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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Annals of Willenhall, by Frederick
+William Hackwood
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Annals of Willenhall
+
+
+Author: Frederick William Hackwood
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2010  [eBook #31675]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANNALS OF WILLENHALL***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1908 Whitehead Bros. edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+                                                               [COPYRIGHT]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   THE
+                           ANNALS OF WILLENHALL
+
+
+                                   —BY—
+
+                          FREDERICK WM. HACKWOOD
+
+                                AUTHOR OF
+
+   “The Chronicles of Cannock Chase,” “Wednesbury Ancient and Modern,”
+        “The Story of the Black Country,” “Staffordshire Stories,”
+                                 &c., &c.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+         “I cannot tell by what charm our native soil captivates us,
+                and does not allow us to be forgetful of it.”
+
+                                                                  —_Ovid_.
+
+              [Picture: Seal of Willenhall Local Authority]
+
+                              Wolverhampton:
+                             WHITEHEAD BROS.,
+                    St. John’s Square and King Street.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                  1908.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER.                                                         PAGE.
+I.—Willenhall—Its Name and Antiquity                                 1
+II.—The Battle of Wednesfield                                        5
+III.—The Saxon Settlement                                           11
+IV.—The Founding of Wulfruna’s Church, A.D. 996                     17
+V.—The Collegiate Establishment                                     22
+VI.—Willenhall at the Norman Conquest (1066–1086)                   27
+VII.—A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall                           32
+VIII.—Willenhall in the Middle Ages                                 37
+IX.—The Levesons and other Old Willenhall Families                  41
+X.—Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation                         48
+XI.—How the Reformation Affected Willenhall                         52
+XII.—Before the Reformation—and After                               57
+XIII.—A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms                     65
+(1640–1745)
+XIV.—Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend                   72
+(1615–1702)
+XV.—Willenhall Struggling to be a Free Parish                       77
+XVI.—Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall (1690–1760)                  82
+XVII.—Willenhall “Spaw”                                             90
+XVIII.—The Benefice                                                 95
+XIX.—How a Flock Chose its own Shepherd                            103
+XX.—The Election of 1894, and Since                                110
+XXI.—Willenhall Church Endowments                                  116
+XXII.—The Church Charities: the Daughter Churches                  129
+XXIII.—The Fabric of the Church                                    135
+XXIV.—Dissent, Nonconformity, and Philanthrophy                    143
+XXV.—Manorial Government                                           148
+XXVI.—Modern Self-Government                                       153
+XXVII.—The Town of Locks and Keys                                  158
+XXVIII.—Willenhall in Fiction                                      167
+XXIX.—Bibliography                                                 175
+XXX.—Topography                                                    179
+XXXI.—Old Families and Names of Note                               184
+XXXII.—Manners and Customs                                         187
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+Seal of Local Authority                    Title Page.
+St. Giles’ Church                                    v
+Rev. Wm. Moreton                                     v
+Rev. G. H. Fisher, M.A.                              v
+Dr. Richard Wilkes                                   v
+Moseley Hall                                        65
+Boscobel                                            65
+Bentley Hall                                       137
+Willenhall Trade Token (farthing)                  166
+Borrow, George                                     169
+Borrow’s Birthplace                                169
+Neptune Inn                                        177
+Bell Inn                                           177
+Old Bull’s Head                                    177
+The Plough                                         177
+Tildesley, James                                   185
+Tildesley, Josiah                                  185
+Pearce, George Ley                                 185
+Hartill, Jeremiah                                  185
+Austin, John                                       185
+
+     [Picture: St. Giles’ Church (before Restoration).  1755 to 1871]
+
+     [Picture: The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles’ Church,
+                               1788–1834)]
+
+   [Picture: Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A.  (Incumbent of St. Giles’
+                           Church, 1834–1894)]
+
+                      [Picture: Dr. Richard Wilkes]
+
+
+
+
+I.—Its Name and Its Antiquity
+
+
+Willenhall, vulgo Willnal, is undoubtedly a place of great antiquity; on
+the evidence of its name it manifestly had its foundation in an early
+Saxon settlement.  The Anglo-Saxon form of the name Willanhale may be
+interpreted as “the meadow land of Willa”—Willa being a personal name,
+probably that of the tribal leader, the head of a Teutonic family, who
+settled here.  In the Domesday Book the name appears as Winehala, but by
+the twelfth century had approached as near to its modern form as
+Willenhal and Willenhale.
+
+Dr. Oliver, in his History of Wolverhampton, derives the name from Velen,
+the Sun-god, and the Rev. H. Barber, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who tries to
+find a Danish origin for nearly all our old Midland place-names, suggests
+the Norse form Vil-hjalmr; or perhaps a connection with Scandinavian
+family names such as Willing and Wlmer.
+
+Dr. Barber fortifies himself by quoting Scott:—
+
+    Beneath the shade the Northmen came,
+    Fixed on each vale a Runic name.
+
+                                                        Rokeby, Canto, IV.
+
+Here it may not be out of place to mention that Scandinavian influences
+are occasionally traceable throughout the entire basin of the Trent, even
+as far as this upper valley of its feeder, the Tame.  The place-name
+Bustleholme (containing the unmistakable Norse root, “holme,” indicating
+a river island) is the appellation of an ancient mill on this stream,
+just below Wednesbury.  In this connection it is interesting to recall
+Carlyle’s words.  In his “Hero Worship,” the sage informs us of a mode of
+speech still used by the barge men of the Trent when the river is in a
+highly flooded state, and running swiftly with a dangerous eddying swirl.
+The boatmen at such times will call out to each other, “Have a care!
+there is the Eager coming!”  This, says Carlyle, is a relic of Norse
+mythology, coming down to us from the time when pagan boatmen on the
+Trent believed in that Northern deity, Aegir, the God of the Sea Tempest,
+whose name (as he picturesquely puts it) “survives like the peak of a
+submerged world.”  This by the way.
+
+Willenhall, however, was situated outside the Danelagh, the western
+boundary of which was the Watling Street; indeed, the place nomenclature
+of this locality affords very few examples which are really traceable to
+the Danish occupation—an almost solitary specimen being the
+aforementioned name of Bustleholme, near the Delves.
+
+The etymological derivation which has found most favour in times past is
+that based on the erroneous Domesday form, Winehala.  Perhaps Stebbing
+Shaw is responsible for this, as in his history of the county, written
+1798, he says:—“As Wednesbury is but two miles, and Wednesfield but one
+mile from hence, it is probable that this name might be changed for that
+of Winehale, from the Saxon word for victory, when that great battle was
+fought hereabout in 911.”
+
+Of this battle, and the victory or “win” which the founding of Willenhall
+was supposed to commemorate, some account will be given in the next
+chapter.  But the hypothesis of Shaw, and those who adopted his view,
+apparently involved the supposition that the earliest mention of
+Willenhall was of a date subsequent to 911 A.D.; but thanks to the recent
+researches of our eminent local historiographer, Mr. W. H. Duignan,
+F.S.A. (of Walsall), that position is no longer tenable.
+
+There is in existence a couple of charters dated A.D. 732 (or 733;
+certainly before the year 734) which were executed by Ethelbald, King of
+Mercia, at a place named therein as “Willanhalch.”
+
+Mr. Duignan says the Mercian kings frequently reside in this part of
+their dominions, as at Kingsbury, Tamworth, and Penkridge; probably for
+the convenience of hunting in Cannock Forest, within the boundaries of
+which Willenhall was anciently located.
+
+Virtually the two charters are one, the same transaction being recorded
+by careful and punctilious scribes in duplicate; and their purport was to
+benefit Mildrith, now commonly called St. Mildreda, one of the
+grand-daughters of King Penda, and probably one of the few canonised
+worthies who can be claimed as natives of this county-area.  She was the
+Abbess of Minstrey, in the Isle of Thanet, and “sinful Ethelbald,” as he
+humbly styles himself, remits certain taxes and makes certain grants to
+her newly-founded abbey, all for the good of his soul.  These duplicated
+documents were published in the original Latin in Kemble’s “Codex
+Diplomaticus” in 1843, by Thorpe in his “Diplomatarium Anglicum” in 1865,
+and again in Birch’s “Chartularium Saxonicum” in 1885.
+
+The internal evidence contained in them is to this effect:—“This was
+executed on the 4th day of the Kalends of November, in the 22nd year of
+my reign, being the fifteenth decree made in that place which is called
+Willanhalch.”  Not one of these three authorities, although in the habit
+of doing so wherever they can offer an opinion with any reasonable degree
+of certainty, has ventured to suggest the modern name and identity of the
+“place called Willanhalch.”  But Mr. Duignan, with the ripe knowledge and
+almost unerring judgment he possesses in such matters, has no hesitation
+whatever in identifying the place as Willenhall.  As he says, there is no
+other place-name in Mercia, or even in England, which could possibly be
+represented by Willanhalch.
+
+Undoubtedly there is another Willenhall.  It is a hamlet in the parish of
+Holy Trinity, Coventry, and its name was anciently spelt Wylnhale.  But
+the history of the place is naturally involved in that of the city of
+Coventry, as the hamlet never had any separate and independent existence
+like that of our Staffordshire township.  Any charter emanating from this
+place would indubitably be dated “Coventry.”
+
+The suggestion of Shaw that the name was changed cannot be entertained
+for one moment; the Anglo-Saxons were not in the habit of changing
+place-names, but they were very much addicted to the practice of “calling
+their lands after their own names.”  Dr. Willmore, in his “History of
+Walsall” (p. 30) adopts the now discarded derivation of the name of
+Willenhall.  He says “After the defeat a great feast of rejoicing was
+held by the Saxons at Winehala, the Hall of Victory, and the event was
+long celebrated by the national poets.”
+
+To identify the “Hall of Victory” with Willenhall the Walsall historian
+proceeds:—“At Lowhill may still be seen the remains of a large tumulus,
+while in Wrottesley Park are the vestiges of a large encampment, believed
+by some authorities to be of Danish construction, and to have been
+occupied by them about the time of these engagements.”
+
+Yet in the next paragraph it is admitted that the Danes never gained a
+permanent footing in this locality, and that there is scarce a name of
+purely Danish origin in the neighbourhood.
+
+“Willenhalch,” then, may be accepted as signifying in Anglo-Saxon “the
+meadowland of Willan,” Willan (not Willen) being a personal name, and
+halch being a form of healh, signifying “enclosed land on the banks of a
+stream,” as, for instance, on the Willenhall Brook.
+
+Any ancient place-name terminating in “halch” would, in the course of
+time, terminate in “hall,” a termination now commonly construed as
+“hall,” or “mansion.”  There is nothing inherently improbable in
+Willenhall having been a temporary royal residence.  King John in much
+later times had his hunting lodge at Brewood.  Bushbury, originally
+Bishopsbury, was so called because one of the early Mercian bishops is
+said to have made this place his episcopal residence.  Attention has been
+called to the fact that in this vicinity a number of place-names end in
+“hall,” as Willenhall, Tettenhall, Walsall, Pelsall, and Rushall.  The
+inference drawn is that each of these places marks the settlement of some
+pioneer Anglican chieftain, or, as Dr. Oliver puts it, the mansion and
+estate of some Saxon thane.
+
+
+
+
+II.—The Battle of Wednesfield.
+
+
+Although it cannot be admitted that the Battle of Wednesfield, or the
+great national victory gained on that occasion, provided Willenhall with
+its name, the event itself may certainly be regarded as the chief
+historical episode which has occurred in this immediate vicinity.  This
+was “far back in the olden time” when, says the local poetess—
+
+    The Danes lay camped on Woden’s field.
+
+Dr. Willmore, in his “History of Walsall” (p. 30), quotes an authority to
+the effect that the battle fought at Wednesfield in the year 911 “had the
+important consequence of freeing England from the attacks of these
+formidable invaders.”
+
+This engagement was one of the many which took place between the Saxon
+and the Dane for dynastic supremacy.  Even the mighty prowess of Alfred
+the Great had failed to give the quietus to Danish pretensions, and his
+son, Edward the Elder, was engaged in a life-long struggle with the
+Danes, in the course of which the Princess Ethelfleda, who was Edward’s
+sister, and Great Alfred’s daughter, erected castles at Bridgnorth,
+Stafford, Warwick, Tamworth, and Wednesbury.  Edward the Elder had to
+combat Welsh invasions as well as Danish aggressiveness, and hence the
+erection of these castles in Mercia, where most of the minor fighting in
+that disturbed period occurred.  For nine years Ethelfleda fought side by
+side with her husband Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, in the pitiless struggle;
+and upon his death, continuing as her brother’s viceroy, she proved
+herself one of the ablest women warriors this country has ever known.
+
+In 910 (the Saxon Chronicle informs us) a battle of more than ordinary
+moment was fought at Tettenhall.  The Danes were returning from a raid,
+laden with rich spoils, when they were overtaken at this spot by the
+Angles, on the 5th day of August, and there signally defeated.  It was to
+avenge this disaster that the Danes swooped down the following summer
+from the north, and met their antagonists exactly on the same day of the
+year, and almost on the same ground.  The latter fact may possibly
+indicate that there was some strategic importance in the locality.
+Wednesfield being almost within hail of Tettenhall; though the better
+informed writers, including Mr. James P. Jones, the historian of
+Tettenhall, have been led to consider the two battles as one engagement.
+
+As a matter of fact, the exact site of the Tettenhall engagement is not
+known, yet one historian has not hesitated to represent the nature of the
+conflict as being “so terrible that it could not be described by the most
+exquisite pen.”  It seems to have been an engagement of that old-time
+ferocity which is so exultantly proclaimed in the ancient war song:—
+
+    We there, in strife bewild’ring,
+       Spilt blood enough to swim in:
+    We orphaned many children,
+       We widowed many women.
+    The eagles and the ravens
+       We glutted with our foemen:
+    The heroes and the cravens,
+       The spearmen and the bowmen.
+
+According to Fabius Ethelwerd it was a national and a most memorable
+fight which occurred at Wednesfield, where three Danish chieftains fell
+in the conflict; in support of which statement it is mentioned that the
+Lows, or monumental burial grounds, of the mighty dead are to be found at
+Wednesfield and Wrottesley.  But Wrottesley is nearer to Tettenhall than
+to Wednesfield.  The number of tumuli which once lay scattered over the
+entire range of this district may perhaps be accountable for the
+variations in the mediæval chronicles.  As we shall see, while it is well
+agreed that the country lying between Tettenhall and Wombourn on the one
+hand, and Wednesfield and Willenhall on the other, was the scene of a
+great struggle, the details of the conflict vary very materially at the
+hands of different chroniclers.  A valuable collection of old records and
+historical documents relating to this locality was made by John Huntbach,
+of Featherstone and Seawall, near Wolverhampton, nephew and pupil to that
+noted antiquary, Sir William Dugdale.  The Huntbach MSS. related more
+directly to Seisdon; and it was this collection which inspired similar
+efforts on the part of the Willenhall Antiquary, Dr. Richard Wilkes, and
+ultimately led to the writing of the Rev. Stebbing Shaw’s “History of
+Staffordshire” (1798–1801).
+
+Speaking of the treatment of the battles of Tettenhall and Wednesfield by
+the old monkish historians, Huntbach says:—“There is very great reason to
+confirm their testimony who say the battle was here fought; for there are
+many tumuli or lows there, that shew some great engagement hereabouts,
+viz., the North Lowe, the South Lowe, Little Lowe, Horslowe, and
+Thrombelow.
+
+“The first four being yet visible, the North Lowe, near in lands to
+croft-lodge, the South Lowe near Mr. Hope’s windmill, the great and
+little lowe in the heath grounds; but Horslowe is not discernible by
+reason of the coal-works that have been here, only it giveth name to the
+Horselowe Field, since called Horsehull Field, now Horseley Field.
+
+“And there are not only these, but several others, partly in the way
+betwixt this place and Tottenhall, as at Low Hill, near Seawall, a very
+large one, and at Hampton Town; and another which giveth name to a field
+called Ablow Field, upon which stands a bush now called Isley Cross.”
+Ablow Field covered 40 acres of unenclosed ground near Graiseley Brook,
+and the tumulus once occupied the site now covered by St. Paul’s Church.
+
+Dr. Plot believes the ancient remains in Wrottesley Park to be “those of
+the old Tettenhall of the Danes, who, having resided there for some time,
+built themselves this city, or place of habitation, which, in the year
+907, was finally demolished by Edward the Elder in a most signal and
+destructive victory.  To revenge this fatal quarrel, another army of
+Danes collected in Northumbria, and invaded Mercia in the same year, when
+King Edward, with a powerful force of West Saxons and Mercians overtook
+them at the village of Wednesfield, near Theotenhall (Tettenhall), and
+vanquished them again, with much slaughter.”
+
+Another account, given by the aforementioned Dr. Wilkes, Willenhall’s
+most eminent son, and no mean authority on such matters, says that:—“In
+the year 895, King Alfred having by a stratagem forced them to leave
+Hereford on the Wye, they came up to the River Severn as far as
+Bridgnorth, then called Quat, Quatbridge, or Quatford, committing great
+enormities, and destroying all before them.  We hear no more of them
+hereabout for thirteen years, but then they raised a great army and
+fought two bloody battles with King Edward.”
+
+The contemporary Saxon annals tell us that the Danes were beaten in
+Mercia in 911, but do not say where.  Doubtless from time to time the
+whole plain rang with “the din of battle bray,” the shout of exultation,
+and the groan of pain; with the clash of steel on steel, and the dull
+thud of mighty battleaxe on shields of tough bull hide, all through that
+disturbed period.  It would appear from a later account that at the
+earlier engagement of 910, which by this writer has been confidently
+located between Tettenhall and the Wergs, King Edward was himself in
+command of the Saxon forces, and that he not only gained a decisive
+victory, but pursued the enemy for five weeks, following them up in their
+northern fastnesses beyond the Watling Street, from one Danish village to
+another, burning and utterly wasting every one of them as they had been
+mere hornets’ nests.
+
+At the encounter of the following year (A.D. 911) the Danes, after a
+great pillaging expedition, having strongly posted themselves at
+Wednesfield, little advantage was gained by either side after many hours
+of hard fighting, till at last the Saxons were reinforced by Earl
+Kenwolf.  Victory then fell to the Saxons.
+
+This Kenwolf, who is said to have been the greatest notable of the
+locality, and seated on a good estate at Stowe Heath, was mortally
+wounded in the fray; and on the opposite side there fell Healfden and
+Ecwills, two Danish kings; Ohter and Scurfar, two of their Earls; a
+number of other great noblemen and generals, among them Othulf, Beneting,
+Therferth, Guthferth, Agmund, Anlaf the Black, and Osferth the
+tax-gatherer, and a host of men.  The name of a third slaughtered king,
+Fuver, is given by another old chronicler.  It is to the quality rather
+than to the quantity of the slain that the locality is indebted for the
+number of tumuli on which so much of this superstructure of quasi-history
+seems to be raised.
+
+The historians who restrict themselves to “two” kings specify the North
+Lowe at Wednesfield as the sepulchral monument of one, and the South Lowe
+of the other.  “There was,” says Shaw, the county historian, “a little to
+the south of the Walsall Road, half a mile south-west of the village of
+Nechels, a great low called Stowman Hill.”
+
+Dr. Plot, writing in 1686, declares “the bank above Nechels, where now is
+a stone pit, Stowman Low, now removed to mend the roads, and Northfield,
+to be the genuine remains; but the bank where the windmill stood was a
+hard rock, several yards below the surface of the earth, and there was
+nothing remarkable found upon the removing of Stowman Low, so that all
+this is uncertainty.”
+
+Although the precise location of the Tettenhall battleground has always
+puzzled the antiquaries, there are, says one authority, “three lows on
+the common between Wombourn and Swin, placed in a right line that runs
+directly east and west, and about half a mile to the north of them is
+another, by the country people called Soldiers’ Hill.  They are all large
+and capable of covering a great number of dead bodies.
+
+“There cannot be the least doubt but this place was the scene of action,
+for King Edward, to perpetuate the memory of this signal victory, I
+presume, here founded a church, called by the name of the place Wonbourn,
+now Wombourn; and took this whole parish out of the parish of Tettenhall,
+which, before this battle, extended as far as the forest of Kinver.”  It
+may be added, for whatever such support is worth, that in times past a
+number of ancient weapons have been dug up at Wombourne.
+
+Coming to the latest and most reliable authority, Mr. W. H. Duignan, of
+Walsall, here is what he writes in his admirable work, “Staffordshire
+Place Names,” under the heading “Low Hill,” which is the name of an
+ancient estate at Bushbury:—
+
+“Huntbach the antiquary, wrote in the 17th century that there was then a
+very large tumulus here.  Much, if not the whole of it, has been since
+destroyed.  The hill is lofty and a place likely to be selected for the
+burial of some prehistoric magnate.  In 911 a battle was fought between
+the Saxons and the Danes, called in the Chronicles the battle of
+Tettenhall, but which was really waged on Wednesfield Heath (now Heath
+Town).
+
+“The dead were buried as usual under mounds, which in Huntbach’s time
+still remained, and were known as North Low, South Low, the Little Low,
+the Great Low, Horselow, Tromelow, and Ablow (many of these names
+survive), besides others which had then disappeared.  It is therefore
+difficult to say whether the low here was a prehistoric tumulus or a
+battle mound.”
+
+Dr. Langford, in his “Staffordshire and Warwickshire” (p. 177), writing
+less than forty years ago, says that “a large number of tumuli exist near
+Wednesfield”; but the utilitarianism of the farmer and the miner would
+make it difficult to find many of these grass-crowned records on the
+Willenhall side of the battleground now.  Dr. Windle, in his able work,
+“Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England” (published in 1904) gives a
+list of existing Barrows and Burial-mounds in this country, including
+some nine or ten in Staffordshire, but makes no mention of Wednesfield,
+Wombourne, or Tettenhall.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+II.—The Saxon Settlement
+
+
+Fourteen or fifteen centuries ago the cluster of places which we now know
+as the town of Wolverhampton, and the numerous industrial centres grouped
+around it, were then primitive Saxon settlements, each of them peopled by
+the few families that claimed kinship with each other.
+
+These embryo townships were dotted about the clearings which had been
+made in the thick primeval forest with which the whole face of England
+was then covered, save only where the surface was barren hill or
+undrained swamp.  Does not the terminal “field,” in such a place-name as
+Wednesfield, literally mean “feld,” or the woodland clearing from which
+the timbers had been “felled”?  Each settlement, whether called a “ham”
+(that is, a home), or a “tun” (otherwise a town), was a
+farmer-commonwealth, cultivating the village fields in common; each was
+surrounded by a “mark,” or belt of waste land, which no man might
+appropriate, and no stranger advance across without first blowing his
+horn to give timely notice of his approach.  Remnants of these open
+unappropriated lands may be traced by such place-names as Wednesfield
+“Heath,” and Monmore “Green.”
+
+At the outset each settlement at its foundation was independent of, and
+co-equal with, the others; Saxon society being founded on a system of
+family groupings, and a government of the ancient patriarchal type.
+
+All questions of government and public interest were settled by the voice
+of the people in “moot,” or open-air meeting, assembled beneath the
+shelter of some convenient tree.  Our ancestors were an open-air,
+freedom-loving people, who mistrusted walls and contemned fortifications.
+In course of time, however, the exigencies of their environment—the
+aggressiveness of neighbours and foreigners, the incursions of invaders
+and marauders—materially modified their views, and changed their habits
+in this respect; and so it came about in the scheme of national defence
+that the temple-crowned hill of Woden became Woden’s burh (now
+Wednesbury), a hill fortified by deep ditch and high stockade.
+
+Presently the family tie gave way to the lordship, as certain chiefs,
+under the stress of circumstances, acquired domination over others, and
+hence arose the manor or residential lordship, the head of which took
+pledges for the fidelity of those below him, and in turn became
+responsible for them to the king above him—a system of mutual
+inter-dependence from the head of the state downwards.  Under these new
+conditions Stow Heath became the head of a Saxon manor, in which were
+involved Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield, Eccleshall, and
+a number of other village settlements.  Some of these, however, were in
+the Hundred of Seisdon, and some in the Hundred of Offlow—a “hundred”
+being originally the division of a county that contained a hundred
+villages.
+
+The unregenerate Teuton was a pirate and a plunderer; the settled Saxon
+became an oversea trader and trafficker.  The Anglo-Saxon merchant of
+later and more settled times, raised by his wealth to the dignity of a
+thane, became a landed man, and a lord over his fellows.  Herein we have
+the transition from a free village community to a Saxon manor.
+
+At Wolverhampton was seated one Wolfric, said to have been an ancestor of
+Wolfgeat, and a relation to Wulfruna; his manor house was situated on the
+slope of the hill between the present North Street and Waterloo
+Road—doubtless a large rambling mansion of low elevation, built of heavy
+timbers on a low plinth of boulders and hewn stones.
+
+Here at Hantun he kept his state—such as the luxury of the age permitted
+to him.  Seated in his great oaken hall, with its heavy roof timbers, at
+the close of each day he drank deep draughts with his guests and his
+numerous servants, in the flaring light of odorous resin torches stuck in
+iron staples along the walls.  The smoke from his fire of logs escaped as
+lazily as it might through an aperture in the roof.  The earthen floor
+was strewn with rushes, more or less clean as it was littered by the
+refuse of few or more feasts.  The only furniture consisted of a long
+trestle table, with rude benches of oak on each side; the whole effort at
+ornamentation being limited to trophies of war and the chase hanging upon
+the walls.  Such, in brief, was the home life of a great thane.
+
+It will be observed that Wednesfield and Wednesbury at least were founded
+by the Saxons in their pagan days; that is before their acceptance of the
+White Christ, which was towards the close of the seventh century.
+Tradition hath it that at the Anglian advent into this district, the
+worship of Woden was first set up in a grove at Wednesfield.  Here was
+first fixed the Woden Stone, the sacred altar on which human sacrifices
+were offered of that dread Teutonic deity, Woden.
+
+It was carved with Runic figures—for was not Woden the inventor of the
+Runic characters?  In sacrificing, the priest, at the slaying of the
+victim, took care to consecrate the offering by pronouncing always the
+solemn formula, “I devote thee to Woden!”
+
+Part of the blood was then sprinkled on the worshippers, part on the
+sacred grove; the bodies were then either burnt on the altar or suspended
+on trees within this mystic grove.  Later, when some advance had been
+made by the hierarchy, the Woden Stone was removed from the Wednesfield
+grove to be erected within the temple of Woden at Wednesbury.
+
+There are other evidences of pagan practices to be discovered in
+Staffordshire place-names.  Tutbury is said to derive its name from
+Tuisto, the Saxon god who gave the name to Tuesday, as Woden lent his to
+Wednesday; and Thursfield from Thor, the deity worshipped on Thursday.
+There is also Thor’s cave, still so-called, in the north of this county
+(see “Staffordshire Curiosities,” p. 159), and other similar reminders of
+Anglo-Saxon paganism.
+
+It is not outside the bounds of possibility that a third local place-name
+is traceable to the personality of Woden.  Sedgley may be derived from
+Sigge’s Lea, and Sigge was the real name of the Teutonic conqueror who,
+in overrunning north-west Europe, assumed the name of Woden for the sake
+of prestige—he was the founder of Sigtuna, otherwise Sigge’s town, in
+Sweden.  In the science of English place-names it is well-known that
+while hills and streams and other natural phenomena were allowed to
+retain their old British names (as Barr, “a summit,” and Tame, “a flood
+water”), towns, villages, and other political divisions were very
+generally renamed by the Saxon conquerors, the places in many instances
+being called after the personal names of their owners.
+
+Here are some local illustrations of place-names conferred by the Anglian
+invaders when they had conquered and appropriated the territory.
+
+Arley, otherwise Earnlege, was “the Eagle’s ley.”
+
+Bilston signifies “the town of Bil’s folk.”
+
+Blakenhall was “the hall of Blac.”
+
+Bloxwich was “the village of Bloc”: as Wightwick was “Wiht’s village.”
+
+Bushbury was “the Bishop’s burg.”
+
+Chillington was originally “Cille’s town.”
+
+Codsall was “Code’s hall.”
+
+Darlaston was once “Deorlaf’s town.”
+
+Dunstall, otherwise Tunstall, was “an enclosed farmstead,” half a mile
+outside the ancient boundary of Cannock Forest.
+
+Essington was “the town of the descendants of Esne.”
+
+Ettingshall was “the hall of the Etri family.”
+
+Featherstone seems to have been “Feader’s stone.”  According to a charter
+of the year 994 there was then a large stone called the “Warstone,” to
+mark the boundary of this place.
+
+Hatherton, or Hagathornden, signifies “the hill of the hawthorn.”
+
+Kinvaston was perhaps “Cyneweald’s town.”  Dr. Olive in his “History of
+Wolverhampton Church,” says that being originally a place of consequence.
+Kinvaston was placed at the head of the Wolverhampton prebends.
+
+Moseley was the “mossy or marshy lea”: as Bradley the “broad lea”; and
+Bentley was the “lea of bent” or reedy grass.
+
+Newbolds, an ancient farm in Wednesfield, is an Anglo-Saxon name, “niwe
+bold,” and it pointed out “the new house.”
+
+Ogley Hay, now called Brownhills, was originally Ocginton, or “Ocga’s
+town.”
+
+Pelsall may be translated “Peol’s Hall.”
+
+Pendeford was once “Penda’s ford.”
+
+Scotlands were “the corner-lands,” this hamlet being at the corner of a
+triangular piece of land, bounded on all sides by ancient roads.
+
+Seisdon was probably “the Saxon’s Hill.”
+
+Showells, or Sewalls, at Bushbury, on the confines of Cannock Forest, was
+the place where “scarecrows” (as the name probably means) were set up or
+shown on hedgetops to prevent the deer passing from the Forest on to
+enclosed or cultivated land.
+
+Stowe, a name signifying an enclosed or “stockaded” place, was another
+seat of a great thane; or it might have been the residential portion of
+the large manor or lordship already alluded to.
+
+Tettenhall was possibly Tetta’s hall; or, more probably, “Spy hall,”
+otherwise a watch tower.
+
+Tromelow, commonly called Rumbelows, a farm on the site of one of the
+Wednesfield lows, is a name that may literally mean “the burial mound of
+the host.”  The corruption Rumbelow is probably made out of the phrase
+“At Tromelowe.”
+
+Wergs (The), through many transformations from Wytheges to Wyrges, is
+“the withy hedges.”
+
+Wobaston, an estate in Bushbury, was anciently “Wibald’s town.”
+
+Wombourne was the “bourne (or brook) in the hollow.”
+
+Wolverhampton was at first Heantune, or Hamtun, otherwise the “High
+town,” to which name was prefixed soon after the year 994 that of
+Wulfrun, a lady of rank who gave great possessions to the Church; and
+hence was evolved the more distinctive name, Wulfrunhamtun, since
+modified into its present form.
+
+Although some of these names (as Showells, formerly Sewall) may not date
+quite back to the Saxon period, most of them may be accepted as
+present-day evidences of the great Teutonic descent upon this Midland
+locality.  One of the very few Celtic place-names retained from the
+previous occupiers is Monmore, which in the tongue of the ancient Britons
+signified “the boggy mere.”
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+IV.—The Founding of Wulfruna’s Church, 996, A.D.
+
+
+After the advent of Christianity, the new religion was gradually advanced
+throughout the land by the settlement of priest-missioners in the various
+localities.  Where the missionary settled on the invitation, or under the
+protection of a thane, or “lord,” that lordship was formed into a parish.
+Thus some parishes doubtless became co-terminous with the old manors.
+Owing, however, to the many changes of jurisdiction in the course of
+succeeding centuries, it is difficult to find instances of parish and
+manor of identical area in this locality.  Bescot was a manor within the
+parish of Walsall; Bloxwich and Shelfield were anciently members of the
+manor of Wednesbury, though now included in Walsall; Bentley, at the
+Norman Conquest, was part of the manor of Willenhall, then belonging to
+Wolverhampton Church; while Dunstall was a member of the King’s manor of
+Stow Heath.  Tettenhall parish originally included as many as a dozen
+manors and townships.
+
+England is made up of some ten thousand parishes, each with its parish
+church, around which for a thousand years has revolved the social and
+political, as well as the whole religious life of the place.  The parish
+is our unit of local government, and the history of a town is usually a
+history of the parish.
+
+But Willenhall never was a parish.  It is merely a member of a parish—of
+the extensive, the straggling, and loosely-knit parish of Wolverhampton.
+In Wolverhampton, three miles away, was located the mother church, to
+which it owed spiritual allegiance, and there was situated the Vestry for
+parochial assemblies, and all else that stood for self-government
+throughout the centuries.  And those were the centuries when Church and
+State were indissolubly bound together; when a dominant church claimed,
+and was recognised as having an inalienable share in the government of
+the people.  Hence it will transpire in these pages that for centuries
+the story of Willenhall was involved in the ecclesiastical history of
+Wolverhampton.
+
+The ancient parish of Wolverhampton lies widely dispersed and very
+detached, containing no less than 17 townships and hamlets, all subject
+to the collegiate church in matters ecclesiastical, though in many cases
+being distinct in matters secular.  How broken the area is may be noted
+in the case of Pelsall, which is cut off from the mother parish by
+Bloxwich, a hamlet in Walsall parish.
+
+Willenhall is one among several other neighbouring places that, from the
+earliest period of England’s acceptance of Christianity, had its fate
+inseparably linked with that of Wolverhampton.  In the giving way of
+paganism before the steady advances of the new religion, progress in this
+immediate part of the kingdom was marked by the founding of Tettenhall
+Church (A.D. 966), followed thirty years afterwards by Lady Wulfruna’s
+further efforts at evangelisation in the setting up at Hampton (or High
+Town) of another Christian church.
+
+This was in the reign of Ethelred the Unrede, which was a period sadly
+troubled by the aggressions of the Danes; and it is believed that
+Wulfruna (or Wulfrun) had designed to found a monastery, though as early
+as the time of Edward the Confessor, or within a century of its
+institution, her establishment is found to be a Collegiate Church.
+
+With this accession of dignity, and in grateful recognition of the lady’s
+pious munificence, the town became known as Wulfrun’s Hampton, now
+modified in Wolverhampton.
+
+Of Wulfruna herself but little is known.  Whether she was sister of King
+Edgar, as some suppose, or the widow of Aldhelm, Duke of Northumberland,
+cannot be decided.  It is known, however, that she was a lady of rank,
+and was captured when Olaf, in command of a Viking host, took Tamworth by
+storm.  Hampton did not bear her name until some years after her death.
+
+In founding her noble church at Wolverhampton, Wulfruna endowed it with
+thirteen estates, including lands in Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall,
+Essington, Hilton, Walsall, Featherstone, Hatherton, Kinvaston, Bilston,
+and Arley.  Willenhall being only three miles away from Wolverhampton,
+and being also for a long time ecclesiastically incorporated with it, its
+history at many points cannot be detached from that of the mother parish.
+
+The wording of the charter by which the gift was made is quaintly
+interesting.  It sets forth that: “In the year 996, from the Passion of
+our said Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,” Sigeric, Archbishop of
+Canterbury, “with the Lord’s flock of servants unceasingly serving God,”
+have granted a privilege “to the noble matron and religious woman
+Wulfruna,” in “order that she may attain a seat in heaven,” and that “for
+her mass may be said unceasingly for ever” in the “ancient monastery of
+Hamtun.”
+
+The Charter (inter alia) grants “ten hides of land for the body of my
+husband,” and another “ten hides of land” for the offences of her
+“Kinsman Wulfgeal” lest he should hear in the judgment the “dreaded”
+sentence, “Go away from me,” &c.  A third “ten hides” of land are granted
+on account of “my sole daughter Elfthryth,” who “has migrated from the
+world to the life-giving airs.”
+
+Mr. Duignan, who has made a close study of the Charter, says “the limits
+of the parishes and of the townships included in the grant are now
+precisely what they were a thousand years ago.”
+
+The boundaries of the lands conferred by the noble benefactress are set
+forth with much precision, as in the noting of brooks and fords, of parks
+and woods, of fields and lanes and lands; and in very few cases has Mr.
+Duignan failed to recognise the old names and identify them with the
+modern appellations of the places meant, among the latter being
+Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Hilton, Ogley Hay, Hatherton, Cannock,
+Moseley Hole, Twyford, Walsall, &c.
+
+The original Charter has not been heard of since 1646, when it was
+supposed to be copied by Sir William Dugdale into his monumental work,
+the “Monasticon,” assisted by Roger Dodsworth, a joint editor with him.
+If it is still in existence Mr. Duignan assumes it is in the possession
+of the Dean and Chapter of the Royal Chapel of Windsor, with which the
+Deanery of Wolverhampton was united—as will be seen later.  The formal
+parts of the deed are in Latin, and the descriptions of the properties
+are in Anglo-Saxon, which makes it an interesting study of place-names.
+
+Wolverhampton church, dedicated to St. Mary, was a collegiate
+establishment, with a dean as president, and a number of prebendaries or
+canons who were “secular” priests, and not brethren of any of the regular
+“orders of monks.”
+
+All the privileges which the College possessed in Lady Wulfruna’s
+lifetime were afterwards confirmed by Edward the Confessor, and
+subsequently by William the Conqueror.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The dedication of Wulfruna’s church and its consecration by Sigeric, the
+archbishop, have been described in verse by a local poetess.  This was
+Mrs. Frank P. Fellows, a daughter of the famous Sir Rowland Hill, and
+once resident at Goldthorn Hill.  Her husband was a native of
+Wolverhampton, a distinguished public servant, connected with the
+Admiralty, a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, an antiquarian and a
+scientist.  In a book of his published poems appear portraits of himself
+and his wife.
+
+Mrs. Fellows (whose mother, Lady Hill, was a daughter of Joseph Pearson,
+Esq., J.P., of Graiseley), also wrote poems—some of which appeared in
+“Punch,” some in “Belgravia,” and some in other magazines—and published a
+small book of verse in 1857.
+
+It is from one long piece, entitled “Fancies by the Fire,” in which the
+long retrospect of Wolverhampton’s ancient history unrolls itself before
+the imagination of the poetess, that the following extracts are taken.
+After a description of the battle of Wednesfield, we read:—
+
+    The Princess Wulfruna heard the deeds,
+    Told by the fire in her stately hall.
+       Alas! then said the gentle dame,
+       It grieves me sore such things should be.
+       Now, by the Christ that died on tree,
+       The Christ that died for them and me,
+       These heathen souls shall all be free
+       From sin, and pain of Purgat’ry;
+       In token of our victory,
+       Where masses shall be sung and said,
+       And prayers told for the restless dead
+       That wander still on Woden’s Plain—
+       It shall be raised in Mary’s name.
+
+The noble lady with her train, and accompanied by the Archbishop Sigeric,
+pays a visit of inspection to the locality she designs thus to honour,
+passing beneath the shade of “the forest trees of Theotanhall” on her
+way—
+
+    And as they passed thro’ Dunstall Wood,
+    And stopped to drink where a streamlet fell,
+    Then said the lady fair and good
+    Here will I build a wayside well.
+    Now Hampton town before them lay.
+    But first they sought out Woden’s plain,
+    Where lay the bleached bones of the slain.
+
+After the Archbishop had offered up a prayer for the dead—
+
+    At length they stood upon the height
+    That rises over Hampton town;
+    There, amid knight, and dame, and priest,
+    The Princess Wulfrune laid the stone,
+    The first stone on the holy fane.
+
+Then solemnly the pious lady removed from her royal brows the golden
+coronet that hitherto had graced it, and put in place of it a crown of
+thorns, saying—
+
+    It were ill done that I have worn
+    A golden crown, while Jesus sweet
+    For my sake wore a crown of thorn;
+    And here I dedicate my days
+    To Him until my life be sped.
+
+Thus far the foundation of the mother church—much more of the town’s
+history follows in like strain.
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+Willenhall was slightly connected with another religious foundation.  In
+the year 1002 Burton Abbey was founded by Wulfric Spott, Earl of Mercia.
+This establishment was richly endowed with lands, not only in
+Staffordshire, but also with estates in Derbyshire and Warwickshire.
+
+The names of the various places included in this munificent grant afford
+a very interesting study in Saxon nomenclature.  For instance, in the
+Second Indorsement of the Charter conferring the noble gift, we may be
+interested to discover that “2 hides of land in Wilinhale,” lying in
+“Offalawe Hundred” are among the properties donated to this great
+Staffordshire Monastery.
+
+
+
+
+V.—The Collegiate Establishment
+
+
+We cannot be too insistent on the close connection long subsisting
+between Willenhall and Wolverhampton owing to the fact of the former
+being a part of Wulfruna’s endowment of her collegiate church.
+
+Wulfruna’s foundation consisted of a dean, eight prebendaries or canons,
+and a sacrist.  The dean was the president of this chapter, or
+congregation of clergy, whose duly was to chant the daily service.  The
+sacrist was also a cleric, but his duties were more generally concerned
+with the college establishment.
+
+A prebendary, it may be explained, is one who enjoys a prebend or
+canonical portion; that is, who receives in right of his place, a share
+out of the common stock of the church for his maintenance.  Each prebend
+of Wolverhampton church was endowed with the income arising from the
+lands from which it took its name; as, the prebend of Willenhall.  In the
+course of time the tithes derivable from these lands became alienated.
+
+Sampson Erdeswick, whose history of this county was commenced in 1593,
+says the foundation was effectuated in 970 by King Edgar, at the request
+of his dying sister, Wulfruna.
+
+“She founded a chapel of eight portionaries (is the way Erdeswick puts
+it) whom, by incorporation, she made rector of that parish
+(Wolverhampton) to receive the tithes in common, but devisable by a
+yearly lot.  The head or chief of these she made patron to them all, and
+sole ordinary of that whole parish.”
+
+The foundation was designated the “royal free church of Wolverhampton,”
+the term “free” signifying that it was free of the ordinary supervision
+of the ecclesiastical authorities, being exempt from both episcopal
+jurisdiction and the papal supremacy.  Indeed, it had been better for the
+church had it been less free, for in the time of King John the
+debaucheries and gross immoralities of these undisciplined parochial
+clergy brought much discredit upon the priestly college.
+
+The dean and the prebends had special seats or stalls in the choir of the
+church; the sacrist had no stall, neither had he any voice in the
+chapter.  In modern times (1811) the sacrist has become the perpetual
+curate of the parish.
+
+It will be noted that the head of this college of seculars was styled the
+“sole ordinary” of the parish, which is equivalent to saying he was
+invested with judicial powers therein like a bishop in a diocese.  He had
+authority cum omnimoda jurisdictione, and was exempt not only from the
+episcopal over-lordship of Coventry and Lichfield by express composition,
+but also by papal bull from the legates and delegates of Rome for ever.
+In fact, so independent was the foundation made at the outset, it
+remained for centuries subject only to the royal authority of the Majesty
+of England, and under it to the perpetual visitation of the Keepers of
+the Great Seal for the time being.
+
+In the year 1338, Edward III. confirmed the charter of the church as a
+royal free chapter, giving the Dean the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and
+a copyhold Court Baron, to be called the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.
+About this time, too, the church was rebuilt on more spacious and
+magnificent lines.  Mrs. Fellows, in her topographical rhyme, previously
+quoted, sings of the erection of the tower
+
+    In the third Edward’s time.
+
+The college then consisted of the ten members of the foundation just
+mentioned, augmented by other ministers and officers necessary for
+conducting so large an establishment, the prebendaries being officially
+mentioned in this order:—(1) Wolverhampton; (2) Kinvaston; (3)
+Featherstone; (4) Hilton; (5) Willenhall; (6) Monmore; (7) Wobaston; (8)
+Hatherton.
+
+By the fifteenth century Chantries had been founded, and chapels erected
+therefor, at Willenhall, Bilston, Pelsall, and at Hatherton; and in
+further depreciation of the mother church, King Edward IV., about 1465,
+with a desire to enrich the Collegiate Church of St. George, at Windsor,
+annexed Wolverhampton to that chapel royal.
+
+In Protestant times the daily services were performed by the sacrist and
+the readers, the prebendaries officiating on Sundays in rotation,
+according to a set cycle.  The time set out for the prebendary of
+Willenhall commenced on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday; till eventually
+exemption was purchased by the payment of a small fee to the Perpetual
+Curate.
+
+In olden times it was a common practice to carve the choir seats.  The
+prebendal stalls in Wolverhampton church were marked with heraldic
+shields charged with simple ordinaries, in the following manner:—the
+following manner:—
+
+                            ON THE SOUTH SIDE.
+
+1.  The Dean.  On a fess, three roundels.
+
+2.  Prebendary of Featherstone.  A pale cotised.
+
+3.  Prebendary of Willenhall.  A Chevron.
+
+4.  Prebendary of Wobaston.  A Chevron.
+
+5.  Prebendary of Hatherton.  A pale cotised.
+
+                            ON THE NORTH SIDE.
+
+6.  Prebendary of Kinvaston.  (Stall removed.)
+
+7.  Prebendary of Hilton.  A Chevron renversé.
+
+8.  Prebendary of Monmore.  A Chevron.
+
+To assist in the identification of the various estates chargeable with
+the provisions of the prebends, or canonical portions, it may be useful
+to give here a brief account of a perambulation of the Wolverhampton
+parish boundaries made in 1824.
+
+It was a regular Rogation ceremony of “beating the bounds” and occupied
+three whole days, so widely scattered is this extensive, far-reaching
+parish.  It will be observed that the Hatherton here dealt with is not
+the Staffordshire village of that name, two miles north-west of Cannock.
+Wobaston, it will be remembered, has previously been mentioned as
+situated in Bushbury; while Monmore Green is still a well-known
+place-name.  The other names occur in self-explanatory context.  The
+detailed account of this perambulation, of which the following is but a
+summary, will be found in the appendix to Dr. Oliver’s “History”:—
+
+On Monday, May 24th, the churchwardens and their party assembled at the
+Rev. Thomas Walker’s, and proceeded to a cottage near the eighth
+milestone on the Stafford Road, and at the well in the cottage garden
+there, the Gospel was read for the first time.  (It was the custom at
+these Rogation processionings to read the Gospel under trees—especially
+those growing near to some reputed “holy” well—located on or near a
+parish boundary, hence their name “Gospel trees.”)
+
+From thence a lane near the third milestone on the same road led the
+procession to Kinvaston, where the Gospel was read at an Elder in the
+fold-yard of a house of a Mrs. Wooton.  Then the procession went to
+Hatherton, the seat of the late Moreton Walhouse, where the Gospel was
+again read on the site of an old well.  Proceeding to Hilton, the seat of
+the Vernons, the Gospelling was repeated within the gates fronting the
+house.
+
+Crossing the Cannock Road, the Gospel was read for the fifth and last
+time, that day, under an oak tree in the road near the house of Mr. W.
+Price, of Featherstone.
+
+On the second day, May 25th, the parishioners assembled as before, and
+proceeded direct to Wednesfield, where the Gospel was read in the Chapel,
+the clerk being in readiness at the door to receive the procession.
+Thence the perambulation was continued to Essington, where the common was
+found to be enclosed; the Gospel was read a second time there at the
+Goswell Bush, which, standing in the Bloxwich Road, was found to be
+surrounded by a new growth of trees.  (Just previous to this period there
+had been a rage for enclosing commons—the people’s lands.)  Turning back,
+the party proceeded to Pelsall, where the Gospel was read the third and
+last time, that day, in the Chapel there.
+
+On the third day, which was Thursday, May 27th, the assembly was made at
+the Swan Inn, and the procession was formed there.  The way was led
+straight to Willenhall, where the Gospel was read for the first time in
+the Chapel, the expectant clerk being there in readiness to perform the
+duty.  From thence the perambulation was continued to Park Brook, which
+was crossed; returning, the way was taken to Bentley Hall, the seat of
+Edward Anson, Esq., where the second reading of the Gospel was taken at
+an elder bush at the back of the house.  (Elders seem to have taken the
+place of the ancient “Gospel oaks” in this locality.)
+
+From Willenhall the party next proceeded to Bilston, where the third
+reading of the Gospel was performed within the Chapel of that township.
+
+From thence a move was made to Bradeley Hall, then in the occupation of
+Mr. Nailer, at the bottom of whose garden was the site of an old well,
+which had once been a bath, and here the Gospelling was again celebrated.
+
+The procession was then resumed through Bilston by Catchem’s Corner,
+Goldthorne Hill, and the Penn Road, to St. John’s Chapel, otherwise known
+as the New Church, within which the Gospel was ceremonially read for the
+last time.  This concluded the perambulation, and an entry of its various
+details were duly entered in the Parish Book, and signed by Tho. Walker,
+minister, and Wm. Buckle and Jos. Smart, the two churchwardens.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+VI—Willenhall at the Norman Conquest (1066–1086).
+
+
+After the Norman invasion of 1066 it took a number of years to complete
+the conquest of the country.  It was not till 1086 that the “Domesday”
+Book was compiled—written evidence of a settlement of the land question
+which, it was fondly hoped (and expressed in the name), would last till
+“Domesday”!
+
+The Domesday Book was a great national land register in which was entered
+a record of every acre of land in England, its condition, its ownership,
+and annual value at that time.  For on land ownership alone then depended
+not only the amount of the national revenue, but the strength of the
+national defences.  Willenhall, wrongly written by the Domesday scribes
+as Winehala, is returned as being in the Hundred of Offlow, and having an
+area of 2,168 acres.
+
+Of this acreage 3 hides belonged to the old domains of the Crown, like
+Bilston and Wednesbury (having formerly formed part of the dominions of
+the Saxon kings), while but two hides of Willenhall land belonged to
+Wolverhampton church.  It is believed that the King’s manorial portion
+took with it Bentley, with its 1,650 acres.
+
+Anyway, Willenhall having belonged originally to the ancient Mercian
+kings, and having been held in succession by all the Saxon kings of
+England to Edward the Confessor and Harold II., naturally passed as a
+royal manor, or rather, a portion thereof, into the hands of the
+Conqueror, being set down among the Crown lands as of “ancient demesne.”
+
+The Domesday Book also sets down among the possessions of the Canons of
+Wolverhampton 2,200 acres in Wednesfield, 1,194 acres in Pelsall, both in
+the same Hundred; 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton, 3,912 acres in Arley, and
+6,377 acres, a part of Bushbury, are set down in Seisdon Hundred; the
+Essington portion of Bushbury, once belonging to the Countess Godiva, is
+reckoned in Cuddlestone Hundred, in which are also given the four other
+portions of Wolverhampton, namely Hilton, Hatherton, Kinvaston, and
+Featherstone.
+
+Since the eleventh century the boundaries of the Hundreds of Offlow and
+Cuddlestone have been altered.  As to the Arley estate, that was lost to
+the canons ere another century had elapsed—by 1172 had escheated to the
+Crown.
+
+The present-day acreage of Wolverhampton parish is no less than 17,449;
+made up of 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton proper, 1,845 in Bilston, and
+1,650 in Bentley, a total of 6,891 acres in Seisdon Hundred; thus leaving
+10,608 acres to constitute Hilton (two manors, since united into one)
+Hatherton, Kinvaston, Featherstone, and Hocintune.  The last-named was a
+manor which, at that time, probably lay between Hilton and Hatherton,
+within Wolverhampton; the name is obsolete.
+
+These ten estates, comprising Wolverhampton, Willenhall (part of), Arley
+(part of), Bushbury (part of), Hilton (part of), Pelsall, Wednesfield,
+Cote (near Penn), Haswic (near Newcastle), and Hocintune (now obsolete),
+were in 1086 held by the Canons of Wolverhampton under Sampson, the
+highly favoured royal Chaplain, to whom the Conqueror had presented this
+fief.  For the purposes of comparison it may be mentioned that there were
+then eighteen holdings in Staffordshire, occupying 567 hides, and valued
+at about £516.  Sampson’s fief extended to 26½ hides of this, and was
+estimated as being worth £8 2s. a year.
+
+This Sampson, who has been incorrectly styled the first Dean of
+Wolverhampton, was a Canon of Bayeux, and though a king’s chaplain, was
+not ordained a priest till nine years after the Conqueror’s death, when
+Rufus made him Bishop of Worcester.  Bishop Sampson subsequently gave the
+Church of Wolverhampton to his Cathedral Monastery of Worcester.  He also
+held the neighbouring estates at Bilbrook and Tettenhall as the superior
+of the priests of Tettenhall College.
+
+Willenhall, in the great survey, is recorded to have contained, as
+previously stated, three hides belonging to the King, and two hides
+belonging to the church—a hide of land in Saxon measurement was a
+variable quantity from 200 to 600 acres, according to the locality, but
+generally it was accounted so much as would serve to maintain a
+family—together with one acre of meadow, and a carucate (which was a
+measure of about 100 acres of “carved” land) employing three ploughs.
+The annual value of Willenhall is set down at 20s.  The population
+consisted of eight families, or, as the return puts it, five bordars and
+three villeins.
+
+A bordar, or boor, was a squatter living in a hut or cottage on the
+borders of a manor, having attached a little patch of land, the rent of
+which was paid to the lord of the manor in the shape of poultry, eggs,
+and small produce.  A villein, or serf, was to all intents and purposes a
+slave, at the absolute disposal of the lord, except that he could not be
+detached from the soil on which he was born.  While the bordar, or
+cottager, was resident in the manor more or less on sufferance, the
+villein was there of right, and was in that sense the superior of the
+bordar.  The villein certainly might not go away from Willenhall, nor get
+married, nor buy and sell oxen, nor grind corn, without the express
+permission of the lord of the manor; yet he was not so badly off as all
+this would make it appear to our modern ideas.  People seldom travelled
+in those days, money was little used, life was exceedingly primitive, and
+wants were very few and very simple.
+
+Staffordshire at that time was in a chronic state of poverty, an
+insurrection in the county having been suppressed in 1069 with the
+Conqueror’s customary severity, thousands of the wretched hinds having
+been slaughtered, the county desolated and the Midlands depopulated.
+
+Bilston was but a cluster of mud huts inhabited by swineherds; and it is
+probable Willenhall was a similar little centre of boor life in the next
+woodland clearing a little further along the purling brooklet, and near
+its junction with Beorgitha’s Stream, as the Tame was then called.  The
+entire population of the county was purely agrarian, the villeins and
+boors altogether numbering about 2,800; or on an average of one labourer
+to each 167 acres of land registered in Domesday Book.  The subsequent
+history of the two parts of Willenhall will have to be traced separately.
+
+The two hides set down as ecclesiastical property have remained in the
+possession of the church throughout.  Erdeswick, writing his history of
+this county in 1593, states that within the jurisdiction of the Dean and
+Chapter of Wolverhampton there were then “nine several leets, whereof
+eight belong to the church.  The custos, lately called the Dean, is lord
+of the borough of Wolverhampton, Codsall, Hatherton, and Pelsall in com.
+Stafford; and of Lutley in com. Wigorn; hath all manner of privileges
+belonging to the View of Frankpledge (that is, the administration of
+criminal justice, &c.), to Felons’ goods, Deodands, Escheats, Marriage of
+Wards, and Clerks of the Weekly Markets, rated at £150 per annum, and in
+the total is valued worth £300 per annum.
+
+“Each of the other portionaries (continues Erdeswick) have a several
+leet; whereof
+
+Kinvaston is reputed worth            £100
+Wobaston                              £100
+Wilnall                               £100
+Fetherston                             £80
+Hilton                                 £70
+Monmore                                £70
+Hatherton                              £40
+
+“And the sacrist to attend them in capitulo, £40”—by no means a poor
+salary in those days for such duties as the secretarial and managerial
+work to a Chapter.
+
+As to the three hides of Willenhall in the King’s Manor of Stow Heath,
+here is its later history as recorded by Dr. Vernon, a historiographer
+who made some additions to Sampson Erdeswick’s history:—
+
+    “In Willenhall is a manor called Stowheath, with a court baron and
+    court leet.  Several lands there held by copy from that lords
+    thereof: four closes, called bundles, held of this manor, and were,
+    in 1729, confirmed by John, Lord Gower, and Peter Giffard, lords of
+    the manor of Stowheath; which four closes, with four others, were
+    sold about 1748 by Mr. Lane to Admiral Anson, together with three
+    tenements in Bloxwich, with all the manor lands, tithes, hall, and
+    park, &c., called Bentley, adjoining to Willenhall, for £13,500.”
+
+As to the adjoining hamlet, it may be mentioned that Domesday Book
+formally recorded the canons of Wolverhampton to possess “five hides of
+Wednesfelde; the arable land is three carucates; that there are six
+villeins, and six bordars, who have six carucates; and that there is a
+wood in which cattle are pastured, half a mile long and three furlongs
+broad.”
+
+Such was life in Willenhall and Wednesfield at the Norman period, both
+places being then overshadowed in more senses than one by the severely
+protected royal preserves of Cannock Forest.  We may picture the few
+hinds constituting the scanty population, tenanting cottages which were
+mere hovels, and most of them like Gurth—the swineherd of Scott’s
+“Ivanhoe”—wearing round their necks the iron collars, which were the
+badge of Saxon serfdom, and like him driving their herds into the woods
+each morning, and returning at nightfall with their charges grunting and
+gorged with beech-mast and acorns.
+
+             While to their lowly dome
+    The full-fed swine return’d with evening home;
+    Compell’d reluctant, to the several sties,
+    With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.
+
+The trade and callings of an English serf were as limited as his other
+opportunities in life; and others beside the swineherd found it in the
+adjacent woodlands.  For there were certainly woodcutters and charcoal
+burners; and if the local iron ore were exploited, who shall say there
+were not then Willenhall smiths who fashioned bolts and bars, even if
+they had not arrived at the intricacies of locks and keys?
+
+Here we are but emerging from the twilight of history.
+
+
+
+
+VII.—A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall.
+
+
+In the earlier centuries of our national existence, the history of a
+parish follows that of its church, the ecclesiastical fold into which its
+inhabitants were regularly gathered, not only for every religious
+purpose, but for every other object of communal interest or of a public
+nature.
+
+But, as previously explained, Willenhall was not a parish; it was but one
+member of that wide parochial area ruled from the mother church of
+Wolverhampton, several miles distant.
+
+Yet at an early period Willenhall seems to have boasted a chapel-of-ease,
+for the Calendar of Patent Rolls, under date 1297, contains an allusion
+to “Thomas de Trollesbury, parson of the church of Willenhale.”  Dr.
+Oliver, in his history of the town, says that Wolverhampton church was
+rebuilt about 1342, and he evidently attributes the erection of
+Willenhall chapel to the same date, as being the outcome of the same
+devout spirit of church building.  But this is nearly half a century
+later than the allusion just quoted from the Patent Rolls, and Dr.
+Oliver’s reference may possibly be to the founding of a chantry chapel by
+the Gerveyse family, who set up one of these mass-houses in Willenhall
+about a dozen years after one had been established at Pelsall.
+
+Let it not be imagined that this new church was either a large or a
+magnificent structure.  In all probability it was a diminutive chapel
+constructed of timber which had been cut in the adjacent forest; some of
+its wall spaces, perhaps, were only of timber framed wattle and dab; and
+at most any building material of a more durable nature entering into its
+construction would be but a plinth of stone masonry, and dwarfed at that.
+
+A chapel-of-ease, be it explained, was often established where the parish
+was a wide one, for the “ease” of those parishioners who dwelt at a
+distance from the mother church, and found it difficult to attend divine
+service so far away from their homes.  Such chapels were intended for
+prayer and preaching only; burials and administrations of the sacraments
+being always strictly reserved to the mother church.
+
+While a chapel-of-ease was provided for the general good of the whole
+community, a chantry chapel was intended for the special glory and
+exclusive benefit of some local landed family.  And here is the first
+record we have of the Willenhall Chantry; it is extracted from the Patent
+Rolls of Edward III., under date 14th February, 1328:—
+
+“Licence for the alienation in mortmain by Richard Gerveyse, of
+Wolvernehampton, of a messuage, land, and a moiety of a mill in
+Willenhale, co. Stafford, to a Chaplain to celebrate Divine service daily
+in the Chapel of Willenhale for the souls of the said Richard and
+Felicia, his wife, the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children and
+ancestors, and others.”  A fine of 40s. was paid to the King (at
+Stafford) for this licence to devote landed estate to the said purposes
+of church endowment.
+
+A chantry (or chauntry, a name derived from cantaria), was a chapel,
+little church, or some particular altar in a church, endowed with lands
+and other revenues, for the maintenance of a priest, or priests, daily to
+chant a mass and offer prayers for the souls of the donors, and such
+others as the founders of the chantry may have named.  In this particular
+instance, as we have seen, the eternal welfare of the Gerveyses is sought
+to be assured, and the chantry here was doubtless at the altar of the new
+chapel-of-ease—we cannot expect there were two separate ecclesiastical
+buildings in so small a place as Willenhall.
+
+The method of procedure in setting up these foundations was first to
+obtain a patent from the Crown for the founding and endowing of them; and
+then to obtain the Bishop’s licence for the regular daily performance of
+Divine service by the appointed chantry priest, to whose stipend and
+support the endowment mainly went.
+
+Most of these chantries came into existence in the 14th century, and by
+the close of the following century there was scarce a parish church in
+the kingdom without its chantry in one or other of its side chapels or
+subsidiary altars.  By the time of Richard II.—about the year 1394—at
+least four chantries had been founded, and chapels built, within the
+outer area of Wolverhampton parish; namely, at Willenhall, Bilston,
+Pelsall, and Hatherton.
+
+In connection with the endowments of the Willenhall chantry, it is on
+record that at an Inquisition taken in 1397, it was testified on oath
+that Roger Levison at that time held on lease from Thomas Browning,
+chaplain of this chantry, 12 acres of land in Wednesfield, and 100s. of
+rent in Willenhall, for which he had to perform suit and service (of the
+usual nature in feudal tenures) at the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.
+
+In 1409 the advowson of the chapel of Willenhall, together with certain
+valuable properties of rents and tenements in Wolverhampton, were granted
+by Richard Hethe and William Prestewode, chaplain, to William Bysshebury
+and his wife Joan, and settled on them for the term of their lives, with
+remainder to John Hampton, of Stourton, and his heirs for ever.
+
+Fourteen years later William Bysshebury (his wife Joan being then
+deceased) was sued by certain plaintiffs, on behalf of the said John
+Hampton, for wasting these Wolverhampton properties, of which he had the
+reversion.  The plaintiffs included Roger Aston, knight, William Leveson,
+William Everdon, Thomas Arblaster, and others; while the waste and
+destruction complained of comprised the digging and selling of clay,
+marl, and stones; the permitting of seven halls, two chambers, two
+kitchens, two granges, a dovecot, and a mill to remain unroofed till the
+principal timbers had rotted; and also with cutting down and selling a
+number of oaks, ashes, pear, and apple trees, the total damage in respect
+of all this waste being estimated at a very considerable figure.
+
+The advowson was, of course, the right of presentation to the benefice of
+Willenhall; and the Hamptons of Stourton Castle, to whom it passed at
+this time, seem to have been a family which originated at
+Wolverhampton—and perhaps derived their name from the town.
+
+The ministers who officiated in the local chapels-of-ease were inferior
+in official status to the vicar, rector, or beneficed clergyman of the
+mother church, and such curates were generally removable at the pleasure
+of the said vicar or rector.  Willenhall, doubtless, was served by a
+“curate” sent from the Wolverhampton collegiate establishment.
+
+In the reign of Edward IV. local ecclesiastical matters became further
+complicated by the collegiate church of Wolverhampton being permanently
+united with the Deanery of Windsor, the two deaneries being always
+subsequently held together.  It appears that King Edward, desirous of
+doing his Chaplain a favour, annexed the “Free Royal Church of
+Wolverhampton” to the said Deanery of Windsor, which royal act was soon
+afterwards confirmed by Parliament (1480).
+
+The Chantry of Willenhall, in common with all others, disappeared at the
+Reformation (this one probably in 1545), when prayers for the dead were
+no longer tolerated.  But it is interesting to observe that under the new
+Protestant régime attendance at church every Sunday was still regarded as
+a duty no good citizen and loyal subject could be excused.
+
+Attendance at church was compulsory in the early days of the Anglican
+establishment.  By statute (I, Elizabeth c. I., 23 Elizabeth c. I., and
+3, James I. c. 4) every person was to repair to his parish church every
+Sunday on pain of forfeiting 1s. for every offence; and being present at
+any form of prayer contrary to the Book of Common Prayer was punished
+with six months’ imprisonment.  Persons above sixteen years of age who
+absented themselves from church above a month had to pay a forfeit of £20
+a month.
+
+Protestant dissenters who did not deny the doctrine of the Trinity were
+(it is interesting to note) exempted from these penalties in 1689; and
+the Roman Catholics were similarly emancipated by law in 1792.  This by
+the way.
+
+It was in Elizabeth’s reign, and, of course, under the authority of the
+newly-established Protestant Church of England, that Willenhall was
+enabled to make a distinct advance in the status of its church.  The
+charge of this church became an independent one, and was no longer
+subordinated to the canons of Wolverhampton; the incumbent was
+thenceforward to be in fact, as well as in name, “Chaplain of
+Willenhall.”  But although the incumbent thus obtained his personal
+freedom from the domination of the mother church, the Wolverhampton
+establishment still retained all the old parochial rights in the shape of
+fees and ecclesiastical emoluments.  Beyond levying this money tribute,
+however, the Dean and Rector of Wolverhampton no longer held any control
+over the internal affairs of the church of St. Giles’, in Willenhall.
+The specified duties of the incumbent of Willenhall (as set forth in a
+Trust deed of 1603, to which Sir John Leveson is a party) were to conduct
+Divine service there, and to have his residence within a mile and a half
+of the church.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+VIII.—Willenhall in the Middle Ages.
+
+
+Having brought the ecclesiastical history of Willenhall up to the
+enlightened days of Queen Elizabeth, to preserve some sort of
+chronological arrangement, we leave that section awhile in order to deal
+with the social life of the place, so far as this may be gleaned from a
+number of fragmentary sources and isolated references.
+
+The result of these gleanings is naturally very scrappy an
+disconnected—like the modern periodicals afflicted with the prevalent
+“snippetitis.”  Such as they are, however, the local reader may be
+willing to accept them as being of some little interest.
+
+In the year 1172 the Pipe Rolls, which come next to the Domesday Book
+among our most ancient national records, and contain a full account of
+the Crown revenues, return Willenhall, among five other Staffordshire
+estates, bringing in the sum of £19 7s. 8d. per annum to Henry II.  This
+would represent nowadays a sum twenty times that amount.  These estates
+were Bilston and Rowley Regis, being ancient demesnes of the Crown, and
+the manors of Leek, Wolstanton, and Penkhull (in the north of the
+county), which had escheated at the Conquest from the Earl of Mercia.
+Rowley probably brought in but a few pence at that time, when it formed a
+part of Clent.
+
+In the same reign (Henry II.) the Canons of Wolverhampton are recorded as
+holding two hides of land in “Winenhale”—certainly not more than 400
+acres in a fertile locality like this.
+
+During the reign of Edward III., his son and heir, the renowned Black
+Prince, hero of Crecy and Poictiers, claimed (after the manner of those
+times) the custody and guardianship of Matilda, daughter and heiress of
+his old comrade in arms, John de Willenhale.  The heiress of Willenhall
+was therefore at this time a royal ward.  The earliest holder of this
+manor who is known by his territorial title seems to be Roger de Wylnale,
+who (according to Lawley’s “History of Bilston,” p. 132) was flourishing
+about the year 1109.
+
+In these earlier centuries of the Middle Ages the machinery the law was
+crude and ineffective; as a consequence lawlessness was rampant, and
+everywhere might became right.
+
+The nobles, whenever the weakness of a king emboldened them, fortified
+their castles, and increased the number of their retainers, whom they
+reduced to a condition of complete vassalage; and each baron strove to
+make himself a figure in the great national convulsions which, from time
+to time, broke out under the malign influences of the feudalism that
+dominated the whole land and blighted its every hope of progress.
+
+The Franklins, the inferior grade of gentry, who, under the old Saxon
+system were called Thanes, were often compelled by force of environment
+to range themselves under the protecting banner of one or other of these
+petty kings.  And where authority was systematically set at defiance by
+the great and the powerful, inoffensive conduct and dutiful obedience to
+the laws of the land afforded no guarantee for the security of either
+life or property.
+
+To these disturbing influences must be added the barbarous severity of
+the laws of the chase, the vindictive nature of which sometimes made the
+heavy feudal chains of the common people almost too grievous to be borne.
+As Willenhall was on the confines of the Royal Forest of Cannock, the
+oppressive nature of the Forest Laws was not unfelt by the inhabitants of
+this secluded hamlet.
+
+In 1306, when John de Swynnerton married the daughter and heiress of
+Philip de Montgomery, Seneschal of the Royal Forest of Cannock, and
+became Steward of the Forest in customary succession, Willenhall was
+officially returned, along with a number of surrounding places
+(Wednesfield, Wednesbury, Darlaston, Essington, Hilton, Newbrigge,
+Moseley, Bushbury, Pendeford, Coven, and a score more), as appurtenant to
+a third part of the said forest bailiwick.
+
+The Swynnerton interest in Willenhall transpires again in 1364, when John
+de Swynnerton is found suing two Willenhall men for forcibly and
+feloniously removing some of his goods and chattels from that place.
+
+In the previous reign—that of Henry III.—numerous fines for illegal
+enclosures of Cannock Forest had been imposed upon landowners in this
+locality.  Among them were Stephen de Hulton (or Hilton), and John, his
+son, “of Wednesfield,” who had enclosed with a hedge and a ditch three
+acres of heath in Wednesfield, which they held under the Dean of
+Wolverhampton.  They were fined four shillings each, and ordered
+peremptorily to throw down the hedge.
+
+Here is an episode characteristic of the period.  It is a Tuesday evening
+in the month of August, 1347, and about the hour of vespers.  The scene
+is laid in “the field of Wolverhampton, called Wyndefield, in a place
+called Le Ocstele, near Le More Love-ende.”  A body of men, all carrying
+arms, are seen to approach their victim, who is described as a clerk, and
+therefore presumably defenceless.  He is Roger Levessone, son of Richard
+Levessone.  His assailants are Robert le Clerk, of Sedgley, two Dudley
+men, a man from Bloxwich, and several others, all duly named in the
+records of the law courts.
+
+What the cause of quarrel may have been these meagre records do not
+inform us, but on the evidence of a number of witnesses, among whom was
+Richard Colyns, of Willenhall, they freely used their spears and swords,
+inflicting wounds upon the throat and other parts of the body, till the
+unfortunate Roger was despatched.
+
+In 1339, one Richard Adams, of Willenhall, was charged with slaying two
+men in that place, one a townsman named John Odyes, and a certain John de
+Bentley.  As he was acquitted, probably he did it in self-defence.
+Encounters of this character were of frequent occurrence in those lawless
+times.
+
+When the offences recorded are of a less serious nature than murder and
+slaughter, they are nearly always described as being accompanied by the
+violent use of lethal weapons—“vi et armis” is the old legal phrase.
+Here are some examples of this kind of lawlessness:—
+
+In 1352, William de Hampton (probably of the Dunstall family of that
+name) prosecuted a gang of fourteen men, including a chaplain, the parson
+of Sheynton (?  Shenstone), and two men from Tettenhall, for robbing him
+of his goods and chattels at Willenhall, Wednesfield, Tettenhall, and
+Pendeford.  Of the details of the robberies we are able to learn nothing,
+except that they were all perpetrated forcibly, and with a reckless
+display of violence.
+
+A similar prosecution was undertaken in 1395 by another member of this
+family, one Nicholas Hampton, against Thomas Marshall, of Willenhall, and
+for a similar outrage in that place.
+
+A Willenhall man named John Wilson, in 1373, had to invoke the law upon a
+desperado who forcibly broke into his house and close at Homerwych
+(Hammerwich), and stole from thence timber, household utensils, clothing,
+corn, hay, and apparently everything he could lay his hands upon and
+carry away.
+
+Twenty years later John Wilson (probably the same prosecutor) charged
+John Wilkes, of Darlaston, with stealing two of his oxen, though no
+violence is alleged on this occasion.
+
+Two Willenhall men, William Colyns, and William Stokes, were, in 1399,
+arrested, and charged with cutting down trees and underwood at Bentley.
+Force and violence were used on that occasion; and it must be remembered
+that timber was then in much greater demand for building purposes than
+now, while underwood was in constant requisition as fuel and for the
+repair of fences and shelters.
+
+Sixteen years later (1415) John Pype and a number of other Bilston men
+were prosecuted by Sir Hugh Burnell, Knt., for breaking into his closes
+at Willenhall, trespassing on his land, and treading down his grass with
+their cattle, committing damage to a grievous extent, and all in
+undisguised defiance to the law.
+
+Enough has been quoted to illustrate, by incidents common to the social
+life of so simple a community as that of Willenhall, the gradual decay of
+feudalism, and the steady growth of English liberty by the vindication of
+constitutional law.
+
+
+
+
+IX.—The Levesons and other old Willenhall families.
+
+
+From the same sources, namely from the records of the ancient Law Courts,
+as transcribed, translated, and published in the volumes of the Salt
+Society, we are enabled to gain a knowledge of the most prominent
+families in this locality during the Middle Ages.  There seem to have
+been lawsuits ever since there were landowners.
+
+The principal family in Willenhall were the Levesons or Leusons, who are
+said to have been connected with this place and the neighbouring parishes
+of Wednesbury and Wolverhampton, almost from the time of the Norman
+Conquest, eking out a living from the soil, of which their tenure was at
+first a very precarious one.
+
+Their pedigree, given by the county historian, Shaw (II. p. 169), shows
+the founder to be one Richard Leveson, settled in Willenhall in the reign
+of Edward I.  But we find that in the year before this king’s accession,
+namely, in 1271, Richard Levison paid a fine of 2s. 3d. in the Forest
+Court for being permitted to retain in cultivation an assart of half an
+acre, lying in Willenhall; that is, to be allowed to continue under the
+plough a piece of land on which he had grubbed up all the trees and
+bushes by the roots, to the detriment of the covert within the King’s
+Royal Forest of Cannock.
+
+The founder of the family was succeeded by a son, and by a grandson, both
+of whom were also called “Richard Leveson, of Willenhall,” although the
+last one was sometimes designated as “of Wolverhampton,” to which town he
+was doubtless attracted by the greater profits to be made in the wool
+trade.
+
+The early commercial fame of Wolverhampton was based on this industry.
+Although there were no wool-staplers here in 1340, yet in 1354, when the
+wool staple was removed from Flanders, Wolverhampton was one of the few
+English towns fixed upon by Parliament for carrying on the trade.  (A
+staple, it may be explained, is a public mart appointed and regulated by
+law.)  Although the staple was again changed to Calais, it was speedily
+brought back to England, and the Levesons were soon among the foremost
+“merchants of the staple.”
+
+A Clement de Willenhale is mentioned in an Assize of the year 1338, but
+not improbably he was identical with the Clement Leveson mentioned in
+another lawsuit in 1356, a party to which was a member of the ancient
+local family of Harper—“John le Harpere,” as he is therein called.
+
+Then there is mention in 1351 of the John de Willenhale, who is described
+as being in the wardship of the Prince of Wales.  But perhaps the best
+insight into the social state of Willenhall at this period will be
+obtained from a consideration of its inhabitants liable to pay a war tax
+which was levied by Edward III. in order to enable him to carry on a war
+of defence against Scotland.  For this popular military expedition,
+Parliament in 1327 granted the youthful king a Subsidy to the amount of
+one-twentieth leviable upon the value of nearly all kinds of property.
+Assessors and collectors were appointed for every town and village, and
+they were sworn to make true returns of every man’s goods and chattels,
+both in the house and out of it.  The exceptions allowable were the goods
+of those whose total property did not amount to the full value of ten
+shillings; the tools of trade; and the implements of agriculture.  On the
+face of it, these exemptions seem fair and just to the lower orders; but
+we find the higher orders were also favoured, and unduly so; not so much
+perhaps in the matters of armour and cavalry horses, as in the
+non-liability of the robes and jewels of knights, gentlemen, and their
+wives, as well as of their silver and household plate.
+
+Here is a copy of the Subsidy Roll of 1327 so far as it relates to
+
+                               WYLLUNHALE.
+
+De                                s.           d.
+Adam M—                            —            —
+Andr’ atte Mere                             xviij
+Joh’e le Bakere                    —            —
+Ric’o Odys                        ij
+Ric’o filio Radulfi               ij           vj
+Joh’e filio Rogeri                 —            —
+Ric’o filio Ade                   ij
+Will’o filio Roberti             iij
+Will’o atte Pirye                 vj
+Ric’o Chollettes                  ij
+Agnete Odys                      iij
+Hugone le Gardiner                             ij
+Adame atte Mere                   ij
+Joh’e Hopkynes                                xij
+Agnete atte Wode                              xij
+Will’mo Newemon                               xij
+Symone Levesone                                vj
+                  Summa       xxviij       vj Pb.
+
+It will be seen that this fragment is imperfect, as the various amounts
+set down will not add up to the “summa” or total given, notwithstanding
+that it has been audited—the abbreviation “Pb.” standing for probata, or
+proved.
+
+But more interest will be found in a brief study of the names of
+Willenhall’s inhabitants, who were men of substance seven hundred years
+ago.
+
+It will be observed that Simon is the only member of the Leveson family
+assessed, and that he pays the least sum, except that paid by the man
+Hugh, described as “the Gardener” (the amount paid by “John the Baker”
+has been obliterated from the roll).
+
+The strange surname Odyes, appearing twice in this list, occurs in
+another record of the year 1422, and seems to belong to a gentle family,
+resident in Willenhall, and owning lands in Bentley.
+
+As but few people then bore recognised surnames, we find taxpayers here
+officially set down as “Richard the son of Ralph,” “John the son of
+Roger,” “Richard the son of Adam,” and “William the son of Robert.”
+Besides these named according to their parentage, we have those described
+according to their place of residence; as thus, “Andrew at the Mere,” and
+“Adam at the Mere”; “Agnes at the Wood,” and “William at the Pear Tree.”
+William Newman was probably so-called because he was a new-comer, or was
+lately emancipated from serfdom as a “new man.”
+
+From the Patent Rolls of November, 1334, may be gleaned the bare facts of
+what seems to have been an extraordinary assault at Willenhall, which was
+committed upon John, son of John de Bentley, by no less than thirty
+assailants.  Among those implicated may be noted the names of five
+members of the Leveson family, namely, Geoffrey, Moses, John, Simon, and
+Simon the younger; also the names of William, son of Robert atte Pirie,
+Andrew atte Mere, John le Harpere, Richard Coletes, Richard Colyns, and
+several others which have occurred before in these pages.  The Leveson
+family continue to make many appearances in the records of Willenhall
+litigation at this early period.  In 1347, Andrew, the son of Simon
+Levesone, of Willenhale, was sued for the treading down and consuming of
+the corn of Andrew in le Lone at Willenhale, with his cattle, and by
+force of arms, and for cutting down his trees, and beating and wounding
+his servant.
+
+In the following year, Geoffrey Levesone, of Willenhale, brought a
+somewhat similar charge of trespass against John Oldejones, of
+Wodnesfeld.  In 1362, Roger Levesone, of Willenhale, was successful in a
+suit for recovering two acres of land at Wolverhampton.  About the same
+time Juliana Levesone, of Willenhall, married William Tomkys, a member of
+one of the leading families of Bilston.
+
+In 1369, John de la Lone, of Wolverhampton, sued John Levesone, of
+Willenhale, for forcibly taking his fish, to the value of 100 shillings,
+“from his several fishery in Willenhale.”
+
+In 1394, Roger Liefson (Leveson), of Wylenhale (who has been previously
+mentioned in Chapter VII.), was at law with Thomas Colyns, of the same
+place, for forcibly taking away from Willenhall twelve oxen belonging to
+him.  Immediately after, one William de Chorley was attacked for taking
+away from Great Wyrley, also with a display of armed force, three oxen
+and two cows, the property of Richard Leveson, of Willenhall.  If these
+two cases were not reprisals, they at least show a state of disturbance
+and insecurity.
+
+Another exhibition of lawlessness is brought to our notice in 1429, when
+Richard Leveson is found suing Robert Dorlaston, weaver, Richard Colyns,
+lorymer, William Brugge, and William Bate, yeomen, all described as “of
+Wylenhale,” for violently and forcibly breaking into his close at
+Willenhall.
+
+A similar case of forcible entry into the close and houses of James
+Leveson, at Willenhale, by one Roger Waters, a Willenhale lorymer, was an
+outrage which occupied the attention of the law courts in 1433.
+
+Three years later (1436) another law case shows the same James Levesson
+suing John Pippard, chaplain, for a messuage and 20 acres of land in
+Wolverhampton, which he asserted had descended to him from Richard
+Levesson, of Willenhall, who held it in the time of Edward I., in a
+direct line, namely, from Richard to his son Geoffrey, from Geoffrey to
+his son Roger, and from Roger to his son Nicholas, who was plaintiff’s
+father.
+
+By this time the Leveson family seems to have been not only firmly
+established in and around Willenhall, Wednesfield, and Wolverhampton, but
+to have been very numerous as well.  Originally yeomen of the first-named
+place, cultivating their lands within the precincts of the Royal Forest
+of Cannock, they gradually grew and prospered, one branch taking
+advantage of the greater commercial opportunities offered by the
+last-named town, and settling there as merchants and wool-staplers.
+
+Woolstapling was a prosperous trade in Wolverhampton as early as 1354;
+and in its ancient market place the Levesons of the younger branch were
+to be found bartering wool and steadily accumulating riches until they
+were able to marry into the most exclusive of the county families.
+
+Among the Bailiffs of the Staple—which, in the case of Wolverhampton were
+wool and woolfel—we find the names of William Leveson in 1485, and Walter
+Leveson in 1491.
+
+Members of other old and well-known local families also filled this
+office of Bailiff at various times, namely, William Jennings in 1483,
+Richard Gough in 1486, Edward Giffard in 1493, Y. Turton in 1496, and W.
+Wrottesley in 1499.  If evidence were required of the enterprise of these
+Wolverhampton merchants, it would be forthcoming in the fact that a
+Leveson and a Jennings, both natives of this place (the latter a
+“merchant taylor” in 1508) filled the high office of Lord Mayor of
+London.
+
+An Inquisition Post Mortem (one of those feudal inquiries into the extent
+of a man’s landed possessions which passed to his heirs) was held on the
+death of Henry Beaumont, lord of the Manor of Wednesbury, at Willenhall,
+on 28th June, 1472.  Among those sworn of the jury on that occasion were
+James Leveson Esq., Richard Leveson, Esq., Cornelius Wyrley, Esq., Robert
+Leveson, Ralph Busshbury, Esq., and William Mollesley, all local
+magnates.
+
+It has not been possible to identify all the members of this extensive
+family.  There were two distinct branches of the Levesons or Luesons.
+The elder line were of Prestwood and Lilleshall, and produced Sir Richard
+Leveson, of Trentham; the younger branch, descended from William, the son
+of Richard Leveson, of Willenhall, produced the Sir Thomas Leveson who
+was the Royalist governor of Dudley Castle during the great Civil War
+(1643).
+
+The elder line were “of Prestwood” because Nicholas Leveson, in the time
+of Henry VI. married Maud, heiress of John de Prestwood.  The Lilleshall
+and other properties were fat church lands, purchased by the wealthy
+Levesons at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  It was a Richard Leveson
+of the Prestwood branch who acquired the Haling Estate in Kent by
+marriage with a Lord Mayor’s daughter, and died in 1539 after being
+himself Lord Mayor of London.
+
+Also from this branch came the famous Vice-Admiral of England in Queen
+Elizabeth’s days.  This gallant sea-dog, whose romance with the “Spanish
+Lady” has been retold by the present writer in his “Staffordshire
+Stories” (pp. 22–35), took part in that daring attack upon Cadiz which
+has been sung by Henry John Newbolt in his “Admirals All”—
+
+    Essex was fretting in Cadiz Bay
+       With the galleons fair in sight;
+    Howard at last must give him his way,
+       And the word was passed to fight.
+    Never was schoolboy gayer than he,
+       Since holidays first began:
+    He tossed his bonnet to wind and sea,
+       And under the guns he ran.
+
+Admiral Leveson’s effigy in Wolverhampton Church stamps him as one of the
+heroes of old romance—his career was indeed remarkable, as may be read in
+the work alluded to.
+
+The present-day representatives of the family are the Leveson-Gowers, the
+head of whom is the Duke of Sutherland.  The Gowers were an Anglo-Saxon
+family seated in Yorkshire, and the union of the two occurred about the
+time of Charles I., when Sir Thomas Gower, then Sheriff of Yorkshire,
+married Frances, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Leveson, of Haling and
+Lilleshall.
+
+At the time Richard Leveson was sailing the seas with Essex and Drake,
+there was a John Leveson living in Willenhall as lord of the manor, the
+site of his residence being still marked by the position of Levison
+Street and Moat Street.
+
+In Wolverhampton “Turton’s Old Hall” was originally known as Leveson’s
+Hall; this massive old mansion, surrounded by its once deep and wide
+moat, is believed to have been erected by John Leveson, a wool merchant,
+who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1561.
+
+Truly the local record of the Levesons is a long and notable one; and it
+is interesting to note that John Leveson, son of Thomas, who had been
+Sheriff of the county, and died in 1595, is the last in Shaw’s pedigree
+to be described as “of Willenhale,” although in a succeeding chapter we
+shall find members of this family still seated on their native soil,
+Willenhall, as late as the years of the Jacobite Rebellions, 1715 and
+1745.
+
+
+
+
+X.—Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation.
+
+
+Now to resume the ecclesiastical history of the place.  Willenhall was
+affected by the Reformation from two directions; first, through the
+mother church of Wolverhampton, of which collegiate establishment it
+formed a portion; secondly, through its own chapel and the endowed
+chantry established therein.
+
+The great ecclesiastical upheaval of the sixteenth century had its
+precursor in the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII.  The
+rumble of the coming storm warned the secular or non-monastic foundations
+that it would be prudent to set their houses in order if they were to
+safeguard their revenues; for every one of the smaller monasteries, with
+an income of less than £200 per annum, had been forfeited to the Crown
+(1529).
+
+A new valuation of the College of Wolverhampton had but just been
+instituted in 1526, from which it will be necessary here to extract only
+that portion of the return relating to our subject.  It was to this
+effect:—
+
+                       THE PREBEND OF WYLNALL.
+                                                   £       s.       d.
+William Leveson, Clerk (dwelling in Exeter         3        0        0
+with the Bishop), Prebendary there, and
+hath in glebe-lands
+And in tithes of corn, one year with               3        0        0
+another
+And in wool and lambs by the year, one             3        6        8
+year with another
+And in the Easter Book by the year, one            0       13        4
+year with another
+And in tithes of Herbage, Pigs, Geese, and         0       40        0
+other small tithes
+                                  Sum total       12        0        0
+And thereof he pays allowance for Synodals         0        6        8
+every third year, paid to the aforesaid
+Dean
+And so there remains clear                        11       13        4
+The tenth part thereof                             0       23        4
+
+The value of the Deanery, the Prebends, and the two Chantries of
+Willenhall and Bilston are all set forth in this Return.  (See Oliver’s
+“History of Wolverhampton Church,” pp. 57–60.)
+
+The visitation of the religious houses, undertaken as it was in a hostile
+spirit by Henry VIII., naturally alarmed the authorities of a church
+where it would appear that irregularities on the part of the prebendaries
+had long existed, and not an inconsiderable portion of the church
+property had been alienated, to say nothing of the sequestration of the
+church communion plate.  Now some hasty attempts were made at
+restitution, and more so to escape detection and censure.
+
+Restoration in some sort seems to have been hastily attempted at
+Wolverhampton.  In 1529 Nicholas Leveson presented a new chalice of
+silver; and the high altar was restored at much expense to its former
+magnificence.  The Dean, however, fell into disgrace in the matter of
+denying the King’s supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London in
+consequence.  In 1540 bells purchased by the inhabitants from Wenlock
+Abbey were hung in the church tower.  Four years later sixteen stalls,
+taken from the recently dissolved monastery at Lilleshall, were presented
+by Sir Walter Leveson to Wolverhampton Church.
+
+All these precautions scarcely availed to avert the impending doom.  By
+an Act passed in the first year of the reign of Edward VI., the
+dissolution of Colleges and Chantries was effected.  But the Royal
+College of Windsor, of which Wolverhampton was a member, was especially
+exempted, and the Wolverhampton Chapter consequently felt secure from
+disturbance.
+
+So sure of their position were they that the prebendaries actually
+proceeded to lease out their property.  Among the others, the prebendary
+of Willenhall granted his lands and tithes to John Leveson, Esq. (who
+held several other of the prebendal properties), for a reserved rent of
+£6 6s.
+
+Although the various deeds were confirmed by the Dean and Chapter of
+Windsor, the legality of the proceedings was questioned; and presently it
+was successfully contended that the Deanery of Wolverhampton was a
+separate benefice detached from the College of Windsor, and that the
+prebends were in the hands of the Crown.
+
+There is extant another valuation of these ecclesiastical revenues in the
+Primate’s Court.  The record is in Latin, but it may be Englished thus:—
+
+                                                   £       s.       d.
+Canterbury values Willenhall                       5        2        1
+It Days to the Dean of Wolverhampton               0        3        3
+
+             (William Leveson, Prebendary of
+                                Willenhall.)
+
+The Prebendary of Willenhall is worth per annum:—
+
+                                                           s.       d.
+In Glebeland                                               41        0
+In Corn tithes                                             40        0
+In Wool and Lambs                                          46        8
+In Easter dues                                             13       10
+In Tithes of Fodder, of Hogs, and Geese and other          40        0
+small tithes
+Thence is paid, in every third year, to the Dean,           6        8
+for the Synod
+
+The valuation of Wolverhampton College which is to be regarded as that of
+the Reformation was made in 1551, and one item in which may be quoted
+from Oliver’s “History of Wolverhampton Church” (p. 63):—“And for £12 6s.
+8d. for the farm of the Prebend of Willnall, with all messuages, tithes,
+lands, rents, services, and other profits to the said Prebend belonging,
+demised to John Horton, by Indenture under seal of the said College,
+dated 4th November, 33 Henry VIII., for the term of 21 years,” &c., &c.
+
+Turning our attention to Willenhall itself, let us see how the Chapel
+here was affected.  The Chantry foundation of this Chapel, like all
+others, had to go.  Chantries being founded by the pious rich to have the
+souls of their dear departed prayed for, could not be tolerated by the
+Protestant reformers, and were all rigidly suppressed.  Here is the
+valuation formally taken in the reign of Henry VIII. (1526), as before
+mentioned:—
+
+                         CHANTRY OF WYLNALL.
+Hugh Bromehall, chaplain, hath a house with lands              8 marks
+pertaining to the same, value per annum
+                                                           s.       d.
+And prays to be allowed for rents of assize,                3        3
+payable to the Dean
+And for Capitation rents, paid annually to William                  10
+Leveson, Prebendary of Wylnall
+And so their remains due                                  102        7
+The tenth part thereof                                     10        3
+
+The Chantry, being regarded as one of the abhorred institutions of
+Romanism, thus came to an end under the reforming zeal of our Protestant
+legislators in the early years of the reign of Edward VI.
+
+All the possessions of the Colleges of Wolverhampton and Tettenhall, with
+their Prebends, together with the Chantry lands of Willenhall, Bilston,
+and Kinver, when they passed from the Crown in 1552, fell into the hands
+of the notorious John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who contrived to
+grab no end of church property in this immediate locality.  When
+Northumberland came to the block shortly afterwards, there was a great
+redistribution of this property, that of Wolverhampton being once more
+annexed to the Royal Free Chapel of St. George at Windsor.
+
+
+
+
+XI.—How the Reformation Affected Willenhall.
+
+
+As recorded in the last chapter, the Willenhall Chantry, in common with
+all others throughout the country, was finally suppressed by Edward VI.
+and his Protestant ministers (1547).  It had been in existence upwards of
+200 years, the name of its first Chantry Priest being given (1341) as
+“William in the Lone.”
+
+The Prebendal lands also, as we have seen, were leased in the fourth year
+of this reign to John Leveson, for the sum of £6 6s. per annum.  All the
+other lands belonging to the Deanery of Wolverhampton then passed into
+the hands of the King, but did not long remain in the Crown, being
+conveyed, with much more ecclesiastical property hereabouts, to John
+Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.  On his attainder in the reign of Mary
+(1553), the Deanery lands reverted to the Crown, to be again restored to
+their original use by that most pious queen.
+
+In 1547 the zeal of the Protestant reformers induced the Government of
+Edward VI. to send Commissioners round the country to make inquiry in
+every parish and every church as to the ecclesiastical appointments used
+in ritual, with orders to suppress all that made for “idolatrous Popish
+practices.”
+
+The Commissioners for this locality were all men of high standing in the
+county, as will be seen from their names.  They were sworn to make—
+
+    A juste, treu, and parfett survey and inventorie of all goods, plate,
+    juelles, vestements, belles, and other ornaments, of all churches,
+    chappells, brotherhoddes, gyldes, fraternities, and compones within
+    the Hundred of Offeley, in the Countie of Stafford; taken the seventh
+    day of October, in the sixte yere of the Rayne of our Sovereyn Lord,
+    King Edward the Sixte, by Thomas Gyffard and Thomas Fytzherbert,
+    knyghts; and Walter Wrottesley, Esquier, by virtue of the King’s
+    commissein to them, directed in that behalf, as hereafter
+    particularly appereth.
+
+On one hand, they had to put a stop to the embezzlement, concealment, and
+appropriation by private persons of the condemned church property, and to
+recover as much of it as possible for the King’s Exchequer.  For, under
+pretence of a burning zeal for the reformed faith, there had been much
+sacrilegious spoliation—church plate finding its way on to the table of
+the neighbouring gentry, marble coffins being utilised as horse-troughs,
+altar cloths serving as tapestry for parlour walls, and similar
+malpractices by those who ought to have known better.  This property was
+to be retrieved, and the detected offenders were to be heavily fined.
+
+The Return made for Willenhall Church by the Commissioners and their
+official “Surveyor,” or assessor, runs, verbatim:—
+
+                                   WYLNALL.
+
+    Fyrste one challes of sylver with a paten parcell gilte weyinge by
+    estimacon viij ounces; iij vestement one of whyte fustian another of
+    blacke chamlett and the thyrd of bleu sarsynet; iij alter clothes; ij
+    cruetts of ledde; a bucket of brasse; iij candelstyks of maslyn; a
+    paxe of brass; a corporas with the case; ij towells; one cheste; a
+    lampe of latynn; ij small bells.
+
+    Mem.—That all these parcells before rekened were delyvered unto
+    Richard Forsett, Surveyor to the Kynge’s Majesti, as shall appare by
+    his acquytance, except ij belles the whyche remayne still within the
+    sayd chapell.
+
+A few words in explanation of the above terms may, perhaps, be necessary
+for the general reader.  The chalice and the paten were the vessels used
+at the Sacrament, the former being the wine cup, which was of silver, and
+the latter the bread dish, partly gilt.  The priestly vestments were
+those forbidden by the reformed church, and were of different textures
+for different parts of the Roman ceremonial; the fustian was a coarse
+piled fabric, or kind of cotton velvet, imported from the East; chamlett,
+or camlett, was a cloth so called because originally woven from camel
+hair; and the sarsnett was a thin kind of silk.  The altar cloths had to
+be discarded when the “Mass” was reformed into the “Holy Communion.”  The
+cruets were pairs of metal jars for containing the wine and the water
+previous to their admixture in the sacrament of the Mass.  The bucket was
+for use at the font.  The candle-sticks were for the lighted tapers upon
+the altar and in this case were made of maslin, an alloy like brass, but
+with a harder grain; latten, of which the altar lamp was made, was a
+similar alloy resembling brass.  The pax was a tablet (sometimes of wood,
+sometimes of bread, though this Willenhall example was of durable brass),
+on which was a figure of the crucifixion; it was presented in the
+ceremony of the Mass for the faithful to kiss.  The Corporas was the
+cloth placed beneath the consecrated elements in the service of the Mass.
+The towels were napkins used in the celebration of the sacred office; it
+must be borne in mind that all textile fabrics, as well as metals, were
+far more costly in those days, and the chest was to keep all these
+valuables in safety.
+
+It is difficult to decide the nature of the “two small bells”; because,
+if they were the sanctus bells used at the most solemn parts in the
+performance of the Mass, one a hand-bell rung inside, and the other as a
+signal outside, they would have been abolished.  So, as they were left by
+the Reformers, they were probably small bells in the steeple or turret.
+
+So much for the changes materialistic brought about at this great
+religious upheaval of the sixteenth century.  Now let us inquire into the
+more serious and essential changes which occurred in the religious life
+of the nation at that time.
+
+From a little known Return made in 1586 we are enabled to gather the
+conditions of the Church of England, as it was found to exist, only 28
+years after it had been by law established.
+
+At the Reformation, after the annulling of all “Popish ordinations,” the
+state of the English clergy became very deplorable.  Some of the basest
+of the people were permitted to become parish priests, a circumstance
+that gave point to the arguments and contentions of the Puritans.
+
+The Reformers were divided upon the subject, Queen Elizabeth expressing
+herself as being perfectly satisfied if in each county three or four
+clergymen could be found capable of preaching to their congregations.
+The Puritans, on the other hand, laid great stress on the admonitory
+value and spiritual importance of sermons and homilies.
+
+By 1586 the condition of the newly-formed Protestant Church of England
+had become so scandalous in respect of its priesthood that a national
+“Survey” was undertaken.  Of the remarkable facts disclosed by this
+Return we select from the summaries the following few which relate to
+this immediate locality:—
+
+    WOLVERHAMPTON.—A Collegiate Church; impropriate to the King’s
+    Majestie or the Dean of Windsor; value of lands belonging to it is
+    £600 per annum.  There be seven Prebends and a Sexton under them;
+    seven stipendiaries; the allowance for four of them is ten nobles
+    apiece; for the other three £6 apiece.  Six of the Prebends be held
+    by Sir Gualter Levison; the other is held by another.  The rent
+    reserved to the Dean of Windsor, £38.  People 4,000.  Many Popish;
+    many Recusants.
+
+    Chappells 3:—
+
+    1.  Pelsall; curate’s stipend £4; no preacher.
+
+    2.  Willenhall; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.
+
+    3.  Bilston; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.
+
+    These curates, especially two of them, Mounsell and Cooper, be
+    notorious and dissolute men.
+
+Such was the lamentable state of the local clergy at that time, when the
+population of Wolverhampton, with all its outlying parts, is set down at
+4,000 only.  A few words of explanation will perhaps be necessary to make
+the foregoing extract more intelligible to the general reader.
+
+A “noble” was a coin of the value of 6s. 8d.; a “recusant” was one who
+disputed the authority and supremacy of the Crown in matters
+ecclesiastical, whether Papist or Puritan; while to “impropriate” church
+property was to place it in the hands of a layman.
+
+Four or five more extracts from this interesting Survey, relating to
+other parts of this neighbourhood, may not be out of place to quote
+here:—
+
+    BYSHBY.—Parsonage, impropriate; worth £40 per annum; vicarage worth
+    £30; patron, Sir Edward Littleton; many Popish; many Recusants.
+    Incumbent a mere worldling; no preacher.
+
+    TETNALL.—A college dissolved; five prebends and a deane; impropriate
+    to the King’s Majestie; worth 300 marks.  One prebend is held by Sir
+    Richard Leveson; one by Mr. Gualter Wriotesley; two by Richard
+    Cresswell.  Curate’s stipend, 20 marks; no preacher.
+
+    CODSALL.—Prebend of Tetnall.  Curate-prebendary a loose liver; no
+    preacher.
+
+    WOMBOURNE.—Parsonage, impropriate, held by Hugh Wriotesley, Esquire;
+    worth £40; vicarage worth £26; patron, Edward L. Dudley.
+
+    PEN.—Parsonage; impropriate to the vicars of Lichfield; worth £20;
+    vicarage worth as much; patrons, the Vicars of Lichfield.  Vicar —;
+    no preacher.
+
+This selection of extracts will serve to enlighten the reader upon two
+important points in the history of the Church; the first is the amount of
+church revenue which had already found its way into the pockets of the
+laity; and the other is the lamentable necessity there was at that period
+to provide the English clergy with ready-made Homilies.  These Homilies
+were ordered (as the Prayer Book informs us, in the XXXV. Article), to be
+read “diligently and distinctly” in the churches by the Ministers.
+
+
+
+
+XII.—Before the Reformation—and After.
+
+
+It may be assumed that Willenhall Church has been dedicated to St. Giles
+from the first, because the period for holding the dedicatory Wake
+synchronises with St. Gile’s day (September 1st), making allowance for
+the eleven days’ difference effected in 1752 between the Old Style and
+the New Style calendars.  As the Protestant Reformers took objection to
+non-Biblical saints (West Bromwich Church was altered from St. Clement’s
+to All Saints’), a dedication to St. Giles may safely be accepted as a
+pre-Reformation one; and as St. Giles was the patron saint of cripples,
+he doubtless retained his popularity here on account of the reputation
+for healing qualities acquired by the Willenhall “Holy Well”—of which
+more anon.  But in addition to its Wake, the town seems to have possessed
+in mediæval times a much frequented Summer Fair, held on Trinity Sunday.
+Our knowledge of this interesting fact is derived from the records of the
+Court of Star Chamber.
+
+This court was established by Henry VII. to deal with routs, riots, and
+all other cases not sufficiently provided for by the common law; but the
+oppression practised by the unscrupulous abuse of its indefinite
+jurisdiction led to its summary extinction in the reign of Charles I.
+
+The case to be quoted is one of an alleged riot in the year 1498 (13
+Henry VII.), in which the men of Wednesbury were deeply involved.  These
+turbulent townsmen seem to have made themselves notorious for riotous
+behaviour at various times; as witness the historic Wesley Riots of 1744,
+their march on Birmingham to regulate the price of malt in 1782, and
+their attack on the same town during the Church and King Riots in 1791.
+
+It would appear that a company of Mummers, made up of performers from
+Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall, were regularly in the habit of
+going round to the neighbouring Fairs, and performing to the
+accompaniment of pipe and tabor a Morris-dance, in which the characters
+were dressed up for the then popular dramatic interlude of “Robin Hood,”
+including Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and all the rest of them.
+
+    The hobby-horse doth hither prance,
+    Maid Marian and the Morris-dance.
+
+It would be interesting to discover why, in this local version, the
+character called the “Abbot of Marham” was introduced into the
+play—Marham nunnery was situated in Norfolk, a long way from the usual
+forest scenes of Sherwood and Needwood.
+
+The money collected at these al fresco performances was applied to
+maintaining the fabric of the three parish churches; but, for some reason
+unknown, there had evidently grown up a deadly feud between the
+Wednesbury and the Walsall contingents.  This was the cause of all the
+trouble.
+
+The “John Beamont” mentioned was John Beaumont, Esquire, lord of the
+manor of Wednesbury, a benefactor of the parish church there, and a
+patron of a Walsall Chantry.  It will be noticed that the quoted document
+speaks of the “Church of the lordship,” not “of the parish”; and also,
+that the prefix “Sir” was then used to a parson’s name, as we should now
+use the prefix “Rev.”
+
+Here is the text of the plaints entered by the terrorised “orators” of
+Walsall, together with the affidavits put in as rejoinders; the archaic
+spelling is retained only in a few places just to indicate the style of
+English then employed in the law courts; and it is interesting to note
+that Midlanders had those peculiar vowel sounds in olden times, and
+pronounced “fetch” as “fatch,” and “gather” as “gether”—just as the
+illiterate among them still do:—
+
+    TO THE KING OUR SOVEREIGN LORD—
+
+    Humbly sheweth unto your highness, your faithful subject and true
+    liegeman, Roger Dyngley, Mayor of Walsall; and Thomas Rice, of the
+    same town—That whereas your said orators on Wednesday next before
+    Trinity Sunday, the 13th year of your reign, were in God’s peace and
+    yours, in your said town of Walsall—thither came one John Cradeley,
+    of Wednesbury, and Thomas Morres, of Dudley, in your said county; and
+    then and there made affray upon the said Thomas Rice, “and hym soore
+    wounded and bett” [beat], so that he was in peril of his life.
+
+    Whereupon the said Mayor, with other inhabitants, did arrest John
+    Cradeley and Thomas Morres, and there did put them in prison
+    according to your laws, there to remain till it were known whether
+    the said Thomas Rice should live or die.
+
+    And incontinent thereupon one John Beamonde, “Squyer,” Walter
+    Levison, of Wolverhampton, Richard Foxe, priest, of the same town,
+    and one Robert Marshall, of Wednesbury, “arreysed” and riotously
+    assembled themselves at Wednesbury with other riotous persons to the
+    number of 200 men, arrayed in manner of war, that is to say, with
+    bows, arrows, bills, and “gleves” [long daggers], with other unlawful
+    weapons there gathered and assembled, to the intent to have come to
+    have destroyed your said town of Walsall, saying openly that they
+    would “fache” out of prison the said John Cradeley and Thomas Morres,
+    and destroy your said town of Walsall.
+
+    And thereupon William Harper and William Wilkes, Justices of the
+    Peace, charged the said riotous persons to keep the peace upon a
+    great pain to be forfeited to your grace.  By reason whereof the said
+    rioters for that time ceased from further riot.
+
+    And whereas the said Justices of the Peace, knowing the said rioters
+    intended to make more riot, and to execute their malice in doing some
+    mischief or hurt to the said town or to the inhabitants thereof, for
+    eschewing any riot or breach of the peace commanded the inhabitants
+    of Walsall, Wednesbury, and of divers other towns, their adherents,
+    that they should not assemble together out of the said town, and
+    should not come to a Fair that should be holden at Wilnale on Trinity
+    Sunday, then next following.
+
+    And the inhabitants of Walsall the same day kept at home.
+
+    Notwithstanding, came one from Hampton, whose name is William Milner,
+    calling himself the Abbot of Marram, and one Walter Leveson with him,
+    with the inhabitants of Hampton to the number of four score persons
+    in harness [armour] after the manner of war, to Wilnall to the said
+    Fair.  And also one Robert Marchall, of Wednesbury, calling himself
+    Robyn Hood, and Sir Richard Foxe, priest, with divers other persons
+    to the number of 100 men and above, in harness, came in likewise, and
+    met with the said other rioters at the said town of Wilnall, and then
+    and there riotously assembled themselves, commanding openly that if
+    any of the town of Walsall came therefrom, to strike them down, and
+    in the said town continued their said riotous assembly all the same
+    day; and if any man of Walsall at that day had been seen at that
+    Fair, they should have been in jeopardy of their lives.
+
+    Please your highness to grant your Letters of Privy Seal to be
+    directed to the said John Beamonde, Walter Leveson, Sir Richard Foxe,
+    priest, and Roger Marchall, to commanding them to appear before your
+    Council to answer to the premises.
+
+    1st July, in the 13th year, to appear.
+
+    [Endorsed].
+
+Three several letters issued to Walter Leveson, Richard Foxe, and Roger
+Marchall, to appear.
+
+    MICHAELMAS TERM IN THE 14TH YEAR.  THE MAYOR AND INHABITANTS OF
+    WALSALL AGAINST JOHN BEAMONDE, ESQUIRE, AND OTHERS.  ANSWER FOR SIR
+    ROGER MARCHALL—
+
+    The Bill is only “feyned a yenst hym in pure males” [malice] for his
+    great trouble and vexation, and loss of his goods.  He did not
+    riotously assemble with any persons in arms, nor is he guilty of any
+    riot.  As for the coming to the said Fair at Wylnahale “hit hath byn
+    of olde tymes used and accustumed in the said Fere day that with the
+    inhabitants of sede townes of Hampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall have
+    comyne to the said Fere with the capitanns called the Abot of Marham
+    or Robyn Hodys, to the intent to gether money with their disportes to
+    the profight of the chirches of the said lordshipes,” whereby great
+    profit hath grown to the said churches in times past.
+
+    Whereupon the said Roger Marchall and his Company at the special
+    desire of the Inhabitants of Weddesbury, come in peaceable manner to
+    the said Fair, according to the said old custom, and these met with
+    one John Walker, of Walsall, and divers others of the said town, and
+    then and there “they make as gud chere unto them as they should do to
+    ther lovying neyburs.”  And he denies that they came riotously.
+
+    THE ANSWER OF WALTER LEVESON—
+
+    He heard say at Hampton, where he dwells, that a “rumour and
+    mysdemenying” against the King’s peace was had in Walsale, and that
+    the inhabitants were riotously disposed against John Beamont.
+
+    Whereupon the said Walter with two of his servants, in peaceable
+    manner, and without any harness, came to the said John Beamont to his
+    place at Weddesbury, to know how the Mayor and Inhabitants of Walsale
+    would entreat him.
+
+    John Beamont said that he knew of no hurt that they willed to him.
+    It has been of old time used and accustomed on the said Fair day that
+    the inhabitants of Hampton, Weddesbury, and Walsale have come to the
+    Fair with such Captains as they have of old time used, to the intent
+    to gather money with their disports to the use of the said churches
+    of the said lordships.
+
+And this is all we know of that lively “Whitsun Morris” at Willenhall
+Fair in the year of grace 1498.  It all reads like a delightful chapter
+in the vein of Shakespeare’s Dogberry and Verges; and it will be noted
+that the priests are among the captains or ringleaders in this Sunday
+revelling.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+After the Reformation came the Puritans, who severely discountenanced all
+Sunday revelry.  And so the lampoon of their enemies ran:—
+
+    There dwells a people on the earth
+    That reckons true religion treason,
+    That makes sad war on holy mirth,
+    Count madness zeal and nonsense reason;
+    That think no freedom but in slavery,
+    That makes lyes truth, religion, knavery;
+    That rob and cheat with “yea” and “nay,”
+    Riddle me, riddle me, who are they?
+
+Yet, when religious differencies had brought on civil war, it had to be
+confessed of this Puritan people (so says Sir Francis Doyle in “The
+Cavalier”):—
+
+    That though they snuffled psalms, to give
+       The rebel dogs their due,
+    When the roaring shot poured thick and hot
+       They were stalwart men and true.
+
+And so the mighty struggle for liberty of conscience against the
+pretensions of a dominant Church had proceeded for over century, when we
+find the incumbency of Willenhall held by the Rev. Thomas Badland.
+
+Thomas Badland was born in 1643, matriculated at Pembroke College,
+Oxford, 1650, and took his B.A. degree, 1653.  He was one of the noble
+band of ministers who relinquished their livings on August 24th, 1662,
+rather than conform to the requirements of the Act of Uniformity, passed
+on the Restoration of Charles II.
+
+On his ejectment from Willenhall, this conscientious Puritan divine
+returned to his native city, Worcester, where “he formed a distinct
+congregation of Christians, who assembled for worship in a small room” at
+the bottom of Fish Street.  His family was an old one in Worcester, the
+name Badland occurring in a charter of James I.
+
+According to Noake’s “Worcester Sects,” he was minister of that
+congregation for 35 years; but before his death the Declaration of
+Indulgence by James II. was made (1687), and immediately thereupon Mr.
+Badland’s church was regularly constituted by the adoption of the
+Covenants of church membership which had been drawn by Richard Baxter—he
+was a personal friend of the eminent divine—in terms sufficiently general
+to include almost all denominations who might choose to make it a point
+of common agreement.
+
+From Nash’s “History of Worcestershire” we learn that on a monument on
+the south wall of the south aisle of St. Martin’s church, Worcester, it
+was set forth:—
+
+    Under these seats lies interred the body of the Rev. Thomas Badland,
+    a faithful and profitable preacher of the Gospel in this city for the
+    space of thirty-five years.  He rested from his labours, May 5th, A.D
+    1698, æt. 64.
+
+                             Mors mihi vita nova.
+
+When St. Martin’s Church was pulled down in 1768 this marble tablet was
+carelessly thrown aside, and soon got broken into fragments.  Happily the
+pieces were rescued and put together again with loving care for erection
+in the vestibule of Angel Street Chapel, at the expense of the
+congregation worshipping there.  In the new Independent Chapel, which has
+taken the place of that older building (registered at Quarter Sessions in
+1689 as a Presbyterian place of worship), the memorial has been placed
+near the pulpit.
+
+From a MS. history of Angel Street Church, written by Samuel Blackwell in
+1841, it would appear that Mr. Badland had as one of his assistants a Mr.
+Hand, who had been ordained at Oldbury.  At Fish Street Chapel (the site
+of which was occupied in later times by Dent’s Glove Factory), there were
+120 Communicants in February, 1687; and the Declaration of Faith drawn up
+and signed by the church members that year bears first the name of Thomas
+Badland, pastor, and among many others that follow is that of “Elizab.
+Badland,” presumably his wife.  Such, briefly, is the life history of the
+good man who relinquished the living of Willenhall, and repudiated its
+“idolatrous steeple-house,” at the Black Bartholomew of 1662, rather than
+stifle the dictates of his conscience.
+
+In Palmer’s “Nonconformist’ Memorials” the Rev. Thomas Badland has been
+confused with the Rev. Thomas Baldwin, who was ejected (1662) from the
+Vicarage of Chaddesley Corbett, and who died at Kidderminster in 1693,
+his funeral sermon being preached by a conforming clergyman there, named
+White.  There was also a Thomas Baldwin, junior, who had been expelled
+from the Vicarage of Clent, and died at Birmingham; but notwithstanding
+such common mispronunciations as “Badlam” for “Badland,” it seems clear
+that the facts of the Rev. Mr. Badland’s life are as given here, thanks
+to the careful researches of Mr. A. A. Rollason, of Dudley.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.—A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms (1640–1745).
+
+
+Life in Willenhall, as in many other places during the Stuart period, was
+not without its alarms and apprehensions.  The trouble began when Charles
+I., by the advice of Archbishop Laud, tried to force the English liturgy
+upon Scotland.  The resistance offered to this was the real beginning of
+the English Revolution, for the King, in the attempt to carry out his
+despotic will, had to enlist soldiers by force.
+
+        [Picture: Mosley Hall.  Photo. by J. Gale, Wolverhampton]
+
+In the year 1640 a special muster was made for the war against the Scotch
+Covenanters; the men from Staffordshire consisted of trained bands who
+had been employed in the previous year, and 300 men who were impressed
+for the occasion.  The service throughout the country was very unpopular,
+and in some counties the men mutinied and murdered their officers.
+Staffordshire did not escape some riots, and one of the most serious of
+them occurred in front of Bentley Hall, a mile and a-half out of
+Willenhall.
+
+     [Picture: Boscobel House.  Photo. by B. Williams, Wolverhampton]
+
+This was the last attempt at raising men on the old feudal levies; the
+trained bands were armed partly with pikes and partly with the
+newly-invented firelock, while the whole of the impressed men were armed
+merely with pikes.  The Muster Roll for this immediate locality contains
+these names (that of Aspley is cancelled):—
+
+                               Traine.                 Presse.
+Tipton                  Thomas Dudley,          —Thomas Winney.  The
+                                                L. dnd.
+
+                                                —William Aspley pst.
+
+                                                —John Winspurre in
+                                                loco.
+
+                                                —John Husband.
+
+                                                —Joseph Richard.
+
+                                                —William Dutton.
+
+                                                —Richard Rushton: to
+                                                be sp: per R. Turnor.
+Darlaston & Bentley     Thomas Pye, Willm
+                        Turner,
+Wednesfield             John Hill,
+Willenhall              William Wilkes,
+
+Another Roll dated 1634, but apparently in use at this time, gives among
+the names of the “trayned horse” liable as (or for) 2 “curiasiers,”
+“Thomas Levison, Esq.,” and “Mrs. Lane and her sonne.”
+
+Within a couple of years Civil War had broken out in England, and
+Willenhall had to endure its full share of suffering lying, as it did,
+midway between two opposing strongholds—Dudley Castle, held for the King
+(under Colonel Leveson), and Rushall Hall, garrisoned for the
+Parliamentarian side.
+
+Both sides in turn, as they were in a position to enforce payment, made
+levies of money upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the district.  While
+Rushall Hall was a fortified position, first under its owner, Sir Edward
+Leigh, and afterwards under its military governor, Captain Tuthill,
+Willenhall was forced to pay to the support of the garrison there.
+
+Here is the evidence of an official notice:—
+
+    April 8th, 1643.—Ordered that the weekly pay, and five weeks’
+    arrears, of Norton and Wirley, Pelsall, Rushall, and Goscote,
+    Willenhall, Wednesfield and Wednesbury, shall be assigned to Col.
+    Leigh for payment of his officers of horse and troopers
+
+There is a similar military order, dated 22nd June, 1644, by which the
+weekly pay of all these places is assigned to Captain Tuthill, governor
+of Rushall, though in the parcelling out of contributory areas, Bushbury,
+Wolverhampton, Bilston, and Bradley are included in another district.
+The other side were employing forced labour for strengthening the defence
+of Dudley Castle, and not improbably the Leveson tenants from Wednesfield
+and Willenhall were impressed to go up there equipped with spade and
+mattock.
+
+Doubtless troops and detachments of armed men were frequently to be seen
+passing through Willenhall; while Wolverhampton, owing to the influence
+of the Levesons and the Goughs, was almost a Royalist rallying place.
+Soon after the skirmish at Hopton Heath, near Stafford, in 1643, Charles
+I. found shelter in the old Star and Garter Inn (then in Cock Street),
+and to this hostelry came Mr. Henry Gough, who had accommodated Charles,
+Prince of Wales, and his younger brother, James, Duke of York, at his
+private residence, to proffer the King a willing war loan of £1,200.
+
+The same year the King made the same hostelry his headquarters, dating a
+letter which he addressed to the Lichfield magistrates, directing them to
+send their arms to join the Royal standard at Nottingham, “Att our Court
+at Wolverhampton, 17 August, 1642.”
+
+In 1643, Prince Rupert, after his memorable fight at Birmingham, made an
+attack upon Rushall Hall; and notwithstanding the gallant defence of
+Mistress Leigh, in the absence of her husband, its lord, took and held it
+for the King, putting in as governor Sir Edward Leigh’s neighbour,
+Colonel Lane, of Bentley.  With a garrison of 100 to 200 men, he held
+Rushall Hall for some months, having some exciting times, chiefly in the
+plundering of the enemy’s stores, and the private merchandise of carriers
+passing along the great Watling Street over Cannock Chase.
+
+On May 10th, 1644, the Earl of Denbigh, after a vigorous attack,
+recaptured Rushall, finding there thousands of pounds’ worth of stolen
+goods, and taking among other prisoners William Hopkins, of Oakeswell
+Hall, Wednesbury.  It was then Captain Tuthill became commander of the
+garrison.
+
+In the same month the Stafford Parliamentarian Committee ordered the
+seizure of all the horses and cattle belonging to that staunch Royalist,
+Squire Lane, and of all the other cavalier landowners around Bentley.
+The seizure was duly made, and realised by sale at Birmingham.  As a
+set-off to this it must be recounted that at the beginning of the year
+Colonel Lane had fallen upon a Parliamentary escort convoying stores and
+provisions to Stafford, routed the enemy, and taken no less than sixty
+horses, fifty-five of their packs containing ammunition.  Hence, the
+reprisal at this first opportunity.
+
+In the September of the year (1644) a remarkable episode occurred.  The
+governor of Dudley Castle, Sir Thomas Leveson, employed one of his trusty
+tenants, a yeoman named Francis Pitt, of Wednesfield, to make a secret
+attempt to bribe Captain Tuthill to betray Rushall and its garrison into
+his hands.  A number of letters passed between Leveson and Tuthill, for
+the latter pretended from the outset to fall in with the treacherous
+proposal, with the object of recovering some prisoners; which having
+accomplished, he seized Pitt, the go-between, and delivered him up to the
+Parliament.
+
+Colonel Leveson, unconscious of this treachery, came according to
+arrangement to Rushall, but instead of finding an easy entrance, had two
+“drakes,” or small cannons, fired upon him, killing a number of his
+troops.  The letters of Leveson and Tuthill will be found printed in full
+in Willmore’s “History of Walsall.”  The unfortunate messenger, Francis
+Pitt, was tried in London by “Court Martial,” and hanged at Smithfield on
+October 12th.  It transpired at the trial that he was selected by Colonel
+Leveson because he held a farm of him for life, was familiar with Rushall
+Hall, and had told him he had to go there to pay his war contributions,
+and sometimes to redeem his neighbours’ cattle.  On the one side Captain
+Tuthill had promised him £100 of the £2,000 bribe by which it was
+proposed to seduce him, and on the other his landlord had offered to
+remit seven years of his rent.  Such is the fortune of war, however, the
+poor wretch, instead of reward, met with an ignominious death at the age
+of 65, after a life of honest toil.
+
+In 1645 Prince Rupert had his headquarters in Wolverhampton, while the
+King lay two miles to the north of the town, where tradition says he
+watched a skirmish with the enemy from Bushbury Hill.  When Charles I.
+fled before Cromwell at Naseby on June 14th of that year he passed
+through Lichfield and entered Wolverhampton.  After sleeping the night,
+either at the Old Hall, Robert Levenson’s residence, or at a house in Old
+Lichfield Street, the unfortunately King passed on the next morning
+towards Bewdley.
+
+Some interesting local information during this war time is to be derived
+from the literary remains of an officer in the King’s Army, one Captain
+Symmonds, who amused himself on his marches by taking heraldic notes, and
+noticing monumental inscriptions.  An entry in his Diary thus alludes to
+the foregoing facts:—
+
+                                                     Friday, May 16, 1645.
+
+    The rendezvous was near the King’s quarters.  Began after 4 o’clock
+    in the morning here.  One soldier was hanged for mutiny.
+
+    The prince’s headquarters was at Wolverhampton.  A handsome towne.
+    One faire church in it.
+
+    The King lay at Bisbury.  A private sweet village where Squire
+    Grosvenor (as they call him) lives.  Which name hath continued here
+    120 years.  Before him lived Bisbury of Bisbury.
+
+Our military diarist next writes:—
+
+    Satterday, May 17, 1645.—His Majestie marched from here to Tong—
+
+and goes on to enumerate the garrisons in Staffordshire at that date,
+distinguishing by initials which were “Rebel” and which were the
+“King’s”; among them:—
+
+    K.  Lichfield.—Colonel Bagott, governor.
+
+    R.  Russell hall.—A taylor governor.
+
+    R.  Mr. Gifford’s house at Chillington, three miles from
+    Wolverhampton.  Now slighted by themselves.
+
+    K.  Dudley Castle.—Colonel Leveson, whose estate and habitation is at
+    Wolverhampton, is governor.
+
+“Slighted” signifies dismantled of its fortification; the allusion to “a
+tailor” being military governor of Rushall is, of course, a cavalier’s
+sneer at the Republican soldiery.
+
+Coming now to the end of the war, when Charles II. was defeated at
+Worcester in 1651, the country round Willenhall became the scene of that
+fugitive monarch’s most romantic wanderings.  Flying from the battlefield
+at the close of that fatal September day, Charles made his way through
+Stourbridge to Whiteladies and Boscobel.  Then occurred the episode of
+his hiding in the “Royal Oak,” and his concealment inside the house, in
+the “priests’ hole” at the top of the stairs, by Mrs. Penderel.
+
+Fearing discovery, the King was escorted by the brothers Penderel to
+Moseley Hall, near Bushbury, a timber-framed mansion in the picturesque
+Elizabethan style, the home of the Whitgreates, where the hunted monarch
+was welcomed and immediately refreshed with some biscuits and a bottle of
+sack.  Charles had scarcely departed from Boscobel ere a troop of
+Roundheads arrived to search it.  And another narrow escape now occurred
+at Moseley, where again a cunningly contrived hiding place was brought
+into requisition.  Even after the frustration of the search party, one
+Southall, a notorious “priest catcher,” called at the suspected house.
+
+Prudence dictated another secret flight, and taking advantage of a dark
+night the unhappy King was taken by Colonel Lane to his own house, and
+was next hidden at Bentley Hall.
+
+The story of the escape of Charles II. from Bentley towards the
+continent, disguised as a groom and riding in front of Jane Lane’s
+pillion, is too well known to need re-telling here.  The episode is
+historic; it is the subject of a fresco painted on the walls of a
+corridor in the gilded chambers of Parliament.
+
+The whole romance of Boscobel and Bentley is told with considerable
+fulness in Shaw’s “Staffordshire” (I., pp. 73–84), and is accompanied by
+very interesting engravings of Boscobel, Moseley Hall, and Old Bentley.
+
+As a result of the Revolution of 1688, and with the death of Queen Anne
+in 1714, the impracticable Stuarts disappeared for good from the English
+throne; but as adherents to their discredited cause, known as Jacobites,
+still remained numerous, it may be guessed they were not lacking in and
+around Willenhall.
+
+After the Hanoverian Succession there were, in fact, a number of avowed
+Jacobites in this vicinity, who refused to take the oath of allegiance to
+George I.  Their names and behaviour were kept strictly under notice by
+the Government, but for fear of driving them to extremes no active
+measures were taken against them or their estates.  A list of these
+non-jurors and Roman Catholics was compiled after the rebellion of 1715,
+and again in 1745, when the rebellion of the Young Pretender once more
+disturbed the Kingdom.  A list of these suspects was published on each
+occasion by the Government, with the amount of penalties incurred (but
+not exacted) against each name.  In these lists appeared the following
+names:—
+
+                                                   £       s.       d.
+Charles Smith, of Bushbury, Esq.                  67        0        0
+Anne Kempson, of Estington, widow                 11        0        0
+Ursula Kempson, of Wolverhampton, widow           39        0        0
+John Kempson, of Great Sardon                     41        0        0
+William Ward, ditto                                9        2        6
+Mary Leveson, of Willenhall, in                   31       10        0
+Wolverhampton
+John Leveson, ditto                               50       17        6
+John Brandon, of Prestwood, yeoman                12        5        6
+Thomas Giffard, of Chillington, Esq.            2100        6       6½
+Elizabeth Giffard, of Wolverhampton,              58       19        0
+spinster
+Thomas Whitgreaves, of Moseley, Esq.              73        2        6
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XIV.—Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend (1615–1702).
+
+
+The Prebend had little to do with Willenhall, except in name.  However,
+as the name of Willenhall was attached to this particular “canonical
+portion” in the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, and more especially
+as the Levesons are connected with its later history, reference to it
+cannot well be omitted.
+
+The Leveson family had been dealing with Wolverhampton church property
+for centuries, and in the Stuart period were lessees of the greater part
+of it at a nominal rent of £38 per annum.  Their standing in the county
+may be gauged by this entry which the Heralds made concerning the family
+at “Visitation” 1538:—
+
+    Richard Leveson of Willenhall was living in 27 Edward I.  He married
+    Margereye, daughter of Henry Fitz Clemente of Wolverhampton.
+
+By an indenture of the year 1613 the Dean and Chapter of Wolverhampton
+leased the deanery, prebends, and manor of Wolverhampton to Sir Walter
+Leveson, and all the lands belonging thereto in various parts of
+Staffordshire and Worcestershire, including those at Willenhall,
+Wednesfield, Bentley, &c., with all the mines of sea coal, ironstone,
+&c., on the said premises, but specially excepting the patronage and
+gifts of prebends, canonship, and all their offices and ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction; all at an annual reserved rent of £38, and the quaint
+old-world tenure of having “to entertain the Dean and his retinue two
+days and three nights in each year.”
+
+The validity of these leases was questioned a few years later in the 13th
+year of James I., the lessee having refused to pay the reserved rents
+without considerable deductions; and a bill was filed in Chancery by
+Joseph Hall, D.D., prebendary of Willenhall, and Christopher Cragg,
+prebendary of Hatherton (probably on the advice of the newly installed
+Dean, Dr. Anthony Maxey), against the aforesaid, Sir Walter Leveson, who
+was then in possession of the property belonging to their two prebends,
+as well as other possessions belonging to the College of Wolverhampton.
+
+Although the case was decided against Sir Walter Leveson, the
+prebendaries reaped little or no benefit; for Sir Walter died immediately
+after, leaving his heir a minor, and a ward of the King.  During the
+wardship the King attempted to settle the questions and controversies
+which had arisen when he made the appointment of a new Dean.
+
+It must be borne in mind that the Deans of Wolverhampton were also Deans
+of Windsor; and Dr. Maxey dying about 1618, there followed a somewhat
+quick succession of Deans.  These were Matthew Wren (1628), protege of
+Laud, and successively Bishop of Hereford, of Norwich, and of Ely;
+Christopher Wren, his brother (1634), father of the famous architect of
+the same name; Dr. Bruno Ryes (1660); and Dr. Brideoak, who became Bishop
+of Chichester in 1675.
+
+The wardship of young Leveson lasted 16 years, and when he came of age
+the prebendaries were glad to come to a composition with him.
+
+By this composition he agreed to pay them £30 per annum each, in full
+satisfaction of the several tithes and other profits belonging in right
+to their respective prebends; this being over and above the said reserved
+rents which had been previously paid.  Arrangements were made at the same
+time with the rest of the prebendaries respecting the several proportions
+of the tithe belonging to them.
+
+About this time the Dean and Prebendaries successfully resisted an
+attempt of the Archbishop of Canterbury to hold a visitation within the
+“peculiar”—the church’s jurisdiction within itself.
+
+After the Civil War the Prebendaries found that they had suffered
+considerable losses by the acts of their predecessors; so it was
+determined by Thomas Wren, LL.D. (son of the aforementioned Rev. Matthew
+Wren, Bishop of Ely, whose literary remains include “A Brief History of
+the Parish and Jurisdiction of Wolverhampton, from the Time of King
+Edgar”) prebendary of Willenhall, and Cæsar Callendine, B.D., prebendary
+of Hatherton, to file a bill in Chancery against Robert Leveson for a
+discovery of the lands he held which anciently belonged to the
+prebendaries of Wolverhampton, and that he might show by what title he
+held them.
+
+The hearing was before the great Lord Chancellor of that day, Lord
+Clarendon, who dismissed the bill, though without costs.
+
+The Leveson family consequently continued in the undisturbed enjoyment of
+the church property, granted to them in fee farm by six prebendaries, as
+well as of divers other freehold estates in the parish of Wolverhampton.
+
+The Leveson property in Wolverhampton became much implicated in the
+numerous family settlements till, in 1702, Frances, Earl of Bradford,
+purchased it of Robert Leveson for £22,000.  Lord Bradford also acquired,
+three years later, the estate of the Dean and Prebends of Wolverhampton
+which had been leased to the Earl of Windsor; so that the entire property
+of the Collegiate Church (except the prebendal houses and some property
+which had been set aside for the use of the Sacrist), passed into the
+hands of one and the same proprietor.
