quaintly expressed in some instances, by "other knowinge men of the said parrish." The Commissioners were "the Right Worship'le Edward Pits, Esq., William Jeffreys, Esq., Nicholas Acton, Esq., John Lathum, Esq., Henry James, Gent."

BOCKLETON.--John Barneby, Esq., had recently obtained a lease of the parsonage house, glebe lands, and tithes, for the lives of his three sons, paying a yearly rent of £8 for the same to the treasurer of Hereford Cathedral. Mr. Timothy Harris was curate at £10 a year, paid by Mr. Barneby. "Hath a very spacious church and seaventy-three houses and ffamilyes within itt." Tithes worth about £50.

PENSAX.--Church "supplied by Richard Wilkes, minister of gods holy word, who is an able pracher and doth for the most pte prach twise every Lords day; and hath for his sallary all the profits ecclesiasticall yssuing out of Pensax aforesaid wch doth amount unto eleven pounds p. ann. or thereaboute; and the reason why it is soe small is; because all the tyeth corne and graine (except home closses) formerly belonging to the Deane and Chapiter doth not come to the minister but is leased out to one Henry Pennell worth 20 pounds p. ann. or there aboute; and as for our minister we are very well contented wth him and he wth us and doe desire we may continue as we are, and wee desire the greate tythes may come in for the maintaineance of the minister when the leasse is expired. Item. Our church is scituate wth very great conveniency as neere as may be iudged about the midst of the p'ish where the congregation may come twise in the day in due and seasonable times to heare Gods word taught and prached and is an auncient place of buriall; and yf it should be united to any other church some of our congregation would have two miles and a halfe to the neerest church to us; or there aboute; and besides we have a populous congregation insoemuch that our church is very full upon most Lords dayes; and we have many aged many lame and impotent p'sons of our congregation; wch (yf our church should be annexed to any other p'ish) would be deprived of hearing the word of God the spirituall food of their soules wch is the onely ordinary meanes of salvation."

KNIGHTON.--Chapel appendant to Lindridge; Dean and Chapter of Worcester, patrons; the tithes which came to the minister's share were £20 per ann. "Our mynister is Mr. Edward Shawe whoe preacheth and expoundeth constantly uppon the lords dayes." "The teyth corne and grayne are leased out to on Maior Inet for a terme yet endurynge at a c'teyne yearly rent wch goeth to pay augmentacon in this county as we are informed; the value is aboute thirty pounds a-yeare." "Our townshipp of Knighton and the villages thereunto belonginge are distant from Lindridge church about two myles and some pts thereof three myles and the wayes thereof verry fowle and deepe in the tyme of wynter neyther is the church of Lyndridge large enough to hould or conteyne the one half of Knighton and Lindridge prishioners as hath been heretofore c'tified to the p'liamt[4] by Mr. Jon. Gyles mynister of Lyndridge and div'rs others p'ishion'rs there. Moreover our chappell of Knighton hath all p'ochial rytes belonginge unto it and our chappell is larger then the church of Lyndridge and besydes we have a very fayre gallary therin. There are also in Knighton above threescore ffamylies and div'rs of them very aged, And furthermore Knighton by p'porcon (proportion) is the one half of a towne of oyer, And our chappell standeth neere aboute the middest of Knighton aforesaid and therefore we conceave that o'r chappell is fitt to be made a p'ish church in regard the place is very populous & large as aforesaid, And therefore we conceave if the teyth of corne and grayne might be annexed to the said chappell it would be a considerable meanes to mayteyne a preachinge mynister in regarde it goeth to pay augmentation to other places."

[4] "Parliament" probably.

LINDRIDGE.--"The Dean and Chapter of Worcester had the presentation thereof, but now wee know not in whose presentation it is." Mr. John Gyles present incumbent; "profits" received by him £70 a year.

ALFRICK.--The Lord Protector patron; tithes, great and small, £30. "Wee p'sent that the cure is carfully supplyed twice ev'y Lords day, dayes of thanksgiveing and humiliation, by Mr. John Slade, a preaching minister, and hath from the (now) Incumbent Mr. Litleton for his sallery xxiv. marks p. ann." Hamlet consisteth of three score and ten families (beside other) at present uninhabited and most of them being aged people. "Lastly wee p'sent, that wee have a decree for a resident minister to bee amongst us." Chapel distant two miles from parish church.

SUCKLEY.--Lord Protector patron. Tithes, great and small, of Suckley, Alfrick, and Lulsley, £90. "The cure carefully supplyed twice every Lord's day, dayes of thanksgiving and humiliation, and that Aufricke is supplyed we believe with a preachinge minister at the charge of Mr. Thomas Littellton the now persone." Lulsey by one William Doughty, not a preaching minister; salary £5 paid by Mr. Littleton.

LITTLE KYRE.--In the gift of Lord Protector, and united to Stoke Bliss; glebe worth £5; tithes, £10; Edward Russell, incumbent.

HANLEY CHILD.--Sir Gilbert Cornwall patron; glebe worth £4; tithes, £10. Edward Benson, incumbent.

ORLETON.--Chapel to Eastham; patron, Sir _G._ Cornwall; tithes, £16; Mr. Benson incumbent, who paid a preaching curate £8 yearly.

