The Pentecostals or Whitsun farthings paid in this parish in 1701 amounted to 3s., which, at a farthing per head, would show 144 paying householders then in the parish, unless indeed the payment had become a fixed one. There were said to be 255 houses here in 1779. Whitsun farthings (alluded to in pages 14 and 23) have been made from chapelries to their mother church up to a comparatively recent date. In the Castle Morton parish register is an entry of such payment at the commencement of the present century. Nash states that the Whitsun farthings belonging to the Cathedral of Worcester in 1649, when an act was passed for selling the lands, &c., of bishops, deans, and chapters, were estimated at about £5. 5s. per annum. He also gives a list of the amount due from each parish in the then nine deaneries. The share paid by the city of Worcester was 15s. 2-1/2d. The present rector of St. Helen's is the Rev. J. H. Wilding; churchwardens, Mr. Woods and Mr. T. Bickley. Population in 1851, 1368. St. Alban's. No records of any interest are to be found here. The register begins with 1630, and the account book 1751, in which year the total expenditure for this little parish amounted to £20. 19s. 10d., including £12 for the poor. The Whitsun farthings usually amounted to 6d. per annum, which, at a farthing per head per householder, showed twenty-four subscribers. The Rev. J. H. Wilding also holds this small rectory; churchwardens, Mr. F. St. John and Mr. Nicholson. Population in 1851, 286. St. Martin's. Here I found a register commencing with 1538, nicely copied in one uniform hand for a series of years. An hiatus occurs between 1560 and 1573, where the leaves have been torn out. In the 22nd year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, "John Wilkinson, the parson," caused to be entered on the register his license to one Thomas Heywood, "he beinge very sicke in body," to eat flesh in Lent so long as his illness continued, and no longer. To show the disturbing influence of the Civil Wars, it will be sufficient to state, that only one wedding is recorded in 1643, one in 1644, four in 1645, five in 1646, and so on. About the year 1653 the entries of a peculiar sort of marriages commence of which the following are specimens: "Mem. John Cartwright of ye parish of Wellan, and Anne Elvinges, of ye parish of Handbure, were joined together man and wiffe by John Nash, justis of peas, by consent, beinge lawfully published 3 severall market dayes in 3 severall weekes, without anie exception, ye 3d of Januarie. Witnesses, Richard Harrise, Marie Salloway, and John Robere."