+
+In the same year, however, the Dean, Prebendaries, and Sacrist filed a
+bill in Chancery against Leveson and the Earl for the recovery of the
+property.  The plaintiffs were Gregory Hascard, D.D., dean; Prebendaries
+John Hinton (Willenhall), Richard Redding (Kinvaston), Thomas Allestree
+(Hilton), John Plimley (Fetherstone), John Hilman (Hatherton), Richard
+Ames (Monmore), Walter Ashley (Wobaston), and Henry Wood, sacrist.
+
+They contended they were all clerks, constituted one entire body, and
+rector or parson incorporate, of the whole parish of Wolverhampton, which
+was of very great extent, consisting of 16 or 17 hamlets or villages
+besides the large town of Wolverhampton, being in circuit about thirty
+miles, in three of which said hamlets there were chapels of ease, the
+several cures thereof belonging to the said College or Free Chapel Royal.
+
+In all this litigation it was a question much agitated whether, as all
+the prebendaries with the Dean and the Sacrist constituted one entire
+body, any single prebendary could demise his annual portion of the said
+general tithes without the consent of the whole body.
+
+The defendant Leveson was accused of having contrived secret conveyances
+of many parcels of the said tithes and lands for the benefit of his own
+family, some of the properties having been sold for large sums of money,
+and the church revenues defrauded thereby.  Also that he had so altered
+and confounded the buildings, fences, and boundaries of the church lands,
+and so mixed them up with his own inherited lands, that it had become
+impossible to discern or distinguish which were the original possessions
+of the College; possessions which at the Domesday Survey had extended to
+3,000 acres, besides the lordship of Lutley, near Halesowen.
+
+Dr. Oliver states that in his time (1836) there remained some “houses and
+lands now belonging to the prebendaries and Sacrist, which are leased out
+for lives.”
+
+The “corpses” of the six prebends are supposed to have consisted of the
+tithes of their respective districts in Willenhall, Hilton, Hatherton,
+Fetherston, Monmore, and Wobaston.
+
+The Rev. Richard Ames, Curate of Bilston for 46 years (1684–1730), makes
+the following record:—
+
+    1723, December 9th.—The Reverd. Mr. Wm. Craddock, Rector of
+    Donnington (Salop), was installed Prebendary of Willenhall, he having
+    resigned that of Hatherston.  The mandate for his installmt. was
+    directed to me (ye Senior Prebendary) by ye Rt. Hon’ble George, Lord
+    Willoughby de Broke, Deane of o’r Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton,
+    and of Windsor; I being constituted locum tenens.
+
+    On ye 10th December, 1723, by virtue of an’r mandate to me, directed
+    by ye same Ld. Willoughby de Broke, ye same Mr. Wm. Craddock was by
+    me put in possession of ye Sacrist’s Stall, both which places became
+    vacant by ye death of Mr. Hinton.  He (Mr. Craddock) was also
+    constituted principal official.
+
+In 1836, when Dr. Oliver wrote his history of the church, the Chapter of
+the College consisted of the Hon. Henry Lewis Hobart, D.D. (Dean), the
+Rev. R. Ellison, M.A., prebendary of Willenhall, and the other
+prebendaries (of Kinvaston, Hilton, Featherston, Monmore, Hatherton, and
+Wobaston respectively), and the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., perpetual curate
+and Sacrist (an Act obtained in 1811 by Dean Legge had constituted the
+Sacrist the real incumbent of the church).  The Chapter had it own seal,
+which was of proper ecclesiastical design, and of some antiquity.
+
+On the death of the very Rev. and Hon. H. L. Hobart, D.C.L., &c., in
+1846, the Collegiate establishment of Wolverhampton ceased to exist, and
+its property became vested in the ecclesiastical Commissioners.
+
+Such was the gross abuse of ecclesiastical patronage, the entire income
+of the Collegiate Church (except £100 a year for a curate of very
+indefinite status) had been absorbed in the payment of a Dean of the two
+“peculiars” of Windsor and Wolverhampton, and of some half-dozen
+legendary prebendaries who were for the most part unknown, even by name,
+to the oldest inhabitant of the parish.
+
+With the suppression of the ancient Deanery, the modern township of
+Wolverhampton was divided into thirteen ecclesiastical parishes.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XV.—Willenhall Struggling to be a Free Parish.
+
+
+In the eighteenth century the ecclesiastical history of Willenhall
+reached a critical stage.  Long and bitter were the disputes which arose
+between the mother church of Wolverhampton and the daughter chapelries of
+Willenhall and Bilston; and perhaps the temper of the authorities at the
+former had not been improved by the gradual impoverishment of the
+residentiaries there, the history of which formed the subject of the last
+chapter.
+
+The first cause of the quarrel was found in the fact that these two
+places, having become as populous as towns of ordinary status, were
+without legal burying-grounds.  When land had been provided there seems
+to have been considerable hesitancy on the part of the authorities in
+allowing Willenhall and Bilston these ordinary parochial privileges.  The
+Rev. Richard Ames, of Bilston, has left it on record that on June 9th,
+1726, he waited upon the Bishop of the diocese, while he was holding a
+confirmation at Walsall, when “John Lane, Esqre., of Bentley, mov’d his
+lordship to consecrate Willenhall and Bilston Chapelyards for
+burial-places, wch. his lordship seemed inclinable to do.”
+
+The history of the conflict goes back to 1709, when Dr. Manningham, on
+becoming Dean, convened a Chapter at Oxford which was attended by all the
+Prebendaries and the Sacrist.  This meeting was specially called to
+consider the case of the inhabitants of Willenhall and Bilston, who had
+represented to the Dean the great inconveniences which arose in having to
+carry their dead from these chapelries for interment at Wolverhampton;
+and humbly praying that their respective chapels and chapelyards should
+be consecrated for the proper burial of the dead.
+
+The prayer was granted, but it was most carefully stipulated that the
+inhabitants of the two chapelries should always pay the customary levies
+to the mother church, and also the fees for burials and for the churching
+of women, to the respective curates of the said chapels, as well as to
+the ministers of the mother church; and that the expenses attending the
+desired consecrations should be paid by the petitioners.
+
+A subsequent Chapter, held 10 October, 1718, confirmed this, when the
+Ministers and Inhabitants of the Chapelries of Bilston and Willenhall
+signed an Agreement to observe and perform the said conditions.  For the
+carrying out of the agreement in business-like form the said Ministers
+covenanted to pay the said fees half-yearly, at Lady-day and Michaelmas,
+transmitting a copy of their respective Registers “without reserve or
+fraud” to be transcribed into the books of the mother church.
+
+The fees to be charged each Chapelry were fixed to a scale: tenpence for
+“ye churching of every woman”; sevenpence for the burial of each body in
+the churchyard, and twice that amount for the burial inside the church:
+and so on.
+
+Subsequently (some 30 years after, when St. John’s Chapel, Wolverhampton,
+was in contemplation) the inhabitants of the Liberties of Willenhall and
+Bilston, notwithstanding the written agreement aforesaid, peremptorily
+and finally refused to pay their respective fees for Christenings,
+Churchings, and Burials to the Sacrist and Curates of Wolverhampton;
+payments whereby the profits of their several offices were lessened more
+than half, and the loss was so considerable it was no longer to be borne.
+
+At Bilston the quarrel of 1753 was practically not settled for nearly a
+century afterwards.  It was ruled that whatever might be arranged in
+respect of fees for other rites no marriages could be legally performed
+in the Chapel except by licence of Wolverhampton, which claimed a
+“Peculiar” jurisdiction; and as the inhabitants indignantly refused to
+pay double marriage fees, no marriage was solemnised in the chapel from
+January, 1754, to February, 1841.
+
+The same year—to be exact, the date was April 12th, 1841—the first
+marriage was solemnised at Willenhall Church, the Bishop having then
+issued a special licence to the Incumbent to marry persons living within
+the township.
+
+Almost concurrently with this dispute there was another source of
+grievance to Willenhall, Bilston, and Pelsall which had to be strenuously
+fought by these outlying places.
+
+This quarrel arose, in the main, through the excessive demands made upon
+the inhabitants of the three chapelries for rates with which to repair
+and maintain the fabric of Wolverhampton Church.  The levies made
+ostensibly for this purpose seem to have been at times somewhat
+exorbitant, and the money to have been spent in meeting charges which can
+only be described as superfluous so far as the non-residential
+contributors were concerned.
+
+About 1738 the chapelwardens of Bilston made a determined stand against
+the churchwardens of Wolverhampton.
+
+A “case was stated” in which it was shown that the Collegiate Church of
+Wolverhampton consisted of a Dean and Prebendaries, founded by a Royal
+Family, and was subject to no visitation but that of the Crown.  It
+contained three Chapels—one at Bilston, another at Willenhall, and a
+third at Pelsall.
+
+The statement proceeded:—“Every Hamlet and Village in the Ecclesiastical
+Parish of Wolverhampton has a Constable and all other parochial officers,
+and maintains its own poor as it were a separate parish. . . .”
+
+“The Chapelries of Willenhall and Bilston nominate and maintain each its
+own Clergy, and repair their own Chapels, which have been endowed time
+out of mind, and were consecrated about thirteen years ago for burying
+places.”
+
+Other points of complaint put forward were that the two chapels afforded
+every facility to the inhabitants of the respective places for divine
+worship and the administration of the sacraments; that formerly Bilston
+and Willenhall each paid only £4 a year to the mother church, but that
+since 1716 increasing demands had been made till as much as £56 was asked
+for; and that all which these chapelries received in return were the
+bread and wine used in the sacrament, four times a year, and for which
+they paid £4 per annum, the chapelwardens being allowed 3d. in the £ at
+Boston and 4d. in the £ at Willenhall for collecting it.
+
+It was also complained that all the rest of the villages had been forced
+“to contribute in like proportion with these two towns,” and that these
+levies on the out-hamlets had been made for additions to, or improvements
+of, Wolverhampton Church, which were quite superfluous in their
+character, if not absolutely illegal.
+
+On this opinion (of a learned Sergeant-at-Law) the inhabitants of
+Willenhall were invited to join with those of Bilston in a common defence
+for their mutual benefit.  On the advice of the esteemed Dr. Wilkes, a
+well-known local Antiquary, who was then the leading public man of
+Willenhall, the invitation was declined.
+
+Litigation proceeded for several years both in the ecclesiastical courts
+and in chancery, but without any definite decision being arrived at.
+
+In 1754 the Earl of Stamford tried to induce both parties to submit a
+case fairly drawn up (for the legal work in the preparation of which he
+generously offered to pay all the costs) and to abide by the decision.
+The people of Willenhall, through Dr. Wilkes, thanked his lordship for
+his friendly offer, and declared their willingness to accept it.
+
+The Wolverhampton officials, however, rejected the proposal, in the hope
+they would win their case in the ecclesiastical courts.  When the case
+eventually came to trial in 1755 an old parish book was produced, which
+showed that the exorbitant demands of Wolverhampton were distinctly
+illegal.  In it was an entry of 1668, which ran in this wise:—
+
+    “This is the portion of Rates each Chapelry and Prebend shall pay
+    towards the repairs of the Mother Church:—
+
+                        £       s.       d.
+Wolverhampton          36        0        0
+Bilston                12        0        0
+Wylnale                12        0        0
+Wednesflde             12        0        0
+Hatherton               3        0        0
+Featherstone            1        4        0
+Kinvaston               1        1        0
+Hilton                  1        7        0
+Pelsall                 2        2        0
+Bentley                 1       10        0
+Stretton rent           1        6        8
+                       83       10        8
+
+A writ of prohibition was forthwith filed to stay all further proceedings
+in the Spiritual Courts; and the law costs of the trial, amounting to
+£282 1s. 8d., were divided equally between Bilston and Willenhall (1756).
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XVI.—Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall (1690–1760).
+
+
+Willenhall’s most illustrous son was Dr. Richard Wilkes, Antiquary, whose
+house still stands on the Walsall Road.  He came of good family of county
+rank, and his personal character raised him to the eminence of a
+notability in Staffordshire.  His portrait appears in Shaw’s history of
+this county of which his (Wilkes’) valuable and voluminous MSS. formed
+the nucleus.  Though settled in this locality, adding to their little
+patrimony from time to time for 300 or 400 years, the family came
+originally from Hertfordshire.
+
+The pedigree of Wilkes, according to the Heralds’ Visitation in 1614,
+commences with John Wylkys de Darlaston, who was witness to a Deed of
+Roger, Lord of Darlaston, in the time of Edward III. (1331).  There is a
+Richard Wylkys, of Willenhall, who witnessed a Bentley Deed in 1413.  To
+this Richard and his wife Juliana, daughter and heir of William Wilkes, a
+grant of lands in Bentley was made by Humphrey, Earl of Stafford.  The
+son of this couple was William Wilkes of Willnall (1505).  Protonotary of
+the Court of Common Pleas, 15 Henry VIII.  The family tree is very
+complete in Shaw.
+
+One John Wilkes married a widow Parkhouse, _nee_ Margery Garbet, of
+Nether Penn; another John, his nephew, was Rector of Lum, and evidently a
+Puritan, as his two sons bear the striking biblical names, Ephraim and
+Manasses.  Richard seems to have been the favourite name for the eldest
+son.  One Richard married Mercy Drakeford, of Stafford (see Salt. Vol.
+VIII.); his son, also named Richard, became the father of our Willenhall
+worthy, whose mother was Lucretia, youngest daughter of Jonas Astley, of
+Wood Eaton, in this county.
+
+Richard Wilkes, M.D., was born in March, 1690, and had his school
+education at Trentham.  In his 19th year he was entered at St. John’s
+College, Cambridge, and was admitted scholar 1710.  In April, 1711, he
+began to attend Mr. Saunderson’s mathematical lectures, and became very
+proficient in algebra.  In January, 1713, he took his B.A degree; three
+years later he was chosen Fellow, and in 1718 he was appointed Linacre
+Lecturer.
+
+It does not appear when or where he took his degrees in medicine.  He
+seems to have taken pupils and taught mathematics in college from the
+year 1715 till he left it, and to have been engaged thus early in
+literary matters, particularly in the collection of material for
+subsequent use.  It was by his literary labours, particularly in
+antiquarian research, that he made himself a name.
+
+He presently took deacon’s orders, and once preached in the parish church
+of Wolverhampton.  He also preached several times at Stow, near Chartley.
+However, disappointment in the expectation of preferment in the Church
+soon disgusted him with the ministry, and in 1720 he began to practise
+physic, for which he seemed to have a natural talent, at Wolverhampton.
+In 1725 he married Rachel Manlove, of Abbots Bromley, with whom he had a
+handsome fortune, and from that time he dwelt with his father (who died
+in 1730) at Willenhall.
+
+About this time he wrote an excellent treatise on Dropsy; and later, when
+a dreadful disease raged among the horned cattle of the Midlands, he
+published a very useful and practical “Letter to Breeders and Graziers in
+the County of Stafford,” and made every effort to assist in stamping out
+the plague.  Possibly while at Chartley he had made a study of the herd
+of wild cattle preserved there.
+
+His skill as a physician was very considerable, and seems to have been
+applied chiefly to the gratuitous relief of his poorer neighbours.  He
+led an exemplary life, being an early riser, and an indefatigable reader,
+constantly adding to the rich stores of his well-stocked mind.
+
+As previously mentioned, he spent several years of industry in collecting
+historical manuscripts, and making antiquarian notes relating to his
+native county, of which the Rev. Stebbing Shaw afterwards made such good
+use.
+
+For instance, Dr. Wilkes’ account of Roman roads, camps, and other
+remains of antiquity is a fairly exhaustive one for a county history, and
+shows a considerable depth of research.  It is embodied in the
+“Introduction” and the “General History” at the commencement of Shaw’s
+compendious work.
+
+Like Pepys, he kept a Diary, which was never intended for publication—he
+was a diligent recorder of historical facts.  Here is an interesting note
+from it:—
+
+    “The first steam engine that ever raised any quantity of water was
+    erected near Wolverhampton, on the right-hand side of the road
+    leading to Walsall, over against the half-mile stone.”  (This was on
+    the site of the Chillington ironworks.)
+
+The Diarist was too modest to add that the Waterworks which long supplied
+Wolverhampton with water were the property of Dr. Wilkes.
+
+Among other projected literary works was a new edition of Hudibras, with
+notes, &c.  In the beginning of the year 1747, having a severe fit of
+illness which confined him to the house, he amused himself with writing
+his own epitaph, which he calls “A picture drawn from the life without
+heightening.”  It is as follows:—
+
+    Here, reader, stand awhile, and know
+    Whose carcase ’tis that rots below;
+    A man’s, who walk’d by Reason’s rule
+    Yet sometimes err’d and play’d the fool;
+    A man’s sincere in all his ways,
+    And full of the Creator’s praise,
+    Who laughed at priestcraft, pride and strife,
+    And all the little tricks of life.
+    He lov’d his king, his country more,
+    And dreadful party-rage forbore:
+    He told nobility the truth
+    And winked at hasty slips of youth.
+    The honest poor man’s steady friend.
+    The villain’s sconce in hopes to mend.
+    His father, mother, children, wife,
+    His riches, honour, length of life,
+    Concern not thee.  Observe what’s here—
+    He rests in hope and not in fear.
+
+His wife dying in May, 1756, he married for the second time in October
+the same year Mrs. Frances Bendish (sister to the Rev. Sir Richard
+Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, Bart.), who long survived him, dying December
+24, 1798, at Froxfield, near Petersfield, in Hampshire, at a very
+advanced age.
+
+The learned doctor himself died March 6, 1760, with a return of the gout
+in his stomach, and his death was universally lamented by his tenants,
+who lost an indulgent landlord; by his servants, who lost a good master;
+but more by numbers of poor in the populous villages adjacent and at a
+distance, in grateful remembrance of the charitable advice and friendly
+assistance they had always enjoyed at his kindly hands.  A somewhat
+eulogistic entry of his death appears in the Bilston Registers.
+
+As Dr. Wilkes left no issue, his property passed to the Unett family, the
+representatives of his aunt Anne who had married George Unett, of
+Wolverhampton.
+
+He was buried at Willenhall in his native soil, where a neat monument was
+erected to his memory near the family pew, by his heirs, Captain Richard
+Wilkes Unett, and Mr. John Wilkes Unett; the tablet was thus inscribed:—
+
+                               “Near this place
+                               Lie the remains
+                                      of
+                             RICHARD WILKES, M.D.
+
+    Formerly fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge; the last of an
+    ancient and respectable family resident at this place 300 years and
+    upwards.  He married first, Rachel, eldest daughter of Rowland
+    Manlove, of Lees Hill, in this county, esq.; secondly, Frances,
+    daughter of Sir John, and sister
+
+                                 of the late
+                  Sir Richard Wrottesly, of Wrottesly, Bart.
+                      and widow of Higham Bendish, Esq.
+                            He died March 6, 1760,
+                                aged 70 years.
+
+    [Underneath is the following escutcheon:—
+
+    (Wilkes) Paly of eight Or and Gules; on a chief Argent, three
+    lozenges of the second: impaling, 1.  (Manlove) Azure, a chevron
+    Ermine, between three anchors Argent; 2.  (Wrottesley) Or, three
+    piles Sa. a canton Ermine]
+
+    “The children of the late Rev. Thomas Unett, of Stafford, his
+    heirs-at-law, placed this monument an. 1800.”
+
+On the floor of the Lane Chapel in Wolverhampton Church will be found
+stones to the memory of the Wilkes family, “seated at Willenhall from the
+reign of Edward IV.”; there is also a blue slab to the memory of Mary
+Unett, who died in 1767.
+
+The old house of Dr. Wilkes, a good specimen of its type of architecture,
+stands back from the main road behind iron palisading.  Part of it has
+been utilised as a stamper’s warehouse; had it received the respect due
+to its associations, it might flittingly have been a town Museum, or some
+such public institution.  It was built by the Doctor’s father, and the
+Doctor was born there.
+
+The house has a white stuccoed front, irregularly disposed, the
+semi-porticoed doorway with classic columns having three windows on its
+left and two on its right, although the shorter side seems to have been
+lengthened at a later period by a red brick wing.  Along the line of the
+first floor are six windows, whose lights in the Annean period, to which
+the building belongs, were doubtless of small leaded panes.
+
+From the tiled roof project three dormers, the centre one having a
+semi-circular head, the outer ones pointed.  The chimneys stand out from
+each gable end, and in the brickwork of each of their sides is a plain
+recessed panel; the chimney-heads being noticeable for the absence of the
+usual projecting courses.  Local tradition says that Hall street was once
+a stately avenue of trees by which this residence was approached from
+Lichfield Street.
+
+On entering the house, the visitor feels a pang of regret that the
+venerable building should ever have been degraded to the purposes of
+commerce; particularly as the fabric retains many of its characteristics,
+thanks to the soundness of the workmanship of two centuries ago.  The
+decorations in the form of plaster mouldings that cover the beams, and
+the medallion or panel pictures, being partly historical and partly
+classical, all exhibit the Renaissance feeling of the early eighteenth
+century.
+
+The ceilings of two lower rooms are in a splendid state of preservation,
+and contain excellent work.  One room is square with beams across the
+middle; the ceiling on one side of the beam representing “The Seasons,”
+and on the other side “The Elements.”  The Seasons are severally depicted
+as follows:—A young face, with the hair of the head bedecked with
+flowers, for “Spring”; a face in the bloom of womanhood, with the hair
+bedecked with corn, represents “Summer”; a well-matured face, having the
+hair bedecked with fruit, “Autumn’”; while a pleasing aged face, the brow
+bedecked with holly, stands for “Winter.”  Painted on the wall over the
+fireplace is the Castle of St. Angelo, and the bridge crossing the Tiber
+at Rome.  The Elements, (so called by the old alchemists) are also
+figuratively, represented by four heads; one bearing a castle, with three
+towers and other buildings in the background (Earth); one surmounted by
+an eagle with outspread wings (Air); the next with tongues of fire
+issuant (Fire); and the other spouting forth a fountain (Water).
+
+The other room is oblong, with beams across dividing its ceiling into
+four parts.  In these parts there are four well-drawn figures, one
+believed to be Bacon, with beard, moustache, whiskers, and in Elizabethan
+costume; two close cropped heads, carried on noble necks, believed to be
+respectively Julius Cæsar and Mark Antony; and the fourth is said to be
+Homer, with the customary curly hair and beard, but showing a collar of
+some sort, and apparently wearing a skull cap.  Over the mantel, painted
+on canvas, is the Coliseum, showing the Arch of Titus and a pool in the
+foreground.
+
+In the main room upstairs is still to be seen the portrait of Dr. Wilkes,
+painted on canvas, over the mantelpiece.  He is depicted as a clean
+shaven man with benevolent face, bluish or blue-grey eyes, a good
+forehead, nose, mouth and chin well-defined, and wearing a wig.  His
+costume includes a high-cut waistcoat, bearing ten buttons, opened in
+front nearly all the way down to show cravat and frilled shirt, the
+cravat having a buckle—probably jewelled in front.  The outer coat is
+without a collar, cut a little lower than the waistcoat, sloping from
+above outwards, showing eight buttons, and apparently of greenish-brown
+velvet.
+
+The pool which formerly ornamented the garden had disappeared; but the
+boathouse is still there, and the room above it in which the Doctor used
+to keep his Antiquarian Collection and other artistic treasures.  As to
+the lawns, shrubberies, gardens, orchards, and pleasaunces, there is
+scarcely a remnant left.
+
+Of the once sweet and pellucid stream, spanned by an ornamental bridge,
+which conducted the rambler to the pleasant meads beyond, nothing remains
+but the name, “Willenhall Brook”—it is now little better than a dirty
+open sewer.
+
+It may not be generally known that a passing allusion is made to Wilkes
+in Boswell’s “Life of Johnson.”
+
+In the IV. chapter of Vol.  I. of this monumental biography we read that
+in 1740 Dr. Johnson wrote “an epitaph on Phillips, a musician, which was
+afterwards published with some other pieces of his, in ‘Mrs. Williams’s
+Miscellanies.’  This epitaph is so exquisitely beautiful, that I remember
+even Lord Kaines, strangely prejudiced as he was against Dr. Johnson, was
+compelled to allow it very high praise.  It has been ascribed to Mr.
+Garrick from its appearing at first with the signature G; but I have
+heard Mr. Garrick declare it was written by Dr. Johnson, and give the
+following account of the manner in which it was composed.  Johnson and he
+were sitting together, when amongst other things Garrick repeated an
+epitaph upon this Phillips, by a Dr. Wilkes, in these words:—
+
+    Exalted soul! whose harmony could please
+    The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
+    Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move
+    To beauteous order and harmonious love;
+    Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise
+    And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies.
+
+“Johnson shook his head at the common-place funeral lines, and said to
+Garrick, ‘I think, Davy, I can make better.’”
+
+The great biographer goes on to state that Johnson, after stirring about
+his tea and meditating a little while, produced these lines:—
+
+    Exalted soul! thy various sounds could please
+    The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
+    Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move
+    To beauteous order and harmonious love.
+    Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
+    And join thy Saviour’s concert in the skies.
+
+Suffice it to add that the personage who inspired the lines was an
+eccentric genius named Claudius Phillips {88}, on whose memorial tablet
+in the porch of Wolverhampton Church were engraved the said lines,
+attributed to Dr. Wilkes, who strangely enough is described as “of
+Trinity College, Oxford and Rector of Pitchford, Salop”—a clergyman whose
+name was John, and who lived a century previously.  We are further
+informed that our Willenhall worthy is spoken of by Browne Willis in the
+“History of Mitred Abbies,” Vol. II. p. 189—Browne Willis being one of
+the most notable antiquarians of that period, and an eccentric individual
+withal.
+
+All this points to the fact that Dr. Richard Wilkes was well known as a
+writer, and acknowledged as an authority.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XVII.—Willenhall “Spaw.”
+
+
+It is difficult to imagine Willenhall as a health resort; yet it was no
+fault of Dr. Richard Wilkes that his native spot did not become a
+fashionable inland watering place.
+
+It should be explained that during the eighteenth century there was
+almost a mania to discover and exploit wells and springs, and to regard
+them as fountains of health to which the fashionable and the well-to-do
+might be attracted.  Before the newer fashion of sea bathing was
+introduced—which was early in the next century—there was a great number
+of these newly-invented places of inland resort.  For instance, Dudley
+had its charming Spa on Pensnett Chace; and to show that Wolverhampton
+was not behindhand, we take the liberty of quoting from the MSS. of Dr.
+Wilkes:
+
+    “A medical spring has lately been discovered at Chapel Ash, in the
+    south-west part of this town, which purges moderately and without the
+    least uneasiness.  A brown ocre, or absorbent earth, remains after
+    evaporation, mixt with salt and sulphur; so that it seems to promise
+    relief in all kinds of disorders proceeding from costiveness, and
+    alcaline, fiery, and acid humours in the stomach and bowels, attended
+    by a flow of feverish heat, eruptions on the skin called scorbutic,
+    headaches, giddiness, flatulency, sour eructations, flying pains
+    called nervous and rheumatic, the hemorrhoids or piles, asthma, and
+    many other disorders which seem incurable by the most powerful
+    medicines.”
+
+Truly the Doctor might have earned a good living nowadays by writing the
+advertisements for modern quack specifics.
+
+Shaw’s description of the Willenhall Spa says that “the spring arises on
+the north side of a brook which runs almost directly from the west to the
+east, and so very near to it that a moderate shower will raise the brook
+as to cover it.  About 200 yards up this brook, on the same side, are
+several springs, one of which was much taken notice of by our ancestors,
+and consecrated to St. Sunday, no common saint.  Over it is the following
+inscription:—
+
+                            Fons occulis morbisque
+                      cutaneis diu celebris, A.D. 1726.”
+
+“Saint Sunday” must have been some local saint; or, more probably, a
+jocular embodiment of the sacredness of this day of the week with its
+peculiarly pagan name, to the cause of idleness, and so dubbed by the
+native wit of Willenhall; anyway, no saint of this name is to be found in
+the authorised Calendar of any church.
+
+One of the Wilkes MSS. utilised by Shaw, and dated 1737, records the
+following experiment worked by the learned doctor with the local mineral
+waters:—
+
+    “I evaporated in a brass furnace 13½ gallons to 3 quarts, then let it
+    stand 3 days to settle, and poured the clear water from the fœces.
+    This was a light smooth insipid earth of a yellow colour, fat between
+    the fingers, insipid and impalpable, which being dried, weighed 93
+    grains.  The remaining 3 quarts I evaporated in a brass kettle and
+    had from it 53 grains of a very salt glutinous substance which dried
+    into a solid mass of a brown colour.  When the water came to a pint
+    or thereabout, it began to smell like glew, and continued to do so
+    when in a solid substance; it was then also as high-coloured as lye;
+    but I am afraid this colour might arise from the brass kettle, in
+    some measure, or too great a fire, being perhaps burnt.”
+
+Another of his scientific records runs:—
+
+    “Oct. 9th.—I put into a Florence flask as much of this water as
+    filled it up to the neck within 5 inches of the top.  This I placed
+    in a sand heat and increased the fire gradually till it boiled; and
+    so I evaporated ad siccitatem.  Some volatile sal stuck to the glass
+    even up to the top; at the bottom was a small quantity of dark
+    coloured matter, like that above, but I could not get together 2
+    grains of either.  Here it is plain this sal is so volatile as to be
+    raised and fly away by heat.”
+
+In another place he writes:—
+
+    “On the 5th of November, 1737, I filled several glasses with this
+    water, and put into them the following simples:—
+
+    1.  Green Tea.  This, in about 24 hours, made it of the colour of
+    sack, and, by standing, it became much deeper coloured, like strong
+    old beer.
+
+    2.  Fustic; not so deep, more like cyder.
+
+    3.  Red Sanders; almost the same colour in the light; but if I held
+    the glass in the shade, it appeared of a blueish green, exactly like
+    some old glass bottles I have formerly seen.
+
+    4.  Alkanet; deeper, like old mountain wine.
+
+    5.  Galls; paler than any of the foregoing.  A large blue scum on the
+    top, such as we see upon urine in fevers, and standing lakes of
+    water, where there are minerals.  With logwood, tormentil, cort,
+    granat, etc., there are some spots of this kind, but with none so
+    much as with galls.
+
+    “A little below the Spaw (continues our authority), on the other side
+    of the brook, they meet with a white clay, full of yellow veins of a
+    deep colour, like gumboge when it has been for some time exposed to
+    the air.  These two they temper together and make into cakes, which
+    they sell to the glovers by the name of ochre cakes, and with them
+    they give a yellow colour to leather.
+
+    “Near the surface of the earth the country is for the most part a
+    strong clay, which makes good brick, but, for a small compass from
+    this Spaw all along the village on the north side of the brook we
+    have sand.  Underground the whole country abounds with coal and
+    ironstone.”
+
+The glovers’ handicraft, it may be mentioned in passing, was once
+strongly represented in olden Darlaston.
+
+The situation of Willenhall is by no means an elevated one, and the whole
+plain in which it is situated formerly abounded in Springs, ere the
+surface had been so much disturbed by mining operations.
+
+On the edge of the valley, under the shadow of Sedgley Beacon, was the
+famous Spring known as the Lady Wulfruna’s, and which gave the place its
+name, Spring Vale; from this spot the silvery stream flowed eastwards
+into Willenhall, seeking the cool shade of the pleasant woodland there.
+
+The stream, as it came in from Bilston, and ran eastwards through
+Willenhall, till it met the Tame, was once called the Hind Brook, or Stag
+River.  In Saxon times the Tame here seems to have been designated
+Beorgita’s Stream; and Mr. G. T. Lawley, in his “History of Bilston,”
+says that the original bed of this brook was discovered in Willenhall
+some years ago when extensive excavations were being made.
+
+So far the scientific aspect of this once famous Well.  The popular view
+of a much frequented mineral spring which had “long been celebrated for
+disease of the eye and skin” opens out an even wider aspect.  As
+previously mentioned, the brook flowing past it ran from west to east; a
+stream so directed was always accounted by the Druids of old as a sacred
+watercourse.  Being thus from the earliest dawn of history within sacred
+precincts, there can be little doubt the Willenhall fountain enjoyed the
+reputation of a “Holy well” for many centuries.  As such it came in for
+the annual custom of “well dressing,” a vestige of the old pagan practice
+of well worship.  Respecting this ancient custom, Dr. Plot, writing in
+1686 in his “Natural History of Staffordshire,” says:—
+
+    “They have a custom in this county, which I observed on Holy Thursday
+    at Brewood and Bilbrook, of adorning their Wells with boughs and
+    flowers; this it seems they do at all gospel places, whether wells,
+    trees, or hills, which being now observed only for decency and
+    custom’s sake, is innocent enough.  Heretofore, too, it was usual to
+    pay their respect to such wells as were eminent for curing distempers
+    (one of which was at Wolverhampton in a narrow lane leading to a
+    house, called Sea-well; another at Willenhall; others at Monmore
+    Green, near Wolverhampton; at Codsall and many other parts of
+    Staffordshire) on the saint’s day whose name the well bore; diverting
+    themselves with cakes and ale, and a little music and dancing; which,
+    whilst within bound, was also an innocent recreation.”
+
+Dr. Oliver says the beautiful spring at Dunstall was the favourite resort
+of the Lady Wulfruna, and from contact with her sanctity acquired a
+reputation for possessing healing virtues of a miraculous character, and
+that this fountain was long known among its devotees as Wulfruna’s Well.
+
+Pitt’s “History of Staffordshire,” issued in 1817, gives a long list of
+local wells bearing at that time some similar repute for their remedial
+waters.  Among them was Codsall Well, near Codsall Wood, supposed in
+olden times to be efficacious in cases of leprosy, and adjacent to which
+once stood a Leper House, replaced at a later period by a “Brimstone
+Ale-house,” so-called because the water was sulphureous.  The waters of
+the Monmore Green Well are described as containing “sulphur combined with
+vitriol.”  The Sea-well Spring still retained its name as a “Spaw” famous
+for its “eye water”; while those of Willenhall and Bentley were said to
+yield a valuable remedial sulphur water so long as they “could be kept
+from mixture with other waters.”
+
+Folklore not only connected these Wells with patron saints, but
+associated their magic precincts and curative effects with beneficent
+fairies.  A well like that of Willenhall, which in a post-renaissance
+period was honoured with a stone frontal bearing a Latin inscription,
+would of a certainty be attended by fairy elves in an earlier and more
+primitive era.
+
+    About this Spring (if ancient fame say true)
+    The dapper elves their midnight sports pursue;
+    Their pigmy king and little fairy queen,
+    In circling dances gambolled on the green,
+    While tuneful sprites a merry concert made
+    And airy music warbled through the shade.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.—The Benefice.
+
+
+Owing to the meagreness of the record, a complete list of the holders of
+the benefice is not to be expected.  Thomas de Trollesbury has been named
+as “the parson of Willenhall” in 1297 (Chapter VII.); while we also have
+the names of three chantry priests here—William in the Lone, 1341
+(Chapter XI.); Thomas Browning, “chaplain of the chantry” in 1397
+(Chapter VII.); and Hugh Bromehall in 1526 (Chapter X.); all of them
+doubtless nominees of the Deanery of Wolverhampton.
+
+Of course, it was possible, though not often the practice, for the holder
+of the living to act as “chaunter” priest as well.  The Chantry
+endowments, as we have seen, were forfeited at the Reformation, at which
+period the benefice was returned as of the annual value of “£10 clear.”
+
+Either of these notorious evil-livers mentioned in Chapter XI., the
+non-preaching “dumb-dogs,” Mounsell and Cooper, may have been the
+occupant of the Willenhall curacy in 1586.  In 1609 an improvement in the
+intellectual status of the holder had been effected, William Padmore,
+D.D., being then incumbent.
+
+In a previous chapter it was shown that the Rev. T. Badland was expelled
+from the living of Willenhall in 1662.  It can now be shown that he was
+holding the benefice at least as early as 1658—and possibly from the
+beginning of the Cromwellian rule and the overthrow of the Episcopacy in
+1646.
+
+About 1645–6 ordinances were passed appointing a Committee to consider
+ways and means of upholding and settling the maintenance of ministers in
+England and Wales.  In 1654 the powers of the Plundered Ministers’
+Committee were transferred to the Trustees for Maintenance.  The
+Committee took the receipts of all Tithes, Fifths, and First Fruits; and
+later on the income of the rectories, bishoprics, deaneries, and
+chapters; they sold the bishops’ lands, &c.
+
+It was out of this income that augmentations and advances were granted by
+the said Committee to ministers and school-masters.  In the Record Office
+at London there is an audited account the Treasurer to the “Trustees for
+the Maintenance of Ministers and other pious uses of moneys,” showing
+among the disbursements for the year ending 26 December, 1658, one to
+
+    “Thomas Badland, of Willenhall (6 months to 1659, March 25) . . .
+    £10.”
+
+In curious contrast with this high-minded clergyman, who sacrificed his
+living to his conscience, is his successor in the Curacy of Willenhall,
+the Rev. Mr. Gilpin, who had to be seriously admonished for non-residence
+and other faults, and was at last, in the year 1674, turned out of the
+living altogether.  Not improbably this gentleman was a pluralist, an
+example of the class of clergymen by which the Church of England was very
+much degraded at that period.
+
+Dr. Oliver’s history printed the following “Dismissal of the Rev. Thomas
+Gilpin,” from the original document found in the possession of Mr. Neve,
+of Wolverhampton, in 1836:—
+
+    We, whose names are subscribed, the undoubted and immediate lords of
+    the Manor of Stow Health, hearing and well weighing the said
+    complaints of the Inhabitants of the towne of Willenhall, lying
+    within our said Manor, made and brought against you, Thomas Gilpin,
+    clerk, Curate of the Chapell there:
+
+    Doe in consideration thereof and in pursuance of an Order made and
+    inrolled on some of the Rolls of the Court of our said Manor, bearing
+    date 11th day of October in the Sixth Year of the Reign of our late
+    Soveraigne, Lord, King James, over England, etc.
+
+    And of our power and authority thereby, Displace and Discharge you,
+    the said Thomas Gilpin, from the place, Dignity, and office of
+    Curate, Minister, or Priest in the said Chapell.
+
+    And do hereby present and allow John Carter, clerk (a person elected
+    and approved by the Inhabitants of Willenhall aforesaid), to be
+    Curate of the said Chapell in your place and stead, to read divine
+    service there; and to do and perform all such other offices and
+    things as shall properly belong to his Ministerial function and
+    calling.
+
+    And thus much you, the said Thomas Gilpin, are hereby desired to take
+    notice of.
+
+    Dated under our hands and seals this 18th day of November in the year
+    of our Lord God, 1674, and in the six-and-twentieth year of the
+    reigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles II., by the grace of God, King
+    of England, etc.
+
+                                                     Walter Giffard.  L.S.
+
+                                                   W. Leveson Gower.  L.S.
+
+After the expulsion of Mr. Gilpin the Rev. John Carter, who was appointed
+to succeed him, continued in the Curacy of Willenhall till his death in
+1722.  In 1727 mention is made of a Mr. Holbrooke being Curate of
+Willenhall.
+
+Soon after the Registers assist in tracing the successive holders of the
+benefice.  Here are three interesting memoranda, for instance, bearing
+the signature of the Rev. Titus Neve:—
+
+    1748, March 4th.—The faculty for rebuilding and enlarging ye chapel
+    of Willenhall, ye then present minister, ye Rev. Titus Neve—(to
+    charge and receive certain fees, etc.)
+
+    1750, January 20.—Then it was yt service began to be performed in ye
+    New Chapel, after almost two years discontinuance, by Titus Neve,
+    Curate.
+
+    1763, February 17th.—Joyce Hill made oath that ye body of Benjamin
+    Stokes was buried in a shroud of Sheep’s Wool only, pursuant to an
+    Act of Parliament in that case made and provided.—Witness my hand,
+
+                                                               Titus Neve.
+
+(This entry has reference to the Act for Burying in Woollen, one of those
+pieces of legislative folly whereby it was sought to bolster up
+artificially our decaying trade in wool.)
+
+The Rev. Titus Neve, whose descendants at the present day are a
+well-known Wolverhampton family, was born at Much Birch in Herefordshire,
+son of the Rev. Thomas Neve, in 1717.  He matriculated at Balliol
+College, Oxford, became Rector of Darlaston, 1764, holding the two
+livings, together with the Prebendary of Hilton his death in 1788.  He
+was buried at Willenhall.
+
+A sermon preached by him in Worcester Cathedral on August 12th, 1762, was
+printed in Birmingham by the celebrated Baskerville (see Simms’
+“Bibliotheca Staffordiensis”).
+
+His successor was the Rev. William Moreton, who, according to an entry in
+the Registers, was “sequestered to the vacant chapelry of Willenhall,
+December 4th, 1788.”  Toward the close of his ministry Mr. Neve appears
+to have had the assistance of Curates—George Lewis signs the Registers as
+“Clerk, Curate” between December, 1778, and July, 1779; and the signature
+of Mr. Moreton in the same capacity begins to appear in 1784.  Among the
+entries of the last-named is a record that in 1786 he paid the “tax” on a
+number of Baptisms and Burials himself, whereas in 1785 he shows that a
+“Collector” received it.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The advent of the Rev. W. Moreton marks an epoch, and we now turn aside
+to consider the peculiar history of the Advowson, or right of
+presentation to the living of Willenhall.  In 1409 it is found in private
+hands, being then the property of William Bushbury and his wife (see
+Chapter VII.).
+
+When the lord of a manor built a church on his own demesne, he often
+appointed the tithes of the manor to be paid to the officiating minister
+there, which before had been given to the clergy in common; the lord who
+thus founded the church often endowed it with glebe, and retained the
+power of nominating the minister (canonically qualified) to officiate
+therein.  But a chapel-of-ease like Willenhall, built by a resident in
+the locality, often had its minister, maintained by the subscriptions of
+persons living close around it, and they naturally claimed to elect their
+own ministers.  The authorities at the mother church would reserve the
+right to approve and confirm, and would see that they suffered no loss of
+fees and other emoluments.
+
+An old book in the Registry at Windsor (without date) contains this
+entry:—
+
+    The curacy of Willenhall is endowed with land to the value of £35.
+    The lords of Stow Heath have, in the last two vacancies, usurped upon
+    the Dean and Chapter, and have nominated to it.
+
+Shaw, the county historian, writing in 1798, after stating that whoever
+holds the Curacy of Willenhall must have a licence from the Dean of
+Wolverhampton, proceeds to say:—
+
+    There has been lately a serious contest between the Marquis of
+    Stafford and the inhabitants about the nomination of a curate.
+
+    The gift of the living (says the same authority), or nomination of
+    the minister or curate, is in the principal inhabitants that have
+    lands of inheritance here.  He is to be approved of by the lords of
+    the manor, and admonished by them when he does amiss; and if he does
+    not amend in half a year, they may turn him out and nominate another.
+
+This practice is believed to have existed in Willenhall since the time of
+James I.
+
+The power of the parishioners to elect their own clergymen, though not
+common, exists in various parts of the country; as at Hayfield and
+Chapel-in-le-Frith, both in Derbyshire; and in this more immediate
+locality at St. John’s Deritend, Birmingham, and at Bilston and Bloxwich,
+nearer still.
+
+In London the only example where the elective principle is employed in
+the choice of a parish priest is presented by Clerkenwell.  But
+wheresoever a vacancy of the kind has to be filled by popular election,
+with all the accessories incidental to the turmoil of Parliamentary
+electioneering, all the bitterness of party strife, the parish is
+inevitably divided into two or more factions; while the clergyman upon
+whom the lot eventually falls must for a long time afterwards be regarded
+as the nominee of one of them, rather than the spiritual director of the
+whole body of the people.  He succeeds to his high office as a victor in
+a great parochial struggle which cannot fail to leave behind it those
+feelings of rancour so harmful in matters sacred.
+
+The only remedy for this state of things seems to be the voluntary
+surrender of their privilege by the parishioners; or the provisions of a
+special Act of Parliament.
+
+As to the soundness of the general principle of a people being consulted
+in the choice of their spiritual pastor, there can scarcely be two
+opinions.  But where the danger lurks in a case like that of Willenhall
+is the assumption of our English law—an assumption quite unwarranted in
+any country where freedom of conscience exists, and with us one of the
+penalties for maintaining an established State Church—that every
+parishioner is a Churchman.
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, votes are recorded at these elections by
+Romanists, by Dissenters of various shades of opinion, by those who are
+unattached to any religious denomination, and by many who never, at other
+times, take a great interest in Church of England affairs.  At the last
+election even trustees of Nonconformist chapels were empowered to vote if
+they were householders, and the trust in respect of which they qualified
+had been constituted by a properly executed deed.  So it can scarcely be
+claimed that the choice of minister rests solely with those most
+concerned, namely, the congregation, the customary worshippers at St.
+Giles’s Church.
+
+Resuming the story of the benefice at the election of 1788, it is said
+that Mr. Moreton having been elected, the then lords of the manor
+declined to present him to the bishop on the ground that they did not
+regard him as a fit and proper person.  Litigation ensued, and the High
+Court of Justice declared the election void, and ordered a new one.
+Meanwhile, the income seems to have sequestrated, probably lying in the
+hands of the churchwardens till the new minister should be properly
+instituted.
+
+The electors for a second time returned Moreton, and the lords of the
+manor then took up the attitude that it was not part of their duty to
+live in litigation, either with the electors or with Moreton; they had
+expressed their opinion of the man in the strongest manner possible, and
+this they considered relieved them from further responsibility; so now at
+the electors’ wish they nominated him to the bishop for induction, and in
+due course he was formally inducted.
+
+The new incumbent of Willenhall was popularly given out to be an
+illegitimate “nephew” of George III.; he bore a strong facial likeness to
+the Royal family, and had been at college with the Duke of York.  But
+whatever his origin or extraction, he was a typical sporting parson of
+the old school, an enthusiastic cock-fighter, and “a three-bottle man.”
+
+It was not long before the old mocking doggerel was applied to
+Willenhall:—
+
+    A tumble-down church—
+       A tottering steeple—
+    A drunken parson—
+       And a wicked people!
+
+That this old rhyme fairly described the condition of things we may
+venture to believe if we can also accept as true the rhyme oft quoted by
+this Willenhall worthy, and which was said to embody his philosophy:—
+
+    Let back and sides and head go bare,
+       Let foot and hand go cold,
+    But God send belly good ale enough,
+       Whether it be new or old.
+
+Of “Parson Moreton” innumerable tales are told, all of them racy, though
+not a few of them apochryphal.  There can be little doubt that in the
+later years of his life he was a bon vivant, and indulged openly in the
+less refined sports of the period, a cockfight above all things having a
+strong fascination for him.
+
+And yet, on the plea that “a merciful man is good to his beast,” he
+indulged his old grey pony, “Bob,” on which he regularly ambled about,
+with a share of every tankard of ale he quaffed on his rounds, till the
+knowing quadruped refused to pass any inn along the road for miles around
+without stopping for refreshment.
+
+Parson Moreton is not to be judged by modern standards.  At that time the
+church was asleep; and Dr. Johnson once declared that he did not know one
+religious clergyman.  Though the Parson of Willenhall became noted
+throughout the countryside for his eccentricities, he managed to labour
+among the rough population, to whom he ministered, with some sort of
+success.
+
+Into all his lapses from the conventionalities of clericalism, he was a
+gentleman at the core, having a dignified bearing and a commanding
+presence.  He candidly admitted his shortcomings as a clergyman, telling
+his flock to do as he said, not as he did.  This naturally failed to
+satisfy very many of them; and it has been asserted that the strength of
+Dissent in Willenhall at the present time is directly due to the
+influence of his incumbency.
+
+Of the Rev W. Moreton, it may at least be said that he was a remarkably
+fine reader, and his sermons were always well-constructed compositions.
+For many years he lived with Mr. Isaac Hartill in the house at the corner
+of the Market Place, opposite the Metropolitan Bank; an old house still
+retaining its original oak floors and staircase, and its substantial
+old-fashioned doors of the same material, although the building is now
+made into two shops.
+
+For nearly fifty years Parson Moreton was a familiar figure in the
+streets of Willenhall.  His last signature in the Registers appears in
+1833, a year previous to which the Rev. George Hutchinson Fisher had come
+into the parish to assist him, taking up his residence in the house next
+to “The Neptune Inn,” now the Police Station.  He died July 16th, 1834,
+and was buried on Sunday the 20th.
+
+When Mr. Fisher came to preach Mr. Moreton’s funeral sermon, the most
+notable feature of the oration was the absence of direct reference to the
+departed.  Towards the close of the sermon, however, the following
+passage was uttered with impressive solemnity:—
+
+    “May every occasion like the present bring instruction and
+    edification to your souls.  May the failings which you have witnessed
+    and lamented in others urge you to examine and correct your own; and
+    when their removal makes you think on the nature of the account they
+    will have to render, may you be awakened to scrutinise your own
+    stewardship; and instead of recording the sins of the departed, seek
+    to be delivered, whilst the Redeemer invites you, from those which
+    are a burden to your consciences.”
+
+Truly a charitable and Christian-like obituary!
+
+
+
+
+XIX.—How a Flock Chose its own Shepherd.
+
+
+The living of St. Giles’s, Willenhall, popularly supposed to be worth
+some fourteen hundred pounds a year, the reversion of it was looked upon
+with eager eyes by not a few of the surrounding clergy.  Between
+Darlaston and Willenhall, particularly, there seems to have existed some
+sort of pretensions to a clerical inter-relationship.
+
+The Rev. Titus Neve, who held the living of Willenhall from about 1748 to
+1788, acted as Curate of Darlaston in 1760, and became Rector of that
+parish in 1764; while his son, the Rev. Charles Neve, was also Curate
+there from 1790 to 1793.  The Willenhall record of his ministry and
+interment runs:—
+
+    The Revd. Titus Neve, Minister, Curate, or Stipendiary Priest of
+    Willenhall Chapelry, Prebendary of Hilton and Sacrist of the
+    Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, and Rector of Darlaston, in the
+    County of Stafford, departed this life December 23rd, 1788, and was
+    interred in the Chancel.
+
+His successor, the Rev. William Moreton, went as Curate to Darlaston in
+1786, and was sequestered to the vacant chapelry of Willenhall, December
+24th, 1788, the day following Mr. Neve’s decease.
+
+At the termination of Mr. Moreton’s tenure, the Rev. George William
+White, who had been a curate at Darlaston from 1823, made a very
+determined bid for the Incumbency of Willenhall; and although, as we
+shall see, he was not successful, he was able to console himself, some
+nine years later, with the rectory of Darlaston (1843).
+
+It appeared that when the Rev. W. Moreton became very old he neglected
+his duties sadly, often keeping funerals and congregations waiting an
+unconscionable time, greatly to the scandal of the whole parish.  In
+consequence of this the Churchwardens induced the Incumbent, two or three
+years before his death, to appoint and pay an energetic young Curate to
+assist him in his parochial ministrations.
+
+The Curate appointed under these circumstances, as already mentioned, was
+the Rev. G. H. Fisher, who speedily became a favourite, and by most
+Willenhall people came to be looked upon as the only possible successor
+to Mr. Moreton.
+
+Long before the advent of Mr. Fisher, however, the Darlaston folk had
+settled in their own minds that their Rector, the Rev. Mr. White, was to
+annex the Willenhall living whenever it become vacant.  Whether they
+looked upon it as being appurtenant to the more important office of their
+own shepherding cannot be determined at this distance of time; but
+certain it is that an intense feeling of rivalry existed between the men
+of Darlaston and the men of Willenhall.  The intensity of the feeling may
+best be judged by a remarkable incident which occurred some five years
+before Mr. Fisher appeared on the scene.
+
+During the earlier months of the year 1827 it would appear that there had
+been, from time to time, incursions and alarms between the two towns, and
+even rioting that involved hand to hand fighting in the streets.  Never
+were such exciting times in these places.  At last the rivalry culminated
+in an act of aggression as daring in execution as it was original in
+conception—the Willenhall men woke up one fine Sunday morning to find
+that the Darlastonians had entered their town in the dead of night and
+stolen the cock from the church steeple!
+
+Now the desperate achievement of this triumph over their enemies had a
+deeper significance than at first meets the eye.  It must be borne in the
+mind that those were the old cockfighting days, when town matched against
+town their gamest birds, and sought the glories of a victory in the
+cock-pit.  As between these two neighbouring parishes in particular,
+there had been much vaunting of birds and challenging to the arbitrament
+of the spur; the Darlaston men would take a game cock into Willenhall,
+hold him up to show him the weathercock on the steeple, and then give
+vent to a roar of defiant laughter when the bird crowed his challenge.
+
+By way of reprisal the men of Willenhall would raid Darlaston, and
+pretend to call the cock from the steeple there by scattering corn in the
+churchyard, in mocking allusion to an old tale of Darlastonian
+simplicity.  No wonder, therefore, that the ridiculed were at last
+exasperated beyond endurance, and that the coup de main of stealing the
+Willenhall cock was not only projected, but carried to its marvellously
+successful issue.
+
+Consternation reigned supreme in Willenhall; it was felt that the pass to
+which matters had been brought by the enormity of this latest aggravation
+by their enemies could only be met by an appeal to the law, which,
+hitherto, both factions had so recklessly set at naught.  So the
+following public notice was promptly issued:—
+
+                              10 GUINEAS REWARD.
+
+    Whereas, early on Sunday morning last, some evil disposed Persons did
+    steal and carry away the
+
+                                 WEATHERCOCK
+                                 from off the
+                                   STEEPLE.
+
+    Any Person giving Information so that the Offenders may be
+    apprehended, shall upon Conviction receive TEN GUINEAS REWARD over
+    and above what is allowed by the Association for the prosecution of
+    Felons.  And as more than one were concerned, if either will impeach
+    his Accomplice or Accomplices, they shall receive the above Reward,
+    and every endeavour used to obtain a free Pardon.
+
+    Willenhall,
+       July 24, 1827.
+
+                                THOMAS HINCKS,
+                              JAMES WHITEHOUSE,
+
+                                                           Chapel Wardens.
+
+                                  * * * * *
+
+                         Bassford, Printer, Bilston.
+
+The Notice proved totally unproductive of results, for no Darlaston man
+was found mean enough to betray the heroes of this daring escapade.
+Therefore, as the trophy of Darlastonian valour could not be recovered,
+and St. Giles’s tower could not be left in all its nakedness without
+being an ever-present reproach to the Willenhallers, a new vane had
+forthwith to be provided for the church.
+
+It was some time after the Willenhall pride had been thus lowered that
+the old weathercock was accidentally found by some miners who were
+re-opening an old coal pit which lay between the rival townships.  Almost
+needless to say, the new vane was instantly fetched down, and the old one
+once more set up to flaunt itself as bravely as of yore in the eyes of
+distant Darlaston.
+
+The good folk of Willenhall, feeling humiliated, did all in their power
+to cover up their shame by burying the episode in oblivion; and to this
+day Willenhall men will deny that the Darlastonians ever came and took
+away their church weathercock.  By way of throwing doubt upon the
+historical accuracy of the incident, they point to the fact that the
+church at that time had no spire; it is known, however, that a vane
+surmounted the church tower, and there is evidence of the Reward Notice,
+the loose wording of which is responsible for the use of the term
+“steeple” to signify a tower.
+
+The authenticity of the said Notice is always open to investigation, for
+a framed copy of it still hangs in the Neptune Inn, preserved as a
+curiosity.  (This copy, probably the only one in existence, bears
+intrinsic evidence of being a genuine document, and is a treasured
+possession of the Baker family, to whom the “Neptune” property belonged,
+the paper having been discovered some fifty years ago in a piece of old
+furniture, by Mr. Phillips, a connection of his family.)
+
+Resuming the history of the benefice, it may be observed that a doubt has
+been raised whether Mr. Moreton had to go through a contested election in
+1788, but there can be no doubt as to an electoral struggle in 1834.  Mr.
+Fisher soon found himself drawn into the vortex of factional strife, for
+he was speedily pounced upon by the home party, and very much against his
+will adopted as their figure-head, if not their champion.
+
+When, on the death of Mr. Moreton, the period of Election came within
+measurable distance, the excitement became more intense; the patriotic
+supporters of Mr. White invading the Willenhall territory day after day.
+Such challenging and fighting, such threatenings and retaliations, surely
+never were known; one faction had no sooner hurled its defiance at the
+other than both incontinently plunged headlong into the melée, and
+rioting once more raged fiercely through the public streets.
+
+Cracked sconces, broken noses, split ears and black eyes resulted by the
+score; to which list of casualties must be added the number of the
+half-drowned who had to be rescued from the canal.  Onslaughts made on
+public-houses and other party headquarters led to a considerable
+destruction of property, which, however, was borne with much complacency
+when it was remembered that the whole Hundred would be called upon to pay
+the bill.
+
+Among the candidates for the Incumbency were the Rev. R. Robinson,
+lecturer at the Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, in recommendation of
+whom Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft wrote a letter, dating it from Chapel House
+in that town, 16 July, 1834; the Rev. John Howells, the Rev. Mr. Rogers,
+the Rev. Mr. Gwyther, and the Rev. Mr. Wenman; but the Rev. George
+Hutchinson Fisher, who had been Curate two and a-half years in the town,
+was recognised as the most formidable competitor.  He was the son of a
+headmaster of Wolverhampton Grammar School, and an M.A. (1834) of Christ
+College, Cambridge.  He received his nomination from Mr. Jeremiah
+Hartill, and there was little doubt of his ability to obtain the
+necessary approval of the lords of the manor and the confirmatory licence
+of the Dean of Wolverhampton.
+
+At that time the Duke of Cleveland was impropriator, but the tithes had
+been leased by his Grace to Messrs. James Whitehouse and Charles Quinton.
+
+As the day of battle approached public feeling ran so high that on the
+eve of the poll, which took place on August 5th and 6th, 1834, the
+Returning Officer deemed it prudent to issue the following Appeal to the
+Inhabitants:—
+
+    It is represented to me, from numerous quarters, that the excitement
+    of the approaching Nomination of a Minister to your Chapel renders it
+    imprudent to take the Poll at the time and place appointed.
+
+    Gentlemen,—I cannot but hope and believe that such fears are
+    unnecessary; and, relying upon your good sense, I have determined not
+    to make any alteration in the present arrangements.
+
+    I have no interest in your choice; it is my duty only to act with
+    impartiality between all parties.
+
+    For that purpose I shall be at your Church at Ten O’clock To-morrow
+    Morning, but unless every person entitled to vote has free and
+    Unmolested Access to the Poll, I shall, of course, be under the
+    NECESSITY of adjourning it.
+
+    I address myself to the friends of Each Candidate Alike, and
+    entreating you to allow the proceedings of the day to take place with
+    that moderation which their object and the sacred place in which we
+    shall meet so particularly require.
+
+    I am, Gentlemen,
+    Your faithful, humble Servant,
+
+                                                         FRANCIS HOLYOAKE.
+
+    Tettenhall, August 4, 1834.
+
+Needless to say, all this rowdyism and disgraceful violence were sternly
+reprobated by Mr. Fisher, whose rabid opponents must have come to realise
+that their cause was a lost one when they waylaid the polling clerk and
+tore his poll-book to shreds.
+
+As to the Magistrates and the Constables, the custodians of the peace
+discreetly pursued a policy of the most masterly inactivity.  Perhaps
+they felt that the resources of their command were totally inadequate to
+cope with an uprising of the dimensions and intensity which presented
+themselves to their consideration; or, maybe, they philosophically
+recognised that these stirring tumults were the inevitable concomitants
+of a parochial struggle of so momentous a character.  Anyway, their
+attitude appears to have been justified when everything settled down
+quietly after the election, the Fisheries tranquilised by victory, and
+the White Boys dejected by defeat.
+
+For the voting resulted easily in favour of Mr. Fisher, though the
+validity of his return was challenged in the Court of Chancery for some
+three years afterwards, during which time, however, he had no hesitation
+in officiating.  He was a fine reader and an able speaker, his delivery
+of the Church ritual being a model of correct elocution.
+
+Like his predecessor, he held the living a long time, the tenure of the
+two covering a century.  Mr. Fisher resided for a number of years at
+Bentley Hall.
+
+In 1887, soon after Mr. Fisher’s “Jubilee” in Willenhall, a public
+movement was instituted, in which many Dissenters took part, to
+acknowledge his fifty years of devoted service among all classes of the
+community.  A presentation was made to him of a silver service and his
+portrait in oils—the latter the work of Thomas Hill, a native of
+Wednesfield, and which now hangs on the walls of the Free Public Library.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XX.—The Election of 1894, and Since.
+
+
+Although St. Giles’s Church is known as the Parish Church, and a church
+has probably been on the same site some six centuries, the church of
+Willenhall is really a Proprietary Chapel of Ease, and its Incumbent
+legally nothing more than a Perpetual Curate, or Curate in Charge, though
+Incumbent of Willenhall, and receiving in respect of that office a very
+substantial “living.”  The official return set forth in Crockford’s
+Clergy Directory for 1893 was: Tithe rent charge, £640, net Income,
+£1,300.
+
+Strictly, there is no St. Giles’s parish, nor any parish attached to St.
+Giles’s Church, and in law the Incumbent might, if he wished, ignore the
+so-called parish so long as he performed satisfactorily certain duties in
+the church.  The unappropriated district, commonly known as St. Giles’s
+parish, includes that part of Willenhall which has not been allocated to
+the properly constituted parishes (or ecclesiastical districts) of St.
+Stephen’s, St. Anne’s, and Holy Trinity, Short Heath, plus the entire
+civil parish of Bentley—the whole being really part of the ecclesiastical
+parish of Wolverhampton.
+
+The position is extraordinarily anomalous.  The Incumbent is elected by
+the inhabitants of the township of Willenhall being sufficient
+householders and having lands of inheritance there; that is to say, the
+voters must be freeholders as well as householders.  Litigation followed
+the choice of the Rev. William Moreton in 1788, and also the election of
+the Rev. G. H. Fisher in 1834.  It is understood that this system of
+“patronage” has been condemned by the Privy Council; and that application
+has been made for the proper constitution of a St. Giles’s parish, but
+the Bishop demands a quid pro quo.
+
+All attempts to create a Parish of Willenhall have, so far, utterly
+failed.  The existing system of patronage is always the obstacle, and
+nothing will induce the voters either to sell or to surrender their
+rights in the Advowson.
+
+To fully realise the position it must be borne in mind that in addition
+to the three constituted “parishes” created within the original township
+of Willenhall since Mr. Fisher became Incumbent of Willenhall in 1834,
+Short Heath is now a separate township, with separate District Council,
+and that Bentley has its Rural District Council—so that persons who live
+in Bentley parish, Short Heath parish, the three constituted
+ecclesiastical district parishes or districts, and the unappropriated
+remainder of the township (nominally St. Giles’s parish), have all the
+right to vote for the clergyman if they have the necessary other
+qualifications of householder and freeholder.
+
+On the death of the Rev. G. H. Fisher in 1894, no less than 23 formal
+applications were forthcoming for the vacant living.  The keynote was
+given at a preliminary meeting of St. Giles’s congregation, at which Dr.
+J. T. Hartill presided, and when the most likely candidates were formally
+proposed and seconded for adoption.
+
+The voting (recorded on cards) resulted in favour of the Rev. William
+Elitto Rosedale, M.A., Rector of Canton, Cardiff, for whom there were
+265, as against 26 given for the Rev. W. L. Ward, of St. Anne’s,
+Willenhall.  The Churchwardens consistently directed the procedure at
+this public election as nearly as possible along the lines which would be
+followed by private patronage; they declined to take any active part in
+the circulation of testimonials, or afford facilities for any candidate
+to preach in the church, to the possible prejudice of the others, but
+they passively acquiesced in each one approaching the electors in any way
+which seemed fitting and proper to himself.
+
+The votes recorded on this occasion were:—
+
+Rev. W. E. Rosedale (Canton, Cardiff)             199
+Rev. W. L. Ward (St. Anne’s, Willenhall)          157
+Rev. J. E. Page (Binfield)                         28
+Rev. F. W. Ford (London)                            1
+
+At four o’clock, Mr. Page (who was the son of a local iron-master) and
+Mr. Ford retired in favour of Mr. Ward.  The Returning Officer was Mr. R.
+N. Hearne, Steward to the Lords of the Manor of Stowheath, the Duke of
+Sutherland and Mr. W. T. C. Giffard; and the poll was taken by open
+voting, each voter recording his vote orally and within the hearing of
+all present.
+
+The result having been forwarded to the Lords of the Manor, they formally
+nominated the one at the head of the poll to the Bishop for appointment
+and induction to the living.  The successful candidate was a native,
+being the son of the Rev. D. Rosedale, to whose exertions the building of
+Holy Trinity Church was largely due, and in the Vicarage House attached
+to which the said candidate was born.  But he possessed other than local
+claims, though these, no doubt, prepossessed many Willenhall folk in his
+favour.
+
+There can be little doubt the election of 1894 was conducted with far
+more tact and discretion than ever had been exercised on similar
+occasions previously.  There was still the old risk of serious public
+disturbances; but perhaps more than ever there was, as must generally be
+the case in such methods of conducting a controversial matter of this
+description, the danger of unseemly and acrimonious squabblings in
+public.  It reflects the highest credit upon the Churchwardens and all
+others concerned in the election, that not only was nearly all this
+avoided, but the possibility always present, of long and embittered
+litigation to follow, was also reduced to a minimum.  It required some
+firmness and decision to weed down 23 formal applications, and more than
+twice that number of business-like inquiries, to workable limits for
+taking a poll.
+
+The litigation of 1834 had arisen through the manufacture of “faggot
+votes,” which were eventually disallowed, and had to be struck off.  A
+difficulty arose in 1894 as to the interpretation of an Act of 1844—would
+Lord Blandford’s Act debar from taking part in the voting the residents
+in the newly-created ecclesiastical districts of St. Stephen’s, St.
+Anne’s, and Holy Trinity, Short Heath?  Although at first dubious on the
+question, the authorities answered it in the negative.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+As previously stated, the earliest record of the Advowson is of the year
+1408.  In the Salt Collections, Vol.  XI., p. 218, we find that by a
+final concord recorded “on the morrow of St. Martin, 10 Henry IV.,
+William Bysshebury and Joan, his wife, acknowledged that seven messuages,
+eight tofts, one mill, sixty acres of land, ten acres of meadow, and 24s.
+6½d. of rent in Wolverhampton, and the Advowson of the Chapel of
+Willenhall to be the right of Richard Hethe and William Prestewood,
+chaplain, and the latter granted them to William Bysshebury and Joan for
+their lives, with remainder to John Hampton, of Stourton, and Harvise,
+his wife, and to the heirs of John for ever.”
+
+Exactly two centuries later, as we shall learn in the next chapter, the
+endowments of, and the right of presentation to, the living were placed
+upon a definite and legal foundation.  Suffice it here to say that at the
+present time there are Trustees appointed by the Charity Commissioners
+for the purpose of holding the Trust property belonging to the said
+living, and, with the assistance of an official representing the
+Commissioners, managing affairs connected therewith.
+
+The Trust, to which Mr. Samuel Mills Slater is solicitor, is under the
+full control of the Charity Commissioners, who have to be regularly
+supplied with certified copies of all the Trust accounts.
+
+As we shall see presently, the original Feoffees of the Trust property
+were appointed in 1608 by a Commission of local magnates and landowners,
+consisting of William Overton, Bishop of Lichfield; William, Lord Paget,
+of Beaudesert; Sir John Bowes, of Elford; Sir Edward Littleton, of
+Pillaton Hall; Sir Edward Leigh, of Rushall; Sir Simon Weston, of St.
+John’s, Lichfield; Sir Robert Stanford, of Perry Hall; Sir Walter
+Chetwynde, of Grendon and Ingestre; Sir William Chetwynde, of Grendon
+(half-brother of Sir Walter); Zachary Babington, Doctor in the Civil Law;
+Raphe Snead, of Keele; Walter Bagott, of Blythfield; William Skeffington,
+of Fisherwick; Roger Fowke, of Brewood and Wyrley; John Chetwynde, of
+Rudge, parish of Standon, and Walter Stanley, of West Bromwich—most of
+them justices for the county of Stafford.
+
+By virtue of a provision in the Decree or award of these Commissioners,
+the surviving Feoffees were enabled to appoint new Feoffees in the places
+of the deceased ones.  In later times, however, by virtue of the
+Charitable Trusts Acts, the Board of Charity Commissioners acquired the
+power of making appointments of new Trustees, and also of removing
+Trustees.
+
+In the year 1889, the number of Trustees had become reduced to one—Mr.
+John Davies, then residing at Warwick.  By an Order dated 23rd July,
+1889, the Board removed Mr. Davies, at his own request, from the office
+of Trustee, and appointed the following gentlemen to be new Trustees:—
+
+John Clark.
+
+Wm. Henry Hartill.
+
+John Thomas Hartill.
+
+Joseph Johnson.
+
+David Wm. Lees.
+
+Jas. Carpenter Tildesley.
+
+Henry Vaughan.
+
+Henry Hartill Walker, junr.
+
+Of these gentlemen only Messrs. J. T. Hartill, Vaughan, and Walker are
+now living.
+
+It might be necessary under certain conditions (as, for instance, in any
+action connected with the sale of the Advowson) to constitute a body of
+elected Trustees (as distinct from the aforementioned nominated Trustees)
+of not more than eleven, nor less than five members, duly elected at a
+statutory meeting of the town’s inhabitant freeholders.
+
+As a matter of fact, a public meeting of the owners of the Advowson,
+convened on the requisition of a memorial to the Incumbent (Rev. W. E.
+Rosedale), signed by a number of them, was held in the month of June,
+1900, to consider a proposal for the sale of the said Advowson.  A
+similar proposal had been discussed in 1898 at a public meeting attended
+by some 200 owners, when it was suggested that half the sum realised
+should be handed over to the town authorities, while the other half
+should be spent on the church and schools.
+
+At this second meeting, over which Mr. T. Nicholls, chairman of the
+District Council, presided, the sale value of the Advowson was variously
+estimated at sums ranging from £1,100 to £3,000.  The minister’s income
+was stated by one speaker to be £539 per annum nett—£508 derived from a
+sum of £20,974 13s. 11d. invested in Consols, and with other sources
+making a gross revenue of £641 18s. 9d., from which deductions amounting
+to £102 7s. 6d. had to be made.
+
+Another speaker gravely cautioned the meeting against over-estimating the
+capitalised value of this living by remarking that the present incumbent
+was then a comparatively young man of only forty-two, and healthy at
+that.
+
+It was given as the opinion of another speaker that the existing method
+of electing their parson was undesirable in the best interests of the
+church, and ought to be forthwith discontinued.  Also it was contended
+that if a sale could be effected, any sum that resulted therefrom might
+very advantageously be expended in the town for the benefit of the
+inhabitants generally.
+
+One stalwart stickler for “the eternal fitness of things” upheld the
+sound principle of the members of every church exercising the right to
+choose their own minister, and he deprecated generally the practice of
+trafficking in advowsons.
+
+In the end, although those in favour of selling almost threatened to
+apply for an Act of Parliament for effecting a sale compulsorily, the
+meeting finally resolved by a very substantial majority: “That it was not
+advisable at the present time to sell the Advowson.”
+
+So that two well-conducted public meetings, held within a brief space of
+each other, were unable to come to any definite decision by which the
+position of things would be materially altered.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.—Willenhall Church Endowments.
+
+
+By the courtesy of Mr. S. M. Slater, of Darlaston, a summarised, but
+fairly comprehensive account of the Willenhall endowments, and the
+somewhat exceptional parochial privileges connected therewith, may be
+given here.
+
+The foundation of the Endowment of the Benefice and the establishment of
+the right of the Parishioners, or rather the Parishioners of the Township
+“having lands of inheritance there,” may be said to rest upon, or at all
+events to have been defined and regulated by, three documents, namely:—
+
+(a) A Decree dated the 27th March in the 5th Year of James the 1st
+(1607), made in pursuance of an Inquisition, or Commission, issued by the
+King on the 12th February of the previous (regnal) year.
+
+(b) A Deed of the 23rd September of the 6th Year of James the 1st (1608),
+entered into between the Lords of the Manor of Stowheath on the one hand,
+and Sir Walter Levison and others, on behalf of themselves and the rest
+of the Inhabitants of Willenhall, on the other hand.
+
+(c) A Memorandum entered on the Court Rolls of the Manor of Stowheath,
+dated the 10th October in the 6th Year of James the First (1608).
+
+Reference to Chapter VII. of this work will recall how a Chantry Chapel
+had been founded and endowed in Willenhall by the Gerveyse family.  This
+Chantry Chapel would be a “separated place” within the Chapel-of-Ease
+specially used to celebrate masses for the departed souls of certain
+persons.  Now, one of the earliest signs of the approaching Reformation
+was a decline in the belief in Purgatory; and presently Henry VIII. was
+empowered by Act of Parliament to seize all lands, tenements, rents, &c.,
+which had been given for the maintenance of Chantry Priests, with all
+their lamps, candles, torches, and other expensive appointments for what
+were declared to be “superstitious” uses.  But a right was reserved to
+the King, as head of the Church, to direct such properties to uses which
+could be regarded as truly “charitable.”  What became of the Willenhall
+Chantry endowments?
+
+It is the opinion of Mr. A. A. Rollason, no mean authority on the
+subject—vide his recondite articles in the “Dudleian,” having special
+reference to a similar Commission of Inquiry held in 1638 as to the
+alienation of lands belonging to Dudley Grammar School—that the
+Willenhall Inquisition, or Commission of Inquiry, was brought about, as
+was that at Dudley, in consequence of the uncertain state of the law as
+to whether the lands, and the income therefrom, came within the
+Charitable Uses Act; or whether the gifts were absolutely void.
+
+For while Magna Charta declared “that if any one shall give lands to a
+religious house, the grant shall be void, and the land forfeited to the
+lord of the fee”—the abbots of old took care to be “lords of the fee,”
+usually holding their lands direct from the King—there was a Statute of
+Edward III. by which the King was empowered to grant a Royal licence
+affording relaxation of lands held under the Statutes of Mortmain.
+
+It seems almost impossible to doubt that the freehold lands belonging to
+the Willenhall Chantry had escaped confiscation to the Crown under the
+Statute, I Edward VI., if they had been held solely for performing obits
+and singing masses for the dead.  Yet it is just possible they may have
+been re-granted to aid in the maintenance of the Curate of the
+Chapel-of-Ease, in which case they would be recognised as a “charitable
+use,” and were consequently safe.
+
+The Willenhall Inquisition of 1607 was addressed by the King (as stated
+in the last chapter) to “The Reverend Father in God, William, Bishopp of
+Coventrie and Lichfield And to our right trustie and well beloved William
+Lord Pagett and to our trustie and well beloved Sir John Bowes, Sir
+Edward Littleton, Sir Edward Leigh, Sir Simon Weston, Sir Robert
+Stanford, Sir Walter Chetwynde and Sir William Chetwynde, Knights,
+Zacharie Baington (Babington), Doctor of Lawe, Chancellor of Lichfield,
+Raphe Sneade, Walter Bagott, William Skevington (Skeffington), Roger
+Fowke, John Chetwynde, and Walter Stanley, Esquires.”
+
+It set forth that the King, for the due execution of a certain Statute of
+43 Queen Elizabeth, intituled an Act to “redress the misimployment of
+landes goods and stocks of money theretofore given to charitable uses,”
+and having special trust and confidence in their approved fidelities,
+&c., had appointed the persons named “to be our Commissions,” and thereby
+gave to them and to any four or more of them full power and authority to
+enquire “as well by the Oathes of twelve lawful men or more of the County
+of Stafford as by all other good and lawful waies and meanes accordinge
+to the purporte and true meaninge of the said Statute, What landes, etc.,
+have at any tyme or tymes been given by us or any of our progenitors or
+by any other well disposed pson or psons, bodies politique or corporate,
+for the reliefe of aged impotent and poore people etc.—And of all and
+singular the abuses misdemeanors breaches of trusts negligences
+misimployments notimployinge, concealinge, defraudinge, misconvertinge or
+misgovernment of the same landes tenements rents anuyties pffits
+hereditments goods chattels money or stocks of money or any of them
+heretofore given lymitted appointed or assigned to or for any charitable
+and godlie uses before rehearsed accordinge to the purporte and true
+meaninge of the said Statute.  And upon such enquirie hearinge and
+examyninge thereof accordinge to the said Statute to sett downe such
+Orders Judgments and Decrees as the said landes tenements rents anuyties
+pffits hereditaments goods chattels money and stocks of money may be
+dulie and faithfullie employed to and for such of the charitable uses and
+intents before rehearsed respectively for which they were given limited
+assigned or appointed by the donors and founders thereof accordinge to
+the purporte and true meaninge of the said Statute.”
+
+The Commission then proceeds:—
+
+    And therefore we commande you that at cteyne days and places which
+    you or any foure or more of you shall appoint in this behalf ye or
+    any foure or more of you doe make diligent Inquirie and Inquiries
+    upon the pmisses and all and singuler the same and all other things
+    appointed by the said Statute for you or any foure or more of you to
+    doe and execute that ye or foure of you at the least pforme doe and
+    execute that effecte in all points and in everie respect accordinge
+    to the said Statute. . . .  And the same Inquisicon and Inquisicons
+    and everie of them togeather with all decrees Judgments orders and
+    proceedinges which you or any foure or more of you shall accordinge
+    to the said Statute thereupon make or sett downe that you or foure or
+    more of you have before Us in our Chancery with all convenient speede
+    . . . under the hands and seals of any foure or more of you. . .  And
+    we also command by authoritie hereof our Sheriffe of our said County
+    of Stafford that at such times dayes and places as you or any foure
+    or more of you shall appoint to him he shall cause to come before you
+    or any foure or more of you such and as many honest and lawful men of
+    the said County as well within the liberties as without by whom the
+    truth in the pmisses may best be known to inquire of the pmisses upon
+    their Oathes as you or any foure or more of you shall require and
+    command him.
+
+The Decree before referred to was signed by Sir Edward Leigh, Dr.
+Zacharie Babington, William Skeffington, John Chetwynde, and Walter
+Stanley, and was addressed to the Right Honourable Thomas, Lord
+Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor of England.  It set out the Commission and
+then proceeded as follows:—
+
+    Wee therefore by verteue of the said Commission dyd award a pcept to
+    the Sheriffe of the said Countye to somon foure and twentye good and
+    lawfull men of his Baylywicke to be before Us at Lichfeilde the
+    xxijth day of Marche laste paste and did also send a precepte to one
+    Jane Lane Widdow and to Thomas Lane Esquire that claymed intereste in
+    the pmisses to bee before Us att the same day and place to sett forth
+    theire and either of theire tytles (yf they had anie) to the said
+    pmisses att wch daye and place by virtue of the said pcepte to the
+    sayde Sheriffe dyrected as aforesaid a full Jury dyd appeare and
+    Councell on the behalfe of Mrs. Lane and the said Thomas Lane dyd
+    alsoe appear before Us and thereupon wee pceeded to sweare the Jurye
+    who bringe sworne and chardged to inquire of the pmisses after long
+    evidence and examinacon of many witnesses on both pts the said Jurors
+    gave up theire verdicte in such sorte as by an Inquisition hereunto
+    annexed Sealed and subscribed (wch wee doe herewith all ctyfye unto
+    yor Lordshippe into the highe Courte of Chancery) maie appear; that
+    is to say that a pcell of pasture or land called Marchyhills alias
+    Bessalls in Bentley aforesaid, of ye yeerlie value of fyve pounds,
+    was before the fourth yeere of Kinge Edward the Sixth given to
+    Nicholas Hellyn and Richard Whorwood gent., John Podmore Willm Greene
+    Willm Whitmore and William Podmore and their heires to bee Imployed
+    to saye devine service in the Chappell of Willenhall aforesaid for
+    the ease of the Inhabyants there being farre remoote from their prshe
+    Church of Wolverhampton in the said Countye that the pffits of the
+    said lands were from Anno quarto of Kinge Edwarde the sixte so
+    imployed as aforesaid by the space of dyvers yeeres of the said Jane
+    Lane and Thomas Lane and their Tenants  And that the same have been
+    misemployed by the space of one whole yeere now laste paste and more
+    all wch pmisses considered wee doe order and decree at Lichfeilde
+    aforesaid by verteue of the said Comission in manner and form
+    followinge  That is to saie that the said pcell of groundes and all
+    ye rents revenues yssues and pffitts thereof shall for ever hereafter
+    bee imployed and bestowed upon and towards the maynetaynance of a
+    Curate or Chaplyne for the tyme being to saie devine service in the
+    said Chappell for the ease of the Inhabitants there and that John
+    Wilkes of Willenhall in the said Countye gent, Willm Flemynge als
+    Greene of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, Leonard Tomkis of
+    Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, John Bate of Willenhall in the
+    said Countye yeoman, Richard Bate of Willenhall in the saide Countye
+    yeoman, Willm Baylie of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, and
+    Willm Brindley of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, theire
+    heires and Assignes shall have and hold the said pmisses to the use
+    and entente aforesaid according to a former feoffm’t thereof made and
+    shewed forth to the said Jury at the tyme of the same Inquisicon
+    taken and shall from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter yeerelie
+    Imploye and bestowe the full value thereof upon and towards the
+    maynetaynance of a Curate or Chaplyne to saye devyne service in the
+    said Chappell.
+
+As will be seen, the Decree states clearly that the yearly income of the
+Bentley lands was to be used towards the maintenance of a Curate to say
+Divine Service in the Chapel; this at once brought it under the
+Charitable Uses Act, and removed it from liability to be confiscated
+under 23, Henry VIII., c. 10., for perpetuating practices regarded as
+superstitious and contrary to Reformation doctrines.  It will be noted
+that a “former feoffment” is mentioned—may not this have been a re-grant
+by the King, which has been hinted at?  The grant to Nicholas Hellyn and
+others in 4 Edward VI. has all the appearance of being a gift from the
+Crown to the purposes of the newly constituted Church of England.
+
+The Decree then proceeds, as mentioned in the last chapter, to make
+provision for the filling up of vacancies in the number of Feoffees
+whenever the number may be reduced to three.
+
+It will be noticed that the Inquisition and Decree, as given above, deal
+only with the title to and the application of the income of certain
+freehold lands at Bentley.  The Deed of the 23rd September of the 6th
+Year of James the 1st (1608), and the Memorandum of the 10th October of
+the same year, however, appear to deal with what seems to be the
+remainder of the endowment of the Curacy, and with the status of the
+Priest or Curate.  The Deed and the Memorandum set forth, in effect, the
+same set of facts; and the former may be described as the Contract out of
+Court between the parties interested, and the latter as being the
+Official Record of the Contract entered upon the Rolls of the Manor.  The
+Deed is stated to be made between the Right Worshipful Sir John Levison,
+Knight, of Lilleshall, in the County of Salop, and John Giffard, of
+Chillington, in the County of Stafford, Esquire, on the one part, and Sir
+Walter Levison, of Wolverhampton, Knight, Thomas Lane, of Bentley,
+Esquire, Richard Wilkes, and Thomas Tomkis, of Willenhall, Gentlemen, and
+William Brindley and William Podmore, of Willenhall, Yeomen, on behalf of
+themselves and the rest of the Inhabitants of Willenhall, on the other
+part; and after making reference to a “Commission awarded upon the
+Statute of 43 Elizabeth concerning Lands given to Charitable Uses,” it
+proceeds to state that the lords consent, grant, and decree that the
+Copyhold lands therein referred to shall be let in the manner and for the
+purpose therein mentioned, and the effect of such consent, as before
+pointed out, is recited in the Memorandum entered on the Court Rolls.
+
+Coming to the Memorandum of 1608, it is evident a serious difficulty had
+arisen with the Willenhall lands held under copyhold tenure, and which
+were probably dealt with by the same Commission.  For there was probably
+but one Commission of Inquiry, though there may have been two separate
+Decrees.
+
+Lands held by Copyhold tenure are usually subject to fealty to the Lord
+of the Manor, and this was doubtless customary in Stowheath.  It seems
+conclusive that the King did not take these lands into his own hands,
+whereby matters would have been reduced to the absurdity of the lord
+paramount being called upon to do homage to his own tenant.
+
+The suggestion is offered by Mr. Rollason that the tenure of the lands
+was not precisely a lay one, but partook of a spiritual nature—was, in
+fact, not feudal, but what was known as a tenure in frankalmoign or free
+alms.
+
+The Memorandum commences with a recital as follows:—
+
+    Whereas by a Commission awarded upon a Statute of 43 Elizabeth
+    concerning Lands given to Charitable Uses upon the executinge of wch
+    Comission the Inhabitants and Men of Willenhall in the County of
+    Stafford have made profe that certaine Copyhold Lands in the Towne of
+    Willenhall holden by Coppie of Court Roll of the Manor of Stowheath
+    were formerly Surrendered by certain Feoffees or Stateberers Uppon
+    Trust and confidence that the yearly Pfitts thereof should be
+    imployed for the hyer stipend and wages of a Preist Minister or
+    Curate to say Divine Service in the Chappell of Willenhall from tyme
+    to tyme for ever for the Ease of the Inhabitants there dwelling being
+    two Myles distant from Wolverhampton their Prshe Church and towards
+    the repairinge of the said Chappell and the said yearly pfitts
+    thereof were soe used and imployed for many yeares togeather uppon
+    consideracon of wch said cause and uppon longe debate thereof before
+    divse Comissioners in psence of Councell of both ptes ambiguity and
+    doubtings arisinge whether the said Copyhold Lands were originally
+    given to the maintenance of a Chantery Preist or otherwise to the
+    maintenance of a Curate of Preist to say Divine Service in the
+    Chappell aforesaid The said Inhabitants are contented to refer
+    themselves therein to the consideracon of Sir John Leveson Knt and
+    John Giffard Esquire Lords of the Mannor of Stowheath within wch
+    Mannor the said Towne of Willenhall lyeth and is pcel wch usadge and
+    imploymt of the saide rents and pfitts of the said Lands the said Sr
+    John Leveson and Jhn Giffard Esqre well accepting of are willing to
+    give furtherance to soe good and charitable an occon And the rather
+    for that their Ancestors have formerly given allowance out of the
+    same Lands for the same purpose And therefore doe for them and their
+    heirs consent and agree that the said Coppyhold Lands shall for ever
+    hereafter be let by the consent of four of the Inhabitants of the
+    said Towne of Willenhall to be chosen by the greater pte of the
+    sufficient Householders of the said Towne having lands of inheritance
+    there, and that the said aforemenconed Lands shall be by the said
+    four Inhabitants let from tyme to tyme according to the trew and
+    reasonable Rate or Valew thereof and the mony pfitts and rents to be
+    reserved out of the said Lands to be imployed half yearly hereafter
+    in manner and forme following (that is to say) First to the payment
+    of eleven shillings yearly for the antient and accustomed cheife rent
+    dew and to be dew to the Lords of the said Manor of Stowheath
+    Secondly to the payment of Six shillings and eight pence yearly
+    towards the reparations of the said Chappell, and thirdly towards the
+    maintenance of a stipendary Preist Minester or Curate for the sayinge
+    of Divine Service Ministeringe of the Holy Sacraments and doinge all
+    such other service in the Chappell of Willenhall as doe and shall
+    belong to his Ministerie and Function wch Stipendary Priest Minister
+    or Curate shall be fro tyme to tyme chosen nominated and appointed by
+    the said Inhabitants of Willenhall for the tyme beinge or the
+    greatest pte of them havinge lands there as aforesaid and prsented
+    and allowed by the Lord on Lords of the said Manner of Stowheath and
+    his and their heir or heires for ever.  And it is further ordered
+    that whosoever shall be nominated appointed prsented and allowed as
+    aforesaid to supply the place as Preist Minister or Curate in the
+    said Chappell of Willenhall shall conforme himselfe to the Govermt
+    Eclesiasticall and be resident uppon his cure there, in defalt
+    whereof and uppon complainte made by the said Inhabitants or the
+    greater pte of the sufficient or chiefest of them, eyther of his
+    nonresidence, Insufficiencie, negligence, or any other Misdemenor, to
+    the Lord or Lords of the said Manner for the tyme beinge, yt shall be
+    lawfull for the Lord or Lords of the said Mannor for the tyme beinge
+    to give one halfe yeares warninge to the said Preist Minester or
+    Curate to reform himselfe whch if he doe not then it shall be lawfull
+    for the said Lord or Lords for the tyme beinge to remove and displace
+    him at the end of the said halfe yeare, and to present and allow
+    another Curate Minester or Preist there to be nominated and appointed
+    by the said Inhabitants or the greater part of them as aforesaid.
+    Lastly it is ordered that the said Lands shall at the next Leete at
+    Wolverhampton for the said Mannor of Stowheath be granted by Coppie
+    of Court Roll to Nine Feoffees or Stateberers and their heires then
+    and there to be nominated, uppon wch Grante there shall be Thirteene
+    pounds six shillings and eight pence paid for a Fine and Herriotts,
+    and that after the death of six or seaven of the said Feoffees or
+    Stateberers there shall be sixe or seaven others from tyme to tyme
+    chosen by the said Inhabitants or greatest pte of them to whom and to
+    the other three or two surviving Feoffees and their heires uppon the
+    Surrender of the said three or two Feoffees or Stateberers a new
+    Grant shall be made by Coppie of Court Roll of the said Lands
+    accordinge to the Custome of the said Mannor.  And soe from when and
+    as often there shal be remaininge but three or two Feoffees or
+    Stateberers And that uppon every such admittance there shall be payed
+    to the Lords of the said Mannor the some of six pounds thirteen
+    shillings and fower pence for a fine and Herriotts as often as any
+    such admittance shall be as aforesaid.
+
+The disclosure here made, that part of the endowments went to the repair
+of the church, gives the key to the probable solution; because this
+unquestionably constituted a “charitable use,” and where such was
+intermixed with a “superstitious use,” only so much as went to the latter
+purpose was subject to confiscation under the reforming Statutes of Henry
+VIII.  A generous interpretation would not inquire too closely into the
+amount left for a Chantry Priest, and the portion devoted to repairs of
+the fabric.  It was to discriminate between the two kinds of uses that
+the subsequent Statute of Elizabeth (43 E. Cap. 4) was passed, empowering
+the Lord Chancellor to appoint Commissions authorised to investigate the
+complaints of aggrieved parties, and to alter the direction of the
+endowment funds, where necessary, to make them conformable with the
+Protestant religion.  This was precisely the nature and function of the
+Willenhall Commission.  All it accomplished was done under the authority
+of the Great Seal of England, the Commissions being generally directed by
+the Lord Chancellor to the Bishop of the diocese, as in this case; the
+judgments arrived at, and the decrees issued were given the full force of
+law.  The Willenhall Trust was clearly constituted under this Act of
+Elizabeth.
+
+On reading the introductory portion of the Memorandum, it will be
+observed that no date is given to the Commission referred to, which
+possibly might be interpreted to mean that such Commission was quite
+separate from the one above set out, inasmuch as the latter related only
+to freehold land at Bentley, while the Memorandum speaks of “certain
+Copyhold lands in the Towne of Willenhall” being “surrendered by certain
+Feoffees . . .  Uppon trust,” &c.
+
+In the documents before considered no allusion is made to there being any
+endowment or provision for the maintenance of the Chantry Priest or
+Curate other than the income from the Freehold and Copyhold lands which
+respectively formed the subject of those documents; and from this it is
+reasonable to conclude that such income formed, or was involved in what
+may be described as practically the only permanent provision for the
+maintenance of the Incumbent for the time being of the Chapel.
+
+A century ago there appears to have been a prevalent belief that the
+income of the Incumbent or Curate was about £1,400 per annum.  An
+investigation of what has happened during the last 70 years does not
+reveal any foundation for the belief.  After the election, in the year
+1838, of the late Rev. G. H. Fisher to the Curacy, it was considered by
+him and the Trustees of the Living to be desirable to apply to Parliament
+for powers to sell the surface of the lands forming the Endowment, or to
+sell or lease any of the mines thereunder.  Accordingly, a private Act of
+Parliament (7 and 8 Victoria Cap. 19) granting those powers was obtained.
+The Preamble of this Act refers to dealings with the Copyhold Lands
+subsequent to the date of the Memorandum before commented upon, there
+being recitals that, as appears by a surrender dated the 21st November,
+1727, certain Copyhold Lands, &c., in the Town of Willenhall were
+formally surrendered to the use of certain Feoffees and were held upon
+the trusts already described, and that at a Court Baron held on the 24th
+September, 1839, the said Copyhold lands were surrendered to the use of
+Thomas Hinks, John Riley Hinks, John Read, William Stokes, John Mason,
+Joseph Turner, John Biddle, Jeremiah Hartill and John Davies on the same
+trusts.  The Preamble further shows a small further source of income for
+the Living, inasmuch as it states that certain Freehold lands in the
+Township of Willenhall (as well as those in the Township of Bentley) had
+from time immemorial been held and enjoyed in like manner as the said
+Copyhold lands and that the said Freehold and Copyhold lands constituted
+“one and the same Charity.”  The Preamble further states that there stood
+in the name of the Accountant-General of the High Court of Chancery the
+sum of £386 3s. 0d. of three per cent. Consols, and that there was owing
+from the Birmingham Canal Company a sum of £202 2s. 0d.  These two sums
+represented the agreed prices of lands belonging to the Living taken by
+the Grand Junction Railway Company and the Canal Company respectively
+under their compulsory powers.  The freehold land in Willenhall before
+referred to, is comprised (with all the other lands held in Trust for the
+Living), in the Schedule to the Act, and consisted of a field called Ell
+Park, containing 1a. 3r. 28p., and produced a rental of £5 12s. 0d.
+
+Touching the supposition before referred to as to the value of the Living
+being £1,400 per annum, it may be mentioned that the Schedule to the Act
+gives the total area of the lands held in trust for the Living at 112a.
+2r. 37p., and the aggregate amount of the rentals as being £500 15s. 6d.
+per annum.
+
+A further power sought for and conferred by the Act was the power to
+raise a sum not exceeding £1,600 to be applied in building a Parsonage
+House upon any of the land belonging to the Living, or, in the
+alternative, to purchase at a cost not exceeding £1,600, a Parsonage
+House, with the consent of the Court of Chancery, if thought more
+advantageous than to build one.
+
+In the exercise of the powers conferred by the Act, the Trustees, in the
+course of a few years, sold all the lands belonging to the Living situate
+in Willenhall, and in recent years a piece of land containing 1 rood and
+23 perches, forming part of the Freehold land at Bentley, has also been
+sold and there now remains at Bentley, belonging to the Living, nine
+pieces of land, containing a total area of 30 acres and 27 perches,
+which, for several years prior to Mr. Fisher’s death, produced a rental
+of £20 per annum.
+
+The primary provisions of the Act with regard to the moneys to arise from
+sales and leases under the powers thereby conferred were: (a) That the
+moneys should be let out and invested under the direction of the Court in
+the purchase of Freehold hereditaments or Copyhold hereditaments
+convenient to be enjoyed therewith; (b) that the premises purchased
+should be conveyed unto the Trustees for the time being of the Charity
+and held upon the Trusts, upon which the hereditaments sold would have
+been held in case the same had not been so sold, and the Act had not been
+passed; (c) that until the moneys should be so let out and invested they
+should be invested in Parliamentary stocks or Funds of Great Britain in
+the name of the Accountant-General; and (d) that the annual produce of
+such funds should be applied to the person and for the purposes to which
+the rents of the trust lands would have been applicable.
+
+In the exercise of the trust for purchasing lands conferred by the Act,
+the Trustees subsequently purchased the property in Walsall Street,
+adjoining and near to the Churchyard, including the site of the new
+Schools there, and also two Cottages and some gardens and land at
+Shepwell Green.  The latter property has since been sold off.
+
+Reverting to the question of the value of the Living, it may be mentioned
+that in the year 1886, when the Shepwell Green property and the small
+piece of land at Bentley were still in hand, the gross income from the
+Living, apart from Surplice Fees, was £792 7s. 9d., made up as follows:—
+
+                                                   £       s.       d.
+Rents                                            194        2        8
+Dividend from £19,941 16s. 8d., 3 per            598        5        1
+cent. Consols
+                                                £792        7        9
+
+The effect of the “Goschen” Act of 1888 was ultimately to reduce the
+Dividend on the Consols by 1/6th, and, consequently, the gross income of
+the Living, apart from Surplice Fees, stood a few years afterwards at
+£692 13s. 7d., made up as follows:—
+
+                                               £       s.       d.
+Rents                                        194        2        8
+Dividend from 2½ per cent. Consols           498       10       11
+                                            £692       13        7
+
+This statement brings matters up to date (1907); the tithes are still
+impropriate, a rent charge of £540 being receivable by Lord Barnard in
+succession to the Duke of Cleveland.  The tithe-owner in Bentley is the
+Earl of Lichfield.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.—The Church Charities: The Daughter Churches.
+
+
+At the beginning of the nineteenth century a Royal Commission was
+appointed to inquire into, and put a stop to, the barefaced robbery of
+the Church charities, which had been going on for a century or more.
+Every parish in England was visited, and the Report on the Willenhall
+Charities was published in 1825 to the following effect:—
+
+
+
+1.—PRESTWOOD’S DOLE.
+
+
+    An ancient Instrument was produced to us, purporting to be a
+    Deed-poll (without any seals thereto, but with a portion of the lower
+    margin torn off, not, however, as it appeared to us, in that part
+    where the seals are usually affixed), bearing date 17 August, 1642,
+    whereby William Prestwood, of Willenhall, in Co. Stafford, and
+    Mariana, his wife, granted to the Wardens and Sidemen of the Church
+    or Chapel of Willenhall, aforesaid, and to the Overseers of the poor
+    of the said Town, and their successors for ever, all the annual rent,
+    profits, and emoluments whatsoever, issuing, renewing, and arising
+    from, in and out of a certain Close of the said William and Mariana,
+    called Canne Byrch, lying and being in Willenhall aforesaid, between
+    Willenhall Field on one part, and the highway leading towards
+    Darlaston on the other; to have and to hold all the rent, profits,
+    and emoluments arising from the said Close, after the death of the
+    said William and Mariana, for ever; to the pious use following,
+    viz.:—
+
+    To pay and contribute the annual rent aforesaid to the use and behoof
+    of the Poor in the said Town, at the discretion of the aforesaid
+    Wardens, Officers, and Overseers of the Chapel and Town aforesaid for
+    ever, and not otherwise: And it is further declared that the said
+    rent should be annually paid in the manner and form as the said
+    William by his last Will should appoint.
+
+    We have no evidence that this piece of land, which is well known, was
+    ever in the possession of the Parish Officers.  It is now considered
+    as the property of Hervey Smith, Esq., of Castle Bromwich, who has
+    lately succeeded to it on the death of his father, the late William
+    Smith, Esq., solicitor of Birmingham, and to be subject only to an
+    annual rent charge of 20s. to the Poor of Willenhall, which is
+    regularly paid by the tenant of the land.  It has been for many years
+    in the possession of Mr. Smith’s family, and he produced several
+    receipts, the earliest of which is dated 31 October, 1753, and is for
+    “£1 due Nov. 1st, 1753, for Prestwood’s Dole.”
+
+    The others are for the same sum, designating it either as
+    “Prestwood’s Dole,” or “A Dole payable to the Poor of Willenhall.”
+
+    We do not conceive that, under these circumstances, the imperfect
+    Instrument above stated, unaccompanied by possession, can afford any
+    ground to the Parishioners of the Township to claim anything more
+    than the Dole which has been so long paid.  The 20 shillings are
+    given away to 20 Poor Widows on St. Thomas’s Day.
+
+
+
+2.—PEDLEY’S CHARITY.
+
+
+    James Pedley, otherwise Fletcher, by his Will dated 20 May, 1728,
+    after the death of his wife, gave to his brother, Richard Pedley,
+    alias Fletcher, his heirs and assigns, those two Closes of Land
+    called by the name Little Clothers, lying in the Liberty of
+    Willenhall, in the Parish of Wolverhampton, on condition that his
+    said brother should pay or cause to be paid 30s. a year out of the
+    rent of the said two Closes of land, as follows; that is to say, to
+    the Minister of Willenhall 6s. 8d. a year to preach a sermon on New
+    Year’s Day; and unto Poor Housekeepers 8s. in bread yearly, upon New
+    Year’s Day, at the Chapel as the Chapelwardens should think fit; and
+    to the Chapelwardens for their trouble 4d.; and 13s. yearly to one of
+    the Chapelwardens and to the Overseer of the Poor to be given in
+    bread to such Poor Housekeepers as they should think fit, and carry
+    the said bread to, from house to house, upon the first day of July;
+    and he directed that the Officers for trouble should have 12 pence
+    apiece: And in the event of his brother’s death without issue, he
+    gave the Closes, paying the aforesaid 30s. yearly as above directed
+    to the right heir of the Pedleys for ever.
+
+    The premises charged with this annuity of 30s. are at present the
+    property of Mr. George Bailey, in right of his wife, to whom they
+    descended as heir to her brother, Charles Pedley, the great-nephew of
+    the testator.
+
+    The several payments of 6s. 8d. to the Minister and 8s. and 13s. for
+    bread, appear to have been annually made; but the bread having been
+    distributed by the Pedley family themselves, or persons deputed by
+    them, without the intervention of the Chapelwarden or Overseer, the
+    fees of 2s. 4d. to these Officers have been hitherto withheld, and
+    are indeed unnoticed in a Will of James Pedley, dated in 1792,
+    whereby he devises the Closes in question to the above-named Charles
+    Pedley, describing them as subject to the other payments of 27s. 8d.
+    only.
+
+    Mr. Bailey has, however, expressed his readiness to supply the
+    omission in future, and to pay the bread money, or deliver the bread
+    to the Officers of the Township to be distributed by them according
+    to the directions of the donor.
+
+    The distributions appear to have been hitherto made respectively on
+    New Year’s Day and at Midsummer, among Poor Old Widows and other Poor
+    of the Township.
+
+
+
+3.—CHARITIES OF JOHN TOMKYS AND GEORGE WELCH.
+
+
+    At a Court Baron held for the Manor of Stowheath, on 29th May, 1781,
+    the lords of the manor, at the request of certain persons being
+    Chapelwardens, and certain others being Overseers of the Poor of the
+    liberty of Willenhall, and of certain others, being three of the
+    principal Inhabitants of Willenhall, on behalf of themselves and
+    others, the inhabitants of Willenhall, by the hands of the Steward,
+    according to the custom of the manor, gave, granted, and delivered to
+    Joshua Fletcher, of Willenhall, and Catherina, his wife, all those
+    three Closes or parcels of land, containing together five acres, or
+    thereabouts, theretofore enclosed from the waste or common-land
+    called Shepwell Green, within the liberty of Willenhall, for their
+    natural lives and the life of the survivor, with remainder to the
+    heirs and assigns of the said Joshua Fletcher for ever, subject to
+    the payment of 20s. on St. Thomas’s Day yearly for ever, to the
+    Chapelwardens and Overseers of the Poor for the liberty of
+    Willenhall, to be by them paid or applied to or for the use of the
+    Poor of the said liberty of Willenhall, yearly and every year for
+    ever on St. Thomas’s Day aforesaid, at the Vestry of the said Chapel,
+    according to their discretion, it being the interest of £20, £10
+    thereof being theretofore given by one John Tomkys, and the other £10
+    theretofore given by one George Welch, to and for the use of the said
+    Poor.
+
+    These premises are now the property of John Fletcher, by whom the
+    annuity of 20s. is duly paid to the officers of the Township.  This
+    payment is distributed on New Year’s Day among the Poor of the
+    liberty in small sums not generally exceeding 6d. to each individual.
+
+
+
+4.—JOHN BATES’S CHARITY.
+
+
+    This Charity consists of the sum of £5, which appears to have been
+    left by John Bate some time before the year 1701; the interest to be
+    yearly distributed among the Poor of Willenhall on St. Thomas’s Day.
+
+    The principal was placed at interest on 21 December, 1701, in the
+    hands of Joseph Hincks, on the security of his bond; and the interest
+    appears to have been duly paid by himself and his heirs successively.
+    It is now paid by Thomas Hincks on St. Thomas’s Day annually to
+    fifteen Poor Widows of the Township in shares of 4d. each.
+
+The founders of the “lost” Prestwood Charity were doubtless members of
+the family mentioned in Chapter VII. as resident in Willenhall as early
+as 1409; Prestwood, be it noted, was also the name of an ancient moated
+farm and homestead in Wednesfield.  The name of Prestwood is again
+mentioned, as are also the names of the other Willenhall benefactors,
+Bates and Tomkiss, in the endowment deeds of 1607, quoted in Chapter XXI.
+As to the Welch family, their homestead in Willenhall stood in the
+location known as Welch End.
+
+Concerning Pedley’s Charity, which has not been distributed these 50
+years, the Churchwardens have, as recently as 1895, made earnest attempts
+at its recovery.  The lands once chargeable for the dole were identified
+as Shares Acres, lying between the canal and the road leading to New
+Invention from Monmer Lane.  The property, however, was found to be in
+the hands of the Trustees of the late W. E. Jones; and as, through the
+remissness of someone, the estate had been sold and conveyed without due
+provision for the payment of the annuity once charged upon it, the
+Trustees had not power to make such payment.  While the minerals under
+this land have been yielding wealth, the Poor have been defrauded from
+their rightful share in the same.
+
+Painstaking inquiries for the other “lost charities” have also been made,
+but with no success.  For many years the Incumbent and Wardens have
+provided and distributed a Dole of 40 loaves, for which there has been no
+legal responsibility resting upon them.
+
+In 1881 Jeremiah Hartill gave £200 to the Vicar and Wardens, which was
+invested in Consols, and the interest is annually distributed on January
+1st amongst twenty poor people of the township.  The Hartill Charity and
+the Tomkys and Welch Doles are the only ones now administered.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+Thirty or more years ago a Mr. Stokes gave the Incumbent of Willenhall
+£500 to be applied in his absolute discretion for the benefit of St.
+Giles’s School.  The interest until recently was applied by him for that
+purpose.  The principal has recently been spent in purchase of an
+extended playground for the new Infant Schools, and in the part purchase
+of a site for a new Mixed Department, adjacent thereto.
+
+A few years after the passing of Sir Robert Peel’s Act of 1847, advantage
+was taken of it to split the populous area of the ancient chapelry into
+new district parishes; and by 1855 the said chapelry was divided into
+three nearly equal parts, the new parishes of St. Stephen and Holy
+Trinity, leaving to St. Giles’s Church Bentley and the remaining portion
+of the Willenhall township.  The fourth daughter parish, St. Anne’s, came
+a few years later.
+
+St Stephen’s Church, in Wolverhampton Street, was erected mainly through
+the exertions of its first vicar, the Rev. T. W. Fletcher, M.A., and
+opened in 1854, seven years after its ecclesiastical district had been
+formed.  Mr. Fletcher died in 1890, and the living is now held by the
+Rev. Herbert Percy Stevens, M.A.  This parish maintains a Parochial Hall
+and Mission at Portobello.
+
+St. Anne’s Church, Spring Bank, was built largely as a memorial to his
+wife by Mr. H. Jeavon.  It was consecrated in 1861.
+
+Holy Trinity Church (Short Heath) Vicarage and Schools were all built by
+the Rev. Dr. Rosedale, the first vicar of the parish, and father of the
+present vicar of St. Giles’s.  His labours commenced in a Mission Room at
+the Brown Jug Inn, Sandbeds, and he trained several very earnest men for
+the ministry, including the Rev. John Bailey, first vicar of the Pleck
+Church, Walsall, and the Rev. — Pritchard, vicar of Blakenall Church,
+Bloxwich.  The jubilee of the building of the church was held about 1905.
+The Rev. — Wood was the second vicar, the Rev. G. W. Johnson the third,
+and the present vicar is the Rev. G. C. W. Pimbury.
+
+A Mission Room at New Invention completes the list of Anglican
+Establishments in Willenhall.
+
+In connection with St. Giles’s a Men’s and a Junior Men’s Club have
+recently been established; and among other projects for further
+developments in the parochial machinery is a Mission Room at Shepwell
+Green.  This movement was initiated some years ago when the Rev. H.
+Edwards was acting as Curate during the illness of the Rev. Mr. Fisher; a
+site has recently been purchased, in the anticipation that the Mission in
+due time will develop into a new ecclesiastical parish.
+
+Dr. Hartill, as Churchwarden, was instrumental in securing a grant of
+£700 from a bequest of £15,000 left for Church objects by a Miss Green,
+with which to increase the endowment of Holy Trinity Church, Short Heath;
+this was supplemented by another £700 from the Ecclesiastical
+Commissioners; while in the following year a further sum of £700 from
+each source was also obtained for increasing the endowment of St. Anne’s
+Church.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.—The Fabric of the Church.
+
+
+As already discovered (Chapter VII.), a church has existed in Willenhall
+since the 13th century.  It was at first a small chapel-of-ease, and
+seems to have been dedicated in pre-Reformation times to a non-biblical
+patron, Saint Giles.
+
+The first edifice, as a mere chapel of accommodation, was in all
+probability a very primitive structure, constructed entirely of timber
+cut from the adjacent forest of Cannock.  But when it became a chantry
+also, the original structure may have been replaced by a more elaborate
+edifice, in the style which is generally known as half-timbered.
+
+Soon after the Reformation the mother church of Wolverhampton was pewed
+on a plan for the specifically allotted accommodation of all the
+parishioners, when the centre aisle was given to the inhabitants of
+Wolverhampton, the south aisle was set apart for the people of Bilston,
+and the north aisle was appropriated to Wednesfield and Willenhall.  In
+those days, as previously explained, the law supposed that every adult
+person attended church on Sundays; there was, in fact, a penalty for
+absence enforcible by law.
+
+With regard to Willenhall’s timber-constructed church, there is evidence
+that in 1660 it was in a deplorable condition through fire ravages.
+After the Reformation it became a practice for collections to be made in
+the churches throughout the country to provide funds for the repair or
+rebuilding of parish churches which had fallen into a state of
+dilapidation beyond the means of its own parishioners to make good; or
+for other charitable purposes in which the needs of the one seemed to
+call for the help of the many.  These collections were authorised to be
+made by Royal Letters Patent, through official documents known as Briefs;
+and entries of these are to be found in most Parish Registers till the
+middle of the 18th century, when their frequency through the complaisance
+of the Court of Chancery was considered such an abuse that it was ordered
+for the future that their issue should be granted only after a formal
+application to Quarter Sessions.  Thus we find records in the Tipton
+Registers of no less than seven collections made there between 1657 and
+1661 for the relief of distress through fire and other causes in Desford,
+Southwold, Drayton (Salop), Oxford, East Hogborne, Chichester, and Milton
+Abbey.
+
+Willenhall called for this form of national assistance in 1660, as
+entries of a Brief on its behalf have been found as far apart as Chatham,
+in Kent, and Woodborough, in Notts, and may doubtless be traced in
+various parish registers up and down the country.  Here is a copy of the
+Nottinghamshire entry:—
+
+                                                    September ye 23, 1660.
+
+    COLLECTED at ye Parish Church and among ye Inhabitants of Woodbourogh
+    for and towards the Reliefe of ye distressed inhabitants of
+    Willenhall, in ye County of Stafford, being Commended hityr [hereto]
+    by ye King’s Majestyes Letters Patents with ye gorat Sale [Great
+    Seal] for and towards their loss by fire, ye sum of 4s. 10d.
+
+    Witness,
+
+                                 JOHN ALLATT,
+
+                                                                 Minister.
+
+                                  JAMES JOB,
+                               HENRY MOORELAW,
+
+                                                            Churchwardens.
+
+[It has been romantically suggested by a local writer that the “burning
+of Willenhall” was an act of revenge perpetrated by the Puritans of
+Lichfield and the vicinity for the succour given at Bentley Hall in 1651
+to the fugitive Charles II.; and that these church collections are
+evidence of the personal interest taken by that monarch on his
+Restoration, in the place which had afforded him shelter in his hour of
+direst need.  Two considerations will immediately dispel any such
+illusion.  First, the Briefs were very commonplace affairs, as already
+shown; secondly, displays of Stuart gratitude were just as rare.  All the
+reward commonplace affairs, as already shown; secondly, displays of
+Stuart gratitude were just as rare.  All the reward Charles vouchsafed to
+the devoted Lanes was the cheap honour of an augmentation of the family
+arms, and the scanty gift of £1,000 to Jane Lane.  Allusion has been made
+(Chapter XIII.) to the Royal fugitive taking advantage of the
+hiding-place afford by the “priest’s hole” at Moseley Hall where Charles
+was loyally secreted by Jesuitic and other priestly adherents, though
+they might have pocketed a reward of £10,000 by betraying him—yet in
+after years this ungrateful prince had no compunction in signing more
+than twenty death warrants against Romanist priests, merely for the crime
+of being priests!]
+
+                         [Picture: Bentley Hall]
+
+To resume our history of Willenhall Church: What was manifestly a
+“restored” chapel was in 1727 consecrated by Edward, Lord Bishop of
+Coventry and Lichfield, on the same day that Bilston Chapel was
+consecrated; but the building could have been scarcely worth the attempt,
+as twenty years later it had to be entirely replaced.
+
+On August 14th of the year 1727, the Bishop having first consecrated
+Bilston Chapel, in the presence of a large assembly of the local clergy,
+which included the Rev. R. Ames and two other prebendaries; the vicars of
+Walsall and Dudley; Mr. Tyrer, curate of Tettenhall; Mr. Gibbons,
+minister of Codsall; Mr. Varden, rector of Darlaston; Mr. Perry, curate
+of Wednesbury; and Mr. Holbrooke, curate of Willenhall; his lordship
+proceeded to Willenhall in a coach and four, where the ceremony of
+Consecration “in Latine” was repeated upon what was merely a renovated
+building.  After which Squire Lane, of Bentley, gave a splendid
+entertainment in celebration of the event.
+
+A “chappel-yard for the Burial of the Dead,” which had been added, was
+consecrated at the same time, and, strangely enough—as if the
+parishioners of Willenhall were eager to signalise their acquisition of
+such a parochial institution as a graveyard—the first interment was made
+the selfsame day.
+
+About the middle of the eighteenth century there was a wave of zeal for
+church extension, on which we find Wolverhampton carried along rather
+freely; for within the short space of ten years, under the auspices of
+Dr. Pennistan Booth, the enterprising Dean, the building of four
+chapels-of-ease was projected.  These daughter churches were:—
+
+1746—Wednesfield (Advowson of which was vested in Walter Gough and his
+heirs).
+
+1748—Willenhall.
+
+1753—Bilston.
+
+1755—St. John’s (the new building was injured by fire, and not
+consecrated till 1760).
+
+From the Registers is gleaned the following issue of a writ to release
+sequestration of fees:—
+
+    Memorandum.  March 4, 1748.—The Faculty for Rebuilding and enlarging
+    ye Chapel of Willenhall authorized ye then present Ministr, ye Revd.
+    Titus Neve to charge and receive for Breaking up ye Ground or
+    Building a Vault in ye said Chapel ye sum of two Guineas and also one
+    Guinea for opening ye same at any time afterwards to him and his
+    successors.  The Intention of this Siquise was to prevent frequent
+    interments which are a common annoyance to ye Living Votaries for
+    whose use ye Chapel was erected.
+
+From the Diary of Dr. Richard Wilkes is extracted the following
+illuminative entry—a contemporary record of the state of the ancient
+edifice:—
+
+    May 6, 1748.—This day I set out the foundation of a new church in
+    this town; for the old one being half timber, the sills, pillars,
+    etc., were so decayed that the inhabitants, when they met together,
+    were in great danger of being killed.  It appeared to me, that the
+    old church must have been rebuilt, at least the middle aisle of it;
+    and that the first fabrick was greatly ornamented, and must have been
+    the gift of some rich man, or a number of such, the village then
+    being but thin of inhabitants, and, before the iron manufacture was
+    begun here, they could not have been able to erect such a fabrick;
+    but no date, or hint relating to it, was to be found; nor is anything
+    about it come to us by tradition.
+
+Willenhall’s rebuilt church was completed in 1749, and had a formal
+re-opening on October 30th of that year.  An entry in the Registers
+(which has already been quoted in Chapter XVIII.) seems to intimate that
+the regular services were not resumed till January 20th, 1750.
+
+This edifice was a fair specimen of the crudities which went to make up
+the “churchwarden architecture” of the period; consisting mainly of a
+plain, box-like nave, pierced on either side by half a dozen staring
+oblong windows, and having in the whole of its hulk not one curved line
+or rounded form by which relief could be afforded to the eye at any
+single point.  At one end of this unimposing structure was a flattened
+scutiform excrescence which served as the chancel; from the others rose
+the tower, the only feature by which the building could be recognised as
+a church.  The tower, not to put the rest of the church out of
+countenance, was equally crude; its window piercings being as debased in
+the Gothic style as was its cornice in quasi-classical; and topped as it
+was by a low-pitched hipped roof or squat pyramid, from the point of
+which rose high into the air the famous Willenhall weathercock—the brazen
+bird flaunting itself aloft, as if deriving its defiance from the
+aggressive-looking furcated finials which surrounded it at the four
+angles.
+
+This church endured only for about a century, being replaced in 1867 by
+the present edifice, erected at a cost of £7,000, raised by public
+subscription.  The Chairman of the Committee for the rebuilding was Mr.
+R. D. Gough, who, with his wife, contributed £1,700.  Other large
+contributors were Mrs. Stokes (with £505), and the Vicar and Trustees
+(who gave £1,000).
+
+St. Giles’s Church is now a substantial stone building in the Decorated
+style, consisting of nave, aisles, chancel and transepts, and having at
+the west end a lofty square tower, terminated with a pinnacle at each
+angle.  The new fane was soon adorned by the insertion of a number of
+stained glass windows; the large east window was presented by Mr. R. D.
+Gough; others were given by the Lords of the Manor of Stow Heath
+(emblazoning the arms of Leveson-Gower and Giffard); by the Earl of
+Lichfield and the Rev. Charles Lane (also heraldically distinguished);
+one was put in as a memorial to members of the Clemson family; and
+another to commemorate Mrs. Anwell, a connection of the Gough family.
+
+The work of enlarging the church was undertaken in 1897 in memory of the
+late Incumbent, Mr. Fisher; and a fine organ was installed in celebration
+of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.  Also at the same time choir stalls
+were introduced, the choristers being brought from the gallery, which
+latter feature was rightly removed altogether.  Among the improvements
+promoted by the Incumbent and his energetic churchwardens, Dr. John T.
+Hartill and Mr. H. H. Walker, of Bentley Hall, were the enlargement of
+the churchyard and the scheme for providing a church house.
+
+As the new incumbent, Mr. Rosedale, was a nephew of Mrs. Gough, the
+generous contributor to the rebuilding fund of 1865–7, just mentioned, it
+was suggested that the house she occupied might fittingly be transformed
+to serve as a Parsonage.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+Almost from the time pews were first put into churches, seats became
+appurtenant to certain family mansions, and by custom descended from
+ancestor to heir, without any ecclesiastical concurrence.  Instances of
+such proprietary pews having been bequeathed by will have occurred in
+Willenhall within comparatively recent times.  Here is an extract from
+the will of Thomas Hartill, dated June 5th, 1777:—
+
+    I give and bequeath to my Son, Abraham Hartill, the fourth part of a
+    seat in the Chapel, No. 4 in B row an all so one 4 part of a seat in
+    F row near the Dore. . . . and I bequeath to my Daughter, Phœbe Read,
+    one Fourth part of a seate No. 4 in B row and also one Fourth part of
+    a seate in the Chapel in F row near the Dore.
+
+Similar testamentary disposals appear in the will of Isaac Hartill, dated
+27 May, 1818:—
+
+    I give and devise to my Son, Isaac Hartill, all that my moiety or
+    half part of the seat or pew, being No. 10 in the South Aisle within
+    the Church or Chapel of Willenhall aforesaid, to hold to him my said
+    son, Isaac, his heirs and assigns tor ever. . . .
+
+    I give and devise unto my said Son, Ephraim Hartill, one moiety or
+    equal half part of, and in my seat, or pew, being number 4 in the
+    South Aisle within the Church or Chapel aforesaid, to hold to my said
+    Son, Ephraim, his Heirs, and assigns for ever.  And I also give and
+    devise unto my daughter, Mary Atkins, the other moiety or equal half
+    part or share of the said last mentioned seat or pew, to hold to my
+    said Daughter Mary Atkins, her heirs and assigns for ever.
+
+Of like purport is the following extract from codicil to the will of
+Samuel Hartill, dated June 9, 1821; probate Nov. 12, 1821:—
+
+    I give devise and bequeath to my nephew Henry Bratt, all that my seat
+    or pew or part or share thereof being number eleven in A in
+    Willenhall Church, to hold to him his heirs, executors administrators
+    or assigns according to the tenure of the said property.  I give
+    devise and bequeath to my Brother-in-law, Isaac Hartill in my Will
+    named all my other Seats or Pews or parts or shares of seats or pews
+    in Willenhall Church aforesaid to hold to him his heirs executors
+    administrators or assigns according to the tenure of the said
+    property.
+
+Thus much in witness of the heritable nature of Church Pews; now for
+documentary evidences of the trafficking in such properties (all relating
+to Willenhall Church):—
+
+    19, Jan., 1750.  Recd. of Tho. Harthil, John Parker and Joseph Wood
+    three pound one and sixpence for the seat behind ye Dore in F,
+    sixteen shillings and sixpence being allow’d them for 6s. 8d. of
+    ground by
+
+                                                            RICHD. WILKES.
+
+                                    A 12.
+
+    6 Jan, 1750.—Recd. of Jos. Clemson, Jos. Chandler.  Jo’n Buttler,
+    Jo’n Turner, Jno. Smith, Stephen Perry, the Sum of two Ginnies for
+    Wainscots and for 2ft. 3in. of Ground five and sevenpence halfpenny
+    by
+
+                                                            RICHD. WILKES.
+
+    £2 7s. 7½d.
+
+    “I hereby acknowledge that I have this day had and received from
+    Abraham Hartill . . . the sum of One Pound Fifteen Shillings for the
+    full and absolute purchase sale value and Consideration of all those
+    my sittings kneelings Parts or shares of and in two different seats
+    or pews and standing and being on the left-hand side in the first Ile
+    and numbered with the figures 11 and 12 in the Church or Chapel of
+    Willenhall aforesaid, and which said sittings kneelings Parts or
+    shares of the said seats or pews I do hereby Warrant unto the said
+    Abraham Hartill his Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns against me, my
+    Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns and that I my Heirs Exors, Admors or
+    Assigns shall and will at any time or times hereafter upon the
+    request and Costs of the said Abraham Hartill His Heirs &c. . . .
+    execute any further or other Conveyances and Assurance of the said
+    sittings, &c. . . . unto and to the use of the said Abraham Hartill .
+    . . free from all manner of Incumbrances whatsoever and the said
+    Abraham Hartill Doth hereby agree for Francis Chandler and Ann his
+    wife to use and enjoy that part or share of the above seat or pew
+    numbered 11 for and during the term of their Natural lives and for
+    the longest survivor of them without expence, but for no other
+    privilege to be allowed to any other person Whatsoever.  In Witness
+    whereof the said Francis Chandler the seller of the above sittings
+    kneelings parts or shares of the seats or pews above mentioned hath
+    set his hand this nineteenth day of February 1790.
+
+    Witness
+
+                                                         FRANCIS CHANDLER.
+
+    Wm. Perkin.
+    Saml Hartill.”
+
+    “Received January 24 1783 of Isaac Hartill The Sum of Two Pounds in
+    full for Halfe a Seat Number 10 in E In Willenhall Chappell
+
+    By mee The Mark X of RICHD. HARTILL.
+    Witness Jonah Hartill.”
+
+    “Willenhall April 26th 1791  Received then of Abrm Hartill Thirteen
+    Shillings For my Whole Right in a seat in the Chapel No. 12 in A Row.
+
+                                                           STEPHEN PERREY.
+
+    Willenhall April 26th 1791 Received then of.”
+
+Of this last voucher there is a duplicate copy bearing a twopenny receipt
+stamp.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.—Dissent, Nonconformity, and Philanthrophy.
+
+
+Inasmuch as Bentley Hall lies within the confines of Willenhall, this
+place must always be associated with the rise and early history of
+Wesleyanism.  The episode of John Wesley being haled by the Wednesbury
+rioters before Justice Lane at Bentley Hall (1743) belongs to the general
+history of the denomination, and there is no need to repeat the story
+here.
+
+The reader may be referred to “The History of Methodism in the Wednesbury
+Circuit,” by the Rev. W. J. Wilkinson, published by J. M. Price,
+Darlaston, 1895; and for ampler detail to “Religious Wednesbury,” by the
+present writer, 1900.
+
+That the evangelical missioning of John Wesley was peculiarly suited to
+the religious and social needs of the eighteenth century, and nowhere
+more so than among the proletariat of the mining and manufacturing
+Midlands, is now a generally accepted truism.  There is no direct
+evidence that the great evangelist himself ever preached in Willenhall,
+but the appearance on the scene of some of the earliest Methodist
+preachers may be taken for granted.  For were not the prevailing sins of
+cockfighting and bull-baiting, and all the other popular brutalities of
+the period, to be combated in Willenhall as much as in Darlaston or
+Wednesbury?  And where the harvest was, were not the reapers always
+forthcoming?
+
+According to Mr. A. Camden Pratt, in his “Black Country Methodism,” the
+earliest Methodist services were open-air meetings held round a big
+boulder at the corner of Monmore Lane.  Then the nucleus of a Willenhall
+congregation was formed at a cottage in Ten House Row; outgrowing its
+accommodation here, a removal was next made to a farmhouse with a
+commodious kitchen at Hill End.
+
+The leaders and preachers came from Darlaston, and it was not till 1830
+that Willenhall was favoured with a resident “travelling preacher,” and
+the provision of a Wesleyan Chapel—it was on the site of the present
+Wesleyan Day Schools.  The cause flourished and grew mightily; chapels
+were established at Short Heath and Portobello, on the Walsall Road
+(1865), and on Spring Bank.
+
+Mr. Pratt pays a high tribute to the efforts of the Tildesleys and the
+Harpers, but with a sense of justice he does not forget the mead of
+gratitude always due to those early pioneers from Darlaston, placing on
+the same bright scroll of fame the names of Foster, Wilkes, Rubery,
+Silcock, Bowen, and Banks.
+
+In the earlier history of local Wesleyanism, one of its chief supporters
+was James Carpenter, founder of the existing firm of Carpenter and
+Tildesley.  Another pillar of Wesleyanism was Jonah Tildesley, followed
+later in the good work by his two sons, Josiah and Jesse, his grandson
+Thomas, George Ley Pearce, and Isaac Pedley; and in a lesser degree by
+James Tildesley (who married Harriet Carpenter), and the late John
+Harper, founder of the Albion Works, now the largest place of employment
+in the town.
+
+One outcome of the Wesleyan spirit was seen about the year 1820, when
+James Carpenter, George Pearce, William Whitehouse, and other leading
+inhabitants made a determined effort to put down some of the coarser
+sports by which the annual Wake was celebrated.  Through their
+instrumentality many of the ringleaders in the brutal sports were
+summoned and brought to justice.  The reformers dared to go even
+further—they lodged a complaint with the bishop of the diocese against
+“Parson Moreton” for encouraging these barbarous pastimes among the
+people.  The bishop, however, professed that he was powerless to deal
+with the delinquent, owing to the exceptional manner in which he was
+appointed to the living.  But the parson on his part was very wroth, and
+from his pulpit he solemnly forbade any one of the name of Carpenter,
+Pearce, or Whitehouse ever to enter the portals of Willenhall Church.
+
+It cannot be said the injunction was enforced; but it is a fact that from
+that time many church-goers were driven into the Methodist fold.
+
+The romantic side of the evangelisation of the Black Country has been
+idealised by Mr. J. C. Tildesley in his “Sketches of Early Methodism,” a
+series of short stories founded on fact, and giving most graphic pictures
+of the moral and social condition of the neighbourhood at that time.
+This little volume may be regarded almost as one of the classics of the
+Wesleyan Book Room.
+
+A short history of local Methodism, it may be mentioned, was deposited in
+the memorial stones of Wednesfield Chapel in 1885.
+
+The existing Wesleyan Chapels, now under the direction of the Rev. A.
+Hann and the Rev. Walter Fytche, are five in number, namely, Union
+Street, Walsall Road, Monmer Lane, Short Heath, and High Street,
+Portobello.  Though the denomination may be as strong as ever
+numerically, it can scarcely hope to rival its old-time membership in
+verve and vigour.  In England fighting days never fail to produce
+fighting men.
+
+Primitive Methodism first established itself at Monmer Lane, and then
+removed to Little London, but did not meet with much success at the
+outset, though it has now four flourishing chapels in the township.  They
+are all at present under the direction of the Rev. C. L. Tack, and
+situated respectively at New Invention, Spring Bank, Lane Head, and
+Russell Street.
+
+Nonconformity was first brought into Willenhall from Coseley, the
+brethren of the famous Darkhouse Chapel establishing a colony at Little
+London, where eventually they erected a pioneer Baptist Chapel.  Of this
+chapel the Rev. A. Tettmar is now in charge; a second chapel in Upper
+Lichfield Street, at which the Rev. D. L. Lawrence ministers, and a third
+Baptist Chapel in New Road testify to the growth of the denomination in
+Willenhall.  At one time the Baptists had day schools in the town.
+
+The Roman Catholics first made their appearance in modern Willenhall some
+sixty years ago, when they established a small mission at the bottom of
+Union Street, afterwards building their resent chapel, which is dedicated
+to St. Mary, and of which the Rev. Walter Poulton (in succession to the
+Rev. W. P. Wells) is priest.
+
+A mission of the Catholic Apostolic Brethren, served from Wolverhampton,
+completes the list of religious agencies now at work in Willenhall.
+
+In the religious and social history of the place mention cannot be
+omitted of some few names which have earned the respect of the
+townspeople.  Among them, James Tildesley, a large employer of labour,
+whose amiability, and kindness of heart exemplified that patriarchal
+relationship which once existed between master and men, anterior to the
+days of modern limited liability companies; George Ley Pearce, a Wesleyan
+of marked personality, and an eminently good man, whose memorial in the
+old Cemetery is thus inscribed:—
+
+                                   ERECTED
+                    by voluntary subscription in memory of
+                              GEORGE LEY PEARCE
+                               (of Willenhall),
+                        who died December 31st, 1873,
+                                   Aged 78;
+                    And was buried in the adjacent vault.
