Noake's Worcestershire Page 7

ABBOT'S MORTON. 7

embattled, contains some stained glass of the date of 1590, representing the history of David and the giant. The building has been well restored. It has been already said that the church belonged to the monastery of Evesham. It was one of those churches and chapels of the town and vale of Evesham which formed the subject of great litigation between the abbot of that house and the bishop of Worcester, which ended in the bishop's jurisdiction being ousted from them all except from Abbot's Morton. These said abbots were very haughty; some of them were more than a match in legal knowledge for the bishop and prior of Worcester combined, and moreover it is said that the subjection of Evesham monastery to the jurisdiction of the see was unrighteously imposed by the nineteenth bishop of Worcester, • and therefore the monks ultimately obtained their ancient privilege of being answerable to his Holiness alone. At the Dissolution Abbot's Morton fell to Sir Philip Hoby, and at length was divided into various hands by purchase and otherwise. Mr. Perks and Mr. Cowley are the lords of the manor; and besides them the principal landowners are the Rev. G. Williams, Rev. T. Walker (glebe), Mrs. Walker, and Mr. Partington. The population have no other but rural pursuits, and the products of the pariah are wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, clover, mangolds, turnips, &c., very little pasture. A national schoolroom was built in 1844 by subscription, under the auspices of the late rector, who presented the site.

The "factotum" of this parish died on the 10th of January, 1861, namely, Richard Garfield, aged 61. He was a native of the parish and chiefly self-taught; he could perform excellent work as blacksmith, carpenter, joiner, cooper, stonemason, bricklayer, painter, whitewasher, or paper-hanger. He could dig out the foundation of a house, perform all the stonemason's and bricklayer's work, make all the doors and window frames, put on the roof, lay the floors, whether of brick, boards, or stone, put on all locks, do the blacksmith's work for every part of the house, paint and paper it, and make it fit for the