(IN) A TRUE ACCOUNT OF Y^e CONS^{BL} OF ALDINGTON CHARGES FOR Y^e
YEARE 1716/5 NOV.  Y^e 7 & 8 1715 Y^e CHARGES FOR ATENDING AS
CONS^{BL}

s. d.

bringing in y^e Train souldiers.......................       3  0
spent when y^e soulders whent to Worcester............       1  6

One can picture the scene in the little hamlet as Thomas Rock collected his forces at the gossip corner; the little crowd of admiring villagers and the martial bearing of the one recruit, as with “cullers” flying and drums beating he marched away, followed by the village children to the end of the lane.

William Tindal, in his History of Evesham, 1794, records the fact that in 1790 Aldington belonged to Lord Foley, but history is silent as to local events from that date until modern times, when, in the first half of the next century, the Manor became the property of an ancestor of the present owner.  There is a tradition that the Manor House was a small but beautiful old building, with a high-pitched stone-slate roof and three gables in line at the front; but these disappeared, the pitch of the roof was reduced, and about 1850 the modern part of the house was added at the southern extremity of the old structure.

As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a member of the Washington family.  It is particularly of interest at the present time, more especially to Americans, and it has not, as far as I am aware, previously appeared in any other book.

INSCRIPTION

ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH
SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH
OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE
COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. 
M.S.

PENELOPES

Filiae perillustris & militari virtute clarissimi
Henrici Washington, collonelli,
Gulielmo Washington ex agro Northampton
Milite prognati;
ob res bellicosas tam Angl:  quam Hibernia
fortiter, & feliciter gestas,
Illustrissimis Principib:  & Regum optimis
Carolo primo et secundo charissimi: 
Qui duxit uxorem Elizabetham ex antiqua, et
Generosa prosapia Packingtoniensium
De Westwood;
Familia intemeratae fidei in principes,
et amoris in patriam. 
Ex praeclaris hisce natalibus Penelope oriunda,
Divini Numinis summa cum religione
Cultrix assidua;
Genetricis (parentum solae superstitis)
Ingens Solatium;
Aegrotantib. et egentib. mira promptitudine
Liberalis et benefica;
Humilis & casta, et soli Christo nupta;
Ex hac vita caduca ad sponsum migravit
Febr. 27 An.  Dom. 1697.

[Translation]

INSCRIPTION

ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH
SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH
OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE
COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. 
M.S.