+
+                                  * * * * *
+
+     For fifty years he zealously devoted himself to the work of visiting
+      the sick and afflicted of this town, whether rich or poor, and was
+                        made a great blessing to many.
+
+    His work was the outward expression of that Christ-like charity which
+                              pervaded his soul.
+
+                                  * * * * *
+
+The opportunity to do good to our fellowmen comes to all, irrespective of
+sect or sex.  One to embrace it with goodwill was Edith Florence Hartill,
+daughter of William Henry Hartill, who worked long and steadfastly in
+connection with the Bible Reading Union, never relaxing her efforts for
+the uplifting of the very poorest and most helpless of the community.
+
+In the Market Place stands a public clock mounted upon a stone pedestal,
+having a watering-trough for cattle at its base.  This was erected, as an
+inscription upon it testifies, as a memorial to the late Joseph Tonks,
+surgeon, “whose generous and unsparing devotion in the cause of
+alleviating human suffering” was “deemed worthy of public record.”  The
+memorialised, Mr. Joseph Tonks, M.R.C.S.E., L.A.H., was a native of the
+town, being a son of Mr. Silas Tonks, of the Forge Inn, Spring Bank.  He
+began to practise in Willenhall about 1879, and soon made himself
+extremely popular among the working classes, and particularly with the
+Friendly Societies, who initiated the movement to provide this public
+memorial.
+
+Without sorting into sects and creeds, let it be acknowledged that
+Willenhall has been fortunate in the number of its townsmen whose lives
+have been usefully and commendably spent in the public service and for
+the public good.  Among those whose influence on the social and moral
+well-being of the place has not been without appreciable benefit, may be
+named Joseph Carpenter Tildesley, R. D. Gough, Josiah Tildesley, Clement
+Tildesley, Jesse Tildesley, Isaac Pedley, Henry Hall, Thomas Kidson,
+Henry Vaughan, W. E. Parkes, and J. H. James.  Other appreciations will
+occur in our concluding chapters, as the names more fittingly happen
+under the topics yet to be dealt with.
+
+Having brought to a conclusion Willenhall’s ecclesiastical and religious
+history—and the largeness with which the church bulked on the lives of
+the people in past times must be held accountable for the lengthiness of
+this portion—we may now turn to the further consideration of its civil,
+social, and industrial history.
+
+                      [Picture: Decorative pattern]
+
+
+
+
+XXV.—Manorial Government.
+
+
+Willenhall is a township of some 1,980 acres in extent, carved out of the
+ancient parish of Wolverhampton, and situated midway between that town
+and the town of Walsall, being about three miles distant from either.
+Strangely enough, Willenhall is included in the Hundred of Offlow,
+although Wolverhampton, of which it once formed a part, is in Seisdon
+Hundred.  Willenhall has never been a civil parish (as previously
+explained), nor has it been a market town; the small open market held in
+its streets each week-end having grown up by prescription, but never
+legally established by grant of charter.
+
+The place grew up as a hamlet on the banks of a little stream, just on
+the verge of Cannock Forest.  As a village community it seems to have
+been subject, so soon as its outer limits had been defined, to three
+territorial lords.  Reference to Chapter VI. will disclose that at
+Domesday (1086) three hides of land in Willenhall belonged to the king,
+and were part of the royal manor of Stowheath; two hides were the
+property of the Church of Wolverhampton, and constituted the prebendal
+manor of Willenhall; and a century or two later, the manor of Bentley,
+evidently carved out of the royal forest of Cannock, became included
+within this township.
+
+Of STOWHEATH MANOR, the portions lying within Willenhall are a small part
+of the modern township, together with Short Heath, New Invention,
+Lanehead, Sandbeds, Little London, and Portobello.  The remainder of this
+manor stretches beyond the Willenhall boundary into Bilston and
+Wolverhampton.
+
+To a manor or lordship was usually attached a Court Baron, or domestic
+court of the lord, for the settling of disputes relating to property
+among the tenants, and for redressing misdemeanours and nuisances arising
+within the manor.  The business was transacted by a jury or homage
+elected by and from the tenants.
+
+How far the customary officers were chosen every year by the Willenhall
+Court Baron cannot now be ascertained.  Doubtless appointments were made
+from time to time of such manorial tears as Hedgers and Ditchers, to look
+after the highways and byways, a Common Pinner to impound stray cattle,
+and Head boroughs or Petty Constables “to apprehend all vagrom men” whose
+room was esteemed more highly than their company.
+
+The present lords of the Manor of Stowheath are the Duke of Sutherland,
+and W. T. C. Giffard, Esq., of Chillington; the Steward of the Manor is
+Mr. W. E. Stamer, of Lilleshall; and the Deputy-Steward Mr. Frederick T.
+Langley, of Wolverhampton.  The Court Bailiff is Mr. H. G. Duncalfe, of
+Wolverhampton, but none of the ancient customary officers are now
+elected; and as most of the copyholds have been enfranchised, no Court
+Baron for Stowheath has been held in Willenhall since 22nd December,
+1865; till then it had taken place annually for many years at the house
+of Mr. George Baker, the Neptune Inn.  Subsequently this manorial court
+was held at the Bank, Cock Street, Wolverhampton, and now more privately
+at the offices of the Deputy-Steward, in that town, which was anciently
+within the jurisdiction of two manors, Stowheath and Wolverhampton.
+
+THE MANOR OF WILLENHALL, which, though prebendal, is impropriate,
+comprises the rest of the township; of this manor the Baron Barnard is
+the present lord, and the sole recipient of all tithes from Willenhall,
+Short Heath, and Wednesfield.
+
+A glimpse of the mediæval village of Willenhall was obtained in Chapters
+VIII. and XI.; it is clear the prebendal manor remained always a taxable
+area for the mere production of tithes, and it was the royal manor of
+Stowheath, when it had passed into the hands of a subject, which
+developed into the community in the midst of which the “mansum capitale,”
+or manor house, was erected.
+
+By whom or when a manor house was first set up in Willenhall is not
+known; but it is not improbable that the lordship of Stowheath, soon
+after it passed out of the hands of the King, was acquired by a Leveson,
+who seated himself on the estate, reserving to himself the portion which
+lay nearest his mansion (demesne lands), and distributing the rest among
+his tenants (tenemental lands).
+
+The house in which the Levesons resided, as previously recorded, was
+situated on the east side of Stafford Street; the Midland Railway now
+runs through the site, but before the line was cut, and whilst the mines
+remained ungotten, traces of its ancient moat were clearly discernible.
+
+The residence now known as the Manor House, and occupied by Dr J. T.
+Hartill, though it has no connection with the manorial mansion of the
+Leveson family, is not without some association with the manorial form of
+government.  It appears that upwards of half a century ago, when the late
+Jeremiah Hartill (uncle of the present occupant of the house) was taking
+his full share in the public life of Willenhall, it was most difficult,
+if not next to impossible, to get copyhold land in this manor
+enfranchised.
+
+At that time there was a very considerable amount of property in
+Willenhall held by this old-world tenure, and this induced Mr. Jeremiah
+Hartill to take a very prominent part in the local efforts which were
+then being made to introduce the principle of compulsory enfranchisement.
+As the result of a national movement in this direction an Act was passed
+in 1841 to provide a statutory method of enfranchisement; and the matter
+was carried still further in 1852 by another Act, which introduced the
+principle of compulsory enfranchisement.
+
+Mr. Hartill had at that time recently built himself a new house (1847),
+when, as the local leader in a movement which had been brought so far on
+the road to success, he was invited to a public dinner in recognition of
+his public-spirited efforts.  One of the speakers at the banquet, in
+proposing the health of the guest of the evening, suggested that as Mr.
+Jeremiah Hartill had fought so successfully in helping to overcome the
+opposition of the Lords of the Manor to this measure of land reform, his
+new house might not inappropriately be dubbed the Manor House.  The
+suggestion was heartily (no pun intended) approved by all present, and by
+that name the house has ever since been known.
+
+The names of the chief residents in Willenhall in 1327 may be gleaned
+from the Subsidy Roll given in Chapter IX.; very similar names occur in
+another list of the taxpayers to the Scotch War of 1333.  Some few held
+land under certain specified rents and free services, and from these came
+the earliest freeholders; many more held by the baser tenure of the
+lord’s will, and having nothing to show except the copy of the rolls made
+by the Steward of the Lord’s Court, were known as copyholders.
+
+The vast importance of these Court Rolls may be gathered from Chapter
+XXI.  The Court Rolls of the Manor of Stowheath now in existence commence
+on 4 January, 1645; but in the chapter referred to mention of a “Leete”
+being held in Wolverhampton much earlier will be found.
+
+The residue of the Manor being uncultivated, was termed the lord’s waste,
+and served for public roads, and for common or pasture to both the lord
+and his tenants.  Reference to the enclosure of the last remnants of the
+“waste” was quoted in the Report of 1825 on the Tomkys and Welch
+Charities (Chapter XXII.).
+
+There were two kinds of enclosures, however, all made in the last few
+centuries; the enclosure of the open commons or wastes, and the enclosure
+of the common fields.  “Willenhall Field,” mentioned in the “Report on
+Prestwood’s Dole,” as lying along the highway towards Darlaston, was
+arable land, not pasture.  For anciently there was a common field system
+in every parish, and “Willenhall Field” was the area cultivated
+co-operatively by the whole of the parishioners or group of individuals.
+
+In 1377 the MANOR OF BENTLEY was held “in capite,” that is, direct from
+the King, by one who called himself after his estate, William de Bentley.
+He held it for rendering to Edward III. the feudal service of “Keeping”
+the King’s Hay of Bentley within the royal Forest of Cannock—the Forest
+was then divided into a number of “hays” or bailiwicks.  (See “Chronicles
+of Cannock Chase,” p. 14.)
+
+The estate seems to have descended to him from his grandfather, to whom
+it had been granted in the reign of Edward II.; and it is noteworthy that
+his wife, Alianora, was a Leveson.
+
+In 1421 William Griffiths established his right to Bentley, and in 1430
+it was conveyed to Richard Lone de la Hide.  Of the family of this
+Richard Lone of the Hyde there were afterwards two branches; one, the
+Hamptons, of Stourton Castle, and the other, the Lanes, of Bentley.
+
+The halo of romance which grew up around Bentley Hall during the
+seigniory of the Lanes is well known.  It was the scene of Charles II.’s
+wonderful escape from the Roundheads, under the protection of Jane Lane,
+whom he was afterwards wont to call his “Guardian Angel”; it was the
+critical scene of John Wesley’s adventure in the hands of the Wednesbury
+mob.  The mansion has since been rebuilt.
+
+The Lanes sold the Manor of Bentley in 1748 to Joseph Turton, of
+Wolverhampton, and he in turn sold it to the first Lord Anson, ancestor
+of the present holder.
+
+The Manor comprises 1,200 acres, none of which is now copyhold.  There
+was formerly a Court Leet jurisdiction, but everything connected with
+ancient manorial government has disappeared.  The Earl of Lichfield is
+sole owner, except for a few acres belonging to the church, and the
+portions which have been acquired by the local authority for the Cemetery
+and the Sewerage Works.
+
+Bentley is a parish without a church, or a chapel, and until the
+Willenhall District Council recently made a Cemetery there, it was also
+without a burial ground.
+
+Bentley has but a scant population, and contains not a single inn.  Its
+living history seems to have centred almost entirely round the old family
+mansion of the Lanes.
+
+In 1660 a tax was levied on the fire-hearth of every dwelling-house, and
+the amount collected under this grievous impost in Willenhall was
+returned as £9 14s. 3d., representing 97 hearths.  These figures seem to
+indicate that in the reign of Charles II. the population of the place,
+including the large hall at Bentley, could not have exceeded 500.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.—Modern Self-Government.
+
+
+For centuries the Manorial and the Parochial forms of government ran
+together side by side in this country, till these two antiquated ideas of
+feudal lordship and church temporalities had to give way before the
+growing democratic principle of elective representation, and they were
+eventually supplanted by the modern methods of popular self-government.
+
+In the reign of Elizabeth—say, half a century after the suppression of
+the monasteries which had hitherto succoured the poor—we get the first of
+our Poor Laws, accompanied by the rise of the Overseer, and by much added
+importance to the office of Churchwarden, or, as he was called in
+Willenhall, the Chapel-warden.  The establishment of Church doles goes a
+long way to explain how strenuously the community strove to evade its
+liability to the poor, and it is probable that Willenhall did not
+establish its small workhouse till the eighteenth century.  This was
+superseded when the Wolverhampton Union was constituted in 1834.
+
+In 1776 the sum of £294 14s. 3d. had to be collected for poor rates in
+Willenhall, a sum which by 1785 had grown to £548 14s. 2d., and which for
+some years later averaged upwards of £500.
+
+The Vestry, or public assembly of parishioners, would supplement these
+feeble efforts at local government by choosing not only Chapelwardens,
+but Parish Constables and the Waywardens.  The custody of the stocks was
+entrusted to the former, while the latter were supposed to superintend
+the amateur efforts of the parishioners to repair their own highways,
+every one being then liable to furnish either manual labour or team work
+for this laudable public purpose.
+
+Publicly elected and unsalaried Waywardens were naturally but feeble
+instruments to work with; so in the early nineteenth century, when
+coaching was at its zenith, this antiquated and ineffective system was
+superseded in Willenhall, as in many other places, by an elected Highway
+Board, charged with the duty of looking after all highways and common
+streets, ancient bridges, ditches, and watercourses.  In a dilettante
+sort of way this Board was also a sanitary body.
+
+In 1734 Willenhall is recorded to have suffered from a plague called the
+“Bloody flux,” which carried away its victims in a very few hours after
+the seizure.  It is stated in the Parish Registers that there were buried
+in this year 82 persons, which was 67 in excess of the previous year.
+The population then was under 1,000.
+
+Cholera and other epidemic scourges having made it apparent that beyond
+preserving the peace and mending the roads, the paramount duty of local
+self-government was to protect the people’s health, Willenhall in 1854
+showed itself alive to this fact by adopting the new Public Health Acts
+and calling into being its first Local Board.
+
+Nothing can convey an idea of the material blessings which resulted from
+this better than a glance at the vital statistics relating to Willenhall.
+The death-rate per thousand—
+
+From 1845 to 1851 was       29
+,, 1851 ,, 1860 ,,          26.8
+,, 1861 ,, 1870 „           23.8
+„ 1891 ,, 1900 ,,           20.2
+„ 1901 „ 1906 „             16.9
+
+It was not till 1866, however, that the Board appointed its first medical
+officer of health, Dr. Parke.  He was shortly afterwards succeeded by Mr.
+William Henry Hartill, and upon his death, in 1888, the present medical
+officer of heath, Dr. J. T. Hartill, was appointed.  The chief executive
+officers in succession have been Mr. E. Wilcox (who was not a solicitor),
+Mr. John Clark, and the present clerk, Mr. Rowland Tildesley, appointed
+in 1894.
+
+In the meantime the population, particularly in the newer outlying
+districts, had been growing rapidly.  The population of Willenhall at the
+first national census in 1801 was only 3,143, and the growth in the early
+decades was slow, as these figures disclose:
+
+In 1811 the population was        3,523
+,, 1821                           3,965
+,, 1831                           5,834
+„ 1841                            8,695
+,, 1851                           11,933
+,, 1861                           17,256
+
+With the growth thus becoming so rapid, it was thought desirable, in
+1872, to erect Short Heath into a separate Sanitary Authority.  The area
+allotted to the Short Heath Board of Health was that north of the
+Birmingham Canal, but the village of Short Heath itself remained part of
+the Township of Willenhall.
+
+The census returns for Willenhall, minus Short Heath, have
+
+1871 it had a population of       15,903
+1881                              16,067
+1891                              16,851
+1901                              18,515
+
+After the passing of Sir H. H. Fowler’s Local Government Act in 1895,
+both authorities became Urban District Councils.  Short Heath then as a
+separate township had its area extended to take in Short Heath village,
+with New Invention, Lanehead, Sandbeds, Lucknow, Fibbersley, in addition
+to the former Local Board district, together with a slice from the old
+Wednesfield Local Board district added on its Essington side.
+
+No part of what used to be called Stow Heath was in Willenhall Township,
+the extreme western boundary of the latter being Stow Heath Lane.
+
+Modern Willenhall, although without public parks or pleasure grounds, and
+not yet possessing public baths, is fairly well equipped for its size and
+rateable value.  It has its Public Offices, but no Town Hall; it has a
+Free Library, established in 1875, and a full complement of efficient
+primary schools.  In 1877 it established its own School Board under the
+Act of 1870, but under the later Act of 1902 its educational affairs
+became vested in the Staffordshire County Council.
+
+Willenhall had its own Waterworks at Monmore Lane as early as 1852; it
+now takes its supply from the Wolverhampton Corporation, who purchased
+the old works in 1868.  Its old Gas Works in Lower Lichfield Street have
+been taken over by Short Heath; and Willenhall is now supplied by the
+Willenhall Gas Company, the present system of public street lighting
+being that of the very efficient incandescent burner.
+
+The Sewerage of the town was completed in 1890.  There are two public
+cemeteries; the Old Cemetery provided about 1851 under the Burial Acts,
+and the newer one at Bentley, established under the Act of 1879.
+
+The Police are, as in most townships, under the control of the
+Staffordshire County Council; and Petty Sessions are held once a week (on
+Mondays).  Seventy years ago Willenhall had a Court of Requests for the
+recovery of debts up to £5.
+
+For Parliamentary representation Willenhall formed a portion of
+Staffordshire till the great Reform Bill of 1832 made Wolverhampton a
+borough, when it became part of that more important urban constituency.
+
+For communication with the outer world Willenhall has had the advantage
+of the London and North-Western Railway from the earliest possible
+time—since the “Grand Junction Railway” (commenced in 1835) was opened to
+public traffic on July 4th, 1837.  Great were the rejoicings, and
+prodigious the wonderment when the first train passed through on that
+memorable day.  Since the later decades of the last century the Midland
+Railway has also tapped Willenhall.
+
+The town is equally well supplied with tramways; the Wolverhampton
+District Electric Tramways, Limited, controlling three lines, to
+Wolverhampton, to Bilston, and Darlaston respectively; while the Walsall
+Corporation afford facilities for communication with their thriving and
+go-ahead borough.  It is worthy of note that the old-fashioned carrier’s
+cart is not obsolete in Willenhall; this is probably because its staple
+industries provide so many small parcels for transmission to
+Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and other centres not too far distant.
+
+The Wyrley and Essington Canal for heavy traffic was made in 1792, and is
+still a useful highway, particularly to the Cannock Chase Collieries.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.—The Town of Locks and Keys.
+
+
+Willenhall is “the town of locks and keys”; its staple industry has been
+described in such graceful and felicitous terms by Elihu Burritt (see his
+“Walks in the Black Country,” pp. 206–214, written in 1868) that the
+present writer at once confesses the inadequacy of his poor pen to say
+anything new on the subject, engaging as it is.
+
+The great American writer, be it noted, does not fail at the very outset
+to pay a well-deserved tribute to James Carpenter Tildesley, as the
+foremost authority on the subject, and compliments him on the versatility
+displayed in his article on Locks and Keys, contributed to that
+co-operative literary work, “Birmingham and the Midland Hardware
+District,” which was specially issued for the British Association meeting
+at Birmingham in 1865.
+
+The lockmakers of antiquity worked in wood and not in metal, a key
+consisting of hard wood pegs being made to turn in a wooden lock of loose
+pegs.  The Romans first introduced the iron key with wards instead of
+pegs.
+
+The subject is full of interest; for lock-making is among the most
+ancient of the mechanical crafts, and has for centuries afforded a wide
+and ample scope as one of the branches of industrial art.  As in many
+other industrial crafts the religious enthusiasm of the Middle Ages
+impelled the artist-mechanic to throw his whole soul into the
+manipulation and adornment of his keys, key-hole escutcheons, and other
+parts of door-fastening furniture.  With his steel pencil and gravers,
+his chisels and his drills, the craftsman of olden times produced an
+article of utility which was at the same time a work of art.  Will the
+Art Classes of modern Willenhall be able to achieve as much for the
+staple industry of the town as did the whole-souled enthusiasm of the
+Middle Ages?
+
+The Gothic key, usually of iron or of bronze, was generally plain; but
+after the Renaissance the best efforts of the locksmiths’ art were
+directed to the decoration of the bow and the shaft, and many finely
+wrought specimens of ornamental old keys are still in existence.
+
+On the utilitarian side of our subject, industrial history records that
+we are indebted to the Chinese for unpickable locks of the lever and
+tumbler principle; and to the Dutch for the combination or letter-lock.
+The latter ingenious contrivance contained four revolving rings, on which
+were engraved the letters of the alphabet, and they had to be turned in
+such a way as to spell some pre-arranged word of four letters, as O P E
+N, or A M E N, before the lock could be opened.
+
+Allusion to this complex contrivance is made by the poet Carew in some
+verses written in the year 1620—
+
+    As doth a lock
+    That goes with letters—for till every one be known
+    The lock’s as fast as if you had found none.
+
+Mechanical ingenuity in lock making has also expanded itself along the
+line of marvellous miniatures, in the production of toy locks so small
+that they could be worn as pendants or personal ornaments.  Allusion will
+presently be made to a Willenhall specimen.
+
+Another ingenious variety of locks was contrived to grab and hold the
+fingers of pilferers.
+
+The first patent granted in England for a lock was in 1774; ten years
+later Joseph Bramah, of London, “the Napoleon of locks,” patented his
+famous production, with which he challenged the whole world.  The reward
+of 200 guineas which he offered to anyone who could pick his lock
+remained unclaimed for many years, till in the Exhibition year 1851 an
+American visitor named Hobbs took up the challenge, and succeeded, after
+a few days of persevering experiment, in overcoming the inviolability of
+it.
+
+The sensation caused by this achievement was almost of national
+dimensions; but of more importance was the decided impetus it have to the
+inventive skill of lock makers, by demonstrating that Bramah had not yet
+arrived at finality in lock making; a great number of further
+improvements were soon forthcoming in the manufacture of these goods.
+
+Chubb’s patent was granted in 1818; this inventor declared it was
+possible to have the locks on the doors of every house in London opened
+by a different key, and yet have a master-key that would pass the whole
+of them.  Chubb’s world-famous concern is now located at Wolverhampton.
+
+Dr. Plot, writing of this county in 1686, makes no mention of the trade
+being carried on in Willenhall, but gives some account of it in
+Wolverhampton; gossiping pleasantly on “sutes” of six or more locks,
+passable by one master-key, being sold round the country by the chapmen
+of his time; of the finely wrought keys he had seen; of the curious
+tell-tale locks which recorded the times they had been opened; and of one
+valuable Wolverhampton specimen containing chimes which could be set to
+“go” at any particular hour.
+
+A local writer has said—on what authority is not stated—that Queen
+Elizabeth granted to the township of Willenhall the privilege of making
+all the locks required for State purposes; and argues from that
+profitable piece of State patronage the rapid growth of Willenhall, as
+evidenced by the fact that in 1660 when the Hearth Tax came to be levied
+this place paid on 13 more hearths than the mother town of Wolverhampton.
+
+Dr. Wilkes has recorded that in his time Willenhall consisted of one long
+street, newly paved; and he then proceeds to say:—
+
+    “The village did not begin to flourish till the iron manufactory was
+    brought into these parts in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.”
+
+This may, or may not, refer to the making of locks and keys, but it
+certainly refers to the great devastation of Cannock Forest in providing
+charcoal for iron-smelting.  The doctor continues:—
+
+    “Since that time this place is become very populous, and more locks
+    of all kinds are made here than in any other town of the same size in
+    England or Europe.  The better sort of which tradesmen have erected
+    many good houses.”
+
+Some of these “good houses” are still standing; and as to the
+“populousness” of the place, there may have been 2,000 inhabitants at
+that time.  A return has been given forth that in 1770 Willenhall
+contained 148 locksmiths, Wolverhampton 134, and Bilston 8; while nearly
+a century later, in 1855, the numbers were Willenhall 340, Wolverhampton
+110, and Bilston 2, which shows that the trade grew in Willenhall at the
+expense of the adjoining places.  Yet lockmaking was carried on in
+Bilston as early as 1590, when the Perrys, the Kempsons, and the
+Tomkyses, all leading families, were engaged in the trade.  In 1796 Isaac
+Mason, inventor of the “fly press” for making various parts of a lock,
+migrated from Bilston to Willenhall.
+
+The Willenhall specimen of a miniature lock is thus mentioned in a diary
+of the Rev. T. Unett, “June 13, 1776, James Lees, of Willenhall, aged 63
+years and upwards, showed me a padlock with its key, made by himself,
+that was not the weight of a silver twopence.  He at the same time shewed
+me a lock that was not the weight of a silver penny; he was then making
+the key to it, all of iron.  He said he would be bound to make a dozen
+locks, with their keys, that should not exceed the weight of a sixpence.”
+
+Before the rise of factories into which workmen might be collected, and
+their labour more healthily regulated, Willenhall lock-making was always
+conducted in small domiciliary workshops.  Had any one at the close of
+the eighteenth century peeped in at the grimy little windows of one of
+these low-roofed workshops, and made himself acquainted with the extreme
+dirtiness of the calling, he would scarcely have ventured to regard it as
+one befitting the dainty hands of the highest personage of the most
+fastidious of nations.  Yet that unfortunate monarch, Louis XVI., prided
+himself not on his statesmanship, but upon his skill as a practical
+locksmith, and his intimacy with all the intricacies of the craft.  He
+had fitted up in his palace at the Tuileries a forge with hearth and
+anvil, bellows and bench, from which it was his delight to turn out with
+his own hands all kinds of work in the shape of “spring, double bolt, or
+catch lock.”
+
+    He smokes his forge, he bares his sinewy arm,
+    And bravely pounds the sounding anvil warm.
+
+Locks of every variety of principle and quality are produced in
+Willenhall; the chief kinds being the cabinet lock, the best qualities of
+which range from 10s. to £3 each, while the commoner ones are sold at
+from 10s. to 3s. the dozen; the rim lock for doors having two or three
+bolts, and opening with knob and key; the stock or fine plate lock,
+imbedded in a wooden case to stand the weather when used on exposed yard
+or stable doors; the drawback lock for hill doors, with a spring bolt
+that can be worked from the inside with a knob or from the outside with a
+latch-key; the dead lock, having one large bolt worked by the key, but
+not catching or springing like the rim lock; the mortice lock, which is
+buried in the door, and may be of the dead, the rim, or the drawback
+variety; the familiar loose padlock made in immense quantities both of
+iron and of brass; and others less familiar.
+
+The lock-producing centre includes Wolverhampton, Willenhall,
+Wednesfield, and some of the outlying rural districts like Brewood and
+Pendeford, where parts and fittings are prepared.  In the mother parish
+the business is extensive and extending; at Wednesfield, iron cabinets
+and till locks, as well as various kinds of keys, are produced in great
+numbers, for keys are frequently made apart from the locks as a separate
+branch of the trade.
+
+Willenhall produces most of the same kinds as Wolverhampton, except the
+fine plate, though oftener in the cheaper qualities; rim locks are very
+largely made, all on the Carpenter and Young patent, most of them for
+export.  Willenhall locks are all warded, the wards varying in strength
+and complexity, known as common, fine round, sash, and solid wards.
+
+It was the Carpenter and Young invention of 1830, making the action of
+the catch bolt perpendicular instead of horizontal, which renewed the
+vitality of the town’s staple industry.
+
+As registered the patent was entered:—
+
+    “No. 5,880, 18 January, 1830.  James Carpenter, of Willenhall, and
+    John Young, of Wolverhampton, locksmiths.  Improvements in locks.”
+
+Mr. R. B. Prosser, a recognised authority on patents and inventions,
+records that in 1841 Carpenter brought an action against one Smith, but
+the verdict was given for the defendant, it being held that Carpenter’s
+lock was not a new invention (Webster’s Reports of Patent Cases, Vol. I.,
+p. 530).
+
+Notwithstanding this the lock has always been known, and is still known,
+as “Carpenter’s lift-up lock.”
+
+James Carpenter, the founder of the business still carried on under the
+style of Carpenter and Tildesley, was not a native of Willenhall.  His
+first place of business was in Walsall Street opposite the “Wake Field”;
+thence he removed to Stafford Street, occupying the premises now the
+Three Crowns Inn; subsequently building and occupying the Summerford
+Works (and Summerford House) in the New Road, where the concern is still
+carried on James Carpenter, the patentee, was a keen man of business, and
+distinguished for great decision of character.  His daughter Harriet
+married James Tildesley, who became a partner in the business.  Carpenter
+died in 1844, and Tildesley in 1876, and the concern has since been
+carried on by the two eldest sons of the latter in partnership, James
+Carpenter Tildesley (who is now permanently invalided, and of whom more
+anon), and Clement Tildesley.  Mr. Clement Tildesley, who, like his
+brother, is a county magistrate, still lives at Summerford House, where
+he was born.
+
+Mr. Rowland Tildesley, solicitor, and Clerk to the Willenhall Urban
+District Council, is the fourth son of James Tildesley.
+
+James Tildesley’s eldest daughter, Louisa Elizabeth, married William
+Henry Hartill, surgeon, and J.P. for the county of Stafford, who died in
+1889; his second daughter, Emily, married John Thomas Hartill, J.P.,
+surgeon, who filled the office of President of the Staffordshire Branch
+of the British Medical Association in 1885, and again in 1907.
+
+With these few biographical details of Willenhall’s chief inventor we
+pass on.
+
+Other local patents in this branch of industry on the Register are:—
+
+No. 8543—13th June, 1840—Joseph Wolverson, locksmith, William Rawlett,
+latch maker, both of Willenhall.  “Locks and latches.”
+
+No. 8903—29 March, 1841.—James Tildesley, of Willenhall, factor, and
+Joseph Sanders, of Wolverhampton, Lock manufacturer.  “Locks.”
+
+No. 10611—15th April, 1845.—George Carter, of Willenhall, jobbing smith.
+“Locks and latches.
+
+No. 12604—8th May, 1849.—Samuel Wilkes, of Wednesfield Heath, brass
+founder.  “Knobs, handles, and spindles for the same, and locks.”
+
+[There are patents in the name of Samuel Wilkes, at Darlaston,
+ironfounder, in 1840, for hinges; and for vices in the same year.  In
+1851, Samuel Wilkes, of Wolverhampton, iron founder, took out a patent
+for hinges.  In 1845, Samuel Wilkes, of Wolverhampton, brass founder,
+took out a patent for kettles.  The Wilkes’ family hereabouts are
+manifestly as ingenious as they are numerous.]
+
+At the present time there are some 90 factories and 143 workshop
+employers in Willenhall, besides nine factories and 47 workshops in the
+Short Heath district.  The most important firms in the lock trade are
+Messrs. Carpenter and Tildesley, H. and T. Vaughan, William Vaughan, John
+Minors and Sons, J. Waine and Sons, Beddow and Sturmey, Legge and
+Chilton, and Enoch Tonks and Sons.  In the casting trades are John Harper
+and Co., Ltd. (by far the largest concern), Wm. Harper, Son, and Co., C.
+and L. Hill, H. and J. Hill, T. Pedley, H. and T. Vaughan (under the
+style of D. Knowles and Sons), and Arthur Tipper.  In this branch of the
+industry women are largely employed, and children to a slight extent, in
+attending to light hand and power presses.  Female labour is now utilised
+in the making of parts of machine-made locks (a method of production
+introduced during the last generation), and for varnishing, painting, and
+bronzing both the machine and the hand-made goods.
+
+The rate of wages for workmen in the lock trade now ranges from 20s. to
+35s. per week, yielding an average of about 29s.  Of the wares produced
+there are probably 300 varieties, many of them in several sizes each, the
+gross output running into thousands of dozens per week, and so great is
+their diversity that they range from field padlocks to ponderous prison
+locks, and the selling prices vary from 1d. to 30s. each.  They are
+exported all over the world, finding good markets in Australasia and
+South Africa.
+
+Tradition forbids that we should omit here the two stock illustrations of
+the fact that lock-making ranks among the notoriously ill-paid
+industries.  One is the familiar exaggeration that if a Willenhall
+locksmith happens to let fall the lock he is making, he never stoops to
+pick up because he can make another in less time.
+
+The other is the hackneyed anecdote of the late G. B. Thorneycroft, who
+was once taunted with the sneer that some padlocks of local manufacture
+would only lock once; and who promptly retorted that as they had been
+bought at twopence each, it would be “a shame if they did lock twice” at
+such starvation prices of production.  But Willenhall’s contributions to
+the hardware production of the Black Country are by no means limited to
+this endless variety of locks, some for doors and gates, some for carpet
+bags and travelling trunks, some for writing portfolios and jewel
+caskets; but extends to lock furniture and door furniture, latches, door
+bolts, hasps and keys, hooks and steel vermin traps, grid-irons and
+box-iron stands, files and wood-screws, ferrules and iron-tips for
+Lancashire clogs; and other small oddments of the hardware trade.
+
+The making of currycombs, though shrunk to somewhat insignificant
+proportions within the last quarter of a century, was once a very
+prominent industry in Willenhall.  In 1815 James Carpenter, whose name is
+now so prominent in the lock trade, took out a patent, which was
+registered as follows:—
+
+    No. 3956—23rd August, 1815.—James Carpenter, of Willenhall, curry
+    comb maker.  “Improvements to a curry comb, by inverting the handle
+    over the back of the comb, and thus rendering the pressure, when in
+    use, more equal.”
+
+Another typical industry was the making of door-bolts, now represented by
+the firms of Joseph Tipper, and Jonah Banks and Sons.  It is interesting
+to note that among the last of the old trade tokens circulating in this
+locality, were the Willenhall farthings issued by Austin, a miller,
+baker, and grocer, who carried on business at the corner of Stafford
+Street (the same now conducted by Joshua Rushbrooke); the obverse of this
+coin bore as a design characteristic of the town a padlock, a currycomb,
+and a door-bolt, with the legend, “Let Willenhall flourish,” and the date
+1844.
+
+                        [Picture: Willenhall coin]
+
+The Currycomb manufacture is now represented by D. Ferguson, and by W. H.
+Tildesley, the latter adding to it the making of steel traps.
+
+But whatever loss has been incurred by the shrinkage of this industry has
+been more than made up by the enormous growth of the trade in
+stampings—keys are stamped—and in malleable castings.
+
+The earliest Willenhall patent was taken out in this branch of trade, and
+thus specified: “No. 3,800.  7th April, 1814.  Isaac Mason, Willenhall,
+tea tray maker.  Making stamped front for register stoves and other
+stoves, fenders, tea trays, and other trays, mouldings, and other
+articles, in brass and other metals.”
+
+In the stamping trades at the present time are Messrs. Armstrong, Stevens
+and Co., Vaughan Brothers, Alexander Lloyd and Sons, Baxter, Vaughan, and
+Co., and J. B. Brooks and Co.  At the works of Messrs. John Harper and
+Co., by far the largest in the town, a variety of hardware articles are
+produced, besides locks, but the bulk of their trade is in the production
+of castings, especially in the form of gas and oil stoves and lamps.  New
+developments continue to bring in fresh industries.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.—Willenhall in Fiction.
+
+
+A vivid picture of the social and industrial conditions which formerly
+prevailed in this locality has been drawn by the masterly pen of
+Disraeli, who evidently studied this side of the Black Country at close
+quarters.  It occurs in his novel, “Sybil,” the time of action being
+about 1837.
+
+The distinguished novelist discovered the well-known fact that many of
+the common people hereabout were ignorant of their own names, and that if
+they knew them few indeed were able to spell them.  Of nicknames, which
+were then not merely prevalent, but practically universal, he gives us
+such choice examples as Devilsdust, Chatting Jack, and Dandy Mick; while
+in “Shuttle and Screw’s Mill,” and the firm of “Truck and Trett,” we
+recognise names significant of the methods of employment then in vogue.
+
+But worse perhaps than the “truck system” of paying wages in kind instead
+of in coin, was the prevailing system of utilising an inordinate number
+of apprentices; and as these were almost invariably “parish apprentices,”
+the output of the local workhouses, the tendency was not only to lower
+the rate of wages, but to lower the morale of the people.
+
+How this tendency worked out in everyday life is best seen in the
+following extract from “Sybil.”  Under the fictional name “Wemsbury” may
+perhaps be read Wednesbury; “Hell House Yard” is evidently meant for Hell
+Lane, near Sedgley; and as to “Wodgate,” there can be no doubt about its
+interpretation as Wednesfield.  This is Disraeli’s description of life
+here seventy years ago, no doubt viewed as it was approached from the
+Wolverhampton side:—
+
+    Wodgate, or Wogate, as it was called on the map, was a district that
+    in old days had been consecrated to Woden, and which appeared
+    destined through successive ages to retain its heathen character.
+
+    At the beginning of the revolutionary war Wodgate was a sort of
+    squatting district of the great mining region to which it was
+    contiguous, a place where adventurers in the industry which was
+    rapidly developed settled themselves; for though the great veins of
+    coal and ironstone cropped up, as they phrase it, before they reached
+    this bare and barren land, and it was thus deficient in those mineral
+    and metallic treasures which had enriched its neighbourhood, Wodgate
+    had advantages of its own, and of a kind which touch the fancy of the
+    lawless.
+
+    It was land without an owner; no one claimed any manorial right over
+    it; they could build cottages without paying rent.  It was a district
+    recognised by no parish; so there were no tithes and no meddlesome
+    supervision.  It abounded in fuel which cost nothing, for though the
+    veins were not worth working as a source of mining profit, the soil
+    of Wodgate was similar in its superficial character to that of the
+    country around.
+
+    So a population gathered, and rapidly increased in the ugliest spot
+    in England, to which neither Nature nor art had contributed a single
+    charm; where a tree could not be seen, a flower was unknown, where
+    there was neither belfry nor steeple, nor a single sight or sound
+    that could soften the heart or humanize the mind.
+
+    Whatever may have been the cause, whether, as not unlikely, the
+    original squatters brought with them some traditionary skill, or
+    whether their isolated and unchequered existence concentrated their
+    energies on their craft, the fact is certain, that the inhabitants of
+    Wodgate early acquired a celebrity as skilful workmen.
+
+    This reputation so much increased, and in time spread so far, that,
+    for more than a quarter of a century, both in their skill and the
+    economy of their labour, they have been unmatched throughout the
+    country.
+
+    As manufacturers of ironmongery they carry the palm from the whole
+    district; as founders of brass and workers of steel they fear none;
+    while as nailers and locksmiths, their fame has spread even to the
+    European markets whither their most skilful workmen have frequently
+    been invited.
+
+    Invited in vain!  No wages can tempt the Wodgate man from his native
+    home, that squatters’ seat which soon assumed the form of a large
+    village, and then in turn soon expanded into a town, and at the
+    present moment numbers its population by swarming thousands, lodged
+    in the most miserable tenements, in the most hideous burgh, in the
+    ugliest country in the world.
+
+    But it has its enduring spell.  Notwithstanding the spread of its
+    civic prosperity, it has lost none of the characteristics of its
+    original society; on the contrary, it has zealously preserved them.
+    There are no landlords, head-lessees, main-masters, or butties in
+    Wodgate.
+
+                           [Picture: George Borrow]
+
+    No church there has yet raised its spire; and, as if the jealous
+    spirit of Woden still haunted his ancient temple, even the
+    conventicle scarcely dare show his humble front in some obscure
+    corner.  There is no municipality, no magistrate; there are no local
+    acts, no vestries, no schools of any kind.  The streets are never
+    cleaned; every man lights his own house; nor does any one know
+    anything except his business.
+
+                        [Picture: Borrow’s Birthplace]
+
+    More than this, at Wodgate, a factory or large establishment of any
+    kind is unknown.  Here Labour reigns supreme.  Its division, indeed,
+    is favoured by their manners, but the interference or influence of
+    mere capital is instantly resisted.
+
+    The business of Wodgate is carried on by master workmen in their own
+    houses, each of whom possess an unlimited number of what they call
+    apprentices, by whom their affairs are principally conducted, and
+    whom they treat as the Mamlouks treated the Egyptians.
+
+    These master workmen indeed form a powerful aristocracy, nor is it
+    possible to conceive one apparently more oppressive.  They are
+    ruthless tyrants; they habitually inflict upon their subjects
+    punishments more grievous than the slave population of our colonies
+    were ever visited with; not content with beating them with sticks, or
+    flogging them with knotted ropes, they are in the habit of felling
+    them with, or cutting their heads open with a file or lock.
+
+    The most usual punishment, however, or rather stimulus to increase
+    exertion, is to pull an apprentice’s ears till they run with blood.
+    These youths, too, are worked for sixteen or even twenty hours a day;
+    they are often sold by one master to another; they are fed on
+    carrion, and they sleep in lofts or cellars.
+
+    Yet, whether it be that they are hardened by brutality, and really
+    unconscious of their degradation and unusual sufferings, or whether
+    they are supported by the belief that their day to be masters and
+    oppressors will surely arrive, the aristocracy of Wodgate is by no
+    means so unpopular as the aristocracy of most other places.
+
+    In the first place, it is a real aristocracy; it is privileged, but
+    it does something for its privileges.  It is distinguished from the
+    main body, not merely by name.  It is the most knowing class at
+    Wodgate; it possesses, in deed, in its way, complete knowledge; and
+    it imparts in its manner a certain quantity of it to those whom it
+    guides.
+
+    Thus it is an aristocracy that leads, and therefore a fact.
+    Moreover, the social system of Wodgate is not an unvarying course of
+    infinite toil.  Their plan is to work hard, but not always.  They
+    seldom exceed four days of labour in the week.  On Sunday the masters
+    begin to drink; for the apprentices there is dog-fighting without any
+    stint.
+
+    On Monday and Tuesday the whole population of Wodgate is drunk; of
+    all stations, ages, and sexes, even babes who should be at the
+    breast, for they are drammed with Godfrey’s cordial.  Here is
+    relaxation, excitement; if less vice otherwise than might be at first
+    anticipated, we must remember that excesses are checked by poverty of
+    blood and constant exhaustion.  Scanty food and hard labour are in
+    their way, if not exactly moralists, a tolerably good police.
+
+    There are no others at Wodgate to preach or to control.  It is not
+    that the people are immoral, for immorality implies some forethought;
+    or ignorant, for ignorance is relative; but they are animals,
+    unconscious, their minds a blank, and their worst actions only the
+    impulse of a gross or savage instinct.  There are many in this town
+    who are ignorant of their very names; very few who can spell them.
+
+    It is rare that you meet with a young person who knows his own age;
+    rarer to find the boy who has seen a book, or the girl who has seen a
+    flower.  Ask them the name of their Sovereign, and they will give you
+    an unmeaning stare; ask them the name of their religion, and they
+    will laugh; who rules them on earth, or who can save them in Heaven,
+    are alike mysteries to them.
+
+    Such was the population with whom Morley was about to mingle.
+    Wodgate had the appearance of a vast squalid suburb.  As you
+    advanced, leaving behind you long lines of little dingy tenements,
+    with infants lying about the road, you expected every moment to
+    emerge into some streets, and encounter buildings bearing some
+    correspondence, in their size and comfort, to the considerable
+    population swarming and busied around you.
+
+    Nothing of the kind.  There were no public buildings of any sort; no
+    churches, chapels, town hall, institute, theatre; and the principal
+    streets in the heart of the town in which were situate the coarse and
+    grimy shops, though formed by houses of a greater elevation than the
+    preceding, were equally narrow, and, if possible, more dirty.
+
+    At every fourth or fifth house, alleys, seldom above a yard wide, and
+    streaming with filth, opened out of the street.  These were crowded
+    with dwellings of various size, while from the principal court often
+    branched out a number of smaller alleys, or rather narrow passages,
+    than which nothing can be conceived more close and squalid and
+    obscure.
+
+    Here, during the days of business, the sound of the hammer and the
+    file never ceased, amid gutters of abomination, and piles of
+    foulness; and stagnant pools of filth, reservoirs of leprosy and
+    plague, whose exhalations were sufficient to taint the atmosphere of
+    the whole kingdom, and fill the country with fever and pestilence.
+
+Such were the conditions of life in Willenhall, at least from the
+industrial side; for Willenhall and Wednesfield were at that time almost
+identical in their industrial, social, and municipal economics.  The
+novelist is, of course, incorrect in saying Wednesfield had no church; as
+we have seen in Chapter XXIII. it had possessed a small church or chapel
+since 1746.
+
+Another novelist who has dealt with the same theme is Louis Becke.  The
+hero of his tale, entitled “Old Convict Days” (published by T. Fisher
+Unwin), is a runaway apprentice from Darlaston; and Willenhall is alluded
+to in this work as “Wilnon.”  Spirited descriptions are given of regular
+set fights between the apprentices of the two towns, which took place on
+the canal bridge that divided their respective territories near Bug Hole,
+and in the course of which drownings have not been unknown to occur.
+Allusions are also made to the dog-fighting, human rat worrying, and
+other brutal sports with which the populace of these two places were wont
+to amuse themselves; and particularly to the haunted Red Barn in which a
+murder had been committed.
+
+Willenhall can lay a further claim to classic ground in the realm of
+fiction, though the exact spot has not yet been satisfactorily
+identified.  It is the place called Mumper’s Dingle, in the works of
+George Borrow, the gipsy traveller and linguist, or as he calls himself
+in the Romany dialect, Lavengro, the “Word-Master.”
+
+The word “mumper” signifies a tramp or roving beggar; but its slight
+likeness to the name Monmer has led certain local enthusiasts to identify
+Mumpers’ Dingle with Monmer Lane.  Wherever this particular gipsies’
+dingle may have been, it was certainly on the Essington side of
+Willenhall, though scarcely five miles out; in fact, the public-house
+mentioned in the narrative (“Lavengro,” chapter 89) is generally
+understood to be the Bull’s Head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, which is
+definitely stated to be two miles from Mumpers’ Dingle.  It must have
+been a secluded and romantic spot about the year 1820, and quite a
+fitting scene for that interesting episode of the gipsy life described as
+being led there by the unconventional Lavengro, in Platonic association
+with a strapping Gitano wench named Isopel Berners.
+
+Since George Borrow has come to be recognised as a writer fitting to rank
+among our standard English authors, quite a Borrovian cult has grown up,
+which has naturally enough fortified itself by a literature of its own.
+
+Our first extracts are the great writer’s own description of the place.
+(“Isopel Berners,” by George Borrow.)
+
+    The Dingle is a deep, wooded, and, consequently, somewhat gloomy
+    hollow in the middle of a very large, desolate field.  The shelving
+    sides of the hollow are overgrown with trees and bushes.  A belt of
+    sallows crowns the circular edge of the small crater.  At the lowest
+    part of the Dingle are discovered a stone and a fire of charcoal,
+    from which spot a winding path ascends to “the plain.”  On either
+    side of the fire is a small encampment.  One consists of a small pony
+    cart and a small hut-shaped tent, occupied by the Word-Master, on the
+    other side is erected a kind of tent, consisting of large hoops
+    covered over with tarpaulin, quite impenetrable to rain; hard by
+    stands a small donkey cart.  This is “the tabernacle” of Isopel
+    Berners.  A short distance off, near a spring of clear water, is the
+    encampment of the Romany chals and chies—the Petulengres and their
+    small clan.
+
+The place is above five miles from Willenhall, in Staffordshire.
+
+The time is July, 1825.
+
+Our concluding quotation is taken from the “Life, Writings, and
+Correspondence of George Borrow,” by William J. Knapp (published in
+1899).
+
+    1825.
+
+    On the 21st, he departs with his itinerant hosts towards the old
+    Welsh border—Montgomery.  Turns back with Ambrose Petulengro.
+    Settles in Mumber Lane, Staffordshire, near Willenhall.  My informant
+    of Dudley caused it to be found, and wrote as follows:—
+
+    “‘Mumpers’ Dingle’ still exists in the neighbourhood of Willenhall,
+    though it does not seem to be well known, as a native had to make
+    inquiries about it.  Willenhall itself is one of the most
+    forlorn-looking places in the Black Country, ranking second to
+    Darlaston, I should think.”
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.—Bibliography.
+
+
+From the merely allusive in literature, we proceed to the bibliography of
+Willenhall, which, though not extensive, is of fair average interest.
+
+Recently (June, 1907) was put up for auction in London a First Folio
+Shakespeare of some local interest.  It was the property of Mr. Abel
+Buckley, Ryecroft Hall, near Manchester.  This folio appears to have been
+purchased about 1660 by Colonel John Lane, of Bentley Hall, Staffs, the
+protector of Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester.  It remained in
+the possession of the family till 1856, when, at the dispersal of the
+library of Colonel John Lane, of King’s Bromley, whose book-plate,
+designed by Hogarth, is inserted, it was bought by the third Earl of
+Gosford for 157 guineas.
+
+The son of the third Earl of Gosford disposed of it to James Toovey, the
+famous London bookseller, for £470 in 1884; and soon afterwards Mr.
+Buckley obtained the folio.  It measures 12⅞in. by 8¼in., is throughout
+clean, but the fly-leaf and title are mounted and two leaves repaired.
+This is the volume’s interesting history, according to Mr. Sidney Lee.
+
+In 1795, Stephen Chatterton, a Willenhall schoolmaster, published a book
+of poems of a humorous cast.  One is “An epistle to my friend Mr. Thomas
+S—, who was married in July, 1783, to his third wife, on his fiftieth
+birthday.”
+
+The bibliography of the Rev. Samuel Cozens, at one time minister of the
+Peculiar Baptists’ Chapel at Little London, Willenhall, is rather
+extensive if not very interesting.  A full list of his pamphlets and
+other works will be found in G. T. Lawley’s “Bibliography of
+Wolverhampton,” and also in Simms’ “Bibliotheca Staffordiensis.”  His
+first work, which appeared in the “Gospel Standard,” 1844, was “A short
+account of the Lord’s Gracious Dealings with One of the Elect Vessels of
+Mercy,” and is autobiographical.
+
+From this title, and that of the second part of his life, which appeared
+in 1857, “Reminiscences: or Footsteps of Providence,” the attitude of
+mind assumed by the writer may be easily guessed.  His was a dogmatic
+creed, of stern unyielding Calvinism, which left him always
+self-satisfied, and often made him aggressive.  He moved from
+Wolverhampton to Willenhall in 1848, where his first book was written, a
+scholarly volume in the form of “A Biblical Lexicon.”
+
+Presently his combative nature found expression in a controversial
+pamphlet attacking the Primitive Methodists, “John Wesley, the Papa of
+British Rome, and Philip Pugh, the modern Pelagius, weighed in the
+Balance of Eternal Truth and found wanting” (Willenhall, printed and
+published by W. H. Hughes, 1852).  The Rev. Philip Pugh was located at
+Darlaston, and made a gallant defence on behalf of his co-religionists;
+the Primitive Methodists of Willenhall acknowledging these services by
+presenting him with a handsome testimonial.  The pamphlets containing his
+rejoinders bear the imprint of Stephen Hackett, Willenhall.  Mr. Cozens
+died in Tasmania some years later.
+
+The “Memoirs of G. B. Thorneycroft,” written by the Rev. J. B. Owen, and
+published (Wolverhampton: T. Simpson) in 1856, contain local allusions of
+minor interest.  The subject of the memoir was the well-known South
+Staffordshire ironmaster, who in the earlier part of his commercial
+career had some works near the Waterglade, on the Bilston Road.
+
+George Benjamin Thorneycroft, was born August 20th, 1791, at Tipton,
+where his grandfather kept the Three Furnaces Inn.  His biographer claims
+his descent from the Thornicrofts of Cheshire.  In his youth he was
+employed at Kirkstall Forge, near Leeds, returning to Staffordshire in
+1809 to work at the Moorcroft Ironworks at Bradley, near Bilston, where,
+by his skill and industry he ultimately rose to the management.
+
+It was in 1817 he founded a small ironwork at Willenhall, and seven years
+later joined his twin brother, Edward Thorneycroft, in establishing the
+Shrubbery Ironworks at Wolverhampton.  The rise of the railways at that
+period, and the consequent larger demands for iron and steel, were among
+the causes which led to his great prosperity as an ironmaster.
+
+His Willenhall residence was on the site now occupied by the Metropolitan
+Bank, in the Market Place: while his works, this first this iron magnate
+owned, were located near what is now known as Forge Yard, Waterglade
+Street.  It was in this house his son, Colonel Thorneycroft, of
+Tettenhall Towers, was born.
+
+                          [Picture: Neptune Inn]
+
+His prominence as a public man may be estimated by the fact that when
+Wolverhampton was incorporated in 1848, Mr. Thorneycroft was selected for
+the honour of being first Mayor of the new borough.  He was at all times
+a generous supporter of every local charity and benevolent institution,
+till the old quotation came to be fitted to him:—
+
+    There was a man—the neighbours thought him mad—
+    The more he gave away, the more he had.
+
+In the Town Hall of Wolverhampton a statue has been set up to commemorate
+the public work of this estimable character.
+
+                           [Picture: Bell Inn]
+
+Although during the greater portion of his career a great supporter of
+the State Church, in earlier life Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft had been an
+ardent Wesleyan; and in his memoirs (p. 134) it is recorded how he
+liquidated the burden of debt on the Willenhall Chapel belonging to that
+denomination.  On his death, in 1851, among those who testified to his
+public usefulness, and the estimation in which he was held, was the Rev.
+G. H. Fisher, of Willenhall (memoirs pp. 263–5).
+
+                        [Picture: Old Bull’s Head]
+
+“The Willenhall Magazine” was the name of a monthly periodical launched
+in 1862, “published for the proprietors by J. Loxton, Market Place,
+Willenhall,” and having Messrs. J. C. and Jesse Tildesley as its chief
+contributors.  The first number appeared in March, and twelve months
+afterwards this praiseworthy attempt to establish a local magazine in
+Willenhall had completely failed.
+
+                          [Picture: The Plough]
+
+In 1866 appeared a religious novel written by a Primitive Methodist
+preacher of this town, and published by Elliot Stock, London.  It: was
+entitled “Nest: A Tale of the Early British Christians,” by the Rev. J.
+Boxer, Willenhall.  Mr. G. T. Lawley describes it as a well-written story
+dealing with the pagan persecution of the early British Christians by
+their Saxon conquerors.
+
+A story of direct local interest was Mr. G. T. Lawley’s work “The
+Locksmith’s Apprentice; a Tale of Old Willenhall,” published serially
+some years ago in the columns of a Wolverhampton weekly newspaper.
+
+Mr N. Neal Solly (of the firm of Fletcher, Solly, and Urwick, Willenhall
+Furnaces) wrote the Guide to the Fine Arts Section of the South
+Staffordshire Exhibition, held at Molineux House, Wolverhampton, in 1869.
+The writer was himself an artist, and he afterwards produced some
+valuable Memoirs of David Cox (1873), and of the Bristol painter, William
+James Muller (1875).
+
+The most eminent litterateur Willenhall has produced is Mr. James
+Carpenter Tildesley, a lock manufacturer, as we have seen, and a
+life-long public man in the town.  Reference has already been made to his
+writings on industrial subjects, and also to his works on the history of
+local Methodism.  As a public man, he is a Justice of the Peace for the
+County, a chairman of Willenhall Petty Sessional Division, has been
+president of the Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the
+Willenhall Local Board, and chairman of the Willenhall Liberal
+Association.  Since his retirement to Penkridge he has written a history
+of that parish, which was published by Steen and Co., of Wolverhampton,
+in 1886.
+
+Mr. J. C. Tildesley was sub-editor of the “Birmingham Morning News” under
+the famous George Dawson, and has been a most diligent contributor to the
+Press for the last forty years.  It was mainly by his efforts that the
+Willenhall Literary Institute was founded, that what is now the Public
+Hall was built, and that the Free Library was established.
+
+In recognition of his work in connection with the Literary Institute, a
+public presentation was made to him, the inscription upon which bore this
+eloquent testimony—“Not to requite but to record services of great value
+to Willenhall . . .  January 4th, 1869.”  That Mr. J. C. Tildesley is now
+permanently invalided is a matter of regret not only to Willenhall, but
+to a wide circle of readers and admirers outside the township.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.—Topography.
+
+
+There is often a wealth of history to be unearthed from place-names.
+Localities often preserve the names of dead and gone personages,
+half-forgotten incidents, and matters of past history well worth
+recalling for their interest.  Besides the pleasure to be derived from
+the right interpretation of place-names and old street names, great
+interest often centres around the social associations of old inns and
+taverns.  Let us consider a few of the old-time inns and localities of
+Willenhall.
+
+The site of the mediæval Holy Well, which in the later fashion of the
+18th century blossomed forth as a Spa, was situated between the church
+and the present Manor House.  In the remoter age we may imagine it as the
+haunt of the lame, the halt, and the blind (possibly the church was
+dedicated to St. Giles, the patron of cripples, on this account), and in
+the more recent period as the resort of fashionable invalids and wealthy
+valetudinarians.
+
+In the Private Act of Parliament, dated 6th August, 1844, for disposing
+of the Willenhall Endowment properties, a number of field-names occur in
+the schedule which are pregnant with local history.  Welch End is a name
+which seems to mark the locality where resided the family of Welch, who
+founded the church dole; the Doctor’s Piece was perhaps part of the
+estate of the celebrated Dr. Wilkes; the Clothers and the Little
+Clothiers are names which are said to indicate certain lands once
+belonging to the Cloth-workers’ Company of the City of London; Somerford
+Bridge Piece and the Hither Bathing were presumably located near the
+brook; while the Poor’s Piece, the Constable’s Dole, and the Dole’s Butty
+(query: does the last-named, interpreted in the dialect of the district,
+signify “the companion piece to the Dole?”), are names which suggest the
+identity of charity lands.
+
+There is mention of a High Causeway, which manifestly indicates the
+position of some old paved road; and the Butts, doubtless, named the
+field where in ancient times archery was practised by the men of
+Willenhall, as the men of Darlaston did at the Butcroft in their parish.
+
+Reverting to the schedule, there are some names for which no explanation
+can be offered; as Ell Park, Berry Stile, the Stringes, and the Farther
+Stringes.  Many of the properties named in the list are declared to be
+“uninclosed lands that lie dispersedly in the Common Fields there,
+intermixed with other lands.”  How much, or rather, how little, common
+land is there in Willenhall to-day?
+
+And yet the amount of “waste” land in and around Willenhall was once
+excessive, as the writings of George Borrow cannot fail to convey (Chap.
+XXVIII.).  In Chap. XXII. we read of Canne Byrch, situated in “Willenhall
+Field,” lying in the highway towards Darlaston, where perhaps the village
+community of ancient times tilled their lands in common; and more
+directly of the “waste or common land” called Shepwell Green; a wide
+stretch of open land once apparently stretching away towards the
+wilderness and solitudes of that gipsy-land immortalised by George
+Borrow.
+
+“Willenhall Green” is named by Dr. Plot, writing in 1686, as a place
+where yellow ochre was found a yard below the surface, and which after
+being beaten up was made into oval cakes to be sold at fourpence a dozen
+to glovers, who used it in combination with cakes of “blew clay,” found
+at Darlaston and Wednesbury, “for giving their wares an ash colour.”
+
+The old highway between Walsall and Wolverhampton lay along Walsall
+Street, through Cross Street, and the Market Place; the new coach route,
+or the New Road, as it was called, was made in the early part of the
+nineteenth century.
+
+New Invention is a place-name which originated not from any connection
+with the local industries, as one might be led to expect, but from
+nothing more serious than a nickname of derision.  The tradition is that
+many years ago an inhabitant from the centre of the town was strolling
+out that way, when he was thus accosted by an acquaintance living in one
+of the few cottages which then comprised the neighbourhood, and who was
+standing on his own doorstep to enjoy the cool of the evening: “I say,
+Bill, hast seen my new invention?”  “No, lad; what is it?”  “That’s it!”
+said the self-satisfied householder, pointing up to a hawthorn bush which
+was pushed out of the top of his chimney.  “That’s it!  It’s stopped our
+o’d chimdy smokin’, I can tell thee!”  And ever after that the locality
+which this worthy honoured with his ingenious presence was slyly dubbed
+by his amused neighbours the “New Invention,” by which name it afterwards
+became generally known.
+
+Portobello, on the outskirts of Willenhall, is said to have borrowed its
+name from that second-hand Portobello near Leith, which was named after
+Admiral Vernon’s famous victory of 1739.  At the Scottish suburb a bed of
+rich clay, discovered in 1765, led to the development of the place
+through the establishment of brick and tile works; a similar discovery of
+a thick bed of clay outside Willenhall, and its subsequent industrial
+development on parallel lines led to the copying of that patriotic name,
+more particularly because a neighbouring coal-pit was already rejoicing
+in the name of Bunker’s Hill, conferred upon it by local patriots after
+the American victory of 1775.  The Willenhall wags, however, have given
+quite another derivation.  A man once passing a solitary farmhouse in
+that locality, say they, called and inquired if the farmer had any beer
+on tap.  The reply was, as the man pointed cellarwards, “No—only porter
+below!”
+
+Little London seems to be a locality which attempts to shine by the
+reflected glory of the capital’s borrowed name, and is appropriately
+approached by a thoroughfare called Temple Bar; but which of these
+metropolitan names suggested the other, the oldest inhabitant fails to
+recollect.
+
+Among the old inns and taverns of the town the chief were the Neptune
+Inn, Walsall Street; the Bull’s Head, Wolverhampton Street; the Hope and
+Anchor, Little London; the Bell Inn, Market Place; and the Waterglade
+Tavern, Waterglade.  The Neptune, situated on the main road between
+Wolverhampton and Walsall, and almost opposite the church, was formerly a
+posting-house kept in the 18th and early part of the 19th century by
+Isaac Hartill, one of those typical hosts of the coaching period; active,
+genial, and obliging, a man of good conversational powers, and one who
+instantly made his guests feel at home, and was extremely popular with
+all the local gentry and regular travellers along the road.  With the
+advent of the railway the character of the Neptune Inn gradually
+altered—the railway, by the way, was cut through the crescent,
+overlooking Bentley Hall, a property which had belonged to and had been
+the residence of the Hartill family since 1704, and part of which is now
+The Robin Hood Grounds, used for sports and recreations and other
+out-door assemblies.
+
+It was from the balcony above the entry of the Neptune Inn, over which
+was then the public drawing-room, that the Right Hon. Charles P. Villiers
+first addressed the electors of the newly-enfranchised borough of
+Wolverhampton in 1835, and subsequently made many of his fervent Free
+Trade speeches; and in fact, from this place all public announcements
+were wont to be made.  The room behind the balcony was formerly used as a
+Court Room, in which the magistrates administered justice; here too, the
+Willenhall Court Leet was held, and to this day Lord Barnard’s agents
+receive the tithes there.
+
+The Neptune once served all the purposes of a lending inn as an
+acknowledged place of public rendezvous; and when the Stowheath farmers
+were accustomed to ride or drive in to attend church, its spacious
+stableyard was a scene of animation, even on Sundays.
+
+The Bell Inn, in the Market Place, is perhaps the oldest in the market
+taverns, though the date 1660 painted upon its sign can scarcely refer to
+the projecting wing which bears it.  The back portion of the house is
+unquestionably old; in fact, the family of Wakelam who kept the inn 25
+years ago, were identified with this house and the Bull’s Head Inn for
+upwards of two centuries.
+
+The Plough Inn, Stafford Street, is less old than the others, and of more
+doubtful interest.  It has been completely altered within recent years;
+in the old days when prisoners consigned to Stafford Gaol had to walk, it
+was the place of the final drink before starting, and marked the limits
+of the town till Little London began.
+
+The Bull’s head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, is supposed to be the alehouse
+referred to in Borrow’s romantic tale of Romany life, “Lavengro.”
+
+The Waterglade Tavern marked the spot on the road between the two
+old-world villages of Willenhall and Bilston, where it dipped to the bed
+of the stream.
+
+The Woolpack Inn, at Short Heath, is one of the oldest licensed houses in
+that locality.
+
+The First and Last Inn, New Invention, was so dubbed because at one time
+it was the first licensed house when approaching from Wednesfield, and
+the last when going the other way out.
+
+The sign rhymes of Willenhall belong to the hackneyed type.  The Gate
+Inn, New Invention, has the well-known couplet:—
+
+    This Gate hangs well and hinders none:
+    Refresh and pay and travel on.
+
+The Lame Dog Inn, at Short Heath, is not very original with:—
+
+    Step in, my friends, and stop a while,
+    To help a lame dog over the stile.
+
+Enough has been said on the subject to arouse the interest of patriotic
+Willenhaleans.  One reflection in conclusion—in the old days licensed
+houses were invariably kept by families of position and substance, and it
+is remarkable to discover the great number of professional and well-to-do
+men of the present day who were born in public-houses.  It is so with
+regard to Wednesbury and Darlaston, and even more so with regard to
+Willenhall.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.—Old Families and Names of Note.
+
+
+To not a few of the old names of those who have lived their lives in
+Willenhall, and left their mark indelibly fixed upon its annals,
+attention has already been paid in treating of the various matters with
+which their respective life-work was associated.  It remains here only to
+add a few more names to our list of Willenhall worthies, and to
+supplement a few biographical details to those already mentioned.
+
+The index to the names of landowners would be incomplete without that of
+Offley.  In the year 1555 Alderman Offley, a citizen of London, acquired
+lands in “Willenhall, otherwise Wilnall.”  About the same date this
+opulent merchant became lord of the manor of Darlaston.  (See History of
+Darlaston, pp. 39–40.)
+
+An important old Willenhall family, as may have been gathered in the
+course of these Annals, was that of Hincks.  Their family residence still
+stands in Bilston Street, near to the Market Place; a descendant, and
+apparently the only representative of the Hincks family surviving is Mrs.
+Samuel Walker, of Bentley Hall.
+
+Of Carpenter, Willenhall’s most famous inventor, a few more items of
+local and biographical interest are forthcoming.  In early life James
+Carpenter was a Churchman, but, as many other Willenhall folk did, became
+a Wesleyan in consequence of the scandals caused by the Rev. Mr.
+Moreton’s mode of life.  His remains lie in a vault on the east side of
+the Wesleyan Chapel in Union Street.  He was a keen supporter of the
+Right Hon. C. P. Villiers when he first became a Parliamentary candidate
+for Wolverhampton.
+
+John Austin, the tradesman, who first issued the “Willenhall farthings,”
+mentioned in Chapter XXVII., was an enterprising tradesman, a man of
+handsome presence and of an alert mind.  On leaving Willenhall he went to
+live at Manor House, Allscott, near Wellington, at which town he
+established artificial manure works, and where he manufactured sulphuric
+acid very extensively.
+
+The issue of the Willenhall trade farthings was continued by Rushbrooke,
+his successor in the business (1853), though the original date, “1844”
+was always retained upon them.  They were sold to shopkeepers and traders
+all round the district at the rate of 5s. nominal for 4s. 9d. cash.  When
+the new national bronze coinage came into circulation in 1860, large
+quantities of these copper farthing tokens were returned on to Mr
+Rushbrooke’s hands, but he melted them down without sustaining the least
+loss.
+
+[Picture: Josiah Tildesley, Senr.  Prominent Wesleyan and Highly Esteemed
+                                Townsman]
+
+The Hartill family has long been settled in Willenhall.  George Hartill
+married Isabel Cross, at St. Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton, in 1662.  All
+their nine children were baptised at St. Giles’s Church, Willenhall.  The
+present Dr. J. T. Hartill is descended directly from Richard, fifth son
+of the above, and his grandfather, Isaac Hartill, inter-married with Ann
+Hartill, a descendant of the said George Hartill’s second son.
+
+   [Picture: James Tildesley.  Large Employer of Labour, Proprietor of
+                            Summerford Works]
+
+The social rank of the Hartills since their residence in Willenhall has
+been that of tradesmen or professional men, manufacturers, or small
+property owners, but always educated up to the standard of the period in
+which they lived.  In 1826 Jeremiah Hartill established himself in
+medical practice, joined in 1861 by his nephew, William Henry Hartill,
+and in 1869 by the latter’s brother, Dr. J. T. Hartill.  The arms and
+crest borne by the last-named were formally granted him in 1896; but the
+same coat without the crest had always been used by his uncle Jeremiah,
+and that on a claim of inheritance from the ancient lords of the manor of
+Hartill, in Cheshire, to whom it had been granted by King John.  These
+particular arms have not been officially recorded at the College of
+Heralds since 1580, but a very similar coat was used by a member of this
+family in 1703.
+
+[Picture: Jeremiah Hartill, Surgeon.  Agitated for Easier Enfranchisement
+                              of Copyholds]
+
+The Willenhall Hartills migrated here from the neighbourhood of Kinver,
+Wolverley, and Kidderminster.  There are still Hartills of the old stock
+resident in the Kinver district, and from them are descended Mrs.
+Shakespeare, wife of the well-known Birmingham solicitor; and Mrs.
+Showell, wife of the late Walter Showell, the founder of the eminent firm
+of Black Country brewers, who was once a Parliamentary candidate for one
+of the divisions of Birmingham.  The Hartills of Kinver are related to
+the Hartills of Kingsbury, and there has always been a great similarity
+in the Christian names borne by the old Kingsbury, Kinver, and Willenhall
+Hartills.  The steeple of Polesworth church was built by the last Sir
+Richard Hartill, 1377–1379, and below the tower battlements is carved
+upon a large shield the arms of this benefactor, which are identical with
+those of the late Dr. Jeremiah Hartill of Willenhall.
+
+[Picture: John Austin of the Albion Mill, who issued the Farthing Tokens]
+
+Mr. Henry Vaughan, the founder of the largest business concern in the
+town, has done a large amount of public work in various capacities, but
+chiefly as a magistrate, a member of the defunct School Board, and more
+recently as a County Councillor.
+
+    [Picture: George Ley Pearce.  Prominent Wesleyan and Philanthropic
+                                 Worker]
+
+Among the justices who have sat on the Willenhall Bench and possessed
+other connections with the place may be mentioned the late N. Neal Solly,
+ironmaster, two water-colour drawings by whom hang on the walls of the
+Free Library; the late Rev. G. H. Fisher, who was chairman; R. D. Gough,
+a brother of the late Colonel Foster Gough, and who married the rich and
+benevolent Mary Clemson, daughter of John Clemson, a corn miller, of this
+township; while among the most recent appointments are Clement Tildesley,
+Thomas Vaughan, and Thomas Kidson.  The present Clerk to the Willenhall
+Bench is Samuel Mills Slater, in succession to his father, the late James
+Slater, of Bescot Hall.
+
+A memorial tablet to the local men who fell in the Boer War has been
+erected at the gateway to the Old Cemetery.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.—Manners and Customs.
+
+
+The Manners and Customs of the people of Willenhall have been those held
+in common with the populace of the surrounding parishes, and which have
+been dealt with too fully in the published writings of Mr. G. T. Lawley
+to need more than a brief review here.
+
+The seasonal custom of Well Dressing has been alluded to in Chapter
+XVII., and of Beating the Bounds in Chapter V.  Other ancient customs of
+minor import existed, but space cannot be found to treat them in a
+general history.
+
+The social calibre of the people a century or so ago may be gauged by a
+local illustration of the custom of Wife Selling.
+
+This practice was once common enough everywhere, and amongst the ignorant
+and illiterate in some parts it is still held to be a perfectly
+legitimate transaction.  From the “Annual Register” this local instance
+has been clipped:—
+
+    “Three men and three women went to the Bell Inn, Edgbaston Street,
+    Birmingham, and made the following singular entry in the toll book
+    which is kept there: August 31, 1773, Samuel Whitehouse, of the
+    Parish of Willenhall, in the county of Stafford, this day sold his
+    wife, Mary Whitehouse, in open market, to Thomas Griffiths, of
+    Birmingham, value one shilling.  To take her with all her faults.
+
+                                               (Signed) Samuel Whitehouse.
+                                                          Mary Whitehouse.
+
+    Voucher, Thomas Buckley, of Birmingham.”
+
+The parties were all exceedingly well pleased, and the money paid down
+for the toll as for a regular purchase.
+
+So much for the moral status of the people; now to consider them from the
+industrial side.
+
+The older generation of Willenhall men were accustomed, ere factory Acts
+and kindred forms of parental legislation had regulated working hours and
+otherwise ameliorated the conditions of labour, to slave for many weary
+hours in little domiciliary workshops.  Boys were then apprenticed at a
+tender age, and soon became humpbacked in consequence of throwing in the
+weight of their little bodies in the endeavour to eke out the strength of
+the feeble thews and bones in their immature arms.
+
+In those days men worked when they liked, and played when it suited them;
+they generally played the earlier days of the week, even if at the end
+they worked night and day in the attempt to average the weekly earnings.
+In this connection it has been suggested that in pre-Reformation times
+Willenhall folk duly honoured St. Sunday and well as St. Monday,
+consecrating both days to the sacred cause of weekly idleness.  Or was
+Willenhall’s Holy Well dedicated to St. Dominic, and came by grammatical
+error to be called St. Sunday?  As thus—Sanctus Dominicus abbreviated
+first to Sanc. Dominic, and then extended in the wrong gender to Sancta
+Dominica, otherwise Saint Sunday?  Who shall say?  It may have been so.
+
+It is perhaps in their pleasures, more than in their pursuits, that the
+character of a people is to be best seen.  Allusion has been made to the
+obsolete Trinity Fair in Chapter XII.; but the Wake has remained to this
+day, less loyally observed perhaps, but rich in traditions of past
+glories.
+
+Willenhall Wake falls on the first Sunday after September 11th, the Feast
+of St. Giles, to whom the old church is dedicated.
+
+Among the wakes of the Black Country none are richer in reminiscence of
+the old time forms of festivity than that of Willenhall.  Although in
+later times the outward and visible sign of its celebration has dwindled
+down to an assemblage of shows and roundabouts, shooting galleries, and
+ginger-bread stalls, it was once accompanied by bull-baitings and
+cock-fighting, and all the other coarse and brutal sports in which our
+forefathers so much delighted.
+
+    At Wednesfield at one village wake
+       The cockers all did meet
+    At Billy Lane’s, the cock-fighter’s,
+       To have a sporting treat.
+
+    For Charley Marson’s spangled cock
+       Was matched to fight a red
+    That came from Will’n’all o’er the fields,
+       And belonged to “Cheeky Ned.”
+
+    Two finer birds in any cock-pit
+       Two never yet was seen.
+    Though the Wednesfield men declared
+       Their cock was sure to win.
+
+    The cocks fought well, and feathers fled
+       All round about the pit,
+    While blood from both of ’em did flow
+       Yet ne’er un would submit.
+
+    At last the spangled Wedgefield bird
+       Began to show defeat,
+    When Billy Lane, he up and swore
+       The bird shouldn’t be beat;
+
+    For he would fight the biggest mon
+       That came from Will’n’all town,
+    When on the word, old “Cheeky Ned”
+       Got up and knocked him down.
+
+    To fight they went like bull-dogs,
+       As it is very well known,
+    Till “Cheeky Ned” seized Billy’s thumb,
+       And bit it to the bone.
+
+    At this the Wednesfield men begun
+       Their comrade’s part to take,
+    And never was a fiercer fight
+       Fought at a village wake.
+
+    They beat the men from Will’n’all town
+       Back to their town again,
+    And long they will remember
+       This Wednesfield wake and main.
+
+The site of the Willenhall Bull Ring, it may be added for the information
+of future generations, was opposite the Baptist Chapel, Little London,
+where Temple Bar joins the Wednesfield and Bloxwich Roads.
+
+Among other Wake observances of the last century were the “Club Walkings”
+or processioning of the Friendly Societies, whose members first attended
+a brief service in the church, and then spent the rest of the day in
+feasting at the Neptune Inn opposite.  Tradition hath it that further
+back, well into the Georgian era, and certainly before Mr. Fisher’s time,
+another Wake custom was that of “kissing the parson,” a privilege of
+which the women were said to be very jealous.
+
+In the year 1857 the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Member of Parliament for
+the Borough of Wolverhampton, of which this township was part,
+inaugurated in Willenhall one of the first exhibitions of fine art and
+industry ever held in the Black Country.  It was opened on the Monday in
+the Wake week, and Mr. Villiers alluded to the fact that “they met in the
+midst of one of those old-fashioned wakes which it was the humour of
+their ancestors to establish and be pleased with,” and the right hon.
+gentleman proceeded to contrast the present with the past conditions of
+Willenhall Wake-time.
+
+A flourishing Free Library—founded like many another in the face of great
+local opposition and prejudice—is one of the legacies of that exhibition,
+from the date of which may be traced the more rational observance of
+Wake-time.
+
+With the advance of science and art and the spread of popular education,
+the future prosperity of an ingenious community, like that of the skilled
+mechanics and deft craftsmen of this township, is assured.  Impressed
+with such certitude it is all but a work of supererogation to echo the
+patriotic sentiment of the old-time townsfolk—
+
+                        “LET WILLENHALL FLOURISH!”
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                 THE END.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Ablow Field 7, 10
+
+Agmund 8
+
+Aldhelm 18
+
+Ames 75, 77, 137
+
+Anlaf 8
+
+Annes, St. 110–2, 134
+
+Anson (Lichfield) 128, 139, 152
+
+Arley 14, 18, 27–8
+
+Aston 34
+
+Austin 165, 184
+
+Badland 62–4, 95–6
+
+Baker 106, 149
+
+Barnard 128
+
+Barr 114
+
+Bate 132
+
+Beating Bounds 24–6, 187
+
+Beaumont 46, 58–9, 60–1
+
+Beneting 8
+
+Bentley 17, 25, 27–8, 31, 39, 44, 65, 67, 70, 72, 77, 81–82, 109, 110,
+120–1, 125, 127–8, 126, 140, 143, 151–2, 175, 182, 184
+
+Beogitha’s Stream 29
+
+Bescot 17
+
+Bilbrook 28, 93
+
+Bilston 12, 14, 18, 26–8, 34, 37, 40, 51, 56, 66, 77–81, 85, 93, 135,
+137–8, 156, 161
+
+Blakenhall 14
+
+Bloxwich 14, 17–8, 25, 30, 39, 134, 189
+
+Booth 137
+
+Boscobel 69–70
+
+Bradford 74
+
+Bradley 26, 175
+
+Brewood 4, 93, 162
+
+Brideoak 73
+
+Bromehall 51, 95
+
+Browning 34, 95
+
+Burnell 40
+
+Burton 21
+
+Bushbury 4, 9, 14, 24, 27, 38, 46, 56, 66, 68–9, 71, 98, 113
+
+Callendine 74
+
+Canals 127, 133, 155, 157
+
+Cannock 2, 19, 24–5, 38–9, 41, 45, 135, 148, 151
+
+Carpenter 144, 147, 158, 161–3, 165, 178, 184
+
+Carter 96, 164
+
+Catchem’s Corner 26
+
+Chartley 83
+
+Chatterton 175
+
+Chillington 14, 84, 121, 149
+
+Chubb 160
+
+Churchwardens 26, 79, 105, 112, 129, 130, 132, 153
+
+Clarke 114
+
+Clement 42, 72
+
+Clemson 139, 186
+
+Clent 37, 64
+
+Cleveland 107, 128
+
+Codsall 14, 30, 56, 93–4, 137
+
+Coseley 145
+
+Cote 28
+
+Courts (Leet, &c.) 23, 148–153, 156, 182
+
+Coven 38
+
+Cozens 175
+
+Cuddlestone 27–8
+
+Darlaston 14, 38, 40, 45, 65, 82, 92, 98, 103, 106, 137, 143–4, 156, 164,
+172, 174–5, 180, 184
+
+Davies 114, 125
+
+Dean (of Wolverhampton) 22–4, 28, 30, 34–6, 39, 49, 50–1, 55, 72–9
+
+Delves 2
+
+De Willenhall, John 37, 42
+
+,, Roger 37
+
+Dudley 39, 46, 51–2, 58, 64–6, 69, 90, 137, 172
+
+Duignan 2, 3, 9, 19
+
+Dunstall 14, 17, 21, 39, 93
+
+Ecwills 8
+
+Elfthryth 19
+
+Essington 14, 18, 25, 27, 38, 71, 154, 157
+
+Ettingshall 14
+
+Etymologies 1–5, 9, 11, 13–4
+
+Fairs, Wakes, &c. 57–61, 163, 188, 190
+
+Featherstone, 6, 14, 18, 23–5, 28, 30, 74–6, 80
+
+Fellows 22–3
+
+Fisher 102, 104, 106–111, 125, 127, 134, 139, 186, 189
+
+Fletcher 132–2, 134
+
+Foster 144
+
+Franchises 30
+
+Fytzherbert 52
+
+Garrick 88–9
+
+Gerveyse 32–3, 116
+
+Giffard 30, 52, 69, 71, 97, 112, 121, 123, 139, 149
+
+Giles, St. 36, 57, 103, 105, 110–1, 133, 139, 141, 188
+
+Gilpin 96–7
+
+Goldthorn Hill 20, 26
+
+Goscote 66
+
+Gospelling 25, 26, 93
+
+Gough 46, 66, 137, 139, 140, 147, 186
+
+Gower 30, 47, 97, 139
+
+Graisley 7, 20
+
+Grosvenor 69
+
+Guthferth 8
+
+Halesowen 75
+
+Haling 46–7
+
+Hall 72, 86, 147
+
+Hammerwich 40
+
+Hampton 34, 39, 40, 113
+
+Harper 42, 44, 59, 144, 164, 166
+
+Hartill 102, 107, 111, 114, 125, 133–4, 140–2, 146, 150, 154, 163, 181,
+185–6
+
+Hascard 74
+
+Haswic 28
+
+Hatherton 14, 18–9, 23–4, 28, 30, 34, 72, 74–6, 80
+
+Healfden 8
+
+Heath Town 10, 11
+
+Hilton 18–9, 23–4, 28, 30, 38–9, 74–6, 80, 98, 103
+
+Hincks 105, 125, 184
+
+Hind Brook 90
+
+Hinton 74–5
+
+Hobbart 76
+
+Hocintun 28
+
+Holbrooke 97–137
+
+Holyoake 108
+
+Horsley 7–10
+
+Huntbach 6, 7, 10
+
+Industries, Trades 31, 41, 45, 92, 106, 175, 178
+
+Jennings 46
+
+Johnson 88, 101, 114
+
+Kempson 71, 161
+
+Kenwolf 8
+
+Kidson 147, 186
+
+Kinvaston 14, 18, 23–5, 28, 30, 74, 76, 80
+
+Kinver 9, 51, 185–6
+
+Lane, Lone 30, 44, 52, 66–7, 70, 77, 95, 119, 120, 136–7, 139, 152, 175
+
+Lawley 37, 93, 175, 177–8, 187
+
+Leek 37
+
+Lees 114
+
+Leigh 66–7, 119
+
+Leper House 94
+
+Levison 34, 36, 39, 41–52, 55–6, 59, 60–1, 66, 68, 71–4, 97, 121, 123,
+149, 150–1
+
+Lewis 98
+
+Lilleshall 46, 49
+
+Little London 145, 148, 189
+
+Little Low 7, 10
+
+Lowhill 4, 9
+
+Lows 6, 7, 9, 10
+
+Loxton 177
+
+Lutley 30, 75
+
+Manlove 83, 85
+
+Manningham 77
+
+Marshall 59, 60
+
+Matilda 37
+
+Maxey 72
+
+Mercia 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 21, 27, 37
+
+Monmore 11, 16, 23–4, 30, 75–6, 93, 143, 145, 156
+
+Moreton 98, 100–4, 106, 110, 184
+
+Moseley 14, 19, 69, 70–1, 136
+
+Mounsell 55, 95
+
+Mumper’s Dingle 172, 174
+
+Nechells 9
+
+Neptune Inn 102, 106, 149, 181–2, 189
+
+Neve 96, 98, 103, 138
+
+Newbolds 14
+
+Newbrigge 38
+
+New Invention 145, 148, 154, 183
+
+Nicholls 114
+
+North Low 7, 9, 10
+
+Oakeswell 67
+
+Ocstele, le 39
+
+Odyes 39, 42–3
+
+Offlow 12, 21, 27–8, 148
+
+Ogley Hay 14, 19
+
+Ohter 8
+
+Oldbury 63
+
+Oliver 1, 24, 50, 76, 89, 93, 96
+
+Osferth 8
+
+Padmore 95
+
+Patent Rolls 32–3, 44
+
+Pearce 144, 146
+
+Pedley 130–1, 133, 144, 147
+
+Pelsall 4, 15, 18, 25, 27, 30, 32, 55, 66, 81
+
+Pendeford 15, 38, 40, 162
+
+Penderel 69
+
+Penkhull 37
+
+Penkridge 2, 178
+
+Penn 56, 82
+
+Pensnett 90
+
+Perry 161
+
+Phillips, Claudius 88–9
+
+Pipe Rolls 37
+
+Pitt 67
+
+Podmore 120–1
+
+Portobello 134, 144–5, 148, 181
+
+Prestwood 34, 40, 71, 113, 120, 129, 132, 151
+
+Prosser 162
+
+Pype 40
+
+Railways 127, 150, 156
+
+Rollason 64, 117, 122
+
+Rosedale 111–2, 114, 134, 140
+
+Rowley 37
+
+Rubery 144
+
+Rushall 4, 66–9
+
+Rushbrooke 166, 185
+
+Ryes 73
+
+Sampson 28
+
+Sandbeds 134, 148, 154
+
+Scotland 15
+
+Sedgley 13, 39, 92, 167
+
+Seisdon 6, 12, 15, 27–8, 148
+
+Sewall, Showells, &c. 6, 15, 93–4
+
+Shakespeare 185
+
+Shenstone 40
+
+Shepwell Green 128, 132, 134
+
+Short Heath 110–2, 133–4, 144–5, 148, 155, 164, 183
+
+Sigeric 20–1
+
+Slater 113, 116, 186
+
+Soldier’s Hill 9
+
+Solly 178, 186
+
+South Low 7, 9, 10
+
+Spa, Holy Well, &c. 57, 90–4, 179, 187–8
+
+Spring Vale 92
+
+Stephen’s, St. 110, 112, 133–4
+
+Stow Heath 12, 15, 17, 30, 99, 112, 116, 122–4, 139, 148–9, 155, 182
+
+Stowman Hill 9
+
+Stretton 81
+
+Sunday, St. 90–1
+
+Sutherland 47, 112
+
+Swynnerton 38
+
+Symmonds 68
+
+Tame 1, 29, 93
+
+Tettenhall 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17–8, 21, 28, 40, 51, 56, 137
+
+Therferth 8
+
+Thorneycroft 107, 165, 176–7
+
+Tildesley 114, 144, 147, 154, 158, 163–6, 177–8, 186
+
+Tipper 164–5
+
+Tipton 65, 136
+
+Tithes 48, 50, 75, 95, 107
+
+Tomkys 44, 121, 131–2, 151, 161
+
+Tonks 146–7, 164
+
+Tramways 156
+
+Trollesbury 32, 95
+
+Tromelow 7, 10, 15
+
+Tumuli 4, 6, 7, 9, 10
+
+Turton 47
+
+Twyford 19
+
+Unett 85–6, 161
+
+Vaughan 114, 147, 164, 166, 186
+
+Vestry 17, 26
+
+Villiers 182, 184, 189, 190
+
+Wakelam 182
+
+Walker 24, 26, 61, 114, 184
+
+Walsall 2, 4, 5, 9, 17–9, 57–9, 60–1, 68, 137, 140
+
+Wednesbury 1, 2, 5, 12–3, 17, 27, 38, 41, 46, 57–61, 65, 67, 137, 152,
+167, 180
+
+Wednesfield 2, 5–13, 18, 31, 38–40, 66, 72, 80, 132, 135, 145, 155, 162,
+l67, 172, 181
+
+Welch 131, 133, 151, 179
+
+Wergs 8, 15
+
+Wesley 57, 143, 145, 152, 175, 177
+
+West Bromwich 113
+
+White 103–4
+
+Whitehouse 105, 107, 144, 187
+
+Whitegreaves 70–1
+
+Willis 89
+
+Wilkes 6, 7, 40, 59, 80, 82–92, 120–1, 138, 141, 144, 160, 164, 179
+
+Willoughby de Broke 75
+
+Windsor 19, 23, 35, 49, 51, 57, 74–5, 99
+
+Wobaston 15, 23, 28, 30, 74–6
+
+Woden Stone 13
+
+Wolfric 12
+
+Wolstanton 37
+
+Wombourn 6, 9, 10, 15, 56
+
+Wren 73
+
+Wrottesley 4, 6, 7, 40, 52, 84,–5
+
+Wulfgeal 19
+
+Wulfruna 12, 17, 22, 92, 94
+
+Wyndefield 39
+
+Young 162
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+{88}  Claudy Phillips, as he was popularly called, seems to have been a
+man of considerable genius, though not without some of the eccentricities
+which sometimes accompany it.  He was well known throughout the county,
+which he used to traverse dressed at one time in laced clothes, at others
+in garments which betrayed the low state of his exchequer.  When drawn to
+it by stress of financial embarassment, he was not above playing in the
+evening at inns, and throwing himself upon the generosity of his
+audiences there.  As to his qualities as a musician, it is said his
+_forte_ was in wild and plaintive melody, dictated by the impulses of his
+own mind, and subject to none of the ordinary rules of studied
+compositions; his manipulation of the violin was also distinguished for a
+rapidity of execution unrivalled in those days.  The handsome marble
+tablet erected to his memory soon after his death, in 1732, by public
+subscription, shows that he must have been held in considerable
+estimation by a goodly number of admirers.  Indeed, he must have been
+known to some of the most prominent personages of his time, as the
+following lines upon him have been variously attributed to Dr. Johnson or
+to David Garrick:—
+
+    Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove
+    The pangs of guilty power and hapless love,
+    Rest here! distrest by poverty no more,
+    Here find that calm thou gav’st so oft before!
+    Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,
+    Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!
+
+(See also Oliver’s “Wolverhampton,” pp. 98 and 99.)
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANNALS OF WILLENHALL***
+
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" />
+<title>The Annals of Willenhall, by Frederick William Hackwood</title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Annals of Willenhall, by Frederick
+William Hackwood
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Annals of Willenhall
+
+
+Author: Frederick William Hackwood
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2010  [eBook #31675]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANNALS OF WILLENHALL***
+</pre>
+<p>Transcribed from the 1908 Whitehead Bros. edition by David
+Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">[<span
+class="smcap">Copyright</span>]</p>
+<h1><span class="smcap">The</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Annals of Willenhall</span></h1>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span
+class="smcap">&mdash;by&mdash;</span></p>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Frederick Wm.
+Hackwood</span></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">AUTHOR OF</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">&ldquo;The Chronicles of Cannock
+Chase,&rdquo; &ldquo;Wednesbury Ancient and Modern,&rdquo;<br />
+&ldquo;The Story of the Black Country,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Staffordshire Stories,&rdquo;<br />
+&amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">&ldquo;I cannot tell by
+what charm our native soil captivates us,<br />
+and does not allow us to be forgetful of it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">&mdash;<i>Ovid</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p0b.png">
+<img alt=
+"Seal of Willenhall Local Authority"
+title=
+"Seal of Willenhall Local Authority"
+src="images/p0s.png" />
+</a></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">Wolverhampton:<br />
+<span class="smcap">whitehead bros.</span>,<br />
+St. John&rsquo;s Square and King Street.</p>
+<div class="gapshortline">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center">1908.</p>
+<h2><!-- page iii--><a name="pageiii"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. iii</span>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p><span class="smcap">Chapter</span>.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Page</span>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>I.&mdash;Willenhall&mdash;Its Name and Antiquity</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page1">1</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>II.&mdash;The Battle of Wednesfield</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page5">5</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>III.&mdash;The Saxon Settlement</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page11">11</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>IV.&mdash;The Founding of Wulfruna&rsquo;s Church, <span
+class="smcap">a.d.</span> 996</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>V.&mdash;The Collegiate Establishment</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page22">22</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>VI.&mdash;Willenhall at the Norman Conquest
+(1066&ndash;1086)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>VII.&mdash;A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>VIII.&mdash;Willenhall in the Middle Ages</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>IX.&mdash;The Levesons and other Old Willenhall
+Families</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page41">41</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>X.&mdash;Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page48">48</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XI.&mdash;How the Reformation Affected Willenhall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page52">52</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XII.&mdash;Before the Reformation&mdash;and After</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XIII.&mdash;A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms
+(1640&ndash;1745)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XIV.&mdash;Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend
+(1615&ndash;1702)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page72">72</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XV.&mdash;Willenhall Struggling to be a Free Parish</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XVI.&mdash;Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall
+(1690&ndash;1760)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page82">82</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XVII.&mdash;Willenhall &ldquo;Spaw&rdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page90">90</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XVIII.&mdash;The Benefice</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XIX.&mdash;How a Flock Chose its own Shepherd</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XX.&mdash;The Election of 1894, and Since</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page110">110</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXI.&mdash;Willenhall Church Endowments</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page116">116</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXII.&mdash;The Church Charities: the Daughter
+Churches</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page129">129</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXIII.&mdash;The Fabric of the Church</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page135">135</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXIV.&mdash;Dissent, Nonconformity, and Philanthrophy</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXV.&mdash;Manorial Government</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXVI.&mdash;Modern Self-Government</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page153">153</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXVII.&mdash;The Town of Locks and Keys</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page158">158</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXVIII.&mdash;Willenhall in Fiction</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page167">167</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXIX.&mdash;Bibliography</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXX.&mdash;Topography</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page179">179</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXXI.&mdash;Old Families and Names of Note</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>XXXII.&mdash;Manners and Customs</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page187">187</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<h2><!-- page v--><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+v</span>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Seal of Local Authority</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">Title Page.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>St. Giles&rsquo; Church</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#pagev">v</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rev. Wm. Moreton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#pagev">v</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rev. G. H. Fisher, M.A.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#pagev">v</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Dr. Richard Wilkes</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#pagev">v</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Moseley Hall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Boscobel</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Bentley Hall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Willenhall Trade Token (farthing)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page166">166</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Borrow, George</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page169">169</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Borrow&rsquo;s Birthplace</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page169">169</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Neptune Inn</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Bell Inn</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Old Bull&rsquo;s Head</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Plough</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tildesley, James</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tildesley, Josiah</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Pearce, George Ley</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hartill, Jeremiah</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Austin, John</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p0ab.png">
+<img alt=
+"St. Giles&rsquo; Church (before Restoration).  1755 to 1871"
+title=
+"St. Giles&rsquo; Church (before Restoration).  1755 to 1871"
+src="images/p0as.png" />
+</a></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p0bb.png">
+<img alt=
+"The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles&rsquo; Church,
+1788&ndash;1834)"
+title=
+"The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles&rsquo; Church,
+1788&ndash;1834)"
+src="images/p0bs.png" />
+</a></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p0cb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A.  (Incumbent of St. Giles&rsquo;
+Church, 1834&ndash;1894)"
+title=
+"Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A.  (Incumbent of St. Giles&rsquo;
+Church, 1834&ndash;1894)"
+src="images/p0cs.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p0db.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Dr. Richard Wilkes"
+title=
+"Dr. Richard Wilkes"
+src="images/p0ds.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+1</span>I.&mdash;Its Name and Its Antiquity</h2>
+<p>Willenhall, vulgo Willnal, is undoubtedly a place of great
+antiquity; on the evidence of its name it manifestly had its
+foundation in an early Saxon settlement.&nbsp; The Anglo-Saxon
+form of the name Willanhale may be interpreted as &ldquo;the
+meadow land of Willa&rdquo;&mdash;Willa being a personal name,
+probably that of the tribal leader, the head of a Teutonic
+family, who settled here.&nbsp; In the Domesday Book the name
+appears as Winehala, but by the twelfth century had approached as
+near to its modern form as Willenhal and Willenhale.</p>
+<p>Dr. Oliver, in his History of Wolverhampton, derives the name
+from Velen, the Sun-god, and the Rev. H. Barber, of
+Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who tries to find a Danish origin for nearly
+all our old Midland place-names, suggests the Norse form
+Vil-hjalmr; or perhaps a connection with Scandinavian family
+names such as Willing and Wlmer.</p>
+<p>Dr. Barber fortifies himself by quoting Scott:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Beneath the shade the Northmen came,<br />
+Fixed on each vale a Runic name.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">Rokeby, Canto, IV.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Here it may not be out of place to mention that Scandinavian
+influences are occasionally traceable throughout the entire basin
+of the Trent, even as far as this upper valley of its feeder, the
+Tame.&nbsp; The place-name Bustleholme (containing the
+unmistakable Norse root, &ldquo;holme,&rdquo; indicating a river
+island) is the appellation of an ancient mill on this stream,
+just below Wednesbury.&nbsp; In this connection it is interesting
+to recall Carlyle&rsquo;s words.&nbsp; In his &ldquo;Hero
+Worship,&rdquo; the sage informs us of a mode of speech still
+used by the barge men of the Trent when the river is in a highly
+flooded state, and running swiftly with a dangerous eddying
+swirl.&nbsp; <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 2</span>The boatmen at such times will call
+out to each other, &ldquo;Have a care! there is the Eager
+coming!&rdquo;&nbsp; This, says Carlyle, is a relic of Norse
+mythology, coming down to us from the time when pagan boatmen on
+the Trent believed in that Northern deity, Aegir, the God of the
+Sea Tempest, whose name (as he picturesquely puts it)
+&ldquo;survives like the peak of a submerged world.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+This by the way.</p>
+<p>Willenhall, however, was situated outside the Danelagh, the
+western boundary of which was the Watling Street; indeed, the
+place nomenclature of this locality affords very few examples
+which are really traceable to the Danish occupation&mdash;an
+almost solitary specimen being the aforementioned name of
+Bustleholme, near the Delves.</p>
+<p>The etymological derivation which has found most favour in
+times past is that based on the erroneous Domesday form,
+Winehala.&nbsp; Perhaps Stebbing Shaw is responsible for this, as
+in his history of the county, written 1798, he
+says:&mdash;&ldquo;As Wednesbury is but two miles, and
+Wednesfield but one mile from hence, it is probable that this
+name might be changed for that of Winehale, from the Saxon word
+for victory, when that great battle was fought hereabout in
+911.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Of this battle, and the victory or &ldquo;win&rdquo; which the
+founding of Willenhall was supposed to commemorate, some account
+will be given in the next chapter.&nbsp; But the hypothesis of
+Shaw, and those who adopted his view, apparently involved the
+supposition that the earliest mention of Willenhall was of a date
+subsequent to 911 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span>; but thanks to
+the recent researches of our eminent local historiographer, Mr.
+W. H. Duignan, F.S.A. (of Walsall), that position is no longer
+tenable.</p>
+<p>There is in existence a couple of charters dated <span
+class="smcap">a.d.</span> 732 (or 733; certainly before the year
+734) which were executed by Ethelbald, King of Mercia, at a place
+named therein as &ldquo;Willanhalch.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mr. Duignan says the Mercian kings frequently reside in this
+part of their dominions, as at Kingsbury, Tamworth, and
+Penkridge; probably for the convenience of hunting in Cannock
+<!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+3</span>Forest, within the boundaries of which Willenhall was
+anciently located.</p>
+<p>Virtually the two charters are one, the same transaction being
+recorded by careful and punctilious scribes in duplicate; and
+their purport was to benefit Mildrith, now commonly called St.
+Mildreda, one of the grand-daughters of King Penda, and probably
+one of the few canonised worthies who can be claimed as natives
+of this county-area.&nbsp; She was the Abbess of Minstrey, in the
+Isle of Thanet, and &ldquo;sinful Ethelbald,&rdquo; as he humbly
+styles himself, remits certain taxes and makes certain grants to
+her newly-founded abbey, all for the good of his soul.&nbsp;
+These duplicated documents were published in the original Latin
+in Kemble&rsquo;s &ldquo;Codex Diplomaticus&rdquo; in 1843, by
+Thorpe in his &ldquo;Diplomatarium Anglicum&rdquo; in 1865, and
+again in Birch&rsquo;s &ldquo;Chartularium Saxonicum&rdquo; in
+1885.</p>
+<p>The internal evidence contained in them is to this
+effect:&mdash;&ldquo;This was executed on the 4th day of the
+Kalends of November, in the 22nd year of my reign, being the
+fifteenth decree made in that place which is called
+Willanhalch.&rdquo;&nbsp; Not one of these three authorities,
+although in the habit of doing so wherever they can offer an
+opinion with any reasonable degree of certainty, has ventured to
+suggest the modern name and identity of the &ldquo;place called
+Willanhalch.&rdquo;&nbsp; But Mr. Duignan, with the ripe
+knowledge and almost unerring judgment he possesses in such
+matters, has no hesitation whatever in identifying the place as
+Willenhall.&nbsp; As he says, there is no other place-name in
+Mercia, or even in England, which could possibly be represented
+by Willanhalch.</p>
+<p>Undoubtedly there is another Willenhall.&nbsp; It is a hamlet
+in the parish of Holy Trinity, Coventry, and its name was
+anciently spelt Wylnhale.&nbsp; But the history of the place is
+naturally involved in that of the city of Coventry, as the hamlet
+never had any separate and independent existence like that of our
+Staffordshire township.&nbsp; Any charter emanating from this
+place would indubitably be dated &ldquo;Coventry.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The suggestion of Shaw that the name was changed cannot be
+entertained for one moment; the Anglo-Saxons were not in the <!--
+page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+4</span>habit of changing place-names, but they were very much
+addicted to the practice of &ldquo;calling their lands after
+their own names.&rdquo;&nbsp; Dr. Willmore, in his &ldquo;History
+of Walsall&rdquo; (p. 30) adopts the now discarded derivation of
+the name of Willenhall.&nbsp; He says &ldquo;After the defeat a
+great feast of rejoicing was held by the Saxons at Winehala, the
+Hall of Victory, and the event was long celebrated by the
+national poets.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>To identify the &ldquo;Hall of Victory&rdquo; with Willenhall
+the Walsall historian proceeds:&mdash;&ldquo;At Lowhill may still
+be seen the remains of a large tumulus, while in Wrottesley Park
+are the vestiges of a large encampment, believed by some
+authorities to be of Danish construction, and to have been
+occupied by them about the time of these engagements.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Yet in the next paragraph it is admitted that the Danes never
+gained a permanent footing in this locality, and that there is
+scarce a name of purely Danish origin in the neighbourhood.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Willenhalch,&rdquo; then, may be accepted as signifying
+in Anglo-Saxon &ldquo;the meadowland of Willan,&rdquo; Willan
+(not Willen) being a personal name, and halch being a form of
+healh, signifying &ldquo;enclosed land on the banks of a
+stream,&rdquo; as, for instance, on the Willenhall Brook.</p>
+<p>Any ancient place-name terminating in &ldquo;halch&rdquo;
+would, in the course of time, terminate in &ldquo;hall,&rdquo; a
+termination now commonly construed as &ldquo;hall,&rdquo; or
+&ldquo;mansion.&rdquo;&nbsp; There is nothing inherently
+improbable in Willenhall having been a temporary royal
+residence.&nbsp; King John in much later times had his hunting
+lodge at Brewood.&nbsp; Bushbury, originally Bishopsbury, was so
+called because one of the early Mercian bishops is said to have
+made this place his episcopal residence.&nbsp; Attention has been
+called to the fact that in this vicinity a number of place-names
+end in &ldquo;hall,&rdquo; as Willenhall, Tettenhall, Walsall,
+Pelsall, and Rushall.&nbsp; The inference drawn is that each of
+these places marks the settlement of some pioneer Anglican
+chieftain, or, as Dr. Oliver puts it, the mansion and estate of
+some Saxon thane.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+5</span>II.&mdash;The Battle of Wednesfield.</h2>
+<p>Although it cannot be admitted that the Battle of Wednesfield,
+or the great national victory gained on that occasion, provided
+Willenhall with its name, the event itself may certainly be
+regarded as the chief historical episode which has occurred in
+this immediate vicinity.&nbsp; This was &ldquo;far back in the
+olden time&rdquo; when, says the local poetess&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>The Danes lay camped on Woden&rsquo;s field.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Dr. Willmore, in his &ldquo;History of Walsall&rdquo; (p. 30),
+quotes an authority to the effect that the battle fought at
+Wednesfield in the year 911 &ldquo;had the important consequence
+of freeing England from the attacks of these formidable
+invaders.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This engagement was one of the many which took place between
+the Saxon and the Dane for dynastic supremacy.&nbsp; Even the
+mighty prowess of Alfred the Great had failed to give the quietus
+to Danish pretensions, and his son, Edward the Elder, was engaged
+in a life-long struggle with the Danes, in the course of which
+the Princess Ethelfleda, who was Edward&rsquo;s sister, and Great
+Alfred&rsquo;s daughter, erected castles at Bridgnorth, Stafford,
+Warwick, Tamworth, and Wednesbury.&nbsp; Edward the Elder had to
+combat Welsh invasions as well as Danish aggressiveness, and
+hence the erection of these castles in Mercia, where most of the
+minor fighting in that disturbed period occurred.&nbsp; For nine
+years Ethelfleda fought side by side with her husband Ethelred,
+Earl of Mercia, in the pitiless struggle; and upon his death,
+continuing as her brother&rsquo;s viceroy, she proved herself one
+of the ablest women warriors this country has ever known.</p>
+<p>In 910 (the Saxon Chronicle informs us) a battle of more than
+ordinary moment was fought at Tettenhall.&nbsp; The Danes were
+returning from a raid, laden with rich spoils, when they were
+overtaken at this spot by the Angles, on the 5th day of August,
+and there signally defeated.&nbsp; It was to avenge this disaster
+that the Danes swooped down the following summer from the north,
+and met their antagonists exactly on the same day of the year,
+and almost on the same ground.&nbsp; The latter fact may possibly
+<!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+6</span>indicate that there was some strategic importance in the
+locality.&nbsp; Wednesfield being almost within hail of
+Tettenhall; though the better informed writers, including Mr.
+James P. Jones, the historian of Tettenhall, have been led to
+consider the two battles as one engagement.</p>
+<p>As a matter of fact, the exact site of the Tettenhall
+engagement is not known, yet one historian has not hesitated to
+represent the nature of the conflict as being &ldquo;so terrible
+that it could not be described by the most exquisite
+pen.&rdquo;&nbsp; It seems to have been an engagement of that
+old-time ferocity which is so exultantly proclaimed in the
+ancient war song:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>We there, in strife bewild&rsquo;ring,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Spilt blood enough to swim in:<br />
+We orphaned many children,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; We widowed many women.<br />
+The eagles and the ravens<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; We glutted with our foemen:<br />
+The heroes and the cravens,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; The spearmen and the bowmen.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>According to Fabius Ethelwerd it was a national and a most
+memorable fight which occurred at Wednesfield, where three Danish
+chieftains fell in the conflict; in support of which statement it
+is mentioned that the Lows, or monumental burial grounds, of the
+mighty dead are to be found at Wednesfield and Wrottesley.&nbsp;
+But Wrottesley is nearer to Tettenhall than to Wednesfield.&nbsp;
+The number of tumuli which once lay scattered over the entire
+range of this district may perhaps be accountable for the
+variations in the medi&aelig;val chronicles.&nbsp; As we shall
+see, while it is well agreed that the country lying between
+Tettenhall and Wombourn on the one hand, and Wednesfield and
+Willenhall on the other, was the scene of a great struggle, the
+details of the conflict vary very materially at the hands of
+different chroniclers.&nbsp; A valuable collection of old records
+and historical documents relating to this locality was made by
+John Huntbach, of Featherstone and Seawall, near Wolverhampton,
+nephew and pupil to that noted antiquary, Sir William
+Dugdale.&nbsp; The Huntbach MSS. related more directly to
+Seisdon; and it was this collection which inspired similar
+efforts on the part of the Willenhall Antiquary, Dr. Richard
+Wilkes, and ultimately led to the <!-- page 7--><a
+name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>writing of the
+Rev. Stebbing Shaw&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of Staffordshire&rdquo;
+(1798&ndash;1801).</p>
+<p>Speaking of the treatment of the battles of Tettenhall and
+Wednesfield by the old monkish historians, Huntbach
+says:&mdash;&ldquo;There is very great reason to confirm their
+testimony who say the battle was here fought; for there are many
+tumuli or lows there, that shew some great engagement hereabouts,
+viz., the North Lowe, the South Lowe, Little Lowe, Horslowe, and
+Thrombelow.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The first four being yet visible, the North Lowe, near
+in lands to croft-lodge, the South Lowe near Mr. Hope&rsquo;s
+windmill, the great and little lowe in the heath grounds; but
+Horslowe is not discernible by reason of the coal-works that have
+been here, only it giveth name to the Horselowe Field, since
+called Horsehull Field, now Horseley Field.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And there are not only these, but several others,
+partly in the way betwixt this place and Tottenhall, as at Low
+Hill, near Seawall, a very large one, and at Hampton Town; and
+another which giveth name to a field called Ablow Field, upon
+which stands a bush now called Isley Cross.&rdquo;&nbsp; Ablow
+Field covered 40 acres of unenclosed ground near Graiseley Brook,
+and the tumulus once occupied the site now covered by St.
+Paul&rsquo;s Church.</p>
+<p>Dr. Plot believes the ancient remains in Wrottesley Park to be
+&ldquo;those of the old Tettenhall of the Danes, who, having
+resided there for some time, built themselves this city, or place
+of habitation, which, in the year 907, was finally demolished by
+Edward the Elder in a most signal and destructive victory.&nbsp;
+To revenge this fatal quarrel, another army of Danes collected in
+Northumbria, and invaded Mercia in the same year, when King
+Edward, with a powerful force of West Saxons and Mercians
+overtook them at the village of Wednesfield, near Theotenhall
+(Tettenhall), and vanquished them again, with much
+slaughter.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Another account, given by the aforementioned Dr. Wilkes,
+Willenhall&rsquo;s most eminent son, and no mean authority on
+such matters, says that:&mdash;&ldquo;In the year 895, King
+Alfred having by a stratagem forced them to leave Hereford on the
+Wye, they came <!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 8</span>up to the River Severn as far as
+Bridgnorth, then called Quat, Quatbridge, or Quatford, committing
+great enormities, and destroying all before them.&nbsp; We hear
+no more of them hereabout for thirteen years, but then they
+raised a great army and fought two bloody battles with King
+Edward.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The contemporary Saxon annals tell us that the Danes were
+beaten in Mercia in 911, but do not say where.&nbsp; Doubtless
+from time to time the whole plain rang with &ldquo;the din of
+battle bray,&rdquo; the shout of exultation, and the groan of
+pain; with the clash of steel on steel, and the dull thud of
+mighty battleaxe on shields of tough bull hide, all through that
+disturbed period.&nbsp; It would appear from a later account that
+at the earlier engagement of 910, which by this writer has been
+confidently located between Tettenhall and the Wergs, King Edward
+was himself in command of the Saxon forces, and that he not only
+gained a decisive victory, but pursued the enemy for five weeks,
+following them up in their northern fastnesses beyond the Watling
+Street, from one Danish village to another, burning and utterly
+wasting every one of them as they had been mere hornets&rsquo;
+nests.</p>
+<p>At the encounter of the following year (<span
+class="smcap">a.d.</span> 911) the Danes, after a great pillaging
+expedition, having strongly posted themselves at Wednesfield,
+little advantage was gained by either side after many hours of
+hard fighting, till at last the Saxons were reinforced by Earl
+Kenwolf.&nbsp; Victory then fell to the Saxons.</p>
+<p>This Kenwolf, who is said to have been the greatest notable of
+the locality, and seated on a good estate at Stowe Heath, was
+mortally wounded in the fray; and on the opposite side there fell
+Healfden and Ecwills, two Danish kings; Ohter and Scurfar, two of
+their Earls; a number of other great noblemen and generals, among
+them Othulf, Beneting, Therferth, Guthferth, Agmund, Anlaf the
+Black, and Osferth the tax-gatherer, and a host of men.&nbsp; The
+name of a third slaughtered king, Fuver, is given by another old
+chronicler.&nbsp; It is to the quality rather than to the
+quantity of the slain that the locality is indebted for the
+number of tumuli on which so much of this superstructure of
+quasi-history seems to be raised.</p>
+<p><!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+9</span>The historians who restrict themselves to
+&ldquo;two&rdquo; kings specify the North Lowe at Wednesfield as
+the sepulchral monument of one, and the South Lowe of the
+other.&nbsp; &ldquo;There was,&rdquo; says Shaw, the county
+historian, &ldquo;a little to the south of the Walsall Road, half
+a mile south-west of the village of Nechels, a great low called
+Stowman Hill.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dr. Plot, writing in 1686, declares &ldquo;the bank above
+Nechels, where now is a stone pit, Stowman Low, now removed to
+mend the roads, and Northfield, to be the genuine remains; but
+the bank where the windmill stood was a hard rock, several yards
+below the surface of the earth, and there was nothing remarkable
+found upon the removing of Stowman Low, so that all this is
+uncertainty.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Although the precise location of the Tettenhall battleground
+has always puzzled the antiquaries, there are, says one
+authority, &ldquo;three lows on the common between Wombourn and
+Swin, placed in a right line that runs directly east and west,
+and about half a mile to the north of them is another, by the
+country people called Soldiers&rsquo; Hill.&nbsp; They are all
+large and capable of covering a great number of dead bodies.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There cannot be the least doubt but this place was the
+scene of action, for King Edward, to perpetuate the memory of
+this signal victory, I presume, here founded a church, called by
+the name of the place Wonbourn, now Wombourn; and took this whole
+parish out of the parish of Tettenhall, which, before this
+battle, extended as far as the forest of Kinver.&rdquo;&nbsp; It
+may be added, for whatever such support is worth, that in times
+past a number of ancient weapons have been dug up at
+Wombourne.</p>
+<p>Coming to the latest and most reliable authority, Mr. W. H.
+Duignan, of Walsall, here is what he writes in his admirable
+work, &ldquo;Staffordshire Place Names,&rdquo; under the heading
+&ldquo;Low Hill,&rdquo; which is the name of an ancient estate at
+Bushbury:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Huntbach the antiquary, wrote in the 17th century that
+there was then a very large tumulus here.&nbsp; Much, if not the
+whole of it, has been since destroyed.&nbsp; The hill is lofty
+and a place likely to be selected for the burial of some
+prehistoric magnate.&nbsp; In <!-- page 10--><a
+name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>911 a battle
+was fought between the Saxons and the Danes, called in the
+Chronicles the battle of Tettenhall, but which was really waged
+on Wednesfield Heath (now Heath Town).</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The dead were buried as usual under mounds, which in
+Huntbach&rsquo;s time still remained, and were known as North
+Low, South Low, the Little Low, the Great Low, Horselow,
+Tromelow, and Ablow (many of these names survive), besides others
+which had then disappeared.&nbsp; It is therefore difficult to
+say whether the low here was a prehistoric tumulus or a battle
+mound.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dr. Langford, in his &ldquo;Staffordshire and
+Warwickshire&rdquo; (p. 177), writing less than forty years ago,
+says that &ldquo;a large number of tumuli exist near
+Wednesfield&rdquo;; but the utilitarianism of the farmer and the
+miner would make it difficult to find many of these grass-crowned
+records on the Willenhall side of the battleground now.&nbsp; Dr.
