RUSHOCK. 313

Rushock.

FORMERLY belonged, as a chapelry, to the mother church of Chaddesley, which was appropriated to the College of Warwick and afterwards to the Corporation of that city. It is now an independent rectory, Rev. J. Piercy incumbent, the Lord Chancellor patron; Value of living, about £400; population, 159; church accommodation, 170 ; free seats, 80. The church is a little modern structure, built at a cost of £503! Acreage of the parish, 1,219, growing wheat, barley, beans, and roots. Flax was grown here in the last century by Henry Ellins. Agriculture is the sole employment. The Beauchamps and after them the Company of Merchant Tailors formerly held the manor, which now belongs to the trustees of Wolverhampton School, besides whom Mr. Foster, M.P., is a principal landowner.

Rushock Court (occupied by Mr. Morris) was where Father Wall, a Catholic priest, was arrested in 1679, afterwards tried at Worcester on a charge of remaining in England contrary to the statute of Elizabeth, and executed at Red Hill, near Worcester. In 1714, Rev. T. Goodwyn, rector of Rushock, was promoted to the Bishoprics of Kilmore and Ardagh. In 1724, Judith Cowley, aged forty, was baptised and married in Rushock Church at the same time. In 1660, "One Joan Bibb, of Rushock, was tyed and throweq ynto a poole as a witch, to see whether she could swim. And she did bringe her Act'n ag'st Mr. Shaw the Parson, and recov'rd 10 Ib. Damadges and 10 Ib. for costes."