''x.y. Morceetersbire Ip>aii6b IRegister Society. Secretary an& treasurer: MISS E. O. BROWNE, College Green, Worcester, REV. R. A. WILSON, WuUy Rectory, Worcester. ^be IRcgietere ot Eastbam (with Ibanle^ dbilb anb ©rleton) an5 Ibanleie mHilliam, 3n tbe H)eartery ot 3Burror&, 1572 to 1812. TRANSCRIBED BY REV. E. E. LEA. THE INTRODUCTION COMPILED BY REV. E. E. LEA. PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE WORCESTERSHIRE PARISH REGISTER SOCIETY. 1915. LIBRARY Brigham Young University Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Brigham Young University http://www.archive.org/details/registersofeasthOOeast : : ^qlr TKHorceeterebire Iliarieb IRegieter Society. Secretary anO (Treasurer MISS E. O. BROWNE, College Green, Worcester. iSMtor REV. R. A. WILSON, Witley Rectory, Worcester. Zhc IRcQietera of JSastbam (with Ibanle^ abilb anb ©rleton) anb Ibanle^ Milliam, Jn tbe Wcanct^ ot JQwxtoxb, 1572 to 1812. TRANSCRIBED BY REV. E. E. LEA. THE INTRODUCTION COMPILED BY REV. E. E. LEA. PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE WORCESTERSHIRE PARISH REGISTER SOCIETY. 1915. HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH — — —— — 3ntrobuction. The Ecclesiastical Parish of Eastham. Eastham is in the Diocese of Hereford. The north-west corner ol Worcestershire seems to have come into this diocese as part of the Province of the Magasaetas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe, who drove out the Welsh in the seventh century. The greater part of Worcestershire lay in the Province of the Hwiccas, which formed the Worcester Diocese. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries this Parish appears to have included Hanley William, Hanley Child, and Orleton. In the " Valor Ecclesiasticus," 1535, Hanley William is entered as a separate Rectory, but in 1560 was united with Eastham. By Orders in Council dated 1909 and 1913, Hanley William, Hanley Child, and the Fulhams Estate, a detached portion of Eastham, were taken from Eastham and formed into an independent Parish. In 1911 the population of Eastham was 264, Hanley William 130, 2,i55,:;Hanley Hanley Child 169, and Orleton 64 ; the acreage of Eastham William 1,165, Hanley Child, including the Fulhams 1,191, and Orleton 546. In 1676 the population of Eastham consisted of 250 Conformists and 4 Nonconformists, and in 1801 the population was 384. The Registers. The following Registers have been printed : Eastham, including Hanley Child and Orleton Vol. I. 1571 — 1681. Baptisms, Marriages, Burials. Part of the years 1576—1580 are missing. Vol. II. 1681 —1733. Baptisms, Marriages, Burials. Vol. III. 1733— 1812. do. do. do. Hanley William : Vol. I. 1586—1752. do. do. do. Vol. II. 1754—1 81 2. do. do. do. Hanley William entries 1586—1599 were copied into the Eastham Register. The Registers are parchment, and the entries are written in Latin until 1 61 5. The following Registers have not been printed : Eastham, 1754—1812. Banns and Marriages. Hanley William, 1754—181 2. do. do. The Hanley Child Register Book of Banns and Marriages 1754 1 81 2 is missing. The marriages of this period were copied into the other Registers, though ten are omitted in the Eastham Register and seven in the Hanley William Register ; these omitted marriages are printed. Orleton marriages are solemnised at Eastham, though there were marriages at Orleton in 1643, 1778, 1780, and perhaps in 1760. Eastham, Baptisms 181 3—1905, 1905 to present day. do. including Orleton. Marriages 181 3—1837, 1838 to present day. do. including Orleton and Hanley Child to 1900, Burials 1813 to present day. iv. Eastham and Hanley William Registers. Hanley William. Baptisms, 1813 to present day. do. Marriages, 181 3— 1837, 1837—1894, 1895 to present day. do. Burials, 181 3 to present day. Hanley Child. Baptisms, 1813 to present day. do. Marriages, 1813—1836, 1837 to present day. do. Burials, 1900 to present day. Orleton. Baptisms, 181 3 to present day. There are burial grounds at Eastham, Hanley William, and Hanley Child ; that of Hanlej^ Child was consecrated in 1900 ; before then Hanley Child buried at Eastham. Eastham, Hanley William, Hanley Child, Banns Books 1824 to present day. Notes on the Registers. Several briefs are entered ; other briefs appear in an Eastham Parish Book ; one in the latter for the Relief of Prisoners in Algiers in 1670 raised £'q 4s. od. in the Ecclesiastical Parish. Cases of drowning occur. Until 1793, when Eastham Bridge was built, the nearest bridges were at Tenbury, four miles distant, and Stanford, five miles. The fords in use were Whitcombe's, Hunt's, and Medway. Eastham R., 1723—4. Hop poolers (pullers or pickers) are men- tioned where a " strange woman " is buried. Eastham R., 1620. " Catturne, d. of Dorothy Treves was baptized at Hanley Child the first day of June, but borne at Rochford, and Mr. Tirer, curat there, was called before the Ordinary because hee did baptize the sayd child." Eastham R., 1733. Mr. Whitcombe