Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Before 1800 local records contain few references to members of the armed forces,
but Beoley constable’s accounts mentions ‘train-soldiers’ circa 1660, and the same parish
has a Chelsea out-pensioner in the 1730s. 397
Later in the eighteenth century a soldier was
ordered to be removed to Beoley, and a sailor’s daughter died on the road in Studley. 398
The gentry Lyttelton family of Studley included a captain, while newspapers report local
men deserting and the need for substitutes. 399
Many roles in spheres as varied as entertainment and local administration were
filled by part-time amateurs. Parish or manorial offices were often temporary and were
performed on a rotational basis, sometimes by willing, well-intentioned individuals,
sometimes not. Excisemen were also on hand to keep an eye on the locals. Residents
who served their communities in a variety of capacities ranged from Charles Parry of
Feckenham, who served as one of his county’s sheriffs, to the more humble parish-clerks
and Studley’s ‘dog-whippers’, labouring folk who presumably acted as dog-wardens. 400
Joseph Jones, another Studley labourer, was also described as an ‘aishman’. He may
397 E. Barnard, ‘Some Beoley parish accounts 1656-1700’, Trans. of Worcestershire Arch. Soc., 25, (1948),
p. 22. WoRO, Beoley burials, 1732. John Claridge, Beoley, Chelsea Hospital out-pensioner.
398 WaRO, Tanworth in Arden removal orders and settlement examinations, (DRB19/73/2 and
DRB19/77/2) regarding Thomas Kinsey of the 47 th . Regiment of Foot. WaRO, Studley burial register
1767, burial of the daughter of Joseph Potts, ‘seafareing man’.
399 WaRO, Studley parish register, 1775. It is not known whether Lyttelton was in the army or navy.
Berrow’s Worcester Journal 7 Nov. 1782 and 27 May 1784 mention the desertion of William Yoxall,
Feckenham, formerly a needlemaker. Berrow’s Worcester Journal 14 Feb. 1799 mentions William Dunn,
who enrolled for 1 st regiment of Worcestershire Militia in December 1798, but failed to turn up. In
Berrow’s Worcester Journal 9 May 1782 a Tardebigge overseer of the poor advertised for five single men
to serve as substitutes for the Worcestershire Militia.
400 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 15 Nov. 1753 regarding the sheriff. Dog-whippers are mentioned for
example in WaRO, Studley parish register, 1781. As noted elsewhere, the role of parish-clerk was often for
life and then handed on within the family. The Clarkson family in Feckenham served as parish-clerks for
at least one hundred and fifty years from 1700. During the period 1700-1749 they were also weavers, and
at least one of them also acted as the parish-crier. WoRO, BA4284 (ix), Feckenham overseers of the poor
accounts, 1743, and J. Noake, Guide to Worcestershire, (London, Longman, 1868), p. 163.
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