+Windle, in his able work, &ldquo;Remains of the Prehistoric Age
+in England&rdquo; (published in 1904) gives a list of existing
+Barrows and Burial-mounds in this country, including some nine or
+ten in Staffordshire, but makes no mention of Wednesfield,
+Wombourne, or Tettenhall.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p10.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p10.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+11</span>II.&mdash;The Saxon Settlement</h2>
+<p>Fourteen or fifteen centuries ago the cluster of places which
+we now know as the town of Wolverhampton, and the numerous
+industrial centres grouped around it, were then primitive Saxon
+settlements, each of them peopled by the few families that
+claimed kinship with each other.</p>
+<p>These embryo townships were dotted about the clearings which
+had been made in the thick primeval forest with which the whole
+face of England was then covered, save only where the surface was
+barren hill or undrained swamp.&nbsp; Does not the terminal
+&ldquo;field,&rdquo; in such a place-name as Wednesfield,
+literally mean &ldquo;feld,&rdquo; or the woodland clearing from
+which the timbers had been &ldquo;felled&rdquo;?&nbsp; Each
+settlement, whether called a &ldquo;ham&rdquo; (that is, a home),
+or a &ldquo;tun&rdquo; (otherwise a town), was a
+farmer-commonwealth, cultivating the village fields in common;
+each was surrounded by a &ldquo;mark,&rdquo; or belt of waste
+land, which no man might appropriate, and no stranger advance
+across without first blowing his horn to give timely notice of
+his approach.&nbsp; Remnants of these open unappropriated lands
+may be traced by such place-names as Wednesfield
+&ldquo;Heath,&rdquo; and Monmore &ldquo;Green.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>At the outset each settlement at its foundation was
+independent of, and co-equal with, the others; Saxon society
+being founded on a system of family groupings, and a government
+of the ancient patriarchal type.</p>
+<p>All questions of government and public interest were settled
+by the voice of the people in &ldquo;moot,&rdquo; or open-air
+meeting, assembled beneath the shelter of some convenient
+tree.&nbsp; Our ancestors were an open-air, freedom-loving
+people, who mistrusted walls and contemned fortifications.&nbsp;
+In course of time, however, the exigencies of their
+environment&mdash;the aggressiveness of neighbours and
+foreigners, the incursions of invaders and
+marauders&mdash;materially modified their views, and changed
+their habits in this respect; and so it came about in the scheme
+of national defence that the temple-crowned hill of Woden became
+Woden&rsquo;s burh <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 12</span>(now Wednesbury), a hill fortified by
+deep ditch and high stockade.</p>
+<p>Presently the family tie gave way to the lordship, as certain
+chiefs, under the stress of circumstances, acquired domination
+over others, and hence arose the manor or residential lordship,
+the head of which took pledges for the fidelity of those below
+him, and in turn became responsible for them to the king above
+him&mdash;a system of mutual inter-dependence from the head of
+the state downwards.&nbsp; Under these new conditions Stow Heath
+became the head of a Saxon manor, in which were involved
+Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield, Eccleshall, and
+a number of other village settlements.&nbsp; Some of these,
+however, were in the Hundred of Seisdon, and some in the Hundred
+of Offlow&mdash;a &ldquo;hundred&rdquo; being originally the
+division of a county that contained a hundred villages.</p>
+<p>The unregenerate Teuton was a pirate and a plunderer; the
+settled Saxon became an oversea trader and trafficker.&nbsp; The
+Anglo-Saxon merchant of later and more settled times, raised by
+his wealth to the dignity of a thane, became a landed man, and a
+lord over his fellows.&nbsp; Herein we have the transition from a
+free village community to a Saxon manor.</p>
+<p>At Wolverhampton was seated one Wolfric, said to have been an
+ancestor of Wolfgeat, and a relation to Wulfruna; his manor house
+was situated on the slope of the hill between the present North
+Street and Waterloo Road&mdash;doubtless a large rambling mansion
+of low elevation, built of heavy timbers on a low plinth of
+boulders and hewn stones.</p>
+<p>Here at Hantun he kept his state&mdash;such as the luxury of
+the age permitted to him.&nbsp; Seated in his great oaken hall,
+with its heavy roof timbers, at the close of each day he drank
+deep draughts with his guests and his numerous servants, in the
+flaring light of odorous resin torches stuck in iron staples
+along the walls.&nbsp; The smoke from his fire of logs escaped as
+lazily as it might through an aperture in the roof.&nbsp; The
+earthen floor was strewn with rushes, more or less clean as it
+was littered by the refuse of few or more feasts.&nbsp; The only
+furniture consisted of a long trestle <!-- page 13--><a
+name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>table, with
+rude benches of oak on each side; the whole effort at
+ornamentation being limited to trophies of war and the chase
+hanging upon the walls.&nbsp; Such, in brief, was the home life
+of a great thane.</p>
+<p>It will be observed that Wednesfield and Wednesbury at least
+were founded by the Saxons in their pagan days; that is before
+their acceptance of the White Christ, which was towards the close
+of the seventh century.&nbsp; Tradition hath it that at the
+Anglian advent into this district, the worship of Woden was first
+set up in a grove at Wednesfield.&nbsp; Here was first fixed the
+Woden Stone, the sacred altar on which human sacrifices were
+offered of that dread Teutonic deity, Woden.</p>
+<p>It was carved with Runic figures&mdash;for was not Woden the
+inventor of the Runic characters?&nbsp; In sacrificing, the
+priest, at the slaying of the victim, took care to consecrate the
+offering by pronouncing always the solemn formula, &ldquo;I
+devote thee to Woden!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Part of the blood was then sprinkled on the worshippers, part
+on the sacred grove; the bodies were then either burnt on the
+altar or suspended on trees within this mystic grove.&nbsp;
+Later, when some advance had been made by the hierarchy, the
+Woden Stone was removed from the Wednesfield grove to be erected
+within the temple of Woden at Wednesbury.</p>
+<p>There are other evidences of pagan practices to be discovered
+in Staffordshire place-names.&nbsp; Tutbury is said to derive its
+name from Tuisto, the Saxon god who gave the name to Tuesday, as
+Woden lent his to Wednesday; and Thursfield from Thor, the deity
+worshipped on Thursday.&nbsp; There is also Thor&rsquo;s cave,
+still so-called, in the north of this county (see
+&ldquo;Staffordshire Curiosities,&rdquo; p. 159), and other
+similar reminders of Anglo-Saxon paganism.</p>
+<p>It is not outside the bounds of possibility that a third local
+place-name is traceable to the personality of Woden.&nbsp;
+Sedgley may be derived from Sigge&rsquo;s Lea, and Sigge was the
+real name of the Teutonic conqueror who, in overrunning
+north-west Europe, assumed the name of Woden for the sake of
+prestige&mdash;he was the <!-- page 14--><a
+name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>founder of
+Sigtuna, otherwise Sigge&rsquo;s town, in Sweden.&nbsp; In the
+science of English place-names it is well-known that while hills
+and streams and other natural phenomena were allowed to retain
+their old British names (as Barr, &ldquo;a summit,&rdquo; and
+Tame, &ldquo;a flood water&rdquo;), towns, villages, and other
+political divisions were very generally renamed by the Saxon
+conquerors, the places in many instances being called after the
+personal names of their owners.</p>
+<p>Here are some local illustrations of place-names conferred by
+the Anglian invaders when they had conquered and appropriated the
+territory.</p>
+<p>Arley, otherwise Earnlege, was &ldquo;the Eagle&rsquo;s
+ley.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Bilston signifies &ldquo;the town of Bil&rsquo;s
+folk.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Blakenhall was &ldquo;the hall of Blac.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Bloxwich was &ldquo;the village of Bloc&rdquo;: as Wightwick
+was &ldquo;Wiht&rsquo;s village.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Bushbury was &ldquo;the Bishop&rsquo;s burg.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Chillington was originally &ldquo;Cille&rsquo;s
+town.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Codsall was &ldquo;Code&rsquo;s hall.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Darlaston was once &ldquo;Deorlaf&rsquo;s town.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Dunstall, otherwise Tunstall, was &ldquo;an enclosed
+farmstead,&rdquo; half a mile outside the ancient boundary of
+Cannock Forest.</p>
+<p>Essington was &ldquo;the town of the descendants of
+Esne.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ettingshall was &ldquo;the hall of the Etri family.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Featherstone seems to have been &ldquo;Feader&rsquo;s
+stone.&rdquo;&nbsp; According to a charter of the year 994 there
+was then a large stone called the &ldquo;Warstone,&rdquo; to mark
+the boundary of this place.</p>
+<p>Hatherton, or Hagathornden, signifies &ldquo;the hill of the
+hawthorn.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Kinvaston was perhaps &ldquo;Cyneweald&rsquo;s
+town.&rdquo;&nbsp; Dr. Olive in his &ldquo;History of
+Wolverhampton Church,&rdquo; says that being originally a place
+of consequence.&nbsp; Kinvaston was placed at the head of the
+Wolverhampton prebends.</p>
+<p>Moseley was the &ldquo;mossy or marshy lea&rdquo;: as Bradley
+the &ldquo;broad lea&rdquo;; and Bentley was the &ldquo;lea of
+bent&rdquo; or reedy grass.</p>
+<p><!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+15</span>Newbolds, an ancient farm in Wednesfield, is an
+Anglo-Saxon name, &ldquo;niwe bold,&rdquo; and it pointed out
+&ldquo;the new house.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ogley Hay, now called Brownhills, was originally Ocginton, or
+&ldquo;Ocga&rsquo;s town.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Pelsall may be translated &ldquo;Peol&rsquo;s Hall.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Pendeford was once &ldquo;Penda&rsquo;s ford.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Scotlands were &ldquo;the corner-lands,&rdquo; this hamlet
+being at the corner of a triangular piece of land, bounded on all
+sides by ancient roads.</p>
+<p>Seisdon was probably &ldquo;the Saxon&rsquo;s Hill.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Showells, or Sewalls, at Bushbury, on the confines of Cannock
+Forest, was the place where &ldquo;scarecrows&rdquo; (as the name
+probably means) were set up or shown on hedgetops to prevent the
+deer passing from the Forest on to enclosed or cultivated
+land.</p>
+<p>Stowe, a name signifying an enclosed or
+&ldquo;stockaded&rdquo; place, was another seat of a great thane;
+or it might have been the residential portion of the large manor
+or lordship already alluded to.</p>
+<p>Tettenhall was possibly Tetta&rsquo;s hall; or, more probably,
+&ldquo;Spy hall,&rdquo; otherwise a watch tower.</p>
+<p>Tromelow, commonly called Rumbelows, a farm on the site of one
+of the Wednesfield lows, is a name that may literally mean
+&ldquo;the burial mound of the host.&rdquo;&nbsp; The corruption
+Rumbelow is probably made out of the phrase &ldquo;At
+Tromelowe.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wergs (The), through many transformations from Wytheges to
+Wyrges, is &ldquo;the withy hedges.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wobaston, an estate in Bushbury, was anciently
+&ldquo;Wibald&rsquo;s town.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wombourne was the &ldquo;bourne (or brook) in the
+hollow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wolverhampton was at first Heantune, or Hamtun, otherwise the
+&ldquo;High town,&rdquo; to which name was prefixed soon after
+the year 994 that of Wulfrun, a lady of rank who gave great
+possessions to the Church; and hence was evolved the more
+distinctive name, Wulfrunhamtun, since modified into its present
+form.</p>
+<p><!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+16</span>Although some of these names (as Showells, formerly
+Sewall) may not date quite back to the Saxon period, most of them
+may be accepted as present-day evidences of the great Teutonic
+descent upon this Midland locality.&nbsp; One of the very few
+Celtic place-names retained from the previous occupiers is
+Monmore, which in the tongue of the ancient Britons signified
+&ldquo;the boggy mere.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p16.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p16.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+17</span>IV.&mdash;The Founding of Wulfruna&rsquo;s Church, 996,
+A.D.</h2>
+<p>After the advent of Christianity, the new religion was
+gradually advanced throughout the land by the settlement of
+priest-missioners in the various localities.&nbsp; Where the
+missionary settled on the invitation, or under the protection of
+a thane, or &ldquo;lord,&rdquo; that lordship was formed into a
+parish.&nbsp; Thus some parishes doubtless became co-terminous
+with the old manors.&nbsp; Owing, however, to the many changes of
+jurisdiction in the course of succeeding centuries, it is
+difficult to find instances of parish and manor of identical area
+in this locality.&nbsp; Bescot was a manor within the parish of
+Walsall; Bloxwich and Shelfield were anciently members of the
+manor of Wednesbury, though now included in Walsall; Bentley, at
+the Norman Conquest, was part of the manor of Willenhall, then
+belonging to Wolverhampton Church; while Dunstall was a member of
+the King&rsquo;s manor of Stow Heath.&nbsp; Tettenhall parish
+originally included as many as a dozen manors and townships.</p>
+<p>England is made up of some ten thousand parishes, each with
+its parish church, around which for a thousand years has revolved
+the social and political, as well as the whole religious life of
+the place.&nbsp; The parish is our unit of local government, and
+the history of a town is usually a history of the parish.</p>
+<p>But Willenhall never was a parish.&nbsp; It is merely a member
+of a parish&mdash;of the extensive, the straggling, and
+loosely-knit parish of Wolverhampton.&nbsp; In Wolverhampton,
+three miles away, was located the mother church, to which it owed
+spiritual allegiance, and there was situated the Vestry for
+parochial assemblies, and all else that stood for self-government
+throughout the centuries.&nbsp; And those were the centuries when
+Church and State were indissolubly bound together; when a
+dominant church claimed, and was recognised as having an
+inalienable share in the government of the people.&nbsp; Hence it
+will transpire in these pages that for centuries the story of
+Willenhall was involved in the ecclesiastical history of
+Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p><!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+18</span>The ancient parish of Wolverhampton lies widely
+dispersed and very detached, containing no less than 17 townships
+and hamlets, all subject to the collegiate church in matters
+ecclesiastical, though in many cases being distinct in matters
+secular.&nbsp; How broken the area is may be noted in the case of
+Pelsall, which is cut off from the mother parish by Bloxwich, a
+hamlet in Walsall parish.</p>
+<p>Willenhall is one among several other neighbouring places
+that, from the earliest period of England&rsquo;s acceptance of
+Christianity, had its fate inseparably linked with that of
+Wolverhampton.&nbsp; In the giving way of paganism before the
+steady advances of the new religion, progress in this immediate
+part of the kingdom was marked by the founding of Tettenhall
+Church (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 966), followed thirty
+years afterwards by Lady Wulfruna&rsquo;s further efforts at
+evangelisation in the setting up at Hampton (or High Town) of
+another Christian church.</p>
+<p>This was in the reign of Ethelred the Unrede, which was a
+period sadly troubled by the aggressions of the Danes; and it is
+believed that Wulfruna (or Wulfrun) had designed to found a
+monastery, though as early as the time of Edward the Confessor,
+or within a century of its institution, her establishment is
+found to be a Collegiate Church.</p>
+<p>With this accession of dignity, and in grateful recognition of
+the lady&rsquo;s pious munificence, the town became known as
+Wulfrun&rsquo;s Hampton, now modified in Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>Of Wulfruna herself but little is known.&nbsp; Whether she was
+sister of King Edgar, as some suppose, or the widow of Aldhelm,
+Duke of Northumberland, cannot be decided.&nbsp; It is known,
+however, that she was a lady of rank, and was captured when Olaf,
+in command of a Viking host, took Tamworth by storm.&nbsp;
+Hampton did not bear her name until some years after her
+death.</p>
+<p>In founding her noble church at Wolverhampton, Wulfruna
+endowed it with thirteen estates, including lands in Willenhall,
+Wednesfield, Pelsall, Essington, Hilton, Walsall, Featherstone,
+Hatherton, Kinvaston, Bilston, and Arley.&nbsp; Willenhall being
+only three miles away from Wolverhampton, and being also for a
+long <!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+19</span>time ecclesiastically incorporated with it, its history
+at many points cannot be detached from that of the mother
+parish.</p>
+<p>The wording of the charter by which the gift was made is
+quaintly interesting.&nbsp; It sets forth that: &ldquo;In the
+year 996, from the Passion of our said Lord and Saviour, Jesus
+Christ,&rdquo; Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, &ldquo;with the
+Lord&rsquo;s flock of servants unceasingly serving God,&rdquo;
+have granted a privilege &ldquo;to the noble matron and religious
+woman Wulfruna,&rdquo; in &ldquo;order that she may attain a seat
+in heaven,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;for her mass may be said
+unceasingly for ever&rdquo; in the &ldquo;ancient monastery of
+Hamtun.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Charter (inter alia) grants &ldquo;ten hides of land for
+the body of my husband,&rdquo; and another &ldquo;ten hides of
+land&rdquo; for the offences of her &ldquo;Kinsman
+Wulfgeal&rdquo; lest he should hear in the judgment the
+&ldquo;dreaded&rdquo; sentence, &ldquo;Go away from me,&rdquo;
+&amp;c.&nbsp; A third &ldquo;ten hides&rdquo; of land are granted
+on account of &ldquo;my sole daughter Elfthryth,&rdquo; who
+&ldquo;has migrated from the world to the life-giving
+airs.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mr. Duignan, who has made a close study of the Charter, says
+&ldquo;the limits of the parishes and of the townships included
+in the grant are now precisely what they were a thousand years
+ago.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The boundaries of the lands conferred by the noble
+benefactress are set forth with much precision, as in the noting
+of brooks and fords, of parks and woods, of fields and lanes and
+lands; and in very few cases has Mr. Duignan failed to recognise
+the old names and identify them with the modern appellations of
+the places meant, among the latter being Willenhall, Wednesfield,
+Pelsall, Hilton, Ogley Hay, Hatherton, Cannock, Moseley Hole,
+Twyford, Walsall, &amp;c.</p>
+<p>The original Charter has not been heard of since 1646, when it
+was supposed to be copied by Sir William Dugdale into his
+monumental work, the &ldquo;Monasticon,&rdquo; assisted by Roger
+Dodsworth, a joint editor with him.&nbsp; If it is still in
+existence Mr. Duignan assumes it is in the possession of the Dean
+and Chapter of the Royal Chapel of Windsor, with which the
+Deanery of Wolverhampton was united&mdash;as will be seen
+later.&nbsp; The formal parts of the deed are in Latin, and the
+descriptions of the properties are <!-- page 20--><a
+name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>in
+Anglo-Saxon, which makes it an interesting study of
+place-names.</p>
+<p>Wolverhampton church, dedicated to St. Mary, was a collegiate
+establishment, with a dean as president, and a number of
+prebendaries or canons who were &ldquo;secular&rdquo; priests,
+and not brethren of any of the regular &ldquo;orders of
+monks.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>All the privileges which the College possessed in Lady
+Wulfruna&rsquo;s lifetime were afterwards confirmed by Edward the
+Confessor, and subsequently by William the Conqueror.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p>
+<p>The dedication of Wulfruna&rsquo;s church and its consecration
+by Sigeric, the archbishop, have been described in verse by a
+local poetess.&nbsp; This was Mrs. Frank P. Fellows, a daughter
+of the famous Sir Rowland Hill, and once resident at Goldthorn
+Hill.&nbsp; Her husband was a native of Wolverhampton, a
+distinguished public servant, connected with the Admiralty, a
+Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, an antiquarian and a
+scientist.&nbsp; In a book of his published poems appear
+portraits of himself and his wife.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Fellows (whose mother, Lady Hill, was a daughter of
+Joseph Pearson, Esq., J.P., of Graiseley), also wrote
+poems&mdash;some of which appeared in &ldquo;Punch,&rdquo; some
+in &ldquo;Belgravia,&rdquo; and some in other magazines&mdash;and
+published a small book of verse in 1857.</p>
+<p>It is from one long piece, entitled &ldquo;Fancies by the
+Fire,&rdquo; in which the long retrospect of
+Wolverhampton&rsquo;s ancient history unrolls itself before the
+imagination of the poetess, that the following extracts are
+taken.&nbsp; After a description of the battle of Wednesfield, we
+read:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>The Princess Wulfruna heard the deeds,<br />
+Told by the fire in her stately hall.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Alas! then said the gentle dame,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; It grieves me sore such things should be.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, by the Christ that died on tree,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; The Christ that died for them and me,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; These heathen souls shall all be free<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; From sin, and pain of Purgat&rsquo;ry;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; In token of our victory,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Where masses shall be sung and said,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And prayers told for the restless dead<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; That wander still on Woden&rsquo;s Plain&mdash;<br
+/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; It shall be raised in Mary&rsquo;s name.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p><!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+21</span>The noble lady with her train, and accompanied by the
+Archbishop Sigeric, pays a visit of inspection to the locality
+she designs thus to honour, passing beneath the shade of
+&ldquo;the forest trees of Theotanhall&rdquo; on her
+way&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>And as they passed thro&rsquo; Dunstall Wood,<br
+/>
+And stopped to drink where a streamlet fell,<br />
+Then said the lady fair and good<br />
+Here will I build a wayside well.<br />
+Now Hampton town before them lay.<br />
+But first they sought out Woden&rsquo;s plain,<br />
+Where lay the bleached bones of the slain.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>After the Archbishop had offered up a prayer for the
+dead&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>At length they stood upon the height<br />
+That rises over Hampton town;<br />
+There, amid knight, and dame, and priest,<br />
+The Princess Wulfrune laid the stone,<br />
+The first stone on the holy fane.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Then solemnly the pious lady removed from her royal brows the
+golden coronet that hitherto had graced it, and put in place of
+it a crown of thorns, saying&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>It were ill done that I have worn<br />
+A golden crown, while Jesus sweet<br />
+For my sake wore a crown of thorn;<br />
+And here I dedicate my days<br />
+To Him until my life be sped.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Thus far the foundation of the mother church&mdash;much more
+of the town&rsquo;s history follows in like strain.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">* * * * * *</p>
+<p>Willenhall was slightly connected with another religious
+foundation.&nbsp; In the year 1002 Burton Abbey was founded by
+Wulfric Spott, Earl of Mercia.&nbsp; This establishment was
+richly endowed with lands, not only in Staffordshire, but also
+with estates in Derbyshire and Warwickshire.</p>
+<p>The names of the various places included in this munificent
+grant afford a very interesting study in Saxon
+nomenclature.&nbsp; For instance, in the Second Indorsement of
+the Charter conferring the noble gift, we may be interested to
+discover that &ldquo;2 hides of land in Wilinhale,&rdquo; lying
+in &ldquo;Offalawe Hundred&rdquo; are among the properties
+donated to this great Staffordshire Monastery.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+22</span>V.&mdash;The Collegiate Establishment</h2>
+<p>We cannot be too insistent on the close connection long
+subsisting between Willenhall and Wolverhampton owing to the fact
+of the former being a part of Wulfruna&rsquo;s endowment of her
+collegiate church.</p>
+<p>Wulfruna&rsquo;s foundation consisted of a dean, eight
+prebendaries or canons, and a sacrist.&nbsp; The dean was the
+president of this chapter, or congregation of clergy, whose duly
+was to chant the daily service.&nbsp; The sacrist was also a
+cleric, but his duties were more generally concerned with the
+college establishment.</p>
+<p>A prebendary, it may be explained, is one who enjoys a prebend
+or canonical portion; that is, who receives in right of his
+place, a share out of the common stock of the church for his
+maintenance.&nbsp; Each prebend of Wolverhampton church was
+endowed with the income arising from the lands from which it took
+its name; as, the prebend of Willenhall.&nbsp; In the course of
+time the tithes derivable from these lands became alienated.</p>
+<p>Sampson Erdeswick, whose history of this county was commenced
+in 1593, says the foundation was effectuated in 970 by King
+Edgar, at the request of his dying sister, Wulfruna.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She founded a chapel of eight portionaries (is the way
+Erdeswick puts it) whom, by incorporation, she made rector of
+that parish (Wolverhampton) to receive the tithes in common, but
+devisable by a yearly lot.&nbsp; The head or chief of these she
+made patron to them all, and sole ordinary of that whole
+parish.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The foundation was designated the &ldquo;royal free church of
+Wolverhampton,&rdquo; the term &ldquo;free&rdquo; signifying that
+it was free of the ordinary supervision of the ecclesiastical
+authorities, being exempt from both episcopal jurisdiction and
+the papal supremacy.&nbsp; Indeed, it had been better for the
+church had it been less free, for in the time of King John the
+debaucheries and gross immoralities of these undisciplined
+parochial clergy brought much discredit upon the priestly
+college.</p>
+<p><!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+23</span>The dean and the prebends had special seats or stalls in
+the choir of the church; the sacrist had no stall, neither had he
+any voice in the chapter.&nbsp; In modern times (1811) the
+sacrist has become the perpetual curate of the parish.</p>
+<p>It will be noted that the head of this college of seculars was
+styled the &ldquo;sole ordinary&rdquo; of the parish, which is
+equivalent to saying he was invested with judicial powers therein
+like a bishop in a diocese.&nbsp; He had authority cum omnimoda
+jurisdictione, and was exempt not only from the episcopal
+over-lordship of Coventry and Lichfield by express composition,
+but also by papal bull from the legates and delegates of Rome for
+ever.&nbsp; In fact, so independent was the foundation made at
+the outset, it remained for centuries subject only to the royal
+authority of the Majesty of England, and under it to the
+perpetual visitation of the Keepers of the Great Seal for the
+time being.</p>
+<p>In the year 1338, Edward III. confirmed the charter of the
+church as a royal free chapter, giving the Dean the jurisdiction
+of a Court Leet, and a copyhold Court Baron, to be called the
+Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.&nbsp; About this time, too, the
+church was rebuilt on more spacious and magnificent lines.&nbsp;
+Mrs. Fellows, in her topographical rhyme, previously quoted,
+sings of the erection of the tower</p>
+<blockquote><p>In the third Edward&rsquo;s time.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The college then consisted of the ten members of the
+foundation just mentioned, augmented by other ministers and
+officers necessary for conducting so large an establishment, the
+prebendaries being officially mentioned in this order:&mdash;(1)
+Wolverhampton; (2) Kinvaston; (3) Featherstone; (4) Hilton; (5)
+Willenhall; (6) Monmore; (7) Wobaston; (8) Hatherton.</p>
+<p>By the fifteenth century Chantries had been founded, and
+chapels erected therefor, at Willenhall, Bilston, Pelsall, and at
+Hatherton; and in further depreciation of the mother church, King
+Edward IV., about 1465, with a desire to enrich the Collegiate
+Church of St. George, at Windsor, annexed Wolverhampton to that
+chapel royal.</p>
+<p>In Protestant times the daily services were performed by the
+sacrist and the readers, the prebendaries officiating on Sundays
+in <!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+24</span>rotation, according to a set cycle.&nbsp; The time set
+out for the prebendary of Willenhall commenced on the Sunday
+after Ash Wednesday; till eventually exemption was purchased by
+the payment of a small fee to the Perpetual Curate.</p>
+<p>In olden times it was a common practice to carve the choir
+seats.&nbsp; The prebendal stalls in Wolverhampton church were
+marked with heraldic shields charged with simple ordinaries, in
+the following manner:&mdash;the following manner:&mdash;</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">ON THE SOUTH SIDE.</p>
+<p>1.&nbsp; The Dean.&nbsp; On a fess, three roundels.</p>
+<p>2.&nbsp; Prebendary of Featherstone.&nbsp; A pale cotised.</p>
+<p>3.&nbsp; Prebendary of Willenhall.&nbsp; A Chevron.</p>
+<p>4.&nbsp; Prebendary of Wobaston.&nbsp; A Chevron.</p>
+<p>5.&nbsp; Prebendary of Hatherton.&nbsp; A pale cotised.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">ON THE NORTH SIDE.</p>
+<p>6.&nbsp; Prebendary of Kinvaston.&nbsp; (Stall removed.)</p>
+<p>7.&nbsp; Prebendary of Hilton.&nbsp; A Chevron
+renvers&eacute;.</p>
+<p>8.&nbsp; Prebendary of Monmore.&nbsp; A Chevron.</p>
+<p>To assist in the identification of the various estates
+chargeable with the provisions of the prebends, or canonical
+portions, it may be useful to give here a brief account of a
+perambulation of the Wolverhampton parish boundaries made in
+1824.</p>
+<p>It was a regular Rogation ceremony of &ldquo;beating the
+bounds&rdquo; and occupied three whole days, so widely scattered
+is this extensive, far-reaching parish.&nbsp; It will be observed
+that the Hatherton here dealt with is not the Staffordshire
+village of that name, two miles north-west of Cannock.&nbsp;
+Wobaston, it will be remembered, has previously been mentioned as
+situated in Bushbury; while Monmore Green is still a well-known
+place-name.&nbsp; The other names occur in self-explanatory
+context.&nbsp; The detailed account of this perambulation, of
+which the following is but a summary, will be found in the
+appendix to Dr. Oliver&rsquo;s &ldquo;History&rdquo;:&mdash;</p>
+<p>On Monday, May 24th, the churchwardens and their party
+assembled at the Rev. Thomas Walker&rsquo;s, and proceeded to a
+cottage near the eighth milestone on the Stafford Road, and at
+<!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+25</span>the well in the cottage garden there, the Gospel was
+read for the first time.&nbsp; (It was the custom at these
+Rogation processionings to read the Gospel under
+trees&mdash;especially those growing near to some reputed
+&ldquo;holy&rdquo; well&mdash;located on or near a parish
+boundary, hence their name &ldquo;Gospel trees.&rdquo;)</p>
+<p>From thence a lane near the third milestone on the same road
+led the procession to Kinvaston, where the Gospel was read at an
+Elder in the fold-yard of a house of a Mrs. Wooton.&nbsp; Then
+the procession went to Hatherton, the seat of the late Moreton
+Walhouse, where the Gospel was again read on the site of an old
+well.&nbsp; Proceeding to Hilton, the seat of the Vernons, the
+Gospelling was repeated within the gates fronting the house.</p>
+<p>Crossing the Cannock Road, the Gospel was read for the fifth
+and last time, that day, under an oak tree in the road near the
+house of Mr. W. Price, of Featherstone.</p>
+<p>On the second day, May 25th, the parishioners assembled as
+before, and proceeded direct to Wednesfield, where the Gospel was
+read in the Chapel, the clerk being in readiness at the door to
+receive the procession.&nbsp; Thence the perambulation was
+continued to Essington, where the common was found to be
+enclosed; the Gospel was read a second time there at the Goswell
+Bush, which, standing in the Bloxwich Road, was found to be
+surrounded by a new growth of trees.&nbsp; (Just previous to this
+period there had been a rage for enclosing commons&mdash;the
+people&rsquo;s lands.)&nbsp; Turning back, the party proceeded to
+Pelsall, where the Gospel was read the third and last time, that
+day, in the Chapel there.</p>
+<p>On the third day, which was Thursday, May 27th, the assembly
+was made at the Swan Inn, and the procession was formed
+there.&nbsp; The way was led straight to Willenhall, where the
+Gospel was read for the first time in the Chapel, the expectant
+clerk being there in readiness to perform the duty.&nbsp; From
+thence the perambulation was continued to Park Brook, which was
+crossed; returning, the way was taken to Bentley Hall, the seat
+of Edward Anson, Esq., where the second reading of the Gospel was
+taken at an elder bush at the back of the house.&nbsp; (Elders
+seem to have taken the place of the ancient &ldquo;Gospel
+oaks&rdquo; in this locality.)</p>
+<p><!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+26</span>From Willenhall the party next proceeded to Bilston,
+where the third reading of the Gospel was performed within the
+Chapel of that township.</p>
+<p>From thence a move was made to Bradeley Hall, then in the
+occupation of Mr. Nailer, at the bottom of whose garden was the
+site of an old well, which had once been a bath, and here the
+Gospelling was again celebrated.</p>
+<p>The procession was then resumed through Bilston by
+Catchem&rsquo;s Corner, Goldthorne Hill, and the Penn Road, to
+St. John&rsquo;s Chapel, otherwise known as the New Church,
+within which the Gospel was ceremonially read for the last
+time.&nbsp; This concluded the perambulation, and an entry of its
+various details were duly entered in the Parish Book, and signed
+by Tho. Walker, minister, and Wm. Buckle and Jos. Smart, the two
+churchwardens.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p26.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p26.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+27</span>VI&mdash;Willenhall at the Norman Conquest
+(1066&ndash;1086).</h2>
+<p>After the Norman invasion of 1066 it took a number of years to
+complete the conquest of the country.&nbsp; It was not till 1086
+that the &ldquo;Domesday&rdquo; Book was compiled&mdash;written
+evidence of a settlement of the land question which, it was
+fondly hoped (and expressed in the name), would last till
+&ldquo;Domesday&rdquo;!</p>
+<p>The Domesday Book was a great national land register in which
+was entered a record of every acre of land in England, its
+condition, its ownership, and annual value at that time.&nbsp;
+For on land ownership alone then depended not only the amount of
+the national revenue, but the strength of the national
+defences.&nbsp; Willenhall, wrongly written by the Domesday
+scribes as Winehala, is returned as being in the Hundred of
+Offlow, and having an area of 2,168 acres.</p>
+<p>Of this acreage 3 hides belonged to the old domains of the
+Crown, like Bilston and Wednesbury (having formerly formed part
+of the dominions of the Saxon kings), while but two hides of
+Willenhall land belonged to Wolverhampton church.&nbsp; It is
+believed that the King&rsquo;s manorial portion took with it
+Bentley, with its 1,650 acres.</p>
+<p>Anyway, Willenhall having belonged originally to the ancient
+Mercian kings, and having been held in succession by all the
+Saxon kings of England to Edward the Confessor and Harold II.,
+naturally passed as a royal manor, or rather, a portion thereof,
+into the hands of the Conqueror, being set down among the Crown
+lands as of &ldquo;ancient demesne.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Domesday Book also sets down among the possessions of the
+Canons of Wolverhampton 2,200 acres in Wednesfield, 1,194 acres
+in Pelsall, both in the same Hundred; 3,396 acres in
+Wolverhampton, 3,912 acres in Arley, and 6,377 acres, a part of
+Bushbury, are set down in Seisdon Hundred; the Essington portion
+of Bushbury, once belonging to the Countess Godiva, is reckoned
+in Cuddlestone Hundred, in which are also given the <!-- page
+28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>four
+other portions of Wolverhampton, namely Hilton, Hatherton,
+Kinvaston, and Featherstone.</p>
+<p>Since the eleventh century the boundaries of the Hundreds of
+Offlow and Cuddlestone have been altered.&nbsp; As to the Arley
+estate, that was lost to the canons ere another century had
+elapsed&mdash;by 1172 had escheated to the Crown.</p>
+<p>The present-day acreage of Wolverhampton parish is no less
+than 17,449; made up of 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton proper,
+1,845 in Bilston, and 1,650 in Bentley, a total of 6,891 acres in
+Seisdon Hundred; thus leaving 10,608 acres to constitute Hilton
+(two manors, since united into one) Hatherton, Kinvaston,
+Featherstone, and Hocintune.&nbsp; The last-named was a manor
+which, at that time, probably lay between Hilton and Hatherton,
+within Wolverhampton; the name is obsolete.</p>
+<p>These ten estates, comprising Wolverhampton, Willenhall (part
+of), Arley (part of), Bushbury (part of), Hilton (part of),
+Pelsall, Wednesfield, Cote (near Penn), Haswic (near Newcastle),
+and Hocintune (now obsolete), were in 1086 held by the Canons of
+Wolverhampton under Sampson, the highly favoured royal Chaplain,
+to whom the Conqueror had presented this fief.&nbsp; For the
+purposes of comparison it may be mentioned that there were then
+eighteen holdings in Staffordshire, occupying 567 hides, and
+valued at about &pound;516.&nbsp; Sampson&rsquo;s fief extended
+to 26&frac12; hides of this, and was estimated as being worth
+&pound;8 2s. a year.</p>
+<p>This Sampson, who has been incorrectly styled the first Dean
+of Wolverhampton, was a Canon of Bayeux, and though a
+king&rsquo;s chaplain, was not ordained a priest till nine years
+after the Conqueror&rsquo;s death, when Rufus made him Bishop of
+Worcester.&nbsp; Bishop Sampson subsequently gave the Church of
+Wolverhampton to his Cathedral Monastery of Worcester.&nbsp; He
+also held the neighbouring estates at Bilbrook and Tettenhall as
+the superior of the priests of Tettenhall College.</p>
+<p>Willenhall, in the great survey, is recorded to have
+contained, as previously stated, three hides belonging to the
+King, and two hides belonging to the church&mdash;a hide of land
+in Saxon measurement was a variable quantity from 200 to 600
+acres, according to <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 29</span>the locality, but generally it was
+accounted so much as would serve to maintain a
+family&mdash;together with one acre of meadow, and a carucate
+(which was a measure of about 100 acres of &ldquo;carved&rdquo;
+land) employing three ploughs.&nbsp; The annual value of
+Willenhall is set down at 20s.&nbsp; The population consisted of
+eight families, or, as the return puts it, five bordars and three
+villeins.</p>
+<p>A bordar, or boor, was a squatter living in a hut or cottage
+on the borders of a manor, having attached a little patch of
+land, the rent of which was paid to the lord of the manor in the
+shape of poultry, eggs, and small produce.&nbsp; A villein, or
+serf, was to all intents and purposes a slave, at the absolute
+disposal of the lord, except that he could not be detached from
+the soil on which he was born.&nbsp; While the bordar, or
+cottager, was resident in the manor more or less on sufferance,
+the villein was there of right, and was in that sense the
+superior of the bordar.&nbsp; The villein certainly might not go
+away from Willenhall, nor get married, nor buy and sell oxen, nor
+grind corn, without the express permission of the lord of the
+manor; yet he was not so badly off as all this would make it
+appear to our modern ideas.&nbsp; People seldom travelled in
+those days, money was little used, life was exceedingly
+primitive, and wants were very few and very simple.</p>
+<p>Staffordshire at that time was in a chronic state of poverty,
+an insurrection in the county having been suppressed in 1069 with
+the Conqueror&rsquo;s customary severity, thousands of the
+wretched hinds having been slaughtered, the county desolated and
+the Midlands depopulated.</p>
+<p>Bilston was but a cluster of mud huts inhabited by swineherds;
+and it is probable Willenhall was a similar little centre of boor
+life in the next woodland clearing a little further along the
+purling brooklet, and near its junction with Beorgitha&rsquo;s
+Stream, as the Tame was then called.&nbsp; The entire population
+of the county was purely agrarian, the villeins and boors
+altogether numbering about 2,800; or on an average of one
+labourer to each 167 acres of land registered in Domesday
+Book.&nbsp; The subsequent history of the two parts of Willenhall
+will have to be traced separately.</p>
+<p><!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+30</span>The two hides set down as ecclesiastical property have
+remained in the possession of the church throughout.&nbsp;
+Erdeswick, writing his history of this county in 1593, states
+that within the jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter of
+Wolverhampton there were then &ldquo;nine several leets, whereof
+eight belong to the church.&nbsp; The custos, lately called the
+Dean, is lord of the borough of Wolverhampton, Codsall,
+Hatherton, and Pelsall in com. Stafford; and of Lutley in com.
+Wigorn; hath all manner of privileges belonging to the View of
+Frankpledge (that is, the administration of criminal justice,
+&amp;c.), to Felons&rsquo; goods, Deodands, Escheats, Marriage of
+Wards, and Clerks of the Weekly Markets, rated at &pound;150 per
+annum, and in the total is valued worth &pound;300 per annum.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Each of the other portionaries (continues Erdeswick)
+have a several leet; whereof</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kinvaston is reputed worth</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;100</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Wobaston</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;100</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Wilnall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;100</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Fetherston</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;80</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hilton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;70</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Monmore</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;70</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hatherton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;40</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>&ldquo;And the sacrist to attend them in capitulo,
+&pound;40&rdquo;&mdash;by no means a poor salary in those days
+for such duties as the secretarial and managerial work to a
+Chapter.</p>
+<p>As to the three hides of Willenhall in the King&rsquo;s Manor
+of Stow Heath, here is its later history as recorded by Dr.
+Vernon, a historiographer who made some additions to Sampson
+Erdeswick&rsquo;s history:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;In Willenhall is a manor called Stowheath,
+with a court baron and court leet.&nbsp; Several lands there held
+by copy from that lords thereof: four closes, called bundles,
+held of this manor, and were, in 1729, confirmed by John, Lord
+Gower, and Peter Giffard, lords of the manor of Stowheath; which
+four closes, with four others, were sold about 1748 by Mr. Lane
+to Admiral Anson, together with three tenements in Bloxwich, with
+all the manor <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 31</span>lands, tithes, hall, and park,
+&amp;c., called Bentley, adjoining to Willenhall, for
+&pound;13,500.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>As to the adjoining hamlet, it may be mentioned that Domesday
+Book formally recorded the canons of Wolverhampton to possess
+&ldquo;five hides of Wednesfelde; the arable land is three
+carucates; that there are six villeins, and six bordars, who have
+six carucates; and that there is a wood in which cattle are
+pastured, half a mile long and three furlongs broad.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Such was life in Willenhall and Wednesfield at the Norman
+period, both places being then overshadowed in more senses than
+one by the severely protected royal preserves of Cannock
+Forest.&nbsp; We may picture the few hinds constituting the
+scanty population, tenanting cottages which were mere hovels, and
+most of them like Gurth&mdash;the swineherd of Scott&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;Ivanhoe&rdquo;&mdash;wearing round their necks the iron
+collars, which were the badge of Saxon serfdom, and like him
+driving their herds into the woods each morning, and returning at
+nightfall with their charges grunting and gorged with beech-mast
+and acorns.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;While
+to their lowly dome<br />
+The full-fed swine return&rsquo;d with evening home;<br />
+Compell&rsquo;d reluctant, to the several sties,<br />
+With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The trade and callings of an English serf were as limited as
+his other opportunities in life; and others beside the swineherd
+found it in the adjacent woodlands.&nbsp; For there were
+certainly woodcutters and charcoal burners; and if the local iron
+ore were exploited, who shall say there were not then Willenhall
+smiths who fashioned bolts and bars, even if they had not arrived
+at the intricacies of locks and keys?</p>
+<p>Here we are but emerging from the twilight of history.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+32</span>VII.&mdash;A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall.</h2>
+<p>In the earlier centuries of our national existence, the
+history of a parish follows that of its church, the
+ecclesiastical fold into which its inhabitants were regularly
+gathered, not only for every religious purpose, but for every
+other object of communal interest or of a public nature.</p>
+<p>But, as previously explained, Willenhall was not a parish; it
+was but one member of that wide parochial area ruled from the
+mother church of Wolverhampton, several miles distant.</p>
+<p>Yet at an early period Willenhall seems to have boasted a
+chapel-of-ease, for the Calendar of Patent Rolls, under date
+1297, contains an allusion to &ldquo;Thomas de Trollesbury,
+parson of the church of Willenhale.&rdquo;&nbsp; Dr. Oliver, in
+his history of the town, says that Wolverhampton church was
+rebuilt about 1342, and he evidently attributes the erection of
+Willenhall chapel to the same date, as being the outcome of the
+same devout spirit of church building.&nbsp; But this is nearly
+half a century later than the allusion just quoted from the
+Patent Rolls, and Dr. Oliver&rsquo;s reference may possibly be to
+the founding of a chantry chapel by the Gerveyse family, who set
+up one of these mass-houses in Willenhall about a dozen years
+after one had been established at Pelsall.</p>
+<p>Let it not be imagined that this new church was either a large
+or a magnificent structure.&nbsp; In all probability it was a
+diminutive chapel constructed of timber which had been cut in the
+adjacent forest; some of its wall spaces, perhaps, were only of
+timber framed wattle and dab; and at most any building material
+of a more durable nature entering into its construction would be
+but a plinth of stone masonry, and dwarfed at that.</p>
+<p>A chapel-of-ease, be it explained, was often established where
+the parish was a wide one, for the &ldquo;ease&rdquo; of those
+parishioners who dwelt at a distance from the mother church, and
+found it difficult to attend divine service so far away from
+their homes.&nbsp; Such chapels were intended for prayer and
+preaching only; burials <!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 33</span>and administrations of the sacraments
+being always strictly reserved to the mother church.</p>
+<p>While a chapel-of-ease was provided for the general good of
+the whole community, a chantry chapel was intended for the
+special glory and exclusive benefit of some local landed
+family.&nbsp; And here is the first record we have of the
+Willenhall Chantry; it is extracted from the Patent Rolls of
+Edward III., under date 14th February, 1328:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Licence for the alienation in mortmain by Richard
+Gerveyse, of Wolvernehampton, of a messuage, land, and a moiety
+of a mill in Willenhale, co. Stafford, to a Chaplain to celebrate
+Divine service daily in the Chapel of Willenhale for the souls of
+the said Richard and Felicia, his wife, the fathers, mothers,
+brothers, sisters, children and ancestors, and
+others.&rdquo;&nbsp; A fine of 40s. was paid to the King (at
+Stafford) for this licence to devote landed estate to the said
+purposes of church endowment.</p>
+<p>A chantry (or chauntry, a name derived from cantaria), was a
+chapel, little church, or some particular altar in a church,
+endowed with lands and other revenues, for the maintenance of a
+priest, or priests, daily to chant a mass and offer prayers for
+the souls of the donors, and such others as the founders of the
+chantry may have named.&nbsp; In this particular instance, as we
+have seen, the eternal welfare of the Gerveyses is sought to be
+assured, and the chantry here was doubtless at the altar of the
+new chapel-of-ease&mdash;we cannot expect there were two separate
+ecclesiastical buildings in so small a place as Willenhall.</p>
+<p>The method of procedure in setting up these foundations was
+first to obtain a patent from the Crown for the founding and
+endowing of them; and then to obtain the Bishop&rsquo;s licence
+for the regular daily performance of Divine service by the
+appointed chantry priest, to whose stipend and support the
+endowment mainly went.</p>
+<p>Most of these chantries came into existence in the 14th
+century, and by the close of the following century there was
+scarce a parish church in the kingdom without its chantry in one
+or other of its side chapels or subsidiary altars.&nbsp; By the
+time of <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 34</span>Richard II.&mdash;about the year
+1394&mdash;at least four chantries had been founded, and chapels
+built, within the outer area of Wolverhampton parish; namely, at
+Willenhall, Bilston, Pelsall, and Hatherton.</p>
+<p>In connection with the endowments of the Willenhall chantry,
+it is on record that at an Inquisition taken in 1397, it was
+testified on oath that Roger Levison at that time held on lease
+from Thomas Browning, chaplain of this chantry, 12 acres of land
+in Wednesfield, and 100s. of rent in Willenhall, for which he had
+to perform suit and service (of the usual nature in feudal
+tenures) at the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>In 1409 the advowson of the chapel of Willenhall, together
+with certain valuable properties of rents and tenements in
+Wolverhampton, were granted by Richard Hethe and William
+Prestewode, chaplain, to William Bysshebury and his wife Joan,
+and settled on them for the term of their lives, with remainder
+to John Hampton, of Stourton, and his heirs for ever.</p>
+<p>Fourteen years later William Bysshebury (his wife Joan being
+then deceased) was sued by certain plaintiffs, on behalf of the
+said John Hampton, for wasting these Wolverhampton properties, of
+which he had the reversion.&nbsp; The plaintiffs included Roger
+Aston, knight, William Leveson, William Everdon, Thomas
+Arblaster, and others; while the waste and destruction complained
+of comprised the digging and selling of clay, marl, and stones;
+the permitting of seven halls, two chambers, two kitchens, two
+granges, a dovecot, and a mill to remain unroofed till the
+principal timbers had rotted; and also with cutting down and
+selling a number of oaks, ashes, pear, and apple trees, the total
+damage in respect of all this waste being estimated at a very
+considerable figure.</p>
+<p>The advowson was, of course, the right of presentation to the
+benefice of Willenhall; and the Hamptons of Stourton Castle, to
+whom it passed at this time, seem to have been a family which
+originated at Wolverhampton&mdash;and perhaps derived their name
+from the town.</p>
+<p>The ministers who officiated in the local chapels-of-ease were
+inferior in official status to the vicar, rector, or beneficed
+clergyman <!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 35</span>of the mother church, and such
+curates were generally removable at the pleasure of the said
+vicar or rector.&nbsp; Willenhall, doubtless, was served by a
+&ldquo;curate&rdquo; sent from the Wolverhampton collegiate
+establishment.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Edward IV. local ecclesiastical matters became
+further complicated by the collegiate church of Wolverhampton
+being permanently united with the Deanery of Windsor, the two
+deaneries being always subsequently held together.&nbsp; It
+appears that King Edward, desirous of doing his Chaplain a
+favour, annexed the &ldquo;Free Royal Church of
+Wolverhampton&rdquo; to the said Deanery of Windsor, which royal
+act was soon afterwards confirmed by Parliament (1480).</p>
+<p>The Chantry of Willenhall, in common with all others,
+disappeared at the Reformation (this one probably in 1545), when
+prayers for the dead were no longer tolerated.&nbsp; But it is
+interesting to observe that under the new Protestant
+r&eacute;gime attendance at church every Sunday was still
+regarded as a duty no good citizen and loyal subject could be
+excused.</p>
+<p>Attendance at church was compulsory in the early days of the
+Anglican establishment.&nbsp; By statute (<span
+class="smcap">i</span>, Elizabeth c. <span
+class="smcap">i.</span>, 23 Elizabeth c. <span
+class="smcap">i.</span>, and 3, James <span
+class="smcap">i.</span> c. 4) every person was to repair to his
+parish church every Sunday on pain of forfeiting 1s. for every
+offence; and being present at any form of prayer contrary to the
+Book of Common Prayer was punished with six months&rsquo;
+imprisonment.&nbsp; Persons above sixteen years of age who
+absented themselves from church above a month had to pay a
+forfeit of &pound;20 a month.</p>
+<p>Protestant dissenters who did not deny the doctrine of the
+Trinity were (it is interesting to note) exempted from these
+penalties in 1689; and the Roman Catholics were similarly
+emancipated by law in 1792.&nbsp; This by the way.</p>
+<p>It was in Elizabeth&rsquo;s reign, and, of course, under the
+authority of the newly-established Protestant Church of England,
+that Willenhall was enabled to make a distinct advance in the
+status of its church.&nbsp; The charge of this church became an
+independent one, and was no longer subordinated to the canons of
+Wolverhampton; <!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 36</span>the incumbent was thenceforward to be
+in fact, as well as in name, &ldquo;Chaplain of
+Willenhall.&rdquo;&nbsp; But although the incumbent thus obtained
+his personal freedom from the domination of the mother church,
+the Wolverhampton establishment still retained all the old
+parochial rights in the shape of fees and ecclesiastical
+emoluments.&nbsp; Beyond levying this money tribute, however, the
+Dean and Rector of Wolverhampton no longer held any control over
+the internal affairs of the church of St. Giles&rsquo;, in
+Willenhall.&nbsp; The specified duties of the incumbent of
+Willenhall (as set forth in a Trust deed of 1603, to which Sir
+John Leveson is a party) were to conduct Divine service there,
+and to have his residence within a mile and a half of the
+church.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p36.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p36.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+37</span>VIII.&mdash;Willenhall in the Middle Ages.</h2>
+<p>Having brought the ecclesiastical history of Willenhall up to
+the enlightened days of Queen Elizabeth, to preserve some sort of
+chronological arrangement, we leave that section awhile in order
+to deal with the social life of the place, so far as this may be
+gleaned from a number of fragmentary sources and isolated
+references.</p>
+<p>The result of these gleanings is naturally very scrappy an
+disconnected&mdash;like the modern periodicals afflicted with the
+prevalent &ldquo;snippetitis.&rdquo;&nbsp; Such as they are,
+however, the local reader may be willing to accept them as being
+of some little interest.</p>
+<p>In the year 1172 the Pipe Rolls, which come next to the
+Domesday Book among our most ancient national records, and
+contain a full account of the Crown revenues, return Willenhall,
+among five other Staffordshire estates, bringing in the sum of
+&pound;19 7s. 8d. per annum to Henry II.&nbsp; This would
+represent nowadays a sum twenty times that amount.&nbsp; These
+estates were Bilston and Rowley Regis, being ancient demesnes of
+the Crown, and the manors of Leek, Wolstanton, and Penkhull (in
+the north of the county), which had escheated at the Conquest
+from the Earl of Mercia.&nbsp; Rowley probably brought in but a
+few pence at that time, when it formed a part of Clent.</p>
+<p>In the same reign (Henry II.) the Canons of Wolverhampton are
+recorded as holding two hides of land in
+&ldquo;Winenhale&rdquo;&mdash;certainly not more than 400 acres
+in a fertile locality like this.</p>
+<p>During the reign of Edward III., his son and heir, the
+renowned Black Prince, hero of Crecy and Poictiers, claimed
+(after the manner of those times) the custody and guardianship of
+Matilda, daughter and heiress of his old comrade in arms, John de
+Willenhale.&nbsp; The heiress of Willenhall was therefore at this
+time a royal ward.&nbsp; The earliest holder of this manor who is
+known by his territorial title seems to be Roger de Wylnale, who
+(according to Lawley&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of Bilston,&rdquo; p.
+132) was flourishing about the year 1109.</p>
+<p><!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+38</span>In these earlier centuries of the Middle Ages the
+machinery the law was crude and ineffective; as a consequence
+lawlessness was rampant, and everywhere might became right.</p>
+<p>The nobles, whenever the weakness of a king emboldened them,
+fortified their castles, and increased the number of their
+retainers, whom they reduced to a condition of complete
+vassalage; and each baron strove to make himself a figure in the
+great national convulsions which, from time to time, broke out
+under the malign influences of the feudalism that dominated the
+whole land and blighted its every hope of progress.</p>
+<p>The Franklins, the inferior grade of gentry, who, under the
+old Saxon system were called Thanes, were often compelled by
+force of environment to range themselves under the protecting
+banner of one or other of these petty kings.&nbsp; And where
+authority was systematically set at defiance by the great and the
+powerful, inoffensive conduct and dutiful obedience to the laws
+of the land afforded no guarantee for the security of either life
+or property.</p>
+<p>To these disturbing influences must be added the barbarous
+severity of the laws of the chase, the vindictive nature of which
+sometimes made the heavy feudal chains of the common people
+almost too grievous to be borne.&nbsp; As Willenhall was on the
+confines of the Royal Forest of Cannock, the oppressive nature of
+the Forest Laws was not unfelt by the inhabitants of this
+secluded hamlet.</p>
+<p>In 1306, when John de Swynnerton married the daughter and
+heiress of Philip de Montgomery, Seneschal of the Royal Forest of
+Cannock, and became Steward of the Forest in customary
+succession, Willenhall was officially returned, along with a
+number of surrounding places (Wednesfield, Wednesbury, Darlaston,
+Essington, Hilton, Newbrigge, Moseley, Bushbury, Pendeford,
+Coven, and a score more), as appurtenant to a third part of the
+said forest bailiwick.</p>
+<p>The Swynnerton interest in Willenhall transpires again in
+1364, when John de Swynnerton is found suing two Willenhall men
+for forcibly and feloniously removing some of his goods and
+chattels from that place.</p>
+<p><!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+39</span>In the previous reign&mdash;that of Henry
+III.&mdash;numerous fines for illegal enclosures of Cannock
+Forest had been imposed upon landowners in this locality.&nbsp;
+Among them were Stephen de Hulton (or Hilton), and John, his son,
+&ldquo;of Wednesfield,&rdquo; who had enclosed with a hedge and a
+ditch three acres of heath in Wednesfield, which they held under
+the Dean of Wolverhampton.&nbsp; They were fined four shillings
+each, and ordered peremptorily to throw down the hedge.</p>
+<p>Here is an episode characteristic of the period.&nbsp; It is a
+Tuesday evening in the month of August, 1347, and about the hour
+of vespers.&nbsp; The scene is laid in &ldquo;the field of
+Wolverhampton, called Wyndefield, in a place called Le Ocstele,
+near Le More Love-ende.&rdquo;&nbsp; A body of men, all carrying
+arms, are seen to approach their victim, who is described as a
+clerk, and therefore presumably defenceless.&nbsp; He is Roger
+Levessone, son of Richard Levessone.&nbsp; His assailants are
+Robert le Clerk, of Sedgley, two Dudley men, a man from Bloxwich,
+and several others, all duly named in the records of the law
+courts.</p>
+<p>What the cause of quarrel may have been these meagre records
+do not inform us, but on the evidence of a number of witnesses,
+among whom was Richard Colyns, of Willenhall, they freely used
+their spears and swords, inflicting wounds upon the throat and
+other parts of the body, till the unfortunate Roger was
+despatched.</p>
+<p>In 1339, one Richard Adams, of Willenhall, was charged with
+slaying two men in that place, one a townsman named John Odyes,
+and a certain John de Bentley.&nbsp; As he was acquitted,
+probably he did it in self-defence.&nbsp; Encounters of this
+character were of frequent occurrence in those lawless times.</p>
+<p>When the offences recorded are of a less serious nature than
+murder and slaughter, they are nearly always described as being
+accompanied by the violent use of lethal weapons&mdash;&ldquo;vi
+et armis&rdquo; is the old legal phrase.&nbsp; Here are some
+examples of this kind of lawlessness:&mdash;</p>
+<p>In 1352, William de Hampton (probably of the Dunstall family
+of that name) prosecuted a gang of fourteen men, including <!--
+page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+40</span>a chaplain, the parson of Sheynton (?&nbsp; Shenstone),
+and two men from Tettenhall, for robbing him of his goods and
+chattels at Willenhall, Wednesfield, Tettenhall, and
+Pendeford.&nbsp; Of the details of the robberies we are able to
+learn nothing, except that they were all perpetrated forcibly,
+and with a reckless display of violence.</p>
+<p>A similar prosecution was undertaken in 1395 by another member
+of this family, one Nicholas Hampton, against Thomas Marshall, of
+Willenhall, and for a similar outrage in that place.</p>
+<p>A Willenhall man named John Wilson, in 1373, had to invoke the
+law upon a desperado who forcibly broke into his house and close
+at Homerwych (Hammerwich), and stole from thence timber,
+household utensils, clothing, corn, hay, and apparently
+everything he could lay his hands upon and carry away.</p>
+<p>Twenty years later John Wilson (probably the same prosecutor)
+charged John Wilkes, of Darlaston, with stealing two of his oxen,
+though no violence is alleged on this occasion.</p>
+<p>Two Willenhall men, William Colyns, and William Stokes, were,
+in 1399, arrested, and charged with cutting down trees and
+underwood at Bentley.&nbsp; Force and violence were used on that
+occasion; and it must be remembered that timber was then in much
+greater demand for building purposes than now, while underwood
+was in constant requisition as fuel and for the repair of fences
+and shelters.</p>
+<p>Sixteen years later (1415) John Pype and a number of other
+Bilston men were prosecuted by Sir Hugh Burnell, Knt., for
+breaking into his closes at Willenhall, trespassing on his land,
+and treading down his grass with their cattle, committing damage
+to a grievous extent, and all in undisguised defiance to the
+law.</p>
+<p>Enough has been quoted to illustrate, by incidents common to
+the social life of so simple a community as that of Willenhall,
+the gradual decay of feudalism, and the steady growth of English
+liberty by the vindication of constitutional law.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+41</span>IX.&mdash;The Levesons and other old Willenhall
+families.</h2>
+<p>From the same sources, namely from the records of the ancient
+Law Courts, as transcribed, translated, and published in the
+volumes of the Salt Society, we are enabled to gain a knowledge
+of the most prominent families in this locality during the Middle
+Ages.&nbsp; There seem to have been lawsuits ever since there
+were landowners.</p>
+<p>The principal family in Willenhall were the Levesons or
+Leusons, who are said to have been connected with this place and
+the neighbouring parishes of Wednesbury and Wolverhampton, almost
+from the time of the Norman Conquest, eking out a living from the
+soil, of which their tenure was at first a very precarious
+one.</p>
+<p>Their pedigree, given by the county historian, Shaw (II. p.
+169), shows the founder to be one Richard Leveson, settled in
+Willenhall in the reign of Edward I.&nbsp; But we find that in
+the year before this king&rsquo;s accession, namely, in 1271,
+Richard Levison paid a fine of 2s. 3d. in the Forest Court for
+being permitted to retain in cultivation an assart of half an
+acre, lying in Willenhall; that is, to be allowed to continue
+under the plough a piece of land on which he had grubbed up all
+the trees and bushes by the roots, to the detriment of the covert
+within the King&rsquo;s Royal Forest of Cannock.</p>
+<p>The founder of the family was succeeded by a son, and by a
+grandson, both of whom were also called &ldquo;Richard Leveson,
+of Willenhall,&rdquo; although the last one was sometimes
+designated as &ldquo;of Wolverhampton,&rdquo; to which town he
+was doubtless attracted by the greater profits to be made in the
+wool trade.</p>
+<p>The early commercial fame of Wolverhampton was based on this
+industry.&nbsp; Although there were no wool-staplers here in
+1340, yet in 1354, when the wool staple was removed from
+Flanders, Wolverhampton was one of the few English towns fixed
+upon by Parliament for carrying on the trade.&nbsp; (A staple, it
+may be <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 42</span>explained, is a public mart appointed
+and regulated by law.)&nbsp; Although the staple was again
+changed to Calais, it was speedily brought back to England, and
+the Levesons were soon among the foremost &ldquo;merchants of the
+staple.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A Clement de Willenhale is mentioned in an Assize of the year
+1338, but not improbably he was identical with the Clement
+Leveson mentioned in another lawsuit in 1356, a party to which
+was a member of the ancient local family of
+Harper&mdash;&ldquo;John le Harpere,&rdquo; as he is therein
+called.</p>
+<p>Then there is mention in 1351 of the John de Willenhale, who
+is described as being in the wardship of the Prince of
+Wales.&nbsp; But perhaps the best insight into the social state
+of Willenhall at this period will be obtained from a
+consideration of its inhabitants liable to pay a war tax which
+was levied by Edward III. in order to enable him to carry on a
+war of defence against Scotland.&nbsp; For this popular military
+expedition, Parliament in 1327 granted the youthful king a
+Subsidy to the amount of one-twentieth leviable upon the value of
+nearly all kinds of property.&nbsp; Assessors and collectors were
+appointed for every town and village, and they were sworn to make
+true returns of every man&rsquo;s goods and chattels, both in the
+house and out of it.&nbsp; The exceptions allowable were the
+goods of those whose total property did not amount to the full
+value of ten shillings; the tools of trade; and the implements of
+agriculture.&nbsp; On the face of it, these exemptions seem fair
+and just to the lower orders; but we find the higher orders were
+also favoured, and unduly so; not so much perhaps in the matters
+of armour and cavalry horses, as in the non-liability of the
+robes and jewels of knights, gentlemen, and their wives, as well
+as of their silver and household plate.</p>
+<p>Here is a copy of the Subsidy Roll of 1327 so far as it
+relates to</p>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span
+class="smcap">Wyllunhale</span>.</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>De</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Adam M&mdash;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&mdash;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&mdash;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Andr&rsquo; atte Mere</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">xviij</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Joh&rsquo;e le Bakere</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&mdash;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&mdash;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ric&rsquo;o Odys</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p><!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 43</span>Ric&rsquo;o filio Radulfi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">vj</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Joh&rsquo;e filio Rogeri</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&mdash;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&mdash;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ric&rsquo;o filio Ade</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Will&rsquo;o filio Roberti</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">iij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Will&rsquo;o atte Pirye</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">vj</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ric&rsquo;o Chollettes</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Agnete Odys</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">iij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hugone le Gardiner</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Adame atte Mere</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Joh&rsquo;e Hopkynes</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">xij</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Agnete atte Wode</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">xij</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Will&rsquo;mo Newemon</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">xij</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Symone Levesone</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">vj</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">Summa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">xxviij</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">vj Pb.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>It will be seen that this fragment is imperfect, as the
+various amounts set down will not add up to the
+&ldquo;summa&rdquo; or total given, notwithstanding that it has
+been audited&mdash;the abbreviation &ldquo;Pb.&rdquo; standing
+for probata, or proved.</p>
+<p>But more interest will be found in a brief study of the names
+of Willenhall&rsquo;s inhabitants, who were men of substance
+seven hundred years ago.</p>
+<p>It will be observed that Simon is the only member of the
+Leveson family assessed, and that he pays the least sum, except
+that paid by the man Hugh, described as &ldquo;the
+Gardener&rdquo; (the amount paid by &ldquo;John the Baker&rdquo;
+has been obliterated from the roll).</p>
+<p>The strange surname Odyes, appearing twice in this list,
+occurs in another record of the year 1422, and seems to belong to
+a gentle family, resident in Willenhall, and owning lands in
+Bentley.</p>
+<p>As but few people then bore recognised surnames, we find
+taxpayers here officially set down as &ldquo;Richard the son of
+Ralph,&rdquo; &ldquo;John the son of Roger,&rdquo; &ldquo;Richard
+the son of Adam,&rdquo; and <!-- page 44--><a
+name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+44</span>&ldquo;William the son of Robert.&rdquo;&nbsp; Besides
+these named according to their parentage, we have those described
+according to their place of residence; as thus, &ldquo;Andrew at
+the Mere,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Adam at the Mere&rdquo;; &ldquo;Agnes
+at the Wood,&rdquo; and &ldquo;William at the Pear
+Tree.&rdquo;&nbsp; William Newman was probably so-called because
+he was a new-comer, or was lately emancipated from serfdom as a
+&ldquo;new man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>From the Patent Rolls of November, 1334, may be gleaned the
+bare facts of what seems to have been an extraordinary assault at
+Willenhall, which was committed upon John, son of John de
+Bentley, by no less than thirty assailants.&nbsp; Among those
+implicated may be noted the names of five members of the Leveson
+family, namely, Geoffrey, Moses, John, Simon, and Simon the
+younger; also the names of William, son of Robert atte Pirie,
+Andrew atte Mere, John le Harpere, Richard Coletes, Richard
+Colyns, and several others which have occurred before in these
+pages.&nbsp; The Leveson family continue to make many appearances
+in the records of Willenhall litigation at this early
+period.&nbsp; In 1347, Andrew, the son of Simon Levesone, of
+Willenhale, was sued for the treading down and consuming of the
+corn of Andrew in le Lone at Willenhale, with his cattle, and by
+force of arms, and for cutting down his trees, and beating and
+wounding his servant.</p>
+<p>In the following year, Geoffrey Levesone, of Willenhale,
+brought a somewhat similar charge of trespass against John
+Oldejones, of Wodnesfeld.&nbsp; In 1362, Roger Levesone, of
+Willenhale, was successful in a suit for recovering two acres of
+land at Wolverhampton.&nbsp; About the same time Juliana
+Levesone, of Willenhall, married William Tomkys, a member of one
+of the leading families of Bilston.</p>
+<p>In 1369, John de la Lone, of Wolverhampton, sued John
+Levesone, of Willenhale, for forcibly taking his fish, to the
+value of 100 shillings, &ldquo;from his several fishery in
+Willenhale.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In 1394, Roger Liefson (Leveson), of Wylenhale (who has been
+previously mentioned in Chapter VII.), was at law with Thomas
+Colyns, of the same place, for forcibly taking away from
+Willenhall twelve oxen belonging to him.&nbsp; Immediately after,
+one William de Chorley was attacked for taking away from Great
+<!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+45</span>Wyrley, also with a display of armed force, three oxen
+and two cows, the property of Richard Leveson, of
+Willenhall.&nbsp; If these two cases were not reprisals, they at
+least show a state of disturbance and insecurity.</p>
+<p>Another exhibition of lawlessness is brought to our notice in
+1429, when Richard Leveson is found suing Robert Dorlaston,
+weaver, Richard Colyns, lorymer, William Brugge, and William
+Bate, yeomen, all described as &ldquo;of Wylenhale,&rdquo; for
+violently and forcibly breaking into his close at Willenhall.</p>
+<p>A similar case of forcible entry into the close and houses of
+James Leveson, at Willenhale, by one Roger Waters, a Willenhale
+lorymer, was an outrage which occupied the attention of the law
+courts in 1433.</p>
+<p>Three years later (1436) another law case shows the same James
+Levesson suing John Pippard, chaplain, for a messuage and 20
+acres of land in Wolverhampton, which he asserted had descended
+to him from Richard Levesson, of Willenhall, who held it in the
+time of Edward I., in a direct line, namely, from Richard to his
+son Geoffrey, from Geoffrey to his son Roger, and from Roger to
+his son Nicholas, who was plaintiff&rsquo;s father.</p>
+<p>By this time the Leveson family seems to have been not only
+firmly established in and around Willenhall, Wednesfield, and
+Wolverhampton, but to have been very numerous as well.&nbsp;
+Originally yeomen of the first-named place, cultivating their
+lands within the precincts of the Royal Forest of Cannock, they
+gradually grew and prospered, one branch taking advantage of the
+greater commercial opportunities offered by the last-named town,
+and settling there as merchants and wool-staplers.</p>
+<p>Woolstapling was a prosperous trade in Wolverhampton as early
+as 1354; and in its ancient market place the Levesons of the
+younger branch were to be found bartering wool and steadily
+accumulating riches until they were able to marry into the most
+exclusive of the county families.</p>
+<p>Among the Bailiffs of the Staple&mdash;which, in the case of
+Wolverhampton were wool and woolfel&mdash;we find the names of
+William Leveson in 1485, and Walter Leveson in 1491.</p>
+<p><!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+46</span>Members of other old and well-known local families also
+filled this office of Bailiff at various times, namely, William
+Jennings in 1483, Richard Gough in 1486, Edward Giffard in 1493,
+Y. Turton in 1496, and W. Wrottesley in 1499.&nbsp; If evidence
+were required of the enterprise of these Wolverhampton merchants,
+it would be forthcoming in the fact that a Leveson and a
+Jennings, both natives of this place (the latter a
+&ldquo;merchant taylor&rdquo; in 1508) filled the high office of
+Lord Mayor of London.</p>
+<p>An Inquisition Post Mortem (one of those feudal inquiries into
+the extent of a man&rsquo;s landed possessions which passed to
+his heirs) was held on the death of Henry Beaumont, lord of the
+Manor of Wednesbury, at Willenhall, on 28th June, 1472.&nbsp;
+Among those sworn of the jury on that occasion were James Leveson
+Esq., Richard Leveson, Esq., Cornelius Wyrley, Esq., Robert
+Leveson, Ralph Busshbury, Esq., and William Mollesley, all local
+magnates.</p>
+<p>It has not been possible to identify all the members of this
+extensive family.&nbsp; There were two distinct branches of the
+Levesons or Luesons.&nbsp; The elder line were of Prestwood and
+Lilleshall, and produced Sir Richard Leveson, of Trentham; the
+younger branch, descended from William, the son of Richard
+Leveson, of Willenhall, produced the Sir Thomas Leveson who was
+the Royalist governor of Dudley Castle during the great Civil War
+(1643).</p>
+<p>The elder line were &ldquo;of Prestwood&rdquo; because
+Nicholas Leveson, in the time of Henry VI. married Maud, heiress
+of John de Prestwood.&nbsp; The Lilleshall and other properties
+were fat church lands, purchased by the wealthy Levesons at the
+Dissolution of the Monasteries.&nbsp; It was a Richard Leveson of
+the Prestwood branch who acquired the Haling Estate in Kent by
+marriage with a Lord Mayor&rsquo;s daughter, and died in 1539
+after being himself Lord Mayor of London.</p>
+<p>Also from this branch came the famous Vice-Admiral of England
+in Queen Elizabeth&rsquo;s days.&nbsp; This gallant sea-dog,
+whose romance with the &ldquo;Spanish Lady&rdquo; has been retold
+by the present writer in his &ldquo;Staffordshire Stories&rdquo;
+(pp. 22&ndash;35), took part in that <!-- page 47--><a
+name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>daring attack
+upon Cadiz which has been sung by Henry John Newbolt in his
+&ldquo;Admirals All&rdquo;&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Essex was fretting in Cadiz Bay<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; With the galleons fair in sight;<br />
+Howard at last must give him his way,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And the word was passed to fight.<br />
+Never was schoolboy gayer than he,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Since holidays first began:<br />
+He tossed his bonnet to wind and sea,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And under the guns he ran.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Admiral Leveson&rsquo;s effigy in Wolverhampton Church stamps
+him as one of the heroes of old romance&mdash;his career was
+indeed remarkable, as may be read in the work alluded to.</p>
+<p>The present-day representatives of the family are the
+Leveson-Gowers, the head of whom is the Duke of Sutherland.&nbsp;
+The Gowers were an Anglo-Saxon family seated in Yorkshire, and
+the union of the two occurred about the time of Charles I., when
+Sir Thomas Gower, then Sheriff of Yorkshire, married Frances,
+daughter and co-heir of Sir John Leveson, of Haling and
+Lilleshall.</p>
+<p>At the time Richard Leveson was sailing the seas with Essex
+and Drake, there was a John Leveson living in Willenhall as lord
+of the manor, the site of his residence being still marked by the
+position of Levison Street and Moat Street.</p>
+<p>In Wolverhampton &ldquo;Turton&rsquo;s Old Hall&rdquo; was
+originally known as Leveson&rsquo;s Hall; this massive old
+mansion, surrounded by its once deep and wide moat, is believed
+to have been erected by John Leveson, a wool merchant, who was
+High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1561.</p>
+<p>Truly the local record of the Levesons is a long and notable
+one; and it is interesting to note that John Leveson, son of
+Thomas, who had been Sheriff of the county, and died in 1595, is
+the last in Shaw&rsquo;s pedigree to be described as &ldquo;of
+Willenhale,&rdquo; although in a succeeding chapter we shall find
+members of this family still seated on their native soil,
+Willenhall, as late as the years of the Jacobite Rebellions, 1715
+and 1745.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+48</span>X.&mdash;Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation.</h2>
+<p>Now to resume the ecclesiastical history of the place.&nbsp;
+Willenhall was affected by the Reformation from two directions;
+first, through the mother church of Wolverhampton, of which
+collegiate establishment it formed a portion; secondly, through
+its own chapel and the endowed chantry established therein.</p>
+<p>The great ecclesiastical upheaval of the sixteenth century had
+its precursor in the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry
+VIII.&nbsp; The rumble of the coming storm warned the secular or
+non-monastic foundations that it would be prudent to set their
+houses in order if they were to safeguard their revenues; for
+every one of the smaller monasteries, with an income of less than
+&pound;200 per annum, had been forfeited to the Crown (1529).</p>
+<p>A new valuation of the College of Wolverhampton had but just
+been instituted in 1526, from which it will be necessary here to
+extract only that portion of the return relating to our
+subject.&nbsp; It was to this effect:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="4"><p style="text-align: center"><span
+class="smcap">The Prebend of Wylnall</span>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>William Leveson, Clerk (dwelling in Exeter with the
+Bishop), Prebendary there, and hath in glebe-lands</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And in tithes of corn, one year with another</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And in wool and lambs by the year, one year with
+another</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And in the Easter Book by the year, one year with
+another</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And in tithes of Herbage, Pigs, Geese, and other small
+tithes</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">Sum total</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And thereof he pays allowance for Synodals every third
+year, paid to the aforesaid Dean</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And so there remains clear</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The tenth part thereof</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">23</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p><!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+49</span>The value of the Deanery, the Prebends, and the two
+Chantries of Willenhall and Bilston are all set forth in this
+Return.&nbsp; (See Oliver&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of Wolverhampton
+Church,&rdquo; pp. 57&ndash;60.)</p>
+<p>The visitation of the religious houses, undertaken as it was
+in a hostile spirit by Henry VIII., naturally alarmed the
+authorities of a church where it would appear that irregularities
+on the part of the prebendaries had long existed, and not an
+inconsiderable portion of the church property had been alienated,
+to say nothing of the sequestration of the church communion
+plate.&nbsp; Now some hasty attempts were made at restitution,
+and more so to escape detection and censure.</p>
+<p>Restoration in some sort seems to have been hastily attempted
+at Wolverhampton.&nbsp; In 1529 Nicholas Leveson presented a new
+chalice of silver; and the high altar was restored at much
+expense to its former magnificence.&nbsp; The Dean, however, fell
+into disgrace in the matter of denying the King&rsquo;s
+supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London in
+consequence.&nbsp; In 1540 bells purchased by the inhabitants
+from Wenlock Abbey were hung in the church tower.&nbsp; Four
+years later sixteen stalls, taken from the recently dissolved
+monastery at Lilleshall, were presented by Sir Walter Leveson to
+Wolverhampton Church.</p>
+<p>All these precautions scarcely availed to avert the impending
+doom.&nbsp; By an Act passed in the first year of the reign of
+Edward VI., the dissolution of Colleges and Chantries was
+effected.&nbsp; But the Royal College of Windsor, of which
+Wolverhampton was a member, was especially exempted, and the
+Wolverhampton Chapter consequently felt secure from
+disturbance.</p>
+<p>So sure of their position were they that the prebendaries
+actually proceeded to lease out their property.&nbsp; Among the
+others, the prebendary of Willenhall granted his lands and tithes
+to John Leveson, Esq. (who held several other of the prebendal
+properties), for a reserved rent of &pound;6 6s.</p>
+<p>Although the various deeds were confirmed by the Dean and
+Chapter of Windsor, the legality of the proceedings was
+questioned; and presently it was successfully contended that the
+Deanery of Wolverhampton was a separate benefice detached from
+<!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+50</span>the College of Windsor, and that the prebends were in
+the hands of the Crown.</p>
+<p>There is extant another valuation of these ecclesiastical
+revenues in the Primate&rsquo;s Court.&nbsp; The record is in
+Latin, but it may be Englished thus:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Canterbury values Willenhall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>It Days to the Dean of Wolverhampton</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">(William Leveson, Prebendary of
+Willenhall.)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>The Prebendary of Willenhall is worth per annum:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>In Glebeland</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">41</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>In Corn tithes</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>In Wool and Lambs</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">46</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>In Easter dues</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>In Tithes of Fodder, of Hogs, and Geese and other small
+tithes</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Thence is paid, in every third year, to the Dean, for the
+Synod</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>The valuation of Wolverhampton College which is to be regarded
+as that of the Reformation was made in 1551, and one item in
+which may be quoted from Oliver&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of
+Wolverhampton Church&rdquo; (p. 63):&mdash;&ldquo;And for
+&pound;12 6s. 8d. for the farm of the Prebend of Willnall, with
+all messuages, tithes, lands, rents, services, and other profits
+to the said Prebend belonging, demised to John Horton, by
+Indenture under seal of the said College, dated 4th November, 33
+Henry VIII., for the term of 21 years,&rdquo; &amp;c.,
+&amp;c.</p>
+<p>Turning our attention to Willenhall itself, let us see how the
+Chapel here was affected.&nbsp; The Chantry foundation of this
+Chapel, like all others, had to go.&nbsp; Chantries being founded
+by the pious rich to have the souls of their dear departed prayed
+for, could not be tolerated by the Protestant reformers, and were
+all rigidly suppressed.&nbsp; Here is the valuation formally
+taken in the reign of Henry VIII. (1526), as before
+mentioned:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3"><p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 51--><a
+name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span><span
+class="smcap">Chantry of Wylnall</span>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hugh Bromehall, chaplain, hath a house with lands
+pertaining to the same, value per annum</p>
+</td>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: right">8 marks</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And prays to be allowed for rents of assize, payable to
+the Dean</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And for Capitation rents, paid annually to William
+Leveson, Prebendary of Wylnall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>And so their remains due</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">102</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The tenth part thereof</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>The Chantry, being regarded as one of the abhorred
+institutions of Romanism, thus came to an end under the reforming
+zeal of our Protestant legislators in the early years of the
+reign of Edward VI.</p>
+<p>All the possessions of the Colleges of Wolverhampton and
+Tettenhall, with their Prebends, together with the Chantry lands
+of Willenhall, Bilston, and Kinver, when they passed from the
+Crown in 1552, fell into the hands of the notorious John Dudley,
+Duke of Northumberland, who contrived to grab no end of church
+property in this immediate locality.&nbsp; When Northumberland
+came to the block shortly afterwards, there was a great
+redistribution of this property, that of Wolverhampton being once
+more annexed to the Royal Free Chapel of St. George at
+Windsor.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+52</span>XI.&mdash;How the Reformation Affected Willenhall.</h2>
+<p>As recorded in the last chapter, the Willenhall Chantry, in
+common with all others throughout the country, was finally
+suppressed by Edward VI. and his Protestant ministers
+(1547).&nbsp; It had been in existence upwards of 200 years, the
+name of its first Chantry Priest being given (1341) as
+&ldquo;William in the Lone.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Prebendal lands also, as we have seen, were leased in the
+fourth year of this reign to John Leveson, for the sum of
+&pound;6 6s. per annum.&nbsp; All the other lands belonging to
+the Deanery of Wolverhampton then passed into the hands of the
+King, but did not long remain in the Crown, being conveyed, with
+much more ecclesiastical property hereabouts, to John Dudley,
+Duke of Northumberland.&nbsp; On his attainder in the reign of
+Mary (1553), the Deanery lands reverted to the Crown, to be again
+restored to their original use by that most pious queen.</p>
+<p>In 1547 the zeal of the Protestant reformers induced the
+Government of Edward VI. to send Commissioners round the country
+to make inquiry in every parish and every church as to the
+ecclesiastical appointments used in ritual, with orders to
+suppress all that made for &ldquo;idolatrous Popish
+practices.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Commissioners for this locality were all men of high
+standing in the county, as will be seen from their names.&nbsp;
+They were sworn to make&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>A juste, treu, and parfett survey and inventorie
+of all goods, plate, juelles, vestements, belles, and other
+ornaments, of all churches, chappells, brotherhoddes, gyldes,
+fraternities, and compones within the Hundred of Offeley, in the
+Countie of Stafford; taken the seventh day of October, in the
+sixte yere of the Rayne of our Sovereyn Lord, King Edward the
+Sixte, by Thomas Gyffard and Thomas Fytzherbert, knyghts; and
+Walter Wrottesley, Esquier, by virtue of the King&rsquo;s
+commissein to them, directed in that behalf, as hereafter
+particularly appereth.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p><!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+53</span>On one hand, they had to put a stop to the embezzlement,
+concealment, and appropriation by private persons of the
+condemned church property, and to recover as much of it as
+possible for the King&rsquo;s Exchequer.&nbsp; For, under
+pretence of a burning zeal for the reformed faith, there had been
+much sacrilegious spoliation&mdash;church plate finding its way
+on to the table of the neighbouring gentry, marble coffins being
+utilised as horse-troughs, altar cloths serving as tapestry for
+parlour walls, and similar malpractices by those who ought to
+have known better.&nbsp; This property was to be retrieved, and
+the detected offenders were to be heavily fined.</p>
+<p>The Return made for Willenhall Church by the Commissioners and
+their official &ldquo;Surveyor,&rdquo; or assessor, runs,
+verbatim:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span
+class="smcap">Wylnall</span>.</p>
+<p>Fyrste one challes of sylver with a paten parcell gilte
+weyinge by estimacon viij ounces; iij vestement one of whyte
+fustian another of blacke chamlett and the thyrd of bleu
+sarsynet; iij alter clothes; ij cruetts of ledde; a bucket of
+brasse; iij candelstyks of maslyn; a paxe of brass; a corporas
+with the case; ij towells; one cheste; a lampe of latynn; ij
+small bells.</p>
+<p>Mem.&mdash;That all these parcells before rekened were
+delyvered unto Richard Forsett, Surveyor to the Kynge&rsquo;s
+Majesti, as shall appare by his acquytance, except ij belles the
+whyche remayne still within the sayd chapell.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>A few words in explanation of the above terms may, perhaps, be
+necessary for the general reader.&nbsp; The chalice and the paten
+were the vessels used at the Sacrament, the former being the wine
+cup, which was of silver, and the latter the bread dish, partly
+gilt.&nbsp; The priestly vestments were those forbidden by the
+reformed church, and were of different textures for different
+parts of the Roman ceremonial; the fustian was a coarse piled
+fabric, or kind of cotton velvet, imported from the East;
+chamlett, or camlett, was a cloth so called because originally
+woven from camel hair; and the sarsnett was a thin kind of
+silk.&nbsp; The altar cloths had to be discarded when the
+&ldquo;Mass&rdquo; was reformed into the &ldquo;Holy <!-- page
+54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+54</span>Communion.&rdquo;&nbsp; The cruets were pairs of metal
+jars for containing the wine and the water previous to their
+admixture in the sacrament of the Mass.&nbsp; The bucket was for
+use at the font.&nbsp; The candle-sticks were for the lighted
+tapers upon the altar and in this case were made of maslin, an
+alloy like brass, but with a harder grain; latten, of which the
+altar lamp was made, was a similar alloy resembling brass.&nbsp;
+The pax was a tablet (sometimes of wood, sometimes of bread,
+though this Willenhall example was of durable brass), on which
+was a figure of the crucifixion; it was presented in the ceremony
+of the Mass for the faithful to kiss.&nbsp; The Corporas was the
+cloth placed beneath the consecrated elements in the service of
+the Mass.&nbsp; The towels were napkins used in the celebration
+of the sacred office; it must be borne in mind that all textile
+fabrics, as well as metals, were far more costly in those days,
+and the chest was to keep all these valuables in safety.</p>
+<p>It is difficult to decide the nature of the &ldquo;two small
+bells&rdquo;; because, if they were the sanctus bells used at the
+most solemn parts in the performance of the Mass, one a hand-bell
+rung inside, and the other as a signal outside, they would have
+been abolished.&nbsp; So, as they were left by the Reformers,
+they were probably small bells in the steeple or turret.</p>
+<p>So much for the changes materialistic brought about at this
+great religious upheaval of the sixteenth century.&nbsp; Now let
+us inquire into the more serious and essential changes which
+occurred in the religious life of the nation at that time.</p>
+<p>From a little known Return made in 1586 we are enabled to
+gather the conditions of the Church of England, as it was found
+to exist, only 28 years after it had been by law established.</p>
+<p>At the Reformation, after the annulling of all &ldquo;Popish
+ordinations,&rdquo; the state of the English clergy became very
+deplorable.&nbsp; Some of the basest of the people were permitted
+to become parish priests, a circumstance that gave point to the
+arguments and contentions of the Puritans.</p>
+<p>The Reformers were divided upon the subject, Queen Elizabeth
+expressing herself as being perfectly satisfied if in each county
+three or four clergymen could be found capable of <!-- page
+55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+55</span>preaching to their congregations.&nbsp; The Puritans, on
+the other hand, laid great stress on the admonitory value and
+spiritual importance of sermons and homilies.</p>
+<p>By 1586 the condition of the newly-formed Protestant Church of
+England had become so scandalous in respect of its priesthood
+that a national &ldquo;Survey&rdquo; was undertaken.&nbsp; Of the
+remarkable facts disclosed by this Return we select from the
+summaries the following few which relate to this immediate
+locality:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Wolverhampton</span>.&mdash;A
+Collegiate Church; impropriate to the King&rsquo;s Majestie or
+the Dean of Windsor; value of lands belonging to it is &pound;600
+per annum.&nbsp; There be seven Prebends and a Sexton under them;
+seven stipendiaries; the allowance for four of them is ten nobles
+apiece; for the other three &pound;6 apiece.&nbsp; Six of the
+Prebends be held by Sir Gualter Levison; the other is held by
+another.&nbsp; The rent reserved to the Dean of Windsor,
+&pound;38.&nbsp; People 4,000.&nbsp; Many Popish; many
+Recusants.</p>
+<p>Chappells 3:&mdash;</p>
+<p>1.&nbsp; Pelsall; curate&rsquo;s stipend &pound;4; no
+preacher.</p>
+<p>2.&nbsp; Willenhall; curate hath no stipend reserved; no
+preacher.</p>
+<p>3.&nbsp; Bilston; curate hath no stipend reserved; no
+preacher.</p>
+<p>These curates, especially two of them, Mounsell and Cooper, be
+notorious and dissolute men.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Such was the lamentable state of the local clergy at that
+time, when the population of Wolverhampton, with all its outlying
+parts, is set down at 4,000 only.&nbsp; A few words of
+explanation will perhaps be necessary to make the foregoing
+extract more intelligible to the general reader.</p>
+<p>A &ldquo;noble&rdquo; was a coin of the value of 6s. 8d.; a
+&ldquo;recusant&rdquo; was one who disputed the authority and
+supremacy of the Crown in matters ecclesiastical, whether Papist
+or Puritan; while to &ldquo;impropriate&rdquo; church property
+was to place it in the hands of a layman.</p>
+<p><!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+56</span>Four or five more extracts from this interesting Survey,
+relating to other parts of this neighbourhood, may not be out of
+place to quote here:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p><span
+class="smcap">Byshby</span>.&mdash;Parsonage, impropriate; worth
+&pound;40 per annum; vicarage worth &pound;30; patron, Sir Edward
+Littleton; many Popish; many Recusants.&nbsp; Incumbent a mere
+worldling; no preacher.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Tetnall</span>.&mdash;A college dissolved;
+five prebends and a deane; impropriate to the King&rsquo;s
+Majestie; worth 300 marks.&nbsp; One prebend is held by Sir
+Richard Leveson; one by Mr. Gualter Wriotesley; two by Richard
+Cresswell.&nbsp; Curate&rsquo;s stipend, 20 marks; no
+preacher.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Codsall</span>.&mdash;Prebend of
+Tetnall.&nbsp; Curate-prebendary a loose liver; no preacher.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Wombourne</span>.&mdash;Parsonage,
+impropriate, held by Hugh Wriotesley, Esquire; worth &pound;40;
+vicarage worth &pound;26; patron, Edward L. Dudley.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Pen</span>.&mdash;Parsonage; impropriate
+to the vicars of Lichfield; worth &pound;20; vicarage worth as
+much; patrons, the Vicars of Lichfield.&nbsp; Vicar &mdash;; no
+preacher.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>This selection of extracts will serve to enlighten the reader
+upon two important points in the history of the Church; the first
+is the amount of church revenue which had already found its way
+into the pockets of the laity; and the other is the lamentable
+necessity there was at that period to provide the English clergy
+with ready-made Homilies.&nbsp; These Homilies were ordered (as
+the Prayer Book informs us, in the XXXV. Article), to be read
+&ldquo;diligently and distinctly&rdquo; in the churches by the
+Ministers.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+57</span>XII.&mdash;Before the Reformation&mdash;and After.</h2>
+<p>It may be assumed that Willenhall Church has been dedicated to
+St. Giles from the first, because the period for holding the
+dedicatory Wake synchronises with St. Gile&rsquo;s day (September
+1st), making allowance for the eleven days&rsquo; difference
+effected in 1752 between the Old Style and the New Style
+calendars.&nbsp; As the Protestant Reformers took objection to
+non-Biblical saints (West Bromwich Church was altered from St.
+Clement&rsquo;s to All Saints&rsquo;), a dedication to St. Giles
+may safely be accepted as a pre-Reformation one; and as St. Giles
+was the patron saint of cripples, he doubtless retained his
+popularity here on account of the reputation for healing
+qualities acquired by the Willenhall &ldquo;Holy
+Well&rdquo;&mdash;of which more anon.&nbsp; But in addition to
+its Wake, the town seems to have possessed in medi&aelig;val
+times a much frequented Summer Fair, held on Trinity
+Sunday.&nbsp; Our knowledge of this interesting fact is derived
+from the records of the Court of Star Chamber.</p>
+<p>This court was established by Henry VII. to deal with routs,
+riots, and all other cases not sufficiently provided for by the
+common law; but the oppression practised by the unscrupulous
+abuse of its indefinite jurisdiction led to its summary
+extinction in the reign of Charles I.</p>
+<p>The case to be quoted is one of an alleged riot in the year
+1498 (13 Henry VII.), in which the men of Wednesbury were deeply
+involved.&nbsp; These turbulent townsmen seem to have made
+themselves notorious for riotous behaviour at various times; as
+witness the historic Wesley Riots of 1744, their march on
+Birmingham to regulate the price of malt in 1782, and their
+attack on the same town during the Church and King Riots in
+1791.</p>
+<p>It would appear that a company of Mummers, made up of
+performers from Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall, were
+regularly in the habit of going round to the neighbouring Fairs,
+and performing to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor a
+Morris-dance, in which the characters were dressed up for the
+then <!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+58</span>popular dramatic interlude of &ldquo;Robin Hood,&rdquo;
+including Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and all the rest of them.</p>
+<blockquote><p>The hobby-horse doth hither prance,<br />
+Maid Marian and the Morris-dance.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>It would be interesting to discover why, in this local
+version, the character called the &ldquo;Abbot of Marham&rdquo;
+was introduced into the play&mdash;Marham nunnery was situated in
+Norfolk, a long way from the usual forest scenes of Sherwood and
+Needwood.</p>
+<p>The money collected at these al fresco performances was
+applied to maintaining the fabric of the three parish churches;
+but, for some reason unknown, there had evidently grown up a
+deadly feud between the Wednesbury and the Walsall
+contingents.&nbsp; This was the cause of all the trouble.</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;John Beamont&rdquo; mentioned was John Beaumont,
+Esquire, lord of the manor of Wednesbury, a benefactor of the
+parish church there, and a patron of a Walsall Chantry.&nbsp; It
+will be noticed that the quoted document speaks of the
+&ldquo;Church of the lordship,&rdquo; not &ldquo;of the
+parish&rdquo;; and also, that the prefix &ldquo;Sir&rdquo; was
+then used to a parson&rsquo;s name, as we should now use the
+prefix &ldquo;Rev.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Here is the text of the plaints entered by the terrorised
+&ldquo;orators&rdquo; of Walsall, together with the affidavits
+put in as rejoinders; the archaic spelling is retained only in a
+few places just to indicate the style of English then employed in
+the law courts; and it is interesting to note that Midlanders had
+those peculiar vowel sounds in olden times, and pronounced
+&ldquo;fetch&rdquo; as &ldquo;fatch,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;gather&rdquo; as &ldquo;gether&rdquo;&mdash;just as the
+illiterate among them still do:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">To the King Our Sovereign
+Lord</span>&mdash;</p>
+<p>Humbly sheweth unto your highness, your faithful subject and
+true liegeman, Roger Dyngley, Mayor of Walsall; and Thomas Rice,
+of the same town&mdash;That whereas your said orators on
+Wednesday next before Trinity Sunday, the 13th year of your
+reign, were in God&rsquo;s peace and yours, in your said town of
+Walsall&mdash;thither came one John Cradeley, of Wednesbury, and
+Thomas Morres, of Dudley, in your said <!-- page 59--><a
+name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>county; and
+then and there made affray upon the said Thomas Rice, &ldquo;and
+hym soore wounded and bett&rdquo; [beat], so that he was in peril
+of his life.</p>
+<p>Whereupon the said Mayor, with other inhabitants, did arrest
+John Cradeley and Thomas Morres, and there did put them in prison
+according to your laws, there to remain till it were known
+whether the said Thomas Rice should live or die.</p>
+<p>And incontinent thereupon one John Beamonde,
+&ldquo;Squyer,&rdquo; Walter Levison, of Wolverhampton, Richard
+Foxe, priest, of the same town, and one Robert Marshall, of
+Wednesbury, &ldquo;arreysed&rdquo; and riotously assembled
+themselves at Wednesbury with other riotous persons to the number
+of 200 men, arrayed in manner of war, that is to say, with bows,
+arrows, bills, and &ldquo;gleves&rdquo; [long daggers], with
+other unlawful weapons there gathered and assembled, to the
+intent to have come to have destroyed your said town of Walsall,
+saying openly that they would &ldquo;fache&rdquo; out of prison
+the said John Cradeley and Thomas Morres, and destroy your said
+town of Walsall.</p>
+<p>And thereupon William Harper and William Wilkes, Justices of
+the Peace, charged the said riotous persons to keep the peace
+upon a great pain to be forfeited to your grace.&nbsp; By reason
+whereof the said rioters for that time ceased from further
+riot.</p>
+<p>And whereas the said Justices of the Peace, knowing the said
+rioters intended to make more riot, and to execute their malice
+in doing some mischief or hurt to the said town or to the
+inhabitants thereof, for eschewing any riot or breach of the
+peace commanded the inhabitants of Walsall, Wednesbury, and of
+divers other towns, their adherents, that they should not
+assemble together out of the said town, and should not come to a
+Fair that should be holden at Wilnale on Trinity Sunday, then
+next following.</p>
+<p>And the inhabitants of Walsall the same day kept at home.</p>
+<p><!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+60</span>Notwithstanding, came one from Hampton, whose name is
+William Milner, calling himself the Abbot of Marram, and one
+Walter Leveson with him, with the inhabitants of Hampton to the
+number of four score persons in harness [armour] after the manner
+of war, to Wilnall to the said Fair.&nbsp; And also one Robert
+Marchall, of Wednesbury, calling himself Robyn Hood, and Sir
+Richard Foxe, priest, with divers other persons to the number of
+100 men and above, in harness, came in likewise, and met with the
+said other rioters at the said town of Wilnall, and then and
+there riotously assembled themselves, commanding openly that if
+any of the town of Walsall came therefrom, to strike them down,
+and in the said town continued their said riotous assembly all
+the same day; and if any man of Walsall at that day had been seen
+at that Fair, they should have been in jeopardy of their
+lives.</p>
+<p>Please your highness to grant your Letters of Privy Seal to be
+directed to the said John Beamonde, Walter Leveson, Sir Richard
+Foxe, priest, and Roger Marchall, to commanding them to appear
+before your Council to answer to the premises.</p>
+<p>1st July, in the 13th year, to appear.</p>
+<p>[Endorsed].</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Three several letters issued to Walter Leveson, Richard Foxe,
+and Roger Marchall, to appear.</p>
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Michaelmas Term in the</span>
+14<span class="smcap">th Year</span>.&nbsp; <span
+class="smcap">The Mayor and Inhabitants of Walsall against John
+Beamonde</span>, <span class="smcap">Esquire</span>, <span
+class="smcap">and Others</span>.&nbsp; <span class="smcap">Answer
+for Sir Roger Marchall</span>&mdash;</p>
+<p>The Bill is only &ldquo;feyned a yenst hym in pure
+males&rdquo; [malice] for his great trouble and vexation, and
+loss of his goods.&nbsp; He did not riotously assemble with any
+persons in arms, nor is he guilty of any riot.&nbsp; As for the
+coming to the said Fair at Wylnahale &ldquo;hit hath byn of olde
+tymes used and accustumed in the said Fere day that with the
+inhabitants of sede townes of Hampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall
+have comyne to the said Fere with the capitanns called the Abot
+of Marham or Robyn Hodys, to the intent to gether money <!-- page
+61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>with
+their disportes to the profight of the chirches of the said
+lordshipes,&rdquo; whereby great profit hath grown to the said
+churches in times past.</p>
+<p>Whereupon the said Roger Marchall and his Company at the
+special desire of the Inhabitants of Weddesbury, come in
+peaceable manner to the said Fair, according to the said old
+custom, and these met with one John Walker, of Walsall, and
+divers others of the said town, and then and there &ldquo;they
+make as gud chere unto them as they should do to ther lovying
+neyburs.&rdquo;&nbsp; And he denies that they came riotously.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The Answer of Walter
+Leveson</span>&mdash;</p>
+<p>He heard say at Hampton, where he dwells, that a &ldquo;rumour
+and mysdemenying&rdquo; against the King&rsquo;s peace was had in
+Walsale, and that the inhabitants were riotously disposed against
+John Beamont.</p>
+<p>Whereupon the said Walter with two of his servants, in
+peaceable manner, and without any harness, came to the said John
+Beamont to his place at Weddesbury, to know how the Mayor and
+Inhabitants of Walsale would entreat him.</p>
+<p>John Beamont said that he knew of no hurt that they willed to
+him.&nbsp; It has been of old time used and accustomed on the
+said Fair day that the inhabitants of Hampton, Weddesbury, and
+Walsale have come to the Fair with such Captains as they have of
+old time used, to the intent to gather money with their disports
+to the use of the said churches of the said lordships.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>And this is all we know of that lively &ldquo;Whitsun
+Morris&rdquo; at Willenhall Fair in the year of grace 1498.&nbsp;
+It all reads like a delightful chapter in the vein of
+Shakespeare&rsquo;s Dogberry and Verges; and it will be noted
+that the priests are among the captains or ringleaders in this
+Sunday revelling.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p>
+<p>After the Reformation came the Puritans, who severely
+discountenanced all Sunday revelry.&nbsp; And so the lampoon of
+their enemies ran:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p><!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 62</span>There dwells a people on the earth<br
+/>
+That reckons true religion treason,<br />
+That makes sad war on holy mirth,<br />
+Count madness zeal and nonsense reason;<br />
+That think no freedom but in slavery,<br />
+That makes lyes truth, religion, knavery;<br />
+That rob and cheat with &ldquo;yea&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;nay,&rdquo;<br />
+Riddle me, riddle me, who are they?</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Yet, when religious differencies had brought on civil war, it
+had to be confessed of this Puritan people (so says Sir Francis
+Doyle in &ldquo;The Cavalier&rdquo;):&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>That though they snuffled psalms, to give<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; The rebel dogs their due,<br />
+When the roaring shot poured thick and hot<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; They were stalwart men and true.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>And so the mighty struggle for liberty of conscience against
+the pretensions of a dominant Church had proceeded for over
+century, when we find the incumbency of Willenhall held by the
+Rev. Thomas Badland.</p>
+<p>Thomas Badland was born in 1643, matriculated at Pembroke
+College, Oxford, 1650, and took his B.A. degree, 1653.&nbsp; He
+was one of the noble band of ministers who relinquished their
+livings on August 24th, 1662, rather than conform to the
+requirements of the Act of Uniformity, passed on the Restoration
+of Charles II.</p>
+<p>On his ejectment from Willenhall, this conscientious Puritan
+divine returned to his native city, Worcester, where &ldquo;he
+formed a distinct congregation of Christians, who assembled for
+worship in a small room&rdquo; at the bottom of Fish
+Street.&nbsp; His family was an old one in Worcester, the name
+Badland occurring in a charter of James I.</p>
+<p>According to Noake&rsquo;s &ldquo;Worcester Sects,&rdquo; he
+was minister of that congregation for 35 years; but before his
+death the Declaration of Indulgence by James II. was made (1687),
+and immediately thereupon Mr. Badland&rsquo;s church was
+regularly constituted by the adoption of the Covenants of church
+membership which had been drawn by Richard Baxter&mdash;he was a
+personal friend of the eminent divine&mdash;in terms sufficiently
+general to include almost all denominations who might choose to
+make it a point of common agreement.</p>
+<p><!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+63</span>From Nash&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of
+Worcestershire&rdquo; we learn that on a monument on the south
+wall of the south aisle of St. Martin&rsquo;s church, Worcester,
+it was set forth:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Under these seats lies interred the body of the
+Rev. Thomas Badland, a faithful and profitable preacher of the
+Gospel in this city for the space of thirty-five years.&nbsp; He
+rested from his labours, May 5th, <span class="smcap">a.d</span>
+1698, &aelig;t. 64.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">Mors mihi vita nova.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>When St. Martin&rsquo;s Church was pulled down in 1768 this
+marble tablet was carelessly thrown aside, and soon got broken
+into fragments.&nbsp; Happily the pieces were rescued and put
+together again with loving care for erection in the vestibule of
+Angel Street Chapel, at the expense of the congregation
+worshipping there.&nbsp; In the new Independent Chapel, which has
+taken the place of that older building (registered at Quarter
+Sessions in 1689 as a Presbyterian place of worship), the
+memorial has been placed near the pulpit.</p>
+<p>From a MS. history of Angel Street Church, written by Samuel
+Blackwell in 1841, it would appear that Mr. Badland had as one of
+his assistants a Mr. Hand, who had been ordained at
+Oldbury.&nbsp; At Fish Street Chapel (the site of which was
+occupied in later times by Dent&rsquo;s Glove Factory), there
+were 120 Communicants in February, 1687; and the Declaration of
+Faith drawn up and signed by the church members that year bears
+first the name of Thomas Badland, pastor, and among many others
+that follow is that of &ldquo;Elizab. Badland,&rdquo; presumably
+his wife.&nbsp; Such, briefly, is the life history of the good
+man who relinquished the living of Willenhall, and repudiated its
+&ldquo;idolatrous steeple-house,&rdquo; at the Black Bartholomew
+of 1662, rather than stifle the dictates of his conscience.</p>
+<p>In Palmer&rsquo;s &ldquo;Nonconformist&rsquo; Memorials&rdquo;
+the Rev. Thomas Badland has been confused with the Rev. Thomas
+Baldwin, who was ejected (1662) from the Vicarage of Chaddesley
+Corbett, and who died at Kidderminster in 1693, his funeral
+sermon being preached by a conforming clergyman there, named
+White.&nbsp; There was also a Thomas Baldwin, junior, who had
+been expelled from <!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 64</span>the Vicarage of Clent, and died at
+Birmingham; but notwithstanding such common mispronunciations as
+&ldquo;Badlam&rdquo; for &ldquo;Badland,&rdquo; it seems clear
+that the facts of the Rev. Mr. Badland&rsquo;s life are as given
+here, thanks to the careful researches of Mr. A. A. Rollason, of
+Dudley.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+65</span>XIII.&mdash;A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms
+(1640&ndash;1745).</h2>
+<p>Life in Willenhall, as in many other places during the Stuart
+period, was not without its alarms and apprehensions.&nbsp; The
+trouble began when Charles I., by the advice of Archbishop Laud,
+tried to force the English liturgy upon Scotland.&nbsp; The
+resistance offered to this was the real beginning of the English
+Revolution, for the King, in the attempt to carry out his
+despotic will, had to enlist soldiers by force.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p65ab.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Mosley Hall.  Photo. by J. Gale, Wolverhampton"
+title=
+"Mosley Hall.  Photo. by J. Gale, Wolverhampton"
+src="images/p65as.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>In the year 1640 a special muster was made for the war against
+the Scotch Covenanters; the men from Staffordshire consisted of
+trained bands who had been employed in the previous year, and 300
+men who were impressed for the occasion.&nbsp; The service
+throughout the country was very unpopular, and in some counties
+the men mutinied and murdered their officers.&nbsp; Staffordshire
+did not escape some riots, and one of the most serious of them
+occurred in front of Bentley Hall, a mile and a-half out of
+Willenhall.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p65bb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Boscobel House.  Photo. by B. Williams, Wolverhampton"
+title=
+"Boscobel House.  Photo. by B. Williams, Wolverhampton"
+src="images/p65bs.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>This was the last attempt at raising men on the old feudal
+levies; the trained bands were armed partly with pikes and partly
+with the newly-invented firelock, while the whole of the
+impressed men were armed merely with pikes.&nbsp; The Muster Roll
+for this immediate locality contains these names (that of Aspley
+is cancelled):&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: center">Traine.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: center">Presse.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tipton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>Thomas Dudley,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&mdash;Thomas Winney.&nbsp; The L. dnd.</p>
+<p>&mdash;William Aspley pst.</p>
+<p>&mdash;John Winspurre in loco.</p>
+<p>&mdash;John Husband.</p>
+<p>&mdash;Joseph Richard.</p>
+<p>&mdash;William Dutton.</p>
+<p>&mdash;Richard Rushton: to be sp: per R. Turnor.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Darlaston &amp; Bentley</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>Thomas Pye, Willm Turner,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Wednesfield</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>John Hill,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Willenhall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>William Wilkes,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>Another Roll dated 1634, but apparently in use at this time,
+gives among the names of the &ldquo;trayned horse&rdquo; liable
+as (or for) <!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 66</span>2 &ldquo;curiasiers,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Thomas Levison, Esq.,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Mrs. Lane and her
+sonne.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Within a couple of years Civil War had broken out in England,
+and Willenhall had to endure its full share of suffering lying,
+as it did, midway between two opposing strongholds&mdash;Dudley
+Castle, held for the King (under Colonel Leveson), and Rushall
+Hall, garrisoned for the Parliamentarian side.</p>
+<p>Both sides in turn, as they were in a position to enforce
+payment, made levies of money upon the unfortunate inhabitants of
+the district.&nbsp; While Rushall Hall was a fortified position,
+first under its owner, Sir Edward Leigh, and afterwards under its
+military governor, Captain Tuthill, Willenhall was forced to pay
+to the support of the garrison there.</p>
+<p>Here is the evidence of an official notice:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>April 8th, 1643.&mdash;Ordered that the weekly
+pay, and five weeks&rsquo; arrears, of Norton and Wirley,
+Pelsall, Rushall, and Goscote, Willenhall, Wednesfield and
+Wednesbury, shall be assigned to Col. Leigh for payment of his
+officers of horse and troopers</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>There is a similar military order, dated 22nd June, 1644, by
+which the weekly pay of all these places is assigned to Captain
+Tuthill, governor of Rushall, though in the parcelling out of
+contributory areas, Bushbury, Wolverhampton, Bilston, and Bradley
+are included in another district.&nbsp; The other side were
+employing forced labour for strengthening the defence of Dudley
+Castle, and not improbably the Leveson tenants from Wednesfield
+and Willenhall were impressed to go up there equipped with spade
+and mattock.</p>
+<p>Doubtless troops and detachments of armed men were frequently
+to be seen passing through Willenhall; while Wolverhampton, owing
+to the influence of the Levesons and the Goughs, was almost a
+Royalist rallying place.&nbsp; Soon after the skirmish at Hopton
+Heath, near Stafford, in 1643, Charles I. found shelter in the
+old Star and Garter Inn (then in Cock Street), and to this
+hostelry came Mr. Henry Gough, who had accommodated Charles,
+Prince of Wales, and his younger brother, James, Duke of York,
+<!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+67</span>at his private residence, to proffer the King a willing
+war loan of &pound;1,200.</p>
+<p>The same year the King made the same hostelry his
+headquarters, dating a letter which he addressed to the Lichfield
+magistrates, directing them to send their arms to join the Royal
+standard at Nottingham, &ldquo;Att our Court at Wolverhampton, 17
+August, 1642.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In 1643, Prince Rupert, after his memorable fight at
+Birmingham, made an attack upon Rushall Hall; and notwithstanding
+the gallant defence of Mistress Leigh, in the absence of her
+husband, its lord, took and held it for the King, putting in as
+governor Sir Edward Leigh&rsquo;s neighbour, Colonel Lane, of
+Bentley.&nbsp; With a garrison of 100 to 200 men, he held Rushall
+Hall for some months, having some exciting times, chiefly in the
+plundering of the enemy&rsquo;s stores, and the private
+merchandise of carriers passing along the great Watling Street
+over Cannock Chase.</p>
+<p>On May 10th, 1644, the Earl of Denbigh, after a vigorous
+attack, recaptured Rushall, finding there thousands of
+pounds&rsquo; worth of stolen goods, and taking among other
+prisoners William Hopkins, of Oakeswell Hall, Wednesbury.&nbsp;
+It was then Captain Tuthill became commander of the garrison.</p>
+<p>In the same month the Stafford Parliamentarian Committee
+ordered the seizure of all the horses and cattle belonging to
+that staunch Royalist, Squire Lane, and of all the other cavalier
+landowners around Bentley.&nbsp; The seizure was duly made, and
+realised by sale at Birmingham.&nbsp; As a set-off to this it
+must be recounted that at the beginning of the year Colonel Lane
+had fallen upon a Parliamentary escort convoying stores and
+provisions to Stafford, routed the enemy, and taken no less than
+sixty horses, fifty-five of their packs containing
+ammunition.&nbsp; Hence, the reprisal at this first
+opportunity.</p>
+<p>In the September of the year (1644) a remarkable episode
+occurred.&nbsp; The governor of Dudley Castle, Sir Thomas
+Leveson, employed one of his trusty tenants, a yeoman named
+Francis Pitt, of Wednesfield, to make a secret attempt to bribe
+Captain Tuthill <!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 68</span>to betray Rushall and its garrison
+into his hands.&nbsp; A number of letters passed between Leveson
+and Tuthill, for the latter pretended from the outset to fall in
+with the treacherous proposal, with the object of recovering some
+prisoners; which having accomplished, he seized Pitt, the
+go-between, and delivered him up to the Parliament.</p>
+<p>Colonel Leveson, unconscious of this treachery, came according
+to arrangement to Rushall, but instead of finding an easy
+entrance, had two &ldquo;drakes,&rdquo; or small cannons, fired
+upon him, killing a number of his troops.&nbsp; The letters of
+Leveson and Tuthill will be found printed in full in
+Willmore&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of Walsall.&rdquo;&nbsp; The
+unfortunate messenger, Francis Pitt, was tried in London by
+&ldquo;Court Martial,&rdquo; and hanged at Smithfield on October
+12th.&nbsp; It transpired at the trial that he was selected by
+Colonel Leveson because he held a farm of him for life, was
+familiar with Rushall Hall, and had told him he had to go there
+to pay his war contributions, and sometimes to redeem his
+neighbours&rsquo; cattle.&nbsp; On the one side Captain Tuthill
+had promised him &pound;100 of the &pound;2,000 bribe by which it
+was proposed to seduce him, and on the other his landlord had
+offered to remit seven years of his rent.&nbsp; Such is the
+fortune of war, however, the poor wretch, instead of reward, met
+with an ignominious death at the age of 65, after a life of
+honest toil.</p>
+<p>In 1645 Prince Rupert had his headquarters in Wolverhampton,
+while the King lay two miles to the north of the town, where
+tradition says he watched a skirmish with the enemy from Bushbury
+Hill.&nbsp; When Charles I. fled before Cromwell at Naseby on
+June 14th of that year he passed through Lichfield and entered
+Wolverhampton.&nbsp; After sleeping the night, either at the Old
+Hall, Robert Levenson&rsquo;s residence, or at a house in Old
+Lichfield Street, the unfortunately King passed on the next
+morning towards Bewdley.</p>
+<p>Some interesting local information during this war time is to
+be derived from the literary remains of an officer in the
+King&rsquo;s Army, one Captain Symmonds, who amused himself on
+his marches by taking heraldic notes, and noticing monumental
+inscriptions.&nbsp; An entry in his Diary thus alludes to the
+foregoing facts:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><!-- page 69--><a
+name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>Friday, May
+16, 1645.</p>
+<p>The rendezvous was near the King&rsquo;s quarters.&nbsp; Began
+after 4 o&rsquo;clock in the morning here.&nbsp; One soldier was
+hanged for mutiny.</p>
+<p>The prince&rsquo;s headquarters was at Wolverhampton.&nbsp; A
+handsome towne.&nbsp; One faire church in it.</p>
+<p>The King lay at Bisbury.&nbsp; A private sweet village where
+Squire Grosvenor (as they call him) lives.&nbsp; Which name hath
+continued here 120 years.&nbsp; Before him lived Bisbury of
+Bisbury.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Our military diarist next writes:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Satterday, May 17, 1645.&mdash;His Majestie
+marched from here to Tong&mdash;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>and goes on to enumerate the garrisons in Staffordshire at
+that date, distinguishing by initials which were
+&ldquo;Rebel&rdquo; and which were the
+&ldquo;King&rsquo;s&rdquo;; among them:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>K.&nbsp; Lichfield.&mdash;Colonel Bagott,
+governor.</p>
+<p>R.&nbsp; Russell hall.&mdash;A taylor governor.</p>
+<p>R.&nbsp; Mr. Gifford&rsquo;s house at Chillington, three miles
+from Wolverhampton.&nbsp; Now slighted by themselves.</p>
+<p>K.&nbsp; Dudley Castle.&mdash;Colonel Leveson, whose estate
+and habitation is at Wolverhampton, is governor.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Slighted&rdquo; signifies dismantled of its
+fortification; the allusion to &ldquo;a tailor&rdquo; being
+military governor of Rushall is, of course, a cavalier&rsquo;s
+sneer at the Republican soldiery.</p>
+<p>Coming now to the end of the war, when Charles II. was
+defeated at Worcester in 1651, the country round Willenhall
+became the scene of that fugitive monarch&rsquo;s most romantic
+wanderings.&nbsp; Flying from the battlefield at the close of
+that fatal September day, Charles made his way through
+Stourbridge to Whiteladies and Boscobel.&nbsp; Then occurred the
+episode of his hiding in the &ldquo;Royal Oak,&rdquo; and his
+concealment inside the house, in the &ldquo;priests&rsquo;
+hole&rdquo; at the top of the stairs, by Mrs. Penderel.</p>
+<p>Fearing discovery, the King was escorted by the brothers
+Penderel to Moseley Hall, near Bushbury, a timber-framed <!--
+page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+70</span>mansion in the picturesque Elizabethan style, the home
+of the Whitgreates, where the hunted monarch was welcomed and
+immediately refreshed with some biscuits and a bottle of
+sack.&nbsp; Charles had scarcely departed from Boscobel ere a
+troop of Roundheads arrived to search it.&nbsp; And another
+narrow escape now occurred at Moseley, where again a cunningly
+contrived hiding place was brought into requisition.&nbsp; Even
+after the frustration of the search party, one Southall, a
+notorious &ldquo;priest catcher,&rdquo; called at the suspected
+house.</p>
+<p>Prudence dictated another secret flight, and taking advantage
+of a dark night the unhappy King was taken by Colonel Lane to his
+own house, and was next hidden at Bentley Hall.</p>
+<p>The story of the escape of Charles II. from Bentley towards
+the continent, disguised as a groom and riding in front of Jane
+Lane&rsquo;s pillion, is too well known to need re-telling
+here.&nbsp; The episode is historic; it is the subject of a
+fresco painted on the walls of a corridor in the gilded chambers
+of Parliament.</p>
+<p>The whole romance of Boscobel and Bentley is told with
+considerable fulness in Shaw&rsquo;s &ldquo;Staffordshire&rdquo;
+(I., pp. 73&ndash;84), and is accompanied by very interesting
+engravings of Boscobel, Moseley Hall, and Old Bentley.</p>
+<p>As a result of the Revolution of 1688, and with the death of
+Queen Anne in 1714, the impracticable Stuarts disappeared for
+good from the English throne; but as adherents to their
+discredited cause, known as Jacobites, still remained numerous,
+it may be guessed they were not lacking in and around
+Willenhall.</p>
+<p>After the Hanoverian Succession there were, in fact, a number
+of avowed Jacobites in this vicinity, who refused to take the
+oath of allegiance to George I.&nbsp; Their names and behaviour
+were kept strictly under notice by the Government, but for fear
+of driving them to extremes no active measures were taken against
+them or their estates.&nbsp; A list of these non-jurors and Roman
+Catholics was compiled after the rebellion of 1715, and again in
+1745, when the rebellion of the Young Pretender once more
+disturbed the Kingdom.&nbsp; A list of these suspects was
+published on each occasion by the Government, with the amount of
+penalties <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 71</span>incurred (but not exacted) against
+each name.&nbsp; In these lists appeared the following
+names:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Charles Smith, of Bushbury, Esq.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">67</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Anne Kempson, of Estington, widow</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ursula Kempson, of Wolverhampton, widow</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">39</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>John Kempson, of Great Sardon</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">41</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>William Ward, ditto</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Mary Leveson, of Willenhall, in Wolverhampton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">31</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>John Leveson, ditto</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">50</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">17</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>John Brandon, of Prestwood, yeoman</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Thomas Giffard, of Chillington, Esq.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2100</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6&frac12;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Elizabeth Giffard, of Wolverhampton, spinster</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">58</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Thomas Whitgreaves, of Moseley, Esq.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">73</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p71.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p71.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+72</span>XIV.&mdash;Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend
+(1615&ndash;1702).</h2>
+<p>The Prebend had little to do with Willenhall, except in
+name.&nbsp; However, as the name of Willenhall was attached to
+this particular &ldquo;canonical portion&rdquo; in the Collegiate
+Church of Wolverhampton, and more especially as the Levesons are
+connected with its later history, reference to it cannot well be
+omitted.</p>
+<p>The Leveson family had been dealing with Wolverhampton church
+property for centuries, and in the Stuart period were lessees of
+the greater part of it at a nominal rent of &pound;38 per
+annum.&nbsp; Their standing in the county may be gauged by this
+entry which the Heralds made concerning the family at
+&ldquo;Visitation&rdquo; 1538:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Richard Leveson of Willenhall was living in 27
+Edward I.&nbsp; He married Margereye, daughter of Henry Fitz
+Clemente of Wolverhampton.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>By an indenture of the year 1613 the Dean and Chapter of
+Wolverhampton leased the deanery, prebends, and manor of
+Wolverhampton to Sir Walter Leveson, and all the lands belonging
+thereto in various parts of Staffordshire and Worcestershire,
+including those at Willenhall, Wednesfield, Bentley, &amp;c.,
+with all the mines of sea coal, ironstone, &amp;c., on the said
+premises, but specially excepting the patronage and gifts of
+prebends, canonship, and all their offices and ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction; all at an annual reserved rent of &pound;38, and
+the quaint old-world tenure of having &ldquo;to entertain the
+Dean and his retinue two days and three nights in each
+year.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The validity of these leases was questioned a few years later
+in the 13th year of James I., the lessee having refused to pay
+the reserved rents without considerable deductions; and a bill
+was filed in Chancery by Joseph Hall, D.D., prebendary of
+Willenhall, and Christopher Cragg, prebendary of Hatherton
+(probably on the advice of the newly installed Dean, Dr. Anthony
+Maxey), against the aforesaid, Sir Walter Leveson, who was then
+in possession of <!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 73</span>the property belonging to their two
+prebends, as well as other possessions belonging to the College
+of Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>Although the case was decided against Sir Walter Leveson, the
+prebendaries reaped little or no benefit; for Sir Walter died
+immediately after, leaving his heir a minor, and a ward of the
+King.&nbsp; During the wardship the King attempted to settle the
+questions and controversies which had arisen when he made the
+appointment of a new Dean.</p>
+<p>It must be borne in mind that the Deans of Wolverhampton were
+also Deans of Windsor; and Dr. Maxey dying about 1618, there
+followed a somewhat quick succession of Deans.&nbsp; These were
+Matthew Wren (1628), protege of Laud, and successively Bishop of
+Hereford, of Norwich, and of Ely; Christopher Wren, his brother
+(1634), father of the famous architect of the same name; Dr.
+Bruno Ryes (1660); and Dr. Brideoak, who became Bishop of
+Chichester in 1675.</p>
+<p>The wardship of young Leveson lasted 16 years, and when he
+came of age the prebendaries were glad to come to a composition
+with him.</p>
+<p>By this composition he agreed to pay them &pound;30 per annum
+each, in full satisfaction of the several tithes and other
+profits belonging in right to their respective prebends; this
+being over and above the said reserved rents which had been
+previously paid.&nbsp; Arrangements were made at the same time
+with the rest of the prebendaries respecting the several
+proportions of the tithe belonging to them.</p>
+<p>About this time the Dean and Prebendaries successfully
+resisted an attempt of the Archbishop of Canterbury to hold a
+visitation within the &ldquo;peculiar&rdquo;&mdash;the
+church&rsquo;s jurisdiction within itself.</p>
+<p>After the Civil War the Prebendaries found that they had
+suffered considerable losses by the acts of their predecessors;
+so it was determined by Thomas Wren, LL.D. (son of the
+aforementioned Rev. Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely, whose literary
+remains include &ldquo;A Brief History of the Parish and
+Jurisdiction of Wolverhampton, from the Time of King
+Edgar&rdquo;) prebendary of <!-- page 74--><a
+name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>Willenhall,
+and C&aelig;sar Callendine, B.D., prebendary of Hatherton, to
+file a bill in Chancery against Robert Leveson for a discovery of
+the lands he held which anciently belonged to the prebendaries of
+Wolverhampton, and that he might show by what title he held
+them.</p>
+<p>The hearing was before the great Lord Chancellor of that day,
+Lord Clarendon, who dismissed the bill, though without costs.</p>
+<p>The Leveson family consequently continued in the undisturbed
+enjoyment of the church property, granted to them in fee farm by
+six prebendaries, as well as of divers other freehold estates in
+the parish of Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>The Leveson property in Wolverhampton became much implicated
+in the numerous family settlements till, in 1702, Frances, Earl
+of Bradford, purchased it of Robert Leveson for
+&pound;22,000.&nbsp; Lord Bradford also acquired, three years
+later, the estate of the Dean and Prebends of Wolverhampton which
+had been leased to the Earl of Windsor; so that the entire
+property of the Collegiate Church (except the prebendal houses
+and some property which had been set aside for the use of the
+Sacrist), passed into the hands of one and the same
+proprietor.</p>
+<p>In the same year, however, the Dean, Prebendaries, and Sacrist
+filed a bill in Chancery against Leveson and the Earl for the
+recovery of the property.&nbsp; The plaintiffs were Gregory
+Hascard, D.D., dean; Prebendaries John Hinton (Willenhall),
+Richard Redding (Kinvaston), Thomas Allestree (Hilton), John
+Plimley (Fetherstone), John Hilman (Hatherton), Richard Ames
+(Monmore), Walter Ashley (Wobaston), and Henry Wood, sacrist.</p>
+<p>They contended they were all clerks, constituted one entire
+body, and rector or parson incorporate, of the whole parish of
+Wolverhampton, which was of very great extent, consisting of 16
+or 17 hamlets or villages besides the large town of
+Wolverhampton, being in circuit about thirty miles, in three of
+which said hamlets there were chapels of ease, the several cures
+thereof belonging to the said College or Free Chapel Royal.</p>
+<p><!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+75</span>In all this litigation it was a question much agitated
+whether, as all the prebendaries with the Dean and the Sacrist
+constituted one entire body, any single prebendary could demise
+his annual portion of the said general tithes without the consent
+of the whole body.</p>
+<p>The defendant Leveson was accused of having contrived secret
+conveyances of many parcels of the said tithes and lands for the
+benefit of his own family, some of the properties having been
+sold for large sums of money, and the church revenues defrauded
+thereby.&nbsp; Also that he had so altered and confounded the
+buildings, fences, and boundaries of the church lands, and so
+mixed them up with his own inherited lands, that it had become
+impossible to discern or distinguish which were the original
+possessions of the College; possessions which at the Domesday
+Survey had extended to 3,000 acres, besides the lordship of
+Lutley, near Halesowen.</p>
+<p>Dr. Oliver states that in his time (1836) there remained some
+&ldquo;houses and lands now belonging to the prebendaries and
+Sacrist, which are leased out for lives.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;corpses&rdquo; of the six prebends are supposed to
+have consisted of the tithes of their respective districts in
+Willenhall, Hilton, Hatherton, Fetherston, Monmore, and
+Wobaston.</p>
+<p>The Rev. Richard Ames, Curate of Bilston for 46 years
+(1684&ndash;1730), makes the following record:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>1723, December 9th.&mdash;The Reverd. Mr. Wm.
+Craddock, Rector of Donnington (Salop), was installed Prebendary
+of Willenhall, he having resigned that of Hatherston.&nbsp; The
+mandate for his installmt. was directed to me (ye Senior
+Prebendary) by ye Rt. Hon&rsquo;ble George, Lord Willoughby de
+Broke, Deane of o&rsquo;r Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, and
+of Windsor; I being constituted locum tenens.</p>
+<p>On ye 10th December, 1723, by virtue of an&rsquo;r mandate to
+me, directed by ye same Ld. Willoughby de Broke, ye same Mr. Wm.
+Craddock was by me put in possession of ye Sacrist&rsquo;s Stall,
+both which places became vacant by ye death of Mr. Hinton.&nbsp;
+He (Mr. Craddock) was also constituted principal official.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p><!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+76</span>In 1836, when Dr. Oliver wrote his history of the
+church, the Chapter of the College consisted of the Hon. Henry
+Lewis Hobart, D.D. (Dean), the Rev. R. Ellison, M.A., prebendary
+of Willenhall, and the other prebendaries (of Kinvaston, Hilton,
+Featherston, Monmore, Hatherton, and Wobaston respectively), and
+the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., perpetual curate and Sacrist (an Act
+obtained in 1811 by Dean Legge had constituted the Sacrist the
+real incumbent of the church).&nbsp; The Chapter had it own seal,
+which was of proper ecclesiastical design, and of some
+antiquity.</p>
+<p>On the death of the very Rev. and Hon. H. L. Hobart, D.C.L.,
+&amp;c., in 1846, the Collegiate establishment of Wolverhampton
+ceased to exist, and its property became vested in the
+ecclesiastical Commissioners.</p>
+<p>Such was the gross abuse of ecclesiastical patronage, the
+entire income of the Collegiate Church (except &pound;100 a year
+for a curate of very indefinite status) had been absorbed in the
+payment of a Dean of the two &ldquo;peculiars&rdquo; of Windsor
+and Wolverhampton, and of some half-dozen legendary prebendaries
+who were for the most part unknown, even by name, to the oldest
+inhabitant of the parish.</p>
+<p>With the suppression of the ancient Deanery, the modern
+township of Wolverhampton was divided into thirteen
+ecclesiastical parishes.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p76.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p76.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+77</span>XV.&mdash;Willenhall Struggling to be a Free
+Parish.</h2>
+<p>In the eighteenth century the ecclesiastical history of
+Willenhall reached a critical stage.&nbsp; Long and bitter were
+the disputes which arose between the mother church of
+Wolverhampton and the daughter chapelries of Willenhall and
+Bilston; and perhaps the temper of the authorities at the former
+had not been improved by the gradual impoverishment of the
+residentiaries there, the history of which formed the subject of
+the last chapter.</p>
+<p>The first cause of the quarrel was found in the fact that
+these two places, having become as populous as towns of ordinary
+status, were without legal burying-grounds.&nbsp; When land had
+been provided there seems to have been considerable hesitancy on
+the part of the authorities in allowing Willenhall and Bilston
+these ordinary parochial privileges.&nbsp; The Rev. Richard Ames,
+of Bilston, has left it on record that on June 9th, 1726, he
+waited upon the Bishop of the diocese, while he was holding a
+confirmation at Walsall, when &ldquo;John Lane, Esqre., of
+Bentley, mov&rsquo;d his lordship to consecrate Willenhall and
+Bilston Chapelyards for burial-places, wch. his lordship seemed
+inclinable to do.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The history of the conflict goes back to 1709, when Dr.
+Manningham, on becoming Dean, convened a Chapter at Oxford which
+was attended by all the Prebendaries and the Sacrist.&nbsp; This
+meeting was specially called to consider the case of the
+inhabitants of Willenhall and Bilston, who had represented to the
+Dean the great inconveniences which arose in having to carry
+their dead from these chapelries for interment at Wolverhampton;
+and humbly praying that their respective chapels and chapelyards
+should be consecrated for the proper burial of the dead.</p>
+<p>The prayer was granted, but it was most carefully stipulated
+that the inhabitants of the two chapelries should always pay the
+customary levies to the mother church, and also the fees for
+burials and for the churching of women, to the respective curates
+of the said chapels, as well as to the ministers of the mother
+<!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+78</span>church; and that the expenses attending the desired
+consecrations should be paid by the petitioners.</p>
+<p>A subsequent Chapter, held 10 October, 1718, confirmed this,
+when the Ministers and Inhabitants of the Chapelries of Bilston
+and Willenhall signed an Agreement to observe and perform the
+said conditions.&nbsp; For the carrying out of the agreement in
+business-like form the said Ministers covenanted to pay the said
+fees half-yearly, at Lady-day and Michaelmas, transmitting a copy
+of their respective Registers &ldquo;without reserve or
+fraud&rdquo; to be transcribed into the books of the mother
+church.</p>
+<p>The fees to be charged each Chapelry were fixed to a scale:
+tenpence for &ldquo;ye churching of every woman&rdquo;;
+sevenpence for the burial of each body in the churchyard, and
+twice that amount for the burial inside the church: and so
+on.</p>
+<p>Subsequently (some 30 years after, when St. John&rsquo;s
+Chapel, Wolverhampton, was in contemplation) the inhabitants of
+the Liberties of Willenhall and Bilston, notwithstanding the
+written agreement aforesaid, peremptorily and finally refused to
+pay their respective fees for Christenings, Churchings, and
+Burials to the Sacrist and Curates of Wolverhampton; payments
+whereby the profits of their several offices were lessened more
+than half, and the loss was so considerable it was no longer to
+be borne.</p>
+<p>At Bilston the quarrel of 1753 was practically not settled for
+nearly a century afterwards.&nbsp; It was ruled that whatever
+might be arranged in respect of fees for other rites no marriages
+could be legally performed in the Chapel except by licence of
+Wolverhampton, which claimed a &ldquo;Peculiar&rdquo;
+jurisdiction; and as the inhabitants indignantly refused to pay
+double marriage fees, no marriage was solemnised in the chapel
+from January, 1754, to February, 1841.</p>
+<p>The same year&mdash;to be exact, the date was April 12th,
+1841&mdash;the first marriage was solemnised at Willenhall
+Church, the Bishop having then issued a special licence to the
+Incumbent to marry persons living within the township.</p>
+<p><!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+79</span>Almost concurrently with this dispute there was another
+source of grievance to Willenhall, Bilston, and Pelsall which had
+to be strenuously fought by these outlying places.</p>
+<p>This quarrel arose, in the main, through the excessive demands
+made upon the inhabitants of the three chapelries for rates with
+which to repair and maintain the fabric of Wolverhampton
+Church.&nbsp; The levies made ostensibly for this purpose seem to
+have been at times somewhat exorbitant, and the money to have
+been spent in meeting charges which can only be described as
+superfluous so far as the non-residential contributors were
+concerned.</p>
+<p>About 1738 the chapelwardens of Bilston made a determined
+stand against the churchwardens of Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>A &ldquo;case was stated&rdquo; in which it was shown that the
+Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton consisted of a Dean and
+Prebendaries, founded by a Royal Family, and was subject to no
+visitation but that of the Crown.&nbsp; It contained three
+Chapels&mdash;one at Bilston, another at Willenhall, and a third
+at Pelsall.</p>
+<p>The statement proceeded:&mdash;&ldquo;Every Hamlet and Village
+in the Ecclesiastical Parish of Wolverhampton has a Constable and
+all other parochial officers, and maintains its own poor as it
+were a separate parish. . . .&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Chapelries of Willenhall and Bilston nominate and
+maintain each its own Clergy, and repair their own Chapels, which
+have been endowed time out of mind, and were consecrated about
+thirteen years ago for burying places.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Other points of complaint put forward were that the two
+chapels afforded every facility to the inhabitants of the
+respective places for divine worship and the administration of
+the sacraments; that formerly Bilston and Willenhall each paid
+only &pound;4 a year to the mother church, but that since 1716
+increasing demands had been made till as much as &pound;56 was
+asked for; and that all which these chapelries received in return
+were the bread and wine used in the sacrament, four times a year,
+and for which they paid &pound;4 per annum, the chapelwardens
+being allowed 3d. in the &pound; at Boston and 4d. in the &pound;
+at Willenhall for collecting it.</p>
+<p><!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+80</span>It was also complained that all the rest of the villages
+had been forced &ldquo;to contribute in like proportion with
+these two towns,&rdquo; and that these levies on the out-hamlets
+had been made for additions to, or improvements of, Wolverhampton
+Church, which were quite superfluous in their character, if not
+absolutely illegal.</p>
+<p>On this opinion (of a learned Sergeant-at-Law) the inhabitants
+of Willenhall were invited to join with those of Bilston in a
+common defence for their mutual benefit.&nbsp; On the advice of
+the esteemed Dr. Wilkes, a well-known local Antiquary, who was
+then the leading public man of Willenhall, the invitation was
+declined.</p>
+<p>Litigation proceeded for several years both in the
+ecclesiastical courts and in chancery, but without any definite
+decision being arrived at.</p>
+<p>In 1754 the Earl of Stamford tried to induce both parties to
+submit a case fairly drawn up (for the legal work in the
+preparation of which he generously offered to pay all the costs)
+and to abide by the decision.&nbsp; The people of Willenhall,
+through Dr. Wilkes, thanked his lordship for his friendly offer,
+and declared their willingness to accept it.</p>
+<p>The Wolverhampton officials, however, rejected the proposal,
+in the hope they would win their case in the ecclesiastical
+courts.&nbsp; When the case eventually came to trial in 1755 an
+old parish book was produced, which showed that the exorbitant
+demands of Wolverhampton were distinctly illegal.&nbsp; In it was
+an entry of 1668, which ran in this wise:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;This is the portion of Rates each Chapelry
+and Prebend shall pay towards the repairs of the Mother
+Church:&mdash;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Wolverhampton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">36</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Bilston</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Wylnale</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Wednesflde</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hatherton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Featherstone</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kinvaston</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hilton</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p><!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 81</span>Pelsall</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Bentley</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Stretton rent</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">83</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>A writ of prohibition was forthwith filed to stay all further
+proceedings in the Spiritual Courts; and the law costs of the
+trial, amounting to &pound;282 1s. 8d., were divided equally
+between Bilston and Willenhall (1756).</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p81.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p81.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+82</span>XVI.&mdash;Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall
+(1690&ndash;1760).</h2>
+<p>Willenhall&rsquo;s most illustrous son was Dr. Richard Wilkes,
+Antiquary, whose house still stands on the Walsall Road.&nbsp; He
+came of good family of county rank, and his personal character
+raised him to the eminence of a notability in
+Staffordshire.&nbsp; His portrait appears in Shaw&rsquo;s history
+of this county of which his (Wilkes&rsquo;) valuable and
+voluminous MSS. formed the nucleus.&nbsp; Though settled in this
+locality, adding to their little patrimony from time to time for
+300 or 400 years, the family came originally from
+Hertfordshire.</p>
+<p>The pedigree of Wilkes, according to the Heralds&rsquo;
+Visitation in 1614, commences with John Wylkys de Darlaston, who
+was witness to a Deed of Roger, Lord of Darlaston, in the time of
+Edward III. (1331).&nbsp; There is a Richard Wylkys, of
+Willenhall, who witnessed a Bentley Deed in 1413.&nbsp; To this
+Richard and his wife Juliana, daughter and heir of William
+Wilkes, a grant of lands in Bentley was made by Humphrey, Earl of
+Stafford.&nbsp; The son of this couple was William Wilkes of
+Willnall (1505).&nbsp; Protonotary of the Court of Common Pleas,
+15 Henry VIII.&nbsp; The family tree is very complete in
+Shaw.</p>
+<p>One John Wilkes married a widow Parkhouse, <i>nee</i> Margery
+Garbet, of Nether Penn; another John, his nephew, was Rector of
+Lum, and evidently a Puritan, as his two sons bear the striking
+biblical names, Ephraim and Manasses.&nbsp; Richard seems to have
+been the favourite name for the eldest son.&nbsp; One Richard
+married Mercy Drakeford, of Stafford (see Salt. Vol. VIII.); his
+son, also named Richard, became the father of our Willenhall
+worthy, whose mother was Lucretia, youngest daughter of Jonas
+Astley, of Wood Eaton, in this county.</p>
+<p>Richard Wilkes, M.D., was born in March, 1690, and had his
+school education at Trentham.&nbsp; In his 19th year he was
+entered at St. John&rsquo;s College, Cambridge, and was admitted
+scholar 1710.&nbsp; In April, 1711, he began to attend Mr.
+Saunderson&rsquo;s mathematical lectures, and became very
+proficient in algebra.&nbsp; In January, <!-- page 83--><a
+name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>1713, he took
+his B.A degree; three years later he was chosen Fellow, and in
+1718 he was appointed Linacre Lecturer.</p>
+<p>It does not appear when or where he took his degrees in
+medicine.&nbsp; He seems to have taken pupils and taught
+mathematics in college from the year 1715 till he left it, and to
+have been engaged thus early in literary matters, particularly in
+the collection of material for subsequent use.&nbsp; It was by
+his literary labours, particularly in antiquarian research, that
+he made himself a name.</p>
+<p>He presently took deacon&rsquo;s orders, and once preached in
+the parish church of Wolverhampton.&nbsp; He also preached
+several times at Stow, near Chartley.&nbsp; However,
+disappointment in the expectation of preferment in the Church
+soon disgusted him with the ministry, and in 1720 he began to
+practise physic, for which he seemed to have a natural talent, at
+Wolverhampton.&nbsp; In 1725 he married Rachel Manlove, of Abbots
+Bromley, with whom he had a handsome fortune, and from that time
+he dwelt with his father (who died in 1730) at Willenhall.</p>
+<p>About this time he wrote an excellent treatise on Dropsy; and
+later, when a dreadful disease raged among the horned cattle of
+the Midlands, he published a very useful and practical
+&ldquo;Letter to Breeders and Graziers in the County of
+Stafford,&rdquo; and made every effort to assist in stamping out
+the plague.&nbsp; Possibly while at Chartley he had made a study
+of the herd of wild cattle preserved there.</p>
+<p>His skill as a physician was very considerable, and seems to
+have been applied chiefly to the gratuitous relief of his poorer
+neighbours.&nbsp; He led an exemplary life, being an early riser,
+and an indefatigable reader, constantly adding to the rich stores
+of his well-stocked mind.</p>
+<p>As previously mentioned, he spent several years of industry in
+collecting historical manuscripts, and making antiquarian notes
+relating to his native county, of which the Rev. Stebbing Shaw
+afterwards made such good use.</p>
+<p>For instance, Dr. Wilkes&rsquo; account of Roman roads, camps,
+and other remains of antiquity is a fairly exhaustive one for a
+county history, and shows a considerable depth of research.&nbsp;
+It is <!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 84</span>embodied in the
+&ldquo;Introduction&rdquo; and the &ldquo;General History&rdquo;
+at the commencement of Shaw&rsquo;s compendious work.</p>
+<p>Like Pepys, he kept a Diary, which was never intended for
+publication&mdash;he was a diligent recorder of historical
+facts.&nbsp; Here is an interesting note from it:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;The first steam engine that ever raised any
+quantity of water was erected near Wolverhampton, on the
+right-hand side of the road leading to Walsall, over against the
+half-mile stone.&rdquo;&nbsp; (This was on the site of the
+Chillington ironworks.)</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Diarist was too modest to add that the Waterworks which
+long supplied Wolverhampton with water were the property of Dr.
+Wilkes.</p>
+<p>Among other projected literary works was a new edition of
+Hudibras, with notes, &amp;c.&nbsp; In the beginning of the year
+1747, having a severe fit of illness which confined him to the
+house, he amused himself with writing his own epitaph, which he
+calls &ldquo;A picture drawn from the life without
+heightening.&rdquo;&nbsp; It is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Here, reader, stand awhile, and know<br />
+Whose carcase &rsquo;tis that rots below;<br />
+A man&rsquo;s, who walk&rsquo;d by Reason&rsquo;s rule<br />
+Yet sometimes err&rsquo;d and play&rsquo;d the fool;<br />
+A man&rsquo;s sincere in all his ways,<br />
+And full of the Creator&rsquo;s praise,<br />
+Who laughed at priestcraft, pride and strife,<br />
+And all the little tricks of life.<br />
+He lov&rsquo;d his king, his country more,<br />
+And dreadful party-rage forbore:<br />
+He told nobility the truth<br />
+And winked at hasty slips of youth.<br />
+The honest poor man&rsquo;s steady friend.<br />
+The villain&rsquo;s sconce in hopes to mend.<br />
+His father, mother, children, wife,<br />
+His riches, honour, length of life,<br />
+Concern not thee.&nbsp; Observe what&rsquo;s here&mdash;<br />
+He rests in hope and not in fear.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>His wife dying in May, 1756, he married for the second time in
+October the same year Mrs. Frances Bendish (sister to the Rev.
+Sir Richard Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, Bart.), who long survived
+him, dying December 24, 1798, at Froxfield, near Petersfield, in
+Hampshire, at a very advanced age.</p>
+<p>The learned doctor himself died March 6, 1760, with a return
+of the gout in his stomach, and his death was universally
+lamented <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 85</span>by his tenants, who lost an indulgent
+landlord; by his servants, who lost a good master; but more by
+numbers of poor in the populous villages adjacent and at a
+distance, in grateful remembrance of the charitable advice and
+friendly assistance they had always enjoyed at his kindly
+hands.&nbsp; A somewhat eulogistic entry of his death appears in
+the Bilston Registers.</p>
+<p>As Dr. Wilkes left no issue, his property passed to the Unett
+family, the representatives of his aunt Anne who had married
+George Unett, of Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>He was buried at Willenhall in his native soil, where a neat
+monument was erected to his memory near the family pew, by his
+heirs, Captain Richard Wilkes Unett, and Mr. John Wilkes Unett;
+the tablet was thus inscribed:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">&ldquo;Near this
+place<br />
+Lie the remains<br />
+of<br />
+RICHARD WILKES, M.D.</p>
+<p>Formerly fellow of St. John&rsquo;s College, Cambridge; the
+last of an ancient and respectable family resident at this place
+300 years and upwards.&nbsp; He married first, Rachel, eldest
+daughter of Rowland Manlove, of Lees Hill, in this county, esq.;
+secondly, Frances, daughter of Sir John, and sister</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">of the late<br />
+Sir Richard Wrottesly, of Wrottesly, Bart.<br />
+and widow of Higham Bendish, Esq.<br />
+He died March 6, 1760,<br />
+aged 70 years.</p>
+<p>[Underneath is the following escutcheon:&mdash;</p>
+<p>(Wilkes) Paly of eight Or and Gules; on a chief Argent, three
+lozenges of the second: impaling, 1.&nbsp; (Manlove) Azure, a
+chevron Ermine, between three anchors Argent; 2.&nbsp;
+(Wrottesley) Or, three piles Sa. a canton Ermine]</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The children of the late Rev. Thomas Unett, of
+Stafford, his heirs-at-law, placed this monument an.
