ASTON, WHITE LADIES. 23

The family of Symonds was of some antiquity in this parish. Cromwell had his head-quarters at Mr. Justice Symonds's house here the night before the battle of Worcester, and "Symonds of Aston" was one of the gentry invited to the Dean and Chapter's audit in 1662. A descendant of this Symonds was one of a gang of desperate villains who in November, 1707, murdered Mrs. Palmer and her maid-servant, of Upton Snodsbury, for which they were hung in chains. Palmer, one of the murderers, was an only son to the murdered lady. By this occurrence a lease of a portion" of the tithes of Sheriff's Lench and an estate at White Ladies' Aston were forfeited to Bishop Lloyd, who, unwilling to receive this " price of blood," founded therewith a school at Worcester (still in existence) and other charities. It is said that a Robert Brown was the incum,bent of White Ladies' Aston towards the close of the Stuart dynasty, and was ejected on account of his being a Nonconformist And a fifth monarchy man. He wrote against the parish priest, and Dr. Stillingfleet remarked of his "Jerubbaal" that it contained the substance of all that had been said by the old Brownists. He died in 1688 from excessive preaching.

White Ladies' Aston contributed two capons and four hares to Queen Elizabeth's "purveyance " of poultry in 1S97. That was at a time when our sovereigns, in peregrinating the country, gathered from their loving subjects their payments in kind as well as in money.

Bellbroughton.

BETWEEN Bromsgrove and Stourbridge you pass through a parish famous for its bells: there is Bell Hall, or Bryan's Bell, Moorhall Bell, Belsey Field, the Bell Inn, Bell End, and "The Belles of Bellbrough-