One fact bearing upon the subject of the great mortality in the pestilence of 1349 in the county of Hereford is recorded in the episcopal register. In 1352 the Bishop united into one parish the two churches of Great Colington and Little Colington, about four miles from Bromyard. The patrons of the two livings agreed to support a petition of the parishes to this effect, and in it they say "that the sore calamity of pestilence of men lately passed, which ravaged the whole world in every part, has so reduced the number of the people of the said churches, and for that said reason there followed, and still exists, such a paucity of labourers and other inhabitants, such manifest sterility of the lands, and such notorious poverty in the said parishes, that the parishioners and receipts of both churches scarcely suffice to support one priest."[261] The single church [p143] of Colington remains to this day as a memorial of the great mortality in that district. Even among the inhabitants the memory of the two Colingtons has apparently been lost. In Salop the historians of the county town record that "through all these appalling scenes (consequent upon the great mortality of 1349) the zeal of the clergy, both secular and monastic, was honourably distinguished. The episcopal registers of the diocese, within which Shrewsbury is situated, bear a like honourable testimony to the assiduity of the secular clergy of the district."[262] From the same source it appears that the average number of institutions to benefices vacant by death during ten years before 1349 and ten years after are only 1-1/2 per annum, or 15 for the whole period. In that year the number of institutions to vacancies known to have been caused by _death_ was 29. If this number be taken as a guide for the general mortality, Shropshire would appear to have suffered in an exceptional manner. Besides these, however, there are a number of other institutions registered at this time, the cause of which is not specified, and many of them most probably were also caused by the great epidemic. As an example of the general destitution caused by the great sickness, Owen and Blakeway quote an _Inquisitio post mortem_, taken in the year of the plague, upon the estate of a Shropshire gentleman, John le Strange of Blakmere. By that record he is found by the jury to have died, seized with various lands, etc., amongst others, the three watermills, "which used to be worth by the year 20 marks, but now they are worth only half that sum, by reason of the want of those grinding, on account of the pestilence." The same cause is assigned for the diminution of other parts of his revenue, as tolls on markets, rent of assize, etc.