+1800.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p><!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+86</span>On the floor of the Lane Chapel in Wolverhampton Church
+will be found stones to the memory of the Wilkes family,
+&ldquo;seated at Willenhall from the reign of Edward IV.&rdquo;;
+there is also a blue slab to the memory of Mary Unett, who died
+in 1767.</p>
+<p>The old house of Dr. Wilkes, a good specimen of its type of
+architecture, stands back from the main road behind iron
+palisading.&nbsp; Part of it has been utilised as a
+stamper&rsquo;s warehouse; had it received the respect due to its
+associations, it might flittingly have been a town Museum, or
+some such public institution.&nbsp; It was built by the
+Doctor&rsquo;s father, and the Doctor was born there.</p>
+<p>The house has a white stuccoed front, irregularly disposed,
+the semi-porticoed doorway with classic columns having three
+windows on its left and two on its right, although the shorter
+side seems to have been lengthened at a later period by a red
+brick wing.&nbsp; Along the line of the first floor are six
+windows, whose lights in the Annean period, to which the building
+belongs, were doubtless of small leaded panes.</p>
+<p>From the tiled roof project three dormers, the centre one
+having a semi-circular head, the outer ones pointed.&nbsp; The
+chimneys stand out from each gable end, and in the brickwork of
+each of their sides is a plain recessed panel; the chimney-heads
+being noticeable for the absence of the usual projecting
+courses.&nbsp; Local tradition says that Hall street was once a
+stately avenue of trees by which this residence was approached
+from Lichfield Street.</p>
+<p>On entering the house, the visitor feels a pang of regret that
+the venerable building should ever have been degraded to the
+purposes of commerce; particularly as the fabric retains many of
+its characteristics, thanks to the soundness of the workmanship
+of two centuries ago.&nbsp; The decorations in the form of
+plaster mouldings that cover the beams, and the medallion or
+panel pictures, being partly historical and partly classical, all
+exhibit the Renaissance feeling of the early eighteenth
+century.</p>
+<p>The ceilings of two lower rooms are in a splendid state of
+preservation, and contain excellent work.&nbsp; One room is
+square with beams across the middle; the ceiling on one side of
+the beam representing &ldquo;The Seasons,&rdquo; and on the other
+side &ldquo;The <!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 87</span>Elements.&rdquo;&nbsp; The Seasons
+are severally depicted as follows:&mdash;A young face, with the
+hair of the head bedecked with flowers, for &ldquo;Spring&rdquo;;
+a face in the bloom of womanhood, with the hair bedecked with
+corn, represents &ldquo;Summer&rdquo;; a well-matured face,
+having the hair bedecked with fruit, &ldquo;Autumn&rsquo;&rdquo;;
+while a pleasing aged face, the brow bedecked with holly, stands
+for &ldquo;Winter.&rdquo;&nbsp; Painted on the wall over the
+fireplace is the Castle of St. Angelo, and the bridge crossing
+the Tiber at Rome.&nbsp; The Elements, (so called by the old
+alchemists) are also figuratively, represented by four heads; one
+bearing a castle, with three towers and other buildings in the
+background (Earth); one surmounted by an eagle with outspread
+wings (Air); the next with tongues of fire issuant (Fire); and
+the other spouting forth a fountain (Water).</p>
+<p>The other room is oblong, with beams across dividing its
+ceiling into four parts.&nbsp; In these parts there are four
+well-drawn figures, one believed to be Bacon, with beard,
+moustache, whiskers, and in Elizabethan costume; two close
+cropped heads, carried on noble necks, believed to be
+respectively Julius C&aelig;sar and Mark Antony; and the fourth
+is said to be Homer, with the customary curly hair and beard, but
+showing a collar of some sort, and apparently wearing a skull
+cap.&nbsp; Over the mantel, painted on canvas, is the Coliseum,
+showing the Arch of Titus and a pool in the foreground.</p>
+<p>In the main room upstairs is still to be seen the portrait of
+Dr. Wilkes, painted on canvas, over the mantelpiece.&nbsp; He is
+depicted as a clean shaven man with benevolent face, bluish or
+blue-grey eyes, a good forehead, nose, mouth and chin
+well-defined, and wearing a wig.&nbsp; His costume includes a
+high-cut waistcoat, bearing ten buttons, opened in front nearly
+all the way down to show cravat and frilled shirt, the cravat
+having a buckle&mdash;probably jewelled in front.&nbsp; The outer
+coat is without a collar, cut a little lower than the waistcoat,
+sloping from above outwards, showing eight buttons, and
+apparently of greenish-brown velvet.</p>
+<p>The pool which formerly ornamented the garden had disappeared;
+but the boathouse is still there, and the room above it in which
+the Doctor used to keep his Antiquarian Collection and <!-- page
+88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>other
+artistic treasures.&nbsp; As to the lawns, shrubberies, gardens,
+orchards, and pleasaunces, there is scarcely a remnant left.</p>
+<p>Of the once sweet and pellucid stream, spanned by an
+ornamental bridge, which conducted the rambler to the pleasant
+meads beyond, nothing remains but the name, &ldquo;Willenhall
+Brook&rdquo;&mdash;it is now little better than a dirty open
+sewer.</p>
+<p>It may not be generally known that a passing allusion is made
+to Wilkes in Boswell&rsquo;s &ldquo;Life of Johnson.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In the IV. chapter of Vol.&nbsp; I. of this monumental
+biography we read that in 1740 Dr. Johnson wrote &ldquo;an
+epitaph on Phillips, a musician, which was afterwards published
+with some other pieces of his, in &lsquo;Mrs. Williams&rsquo;s
+Miscellanies.&rsquo;&nbsp; This epitaph is so exquisitely
+beautiful, that I remember even Lord Kaines, strangely prejudiced
+as he was against Dr. Johnson, was compelled to allow it very
+high praise.&nbsp; It has been ascribed to Mr. Garrick from its
+appearing at first with the signature G; but I have heard Mr.
+Garrick declare it was written by Dr. Johnson, and give the
+following account of the manner in which it was composed.&nbsp;
+Johnson and he were sitting together, when amongst other things
+Garrick repeated an epitaph upon this Phillips, by a Dr. Wilkes,
+in these words:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Exalted soul! whose harmony could please<br />
+The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;<br />
+Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move<br />
+To beauteous order and harmonious love;<br />
+Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise<br />
+And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Johnson shook his head at the common-place funeral
+lines, and said to Garrick, &lsquo;I think, Davy, I can make
+better.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The great biographer goes on to state that Johnson, after
+stirring about his tea and meditating a little while, produced
+these lines:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Exalted soul! thy various sounds could please<br
+/>
+The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;<br />
+Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move<br />
+To beauteous order and harmonious love.<br />
+Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,<br />
+And join thy Saviour&rsquo;s concert in the skies.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Suffice it to add that the personage who inspired the lines
+was an eccentric genius named Claudius Phillips <a
+name="citation88"></a><a href="#footnote88"
+class="citation">[88]</a>, on whose <!-- page 89--><a
+name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>memorial
+tablet in the porch of Wolverhampton Church were engraved the
+said lines, attributed to Dr. Wilkes, who strangely enough is
+described as &ldquo;of Trinity College, Oxford and Rector of
+Pitchford, Salop&rdquo;&mdash;a clergyman whose name was John,
+and who lived a century previously.&nbsp; We are further informed
+that our Willenhall worthy is spoken of by Browne Willis in the
+&ldquo;History of Mitred Abbies,&rdquo; Vol. II. p.
+189&mdash;Browne Willis being one of the most notable
+antiquarians of that period, and an eccentric individual
+withal.</p>
+<p>All this points to the fact that Dr. Richard Wilkes was well
+known as a writer, and acknowledged as an authority.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p89.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p89.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+90</span>XVII.&mdash;Willenhall &ldquo;Spaw.&rdquo;</h2>
+<p>It is difficult to imagine Willenhall as a health resort; yet
+it was no fault of Dr. Richard Wilkes that his native spot did
+not become a fashionable inland watering place.</p>
+<p>It should be explained that during the eighteenth century
+there was almost a mania to discover and exploit wells and
+springs, and to regard them as fountains of health to which the
+fashionable and the well-to-do might be attracted.&nbsp; Before
+the newer fashion of sea bathing was introduced&mdash;which was
+early in the next century&mdash;there was a great number of these
+newly-invented places of inland resort.&nbsp; For instance,
+Dudley had its charming Spa on Pensnett Chace; and to show that
+Wolverhampton was not behindhand, we take the liberty of quoting
+from the MSS. of Dr. Wilkes:</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;A medical spring has lately been discovered
+at Chapel Ash, in the south-west part of this town, which purges
+moderately and without the least uneasiness.&nbsp; A brown ocre,
+or absorbent earth, remains after evaporation, mixt with salt and
+sulphur; so that it seems to promise relief in all kinds of
+disorders proceeding from costiveness, and alcaline, fiery, and
+acid humours in the stomach and bowels, attended by a flow of
+feverish heat, eruptions on the skin called scorbutic, headaches,
+giddiness, flatulency, sour eructations, flying pains called
+nervous and rheumatic, the hemorrhoids or piles, asthma, and many
+other disorders which seem incurable by the most powerful
+medicines.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Truly the Doctor might have earned a good living nowadays by
+writing the advertisements for modern quack specifics.</p>
+<p>Shaw&rsquo;s description of the Willenhall Spa says that
+&ldquo;the spring arises on the north side of a brook which runs
+almost directly from the west to the east, and so very near to it
+that a moderate shower will raise the brook as to cover it.&nbsp;
+About 200 yards up this brook, on the same side, are several
+springs, one of which was much taken notice of by our ancestors,
+and consecrated to St. Sunday, no common saint.&nbsp; Over it is
+the following inscription:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 91--><a
+name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>Fons occulis
+morbisque<br />
+cutaneis diu celebris, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span>
+1726.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Saint Sunday&rdquo; must have been some local saint;
+or, more probably, a jocular embodiment of the sacredness of this
+day of the week with its peculiarly pagan name, to the cause of
+idleness, and so dubbed by the native wit of Willenhall; anyway,
+no saint of this name is to be found in the authorised Calendar
+of any church.</p>
+<p>One of the Wilkes MSS. utilised by Shaw, and dated 1737,
+records the following experiment worked by the learned doctor
+with the local mineral waters:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;I evaporated in a brass furnace 13&frac12;
+gallons to 3 quarts, then let it stand 3 days to settle, and
+poured the clear water from the f&oelig;ces.&nbsp; This was a
+light smooth insipid earth of a yellow colour, fat between the
+fingers, insipid and impalpable, which being dried, weighed 93
+grains.&nbsp; The remaining 3 quarts I evaporated in a brass
+kettle and had from it 53 grains of a very salt glutinous
+substance which dried into a solid mass of a brown colour.&nbsp;
+When the water came to a pint or thereabout, it began to smell
+like glew, and continued to do so when in a solid substance; it
+was then also as high-coloured as lye; but I am afraid this
+colour might arise from the brass kettle, in some measure, or too
+great a fire, being perhaps burnt.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Another of his scientific records runs:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Oct. 9th.&mdash;I put into a Florence flask
+as much of this water as filled it up to the neck within 5 inches
+of the top.&nbsp; This I placed in a sand heat and increased the
+fire gradually till it boiled; and so I evaporated ad
+siccitatem.&nbsp; Some volatile sal stuck to the glass even up to
+the top; at the bottom was a small quantity of dark coloured
+matter, like that above, but I could not get together 2 grains of
+either.&nbsp; Here it is plain this sal is so volatile as to be
+raised and fly away by heat.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>In another place he writes:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;On the 5th of November, 1737, I filled
+several glasses with this water, and put into them the following
+simples:&mdash;</p>
+<p><!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+92</span>1.&nbsp; Green Tea.&nbsp; This, in about 24 hours, made
+it of the colour of sack, and, by standing, it became much deeper
+coloured, like strong old beer.</p>
+<p>2.&nbsp; Fustic; not so deep, more like cyder.</p>
+<p>3.&nbsp; Red Sanders; almost the same colour in the light; but
+if I held the glass in the shade, it appeared of a blueish green,
+exactly like some old glass bottles I have formerly seen.</p>
+<p>4.&nbsp; Alkanet; deeper, like old mountain wine.</p>
+<p>5.&nbsp; Galls; paler than any of the foregoing.&nbsp; A large
+blue scum on the top, such as we see upon urine in fevers, and
+standing lakes of water, where there are minerals.&nbsp; With
+logwood, tormentil, cort, granat, etc., there are some spots of
+this kind, but with none so much as with galls.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A little below the Spaw (continues our authority), on
+the other side of the brook, they meet with a white clay, full of
+yellow veins of a deep colour, like gumboge when it has been for
+some time exposed to the air.&nbsp; These two they temper
+together and make into cakes, which they sell to the glovers by
+the name of ochre cakes, and with them they give a yellow colour
+to leather.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Near the surface of the earth the country is for the
+most part a strong clay, which makes good brick, but, for a small
+compass from this Spaw all along the village on the north side of
+the brook we have sand.&nbsp; Underground the whole country
+abounds with coal and ironstone.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The glovers&rsquo; handicraft, it may be mentioned in passing,
+was once strongly represented in olden Darlaston.</p>
+<p>The situation of Willenhall is by no means an elevated one,
+and the whole plain in which it is situated formerly abounded in
+Springs, ere the surface had been so much disturbed by mining
+operations.</p>
+<p>On the edge of the valley, under the shadow of Sedgley Beacon,
+was the famous Spring known as the Lady Wulfruna&rsquo;s, and
+which gave the place its name, Spring Vale; from this spot the
+silvery stream flowed eastwards into Willenhall, seeking the cool
+shade of the pleasant woodland there.</p>
+<p><!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+93</span>The stream, as it came in from Bilston, and ran
+eastwards through Willenhall, till it met the Tame, was once
+called the Hind Brook, or Stag River.&nbsp; In Saxon times the
+Tame here seems to have been designated Beorgita&rsquo;s Stream;
+and Mr. G. T. Lawley, in his &ldquo;History of Bilston,&rdquo;
+says that the original bed of this brook was discovered in
+Willenhall some years ago when extensive excavations were being
+made.</p>
+<p>So far the scientific aspect of this once famous Well.&nbsp;
+The popular view of a much frequented mineral spring which had
+&ldquo;long been celebrated for disease of the eye and
+skin&rdquo; opens out an even wider aspect.&nbsp; As previously
+mentioned, the brook flowing past it ran from west to east; a
+stream so directed was always accounted by the Druids of old as a
+sacred watercourse.&nbsp; Being thus from the earliest dawn of
+history within sacred precincts, there can be little doubt the
+Willenhall fountain enjoyed the reputation of a &ldquo;Holy
+well&rdquo; for many centuries.&nbsp; As such it came in for the
+annual custom of &ldquo;well dressing,&rdquo; a vestige of the
+old pagan practice of well worship.&nbsp; Respecting this ancient
+custom, Dr. Plot, writing in 1686 in his &ldquo;Natural History
+of Staffordshire,&rdquo; says:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;They have a custom in this county, which I
+observed on Holy Thursday at Brewood and Bilbrook, of adorning
+their Wells with boughs and flowers; this it seems they do at all
+gospel places, whether wells, trees, or hills, which being now
+observed only for decency and custom&rsquo;s sake, is innocent
+enough.&nbsp; Heretofore, too, it was usual to pay their respect
+to such wells as were eminent for curing distempers (one of which
+was at Wolverhampton in a narrow lane leading to a house, called
+Sea-well; another at Willenhall; others at Monmore Green, near
+Wolverhampton; at Codsall and many other parts of Staffordshire)
+on the saint&rsquo;s day whose name the well bore; diverting
+themselves with cakes and ale, and a little music and dancing;
+which, whilst within bound, was also an innocent
+recreation.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Dr. Oliver says the beautiful spring at Dunstall was the
+favourite resort of the Lady Wulfruna, and from contact with her
+sanctity acquired a reputation for possessing healing virtues of
+a <!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+94</span>miraculous character, and that this fountain was long
+known among its devotees as Wulfruna&rsquo;s Well.</p>
+<p>Pitt&rsquo;s &ldquo;History of Staffordshire,&rdquo; issued in
+1817, gives a long list of local wells bearing at that time some
+similar repute for their remedial waters.&nbsp; Among them was
+Codsall Well, near Codsall Wood, supposed in olden times to be
+efficacious in cases of leprosy, and adjacent to which once stood
+a Leper House, replaced at a later period by a &ldquo;Brimstone
+Ale-house,&rdquo; so-called because the water was
+sulphureous.&nbsp; The waters of the Monmore Green Well are
+described as containing &ldquo;sulphur combined with
+vitriol.&rdquo;&nbsp; The Sea-well Spring still retained its name
+as a &ldquo;Spaw&rdquo; famous for its &ldquo;eye water&rdquo;;
+while those of Willenhall and Bentley were said to yield a
+valuable remedial sulphur water so long as they &ldquo;could be
+kept from mixture with other waters.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Folklore not only connected these Wells with patron saints,
+but associated their magic precincts and curative effects with
+beneficent fairies.&nbsp; A well like that of Willenhall, which
+in a post-renaissance period was honoured with a stone frontal
+bearing a Latin inscription, would of a certainty be attended by
+fairy elves in an earlier and more primitive era.</p>
+<blockquote><p>About this Spring (if ancient fame say true)<br />
+The dapper elves their midnight sports pursue;<br />
+Their pigmy king and little fairy queen,<br />
+In circling dances gambolled on the green,<br />
+While tuneful sprites a merry concert made<br />
+And airy music warbled through the shade.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p94.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative design"
+title=
+"Decorative design"
+src="images/p94.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+95</span>XVIII.&mdash;The Benefice.</h2>
+<p>Owing to the meagreness of the record, a complete list of the
+holders of the benefice is not to be expected.&nbsp; Thomas de
+Trollesbury has been named as &ldquo;the parson of
+Willenhall&rdquo; in 1297 (Chapter VII.); while we also have the
+names of three chantry priests here&mdash;William in the Lone,
+1341 (Chapter XI.); Thomas Browning, &ldquo;chaplain of the
+chantry&rdquo; in 1397 (Chapter VII.); and Hugh Bromehall in 1526
+(Chapter X.); all of them doubtless nominees of the Deanery of
+Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>Of course, it was possible, though not often the practice, for
+the holder of the living to act as &ldquo;chaunter&rdquo; priest
+as well.&nbsp; The Chantry endowments, as we have seen, were
+forfeited at the Reformation, at which period the benefice was
+returned as of the annual value of &ldquo;&pound;10
+clear.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Either of these notorious evil-livers mentioned in Chapter
+XI., the non-preaching &ldquo;dumb-dogs,&rdquo; Mounsell and
+Cooper, may have been the occupant of the Willenhall curacy in
+1586.&nbsp; In 1609 an improvement in the intellectual status of
+the holder had been effected, William Padmore, D.D., being then
+incumbent.</p>
+<p>In a previous chapter it was shown that the Rev. T. Badland
+was expelled from the living of Willenhall in 1662.&nbsp; It can
+now be shown that he was holding the benefice at least as early
+as 1658&mdash;and possibly from the beginning of the Cromwellian
+rule and the overthrow of the Episcopacy in 1646.</p>
+<p>About 1645&ndash;6 ordinances were passed appointing a
+Committee to consider ways and means of upholding and settling
+the maintenance of ministers in England and Wales.&nbsp; In 1654
+the powers of the Plundered Ministers&rsquo; Committee were
+transferred to the Trustees for Maintenance.&nbsp; The Committee
+took the receipts of all Tithes, Fifths, and First Fruits; and
+later on the income of the rectories, bishoprics, deaneries, and
+chapters; they sold the bishops&rsquo; lands, &amp;c.</p>
+<p>It was out of this income that augmentations and advances were
+granted by the said Committee to ministers and
+school-masters.&nbsp; <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 96</span>In the Record Office at London there
+is an audited account the Treasurer to the &ldquo;Trustees for
+the Maintenance of Ministers and other pious uses of
+moneys,&rdquo; showing among the disbursements for the year
+ending 26 December, 1658, one to</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Thomas Badland, of Willenhall (6 months to
+1659, March 25) . . . &pound;10.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>In curious contrast with this high-minded clergyman, who
+sacrificed his living to his conscience, is his successor in the
+Curacy of Willenhall, the Rev. Mr. Gilpin, who had to be
+seriously admonished for non-residence and other faults, and was
+at last, in the year 1674, turned out of the living
+altogether.&nbsp; Not improbably this gentleman was a pluralist,
+an example of the class of clergymen by which the Church of
+England was very much degraded at that period.</p>
+<p>Dr. Oliver&rsquo;s history printed the following
+&ldquo;Dismissal of the Rev. Thomas Gilpin,&rdquo; from the
+original document found in the possession of Mr. Neve, of
+Wolverhampton, in 1836:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>We, whose names are subscribed, the undoubted and
+immediate lords of the Manor of Stow Health, hearing and well
+weighing the said complaints of the Inhabitants of the towne of
+Willenhall, lying within our said Manor, made and brought against
+you, Thomas Gilpin, clerk, Curate of the Chapell there:</p>
+<p>Doe in consideration thereof and in pursuance of an Order made
+and inrolled on some of the Rolls of the Court of our said Manor,
+bearing date 11th day of October in the Sixth Year of the Reign
+of our late Soveraigne, Lord, King James, over England, etc.</p>
+<p>And of our power and authority thereby, Displace and Discharge
+you, the said Thomas Gilpin, from the place, Dignity, and office
+of Curate, Minister, or Priest in the said Chapell.</p>
+<p>And do hereby present and allow John Carter, clerk (a person
+elected and approved by the Inhabitants of Willenhall aforesaid),
+to be Curate of the said Chapell in your place <!-- page 97--><a
+name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>and stead, to
+read divine service there; and to do and perform all such other
+offices and things as shall properly belong to his Ministerial
+function and calling.</p>
+<p>And thus much you, the said Thomas Gilpin, are hereby desired
+to take notice of.</p>
+<p>Dated under our hands and seals this 18th day of November in
+the year of our Lord God, 1674, and in the six-and-twentieth year
+of the reigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles II., by the grace
+of God, King of England, etc.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">Walter Giffard.&nbsp; <span
+class="smcap">l.s.</span></p>
+<p style="text-align: right">W. Leveson Gower.&nbsp; <span
+class="smcap">l.s.</span></p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>After the expulsion of Mr. Gilpin the Rev. John Carter, who
+was appointed to succeed him, continued in the Curacy of
+Willenhall till his death in 1722.&nbsp; In 1727 mention is made
+of a Mr. Holbrooke being Curate of Willenhall.</p>
+<p>Soon after the Registers assist in tracing the successive
+holders of the benefice.&nbsp; Here are three interesting
+memoranda, for instance, bearing the signature of the Rev. Titus
+Neve:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>1748, March 4th.&mdash;The faculty for rebuilding
+and enlarging ye chapel of Willenhall, ye then present minister,
+ye Rev. Titus Neve&mdash;(to charge and receive certain fees,
+etc.)</p>
+<p>1750, January 20.&mdash;Then it was yt service began to be
+performed in ye New Chapel, after almost two years
+discontinuance, by Titus Neve, Curate.</p>
+<p>1763, February 17th.&mdash;Joyce Hill made oath that ye body
+of Benjamin Stokes was buried in a shroud of Sheep&rsquo;s Wool
+only, pursuant to an Act of Parliament in that case made and
+provided.&mdash;Witness my hand,</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">Titus Neve.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>(This entry has reference to the Act for Burying in Woollen,
+one of those pieces of legislative folly whereby it was sought to
+bolster up artificially our decaying trade in wool.)</p>
+<p>The Rev. Titus Neve, whose descendants at the present day are
+a well-known Wolverhampton family, was born at Much Birch in
+Herefordshire, son of the Rev. Thomas Neve, in 1717.&nbsp; He
+<!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+98</span>matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, became Rector
+of Darlaston, 1764, holding the two livings, together with the
+Prebendary of Hilton his death in 1788.&nbsp; He was buried at
+Willenhall.</p>
+<p>A sermon preached by him in Worcester Cathedral on August
+12th, 1762, was printed in Birmingham by the celebrated
+Baskerville (see Simms&rsquo; &ldquo;Bibliotheca
+Staffordiensis&rdquo;).</p>
+<p>His successor was the Rev. William Moreton, who, according to
+an entry in the Registers, was &ldquo;sequestered to the vacant
+chapelry of Willenhall, December 4th, 1788.&rdquo;&nbsp; Toward
+the close of his ministry Mr. Neve appears to have had the
+assistance of Curates&mdash;George Lewis signs the Registers as
+&ldquo;Clerk, Curate&rdquo; between December, 1778, and July,
+1779; and the signature of Mr. Moreton in the same capacity
+begins to appear in 1784.&nbsp; Among the entries of the
+last-named is a record that in 1786 he paid the &ldquo;tax&rdquo;
+on a number of Baptisms and Burials himself, whereas in 1785 he
+shows that a &ldquo;Collector&rdquo; received it.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p>
+<p>The advent of the Rev. W. Moreton marks an epoch, and we now
+turn aside to consider the peculiar history of the Advowson, or
+right of presentation to the living of Willenhall.&nbsp; In 1409
+it is found in private hands, being then the property of William
+Bushbury and his wife (see Chapter VII.).</p>
+<p>When the lord of a manor built a church on his own demesne, he
+often appointed the tithes of the manor to be paid to the
+officiating minister there, which before had been given to the
+clergy in common; the lord who thus founded the church often
+endowed it with glebe, and retained the power of nominating the
+minister (canonically qualified) to officiate therein.&nbsp; But
+a chapel-of-ease like Willenhall, built by a resident in the
+locality, often had its minister, maintained by the subscriptions
+of persons living close around it, and they naturally claimed to
+elect their own ministers.&nbsp; The authorities at the mother
+church would reserve the right to approve and confirm, and would
+see that they suffered no loss of fees and other emoluments.</p>
+<p><!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+99</span>An old book in the Registry at Windsor (without date)
+contains this entry:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>The curacy of Willenhall is endowed with land to
+the value of &pound;35.&nbsp; The lords of Stow Heath have, in
+the last two vacancies, usurped upon the Dean and Chapter, and
+have nominated to it.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Shaw, the county historian, writing in 1798, after stating
+that whoever holds the Curacy of Willenhall must have a licence
+from the Dean of Wolverhampton, proceeds to say:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>There has been lately a serious contest between
+the Marquis of Stafford and the inhabitants about the nomination
+of a curate.</p>
+<p>The gift of the living (says the same authority), or
+nomination of the minister or curate, is in the principal
+inhabitants that have lands of inheritance here.&nbsp; He is to
+be approved of by the lords of the manor, and admonished by them
+when he does amiss; and if he does not amend in half a year, they
+may turn him out and nominate another.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>This practice is believed to have existed in Willenhall since
+the time of James I.</p>
+<p>The power of the parishioners to elect their own clergymen,
+though not common, exists in various parts of the country; as at
+Hayfield and Chapel-in-le-Frith, both in Derbyshire; and in this
+more immediate locality at St. John&rsquo;s Deritend, Birmingham,
+and at Bilston and Bloxwich, nearer still.</p>
+<p>In London the only example where the elective principle is
+employed in the choice of a parish priest is presented by
+Clerkenwell.&nbsp; But wheresoever a vacancy of the kind has to
+be filled by popular election, with all the accessories
+incidental to the turmoil of Parliamentary electioneering, all
+the bitterness of party strife, the parish is inevitably divided
+into two or more factions; while the clergyman upon whom the lot
+eventually falls must for a long time afterwards be regarded as
+the nominee of one of them, rather than the spiritual director of
+the whole body of the people.&nbsp; He succeeds to his high
+office as a victor in a great parochial struggle <!-- page
+100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+100</span>which cannot fail to leave behind it those feelings of
+rancour so harmful in matters sacred.</p>
+<p>The only remedy for this state of things seems to be the
+voluntary surrender of their privilege by the parishioners; or
+the provisions of a special Act of Parliament.</p>
+<p>As to the soundness of the general principle of a people being
+consulted in the choice of their spiritual pastor, there can
+scarcely be two opinions.&nbsp; But where the danger lurks in a
+case like that of Willenhall is the assumption of our English
+law&mdash;an assumption quite unwarranted in any country where
+freedom of conscience exists, and with us one of the penalties
+for maintaining an established State Church&mdash;that every
+parishioner is a Churchman.</p>
+<p>Now, as a matter of fact, votes are recorded at these
+elections by Romanists, by Dissenters of various shades of
+opinion, by those who are unattached to any religious
+denomination, and by many who never, at other times, take a great
+interest in Church of England affairs.&nbsp; At the last election
+even trustees of Nonconformist chapels were empowered to vote if
+they were householders, and the trust in respect of which they
+qualified had been constituted by a properly executed deed.&nbsp;
+So it can scarcely be claimed that the choice of minister rests
+solely with those most concerned, namely, the congregation, the
+customary worshippers at St. Giles&rsquo;s Church.</p>
+<p>Resuming the story of the benefice at the election of 1788, it
+is said that Mr. Moreton having been elected, the then lords of
+the manor declined to present him to the bishop on the ground
+that they did not regard him as a fit and proper person.&nbsp;
+Litigation ensued, and the High Court of Justice declared the
+election void, and ordered a new one.&nbsp; Meanwhile, the income
+seems to have sequestrated, probably lying in the hands of the
+churchwardens till the new minister should be properly
+instituted.</p>
+<p>The electors for a second time returned Moreton, and the lords
+of the manor then took up the attitude that it was not part of
+their duty to live in litigation, either with the electors or
+with Moreton; they had expressed their opinion of the man in the
+strongest manner possible, and this they considered relieved them
+<!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+101</span>from further responsibility; so now at the
+electors&rsquo; wish they nominated him to the bishop for
+induction, and in due course he was formally inducted.</p>
+<p>The new incumbent of Willenhall was popularly given out to be
+an illegitimate &ldquo;nephew&rdquo; of George III.; he bore a
+strong facial likeness to the Royal family, and had been at
+college with the Duke of York.&nbsp; But whatever his origin or
+extraction, he was a typical sporting parson of the old school,
+an enthusiastic cock-fighter, and &ldquo;a three-bottle
+man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was not long before the old mocking doggerel was applied to
+Willenhall:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>A tumble-down church&mdash;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; A tottering steeple&mdash;<br />
+A drunken parson&mdash;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And a wicked people!</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>That this old rhyme fairly described the condition of things
+we may venture to believe if we can also accept as true the rhyme
+oft quoted by this Willenhall worthy, and which was said to
+embody his philosophy:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Let back and sides and head go bare,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Let foot and hand go cold,<br />
+But God send belly good ale enough,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Whether it be new or old.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Of &ldquo;Parson Moreton&rdquo; innumerable tales are told,
+all of them racy, though not a few of them apochryphal.&nbsp;
+There can be little doubt that in the later years of his life he
+was a bon vivant, and indulged openly in the less refined sports
+of the period, a cockfight above all things having a strong
+fascination for him.</p>
+<p>And yet, on the plea that &ldquo;a merciful man is good to his
+beast,&rdquo; he indulged his old grey pony, &ldquo;Bob,&rdquo;
+on which he regularly ambled about, with a share of every tankard
+of ale he quaffed on his rounds, till the knowing quadruped
+refused to pass any inn along the road for miles around without
+stopping for refreshment.</p>
+<p>Parson Moreton is not to be judged by modern standards.&nbsp;
+At that time the church was asleep; and Dr. Johnson once declared
+that he did not know one religious clergyman.&nbsp; Though the
+Parson of Willenhall became noted throughout the countryside <!--
+page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+102</span>for his eccentricities, he managed to labour among the
+rough population, to whom he ministered, with some sort of
+success.</p>
+<p>Into all his lapses from the conventionalities of clericalism,
+he was a gentleman at the core, having a dignified bearing and a
+commanding presence.&nbsp; He candidly admitted his shortcomings
+as a clergyman, telling his flock to do as he said, not as he
+did.&nbsp; This naturally failed to satisfy very many of them;
+and it has been asserted that the strength of Dissent in
+Willenhall at the present time is directly due to the influence
+of his incumbency.</p>
+<p>Of the Rev W. Moreton, it may at least be said that he was a
+remarkably fine reader, and his sermons were always
+well-constructed compositions.&nbsp; For many years he lived with
+Mr. Isaac Hartill in the house at the corner of the Market Place,
+opposite the Metropolitan Bank; an old house still retaining its
+original oak floors and staircase, and its substantial
+old-fashioned doors of the same material, although the building
+is now made into two shops.</p>
+<p>For nearly fifty years Parson Moreton was a familiar figure in
+the streets of Willenhall.&nbsp; His last signature in the
+Registers appears in 1833, a year previous to which the Rev.
+George Hutchinson Fisher had come into the parish to assist him,
+taking up his residence in the house next to &ldquo;The Neptune
+Inn,&rdquo; now the Police Station.&nbsp; He died July 16th,
+1834, and was buried on Sunday the 20th.</p>
+<p>When Mr. Fisher came to preach Mr. Moreton&rsquo;s funeral
+sermon, the most notable feature of the oration was the absence
+of direct reference to the departed.&nbsp; Towards the close of
+the sermon, however, the following passage was uttered with
+impressive solemnity:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;May every occasion like the present bring
+instruction and edification to your souls.&nbsp; May the failings
+which you have witnessed and lamented in others urge you to
+examine and correct your own; and when their removal makes you
+think on the nature of the account they will have to render, may
+you be awakened to scrutinise your own stewardship; and instead
+of recording the sins of the departed, seek to be delivered,
+whilst the Redeemer invites you, from those which are a burden to
+your consciences.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Truly a charitable and Christian-like obituary!</p>
+<h2><!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 103</span>XIX.&mdash;How a Flock Chose its own
+Shepherd.</h2>
+<p>The living of St. Giles&rsquo;s, Willenhall, popularly
+supposed to be worth some fourteen hundred pounds a year, the
+reversion of it was looked upon with eager eyes by not a few of
+the surrounding clergy.&nbsp; Between Darlaston and Willenhall,
+particularly, there seems to have existed some sort of
+pretensions to a clerical inter-relationship.</p>
+<p>The Rev. Titus Neve, who held the living of Willenhall from
+about 1748 to 1788, acted as Curate of Darlaston in 1760, and
+became Rector of that parish in 1764; while his son, the Rev.
+Charles Neve, was also Curate there from 1790 to 1793.&nbsp; The
+Willenhall record of his ministry and interment runs:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>The Revd. Titus Neve, Minister, Curate, or
+Stipendiary Priest of Willenhall Chapelry, Prebendary of Hilton
+and Sacrist of the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, and Rector
+of Darlaston, in the County of Stafford, departed this life
+December 23rd, 1788, and was interred in the Chancel.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>His successor, the Rev. William Moreton, went as Curate to
+Darlaston in 1786, and was sequestered to the vacant chapelry of
+Willenhall, December 24th, 1788, the day following Mr.
+Neve&rsquo;s decease.</p>
+<p>At the termination of Mr. Moreton&rsquo;s tenure, the Rev.
+George William White, who had been a curate at Darlaston from
+1823, made a very determined bid for the Incumbency of
+Willenhall; and although, as we shall see, he was not successful,
+he was able to console himself, some nine years later, with the
+rectory of Darlaston (1843).</p>
+<p>It appeared that when the Rev. W. Moreton became very old he
+neglected his duties sadly, often keeping funerals and
+congregations waiting an unconscionable time, greatly to the
+scandal of the whole parish.&nbsp; In consequence of this the
+Churchwardens induced the Incumbent, two or three years before
+his death, to appoint and pay an energetic young Curate to assist
+him in his parochial ministrations.</p>
+<p><!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+104</span>The Curate appointed under these circumstances, as
+already mentioned, was the Rev. G. H. Fisher, who speedily became
+a favourite, and by most Willenhall people came to be looked upon
+as the only possible successor to Mr. Moreton.</p>
+<p>Long before the advent of Mr. Fisher, however, the Darlaston
+folk had settled in their own minds that their Rector, the Rev.
+Mr. White, was to annex the Willenhall living whenever it become
+vacant.&nbsp; Whether they looked upon it as being appurtenant to
+the more important office of their own shepherding cannot be
+determined at this distance of time; but certain it is that an
+intense feeling of rivalry existed between the men of Darlaston
+and the men of Willenhall.&nbsp; The intensity of the feeling may
+best be judged by a remarkable incident which occurred some five
+years before Mr. Fisher appeared on the scene.</p>
+<p>During the earlier months of the year 1827 it would appear
+that there had been, from time to time, incursions and alarms
+between the two towns, and even rioting that involved hand to
+hand fighting in the streets.&nbsp; Never were such exciting
+times in these places.&nbsp; At last the rivalry culminated in an
+act of aggression as daring in execution as it was original in
+conception&mdash;the Willenhall men woke up one fine Sunday
+morning to find that the Darlastonians had entered their town in
+the dead of night and stolen the cock from the church
+steeple!</p>
+<p>Now the desperate achievement of this triumph over their
+enemies had a deeper significance than at first meets the
+eye.&nbsp; It must be borne in the mind that those were the old
+cockfighting days, when town matched against town their gamest
+birds, and sought the glories of a victory in the cock-pit.&nbsp;
+As between these two neighbouring parishes in particular, there
+had been much vaunting of birds and challenging to the
+arbitrament of the spur; the Darlaston men would take a game cock
+into Willenhall, hold him up to show him the weathercock on the
+steeple, and then give vent to a roar of defiant laughter when
+the bird crowed his challenge.</p>
+<p>By way of reprisal the men of Willenhall would raid Darlaston,
+and pretend to call the cock from the steeple there by <!-- page
+105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+105</span>scattering corn in the churchyard, in mocking allusion
+to an old tale of Darlastonian simplicity.&nbsp; No wonder,
+therefore, that the ridiculed were at last exasperated beyond
+endurance, and that the coup de main of stealing the Willenhall
+cock was not only projected, but carried to its marvellously
+successful issue.</p>
+<p>Consternation reigned supreme in Willenhall; it was felt that
+the pass to which matters had been brought by the enormity of
+this latest aggravation by their enemies could only be met by an
+appeal to the law, which, hitherto, both factions had so
+recklessly set at naught.&nbsp; So the following public notice
+was promptly issued:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">10 GUINEAS REWARD.</p>
+<p>Whereas, early on Sunday morning last, some evil disposed
+Persons did steal and carry away the</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">WEATHERCOCK<br />
+from off the<br />
+STEEPLE.</p>
+<p>Any Person giving Information so that the Offenders may be
+apprehended, shall upon Conviction receive <span
+class="smcap">Ten Guineas Reward</span> over and above what is
+allowed by the Association for the prosecution of Felons.&nbsp;
+And as more than one were concerned, if either will impeach his
+Accomplice or Accomplices, they shall receive the above Reward,
+and every endeavour used to obtain a free Pardon.</p>
+<p>Willenhall,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; July 24, 1827.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Thomas
+Hincks</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">James Whitehouse</span>,</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">Chapel Wardens.</p>
+<div class="gapline">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center">Bassford, Printer, Bilston.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Notice proved totally unproductive of results, for no
+Darlaston man was found mean enough to betray the heroes of this
+daring escapade.&nbsp; Therefore, as the trophy of Darlastonian
+valour could not be recovered, and St. Giles&rsquo;s tower could
+not be left in all its nakedness without being an ever-present
+reproach to the <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 106</span>Willenhallers, a new vane had
+forthwith to be provided for the church.</p>
+<p>It was some time after the Willenhall pride had been thus
+lowered that the old weathercock was accidentally found by some
+miners who were re-opening an old coal pit which lay between the
+rival townships.&nbsp; Almost needless to say, the new vane was
+instantly fetched down, and the old one once more set up to
+flaunt itself as bravely as of yore in the eyes of distant
+Darlaston.</p>
+<p>The good folk of Willenhall, feeling humiliated, did all in
+their power to cover up their shame by burying the episode in
+oblivion; and to this day Willenhall men will deny that the
+Darlastonians ever came and took away their church
+weathercock.&nbsp; By way of throwing doubt upon the historical
+accuracy of the incident, they point to the fact that the church
+at that time had no spire; it is known, however, that a vane
+surmounted the church tower, and there is evidence of the Reward
+Notice, the loose wording of which is responsible for the use of
+the term &ldquo;steeple&rdquo; to signify a tower.</p>
+<p>The authenticity of the said Notice is always open to
+investigation, for a framed copy of it still hangs in the Neptune
+Inn, preserved as a curiosity.&nbsp; (This copy, probably the
+only one in existence, bears intrinsic evidence of being a
+genuine document, and is a treasured possession of the Baker
+family, to whom the &ldquo;Neptune&rdquo; property belonged, the
+paper having been discovered some fifty years ago in a piece of
+old furniture, by Mr. Phillips, a connection of his family.)</p>
+<p>Resuming the history of the benefice, it may be observed that
+a doubt has been raised whether Mr. Moreton had to go through a
+contested election in 1788, but there can be no doubt as to an
+electoral struggle in 1834.&nbsp; Mr. Fisher soon found himself
+drawn into the vortex of factional strife, for he was speedily
+pounced upon by the home party, and very much against his will
+adopted as their figure-head, if not their champion.</p>
+<p>When, on the death of Mr. Moreton, the period of Election came
+within measurable distance, the excitement became more intense;
+the patriotic supporters of Mr. White invading the Willenhall
+<!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+107</span>territory day after day.&nbsp; Such challenging and
+fighting, such threatenings and retaliations, surely never were
+known; one faction had no sooner hurled its defiance at the other
+than both incontinently plunged headlong into the mel&eacute;e,
+and rioting once more raged fiercely through the public
+streets.</p>
+<p>Cracked sconces, broken noses, split ears and black eyes
+resulted by the score; to which list of casualties must be added
+the number of the half-drowned who had to be rescued from the
+canal.&nbsp; Onslaughts made on public-houses and other party
+headquarters led to a considerable destruction of property,
+which, however, was borne with much complacency when it was
+remembered that the whole Hundred would be called upon to pay the
+bill.</p>
+<p>Among the candidates for the Incumbency were the Rev. R.
+Robinson, lecturer at the Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, in
+recommendation of whom Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft wrote a letter,
+dating it from Chapel House in that town, 16 July, 1834; the Rev.
+John Howells, the Rev. Mr. Rogers, the Rev. Mr. Gwyther, and the
+Rev. Mr. Wenman; but the Rev. George Hutchinson Fisher, who had
+been Curate two and a-half years in the town, was recognised as
+the most formidable competitor.&nbsp; He was the son of a
+headmaster of Wolverhampton Grammar School, and an M.A. (1834) of
+Christ College, Cambridge.&nbsp; He received his nomination from
+Mr. Jeremiah Hartill, and there was little doubt of his ability
+to obtain the necessary approval of the lords of the manor and
+the confirmatory licence of the Dean of Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>At that time the Duke of Cleveland was impropriator, but the
+tithes had been leased by his Grace to Messrs. James Whitehouse
+and Charles Quinton.</p>
+<p>As the day of battle approached public feeling ran so high
+that on the eve of the poll, which took place on August 5th and
+6th, 1834, the Returning Officer deemed it prudent to issue the
+following Appeal to the Inhabitants:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>It is represented to me, from numerous quarters,
+that the excitement of the approaching Nomination of a Minister
+to your Chapel renders it imprudent to take the Poll at the time
+and place appointed.</p>
+<p><!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+108</span>Gentlemen,&mdash;I cannot but hope and believe that
+such fears are unnecessary; and, relying upon your good sense, I
+have determined not to make any alteration in the present
+arrangements.</p>
+<p>I have no interest in your choice; it is my duty only to act
+with impartiality between all parties.</p>
+<p>For that purpose I shall be at your Church at Ten
+O&rsquo;clock To-morrow Morning, but unless every person entitled
+to vote has free and Unmolested Access to the Poll, I shall, of
+course, be under the <span class="smcap">necessity</span> of
+adjourning it.</p>
+<p>I address myself to the friends of Each Candidate Alike, and
+entreating you to allow the proceedings of the day to take place
+with that moderation which their object and the sacred place in
+which we shall meet so particularly require.</p>
+<p>I am, Gentlemen,<br />
+Your faithful, humble Servant,</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Francis
+Holyoake</span>.</p>
+<p>Tettenhall, August 4, 1834.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Needless to say, all this rowdyism and disgraceful violence
+were sternly reprobated by Mr. Fisher, whose rabid opponents must
+have come to realise that their cause was a lost one when they
+waylaid the polling clerk and tore his poll-book to shreds.</p>
+<p>As to the Magistrates and the Constables, the custodians of
+the peace discreetly pursued a policy of the most masterly
+inactivity.&nbsp; Perhaps they felt that the resources of their
+command were totally inadequate to cope with an uprising of the
+dimensions and intensity which presented themselves to their
+consideration; or, maybe, they philosophically recognised that
+these stirring tumults were the inevitable concomitants of a
+parochial struggle of so momentous a character.&nbsp; Anyway,
+their attitude appears to have been justified when everything
+settled down quietly after the election, the Fisheries
+tranquilised by victory, and the White Boys dejected by
+defeat.</p>
+<p>For the voting resulted easily in favour of Mr. Fisher, though
+the validity of his return was challenged in the Court of
+Chancery for some three years afterwards, during which time,
+however, <!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 109</span>he had no hesitation in
+officiating.&nbsp; He was a fine reader and an able speaker, his
+delivery of the Church ritual being a model of correct
+elocution.</p>
+<p>Like his predecessor, he held the living a long time, the
+tenure of the two covering a century.&nbsp; Mr. Fisher resided
+for a number of years at Bentley Hall.</p>
+<p>In 1887, soon after Mr. Fisher&rsquo;s &ldquo;Jubilee&rdquo;
+in Willenhall, a public movement was instituted, in which many
+Dissenters took part, to acknowledge his fifty years of devoted
+service among all classes of the community.&nbsp; A presentation
+was made to him of a silver service and his portrait in
+oils&mdash;the latter the work of Thomas Hill, a native of
+Wednesfield, and which now hangs on the walls of the Free Public
+Library.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p109.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative flower"
+title=
+"Decorative flower"
+src="images/p109.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 110</span>XX.&mdash;The Election of 1894, and
+Since.</h2>
+<p>Although St. Giles&rsquo;s Church is known as the Parish
+Church, and a church has probably been on the same site some six
+centuries, the church of Willenhall is really a Proprietary
+Chapel of Ease, and its Incumbent legally nothing more than a
+Perpetual Curate, or Curate in Charge, though Incumbent of
+Willenhall, and receiving in respect of that office a very
+substantial &ldquo;living.&rdquo;&nbsp; The official return set
+forth in Crockford&rsquo;s Clergy Directory for 1893 was: Tithe
+rent charge, &pound;640, net Income, &pound;1,300.</p>
+<p>Strictly, there is no St. Giles&rsquo;s parish, nor any parish
+attached to St. Giles&rsquo;s Church, and in law the Incumbent
+might, if he wished, ignore the so-called parish so long as he
+performed satisfactorily certain duties in the church.&nbsp; The
+unappropriated district, commonly known as St. Giles&rsquo;s
+parish, includes that part of Willenhall which has not been
+allocated to the properly constituted parishes (or ecclesiastical
+districts) of St. Stephen&rsquo;s, St. Anne&rsquo;s, and Holy
+Trinity, Short Heath, plus the entire civil parish of
+Bentley&mdash;the whole being really part of the ecclesiastical
+parish of Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>The position is extraordinarily anomalous.&nbsp; The Incumbent
+is elected by the inhabitants of the township of Willenhall being
+sufficient householders and having lands of inheritance there;
+that is to say, the voters must be freeholders as well as
+householders.&nbsp; Litigation followed the choice of the Rev.
+William Moreton in 1788, and also the election of the Rev. G. H.
+Fisher in 1834.&nbsp; It is understood that this system of
+&ldquo;patronage&rdquo; has been condemned by the Privy Council;
+and that application has been made for the proper constitution of
+a St. Giles&rsquo;s parish, but the Bishop demands a quid pro
+quo.</p>
+<p>All attempts to create a Parish of Willenhall have, so far,
+utterly failed.&nbsp; The existing system of patronage is always
+the obstacle, and nothing will induce the voters either to sell
+or to surrender their rights in the Advowson.</p>
+<p><!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+111</span>To fully realise the position it must be borne in mind
+that in addition to the three constituted &ldquo;parishes&rdquo;
+created within the original township of Willenhall since Mr.
+Fisher became Incumbent of Willenhall in 1834, Short Heath is now
+a separate township, with separate District Council, and that
+Bentley has its Rural District Council&mdash;so that persons who
+live in Bentley parish, Short Heath parish, the three constituted
+ecclesiastical district parishes or districts, and the
+unappropriated remainder of the township (nominally St.
+Giles&rsquo;s parish), have all the right to vote for the
+clergyman if they have the necessary other qualifications of
+householder and freeholder.</p>
+<p>On the death of the Rev. G. H. Fisher in 1894, no less than 23
+formal applications were forthcoming for the vacant living.&nbsp;
+The keynote was given at a preliminary meeting of St.
+Giles&rsquo;s congregation, at which Dr. J. T. Hartill presided,
+and when the most likely candidates were formally proposed and
+seconded for adoption.</p>
+<p>The voting (recorded on cards) resulted in favour of the Rev.
+William Elitto Rosedale, M.A., Rector of Canton, Cardiff, for
+whom there were 265, as against 26 given for the Rev. W. L. Ward,
+of St. Anne&rsquo;s, Willenhall.&nbsp; The Churchwardens
+consistently directed the procedure at this public election as
+nearly as possible along the lines which would be followed by
+private patronage; they declined to take any active part in the
+circulation of testimonials, or afford facilities for any
+candidate to preach in the church, to the possible prejudice of
+the others, but they passively acquiesced in each one approaching
+the electors in any way which seemed fitting and proper to
+himself.</p>
+<p>The votes recorded on this occasion were:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rev. W. E. Rosedale (Canton, Cardiff)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">199</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rev. W. L. Ward (St. Anne&rsquo;s, Willenhall)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">157</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rev. J. E. Page (Binfield)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rev. F. W. Ford (London)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>At four o&rsquo;clock, Mr. Page (who was the son of a local
+iron-master) and Mr. Ford retired in favour of Mr. Ward.&nbsp;
+The Returning Officer was Mr. R. N. Hearne, Steward to the Lords
+of <!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+112</span>the Manor of Stowheath, the Duke of Sutherland and Mr.
+W. T. C. Giffard; and the poll was taken by open voting, each
+voter recording his vote orally and within the hearing of all
+present.</p>
+<p>The result having been forwarded to the Lords of the Manor,
+they formally nominated the one at the head of the poll to the
+Bishop for appointment and induction to the living.&nbsp; The
+successful candidate was a native, being the son of the Rev. D.
+Rosedale, to whose exertions the building of Holy Trinity Church
+was largely due, and in the Vicarage House attached to which the
+said candidate was born.&nbsp; But he possessed other than local
+claims, though these, no doubt, prepossessed many Willenhall folk
+in his favour.</p>
+<p>There can be little doubt the election of 1894 was conducted
+with far more tact and discretion than ever had been exercised on
+similar occasions previously.&nbsp; There was still the old risk
+of serious public disturbances; but perhaps more than ever there
+was, as must generally be the case in such methods of conducting
+a controversial matter of this description, the danger of
+unseemly and acrimonious squabblings in public.&nbsp; It reflects
+the highest credit upon the Churchwardens and all others
+concerned in the election, that not only was nearly all this
+avoided, but the possibility always present, of long and
+embittered litigation to follow, was also reduced to a
+minimum.&nbsp; It required some firmness and decision to weed
+down 23 formal applications, and more than twice that number of
+business-like inquiries, to workable limits for taking a
+poll.</p>
+<p>The litigation of 1834 had arisen through the manufacture of
+&ldquo;faggot votes,&rdquo; which were eventually disallowed, and
+had to be struck off.&nbsp; A difficulty arose in 1894 as to the
+interpretation of an Act of 1844&mdash;would Lord
+Blandford&rsquo;s Act debar from taking part in the voting the
+residents in the newly-created ecclesiastical districts of St.
+Stephen&rsquo;s, St. Anne&rsquo;s, and Holy Trinity, Short
+Heath?&nbsp; Although at first dubious on the question, the
+authorities answered it in the negative.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p>
+<p>As previously stated, the earliest record of the Advowson is
+of the year 1408.&nbsp; In the Salt Collections, Vol.&nbsp; XI.,
+p. 218, we <!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 113</span>find that by a final concord
+recorded &ldquo;on the morrow of St. Martin, 10 Henry IV.,
+William Bysshebury and Joan, his wife, acknowledged that seven
+messuages, eight tofts, one mill, sixty acres of land, ten acres
+of meadow, and 24s. 6&frac12;d. of rent in Wolverhampton, and the
+Advowson of the Chapel of Willenhall to be the right of Richard
+Hethe and William Prestewood, chaplain, and the latter granted
+them to William Bysshebury and Joan for their lives, with
+remainder to John Hampton, of Stourton, and Harvise, his wife,
+and to the heirs of John for ever.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Exactly two centuries later, as we shall learn in the next
+chapter, the endowments of, and the right of presentation to, the
+living were placed upon a definite and legal foundation.&nbsp;
+Suffice it here to say that at the present time there are
+Trustees appointed by the Charity Commissioners for the purpose
+of holding the Trust property belonging to the said living, and,
+with the assistance of an official representing the
+Commissioners, managing affairs connected therewith.</p>
+<p>The Trust, to which Mr. Samuel Mills Slater is solicitor, is
+under the full control of the Charity Commissioners, who have to
+be regularly supplied with certified copies of all the Trust
+accounts.</p>
+<p>As we shall see presently, the original Feoffees of the Trust
+property were appointed in 1608 by a Commission of local magnates
+and landowners, consisting of William Overton, Bishop of
+Lichfield; William, Lord Paget, of Beaudesert; Sir John Bowes, of
+Elford; Sir Edward Littleton, of Pillaton Hall; Sir Edward Leigh,
+of Rushall; Sir Simon Weston, of St. John&rsquo;s, Lichfield; Sir
+Robert Stanford, of Perry Hall; Sir Walter Chetwynde, of Grendon
+and Ingestre; Sir William Chetwynde, of Grendon (half-brother of
+Sir Walter); Zachary Babington, Doctor in the Civil Law; Raphe
+Snead, of Keele; Walter Bagott, of Blythfield; William
+Skeffington, of Fisherwick; Roger Fowke, of Brewood and Wyrley;
+John Chetwynde, of Rudge, parish of Standon, and Walter Stanley,
+of West Bromwich&mdash;most of them justices for the county of
+Stafford.</p>
+<p>By virtue of a provision in the Decree or award of these
+Commissioners, the surviving Feoffees were enabled to appoint new
+<!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+114</span>Feoffees in the places of the deceased ones.&nbsp; In
+later times, however, by virtue of the Charitable Trusts Acts,
+the Board of Charity Commissioners acquired the power of making
+appointments of new Trustees, and also of removing Trustees.</p>
+<p>In the year 1889, the number of Trustees had become reduced to
+one&mdash;Mr. John Davies, then residing at Warwick.&nbsp; By an
+Order dated 23rd July, 1889, the Board removed Mr. Davies, at his
+own request, from the office of Trustee, and appointed the
+following gentlemen to be new Trustees:&mdash;</p>
+<p>John Clark.</p>
+<p>Wm. Henry Hartill.</p>
+<p>John Thomas Hartill.</p>
+<p>Joseph Johnson.</p>
+<p>David Wm. Lees.</p>
+<p>Jas. Carpenter Tildesley.</p>
+<p>Henry Vaughan.</p>
+<p>Henry Hartill Walker, junr.</p>
+<p>Of these gentlemen only Messrs. J. T. Hartill, Vaughan, and
+Walker are now living.</p>
+<p>It might be necessary under certain conditions (as, for
+instance, in any action connected with the sale of the Advowson)
+to constitute a body of elected Trustees (as distinct from the
+aforementioned nominated Trustees) of not more than eleven, nor
+less than five members, duly elected at a statutory meeting of
+the town&rsquo;s inhabitant freeholders.</p>
+<p>As a matter of fact, a public meeting of the owners of the
+Advowson, convened on the requisition of a memorial to the
+Incumbent (Rev. W. E. Rosedale), signed by a number of them, was
+held in the month of June, 1900, to consider a proposal for the
+sale of the said Advowson.&nbsp; A similar proposal had been
+discussed in 1898 at a public meeting attended by some 200
+owners, when it was suggested that half the sum realised should
+be handed over to the town authorities, while the other half
+should be spent on the church and schools.</p>
+<p>At this second meeting, over which Mr. T. Nicholls, chairman
+of the District Council, presided, the sale value of the Advowson
+<!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+115</span>was variously estimated at sums ranging from
+&pound;1,100 to &pound;3,000.&nbsp; The minister&rsquo;s income
+was stated by one speaker to be &pound;539 per annum
+nett&mdash;&pound;508 derived from a sum of &pound;20,974 13s.
+11d. invested in Consols, and with other sources making a gross
+revenue of &pound;641 18s. 9d., from which deductions amounting
+to &pound;102 7s. 6d. had to be made.</p>
+<p>Another speaker gravely cautioned the meeting against
+over-estimating the capitalised value of this living by remarking
+that the present incumbent was then a comparatively young man of
+only forty-two, and healthy at that.</p>
+<p>It was given as the opinion of another speaker that the
+existing method of electing their parson was undesirable in the
+best interests of the church, and ought to be forthwith
+discontinued.&nbsp; Also it was contended that if a sale could be
+effected, any sum that resulted therefrom might very
+advantageously be expended in the town for the benefit of the
+inhabitants generally.</p>
+<p>One stalwart stickler for &ldquo;the eternal fitness of
+things&rdquo; upheld the sound principle of the members of every
+church exercising the right to choose their own minister, and he
+deprecated generally the practice of trafficking in
+advowsons.</p>
+<p>In the end, although those in favour of selling almost
+threatened to apply for an Act of Parliament for effecting a sale
+compulsorily, the meeting finally resolved by a very substantial
+majority: &ldquo;That it was not advisable at the present time to
+sell the Advowson.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>So that two well-conducted public meetings, held within a
+brief space of each other, were unable to come to any definite
+decision by which the position of things would be materially
+altered.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 116--><a name="page116"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 116</span>XXI.&mdash;Willenhall Church
+Endowments.</h2>
+<p>By the courtesy of Mr. S. M. Slater, of Darlaston, a
+summarised, but fairly comprehensive account of the Willenhall
+endowments, and the somewhat exceptional parochial privileges
+connected therewith, may be given here.</p>
+<p>The foundation of the Endowment of the Benefice and the
+establishment of the right of the Parishioners, or rather the
+Parishioners of the Township &ldquo;having lands of inheritance
+there,&rdquo; may be said to rest upon, or at all events to have
+been defined and regulated by, three documents,
+namely:&mdash;</p>
+<p>(a) A Decree dated the 27th March in the 5th Year of James the
+1st (1607), made in pursuance of an Inquisition, or Commission,
+issued by the King on the 12th February of the previous (regnal)
+year.</p>
+<p>(b) A Deed of the 23rd September of the 6th Year of James the
+1st (1608), entered into between the Lords of the Manor of
+Stowheath on the one hand, and Sir Walter Levison and others, on
+behalf of themselves and the rest of the Inhabitants of
+Willenhall, on the other hand.</p>
+<p>(c) A Memorandum entered on the Court Rolls of the Manor of
+Stowheath, dated the 10th October in the 6th Year of James the
+First (1608).</p>
+<p>Reference to Chapter VII. of this work will recall how a
+Chantry Chapel had been founded and endowed in Willenhall by the
+Gerveyse family.&nbsp; This Chantry Chapel would be a
+&ldquo;separated place&rdquo; within the Chapel-of-Ease specially
+used to celebrate masses for the departed souls of certain
+persons.&nbsp; Now, one of the earliest signs of the approaching
+Reformation was a decline in the belief in Purgatory; and
+presently Henry VIII. was empowered by Act of Parliament to seize
+all lands, tenements, rents, &amp;c., which had been given for
+the maintenance of Chantry Priests, with all their lamps,
+candles, torches, and other expensive appointments for what were
+declared to be &ldquo;superstitious&rdquo; uses.&nbsp; But a
+right was reserved to the King, as head of the Church, to direct
+<!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+117</span>such properties to uses which could be regarded as
+truly &ldquo;charitable.&rdquo;&nbsp; What became of the
+Willenhall Chantry endowments?</p>
+<p>It is the opinion of Mr. A. A. Rollason, no mean authority on
+the subject&mdash;vide his recondite articles in the
+&ldquo;Dudleian,&rdquo; having special reference to a similar
+Commission of Inquiry held in 1638 as to the alienation of lands
+belonging to Dudley Grammar School&mdash;that the Willenhall
+Inquisition, or Commission of Inquiry, was brought about, as was
+that at Dudley, in consequence of the uncertain state of the law
+as to whether the lands, and the income therefrom, came within
+the Charitable Uses Act; or whether the gifts were absolutely
+void.</p>
+<p>For while Magna Charta declared &ldquo;that if any one shall
+give lands to a religious house, the grant shall be void, and the
+land forfeited to the lord of the fee&rdquo;&mdash;the abbots of
+old took care to be &ldquo;lords of the fee,&rdquo; usually
+holding their lands direct from the King&mdash;there was a
+Statute of Edward III. by which the King was empowered to grant a
+Royal licence affording relaxation of lands held under the
+Statutes of Mortmain.</p>
+<p>It seems almost impossible to doubt that the freehold lands
+belonging to the Willenhall Chantry had escaped confiscation to
+the Crown under the Statute, <span class="smcap">i</span> Edward
+VI., if they had been held solely for performing obits and
+singing masses for the dead.&nbsp; Yet it is just possible they
+may have been re-granted to aid in the maintenance of the Curate
+of the Chapel-of-Ease, in which case they would be recognised as
+a &ldquo;charitable use,&rdquo; and were consequently safe.</p>
+<p>The Willenhall Inquisition of 1607 was addressed by the King
+(as stated in the last chapter) to &ldquo;The Reverend Father in
+God, William, Bishopp of Coventrie and Lichfield And to our right
+trustie and well beloved William Lord Pagett and to our trustie
+and well beloved Sir John Bowes, Sir Edward Littleton, Sir Edward
+Leigh, Sir Simon Weston, Sir Robert Stanford, Sir Walter
+Chetwynde and Sir William Chetwynde, Knights, Zacharie Baington
+(Babington), Doctor of Lawe, Chancellor of Lichfield, Raphe
+Sneade, Walter Bagott, William Skevington (Skeffington), Roger
+Fowke, John Chetwynde, and Walter Stanley, Esquires.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+118</span>It set forth that the King, for the due execution of a
+certain Statute of 43 Queen Elizabeth, intituled an Act to
+&ldquo;redress the misimployment of landes goods and stocks of
+money theretofore given to charitable uses,&rdquo; and having
+special trust and confidence in their approved fidelities,
+&amp;c., had appointed the persons named &ldquo;to be our
+Commissions,&rdquo; and thereby gave to them and to any four or
+more of them full power and authority to enquire &ldquo;as well
+by the Oathes of twelve lawful men or more of the County of
+Stafford as by all other good and lawful waies and meanes
+accordinge to the purporte and true meaninge of the said Statute,
+What landes, etc., have at any tyme or tymes been given by us or
+any of our progenitors or by any other well disposed pson or
+psons, bodies politique or corporate, for the reliefe of aged
+impotent and poore people etc.&mdash;And of all and singular the
+abuses misdemeanors breaches of trusts negligences misimployments
+notimployinge, concealinge, defraudinge, misconvertinge or
+misgovernment of the same landes tenements rents anuyties pffits
+hereditments goods chattels money or stocks of money or any of
+them heretofore given lymitted appointed or assigned to or for
+any charitable and godlie uses before rehearsed accordinge to the
+purporte and true meaninge of the said Statute.&nbsp; And upon
+such enquirie hearinge and examyninge thereof accordinge to the
+said Statute to sett downe such Orders Judgments and Decrees as
+the said landes tenements rents anuyties pffits hereditaments
+goods chattels money and stocks of money may be dulie and
+faithfullie employed to and for such of the charitable uses and
+intents before rehearsed respectively for which they were given
+limited assigned or appointed by the donors and founders thereof
+accordinge to the purporte and true meaninge of the said
+Statute.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Commission then proceeds:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>And therefore we commande you that at cteyne days
+and places which you or any foure or more of you shall appoint in
+this behalf ye or any foure or more of you doe make diligent
+Inquirie and Inquiries upon the pmisses and all and singuler the
+same and all other things appointed by the said Statute for you
+or any foure or more of you to doe and execute that ye or foure
+of you at the least pforme doe and execute that <!-- page
+119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+119</span>effecte in all points and in everie respect accordinge
+to the said Statute. . . .&nbsp; And the same Inquisicon and
+Inquisicons and everie of them togeather with all decrees
+Judgments orders and proceedinges which you or any foure or more
+of you shall accordinge to the said Statute thereupon make or
+sett downe that you or foure or more of you have before Us in our
+Chancery with all convenient speede . . . under the hands and
+seals of any foure or more of you. . .&nbsp; And we also command
+by authoritie hereof our Sheriffe of our said County of Stafford
+that at such times dayes and places as you or any foure or more
+of you shall appoint to him he shall cause to come before you or
+any foure or more of you such and as many honest and lawful men
+of the said County as well within the liberties as without by
+whom the truth in the pmisses may best be known to inquire of the
+pmisses upon their Oathes as you or any foure or more of you
+shall require and command him.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Decree before referred to was signed by Sir Edward Leigh,
+Dr. Zacharie Babington, William Skeffington, John Chetwynde, and
+Walter Stanley, and was addressed to the Right Honourable Thomas,
+Lord Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor of England.&nbsp; It set out the
+Commission and then proceeded as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Wee therefore by verteue of the said Commission
+dyd award a pcept to the Sheriffe of the said Countye to somon
+foure and twentye good and lawfull men of his Baylywicke to be
+before Us at Lichfeilde the xxijth day of Marche laste paste and
+did also send a precepte to one Jane Lane Widdow and to Thomas
+Lane Esquire that claymed intereste in the pmisses to bee before
+Us att the same day and place to sett forth theire and either of
+theire tytles (yf they had anie) to the said pmisses att wch daye
+and place by virtue of the said pcepte to the sayde Sheriffe
+dyrected as aforesaid a full Jury dyd appeare and Councell on the
+behalfe of Mrs. Lane and the said Thomas Lane dyd alsoe appear
+before Us and thereupon wee pceeded to sweare the Jurye who
+bringe sworne and chardged to inquire of the pmisses <!-- page
+120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+120</span>after long evidence and examinacon of many witnesses on
+both pts the said Jurors gave up theire verdicte in such sorte as
+by an Inquisition hereunto annexed Sealed and subscribed (wch wee
+doe herewith all ctyfye unto yor Lordshippe into the highe Courte
+of Chancery) maie appear; that is to say that a pcell of pasture
+or land called Marchyhills alias Bessalls in Bentley aforesaid,
+of ye yeerlie value of fyve pounds, was before the fourth yeere
+of Kinge Edward the Sixth given to Nicholas Hellyn and Richard
+Whorwood gent., John Podmore Willm Greene Willm Whitmore and
+William Podmore and their heires to bee Imployed to saye devine
+service in the Chappell of Willenhall aforesaid for the ease of
+the Inhabyants there being farre remoote from their prshe Church
+of Wolverhampton in the said Countye that the pffits of the said
+lands were from Anno quarto of Kinge Edwarde the sixte so
+imployed as aforesaid by the space of dyvers yeeres of the said
+Jane Lane and Thomas Lane and their Tenants&nbsp; And that the
+same have been misemployed by the space of one whole yeere now
+laste paste and more all wch pmisses considered wee doe order and
+decree at Lichfeilde aforesaid by verteue of the said Comission
+in manner and form followinge&nbsp; That is to saie that the said
+pcell of groundes and all ye rents revenues yssues and pffitts
+thereof shall for ever hereafter bee imployed and bestowed upon
+and towards the maynetaynance of a Curate or Chaplyne for the
+tyme being to saie devine service in the said Chappell for the
+ease of the Inhabitants there and that John Wilkes of Willenhall
+in the said Countye gent, Willm Flemynge als Greene of Willenhall
+in the said Countye yeoman, Leonard Tomkis of Willenhall in the
+said Countye yeoman, John Bate of Willenhall in the said Countye
+yeoman, Richard Bate of Willenhall in the saide Countye yeoman,
+Willm Baylie of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, and Willm
+Brindley of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, theire heires
+and Assignes shall have and hold the said pmisses to the use and
+entente aforesaid according to a former feoffm&rsquo;t thereof
+made and shewed forth to the said Jury at the tyme of the same
+Inquisicon taken and shall from <!-- page 121--><a
+name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>tyme to
+tyme and at all tymes hereafter yeerelie Imploye and bestowe the
+full value thereof upon and towards the maynetaynance of a Curate
+or Chaplyne to saye devyne service in the said Chappell.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>As will be seen, the Decree states clearly that the yearly
+income of the Bentley lands was to be used towards the
+maintenance of a Curate to say Divine Service in the Chapel; this
+at once brought it under the Charitable Uses Act, and removed it
+from liability to be confiscated under 23, Henry VIII., c. 10.,
+for perpetuating practices regarded as superstitious and contrary
+to Reformation doctrines.&nbsp; It will be noted that a
+&ldquo;former feoffment&rdquo; is mentioned&mdash;may not this
+have been a re-grant by the King, which has been hinted at?&nbsp;
+The grant to Nicholas Hellyn and others in 4 Edward VI. has all
+the appearance of being a gift from the Crown to the purposes of
+the newly constituted Church of England.</p>
+<p>The Decree then proceeds, as mentioned in the last chapter, to
+make provision for the filling up of vacancies in the number of
+Feoffees whenever the number may be reduced to three.</p>
+<p>It will be noticed that the Inquisition and Decree, as given
+above, deal only with the title to and the application of the
+income of certain freehold lands at Bentley.&nbsp; The Deed of
+the 23rd September of the 6th Year of James the 1st (1608), and
+the Memorandum of the 10th October of the same year, however,
+appear to deal with what seems to be the remainder of the
+endowment of the Curacy, and with the status of the Priest or
+Curate.&nbsp; The Deed and the Memorandum set forth, in effect,
+the same set of facts; and the former may be described as the
+Contract out of Court between the parties interested, and the
+latter as being the Official Record of the Contract entered upon
+the Rolls of the Manor.&nbsp; The Deed is stated to be made
+between the Right Worshipful Sir John Levison, Knight, of
+Lilleshall, in the County of Salop, and John Giffard, of
+Chillington, in the County of Stafford, Esquire, on the one part,
+and Sir Walter Levison, of Wolverhampton, Knight, Thomas Lane, of
+Bentley, Esquire, Richard Wilkes, and Thomas Tomkis, of
+Willenhall, Gentlemen, and William Brindley and William Podmore,
+of Willenhall, <!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 122</span>Yeomen, on behalf of themselves and
+the rest of the Inhabitants of Willenhall, on the other part; and
+after making reference to a &ldquo;Commission awarded upon the
+Statute of 43 Elizabeth concerning Lands given to Charitable
+Uses,&rdquo; it proceeds to state that the lords consent, grant,
+and decree that the Copyhold lands therein referred to shall be
+let in the manner and for the purpose therein mentioned, and the
+effect of such consent, as before pointed out, is recited in the
+Memorandum entered on the Court Rolls.</p>
+<p>Coming to the Memorandum of 1608, it is evident a serious
+difficulty had arisen with the Willenhall lands held under
+copyhold tenure, and which were probably dealt with by the same
+Commission.&nbsp; For there was probably but one Commission of
+Inquiry, though there may have been two separate Decrees.</p>
+<p>Lands held by Copyhold tenure are usually subject to fealty to
+the Lord of the Manor, and this was doubtless customary in
+Stowheath.&nbsp; It seems conclusive that the King did not take
+these lands into his own hands, whereby matters would have been
+reduced to the absurdity of the lord paramount being called upon
+to do homage to his own tenant.</p>
+<p>The suggestion is offered by Mr. Rollason that the tenure of
+the lands was not precisely a lay one, but partook of a spiritual
+nature&mdash;was, in fact, not feudal, but what was known as a
+tenure in frankalmoign or free alms.</p>
+<p>The Memorandum commences with a recital as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Whereas by a Commission awarded upon a Statute of
+43 Elizabeth concerning Lands given to Charitable Uses upon the
+executinge of wch Comission the Inhabitants and Men of Willenhall
+in the County of Stafford have made profe that certaine Copyhold
+Lands in the Towne of Willenhall holden by Coppie of Court Roll
+of the Manor of Stowheath were formerly Surrendered by certain
+Feoffees or Stateberers Uppon Trust and confidence that the
+yearly Pfitts thereof should be imployed for the hyer stipend and
+wages of a Preist Minister or Curate to say Divine Service in the
+Chappell of Willenhall from tyme to tyme for ever for the Ease of
+the Inhabitants there dwelling <!-- page 123--><a
+name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>being two
+Myles distant from Wolverhampton their Prshe Church and towards
+the repairinge of the said Chappell and the said yearly pfitts
+thereof were soe used and imployed for many yeares togeather
+uppon consideracon of wch said cause and uppon longe debate
+thereof before divse Comissioners in psence of Councell of both
+ptes ambiguity and doubtings arisinge whether the said Copyhold
+Lands were originally given to the maintenance of a Chantery
+Preist or otherwise to the maintenance of a Curate of Preist to
+say Divine Service in the Chappell aforesaid The said Inhabitants
+are contented to refer themselves therein to the consideracon of
+Sir John Leveson Knt and John Giffard Esquire Lords of the Mannor
+of Stowheath within wch Mannor the said Towne of Willenhall lyeth
+and is pcel wch usadge and imploymt of the saide rents and pfitts
+of the said Lands the said Sr John Leveson and Jhn Giffard Esqre
+well accepting of are willing to give furtherance to soe good and
+charitable an occon And the rather for that their Ancestors have
+formerly given allowance out of the same Lands for the same
+purpose And therefore doe for them and their heirs consent and
+agree that the said Coppyhold Lands shall for ever hereafter be
+let by the consent of four of the Inhabitants of the said Towne
+of Willenhall to be chosen by the greater pte of the sufficient
+Householders of the said Towne having lands of inheritance there,
+and that the said aforemenconed Lands shall be by the said four
+Inhabitants let from tyme to tyme according to the trew and
+reasonable Rate or Valew thereof and the mony pfitts and rents to
+be reserved out of the said Lands to be imployed half yearly
+hereafter in manner and forme following (that is to say) First to
+the payment of eleven shillings yearly for the antient and
+accustomed cheife rent dew and to be dew to the Lords of the said
+Manor of Stowheath Secondly to the payment of Six shillings and
+eight pence yearly towards the reparations of the said Chappell,
+and thirdly towards the maintenance of a stipendary Preist
+Minester or Curate for the sayinge of Divine Service Ministeringe
+of the Holy Sacraments and doinge all such other service in the
+Chappell of Willenhall as doe and <!-- page 124--><a
+name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>shall
+belong to his Ministerie and Function wch Stipendary Priest
+Minister or Curate shall be fro tyme to tyme chosen nominated and
+appointed by the said Inhabitants of Willenhall for the tyme
+beinge or the greatest pte of them havinge lands there as
+aforesaid and prsented and allowed by the Lord on Lords of the
+said Manner of Stowheath and his and their heir or heires for
+ever.&nbsp; And it is further ordered that whosoever shall be
+nominated appointed prsented and allowed as aforesaid to supply
+the place as Preist Minister or Curate in the said Chappell of
+Willenhall shall conforme himselfe to the Govermt Eclesiasticall
+and be resident uppon his cure there, in defalt whereof and uppon
+complainte made by the said Inhabitants or the greater pte of the
+sufficient or chiefest of them, eyther of his nonresidence,
+Insufficiencie, negligence, or any other Misdemenor, to the Lord
+or Lords of the said Manner for the tyme beinge, yt shall be
+lawfull for the Lord or Lords of the said Mannor for the tyme
+beinge to give one halfe yeares warninge to the said Preist
+Minester or Curate to reform himselfe whch if he doe not then it
+shall be lawfull for the said Lord or Lords for the tyme beinge
+to remove and displace him at the end of the said halfe yeare,
+and to present and allow another Curate Minester or Preist there
+to be nominated and appointed by the said Inhabitants or the
+greater part of them as aforesaid.&nbsp; Lastly it is ordered
+that the said Lands shall at the next Leete at Wolverhampton for
+the said Mannor of Stowheath be granted by Coppie of Court Roll
+to Nine Feoffees or Stateberers and their heires then and there
+to be nominated, uppon wch Grante there shall be Thirteene pounds
+six shillings and eight pence paid for a Fine and Herriotts, and
+that after the death of six or seaven of the said Feoffees or
+Stateberers there shall be sixe or seaven others from tyme to
+tyme chosen by the said Inhabitants or greatest pte of them to
+whom and to the other three or two surviving Feoffees and their
+heires uppon the Surrender of the said three or two Feoffees or
+Stateberers a new Grant shall be made by Coppie of Court Roll of
+the said Lands accordinge to the Custome of the said
+Mannor.&nbsp; And soe from <!-- page 125--><a
+name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>when and as
+often there shal be remaininge but three or two Feoffees or
+Stateberers And that uppon every such admittance there shall be
+payed to the Lords of the said Mannor the some of six pounds
+thirteen shillings and fower pence for a fine and Herriotts as
+often as any such admittance shall be as aforesaid.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The disclosure here made, that part of the endowments went to
+the repair of the church, gives the key to the probable solution;
+because this unquestionably constituted a &ldquo;charitable
+use,&rdquo; and where such was intermixed with a
+&ldquo;superstitious use,&rdquo; only so much as went to the
+latter purpose was subject to confiscation under the reforming
+Statutes of Henry VIII.&nbsp; A generous interpretation would not
+inquire too closely into the amount left for a Chantry Priest,
+and the portion devoted to repairs of the fabric.&nbsp; It was to
+discriminate between the two kinds of uses that the subsequent
+Statute of Elizabeth (43 E. Cap. 4) was passed, empowering the
+Lord Chancellor to appoint Commissions authorised to investigate
+the complaints of aggrieved parties, and to alter the direction
+of the endowment funds, where necessary, to make them conformable
+with the Protestant religion.&nbsp; This was precisely the nature
+and function of the Willenhall Commission.&nbsp; All it
+accomplished was done under the authority of the Great Seal of
+England, the Commissions being generally directed by the Lord
+Chancellor to the Bishop of the diocese, as in this case; the
+judgments arrived at, and the decrees issued were given the full
+force of law.&nbsp; The Willenhall Trust was clearly constituted
+under this Act of Elizabeth.</p>
+<p>On reading the introductory portion of the Memorandum, it will
+be observed that no date is given to the Commission referred to,
+which possibly might be interpreted to mean that such Commission
+was quite separate from the one above set out, inasmuch as the
+latter related only to freehold land at Bentley, while the
+Memorandum speaks of &ldquo;certain Copyhold lands in the Towne
+of Willenhall&rdquo; being &ldquo;surrendered by certain Feoffees
+. . .&nbsp; Uppon trust,&rdquo; &amp;c.</p>
+<p>In the documents before considered no allusion is made to
+there being any endowment or provision for the maintenance of the
+Chantry Priest or Curate other than the income from the Freehold
+<!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+126</span>and Copyhold lands which respectively formed the
+subject of those documents; and from this it is reasonable to
+conclude that such income formed, or was involved in what may be
+described as practically the only permanent provision for the
+maintenance of the Incumbent for the time being of the
+Chapel.</p>
+<p>A century ago there appears to have been a prevalent belief
+that the income of the Incumbent or Curate was about &pound;1,400
+per annum.&nbsp; An investigation of what has happened during the
+last 70 years does not reveal any foundation for the
+belief.&nbsp; After the election, in the year 1838, of the late
+Rev. G. H. Fisher to the Curacy, it was considered by him and the
+Trustees of the Living to be desirable to apply to Parliament for
+powers to sell the surface of the lands forming the Endowment, or
+to sell or lease any of the mines thereunder.&nbsp; Accordingly,
+a private Act of Parliament (7 and 8 Victoria Cap. 19) granting
+those powers was obtained.&nbsp; The Preamble of this Act refers
+to dealings with the Copyhold Lands subsequent to the date of the
+Memorandum before commented upon, there being recitals that, as
+appears by a surrender dated the 21st November, 1727, certain
+Copyhold Lands, &amp;c., in the Town of Willenhall were formally
+surrendered to the use of certain Feoffees and were held upon the
+trusts already described, and that at a Court Baron held on the
+24th September, 1839, the said Copyhold lands were surrendered to
+the use of Thomas Hinks, John Riley Hinks, John Read, William
+Stokes, John Mason, Joseph Turner, John Biddle, Jeremiah Hartill
+and John Davies on the same trusts.&nbsp; The Preamble further
+shows a small further source of income for the Living, inasmuch
+as it states that certain Freehold lands in the Township of
+Willenhall (as well as those in the Township of Bentley) had from
+time immemorial been held and enjoyed in like manner as the said
+Copyhold lands and that the said Freehold and Copyhold lands
+constituted &ldquo;one and the same Charity.&rdquo;&nbsp; The
+Preamble further states that there stood in the name of the
+Accountant-General of the High Court of Chancery the sum of
+&pound;386 3s. 0d. of three per cent. Consols, and that there was
+owing from the Birmingham Canal Company a sum of &pound;202 2s.
+0d.&nbsp; These two sums represented the agreed prices of lands
+belonging to the Living taken by <!-- page 127--><a
+name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>the Grand
+Junction Railway Company and the Canal Company respectively under
+their compulsory powers.&nbsp; The freehold land in Willenhall
+before referred to, is comprised (with all the other lands held
+in Trust for the Living), in the Schedule to the Act, and
+consisted of a field called Ell Park, containing 1a. 3r. 28p.,
+and produced a rental of &pound;5 12s. 0d.</p>
+<p>Touching the supposition before referred to as to the value of
+the Living being &pound;1,400 per annum, it may be mentioned that
+the Schedule to the Act gives the total area of the lands held in
+trust for the Living at 112a. 2r. 37p., and the aggregate amount
+of the rentals as being &pound;500 15s. 6d. per annum.</p>
+<p>A further power sought for and conferred by the Act was the
+power to raise a sum not exceeding &pound;1,600 to be applied in
+building a Parsonage House upon any of the land belonging to the
+Living, or, in the alternative, to purchase at a cost not
+exceeding &pound;1,600, a Parsonage House, with the consent of
+the Court of Chancery, if thought more advantageous than to build
+one.</p>
+<p>In the exercise of the powers conferred by the Act, the
+Trustees, in the course of a few years, sold all the lands
+belonging to the Living situate in Willenhall, and in recent
+years a piece of land containing 1 rood and 23 perches, forming
+part of the Freehold land at Bentley, has also been sold and
+there now remains at Bentley, belonging to the Living, nine
+pieces of land, containing a total area of 30 acres and 27
+perches, which, for several years prior to Mr. Fisher&rsquo;s
+death, produced a rental of &pound;20 per annum.</p>
+<p>The primary provisions of the Act with regard to the moneys to
+arise from sales and leases under the powers thereby conferred
+were: (a) That the moneys should be let out and invested under
+the direction of the Court in the purchase of Freehold
+hereditaments or Copyhold hereditaments convenient to be enjoyed
+therewith; (b) that the premises purchased should be conveyed
+unto the Trustees for the time being of the Charity and held upon
+the Trusts, upon which the hereditaments sold would have been
+held in case the same had not been so sold, and the Act had not
+been passed; (c) that until the moneys should be so let out <!--
+page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+128</span>and invested they should be invested in Parliamentary
+stocks or Funds of Great Britain in the name of the
+Accountant-General; and (d) that the annual produce of such funds
+should be applied to the person and for the purposes to which the
+rents of the trust lands would have been applicable.</p>
+<p>In the exercise of the trust for purchasing lands conferred by
+the Act, the Trustees subsequently purchased the property in
+Walsall Street, adjoining and near to the Churchyard, including
+the site of the new Schools there, and also two Cottages and some
+gardens and land at Shepwell Green.&nbsp; The latter property has
+since been sold off.</p>
+<p>Reverting to the question of the value of the Living, it may
+be mentioned that in the year 1886, when the Shepwell Green
+property and the small piece of land at Bentley were still in
+hand, the gross income from the Living, apart from Surplice Fees,
+was &pound;792 7s. 9d., made up as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rents</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">194</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Dividend from &pound;19,941 16s. 8d., 3 per cent.
+Consols</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">598</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;792</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>The effect of the &ldquo;Goschen&rdquo; Act of 1888 was
+ultimately to reduce the Dividend on the Consols by 1/6th, and,
+consequently, the gross income of the Living, apart from Surplice
+Fees, stood a few years afterwards at &pound;692 13s. 7d., made
+up as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rents</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">194</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Dividend from 2&frac12; per cent. Consols</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">498</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&pound;692</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>This statement brings matters up to date (1907); the tithes
+are still impropriate, a rent charge of &pound;540 being
+receivable by Lord Barnard in succession to the Duke of
+Cleveland.&nbsp; The tithe-owner in Bentley is the Earl of
+Lichfield.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 129--><a name="page129"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 129</span>XXII.&mdash;The Church Charities:
+The Daughter Churches.</h2>
+<p>At the beginning of the nineteenth century a Royal Commission
+was appointed to inquire into, and put a stop to, the barefaced
+robbery of the Church charities, which had been going on for a
+century or more.&nbsp; Every parish in England was visited, and
+the Report on the Willenhall Charities was published in 1825 to
+the following effect:&mdash;</p>
+<h3>1.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Prestwood&rsquo;s
+Dole</span>.</h3>
+<blockquote><p>An ancient Instrument was produced to us,
+purporting to be a Deed-poll (without any seals thereto, but with
+a portion of the lower margin torn off, not, however, as it
+appeared to us, in that part where the seals are usually
+affixed), bearing date 17 August, 1642, whereby William
+Prestwood, of Willenhall, in Co. Stafford, and Mariana, his wife,
+granted to the Wardens and Sidemen of the Church or Chapel of
+Willenhall, aforesaid, and to the Overseers of the poor of the
+said Town, and their successors for ever, all the annual rent,
+profits, and emoluments whatsoever, issuing, renewing, and
+arising from, in and out of a certain Close of the said William
+and Mariana, called Canne Byrch, lying and being in Willenhall
+aforesaid, between Willenhall Field on one part, and the highway
+leading towards Darlaston on the other; to have and to hold all
+the rent, profits, and emoluments arising from the said Close,
+after the death of the said William and Mariana, for ever; to the
+pious use following, viz.:&mdash;</p>
+<p>To pay and contribute the annual rent aforesaid to the use and
+behoof of the Poor in the said Town, at the discretion of the
+aforesaid Wardens, Officers, and Overseers of the Chapel and Town
+aforesaid for ever, and not otherwise: And it is further declared
+that the said rent should be annually paid in the manner and form
+as the said William by his last Will should appoint.</p>
+<p>We have no evidence that this piece of land, which is well
+known, was ever in the possession of the Parish Officers.&nbsp;
+<!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+130</span>It is now considered as the property of Hervey Smith,
+Esq., of Castle Bromwich, who has lately succeeded to it on the
+death of his father, the late William Smith, Esq., solicitor of
+Birmingham, and to be subject only to an annual rent charge of
+20s. to the Poor of Willenhall, which is regularly paid by the
+tenant of the land.&nbsp; It has been for many years in the
+possession of Mr. Smith&rsquo;s family, and he produced several
+receipts, the earliest of which is dated 31 October, 1753, and is
+for &ldquo;&pound;1 due Nov. 1st, 1753, for Prestwood&rsquo;s
+Dole.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The others are for the same sum, designating it either as
+&ldquo;Prestwood&rsquo;s Dole,&rdquo; or &ldquo;A Dole payable to
+the Poor of Willenhall.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>We do not conceive that, under these circumstances, the
+imperfect Instrument above stated, unaccompanied by possession,
+can afford any ground to the Parishioners of the Township to
+claim anything more than the Dole which has been so long
+paid.&nbsp; The 20 shillings are given away to 20 Poor Widows on
+St. Thomas&rsquo;s Day.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>2.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Pedley&rsquo;s
+Charity</span>.</h3>
+<blockquote><p>James Pedley, otherwise Fletcher, by his Will
+dated 20 May, 1728, after the death of his wife, gave to his
+brother, Richard Pedley, alias Fletcher, his heirs and assigns,
+those two Closes of Land called by the name Little Clothers,
+lying in the Liberty of Willenhall, in the Parish of
+Wolverhampton, on condition that his said brother should pay or
+cause to be paid 30s. a year out of the rent of the said two
+Closes of land, as follows; that is to say, to the Minister of
+Willenhall 6s. 8d. a year to preach a sermon on New Year&rsquo;s
+Day; and unto Poor Housekeepers 8s. in bread yearly, upon New
+Year&rsquo;s Day, at the Chapel as the Chapelwardens should think
+fit; and to the Chapelwardens for their trouble 4d.; and 13s.
+yearly to one of the Chapelwardens and to the Overseer of the
+Poor to be given in bread to such Poor Housekeepers as they
+should think fit, and carry the said bread to, from house to
+house, upon the first day of July; and he directed that the
+Officers for trouble should have 12 pence apiece: And in the <!--
+page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+131</span>event of his brother&rsquo;s death without issue, he
+gave the Closes, paying the aforesaid 30s. yearly as above
+directed to the right heir of the Pedleys for ever.</p>
+<p>The premises charged with this annuity of 30s. are at present
+the property of Mr. George Bailey, in right of his wife, to whom
+they descended as heir to her brother, Charles Pedley, the
+great-nephew of the testator.</p>
+<p>The several payments of 6s. 8d. to the Minister and 8s. and
+13s. for bread, appear to have been annually made; but the bread
+having been distributed by the Pedley family themselves, or
+persons deputed by them, without the intervention of the
+Chapelwarden or Overseer, the fees of 2s. 4d. to these Officers
+have been hitherto withheld, and are indeed unnoticed in a Will
+of James Pedley, dated in 1792, whereby he devises the Closes in
+question to the above-named Charles Pedley, describing them as
+subject to the other payments of 27s. 8d. only.</p>
+<p>Mr. Bailey has, however, expressed his readiness to supply the
+omission in future, and to pay the bread money, or deliver the
+bread to the Officers of the Township to be distributed by them
+according to the directions of the donor.</p>
+<p>The distributions appear to have been hitherto made
+respectively on New Year&rsquo;s Day and at Midsummer, among Poor
+Old Widows and other Poor of the Township.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>3.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Charities of John Tomkys and
+George Welch</span>.</h3>
+<blockquote><p>At a Court Baron held for the Manor of Stowheath,
+on 29th May, 1781, the lords of the manor, at the request of
+certain persons being Chapelwardens, and certain others being
+Overseers of the Poor of the liberty of Willenhall, and of
+certain others, being three of the principal Inhabitants of
+Willenhall, on behalf of themselves and others, the inhabitants
+of Willenhall, by the hands of the Steward, according to the
+custom of the manor, gave, granted, and delivered to Joshua
+Fletcher, of Willenhall, and Catherina, his wife, all those three
+Closes or parcels of land, containing together five acres, or
+thereabouts, theretofore enclosed from the waste or <!-- page
+132--><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+132</span>common-land called Shepwell Green, within the liberty
+of Willenhall, for their natural lives and the life of the
+survivor, with remainder to the heirs and assigns of the said
+Joshua Fletcher for ever, subject to the payment of 20s. on St.
+Thomas&rsquo;s Day yearly for ever, to the Chapelwardens and
+Overseers of the Poor for the liberty of Willenhall, to be by
+them paid or applied to or for the use of the Poor of the said
+liberty of Willenhall, yearly and every year for ever on St.
+Thomas&rsquo;s Day aforesaid, at the Vestry of the said Chapel,
+according to their discretion, it being the interest of
+&pound;20, &pound;10 thereof being theretofore given by one John
+Tomkys, and the other &pound;10 theretofore given by one George
+Welch, to and for the use of the said Poor.</p>
+<p>These premises are now the property of John Fletcher, by whom
+the annuity of 20s. is duly paid to the officers of the
+Township.&nbsp; This payment is distributed on New Year&rsquo;s
+Day among the Poor of the liberty in small sums not generally
+exceeding 6d. to each individual.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>4.&mdash;<span class="smcap">John Bates&rsquo;s
+Charity</span>.</h3>
+<blockquote><p>This Charity consists of the sum of &pound;5,
+which appears to have been left by John Bate some time before the
+year 1701; the interest to be yearly distributed among the Poor
+of Willenhall on St. Thomas&rsquo;s Day.</p>
+<p>The principal was placed at interest on 21 December, 1701, in
+the hands of Joseph Hincks, on the security of his bond; and the
+interest appears to have been duly paid by himself and his heirs
+successively.&nbsp; It is now paid by Thomas Hincks on St.
+Thomas&rsquo;s Day annually to fifteen Poor Widows of the
+Township in shares of 4d. each.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The founders of the &ldquo;lost&rdquo; Prestwood Charity were
+doubtless members of the family mentioned in Chapter VII. as
+resident in Willenhall as early as 1409; Prestwood, be it noted,
+was also the name of an ancient moated farm and homestead in
+Wednesfield.&nbsp; The name of Prestwood is again mentioned, as
+are also the names of the other Willenhall benefactors, Bates and
+Tomkiss, in the endowment deeds of 1607, quoted in Chapter
+XXI.&nbsp; As to the <!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 133</span>Welch family, their homestead in
+Willenhall stood in the location known as Welch End.</p>
+<p>Concerning Pedley&rsquo;s Charity, which has not been
+distributed these 50 years, the Churchwardens have, as recently
+as 1895, made earnest attempts at its recovery.&nbsp; The lands
+once chargeable for the dole were identified as Shares Acres,
+lying between the canal and the road leading to New Invention
+from Monmer Lane.&nbsp; The property, however, was found to be in
+the hands of the Trustees of the late W. E. Jones; and as,
+through the remissness of someone, the estate had been sold and
+conveyed without due provision for the payment of the annuity
+once charged upon it, the Trustees had not power to make such
+payment.&nbsp; While the minerals under this land have been
+yielding wealth, the Poor have been defrauded from their rightful
+share in the same.</p>
+<p>Painstaking inquiries for the other &ldquo;lost
+charities&rdquo; have also been made, but with no success.&nbsp;
+For many years the Incumbent and Wardens have provided and
+distributed a Dole of 40 loaves, for which there has been no
+legal responsibility resting upon them.</p>
+<p>In 1881 Jeremiah Hartill gave &pound;200 to the Vicar and
+Wardens, which was invested in Consols, and the interest is
+annually distributed on January 1st amongst twenty poor people of
+the township.&nbsp; The Hartill Charity and the Tomkys and Welch
+Doles are the only ones now administered.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p>
+<p>Thirty or more years ago a Mr. Stokes gave the Incumbent of
+Willenhall &pound;500 to be applied in his absolute discretion
+for the benefit of St. Giles&rsquo;s School.&nbsp; The interest
+until recently was applied by him for that purpose.&nbsp; The
+principal has recently been spent in purchase of an extended
+playground for the new Infant Schools, and in the part purchase
+of a site for a new Mixed Department, adjacent thereto.</p>
+<p>A few years after the passing of Sir Robert Peel&rsquo;s Act
+of 1847, advantage was taken of it to split the populous area of
+the ancient chapelry into new district parishes; and by 1855 the
+said chapelry was divided into three nearly equal parts, the new
+parishes of St. Stephen and Holy Trinity, leaving to St.
+Giles&rsquo;s Church <!-- page 134--><a name="page134"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 134</span>Bentley and the remaining portion of
+the Willenhall township.&nbsp; The fourth daughter parish, St.
+Anne&rsquo;s, came a few years later.</p>
+<p>St Stephen&rsquo;s Church, in Wolverhampton Street, was
+erected mainly through the exertions of its first vicar, the Rev.
+T. W. Fletcher, M.A., and opened in 1854, seven years after its
+ecclesiastical district had been formed.&nbsp; Mr. Fletcher died
+in 1890, and the living is now held by the Rev. Herbert Percy
+Stevens, M.A.&nbsp; This parish maintains a Parochial Hall and
+Mission at Portobello.</p>
+<p>St. Anne&rsquo;s Church, Spring Bank, was built largely as a
+memorial to his wife by Mr. H. Jeavon.&nbsp; It was consecrated
+in 1861.</p>
+<p>Holy Trinity Church (Short Heath) Vicarage and Schools were
+all built by the Rev. Dr. Rosedale, the first vicar of the
+parish, and father of the present vicar of St.
+Giles&rsquo;s.&nbsp; His labours commenced in a Mission Room at
+the Brown Jug Inn, Sandbeds, and he trained several very earnest
+men for the ministry, including the Rev. John Bailey, first vicar
+of the Pleck Church, Walsall, and the Rev. &mdash; Pritchard,
+vicar of Blakenall Church, Bloxwich.&nbsp; The jubilee of the
+building of the church was held about 1905.&nbsp; The Rev.
+&mdash; Wood was the second vicar, the Rev. G. W. Johnson the
+third, and the present vicar is the Rev. G. C. W. Pimbury.</p>
+<p>A Mission Room at New Invention completes the list of Anglican
+Establishments in Willenhall.</p>
+<p>In connection with St. Giles&rsquo;s a Men&rsquo;s and a
+Junior Men&rsquo;s Club have recently been established; and among
+other projects for further developments in the parochial
+machinery is a Mission Room at Shepwell Green.&nbsp; This
+movement was initiated some years ago when the Rev. H. Edwards
+was acting as Curate during the illness of the Rev. Mr. Fisher; a
+site has recently been purchased, in the anticipation that the
+Mission in due time will develop into a new ecclesiastical
+parish.</p>
+<p>Dr. Hartill, as Churchwarden, was instrumental in securing a
+grant of &pound;700 from a bequest of &pound;15,000 left for
+Church objects by a Miss Green, with which to increase the
+endowment of Holy Trinity Church, Short Heath; this was
+supplemented by another &pound;700 from the Ecclesiastical
+Commissioners; while in the following year a further sum of
+&pound;700 from each source was also obtained for increasing the
+endowment of St. Anne&rsquo;s Church.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 135</span>XXIII.&mdash;The Fabric of the
+Church.</h2>
+<p>As already discovered (Chapter VII.), a church has existed in
+Willenhall since the 13th century.&nbsp; It was at first a small
+chapel-of-ease, and seems to have been dedicated in
+pre-Reformation times to a non-biblical patron, Saint Giles.</p>
+<p>The first edifice, as a mere chapel of accommodation, was in
+all probability a very primitive structure, constructed entirely
+of timber cut from the adjacent forest of Cannock.&nbsp; But when
+it became a chantry also, the original structure may have been
+replaced by a more elaborate edifice, in the style which is
+generally known as half-timbered.</p>
+<p>Soon after the Reformation the mother church of Wolverhampton
+was pewed on a plan for the specifically allotted accommodation
+of all the parishioners, when the centre aisle was given to the
+inhabitants of Wolverhampton, the south aisle was set apart for
+the people of Bilston, and the north aisle was appropriated to
+Wednesfield and Willenhall.&nbsp; In those days, as previously
+explained, the law supposed that every adult person attended
+church on Sundays; there was, in fact, a penalty for absence
+enforcible by law.</p>
+<p>With regard to Willenhall&rsquo;s timber-constructed church,
+there is evidence that in 1660 it was in a deplorable condition
+through fire ravages.&nbsp; After the Reformation it became a
+practice for collections to be made in the churches throughout
+the country to provide funds for the repair or rebuilding of
+parish churches which had fallen into a state of dilapidation
+beyond the means of its own parishioners to make good; or for
+other charitable purposes in which the needs of the one seemed to
+call for the help of the many.&nbsp; These collections were
+authorised to be made by Royal Letters Patent, through official
+documents known as Briefs; and entries of these are to be found
+in most Parish Registers till the middle of the 18th century,
+when their frequency through the complaisance of the Court of
+Chancery was considered such an abuse that it was ordered for the
+future that their issue should be granted only after a formal
+application to Quarter Sessions.&nbsp; Thus we find <!-- page
+136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+136</span>records in the Tipton Registers of no less than seven
+collections made there between 1657 and 1661 for the relief of
+distress through fire and other causes in Desford, Southwold,
+Drayton (Salop), Oxford, East Hogborne, Chichester, and Milton
+Abbey.</p>
+<p>Willenhall called for this form of national assistance in
+1660, as entries of a Brief on its behalf have been found as far
+apart as Chatham, in Kent, and Woodborough, in Notts, and may
+doubtless be traced in various parish registers up and down the
+country.&nbsp; Here is a copy of the Nottinghamshire
+entry:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">September ye 23,
+1660.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Collected</span> at ye Parish Church and
+among ye Inhabitants of Woodbourogh for and towards the Reliefe
+of ye distressed inhabitants of Willenhall, in ye County of
+Stafford, being Commended hityr [hereto] by ye King&rsquo;s
+Majestyes Letters Patents with ye gorat Sale [Great Seal] for and
+towards their loss by fire, ye sum of 4s. 10d.</p>
+<p>Witness,</p>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">John
+Allatt</span>,</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">Minister.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">James
+Job</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Henry Moorelaw</span>,</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">Churchwardens.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>[It has been romantically suggested by a local writer that the
+&ldquo;burning of Willenhall&rdquo; was an act of revenge
+perpetrated by the Puritans of Lichfield and the vicinity for the
+succour given at Bentley Hall in 1651 to the fugitive Charles
+II.; and that these church collections are evidence of the
+personal interest taken by that monarch on his Restoration, in
+the place which had afforded him shelter in his hour of direst
+need.&nbsp; Two considerations will immediately dispel any such
+illusion.&nbsp; First, the Briefs were very commonplace affairs,
+as already shown; secondly, displays of Stuart gratitude were
+just as rare.&nbsp; All the reward commonplace affairs, as
+already shown; secondly, displays of Stuart gratitude were just
+as rare.&nbsp; All the reward Charles vouchsafed to the devoted
+Lanes was the cheap honour of an augmentation of the family arms,
+and the scanty gift of &pound;1,000 to Jane Lane.&nbsp; Allusion
+has been made (Chapter XIII.) to the Royal fugitive taking
+advantage of the hiding-place afford by the &ldquo;priest&rsquo;s
+hole&rdquo; at Moseley Hall where Charles was loyally <!-- page
+137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+137</span>secreted by Jesuitic and other priestly adherents,
+though they might have pocketed a reward of &pound;10,000 by
+betraying him&mdash;yet in after years this ungrateful prince had
+no compunction in signing more than twenty death warrants against
+Romanist priests, merely for the crime of being priests!]</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p137b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Bentley Hall"
+title=
+"Bentley Hall"
+src="images/p137s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>To resume our history of Willenhall Church: What was
+manifestly a &ldquo;restored&rdquo; chapel was in 1727
+consecrated by Edward, Lord Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, on
+the same day that Bilston Chapel was consecrated; but the
+building could have been scarcely worth the attempt, as twenty
+years later it had to be entirely replaced.</p>
+<p>On August 14th of the year 1727, the Bishop having first
+consecrated Bilston Chapel, in the presence of a large assembly
+of the local clergy, which included the Rev. R. Ames and two
+other prebendaries; the vicars of Walsall and Dudley; Mr. Tyrer,
+curate of Tettenhall; Mr. Gibbons, minister of Codsall; Mr.
+Varden, rector of Darlaston; Mr. Perry, curate of Wednesbury; and
+Mr. Holbrooke, curate of Willenhall; his lordship proceeded to
+Willenhall in a coach and four, where the ceremony of
+Consecration &ldquo;in Latine&rdquo; was repeated upon what was
+merely a renovated building.&nbsp; After which Squire Lane, of
+Bentley, gave a splendid entertainment in celebration of the
+event.</p>
+<p>A &ldquo;chappel-yard for the Burial of the Dead,&rdquo; which
+had been added, was consecrated at the same time, and, strangely
+enough&mdash;as if the parishioners of Willenhall were eager to
+signalise their acquisition of such a parochial institution as a
+graveyard&mdash;the first interment was made the selfsame
+day.</p>
+<p>About the middle of the eighteenth century there was a wave of
+zeal for church extension, on which we find Wolverhampton carried
+along rather freely; for within the short space of ten years,
+under the auspices of Dr. Pennistan Booth, the enterprising Dean,
+the building of four chapels-of-ease was projected.&nbsp; These
+daughter churches were:&mdash;</p>
+<p>1746&mdash;Wednesfield (Advowson of which was vested in Walter
+Gough and his heirs).</p>
+<p>1748&mdash;Willenhall.</p>
+<p><!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+138</span>1753&mdash;Bilston.</p>
+<p>1755&mdash;St. John&rsquo;s (the new building was injured by
+fire, and not consecrated till 1760).</p>
+<p>From the Registers is gleaned the following issue of a writ to
+release sequestration of fees:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Memorandum.&nbsp; March 4, 1748.&mdash;The Faculty
+for Rebuilding and enlarging ye Chapel of Willenhall authorized
+ye then present Ministr, ye Revd. Titus Neve to charge and
+receive for Breaking up ye Ground or Building a Vault in ye said
+Chapel ye sum of two Guineas and also one Guinea for opening ye
+same at any time afterwards to him and his successors.&nbsp; The
+Intention of this Siquise was to prevent frequent interments
+which are a common annoyance to ye Living Votaries for whose use
+ye Chapel was erected.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>From the Diary of Dr. Richard Wilkes is extracted the
+following illuminative entry&mdash;a contemporary record of the
+state of the ancient edifice:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>May 6, 1748.&mdash;This day I set out the
+foundation of a new church in this town; for the old one being
+half timber, the sills, pillars, etc., were so decayed that the
+inhabitants, when they met together, were in great danger of
+being killed.&nbsp; It appeared to me, that the old church must
+have been rebuilt, at least the middle aisle of it; and that the
+first fabrick was greatly ornamented, and must have been the gift
+of some rich man, or a number of such, the village then being but
+thin of inhabitants, and, before the iron manufacture was begun
+here, they could not have been able to erect such a fabrick; but
+no date, or hint relating to it, was to be found; nor is anything
+about it come to us by tradition.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Willenhall&rsquo;s rebuilt church was completed in 1749, and
+had a formal re-opening on October 30th of that year.&nbsp; An
+entry in the Registers (which has already been quoted in Chapter
+XVIII.) seems to intimate that the regular services were not
+resumed till January 20th, 1750.</p>
+<p>This edifice was a fair specimen of the crudities which went
+to make up the &ldquo;churchwarden architecture&rdquo; of the
+period; consisting <!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 139</span>mainly of a plain, box-like nave,
+pierced on either side by half a dozen staring oblong windows,
+and having in the whole of its hulk not one curved line or
+rounded form by which relief could be afforded to the eye at any
+single point.&nbsp; At one end of this unimposing structure was a
+flattened scutiform excrescence which served as the chancel; from
+the others rose the tower, the only feature by which the building
+could be recognised as a church.&nbsp; The tower, not to put the
+rest of the church out of countenance, was equally crude; its
+window piercings being as debased in the Gothic style as was its
+cornice in quasi-classical; and topped as it was by a low-pitched
+hipped roof or squat pyramid, from the point of which rose high
+into the air the famous Willenhall weathercock&mdash;the brazen
+bird flaunting itself aloft, as if deriving its defiance from the
+aggressive-looking furcated finials which surrounded it at the
+four angles.</p>
+<p>This church endured only for about a century, being replaced
+in 1867 by the present edifice, erected at a cost of
+&pound;7,000, raised by public subscription.&nbsp; The Chairman
+of the Committee for the rebuilding was Mr. R. D. Gough, who,
+with his wife, contributed &pound;1,700.&nbsp; Other large
+contributors were Mrs. Stokes (with &pound;505), and the Vicar
+and Trustees (who gave &pound;1,000).</p>
+<p>St. Giles&rsquo;s Church is now a substantial stone building
+in the Decorated style, consisting of nave, aisles, chancel and
+transepts, and having at the west end a lofty square tower,
+terminated with a pinnacle at each angle.&nbsp; The new fane was
+soon adorned by the insertion of a number of stained glass
+windows; the large east window was presented by Mr. R. D. Gough;
+others were given by the Lords of the Manor of Stow Heath
+(emblazoning the arms of Leveson-Gower and Giffard); by the Earl
+of Lichfield and the Rev. Charles Lane (also heraldically
+distinguished); one was put in as a memorial to members of the
+Clemson family; and another to commemorate Mrs. Anwell, a
+connection of the Gough family.</p>
+<p>The work of enlarging the church was undertaken in 1897 in
+memory of the late Incumbent, Mr. Fisher; and a fine organ was
+installed in celebration of Queen Victoria&rsquo;s Diamond
+Jubilee.&nbsp; Also at the same time choir stalls were
+introduced, the choristers being <!-- page 140--><a
+name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>brought
+from the gallery, which latter feature was rightly removed
+altogether.&nbsp; Among the improvements promoted by the
+Incumbent and his energetic churchwardens, Dr. John T. Hartill
+and Mr. H. H. Walker, of Bentley Hall, were the enlargement of
+the churchyard and the scheme for providing a church house.</p>
+<p>As the new incumbent, Mr. Rosedale, was a nephew of Mrs.
+Gough, the generous contributor to the rebuilding fund of
+1865&ndash;7, just mentioned, it was suggested that the house she
+occupied might fittingly be transformed to serve as a
+Parsonage.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p>
+<p>Almost from the time pews were first put into churches, seats
+became appurtenant to certain family mansions, and by custom
+descended from ancestor to heir, without any ecclesiastical
+concurrence.&nbsp; Instances of such proprietary pews having been
+bequeathed by will have occurred in Willenhall within
+comparatively recent times.&nbsp; Here is an extract from the
+will of Thomas Hartill, dated June 5th, 1777:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>I give and bequeath to my Son, Abraham Hartill,
+the fourth part of a seat in the Chapel, No. 4 in B row an all so
+one 4 part of a seat in F row near the Dore. . . . and I bequeath
+to my Daughter, Ph&oelig;be Read, one Fourth part of a seate No.
+4 in B row and also one Fourth part of a seate in the Chapel in F
+row near the Dore.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Similar testamentary disposals appear in the will of Isaac
+Hartill, dated 27 May, 1818:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>I give and devise to my Son, Isaac Hartill, all
+that my moiety or half part of the seat or pew, being No. 10 in
+the South Aisle within the Church or Chapel of Willenhall
+aforesaid, to hold to him my said son, Isaac, his heirs and
+assigns tor ever. . . .</p>
+<p>I give and devise unto my said Son, Ephraim Hartill, one
+moiety or equal half part of, and in my seat, or pew, being
+number 4 in the South Aisle within the Church or Chapel
+aforesaid, to hold to my said Son, Ephraim, his Heirs, and
+assigns for ever.&nbsp; And I also give and devise unto my
+daughter, Mary Atkins, the other moiety or equal half part or
+share of <!-- page 141--><a name="page141"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 141</span>the said last mentioned seat or pew,
+to hold to my said Daughter Mary Atkins, her heirs and assigns
+for ever.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Of like purport is the following extract from codicil to the
+will of Samuel Hartill, dated June 9, 1821; probate Nov. 12,
+1821:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>I give devise and bequeath to my nephew Henry
+Bratt, all that my seat or pew or part or share thereof being
+number eleven in A in Willenhall Church, to hold to him his
+heirs, executors administrators or assigns according to the
+tenure of the said property.&nbsp; I give devise and bequeath to
+my Brother-in-law, Isaac Hartill in my Will named all my other
+Seats or Pews or parts or shares of seats or pews in Willenhall
+Church aforesaid to hold to him his heirs executors
+administrators or assigns according to the tenure of the said
+property.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Thus much in witness of the heritable nature of Church Pews;
+now for documentary evidences of the trafficking in such
+properties (all relating to Willenhall Church):&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>19, Jan., 1750.&nbsp; Recd. of Tho. Harthil, John
+Parker and Joseph Wood three pound one and sixpence for the seat
+behind ye Dore in F, sixteen shillings and sixpence being
+allow&rsquo;d them for 6s. 8d. of ground by</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Richd.
+Wilkes</span>.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">A 12.</p>
+<p>6 Jan, 1750.&mdash;Recd. of Jos. Clemson, Jos. Chandler.&nbsp;
+Jo&rsquo;n Buttler, Jo&rsquo;n Turner, Jno. Smith, Stephen Perry,
+the Sum of two Ginnies for Wainscots and for 2ft. 3in. of Ground
+five and sevenpence halfpenny by</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Richd.
+Wilkes</span>.</p>
+<p>&pound;2 7s. 7&frac12;d.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I hereby acknowledge that I have this day had and
+received from Abraham Hartill . . . the sum of One Pound Fifteen
+Shillings for the full and absolute purchase sale value and
+Consideration of all those my sittings kneelings Parts or shares
+of and in two different seats or pews and standing and being on
+the left-hand side in the first Ile and numbered with the figures
+11 and 12 in the Church or Chapel of Willenhall aforesaid, and
+which said sittings kneelings Parts or shares of the said seats
+or pews I do hereby Warrant <!-- page 142--><a
+name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>unto the
+said Abraham Hartill his Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns against
+me, my Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns and that I my Heirs Exors,
+Admors or Assigns shall and will at any time or times hereafter
+upon the request and Costs of the said Abraham Hartill His Heirs
+&amp;c. . . . execute any further or other Conveyances and
+Assurance of the said sittings, &amp;c. . . . unto and to the use
+of the said Abraham Hartill . . . free from all manner of
+Incumbrances whatsoever and the said Abraham Hartill Doth hereby
+agree for Francis Chandler and Ann his wife to use and enjoy that
+part or share of the above seat or pew numbered 11 for and during
+the term of their Natural lives and for the longest survivor of
+them without expence, but for no other privilege to be allowed to
+any other person Whatsoever.&nbsp; In Witness whereof the said
+Francis Chandler the seller of the above sittings kneelings parts
+or shares of the seats or pews above mentioned hath set his hand
+this nineteenth day of February 1790.</p>
+<p>Witness</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">FRANCIS CHANDLER.</p>
+<p>Wm. Perkin.<br />
+Saml Hartill.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Received January 24 1783 of Isaac Hartill The Sum of
+Two Pounds in full for Halfe a Seat Number 10 in E In Willenhall
+Chappell</p>
+<p>By mee The Mark X of <span class="smcap">Richd.
+Hartill</span>.<br />
+Witness Jonah Hartill.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Willenhall April 26th 1791&nbsp; Received then of Abrm
+Hartill Thirteen Shillings For my Whole Right in a seat in the
+Chapel No. 12 in A Row.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Stephen
+Perrey</span>.</p>
+<p>Willenhall April 26th 1791 Received then of.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Of this last voucher there is a duplicate copy bearing a
+twopenny receipt stamp.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 143</span>XXIV.&mdash;Dissent, Nonconformity,
+and Philanthrophy.</h2>
+<p>Inasmuch as Bentley Hall lies within the confines of
+Willenhall, this place must always be associated with the rise
+and early history of Wesleyanism.&nbsp; The episode of John
+Wesley being haled by the Wednesbury rioters before Justice Lane
+at Bentley Hall (1743) belongs to the general history of the
+denomination, and there is no need to repeat the story here.</p>
+<p>The reader may be referred to &ldquo;The History of Methodism
+in the Wednesbury Circuit,&rdquo; by the Rev. W. J. Wilkinson,
+published by J. M. Price, Darlaston, 1895; and for ampler detail
+to &ldquo;Religious Wednesbury,&rdquo; by the present writer,
+1900.</p>
+<p>That the evangelical missioning of John Wesley was peculiarly
+suited to the religious and social needs of the eighteenth
+century, and nowhere more so than among the proletariat of the
+mining and manufacturing Midlands, is now a generally accepted
+truism.&nbsp; There is no direct evidence that the great
+evangelist himself ever preached in Willenhall, but the
+appearance on the scene of some of the earliest Methodist
+preachers may be taken for granted.&nbsp; For were not the
+prevailing sins of cockfighting and bull-baiting, and all the
+other popular brutalities of the period, to be combated in
+Willenhall as much as in Darlaston or Wednesbury?&nbsp; And where
+the harvest was, were not the reapers always forthcoming?</p>
+<p>According to Mr. A. Camden Pratt, in his &ldquo;Black Country
+Methodism,&rdquo; the earliest Methodist services were open-air
+meetings held round a big boulder at the corner of Monmore
+Lane.&nbsp; Then the nucleus of a Willenhall congregation was
+formed at a cottage in Ten House Row; outgrowing its
+accommodation here, a removal was next made to a farmhouse with a
+commodious kitchen at Hill End.</p>
+<p>The leaders and preachers came from Darlaston, and it was not
+till 1830 that Willenhall was favoured with a resident
+&ldquo;travelling preacher,&rdquo; and the provision of a
+Wesleyan Chapel&mdash;it was on the site of the present Wesleyan
+Day Schools.&nbsp; The cause flourished <!-- page 144--><a
+name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>and grew
+mightily; chapels were established at Short Heath and Portobello,
+on the Walsall Road (1865), and on Spring Bank.</p>
+<p>Mr. Pratt pays a high tribute to the efforts of the Tildesleys
+and the Harpers, but with a sense of justice he does not forget
+the mead of gratitude always due to those early pioneers from
+Darlaston, placing on the same bright scroll of fame the names of
+Foster, Wilkes, Rubery, Silcock, Bowen, and Banks.</p>
+<p>In the earlier history of local Wesleyanism, one of its chief
+supporters was James Carpenter, founder of the existing firm of
+Carpenter and Tildesley.&nbsp; Another pillar of Wesleyanism was
+Jonah Tildesley, followed later in the good work by his two sons,
+Josiah and Jesse, his grandson Thomas, George Ley Pearce, and
+Isaac Pedley; and in a lesser degree by James Tildesley (who
+married Harriet Carpenter), and the late John Harper, founder of
+the Albion Works, now the largest place of employment in the
+town.</p>
+<p>One outcome of the Wesleyan spirit was seen about the year
+1820, when James Carpenter, George Pearce, William Whitehouse,
+and other leading inhabitants made a determined effort to put
+down some of the coarser sports by which the annual Wake was
+celebrated.&nbsp; Through their instrumentality many of the
+ringleaders in the brutal sports were summoned and brought to
+justice.&nbsp; The reformers dared to go even further&mdash;they
+lodged a complaint with the bishop of the diocese against
+&ldquo;Parson Moreton&rdquo; for encouraging these barbarous
+pastimes among the people.&nbsp; The bishop, however, professed
+that he was powerless to deal with the delinquent, owing to the
+exceptional manner in which he was appointed to the living.&nbsp;
+But the parson on his part was very wroth, and from his pulpit he
+solemnly forbade any one of the name of Carpenter, Pearce, or
+Whitehouse ever to enter the portals of Willenhall Church.</p>
+<p>It cannot be said the injunction was enforced; but it is a
+fact that from that time many church-goers were driven into the
+Methodist fold.</p>
+<p>The romantic side of the evangelisation of the Black Country
+has been idealised by Mr. J. C. Tildesley in his &ldquo;Sketches
+of <!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+145</span>Early Methodism,&rdquo; a series of short stories
+founded on fact, and giving most graphic pictures of the moral
+and social condition of the neighbourhood at that time.&nbsp;
+This little volume may be regarded almost as one of the classics
+of the Wesleyan Book Room.</p>
+<p>A short history of local Methodism, it may be mentioned, was
+deposited in the memorial stones of Wednesfield Chapel in
+1885.</p>
+<p>The existing Wesleyan Chapels, now under the direction of the
+Rev. A. Hann and the Rev. Walter Fytche, are five in number,
+namely, Union Street, Walsall Road, Monmer Lane, Short Heath, and
+High Street, Portobello.&nbsp; Though the denomination may be as
+strong as ever numerically, it can scarcely hope to rival its
+old-time membership in verve and vigour.&nbsp; In England
+fighting days never fail to produce fighting men.</p>
+<p>Primitive Methodism first established itself at Monmer Lane,
+and then removed to Little London, but did not meet with much
+success at the outset, though it has now four flourishing chapels
+in the township.&nbsp; They are all at present under the
+direction of the Rev. C. L. Tack, and situated respectively at
+New Invention, Spring Bank, Lane Head, and Russell Street.</p>
+<p>Nonconformity was first brought into Willenhall from Coseley,
+the brethren of the famous Darkhouse Chapel establishing a colony
+at Little London, where eventually they erected a pioneer Baptist
+Chapel.&nbsp; Of this chapel the Rev. A. Tettmar is now in
+charge; a second chapel in Upper Lichfield Street, at which the
+Rev. D. L. Lawrence ministers, and a third Baptist Chapel in New
+Road testify to the growth of the denomination in
+Willenhall.&nbsp; At one time the Baptists had day schools in the
+town.</p>
+<p>The Roman Catholics first made their appearance in modern
+Willenhall some sixty years ago, when they established a small
+mission at the bottom of Union Street, afterwards building their
+resent chapel, which is dedicated to St. Mary, and of which the
+Rev. Walter Poulton (in succession to the Rev. W. P. Wells) is
+priest.</p>
+<p>A mission of the Catholic Apostolic Brethren, served from
+Wolverhampton, completes the list of religious agencies now at
+work in Willenhall.</p>
+<p><!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+146</span>In the religious and social history of the place
+mention cannot be omitted of some few names which have earned the
+respect of the townspeople.&nbsp; Among them, James Tildesley, a
+large employer of labour, whose amiability, and kindness of heart
+exemplified that patriarchal relationship which once existed
+between master and men, anterior to the days of modern limited
+liability companies; George Ley Pearce, a Wesleyan of marked
+personality, and an eminently good man, whose memorial in the old
+Cemetery is thus inscribed:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">ERECTED<br />
+by voluntary subscription in memory of<br />
+GEORGE LEY PEARCE<br />
+(of Willenhall),<br />
+who died December 31st, 1873,<br />
+Aged 78;<br />
+And was buried in the adjacent vault.</p>
+<div class="gapshortline">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center">For fifty years he zealously
+devoted himself to the work of visiting the sick and afflicted of
+this town, whether rich or poor, and was made a great blessing to
+many.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">His work was the outward expression
+of that Christ-like charity which pervaded his soul.</p>
+<div class="gapshortline">&nbsp;</div>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The opportunity to do good to our fellowmen comes to all,
+irrespective of sect or sex.&nbsp; One to embrace it with
+goodwill was Edith Florence Hartill, daughter of William Henry
+Hartill, who worked long and steadfastly in connection with the
+Bible Reading Union, never relaxing her efforts for the uplifting
+of the very poorest and most helpless of the community.</p>
+<p>In the Market Place stands a public clock mounted upon a stone
+pedestal, having a watering-trough for cattle at its base.&nbsp;
+This was erected, as an inscription upon it testifies, as a
+memorial to the late Joseph Tonks, surgeon, &ldquo;whose generous
+and unsparing devotion in the cause of alleviating human
+suffering&rdquo; was &ldquo;deemed worthy of public
+record.&rdquo;&nbsp; The memorialised, Mr. Joseph Tonks,
+M.R.C.S.E., L.A.H., was a native of the town, being a son of Mr.
+<!-- page 147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+147</span>Silas Tonks, of the Forge Inn, Spring Bank.&nbsp; He
+began to practise in Willenhall about 1879, and soon made himself
+extremely popular among the working classes, and particularly
+with the Friendly Societies, who initiated the movement to
+provide this public memorial.</p>
+<p>Without sorting into sects and creeds, let it be acknowledged
+that Willenhall has been fortunate in the number of its townsmen
+whose lives have been usefully and commendably spent in the
+public service and for the public good.&nbsp; Among those whose
+influence on the social and moral well-being of the place has not
+been without appreciable benefit, may be named Joseph Carpenter
+Tildesley, R. D. Gough, Josiah Tildesley, Clement Tildesley,
+Jesse Tildesley, Isaac Pedley, Henry Hall, Thomas Kidson, Henry
+Vaughan, W. E. Parkes, and J. H. James.&nbsp; Other appreciations
+will occur in our concluding chapters, as the names more
+fittingly happen under the topics yet to be dealt with.</p>
+<p>Having brought to a conclusion Willenhall&rsquo;s
+ecclesiastical and religious history&mdash;and the largeness with
+which the church bulked on the lives of the people in past times
+must be held accountable for the lengthiness of this
+portion&mdash;we may now turn to the further consideration of its
+civil, social, and industrial history.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p147.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative pattern"
+title=
+"Decorative pattern"
+src="images/p147.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 148</span>XXV.&mdash;Manorial Government.</h2>
+<p>Willenhall is a township of some 1,980 acres in extent, carved
+out of the ancient parish of Wolverhampton, and situated midway
+between that town and the town of Walsall, being about three
+miles distant from either.&nbsp; Strangely enough, Willenhall is
+included in the Hundred of Offlow, although Wolverhampton, of
+which it once formed a part, is in Seisdon Hundred.&nbsp;
+Willenhall has never been a civil parish (as previously
+explained), nor has it been a market town; the small open market
+held in its streets each week-end having grown up by
+prescription, but never legally established by grant of
+charter.</p>
+<p>The place grew up as a hamlet on the banks of a little stream,
+just on the verge of Cannock Forest.&nbsp; As a village community
+it seems to have been subject, so soon as its outer limits had
+been defined, to three territorial lords.&nbsp; Reference to
+Chapter VI. will disclose that at Domesday (1086) three hides of
+land in Willenhall belonged to the king, and were part of the
+royal manor of Stowheath; two hides were the property of the
+Church of Wolverhampton, and constituted the prebendal manor of
+Willenhall; and a century or two later, the manor of Bentley,
+evidently carved out of the royal forest of Cannock, became
+included within this township.</p>
+<p>Of <span class="smcap">Stowheath Manor</span>, the portions
+lying within Willenhall are a small part of the modern township,
+together with Short Heath, New Invention, Lanehead, Sandbeds,
+Little London, and Portobello.&nbsp; The remainder of this manor
+stretches beyond the Willenhall boundary into Bilston and
+Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>To a manor or lordship was usually attached a Court Baron, or
+domestic court of the lord, for the settling of disputes relating
+to property among the tenants, and for redressing misdemeanours
+and nuisances arising within the manor.&nbsp; The business was
+transacted by a jury or homage elected by and from the
+tenants.</p>
+<p>How far the customary officers were chosen every year by the
+Willenhall Court Baron cannot now be ascertained.&nbsp; Doubtless
+<!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+149</span>appointments were made from time to time of such
+manorial tears as Hedgers and Ditchers, to look after the
+highways and byways, a Common Pinner to impound stray cattle, and
+Head boroughs or Petty Constables &ldquo;to apprehend all vagrom
+men&rdquo; whose room was esteemed more highly than their
+company.</p>
+<p>The present lords of the Manor of Stowheath are the Duke of
+Sutherland, and W. T. C. Giffard, Esq., of Chillington; the
+Steward of the Manor is Mr. W. E. Stamer, of Lilleshall; and the
+Deputy-Steward Mr. Frederick T. Langley, of Wolverhampton.&nbsp;
+The Court Bailiff is Mr. H. G. Duncalfe, of Wolverhampton, but
+none of the ancient customary officers are now elected; and as
+most of the copyholds have been enfranchised, no Court Baron for
+Stowheath has been held in Willenhall since 22nd December, 1865;
+till then it had taken place annually for many years at the house
+of Mr. George Baker, the Neptune Inn.&nbsp; Subsequently this
+manorial court was held at the Bank, Cock Street, Wolverhampton,
+and now more privately at the offices of the Deputy-Steward, in
+that town, which was anciently within the jurisdiction of two
+manors, Stowheath and Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>THE <span class="smcap">Manor of Willenhall</span>, which,
+though prebendal, is impropriate, comprises the rest of the
+township; of this manor the Baron Barnard is the present lord,
+and the sole recipient of all tithes from Willenhall, Short
+Heath, and Wednesfield.</p>
+<p>A glimpse of the medi&aelig;val village of Willenhall was
+obtained in Chapters VIII. and XI.; it is clear the prebendal
+manor remained always a taxable area for the mere production of
+tithes, and it was the royal manor of Stowheath, when it had
+passed into the hands of a subject, which developed into the
+community in the midst of which the &ldquo;mansum
+capitale,&rdquo; or manor house, was erected.</p>
+<p>By whom or when a manor house was first set up in Willenhall
+is not known; but it is not improbable that the lordship of
+Stowheath, soon after it passed out of the hands of the King, was
+acquired by a Leveson, who seated himself on the estate,
+reserving to himself the portion which lay nearest his mansion
+(demesne <!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 150</span>lands), and distributing the rest
+among his tenants (tenemental lands).</p>
+<p>The house in which the Levesons resided, as previously
+recorded, was situated on the east side of Stafford Street; the
+Midland Railway now runs through the site, but before the line
+was cut, and whilst the mines remained ungotten, traces of its
+ancient moat were clearly discernible.</p>
+<p>The residence now known as the Manor House, and occupied by Dr
+J. T. Hartill, though it has no connection with the manorial
+mansion of the Leveson family, is not without some association
+with the manorial form of government.&nbsp; It appears that
+upwards of half a century ago, when the late Jeremiah Hartill
+(uncle of the present occupant of the house) was taking his full
+share in the public life of Willenhall, it was most difficult, if
+not next to impossible, to get copyhold land in this manor
+enfranchised.</p>
+<p>At that time there was a very considerable amount of property
+in Willenhall held by this old-world tenure, and this induced Mr.
+Jeremiah Hartill to take a very prominent part in the local
+efforts which were then being made to introduce the principle of
+compulsory enfranchisement.&nbsp; As the result of a national
+movement in this direction an Act was passed in 1841 to provide a
+statutory method of enfranchisement; and the matter was carried
+still further in 1852 by another Act, which introduced the
+principle of compulsory enfranchisement.</p>
+<p>Mr. Hartill had at that time recently built himself a new
+house (1847), when, as the local leader in a movement which had
+been brought so far on the road to success, he was invited to a
+public dinner in recognition of his public-spirited
+efforts.&nbsp; One of the speakers at the banquet, in proposing
+the health of the guest of the evening, suggested that as Mr.
