Painswick was one of the first settlements taken from the forest that covered most of England. The Celts cleared a hill now known as Painswick Beacon and built a rampart around the summit to keep out the dreaded wolf packs and wild animals. It also protected them from hostile neighbors. With no central government, each settlement had to defend itself.

The Celts raised flocks and cattle, which they herded outside the rampart during the day and drove them back to the shelter at night. They grew wheat, which had to be guarded from the wild boar and deer herds. They kept honey bees and learned to brew mead, a strong drink made from fermented wheat and honey. At night they gathered around the fires and related stories of their gods, Thor and Woton. They believed in witches, enchantments and fairies. They would sing and drink until their brains became too befuddled to do anything but sleep it off.

In 42 A.D., four Roman legions under Emperor Claudius crossed the channel and brought England under the Roman Empire. They built a villa at Painswick with central heating and hot and cold baths. For 350 years the Romans ruled England, but when the Barbarians marched towards Rome, the Roman troops were recalled from England to defend their sacred city.

The Celts, left unprotected and without arms, were no match for the Saxon Pirates who poured across the channel looting and burning and killing all who resisted. However they did not conquer all of England and the villa at Painswick was left silent and deserted. Some of the Saxons brought their wives and children. They cleared the area around where the Painswick church now stands and built a small village called a wyke.

Later, William the Conqueror came from Normandy. Walter de Lacy fought for William in the battle of Hastings and as a reward was given 116 Manors. Among the manors was Wyke with over 20,000 acre—14,000 acres of it in forest. The Manor remained in the De Lacy family until 1130 when it was given to Pain Fitsjohn, who had married into the De Lacy family. The village became known as Pain’s Wyke, which later became Painswick. Sheepscombe was still a primeval forest.

The Manor passed through many families of related lines, but finally returned to the Crown, who awarded it to Arthur Plantagenet, Vicount Lisle, the natural son of Edward IV through the descent of his wife Elizabeth. They became hopelessly in debt and had to sell 400 of the trees in the Sheepscombe forest, which was protested, as it was the favorite hunting place of Henry VIII and Ann. A second sale of the trees was made and then the Manor was sold to the Cromwell family. Upon his death it returned to the Crown.

By intrigue and because he was a favorite of King Henry VIII, the Manor was sold to the Kingston family. King Henry VIII hunted often in the forest. Sir Anthony Kingston became the owner at the death of his father. He constructed a gallows at Sheepscombe and allowed two Motley brothers, John and William (apparently our ancestors), the use of a house and fields to keep the gallows in repair and be the executioners. However, there is no record of the gallows ever being used. The gallows is said to have been on the grass plot below the church.

Painswick was one of the Manors whose Lord had the right to try and hang felons. It also had the right of "tumbrel and pillory.” Tumbrel consisted of punishing women (usually scolds and prostitutes) by causing them to be ducked in water in a chair or on a stool constructed for that purpose. The pillory was a wooden frame supported by an upright post having holes through which the head and hands of offenders (male or female) were secured and the offender held in public disgrace.

There are pages of owners of the Manor and several Manor Houses. Pain Fitsjohn’s Manor House was Castlellum in the 15th century. Castle Hale became the Manor House in the 16th century, but later was purchased by the gentry. The third building believed to be the Manor House was known as the Lodge Farm, which had a large deer park. It was finally divided and sold to a Mr. Brown who leased it and the land to farmers. The house was too large for a farmer and too expensive to keep up, so one of its wings was pulled down.

Christianity is said to have been brought to England by Simeon, the Apostle. According to Doomsday, there was a priest and a church at Wyke in 1080. The wyke was composed of 65 families with 70 males. Through the years of apostasy, England, like other countries, suffered under the acts of heresy when many were burned at the stake and died in prison. When King Henry broke with the Pope over his divorce, he established the Church of England. He did away with some of the acts of heresy, but when his sister Mary came to the throne, she returned England to Rome and many martyrs died. As a result, she received the name of Bloody Mary.

Queen Elizabeth re-established the Church of England. It became mandatory to keep a record of the christenings, burials and marriages performed within the parish. Some parishes were more faithful than others so the churches were instructed not only to keep the records, but to also send a copy of it to the Bishop’s office. This became known as the Bishop’s Transcripts or B.T. for short. This was inspired of the Lord, as poor ink, mildew, neglect and fire made some of the records unreadable. There were two copies and one usually survived, but again, some people were more faithful than others in doing this. There were few records kept during the Civil War, so most parishes have a gap between 1629 and 1660.

At the same time Charles I quarreled with Parliament and dissolved it. Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans saw it as an opportune time to take over the government. They put King Charles I to death and forced Prince Charles to flee to France for safety. In 1642 the Civil War was waged between the Royalists and Cromwell’s Commonwealth, run by the Puritans. Cromwell’s army was referred to as the Round Heads because of their hairstyle.

Painswick’s churchyard became a battleground when the Round Heads barricaded themselves inside the church. The Royalist army was able to defeat them and clear them from the church. In doing so they left the marks of bullets and cannon balls, which can still be seen on the tower and walls of the church. The Royalists won the battle, but the Round Heads won the war. In December 1644, the Round Heads returned to Painswick with vengeance. They arrested the Vicar, who was a Royalist, and turned his wife and small children out in the cold winter without food or clothing to keep them warm even though she pleaded for food and clothing for her children.