is probably in error when he asserts that Hanley William buried at Eastham before 1586. Eastham R., 1735. The Parsonage built in this year is the present Rectory. Eastham R., 1741. Two amusing medical entries occur. Hanley William Book of Banns and Marriages, 1797- A Bridegroom is described as " late from Botany Bay." Hanley William R., 1798. " Christened Priscilla and William and baptized Mary, children of Samuel and Dorothy Philpots." The Commonwealth. Eastham. A " Register " was appointed in 1653. In the period 1653— 1 66 1 there are 21 birth and 7 baptism entries, the latter evidently inserted by a later hand, probably by the Curate, Mr. Bolton, in 1661. There are two marriages, one of which is stated to have been performed by a Justice of the Peace. Hanley William. A " Register " was appointed in 1653. In the period 1653— 1661 there are 26 baptism entries, the date of birth also being the Curate and Church- given ; from 1656— 1661 the Register is signed by wardens. Welsh Names. Many names which occur between 1584 and 1624 point to the residence in the parish of families of Welsh origin ; for example, ap Evan, ap Howell, ap Owen, ap Powell, ap Reese, ap Robert. Eastham and Hanley William Registers. v. The following names appear with a Mr., Mrs., or Esqre. : — Eastham R. Acton, Barnaby, Bayliss, Bradshaw, Bury, Causer, Cornewall, Dansey, Fidoe, Fleet, Hare, Hopton, Green, Griffin, Jennings, Lea, Miller, Morres, Nanfan, Nicholetts, Nott, Osland, Perks, Randall, Rus=;ell, Shelton, Soley, Simpson, Walker, Walwin, Whitcombe, Win- wood. Hanley William R. Bowkett, Hammond, Hereford, Hyde, Latham, Nash, Newport, Wells. Of the above the following families were associated with the Parish over loo years. The dates represent the earliest and latest years when they are mentioned in the Registers. Cornewall, 1629— 1705. Mention is made later, under the Manor of Eastham, of this family which owned the Court House, Eastham. The Lady Ann Cornewall, daughter of Sir Gilbert Lyttleton, lived here after the death of her husband, Sir Thomas Cornewall, 12th Baron of Burford, in 1636 ; she was buried at Eastham 1656, and a brass tablet recording her death, mentioned by Nash as in Eastham Church, is now at Hagley. A History of the " House of Cornewall " by the ist (2nd creation) Earl of Liverpool and the Rev. C. Reade, was published in 1908. >^ Bury. 1582—1724. This family owned the Old Farm, Eastham. One branch appears to have become extinct in the male line on the death of John Bury of Kateshill, Bewdley, and the Bank, Shelsley. Nicholetts, 1574— 1703. This family owned the Hillwood, Childs- grove, Bastwood, and other property in Eastham. Nicholas, son of Nicholas, is mentioned under Hanley Child in the Lay Subsidy Roll of 1275, and John Nicholetts under Eastham in that of 1327. Richard Nicholetts, who died in 1620, resided at the Hillwood ; his son, William, lived at Hopton Solers, Avenbury, which became the family residence, having acquired the estate by his marriage with Ann, daughter and heiress of George Dudgen. Colonel Gilbert Nicholetts, p^^ grandson of William, was A.D.C. to the Duke of Marlborough ; Gilbert George, son of this Gilbert, acquired the Brontrees Hall Estate, Bishop's Frome, by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Stephens. The Hillwood Estate was sold at the beginning of the 19th century. The present representative of the family is Edward Cornewall Nicholetts, of Bitton, CO. Gloucester. Some account of this family is given in " Robinson's Manors of Herefordshire," and in the Genealogist I., 233. Shelton, 1689— 1772. This family purchased the Lower House Estate, formerly called Callow Hill, about 1730, and sold it in 181 3. The family is now represented by Captain Charles Shelton, R.M.L.I. Whitcombe, 1729—1862. Three Whitcombes were Rectors of the Parish, 1740—1780, and three Whitcombes occupied Eastham Court Farm about 1750—1852, which the family purchased early in the 19th century, and later sold to Edward Vincent Wheeler of Kyrewood. William Whitcombe, Curate 1729 and Rector 1740, built the present Rectory House in 1735 ; he was son of W^iliiam Whitcombe of the Morrey, Adderley, Shropshire ; his nephew, Edmund Whitcombe of Orleton Court, was High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1777. One branch of the family is now represented by Robert Henry Whitcombe of Bewdley. Whitehead, 1808—191 5. Christopher Whitehead, Rector 1790, was son of Edward Whitehead, Vicar of Bolton. The family purchased the Grange Estate, formerly known as the Spout, and Bastwood, at the end of the 1 8th century. H. J. B. Whitehead, of Eastham Grange, late Lieutenant 7th Hussars, represents one branch of the family. vi. Eastham and Hanley William Registers. Newport, 1600—1838. Hanley Court is the residence of this family. The estate includes Hanley William and farms in Eastham, Hanley Child, and Orleton. Reference is made to the family under the Manor of Hanley William.