+Jeremiah Hartill had fought so successfully in helping to
+overcome the opposition of the Lords of the Manor to this measure
+of land reform, his new house might not inappropriately be dubbed
+the Manor House.&nbsp; The suggestion was heartily (no pun
+intended) approved by all present, and by that name the house has
+ever since been known.</p>
+<p><!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+151</span>The names of the chief residents in Willenhall in 1327
+may be gleaned from the Subsidy Roll given in Chapter IX.; very
+similar names occur in another list of the taxpayers to the
+Scotch War of 1333.&nbsp; Some few held land under certain
+specified rents and free services, and from these came the
+earliest freeholders; many more held by the baser tenure of the
+lord&rsquo;s will, and having nothing to show except the copy of
+the rolls made by the Steward of the Lord&rsquo;s Court, were
+known as copyholders.</p>
+<p>The vast importance of these Court Rolls may be gathered from
+Chapter XXI.&nbsp; The Court Rolls of the Manor of Stowheath now
+in existence commence on 4 January, 1645; but in the chapter
+referred to mention of a &ldquo;Leete&rdquo; being held in
+Wolverhampton much earlier will be found.</p>
+<p>The residue of the Manor being uncultivated, was termed the
+lord&rsquo;s waste, and served for public roads, and for common
+or pasture to both the lord and his tenants.&nbsp; Reference to
+the enclosure of the last remnants of the &ldquo;waste&rdquo; was
+quoted in the Report of 1825 on the Tomkys and Welch Charities
+(Chapter XXII.).</p>
+<p>There were two kinds of enclosures, however, all made in the
+last few centuries; the enclosure of the open commons or wastes,
+and the enclosure of the common fields.&nbsp; &ldquo;Willenhall
+Field,&rdquo; mentioned in the &ldquo;Report on Prestwood&rsquo;s
+Dole,&rdquo; as lying along the highway towards Darlaston, was
+arable land, not pasture.&nbsp; For anciently there was a common
+field system in every parish, and &ldquo;Willenhall Field&rdquo;
+was the area cultivated co-operatively by the whole of the
+parishioners or group of individuals.</p>
+<p>In 1377 the <span class="smcap">Manor of Bentley</span> was
+held &ldquo;in capite,&rdquo; that is, direct from the King, by
+one who called himself after his estate, William de
+Bentley.&nbsp; He held it for rendering to Edward III. the feudal
+service of &ldquo;Keeping&rdquo; the King&rsquo;s Hay of Bentley
+within the royal Forest of Cannock&mdash;the Forest was then
+divided into a number of &ldquo;hays&rdquo; or bailiwicks.&nbsp;
+(See &ldquo;Chronicles of Cannock Chase,&rdquo; p. 14.)</p>
+<p>The estate seems to have descended to him from his
+grandfather, to whom it had been granted in the reign of Edward
+II.; and it is noteworthy that his wife, Alianora, was a
+Leveson.</p>
+<p><!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+152</span>In 1421 William Griffiths established his right to
+Bentley, and in 1430 it was conveyed to Richard Lone de la
+Hide.&nbsp; Of the family of this Richard Lone of the Hyde there
+were afterwards two branches; one, the Hamptons, of Stourton
+Castle, and the other, the Lanes, of Bentley.</p>
+<p>The halo of romance which grew up around Bentley Hall during
+the seigniory of the Lanes is well known.&nbsp; It was the scene
+of Charles II.&rsquo;s wonderful escape from the Roundheads,
+under the protection of Jane Lane, whom he was afterwards wont to
+call his &ldquo;Guardian Angel&rdquo;; it was the critical scene
+of John Wesley&rsquo;s adventure in the hands of the Wednesbury
+mob.&nbsp; The mansion has since been rebuilt.</p>
+<p>The Lanes sold the Manor of Bentley in 1748 to Joseph Turton,
+of Wolverhampton, and he in turn sold it to the first Lord Anson,
+ancestor of the present holder.</p>
+<p>The Manor comprises 1,200 acres, none of which is now
+copyhold.&nbsp; There was formerly a Court Leet jurisdiction, but
+everything connected with ancient manorial government has
+disappeared.&nbsp; The Earl of Lichfield is sole owner, except
+for a few acres belonging to the church, and the portions which
+have been acquired by the local authority for the Cemetery and
+the Sewerage Works.</p>
+<p>Bentley is a parish without a church, or a chapel, and until
+the Willenhall District Council recently made a Cemetery there,
+it was also without a burial ground.</p>
+<p>Bentley has but a scant population, and contains not a single
+inn.&nbsp; Its living history seems to have centred almost
+entirely round the old family mansion of the Lanes.</p>
+<p>In 1660 a tax was levied on the fire-hearth of every
+dwelling-house, and the amount collected under this grievous
+impost in Willenhall was returned as &pound;9 14s. 3d.,
+representing 97 hearths.&nbsp; These figures seem to indicate
+that in the reign of Charles II. the population of the place,
+including the large hall at Bentley, could not have exceeded
+500.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 153</span>XXVI.&mdash;Modern
+Self-Government.</h2>
+<p>For centuries the Manorial and the Parochial forms of
+government ran together side by side in this country, till these
+two antiquated ideas of feudal lordship and church temporalities
+had to give way before the growing democratic principle of
+elective representation, and they were eventually supplanted by
+the modern methods of popular self-government.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Elizabeth&mdash;say, half a century after the
+suppression of the monasteries which had hitherto succoured the
+poor&mdash;we get the first of our Poor Laws, accompanied by the
+rise of the Overseer, and by much added importance to the office
+of Churchwarden, or, as he was called in Willenhall, the
+Chapel-warden.&nbsp; The establishment of Church doles goes a
+long way to explain how strenuously the community strove to evade
+its liability to the poor, and it is probable that Willenhall did
+not establish its small workhouse till the eighteenth
+century.&nbsp; This was superseded when the Wolverhampton Union
+was constituted in 1834.</p>
+<p>In 1776 the sum of &pound;294 14s. 3d. had to be collected for
+poor rates in Willenhall, a sum which by 1785 had grown to
+&pound;548 14s. 2d., and which for some years later averaged
+upwards of &pound;500.</p>
+<p>The Vestry, or public assembly of parishioners, would
+supplement these feeble efforts at local government by choosing
+not only Chapelwardens, but Parish Constables and the
+Waywardens.&nbsp; The custody of the stocks was entrusted to the
+former, while the latter were supposed to superintend the amateur
+efforts of the parishioners to repair their own highways, every
+one being then liable to furnish either manual labour or team
+work for this laudable public purpose.</p>
+<p>Publicly elected and unsalaried Waywardens were naturally but
+feeble instruments to work with; so in the early nineteenth
+century, when coaching was at its zenith, this antiquated and
+ineffective system was superseded in Willenhall, as in many other
+places, by an elected Highway Board, charged with the duty of
+<!-- page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+154</span>looking after all highways and common streets, ancient
+bridges, ditches, and watercourses.&nbsp; In a dilettante sort of
+way this Board was also a sanitary body.</p>
+<p>In 1734 Willenhall is recorded to have suffered from a plague
+called the &ldquo;Bloody flux,&rdquo; which carried away its
+victims in a very few hours after the seizure.&nbsp; It is stated
+in the Parish Registers that there were buried in this year 82
+persons, which was 67 in excess of the previous year.&nbsp; The
+population then was under 1,000.</p>
+<p>Cholera and other epidemic scourges having made it apparent
+that beyond preserving the peace and mending the roads, the
+paramount duty of local self-government was to protect the
+people&rsquo;s health, Willenhall in 1854 showed itself alive to
+this fact by adopting the new Public Health Acts and calling into
+being its first Local Board.</p>
+<p>Nothing can convey an idea of the material blessings which
+resulted from this better than a glance at the vital statistics
+relating to Willenhall.&nbsp; The death-rate per
+thousand&mdash;</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>From 1845 to 1851 was</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>29</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>,, 1851 ,, 1860 ,,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>26.8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>,, 1861 ,, 1870 &bdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>23.8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&bdquo; 1891 ,, 1900 ,,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>20.2</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&bdquo; 1901 &bdquo; 1906 &bdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>16.9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>It was not till 1866, however, that the Board appointed its
+first medical officer of health, Dr. Parke.&nbsp; He was shortly
+afterwards succeeded by Mr. William Henry Hartill, and upon his
+death, in 1888, the present medical officer of heath, Dr. J. T.
+Hartill, was appointed.&nbsp; The chief executive officers in
+succession have been Mr. E. Wilcox (who was not a solicitor), Mr.
+John Clark, and the present clerk, Mr. Rowland Tildesley,
+appointed in 1894.</p>
+<p>In the meantime the population, particularly in the newer
+outlying districts, had been growing rapidly.&nbsp; The
+population of Willenhall at the first national census in 1801 was
+only 3,143, and the growth in the early decades was slow, as
+these figures disclose:</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p><!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 155</span>In 1811 the population was</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>3,523</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>,, 1821</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>3,965</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>,, 1831</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>5,834</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&bdquo; 1841</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>8,695</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>,, 1851</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>11,933</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>,, 1861</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>17,256</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>With the growth thus becoming so rapid, it was thought
+desirable, in 1872, to erect Short Heath into a separate Sanitary
+Authority.&nbsp; The area allotted to the Short Heath Board of
+Health was that north of the Birmingham Canal, but the village of
+Short Heath itself remained part of the Township of
+Willenhall.</p>
+<p>The census returns for Willenhall, minus Short Heath, have</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>1871 it had a population of</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>15,903</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>1881</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>16,067</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>1891</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>16,851</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>1901</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>18,515</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>After the passing of Sir H. H. Fowler&rsquo;s Local Government
+Act in 1895, both authorities became Urban District
+Councils.&nbsp; Short Heath then as a separate township had its
+area extended to take in Short Heath village, with New Invention,
+Lanehead, Sandbeds, Lucknow, Fibbersley, in addition to the
+former Local Board district, together with a slice from the old
+Wednesfield Local Board district added on its Essington side.</p>
+<p>No part of what used to be called Stow Heath was in Willenhall
+Township, the extreme western boundary of the latter being Stow
+Heath Lane.</p>
+<p>Modern Willenhall, although without public parks or pleasure
+grounds, and not yet possessing public baths, is fairly well
+equipped for its size and rateable value.&nbsp; It has its Public
+Offices, but no Town Hall; it has a Free Library, established in
+1875, and a full complement of efficient primary schools.&nbsp;
+In 1877 it established its own School Board under the Act of
+1870, but under the later Act of 1902 its educational affairs
+became vested in the Staffordshire County Council.</p>
+<p><!-- page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+156</span>Willenhall had its own Waterworks at Monmore Lane as
+early as 1852; it now takes its supply from the Wolverhampton
+Corporation, who purchased the old works in 1868.&nbsp; Its old
+Gas Works in Lower Lichfield Street have been taken over by Short
+Heath; and Willenhall is now supplied by the Willenhall Gas
+Company, the present system of public street lighting being that
+of the very efficient incandescent burner.</p>
+<p>The Sewerage of the town was completed in 1890.&nbsp; There
+are two public cemeteries; the Old Cemetery provided about 1851
+under the Burial Acts, and the newer one at Bentley, established
+under the Act of 1879.</p>
+<p>The Police are, as in most townships, under the control of the
+Staffordshire County Council; and Petty Sessions are held once a
+week (on Mondays).&nbsp; Seventy years ago Willenhall had a Court
+of Requests for the recovery of debts up to &pound;5.</p>
+<p>For Parliamentary representation Willenhall formed a portion
+of Staffordshire till the great Reform Bill of 1832 made
+Wolverhampton a borough, when it became part of that more
+important urban constituency.</p>
+<p>For communication with the outer world Willenhall has had the
+advantage of the London and North-Western Railway from the
+earliest possible time&mdash;since the &ldquo;Grand Junction
+Railway&rdquo; (commenced in 1835) was opened to public traffic
+on July 4th, 1837.&nbsp; Great were the rejoicings, and
+prodigious the wonderment when the first train passed through on
+that memorable day.&nbsp; Since the later decades of the last
+century the Midland Railway has also tapped Willenhall.</p>
+<p>The town is equally well supplied with tramways; the
+Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways, Limited, controlling
+three lines, to Wolverhampton, to Bilston, and Darlaston
+respectively; while the Walsall Corporation afford facilities for
+communication with their thriving and go-ahead borough.&nbsp; It
+is worthy of note that the old-fashioned carrier&rsquo;s cart is
+not obsolete in Willenhall; this is probably because its staple
+industries provide so many small <!-- page 157--><a
+name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>parcels for
+transmission to Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and other centres not
+too far distant.</p>
+<p>The Wyrley and Essington Canal for heavy traffic was made in
+1792, and is still a useful highway, particularly to the Cannock
+Chase Collieries.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p157.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative design"
+title=
+"Decorative design"
+src="images/p157.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 158</span>XXVII.&mdash;The Town of Locks and
+Keys.</h2>
+<p>Willenhall is &ldquo;the town of locks and keys&rdquo;; its
+staple industry has been described in such graceful and
+felicitous terms by Elihu Burritt (see his &ldquo;Walks in the
+Black Country,&rdquo; pp. 206&ndash;214, written in 1868) that
+the present writer at once confesses the inadequacy of his poor
+pen to say anything new on the subject, engaging as it is.</p>
+<p>The great American writer, be it noted, does not fail at the
+very outset to pay a well-deserved tribute to James Carpenter
+Tildesley, as the foremost authority on the subject, and
+compliments him on the versatility displayed in his article on
+Locks and Keys, contributed to that co-operative literary work,
+&ldquo;Birmingham and the Midland Hardware District,&rdquo; which
+was specially issued for the British Association meeting at
+Birmingham in 1865.</p>
+<p>The lockmakers of antiquity worked in wood and not in metal, a
+key consisting of hard wood pegs being made to turn in a wooden
+lock of loose pegs.&nbsp; The Romans first introduced the iron
+key with wards instead of pegs.</p>
+<p>The subject is full of interest; for lock-making is among the
+most ancient of the mechanical crafts, and has for centuries
+afforded a wide and ample scope as one of the branches of
+industrial art.&nbsp; As in many other industrial crafts the
+religious enthusiasm of the Middle Ages impelled the
+artist-mechanic to throw his whole soul into the manipulation and
+adornment of his keys, key-hole escutcheons, and other parts of
+door-fastening furniture.&nbsp; With his steel pencil and
+gravers, his chisels and his drills, the craftsman of olden times
+produced an article of utility which was at the same time a work
+of art.&nbsp; Will the Art Classes of modern Willenhall be able
+to achieve as much for the staple industry of the town as did the
+whole-souled enthusiasm of the Middle Ages?</p>
+<p>The Gothic key, usually of iron or of bronze, was generally
+plain; but after the Renaissance the best efforts of the
+locksmiths&rsquo; art were directed to the decoration of the bow
+and the shaft, and <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 159</span>many finely wrought specimens of
+ornamental old keys are still in existence.</p>
+<p>On the utilitarian side of our subject, industrial history
+records that we are indebted to the Chinese for unpickable locks
+of the lever and tumbler principle; and to the Dutch for the
+combination or letter-lock.&nbsp; The latter ingenious
+contrivance contained four revolving rings, on which were
+engraved the letters of the alphabet, and they had to be turned
+in such a way as to spell some pre-arranged word of four letters,
+as O P E N, or A M E N, before the lock could be opened.</p>
+<p>Allusion to this complex contrivance is made by the poet Carew
+in some verses written in the year 1620&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>As doth a lock<br />
+That goes with letters&mdash;for till every one be known<br />
+The lock&rsquo;s as fast as if you had found none.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Mechanical ingenuity in lock making has also expanded itself
+along the line of marvellous miniatures, in the production of toy
+locks so small that they could be worn as pendants or personal
+ornaments.&nbsp; Allusion will presently be made to a Willenhall
+specimen.</p>
+<p>Another ingenious variety of locks was contrived to grab and
+hold the fingers of pilferers.</p>
+<p>The first patent granted in England for a lock was in 1774;
+ten years later Joseph Bramah, of London, &ldquo;the Napoleon of
+locks,&rdquo; patented his famous production, with which he
+challenged the whole world.&nbsp; The reward of 200 guineas which
+he offered to anyone who could pick his lock remained unclaimed
+for many years, till in the Exhibition year 1851 an American
+visitor named Hobbs took up the challenge, and succeeded, after a
+few days of persevering experiment, in overcoming the
+inviolability of it.</p>
+<p>The sensation caused by this achievement was almost of
+national dimensions; but of more importance was the decided
+impetus it have to the inventive skill of lock makers, by
+demonstrating that Bramah had not yet arrived at finality in lock
+making; a great number of further improvements were soon
+forthcoming in the manufacture of these goods.</p>
+<p><!-- page 160--><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+160</span>Chubb&rsquo;s patent was granted in 1818; this inventor
+declared it was possible to have the locks on the doors of every
+house in London opened by a different key, and yet have a
+master-key that would pass the whole of them.&nbsp; Chubb&rsquo;s
+world-famous concern is now located at Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>Dr. Plot, writing of this county in 1686, makes no mention of
+the trade being carried on in Willenhall, but gives some account
+of it in Wolverhampton; gossiping pleasantly on
+&ldquo;sutes&rdquo; of six or more locks, passable by one
+master-key, being sold round the country by the chapmen of his
+time; of the finely wrought keys he had seen; of the curious
+tell-tale locks which recorded the times they had been opened;
+and of one valuable Wolverhampton specimen containing chimes
+which could be set to &ldquo;go&rdquo; at any particular
+hour.</p>
+<p>A local writer has said&mdash;on what authority is not
+stated&mdash;that Queen Elizabeth granted to the township of
+Willenhall the privilege of making all the locks required for
+State purposes; and argues from that profitable piece of State
+patronage the rapid growth of Willenhall, as evidenced by the
+fact that in 1660 when the Hearth Tax came to be levied this
+place paid on 13 more hearths than the mother town of
+Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>Dr. Wilkes has recorded that in his time Willenhall consisted
+of one long street, newly paved; and he then proceeds to
+say:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;The village did not begin to flourish till
+the iron manufactory was brought into these parts in the reign of
+Queen Elizabeth.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>This may, or may not, refer to the making of locks and keys,
+but it certainly refers to the great devastation of Cannock
+Forest in providing charcoal for iron-smelting.&nbsp; The doctor
+continues:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Since that time this place is become very
+populous, and more locks of all kinds are made here than in any
+other town of the same size in England or Europe.&nbsp; The
+better sort of which tradesmen have erected many good
+houses.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Some of these &ldquo;good houses&rdquo; are still standing;
+and as to the &ldquo;populousness&rdquo; of the place, there may
+have been 2,000 inhabitants at that time.&nbsp; A return has been
+given forth that in 1770 Willenhall contained 148 locksmiths,
+Wolverhampton 134, <!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 161</span>and Bilston 8; while nearly a
+century later, in 1855, the numbers were Willenhall 340,
+Wolverhampton 110, and Bilston 2, which shows that the trade grew
+in Willenhall at the expense of the adjoining places.&nbsp; Yet
+lockmaking was carried on in Bilston as early as 1590, when the
+Perrys, the Kempsons, and the Tomkyses, all leading families,
+were engaged in the trade.&nbsp; In 1796 Isaac Mason, inventor of
+the &ldquo;fly press&rdquo; for making various parts of a lock,
+migrated from Bilston to Willenhall.</p>
+<p>The Willenhall specimen of a miniature lock is thus mentioned
+in a diary of the Rev. T. Unett, &ldquo;June 13, 1776, James
+Lees, of Willenhall, aged 63 years and upwards, showed me a
+padlock with its key, made by himself, that was not the weight of
+a silver twopence.&nbsp; He at the same time shewed me a lock
+that was not the weight of a silver penny; he was then making the
+key to it, all of iron.&nbsp; He said he would be bound to make a
+dozen locks, with their keys, that should not exceed the weight
+of a sixpence.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Before the rise of factories into which workmen might be
+collected, and their labour more healthily regulated, Willenhall
+lock-making was always conducted in small domiciliary
+workshops.&nbsp; Had any one at the close of the eighteenth
+century peeped in at the grimy little windows of one of these
+low-roofed workshops, and made himself acquainted with the
+extreme dirtiness of the calling, he would scarcely have ventured
+to regard it as one befitting the dainty hands of the highest
+personage of the most fastidious of nations.&nbsp; Yet that
+unfortunate monarch, Louis XVI., prided himself not on his
+statesmanship, but upon his skill as a practical locksmith, and
+his intimacy with all the intricacies of the craft.&nbsp; He had
+fitted up in his palace at the Tuileries a forge with hearth and
+anvil, bellows and bench, from which it was his delight to turn
+out with his own hands all kinds of work in the shape of
+&ldquo;spring, double bolt, or catch lock.&rdquo;</p>
+<blockquote><p>He smokes his forge, he bares his sinewy arm,<br
+/>
+And bravely pounds the sounding anvil warm.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Locks of every variety of principle and quality are produced
+in Willenhall; the chief kinds being the cabinet lock, the best
+qualities of which range from 10s. to &pound;3 each, while the
+commoner <!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 162</span>ones are sold at from 10s. to 3s.
+the dozen; the rim lock for doors having two or three bolts, and
+opening with knob and key; the stock or fine plate lock, imbedded
+in a wooden case to stand the weather when used on exposed yard
+or stable doors; the drawback lock for hill doors, with a spring
+bolt that can be worked from the inside with a knob or from the
+outside with a latch-key; the dead lock, having one large bolt
+worked by the key, but not catching or springing like the rim
+lock; the mortice lock, which is buried in the door, and may be
+of the dead, the rim, or the drawback variety; the familiar loose
+padlock made in immense quantities both of iron and of brass; and
+others less familiar.</p>
+<p>The lock-producing centre includes Wolverhampton, Willenhall,
+Wednesfield, and some of the outlying rural districts like
+Brewood and Pendeford, where parts and fittings are
+prepared.&nbsp; In the mother parish the business is extensive
+and extending; at Wednesfield, iron cabinets and till locks, as
+well as various kinds of keys, are produced in great numbers, for
+keys are frequently made apart from the locks as a separate
+branch of the trade.</p>
+<p>Willenhall produces most of the same kinds as Wolverhampton,
+except the fine plate, though oftener in the cheaper qualities;
+rim locks are very largely made, all on the Carpenter and Young
+patent, most of them for export.&nbsp; Willenhall locks are all
+warded, the wards varying in strength and complexity, known as
+common, fine round, sash, and solid wards.</p>
+<p>It was the Carpenter and Young invention of 1830, making the
+action of the catch bolt perpendicular instead of horizontal,
+which renewed the vitality of the town&rsquo;s staple
+industry.</p>
+<p>As registered the patent was entered:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;No. 5,880, 18 January, 1830.&nbsp; James
+Carpenter, of Willenhall, and John Young, of Wolverhampton,
+locksmiths.&nbsp; Improvements in locks.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Mr. R. B. Prosser, a recognised authority on patents and
+inventions, records that in 1841 Carpenter brought an action
+against one Smith, but the verdict was given for the defendant,
+it being held that Carpenter&rsquo;s lock was not a new invention
+(Webster&rsquo;s Reports of Patent Cases, Vol. I., p. 530).</p>
+<p><!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+163</span>Notwithstanding this the lock has always been known,
+and is still known, as &ldquo;Carpenter&rsquo;s lift-up
+lock.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>James Carpenter, the founder of the business still carried on
+under the style of Carpenter and Tildesley, was not a native of
+Willenhall.&nbsp; His first place of business was in Walsall
+Street opposite the &ldquo;Wake Field&rdquo;; thence he removed
+to Stafford Street, occupying the premises now the Three Crowns
+Inn; subsequently building and occupying the Summerford Works
+(and Summerford House) in the New Road, where the concern is
+still carried on James Carpenter, the patentee, was a keen man of
+business, and distinguished for great decision of
+character.&nbsp; His daughter Harriet married James Tildesley,
+who became a partner in the business.&nbsp; Carpenter died in
+1844, and Tildesley in 1876, and the concern has since been
+carried on by the two eldest sons of the latter in partnership,
+James Carpenter Tildesley (who is now permanently invalided, and
+of whom more anon), and Clement Tildesley.&nbsp; Mr. Clement
+Tildesley, who, like his brother, is a county magistrate, still
+lives at Summerford House, where he was born.</p>
+<p>Mr. Rowland Tildesley, solicitor, and Clerk to the Willenhall
+Urban District Council, is the fourth son of James Tildesley.</p>
+<p>James Tildesley&rsquo;s eldest daughter, Louisa Elizabeth,
+married William Henry Hartill, surgeon, and J.P. for the county
+of Stafford, who died in 1889; his second daughter, Emily,
+married John Thomas Hartill, J.P., surgeon, who filled the office
+of President of the Staffordshire Branch of the British Medical
+Association in 1885, and again in 1907.</p>
+<p>With these few biographical details of Willenhall&rsquo;s
+chief inventor we pass on.</p>
+<p>Other local patents in this branch of industry on the Register
+are:&mdash;</p>
+<p>No. 8543&mdash;13th June, 1840&mdash;Joseph Wolverson,
+locksmith, William Rawlett, latch maker, both of
+Willenhall.&nbsp; &ldquo;Locks and latches.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><!-- page 164--><a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+164</span>No. 8903&mdash;29 March, 1841.&mdash;James Tildesley,
+of Willenhall, factor, and Joseph Sanders, of Wolverhampton, Lock
+manufacturer.&nbsp; &ldquo;Locks.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>No. 10611&mdash;15th April, 1845.&mdash;George Carter, of
+Willenhall, jobbing smith.&nbsp; &ldquo;Locks and latches.</p>
+<p>No. 12604&mdash;8th May, 1849.&mdash;Samuel Wilkes, of
+Wednesfield Heath, brass founder.&nbsp; &ldquo;Knobs, handles,
+and spindles for the same, and locks.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>[There are patents in the name of Samuel Wilkes, at Darlaston,
+ironfounder, in 1840, for hinges; and for vices in the same
+year.&nbsp; In 1851, Samuel Wilkes, of Wolverhampton, iron
+founder, took out a patent for hinges.&nbsp; In 1845, Samuel
+Wilkes, of Wolverhampton, brass founder, took out a patent for
+kettles.&nbsp; The Wilkes&rsquo; family hereabouts are manifestly
+as ingenious as they are numerous.]</p>
+<p>At the present time there are some 90 factories and 143
+workshop employers in Willenhall, besides nine factories and 47
+workshops in the Short Heath district.&nbsp; The most important
+firms in the lock trade are Messrs. Carpenter and Tildesley, H.
+and T. Vaughan, William Vaughan, John Minors and Sons, J. Waine
+and Sons, Beddow and Sturmey, Legge and Chilton, and Enoch Tonks
+and Sons.&nbsp; In the casting trades are John Harper and Co.,
+Ltd. (by far the largest concern), Wm. Harper, Son, and Co., C.
+and L. Hill, H. and J. Hill, T. Pedley, H. and T. Vaughan (under
+the style of D. Knowles and Sons), and Arthur Tipper.&nbsp; In
+this branch of the industry women are largely employed, and
+children to a slight extent, in attending to light hand and power
+presses.&nbsp; Female labour is now utilised in the making of
+parts of machine-made locks (a method of production introduced
+during the last generation), and for varnishing, painting, and
+bronzing both the machine and the hand-made goods.</p>
+<p>The rate of wages for workmen in the lock trade now ranges
+from 20s. to 35s. per week, yielding an average of about
+29s.&nbsp; Of the wares produced there are probably 300
+varieties, many of them in several sizes each, the gross output
+running into thousands of dozens per week, and so great is their
+diversity that they range <!-- page 165--><a
+name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>from field
+padlocks to ponderous prison locks, and the selling prices vary
+from 1d. to 30s. each.&nbsp; They are exported all over the
+world, finding good markets in Australasia and South Africa.</p>
+<p>Tradition forbids that we should omit here the two stock
+illustrations of the fact that lock-making ranks among the
+notoriously ill-paid industries.&nbsp; One is the familiar
+exaggeration that if a Willenhall locksmith happens to let fall
+the lock he is making, he never stoops to pick up because he can
+make another in less time.</p>
+<p>The other is the hackneyed anecdote of the late G. B.
+Thorneycroft, who was once taunted with the sneer that some
+padlocks of local manufacture would only lock once; and who
+promptly retorted that as they had been bought at twopence each,
+it would be &ldquo;a shame if they did lock twice&rdquo; at such
+starvation prices of production.&nbsp; But Willenhall&rsquo;s
+contributions to the hardware production of the Black Country are
+by no means limited to this endless variety of locks, some for
+doors and gates, some for carpet bags and travelling trunks, some
+for writing portfolios and jewel caskets; but extends to lock
+furniture and door furniture, latches, door bolts, hasps and
+keys, hooks and steel vermin traps, grid-irons and box-iron
+stands, files and wood-screws, ferrules and iron-tips for
+Lancashire clogs; and other small oddments of the hardware
+trade.</p>
+<p>The making of currycombs, though shrunk to somewhat
+insignificant proportions within the last quarter of a century,
+was once a very prominent industry in Willenhall.&nbsp; In 1815
+James Carpenter, whose name is now so prominent in the lock
+trade, took out a patent, which was registered as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>No. 3956&mdash;23rd August, 1815.&mdash;James
+Carpenter, of Willenhall, curry comb maker.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Improvements to a curry comb, by inverting the handle over
+the back of the comb, and thus rendering the pressure, when in
+use, more equal.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Another typical industry was the making of door-bolts, now
+represented by the firms of Joseph Tipper, and Jonah Banks and
+Sons.&nbsp; It is interesting to note that among the last of the
+old trade tokens circulating in this locality, were the
+Willenhall farthings issued by Austin, a miller, baker, and
+grocer, who carried on <!-- page 166--><a
+name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>business at
+the corner of Stafford Street (the same now conducted by Joshua
+Rushbrooke); the obverse of this coin bore as a design
+characteristic of the town a padlock, a currycomb, and a
+door-bolt, with the legend, &ldquo;Let Willenhall
+flourish,&rdquo; and the date 1844.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p166ab.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Willenhall coin"
+title=
+"Willenhall coin"
+src="images/p166as.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The Currycomb manufacture is now represented by D. Ferguson,
+and by W. H. Tildesley, the latter adding to it the making of
+steel traps.</p>
+<p>But whatever loss has been incurred by the shrinkage of this
+industry has been more than made up by the enormous growth of the
+trade in stampings&mdash;keys are stamped&mdash;and in malleable
+castings.</p>
+<p>The earliest Willenhall patent was taken out in this branch of
+trade, and thus specified: &ldquo;No. 3,800.&nbsp; 7th April,
+1814.&nbsp; Isaac Mason, Willenhall, tea tray maker.&nbsp; Making
+stamped front for register stoves and other stoves, fenders, tea
+trays, and other trays, mouldings, and other articles, in brass
+and other metals.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In the stamping trades at the present time are Messrs.
+Armstrong, Stevens and Co., Vaughan Brothers, Alexander Lloyd and
+Sons, Baxter, Vaughan, and Co., and J. B. Brooks and Co.&nbsp; At
+the works of Messrs. John Harper and Co., by far the largest in
+the town, a variety of hardware articles are produced, besides
+locks, but the bulk of their trade is in the production of
+castings, especially in the form of gas and oil stoves and
+lamps.&nbsp; New developments continue to bring in fresh
+industries.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p166b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative design"
+title=
+"Decorative design"
+src="images/p166b.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 167</span>XXVIII.&mdash;Willenhall in
+Fiction.</h2>
+<p>A vivid picture of the social and industrial conditions which
+formerly prevailed in this locality has been drawn by the
+masterly pen of Disraeli, who evidently studied this side of the
+Black Country at close quarters.&nbsp; It occurs in his novel,
+&ldquo;Sybil,&rdquo; the time of action being about 1837.</p>
+<p>The distinguished novelist discovered the well-known fact that
+many of the common people hereabout were ignorant of their own
+names, and that if they knew them few indeed were able to spell
+them.&nbsp; Of nicknames, which were then not merely prevalent,
+but practically universal, he gives us such choice examples as
+Devilsdust, Chatting Jack, and Dandy Mick; while in
+&ldquo;Shuttle and Screw&rsquo;s Mill,&rdquo; and the firm of
+&ldquo;Truck and Trett,&rdquo; we recognise names significant of
+the methods of employment then in vogue.</p>
+<p>But worse perhaps than the &ldquo;truck system&rdquo; of
+paying wages in kind instead of in coin, was the prevailing
+system of utilising an inordinate number of apprentices; and as
+these were almost invariably &ldquo;parish apprentices,&rdquo;
+the output of the local workhouses, the tendency was not only to
+lower the rate of wages, but to lower the morale of the
+people.</p>
+<p>How this tendency worked out in everyday life is best seen in
+the following extract from &ldquo;Sybil.&rdquo;&nbsp; Under the
+fictional name &ldquo;Wemsbury&rdquo; may perhaps be read
+Wednesbury; &ldquo;Hell House Yard&rdquo; is evidently meant for
+Hell Lane, near Sedgley; and as to &ldquo;Wodgate,&rdquo; there
+can be no doubt about its interpretation as Wednesfield.&nbsp;
+This is Disraeli&rsquo;s description of life here seventy years
+ago, no doubt viewed as it was approached from the Wolverhampton
+side:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Wodgate, or Wogate, as it was called on the map,
+was a district that in old days had been consecrated to Woden,
+and which appeared destined through successive ages to retain its
+heathen character.</p>
+<p>At the beginning of the revolutionary war Wodgate was a sort
+of squatting district of the great mining region to which <!--
+page 168--><a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+168</span>it was contiguous, a place where adventurers in the
+industry which was rapidly developed settled themselves; for
+though the great veins of coal and ironstone cropped up, as they
+phrase it, before they reached this bare and barren land, and it
+was thus deficient in those mineral and metallic treasures which
+had enriched its neighbourhood, Wodgate had advantages of its
+own, and of a kind which touch the fancy of the lawless.</p>
+<p>It was land without an owner; no one claimed any manorial
+right over it; they could build cottages without paying
+rent.&nbsp; It was a district recognised by no parish; so there
+were no tithes and no meddlesome supervision.&nbsp; It abounded
+in fuel which cost nothing, for though the veins were not worth
+working as a source of mining profit, the soil of Wodgate was
+similar in its superficial character to that of the country
+around.</p>
+<p>So a population gathered, and rapidly increased in the ugliest
+spot in England, to which neither Nature nor art had contributed
+a single charm; where a tree could not be seen, a flower was
+unknown, where there was neither belfry nor steeple, nor a single
+sight or sound that could soften the heart or humanize the
+mind.</p>
+<p>Whatever may have been the cause, whether, as not unlikely,
+the original squatters brought with them some traditionary skill,
+or whether their isolated and unchequered existence concentrated
+their energies on their craft, the fact is certain, that the
+inhabitants of Wodgate early acquired a celebrity as skilful
+workmen.</p>
+<p>This reputation so much increased, and in time spread so far,
+that, for more than a quarter of a century, both in their skill
+and the economy of their labour, they have been unmatched
+throughout the country.</p>
+<p>As manufacturers of ironmongery they carry the palm from the
+whole district; as founders of brass and workers of steel they
+fear none; while as nailers and locksmiths, their <!-- page
+169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+169</span>fame has spread even to the European markets whither
+their most skilful workmen have frequently been invited.</p>
+<p>Invited in vain!&nbsp; No wages can tempt the Wodgate man from
+his native home, that squatters&rsquo; seat which soon assumed
+the form of a large village, and then in turn soon expanded into
+a town, and at the present moment numbers its population by
+swarming thousands, lodged in the most miserable tenements, in
+the most hideous burgh, in the ugliest country in the world.</p>
+<p>But it has its enduring spell.&nbsp; Notwithstanding the
+spread of its civic prosperity, it has lost none of the
+characteristics of its original society; on the contrary, it has
+zealously preserved them.&nbsp; There are no landlords,
+head-lessees, main-masters, or butties in Wodgate.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p169ab.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"George Borrow"
+title=
+"George Borrow"
+src="images/p169as.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>No church there has yet raised its spire; and, as if the
+jealous spirit of Woden still haunted his ancient temple, even
+the conventicle scarcely dare show his humble front in some
+obscure corner.&nbsp; There is no municipality, no magistrate;
+there are no local acts, no vestries, no schools of any
+kind.&nbsp; The streets are never cleaned; every man lights his
+own house; nor does any one know anything except his
+business.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p169bb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Borrow&rsquo;s Birthplace"
+title=
+"Borrow&rsquo;s Birthplace"
+src="images/p169bs.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>More than this, at Wodgate, a factory or large establishment
+of any kind is unknown.&nbsp; Here Labour reigns supreme.&nbsp;
+Its division, indeed, is favoured by their manners, but the
+interference or influence of mere capital is instantly
+resisted.</p>
+<p>The business of Wodgate is carried on by master workmen in
+their own houses, each of whom possess an unlimited number of
+what they call apprentices, by whom their affairs are principally
+conducted, and whom they treat as the Mamlouks treated the
+Egyptians.</p>
+<p>These master workmen indeed form a powerful aristocracy, nor
+is it possible to conceive one apparently more oppressive.&nbsp;
+They are ruthless tyrants; they habitually inflict upon their
+subjects punishments more grievous than the slave population of
+our colonies were ever visited with; not content with beating
+them with sticks, or flogging them with <!-- page 170--><a
+name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>knotted
+ropes, they are in the habit of felling them with, or cutting
+their heads open with a file or lock.</p>
+<p>The most usual punishment, however, or rather stimulus to
+increase exertion, is to pull an apprentice&rsquo;s ears till
+they run with blood.&nbsp; These youths, too, are worked for
+sixteen or even twenty hours a day; they are often sold by one
+master to another; they are fed on carrion, and they sleep in
+lofts or cellars.</p>
+<p>Yet, whether it be that they are hardened by brutality, and
+really unconscious of their degradation and unusual sufferings,
+or whether they are supported by the belief that their day to be
+masters and oppressors will surely arrive, the aristocracy of
+Wodgate is by no means so unpopular as the aristocracy of most
+other places.</p>
+<p>In the first place, it is a real aristocracy; it is
+privileged, but it does something for its privileges.&nbsp; It is
+distinguished from the main body, not merely by name.&nbsp; It is
+the most knowing class at Wodgate; it possesses, in deed, in its
+way, complete knowledge; and it imparts in its manner a certain
+quantity of it to those whom it guides.</p>
+<p>Thus it is an aristocracy that leads, and therefore a
+fact.&nbsp; Moreover, the social system of Wodgate is not an
+unvarying course of infinite toil.&nbsp; Their plan is to work
+hard, but not always.&nbsp; They seldom exceed four days of
+labour in the week.&nbsp; On Sunday the masters begin to drink;
+for the apprentices there is dog-fighting without any stint.</p>
+<p>On Monday and Tuesday the whole population of Wodgate is
+drunk; of all stations, ages, and sexes, even babes who should be
+at the breast, for they are drammed with Godfrey&rsquo;s
+cordial.&nbsp; Here is relaxation, excitement; if less vice
+otherwise than might be at first anticipated, we must remember
+that excesses are checked by poverty of blood and constant
+exhaustion.&nbsp; Scanty food and hard labour are in their way,
+if not exactly moralists, a tolerably good police.</p>
+<p>There are no others at Wodgate to preach or to control.&nbsp;
+It is not that the people are immoral, for immorality implies
+<!-- page 171--><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+171</span>some forethought; or ignorant, for ignorance is
+relative; but they are animals, unconscious, their minds a blank,
+and their worst actions only the impulse of a gross or savage
+instinct.&nbsp; There are many in this town who are ignorant of
+their very names; very few who can spell them.</p>
+<p>It is rare that you meet with a young person who knows his own
+age; rarer to find the boy who has seen a book, or the girl who
+has seen a flower.&nbsp; Ask them the name of their Sovereign,
+and they will give you an unmeaning stare; ask them the name of
+their religion, and they will laugh; who rules them on earth, or
+who can save them in Heaven, are alike mysteries to them.</p>
+<p>Such was the population with whom Morley was about to
+mingle.&nbsp; Wodgate had the appearance of a vast squalid
+suburb.&nbsp; As you advanced, leaving behind you long lines of
+little dingy tenements, with infants lying about the road, you
+expected every moment to emerge into some streets, and encounter
+buildings bearing some correspondence, in their size and comfort,
+to the considerable population swarming and busied around
+you.</p>
+<p>Nothing of the kind.&nbsp; There were no public buildings of
+any sort; no churches, chapels, town hall, institute, theatre;
+and the principal streets in the heart of the town in which were
+situate the coarse and grimy shops, though formed by houses of a
+greater elevation than the preceding, were equally narrow, and,
+if possible, more dirty.</p>
+<p>At every fourth or fifth house, alleys, seldom above a yard
+wide, and streaming with filth, opened out of the street.&nbsp;
+These were crowded with dwellings of various size, while from the
+principal court often branched out a number of smaller alleys, or
+rather narrow passages, than which nothing can be conceived more
+close and squalid and obscure.</p>
+<p>Here, during the days of business, the sound of the hammer and
+the file never ceased, amid gutters of abomination, and piles of
+foulness; and stagnant pools of filth, reservoirs of leprosy and
+plague, whose exhalations were <!-- page 172--><a
+name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 172</span>sufficient
+to taint the atmosphere of the whole kingdom, and fill the
+country with fever and pestilence.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Such were the conditions of life in Willenhall, at least from
+the industrial side; for Willenhall and Wednesfield were at that
+time almost identical in their industrial, social, and municipal
+economics.&nbsp; The novelist is, of course, incorrect in saying
+Wednesfield had no church; as we have seen in Chapter XXIII. it
+had possessed a small church or chapel since 1746.</p>
+<p>Another novelist who has dealt with the same theme is Louis
+Becke.&nbsp; The hero of his tale, entitled &ldquo;Old Convict
+Days&rdquo; (published by T. Fisher Unwin), is a runaway
+apprentice from Darlaston; and Willenhall is alluded to in this
+work as &ldquo;Wilnon.&rdquo;&nbsp; Spirited descriptions are
+given of regular set fights between the apprentices of the two
+towns, which took place on the canal bridge that divided their
+respective territories near Bug Hole, and in the course of which
+drownings have not been unknown to occur.&nbsp; Allusions are
+also made to the dog-fighting, human rat worrying, and other
+brutal sports with which the populace of these two places were
+wont to amuse themselves; and particularly to the haunted Red
+Barn in which a murder had been committed.</p>
+<p>Willenhall can lay a further claim to classic ground in the
+realm of fiction, though the exact spot has not yet been
+satisfactorily identified.&nbsp; It is the place called
+Mumper&rsquo;s Dingle, in the works of George Borrow, the gipsy
+traveller and linguist, or as he calls himself in the Romany
+dialect, Lavengro, the &ldquo;Word-Master.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The word &ldquo;mumper&rdquo; signifies a tramp or roving
+beggar; but its slight likeness to the name Monmer has led
+certain local enthusiasts to identify Mumpers&rsquo; Dingle with
+Monmer Lane.&nbsp; Wherever this particular gipsies&rsquo; dingle
+may have been, it was certainly on the Essington side of
+Willenhall, though scarcely five miles out; in fact, the
+public-house mentioned in the narrative (&ldquo;Lavengro,&rdquo;
+chapter 89) is generally understood to be the Bull&rsquo;s Head
+Inn, Wolverhampton Street, which is definitely stated to be two
+miles from Mumpers&rsquo; Dingle.&nbsp; It must have been a
+secluded and romantic spot about the year 1820, and quite a
+fitting scene for that interesting episode of the gipsy life
+described as being led <!-- page 173--><a
+name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>there by
+the unconventional Lavengro, in Platonic association with a
+strapping Gitano wench named Isopel Berners.</p>
+<p>Since George Borrow has come to be recognised as a writer
+fitting to rank among our standard English authors, quite a
+Borrovian cult has grown up, which has naturally enough fortified
+itself by a literature of its own.</p>
+<p>Our first extracts are the great writer&rsquo;s own
+description of the place.&nbsp; (&ldquo;Isopel Berners,&rdquo; by
+George Borrow.)</p>
+<blockquote><p>The Dingle is a deep, wooded, and, consequently,
+somewhat gloomy hollow in the middle of a very large, desolate
+field.&nbsp; The shelving sides of the hollow are overgrown with
+trees and bushes.&nbsp; A belt of sallows crowns the circular
+edge of the small crater.&nbsp; At the lowest part of the Dingle
+are discovered a stone and a fire of charcoal, from which spot a
+winding path ascends to &ldquo;the plain.&rdquo;&nbsp; On either
+side of the fire is a small encampment.&nbsp; One consists of a
+small pony cart and a small hut-shaped tent, occupied by the
+Word-Master, on the other side is erected a kind of tent,
+consisting of large hoops covered over with tarpaulin, quite
+impenetrable to rain; hard by stands a small donkey cart.&nbsp;
+This is &ldquo;the tabernacle&rdquo; of Isopel Berners.&nbsp; A
+short distance off, near a spring of clear water, is the
+encampment of the Romany chals and chies&mdash;the Petulengres
+and their small clan.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The place is above five miles from Willenhall, in
+Staffordshire.</p>
+<p>The time is July, 1825.</p>
+<p>Our concluding quotation is taken from the &ldquo;Life,
+Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow,&rdquo; by William
+J. Knapp (published in 1899).</p>
+<blockquote><p>1825.</p>
+<p>On the 21st, he departs with his itinerant hosts towards the
+old Welsh border&mdash;Montgomery.&nbsp; Turns back with Ambrose
+Petulengro.&nbsp; Settles in Mumber Lane, Staffordshire, near
+Willenhall.&nbsp; My informant of Dudley caused it to be found,
+and wrote as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<p><!-- page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+174</span>&ldquo;&lsquo;Mumpers&rsquo; Dingle&rsquo; still exists
+in the neighbourhood of Willenhall, though it does not seem to be
+well known, as a native had to make inquiries about it.&nbsp;
+Willenhall itself is one of the most forlorn-looking places in
+the Black Country, ranking second to Darlaston, I should
+think.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p174.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative design"
+title=
+"Decorative design"
+src="images/p174.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 175--><a name="page175"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 175</span>XXIX.&mdash;Bibliography.</h2>
+<p>From the merely allusive in literature, we proceed to the
+bibliography of Willenhall, which, though not extensive, is of
+fair average interest.</p>
+<p>Recently (June, 1907) was put up for auction in London a First
+Folio Shakespeare of some local interest.&nbsp; It was the
+property of Mr. Abel Buckley, Ryecroft Hall, near
+Manchester.&nbsp; This folio appears to have been purchased about
+1660 by Colonel John Lane, of Bentley Hall, Staffs, the protector
+of Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester.&nbsp; It remained
+in the possession of the family till 1856, when, at the dispersal
+of the library of Colonel John Lane, of King&rsquo;s Bromley,
+whose book-plate, designed by Hogarth, is inserted, it was bought
+by the third Earl of Gosford for 157 guineas.</p>
+<p>The son of the third Earl of Gosford disposed of it to James
+Toovey, the famous London bookseller, for &pound;470 in 1884; and
+soon afterwards Mr. Buckley obtained the folio.&nbsp; It measures
+12&#8542;in. by 8&frac14;in., is throughout clean, but the
+fly-leaf and title are mounted and two leaves repaired.&nbsp;
+This is the volume&rsquo;s interesting history, according to Mr.
+Sidney Lee.</p>
+<p>In 1795, Stephen Chatterton, a Willenhall schoolmaster,
+published a book of poems of a humorous cast.&nbsp; One is
+&ldquo;An epistle to my friend Mr. Thomas S&mdash;, who was
+married in July, 1783, to his third wife, on his fiftieth
+birthday.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The bibliography of the Rev. Samuel Cozens, at one time
+minister of the Peculiar Baptists&rsquo; Chapel at Little London,
+Willenhall, is rather extensive if not very interesting.&nbsp; A
+full list of his pamphlets and other works will be found in G. T.
+Lawley&rsquo;s &ldquo;Bibliography of Wolverhampton,&rdquo; and
+also in Simms&rsquo; &ldquo;Bibliotheca
+Staffordiensis.&rdquo;&nbsp; His first work, which appeared in
+the &ldquo;Gospel Standard,&rdquo; 1844, was &ldquo;A short
+account of the Lord&rsquo;s Gracious Dealings with One of the
+Elect Vessels of Mercy,&rdquo; and is autobiographical.</p>
+<p>From this title, and that of the second part of his life,
+which appeared in 1857, &ldquo;Reminiscences: or Footsteps of
+Providence,&rdquo; <!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 176</span>the attitude of mind assumed by the
+writer may be easily guessed.&nbsp; His was a dogmatic creed, of
+stern unyielding Calvinism, which left him always self-satisfied,
+and often made him aggressive.&nbsp; He moved from Wolverhampton
+to Willenhall in 1848, where his first book was written, a
+scholarly volume in the form of &ldquo;A Biblical
+Lexicon.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Presently his combative nature found expression in a
+controversial pamphlet attacking the Primitive Methodists,
+&ldquo;John Wesley, the Papa of British Rome, and Philip Pugh,
+the modern Pelagius, weighed in the Balance of Eternal Truth and
+found wanting&rdquo; (Willenhall, printed and published by W. H.
+Hughes, 1852).&nbsp; The Rev. Philip Pugh was located at
+Darlaston, and made a gallant defence on behalf of his
+co-religionists; the Primitive Methodists of Willenhall
+acknowledging these services by presenting him with a handsome
+testimonial.&nbsp; The pamphlets containing his rejoinders bear
+the imprint of Stephen Hackett, Willenhall.&nbsp; Mr. Cozens died
+in Tasmania some years later.</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;Memoirs of G. B. Thorneycroft,&rdquo; written by
+the Rev. J. B. Owen, and published (Wolverhampton: T. Simpson) in
+1856, contain local allusions of minor interest.&nbsp; The
+subject of the memoir was the well-known South Staffordshire
+ironmaster, who in the earlier part of his commercial career had
+some works near the Waterglade, on the Bilston Road.</p>
+<p>George Benjamin Thorneycroft, was born August 20th, 1791, at
+Tipton, where his grandfather kept the Three Furnaces Inn.&nbsp;
+His biographer claims his descent from the Thornicrofts of
+Cheshire.&nbsp; In his youth he was employed at Kirkstall Forge,
+near Leeds, returning to Staffordshire in 1809 to work at the
+Moorcroft Ironworks at Bradley, near Bilston, where, by his skill
+and industry he ultimately rose to the management.</p>
+<p>It was in 1817 he founded a small ironwork at Willenhall, and
+seven years later joined his twin brother, Edward Thorneycroft,
+in establishing the Shrubbery Ironworks at Wolverhampton.&nbsp;
+The rise of the railways at that period, and the consequent
+larger demands for iron and steel, were among the causes which
+led to his great prosperity as an ironmaster.</p>
+<p><!-- page 177--><a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+177</span>His Willenhall residence was on the site now occupied
+by the Metropolitan Bank, in the Market Place: while his works,
+this first this iron magnate owned, were located near what is now
+known as Forge Yard, Waterglade Street.&nbsp; It was in this
+house his son, Colonel Thorneycroft, of Tettenhall Towers, was
+born.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p177ab.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Neptune Inn"
+title=
+"Neptune Inn"
+src="images/p177as.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>His prominence as a public man may be estimated by the fact
+that when Wolverhampton was incorporated in 1848, Mr.
+Thorneycroft was selected for the honour of being first Mayor of
+the new borough.&nbsp; He was at all times a generous supporter
+of every local charity and benevolent institution, till the old
+quotation came to be fitted to him:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>There was a man&mdash;the neighbours thought him
+mad&mdash;<br />
+The more he gave away, the more he had.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>In the Town Hall of Wolverhampton a statue has been set up to
+commemorate the public work of this estimable character.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p177bb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Bell Inn"
+title=
+"Bell Inn"
+src="images/p177bs.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Although during the greater portion of his career a great
+supporter of the State Church, in earlier life Mr. G. B.
+Thorneycroft had been an ardent Wesleyan; and in his memoirs (p.
+134) it is recorded how he liquidated the burden of debt on the
+Willenhall Chapel belonging to that denomination.&nbsp; On his
+death, in 1851, among those who testified to his public
+usefulness, and the estimation in which he was held, was the Rev.
+G. H. Fisher, of Willenhall (memoirs pp. 263&ndash;5).</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p177cb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Old Bull&rsquo;s Head"
+title=
+"Old Bull&rsquo;s Head"
+src="images/p177cs.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Willenhall Magazine&rdquo; was the name of a
+monthly periodical launched in 1862, &ldquo;published for the
+proprietors by J. Loxton, Market Place, Willenhall,&rdquo; and
+having Messrs. J. C. and Jesse Tildesley as its chief
+contributors.&nbsp; The first number appeared in March, and
+twelve months afterwards this praiseworthy attempt to establish a
+local magazine in Willenhall had completely failed.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p177db.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"The Plough"
+title=
+"The Plough"
+src="images/p177ds.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>In 1866 appeared a religious novel written by a Primitive
+Methodist preacher of this town, and published by Elliot Stock,
+London.&nbsp; It: was entitled &ldquo;Nest: A Tale of the Early
+British Christians,&rdquo; by the Rev. J. Boxer,
+Willenhall.&nbsp; Mr. G. T. Lawley describes it as a well-written
+story dealing with the pagan persecution of the early British
+Christians by their Saxon conquerors.</p>
+<p><!-- page 178--><a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+178</span>A story of direct local interest was Mr. G. T.
+Lawley&rsquo;s work &ldquo;The Locksmith&rsquo;s Apprentice; a
+Tale of Old Willenhall,&rdquo; published serially some years ago
+in the columns of a Wolverhampton weekly newspaper.</p>
+<p>Mr N. Neal Solly (of the firm of Fletcher, Solly, and Urwick,
+Willenhall Furnaces) wrote the Guide to the Fine Arts Section of
+the South Staffordshire Exhibition, held at Molineux House,
+Wolverhampton, in 1869.&nbsp; The writer was himself an artist,
+and he afterwards produced some valuable Memoirs of David Cox
+(1873), and of the Bristol painter, William James Muller
+(1875).</p>
+<p>The most eminent litterateur Willenhall has produced is Mr.
+James Carpenter Tildesley, a lock manufacturer, as we have seen,
+and a life-long public man in the town.&nbsp; Reference has
+already been made to his writings on industrial subjects, and
+also to his works on the history of local Methodism.&nbsp; As a
+public man, he is a Justice of the Peace for the County, a
+chairman of Willenhall Petty Sessional Division, has been
+president of the Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce, chairman of
+the Willenhall Local Board, and chairman of the Willenhall
+Liberal Association.&nbsp; Since his retirement to Penkridge he
+has written a history of that parish, which was published by
+Steen and Co., of Wolverhampton, in 1886.</p>
+<p>Mr. J. C. Tildesley was sub-editor of the &ldquo;Birmingham
+Morning News&rdquo; under the famous George Dawson, and has been
+a most diligent contributor to the Press for the last forty
+years.&nbsp; It was mainly by his efforts that the Willenhall
+Literary Institute was founded, that what is now the Public Hall
+was built, and that the Free Library was established.</p>
+<p>In recognition of his work in connection with the Literary
+Institute, a public presentation was made to him, the inscription
+upon which bore this eloquent testimony&mdash;&ldquo;Not to
+requite but to record services of great value to Willenhall . .
+.&nbsp; January 4th, 1869.&rdquo;&nbsp; That Mr. J. C. Tildesley
+is now permanently invalided is a matter of regret not only to
+Willenhall, but to a wide circle of readers and admirers outside
+the township.</p>
+<h2><!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 179</span>XXX.&mdash;Topography.</h2>
+<p>There is often a wealth of history to be unearthed from
+place-names.&nbsp; Localities often preserve the names of dead
+and gone personages, half-forgotten incidents, and matters of
+past history well worth recalling for their interest.&nbsp;
+Besides the pleasure to be derived from the right interpretation
+of place-names and old street names, great interest often centres
+around the social associations of old inns and taverns.&nbsp; Let
+us consider a few of the old-time inns and localities of
+Willenhall.</p>
+<p>The site of the medi&aelig;val Holy Well, which in the later
+fashion of the 18th century blossomed forth as a Spa, was
+situated between the church and the present Manor House.&nbsp; In
+the remoter age we may imagine it as the haunt of the lame, the
+halt, and the blind (possibly the church was dedicated to St.
+Giles, the patron of cripples, on this account), and in the more
+recent period as the resort of fashionable invalids and wealthy
+valetudinarians.</p>
+<p>In the Private Act of Parliament, dated 6th August, 1844, for
+disposing of the Willenhall Endowment properties, a number of
+field-names occur in the schedule which are pregnant with local
+history.&nbsp; Welch End is a name which seems to mark the
+locality where resided the family of Welch, who founded the
+church dole; the Doctor&rsquo;s Piece was perhaps part of the
+estate of the celebrated Dr. Wilkes; the Clothers and the Little
+Clothiers are names which are said to indicate certain lands once
+belonging to the Cloth-workers&rsquo; Company of the City of
+London; Somerford Bridge Piece and the Hither Bathing were
+presumably located near the brook; while the Poor&rsquo;s Piece,
+the Constable&rsquo;s Dole, and the Dole&rsquo;s Butty (query:
+does the last-named, interpreted in the dialect of the district,
+signify &ldquo;the companion piece to the Dole?&rdquo;), are
+names which suggest the identity of charity lands.</p>
+<p>There is mention of a High Causeway, which manifestly
+indicates the position of some old paved road; and the Butts,
+doubtless, named the field where in ancient times archery was
+<!-- page 180--><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+180</span>practised by the men of Willenhall, as the men of
+Darlaston did at the Butcroft in their parish.</p>
+<p>Reverting to the schedule, there are some names for which no
+explanation can be offered; as Ell Park, Berry Stile, the
+Stringes, and the Farther Stringes.&nbsp; Many of the properties
+named in the list are declared to be &ldquo;uninclosed lands that
+lie dispersedly in the Common Fields there, intermixed with other
+lands.&rdquo;&nbsp; How much, or rather, how little, common land
+is there in Willenhall to-day?</p>
+<p>And yet the amount of &ldquo;waste&rdquo; land in and around
+Willenhall was once excessive, as the writings of George Borrow
+cannot fail to convey (Chap. XXVIII.).&nbsp; In Chap. XXII. we
+read of Canne Byrch, situated in &ldquo;Willenhall Field,&rdquo;
+lying in the highway towards Darlaston, where perhaps the village
+community of ancient times tilled their lands in common; and more
+directly of the &ldquo;waste or common land&rdquo; called
+Shepwell Green; a wide stretch of open land once apparently
+stretching away towards the wilderness and solitudes of that
+gipsy-land immortalised by George Borrow.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Willenhall Green&rdquo; is named by Dr. Plot, writing
+in 1686, as a place where yellow ochre was found a yard below the
+surface, and which after being beaten up was made into oval cakes
+to be sold at fourpence a dozen to glovers, who used it in
+combination with cakes of &ldquo;blew clay,&rdquo; found at
+Darlaston and Wednesbury, &ldquo;for giving their wares an ash
+colour.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The old highway between Walsall and Wolverhampton lay along
+Walsall Street, through Cross Street, and the Market Place; the
+new coach route, or the New Road, as it was called, was made in
+the early part of the nineteenth century.</p>
+<p>New Invention is a place-name which originated not from any
+connection with the local industries, as one might be led to
+expect, but from nothing more serious than a nickname of
+derision.&nbsp; The tradition is that many years ago an
+inhabitant from the centre of the town was strolling out that
+way, when he was thus accosted by an acquaintance living in one
+of the few cottages which then comprised the neighbourhood, and
+who was standing on his own doorstep to enjoy the cool of the
+evening: &ldquo;I say, Bill, hast <!-- page 181--><a
+name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>seen my new
+invention?&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;No, lad; what is it?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s it!&rdquo; said the self-satisfied
+householder, pointing up to a hawthorn bush which was pushed out
+of the top of his chimney.&nbsp; &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it!&nbsp;
+It&rsquo;s stopped our o&rsquo;d chimdy smokin&rsquo;, I can tell
+thee!&rdquo;&nbsp; And ever after that the locality which this
+worthy honoured with his ingenious presence was slyly dubbed by
+his amused neighbours the &ldquo;New Invention,&rdquo; by which
+name it afterwards became generally known.</p>
+<p>Portobello, on the outskirts of Willenhall, is said to have
+borrowed its name from that second-hand Portobello near Leith,
+which was named after Admiral Vernon&rsquo;s famous victory of
+1739.&nbsp; At the Scottish suburb a bed of rich clay, discovered
+in 1765, led to the development of the place through the
+establishment of brick and tile works; a similar discovery of a
+thick bed of clay outside Willenhall, and its subsequent
+industrial development on parallel lines led to the copying of
+that patriotic name, more particularly because a neighbouring
+coal-pit was already rejoicing in the name of Bunker&rsquo;s
+Hill, conferred upon it by local patriots after the American
+victory of 1775.&nbsp; The Willenhall wags, however, have given
+quite another derivation.&nbsp; A man once passing a solitary
+farmhouse in that locality, say they, called and inquired if the
+farmer had any beer on tap.&nbsp; The reply was, as the man
+pointed cellarwards, &ldquo;No&mdash;only porter
+below!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Little London seems to be a locality which attempts to shine
+by the reflected glory of the capital&rsquo;s borrowed name, and
+is appropriately approached by a thoroughfare called Temple Bar;
+but which of these metropolitan names suggested the other, the
+oldest inhabitant fails to recollect.</p>
+<p>Among the old inns and taverns of the town the chief were the
+Neptune Inn, Walsall Street; the Bull&rsquo;s Head, Wolverhampton
+Street; the Hope and Anchor, Little London; the Bell Inn, Market
+Place; and the Waterglade Tavern, Waterglade.&nbsp; The Neptune,
+situated on the main road between Wolverhampton and Walsall, and
+almost opposite the church, was formerly a posting-house kept in
+the 18th and early part of the 19th century by Isaac Hartill, one
+of those typical hosts of the coaching period; active, <!-- page
+182--><a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+182</span>genial, and obliging, a man of good conversational
+powers, and one who instantly made his guests feel at home, and
+was extremely popular with all the local gentry and regular
+travellers along the road.&nbsp; With the advent of the railway
+the character of the Neptune Inn gradually altered&mdash;the
+railway, by the way, was cut through the crescent, overlooking
+Bentley Hall, a property which had belonged to and had been the
+residence of the Hartill family since 1704, and part of which is
+now The Robin Hood Grounds, used for sports and recreations and
+other out-door assemblies.</p>
+<p>It was from the balcony above the entry of the Neptune Inn,
+over which was then the public drawing-room, that the Right Hon.
+Charles P. Villiers first addressed the electors of the
+newly-enfranchised borough of Wolverhampton in 1835, and
+subsequently made many of his fervent Free Trade speeches; and in
+fact, from this place all public announcements were wont to be
+made.&nbsp; The room behind the balcony was formerly used as a
+Court Room, in which the magistrates administered justice; here
+too, the Willenhall Court Leet was held, and to this day Lord
+Barnard&rsquo;s agents receive the tithes there.</p>
+<p>The Neptune once served all the purposes of a lending inn as
+an acknowledged place of public rendezvous; and when the
+Stowheath farmers were accustomed to ride or drive in to attend
+church, its spacious stableyard was a scene of animation, even on
+Sundays.</p>
+<p>The Bell Inn, in the Market Place, is perhaps the oldest in
+the market taverns, though the date 1660 painted upon its sign
+can scarcely refer to the projecting wing which bears it.&nbsp;
+The back portion of the house is unquestionably old; in fact, the
+family of Wakelam who kept the inn 25 years ago, were identified
+with this house and the Bull&rsquo;s Head Inn for upwards of two
+centuries.</p>
+<p>The Plough Inn, Stafford Street, is less old than the others,
+and of more doubtful interest.&nbsp; It has been completely
+altered within recent years; in the old days when prisoners
+consigned to Stafford Gaol had to walk, it was the place of the
+final drink before starting, and marked the limits of the town
+till Little London began.</p>
+<p><!-- page 183--><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+183</span>The Bull&rsquo;s head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, is
+supposed to be the alehouse referred to in Borrow&rsquo;s
+romantic tale of Romany life, &ldquo;Lavengro.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Waterglade Tavern marked the spot on the road between the
+two old-world villages of Willenhall and Bilston, where it dipped
+to the bed of the stream.</p>
+<p>The Woolpack Inn, at Short Heath, is one of the oldest
+licensed houses in that locality.</p>
+<p>The First and Last Inn, New Invention, was so dubbed because
+at one time it was the first licensed house when approaching from
+Wednesfield, and the last when going the other way out.</p>
+<p>The sign rhymes of Willenhall belong to the hackneyed
+type.&nbsp; The Gate Inn, New Invention, has the well-known
+couplet:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>This Gate hangs well and hinders none:<br />
+Refresh and pay and travel on.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Lame Dog Inn, at Short Heath, is not very original
+with:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Step in, my friends, and stop a while,<br />
+To help a lame dog over the stile.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Enough has been said on the subject to arouse the interest of
+patriotic Willenhaleans.&nbsp; One reflection in
+conclusion&mdash;in the old days licensed houses were invariably
+kept by families of position and substance, and it is remarkable
+to discover the great number of professional and well-to-do men
+of the present day who were born in public-houses.&nbsp; It is so
+with regard to Wednesbury and Darlaston, and even more so with
+regard to Willenhall.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p183.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative design"
+title=
+"Decorative design"
+src="images/p183.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 184--><a name="page184"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 184</span>XXXI.&mdash;Old Families and Names
+of Note.</h2>
+<p>To not a few of the old names of those who have lived their
+lives in Willenhall, and left their mark indelibly fixed upon its
+annals, attention has already been paid in treating of the
+various matters with which their respective life-work was
+associated.&nbsp; It remains here only to add a few more names to
+our list of Willenhall worthies, and to supplement a few
+biographical details to those already mentioned.</p>
+<p>The index to the names of landowners would be incomplete
+without that of Offley.&nbsp; In the year 1555 Alderman Offley, a
+citizen of London, acquired lands in &ldquo;Willenhall, otherwise
+Wilnall.&rdquo;&nbsp; About the same date this opulent merchant
+became lord of the manor of Darlaston.&nbsp; (See History of
+Darlaston, pp. 39&ndash;40.)</p>
+<p>An important old Willenhall family, as may have been gathered
+in the course of these Annals, was that of Hincks.&nbsp; Their
+family residence still stands in Bilston Street, near to the
+Market Place; a descendant, and apparently the only
+representative of the Hincks family surviving is Mrs. Samuel
+Walker, of Bentley Hall.</p>
+<p>Of Carpenter, Willenhall&rsquo;s most famous inventor, a few
+more items of local and biographical interest are
+forthcoming.&nbsp; In early life James Carpenter was a Churchman,
+but, as many other Willenhall folk did, became a Wesleyan in
+consequence of the scandals caused by the Rev. Mr.
+Moreton&rsquo;s mode of life.&nbsp; His remains lie in a vault on
+the east side of the Wesleyan Chapel in Union Street.&nbsp; He
+was a keen supporter of the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers when he
+first became a Parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton.</p>
+<p>John Austin, the tradesman, who first issued the
+&ldquo;Willenhall farthings,&rdquo; mentioned in Chapter XXVII.,
+was an enterprising tradesman, a man of handsome presence and of
+an alert mind.&nbsp; On leaving Willenhall he went to live at
+Manor House, Allscott, near Wellington, at which town he
+established artificial manure works, and where he manufactured
+sulphuric acid very extensively.</p>
+<p><!-- page 185--><a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+185</span>The issue of the Willenhall trade farthings was
+continued by Rushbrooke, his successor in the business (1853),
+though the original date, &ldquo;1844&rdquo; was always retained
+upon them.&nbsp; They were sold to shopkeepers and traders all
+round the district at the rate of 5s. nominal for 4s. 9d.
+cash.&nbsp; When the new national bronze coinage came into
+circulation in 1860, large quantities of these copper farthing
+tokens were returned on to Mr Rushbrooke&rsquo;s hands, but he
+melted them down without sustaining the least loss.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p185ab.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Josiah Tildesley, Senr.  Prominent Wesleyan and Highly Esteemed
+Townsman"
+title=
+"Josiah Tildesley, Senr.  Prominent Wesleyan and Highly Esteemed
+Townsman"
+src="images/p185as.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The Hartill family has long been settled in Willenhall.&nbsp;
+George Hartill married Isabel Cross, at St. Peter&rsquo;s Church,
+Wolverhampton, in 1662.&nbsp; All their nine children were
+baptised at St. Giles&rsquo;s Church, Willenhall.&nbsp; The
+present Dr. J. T. Hartill is descended directly from Richard,
+fifth son of the above, and his grandfather, Isaac Hartill,
+inter-married with Ann Hartill, a descendant of the said George
+Hartill&rsquo;s second son.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p185bb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"James Tildesley.  Large Employer of Labour, Proprietor of
+Summerford Works"
+title=
+"James Tildesley.  Large Employer of Labour, Proprietor of
+Summerford Works"
+src="images/p185bs.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The social rank of the Hartills since their residence in
+Willenhall has been that of tradesmen or professional men,
+manufacturers, or small property owners, but always educated up
+to the standard of the period in which they lived.&nbsp; In 1826
+Jeremiah Hartill established himself in medical practice, joined
+in 1861 by his nephew, William Henry Hartill, and in 1869 by the
+latter&rsquo;s brother, Dr. J. T. Hartill.&nbsp; The arms and
+crest borne by the last-named were formally granted him in 1896;
+but the same coat without the crest had always been used by his
+uncle Jeremiah, and that on a claim of inheritance from the
+ancient lords of the manor of Hartill, in Cheshire, to whom it
+had been granted by King John.&nbsp; These particular arms have
+not been officially recorded at the College of Heralds since
+1580, but a very similar coat was used by a member of this family
+in 1703.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p185cb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Jeremiah Hartill, Surgeon.  Agitated for Easier Enfranchisement
+of Copyholds"
+title=
+"Jeremiah Hartill, Surgeon.  Agitated for Easier Enfranchisement
+of Copyholds"
+src="images/p185cs.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The Willenhall Hartills migrated here from the neighbourhood
+of Kinver, Wolverley, and Kidderminster.&nbsp; There are still
+Hartills of the old stock resident in the Kinver district, and
+from them are descended Mrs. Shakespeare, wife of the well-known
+Birmingham solicitor; and Mrs. Showell, wife of the late Walter
+Showell, the founder of the eminent firm of Black Country
+brewers, who was once a Parliamentary candidate for one of the
+divisions <!-- page 186--><a name="page186"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 186</span>of Birmingham.&nbsp; The Hartills of
+Kinver are related to the Hartills of Kingsbury, and there has
+always been a great similarity in the Christian names borne by
+the old Kingsbury, Kinver, and Willenhall Hartills.&nbsp; The
+steeple of Polesworth church was built by the last Sir Richard
+Hartill, 1377&ndash;1379, and below the tower battlements is
+carved upon a large shield the arms of this benefactor, which are
+identical with those of the late Dr. Jeremiah Hartill of
+Willenhall.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p185db.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"John Austin of the Albion Mill, who issued the Farthing Tokens"
+title=
+"John Austin of the Albion Mill, who issued the Farthing Tokens"
+src="images/p185ds.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Mr. Henry Vaughan, the founder of the largest business concern
+in the town, has done a large amount of public work in various
+capacities, but chiefly as a magistrate, a member of the defunct
+School Board, and more recently as a County Councillor.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p185eb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"George Ley Pearce.  Prominent Wesleyan and Philanthropic Worker"
+title=
+"George Ley Pearce.  Prominent Wesleyan and Philanthropic Worker"
+src="images/p185es.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Among the justices who have sat on the Willenhall Bench and
+possessed other connections with the place may be mentioned the
+late N. Neal Solly, ironmaster, two water-colour drawings by whom
+hang on the walls of the Free Library; the late Rev. G. H.
+Fisher, who was chairman; R. D. Gough, a brother of the late
+Colonel Foster Gough, and who married the rich and benevolent
+Mary Clemson, daughter of John Clemson, a corn miller, of this
+township; while among the most recent appointments are Clement
+Tildesley, Thomas Vaughan, and Thomas Kidson.&nbsp; The present
+Clerk to the Willenhall Bench is Samuel Mills Slater, in
+succession to his father, the late James Slater, of Bescot
+Hall.</p>
+<p>A memorial tablet to the local men who fell in the Boer War
+has been erected at the gateway to the Old Cemetery.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p186.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative design"
+title=
+"Decorative design"
+src="images/p186.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><!-- page 187--><a name="page187"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 187</span>XXXII.&mdash;Manners and
+Customs.</h2>
+<p>The Manners and Customs of the people of Willenhall have been
+those held in common with the populace of the surrounding
+parishes, and which have been dealt with too fully in the
+published writings of Mr. G. T. Lawley to need more than a brief
+review here.</p>
+<p>The seasonal custom of Well Dressing has been alluded to in
+Chapter XVII., and of Beating the Bounds in Chapter V.&nbsp;
+Other ancient customs of minor import existed, but space cannot
+be found to treat them in a general history.</p>
+<p>The social calibre of the people a century or so ago may be
+gauged by a local illustration of the custom of Wife Selling.</p>
+<p>This practice was once common enough everywhere, and amongst
+the ignorant and illiterate in some parts it is still held to be
+a perfectly legitimate transaction.&nbsp; From the &ldquo;Annual
+Register&rdquo; this local instance has been clipped:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Three men and three women went to the Bell
+Inn, Edgbaston Street, Birmingham, and made the following
+singular entry in the toll book which is kept there: August 31,
+1773, Samuel Whitehouse, of the Parish of Willenhall, in the
+county of Stafford, this day sold his wife, Mary Whitehouse, in
+open market, to Thomas Griffiths, of Birmingham, value one
+shilling.&nbsp; To take her with all her faults.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;(Signed) Samuel Whitehouse.<br
+/>
+Mary Whitehouse.</p>
+<p>Voucher, Thomas Buckley, of Birmingham.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The parties were all exceedingly well pleased, and the money
+paid down for the toll as for a regular purchase.</p>
+<p>So much for the moral status of the people; now to consider
+them from the industrial side.</p>
+<p>The older generation of Willenhall men were accustomed, ere
+factory Acts and kindred forms of parental legislation had
+regulated working hours and otherwise ameliorated the conditions
+of labour, to slave for many weary hours in little domiciliary
+workshops.&nbsp; Boys were then apprenticed at a tender age, and
+soon <!-- page 188--><a name="page188"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 188</span>became humpbacked in consequence of
+throwing in the weight of their little bodies in the endeavour to
+eke out the strength of the feeble thews and bones in their
+immature arms.</p>
+<p>In those days men worked when they liked, and played when it
+suited them; they generally played the earlier days of the week,
+even if at the end they worked night and day in the attempt to
+average the weekly earnings.&nbsp; In this connection it has been
+suggested that in pre-Reformation times Willenhall folk duly
+honoured St. Sunday and well as St. Monday, consecrating both
+days to the sacred cause of weekly idleness.&nbsp; Or was
+Willenhall&rsquo;s Holy Well dedicated to St. Dominic, and came
+by grammatical error to be called St. Sunday?&nbsp; As
+thus&mdash;Sanctus Dominicus abbreviated first to Sanc. Dominic,
+and then extended in the wrong gender to Sancta Dominica,
+otherwise Saint Sunday?&nbsp; Who shall say?&nbsp; It may have
+been so.</p>
+<p>It is perhaps in their pleasures, more than in their pursuits,
+that the character of a people is to be best seen.&nbsp; Allusion
+has been made to the obsolete Trinity Fair in Chapter XII.; but
+the Wake has remained to this day, less loyally observed perhaps,
+but rich in traditions of past glories.</p>
+<p>Willenhall Wake falls on the first Sunday after September
+11th, the Feast of St. Giles, to whom the old church is
+dedicated.</p>
+<p>Among the wakes of the Black Country none are richer in
+reminiscence of the old time forms of festivity than that of
+Willenhall.&nbsp; Although in later times the outward and visible
+sign of its celebration has dwindled down to an assemblage of
+shows and roundabouts, shooting galleries, and ginger-bread
+stalls, it was once accompanied by bull-baitings and
+cock-fighting, and all the other coarse and brutal sports in
+which our forefathers so much delighted.</p>
+<blockquote><p>At Wednesfield at one village wake<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; The cockers all did meet<br />
+At Billy Lane&rsquo;s, the cock-fighter&rsquo;s,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; To have a sporting treat.</p>
+<p>For Charley Marson&rsquo;s spangled cock<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Was matched to fight a red<br />
+That came from Will&rsquo;n&rsquo;all o&rsquo;er the fields,<br
+/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And belonged to &ldquo;Cheeky Ned.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><!-- page 189--><a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+189</span>Two finer birds in any cock-pit<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Two never yet was seen.<br />
+Though the Wednesfield men declared<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Their cock was sure to win.</p>
+<p>The cocks fought well, and feathers fled<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; All round about the pit,<br />
+While blood from both of &rsquo;em did flow<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Yet ne&rsquo;er un would submit.</p>
+<p>At last the spangled Wedgefield bird<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Began to show defeat,<br />
+When Billy Lane, he up and swore<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; The bird shouldn&rsquo;t be beat;</p>
+<p>For he would fight the biggest mon<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; That came from Will&rsquo;n&rsquo;all town,<br />
+When on the word, old &ldquo;Cheeky Ned&rdquo;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Got up and knocked him down.</p>
+<p>To fight they went like bull-dogs,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; As it is very well known,<br />
+Till &ldquo;Cheeky Ned&rdquo; seized Billy&rsquo;s thumb,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And bit it to the bone.</p>
+<p>At this the Wednesfield men begun<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Their comrade&rsquo;s part to take,<br />
+And never was a fiercer fight<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Fought at a village wake.</p>
+<p>They beat the men from Will&rsquo;n&rsquo;all town<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Back to their town again,<br />
+And long they will remember<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; This Wednesfield wake and main.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The site of the Willenhall Bull Ring, it may be added for the
+information of future generations, was opposite the Baptist
+Chapel, Little London, where Temple Bar joins the Wednesfield and
+Bloxwich Roads.</p>
+<p>Among other Wake observances of the last century were the
+&ldquo;Club Walkings&rdquo; or processioning of the Friendly
+Societies, whose members first attended a brief service in the
+church, and then spent the rest of the day in feasting at the
+Neptune Inn opposite.&nbsp; Tradition hath it that further back,
+well into the Georgian era, and certainly before Mr.
+Fisher&rsquo;s time, another Wake custom was that of
+&ldquo;kissing the parson,&rdquo; a privilege of which the women
+were said to be very jealous.</p>
+<p>In the year 1857 the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Member of
+Parliament for the Borough of Wolverhampton, of which this
+township was part, inaugurated in Willenhall one of the first
+exhibitions of fine art and industry ever held in the Black
+Country.&nbsp; <!-- page 190--><a name="page190"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 190</span>It was opened on the Monday in the
+Wake week, and Mr. Villiers alluded to the fact that &ldquo;they
+met in the midst of one of those old-fashioned wakes which it was
+the humour of their ancestors to establish and be pleased
+with,&rdquo; and the right hon. gentleman proceeded to contrast
+the present with the past conditions of Willenhall Wake-time.</p>
+<p>A flourishing Free Library&mdash;founded like many another in
+the face of great local opposition and prejudice&mdash;is one of
+the legacies of that exhibition, from the date of which may be
+traced the more rational observance of Wake-time.</p>
+<p>With the advance of science and art and the spread of popular
+education, the future prosperity of an ingenious community, like
+that of the skilled mechanics and deft craftsmen of this
+township, is assured.&nbsp; Impressed with such certitude it is
+all but a work of supererogation to echo the patriotic sentiment
+of the old-time townsfolk&mdash;</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">&ldquo;LET WILLENHALL
+FLOURISH!&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="gapshortline">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">The
+End</span>.</p>
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+<p>Ablow Field <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span></p>
+<p>Agmund <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Aldhelm <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span></p>
+<p>Ames <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span></p>
+<p>Anlaf <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Annes, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page110">110</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span></p>
+<p>Anson (Lichfield) <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page152">152</a></span></p>
+<p>Arley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>&ndash;8</p>
+<p>Aston <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page34">34</a></span></p>
+<p>Austin <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page165">165</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+<p>Badland <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page62">62</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>&ndash;6</p>
+<p>Baker <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page149">149</a></span></p>
+<p>Barnard <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span></p>
+<p>Barr <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span></p>
+<p>Bate <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span></p>
+<p>Beating Bounds <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page24">24</a></span>&ndash;6, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span></p>
+<p>Beaumont <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page58">58</a></span>&ndash;9, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>&ndash;1</p>
+<p>Beneting <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Bentley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>&ndash;8, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page81">81</a></span>&ndash;82,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>&ndash;1, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page127">127</a></span>&ndash;8,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page151">151</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+<p>Beogitha&rsquo;s Stream <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page29">29</a></span></p>
+<p>Bescot <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span></p>
+<p>Bilbrook <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span></p>
+<p>Bilston <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>&ndash;8, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>&ndash;81,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>&ndash;8,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span></p>
+<p>Blakenhall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span></p>
+<p>Bloxwich <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>&ndash;8, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span></p>
+<p>Booth <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span></p>
+<p>Boscobel <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>&ndash;70</p>
+<p>Bradford <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span></p>
+<p>Bradley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span></p>
+<p>Brewood <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page162">162</a></span></p>
+<p>Brideoak <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page73">73</a></span></p>
+<p>Bromehall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span></p>
+<p>Browning <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span></p>
+<p>Burnell <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span></p>
+<p>Burton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span></p>
+<p>Bushbury <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page24">24</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page68">68</a></span>&ndash;9, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span></p>
+<p>Callendine <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span></p>
+<p>Canals <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page127">127</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page157">157</a></span></p>
+<p>Cannock <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page24">24</a></span>&ndash;5, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>&ndash;9,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span></p>
+<p>Carpenter <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page158">158</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page161">161</a></span>&ndash;3, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page165">165</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page178">178</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+<p>Carter <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page164">164</a></span></p>
+<p>Catchem&rsquo;s Corner <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span></p>
+<p>Chartley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page83">83</a></span></p>
+<p>Chatterton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span></p>
+<p>Chillington <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page84">84</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page149">149</a></span></p>
+<p>Chubb <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page160">160</a></span></p>
+<p>Churchwardens <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page79">79</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page130">130</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page153">153</a></span></p>
+<p>Clarke <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span></p>
+<p>Clement <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page42">42</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page72">72</a></span></p>
+<p>Clemson <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page186">186</a></span></p>
+<p>Clent <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page64">64</a></span></p>
+<p>Cleveland <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span></p>
+<p>Codsall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span></p>
+<p>Coseley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page145">145</a></span></p>
+<p>Cote <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span></p>
+<p>Courts (Leet, &amp;c.) <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page23">23</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>&ndash;153, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span></p>
+<p>Coven <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span></p>
+<p>Cozens <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span></p>
+<p>Cuddlestone <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>&ndash;8</p>
+<p>Darlaston <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page82">82</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page174">174</a></span>&ndash;5,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+<p>Davies <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page125">125</a></span></p>
+<p>Dean (of Wolverhampton) <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page22">22</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>&ndash;6,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span>&ndash;1,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>&ndash;9</p>
+<p>Delves <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span></p>
+<p>De Willenhall, John <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page42">42</a></span></p>
+<p>,, Roger <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Dudley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page64">64</a></span>&ndash;6,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span></p>
+<p>Duignan <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page3">3</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span></p>
+<p>Dunstall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span></p>
+<p>Ecwills <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Elfthryth <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span></p>
+<p>Essington <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page154">154</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page157">157</a></span></p>
+<p>Ettingshall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span></p>
+<p>Etymologies <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page1">1</a></span>&ndash;5, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page11">11</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page13">13</a></span>&ndash;4</p>
+<p>Fairs, Wakes, &amp;c. <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span>&ndash;61, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page190">190</a></span></p>
+<p>Featherstone, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page23">23</a></span>&ndash;5, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>&ndash;6,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span></p>
+<p>Fellows <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page22">22</a></span>&ndash;3</p>
+<p>Fisher <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page102">102</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page104">104</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>&ndash;111, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page127">127</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span></p>
+<p>Fletcher <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span></p>
+<p>Foster <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span></p>
+<p>Franchises <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span></p>
+<p>Fytzherbert <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page52">52</a></span></p>
+<p>Garrick <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page88">88</a></span>&ndash;9</p>
+<p>Gerveyse <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span>&ndash;3, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span></p>
+<p>Giffard <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page52">52</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page97">97</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page123">123</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page149">149</a></span></p>
+<p>Giles, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page36">36</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page110">110</a></span>&ndash;1, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span></p>
+<p>Gilpin <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>&ndash;7</p>
+<p>Goldthorn Hill <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page20">20</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span></p>
+<p>Goscote <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span></p>
+<p>Gospelling <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span></p>
+<p>Gough <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page140">140</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page186">186</a></span></p>
+<p>Gower <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page47">47</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page97">97</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span></p>
+<p>Graisley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page20">20</a></span></p>
+<p>Grosvenor <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span></p>
+<p>Guthferth <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Halesowen <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span></p>
+<p>Haling <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>&ndash;7</p>
+<p>Hall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page86">86</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span></p>
+<p>Hammerwich <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span></p>
+<p>Hampton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page113">113</a></span></p>
+<p>Harper <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page42">42</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page166">166</a></span></p>
+<p>Hartill <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page102">102</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page111">111</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span>&ndash;2,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page146">146</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page154">154</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span>&ndash;6</p>
+<p>Hascard <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span></p>
+<p>Haswic <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span></p>
+<p>Hatherton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>&ndash;9, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>&ndash;4,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>&ndash;6,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span></p>
+<p>Healfden <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Heath Town <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page11">11</a></span></p>
+<p>Hilton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>&ndash;9, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>&ndash;4,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>&ndash;9,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span>&ndash;6, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span></p>
+<p>Hincks <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+<p>Hind Brook <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page90">90</a></span></p>
+<p>Hinton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span>&ndash;5</p>
+<p>Hobbart <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page76">76</a></span></p>
+<p>Hocintun <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span></p>
+<p>Holbrooke <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page97">97</a></span>&ndash;137</p>
+<p>Holyoake <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page108">108</a></span></p>
+<p>Horsley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>&ndash;10</p>
+<p>Huntbach <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span></p>
+<p>Industries, Trades <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page31">31</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page41">41</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page178">178</a></span></p>
+<p>Jennings <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span></p>
+<p>Johnson <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page88">88</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page101">101</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span></p>
+<p>Kempson <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page161">161</a></span></p>
+<p>Kenwolf <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Kidson <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page186">186</a></span></p>
+<p>Kinvaston <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page23">23</a></span>&ndash;5, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span></p>
+<p>Kinver <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span>&ndash;6</p>
+<p>Lane, Lone <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page52">52</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>&ndash;7, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>&ndash;7,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span></p>
+<p>Lawley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span>&ndash;8, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span></p>
+<p>Leek <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Lees <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span></p>
+<p>Leigh <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>&ndash;7, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span></p>
+<p>Leper House <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page94">94</a></span></p>
+<p>Levison <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page36">36</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page41">41</a></span>&ndash;52, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page55">55</a></span>&ndash;6,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>&ndash;1,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>&ndash;4,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>&ndash;1</p>
+<p>Lewis <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page98">98</a></span></p>
+<p>Lilleshall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page49">49</a></span></p>
+<p>Little London <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page189">189</a></span></p>
+<p>Little Low <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span></p>
+<p>Lowhill <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span></p>
+<p>Lows <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span></p>
+<p>Loxton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span></p>
+<p>Lutley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span></p>
+<p>Manlove <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page83">83</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page85">85</a></span></p>
+<p>Manningham <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span></p>
+<p>Marshall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page60">60</a></span></p>
+<p>Matilda <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Maxey <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page72">72</a></span></p>
+<p>Mercia <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page3">3</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Monmore <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page11">11</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page16">16</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page23">23</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>&ndash;6,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span></p>
+<p>Moreton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page100">100</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+<p>Moseley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page70">70</a></span>&ndash;1, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span></p>
+<p>Mounsell <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span></p>
+<p>Mumper&rsquo;s Dingle <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page172">172</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page174">174</a></span></p>
+<p>Nechells <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span></p>
+<p>Neptune Inn <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page102">102</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page149">149</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page181">181</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span></p>
+<p>Neve <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page138">138</a></span></p>
+<p>Newbolds <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span></p>
+<p>Newbrigge <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span></p>
+<p>New Invention <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page154">154</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page183">183</a></span></p>
+<p>Nicholls <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span></p>
+<p>North Low <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span></p>
+<p>Oakeswell <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page67">67</a></span></p>
+<p>Ocstele, le <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span></p>
+<p>Odyes <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page42">42</a></span>&ndash;3</p>
+<p>Offlow <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>&ndash;8, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span></p>
+<p>Ogley Hay <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span></p>
+<p>Ohter <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Oldbury <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page63">63</a></span></p>
+<p>Oliver <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page1">1</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page24">24</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page50">50</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page89">89</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span></p>
+<p>Osferth <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Padmore <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span></p>
+<p>Patent Rolls <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span>&ndash;3, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span></p>
+<p>Pearce <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page146">146</a></span></p>
+<p>Pedley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page130">130</a></span>&ndash;1, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page147">147</a></span></p>
+<p>Pelsall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page81">81</a></span></p>
+<p>Pendeford <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page162">162</a></span></p>
+<p>Penderel <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span></p>
+<p>Penkhull <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Penkridge <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page178">178</a></span></p>
+<p>Penn <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page82">82</a></span></p>
+<p>Pensnett <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page90">90</a></span></p>
+<p>Perry <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page161">161</a></span></p>
+<p>Phillips, Claudius <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page88">88</a></span>&ndash;9</p>
+<p>Pipe Rolls <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Pitt <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page67">67</a></span></p>
+<p>Podmore <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>&ndash;1</p>
+<p>Portobello <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>&ndash;5, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span></p>
+<p>Prestwood <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page113">113</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page151">151</a></span></p>
+<p>Prosser <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page162">162</a></span></p>
+<p>Pype <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span></p>
+<p>Railways <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page127">127</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page150">150</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page156">156</a></span></p>
+<p>Rollason <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page64">64</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page117">117</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page122">122</a></span></p>
+<p>Rosedale <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page111">111</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span></p>
+<p>Rowley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Rubery <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span></p>
+<p>Rushall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>&ndash;9</p>
+<p>Rushbrooke <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span></p>
+<p>Ryes <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page73">73</a></span></p>
+<p>Sampson <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span></p>
+<p>Sandbeds <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page154">154</a></span></p>
+<p>Scotland <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span></p>
+<p>Sedgley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page13">13</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page167">167</a></span></p>
+<p>Seisdon <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>&ndash;8, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span></p>
+<p>Sewall, Showells, &amp;c. <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>&ndash;4</p>
+<p>Shakespeare <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span></p>
+<p>Shenstone <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span></p>
+<p>Shepwell Green <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span></p>
+<p>Short Heath <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page110">110</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span>&ndash;4,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>&ndash;5, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span></p>
+<p>Sigeric <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page20">20</a></span>&ndash;1</p>
+<p>Slater <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page113">113</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page116">116</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page186">186</a></span></p>
+<p>Soldier&rsquo;s Hill <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span></p>
+<p>Solly <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page178">178</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page186">186</a></span></p>
+<p>South Low <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span></p>
+<p>Spa, Holy Well, &amp;c. <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page90">90</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span>&ndash;8</p>
+<p>Spring Vale <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span></p>
+<p>Stephen&rsquo;s, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page110">110</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>&ndash;4</p>
+<p>Stow Heath <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page99">99</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page116">116</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page122">122</a></span>&ndash;4, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>&ndash;9,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span></p>
+<p>Stowman Hill <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span></p>
+<p>Stretton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page81">81</a></span></p>
+<p>Sunday, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page90">90</a></span>&ndash;1</p>
+<p>Sutherland <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page47">47</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page112">112</a></span></p>
+<p>Swynnerton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span></p>
+<p>Symmonds <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page68">68</a></span></p>
+<p>Tame <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span></p>
+<p>Tettenhall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>&ndash;8, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span></p>
+<p>Therferth <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span></p>
+<p>Thorneycroft <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page165">165</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page176">176</a></span>&ndash;7</p>
+<p>Tildesley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page154">154</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page158">158</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page163">163</a></span>&ndash;6, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span>&ndash;8,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span></p>
+<p>Tipper <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page164">164</a></span>&ndash;5</p>
+<p>Tipton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page136">136</a></span></p>
+<p>Tithes <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page48">48</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page50">50</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span></p>
+<p>Tomkys <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page131">131</a></span>&ndash;2, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span></p>
+<p>Tonks <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page146">146</a></span>&ndash;7, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span></p>
+<p>Tramways <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page156">156</a></span></p>
+<p>Trollesbury <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span></p>
+<p>Tromelow <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span></p>
+<p>Tumuli <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span></p>
+<p>Turton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page47">47</a></span></p>
+<p>Twyford <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span></p>
+<p>Unett <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page85">85</a></span>&ndash;6, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span></p>
+<p>Vaughan <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page186">186</a></span></p>
+<p>Vestry <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span></p>
+<p>Villiers <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page182">182</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page184">184</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page189">189</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page190">190</a></span></p>
+<p>Wakelam <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page182">182</a></span></p>
+<p>Walker <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page24">24</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page61">61</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page184">184</a></span></p>
+<p>Walsall <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>&ndash;9, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>&ndash;9,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page60">60</a></span>&ndash;1, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span></p>
+<p>Wednesbury <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page1">1</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>&ndash;3, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>&ndash;61,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span></p>
+<p>Wednesfield <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page5">5</a></span>&ndash;13, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page31">31</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span>&ndash;40, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>, l67, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span></p>
+<p>Welch <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page131">131</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page151">151</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page179">179</a></span></p>
+<p>Wergs <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page8">8</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span></p>
+<p>Wesley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page152">152</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span></p>
+<p>West Bromwich <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page113">113</a></span></p>
+<p>White <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>&ndash;4</p>
+<p>Whitehouse <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page187">187</a></span></p>
+<p>Whitegreaves <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page70">70</a></span>&ndash;1</p>
+<p>Willis <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page89">89</a></span></p>
+<p>Wilkes <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page80">80</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page82">82</a></span>&ndash;92, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>&ndash;1,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span></p>
+<p>Willoughby de Broke <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span></p>
+<p>Windsor <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page23">23</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page35">35</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page49">49</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span>&ndash;5, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span></p>
+<p>Wobaston <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page23">23</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span>&ndash;6</p>
+<p>Woden Stone <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page13">13</a></span></p>
+<p>Wolfric <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span></p>
+<p>Wolstanton <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span></p>
+<p>Wombourn <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page56">56</a></span></p>
+<p>Wren <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page73">73</a></span></p>
+<p>Wrottesley <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page52">52</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page84">84</a></span>,&ndash;5</p>
+<p>Wulfgeal <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span></p>
+<p>Wulfruna <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page22">22</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page94">94</a></span></p>
+<p>Wyndefield <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span></p>
+<p>Young <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page162">162</a></span></p>
+<h2>Footnotes:</h2>
+<p><a name="footnote88"></a><a href="#citation88"
+class="footnote">[88]</a>&nbsp; Claudy Phillips, as he was
+popularly called, seems to have been a man of considerable
+genius, though not without some of the eccentricities which
+sometimes accompany it.&nbsp; He was well known throughout the
+county, which he used to traverse dressed at one time in laced
+clothes, at others in garments which betrayed the low state of
+his exchequer.&nbsp; When drawn to it by stress of financial
+embarassment, he was not above playing in the evening at inns,
+and throwing himself upon the generosity of his audiences
+there.&nbsp; As to his qualities as a musician, it is said his
+<i>forte</i> was in wild and plaintive melody, dictated by the
+impulses of his own mind, and subject to none of the ordinary
+rules of studied compositions; his manipulation of the violin was
+also distinguished for a rapidity of execution unrivalled in
+those days.&nbsp; The handsome marble tablet erected to his
+memory soon after his death, in 1732, by public subscription,
+shows that he must have been held in considerable estimation by a
+goodly number of admirers.&nbsp; Indeed, he must have been known
+to some of the most prominent personages of his time, as the
+following lines upon him have been variously attributed to Dr.
+Johnson or to David Garrick:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove<br
+/>
+The pangs of guilty power and hapless love,<br />
+Rest here! distrest by poverty no more,<br />
+Here find that calm thou gav&rsquo;st so oft before!<br />
+Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,<br />
+Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>(See also Oliver&rsquo;s &ldquo;Wolverhampton,&rdquo; pp. 98
+and 99.)</p>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANNALS OF WILLENHALL***</p>
+<pre>
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@@ -0,0 +1,8143 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Annals of Willenhall, by Frederick
+William Hackwood
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Annals of Willenhall
+
+
+Author: Frederick William Hackwood
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2010  [eBook #31675]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANNALS OF WILLENHALL***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1908 Whitehead Bros. edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+                                                               [COPYRIGHT]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   THE
+                           ANNALS OF WILLENHALL
+
+
+                                  --BY--
+
+                          FREDERICK WM. HACKWOOD
+
+                                AUTHOR OF
+
+   "The Chronicles of Cannock Chase," "Wednesbury Ancient and Modern,"
+        "The Story of the Black Country," "Staffordshire Stories,"
+                                 &c., &c.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+         "I cannot tell by what charm our native soil captivates us,
+                and does not allow us to be forgetful of it."
+
+                                                                 --_Ovid_.
+
+              [Picture: Seal of Willenhall Local Authority]
+
+                              Wolverhampton:
+                             WHITEHEAD BROS.,
+                    St. John's Square and King Street.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                  1908.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER.                                                         PAGE.
+I.--Willenhall--Its Name and Antiquity                               1
+II.--The Battle of Wednesfield                                       5
+III.--The Saxon Settlement                                          11
+IV.--The Founding of Wulfruna's Church, A.D. 996                    17
+V.--The Collegiate Establishment                                    22
+VI.--Willenhall at the Norman Conquest (1066-1086)                  27
+VII.--A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall                          32
+VIII.--Willenhall in the Middle Ages                                37
+IX.--The Levesons and other Old Willenhall Families                 41
+X.--Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation                        48
+XI.--How the Reformation Affected Willenhall                        52
+XII.--Before the Reformation--and After                             57
+XIII.--A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms                    65
+(1640-1745)
+XIV.--Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend                  72
+(1615-1702)
+XV.--Willenhall Struggling to be a Free Parish                      77
+XVI.--Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall (1690-1760)                 82
+XVII.--Willenhall "Spaw"                                            90
+XVIII.--The Benefice                                                95
+XIX.--How a Flock Chose its own Shepherd                           103
+XX.--The Election of 1894, and Since                               110
+XXI.--Willenhall Church Endowments                                 116
+XXII.--The Church Charities: the Daughter Churches                 129
+XXIII.--The Fabric of the Church                                   135
+XXIV.--Dissent, Nonconformity, and Philanthrophy                   143
+XXV.--Manorial Government                                          148
+XXVI.--Modern Self-Government                                      153
+XXVII.--The Town of Locks and Keys                                 158
+XXVIII.--Willenhall in Fiction                                     167
+XXIX.--Bibliography                                                175
+XXX.--Topography                                                   179
+XXXI.--Old Families and Names of Note                              184
+XXXII.--Manners and Customs                                        187
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+Seal of Local Authority                    Title Page.
+St. Giles' Church                                    v
+Rev. Wm. Moreton                                     v
+Rev. G. H. Fisher, M.A.                              v
+Dr. Richard Wilkes                                   v
+Moseley Hall                                        65
+Boscobel                                            65
+Bentley Hall                                       137
+Willenhall Trade Token (farthing)                  166
+Borrow, George                                     169
+Borrow's Birthplace                                169
+Neptune Inn                                        177
+Bell Inn                                           177
+Old Bull's Head                                    177
+The Plough                                         177
+Tildesley, James                                   185
+Tildesley, Josiah                                  185
+Pearce, George Ley                                 185
+Hartill, Jeremiah                                  185
+Austin, John                                       185
+
+     [Picture: St. Giles' Church (before Restoration).  1755 to 1871]
+
+     [Picture: The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles' Church,
+                               1788-1834)]
+
+   [Picture: Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A.  (Incumbent of St. Giles'
+                           Church, 1834-1894)]
+
+                      [Picture: Dr. Richard Wilkes]
+
+
+
+
+I.--Its Name and Its Antiquity
+
+
+Willenhall, vulgo Willnal, is undoubtedly a place of great antiquity; on
+the evidence of its name it manifestly had its foundation in an early
+Saxon settlement.  The Anglo-Saxon form of the name Willanhale may be
+interpreted as "the meadow land of Willa"--Willa being a personal name,
+probably that of the tribal leader, the head of a Teutonic family, who
+settled here.  In the Domesday Book the name appears as Winehala, but by
+the twelfth century had approached as near to its modern form as
+Willenhal and Willenhale.
+
+Dr. Oliver, in his History of Wolverhampton, derives the name from Velen,
+the Sun-god, and the Rev. H. Barber, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who tries to
+find a Danish origin for nearly all our old Midland place-names, suggests
+the Norse form Vil-hjalmr; or perhaps a connection with Scandinavian
+family names such as Willing and Wlmer.
+
+Dr. Barber fortifies himself by quoting Scott:--
+
+    Beneath the shade the Northmen came,
+    Fixed on each vale a Runic name.
+
+                                                        Rokeby, Canto, IV.
+
+Here it may not be out of place to mention that Scandinavian influences
+are occasionally traceable throughout the entire basin of the Trent, even
+as far as this upper valley of its feeder, the Tame.  The place-name
+Bustleholme (containing the unmistakable Norse root, "holme," indicating
+a river island) is the appellation of an ancient mill on this stream,
+just below Wednesbury.  In this connection it is interesting to recall
+Carlyle's words.  In his "Hero Worship," the sage informs us of a mode of
+speech still used by the barge men of the Trent when the river is in a
+highly flooded state, and running swiftly with a dangerous eddying swirl.
+The boatmen at such times will call out to each other, "Have a care!
+there is the Eager coming!"  This, says Carlyle, is a relic of Norse
+mythology, coming down to us from the time when pagan boatmen on the
+Trent believed in that Northern deity, Aegir, the God of the Sea Tempest,
+whose name (as he picturesquely puts it) "survives like the peak of a
+submerged world."  This by the way.
+
+Willenhall, however, was situated outside the Danelagh, the western
+boundary of which was the Watling Street; indeed, the place nomenclature
+of this locality affords very few examples which are really traceable to
+the Danish occupation--an almost solitary specimen being the
+aforementioned name of Bustleholme, near the Delves.
+
+The etymological derivation which has found most favour in times past is
+that based on the erroneous Domesday form, Winehala.  Perhaps Stebbing
+Shaw is responsible for this, as in his history of the county, written
+1798, he says:--"As Wednesbury is but two miles, and Wednesfield but one
+mile from hence, it is probable that this name might be changed for that
+of Winehale, from the Saxon word for victory, when that great battle was
+fought hereabout in 911."
+
+Of this battle, and the victory or "win" which the founding of Willenhall
+was supposed to commemorate, some account will be given in the next
+chapter.  But the hypothesis of Shaw, and those who adopted his view,
+apparently involved the supposition that the earliest mention of
+Willenhall was of a date subsequent to 911 A.D.; but thanks to the recent
+researches of our eminent local historiographer, Mr. W. H. Duignan,
+F.S.A. (of Walsall), that position is no longer tenable.
+
+There is in existence a couple of charters dated A.D. 732 (or 733;
+certainly before the year 734) which were executed by Ethelbald, King of
+Mercia, at a place named therein as "Willanhalch."
+
+Mr. Duignan says the Mercian kings frequently reside in this part of
+their dominions, as at Kingsbury, Tamworth, and Penkridge; probably for
+the convenience of hunting in Cannock Forest, within the boundaries of
+which Willenhall was anciently located.
+
+Virtually the two charters are one, the same transaction being recorded
+by careful and punctilious scribes in duplicate; and their purport was to
+benefit Mildrith, now commonly called St. Mildreda, one of the
+grand-daughters of King Penda, and probably one of the few canonised
+worthies who can be claimed as natives of this county-area.  She was the
+Abbess of Minstrey, in the Isle of Thanet, and "sinful Ethelbald," as he
+humbly styles himself, remits certain taxes and makes certain grants to
+her newly-founded abbey, all for the good of his soul.  These duplicated
+documents were published in the original Latin in Kemble's "Codex
+Diplomaticus" in 1843, by Thorpe in his "Diplomatarium Anglicum" in 1865,
+and again in Birch's "Chartularium Saxonicum" in 1885.
+
+The internal evidence contained in them is to this effect:--"This was
+executed on the 4th day of the Kalends of November, in the 22nd year of
+my reign, being the fifteenth decree made in that place which is called
+Willanhalch."  Not one of these three authorities, although in the habit
+of doing so wherever they can offer an opinion with any reasonable degree
+of certainty, has ventured to suggest the modern name and identity of the
+"place called Willanhalch."  But Mr. Duignan, with the ripe knowledge and
+almost unerring judgment he possesses in such matters, has no hesitation
+whatever in identifying the place as Willenhall.  As he says, there is no
+other place-name in Mercia, or even in England, which could possibly be
+represented by Willanhalch.
+
+Undoubtedly there is another Willenhall.  It is a hamlet in the parish of
+Holy Trinity, Coventry, and its name was anciently spelt Wylnhale.  But
+the history of the place is naturally involved in that of the city of
+Coventry, as the hamlet never had any separate and independent existence
+like that of our Staffordshire township.  Any charter emanating from this
+place would indubitably be dated "Coventry."
+
+The suggestion of Shaw that the name was changed cannot be entertained
+for one moment; the Anglo-Saxons were not in the habit of changing
+place-names, but they were very much addicted to the practice of "calling
+their lands after their own names."  Dr. Willmore, in his "History of
+Walsall" (p. 30) adopts the now discarded derivation of the name of
+Willenhall.  He says "After the defeat a great feast of rejoicing was
+held by the Saxons at Winehala, the Hall of Victory, and the event was
+long celebrated by the national poets."
+
+To identify the "Hall of Victory" with Willenhall the Walsall historian
+proceeds:--"At Lowhill may still be seen the remains of a large tumulus,
+while in Wrottesley Park are the vestiges of a large encampment, believed
+by some authorities to be of Danish construction, and to have been
+occupied by them about the time of these engagements."
+
+Yet in the next paragraph it is admitted that the Danes never gained a
+permanent footing in this locality, and that there is scarce a name of
+purely Danish origin in the neighbourhood.
+
+"Willenhalch," then, may be accepted as signifying in Anglo-Saxon "the
+meadowland of Willan," Willan (not Willen) being a personal name, and
+halch being a form of healh, signifying "enclosed land on the banks of a
+stream," as, for instance, on the Willenhall Brook.
+
+Any ancient place-name terminating in "halch" would, in the course of
+time, terminate in "hall," a termination now commonly construed as
+"hall," or "mansion."  There is nothing inherently improbable in
+Willenhall having been a temporary royal residence.  King John in much
+later times had his hunting lodge at Brewood.  Bushbury, originally
+Bishopsbury, was so called because one of the early Mercian bishops is
+said to have made this place his episcopal residence.  Attention has been
+called to the fact that in this vicinity a number of place-names end in
+"hall," as Willenhall, Tettenhall, Walsall, Pelsall, and Rushall.  The
+inference drawn is that each of these places marks the settlement of some
+pioneer Anglican chieftain, or, as Dr. Oliver puts it, the mansion and
+estate of some Saxon thane.
+
+
+
+
+II.--The Battle of Wednesfield.
+
+
+Although it cannot be admitted that the Battle of Wednesfield, or the
+great national victory gained on that occasion, provided Willenhall with
+its name, the event itself may certainly be regarded as the chief
+historical episode which has occurred in this immediate vicinity.  This
+was "far back in the olden time" when, says the local poetess--
+
+    The Danes lay camped on Woden's field.
+
+Dr. Willmore, in his "History of Walsall" (p. 30), quotes an authority to
+the effect that the battle fought at Wednesfield in the year 911 "had the
+important consequence of freeing England from the attacks of these
+formidable invaders."
+
+This engagement was one of the many which took place between the Saxon
+and the Dane for dynastic supremacy.  Even the mighty prowess of Alfred
+the Great had failed to give the quietus to Danish pretensions, and his
+son, Edward the Elder, was engaged in a life-long struggle with the
+Danes, in the course of which the Princess Ethelfleda, who was Edward's
+sister, and Great Alfred's daughter, erected castles at Bridgnorth,
+Stafford, Warwick, Tamworth, and Wednesbury.  Edward the Elder had to
+combat Welsh invasions as well as Danish aggressiveness, and hence the
+erection of these castles in Mercia, where most of the minor fighting in
+that disturbed period occurred.  For nine years Ethelfleda fought side by
+side with her husband Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, in the pitiless struggle;
+and upon his death, continuing as her brother's viceroy, she proved
+herself one of the ablest women warriors this country has ever known.
+
+In 910 (the Saxon Chronicle informs us) a battle of more than ordinary
+moment was fought at Tettenhall.  The Danes were returning from a raid,
+laden with rich spoils, when they were overtaken at this spot by the
+Angles, on the 5th day of August, and there signally defeated.  It was to
+avenge this disaster that the Danes swooped down the following summer
+from the north, and met their antagonists exactly on the same day of the
+year, and almost on the same ground.  The latter fact may possibly
+indicate that there was some strategic importance in the locality.
+Wednesfield being almost within hail of Tettenhall; though the better
+informed writers, including Mr. James P. Jones, the historian of
+Tettenhall, have been led to consider the two battles as one engagement.
+
+As a matter of fact, the exact site of the Tettenhall engagement is not
+known, yet one historian has not hesitated to represent the nature of the
+conflict as being "so terrible that it could not be described by the most
+exquisite pen."  It seems to have been an engagement of that old-time
+ferocity which is so exultantly proclaimed in the ancient war song:--
+
+    We there, in strife bewild'ring,
+       Spilt blood enough to swim in:
+    We orphaned many children,
+       We widowed many women.
+    The eagles and the ravens
+       We glutted with our foemen:
+    The heroes and the cravens,
+       The spearmen and the bowmen.
+
+According to Fabius Ethelwerd it was a national and a most memorable
+fight which occurred at Wednesfield, where three Danish chieftains fell
+in the conflict; in support of which statement it is mentioned that the
+Lows, or monumental burial grounds, of the mighty dead are to be found at
+Wednesfield and Wrottesley.  But Wrottesley is nearer to Tettenhall than
+to Wednesfield.  The number of tumuli which once lay scattered over the
+entire range of this district may perhaps be accountable for the
+variations in the mediaeval chronicles.  As we shall see, while it is
+well agreed that the country lying between Tettenhall and Wombourn on the
+one hand, and Wednesfield and Willenhall on the other, was the scene of a
+great struggle, the details of the conflict vary very materially at the
+hands of different chroniclers.  A valuable collection of old records and
+historical documents relating to this locality was made by John Huntbach,
+of Featherstone and Seawall, near Wolverhampton, nephew and pupil to that
+noted antiquary, Sir William Dugdale.  The Huntbach MSS. related more
+directly to Seisdon; and it was this collection which inspired similar
+efforts on the part of the Willenhall Antiquary, Dr. Richard Wilkes, and
+ultimately led to the writing of the Rev. Stebbing Shaw's "History of
+Staffordshire" (1798-1801).
+
+Speaking of the treatment of the battles of Tettenhall and Wednesfield by
+the old monkish historians, Huntbach says:--"There is very great reason
+to confirm their testimony who say the battle was here fought; for there
+are many tumuli or lows there, that shew some great engagement
+hereabouts, viz., the North Lowe, the South Lowe, Little Lowe, Horslowe,
+and Thrombelow.
+
+"The first four being yet visible, the North Lowe, near in lands to
+croft-lodge, the South Lowe near Mr. Hope's windmill, the great and
+little lowe in the heath grounds; but Horslowe is not discernible by
+reason of the coal-works that have been here, only it giveth name to the
+Horselowe Field, since called Horsehull Field, now Horseley Field.
+
+"And there are not only these, but several others, partly in the way
+betwixt this place and Tottenhall, as at Low Hill, near Seawall, a very
+large one, and at Hampton Town; and another which giveth name to a field
+called Ablow Field, upon which stands a bush now called Isley Cross."
+Ablow Field covered 40 acres of unenclosed ground near Graiseley Brook,
+and the tumulus once occupied the site now covered by St. Paul's Church.
+
+Dr. Plot believes the ancient remains in Wrottesley Park to be "those of
+the old Tettenhall of the Danes, who, having resided there for some time,
+built themselves this city, or place of habitation, which, in the year
+907, was finally demolished by Edward the Elder in a most signal and
+destructive victory.  To revenge this fatal quarrel, another army of
+Danes collected in Northumbria, and invaded Mercia in the same year, when
+King Edward, with a powerful force of West Saxons and Mercians overtook
+them at the village of Wednesfield, near Theotenhall (Tettenhall), and
+vanquished them again, with much slaughter."
+
+Another account, given by the aforementioned Dr. Wilkes, Willenhall's
+most eminent son, and no mean authority on such matters, says that:--"In
+the year 895, King Alfred having by a stratagem forced them to leave
+Hereford on the Wye, they came up to the River Severn as far as
+Bridgnorth, then called Quat, Quatbridge, or Quatford, committing great
+enormities, and destroying all before them.  We hear no more of them
+hereabout for thirteen years, but then they raised a great army and
+fought two bloody battles with King Edward."
+
+The contemporary Saxon annals tell us that the Danes were beaten in
+Mercia in 911, but do not say where.  Doubtless from time to time the
+whole plain rang with "the din of battle bray," the shout of exultation,
+and the groan of pain; with the clash of steel on steel, and the dull
+thud of mighty battleaxe on shields of tough bull hide, all through that
+disturbed period.  It would appear from a later account that at the
+earlier engagement of 910, which by this writer has been confidently
+located between Tettenhall and the Wergs, King Edward was himself in
+command of the Saxon forces, and that he not only gained a decisive
+victory, but pursued the enemy for five weeks, following them up in their
+northern fastnesses beyond the Watling Street, from one Danish village to
+another, burning and utterly wasting every one of them as they had been
+mere hornets' nests.
+
+At the encounter of the following year (A.D. 911) the Danes, after a
+great pillaging expedition, having strongly posted themselves at
+Wednesfield, little advantage was gained by either side after many hours
+of hard fighting, till at last the Saxons were reinforced by Earl
+Kenwolf.  Victory then fell to the Saxons.
+
+This Kenwolf, who is said to have been the greatest notable of the
+locality, and seated on a good estate at Stowe Heath, was mortally
+wounded in the fray; and on the opposite side there fell Healfden and
+Ecwills, two Danish kings; Ohter and Scurfar, two of their Earls; a
+number of other great noblemen and generals, among them Othulf, Beneting,
+Therferth, Guthferth, Agmund, Anlaf the Black, and Osferth the
+tax-gatherer, and a host of men.  The name of a third slaughtered king,
+Fuver, is given by another old chronicler.  It is to the quality rather
+than to the quantity of the slain that the locality is indebted for the
+number of tumuli on which so much of this superstructure of quasi-history
+seems to be raised.
+
+The historians who restrict themselves to "two" kings specify the North
+Lowe at Wednesfield as the sepulchral monument of one, and the South Lowe
+of the other.  "There was," says Shaw, the county historian, "a little to
+the south of the Walsall Road, half a mile south-west of the village of
+Nechels, a great low called Stowman Hill."
+
+Dr. Plot, writing in 1686, declares "the bank above Nechels, where now is
+a stone pit, Stowman Low, now removed to mend the roads, and Northfield,
+to be the genuine remains; but the bank where the windmill stood was a
+hard rock, several yards below the surface of the earth, and there was
+nothing remarkable found upon the removing of Stowman Low, so that all
+this is uncertainty."
+
+Although the precise location of the Tettenhall battleground has always
+puzzled the antiquaries, there are, says one authority, "three lows on
+the common between Wombourn and Swin, placed in a right line that runs
+directly east and west, and about half a mile to the north of them is
+another, by the country people called Soldiers' Hill.  They are all large
+and capable of covering a great number of dead bodies.
+
+"There cannot be the least doubt but this place was the scene of action,
+for King Edward, to perpetuate the memory of this signal victory, I
+presume, here founded a church, called by the name of the place Wonbourn,
+now Wombourn; and took this whole parish out of the parish of Tettenhall,
+which, before this battle, extended as far as the forest of Kinver."  It
+may be added, for whatever such support is worth, that in times past a
+number of ancient weapons have been dug up at Wombourne.
+
+Coming to the latest and most reliable authority, Mr. W. H. Duignan, of
+Walsall, here is what he writes in his admirable work, "Staffordshire
+Place Names," under the heading "Low Hill," which is the name of an
+ancient estate at Bushbury:--
+
+"Huntbach the antiquary, wrote in the 17th century that there was then a
+very large tumulus here.  Much, if not the whole of it, has been since
+destroyed.  The hill is lofty and a place likely to be selected for the
+burial of some prehistoric magnate.  In 911 a battle was fought between
+the Saxons and the Danes, called in the Chronicles the battle of
+Tettenhall, but which was really waged on Wednesfield Heath (now Heath
+Town).
+
+"The dead were buried as usual under mounds, which in Huntbach's time
+still remained, and were known as North Low, South Low, the Little Low,
+the Great Low, Horselow, Tromelow, and Ablow (many of these names
+survive), besides others which had then disappeared.  It is therefore
+difficult to say whether the low here was a prehistoric tumulus or a
+battle mound."
+
+Dr. Langford, in his "Staffordshire and Warwickshire" (p. 177), writing
+less than forty years ago, says that "a large number of tumuli exist near
+Wednesfield"; but the utilitarianism of the farmer and the miner would
+make it difficult to find many of these grass-crowned records on the
+Willenhall side of the battleground now.  Dr. Windle, in his able work,
+"Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England" (published in 1904) gives a
+list of existing Barrows and Burial-mounds in this country, including
+some nine or ten in Staffordshire, but makes no mention of Wednesfield,
+Wombourne, or Tettenhall.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+II.--The Saxon Settlement
+
+
+Fourteen or fifteen centuries ago the cluster of places which we now know
+as the town of Wolverhampton, and the numerous industrial centres grouped
+around it, were then primitive Saxon settlements, each of them peopled by
+the few families that claimed kinship with each other.
+
+These embryo townships were dotted about the clearings which had been
+made in the thick primeval forest with which the whole face of England
+was then covered, save only where the surface was barren hill or
+undrained swamp.  Does not the terminal "field," in such a place-name as
+Wednesfield, literally mean "feld," or the woodland clearing from which
+the timbers had been "felled"?  Each settlement, whether called a "ham"
+(that is, a home), or a "tun" (otherwise a town), was a
+farmer-commonwealth, cultivating the village fields in common; each was
+surrounded by a "mark," or belt of waste land, which no man might
+appropriate, and no stranger advance across without first blowing his
+horn to give timely notice of his approach.  Remnants of these open
+unappropriated lands may be traced by such place-names as Wednesfield
+"Heath," and Monmore "Green."
+
+At the outset each settlement at its foundation was independent of, and
+co-equal with, the others; Saxon society being founded on a system of
+family groupings, and a government of the ancient patriarchal type.
+
+All questions of government and public interest were settled by the voice
+of the people in "moot," or open-air meeting, assembled beneath the
+shelter of some convenient tree.  Our ancestors were an open-air,
+freedom-loving people, who mistrusted walls and contemned fortifications.
+In course of time, however, the exigencies of their environment--the
+aggressiveness of neighbours and foreigners, the incursions of invaders
+and marauders--materially modified their views, and changed their habits
+in this respect; and so it came about in the scheme of national defence
+that the temple-crowned hill of Woden became Woden's burh (now
+Wednesbury), a hill fortified by deep ditch and high stockade.
+
+Presently the family tie gave way to the lordship, as certain chiefs,
+under the stress of circumstances, acquired domination over others, and
+hence arose the manor or residential lordship, the head of which took
+pledges for the fidelity of those below him, and in turn became
+responsible for them to the king above him--a system of mutual
+inter-dependence from the head of the state downwards.  Under these new
+conditions Stow Heath became the head of a Saxon manor, in which were
+involved Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield, Eccleshall, and
+a number of other village settlements.  Some of these, however, were in
+the Hundred of Seisdon, and some in the Hundred of Offlow--a "hundred"
+being originally the division of a county that contained a hundred
+villages.
+
+The unregenerate Teuton was a pirate and a plunderer; the settled Saxon
+became an oversea trader and trafficker.  The Anglo-Saxon merchant of
+later and more settled times, raised by his wealth to the dignity of a
+thane, became a landed man, and a lord over his fellows.  Herein we have
+the transition from a free village community to a Saxon manor.
+
+At Wolverhampton was seated one Wolfric, said to have been an ancestor of
+Wolfgeat, and a relation to Wulfruna; his manor house was situated on the
+slope of the hill between the present North Street and Waterloo
+Road--doubtless a large rambling mansion of low elevation, built of heavy
+timbers on a low plinth of boulders and hewn stones.
+
+Here at Hantun he kept his state--such as the luxury of the age permitted
+to him.  Seated in his great oaken hall, with its heavy roof timbers, at
+the close of each day he drank deep draughts with his guests and his
+numerous servants, in the flaring light of odorous resin torches stuck in
+iron staples along the walls.  The smoke from his fire of logs escaped as
+lazily as it might through an aperture in the roof.  The earthen floor
+was strewn with rushes, more or less clean as it was littered by the
+refuse of few or more feasts.  The only furniture consisted of a long
+trestle table, with rude benches of oak on each side; the whole effort at
+ornamentation being limited to trophies of war and the chase hanging upon
+the walls.  Such, in brief, was the home life of a great thane.
+
+It will be observed that Wednesfield and Wednesbury at least were founded
+by the Saxons in their pagan days; that is before their acceptance of the
+White Christ, which was towards the close of the seventh century.
+Tradition hath it that at the Anglian advent into this district, the
+worship of Woden was first set up in a grove at Wednesfield.  Here was
+first fixed the Woden Stone, the sacred altar on which human sacrifices
+were offered of that dread Teutonic deity, Woden.
+
+It was carved with Runic figures--for was not Woden the inventor of the
+Runic characters?  In sacrificing, the priest, at the slaying of the
+victim, took care to consecrate the offering by pronouncing always the
+solemn formula, "I devote thee to Woden!"
+
+Part of the blood was then sprinkled on the worshippers, part on the
+sacred grove; the bodies were then either burnt on the altar or suspended
+on trees within this mystic grove.  Later, when some advance had been
+made by the hierarchy, the Woden Stone was removed from the Wednesfield
+grove to be erected within the temple of Woden at Wednesbury.
+
+There are other evidences of pagan practices to be discovered in
+Staffordshire place-names.  Tutbury is said to derive its name from
+Tuisto, the Saxon god who gave the name to Tuesday, as Woden lent his to
+Wednesday; and Thursfield from Thor, the deity worshipped on Thursday.
+There is also Thor's cave, still so-called, in the north of this county
+(see "Staffordshire Curiosities," p. 159), and other similar reminders of
+Anglo-Saxon paganism.
+
+It is not outside the bounds of possibility that a third local place-name
+is traceable to the personality of Woden.  Sedgley may be derived from
+Sigge's Lea, and Sigge was the real name of the Teutonic conqueror who,
+in overrunning north-west Europe, assumed the name of Woden for the sake
+of prestige--he was the founder of Sigtuna, otherwise Sigge's town, in
+Sweden.  In the science of English place-names it is well-known that
+while hills and streams and other natural phenomena were allowed to
+retain their old British names (as Barr, "a summit," and Tame, "a flood
+water"), towns, villages, and other political divisions were very
+generally renamed by the Saxon conquerors, the places in many instances
+being called after the personal names of their owners.
+
+Here are some local illustrations of place-names conferred by the Anglian
+invaders when they had conquered and appropriated the territory.
+
+Arley, otherwise Earnlege, was "the Eagle's ley."
+
+Bilston signifies "the town of Bil's folk."
+
+Blakenhall was "the hall of Blac."
+
+Bloxwich was "the village of Bloc": as Wightwick was "Wiht's village."
+
+Bushbury was "the Bishop's burg."
+
+Chillington was originally "Cille's town."
+
+Codsall was "Code's hall."
+
+Darlaston was once "Deorlaf's town."
+
+Dunstall, otherwise Tunstall, was "an enclosed farmstead," half a mile
+outside the ancient boundary of Cannock Forest.
+
+Essington was "the town of the descendants of Esne."
+
+Ettingshall was "the hall of the Etri family."
+
+Featherstone seems to have been "Feader's stone."  According to a charter
+of the year 994 there was then a large stone called the "Warstone," to
+mark the boundary of this place.
+
+Hatherton, or Hagathornden, signifies "the hill of the hawthorn."
+
+Kinvaston was perhaps "Cyneweald's town."  Dr. Olive in his "History of
+Wolverhampton Church," says that being originally a place of consequence.
+Kinvaston was placed at the head of the Wolverhampton prebends.
+
+Moseley was the "mossy or marshy lea": as Bradley the "broad lea"; and
+Bentley was the "lea of bent" or reedy grass.
+
+Newbolds, an ancient farm in Wednesfield, is an Anglo-Saxon name, "niwe
+bold," and it pointed out "the new house."
+
+Ogley Hay, now called Brownhills, was originally Ocginton, or "Ocga's
+town."
+
+Pelsall may be translated "Peol's Hall."
+
+Pendeford was once "Penda's ford."
+
+Scotlands were "the corner-lands," this hamlet being at the corner of a
+triangular piece of land, bounded on all sides by ancient roads.
+
+Seisdon was probably "the Saxon's Hill."
+
+Showells, or Sewalls, at Bushbury, on the confines of Cannock Forest, was
+the place where "scarecrows" (as the name probably means) were set up or
+shown on hedgetops to prevent the deer passing from the Forest on to
+enclosed or cultivated land.
+
+Stowe, a name signifying an enclosed or "stockaded" place, was another
+seat of a great thane; or it might have been the residential portion of
+the large manor or lordship already alluded to.
+
+Tettenhall was possibly Tetta's hall; or, more probably, "Spy hall,"
+otherwise a watch tower.
+
+Tromelow, commonly called Rumbelows, a farm on the site of one of the
+Wednesfield lows, is a name that may literally mean "the burial mound of
+the host."  The corruption Rumbelow is probably made out of the phrase
+"At Tromelowe."
+
+Wergs (The), through many transformations from Wytheges to Wyrges, is
+"the withy hedges."
+
+Wobaston, an estate in Bushbury, was anciently "Wibald's town."
+
+Wombourne was the "bourne (or brook) in the hollow."
+
+Wolverhampton was at first Heantune, or Hamtun, otherwise the "High
+town," to which name was prefixed soon after the year 994 that of
+Wulfrun, a lady of rank who gave great possessions to the Church; and
+hence was evolved the more distinctive name, Wulfrunhamtun, since
+modified into its present form.
+
+Although some of these names (as Showells, formerly Sewall) may not date
+quite back to the Saxon period, most of them may be accepted as
+present-day evidences of the great Teutonic descent upon this Midland
+locality.  One of the very few Celtic place-names retained from the
+previous occupiers is Monmore, which in the tongue of the ancient Britons
+signified "the boggy mere."
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+IV.--The Founding of Wulfruna's Church, 996, A.D.
+
+
+After the advent of Christianity, the new religion was gradually advanced
+throughout the land by the settlement of priest-missioners in the various
+localities.  Where the missionary settled on the invitation, or under the
+protection of a thane, or "lord," that lordship was formed into a parish.
+Thus some parishes doubtless became co-terminous with the old manors.
+Owing, however, to the many changes of jurisdiction in the course of
+succeeding centuries, it is difficult to find instances of parish and
+manor of identical area in this locality.  Bescot was a manor within the
+parish of Walsall; Bloxwich and Shelfield were anciently members of the
+manor of Wednesbury, though now included in Walsall; Bentley, at the
+Norman Conquest, was part of the manor of Willenhall, then belonging to
+Wolverhampton Church; while Dunstall was a member of the King's manor of
+Stow Heath.  Tettenhall parish originally included as many as a dozen
+manors and townships.
+
+England is made up of some ten thousand parishes, each with its parish
+church, around which for a thousand years has revolved the social and
+political, as well as the whole religious life of the place.  The parish
+is our unit of local government, and the history of a town is usually a
+history of the parish.
+
+But Willenhall never was a parish.  It is merely a member of a parish--of
+the extensive, the straggling, and loosely-knit parish of Wolverhampton.
+In Wolverhampton, three miles away, was located the mother church, to
+which it owed spiritual allegiance, and there was situated the Vestry for
+parochial assemblies, and all else that stood for self-government
+throughout the centuries.  And those were the centuries when Church and
+State were indissolubly bound together; when a dominant church claimed,
+and was recognised as having an inalienable share in the government of
+the people.  Hence it will transpire in these pages that for centuries
+the story of Willenhall was involved in the ecclesiastical history of
+Wolverhampton.
+
+The ancient parish of Wolverhampton lies widely dispersed and very
+detached, containing no less than 17 townships and hamlets, all subject
+to the collegiate church in matters ecclesiastical, though in many cases
+being distinct in matters secular.  How broken the area is may be noted
+in the case of Pelsall, which is cut off from the mother parish by
+Bloxwich, a hamlet in Walsall parish.
+
+Willenhall is one among several other neighbouring places that, from the
+earliest period of England's acceptance of Christianity, had its fate
+inseparably linked with that of Wolverhampton.  In the giving way of
+paganism before the steady advances of the new religion, progress in this
+immediate part of the kingdom was marked by the founding of Tettenhall
+Church (A.D. 966), followed thirty years afterwards by Lady Wulfruna's
+further efforts at evangelisation in the setting up at Hampton (or High
+Town) of another Christian church.
+
+This was in the reign of Ethelred the Unrede, which was a period sadly
+troubled by the aggressions of the Danes; and it is believed that
+Wulfruna (or Wulfrun) had designed to found a monastery, though as early
+as the time of Edward the Confessor, or within a century of its
+institution, her establishment is found to be a Collegiate Church.
+
+With this accession of dignity, and in grateful recognition of the lady's
+pious munificence, the town became known as Wulfrun's Hampton, now
+modified in Wolverhampton.
+
+Of Wulfruna herself but little is known.  Whether she was sister of King
+Edgar, as some suppose, or the widow of Aldhelm, Duke of Northumberland,
+cannot be decided.  It is known, however, that she was a lady of rank,
+and was captured when Olaf, in command of a Viking host, took Tamworth by
+storm.  Hampton did not bear her name until some years after her death.
