Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

a handful of such men. 384
Probate inventories and wills were drawn up by the same few
literate residents, some of whom may have been trained lawyers, but by no means all.
For example, Mascall Edmunds of Coughton, (probably a stonemason), appraised many
probate inventories in the area, apparently acting almost like an auctioneer cum estate
agent of later periods.
In the second half of the eighteenth century land-agents and stewards, such as
Bracy of Beoley and Wilkes of Coughton, were often regarded as gentry in their own
right. Published game certificate lists include many of the wealthier inhabitants, some of
whom also appear in the lists of gamekeepers. 385
Attorneys are in evidence in two
parishes, and excisemen in three. 386
In the last twenty years of the eighteenth century
various parishes formed associations for the prosecution of felons. 387
The numbers of
poor in times of hardship were conspicuous in these populous, industrialising parishes.
Studley built its own workhouse in the 1740s, while Tardebigge and Feckenham followed
suit later in the century. 388
In Period A Tardebigge was served by a surgeon, and Feckenham an apothecary
and a surgeon, while in Beoley the overseers were willing to fork out for a poor
384 WaRO, CR1998/LCB/26, Throckmorton MSS. For example, Richard Reeves of Sambourne acted for
the Throckmortons as a lawyer in Warwick and London. Richard Eades acted as the Throckmortons’
steward.
385 In the last years of the century Berrow’s Worcester Journal publishes these lists annually, (for example
17 Dec. 1789). ‘Gamekeeper’ in these lists seems to mean a gentleman qualified to take game who is
appointed to oversee the game in a certain manor, rather than the hands-on gamekeeper tending his
pheasants daily.
386 WoRO, BA2449, calendar of licences of surgeons, records that Robert Haighton, exciseman of Redditch
and Coughton doubled as a surgeon. John Bird, a Feckenham mercer, was also collector for the hairpowder
tax and offered a service furnishing funerals. (Berrow’s Worcester Journal 7 May 1795 and 20
Sept. and 15 Nov. 1787).
387 Berrow’s Worcester Journal mentions associations for Feckenham with Stock and Bradley (27 May
1784), for Beoley (2 June 1785), for Studley (22 Dec. 1785) and for Redditch and Tardebigge (27 July
1786).
388 WaRO, Studley parish register, records the expenses for the building of the parish workhouse in the
1740s. Berrow’s Worcester Journal 3 Feb. 1757 records a gentleman giving five guineas worth of bread to
the poor of Redditch. Berrow’s Worcester Journal advertises for a governor of a ‘small workhouse’ in
Tardebigge (24 April 1777) and to ‘farm the poor’ in the same parish (24 Sept. 1789). Berrow’s Worcester
Journal 19 Feb. 1795 invites tenders for a new ‘house of industry’ to be built in Feckenham.
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