England had hopes for more freedom and reforms under Cromwell, but they didn’t materialize and there were even stricter rules. The church bells were silenced, the May poles burned, there was no dancing on the greens, or horse riding, or many other sports and amusements once enjoyed by the people. When Oliver died, his brother Richard took his place, but he was not the leader that Oliver was and he lost the support of the people, who welcomed back Prince Charles. There were bonfires at Painswick and dancing on the green and the church bells once more rang out their peals.

Charles II enacted a law requiring recording the parish records and sending a copy to the Bishop’s office, so much better records exist from 1660 on. There were many laws that needed correcting and more equality and justice and the beginning of reforms took place in the early 1800’s. Women and children had been exploited and there were reforms to limit their working hours to ten. Schooling for children voting privileges to the middle class men and finally the working class happened by the end of the century.

How grateful we should be to live in our time, when many diseases such as, T.B., small pox, etc. have been conquered by inoculations and drugs. We are blessed to live in a time of scientific discoveries, hospitals, computers and space flights where we can see the surface of the moon from our easy chairs. We have modern conveniences too numerous to list.

There was dissension in the Church at this time. For 200 years, the people of the parish had been able to choose their Vicar, but in 1752 when they presented their choice to the Council, he was rejected. The Council presented John Moseley as the new Vicar, but the people were unwilling to accept him and instituted a suit to establish the choice of the people. Finally after ten years the people submitted and John Moseley served as Vicar until his death, October 8, 1794. His finely carved tombstone can still be admired near the Lyk-Gate in the Painswick churchyard.

On the first Sunday after Reverend Moseley’s death, the church wardens called a meeting to call a new Vicar. They chose Mr. John Fearon, but the trustees refused to appoint him. They claimed the right to choose without interference from the parishioners. Mr. Fearon filed a bill in court to compel the trustees to present him. The trustees instead placed the parish in charge of the curates. Mr. Fearon was about to take charge of the parish in 1823, but his health declined and he became too ill. He died June 10, 1823.

Once again a meeting was called to elect a new Vicar. There were eight names presented, but only two names were included in final voting—Reverend Robert Strong, who was at the time one of the curates in charge of the parish and William Knight, who had also been a curate in charge of the parish. The people were divided into two hostile camps. The contest became so vigorous that the men went so far as to engage in fistfights. The women even embroidered the name of their choice on their caps and aprons. Although Robert Strong was eventually elected, the hostile feelings were not wiped away for twenty years and affected the relationship of the Vicar with his flock.

In 1803, England was under the threat of invasion from Napoleon. He had made his escape and had been able to raise a large army. They had conquered Europe and now threatened to invade and conquer England. There were many sympathizers to the French cause, especially in Ireland, so England was plagued with informers and treason as well. When Nelson won his naval victory at Trafalgar and England became the “Mistress of the Seas,” it decreased the threat of invasion. The fighting continued for ten years before Wellington defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo.

With the end of the war, England had to face many problems at home. The war had curtailed trade and other countries had taken over her markets and the depression had caused unemployment, as machines replaced men.

The return of the soldiers swelled the unemployment ranks even more. There was a great housing shortage in the industrial areas as small towns became a city almost overnight. As a mill or factory would go up, the unemployed rushed to get work and would discover there was no place to live. Two and three families would crowd into one small cottage. People lived in attics and in cellars and dugouts.

With no way of disposing of the waste and garbage, the unsanitary conditions brought on an epidemic of cholera that took so many lives there was no place to bury the dead. Gravediggers were known to dig up older graves and remove the bones so that the new victims could be buried. Although Painswick and Sheepscombe seemed to avoid the overcrowding and plagues, they could not avoid the depression.

Painswick was noted for its weaving and quality cloth. The Painswick wool was of high quality and long fiber and there were many qualified weavers. Many of the homes had a room set aside for a hand loom. There were shelves to place the sacks of wool and weaving and spinning tools. The looms were seldom idle, as weavers in the family took turns at the loom. With the invention of the power loom by Cartwright and the use of waterpower to run them, mills began to spring up all along the streams of Painswick and Sheepscombe.

At the height of the industry, there were 20 or 30 mills along the streams. They were well known for the fine woven broadcloth, especially the brilliant red that the army used for their “red coats” and for the coats used by those who enjoyed the fox hunts. There was also navy blue for the Navy and green for the billiard tables of the gentry.

The weavers with their hand looms could not compete and lost their market. In anger they marched to destroy the mills that had destroyed their living, but it was all in vain.

Sheepscombe was called the “Peaceful Valley,” but it didn’t deserve the name. One moralist wrote [source unknown], “Sheepscombe is a wild and lawless place where 700 people live in poverty and ignorance with scant regard for other’s welfare.” Another author [source unknown] wrote concerning the condition of the mills: “The licentious ballads and filthy jesters and oaths profane were wont to echo in the walls, while drunkenness, not infrequently, went so far as to suspend the mills operation.

There was no church in Sheepscombe, but many ale shops and many unlicensed houses where beer and ale were sold were plentiful. What a challenge Henry and Sarah faced to raise a family in this environment. Their home life must have been a source of strength to have raised a noble family in those conditions.

Two weavers, John and William Twinning tried to upgrade the lives of the children by opening a school to teach reading and writing, but most parents preferred the meager wages of their children to their learning to read or write. Discouraged by the apathy of the parents, they finally closed the school. Then the Reverend Charles Neville came to Painswick as a curate. He noticed John and William Twinning’s regular attendance at church and became interested in their work with the school. He and his wife, Agnes, determined to help the “godforsaken” people of Sheepscombe and Painswick.