+
+In founding her noble church at Wolverhampton, Wulfruna endowed it with
+thirteen estates, including lands in Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall,
+Essington, Hilton, Walsall, Featherstone, Hatherton, Kinvaston, Bilston,
+and Arley.  Willenhall being only three miles away from Wolverhampton,
+and being also for a long time ecclesiastically incorporated with it, its
+history at many points cannot be detached from that of the mother parish.
+
+The wording of the charter by which the gift was made is quaintly
+interesting.  It sets forth that: "In the year 996, from the Passion of
+our said Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ," Sigeric, Archbishop of
+Canterbury, "with the Lord's flock of servants unceasingly serving God,"
+have granted a privilege "to the noble matron and religious woman
+Wulfruna," in "order that she may attain a seat in heaven," and that "for
+her mass may be said unceasingly for ever" in the "ancient monastery of
+Hamtun."
+
+The Charter (inter alia) grants "ten hides of land for the body of my
+husband," and another "ten hides of land" for the offences of her
+"Kinsman Wulfgeal" lest he should hear in the judgment the "dreaded"
+sentence, "Go away from me," &c.  A third "ten hides" of land are granted
+on account of "my sole daughter Elfthryth," who "has migrated from the
+world to the life-giving airs."
+
+Mr. Duignan, who has made a close study of the Charter, says "the limits
+of the parishes and of the townships included in the grant are now
+precisely what they were a thousand years ago."
+
+The boundaries of the lands conferred by the noble benefactress are set
+forth with much precision, as in the noting of brooks and fords, of parks
+and woods, of fields and lanes and lands; and in very few cases has Mr.
+Duignan failed to recognise the old names and identify them with the
+modern appellations of the places meant, among the latter being
+Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Hilton, Ogley Hay, Hatherton, Cannock,
+Moseley Hole, Twyford, Walsall, &c.
+
+The original Charter has not been heard of since 1646, when it was
+supposed to be copied by Sir William Dugdale into his monumental work,
+the "Monasticon," assisted by Roger Dodsworth, a joint editor with him.
+If it is still in existence Mr. Duignan assumes it is in the possession
+of the Dean and Chapter of the Royal Chapel of Windsor, with which the
+Deanery of Wolverhampton was united--as will be seen later.  The formal
+parts of the deed are in Latin, and the descriptions of the properties
+are in Anglo-Saxon, which makes it an interesting study of place-names.
+
+Wolverhampton church, dedicated to St. Mary, was a collegiate
+establishment, with a dean as president, and a number of prebendaries or
+canons who were "secular" priests, and not brethren of any of the regular
+"orders of monks."
+
+All the privileges which the College possessed in Lady Wulfruna's
+lifetime were afterwards confirmed by Edward the Confessor, and
+subsequently by William the Conqueror.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The dedication of Wulfruna's church and its consecration by Sigeric, the
+archbishop, have been described in verse by a local poetess.  This was
+Mrs. Frank P. Fellows, a daughter of the famous Sir Rowland Hill, and
+once resident at Goldthorn Hill.  Her husband was a native of
+Wolverhampton, a distinguished public servant, connected with the
+Admiralty, a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, an antiquarian and a
+scientist.  In a book of his published poems appear portraits of himself
+and his wife.
+
+Mrs. Fellows (whose mother, Lady Hill, was a daughter of Joseph Pearson,
+Esq., J.P., of Graiseley), also wrote poems--some of which appeared in
+"Punch," some in "Belgravia," and some in other magazines--and published
+a small book of verse in 1857.
+
+It is from one long piece, entitled "Fancies by the Fire," in which the
+long retrospect of Wolverhampton's ancient history unrolls itself before
+the imagination of the poetess, that the following extracts are taken.
+After a description of the battle of Wednesfield, we read:--
+
+    The Princess Wulfruna heard the deeds,
+    Told by the fire in her stately hall.
+       Alas! then said the gentle dame,
+       It grieves me sore such things should be.
+       Now, by the Christ that died on tree,
+       The Christ that died for them and me,
+       These heathen souls shall all be free
+       From sin, and pain of Purgat'ry;
+       In token of our victory,
+       Where masses shall be sung and said,
+       And prayers told for the restless dead
+       That wander still on Woden's Plain--
+       It shall be raised in Mary's name.
+
+The noble lady with her train, and accompanied by the Archbishop Sigeric,
+pays a visit of inspection to the locality she designs thus to honour,
+passing beneath the shade of "the forest trees of Theotanhall" on her
+way--
+
+    And as they passed thro' Dunstall Wood,
+    And stopped to drink where a streamlet fell,
+    Then said the lady fair and good
+    Here will I build a wayside well.
+    Now Hampton town before them lay.
+    But first they sought out Woden's plain,
+    Where lay the bleached bones of the slain.
+
+After the Archbishop had offered up a prayer for the dead--
+
+    At length they stood upon the height
+    That rises over Hampton town;
+    There, amid knight, and dame, and priest,
+    The Princess Wulfrune laid the stone,
+    The first stone on the holy fane.
+
+Then solemnly the pious lady removed from her royal brows the golden
+coronet that hitherto had graced it, and put in place of it a crown of
+thorns, saying--
+
+    It were ill done that I have worn
+    A golden crown, while Jesus sweet
+    For my sake wore a crown of thorn;
+    And here I dedicate my days
+    To Him until my life be sped.
+
+Thus far the foundation of the mother church--much more of the town's
+history follows in like strain.
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+Willenhall was slightly connected with another religious foundation.  In
+the year 1002 Burton Abbey was founded by Wulfric Spott, Earl of Mercia.
+This establishment was richly endowed with lands, not only in
+Staffordshire, but also with estates in Derbyshire and Warwickshire.
+
+The names of the various places included in this munificent grant afford
+a very interesting study in Saxon nomenclature.  For instance, in the
+Second Indorsement of the Charter conferring the noble gift, we may be
+interested to discover that "2 hides of land in Wilinhale," lying in
+"Offalawe Hundred" are among the properties donated to this great
+Staffordshire Monastery.
+
+
+
+
+V.--The Collegiate Establishment
+
+
+We cannot be too insistent on the close connection long subsisting
+between Willenhall and Wolverhampton owing to the fact of the former
+being a part of Wulfruna's endowment of her collegiate church.
+
+Wulfruna's foundation consisted of a dean, eight prebendaries or canons,
+and a sacrist.  The dean was the president of this chapter, or
+congregation of clergy, whose duly was to chant the daily service.  The
+sacrist was also a cleric, but his duties were more generally concerned
+with the college establishment.
+
+A prebendary, it may be explained, is one who enjoys a prebend or
+canonical portion; that is, who receives in right of his place, a share
+out of the common stock of the church for his maintenance.  Each prebend
+of Wolverhampton church was endowed with the income arising from the
+lands from which it took its name; as, the prebend of Willenhall.  In the
+course of time the tithes derivable from these lands became alienated.
+
+Sampson Erdeswick, whose history of this county was commenced in 1593,
+says the foundation was effectuated in 970 by King Edgar, at the request
+of his dying sister, Wulfruna.
+
+"She founded a chapel of eight portionaries (is the way Erdeswick puts
+it) whom, by incorporation, she made rector of that parish
+(Wolverhampton) to receive the tithes in common, but devisable by a
+yearly lot.  The head or chief of these she made patron to them all, and
+sole ordinary of that whole parish."
+
+The foundation was designated the "royal free church of Wolverhampton,"
+the term "free" signifying that it was free of the ordinary supervision
+of the ecclesiastical authorities, being exempt from both episcopal
+jurisdiction and the papal supremacy.  Indeed, it had been better for the
+church had it been less free, for in the time of King John the
+debaucheries and gross immoralities of these undisciplined parochial
+clergy brought much discredit upon the priestly college.
+
+The dean and the prebends had special seats or stalls in the choir of the
+church; the sacrist had no stall, neither had he any voice in the
+chapter.  In modern times (1811) the sacrist has become the perpetual
+curate of the parish.
+
+It will be noted that the head of this college of seculars was styled the
+"sole ordinary" of the parish, which is equivalent to saying he was
+invested with judicial powers therein like a bishop in a diocese.  He had
+authority cum omnimoda jurisdictione, and was exempt not only from the
+episcopal over-lordship of Coventry and Lichfield by express composition,
+but also by papal bull from the legates and delegates of Rome for ever.
+In fact, so independent was the foundation made at the outset, it
+remained for centuries subject only to the royal authority of the Majesty
+of England, and under it to the perpetual visitation of the Keepers of
+the Great Seal for the time being.
+
+In the year 1338, Edward III. confirmed the charter of the church as a
+royal free chapter, giving the Dean the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and
+a copyhold Court Baron, to be called the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.
+About this time, too, the church was rebuilt on more spacious and
+magnificent lines.  Mrs. Fellows, in her topographical rhyme, previously
+quoted, sings of the erection of the tower
+
+    In the third Edward's time.
+
+The college then consisted of the ten members of the foundation just
+mentioned, augmented by other ministers and officers necessary for
+conducting so large an establishment, the prebendaries being officially
+mentioned in this order:--(1) Wolverhampton; (2) Kinvaston; (3)
+Featherstone; (4) Hilton; (5) Willenhall; (6) Monmore; (7) Wobaston; (8)
+Hatherton.
+
+By the fifteenth century Chantries had been founded, and chapels erected
+therefor, at Willenhall, Bilston, Pelsall, and at Hatherton; and in
+further depreciation of the mother church, King Edward IV., about 1465,
+with a desire to enrich the Collegiate Church of St. George, at Windsor,
+annexed Wolverhampton to that chapel royal.
+
+In Protestant times the daily services were performed by the sacrist and
+the readers, the prebendaries officiating on Sundays in rotation,
+according to a set cycle.  The time set out for the prebendary of
+Willenhall commenced on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday; till eventually
+exemption was purchased by the payment of a small fee to the Perpetual
+Curate.
+
+In olden times it was a common practice to carve the choir seats.  The
+prebendal stalls in Wolverhampton church were marked with heraldic
+shields charged with simple ordinaries, in the following manner:--the
+following manner:--
+
+                            ON THE SOUTH SIDE.
+
+1.  The Dean.  On a fess, three roundels.
+
+2.  Prebendary of Featherstone.  A pale cotised.
+
+3.  Prebendary of Willenhall.  A Chevron.
+
+4.  Prebendary of Wobaston.  A Chevron.
+
+5.  Prebendary of Hatherton.  A pale cotised.
+
+                            ON THE NORTH SIDE.
+
+6.  Prebendary of Kinvaston.  (Stall removed.)
+
+7.  Prebendary of Hilton.  A Chevron renverse.
+
+8.  Prebendary of Monmore.  A Chevron.
+
+To assist in the identification of the various estates chargeable with
+the provisions of the prebends, or canonical portions, it may be useful
+to give here a brief account of a perambulation of the Wolverhampton
+parish boundaries made in 1824.
+
+It was a regular Rogation ceremony of "beating the bounds" and occupied
+three whole days, so widely scattered is this extensive, far-reaching
+parish.  It will be observed that the Hatherton here dealt with is not
+the Staffordshire village of that name, two miles north-west of Cannock.
+Wobaston, it will be remembered, has previously been mentioned as
+situated in Bushbury; while Monmore Green is still a well-known
+place-name.  The other names occur in self-explanatory context.  The
+detailed account of this perambulation, of which the following is but a
+summary, will be found in the appendix to Dr. Oliver's "History":--
+
+On Monday, May 24th, the churchwardens and their party assembled at the
+Rev. Thomas Walker's, and proceeded to a cottage near the eighth
+milestone on the Stafford Road, and at the well in the cottage garden
+there, the Gospel was read for the first time.  (It was the custom at
+these Rogation processionings to read the Gospel under trees--especially
+those growing near to some reputed "holy" well--located on or near a
+parish boundary, hence their name "Gospel trees.")
+
+From thence a lane near the third milestone on the same road led the
+procession to Kinvaston, where the Gospel was read at an Elder in the
+fold-yard of a house of a Mrs. Wooton.  Then the procession went to
+Hatherton, the seat of the late Moreton Walhouse, where the Gospel was
+again read on the site of an old well.  Proceeding to Hilton, the seat of
+the Vernons, the Gospelling was repeated within the gates fronting the
+house.
+
+Crossing the Cannock Road, the Gospel was read for the fifth and last
+time, that day, under an oak tree in the road near the house of Mr. W.
+Price, of Featherstone.
+
+On the second day, May 25th, the parishioners assembled as before, and
+proceeded direct to Wednesfield, where the Gospel was read in the Chapel,
+the clerk being in readiness at the door to receive the procession.
+Thence the perambulation was continued to Essington, where the common was
+found to be enclosed; the Gospel was read a second time there at the
+Goswell Bush, which, standing in the Bloxwich Road, was found to be
+surrounded by a new growth of trees.  (Just previous to this period there
+had been a rage for enclosing commons--the people's lands.)  Turning
+back, the party proceeded to Pelsall, where the Gospel was read the third
+and last time, that day, in the Chapel there.
+
+On the third day, which was Thursday, May 27th, the assembly was made at
+the Swan Inn, and the procession was formed there.  The way was led
+straight to Willenhall, where the Gospel was read for the first time in
+the Chapel, the expectant clerk being there in readiness to perform the
+duty.  From thence the perambulation was continued to Park Brook, which
+was crossed; returning, the way was taken to Bentley Hall, the seat of
+Edward Anson, Esq., where the second reading of the Gospel was taken at
+an elder bush at the back of the house.  (Elders seem to have taken the
+place of the ancient "Gospel oaks" in this locality.)
+
+From Willenhall the party next proceeded to Bilston, where the third
+reading of the Gospel was performed within the Chapel of that township.
+
+From thence a move was made to Bradeley Hall, then in the occupation of
+Mr. Nailer, at the bottom of whose garden was the site of an old well,
+which had once been a bath, and here the Gospelling was again celebrated.
+
+The procession was then resumed through Bilston by Catchem's Corner,
+Goldthorne Hill, and the Penn Road, to St. John's Chapel, otherwise known
+as the New Church, within which the Gospel was ceremonially read for the
+last time.  This concluded the perambulation, and an entry of its various
+details were duly entered in the Parish Book, and signed by Tho. Walker,
+minister, and Wm. Buckle and Jos. Smart, the two churchwardens.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+VI--Willenhall at the Norman Conquest (1066-1086).
+
+
+After the Norman invasion of 1066 it took a number of years to complete
+the conquest of the country.  It was not till 1086 that the "Domesday"
+Book was compiled--written evidence of a settlement of the land question
+which, it was fondly hoped (and expressed in the name), would last till
+"Domesday"!
+
+The Domesday Book was a great national land register in which was entered
+a record of every acre of land in England, its condition, its ownership,
+and annual value at that time.  For on land ownership alone then depended
+not only the amount of the national revenue, but the strength of the
+national defences.  Willenhall, wrongly written by the Domesday scribes
+as Winehala, is returned as being in the Hundred of Offlow, and having an
+area of 2,168 acres.
+
+Of this acreage 3 hides belonged to the old domains of the Crown, like
+Bilston and Wednesbury (having formerly formed part of the dominions of
+the Saxon kings), while but two hides of Willenhall land belonged to
+Wolverhampton church.  It is believed that the King's manorial portion
+took with it Bentley, with its 1,650 acres.
+
+Anyway, Willenhall having belonged originally to the ancient Mercian
+kings, and having been held in succession by all the Saxon kings of
+England to Edward the Confessor and Harold II., naturally passed as a
+royal manor, or rather, a portion thereof, into the hands of the
+Conqueror, being set down among the Crown lands as of "ancient demesne."
+
+The Domesday Book also sets down among the possessions of the Canons of
+Wolverhampton 2,200 acres in Wednesfield, 1,194 acres in Pelsall, both in
+the same Hundred; 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton, 3,912 acres in Arley, and
+6,377 acres, a part of Bushbury, are set down in Seisdon Hundred; the
+Essington portion of Bushbury, once belonging to the Countess Godiva, is
+reckoned in Cuddlestone Hundred, in which are also given the four other
+portions of Wolverhampton, namely Hilton, Hatherton, Kinvaston, and
+Featherstone.
+
+Since the eleventh century the boundaries of the Hundreds of Offlow and
+Cuddlestone have been altered.  As to the Arley estate, that was lost to
+the canons ere another century had elapsed--by 1172 had escheated to the
+Crown.
+
+The present-day acreage of Wolverhampton parish is no less than 17,449;
+made up of 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton proper, 1,845 in Bilston, and
+1,650 in Bentley, a total of 6,891 acres in Seisdon Hundred; thus leaving
+10,608 acres to constitute Hilton (two manors, since united into one)
+Hatherton, Kinvaston, Featherstone, and Hocintune.  The last-named was a
+manor which, at that time, probably lay between Hilton and Hatherton,
+within Wolverhampton; the name is obsolete.
+
+These ten estates, comprising Wolverhampton, Willenhall (part of), Arley
+(part of), Bushbury (part of), Hilton (part of), Pelsall, Wednesfield,
+Cote (near Penn), Haswic (near Newcastle), and Hocintune (now obsolete),
+were in 1086 held by the Canons of Wolverhampton under Sampson, the
+highly favoured royal Chaplain, to whom the Conqueror had presented this
+fief.  For the purposes of comparison it may be mentioned that there were
+then eighteen holdings in Staffordshire, occupying 567 hides, and valued
+at about 516 pounds.  Sampson's fief extended to 26.5 hides of this, and
+was estimated as being worth 8 pounds 2s. a year.
+
+This Sampson, who has been incorrectly styled the first Dean of
+Wolverhampton, was a Canon of Bayeux, and though a king's chaplain, was
+not ordained a priest till nine years after the Conqueror's death, when
+Rufus made him Bishop of Worcester.  Bishop Sampson subsequently gave the
+Church of Wolverhampton to his Cathedral Monastery of Worcester.  He also
+held the neighbouring estates at Bilbrook and Tettenhall as the superior
+of the priests of Tettenhall College.
+
+Willenhall, in the great survey, is recorded to have contained, as
+previously stated, three hides belonging to the King, and two hides
+belonging to the church--a hide of land in Saxon measurement was a
+variable quantity from 200 to 600 acres, according to the locality, but
+generally it was accounted so much as would serve to maintain a
+family--together with one acre of meadow, and a carucate (which was a
+measure of about 100 acres of "carved" land) employing three ploughs.
+The annual value of Willenhall is set down at 20s.  The population
+consisted of eight families, or, as the return puts it, five bordars and
+three villeins.
+
+A bordar, or boor, was a squatter living in a hut or cottage on the
+borders of a manor, having attached a little patch of land, the rent of
+which was paid to the lord of the manor in the shape of poultry, eggs,
+and small produce.  A villein, or serf, was to all intents and purposes a
+slave, at the absolute disposal of the lord, except that he could not be
+detached from the soil on which he was born.  While the bordar, or
+cottager, was resident in the manor more or less on sufferance, the
+villein was there of right, and was in that sense the superior of the
+bordar.  The villein certainly might not go away from Willenhall, nor get
+married, nor buy and sell oxen, nor grind corn, without the express
+permission of the lord of the manor; yet he was not so badly off as all
+this would make it appear to our modern ideas.  People seldom travelled
+in those days, money was little used, life was exceedingly primitive, and
+wants were very few and very simple.
+
+Staffordshire at that time was in a chronic state of poverty, an
+insurrection in the county having been suppressed in 1069 with the
+Conqueror's customary severity, thousands of the wretched hinds having
+been slaughtered, the county desolated and the Midlands depopulated.
+
+Bilston was but a cluster of mud huts inhabited by swineherds; and it is
+probable Willenhall was a similar little centre of boor life in the next
+woodland clearing a little further along the purling brooklet, and near
+its junction with Beorgitha's Stream, as the Tame was then called.  The
+entire population of the county was purely agrarian, the villeins and
+boors altogether numbering about 2,800; or on an average of one labourer
+to each 167 acres of land registered in Domesday Book.  The subsequent
+history of the two parts of Willenhall will have to be traced separately.
+
+The two hides set down as ecclesiastical property have remained in the
+possession of the church throughout.  Erdeswick, writing his history of
+this county in 1593, states that within the jurisdiction of the Dean and
+Chapter of Wolverhampton there were then "nine several leets, whereof
+eight belong to the church.  The custos, lately called the Dean, is lord
+of the borough of Wolverhampton, Codsall, Hatherton, and Pelsall in com.
+Stafford; and of Lutley in com. Wigorn; hath all manner of privileges
+belonging to the View of Frankpledge (that is, the administration of
+criminal justice, &c.), to Felons' goods, Deodands, Escheats, Marriage of
+Wards, and Clerks of the Weekly Markets, rated at 150 pounds per annum,
+and in the total is valued worth 300 pounds per annum.
+
+"Each of the other portionaries (continues Erdeswick) have a several
+leet; whereof
+
+Kinvaston is reputed worth            100 (pounds)
+Wobaston                                       100
+Wilnall                                        100
+Fetherston                                      80
+Hilton                                          70
+Monmore                                         70
+Hatherton                                       40
+
+"And the sacrist to attend them in capitulo, 40 pounds"--by no means a
+poor salary in those days for such duties as the secretarial and
+managerial work to a Chapter.
+
+As to the three hides of Willenhall in the King's Manor of Stow Heath,
+here is its later history as recorded by Dr. Vernon, a historiographer
+who made some additions to Sampson Erdeswick's history:--
+
+    "In Willenhall is a manor called Stowheath, with a court baron and
+    court leet.  Several lands there held by copy from that lords
+    thereof: four closes, called bundles, held of this manor, and were,
+    in 1729, confirmed by John, Lord Gower, and Peter Giffard, lords of
+    the manor of Stowheath; which four closes, with four others, were
+    sold about 1748 by Mr. Lane to Admiral Anson, together with three
+    tenements in Bloxwich, with all the manor lands, tithes, hall, and
+    park, &c., called Bentley, adjoining to Willenhall, for 13,500
+    pounds."
+
+As to the adjoining hamlet, it may be mentioned that Domesday Book
+formally recorded the canons of Wolverhampton to possess "five hides of
+Wednesfelde; the arable land is three carucates; that there are six
+villeins, and six bordars, who have six carucates; and that there is a
+wood in which cattle are pastured, half a mile long and three furlongs
+broad."
+
+Such was life in Willenhall and Wednesfield at the Norman period, both
+places being then overshadowed in more senses than one by the severely
+protected royal preserves of Cannock Forest.  We may picture the few
+hinds constituting the scanty population, tenanting cottages which were
+mere hovels, and most of them like Gurth--the swineherd of Scott's
+"Ivanhoe"--wearing round their necks the iron collars, which were the
+badge of Saxon serfdom, and like him driving their herds into the woods
+each morning, and returning at nightfall with their charges grunting and
+gorged with beech-mast and acorns.
+
+             While to their lowly dome
+    The full-fed swine return'd with evening home;
+    Compell'd reluctant, to the several sties,
+    With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.
+
+The trade and callings of an English serf were as limited as his other
+opportunities in life; and others beside the swineherd found it in the
+adjacent woodlands.  For there were certainly woodcutters and charcoal
+burners; and if the local iron ore were exploited, who shall say there
+were not then Willenhall smiths who fashioned bolts and bars, even if
+they had not arrived at the intricacies of locks and keys?
+
+Here we are but emerging from the twilight of history.
+
+
+
+
+VII.--A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall.
+
+
+In the earlier centuries of our national existence, the history of a
+parish follows that of its church, the ecclesiastical fold into which its
+inhabitants were regularly gathered, not only for every religious
+purpose, but for every other object of communal interest or of a public
+nature.
+
+But, as previously explained, Willenhall was not a parish; it was but one
+member of that wide parochial area ruled from the mother church of
+Wolverhampton, several miles distant.
+
+Yet at an early period Willenhall seems to have boasted a chapel-of-ease,
+for the Calendar of Patent Rolls, under date 1297, contains an allusion
+to "Thomas de Trollesbury, parson of the church of Willenhale."  Dr.
+Oliver, in his history of the town, says that Wolverhampton church was
+rebuilt about 1342, and he evidently attributes the erection of
+Willenhall chapel to the same date, as being the outcome of the same
+devout spirit of church building.  But this is nearly half a century
+later than the allusion just quoted from the Patent Rolls, and Dr.
+Oliver's reference may possibly be to the founding of a chantry chapel by
+the Gerveyse family, who set up one of these mass-houses in Willenhall
+about a dozen years after one had been established at Pelsall.
+
+Let it not be imagined that this new church was either a large or a
+magnificent structure.  In all probability it was a diminutive chapel
+constructed of timber which had been cut in the adjacent forest; some of
+its wall spaces, perhaps, were only of timber framed wattle and dab; and
+at most any building material of a more durable nature entering into its
+construction would be but a plinth of stone masonry, and dwarfed at that.
+
+A chapel-of-ease, be it explained, was often established where the parish
+was a wide one, for the "ease" of those parishioners who dwelt at a
+distance from the mother church, and found it difficult to attend divine
+service so far away from their homes.  Such chapels were intended for
+prayer and preaching only; burials and administrations of the sacraments
+being always strictly reserved to the mother church.
+
+While a chapel-of-ease was provided for the general good of the whole
+community, a chantry chapel was intended for the special glory and
+exclusive benefit of some local landed family.  And here is the first
+record we have of the Willenhall Chantry; it is extracted from the Patent
+Rolls of Edward III., under date 14th February, 1328:--
+
+"Licence for the alienation in mortmain by Richard Gerveyse, of
+Wolvernehampton, of a messuage, land, and a moiety of a mill in
+Willenhale, co. Stafford, to a Chaplain to celebrate Divine service daily
+in the Chapel of Willenhale for the souls of the said Richard and
+Felicia, his wife, the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children and
+ancestors, and others."  A fine of 40s. was paid to the King (at
+Stafford) for this licence to devote landed estate to the said purposes
+of church endowment.
+
+A chantry (or chauntry, a name derived from cantaria), was a chapel,
+little church, or some particular altar in a church, endowed with lands
+and other revenues, for the maintenance of a priest, or priests, daily to
+chant a mass and offer prayers for the souls of the donors, and such
+others as the founders of the chantry may have named.  In this particular
+instance, as we have seen, the eternal welfare of the Gerveyses is sought
+to be assured, and the chantry here was doubtless at the altar of the new
+chapel-of-ease--we cannot expect there were two separate ecclesiastical
+buildings in so small a place as Willenhall.
+
+The method of procedure in setting up these foundations was first to
+obtain a patent from the Crown for the founding and endowing of them; and
+then to obtain the Bishop's licence for the regular daily performance of
+Divine service by the appointed chantry priest, to whose stipend and
+support the endowment mainly went.
+
+Most of these chantries came into existence in the 14th century, and by
+the close of the following century there was scarce a parish church in
+the kingdom without its chantry in one or other of its side chapels or
+subsidiary altars.  By the time of Richard II.--about the year 1394--at
+least four chantries had been founded, and chapels built, within the
+outer area of Wolverhampton parish; namely, at Willenhall, Bilston,
+Pelsall, and Hatherton.
+
+In connection with the endowments of the Willenhall chantry, it is on
+record that at an Inquisition taken in 1397, it was testified on oath
+that Roger Levison at that time held on lease from Thomas Browning,
+chaplain of this chantry, 12 acres of land in Wednesfield, and 100s. of
+rent in Willenhall, for which he had to perform suit and service (of the
+usual nature in feudal tenures) at the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.
+
+In 1409 the advowson of the chapel of Willenhall, together with certain
+valuable properties of rents and tenements in Wolverhampton, were granted
+by Richard Hethe and William Prestewode, chaplain, to William Bysshebury
+and his wife Joan, and settled on them for the term of their lives, with
+remainder to John Hampton, of Stourton, and his heirs for ever.
+
+Fourteen years later William Bysshebury (his wife Joan being then
+deceased) was sued by certain plaintiffs, on behalf of the said John
+Hampton, for wasting these Wolverhampton properties, of which he had the
+reversion.  The plaintiffs included Roger Aston, knight, William Leveson,
+William Everdon, Thomas Arblaster, and others; while the waste and
+destruction complained of comprised the digging and selling of clay,
+marl, and stones; the permitting of seven halls, two chambers, two
+kitchens, two granges, a dovecot, and a mill to remain unroofed till the
+principal timbers had rotted; and also with cutting down and selling a
+number of oaks, ashes, pear, and apple trees, the total damage in respect
+of all this waste being estimated at a very considerable figure.
+
+The advowson was, of course, the right of presentation to the benefice of
+Willenhall; and the Hamptons of Stourton Castle, to whom it passed at
+this time, seem to have been a family which originated at
+Wolverhampton--and perhaps derived their name from the town.
+
+The ministers who officiated in the local chapels-of-ease were inferior
+in official status to the vicar, rector, or beneficed clergyman of the
+mother church, and such curates were generally removable at the pleasure
+of the said vicar or rector.  Willenhall, doubtless, was served by a
+"curate" sent from the Wolverhampton collegiate establishment.
+
+In the reign of Edward IV. local ecclesiastical matters became further
+complicated by the collegiate church of Wolverhampton being permanently
+united with the Deanery of Windsor, the two deaneries being always
+subsequently held together.  It appears that King Edward, desirous of
+doing his Chaplain a favour, annexed the "Free Royal Church of
+Wolverhampton" to the said Deanery of Windsor, which royal act was soon
+afterwards confirmed by Parliament (1480).
+
+The Chantry of Willenhall, in common with all others, disappeared at the
+Reformation (this one probably in 1545), when prayers for the dead were
+no longer tolerated.  But it is interesting to observe that under the new
+Protestant regime attendance at church every Sunday was still regarded as
+a duty no good citizen and loyal subject could be excused.
+
+Attendance at church was compulsory in the early days of the Anglican
+establishment.  By statute (I, Elizabeth c. I., 23 Elizabeth c. I., and
+3, James I. c. 4) every person was to repair to his parish church every
+Sunday on pain of forfeiting 1s. for every offence; and being present at
+any form of prayer contrary to the Book of Common Prayer was punished
+with six months' imprisonment.  Persons above sixteen years of age who
+absented themselves from church above a month had to pay a forfeit of 20
+pounds a month.
+
+Protestant dissenters who did not deny the doctrine of the Trinity were
+(it is interesting to note) exempted from these penalties in 1689; and
+the Roman Catholics were similarly emancipated by law in 1792.  This by
+the way.
+
+It was in Elizabeth's reign, and, of course, under the authority of the
+newly-established Protestant Church of England, that Willenhall was
+enabled to make a distinct advance in the status of its church.  The
+charge of this church became an independent one, and was no longer
+subordinated to the canons of Wolverhampton; the incumbent was
+thenceforward to be in fact, as well as in name, "Chaplain of
+Willenhall."  But although the incumbent thus obtained his personal
+freedom from the domination of the mother church, the Wolverhampton
+establishment still retained all the old parochial rights in the shape of
+fees and ecclesiastical emoluments.  Beyond levying this money tribute,
+however, the Dean and Rector of Wolverhampton no longer held any control
+over the internal affairs of the church of St. Giles', in Willenhall.
+The specified duties of the incumbent of Willenhall (as set forth in a
+Trust deed of 1603, to which Sir John Leveson is a party) were to conduct
+Divine service there, and to have his residence within a mile and a half
+of the church.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+VIII.--Willenhall in the Middle Ages.
+
+
+Having brought the ecclesiastical history of Willenhall up to the
+enlightened days of Queen Elizabeth, to preserve some sort of
+chronological arrangement, we leave that section awhile in order to deal
+with the social life of the place, so far as this may be gleaned from a
+number of fragmentary sources and isolated references.
+
+The result of these gleanings is naturally very scrappy an
+disconnected--like the modern periodicals afflicted with the prevalent
+"snippetitis."  Such as they are, however, the local reader may be
+willing to accept them as being of some little interest.
+
+In the year 1172 the Pipe Rolls, which come next to the Domesday Book
+among our most ancient national records, and contain a full account of
+the Crown revenues, return Willenhall, among five other Staffordshire
+estates, bringing in the sum of 19 pounds 7s. 8d. per annum to Henry II.
+This would represent nowadays a sum twenty times that amount.  These
+estates were Bilston and Rowley Regis, being ancient demesnes of the
+Crown, and the manors of Leek, Wolstanton, and Penkhull (in the north of
+the county), which had escheated at the Conquest from the Earl of Mercia.
+Rowley probably brought in but a few pence at that time, when it formed a
+part of Clent.
+
+In the same reign (Henry II.) the Canons of Wolverhampton are recorded as
+holding two hides of land in "Winenhale"--certainly not more than 400
+acres in a fertile locality like this.
+
+During the reign of Edward III., his son and heir, the renowned Black
+Prince, hero of Crecy and Poictiers, claimed (after the manner of those
+times) the custody and guardianship of Matilda, daughter and heiress of
+his old comrade in arms, John de Willenhale.  The heiress of Willenhall
+was therefore at this time a royal ward.  The earliest holder of this
+manor who is known by his territorial title seems to be Roger de Wylnale,
+who (according to Lawley's "History of Bilston," p. 132) was flourishing
+about the year 1109.
+
+In these earlier centuries of the Middle Ages the machinery the law was
+crude and ineffective; as a consequence lawlessness was rampant, and
+everywhere might became right.
+
+The nobles, whenever the weakness of a king emboldened them, fortified
+their castles, and increased the number of their retainers, whom they
+reduced to a condition of complete vassalage; and each baron strove to
+make himself a figure in the great national convulsions which, from time
+to time, broke out under the malign influences of the feudalism that
+dominated the whole land and blighted its every hope of progress.
+
+The Franklins, the inferior grade of gentry, who, under the old Saxon
+system were called Thanes, were often compelled by force of environment
+to range themselves under the protecting banner of one or other of these
+petty kings.  And where authority was systematically set at defiance by
+the great and the powerful, inoffensive conduct and dutiful obedience to
+the laws of the land afforded no guarantee for the security of either
+life or property.
+
+To these disturbing influences must be added the barbarous severity of
+the laws of the chase, the vindictive nature of which sometimes made the
+heavy feudal chains of the common people almost too grievous to be borne.
+As Willenhall was on the confines of the Royal Forest of Cannock, the
+oppressive nature of the Forest Laws was not unfelt by the inhabitants of
+this secluded hamlet.
+
+In 1306, when John de Swynnerton married the daughter and heiress of
+Philip de Montgomery, Seneschal of the Royal Forest of Cannock, and
+became Steward of the Forest in customary succession, Willenhall was
+officially returned, along with a number of surrounding places
+(Wednesfield, Wednesbury, Darlaston, Essington, Hilton, Newbrigge,
+Moseley, Bushbury, Pendeford, Coven, and a score more), as appurtenant to
+a third part of the said forest bailiwick.
+
+The Swynnerton interest in Willenhall transpires again in 1364, when John
+de Swynnerton is found suing two Willenhall men for forcibly and
+feloniously removing some of his goods and chattels from that place.
+
+In the previous reign--that of Henry III.--numerous fines for illegal
+enclosures of Cannock Forest had been imposed upon landowners in this
+locality.  Among them were Stephen de Hulton (or Hilton), and John, his
+son, "of Wednesfield," who had enclosed with a hedge and a ditch three
+acres of heath in Wednesfield, which they held under the Dean of
+Wolverhampton.  They were fined four shillings each, and ordered
+peremptorily to throw down the hedge.
+
+Here is an episode characteristic of the period.  It is a Tuesday evening
+in the month of August, 1347, and about the hour of vespers.  The scene
+is laid in "the field of Wolverhampton, called Wyndefield, in a place
+called Le Ocstele, near Le More Love-ende."  A body of men, all carrying
+arms, are seen to approach their victim, who is described as a clerk, and
+therefore presumably defenceless.  He is Roger Levessone, son of Richard
+Levessone.  His assailants are Robert le Clerk, of Sedgley, two Dudley
+men, a man from Bloxwich, and several others, all duly named in the
+records of the law courts.
+
+What the cause of quarrel may have been these meagre records do not
+inform us, but on the evidence of a number of witnesses, among whom was
+Richard Colyns, of Willenhall, they freely used their spears and swords,
+inflicting wounds upon the throat and other parts of the body, till the
+unfortunate Roger was despatched.
+
+In 1339, one Richard Adams, of Willenhall, was charged with slaying two
+men in that place, one a townsman named John Odyes, and a certain John de
+Bentley.  As he was acquitted, probably he did it in self-defence.
+Encounters of this character were of frequent occurrence in those lawless
+times.
+
+When the offences recorded are of a less serious nature than murder and
+slaughter, they are nearly always described as being accompanied by the
+violent use of lethal weapons--"vi et armis" is the old legal phrase.
+Here are some examples of this kind of lawlessness:--
+
+In 1352, William de Hampton (probably of the Dunstall family of that
+name) prosecuted a gang of fourteen men, including a chaplain, the parson
+of Sheynton (?  Shenstone), and two men from Tettenhall, for robbing him
+of his goods and chattels at Willenhall, Wednesfield, Tettenhall, and
+Pendeford.  Of the details of the robberies we are able to learn nothing,
+except that they were all perpetrated forcibly, and with a reckless
+display of violence.
+
+A similar prosecution was undertaken in 1395 by another member of this
+family, one Nicholas Hampton, against Thomas Marshall, of Willenhall, and
+for a similar outrage in that place.
+
+A Willenhall man named John Wilson, in 1373, had to invoke the law upon a
+desperado who forcibly broke into his house and close at Homerwych
+(Hammerwich), and stole from thence timber, household utensils, clothing,
+corn, hay, and apparently everything he could lay his hands upon and
+carry away.
+
+Twenty years later John Wilson (probably the same prosecutor) charged
+John Wilkes, of Darlaston, with stealing two of his oxen, though no
+violence is alleged on this occasion.
+
+Two Willenhall men, William Colyns, and William Stokes, were, in 1399,
+arrested, and charged with cutting down trees and underwood at Bentley.
+Force and violence were used on that occasion; and it must be remembered
+that timber was then in much greater demand for building purposes than
+now, while underwood was in constant requisition as fuel and for the
+repair of fences and shelters.
+
+Sixteen years later (1415) John Pype and a number of other Bilston men
+were prosecuted by Sir Hugh Burnell, Knt., for breaking into his closes
+at Willenhall, trespassing on his land, and treading down his grass with
+their cattle, committing damage to a grievous extent, and all in
+undisguised defiance to the law.
+
+Enough has been quoted to illustrate, by incidents common to the social
+life of so simple a community as that of Willenhall, the gradual decay of
+feudalism, and the steady growth of English liberty by the vindication of
+constitutional law.
+
+
+
+
+IX.--The Levesons and other old Willenhall families.
+
+
+From the same sources, namely from the records of the ancient Law Courts,
+as transcribed, translated, and published in the volumes of the Salt
+Society, we are enabled to gain a knowledge of the most prominent
+families in this locality during the Middle Ages.  There seem to have
+been lawsuits ever since there were landowners.
+
+The principal family in Willenhall were the Levesons or Leusons, who are
+said to have been connected with this place and the neighbouring parishes
+of Wednesbury and Wolverhampton, almost from the time of the Norman
+Conquest, eking out a living from the soil, of which their tenure was at
+first a very precarious one.
+
+Their pedigree, given by the county historian, Shaw (II. p. 169), shows
+the founder to be one Richard Leveson, settled in Willenhall in the reign
+of Edward I.  But we find that in the year before this king's accession,
+namely, in 1271, Richard Levison paid a fine of 2s. 3d. in the Forest
+Court for being permitted to retain in cultivation an assart of half an
+acre, lying in Willenhall; that is, to be allowed to continue under the
+plough a piece of land on which he had grubbed up all the trees and
+bushes by the roots, to the detriment of the covert within the King's
+Royal Forest of Cannock.
+
+The founder of the family was succeeded by a son, and by a grandson, both
+of whom were also called "Richard Leveson, of Willenhall," although the
+last one was sometimes designated as "of Wolverhampton," to which town he
+was doubtless attracted by the greater profits to be made in the wool
+trade.
+
+The early commercial fame of Wolverhampton was based on this industry.
+Although there were no wool-staplers here in 1340, yet in 1354, when the
+wool staple was removed from Flanders, Wolverhampton was one of the few
+English towns fixed upon by Parliament for carrying on the trade.  (A
+staple, it may be explained, is a public mart appointed and regulated by
+law.)  Although the staple was again changed to Calais, it was speedily
+brought back to England, and the Levesons were soon among the foremost
+"merchants of the staple."
+
+A Clement de Willenhale is mentioned in an Assize of the year 1338, but
+not improbably he was identical with the Clement Leveson mentioned in
+another lawsuit in 1356, a party to which was a member of the ancient
+local family of Harper--"John le Harpere," as he is therein called.
+
+Then there is mention in 1351 of the John de Willenhale, who is described
+as being in the wardship of the Prince of Wales.  But perhaps the best
+insight into the social state of Willenhall at this period will be
+obtained from a consideration of its inhabitants liable to pay a war tax
+which was levied by Edward III. in order to enable him to carry on a war
+of defence against Scotland.  For this popular military expedition,
+Parliament in 1327 granted the youthful king a Subsidy to the amount of
+one-twentieth leviable upon the value of nearly all kinds of property.
+Assessors and collectors were appointed for every town and village, and
+they were sworn to make true returns of every man's goods and chattels,
+both in the house and out of it.  The exceptions allowable were the goods
+of those whose total property did not amount to the full value of ten
+shillings; the tools of trade; and the implements of agriculture.  On the
+face of it, these exemptions seem fair and just to the lower orders; but
+we find the higher orders were also favoured, and unduly so; not so much
+perhaps in the matters of armour and cavalry horses, as in the
+non-liability of the robes and jewels of knights, gentlemen, and their
+wives, as well as of their silver and household plate.
+
+Here is a copy of the Subsidy Roll of 1327 so far as it relates to
+
+                               WYLLUNHALE.
+
+De                                s.           d.
+Adam M--                          --           --
+Andr' atte Mere                             xviij
+Joh'e le Bakere                   --           --
+Ric'o Odys                        ij
+Ric'o filio Radulfi               ij           vj
+Joh'e filio Rogeri                --           --
+Ric'o filio Ade                   ij
+Will'o filio Roberti             iij
+Will'o atte Pirye                 vj
+Ric'o Chollettes                  ij
+Agnete Odys                      iij
+Hugone le Gardiner                             ij
+Adame atte Mere                   ij
+Joh'e Hopkynes                                xij
+Agnete atte Wode                              xij
+Will'mo Newemon                               xij
+Symone Levesone                                vj
+                  Summa       xxviij       vj Pb.
+
+It will be seen that this fragment is imperfect, as the various amounts
+set down will not add up to the "summa" or total given, notwithstanding
+that it has been audited--the abbreviation "Pb." standing for probata, or
+proved.
+
+But more interest will be found in a brief study of the names of
+Willenhall's inhabitants, who were men of substance seven hundred years
+ago.
+
+It will be observed that Simon is the only member of the Leveson family
+assessed, and that he pays the least sum, except that paid by the man
+Hugh, described as "the Gardener" (the amount paid by "John the Baker"
+has been obliterated from the roll).
+
+The strange surname Odyes, appearing twice in this list, occurs in
+another record of the year 1422, and seems to belong to a gentle family,
+resident in Willenhall, and owning lands in Bentley.
+
+As but few people then bore recognised surnames, we find taxpayers here
+officially set down as "Richard the son of Ralph," "John the son of
+Roger," "Richard the son of Adam," and "William the son of Robert."
+Besides these named according to their parentage, we have those described
+according to their place of residence; as thus, "Andrew at the Mere," and
+"Adam at the Mere"; "Agnes at the Wood," and "William at the Pear Tree."
+William Newman was probably so-called because he was a new-comer, or was
+lately emancipated from serfdom as a "new man."
+
+From the Patent Rolls of November, 1334, may be gleaned the bare facts of
+what seems to have been an extraordinary assault at Willenhall, which was
+committed upon John, son of John de Bentley, by no less than thirty
+assailants.  Among those implicated may be noted the names of five
+members of the Leveson family, namely, Geoffrey, Moses, John, Simon, and
+Simon the younger; also the names of William, son of Robert atte Pirie,
+Andrew atte Mere, John le Harpere, Richard Coletes, Richard Colyns, and
+several others which have occurred before in these pages.  The Leveson
+family continue to make many appearances in the records of Willenhall
+litigation at this early period.  In 1347, Andrew, the son of Simon
+Levesone, of Willenhale, was sued for the treading down and consuming of
+the corn of Andrew in le Lone at Willenhale, with his cattle, and by
+force of arms, and for cutting down his trees, and beating and wounding
+his servant.
+
+In the following year, Geoffrey Levesone, of Willenhale, brought a
+somewhat similar charge of trespass against John Oldejones, of
+Wodnesfeld.  In 1362, Roger Levesone, of Willenhale, was successful in a
+suit for recovering two acres of land at Wolverhampton.  About the same
+time Juliana Levesone, of Willenhall, married William Tomkys, a member of
+one of the leading families of Bilston.
+
+In 1369, John de la Lone, of Wolverhampton, sued John Levesone, of
+Willenhale, for forcibly taking his fish, to the value of 100 shillings,
+"from his several fishery in Willenhale."
+
+In 1394, Roger Liefson (Leveson), of Wylenhale (who has been previously
+mentioned in Chapter VII.), was at law with Thomas Colyns, of the same
+place, for forcibly taking away from Willenhall twelve oxen belonging to
+him.  Immediately after, one William de Chorley was attacked for taking
+away from Great Wyrley, also with a display of armed force, three oxen
+and two cows, the property of Richard Leveson, of Willenhall.  If these
+two cases were not reprisals, they at least show a state of disturbance
+and insecurity.
+
+Another exhibition of lawlessness is brought to our notice in 1429, when
+Richard Leveson is found suing Robert Dorlaston, weaver, Richard Colyns,
+lorymer, William Brugge, and William Bate, yeomen, all described as "of
+Wylenhale," for violently and forcibly breaking into his close at
+Willenhall.
+
+A similar case of forcible entry into the close and houses of James
+Leveson, at Willenhale, by one Roger Waters, a Willenhale lorymer, was an
+outrage which occupied the attention of the law courts in 1433.
+
+Three years later (1436) another law case shows the same James Levesson
+suing John Pippard, chaplain, for a messuage and 20 acres of land in
+Wolverhampton, which he asserted had descended to him from Richard
+Levesson, of Willenhall, who held it in the time of Edward I., in a
+direct line, namely, from Richard to his son Geoffrey, from Geoffrey to
+his son Roger, and from Roger to his son Nicholas, who was plaintiff's
+father.
+
+By this time the Leveson family seems to have been not only firmly
+established in and around Willenhall, Wednesfield, and Wolverhampton, but
+to have been very numerous as well.  Originally yeomen of the first-named
+place, cultivating their lands within the precincts of the Royal Forest
+of Cannock, they gradually grew and prospered, one branch taking
+advantage of the greater commercial opportunities offered by the
+last-named town, and settling there as merchants and wool-staplers.
+
+Woolstapling was a prosperous trade in Wolverhampton as early as 1354;
+and in its ancient market place the Levesons of the younger branch were
+to be found bartering wool and steadily accumulating riches until they
+were able to marry into the most exclusive of the county families.
+
+Among the Bailiffs of the Staple--which, in the case of Wolverhampton
+were wool and woolfel--we find the names of William Leveson in 1485, and
+Walter Leveson in 1491.
+
+Members of other old and well-known local families also filled this
+office of Bailiff at various times, namely, William Jennings in 1483,
+Richard Gough in 1486, Edward Giffard in 1493, Y. Turton in 1496, and W.
+Wrottesley in 1499.  If evidence were required of the enterprise of these
+Wolverhampton merchants, it would be forthcoming in the fact that a
+Leveson and a Jennings, both natives of this place (the latter a
+"merchant taylor" in 1508) filled the high office of Lord Mayor of
+London.
+
+An Inquisition Post Mortem (one of those feudal inquiries into the extent
+of a man's landed possessions which passed to his heirs) was held on the
+death of Henry Beaumont, lord of the Manor of Wednesbury, at Willenhall,
+on 28th June, 1472.  Among those sworn of the jury on that occasion were
+James Leveson Esq., Richard Leveson, Esq., Cornelius Wyrley, Esq., Robert
+Leveson, Ralph Busshbury, Esq., and William Mollesley, all local
+magnates.
+
+It has not been possible to identify all the members of this extensive
+family.  There were two distinct branches of the Levesons or Luesons.
+The elder line were of Prestwood and Lilleshall, and produced Sir Richard
+Leveson, of Trentham; the younger branch, descended from William, the son
+of Richard Leveson, of Willenhall, produced the Sir Thomas Leveson who
+was the Royalist governor of Dudley Castle during the great Civil War
+(1643).
+
+The elder line were "of Prestwood" because Nicholas Leveson, in the time
+of Henry VI. married Maud, heiress of John de Prestwood.  The Lilleshall
+and other properties were fat church lands, purchased by the wealthy
+Levesons at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  It was a Richard Leveson
+of the Prestwood branch who acquired the Haling Estate in Kent by
+marriage with a Lord Mayor's daughter, and died in 1539 after being
+himself Lord Mayor of London.
+
+Also from this branch came the famous Vice-Admiral of England in Queen
+Elizabeth's days.  This gallant sea-dog, whose romance with the "Spanish
+Lady" has been retold by the present writer in his "Staffordshire
+Stories" (pp. 22-35), took part in that daring attack upon Cadiz which
+has been sung by Henry John Newbolt in his "Admirals All"--
+
+    Essex was fretting in Cadiz Bay
+       With the galleons fair in sight;
+    Howard at last must give him his way,
+       And the word was passed to fight.
+    Never was schoolboy gayer than he,
+       Since holidays first began:
+    He tossed his bonnet to wind and sea,
+       And under the guns he ran.
+
+Admiral Leveson's effigy in Wolverhampton Church stamps him as one of the
+heroes of old romance--his career was indeed remarkable, as may be read
+in the work alluded to.
+
+The present-day representatives of the family are the Leveson-Gowers, the
+head of whom is the Duke of Sutherland.  The Gowers were an Anglo-Saxon
+family seated in Yorkshire, and the union of the two occurred about the
+time of Charles I., when Sir Thomas Gower, then Sheriff of Yorkshire,
+married Frances, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Leveson, of Haling and
+Lilleshall.
+
+At the time Richard Leveson was sailing the seas with Essex and Drake,
+there was a John Leveson living in Willenhall as lord of the manor, the
+site of his residence being still marked by the position of Levison
+Street and Moat Street.
+
+In Wolverhampton "Turton's Old Hall" was originally known as Leveson's
+Hall; this massive old mansion, surrounded by its once deep and wide
+moat, is believed to have been erected by John Leveson, a wool merchant,
+who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1561.
+
+Truly the local record of the Levesons is a long and notable one; and it
+is interesting to note that John Leveson, son of Thomas, who had been
+Sheriff of the county, and died in 1595, is the last in Shaw's pedigree
+to be described as "of Willenhale," although in a succeeding chapter we
+shall find members of this family still seated on their native soil,
+Willenhall, as late as the years of the Jacobite Rebellions, 1715 and
+1745.
+
+
+
+
+X.--Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation.
+
+
+Now to resume the ecclesiastical history of the place.  Willenhall was
+affected by the Reformation from two directions; first, through the
+mother church of Wolverhampton, of which collegiate establishment it
+formed a portion; secondly, through its own chapel and the endowed
+chantry established therein.
+
+The great ecclesiastical upheaval of the sixteenth century had its
+precursor in the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII.  The
+rumble of the coming storm warned the secular or non-monastic foundations
+that it would be prudent to set their houses in order if they were to
+safeguard their revenues; for every one of the smaller monasteries, with
+an income of less than 200 pounds per annum, had been forfeited to the
+Crown (1529).
+
+A new valuation of the College of Wolverhampton had but just been
+instituted in 1526, from which it will be necessary here to extract only
+that portion of the return relating to our subject.  It was to this
+effect:--
+
+                       THE PREBEND OF WYLNALL.
+                                              pounds       s.       d.
+William Leveson, Clerk (dwelling in                3        0        0
+Exeter with the Bishop), Prebendary
+there, and hath in glebe-lands
+And in tithes of corn, one year with               3        0        0
+another
+And in wool and lambs by the year, one             3        6        8
+year with another
+And in the Easter Book by the year,                0       13        4
+one year with another
+And in tithes of Herbage, Pigs, Geese,             0       40        0
+and other small tithes
+                              Sum total           12        0        0
+And thereof he pays allowance for                  0        6        8
+Synodals every third year, paid to the
+aforesaid Dean
+And so there remains clear                        11       13        4
+The tenth part thereof                             0       23        4
+
+The value of the Deanery, the Prebends, and the two Chantries of
+Willenhall and Bilston are all set forth in this Return.  (See Oliver's
+"History of Wolverhampton Church," pp. 57-60.)
+
+The visitation of the religious houses, undertaken as it was in a hostile
+spirit by Henry VIII., naturally alarmed the authorities of a church
+where it would appear that irregularities on the part of the prebendaries
+had long existed, and not an inconsiderable portion of the church
+property had been alienated, to say nothing of the sequestration of the
+church communion plate.  Now some hasty attempts were made at
+restitution, and more so to escape detection and censure.
+
+Restoration in some sort seems to have been hastily attempted at
+Wolverhampton.  In 1529 Nicholas Leveson presented a new chalice of
+silver; and the high altar was restored at much expense to its former
+magnificence.  The Dean, however, fell into disgrace in the matter of
+denying the King's supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London in
+consequence.  In 1540 bells purchased by the inhabitants from Wenlock
+Abbey were hung in the church tower.  Four years later sixteen stalls,
+taken from the recently dissolved monastery at Lilleshall, were presented
+by Sir Walter Leveson to Wolverhampton Church.
+
+All these precautions scarcely availed to avert the impending doom.  By
+an Act passed in the first year of the reign of Edward VI., the
+dissolution of Colleges and Chantries was effected.  But the Royal
+College of Windsor, of which Wolverhampton was a member, was especially
+exempted, and the Wolverhampton Chapter consequently felt secure from
+disturbance.
+
+So sure of their position were they that the prebendaries actually
+proceeded to lease out their property.  Among the others, the prebendary
+of Willenhall granted his lands and tithes to John Leveson, Esq. (who
+held several other of the prebendal properties), for a reserved rent of 6
+pounds 6s.
+
+Although the various deeds were confirmed by the Dean and Chapter of
+Windsor, the legality of the proceedings was questioned; and presently it
+was successfully contended that the Deanery of Wolverhampton was a
+separate benefice detached from the College of Windsor, and that the
+prebends were in the hands of the Crown.
+
+There is extant another valuation of these ecclesiastical revenues in the
+Primate's Court.  The record is in Latin, but it may be Englished thus:--
+
+                                              pounds       s.       d.
+Canterbury values Willenhall                       5        2        1
+It Days to the Dean of Wolverhampton               0        3        3
+
+        (William Leveson, Prebendary of
+                           Willenhall.)
+
+The Prebendary of Willenhall is worth per annum:--
+
+                                                           s.       d.
+In Glebeland                                               41        0
+In Corn tithes                                             40        0
+In Wool and Lambs                                          46        8
+In Easter dues                                             13       10
+In Tithes of Fodder, of Hogs, and Geese and other          40        0
+small tithes
+Thence is paid, in every third year, to the Dean,           6        8
+for the Synod
+
+The valuation of Wolverhampton College which is to be regarded as that of
+the Reformation was made in 1551, and one item in which may be quoted
+from Oliver's "History of Wolverhampton Church" (p. 63):--"And for 12
+pounds 6s. 8d. for the farm of the Prebend of Willnall, with all
+messuages, tithes, lands, rents, services, and other profits to the said
+Prebend belonging, demised to John Horton, by Indenture under seal of the
+said College, dated 4th November, 33 Henry VIII., for the term of 21
+years," &c., &c.
+
+Turning our attention to Willenhall itself, let us see how the Chapel
+here was affected.  The Chantry foundation of this Chapel, like all
+others, had to go.  Chantries being founded by the pious rich to have the
+souls of their dear departed prayed for, could not be tolerated by the
+Protestant reformers, and were all rigidly suppressed.  Here is the
+valuation formally taken in the reign of Henry VIII. (1526), as before
+mentioned:--
+
+                         CHANTRY OF WYLNALL.
+Hugh Bromehall, chaplain, hath a house with lands              8 marks
+pertaining to the same, value per annum
+                                                           s.       d.
+And prays to be allowed for rents of assize,                3        3
+payable to the Dean
+And for Capitation rents, paid annually to William                  10
+Leveson, Prebendary of Wylnall
+And so their remains due                                  102        7
+The tenth part thereof                                     10        3
+
+The Chantry, being regarded as one of the abhorred institutions of
+Romanism, thus came to an end under the reforming zeal of our Protestant
+legislators in the early years of the reign of Edward VI.
+
+All the possessions of the Colleges of Wolverhampton and Tettenhall, with
+their Prebends, together with the Chantry lands of Willenhall, Bilston,
+and Kinver, when they passed from the Crown in 1552, fell into the hands
+of the notorious John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who contrived to
+grab no end of church property in this immediate locality.  When
+Northumberland came to the block shortly afterwards, there was a great
+redistribution of this property, that of Wolverhampton being once more
+annexed to the Royal Free Chapel of St. George at Windsor.
+
+
+
+
+XI.--How the Reformation Affected Willenhall.
+
+
+As recorded in the last chapter, the Willenhall Chantry, in common with
+all others throughout the country, was finally suppressed by Edward VI.
+and his Protestant ministers (1547).  It had been in existence upwards of
+200 years, the name of its first Chantry Priest being given (1341) as
+"William in the Lone."
+
+The Prebendal lands also, as we have seen, were leased in the fourth year
+of this reign to John Leveson, for the sum of 6 pounds 6s. per annum.
+All the other lands belonging to the Deanery of Wolverhampton then passed
+into the hands of the King, but did not long remain in the Crown, being
+conveyed, with much more ecclesiastical property hereabouts, to John
+Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.  On his attainder in the reign of Mary
+(1553), the Deanery lands reverted to the Crown, to be again restored to
+their original use by that most pious queen.
+
+In 1547 the zeal of the Protestant reformers induced the Government of
+Edward VI. to send Commissioners round the country to make inquiry in
+every parish and every church as to the ecclesiastical appointments used
+in ritual, with orders to suppress all that made for "idolatrous Popish
+practices."
+
+The Commissioners for this locality were all men of high standing in the
+county, as will be seen from their names.  They were sworn to make--
+
+    A juste, treu, and parfett survey and inventorie of all goods, plate,
+    juelles, vestements, belles, and other ornaments, of all churches,
+    chappells, brotherhoddes, gyldes, fraternities, and compones within
+    the Hundred of Offeley, in the Countie of Stafford; taken the seventh
+    day of October, in the sixte yere of the Rayne of our Sovereyn Lord,
+    King Edward the Sixte, by Thomas Gyffard and Thomas Fytzherbert,
+    knyghts; and Walter Wrottesley, Esquier, by virtue of the King's
+    commissein to them, directed in that behalf, as hereafter
+    particularly appereth.
+
+On one hand, they had to put a stop to the embezzlement, concealment, and
+appropriation by private persons of the condemned church property, and to
+recover as much of it as possible for the King's Exchequer.  For, under
+pretence of a burning zeal for the reformed faith, there had been much
+sacrilegious spoliation--church plate finding its way on to the table of
+the neighbouring gentry, marble coffins being utilised as horse-troughs,
+altar cloths serving as tapestry for parlour walls, and similar
+malpractices by those who ought to have known better.  This property was
+to be retrieved, and the detected offenders were to be heavily fined.
+
+The Return made for Willenhall Church by the Commissioners and their
+official "Surveyor," or assessor, runs, verbatim:--
+
+                                   WYLNALL.
+
+    Fyrste one challes of sylver with a paten parcell gilte weyinge by
+    estimacon viij ounces; iij vestement one of whyte fustian another of
+    blacke chamlett and the thyrd of bleu sarsynet; iij alter clothes; ij
+    cruetts of ledde; a bucket of brasse; iij candelstyks of maslyn; a
+    paxe of brass; a corporas with the case; ij towells; one cheste; a
+    lampe of latynn; ij small bells.
+
+    Mem.--That all these parcells before rekened were delyvered unto
+    Richard Forsett, Surveyor to the Kynge's Majesti, as shall appare by
+    his acquytance, except ij belles the whyche remayne still within the
+    sayd chapell.
+
+A few words in explanation of the above terms may, perhaps, be necessary
+for the general reader.  The chalice and the paten were the vessels used
+at the Sacrament, the former being the wine cup, which was of silver, and
+the latter the bread dish, partly gilt.  The priestly vestments were
+those forbidden by the reformed church, and were of different textures
+for different parts of the Roman ceremonial; the fustian was a coarse
+piled fabric, or kind of cotton velvet, imported from the East; chamlett,
+or camlett, was a cloth so called because originally woven from camel
+hair; and the sarsnett was a thin kind of silk.  The altar cloths had to
+be discarded when the "Mass" was reformed into the "Holy Communion."  The
+cruets were pairs of metal jars for containing the wine and the water
+previous to their admixture in the sacrament of the Mass.  The bucket was
+for use at the font.  The candle-sticks were for the lighted tapers upon
+the altar and in this case were made of maslin, an alloy like brass, but
+with a harder grain; latten, of which the altar lamp was made, was a
+similar alloy resembling brass.  The pax was a tablet (sometimes of wood,
+sometimes of bread, though this Willenhall example was of durable brass),
+on which was a figure of the crucifixion; it was presented in the
+ceremony of the Mass for the faithful to kiss.  The Corporas was the
+cloth placed beneath the consecrated elements in the service of the Mass.
+The towels were napkins used in the celebration of the sacred office; it
+must be borne in mind that all textile fabrics, as well as metals, were
+far more costly in those days, and the chest was to keep all these
+valuables in safety.
+
+It is difficult to decide the nature of the "two small bells"; because,
+if they were the sanctus bells used at the most solemn parts in the
+performance of the Mass, one a hand-bell rung inside, and the other as a
+signal outside, they would have been abolished.  So, as they were left by
+the Reformers, they were probably small bells in the steeple or turret.
+
+So much for the changes materialistic brought about at this great
+religious upheaval of the sixteenth century.  Now let us inquire into the
+more serious and essential changes which occurred in the religious life
+of the nation at that time.
+
+From a little known Return made in 1586 we are enabled to gather the
+conditions of the Church of England, as it was found to exist, only 28
+years after it had been by law established.
+
+At the Reformation, after the annulling of all "Popish ordinations," the
+state of the English clergy became very deplorable.  Some of the basest
+of the people were permitted to become parish priests, a circumstance
+that gave point to the arguments and contentions of the Puritans.
+
+The Reformers were divided upon the subject, Queen Elizabeth expressing
+herself as being perfectly satisfied if in each county three or four
+clergymen could be found capable of preaching to their congregations.
+The Puritans, on the other hand, laid great stress on the admonitory
+value and spiritual importance of sermons and homilies.
+
+By 1586 the condition of the newly-formed Protestant Church of England
+had become so scandalous in respect of its priesthood that a national
+"Survey" was undertaken.  Of the remarkable facts disclosed by this
+Return we select from the summaries the following few which relate to
+this immediate locality:--
+
+    WOLVERHAMPTON.--A Collegiate Church; impropriate to the King's
+    Majestie or the Dean of Windsor; value of lands belonging to it is
+    600 pounds per annum.  There be seven Prebends and a Sexton under
+    them; seven stipendiaries; the allowance for four of them is ten
+    nobles apiece; for the other three 6 pounds apiece.  Six of the
+    Prebends be held by Sir Gualter Levison; the other is held by
+    another.  The rent reserved to the Dean of Windsor, 38 pounds.
+    People 4,000.  Many Popish; many Recusants.
+
+    Chappells 3:--
+
+    1.  Pelsall; curate's stipend 4 pounds; no preacher.
+
+    2.  Willenhall; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.
+
+    3.  Bilston; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.
+
+    These curates, especially two of them, Mounsell and Cooper, be
+    notorious and dissolute men.
+
+Such was the lamentable state of the local clergy at that time, when the
+population of Wolverhampton, with all its outlying parts, is set down at
+4,000 only.  A few words of explanation will perhaps be necessary to make
+the foregoing extract more intelligible to the general reader.
+
+A "noble" was a coin of the value of 6s. 8d.; a "recusant" was one who
+disputed the authority and supremacy of the Crown in matters
+ecclesiastical, whether Papist or Puritan; while to "impropriate" church
+property was to place it in the hands of a layman.
+
+Four or five more extracts from this interesting Survey, relating to
+other parts of this neighbourhood, may not be out of place to quote
+here:--
+
+    BYSHBY.--Parsonage, impropriate; worth 40 pounds per annum; vicarage
+    worth 30 pounds; patron, Sir Edward Littleton; many Popish; many
+    Recusants.  Incumbent a mere worldling; no preacher.
+
+    TETNALL.--A college dissolved; five prebends and a deane; impropriate
+    to the King's Majestie; worth 300 marks.  One prebend is held by Sir
+    Richard Leveson; one by Mr. Gualter Wriotesley; two by Richard
+    Cresswell.  Curate's stipend, 20 marks; no preacher.
+
+    CODSALL.--Prebend of Tetnall.  Curate-prebendary a loose liver; no
+    preacher.
+
+    WOMBOURNE.--Parsonage, impropriate, held by Hugh Wriotesley, Esquire;
+    worth 40 pounds; vicarage worth 26 pounds; patron, Edward L. Dudley.
+
+    PEN.--Parsonage; impropriate to the vicars of Lichfield; worth 20
+    pounds; vicarage worth as much; patrons, the Vicars of Lichfield.
+    Vicar --; no preacher.
+
+This selection of extracts will serve to enlighten the reader upon two
+important points in the history of the Church; the first is the amount of
+church revenue which had already found its way into the pockets of the
+laity; and the other is the lamentable necessity there was at that period
+to provide the English clergy with ready-made Homilies.  These Homilies
+were ordered (as the Prayer Book informs us, in the XXXV. Article), to be
+read "diligently and distinctly" in the churches by the Ministers.
+
+
+
+
+XII.--Before the Reformation--and After.
+
+
+It may be assumed that Willenhall Church has been dedicated to St. Giles
+from the first, because the period for holding the dedicatory Wake
+synchronises with St. Gile's day (September 1st), making allowance for
+the eleven days' difference effected in 1752 between the Old Style and
+the New Style calendars.  As the Protestant Reformers took objection to
+non-Biblical saints (West Bromwich Church was altered from St. Clement's
+to All Saints'), a dedication to St. Giles may safely be accepted as a
+pre-Reformation one; and as St. Giles was the patron saint of cripples,
+he doubtless retained his popularity here on account of the reputation
+for healing qualities acquired by the Willenhall "Holy Well"--of which
+more anon.  But in addition to its Wake, the town seems to have possessed
+in mediaeval times a much frequented Summer Fair, held on Trinity Sunday.
+Our knowledge of this interesting fact is derived from the records of the
+Court of Star Chamber.
+
+This court was established by Henry VII. to deal with routs, riots, and
+all other cases not sufficiently provided for by the common law; but the
+oppression practised by the unscrupulous abuse of its indefinite
+jurisdiction led to its summary extinction in the reign of Charles I.
+
+The case to be quoted is one of an alleged riot in the year 1498 (13
+Henry VII.), in which the men of Wednesbury were deeply involved.  These
+turbulent townsmen seem to have made themselves notorious for riotous
+behaviour at various times; as witness the historic Wesley Riots of 1744,
+their march on Birmingham to regulate the price of malt in 1782, and
+their attack on the same town during the Church and King Riots in 1791.
+
+It would appear that a company of Mummers, made up of performers from
+Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall, were regularly in the habit of
+going round to the neighbouring Fairs, and performing to the
+accompaniment of pipe and tabor a Morris-dance, in which the characters
+were dressed up for the then popular dramatic interlude of "Robin Hood,"
+including Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and all the rest of them.
+
+    The hobby-horse doth hither prance,
+    Maid Marian and the Morris-dance.
+
+It would be interesting to discover why, in this local version, the
+character called the "Abbot of Marham" was introduced into the
+play--Marham nunnery was situated in Norfolk, a long way from the usual
+forest scenes of Sherwood and Needwood.
+
+The money collected at these al fresco performances was applied to
+maintaining the fabric of the three parish churches; but, for some reason
+unknown, there had evidently grown up a deadly feud between the
+Wednesbury and the Walsall contingents.  This was the cause of all the
+trouble.
+
+The "John Beamont" mentioned was John Beaumont, Esquire, lord of the
+manor of Wednesbury, a benefactor of the parish church there, and a
+patron of a Walsall Chantry.  It will be noticed that the quoted document
+speaks of the "Church of the lordship," not "of the parish"; and also,
+that the prefix "Sir" was then used to a parson's name, as we should now
+use the prefix "Rev."
+
+Here is the text of the plaints entered by the terrorised "orators" of
+Walsall, together with the affidavits put in as rejoinders; the archaic
+spelling is retained only in a few places just to indicate the style of
+English then employed in the law courts; and it is interesting to note
+that Midlanders had those peculiar vowel sounds in olden times, and
+pronounced "fetch" as "fatch," and "gather" as "gether"--just as the
+illiterate among them still do:--
+
+    TO THE KING OUR SOVEREIGN LORD--
+
+    Humbly sheweth unto your highness, your faithful subject and true
+    liegeman, Roger Dyngley, Mayor of Walsall; and Thomas Rice, of the
+    same town--That whereas your said orators on Wednesday next before
+    Trinity Sunday, the 13th year of your reign, were in God's peace and
+    yours, in your said town of Walsall--thither came one John Cradeley,
+    of Wednesbury, and Thomas Morres, of Dudley, in your said county; and
+    then and there made affray upon the said Thomas Rice, "and hym soore
+    wounded and bett" [beat], so that he was in peril of his life.
+
+    Whereupon the said Mayor, with other inhabitants, did arrest John
+    Cradeley and Thomas Morres, and there did put them in prison
+    according to your laws, there to remain till it were known whether
+    the said Thomas Rice should live or die.
+
+    And incontinent thereupon one John Beamonde, "Squyer," Walter
+    Levison, of Wolverhampton, Richard Foxe, priest, of the same town,
+    and one Robert Marshall, of Wednesbury, "arreysed" and riotously
+    assembled themselves at Wednesbury with other riotous persons to the
+    number of 200 men, arrayed in manner of war, that is to say, with
+    bows, arrows, bills, and "gleves" [long daggers], with other unlawful
+    weapons there gathered and assembled, to the intent to have come to
+    have destroyed your said town of Walsall, saying openly that they
+    would "fache" out of prison the said John Cradeley and Thomas Morres,
+    and destroy your said town of Walsall.
+
+    And thereupon William Harper and William Wilkes, Justices of the
+    Peace, charged the said riotous persons to keep the peace upon a
+    great pain to be forfeited to your grace.  By reason whereof the said
+    rioters for that time ceased from further riot.
+
+    And whereas the said Justices of the Peace, knowing the said rioters
+    intended to make more riot, and to execute their malice in doing some
+    mischief or hurt to the said town or to the inhabitants thereof, for
+    eschewing any riot or breach of the peace commanded the inhabitants
+    of Walsall, Wednesbury, and of divers other towns, their adherents,
+    that they should not assemble together out of the said town, and
+    should not come to a Fair that should be holden at Wilnale on Trinity
+    Sunday, then next following.
+
+    And the inhabitants of Walsall the same day kept at home.
+
+    Notwithstanding, came one from Hampton, whose name is William Milner,
+    calling himself the Abbot of Marram, and one Walter Leveson with him,
+    with the inhabitants of Hampton to the number of four score persons
+    in harness [armour] after the manner of war, to Wilnall to the said
+    Fair.  And also one Robert Marchall, of Wednesbury, calling himself
+    Robyn Hood, and Sir Richard Foxe, priest, with divers other persons
+    to the number of 100 men and above, in harness, came in likewise, and
+    met with the said other rioters at the said town of Wilnall, and then
+    and there riotously assembled themselves, commanding openly that if
+    any of the town of Walsall came therefrom, to strike them down, and
+    in the said town continued their said riotous assembly all the same
+    day; and if any man of Walsall at that day had been seen at that
+    Fair, they should have been in jeopardy of their lives.
+
+    Please your highness to grant your Letters of Privy Seal to be
+    directed to the said John Beamonde, Walter Leveson, Sir Richard Foxe,
+    priest, and Roger Marchall, to commanding them to appear before your
+    Council to answer to the premises.
+
+    1st July, in the 13th year, to appear.
+
+    [Endorsed].
+
+Three several letters issued to Walter Leveson, Richard Foxe, and Roger
+Marchall, to appear.
+
+    MICHAELMAS TERM IN THE 14TH YEAR.  THE MAYOR AND INHABITANTS OF
+    WALSALL AGAINST JOHN BEAMONDE, ESQUIRE, AND OTHERS.  ANSWER FOR SIR
+    ROGER MARCHALL--
+
+    The Bill is only "feyned a yenst hym in pure males" [malice] for his
+    great trouble and vexation, and loss of his goods.  He did not
+    riotously assemble with any persons in arms, nor is he guilty of any
+    riot.  As for the coming to the said Fair at Wylnahale "hit hath byn
+    of olde tymes used and accustumed in the said Fere day that with the
+    inhabitants of sede townes of Hampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall have
+    comyne to the said Fere with the capitanns called the Abot of Marham
+    or Robyn Hodys, to the intent to gether money with their disportes to
+    the profight of the chirches of the said lordshipes," whereby great
+    profit hath grown to the said churches in times past.
+
+    Whereupon the said Roger Marchall and his Company at the special
+    desire of the Inhabitants of Weddesbury, come in peaceable manner to
+    the said Fair, according to the said old custom, and these met with
+    one John Walker, of Walsall, and divers others of the said town, and
+    then and there "they make as gud chere unto them as they should do to
+    ther lovying neyburs."  And he denies that they came riotously.
+
+    THE ANSWER OF WALTER LEVESON--
+
+    He heard say at Hampton, where he dwells, that a "rumour and
+    mysdemenying" against the King's peace was had in Walsale, and that
+    the inhabitants were riotously disposed against John Beamont.
+
+    Whereupon the said Walter with two of his servants, in peaceable
+    manner, and without any harness, came to the said John Beamont to his
+    place at Weddesbury, to know how the Mayor and Inhabitants of Walsale
+    would entreat him.
+
+    John Beamont said that he knew of no hurt that they willed to him.
+    It has been of old time used and accustomed on the said Fair day that
+    the inhabitants of Hampton, Weddesbury, and Walsale have come to the
+    Fair with such Captains as they have of old time used, to the intent
+    to gather money with their disports to the use of the said churches
+    of the said lordships.
+
+And this is all we know of that lively "Whitsun Morris" at Willenhall
+Fair in the year of grace 1498.  It all reads like a delightful chapter
+in the vein of Shakespeare's Dogberry and Verges; and it will be noted
+that the priests are among the captains or ringleaders in this Sunday
+revelling.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+After the Reformation came the Puritans, who severely discountenanced all
+Sunday revelry.  And so the lampoon of their enemies ran:--
+
+    There dwells a people on the earth
+    That reckons true religion treason,
+    That makes sad war on holy mirth,
+    Count madness zeal and nonsense reason;
+    That think no freedom but in slavery,
+    That makes lyes truth, religion, knavery;
+    That rob and cheat with "yea" and "nay,"
+    Riddle me, riddle me, who are they?
+
+Yet, when religious differencies had brought on civil war, it had to be
+confessed of this Puritan people (so says Sir Francis Doyle in "The
+Cavalier"):--
+
+    That though they snuffled psalms, to give
+       The rebel dogs their due,
+    When the roaring shot poured thick and hot
+       They were stalwart men and true.
+
+And so the mighty struggle for liberty of conscience against the
+pretensions of a dominant Church had proceeded for over century, when we
+find the incumbency of Willenhall held by the Rev. Thomas Badland.
+
+Thomas Badland was born in 1643, matriculated at Pembroke College,
+Oxford, 1650, and took his B.A. degree, 1653.  He was one of the noble
+band of ministers who relinquished their livings on August 24th, 1662,
+rather than conform to the requirements of the Act of Uniformity, passed
+on the Restoration of Charles II.
+
+On his ejectment from Willenhall, this conscientious Puritan divine
+returned to his native city, Worcester, where "he formed a distinct
+congregation of Christians, who assembled for worship in a small room" at
+the bottom of Fish Street.  His family was an old one in Worcester, the
+name Badland occurring in a charter of James I.
+
+According to Noake's "Worcester Sects," he was minister of that
+congregation for 35 years; but before his death the Declaration of
+Indulgence by James II. was made (1687), and immediately thereupon Mr.
+Badland's church was regularly constituted by the adoption of the
+Covenants of church membership which had been drawn by Richard Baxter--he
+was a personal friend of the eminent divine--in terms sufficiently
+general to include almost all denominations who might choose to make it a
+point of common agreement.
+
+From Nash's "History of Worcestershire" we learn that on a monument on
+the south wall of the south aisle of St. Martin's church, Worcester, it
+was set forth:--
+
+    Under these seats lies interred the body of the Rev. Thomas Badland,
+    a faithful and profitable preacher of the Gospel in this city for the
+    space of thirty-five years.  He rested from his labours, May 5th, A.D
+    1698, aet. 64.
+
+                             Mors mihi vita nova.
+
+When St. Martin's Church was pulled down in 1768 this marble tablet was
+carelessly thrown aside, and soon got broken into fragments.  Happily the
+pieces were rescued and put together again with loving care for erection
+in the vestibule of Angel Street Chapel, at the expense of the
+congregation worshipping there.  In the new Independent Chapel, which has
+taken the place of that older building (registered at Quarter Sessions in
+1689 as a Presbyterian place of worship), the memorial has been placed
+near the pulpit.
+
+From a MS. history of Angel Street Church, written by Samuel Blackwell in
+1841, it would appear that Mr. Badland had as one of his assistants a Mr.
+Hand, who had been ordained at Oldbury.  At Fish Street Chapel (the site
+of which was occupied in later times by Dent's Glove Factory), there were
+120 Communicants in February, 1687; and the Declaration of Faith drawn up
+and signed by the church members that year bears first the name of Thomas
+Badland, pastor, and among many others that follow is that of "Elizab.
+Badland," presumably his wife.  Such, briefly, is the life history of the
+good man who relinquished the living of Willenhall, and repudiated its
+"idolatrous steeple-house," at the Black Bartholomew of 1662, rather than
+stifle the dictates of his conscience.
+
+In Palmer's "Nonconformist' Memorials" the Rev. Thomas Badland has been
+confused with the Rev. Thomas Baldwin, who was ejected (1662) from the
+Vicarage of Chaddesley Corbett, and who died at Kidderminster in 1693,
+his funeral sermon being preached by a conforming clergyman there, named
+White.  There was also a Thomas Baldwin, junior, who had been expelled
+from the Vicarage of Clent, and died at Birmingham; but notwithstanding
+such common mispronunciations as "Badlam" for "Badland," it seems clear
+that the facts of the Rev. Mr. Badland's life are as given here, thanks
+to the careful researches of Mr. A. A. Rollason, of Dudley.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.--A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms (1640-1745).
+
+
+Life in Willenhall, as in many other places during the Stuart period, was
+not without its alarms and apprehensions.  The trouble began when Charles
+I., by the advice of Archbishop Laud, tried to force the English liturgy
+upon Scotland.  The resistance offered to this was the real beginning of
+the English Revolution, for the King, in the attempt to carry out his
+despotic will, had to enlist soldiers by force.
+
+        [Picture: Mosley Hall.  Photo. by J. Gale, Wolverhampton]
+
+In the year 1640 a special muster was made for the war against the Scotch
+Covenanters; the men from Staffordshire consisted of trained bands who
+had been employed in the previous year, and 300 men who were impressed
+for the occasion.  The service throughout the country was very unpopular,
+and in some counties the men mutinied and murdered their officers.
+Staffordshire did not escape some riots, and one of the most serious of
+them occurred in front of Bentley Hall, a mile and a-half out of
+Willenhall.
+
+     [Picture: Boscobel House.  Photo. by B. Williams, Wolverhampton]
+
+This was the last attempt at raising men on the old feudal levies; the
+trained bands were armed partly with pikes and partly with the
+newly-invented firelock, while the whole of the impressed men were armed
+merely with pikes.  The Muster Roll for this immediate locality contains
+these names (that of Aspley is cancelled):--
+
+                               Traine.                 Presse.
+Tipton                  Thomas Dudley,          --Thomas Winney.  The
+                                                L. dnd.
+
+                                                --William Aspley pst.
+
+                                                --John Winspurre in
+                                                loco.
+
+                                                --John Husband.
+
+                                                --Joseph Richard.
+
+                                                --William Dutton.
+
+                                                --Richard Rushton: to
+                                                be sp: per R. Turnor.
+Darlaston & Bentley     Thomas Pye, Willm
+                        Turner,
+Wednesfield             John Hill,
+Willenhall              William Wilkes,
+
+Another Roll dated 1634, but apparently in use at this time, gives among
+the names of the "trayned horse" liable as (or for) 2 "curiasiers,"
+"Thomas Levison, Esq.," and "Mrs. Lane and her sonne."
+
+Within a couple of years Civil War had broken out in England, and
+Willenhall had to endure its full share of suffering lying, as it did,
+midway between two opposing strongholds--Dudley Castle, held for the King
+(under Colonel Leveson), and Rushall Hall, garrisoned for the
+Parliamentarian side.
+
+Both sides in turn, as they were in a position to enforce payment, made
+levies of money upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the district.  While
+Rushall Hall was a fortified position, first under its owner, Sir Edward
+Leigh, and afterwards under its military governor, Captain Tuthill,
+Willenhall was forced to pay to the support of the garrison there.
+
+Here is the evidence of an official notice:--
+
+    April 8th, 1643.--Ordered that the weekly pay, and five weeks'
+    arrears, of Norton and Wirley, Pelsall, Rushall, and Goscote,
+    Willenhall, Wednesfield and Wednesbury, shall be assigned to Col.
+    Leigh for payment of his officers of horse and troopers
+
+There is a similar military order, dated 22nd June, 1644, by which the
+weekly pay of all these places is assigned to Captain Tuthill, governor
+of Rushall, though in the parcelling out of contributory areas, Bushbury,
+Wolverhampton, Bilston, and Bradley are included in another district.
+The other side were employing forced labour for strengthening the defence
+of Dudley Castle, and not improbably the Leveson tenants from Wednesfield
+and Willenhall were impressed to go up there equipped with spade and
+mattock.
+
+Doubtless troops and detachments of armed men were frequently to be seen
+passing through Willenhall; while Wolverhampton, owing to the influence
+of the Levesons and the Goughs, was almost a Royalist rallying place.
+Soon after the skirmish at Hopton Heath, near Stafford, in 1643, Charles
+I. found shelter in the old Star and Garter Inn (then in Cock Street),
+and to this hostelry came Mr. Henry Gough, who had accommodated Charles,
+Prince of Wales, and his younger brother, James, Duke of York, at his
+private residence, to proffer the King a willing war loan of 1,200
+pounds.
+
+The same year the King made the same hostelry his headquarters, dating a
+letter which he addressed to the Lichfield magistrates, directing them to
+send their arms to join the Royal standard at Nottingham, "Att our Court
+at Wolverhampton, 17 August, 1642."
+
+In 1643, Prince Rupert, after his memorable fight at Birmingham, made an
+attack upon Rushall Hall; and notwithstanding the gallant defence of
+Mistress Leigh, in the absence of her husband, its lord, took and held it
+for the King, putting in as governor Sir Edward Leigh's neighbour,
+Colonel Lane, of Bentley.  With a garrison of 100 to 200 men, he held
+Rushall Hall for some months, having some exciting times, chiefly in the
+plundering of the enemy's stores, and the private merchandise of carriers
+passing along the great Watling Street over Cannock Chase.
+
+On May 10th, 1644, the Earl of Denbigh, after a vigorous attack,
+recaptured Rushall, finding there thousands of pounds' worth of stolen
+goods, and taking among other prisoners William Hopkins, of Oakeswell
+Hall, Wednesbury.  It was then Captain Tuthill became commander of the
+garrison.
+
+In the same month the Stafford Parliamentarian Committee ordered the
+seizure of all the horses and cattle belonging to that staunch Royalist,
+Squire Lane, and of all the other cavalier landowners around Bentley.
+The seizure was duly made, and realised by sale at Birmingham.  As a
+set-off to this it must be recounted that at the beginning of the year
+Colonel Lane had fallen upon a Parliamentary escort convoying stores and
+provisions to Stafford, routed the enemy, and taken no less than sixty
+horses, fifty-five of their packs containing ammunition.  Hence, the
+reprisal at this first opportunity.
+
+In the September of the year (1644) a remarkable episode occurred.  The
+governor of Dudley Castle, Sir Thomas Leveson, employed one of his trusty
+tenants, a yeoman named Francis Pitt, of Wednesfield, to make a secret
+attempt to bribe Captain Tuthill to betray Rushall and its garrison into
+his hands.  A number of letters passed between Leveson and Tuthill, for
+the latter pretended from the outset to fall in with the treacherous
+proposal, with the object of recovering some prisoners; which having
+accomplished, he seized Pitt, the go-between, and delivered him up to the
+Parliament.
+
+Colonel Leveson, unconscious of this treachery, came according to
+arrangement to Rushall, but instead of finding an easy entrance, had two
+"drakes," or small cannons, fired upon him, killing a number of his
+troops.  The letters of Leveson and Tuthill will be found printed in full
+in Willmore's "History of Walsall."  The unfortunate messenger, Francis
+Pitt, was tried in London by "Court Martial," and hanged at Smithfield on
+October 12th.  It transpired at the trial that he was selected by Colonel
+Leveson because he held a farm of him for life, was familiar with Rushall
+Hall, and had told him he had to go there to pay his war contributions,
+and sometimes to redeem his neighbours' cattle.  On the one side Captain
+Tuthill had promised him 100 of the 2,000 pounds bribe by which it was
+proposed to seduce him, and on the other his landlord had offered to
+remit seven years of his rent.  Such is the fortune of war, however, the
+poor wretch, instead of reward, met with an ignominious death at the age
+of 65, after a life of honest toil.
+
+In 1645 Prince Rupert had his headquarters in Wolverhampton, while the
+King lay two miles to the north of the town, where tradition says he
+watched a skirmish with the enemy from Bushbury Hill.  When Charles I.
+fled before Cromwell at Naseby on June 14th of that year he passed
+through Lichfield and entered Wolverhampton.  After sleeping the night,
+either at the Old Hall, Robert Levenson's residence, or at a house in Old
+Lichfield Street, the unfortunately King passed on the next morning
+towards Bewdley.
+
+Some interesting local information during this war time is to be derived
+from the literary remains of an officer in the King's Army, one Captain
+Symmonds, who amused himself on his marches by taking heraldic notes, and
+noticing monumental inscriptions.  An entry in his Diary thus alludes to
+the foregoing facts:--
+
+                                                     Friday, May 16, 1645.
+
+    The rendezvous was near the King's quarters.  Began after 4 o'clock
+    in the morning here.  One soldier was hanged for mutiny.
+
+    The prince's headquarters was at Wolverhampton.  A handsome towne.
+    One faire church in it.
+
+    The King lay at Bisbury.  A private sweet village where Squire
+    Grosvenor (as they call him) lives.  Which name hath continued here
+    120 years.  Before him lived Bisbury of Bisbury.
+
+Our military diarist next writes:--
+
+    Satterday, May 17, 1645.--His Majestie marched from here to Tong--
+
+and goes on to enumerate the garrisons in Staffordshire at that date,
+distinguishing by initials which were "Rebel" and which were the
+"King's"; among them:--
+
+    K.  Lichfield.--Colonel Bagott, governor.
+
+    R.  Russell hall.--A taylor governor.
+
+    R.  Mr. Gifford's house at Chillington, three miles from
+    Wolverhampton.  Now slighted by themselves.
+
+    K.  Dudley Castle.--Colonel Leveson, whose estate and habitation is
+    at Wolverhampton, is governor.
+
+"Slighted" signifies dismantled of its fortification; the allusion to "a
+tailor" being military governor of Rushall is, of course, a cavalier's
+sneer at the Republican soldiery.
+
+Coming now to the end of the war, when Charles II. was defeated at
+Worcester in 1651, the country round Willenhall became the scene of that
+fugitive monarch's most romantic wanderings.  Flying from the battlefield
+at the close of that fatal September day, Charles made his way through
+Stourbridge to Whiteladies and Boscobel.  Then occurred the episode of
+his hiding in the "Royal Oak," and his concealment inside the house, in
+the "priests' hole" at the top of the stairs, by Mrs. Penderel.
+
+Fearing discovery, the King was escorted by the brothers Penderel to
+Moseley Hall, near Bushbury, a timber-framed mansion in the picturesque
+Elizabethan style, the home of the Whitgreates, where the hunted monarch
+was welcomed and immediately refreshed with some biscuits and a bottle of
+sack.  Charles had scarcely departed from Boscobel ere a troop of
+Roundheads arrived to search it.  And another narrow escape now occurred
+at Moseley, where again a cunningly contrived hiding place was brought
+into requisition.  Even after the frustration of the search party, one
+Southall, a notorious "priest catcher," called at the suspected house.
+
+Prudence dictated another secret flight, and taking advantage of a dark
+night the unhappy King was taken by Colonel Lane to his own house, and
+was next hidden at Bentley Hall.
+
+The story of the escape of Charles II. from Bentley towards the
+continent, disguised as a groom and riding in front of Jane Lane's
+pillion, is too well known to need re-telling here.  The episode is
+historic; it is the subject of a fresco painted on the walls of a
+corridor in the gilded chambers of Parliament.
+
+The whole romance of Boscobel and Bentley is told with considerable
+fulness in Shaw's "Staffordshire" (I., pp. 73-84), and is accompanied by
+very interesting engravings of Boscobel, Moseley Hall, and Old Bentley.
+
+As a result of the Revolution of 1688, and with the death of Queen Anne
+in 1714, the impracticable Stuarts disappeared for good from the English
+throne; but as adherents to their discredited cause, known as Jacobites,
+still remained numerous, it may be guessed they were not lacking in and
+around Willenhall.
+
+After the Hanoverian Succession there were, in fact, a number of avowed
+Jacobites in this vicinity, who refused to take the oath of allegiance to
+George I.  Their names and behaviour were kept strictly under notice by
+the Government, but for fear of driving them to extremes no active
+measures were taken against them or their estates.  A list of these
+non-jurors and Roman Catholics was compiled after the rebellion of 1715,
+and again in 1745, when the rebellion of the Young Pretender once more
+disturbed the Kingdom.  A list of these suspects was published on each
+occasion by the Government, with the amount of penalties incurred (but
+not exacted) against each name.  In these lists appeared the following
+names:--
+
+                                             pounds       s.        d.
+Charles Smith, of Bushbury, Esq.                 67        0         0
+Anne Kempson, of Estington, widow                11        0         0
+Ursula Kempson, of Wolverhampton,                39        0         0
+widow
+John Kempson, of Great Sardon                    41        0         0
+William Ward, ditto                               9        2         6
+Mary Leveson, of Willenhall, in                  31       10         0
+Wolverhampton
+John Leveson, ditto                              50       17         6
+John Brandon, of Prestwood, yeoman               12        5         6
+Thomas Giffard, of Chillington, Esq.           2100        6       6.5
+Elizabeth Giffard, of Wolverhampton,             58       19         0
+spinster
+Thomas Whitgreaves, of Moseley, Esq.             73        2         6
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XIV.--Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend (1615-1702).
+
+
+The Prebend had little to do with Willenhall, except in name.  However,
+as the name of Willenhall was attached to this particular "canonical
+portion" in the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, and more especially
+as the Levesons are connected with its later history, reference to it
+cannot well be omitted.
+
+The Leveson family had been dealing with Wolverhampton church property
+for centuries, and in the Stuart period were lessees of the greater part
+of it at a nominal rent of 38 pounds per annum.  Their standing in the
+county may be gauged by this entry which the Heralds made concerning the
+family at "Visitation" 1538:--
+
+    Richard Leveson of Willenhall was living in 27 Edward I.  He married
+    Margereye, daughter of Henry Fitz Clemente of Wolverhampton.
+
+By an indenture of the year 1613 the Dean and Chapter of Wolverhampton
+leased the deanery, prebends, and manor of Wolverhampton to Sir Walter
+Leveson, and all the lands belonging thereto in various parts of
+Staffordshire and Worcestershire, including those at Willenhall,
+Wednesfield, Bentley, &c., with all the mines of sea coal, ironstone,
+&c., on the said premises, but specially excepting the patronage and
+gifts of prebends, canonship, and all their offices and ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction; all at an annual reserved rent of 38 pounds, and the quaint
+old-world tenure of having "to entertain the Dean and his retinue two
+days and three nights in each year."
+
+The validity of these leases was questioned a few years later in the 13th
+year of James I., the lessee having refused to pay the reserved rents
+without considerable deductions; and a bill was filed in Chancery by
+Joseph Hall, D.D., prebendary of Willenhall, and Christopher Cragg,
+prebendary of Hatherton (probably on the advice of the newly installed
+Dean, Dr. Anthony Maxey), against the aforesaid, Sir Walter Leveson, who
+was then in possession of the property belonging to their two prebends,
+as well as other possessions belonging to the College of Wolverhampton.
+
+Although the case was decided against Sir Walter Leveson, the
+prebendaries reaped little or no benefit; for Sir Walter died immediately
+after, leaving his heir a minor, and a ward of the King.  During the
+wardship the King attempted to settle the questions and controversies
+which had arisen when he made the appointment of a new Dean.
+
+It must be borne in mind that the Deans of Wolverhampton were also Deans
+of Windsor; and Dr. Maxey dying about 1618, there followed a somewhat
+quick succession of Deans.  These were Matthew Wren (1628), protege of
+Laud, and successively Bishop of Hereford, of Norwich, and of Ely;
+Christopher Wren, his brother (1634), father of the famous architect of
+the same name; Dr. Bruno Ryes (1660); and Dr. Brideoak, who became Bishop
+of Chichester in 1675.
+
+The wardship of young Leveson lasted 16 years, and when he came of age
+the prebendaries were glad to come to a composition with him.
+
+By this composition he agreed to pay them 30 pounds per annum each, in
+full satisfaction of the several tithes and other profits belonging in
+right to their respective prebends; this being over and above the said
+reserved rents which had been previously paid.  Arrangements were made at
+the same time with the rest of the prebendaries respecting the several
+proportions of the tithe belonging to them.
+
+About this time the Dean and Prebendaries successfully resisted an
+attempt of the Archbishop of Canterbury to hold a visitation within the
+"peculiar"--the church's jurisdiction within itself.
+
+After the Civil War the Prebendaries found that they had suffered
+considerable losses by the acts of their predecessors; so it was
+determined by Thomas Wren, LL.D. (son of the aforementioned Rev. Matthew
+Wren, Bishop of Ely, whose literary remains include "A Brief History of
+the Parish and Jurisdiction of Wolverhampton, from the Time of King
+Edgar") prebendary of Willenhall, and Caesar Callendine, B.D., prebendary
+of Hatherton, to file a bill in Chancery against Robert Leveson for a
+discovery of the lands he held which anciently belonged to the
+prebendaries of Wolverhampton, and that he might show by what title he
+held them.
+
+The hearing was before the great Lord Chancellor of that day, Lord
+Clarendon, who dismissed the bill, though without costs.
+
+The Leveson family consequently continued in the undisturbed enjoyment of
+the church property, granted to them in fee farm by six prebendaries, as
+well as of divers other freehold estates in the parish of Wolverhampton.
+
+The Leveson property in Wolverhampton became much implicated in the
+numerous family settlements till, in 1702, Frances, Earl of Bradford,
+purchased it of Robert Leveson for 22,000 pounds.  Lord Bradford also
+acquired, three years later, the estate of the Dean and Prebends of
+Wolverhampton which had been leased to the Earl of Windsor; so that the
+entire property of the Collegiate Church (except the prebendal houses and
+some property which had been set aside for the use of the Sacrist),
+passed into the hands of one and the same proprietor.
+
+In the same year, however, the Dean, Prebendaries, and Sacrist filed a
+bill in Chancery against Leveson and the Earl for the recovery of the
+property.  The plaintiffs were Gregory Hascard, D.D., dean; Prebendaries
+John Hinton (Willenhall), Richard Redding (Kinvaston), Thomas Allestree
+(Hilton), John Plimley (Fetherstone), John Hilman (Hatherton), Richard
+Ames (Monmore), Walter Ashley (Wobaston), and Henry Wood, sacrist.
+
+They contended they were all clerks, constituted one entire body, and
+rector or parson incorporate, of the whole parish of Wolverhampton, which
+was of very great extent, consisting of 16 or 17 hamlets or villages
+besides the large town of Wolverhampton, being in circuit about thirty
+miles, in three of which said hamlets there were chapels of ease, the
+several cures thereof belonging to the said College or Free Chapel Royal.
+
+In all this litigation it was a question much agitated whether, as all
+the prebendaries with the Dean and the Sacrist constituted one entire
+body, any single prebendary could demise his annual portion of the said
+general tithes without the consent of the whole body.
+
+The defendant Leveson was accused of having contrived secret conveyances
+of many parcels of the said tithes and lands for the benefit of his own
+family, some of the properties having been sold for large sums of money,
+and the church revenues defrauded thereby.  Also that he had so altered
+and confounded the buildings, fences, and boundaries of the church lands,
+and so mixed them up with his own inherited lands, that it had become
+impossible to discern or distinguish which were the original possessions
+of the College; possessions which at the Domesday Survey had extended to
+3,000 acres, besides the lordship of Lutley, near Halesowen.
+
+Dr. Oliver states that in his time (1836) there remained some "houses and
+lands now belonging to the prebendaries and Sacrist, which are leased out
+for lives."
+
+The "corpses" of the six prebends are supposed to have consisted of the
+tithes of their respective districts in Willenhall, Hilton, Hatherton,
+Fetherston, Monmore, and Wobaston.
+
+The Rev. Richard Ames, Curate of Bilston for 46 years (1684-1730), makes
+the following record:--
+
+    1723, December 9th.--The Reverd. Mr. Wm. Craddock, Rector of
+    Donnington (Salop), was installed Prebendary of Willenhall, he having
+    resigned that of Hatherston.  The mandate for his installmt. was
+    directed to me (ye Senior Prebendary) by ye Rt. Hon'ble George, Lord
+    Willoughby de Broke, Deane of o'r Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton,
+    and of Windsor; I being constituted locum tenens.
+
+    On ye 10th December, 1723, by virtue of an'r mandate to me, directed
+    by ye same Ld. Willoughby de Broke, ye same Mr. Wm. Craddock was by
+    me put in possession of ye Sacrist's Stall, both which places became
+    vacant by ye death of Mr. Hinton.  He (Mr. Craddock) was also
+    constituted principal official.
+
+In 1836, when Dr. Oliver wrote his history of the church, the Chapter of
+the College consisted of the Hon. Henry Lewis Hobart, D.D. (Dean), the
+Rev. R. Ellison, M.A., prebendary of Willenhall, and the other
+prebendaries (of Kinvaston, Hilton, Featherston, Monmore, Hatherton, and
+Wobaston respectively), and the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., perpetual curate
+and Sacrist (an Act obtained in 1811 by Dean Legge had constituted the
+Sacrist the real incumbent of the church).  The Chapter had it own seal,
+which was of proper ecclesiastical design, and of some antiquity.
+
+On the death of the very Rev. and Hon. H. L. Hobart, D.C.L., &c., in
+1846, the Collegiate establishment of Wolverhampton ceased to exist, and
+its property became vested in the ecclesiastical Commissioners.
+
+Such was the gross abuse of ecclesiastical patronage, the entire income
+of the Collegiate Church (except 100 pounds a year for a curate of very
+indefinite status) had been absorbed in the payment of a Dean of the two
+"peculiars" of Windsor and Wolverhampton, and of some half-dozen
+legendary prebendaries who were for the most part unknown, even by name,
+to the oldest inhabitant of the parish.
+
+With the suppression of the ancient Deanery, the modern township of
+Wolverhampton was divided into thirteen ecclesiastical parishes.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XV.--Willenhall Struggling to be a Free Parish.
+
+
+In the eighteenth century the ecclesiastical history of Willenhall
+reached a critical stage.  Long and bitter were the disputes which arose
+between the mother church of Wolverhampton and the daughter chapelries of
+Willenhall and Bilston; and perhaps the temper of the authorities at the
+former had not been improved by the gradual impoverishment of the
+residentiaries there, the history of which formed the subject of the last
+chapter.
+
+The first cause of the quarrel was found in the fact that these two
+places, having become as populous as towns of ordinary status, were
+without legal burying-grounds.  When land had been provided there seems
+to have been considerable hesitancy on the part of the authorities in
+allowing Willenhall and Bilston these ordinary parochial privileges.  The
+Rev. Richard Ames, of Bilston, has left it on record that on June 9th,
+1726, he waited upon the Bishop of the diocese, while he was holding a
+confirmation at Walsall, when "John Lane, Esqre., of Bentley, mov'd his
+lordship to consecrate Willenhall and Bilston Chapelyards for
+burial-places, wch. his lordship seemed inclinable to do."
+
+The history of the conflict goes back to 1709, when Dr. Manningham, on
+becoming Dean, convened a Chapter at Oxford which was attended by all the
+Prebendaries and the Sacrist.  This meeting was specially called to
+consider the case of the inhabitants of Willenhall and Bilston, who had
+represented to the Dean the great inconveniences which arose in having to
+carry their dead from these chapelries for interment at Wolverhampton;
+and humbly praying that their respective chapels and chapelyards should
+be consecrated for the proper burial of the dead.
+
+The prayer was granted, but it was most carefully stipulated that the
+inhabitants of the two chapelries should always pay the customary levies
+to the mother church, and also the fees for burials and for the churching
+of women, to the respective curates of the said chapels, as well as to
+the ministers of the mother church; and that the expenses attending the
+desired consecrations should be paid by the petitioners.
+
+A subsequent Chapter, held 10 October, 1718, confirmed this, when the
+Ministers and Inhabitants of the Chapelries of Bilston and Willenhall
+signed an Agreement to observe and perform the said conditions.  For the
+carrying out of the agreement in business-like form the said Ministers
+covenanted to pay the said fees half-yearly, at Lady-day and Michaelmas,
+transmitting a copy of their respective Registers "without reserve or
+fraud" to be transcribed into the books of the mother church.
+
+The fees to be charged each Chapelry were fixed to a scale: tenpence for
+"ye churching of every woman"; sevenpence for the burial of each body in
+the churchyard, and twice that amount for the burial inside the church:
+and so on.
+
+Subsequently (some 30 years after, when St. John's Chapel, Wolverhampton,
+was in contemplation) the inhabitants of the Liberties of Willenhall and
+Bilston, notwithstanding the written agreement aforesaid, peremptorily
+and finally refused to pay their respective fees for Christenings,
+Churchings, and Burials to the Sacrist and Curates of Wolverhampton;
+payments whereby the profits of their several offices were lessened more
+than half, and the loss was so considerable it was no longer to be borne.
+
+At Bilston the quarrel of 1753 was practically not settled for nearly a
+century afterwards.  It was ruled that whatever might be arranged in
+respect of fees for other rites no marriages could be legally performed
+in the Chapel except by licence of Wolverhampton, which claimed a
+"Peculiar" jurisdiction; and as the inhabitants indignantly refused to
+pay double marriage fees, no marriage was solemnised in the chapel from
+January, 1754, to February, 1841.
+
+The same year--to be exact, the date was April 12th, 1841--the first
+marriage was solemnised at Willenhall Church, the Bishop having then
+issued a special licence to the Incumbent to marry persons living within
+the township.
+
+Almost concurrently with this dispute there was another source of
+grievance to Willenhall, Bilston, and Pelsall which had to be strenuously
+fought by these outlying places.
+
+This quarrel arose, in the main, through the excessive demands made upon
+the inhabitants of the three chapelries for rates with which to repair
+and maintain the fabric of Wolverhampton Church.  The levies made
+ostensibly for this purpose seem to have been at times somewhat
+exorbitant, and the money to have been spent in meeting charges which can
+only be described as superfluous so far as the non-residential
+contributors were concerned.
+
+About 1738 the chapelwardens of Bilston made a determined stand against
+the churchwardens of Wolverhampton.
+
+A "case was stated" in which it was shown that the Collegiate Church of
+Wolverhampton consisted of a Dean and Prebendaries, founded by a Royal
+Family, and was subject to no visitation but that of the Crown.  It
+contained three Chapels--one at Bilston, another at Willenhall, and a
+third at Pelsall.
+
+The statement proceeded:--"Every Hamlet and Village in the Ecclesiastical
+Parish of Wolverhampton has a Constable and all other parochial officers,
+and maintains its own poor as it were a separate parish. . . ."
+
+"The Chapelries of Willenhall and Bilston nominate and maintain each its
+own Clergy, and repair their own Chapels, which have been endowed time
+out of mind, and were consecrated about thirteen years ago for burying
+places."
+
+Other points of complaint put forward were that the two chapels afforded
+every facility to the inhabitants of the respective places for divine
+worship and the administration of the sacraments; that formerly Bilston
+and Willenhall each paid only 4 pounds a year to the mother church, but
+that since 1716 increasing demands had been made till as much as 56
+pounds was asked for; and that all which these chapelries received in
+return were the bread and wine used in the sacrament, four times a year,
+and for which they paid 4 pounds per annum, the chapelwardens being
+allowed 3d. in the pound at Boston and 4d. in the pound at Willenhall for
+collecting it.
+
+It was also complained that all the rest of the villages had been forced
+"to contribute in like proportion with these two towns," and that these
+levies on the out-hamlets had been made for additions to, or improvements
+of, Wolverhampton Church, which were quite superfluous in their
+character, if not absolutely illegal.
+
+On this opinion (of a learned Sergeant-at-Law) the inhabitants of
+Willenhall were invited to join with those of Bilston in a common defence
+for their mutual benefit.  On the advice of the esteemed Dr. Wilkes, a
+well-known local Antiquary, who was then the leading public man of
+Willenhall, the invitation was declined.
+
+Litigation proceeded for several years both in the ecclesiastical courts
+and in chancery, but without any definite decision being arrived at.
+
+In 1754 the Earl of Stamford tried to induce both parties to submit a
+case fairly drawn up (for the legal work in the preparation of which he
+generously offered to pay all the costs) and to abide by the decision.
+The people of Willenhall, through Dr. Wilkes, thanked his lordship for
+his friendly offer, and declared their willingness to accept it.
+
+The Wolverhampton officials, however, rejected the proposal, in the hope
+they would win their case in the ecclesiastical courts.  When the case
+eventually came to trial in 1755 an old parish book was produced, which
+showed that the exorbitant demands of Wolverhampton were distinctly
+illegal.  In it was an entry of 1668, which ran in this wise:--
+
+    "This is the portion of Rates each Chapelry and Prebend shall pay
+    towards the repairs of the Mother Church:--
+
+                       pounds       s.       d.
+Wolverhampton              36        0        0
+Bilston                    12        0        0
+Wylnale                    12        0        0
+Wednesflde                 12        0        0
+Hatherton                   3        0        0
+Featherstone                1        4        0
+Kinvaston                   1        1        0
+Hilton                      1        7        0
+Pelsall                     2        2        0
+Bentley                     1       10        0
+Stretton rent               1        6        8
+                           83       10        8
+
+A writ of prohibition was forthwith filed to stay all further proceedings
+in the Spiritual Courts; and the law costs of the trial, amounting to 282
+pounds 1s. 8d., were divided equally between Bilston and Willenhall
+(1756).
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XVI.--Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall (1690-1760).
+
+
+Willenhall's most illustrous son was Dr. Richard Wilkes, Antiquary, whose
+house still stands on the Walsall Road.  He came of good family of county
+rank, and his personal character raised him to the eminence of a
+notability in Staffordshire.  His portrait appears in Shaw's history of
+this county of which his (Wilkes') valuable and voluminous MSS. formed
+the nucleus.  Though settled in this locality, adding to their little
+patrimony from time to time for 300 or 400 years, the family came
+originally from Hertfordshire.
+
+The pedigree of Wilkes, according to the Heralds' Visitation in 1614,
+commences with John Wylkys de Darlaston, who was witness to a Deed of
+Roger, Lord of Darlaston, in the time of Edward III. (1331).  There is a
+Richard Wylkys, of Willenhall, who witnessed a Bentley Deed in 1413.  To
+this Richard and his wife Juliana, daughter and heir of William Wilkes, a
+grant of lands in Bentley was made by Humphrey, Earl of Stafford.  The
+son of this couple was William Wilkes of Willnall (1505).  Protonotary of
+the Court of Common Pleas, 15 Henry VIII.  The family tree is very
+complete in Shaw.
+
+One John Wilkes married a widow Parkhouse, _nee_ Margery Garbet, of
+Nether Penn; another John, his nephew, was Rector of Lum, and evidently a
+Puritan, as his two sons bear the striking biblical names, Ephraim and
+Manasses.  Richard seems to have been the favourite name for the eldest
+son.  One Richard married Mercy Drakeford, of Stafford (see Salt. Vol.
+VIII.); his son, also named Richard, became the father of our Willenhall
+worthy, whose mother was Lucretia, youngest daughter of Jonas Astley, of
+Wood Eaton, in this county.
+
+Richard Wilkes, M.D., was born in March, 1690, and had his school
+education at Trentham.  In his 19th year he was entered at St. John's
+College, Cambridge, and was admitted scholar 1710.  In April, 1711, he
+began to attend Mr. Saunderson's mathematical lectures, and became very
+proficient in algebra.  In January, 1713, he took his B.A degree; three
+years later he was chosen Fellow, and in 1718 he was appointed Linacre
+Lecturer.
+
+It does not appear when or where he took his degrees in medicine.  He
+seems to have taken pupils and taught mathematics in college from the
+year 1715 till he left it, and to have been engaged thus early in
+literary matters, particularly in the collection of material for
+subsequent use.  It was by his literary labours, particularly in
+antiquarian research, that he made himself a name.
+
+He presently took deacon's orders, and once preached in the parish church
+of Wolverhampton.  He also preached several times at Stow, near Chartley.
+However, disappointment in the expectation of preferment in the Church
+soon disgusted him with the ministry, and in 1720 he began to practise
+physic, for which he seemed to have a natural talent, at Wolverhampton.
+In 1725 he married Rachel Manlove, of Abbots Bromley, with whom he had a
+handsome fortune, and from that time he dwelt with his father (who died
+in 1730) at Willenhall.
+
+About this time he wrote an excellent treatise on Dropsy; and later, when
+a dreadful disease raged among the horned cattle of the Midlands, he
+published a very useful and practical "Letter to Breeders and Graziers in
+the County of Stafford," and made every effort to assist in stamping out
+the plague.  Possibly while at Chartley he had made a study of the herd
+of wild cattle preserved there.
+
+His skill as a physician was very considerable, and seems to have been
+applied chiefly to the gratuitous relief of his poorer neighbours.  He
+led an exemplary life, being an early riser, and an indefatigable reader,
+constantly adding to the rich stores of his well-stocked mind.
+
+As previously mentioned, he spent several years of industry in collecting
+historical manuscripts, and making antiquarian notes relating to his
+native county, of which the Rev. Stebbing Shaw afterwards made such good
+use.
+
+For instance, Dr. Wilkes' account of Roman roads, camps, and other
+remains of antiquity is a fairly exhaustive one for a county history, and
+shows a considerable depth of research.  It is embodied in the
+"Introduction" and the "General History" at the commencement of Shaw's
+compendious work.
+
+Like Pepys, he kept a Diary, which was never intended for publication--he
+was a diligent recorder of historical facts.  Here is an interesting note
+from it:--
+
+    "The first steam engine that ever raised any quantity of water was
+    erected near Wolverhampton, on the right-hand side of the road
+    leading to Walsall, over against the half-mile stone."  (This was on
+    the site of the Chillington ironworks.)
+
+The Diarist was too modest to add that the Waterworks which long supplied
+Wolverhampton with water were the property of Dr. Wilkes.
+
+Among other projected literary works was a new edition of Hudibras, with
+notes, &c.  In the beginning of the year 1747, having a severe fit of
+illness which confined him to the house, he amused himself with writing
+his own epitaph, which he calls "A picture drawn from the life without
+heightening."  It is as follows:--
+
+    Here, reader, stand awhile, and know
+    Whose carcase 'tis that rots below;
+    A man's, who walk'd by Reason's rule
+    Yet sometimes err'd and play'd the fool;
+    A man's sincere in all his ways,
+    And full of the Creator's praise,
+    Who laughed at priestcraft, pride and strife,
+    And all the little tricks of life.
+    He lov'd his king, his country more,
+    And dreadful party-rage forbore:
+    He told nobility the truth
+    And winked at hasty slips of youth.
+    The honest poor man's steady friend.
+    The villain's sconce in hopes to mend.
+    His father, mother, children, wife,
+    His riches, honour, length of life,
+    Concern not thee.  Observe what's here--
+    He rests in hope and not in fear.
+
+His wife dying in May, 1756, he married for the second time in October
+the same year Mrs. Frances Bendish (sister to the Rev. Sir Richard
+Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, Bart.), who long survived him, dying December
+24, 1798, at Froxfield, near Petersfield, in Hampshire, at a very
+advanced age.
+
+The learned doctor himself died March 6, 1760, with a return of the gout
+in his stomach, and his death was universally lamented by his tenants,
+who lost an indulgent landlord; by his servants, who lost a good master;
+but more by numbers of poor in the populous villages adjacent and at a
+distance, in grateful remembrance of the charitable advice and friendly
+assistance they had always enjoyed at his kindly hands.  A somewhat
+eulogistic entry of his death appears in the Bilston Registers.
+
+As Dr. Wilkes left no issue, his property passed to the Unett family, the
+representatives of his aunt Anne who had married George Unett, of
+Wolverhampton.
+
+He was buried at Willenhall in his native soil, where a neat monument was
+erected to his memory near the family pew, by his heirs, Captain Richard
+Wilkes Unett, and Mr. John Wilkes Unett; the tablet was thus inscribed:--
+
+                               "Near this place
+                               Lie the remains
+                                      of
+                             RICHARD WILKES, M.D.
+
+    Formerly fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge; the last of an
+    ancient and respectable family resident at this place 300 years and
+    upwards.  He married first, Rachel, eldest daughter of Rowland
+    Manlove, of Lees Hill, in this county, esq.; secondly, Frances,
+    daughter of Sir John, and sister
+
+                                 of the late
+                  Sir Richard Wrottesly, of Wrottesly, Bart.
+                      and widow of Higham Bendish, Esq.
+                            He died March 6, 1760,
+                                aged 70 years.
+
+    [Underneath is the following escutcheon:--
+
+    (Wilkes) Paly of eight Or and Gules; on a chief Argent, three
+    lozenges of the second: impaling, 1.  (Manlove) Azure, a chevron
+    Ermine, between three anchors Argent; 2.  (Wrottesley) Or, three
+    piles Sa. a canton Ermine]
+
+    "The children of the late Rev. Thomas Unett, of Stafford, his
+    heirs-at-law, placed this monument an. 1800."
+
+On the floor of the Lane Chapel in Wolverhampton Church will be found
+stones to the memory of the Wilkes family, "seated at Willenhall from the
+reign of Edward IV."; there is also a blue slab to the memory of Mary
+Unett, who died in 1767.
+
+The old house of Dr. Wilkes, a good specimen of its type of architecture,
+stands back from the main road behind iron palisading.  Part of it has
+been utilised as a stamper's warehouse; had it received the respect due
+to its associations, it might flittingly have been a town Museum, or some
+such public institution.  It was built by the Doctor's father, and the
+Doctor was born there.
+
+The house has a white stuccoed front, irregularly disposed, the
+semi-porticoed doorway with classic columns having three windows on its
+left and two on its right, although the shorter side seems to have been
+lengthened at a later period by a red brick wing.  Along the line of the
+first floor are six windows, whose lights in the Annean period, to which
+the building belongs, were doubtless of small leaded panes.
+
+From the tiled roof project three dormers, the centre one having a
+semi-circular head, the outer ones pointed.  The chimneys stand out from
+each gable end, and in the brickwork of each of their sides is a plain
+recessed panel; the chimney-heads being noticeable for the absence of the
+usual projecting courses.  Local tradition says that Hall street was once
+a stately avenue of trees by which this residence was approached from
+Lichfield Street.
+
+On entering the house, the visitor feels a pang of regret that the
+venerable building should ever have been degraded to the purposes of
+commerce; particularly as the fabric retains many of its characteristics,
+thanks to the soundness of the workmanship of two centuries ago.  The
+decorations in the form of plaster mouldings that cover the beams, and
+the medallion or panel pictures, being partly historical and partly
+classical, all exhibit the Renaissance feeling of the early eighteenth
+century.
+
+The ceilings of two lower rooms are in a splendid state of preservation,
+and contain excellent work.  One room is square with beams across the
+middle; the ceiling on one side of the beam representing "The Seasons,"
+and on the other side "The Elements."  The Seasons are severally depicted
+as follows:--A young face, with the hair of the head bedecked with
+flowers, for "Spring"; a face in the bloom of womanhood, with the hair
+bedecked with corn, represents "Summer"; a well-matured face, having the
+hair bedecked with fruit, "Autumn'"; while a pleasing aged face, the brow
+bedecked with holly, stands for "Winter."  Painted on the wall over the
+fireplace is the Castle of St. Angelo, and the bridge crossing the Tiber
+at Rome.  The Elements, (so called by the old alchemists) are also
+figuratively, represented by four heads; one bearing a castle, with three
+towers and other buildings in the background (Earth); one surmounted by
+an eagle with outspread wings (Air); the next with tongues of fire
+issuant (Fire); and the other spouting forth a fountain (Water).
+
+The other room is oblong, with beams across dividing its ceiling into
+four parts.  In these parts there are four well-drawn figures, one
+believed to be Bacon, with beard, moustache, whiskers, and in Elizabethan
+costume; two close cropped heads, carried on noble necks, believed to be
+respectively Julius Caesar and Mark Antony; and the fourth is said to be
+Homer, with the customary curly hair and beard, but showing a collar of
+some sort, and apparently wearing a skull cap.  Over the mantel, painted
+on canvas, is the Coliseum, showing the Arch of Titus and a pool in the
+foreground.
+
+In the main room upstairs is still to be seen the portrait of Dr. Wilkes,
+painted on canvas, over the mantelpiece.  He is depicted as a clean
+shaven man with benevolent face, bluish or blue-grey eyes, a good
+forehead, nose, mouth and chin well-defined, and wearing a wig.  His
+costume includes a high-cut waistcoat, bearing ten buttons, opened in
+front nearly all the way down to show cravat and frilled shirt, the
+cravat having a buckle--probably jewelled in front.  The outer coat is
+without a collar, cut a little lower than the waistcoat, sloping from
+above outwards, showing eight buttons, and apparently of greenish-brown
+velvet.
+
+The pool which formerly ornamented the garden had disappeared; but the
+boathouse is still there, and the room above it in which the Doctor used
+to keep his Antiquarian Collection and other artistic treasures.  As to
+the lawns, shrubberies, gardens, orchards, and pleasaunces, there is
+scarcely a remnant left.
+
+Of the once sweet and pellucid stream, spanned by an ornamental bridge,
+which conducted the rambler to the pleasant meads beyond, nothing remains
+but the name, "Willenhall Brook"--it is now little better than a dirty
+open sewer.
+
+It may not be generally known that a passing allusion is made to Wilkes
+in Boswell's "Life of Johnson."
+
+In the IV. chapter of Vol.  I. of this monumental biography we read that
+in 1740 Dr. Johnson wrote "an epitaph on Phillips, a musician, which was
+afterwards published with some other pieces of his, in 'Mrs. Williams's
+Miscellanies.'  This epitaph is so exquisitely beautiful, that I remember
+even Lord Kaines, strangely prejudiced as he was against Dr. Johnson, was
+compelled to allow it very high praise.  It has been ascribed to Mr.
+Garrick from its appearing at first with the signature G; but I have
+heard Mr. Garrick declare it was written by Dr. Johnson, and give the
+following account of the manner in which it was composed.  Johnson and he
+were sitting together, when amongst other things Garrick repeated an
+epitaph upon this Phillips, by a Dr. Wilkes, in these words:--
+
+    Exalted soul! whose harmony could please
+    The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
+    Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move
+    To beauteous order and harmonious love;
+    Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise
+    And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies.
+
+"Johnson shook his head at the common-place funeral lines, and said to
+Garrick, 'I think, Davy, I can make better.'"
+
+The great biographer goes on to state that Johnson, after stirring about
+his tea and meditating a little while, produced these lines:--
+
+    Exalted soul! thy various sounds could please
+    The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
+    Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move
+    To beauteous order and harmonious love.
+    Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
+    And join thy Saviour's concert in the skies.
+
+Suffice it to add that the personage who inspired the lines was an
+eccentric genius named Claudius Phillips {88}, on whose memorial tablet
+in the porch of Wolverhampton Church were engraved the said lines,
+attributed to Dr. Wilkes, who strangely enough is described as "of
+Trinity College, Oxford and Rector of Pitchford, Salop"--a clergyman
+whose name was John, and who lived a century previously.  We are further
+informed that our Willenhall worthy is spoken of by Browne Willis in the
+"History of Mitred Abbies," Vol. II. p. 189--Browne Willis being one of
+the most notable antiquarians of that period, and an eccentric individual
+withal.
+
+All this points to the fact that Dr. Richard Wilkes was well known as a
+writer, and acknowledged as an authority.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XVII.--Willenhall "Spaw."
+
+
+It is difficult to imagine Willenhall as a health resort; yet it was no
+fault of Dr. Richard Wilkes that his native spot did not become a
+fashionable inland watering place.
+
+It should be explained that during the eighteenth century there was
+almost a mania to discover and exploit wells and springs, and to regard
+them as fountains of health to which the fashionable and the well-to-do
+might be attracted.  Before the newer fashion of sea bathing was
+introduced--which was early in the next century--there was a great number
+of these newly-invented places of inland resort.  For instance, Dudley
+had its charming Spa on Pensnett Chace; and to show that Wolverhampton
+was not behindhand, we take the liberty of quoting from the MSS. of Dr.
+Wilkes:
+
+    "A medical spring has lately been discovered at Chapel Ash, in the
+    south-west part of this town, which purges moderately and without the
+    least uneasiness.  A brown ocre, or absorbent earth, remains after
+    evaporation, mixt with salt and sulphur; so that it seems to promise
+    relief in all kinds of disorders proceeding from costiveness, and
+    alcaline, fiery, and acid humours in the stomach and bowels, attended
+    by a flow of feverish heat, eruptions on the skin called scorbutic,
+    headaches, giddiness, flatulency, sour eructations, flying pains
+    called nervous and rheumatic, the hemorrhoids or piles, asthma, and
+    many other disorders which seem incurable by the most powerful
+    medicines."
+
+Truly the Doctor might have earned a good living nowadays by writing the
+advertisements for modern quack specifics.
+
+Shaw's description of the Willenhall Spa says that "the spring arises on
+the north side of a brook which runs almost directly from the west to the
+east, and so very near to it that a moderate shower will raise the brook
+as to cover it.  About 200 yards up this brook, on the same side, are
+several springs, one of which was much taken notice of by our ancestors,
+and consecrated to St. Sunday, no common saint.  Over it is the following
+inscription:--
+
+                            Fons occulis morbisque
+                      cutaneis diu celebris, A.D. 1726."
+
+"Saint Sunday" must have been some local saint; or, more probably, a
+jocular embodiment of the sacredness of this day of the week with its
+peculiarly pagan name, to the cause of idleness, and so dubbed by the
+native wit of Willenhall; anyway, no saint of this name is to be found in
+the authorised Calendar of any church.
+
+One of the Wilkes MSS. utilised by Shaw, and dated 1737, records the
+following experiment worked by the learned doctor with the local mineral
+waters:--
+
+    "I evaporated in a brass furnace 13.5 gallons to 3 quarts, then let
+    it stand 3 days to settle, and poured the clear water from the
+    foeces.  This was a light smooth insipid earth of a yellow colour,
+    fat between the fingers, insipid and impalpable, which being dried,
+    weighed 93 grains.  The remaining 3 quarts I evaporated in a brass
+    kettle and had from it 53 grains of a very salt glutinous substance
+    which dried into a solid mass of a brown colour.  When the water came
+    to a pint or thereabout, it began to smell like glew, and continued
+    to do so when in a solid substance; it was then also as high-coloured
+    as lye; but I am afraid this colour might arise from the brass
+    kettle, in some measure, or too great a fire, being perhaps burnt."
+
+Another of his scientific records runs:--
+
+    "Oct. 9th.--I put into a Florence flask as much of this water as
+    filled it up to the neck within 5 inches of the top.  This I placed
+    in a sand heat and increased the fire gradually till it boiled; and
+    so I evaporated ad siccitatem.  Some volatile sal stuck to the glass
+    even up to the top; at the bottom was a small quantity of dark
+    coloured matter, like that above, but I could not get together 2
+    grains of either.  Here it is plain this sal is so volatile as to be
+    raised and fly away by heat."
+
+In another place he writes:--
+
+    "On the 5th of November, 1737, I filled several glasses with this
+    water, and put into them the following simples:--
+
+    1.  Green Tea.  This, in about 24 hours, made it of the colour of
+    sack, and, by standing, it became much deeper coloured, like strong
+    old beer.
+
+    2.  Fustic; not so deep, more like cyder.
+
+    3.  Red Sanders; almost the same colour in the light; but if I held
+    the glass in the shade, it appeared of a blueish green, exactly like
+    some old glass bottles I have formerly seen.
+
+    4.  Alkanet; deeper, like old mountain wine.
+
+    5.  Galls; paler than any of the foregoing.  A large blue scum on the
+    top, such as we see upon urine in fevers, and standing lakes of
+    water, where there are minerals.  With logwood, tormentil, cort,
+    granat, etc., there are some spots of this kind, but with none so
+    much as with galls.
+
+    "A little below the Spaw (continues our authority), on the other side
+    of the brook, they meet with a white clay, full of yellow veins of a
+    deep colour, like gumboge when it has been for some time exposed to
+    the air.  These two they temper together and make into cakes, which
+    they sell to the glovers by the name of ochre cakes, and with them
+    they give a yellow colour to leather.
+
+    "Near the surface of the earth the country is for the most part a
+    strong clay, which makes good brick, but, for a small compass from
+    this Spaw all along the village on the north side of the brook we
+    have sand.  Underground the whole country abounds with coal and
+    ironstone."
+
+The glovers' handicraft, it may be mentioned in passing, was once
+strongly represented in olden Darlaston.
+
+The situation of Willenhall is by no means an elevated one, and the whole
+plain in which it is situated formerly abounded in Springs, ere the
+surface had been so much disturbed by mining operations.
+
+On the edge of the valley, under the shadow of Sedgley Beacon, was the
+famous Spring known as the Lady Wulfruna's, and which gave the place its
+name, Spring Vale; from this spot the silvery stream flowed eastwards
+into Willenhall, seeking the cool shade of the pleasant woodland there.
+
+The stream, as it came in from Bilston, and ran eastwards through
+Willenhall, till it met the Tame, was once called the Hind Brook, or Stag
+River.  In Saxon times the Tame here seems to have been designated
+Beorgita's Stream; and Mr. G. T. Lawley, in his "History of Bilston,"
+says that the original bed of this brook was discovered in Willenhall
+some years ago when extensive excavations were being made.
+
+So far the scientific aspect of this once famous Well.  The popular view
+of a much frequented mineral spring which had "long been celebrated for
+disease of the eye and skin" opens out an even wider aspect.  As
+previously mentioned, the brook flowing past it ran from west to east; a
+stream so directed was always accounted by the Druids of old as a sacred
+watercourse.  Being thus from the earliest dawn of history within sacred
+precincts, there can be little doubt the Willenhall fountain enjoyed the
+reputation of a "Holy well" for many centuries.  As such it came in for
+the annual custom of "well dressing," a vestige of the old pagan practice
+of well worship.  Respecting this ancient custom, Dr. Plot, writing in
+1686 in his "Natural History of Staffordshire," says:--
+
+    "They have a custom in this county, which I observed on Holy Thursday
+    at Brewood and Bilbrook, of adorning their Wells with boughs and
+    flowers; this it seems they do at all gospel places, whether wells,
+    trees, or hills, which being now observed only for decency and
+    custom's sake, is innocent enough.  Heretofore, too, it was usual to
+    pay their respect to such wells as were eminent for curing distempers
+    (one of which was at Wolverhampton in a narrow lane leading to a
+    house, called Sea-well; another at Willenhall; others at Monmore
+    Green, near Wolverhampton; at Codsall and many other parts of
+    Staffordshire) on the saint's day whose name the well bore; diverting
+    themselves with cakes and ale, and a little music and dancing; which,
+    whilst within bound, was also an innocent recreation."
+
+Dr. Oliver says the beautiful spring at Dunstall was the favourite resort
+of the Lady Wulfruna, and from contact with her sanctity acquired a
+reputation for possessing healing virtues of a miraculous character, and
+that this fountain was long known among its devotees as Wulfruna's Well.
+
+Pitt's "History of Staffordshire," issued in 1817, gives a long list of
+local wells bearing at that time some similar repute for their remedial
+waters.  Among them was Codsall Well, near Codsall Wood, supposed in
+olden times to be efficacious in cases of leprosy, and adjacent to which
+once stood a Leper House, replaced at a later period by a "Brimstone
+Ale-house," so-called because the water was sulphureous.  The waters of
+the Monmore Green Well are described as containing "sulphur combined with
+vitriol."  The Sea-well Spring still retained its name as a "Spaw" famous
+for its "eye water"; while those of Willenhall and Bentley were said to
+yield a valuable remedial sulphur water so long as they "could be kept
+from mixture with other waters."
+
+Folklore not only connected these Wells with patron saints, but
+associated their magic precincts and curative effects with beneficent
+fairies.  A well like that of Willenhall, which in a post-renaissance
+period was honoured with a stone frontal bearing a Latin inscription,
+would of a certainty be attended by fairy elves in an earlier and more
+primitive era.