HANLEY WILLIAM.--Sir G. Cornwall patron; Mr. Benson incumbent; tithes, £15. Mr. John Phillips, "an able preacher, doth supply the cure." Orleton is represented as fit to be united to Hanley William:

EASTHAM.--In gift of Sir G. Cornwall. Glebe and tithes worth £67. 17s. 2d. Minister, Mr. Edward Benson, "an honest man and a preacher of the gospel." Hanley William, Hanley Child, and Orleton, are chapels. Parish very populous. Two curates, Mr. John Phillipps, who received £20 for serving the two Hanleys; Orleton curate, £8; the tenths £3. 8s. 5d.

TENBURY.--Robert Lucy, of Charlcote, patron; Joseph Smith the preaching minister. "That there is belonginge to the sayd vicar the vicaredge house and backside, and the churchyard, worth by the year £2;" tithes, £38. "That there is a p'sonage impropriate, wch was for the most part soulde by the ancestors of the sayd Robert Lucye long since, and the rest leased out for lives, worth by the yeare £40." Tithe of corn and grain in Tenbury town and foreign, and Berrington, which Robert Lucy received, £50. Rochford, a member of Tenbury church, worth £30.

COTHERIDGE.--Appropriated to William Berkeley, Esq., "who doth hire Mr. Theophilus Cooke to supply the cure there, who is an able preaching minister;" salary, £4; tithes, £40.

EDVIN LOACH.--Fitzwilliam Coningsby, Esq., patron; Richard Jay, minister, "and an able painfull man in his office." Glebe, £5; tithes, £10. Tedston Wafer is united to Edvin Loach.

SHELSLEY WALSH.--Patron, Thomas Foley, Esq.; Mr. Edward Lane, incumbent, "who pracheth duely and constantly at convenyent tymes;" house, glebe, and tithe, £17. 10s.

LOWER SAPEY.--John Cliff, minister and patron; glebe, _£_9; tithes, £30.

CLIFTON-ON-TEME.--This place is called "the borough and parish of Clifton," it being a place of some importance, and constituted a borough by Edward III, when it was privileged with fairs (now again revived, 1855), a weekly market on Thursday, and many other franchises and immunities, by a charter granted to Mortimer. The house, glebe, and tithe, worth £26. 6s. 8d. William Jeffreys, Esq., patron. "Also since the sequestration of Mr. John Greene, the late minister, one Mr. Samuell Ffiler was by the order of the comittee of the county of Worcester made minister thereof, who is an able preaching minister, and Mr. John Hill doth in his absence supply the cure and preacheth duely every Lords day twice, and receaves the proffitts." Shelsley Walsh worth £17. 10s., and Sapey Pritchard £39; both fit to be united to Clifton.

ACTON BEAUCHAMP.--Rectory, endowed with all tithes, and hath glebe. No chapels annexed; nor any payments but the tenths, being 8s. a year. W. Berkeley, Esq., patron; Mr. George Fyncher, preaching minister, who received the profits and dues of tithes, and was also rector of Thornbury, Herefordshire, of which place, as also of Stanford (a chapel belonging to Bromyard), he likewise received the profits and tithes. One Mr. Richard Todd, a young man, was employed by the rector to preach at each of those places, but what salary the poor hard-worked curate obtained from the wealthy pluralist the deponents knew not; "but betweene them both wee at Acton Beachamp aforesayd have preachinge some tymes in the morninge onely, and nothinge at all in the eveninge, and some tymes noe excercise in the morning nor eveninge of the Lords day or dayes of humiliation; but are forced to goe to other places."--Profits and tithes of Acton Beauchamp worth £37, but the house greatly decayed. Glebe, £13. "We humbly desier that wee may not bee constrayned to goe to any other parish or chappell for the causes aforesaid, and in regard it hath cure of sowles and wee are at least fower and ffortie familyes, poore, aged, and weake people, and the soyle very hilley and durtie in the winter tyme and the out side of Worcester Shire and dioces, and remote from Thornebury aforesayd, which is in the county and dioces of Hereford, or any other church in the county or dioces of Worcester. Suckley is the nearest, which is two miles distant at least from church to church in our estimations."

GREAT WITLEY.--Thomas Russell, Esq., patron; Francis Marshall the "very able minister for the cure of soules." Living worth £50. No chapel. The inhabitants of Hilhampton, a hamlet in Hartley parish, had been in the habit for some years of coming to Witley church on the Lord's day, burying their dead there, and receiving the sacrament.

SHELSLEY BEAUCHAMP.--A rectory in the patronage of Mr. John Travell, merchant, of London; incumbent, Mr. Charles Nott. Glebe lands and tithes, £60, whereof £4 paid yearly to a free school at Stourbridge.

ABBERLEY.--"A rectory in the presentation as we suppose of on Mr. Joseph Walsh esquier whose ancesters were wont to pr'sent. That our present minister is on Mr. John Dedicott an able constant preacher of the word and a man of unblameble life and co'versation." Profits of the rectory £50, which would be more if the lord of the manor had not detained some of them. Only an acre of glebe.

STANFORD.--Tithe, glebe, and profits, £30, out of which 16s. 8d. paid yearly to the vicar of Clifton. Patron, Edward Salwey, Esq.; Thomas Steadman, incumbent, by whom the cure was "sufficiently served."

KYRE WYARD.--Edward Pytts, Esq., patron. The parsonage is reported to have "alwaies ben an entire thinge of it selfe and not united unto any other, beinge distant from any other church one mile and a halfe." Glebe, £10; tithes, £20. Hugh Thomas, the minister, "preacheth twice every Lord's day."