BROMSGROVE. 77

Bishop of Bristol, who died in 1709; Dr. Sheffield, Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, who died 1796; and poets and many literary characters.

It only remains to add a few notes of the principal events in connexion with Bromsgrove during the present century:

September, 1800.-A meeting of farmers in the town, who agreed to supply the market with wheat at 1 Is. 6d. a bushel.

1806.- Michael Crockett pilloried on a market-day for fraud.

July, l809.- The last execution which took place at Red Hill, near Worcester, was that of Patrick Jordan and Thomas Brady, who were hung for robbing and beating Mr. C. Bayley on the Lickey.

March, 1819.- John Harris, hung at Worcester for forging bank-notes at Bromsgrove.

April, 10, 1819.- The wife of Joseph Richardson, a day labourer, at Cooksey, was delivered of four children at a birth, who proved a piece of good fortune for their parents. The children had sixteen godfathers and godmothers, and were well subsidized by the neighbouring gentry.

August 24, 1821.- William Bird, hung at Worcester for breaking into the house of Mr. John Bird, at Bromsgrove, and stealing wearing apparel.

March 12, 1834.- Robert Lilly, hung for the murder of Jonathan Wall.

May 15, 1834.- The monument on the Lickey erected to the memory of the Earl of Plymouth.

December, 1838.- Great excitement in consequence of the supposed murder of a Redditch needle-pointer, Joshua Hollier, at the Maltshovel, Burcot, while fighting with navvies. John Rose was charged with kicking him to death, but the jury threw out the bill.

1839.- A church-rate riot, when the curate, Rev. T. Moore, got badly treated, for which four persons were sentenced to imprisonment.

June, 1840.- Birmingham and Gloucester railway opened to near this town.