+
+    About this Spring (if ancient fame say true)
+    The dapper elves their midnight sports pursue;
+    Their pigmy king and little fairy queen,
+    In circling dances gambolled on the green,
+    While tuneful sprites a merry concert made
+    And airy music warbled through the shade.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.--The Benefice.
+
+
+Owing to the meagreness of the record, a complete list of the holders of
+the benefice is not to be expected.  Thomas de Trollesbury has been named
+as "the parson of Willenhall" in 1297 (Chapter VII.); while we also have
+the names of three chantry priests here--William in the Lone, 1341
+(Chapter XI.); Thomas Browning, "chaplain of the chantry" in 1397
+(Chapter VII.); and Hugh Bromehall in 1526 (Chapter X.); all of them
+doubtless nominees of the Deanery of Wolverhampton.
+
+Of course, it was possible, though not often the practice, for the holder
+of the living to act as "chaunter" priest as well.  The Chantry
+endowments, as we have seen, were forfeited at the Reformation, at which
+period the benefice was returned as of the annual value of "10 pounds
+clear."
+
+Either of these notorious evil-livers mentioned in Chapter XI., the
+non-preaching "dumb-dogs," Mounsell and Cooper, may have been the
+occupant of the Willenhall curacy in 1586.  In 1609 an improvement in the
+intellectual status of the holder had been effected, William Padmore,
+D.D., being then incumbent.
+
+In a previous chapter it was shown that the Rev. T. Badland was expelled
+from the living of Willenhall in 1662.  It can now be shown that he was
+holding the benefice at least as early as 1658--and possibly from the
+beginning of the Cromwellian rule and the overthrow of the Episcopacy in
+1646.
+
+About 1645-6 ordinances were passed appointing a Committee to consider
+ways and means of upholding and settling the maintenance of ministers in
+England and Wales.  In 1654 the powers of the Plundered Ministers'
+Committee were transferred to the Trustees for Maintenance.  The
+Committee took the receipts of all Tithes, Fifths, and First Fruits; and
+later on the income of the rectories, bishoprics, deaneries, and
+chapters; they sold the bishops' lands, &c.
+
+It was out of this income that augmentations and advances were granted by
+the said Committee to ministers and school-masters.  In the Record Office
+at London there is an audited account the Treasurer to the "Trustees for
+the Maintenance of Ministers and other pious uses of moneys," showing
+among the disbursements for the year ending 26 December, 1658, one to
+
+    "Thomas Badland, of Willenhall (6 months to 1659, March 25) . . . 10
+    pounds."
+
+In curious contrast with this high-minded clergyman, who sacrificed his
+living to his conscience, is his successor in the Curacy of Willenhall,
+the Rev. Mr. Gilpin, who had to be seriously admonished for non-residence
+and other faults, and was at last, in the year 1674, turned out of the
+living altogether.  Not improbably this gentleman was a pluralist, an
+example of the class of clergymen by which the Church of England was very
+much degraded at that period.
+
+Dr. Oliver's history printed the following "Dismissal of the Rev. Thomas
+Gilpin," from the original document found in the possession of Mr. Neve,
+of Wolverhampton, in 1836:--
+
+    We, whose names are subscribed, the undoubted and immediate lords of
+    the Manor of Stow Health, hearing and well weighing the said
+    complaints of the Inhabitants of the towne of Willenhall, lying
+    within our said Manor, made and brought against you, Thomas Gilpin,
+    clerk, Curate of the Chapell there:
+
+    Doe in consideration thereof and in pursuance of an Order made and
+    inrolled on some of the Rolls of the Court of our said Manor, bearing
+    date 11th day of October in the Sixth Year of the Reign of our late
+    Soveraigne, Lord, King James, over England, etc.
+
+    And of our power and authority thereby, Displace and Discharge you,
+    the said Thomas Gilpin, from the place, Dignity, and office of
+    Curate, Minister, or Priest in the said Chapell.
+
+    And do hereby present and allow John Carter, clerk (a person elected
+    and approved by the Inhabitants of Willenhall aforesaid), to be
+    Curate of the said Chapell in your place and stead, to read divine
+    service there; and to do and perform all such other offices and
+    things as shall properly belong to his Ministerial function and
+    calling.
+
+    And thus much you, the said Thomas Gilpin, are hereby desired to take
+    notice of.
+
+    Dated under our hands and seals this 18th day of November in the year
+    of our Lord God, 1674, and in the six-and-twentieth year of the
+    reigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles II., by the grace of God, King
+    of England, etc.
+
+                                                     Walter Giffard.  L.S.
+
+                                                   W. Leveson Gower.  L.S.
+
+After the expulsion of Mr. Gilpin the Rev. John Carter, who was appointed
+to succeed him, continued in the Curacy of Willenhall till his death in
+1722.  In 1727 mention is made of a Mr. Holbrooke being Curate of
+Willenhall.
+
+Soon after the Registers assist in tracing the successive holders of the
+benefice.  Here are three interesting memoranda, for instance, bearing
+the signature of the Rev. Titus Neve:--
+
+    1748, March 4th.--The faculty for rebuilding and enlarging ye chapel
+    of Willenhall, ye then present minister, ye Rev. Titus Neve--(to
+    charge and receive certain fees, etc.)
+
+    1750, January 20.--Then it was yt service began to be performed in ye
+    New Chapel, after almost two years discontinuance, by Titus Neve,
+    Curate.
+
+    1763, February 17th.--Joyce Hill made oath that ye body of Benjamin
+    Stokes was buried in a shroud of Sheep's Wool only, pursuant to an
+    Act of Parliament in that case made and provided.--Witness my hand,
+
+                                                               Titus Neve.
+
+(This entry has reference to the Act for Burying in Woollen, one of those
+pieces of legislative folly whereby it was sought to bolster up
+artificially our decaying trade in wool.)
+
+The Rev. Titus Neve, whose descendants at the present day are a
+well-known Wolverhampton family, was born at Much Birch in Herefordshire,
+son of the Rev. Thomas Neve, in 1717.  He matriculated at Balliol
+College, Oxford, became Rector of Darlaston, 1764, holding the two
+livings, together with the Prebendary of Hilton his death in 1788.  He
+was buried at Willenhall.
+
+A sermon preached by him in Worcester Cathedral on August 12th, 1762, was
+printed in Birmingham by the celebrated Baskerville (see Simms'
+"Bibliotheca Staffordiensis").
+
+His successor was the Rev. William Moreton, who, according to an entry in
+the Registers, was "sequestered to the vacant chapelry of Willenhall,
+December 4th, 1788."  Toward the close of his ministry Mr. Neve appears
+to have had the assistance of Curates--George Lewis signs the Registers
+as "Clerk, Curate" between December, 1778, and July, 1779; and the
+signature of Mr. Moreton in the same capacity begins to appear in 1784.
+Among the entries of the last-named is a record that in 1786 he paid the
+"tax" on a number of Baptisms and Burials himself, whereas in 1785 he
+shows that a "Collector" received it.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+The advent of the Rev. W. Moreton marks an epoch, and we now turn aside
+to consider the peculiar history of the Advowson, or right of
+presentation to the living of Willenhall.  In 1409 it is found in private
+hands, being then the property of William Bushbury and his wife (see
+Chapter VII.).
+
+When the lord of a manor built a church on his own demesne, he often
+appointed the tithes of the manor to be paid to the officiating minister
+there, which before had been given to the clergy in common; the lord who
+thus founded the church often endowed it with glebe, and retained the
+power of nominating the minister (canonically qualified) to officiate
+therein.  But a chapel-of-ease like Willenhall, built by a resident in
+the locality, often had its minister, maintained by the subscriptions of
+persons living close around it, and they naturally claimed to elect their
+own ministers.  The authorities at the mother church would reserve the
+right to approve and confirm, and would see that they suffered no loss of
+fees and other emoluments.
+
+An old book in the Registry at Windsor (without date) contains this
+entry:--
+
+    The curacy of Willenhall is endowed with land to the value of 35
+    pounds.  The lords of Stow Heath have, in the last two vacancies,
+    usurped upon the Dean and Chapter, and have nominated to it.
+
+Shaw, the county historian, writing in 1798, after stating that whoever
+holds the Curacy of Willenhall must have a licence from the Dean of
+Wolverhampton, proceeds to say:--
+
+    There has been lately a serious contest between the Marquis of
+    Stafford and the inhabitants about the nomination of a curate.
+
+    The gift of the living (says the same authority), or nomination of
+    the minister or curate, is in the principal inhabitants that have
+    lands of inheritance here.  He is to be approved of by the lords of
+    the manor, and admonished by them when he does amiss; and if he does
+    not amend in half a year, they may turn him out and nominate another.
+
+This practice is believed to have existed in Willenhall since the time of
+James I.
+
+The power of the parishioners to elect their own clergymen, though not
+common, exists in various parts of the country; as at Hayfield and
+Chapel-in-le-Frith, both in Derbyshire; and in this more immediate
+locality at St. John's Deritend, Birmingham, and at Bilston and Bloxwich,
+nearer still.
+
+In London the only example where the elective principle is employed in
+the choice of a parish priest is presented by Clerkenwell.  But
+wheresoever a vacancy of the kind has to be filled by popular election,
+with all the accessories incidental to the turmoil of Parliamentary
+electioneering, all the bitterness of party strife, the parish is
+inevitably divided into two or more factions; while the clergyman upon
+whom the lot eventually falls must for a long time afterwards be regarded
+as the nominee of one of them, rather than the spiritual director of the
+whole body of the people.  He succeeds to his high office as a victor in
+a great parochial struggle which cannot fail to leave behind it those
+feelings of rancour so harmful in matters sacred.
+
+The only remedy for this state of things seems to be the voluntary
+surrender of their privilege by the parishioners; or the provisions of a
+special Act of Parliament.
+
+As to the soundness of the general principle of a people being consulted
+in the choice of their spiritual pastor, there can scarcely be two
+opinions.  But where the danger lurks in a case like that of Willenhall
+is the assumption of our English law--an assumption quite unwarranted in
+any country where freedom of conscience exists, and with us one of the
+penalties for maintaining an established State Church--that every
+parishioner is a Churchman.
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, votes are recorded at these elections by
+Romanists, by Dissenters of various shades of opinion, by those who are
+unattached to any religious denomination, and by many who never, at other
+times, take a great interest in Church of England affairs.  At the last
+election even trustees of Nonconformist chapels were empowered to vote if
+they were householders, and the trust in respect of which they qualified
+had been constituted by a properly executed deed.  So it can scarcely be
+claimed that the choice of minister rests solely with those most
+concerned, namely, the congregation, the customary worshippers at St.
+Giles's Church.
+
+Resuming the story of the benefice at the election of 1788, it is said
+that Mr. Moreton having been elected, the then lords of the manor
+declined to present him to the bishop on the ground that they did not
+regard him as a fit and proper person.  Litigation ensued, and the High
+Court of Justice declared the election void, and ordered a new one.
+Meanwhile, the income seems to have sequestrated, probably lying in the
+hands of the churchwardens till the new minister should be properly
+instituted.
+
+The electors for a second time returned Moreton, and the lords of the
+manor then took up the attitude that it was not part of their duty to
+live in litigation, either with the electors or with Moreton; they had
+expressed their opinion of the man in the strongest manner possible, and
+this they considered relieved them from further responsibility; so now at
+the electors' wish they nominated him to the bishop for induction, and in
+due course he was formally inducted.
+
+The new incumbent of Willenhall was popularly given out to be an
+illegitimate "nephew" of George III.; he bore a strong facial likeness to
+the Royal family, and had been at college with the Duke of York.  But
+whatever his origin or extraction, he was a typical sporting parson of
+the old school, an enthusiastic cock-fighter, and "a three-bottle man."
+
+It was not long before the old mocking doggerel was applied to
+Willenhall:--
+
+    A tumble-down church--
+       A tottering steeple--
+    A drunken parson--
+       And a wicked people!
+
+That this old rhyme fairly described the condition of things we may
+venture to believe if we can also accept as true the rhyme oft quoted by
+this Willenhall worthy, and which was said to embody his philosophy:--
+
+    Let back and sides and head go bare,
+       Let foot and hand go cold,
+    But God send belly good ale enough,
+       Whether it be new or old.
+
+Of "Parson Moreton" innumerable tales are told, all of them racy, though
+not a few of them apochryphal.  There can be little doubt that in the
+later years of his life he was a bon vivant, and indulged openly in the
+less refined sports of the period, a cockfight above all things having a
+strong fascination for him.
+
+And yet, on the plea that "a merciful man is good to his beast," he
+indulged his old grey pony, "Bob," on which he regularly ambled about,
+with a share of every tankard of ale he quaffed on his rounds, till the
+knowing quadruped refused to pass any inn along the road for miles around
+without stopping for refreshment.
+
+Parson Moreton is not to be judged by modern standards.  At that time the
+church was asleep; and Dr. Johnson once declared that he did not know one
+religious clergyman.  Though the Parson of Willenhall became noted
+throughout the countryside for his eccentricities, he managed to labour
+among the rough population, to whom he ministered, with some sort of
+success.
+
+Into all his lapses from the conventionalities of clericalism, he was a
+gentleman at the core, having a dignified bearing and a commanding
+presence.  He candidly admitted his shortcomings as a clergyman, telling
+his flock to do as he said, not as he did.  This naturally failed to
+satisfy very many of them; and it has been asserted that the strength of
+Dissent in Willenhall at the present time is directly due to the
+influence of his incumbency.
+
+Of the Rev W. Moreton, it may at least be said that he was a remarkably
+fine reader, and his sermons were always well-constructed compositions.
+For many years he lived with Mr. Isaac Hartill in the house at the corner
+of the Market Place, opposite the Metropolitan Bank; an old house still
+retaining its original oak floors and staircase, and its substantial
+old-fashioned doors of the same material, although the building is now
+made into two shops.
+
+For nearly fifty years Parson Moreton was a familiar figure in the
+streets of Willenhall.  His last signature in the Registers appears in
+1833, a year previous to which the Rev. George Hutchinson Fisher had come
+into the parish to assist him, taking up his residence in the house next
+to "The Neptune Inn," now the Police Station.  He died July 16th, 1834,
+and was buried on Sunday the 20th.
+
+When Mr. Fisher came to preach Mr. Moreton's funeral sermon, the most
+notable feature of the oration was the absence of direct reference to the
+departed.  Towards the close of the sermon, however, the following
+passage was uttered with impressive solemnity:--
+
+    "May every occasion like the present bring instruction and
+    edification to your souls.  May the failings which you have witnessed
+    and lamented in others urge you to examine and correct your own; and
+    when their removal makes you think on the nature of the account they
+    will have to render, may you be awakened to scrutinise your own
+    stewardship; and instead of recording the sins of the departed, seek
+    to be delivered, whilst the Redeemer invites you, from those which
+    are a burden to your consciences."
+
+Truly a charitable and Christian-like obituary!
+
+
+
+
+XIX.--How a Flock Chose its own Shepherd.
+
+
+The living of St. Giles's, Willenhall, popularly supposed to be worth
+some fourteen hundred pounds a year, the reversion of it was looked upon
+with eager eyes by not a few of the surrounding clergy.  Between
+Darlaston and Willenhall, particularly, there seems to have existed some
+sort of pretensions to a clerical inter-relationship.
+
+The Rev. Titus Neve, who held the living of Willenhall from about 1748 to
+1788, acted as Curate of Darlaston in 1760, and became Rector of that
+parish in 1764; while his son, the Rev. Charles Neve, was also Curate
+there from 1790 to 1793.  The Willenhall record of his ministry and
+interment runs:--
+
+    The Revd. Titus Neve, Minister, Curate, or Stipendiary Priest of
+    Willenhall Chapelry, Prebendary of Hilton and Sacrist of the
+    Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, and Rector of Darlaston, in the
+    County of Stafford, departed this life December 23rd, 1788, and was
+    interred in the Chancel.
+
+His successor, the Rev. William Moreton, went as Curate to Darlaston in
+1786, and was sequestered to the vacant chapelry of Willenhall, December
+24th, 1788, the day following Mr. Neve's decease.
+
+At the termination of Mr. Moreton's tenure, the Rev. George William
+White, who had been a curate at Darlaston from 1823, made a very
+determined bid for the Incumbency of Willenhall; and although, as we
+shall see, he was not successful, he was able to console himself, some
+nine years later, with the rectory of Darlaston (1843).
+
+It appeared that when the Rev. W. Moreton became very old he neglected
+his duties sadly, often keeping funerals and congregations waiting an
+unconscionable time, greatly to the scandal of the whole parish.  In
+consequence of this the Churchwardens induced the Incumbent, two or three
+years before his death, to appoint and pay an energetic young Curate to
+assist him in his parochial ministrations.
+
+The Curate appointed under these circumstances, as already mentioned, was
+the Rev. G. H. Fisher, who speedily became a favourite, and by most
+Willenhall people came to be looked upon as the only possible successor
+to Mr. Moreton.
+
+Long before the advent of Mr. Fisher, however, the Darlaston folk had
+settled in their own minds that their Rector, the Rev. Mr. White, was to
+annex the Willenhall living whenever it become vacant.  Whether they
+looked upon it as being appurtenant to the more important office of their
+own shepherding cannot be determined at this distance of time; but
+certain it is that an intense feeling of rivalry existed between the men
+of Darlaston and the men of Willenhall.  The intensity of the feeling may
+best be judged by a remarkable incident which occurred some five years
+before Mr. Fisher appeared on the scene.
+
+During the earlier months of the year 1827 it would appear that there had
+been, from time to time, incursions and alarms between the two towns, and
+even rioting that involved hand to hand fighting in the streets.  Never
+were such exciting times in these places.  At last the rivalry culminated
+in an act of aggression as daring in execution as it was original in
+conception--the Willenhall men woke up one fine Sunday morning to find
+that the Darlastonians had entered their town in the dead of night and
+stolen the cock from the church steeple!
+
+Now the desperate achievement of this triumph over their enemies had a
+deeper significance than at first meets the eye.  It must be borne in the
+mind that those were the old cockfighting days, when town matched against
+town their gamest birds, and sought the glories of a victory in the
+cock-pit.  As between these two neighbouring parishes in particular,
+there had been much vaunting of birds and challenging to the arbitrament
+of the spur; the Darlaston men would take a game cock into Willenhall,
+hold him up to show him the weathercock on the steeple, and then give
+vent to a roar of defiant laughter when the bird crowed his challenge.
+
+By way of reprisal the men of Willenhall would raid Darlaston, and
+pretend to call the cock from the steeple there by scattering corn in the
+churchyard, in mocking allusion to an old tale of Darlastonian
+simplicity.  No wonder, therefore, that the ridiculed were at last
+exasperated beyond endurance, and that the coup de main of stealing the
+Willenhall cock was not only projected, but carried to its marvellously
+successful issue.
+
+Consternation reigned supreme in Willenhall; it was felt that the pass to
+which matters had been brought by the enormity of this latest aggravation
+by their enemies could only be met by an appeal to the law, which,
+hitherto, both factions had so recklessly set at naught.  So the
+following public notice was promptly issued:--
+
+                              10 GUINEAS REWARD.
+
+    Whereas, early on Sunday morning last, some evil disposed Persons did
+    steal and carry away the
+
+                                 WEATHERCOCK
+                                 from off the
+                                   STEEPLE.
+
+    Any Person giving Information so that the Offenders may be
+    apprehended, shall upon Conviction receive TEN GUINEAS REWARD over
+    and above what is allowed by the Association for the prosecution of
+    Felons.  And as more than one were concerned, if either will impeach
+    his Accomplice or Accomplices, they shall receive the above Reward,
+    and every endeavour used to obtain a free Pardon.
+
+    Willenhall,
+       July 24, 1827.
+
+                                THOMAS HINCKS,
+                              JAMES WHITEHOUSE,
+
+                                                           Chapel Wardens.
+
+                                  * * * * *
+
+                         Bassford, Printer, Bilston.
+
+The Notice proved totally unproductive of results, for no Darlaston man
+was found mean enough to betray the heroes of this daring escapade.
+Therefore, as the trophy of Darlastonian valour could not be recovered,
+and St. Giles's tower could not be left in all its nakedness without
+being an ever-present reproach to the Willenhallers, a new vane had
+forthwith to be provided for the church.
+
+It was some time after the Willenhall pride had been thus lowered that
+the old weathercock was accidentally found by some miners who were
+re-opening an old coal pit which lay between the rival townships.  Almost
+needless to say, the new vane was instantly fetched down, and the old one
+once more set up to flaunt itself as bravely as of yore in the eyes of
+distant Darlaston.
+
+The good folk of Willenhall, feeling humiliated, did all in their power
+to cover up their shame by burying the episode in oblivion; and to this
+day Willenhall men will deny that the Darlastonians ever came and took
+away their church weathercock.  By way of throwing doubt upon the
+historical accuracy of the incident, they point to the fact that the
+church at that time had no spire; it is known, however, that a vane
+surmounted the church tower, and there is evidence of the Reward Notice,
+the loose wording of which is responsible for the use of the term
+"steeple" to signify a tower.
+
+The authenticity of the said Notice is always open to investigation, for
+a framed copy of it still hangs in the Neptune Inn, preserved as a
+curiosity.  (This copy, probably the only one in existence, bears
+intrinsic evidence of being a genuine document, and is a treasured
+possession of the Baker family, to whom the "Neptune" property belonged,
+the paper having been discovered some fifty years ago in a piece of old
+furniture, by Mr. Phillips, a connection of his family.)
+
+Resuming the history of the benefice, it may be observed that a doubt has
+been raised whether Mr. Moreton had to go through a contested election in
+1788, but there can be no doubt as to an electoral struggle in 1834.  Mr.
+Fisher soon found himself drawn into the vortex of factional strife, for
+he was speedily pounced upon by the home party, and very much against his
+will adopted as their figure-head, if not their champion.
+
+When, on the death of Mr. Moreton, the period of Election came within
+measurable distance, the excitement became more intense; the patriotic
+supporters of Mr. White invading the Willenhall territory day after day.
+Such challenging and fighting, such threatenings and retaliations, surely
+never were known; one faction had no sooner hurled its defiance at the
+other than both incontinently plunged headlong into the melee, and
+rioting once more raged fiercely through the public streets.
+
+Cracked sconces, broken noses, split ears and black eyes resulted by the
+score; to which list of casualties must be added the number of the
+half-drowned who had to be rescued from the canal.  Onslaughts made on
+public-houses and other party headquarters led to a considerable
+destruction of property, which, however, was borne with much complacency
+when it was remembered that the whole Hundred would be called upon to pay
+the bill.
+
+Among the candidates for the Incumbency were the Rev. R. Robinson,
+lecturer at the Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, in recommendation of
+whom Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft wrote a letter, dating it from Chapel House
+in that town, 16 July, 1834; the Rev. John Howells, the Rev. Mr. Rogers,
+the Rev. Mr. Gwyther, and the Rev. Mr. Wenman; but the Rev. George
+Hutchinson Fisher, who had been Curate two and a-half years in the town,
+was recognised as the most formidable competitor.  He was the son of a
+headmaster of Wolverhampton Grammar School, and an M.A. (1834) of Christ
+College, Cambridge.  He received his nomination from Mr. Jeremiah
+Hartill, and there was little doubt of his ability to obtain the
+necessary approval of the lords of the manor and the confirmatory licence
+of the Dean of Wolverhampton.
+
+At that time the Duke of Cleveland was impropriator, but the tithes had
+been leased by his Grace to Messrs. James Whitehouse and Charles Quinton.
+
+As the day of battle approached public feeling ran so high that on the
+eve of the poll, which took place on August 5th and 6th, 1834, the
+Returning Officer deemed it prudent to issue the following Appeal to the
+Inhabitants:--
+
+    It is represented to me, from numerous quarters, that the excitement
+    of the approaching Nomination of a Minister to your Chapel renders it
+    imprudent to take the Poll at the time and place appointed.
+
+    Gentlemen,--I cannot but hope and believe that such fears are
+    unnecessary; and, relying upon your good sense, I have determined not
+    to make any alteration in the present arrangements.
+
+    I have no interest in your choice; it is my duty only to act with
+    impartiality between all parties.
+
+    For that purpose I shall be at your Church at Ten O'clock To-morrow
+    Morning, but unless every person entitled to vote has free and
+    Unmolested Access to the Poll, I shall, of course, be under the
+    NECESSITY of adjourning it.
+
+    I address myself to the friends of Each Candidate Alike, and
+    entreating you to allow the proceedings of the day to take place with
+    that moderation which their object and the sacred place in which we
+    shall meet so particularly require.
+
+    I am, Gentlemen,
+    Your faithful, humble Servant,
+
+                                                         FRANCIS HOLYOAKE.
+
+    Tettenhall, August 4, 1834.
+
+Needless to say, all this rowdyism and disgraceful violence were sternly
+reprobated by Mr. Fisher, whose rabid opponents must have come to realise
+that their cause was a lost one when they waylaid the polling clerk and
+tore his poll-book to shreds.
+
+As to the Magistrates and the Constables, the custodians of the peace
+discreetly pursued a policy of the most masterly inactivity.  Perhaps
+they felt that the resources of their command were totally inadequate to
+cope with an uprising of the dimensions and intensity which presented
+themselves to their consideration; or, maybe, they philosophically
+recognised that these stirring tumults were the inevitable concomitants
+of a parochial struggle of so momentous a character.  Anyway, their
+attitude appears to have been justified when everything settled down
+quietly after the election, the Fisheries tranquilised by victory, and
+the White Boys dejected by defeat.
+
+For the voting resulted easily in favour of Mr. Fisher, though the
+validity of his return was challenged in the Court of Chancery for some
+three years afterwards, during which time, however, he had no hesitation
+in officiating.  He was a fine reader and an able speaker, his delivery
+of the Church ritual being a model of correct elocution.
+
+Like his predecessor, he held the living a long time, the tenure of the
+two covering a century.  Mr. Fisher resided for a number of years at
+Bentley Hall.
+
+In 1887, soon after Mr. Fisher's "Jubilee" in Willenhall, a public
+movement was instituted, in which many Dissenters took part, to
+acknowledge his fifty years of devoted service among all classes of the
+community.  A presentation was made to him of a silver service and his
+portrait in oils--the latter the work of Thomas Hill, a native of
+Wednesfield, and which now hangs on the walls of the Free Public Library.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative flower]
+
+
+
+
+XX.--The Election of 1894, and Since.
+
+
+Although St. Giles's Church is known as the Parish Church, and a church
+has probably been on the same site some six centuries, the church of
+Willenhall is really a Proprietary Chapel of Ease, and its Incumbent
+legally nothing more than a Perpetual Curate, or Curate in Charge, though
+Incumbent of Willenhall, and receiving in respect of that office a very
+substantial "living."  The official return set forth in Crockford's
+Clergy Directory for 1893 was: Tithe rent charge, 640 pounds, net Income,
+1,300 pounds.
+
+Strictly, there is no St. Giles's parish, nor any parish attached to St.
+Giles's Church, and in law the Incumbent might, if he wished, ignore the
+so-called parish so long as he performed satisfactorily certain duties in
+the church.  The unappropriated district, commonly known as St. Giles's
+parish, includes that part of Willenhall which has not been allocated to
+the properly constituted parishes (or ecclesiastical districts) of St.
+Stephen's, St. Anne's, and Holy Trinity, Short Heath, plus the entire
+civil parish of Bentley--the whole being really part of the
+ecclesiastical parish of Wolverhampton.
+
+The position is extraordinarily anomalous.  The Incumbent is elected by
+the inhabitants of the township of Willenhall being sufficient
+householders and having lands of inheritance there; that is to say, the
+voters must be freeholders as well as householders.  Litigation followed
+the choice of the Rev. William Moreton in 1788, and also the election of
+the Rev. G. H. Fisher in 1834.  It is understood that this system of
+"patronage" has been condemned by the Privy Council; and that application
+has been made for the proper constitution of a St. Giles's parish, but
+the Bishop demands a quid pro quo.
+
+All attempts to create a Parish of Willenhall have, so far, utterly
+failed.  The existing system of patronage is always the obstacle, and
+nothing will induce the voters either to sell or to surrender their
+rights in the Advowson.
+
+To fully realise the position it must be borne in mind that in addition
+to the three constituted "parishes" created within the original township
+of Willenhall since Mr. Fisher became Incumbent of Willenhall in 1834,
+Short Heath is now a separate township, with separate District Council,
+and that Bentley has its Rural District Council--so that persons who live
+in Bentley parish, Short Heath parish, the three constituted
+ecclesiastical district parishes or districts, and the unappropriated
+remainder of the township (nominally St. Giles's parish), have all the
+right to vote for the clergyman if they have the necessary other
+qualifications of householder and freeholder.
+
+On the death of the Rev. G. H. Fisher in 1894, no less than 23 formal
+applications were forthcoming for the vacant living.  The keynote was
+given at a preliminary meeting of St. Giles's congregation, at which Dr.
+J. T. Hartill presided, and when the most likely candidates were formally
+proposed and seconded for adoption.
+
+The voting (recorded on cards) resulted in favour of the Rev. William
+Elitto Rosedale, M.A., Rector of Canton, Cardiff, for whom there were
+265, as against 26 given for the Rev. W. L. Ward, of St. Anne's,
+Willenhall.  The Churchwardens consistently directed the procedure at
+this public election as nearly as possible along the lines which would be
+followed by private patronage; they declined to take any active part in
+the circulation of testimonials, or afford facilities for any candidate
+to preach in the church, to the possible prejudice of the others, but
+they passively acquiesced in each one approaching the electors in any way
+which seemed fitting and proper to himself.
+
+The votes recorded on this occasion were:--
+
+Rev. W. E. Rosedale (Canton, Cardiff)             199
+Rev. W. L. Ward (St. Anne's, Willenhall)          157
+Rev. J. E. Page (Binfield)                         28
+Rev. F. W. Ford (London)                            1
+
+At four o'clock, Mr. Page (who was the son of a local iron-master) and
+Mr. Ford retired in favour of Mr. Ward.  The Returning Officer was Mr. R.
+N. Hearne, Steward to the Lords of the Manor of Stowheath, the Duke of
+Sutherland and Mr. W. T. C. Giffard; and the poll was taken by open
+voting, each voter recording his vote orally and within the hearing of
+all present.
+
+The result having been forwarded to the Lords of the Manor, they formally
+nominated the one at the head of the poll to the Bishop for appointment
+and induction to the living.  The successful candidate was a native,
+being the son of the Rev. D. Rosedale, to whose exertions the building of
+Holy Trinity Church was largely due, and in the Vicarage House attached
+to which the said candidate was born.  But he possessed other than local
+claims, though these, no doubt, prepossessed many Willenhall folk in his
+favour.
+
+There can be little doubt the election of 1894 was conducted with far
+more tact and discretion than ever had been exercised on similar
+occasions previously.  There was still the old risk of serious public
+disturbances; but perhaps more than ever there was, as must generally be
+the case in such methods of conducting a controversial matter of this
+description, the danger of unseemly and acrimonious squabblings in
+public.  It reflects the highest credit upon the Churchwardens and all
+others concerned in the election, that not only was nearly all this
+avoided, but the possibility always present, of long and embittered
+litigation to follow, was also reduced to a minimum.  It required some
+firmness and decision to weed down 23 formal applications, and more than
+twice that number of business-like inquiries, to workable limits for
+taking a poll.
+
+The litigation of 1834 had arisen through the manufacture of "faggot
+votes," which were eventually disallowed, and had to be struck off.  A
+difficulty arose in 1894 as to the interpretation of an Act of
+1844--would Lord Blandford's Act debar from taking part in the voting the
+residents in the newly-created ecclesiastical districts of St. Stephen's,
+St. Anne's, and Holy Trinity, Short Heath?  Although at first dubious on
+the question, the authorities answered it in the negative.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+As previously stated, the earliest record of the Advowson is of the year
+1408.  In the Salt Collections, Vol.  XI., p. 218, we find that by a
+final concord recorded "on the morrow of St. Martin, 10 Henry IV.,
+William Bysshebury and Joan, his wife, acknowledged that seven messuages,
+eight tofts, one mill, sixty acres of land, ten acres of meadow, and 24s.
+6.5d. of rent in Wolverhampton, and the Advowson of the Chapel of
+Willenhall to be the right of Richard Hethe and William Prestewood,
+chaplain, and the latter granted them to William Bysshebury and Joan for
+their lives, with remainder to John Hampton, of Stourton, and Harvise,
+his wife, and to the heirs of John for ever."
+
+Exactly two centuries later, as we shall learn in the next chapter, the
+endowments of, and the right of presentation to, the living were placed
+upon a definite and legal foundation.  Suffice it here to say that at the
+present time there are Trustees appointed by the Charity Commissioners
+for the purpose of holding the Trust property belonging to the said
+living, and, with the assistance of an official representing the
+Commissioners, managing affairs connected therewith.
+
+The Trust, to which Mr. Samuel Mills Slater is solicitor, is under the
+full control of the Charity Commissioners, who have to be regularly
+supplied with certified copies of all the Trust accounts.
+
+As we shall see presently, the original Feoffees of the Trust property
+were appointed in 1608 by a Commission of local magnates and landowners,
+consisting of William Overton, Bishop of Lichfield; William, Lord Paget,
+of Beaudesert; Sir John Bowes, of Elford; Sir Edward Littleton, of
+Pillaton Hall; Sir Edward Leigh, of Rushall; Sir Simon Weston, of St.
+John's, Lichfield; Sir Robert Stanford, of Perry Hall; Sir Walter
+Chetwynde, of Grendon and Ingestre; Sir William Chetwynde, of Grendon
+(half-brother of Sir Walter); Zachary Babington, Doctor in the Civil Law;
+Raphe Snead, of Keele; Walter Bagott, of Blythfield; William Skeffington,
+of Fisherwick; Roger Fowke, of Brewood and Wyrley; John Chetwynde, of
+Rudge, parish of Standon, and Walter Stanley, of West Bromwich--most of
+them justices for the county of Stafford.
+
+By virtue of a provision in the Decree or award of these Commissioners,
+the surviving Feoffees were enabled to appoint new Feoffees in the places
+of the deceased ones.  In later times, however, by virtue of the
+Charitable Trusts Acts, the Board of Charity Commissioners acquired the
+power of making appointments of new Trustees, and also of removing
+Trustees.
+
+In the year 1889, the number of Trustees had become reduced to one--Mr.
+John Davies, then residing at Warwick.  By an Order dated 23rd July,
+1889, the Board removed Mr. Davies, at his own request, from the office
+of Trustee, and appointed the following gentlemen to be new Trustees:--
+
+John Clark.
+
+Wm. Henry Hartill.
+
+John Thomas Hartill.
+
+Joseph Johnson.
+
+David Wm. Lees.
+
+Jas. Carpenter Tildesley.
+
+Henry Vaughan.
+
+Henry Hartill Walker, junr.
+
+Of these gentlemen only Messrs. J. T. Hartill, Vaughan, and Walker are
+now living.
+
+It might be necessary under certain conditions (as, for instance, in any
+action connected with the sale of the Advowson) to constitute a body of
+elected Trustees (as distinct from the aforementioned nominated Trustees)
+of not more than eleven, nor less than five members, duly elected at a
+statutory meeting of the town's inhabitant freeholders.
+
+As a matter of fact, a public meeting of the owners of the Advowson,
+convened on the requisition of a memorial to the Incumbent (Rev. W. E.
+Rosedale), signed by a number of them, was held in the month of June,
+1900, to consider a proposal for the sale of the said Advowson.  A
+similar proposal had been discussed in 1898 at a public meeting attended
+by some 200 owners, when it was suggested that half the sum realised
+should be handed over to the town authorities, while the other half
+should be spent on the church and schools.
+
+At this second meeting, over which Mr. T. Nicholls, chairman of the
+District Council, presided, the sale value of the Advowson was variously
+estimated at sums ranging from 1,100 to 3,000 pounds.  The minister's
+income was stated by one speaker to be 539 pounds per annum nett--508
+pounds derived from a sum of 20,974 pounds 13s. 11d. invested in Consols,
+and with other sources making a gross revenue of 641 pounds 18s. 9d.,
+from which deductions amounting to 102 pounds 7s. 6d. had to be made.
+
+Another speaker gravely cautioned the meeting against over-estimating the
+capitalised value of this living by remarking that the present incumbent
+was then a comparatively young man of only forty-two, and healthy at
+that.
+
+It was given as the opinion of another speaker that the existing method
+of electing their parson was undesirable in the best interests of the
+church, and ought to be forthwith discontinued.  Also it was contended
+that if a sale could be effected, any sum that resulted therefrom might
+very advantageously be expended in the town for the benefit of the
+inhabitants generally.
+
+One stalwart stickler for "the eternal fitness of things" upheld the
+sound principle of the members of every church exercising the right to
+choose their own minister, and he deprecated generally the practice of
+trafficking in advowsons.
+
+In the end, although those in favour of selling almost threatened to
+apply for an Act of Parliament for effecting a sale compulsorily, the
+meeting finally resolved by a very substantial majority: "That it was not
+advisable at the present time to sell the Advowson."
+
+So that two well-conducted public meetings, held within a brief space of
+each other, were unable to come to any definite decision by which the
+position of things would be materially altered.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.--Willenhall Church Endowments.
+
+
+By the courtesy of Mr. S. M. Slater, of Darlaston, a summarised, but
+fairly comprehensive account of the Willenhall endowments, and the
+somewhat exceptional parochial privileges connected therewith, may be
+given here.
+
+The foundation of the Endowment of the Benefice and the establishment of
+the right of the Parishioners, or rather the Parishioners of the Township
+"having lands of inheritance there," may be said to rest upon, or at all
+events to have been defined and regulated by, three documents, namely:--
+
+(a) A Decree dated the 27th March in the 5th Year of James the 1st
+(1607), made in pursuance of an Inquisition, or Commission, issued by the
+King on the 12th February of the previous (regnal) year.
+
+(b) A Deed of the 23rd September of the 6th Year of James the 1st (1608),
+entered into between the Lords of the Manor of Stowheath on the one hand,
+and Sir Walter Levison and others, on behalf of themselves and the rest
+of the Inhabitants of Willenhall, on the other hand.
+
+(c) A Memorandum entered on the Court Rolls of the Manor of Stowheath,
+dated the 10th October in the 6th Year of James the First (1608).
+
+Reference to Chapter VII. of this work will recall how a Chantry Chapel
+had been founded and endowed in Willenhall by the Gerveyse family.  This
+Chantry Chapel would be a "separated place" within the Chapel-of-Ease
+specially used to celebrate masses for the departed souls of certain
+persons.  Now, one of the earliest signs of the approaching Reformation
+was a decline in the belief in Purgatory; and presently Henry VIII. was
+empowered by Act of Parliament to seize all lands, tenements, rents, &c.,
+which had been given for the maintenance of Chantry Priests, with all
+their lamps, candles, torches, and other expensive appointments for what
+were declared to be "superstitious" uses.  But a right was reserved to
+the King, as head of the Church, to direct such properties to uses which
+could be regarded as truly "charitable."  What became of the Willenhall
+Chantry endowments?
+
+It is the opinion of Mr. A. A. Rollason, no mean authority on the
+subject--vide his recondite articles in the "Dudleian," having special
+reference to a similar Commission of Inquiry held in 1638 as to the
+alienation of lands belonging to Dudley Grammar School--that the
+Willenhall Inquisition, or Commission of Inquiry, was brought about, as
+was that at Dudley, in consequence of the uncertain state of the law as
+to whether the lands, and the income therefrom, came within the
+Charitable Uses Act; or whether the gifts were absolutely void.
+
+For while Magna Charta declared "that if any one shall give lands to a
+religious house, the grant shall be void, and the land forfeited to the
+lord of the fee"--the abbots of old took care to be "lords of the fee,"
+usually holding their lands direct from the King--there was a Statute of
+Edward III. by which the King was empowered to grant a Royal licence
+affording relaxation of lands held under the Statutes of Mortmain.
+
+It seems almost impossible to doubt that the freehold lands belonging to
+the Willenhall Chantry had escaped confiscation to the Crown under the
+Statute, I Edward VI., if they had been held solely for performing obits
+and singing masses for the dead.  Yet it is just possible they may have
+been re-granted to aid in the maintenance of the Curate of the
+Chapel-of-Ease, in which case they would be recognised as a "charitable
+use," and were consequently safe.
+
+The Willenhall Inquisition of 1607 was addressed by the King (as stated
+in the last chapter) to "The Reverend Father in God, William, Bishopp of
+Coventrie and Lichfield And to our right trustie and well beloved William
+Lord Pagett and to our trustie and well beloved Sir John Bowes, Sir
+Edward Littleton, Sir Edward Leigh, Sir Simon Weston, Sir Robert
+Stanford, Sir Walter Chetwynde and Sir William Chetwynde, Knights,
+Zacharie Baington (Babington), Doctor of Lawe, Chancellor of Lichfield,
+Raphe Sneade, Walter Bagott, William Skevington (Skeffington), Roger
+Fowke, John Chetwynde, and Walter Stanley, Esquires."
+
+It set forth that the King, for the due execution of a certain Statute of
+43 Queen Elizabeth, intituled an Act to "redress the misimployment of
+landes goods and stocks of money theretofore given to charitable uses,"
+and having special trust and confidence in their approved fidelities,
+&c., had appointed the persons named "to be our Commissions," and thereby
+gave to them and to any four or more of them full power and authority to
+enquire "as well by the Oathes of twelve lawful men or more of the County
+of Stafford as by all other good and lawful waies and meanes accordinge
+to the purporte and true meaninge of the said Statute, What landes, etc.,
+have at any tyme or tymes been given by us or any of our progenitors or
+by any other well disposed pson or psons, bodies politique or corporate,
+for the reliefe of aged impotent and poore people etc.--And of all and
+singular the abuses misdemeanors breaches of trusts negligences
+misimployments notimployinge, concealinge, defraudinge, misconvertinge or
+misgovernment of the same landes tenements rents anuyties pffits
+hereditments goods chattels money or stocks of money or any of them
+heretofore given lymitted appointed or assigned to or for any charitable
+and godlie uses before rehearsed accordinge to the purporte and true
+meaninge of the said Statute.  And upon such enquirie hearinge and
+examyninge thereof accordinge to the said Statute to sett downe such
+Orders Judgments and Decrees as the said landes tenements rents anuyties
+pffits hereditaments goods chattels money and stocks of money may be
+dulie and faithfullie employed to and for such of the charitable uses and
+intents before rehearsed respectively for which they were given limited
+assigned or appointed by the donors and founders thereof accordinge to
+the purporte and true meaninge of the said Statute."
+
+The Commission then proceeds:--
+
+    And therefore we commande you that at cteyne days and places which
+    you or any foure or more of you shall appoint in this behalf ye or
+    any foure or more of you doe make diligent Inquirie and Inquiries
+    upon the pmisses and all and singuler the same and all other things
+    appointed by the said Statute for you or any foure or more of you to
+    doe and execute that ye or foure of you at the least pforme doe and
+    execute that effecte in all points and in everie respect accordinge
+    to the said Statute. . . .  And the same Inquisicon and Inquisicons
+    and everie of them togeather with all decrees Judgments orders and
+    proceedinges which you or any foure or more of you shall accordinge
+    to the said Statute thereupon make or sett downe that you or foure or
+    more of you have before Us in our Chancery with all convenient speede
+    . . . under the hands and seals of any foure or more of you. . .  And
+    we also command by authoritie hereof our Sheriffe of our said County
+    of Stafford that at such times dayes and places as you or any foure
+    or more of you shall appoint to him he shall cause to come before you
+    or any foure or more of you such and as many honest and lawful men of
+    the said County as well within the liberties as without by whom the
+    truth in the pmisses may best be known to inquire of the pmisses upon
+    their Oathes as you or any foure or more of you shall require and
+    command him.
+
+The Decree before referred to was signed by Sir Edward Leigh, Dr.
+Zacharie Babington, William Skeffington, John Chetwynde, and Walter
+Stanley, and was addressed to the Right Honourable Thomas, Lord
+Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor of England.  It set out the Commission and
+then proceeded as follows:--
+
+    Wee therefore by verteue of the said Commission dyd award a pcept to
+    the Sheriffe of the said Countye to somon foure and twentye good and
+    lawfull men of his Baylywicke to be before Us at Lichfeilde the
+    xxijth day of Marche laste paste and did also send a precepte to one
+    Jane Lane Widdow and to Thomas Lane Esquire that claymed intereste in
+    the pmisses to bee before Us att the same day and place to sett forth
+    theire and either of theire tytles (yf they had anie) to the said
+    pmisses att wch daye and place by virtue of the said pcepte to the
+    sayde Sheriffe dyrected as aforesaid a full Jury dyd appeare and
+    Councell on the behalfe of Mrs. Lane and the said Thomas Lane dyd
+    alsoe appear before Us and thereupon wee pceeded to sweare the Jurye
+    who bringe sworne and chardged to inquire of the pmisses after long
+    evidence and examinacon of many witnesses on both pts the said Jurors
+    gave up theire verdicte in such sorte as by an Inquisition hereunto
+    annexed Sealed and subscribed (wch wee doe herewith all ctyfye unto
+    yor Lordshippe into the highe Courte of Chancery) maie appear; that
+    is to say that a pcell of pasture or land called Marchyhills alias
+    Bessalls in Bentley aforesaid, of ye yeerlie value of fyve pounds,
+    was before the fourth yeere of Kinge Edward the Sixth given to
+    Nicholas Hellyn and Richard Whorwood gent., John Podmore Willm Greene
+    Willm Whitmore and William Podmore and their heires to bee Imployed
+    to saye devine service in the Chappell of Willenhall aforesaid for
+    the ease of the Inhabyants there being farre remoote from their prshe
+    Church of Wolverhampton in the said Countye that the pffits of the
+    said lands were from Anno quarto of Kinge Edwarde the sixte so
+    imployed as aforesaid by the space of dyvers yeeres of the said Jane
+    Lane and Thomas Lane and their Tenants  And that the same have been
+    misemployed by the space of one whole yeere now laste paste and more
+    all wch pmisses considered wee doe order and decree at Lichfeilde
+    aforesaid by verteue of the said Comission in manner and form
+    followinge  That is to saie that the said pcell of groundes and all
+    ye rents revenues yssues and pffitts thereof shall for ever hereafter
+    bee imployed and bestowed upon and towards the maynetaynance of a
+    Curate or Chaplyne for the tyme being to saie devine service in the
+    said Chappell for the ease of the Inhabitants there and that John
+    Wilkes of Willenhall in the said Countye gent, Willm Flemynge als
+    Greene of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, Leonard Tomkis of
+    Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, John Bate of Willenhall in the
+    said Countye yeoman, Richard Bate of Willenhall in the saide Countye
+    yeoman, Willm Baylie of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, and
+    Willm Brindley of Willenhall in the said Countye yeoman, theire
+    heires and Assignes shall have and hold the said pmisses to the use
+    and entente aforesaid according to a former feoffm't thereof made and
+    shewed forth to the said Jury at the tyme of the same Inquisicon
+    taken and shall from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter yeerelie
+    Imploye and bestowe the full value thereof upon and towards the
+    maynetaynance of a Curate or Chaplyne to saye devyne service in the
+    said Chappell.
+
+As will be seen, the Decree states clearly that the yearly income of the
+Bentley lands was to be used towards the maintenance of a Curate to say
+Divine Service in the Chapel; this at once brought it under the
+Charitable Uses Act, and removed it from liability to be confiscated
+under 23, Henry VIII., c. 10., for perpetuating practices regarded as
+superstitious and contrary to Reformation doctrines.  It will be noted
+that a "former feoffment" is mentioned--may not this have been a re-grant
+by the King, which has been hinted at?  The grant to Nicholas Hellyn and
+others in 4 Edward VI. has all the appearance of being a gift from the
+Crown to the purposes of the newly constituted Church of England.
+
+The Decree then proceeds, as mentioned in the last chapter, to make
+provision for the filling up of vacancies in the number of Feoffees
+whenever the number may be reduced to three.
+
+It will be noticed that the Inquisition and Decree, as given above, deal
+only with the title to and the application of the income of certain
+freehold lands at Bentley.  The Deed of the 23rd September of the 6th
+Year of James the 1st (1608), and the Memorandum of the 10th October of
+the same year, however, appear to deal with what seems to be the
+remainder of the endowment of the Curacy, and with the status of the
+Priest or Curate.  The Deed and the Memorandum set forth, in effect, the
+same set of facts; and the former may be described as the Contract out of
+Court between the parties interested, and the latter as being the
+Official Record of the Contract entered upon the Rolls of the Manor.  The
+Deed is stated to be made between the Right Worshipful Sir John Levison,
+Knight, of Lilleshall, in the County of Salop, and John Giffard, of
+Chillington, in the County of Stafford, Esquire, on the one part, and Sir
+Walter Levison, of Wolverhampton, Knight, Thomas Lane, of Bentley,
+Esquire, Richard Wilkes, and Thomas Tomkis, of Willenhall, Gentlemen, and
+William Brindley and William Podmore, of Willenhall, Yeomen, on behalf of
+themselves and the rest of the Inhabitants of Willenhall, on the other
+part; and after making reference to a "Commission awarded upon the
+Statute of 43 Elizabeth concerning Lands given to Charitable Uses," it
+proceeds to state that the lords consent, grant, and decree that the
+Copyhold lands therein referred to shall be let in the manner and for the
+purpose therein mentioned, and the effect of such consent, as before
+pointed out, is recited in the Memorandum entered on the Court Rolls.
+
+Coming to the Memorandum of 1608, it is evident a serious difficulty had
+arisen with the Willenhall lands held under copyhold tenure, and which
+were probably dealt with by the same Commission.  For there was probably
+but one Commission of Inquiry, though there may have been two separate
+Decrees.
+
+Lands held by Copyhold tenure are usually subject to fealty to the Lord
+of the Manor, and this was doubtless customary in Stowheath.  It seems
+conclusive that the King did not take these lands into his own hands,
+whereby matters would have been reduced to the absurdity of the lord
+paramount being called upon to do homage to his own tenant.
+
+The suggestion is offered by Mr. Rollason that the tenure of the lands
+was not precisely a lay one, but partook of a spiritual nature--was, in
+fact, not feudal, but what was known as a tenure in frankalmoign or free
+alms.
+
+The Memorandum commences with a recital as follows:--
+
+    Whereas by a Commission awarded upon a Statute of 43 Elizabeth
+    concerning Lands given to Charitable Uses upon the executinge of wch
+    Comission the Inhabitants and Men of Willenhall in the County of
+    Stafford have made profe that certaine Copyhold Lands in the Towne of
+    Willenhall holden by Coppie of Court Roll of the Manor of Stowheath
+    were formerly Surrendered by certain Feoffees or Stateberers Uppon
+    Trust and confidence that the yearly Pfitts thereof should be
+    imployed for the hyer stipend and wages of a Preist Minister or
+    Curate to say Divine Service in the Chappell of Willenhall from tyme
+    to tyme for ever for the Ease of the Inhabitants there dwelling being
+    two Myles distant from Wolverhampton their Prshe Church and towards
+    the repairinge of the said Chappell and the said yearly pfitts
+    thereof were soe used and imployed for many yeares togeather uppon
+    consideracon of wch said cause and uppon longe debate thereof before
+    divse Comissioners in psence of Councell of both ptes ambiguity and
+    doubtings arisinge whether the said Copyhold Lands were originally
+    given to the maintenance of a Chantery Preist or otherwise to the
+    maintenance of a Curate of Preist to say Divine Service in the
+    Chappell aforesaid The said Inhabitants are contented to refer
+    themselves therein to the consideracon of Sir John Leveson Knt and
+    John Giffard Esquire Lords of the Mannor of Stowheath within wch
+    Mannor the said Towne of Willenhall lyeth and is pcel wch usadge and
+    imploymt of the saide rents and pfitts of the said Lands the said Sr
+    John Leveson and Jhn Giffard Esqre well accepting of are willing to
+    give furtherance to soe good and charitable an occon And the rather
+    for that their Ancestors have formerly given allowance out of the
+    same Lands for the same purpose And therefore doe for them and their
+    heirs consent and agree that the said Coppyhold Lands shall for ever
+    hereafter be let by the consent of four of the Inhabitants of the
+    said Towne of Willenhall to be chosen by the greater pte of the
+    sufficient Householders of the said Towne having lands of inheritance
+    there, and that the said aforemenconed Lands shall be by the said
+    four Inhabitants let from tyme to tyme according to the trew and
+    reasonable Rate or Valew thereof and the mony pfitts and rents to be
+    reserved out of the said Lands to be imployed half yearly hereafter
+    in manner and forme following (that is to say) First to the payment
+    of eleven shillings yearly for the antient and accustomed cheife rent
+    dew and to be dew to the Lords of the said Manor of Stowheath
+    Secondly to the payment of Six shillings and eight pence yearly
+    towards the reparations of the said Chappell, and thirdly towards the
+    maintenance of a stipendary Preist Minester or Curate for the sayinge
+    of Divine Service Ministeringe of the Holy Sacraments and doinge all
+    such other service in the Chappell of Willenhall as doe and shall
+    belong to his Ministerie and Function wch Stipendary Priest Minister
+    or Curate shall be fro tyme to tyme chosen nominated and appointed by
+    the said Inhabitants of Willenhall for the tyme beinge or the
+    greatest pte of them havinge lands there as aforesaid and prsented
+    and allowed by the Lord on Lords of the said Manner of Stowheath and
+    his and their heir or heires for ever.  And it is further ordered
+    that whosoever shall be nominated appointed prsented and allowed as
+    aforesaid to supply the place as Preist Minister or Curate in the
+    said Chappell of Willenhall shall conforme himselfe to the Govermt
+    Eclesiasticall and be resident uppon his cure there, in defalt
+    whereof and uppon complainte made by the said Inhabitants or the
+    greater pte of the sufficient or chiefest of them, eyther of his
+    nonresidence, Insufficiencie, negligence, or any other Misdemenor, to
+    the Lord or Lords of the said Manner for the tyme beinge, yt shall be
+    lawfull for the Lord or Lords of the said Mannor for the tyme beinge
+    to give one halfe yeares warninge to the said Preist Minester or
+    Curate to reform himselfe whch if he doe not then it shall be lawfull
+    for the said Lord or Lords for the tyme beinge to remove and displace
+    him at the end of the said halfe yeare, and to present and allow
+    another Curate Minester or Preist there to be nominated and appointed
+    by the said Inhabitants or the greater part of them as aforesaid.
+    Lastly it is ordered that the said Lands shall at the next Leete at
+    Wolverhampton for the said Mannor of Stowheath be granted by Coppie
+    of Court Roll to Nine Feoffees or Stateberers and their heires then
+    and there to be nominated, uppon wch Grante there shall be Thirteene
+    pounds six shillings and eight pence paid for a Fine and Herriotts,
+    and that after the death of six or seaven of the said Feoffees or
+    Stateberers there shall be sixe or seaven others from tyme to tyme
+    chosen by the said Inhabitants or greatest pte of them to whom and to
+    the other three or two surviving Feoffees and their heires uppon the
+    Surrender of the said three or two Feoffees or Stateberers a new
+    Grant shall be made by Coppie of Court Roll of the said Lands
+    accordinge to the Custome of the said Mannor.  And soe from when and
+    as often there shal be remaininge but three or two Feoffees or
+    Stateberers And that uppon every such admittance there shall be payed
+    to the Lords of the said Mannor the some of six pounds thirteen
+    shillings and fower pence for a fine and Herriotts as often as any
+    such admittance shall be as aforesaid.
+
+The disclosure here made, that part of the endowments went to the repair
+of the church, gives the key to the probable solution; because this
+unquestionably constituted a "charitable use," and where such was
+intermixed with a "superstitious use," only so much as went to the latter
+purpose was subject to confiscation under the reforming Statutes of Henry
+VIII.  A generous interpretation would not inquire too closely into the
+amount left for a Chantry Priest, and the portion devoted to repairs of
+the fabric.  It was to discriminate between the two kinds of uses that
+the subsequent Statute of Elizabeth (43 E. Cap. 4) was passed, empowering
+the Lord Chancellor to appoint Commissions authorised to investigate the
+complaints of aggrieved parties, and to alter the direction of the
+endowment funds, where necessary, to make them conformable with the
+Protestant religion.  This was precisely the nature and function of the
+Willenhall Commission.  All it accomplished was done under the authority
+of the Great Seal of England, the Commissions being generally directed by
+the Lord Chancellor to the Bishop of the diocese, as in this case; the
+judgments arrived at, and the decrees issued were given the full force of
+law.  The Willenhall Trust was clearly constituted under this Act of
+Elizabeth.
+
+On reading the introductory portion of the Memorandum, it will be
+observed that no date is given to the Commission referred to, which
+possibly might be interpreted to mean that such Commission was quite
+separate from the one above set out, inasmuch as the latter related only
+to freehold land at Bentley, while the Memorandum speaks of "certain
+Copyhold lands in the Towne of Willenhall" being "surrendered by certain
+Feoffees . . .  Uppon trust," &c.
+
+In the documents before considered no allusion is made to there being any
+endowment or provision for the maintenance of the Chantry Priest or
+Curate other than the income from the Freehold and Copyhold lands which
+respectively formed the subject of those documents; and from this it is
+reasonable to conclude that such income formed, or was involved in what
+may be described as practically the only permanent provision for the
+maintenance of the Incumbent for the time being of the Chapel.
+
+A century ago there appears to have been a prevalent belief that the
+income of the Incumbent or Curate was about 1,400 pounds per annum.  An
+investigation of what has happened during the last 70 years does not
+reveal any foundation for the belief.  After the election, in the year
+1838, of the late Rev. G. H. Fisher to the Curacy, it was considered by
+him and the Trustees of the Living to be desirable to apply to Parliament
+for powers to sell the surface of the lands forming the Endowment, or to
+sell or lease any of the mines thereunder.  Accordingly, a private Act of
+Parliament (7 and 8 Victoria Cap. 19) granting those powers was obtained.
+The Preamble of this Act refers to dealings with the Copyhold Lands
+subsequent to the date of the Memorandum before commented upon, there
+being recitals that, as appears by a surrender dated the 21st November,
+1727, certain Copyhold Lands, &c., in the Town of Willenhall were
+formally surrendered to the use of certain Feoffees and were held upon
+the trusts already described, and that at a Court Baron held on the 24th
+September, 1839, the said Copyhold lands were surrendered to the use of
+Thomas Hinks, John Riley Hinks, John Read, William Stokes, John Mason,
+Joseph Turner, John Biddle, Jeremiah Hartill and John Davies on the same
+trusts.  The Preamble further shows a small further source of income for
+the Living, inasmuch as it states that certain Freehold lands in the
+Township of Willenhall (as well as those in the Township of Bentley) had
+from time immemorial been held and enjoyed in like manner as the said
+Copyhold lands and that the said Freehold and Copyhold lands constituted
+"one and the same Charity."  The Preamble further states that there stood
+in the name of the Accountant-General of the High Court of Chancery the
+sum of 386 pounds 3s. 0d. of three per cent. Consols, and that there was
+owing from the Birmingham Canal Company a sum of 202 pounds 2s. 0d.
+These two sums represented the agreed prices of lands belonging to the
+Living taken by the Grand Junction Railway Company and the Canal Company
+respectively under their compulsory powers.  The freehold land in
+Willenhall before referred to, is comprised (with all the other lands
+held in Trust for the Living), in the Schedule to the Act, and consisted
+of a field called Ell Park, containing 1a. 3r. 28p., and produced a
+rental of 5 pounds 12s. 0d.
+
+Touching the supposition before referred to as to the value of the Living
+being 1,400 pounds per annum, it may be mentioned that the Schedule to
+the Act gives the total area of the lands held in trust for the Living at
+112a. 2r. 37p., and the aggregate amount of the rentals as being 500
+pounds 15s. 6d. per annum.
+
+A further power sought for and conferred by the Act was the power to
+raise a sum not exceeding 1,600 pounds to be applied in building a
+Parsonage House upon any of the land belonging to the Living, or, in the
+alternative, to purchase at a cost not exceeding 1,600 pounds, a
+Parsonage House, with the consent of the Court of Chancery, if thought
+more advantageous than to build one.
+
+In the exercise of the powers conferred by the Act, the Trustees, in the
+course of a few years, sold all the lands belonging to the Living situate
+in Willenhall, and in recent years a piece of land containing 1 rood and
+23 perches, forming part of the Freehold land at Bentley, has also been
+sold and there now remains at Bentley, belonging to the Living, nine
+pieces of land, containing a total area of 30 acres and 27 perches,
+which, for several years prior to Mr. Fisher's death, produced a rental
+of 20 pounds per annum.
+
+The primary provisions of the Act with regard to the moneys to arise from
+sales and leases under the powers thereby conferred were: (a) That the
+moneys should be let out and invested under the direction of the Court in
+the purchase of Freehold hereditaments or Copyhold hereditaments
+convenient to be enjoyed therewith; (b) that the premises purchased
+should be conveyed unto the Trustees for the time being of the Charity
+and held upon the Trusts, upon which the hereditaments sold would have
+been held in case the same had not been so sold, and the Act had not been
+passed; (c) that until the moneys should be so let out and invested they
+should be invested in Parliamentary stocks or Funds of Great Britain in
+the name of the Accountant-General; and (d) that the annual produce of
+such funds should be applied to the person and for the purposes to which
+the rents of the trust lands would have been applicable.
+
+In the exercise of the trust for purchasing lands conferred by the Act,
+the Trustees subsequently purchased the property in Walsall Street,
+adjoining and near to the Churchyard, including the site of the new
+Schools there, and also two Cottages and some gardens and land at
+Shepwell Green.  The latter property has since been sold off.
+
+Reverting to the question of the value of the Living, it may be mentioned
+that in the year 1886, when the Shepwell Green property and the small
+piece of land at Bentley were still in hand, the gross income from the
+Living, apart from Surplice Fees, was 792 pounds 7s. 9d., made up as
+follows:--
+
+                                              pounds       s.       d.
+Rents                                            194        2        8
+Dividend from 19,941 pounds 16s. 8d.,            598        5        1
+3 per cent. Consols
+                                                 792        7        9
+
+The effect of the "Goschen" Act of 1888 was ultimately to reduce the
+Dividend on the Consols by 1/6th, and, consequently, the gross income of
+the Living, apart from Surplice Fees, stood a few years afterwards at 692
+pounds 13s. 7d., made up as follows:--
+
+                                             pounds       s.       d.
+Rents                                           194        2        8
+Dividend from 2.5 per cent. Consols             498       10       11
+                                                692       13        7
+
+This statement brings matters up to date (1907); the tithes are still
+impropriate, a rent charge of 540 pounds being receivable by Lord Barnard
+in succession to the Duke of Cleveland.  The tithe-owner in Bentley is
+the Earl of Lichfield.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.--The Church Charities: The Daughter Churches.
+
+
+At the beginning of the nineteenth century a Royal Commission was
+appointed to inquire into, and put a stop to, the barefaced robbery of
+the Church charities, which had been going on for a century or more.
+Every parish in England was visited, and the Report on the Willenhall
+Charities was published in 1825 to the following effect:--
+
+
+
+1.--PRESTWOOD'S DOLE.
+
+
+    An ancient Instrument was produced to us, purporting to be a
+    Deed-poll (without any seals thereto, but with a portion of the lower
+    margin torn off, not, however, as it appeared to us, in that part
+    where the seals are usually affixed), bearing date 17 August, 1642,
+    whereby William Prestwood, of Willenhall, in Co. Stafford, and
+    Mariana, his wife, granted to the Wardens and Sidemen of the Church
+    or Chapel of Willenhall, aforesaid, and to the Overseers of the poor
+    of the said Town, and their successors for ever, all the annual rent,
+    profits, and emoluments whatsoever, issuing, renewing, and arising
+    from, in and out of a certain Close of the said William and Mariana,
+    called Canne Byrch, lying and being in Willenhall aforesaid, between
+    Willenhall Field on one part, and the highway leading towards
+    Darlaston on the other; to have and to hold all the rent, profits,
+    and emoluments arising from the said Close, after the death of the
+    said William and Mariana, for ever; to the pious use following,
+    viz.:--
+
+    To pay and contribute the annual rent aforesaid to the use and behoof
+    of the Poor in the said Town, at the discretion of the aforesaid
+    Wardens, Officers, and Overseers of the Chapel and Town aforesaid for
+    ever, and not otherwise: And it is further declared that the said
+    rent should be annually paid in the manner and form as the said
+    William by his last Will should appoint.
+
+    We have no evidence that this piece of land, which is well known, was
+    ever in the possession of the Parish Officers.  It is now considered
+    as the property of Hervey Smith, Esq., of Castle Bromwich, who has
+    lately succeeded to it on the death of his father, the late William
+    Smith, Esq., solicitor of Birmingham, and to be subject only to an
+    annual rent charge of 20s. to the Poor of Willenhall, which is
+    regularly paid by the tenant of the land.  It has been for many years
+    in the possession of Mr. Smith's family, and he produced several
+    receipts, the earliest of which is dated 31 October, 1753, and is for
+    "1 pound due Nov. 1st, 1753, for Prestwood's Dole."
+
+    The others are for the same sum, designating it either as
+    "Prestwood's Dole," or "A Dole payable to the Poor of Willenhall."
+
+    We do not conceive that, under these circumstances, the imperfect
+    Instrument above stated, unaccompanied by possession, can afford any
+    ground to the Parishioners of the Township to claim anything more
+    than the Dole which has been so long paid.  The 20 shillings are
+    given away to 20 Poor Widows on St. Thomas's Day.
+
+
+
+2.--PEDLEY'S CHARITY.
+
+
+    James Pedley, otherwise Fletcher, by his Will dated 20 May, 1728,
+    after the death of his wife, gave to his brother, Richard Pedley,
+    alias Fletcher, his heirs and assigns, those two Closes of Land
+    called by the name Little Clothers, lying in the Liberty of
+    Willenhall, in the Parish of Wolverhampton, on condition that his
+    said brother should pay or cause to be paid 30s. a year out of the
+    rent of the said two Closes of land, as follows; that is to say, to
+    the Minister of Willenhall 6s. 8d. a year to preach a sermon on New
+    Year's Day; and unto Poor Housekeepers 8s. in bread yearly, upon New
+    Year's Day, at the Chapel as the Chapelwardens should think fit; and
+    to the Chapelwardens for their trouble 4d.; and 13s. yearly to one of
+    the Chapelwardens and to the Overseer of the Poor to be given in
+    bread to such Poor Housekeepers as they should think fit, and carry
+    the said bread to, from house to house, upon the first day of July;
+    and he directed that the Officers for trouble should have 12 pence
+    apiece: And in the event of his brother's death without issue, he
+    gave the Closes, paying the aforesaid 30s. yearly as above directed
+    to the right heir of the Pedleys for ever.
+
+    The premises charged with this annuity of 30s. are at present the
+    property of Mr. George Bailey, in right of his wife, to whom they
+    descended as heir to her brother, Charles Pedley, the great-nephew of
+    the testator.
+
+    The several payments of 6s. 8d. to the Minister and 8s. and 13s. for
+    bread, appear to have been annually made; but the bread having been
+    distributed by the Pedley family themselves, or persons deputed by
+    them, without the intervention of the Chapelwarden or Overseer, the
+    fees of 2s. 4d. to these Officers have been hitherto withheld, and
+    are indeed unnoticed in a Will of James Pedley, dated in 1792,
+    whereby he devises the Closes in question to the above-named Charles
+    Pedley, describing them as subject to the other payments of 27s. 8d.
+    only.
+
+    Mr. Bailey has, however, expressed his readiness to supply the
+    omission in future, and to pay the bread money, or deliver the bread
+    to the Officers of the Township to be distributed by them according
+    to the directions of the donor.
+
+    The distributions appear to have been hitherto made respectively on
+    New Year's Day and at Midsummer, among Poor Old Widows and other Poor
+    of the Township.
+
+
+
+3.--CHARITIES OF JOHN TOMKYS AND GEORGE WELCH.
+
+
+    At a Court Baron held for the Manor of Stowheath, on 29th May, 1781,
+    the lords of the manor, at the request of certain persons being
+    Chapelwardens, and certain others being Overseers of the Poor of the
+    liberty of Willenhall, and of certain others, being three of the
+    principal Inhabitants of Willenhall, on behalf of themselves and
+    others, the inhabitants of Willenhall, by the hands of the Steward,
+    according to the custom of the manor, gave, granted, and delivered to
+    Joshua Fletcher, of Willenhall, and Catherina, his wife, all those
+    three Closes or parcels of land, containing together five acres, or
+    thereabouts, theretofore enclosed from the waste or common-land
+    called Shepwell Green, within the liberty of Willenhall, for their
+    natural lives and the life of the survivor, with remainder to the
+    heirs and assigns of the said Joshua Fletcher for ever, subject to
+    the payment of 20s. on St. Thomas's Day yearly for ever, to the
+    Chapelwardens and Overseers of the Poor for the liberty of
+    Willenhall, to be by them paid or applied to or for the use of the
+    Poor of the said liberty of Willenhall, yearly and every year for
+    ever on St. Thomas's Day aforesaid, at the Vestry of the said Chapel,
+    according to their discretion, it being the interest of 20 pounds, 10
+    pounds thereof being theretofore given by one John Tomkys, and the
+    other 10 pounds theretofore given by one George Welch, to and for the
+    use of the said Poor.
+
+    These premises are now the property of John Fletcher, by whom the
+    annuity of 20s. is duly paid to the officers of the Township.  This
+    payment is distributed on New Year's Day among the Poor of the
+    liberty in small sums not generally exceeding 6d. to each individual.
+
+
+
+4.--JOHN BATES'S CHARITY.
+
+
+    This Charity consists of the sum of 5 pounds, which appears to have
+    been left by John Bate some time before the year 1701; the interest
+    to be yearly distributed among the Poor of Willenhall on St. Thomas's
+    Day.
+
+    The principal was placed at interest on 21 December, 1701, in the
+    hands of Joseph Hincks, on the security of his bond; and the interest
+    appears to have been duly paid by himself and his heirs successively.
+    It is now paid by Thomas Hincks on St. Thomas's Day annually to
+    fifteen Poor Widows of the Township in shares of 4d. each.
+
+The founders of the "lost" Prestwood Charity were doubtless members of
+the family mentioned in Chapter VII. as resident in Willenhall as early
+as 1409; Prestwood, be it noted, was also the name of an ancient moated
+farm and homestead in Wednesfield.  The name of Prestwood is again
+mentioned, as are also the names of the other Willenhall benefactors,
+Bates and Tomkiss, in the endowment deeds of 1607, quoted in Chapter XXI.
+As to the Welch family, their homestead in Willenhall stood in the
+location known as Welch End.
+
+Concerning Pedley's Charity, which has not been distributed these 50
+years, the Churchwardens have, as recently as 1895, made earnest attempts
+at its recovery.  The lands once chargeable for the dole were identified
+as Shares Acres, lying between the canal and the road leading to New
+Invention from Monmer Lane.  The property, however, was found to be in
+the hands of the Trustees of the late W. E. Jones; and as, through the
+remissness of someone, the estate had been sold and conveyed without due
+provision for the payment of the annuity once charged upon it, the
+Trustees had not power to make such payment.  While the minerals under
+this land have been yielding wealth, the Poor have been defrauded from
+their rightful share in the same.
+
+Painstaking inquiries for the other "lost charities" have also been made,
+but with no success.  For many years the Incumbent and Wardens have
+provided and distributed a Dole of 40 loaves, for which there has been no
+legal responsibility resting upon them.
+
+In 1881 Jeremiah Hartill gave 200 pounds to the Vicar and Wardens, which
+was invested in Consols, and the interest is annually distributed on
+January 1st amongst twenty poor people of the township.  The Hartill
+Charity and the Tomkys and Welch Doles are the only ones now
+administered.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+Thirty or more years ago a Mr. Stokes gave the Incumbent of Willenhall
+500 pounds to be applied in his absolute discretion for the benefit of
+St. Giles's School.  The interest until recently was applied by him for
+that purpose.  The principal has recently been spent in purchase of an
+extended playground for the new Infant Schools, and in the part purchase
+of a site for a new Mixed Department, adjacent thereto.
+
+A few years after the passing of Sir Robert Peel's Act of 1847, advantage
+was taken of it to split the populous area of the ancient chapelry into
+new district parishes; and by 1855 the said chapelry was divided into
+three nearly equal parts, the new parishes of St. Stephen and Holy
+Trinity, leaving to St. Giles's Church Bentley and the remaining portion
+of the Willenhall township.  The fourth daughter parish, St. Anne's, came
+a few years later.
+
+St Stephen's Church, in Wolverhampton Street, was erected mainly through
+the exertions of its first vicar, the Rev. T. W. Fletcher, M.A., and
+opened in 1854, seven years after its ecclesiastical district had been
+formed.  Mr. Fletcher died in 1890, and the living is now held by the
+Rev. Herbert Percy Stevens, M.A.  This parish maintains a Parochial Hall
+and Mission at Portobello.
+
+St. Anne's Church, Spring Bank, was built largely as a memorial to his
+wife by Mr. H. Jeavon.  It was consecrated in 1861.
+
+Holy Trinity Church (Short Heath) Vicarage and Schools were all built by
+the Rev. Dr. Rosedale, the first vicar of the parish, and father of the
+present vicar of St. Giles's.  His labours commenced in a Mission Room at
+the Brown Jug Inn, Sandbeds, and he trained several very earnest men for
+the ministry, including the Rev. John Bailey, first vicar of the Pleck
+Church, Walsall, and the Rev. -- Pritchard, vicar of Blakenall Church,
+Bloxwich.  The jubilee of the building of the church was held about 1905.
+The Rev. -- Wood was the second vicar, the Rev. G. W. Johnson the third,
+and the present vicar is the Rev. G. C. W. Pimbury.
+
+A Mission Room at New Invention completes the list of Anglican
+Establishments in Willenhall.
+
+In connection with St. Giles's a Men's and a Junior Men's Club have
+recently been established; and among other projects for further
+developments in the parochial machinery is a Mission Room at Shepwell
+Green.  This movement was initiated some years ago when the Rev. H.
+Edwards was acting as Curate during the illness of the Rev. Mr. Fisher; a
+site has recently been purchased, in the anticipation that the Mission in
+due time will develop into a new ecclesiastical parish.
+
+Dr. Hartill, as Churchwarden, was instrumental in securing a grant of 700
+pounds from a bequest of 15,000 pounds left for Church objects by a Miss
+Green, with which to increase the endowment of Holy Trinity Church, Short
+Heath; this was supplemented by another 700 pounds from the
+Ecclesiastical Commissioners; while in the following year a further sum
+of 700 pounds from each source was also obtained for increasing the
+endowment of St. Anne's Church.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.--The Fabric of the Church.
+
+
+As already discovered (Chapter VII.), a church has existed in Willenhall
+since the 13th century.  It was at first a small chapel-of-ease, and
+seems to have been dedicated in pre-Reformation times to a non-biblical
+patron, Saint Giles.
+
+The first edifice, as a mere chapel of accommodation, was in all
+probability a very primitive structure, constructed entirely of timber
+cut from the adjacent forest of Cannock.  But when it became a chantry
+also, the original structure may have been replaced by a more elaborate
+edifice, in the style which is generally known as half-timbered.
+
+Soon after the Reformation the mother church of Wolverhampton was pewed
+on a plan for the specifically allotted accommodation of all the
+parishioners, when the centre aisle was given to the inhabitants of
+Wolverhampton, the south aisle was set apart for the people of Bilston,
+and the north aisle was appropriated to Wednesfield and Willenhall.  In
+those days, as previously explained, the law supposed that every adult
+person attended church on Sundays; there was, in fact, a penalty for
+absence enforcible by law.
+
+With regard to Willenhall's timber-constructed church, there is evidence
+that in 1660 it was in a deplorable condition through fire ravages.
+After the Reformation it became a practice for collections to be made in
+the churches throughout the country to provide funds for the repair or
+rebuilding of parish churches which had fallen into a state of
+dilapidation beyond the means of its own parishioners to make good; or
+for other charitable purposes in which the needs of the one seemed to
+call for the help of the many.  These collections were authorised to be
+made by Royal Letters Patent, through official documents known as Briefs;
+and entries of these are to be found in most Parish Registers till the
+middle of the 18th century, when their frequency through the complaisance
+of the Court of Chancery was considered such an abuse that it was ordered
+for the future that their issue should be granted only after a formal
+application to Quarter Sessions.  Thus we find records in the Tipton
+Registers of no less than seven collections made there between 1657 and
+1661 for the relief of distress through fire and other causes in Desford,
+Southwold, Drayton (Salop), Oxford, East Hogborne, Chichester, and Milton
+Abbey.
+
+Willenhall called for this form of national assistance in 1660, as
+entries of a Brief on its behalf have been found as far apart as Chatham,
+in Kent, and Woodborough, in Notts, and may doubtless be traced in
+various parish registers up and down the country.  Here is a copy of the
+Nottinghamshire entry:--
+
+                                                    September ye 23, 1660.
+
+    COLLECTED at ye Parish Church and among ye Inhabitants of Woodbourogh
+    for and towards the Reliefe of ye distressed inhabitants of
+    Willenhall, in ye County of Stafford, being Commended hityr [hereto]
+    by ye King's Majestyes Letters Patents with ye gorat Sale [Great
+    Seal] for and towards their loss by fire, ye sum of 4s. 10d.
+
+    Witness,
+
+                                 JOHN ALLATT,
+
+                                                                 Minister.
+
+                                  JAMES JOB,
+                               HENRY MOORELAW,
+
+                                                            Churchwardens.
+
+[It has been romantically suggested by a local writer that the "burning
+of Willenhall" was an act of revenge perpetrated by the Puritans of
+Lichfield and the vicinity for the succour given at Bentley Hall in 1651
+to the fugitive Charles II.; and that these church collections are
+evidence of the personal interest taken by that monarch on his
+Restoration, in the place which had afforded him shelter in his hour of
+direst need.  Two considerations will immediately dispel any such
+illusion.  First, the Briefs were very commonplace affairs, as already
+shown; secondly, displays of Stuart gratitude were just as rare.  All the
+reward commonplace affairs, as already shown; secondly, displays of
+Stuart gratitude were just as rare.  All the reward Charles vouchsafed to
+the devoted Lanes was the cheap honour of an augmentation of the family
+arms, and the scanty gift of 1,000 pounds to Jane Lane.  Allusion has
+been made (Chapter XIII.) to the Royal fugitive taking advantage of the
+hiding-place afford by the "priest's hole" at Moseley Hall where Charles
+was loyally secreted by Jesuitic and other priestly adherents, though
+they might have pocketed a reward of 10,000 pounds by betraying him--yet
+in after years this ungrateful prince had no compunction in signing more
+than twenty death warrants against Romanist priests, merely for the crime
+of being priests!]
+
+                         [Picture: Bentley Hall]
+
+To resume our history of Willenhall Church: What was manifestly a
+"restored" chapel was in 1727 consecrated by Edward, Lord Bishop of
+Coventry and Lichfield, on the same day that Bilston Chapel was
+consecrated; but the building could have been scarcely worth the attempt,
+as twenty years later it had to be entirely replaced.
+
+On August 14th of the year 1727, the Bishop having first consecrated
+Bilston Chapel, in the presence of a large assembly of the local clergy,
+which included the Rev. R. Ames and two other prebendaries; the vicars of
+Walsall and Dudley; Mr. Tyrer, curate of Tettenhall; Mr. Gibbons,
+minister of Codsall; Mr. Varden, rector of Darlaston; Mr. Perry, curate
+of Wednesbury; and Mr. Holbrooke, curate of Willenhall; his lordship
+proceeded to Willenhall in a coach and four, where the ceremony of
+Consecration "in Latine" was repeated upon what was merely a renovated
+building.  After which Squire Lane, of Bentley, gave a splendid
+entertainment in celebration of the event.
+
+A "chappel-yard for the Burial of the Dead," which had been added, was
+consecrated at the same time, and, strangely enough--as if the
+parishioners of Willenhall were eager to signalise their acquisition of
+such a parochial institution as a graveyard--the first interment was made
+the selfsame day.
+
+About the middle of the eighteenth century there was a wave of zeal for
+church extension, on which we find Wolverhampton carried along rather
+freely; for within the short space of ten years, under the auspices of
+Dr. Pennistan Booth, the enterprising Dean, the building of four
+chapels-of-ease was projected.  These daughter churches were:--
+
+1746--Wednesfield (Advowson of which was vested in Walter Gough and his
+heirs).
+
+1748--Willenhall.
+
+1753--Bilston.
+
+1755--St. John's (the new building was injured by fire, and not
+consecrated till 1760).
+
+From the Registers is gleaned the following issue of a writ to release
+sequestration of fees:--
+
+    Memorandum.  March 4, 1748.--The Faculty for Rebuilding and enlarging
+    ye Chapel of Willenhall authorized ye then present Ministr, ye Revd.
+    Titus Neve to charge and receive for Breaking up ye Ground or
+    Building a Vault in ye said Chapel ye sum of two Guineas and also one
+    Guinea for opening ye same at any time afterwards to him and his
+    successors.  The Intention of this Siquise was to prevent frequent
+    interments which are a common annoyance to ye Living Votaries for
+    whose use ye Chapel was erected.
+
+From the Diary of Dr. Richard Wilkes is extracted the following
+illuminative entry--a contemporary record of the state of the ancient
+edifice:--
+
+    May 6, 1748.--This day I set out the foundation of a new church in
+    this town; for the old one being half timber, the sills, pillars,
+    etc., were so decayed that the inhabitants, when they met together,
+    were in great danger of being killed.  It appeared to me, that the
+    old church must have been rebuilt, at least the middle aisle of it;
+    and that the first fabrick was greatly ornamented, and must have been
+    the gift of some rich man, or a number of such, the village then
+    being but thin of inhabitants, and, before the iron manufacture was
+    begun here, they could not have been able to erect such a fabrick;
+    but no date, or hint relating to it, was to be found; nor is anything
+    about it come to us by tradition.
+
+Willenhall's rebuilt church was completed in 1749, and had a formal
+re-opening on October 30th of that year.  An entry in the Registers
+(which has already been quoted in Chapter XVIII.) seems to intimate that
+the regular services were not resumed till January 20th, 1750.
+
+This edifice was a fair specimen of the crudities which went to make up
+the "churchwarden architecture" of the period; consisting mainly of a
+plain, box-like nave, pierced on either side by half a dozen staring
+oblong windows, and having in the whole of its hulk not one curved line
+or rounded form by which relief could be afforded to the eye at any
+single point.  At one end of this unimposing structure was a flattened
+scutiform excrescence which served as the chancel; from the others rose
+the tower, the only feature by which the building could be recognised as
+a church.  The tower, not to put the rest of the church out of
+countenance, was equally crude; its window piercings being as debased in
+the Gothic style as was its cornice in quasi-classical; and topped as it
+was by a low-pitched hipped roof or squat pyramid, from the point of
+which rose high into the air the famous Willenhall weathercock--the
+brazen bird flaunting itself aloft, as if deriving its defiance from the
+aggressive-looking furcated finials which surrounded it at the four
+angles.
+
+This church endured only for about a century, being replaced in 1867 by
+the present edifice, erected at a cost of 7,000 pounds, raised by public
+subscription.  The Chairman of the Committee for the rebuilding was Mr.
+R. D. Gough, who, with his wife, contributed 1,700 pounds.  Other large
+contributors were Mrs. Stokes (with 505 pounds), and the Vicar and
+Trustees (who gave 1,000 pounds).
+
+St. Giles's Church is now a substantial stone building in the Decorated
+style, consisting of nave, aisles, chancel and transepts, and having at
+the west end a lofty square tower, terminated with a pinnacle at each
+angle.  The new fane was soon adorned by the insertion of a number of
+stained glass windows; the large east window was presented by Mr. R. D.
+Gough; others were given by the Lords of the Manor of Stow Heath
+(emblazoning the arms of Leveson-Gower and Giffard); by the Earl of
+Lichfield and the Rev. Charles Lane (also heraldically distinguished);
+one was put in as a memorial to members of the Clemson family; and
+another to commemorate Mrs. Anwell, a connection of the Gough family.
+
+The work of enlarging the church was undertaken in 1897 in memory of the
+late Incumbent, Mr. Fisher; and a fine organ was installed in celebration
+of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.  Also at the same time choir stalls
+were introduced, the choristers being brought from the gallery, which
+latter feature was rightly removed altogether.  Among the improvements
+promoted by the Incumbent and his energetic churchwardens, Dr. John T.
+Hartill and Mr. H. H. Walker, of Bentley Hall, were the enlargement of
+the churchyard and the scheme for providing a church house.
+
+As the new incumbent, Mr. Rosedale, was a nephew of Mrs. Gough, the
+generous contributor to the rebuilding fund of 1865-7, just mentioned, it
+was suggested that the house she occupied might fittingly be transformed
+to serve as a Parsonage.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+Almost from the time pews were first put into churches, seats became
+appurtenant to certain family mansions, and by custom descended from
+ancestor to heir, without any ecclesiastical concurrence.  Instances of
+such proprietary pews having been bequeathed by will have occurred in
+Willenhall within comparatively recent times.  Here is an extract from
+the will of Thomas Hartill, dated June 5th, 1777:--
+
+    I give and bequeath to my Son, Abraham Hartill, the fourth part of a
+    seat in the Chapel, No. 4 in B row an all so one 4 part of a seat in
+    F row near the Dore. . . . and I bequeath to my Daughter, Phoebe
+    Read, one Fourth part of a seate No. 4 in B row and also one Fourth
+    part of a seate in the Chapel in F row near the Dore.
+
+Similar testamentary disposals appear in the will of Isaac Hartill, dated
+27 May, 1818:--
+
+    I give and devise to my Son, Isaac Hartill, all that my moiety or
+    half part of the seat or pew, being No. 10 in the South Aisle within
+    the Church or Chapel of Willenhall aforesaid, to hold to him my said
+    son, Isaac, his heirs and assigns tor ever. . . .
+
+    I give and devise unto my said Son, Ephraim Hartill, one moiety or
+    equal half part of, and in my seat, or pew, being number 4 in the
+    South Aisle within the Church or Chapel aforesaid, to hold to my said
+    Son, Ephraim, his Heirs, and assigns for ever.  And I also give and
+    devise unto my daughter, Mary Atkins, the other moiety or equal half
+    part or share of the said last mentioned seat or pew, to hold to my
+    said Daughter Mary Atkins, her heirs and assigns for ever.
+
+Of like purport is the following extract from codicil to the will of
+Samuel Hartill, dated June 9, 1821; probate Nov. 12, 1821:--
+
+    I give devise and bequeath to my nephew Henry Bratt, all that my seat
+    or pew or part or share thereof being number eleven in A in
+    Willenhall Church, to hold to him his heirs, executors administrators
+    or assigns according to the tenure of the said property.  I give
+    devise and bequeath to my Brother-in-law, Isaac Hartill in my Will
+    named all my other Seats or Pews or parts or shares of seats or pews
+    in Willenhall Church aforesaid to hold to him his heirs executors
+    administrators or assigns according to the tenure of the said
+    property.
+
+Thus much in witness of the heritable nature of Church Pews; now for
+documentary evidences of the trafficking in such properties (all relating
+to Willenhall Church):--
+
+    19, Jan., 1750.  Recd. of Tho. Harthil, John Parker and Joseph Wood
+    three pound one and sixpence for the seat behind ye Dore in F,
+    sixteen shillings and sixpence being allow'd them for 6s. 8d. of
+    ground by
+
+                                                            RICHD. WILKES.
+
+                                    A 12.
+
+    6 Jan, 1750.--Recd. of Jos. Clemson, Jos. Chandler.  Jo'n Buttler,
+    Jo'n Turner, Jno. Smith, Stephen Perry, the Sum of two Ginnies for
+    Wainscots and for 2ft. 3in. of Ground five and sevenpence halfpenny
+    by
+
+                                                            RICHD. WILKES.
+
+    2 pounds 7s. 7.5d.
+
+    "I hereby acknowledge that I have this day had and received from
+    Abraham Hartill . . . the sum of One Pound Fifteen Shillings for the
+    full and absolute purchase sale value and Consideration of all those
+    my sittings kneelings Parts or shares of and in two different seats
+    or pews and standing and being on the left-hand side in the first Ile
+    and numbered with the figures 11 and 12 in the Church or Chapel of
+    Willenhall aforesaid, and which said sittings kneelings Parts or
+    shares of the said seats or pews I do hereby Warrant unto the said
+    Abraham Hartill his Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns against me, my
+    Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns and that I my Heirs Exors, Admors or
+    Assigns shall and will at any time or times hereafter upon the
+    request and Costs of the said Abraham Hartill His Heirs &c. . . .
+    execute any further or other Conveyances and Assurance of the said
+    sittings, &c. . . . unto and to the use of the said Abraham Hartill .
+    . . free from all manner of Incumbrances whatsoever and the said
+    Abraham Hartill Doth hereby agree for Francis Chandler and Ann his
+    wife to use and enjoy that part or share of the above seat or pew
+    numbered 11 for and during the term of their Natural lives and for
+    the longest survivor of them without expence, but for no other
+    privilege to be allowed to any other person Whatsoever.  In Witness
+    whereof the said Francis Chandler the seller of the above sittings
+    kneelings parts or shares of the seats or pews above mentioned hath
+    set his hand this nineteenth day of February 1790.
+
+    Witness
+
+                                                         FRANCIS CHANDLER.
+
+    Wm. Perkin.
+    Saml Hartill."
+
+    "Received January 24 1783 of Isaac Hartill The Sum of Two Pounds in
+    full for Halfe a Seat Number 10 in E In Willenhall Chappell
+
+    By mee The Mark X of RICHD. HARTILL.
+    Witness Jonah Hartill."
+
+    "Willenhall April 26th 1791  Received then of Abrm Hartill Thirteen
+    Shillings For my Whole Right in a seat in the Chapel No. 12 in A Row.
+
+                                                           STEPHEN PERREY.
+
+    Willenhall April 26th 1791 Received then of."
+
+Of this last voucher there is a duplicate copy bearing a twopenny receipt
+stamp.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.--Dissent, Nonconformity, and Philanthrophy.
+
+
+Inasmuch as Bentley Hall lies within the confines of Willenhall, this
+place must always be associated with the rise and early history of
+Wesleyanism.  The episode of John Wesley being haled by the Wednesbury
+rioters before Justice Lane at Bentley Hall (1743) belongs to the general
+history of the denomination, and there is no need to repeat the story
+here.
+
+The reader may be referred to "The History of Methodism in the Wednesbury
+Circuit," by the Rev. W. J. Wilkinson, published by J. M. Price,
+Darlaston, 1895; and for ampler detail to "Religious Wednesbury," by the
+present writer, 1900.
+
+That the evangelical missioning of John Wesley was peculiarly suited to
+the religious and social needs of the eighteenth century, and nowhere
+more so than among the proletariat of the mining and manufacturing
+Midlands, is now a generally accepted truism.  There is no direct
+evidence that the great evangelist himself ever preached in Willenhall,
+but the appearance on the scene of some of the earliest Methodist
+preachers may be taken for granted.  For were not the prevailing sins of
+cockfighting and bull-baiting, and all the other popular brutalities of
+the period, to be combated in Willenhall as much as in Darlaston or
+Wednesbury?  And where the harvest was, were not the reapers always
+forthcoming?
+
+According to Mr. A. Camden Pratt, in his "Black Country Methodism," the
+earliest Methodist services were open-air meetings held round a big
+boulder at the corner of Monmore Lane.  Then the nucleus of a Willenhall
+congregation was formed at a cottage in Ten House Row; outgrowing its
+accommodation here, a removal was next made to a farmhouse with a
+commodious kitchen at Hill End.
+
+The leaders and preachers came from Darlaston, and it was not till 1830
+that Willenhall was favoured with a resident "travelling preacher," and
+the provision of a Wesleyan Chapel--it was on the site of the present
+Wesleyan Day Schools.  The cause flourished and grew mightily; chapels
+were established at Short Heath and Portobello, on the Walsall Road
+(1865), and on Spring Bank.
+
+Mr. Pratt pays a high tribute to the efforts of the Tildesleys and the
+Harpers, but with a sense of justice he does not forget the mead of
+gratitude always due to those early pioneers from Darlaston, placing on
+the same bright scroll of fame the names of Foster, Wilkes, Rubery,
+Silcock, Bowen, and Banks.
+
+In the earlier history of local Wesleyanism, one of its chief supporters
+was James Carpenter, founder of the existing firm of Carpenter and
+Tildesley.  Another pillar of Wesleyanism was Jonah Tildesley, followed
+later in the good work by his two sons, Josiah and Jesse, his grandson
+Thomas, George Ley Pearce, and Isaac Pedley; and in a lesser degree by
+James Tildesley (who married Harriet Carpenter), and the late John
+Harper, founder of the Albion Works, now the largest place of employment
+in the town.
+
+One outcome of the Wesleyan spirit was seen about the year 1820, when
+James Carpenter, George Pearce, William Whitehouse, and other leading
+inhabitants made a determined effort to put down some of the coarser
+sports by which the annual Wake was celebrated.  Through their
+instrumentality many of the ringleaders in the brutal sports were
+summoned and brought to justice.  The reformers dared to go even
+further--they lodged a complaint with the bishop of the diocese against
+"Parson Moreton" for encouraging these barbarous pastimes among the
+people.  The bishop, however, professed that he was powerless to deal
+with the delinquent, owing to the exceptional manner in which he was
+appointed to the living.  But the parson on his part was very wroth, and
+from his pulpit he solemnly forbade any one of the name of Carpenter,
+Pearce, or Whitehouse ever to enter the portals of Willenhall Church.
+
+It cannot be said the injunction was enforced; but it is a fact that from
+that time many church-goers were driven into the Methodist fold.
+
+The romantic side of the evangelisation of the Black Country has been
+idealised by Mr. J. C. Tildesley in his "Sketches of Early Methodism," a
+series of short stories founded on fact, and giving most graphic pictures
+of the moral and social condition of the neighbourhood at that time.
+This little volume may be regarded almost as one of the classics of the
+Wesleyan Book Room.
+
+A short history of local Methodism, it may be mentioned, was deposited in
+the memorial stones of Wednesfield Chapel in 1885.
+
+The existing Wesleyan Chapels, now under the direction of the Rev. A.
+Hann and the Rev. Walter Fytche, are five in number, namely, Union
+Street, Walsall Road, Monmer Lane, Short Heath, and High Street,
+Portobello.  Though the denomination may be as strong as ever
+numerically, it can scarcely hope to rival its old-time membership in
+verve and vigour.  In England fighting days never fail to produce
+fighting men.
+
+Primitive Methodism first established itself at Monmer Lane, and then
+removed to Little London, but did not meet with much success at the
+outset, though it has now four flourishing chapels in the township.  They
+are all at present under the direction of the Rev. C. L. Tack, and
+situated respectively at New Invention, Spring Bank, Lane Head, and
+Russell Street.
+
+Nonconformity was first brought into Willenhall from Coseley, the
+brethren of the famous Darkhouse Chapel establishing a colony at Little
+London, where eventually they erected a pioneer Baptist Chapel.  Of this
+chapel the Rev. A. Tettmar is now in charge; a second chapel in Upper
+Lichfield Street, at which the Rev. D. L. Lawrence ministers, and a third
+Baptist Chapel in New Road testify to the growth of the denomination in
+Willenhall.  At one time the Baptists had day schools in the town.
+
+The Roman Catholics first made their appearance in modern Willenhall some
+sixty years ago, when they established a small mission at the bottom of
+Union Street, afterwards building their resent chapel, which is dedicated
+to St. Mary, and of which the Rev. Walter Poulton (in succession to the
+Rev. W. P. Wells) is priest.
+
+A mission of the Catholic Apostolic Brethren, served from Wolverhampton,
+completes the list of religious agencies now at work in Willenhall.
+
+In the religious and social history of the place mention cannot be
+omitted of some few names which have earned the respect of the
+townspeople.  Among them, James Tildesley, a large employer of labour,
+whose amiability, and kindness of heart exemplified that patriarchal
+relationship which once existed between master and men, anterior to the
+days of modern limited liability companies; George Ley Pearce, a Wesleyan
+of marked personality, and an eminently good man, whose memorial in the
+old Cemetery is thus inscribed:--
+
+                                   ERECTED
+                    by voluntary subscription in memory of
+                              GEORGE LEY PEARCE
+                               (of Willenhall),
+                        who died December 31st, 1873,
+                                   Aged 78;
+                    And was buried in the adjacent vault.
+
+                                  * * * * *
+
+     For fifty years he zealously devoted himself to the work of visiting
+      the sick and afflicted of this town, whether rich or poor, and was
+                        made a great blessing to many.
+
+    His work was the outward expression of that Christ-like charity which
+                              pervaded his soul.
+
+                                  * * * * *
+
+The opportunity to do good to our fellowmen comes to all, irrespective of
+sect or sex.  One to embrace it with goodwill was Edith Florence Hartill,
+daughter of William Henry Hartill, who worked long and steadfastly in
+connection with the Bible Reading Union, never relaxing her efforts for
+the uplifting of the very poorest and most helpless of the community.
+
+In the Market Place stands a public clock mounted upon a stone pedestal,
+having a watering-trough for cattle at its base.  This was erected, as an
+inscription upon it testifies, as a memorial to the late Joseph Tonks,
+surgeon, "whose generous and unsparing devotion in the cause of
+alleviating human suffering" was "deemed worthy of public record."  The
+memorialised, Mr. Joseph Tonks, M.R.C.S.E., L.A.H., was a native of the
+town, being a son of Mr. Silas Tonks, of the Forge Inn, Spring Bank.  He
+began to practise in Willenhall about 1879, and soon made himself
+extremely popular among the working classes, and particularly with the
+Friendly Societies, who initiated the movement to provide this public
+memorial.
+
+Without sorting into sects and creeds, let it be acknowledged that
+Willenhall has been fortunate in the number of its townsmen whose lives
+have been usefully and commendably spent in the public service and for
+the public good.  Among those whose influence on the social and moral
+well-being of the place has not been without appreciable benefit, may be
+named Joseph Carpenter Tildesley, R. D. Gough, Josiah Tildesley, Clement
+Tildesley, Jesse Tildesley, Isaac Pedley, Henry Hall, Thomas Kidson,
+Henry Vaughan, W. E. Parkes, and J. H. James.  Other appreciations will
+occur in our concluding chapters, as the names more fittingly happen
+under the topics yet to be dealt with.
+
+Having brought to a conclusion Willenhall's ecclesiastical and religious
+history--and the largeness with which the church bulked on the lives of
+the people in past times must be held accountable for the lengthiness of
+this portion--we may now turn to the further consideration of its civil,
+social, and industrial history.
+
+                      [Picture: Decorative pattern]
+
+
+
+
+XXV.--Manorial Government.
+
+
+Willenhall is a township of some 1,980 acres in extent, carved out of the
+ancient parish of Wolverhampton, and situated midway between that town
+and the town of Walsall, being about three miles distant from either.
+Strangely enough, Willenhall is included in the Hundred of Offlow,
+although Wolverhampton, of which it once formed a part, is in Seisdon
+Hundred.  Willenhall has never been a civil parish (as previously
+explained), nor has it been a market town; the small open market held in
+its streets each week-end having grown up by prescription, but never
+legally established by grant of charter.
+
+The place grew up as a hamlet on the banks of a little stream, just on
+the verge of Cannock Forest.  As a village community it seems to have
+been subject, so soon as its outer limits had been defined, to three
+territorial lords.  Reference to Chapter VI. will disclose that at
+Domesday (1086) three hides of land in Willenhall belonged to the king,
+and were part of the royal manor of Stowheath; two hides were the
+property of the Church of Wolverhampton, and constituted the prebendal
+manor of Willenhall; and a century or two later, the manor of Bentley,
+evidently carved out of the royal forest of Cannock, became included
+within this township.
+
+Of STOWHEATH MANOR, the portions lying within Willenhall are a small part
+of the modern township, together with Short Heath, New Invention,
+Lanehead, Sandbeds, Little London, and Portobello.  The remainder of this
+manor stretches beyond the Willenhall boundary into Bilston and
+Wolverhampton.
+
+To a manor or lordship was usually attached a Court Baron, or domestic
+court of the lord, for the settling of disputes relating to property
+among the tenants, and for redressing misdemeanours and nuisances arising
+within the manor.  The business was transacted by a jury or homage
+elected by and from the tenants.
+
+How far the customary officers were chosen every year by the Willenhall
+Court Baron cannot now be ascertained.  Doubtless appointments were made
+from time to time of such manorial tears as Hedgers and Ditchers, to look
+after the highways and byways, a Common Pinner to impound stray cattle,
+and Head boroughs or Petty Constables "to apprehend all vagrom men" whose
+room was esteemed more highly than their company.
+
+The present lords of the Manor of Stowheath are the Duke of Sutherland,
+and W. T. C. Giffard, Esq., of Chillington; the Steward of the Manor is
+Mr. W. E. Stamer, of Lilleshall; and the Deputy-Steward Mr. Frederick T.
+Langley, of Wolverhampton.  The Court Bailiff is Mr. H. G. Duncalfe, of
+Wolverhampton, but none of the ancient customary officers are now
+elected; and as most of the copyholds have been enfranchised, no Court
+Baron for Stowheath has been held in Willenhall since 22nd December,
+1865; till then it had taken place annually for many years at the house
+of Mr. George Baker, the Neptune Inn.  Subsequently this manorial court
+was held at the Bank, Cock Street, Wolverhampton, and now more privately
+at the offices of the Deputy-Steward, in that town, which was anciently
+within the jurisdiction of two manors, Stowheath and Wolverhampton.
+
+THE MANOR OF WILLENHALL, which, though prebendal, is impropriate,
+comprises the rest of the township; of this manor the Baron Barnard is
+the present lord, and the sole recipient of all tithes from Willenhall,
+Short Heath, and Wednesfield.
+
+A glimpse of the mediaeval village of Willenhall was obtained in Chapters
+VIII. and XI.; it is clear the prebendal manor remained always a taxable
+area for the mere production of tithes, and it was the royal manor of
+Stowheath, when it had passed into the hands of a subject, which
+developed into the community in the midst of which the "mansum capitale,"
+or manor house, was erected.
+
+By whom or when a manor house was first set up in Willenhall is not
+known; but it is not improbable that the lordship of Stowheath, soon
+after it passed out of the hands of the King, was acquired by a Leveson,
+who seated himself on the estate, reserving to himself the portion which
+lay nearest his mansion (demesne lands), and distributing the rest among
+his tenants (tenemental lands).
+
+The house in which the Levesons resided, as previously recorded, was
+situated on the east side of Stafford Street; the Midland Railway now
+runs through the site, but before the line was cut, and whilst the mines
+remained ungotten, traces of its ancient moat were clearly discernible.
+
+The residence now known as the Manor House, and occupied by Dr J. T.
+Hartill, though it has no connection with the manorial mansion of the
+Leveson family, is not without some association with the manorial form of
+government.  It appears that upwards of half a century ago, when the late
+Jeremiah Hartill (uncle of the present occupant of the house) was taking
+his full share in the public life of Willenhall, it was most difficult,
+if not next to impossible, to get copyhold land in this manor
+enfranchised.
+
+At that time there was a very considerable amount of property in
+Willenhall held by this old-world tenure, and this induced Mr. Jeremiah
+Hartill to take a very prominent part in the local efforts which were
+then being made to introduce the principle of compulsory enfranchisement.
+As the result of a national movement in this direction an Act was passed
+in 1841 to provide a statutory method of enfranchisement; and the matter
+was carried still further in 1852 by another Act, which introduced the
+principle of compulsory enfranchisement.
+
+Mr. Hartill had at that time recently built himself a new house (1847),
+when, as the local leader in a movement which had been brought so far on
+the road to success, he was invited to a public dinner in recognition of
+his public-spirited efforts.  One of the speakers at the banquet, in
+proposing the health of the guest of the evening, suggested that as Mr.
+Jeremiah Hartill had fought so successfully in helping to overcome the
+opposition of the Lords of the Manor to this measure of land reform, his
+new house might not inappropriately be dubbed the Manor House.  The
+suggestion was heartily (no pun intended) approved by all present, and by
+that name the house has ever since been known.
+
+The names of the chief residents in Willenhall in 1327 may be gleaned
+from the Subsidy Roll given in Chapter IX.; very similar names occur in
+another list of the taxpayers to the Scotch War of 1333.  Some few held
+land under certain specified rents and free services, and from these came
+the earliest freeholders; many more held by the baser tenure of the
+lord's will, and having nothing to show except the copy of the rolls made
+by the Steward of the Lord's Court, were known as copyholders.
+
+The vast importance of these Court Rolls may be gathered from Chapter
+XXI.  The Court Rolls of the Manor of Stowheath now in existence commence
+on 4 January, 1645; but in the chapter referred to mention of a "Leete"
+being held in Wolverhampton much earlier will be found.
+
+The residue of the Manor being uncultivated, was termed the lord's waste,
+and served for public roads, and for common or pasture to both the lord
+and his tenants.  Reference to the enclosure of the last remnants of the
+"waste" was quoted in the Report of 1825 on the Tomkys and Welch
+Charities (Chapter XXII.).
+
+There were two kinds of enclosures, however, all made in the last few
+centuries; the enclosure of the open commons or wastes, and the enclosure
+of the common fields.  "Willenhall Field," mentioned in the "Report on
+Prestwood's Dole," as lying along the highway towards Darlaston, was
+arable land, not pasture.  For anciently there was a common field system
+in every parish, and "Willenhall Field" was the area cultivated
+co-operatively by the whole of the parishioners or group of individuals.
+
+In 1377 the MANOR OF BENTLEY was held "in capite," that is, direct from
+the King, by one who called himself after his estate, William de Bentley.
+He held it for rendering to Edward III. the feudal service of "Keeping"
+the King's Hay of Bentley within the royal Forest of Cannock--the Forest
+was then divided into a number of "hays" or bailiwicks.  (See "Chronicles
+of Cannock Chase," p. 14.)
+
+The estate seems to have descended to him from his grandfather, to whom
+it had been granted in the reign of Edward II.; and it is noteworthy that
+his wife, Alianora, was a Leveson.
+
+In 1421 William Griffiths established his right to Bentley, and in 1430
+it was conveyed to Richard Lone de la Hide.  Of the family of this
+Richard Lone of the Hyde there were afterwards two branches; one, the
+Hamptons, of Stourton Castle, and the other, the Lanes, of Bentley.
+
+The halo of romance which grew up around Bentley Hall during the
+seigniory of the Lanes is well known.  It was the scene of Charles II.'s
+wonderful escape from the Roundheads, under the protection of Jane Lane,
+whom he was afterwards wont to call his "Guardian Angel"; it was the
+critical scene of John Wesley's adventure in the hands of the Wednesbury
+mob.  The mansion has since been rebuilt.
+
+The Lanes sold the Manor of Bentley in 1748 to Joseph Turton, of
+Wolverhampton, and he in turn sold it to the first Lord Anson, ancestor
+of the present holder.
+
+The Manor comprises 1,200 acres, none of which is now copyhold.  There
+was formerly a Court Leet jurisdiction, but everything connected with
+ancient manorial government has disappeared.  The Earl of Lichfield is
+sole owner, except for a few acres belonging to the church, and the
+portions which have been acquired by the local authority for the Cemetery
+and the Sewerage Works.
+
+Bentley is a parish without a church, or a chapel, and until the
+Willenhall District Council recently made a Cemetery there, it was also
+without a burial ground.
+
+Bentley has but a scant population, and contains not a single inn.  Its
+living history seems to have centred almost entirely round the old family
+mansion of the Lanes.
+
+In 1660 a tax was levied on the fire-hearth of every dwelling-house, and
+the amount collected under this grievous impost in Willenhall was
+returned as 9 pounds 14s. 3d., representing 97 hearths.  These figures
+seem to indicate that in the reign of Charles II. the population of the
+place, including the large hall at Bentley, could not have exceeded 500.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.--Modern Self-Government.
+
+
+For centuries the Manorial and the Parochial forms of government ran
+together side by side in this country, till these two antiquated ideas of
+feudal lordship and church temporalities had to give way before the
+growing democratic principle of elective representation, and they were
+eventually supplanted by the modern methods of popular self-government.
+
+In the reign of Elizabeth--say, half a century after the suppression of
+the monasteries which had hitherto succoured the poor--we get the first
+of our Poor Laws, accompanied by the rise of the Overseer, and by much
+added importance to the office of Churchwarden, or, as he was called in
+Willenhall, the Chapel-warden.  The establishment of Church doles goes a
+long way to explain how strenuously the community strove to evade its
+liability to the poor, and it is probable that Willenhall did not
+establish its small workhouse till the eighteenth century.  This was
+superseded when the Wolverhampton Union was constituted in 1834.
+
+In 1776 the sum of 294 pounds 14s. 3d. had to be collected for poor rates
+in Willenhall, a sum which by 1785 had grown to 548 pounds 14s. 2d., and
+which for some years later averaged upwards of 500 pounds.
+
+The Vestry, or public assembly of parishioners, would supplement these
+feeble efforts at local government by choosing not only Chapelwardens,
+but Parish Constables and the Waywardens.  The custody of the stocks was
+entrusted to the former, while the latter were supposed to superintend
+the amateur efforts of the parishioners to repair their own highways,
+every one being then liable to furnish either manual labour or team work
+for this laudable public purpose.
+
+Publicly elected and unsalaried Waywardens were naturally but feeble
+instruments to work with; so in the early nineteenth century, when
+coaching was at its zenith, this antiquated and ineffective system was
+superseded in Willenhall, as in many other places, by an elected Highway
+Board, charged with the duty of looking after all highways and common
+streets, ancient bridges, ditches, and watercourses.  In a dilettante
+sort of way this Board was also a sanitary body.
+
+In 1734 Willenhall is recorded to have suffered from a plague called the
+"Bloody flux," which carried away its victims in a very few hours after
+the seizure.  It is stated in the Parish Registers that there were buried
+in this year 82 persons, which was 67 in excess of the previous year.
+The population then was under 1,000.
+
+Cholera and other epidemic scourges having made it apparent that beyond
+preserving the peace and mending the roads, the paramount duty of local
+self-government was to protect the people's health, Willenhall in 1854
+showed itself alive to this fact by adopting the new Public Health Acts
+and calling into being its first Local Board.
+
+Nothing can convey an idea of the material blessings which resulted from
+this better than a glance at the vital statistics relating to Willenhall.
+The death-rate per thousand--
+
+From 1845 to 1851 was       29
+,, 1851 ,, 1860 ,,          26.8
+,, 1861 ,, 1870 ,,          23.8
+,, 1891 ,, 1900 ,,          20.2
+,, 1901 ,, 1906 ,,          16.9
+
+It was not till 1866, however, that the Board appointed its first medical
+officer of health, Dr. Parke.  He was shortly afterwards succeeded by Mr.
+William Henry Hartill, and upon his death, in 1888, the present medical
+officer of heath, Dr. J. T. Hartill, was appointed.  The chief executive
+officers in succession have been Mr. E. Wilcox (who was not a solicitor),
+Mr. John Clark, and the present clerk, Mr. Rowland Tildesley, appointed
+in 1894.
+
+In the meantime the population, particularly in the newer outlying
+districts, had been growing rapidly.  The population of Willenhall at the
+first national census in 1801 was only 3,143, and the growth in the early
+decades was slow, as these figures disclose:
+
+In 1811 the population was        3,523
+,, 1821                           3,965
+,, 1831                           5,834
+,, 1841                           8,695
+,, 1851                           11,933
+,, 1861                           17,256
+
+With the growth thus becoming so rapid, it was thought desirable, in
+1872, to erect Short Heath into a separate Sanitary Authority.  The area
+allotted to the Short Heath Board of Health was that north of the
+Birmingham Canal, but the village of Short Heath itself remained part of
+the Township of Willenhall.
+
+The census returns for Willenhall, minus Short Heath, have
+
+1871 it had a population of       15,903
+1881                              16,067
+1891                              16,851
+1901                              18,515
+
+After the passing of Sir H. H. Fowler's Local Government Act in 1895,
+both authorities became Urban District Councils.  Short Heath then as a
+separate township had its area extended to take in Short Heath village,
+with New Invention, Lanehead, Sandbeds, Lucknow, Fibbersley, in addition
+to the former Local Board district, together with a slice from the old
+Wednesfield Local Board district added on its Essington side.
+
+No part of what used to be called Stow Heath was in Willenhall Township,
+the extreme western boundary of the latter being Stow Heath Lane.
+
+Modern Willenhall, although without public parks or pleasure grounds, and
+not yet possessing public baths, is fairly well equipped for its size and
+rateable value.  It has its Public Offices, but no Town Hall; it has a
+Free Library, established in 1875, and a full complement of efficient
+primary schools.  In 1877 it established its own School Board under the
+Act of 1870, but under the later Act of 1902 its educational affairs
+became vested in the Staffordshire County Council.
+
+Willenhall had its own Waterworks at Monmore Lane as early as 1852; it
+now takes its supply from the Wolverhampton Corporation, who purchased
+the old works in 1868.  Its old Gas Works in Lower Lichfield Street have
+been taken over by Short Heath; and Willenhall is now supplied by the
+Willenhall Gas Company, the present system of public street lighting
+being that of the very efficient incandescent burner.
+
+The Sewerage of the town was completed in 1890.  There are two public
+cemeteries; the Old Cemetery provided about 1851 under the Burial Acts,
+and the newer one at Bentley, established under the Act of 1879.
+
+The Police are, as in most townships, under the control of the
+Staffordshire County Council; and Petty Sessions are held once a week (on
+Mondays).  Seventy years ago Willenhall had a Court of Requests for the
+recovery of debts up to 5 pounds.
+
+For Parliamentary representation Willenhall formed a portion of
+Staffordshire till the great Reform Bill of 1832 made Wolverhampton a
+borough, when it became part of that more important urban constituency.
+
+For communication with the outer world Willenhall has had the advantage
+of the London and North-Western Railway from the earliest possible
+time--since the "Grand Junction Railway" (commenced in 1835) was opened
+to public traffic on July 4th, 1837.  Great were the rejoicings, and
+prodigious the wonderment when the first train passed through on that
+memorable day.  Since the later decades of the last century the Midland
+Railway has also tapped Willenhall.
+
+The town is equally well supplied with tramways; the Wolverhampton
+District Electric Tramways, Limited, controlling three lines, to
+Wolverhampton, to Bilston, and Darlaston respectively; while the Walsall
+Corporation afford facilities for communication with their thriving and
+go-ahead borough.  It is worthy of note that the old-fashioned carrier's
+cart is not obsolete in Willenhall; this is probably because its staple
+industries provide so many small parcels for transmission to
+Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and other centres not too far distant.
+
+The Wyrley and Essington Canal for heavy traffic was made in 1792, and is
+still a useful highway, particularly to the Cannock Chase Collieries.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.--The Town of Locks and Keys.
+
+
+Willenhall is "the town of locks and keys"; its staple industry has been
+described in such graceful and felicitous terms by Elihu Burritt (see his
+"Walks in the Black Country," pp. 206-214, written in 1868) that the
+present writer at once confesses the inadequacy of his poor pen to say
+anything new on the subject, engaging as it is.
+
+The great American writer, be it noted, does not fail at the very outset
+to pay a well-deserved tribute to James Carpenter Tildesley, as the
+foremost authority on the subject, and compliments him on the versatility
+displayed in his article on Locks and Keys, contributed to that
+co-operative literary work, "Birmingham and the Midland Hardware
+District," which was specially issued for the British Association meeting
+at Birmingham in 1865.
+
+The lockmakers of antiquity worked in wood and not in metal, a key
+consisting of hard wood pegs being made to turn in a wooden lock of loose
+pegs.  The Romans first introduced the iron key with wards instead of
+pegs.
+
+The subject is full of interest; for lock-making is among the most
+ancient of the mechanical crafts, and has for centuries afforded a wide
+and ample scope as one of the branches of industrial art.  As in many
+other industrial crafts the religious enthusiasm of the Middle Ages
+impelled the artist-mechanic to throw his whole soul into the
+manipulation and adornment of his keys, key-hole escutcheons, and other
+parts of door-fastening furniture.  With his steel pencil and gravers,
+his chisels and his drills, the craftsman of olden times produced an
+article of utility which was at the same time a work of art.  Will the
+Art Classes of modern Willenhall be able to achieve as much for the
+staple industry of the town as did the whole-souled enthusiasm of the
+Middle Ages?
+
+The Gothic key, usually of iron or of bronze, was generally plain; but
+after the Renaissance the best efforts of the locksmiths' art were
+directed to the decoration of the bow and the shaft, and many finely
+wrought specimens of ornamental old keys are still in existence.
+
+On the utilitarian side of our subject, industrial history records that
+we are indebted to the Chinese for unpickable locks of the lever and
+tumbler principle; and to the Dutch for the combination or letter-lock.
+The latter ingenious contrivance contained four revolving rings, on which
+were engraved the letters of the alphabet, and they had to be turned in
+such a way as to spell some pre-arranged word of four letters, as O P E
+N, or A M E N, before the lock could be opened.
+
+Allusion to this complex contrivance is made by the poet Carew in some
+verses written in the year 1620--
+
+    As doth a lock
+    That goes with letters--for till every one be known
+    The lock's as fast as if you had found none.
+
+Mechanical ingenuity in lock making has also expanded itself along the
+line of marvellous miniatures, in the production of toy locks so small
+that they could be worn as pendants or personal ornaments.  Allusion will
+presently be made to a Willenhall specimen.
+
+Another ingenious variety of locks was contrived to grab and hold the
+fingers of pilferers.
+
+The first patent granted in England for a lock was in 1774; ten years
+later Joseph Bramah, of London, "the Napoleon of locks," patented his
+famous production, with which he challenged the whole world.  The reward
+of 200 guineas which he offered to anyone who could pick his lock
+remained unclaimed for many years, till in the Exhibition year 1851 an
+American visitor named Hobbs took up the challenge, and succeeded, after
+a few days of persevering experiment, in overcoming the inviolability of
+it.
+
+The sensation caused by this achievement was almost of national
+dimensions; but of more importance was the decided impetus it have to the
+inventive skill of lock makers, by demonstrating that Bramah had not yet
+arrived at finality in lock making; a great number of further
+improvements were soon forthcoming in the manufacture of these goods.
+
+Chubb's patent was granted in 1818; this inventor declared it was
+possible to have the locks on the doors of every house in London opened
+by a different key, and yet have a master-key that would pass the whole
+of them.  Chubb's world-famous concern is now located at Wolverhampton.
+
+Dr. Plot, writing of this county in 1686, makes no mention of the trade
+being carried on in Willenhall, but gives some account of it in
+Wolverhampton; gossiping pleasantly on "sutes" of six or more locks,
+passable by one master-key, being sold round the country by the chapmen
+of his time; of the finely wrought keys he had seen; of the curious
+tell-tale locks which recorded the times they had been opened; and of one
+valuable Wolverhampton specimen containing chimes which could be set to
+"go" at any particular hour.
+
+A local writer has said--on what authority is not stated--that Queen
+Elizabeth granted to the township of Willenhall the privilege of making
+all the locks required for State purposes; and argues from that
+profitable piece of State patronage the rapid growth of Willenhall, as
+evidenced by the fact that in 1660 when the Hearth Tax came to be levied
+this place paid on 13 more hearths than the mother town of Wolverhampton.
+
+Dr. Wilkes has recorded that in his time Willenhall consisted of one long
+street, newly paved; and he then proceeds to say:--
+
+    "The village did not begin to flourish till the iron manufactory was
+    brought into these parts in the reign of Queen Elizabeth."
+
+This may, or may not, refer to the making of locks and keys, but it
+certainly refers to the great devastation of Cannock Forest in providing
+charcoal for iron-smelting.  The doctor continues:--
+
+    "Since that time this place is become very populous, and more locks
+    of all kinds are made here than in any other town of the same size in
+    England or Europe.  The better sort of which tradesmen have erected
+    many good houses."
+
+Some of these "good houses" are still standing; and as to the
+"populousness" of the place, there may have been 2,000 inhabitants at
+that time.  A return has been given forth that in 1770 Willenhall
+contained 148 locksmiths, Wolverhampton 134, and Bilston 8; while nearly
+a century later, in 1855, the numbers were Willenhall 340, Wolverhampton
+110, and Bilston 2, which shows that the trade grew in Willenhall at the
+expense of the adjoining places.  Yet lockmaking was carried on in
+Bilston as early as 1590, when the Perrys, the Kempsons, and the
+Tomkyses, all leading families, were engaged in the trade.  In 1796 Isaac
+Mason, inventor of the "fly press" for making various parts of a lock,
+migrated from Bilston to Willenhall.
+
+The Willenhall specimen of a miniature lock is thus mentioned in a diary
+of the Rev. T. Unett, "June 13, 1776, James Lees, of Willenhall, aged 63
+years and upwards, showed me a padlock with its key, made by himself,
+that was not the weight of a silver twopence.  He at the same time shewed
+me a lock that was not the weight of a silver penny; he was then making
+the key to it, all of iron.  He said he would be bound to make a dozen
+locks, with their keys, that should not exceed the weight of a sixpence."
+
+Before the rise of factories into which workmen might be collected, and
+their labour more healthily regulated, Willenhall lock-making was always
+conducted in small domiciliary workshops.  Had any one at the close of
+the eighteenth century peeped in at the grimy little windows of one of
+these low-roofed workshops, and made himself acquainted with the extreme
+dirtiness of the calling, he would scarcely have ventured to regard it as
+one befitting the dainty hands of the highest personage of the most
+fastidious of nations.  Yet that unfortunate monarch, Louis XVI., prided
+himself not on his statesmanship, but upon his skill as a practical
+locksmith, and his intimacy with all the intricacies of the craft.  He
+had fitted up in his palace at the Tuileries a forge with hearth and
+anvil, bellows and bench, from which it was his delight to turn out with
+his own hands all kinds of work in the shape of "spring, double bolt, or
+catch lock."
+
+    He smokes his forge, he bares his sinewy arm,
+    And bravely pounds the sounding anvil warm.
+
+Locks of every variety of principle and quality are produced in
+Willenhall; the chief kinds being the cabinet lock, the best qualities of
+which range from 10s. to 3 pounds each, while the commoner ones are sold
+at from 10s. to 3s. the dozen; the rim lock for doors having two or three
+bolts, and opening with knob and key; the stock or fine plate lock,
+imbedded in a wooden case to stand the weather when used on exposed yard
+or stable doors; the drawback lock for hill doors, with a spring bolt
+that can be worked from the inside with a knob or from the outside with a
+latch-key; the dead lock, having one large bolt worked by the key, but
+not catching or springing like the rim lock; the mortice lock, which is
+buried in the door, and may be of the dead, the rim, or the drawback
+variety; the familiar loose padlock made in immense quantities both of
+iron and of brass; and others less familiar.
+
+The lock-producing centre includes Wolverhampton, Willenhall,
+Wednesfield, and some of the outlying rural districts like Brewood and
+Pendeford, where parts and fittings are prepared.  In the mother parish
+the business is extensive and extending; at Wednesfield, iron cabinets
+and till locks, as well as various kinds of keys, are produced in great
+numbers, for keys are frequently made apart from the locks as a separate
+branch of the trade.
+
+Willenhall produces most of the same kinds as Wolverhampton, except the
+fine plate, though oftener in the cheaper qualities; rim locks are very
+largely made, all on the Carpenter and Young patent, most of them for
+export.  Willenhall locks are all warded, the wards varying in strength
+and complexity, known as common, fine round, sash, and solid wards.
+
+It was the Carpenter and Young invention of 1830, making the action of
+the catch bolt perpendicular instead of horizontal, which renewed the
+vitality of the town's staple industry.
+
+As registered the patent was entered:--
+
+    "No. 5,880, 18 January, 1830.  James Carpenter, of Willenhall, and
+    John Young, of Wolverhampton, locksmiths.  Improvements in locks."
+
+Mr. R. B. Prosser, a recognised authority on patents and inventions,
+records that in 1841 Carpenter brought an action against one Smith, but
+the verdict was given for the defendant, it being held that Carpenter's
+lock was not a new invention (Webster's Reports of Patent Cases, Vol. I.,
+p. 530).
+
+Notwithstanding this the lock has always been known, and is still known,
+as "Carpenter's lift-up lock."
+
+James Carpenter, the founder of the business still carried on under the
+style of Carpenter and Tildesley, was not a native of Willenhall.  His
+first place of business was in Walsall Street opposite the "Wake Field";
+thence he removed to Stafford Street, occupying the premises now the
+Three Crowns Inn; subsequently building and occupying the Summerford
+Works (and Summerford House) in the New Road, where the concern is still
+carried on James Carpenter, the patentee, was a keen man of business, and
+distinguished for great decision of character.  His daughter Harriet
+married James Tildesley, who became a partner in the business.  Carpenter
+died in 1844, and Tildesley in 1876, and the concern has since been
+carried on by the two eldest sons of the latter in partnership, James
+Carpenter Tildesley (who is now permanently invalided, and of whom more
+anon), and Clement Tildesley.  Mr. Clement Tildesley, who, like his
+brother, is a county magistrate, still lives at Summerford House, where
+he was born.
+
+Mr. Rowland Tildesley, solicitor, and Clerk to the Willenhall Urban
+District Council, is the fourth son of James Tildesley.
+
+James Tildesley's eldest daughter, Louisa Elizabeth, married William
+Henry Hartill, surgeon, and J.P. for the county of Stafford, who died in
+1889; his second daughter, Emily, married John Thomas Hartill, J.P.,
+surgeon, who filled the office of President of the Staffordshire Branch
+of the British Medical Association in 1885, and again in 1907.
+
+With these few biographical details of Willenhall's chief inventor we
+pass on.
+
+Other local patents in this branch of industry on the Register are:--
+
+No. 8543--13th June, 1840--Joseph Wolverson, locksmith, William Rawlett,
+latch maker, both of Willenhall.  "Locks and latches."
+
+No. 8903--29 March, 1841.--James Tildesley, of Willenhall, factor, and
+Joseph Sanders, of Wolverhampton, Lock manufacturer.  "Locks."
+
+No. 10611--15th April, 1845.--George Carter, of Willenhall, jobbing
+smith.  "Locks and latches.
+
+No. 12604--8th May, 1849.--Samuel Wilkes, of Wednesfield Heath, brass
+founder.  "Knobs, handles, and spindles for the same, and locks."
+
+[There are patents in the name of Samuel Wilkes, at Darlaston,
+ironfounder, in 1840, for hinges; and for vices in the same year.  In
+1851, Samuel Wilkes, of Wolverhampton, iron founder, took out a patent
+for hinges.  In 1845, Samuel Wilkes, of Wolverhampton, brass founder,
+took out a patent for kettles.  The Wilkes' family hereabouts are
+manifestly as ingenious as they are numerous.]
+
+At the present time there are some 90 factories and 143 workshop
+employers in Willenhall, besides nine factories and 47 workshops in the
+Short Heath district.  The most important firms in the lock trade are
+Messrs. Carpenter and Tildesley, H. and T. Vaughan, William Vaughan, John
+Minors and Sons, J. Waine and Sons, Beddow and Sturmey, Legge and
+Chilton, and Enoch Tonks and Sons.  In the casting trades are John Harper
+and Co., Ltd. (by far the largest concern), Wm. Harper, Son, and Co., C.
+and L. Hill, H. and J. Hill, T. Pedley, H. and T. Vaughan (under the
+style of D. Knowles and Sons), and Arthur Tipper.  In this branch of the
+industry women are largely employed, and children to a slight extent, in
+attending to light hand and power presses.  Female labour is now utilised
+in the making of parts of machine-made locks (a method of production
+introduced during the last generation), and for varnishing, painting, and
+bronzing both the machine and the hand-made goods.
+
+The rate of wages for workmen in the lock trade now ranges from 20s. to
+35s. per week, yielding an average of about 29s.  Of the wares produced
+there are probably 300 varieties, many of them in several sizes each, the
+gross output running into thousands of dozens per week, and so great is
+their diversity that they range from field padlocks to ponderous prison
+locks, and the selling prices vary from 1d. to 30s. each.  They are
+exported all over the world, finding good markets in Australasia and
+South Africa.
+
+Tradition forbids that we should omit here the two stock illustrations of
+the fact that lock-making ranks among the notoriously ill-paid
+industries.  One is the familiar exaggeration that if a Willenhall
+locksmith happens to let fall the lock he is making, he never stoops to
+pick up because he can make another in less time.
+
+The other is the hackneyed anecdote of the late G. B. Thorneycroft, who
+was once taunted with the sneer that some padlocks of local manufacture
+would only lock once; and who promptly retorted that as they had been
+bought at twopence each, it would be "a shame if they did lock twice" at
+such starvation prices of production.  But Willenhall's contributions to
+the hardware production of the Black Country are by no means limited to
+this endless variety of locks, some for doors and gates, some for carpet
+bags and travelling trunks, some for writing portfolios and jewel
+caskets; but extends to lock furniture and door furniture, latches, door
+bolts, hasps and keys, hooks and steel vermin traps, grid-irons and
+box-iron stands, files and wood-screws, ferrules and iron-tips for
+Lancashire clogs; and other small oddments of the hardware trade.
+
+The making of currycombs, though shrunk to somewhat insignificant
+proportions within the last quarter of a century, was once a very
+prominent industry in Willenhall.  In 1815 James Carpenter, whose name is
+now so prominent in the lock trade, took out a patent, which was
+registered as follows:--
+
+    No. 3956--23rd August, 1815.--James Carpenter, of Willenhall, curry
+    comb maker.  "Improvements to a curry comb, by inverting the handle
+    over the back of the comb, and thus rendering the pressure, when in
+    use, more equal."
+
+Another typical industry was the making of door-bolts, now represented by
+the firms of Joseph Tipper, and Jonah Banks and Sons.  It is interesting
+to note that among the last of the old trade tokens circulating in this
+locality, were the Willenhall farthings issued by Austin, a miller,
+baker, and grocer, who carried on business at the corner of Stafford
+Street (the same now conducted by Joshua Rushbrooke); the obverse of this
+coin bore as a design characteristic of the town a padlock, a currycomb,
+and a door-bolt, with the legend, "Let Willenhall flourish," and the date
+1844.
+
+                        [Picture: Willenhall coin]
+
+The Currycomb manufacture is now represented by D. Ferguson, and by W. H.
+Tildesley, the latter adding to it the making of steel traps.
+
+But whatever loss has been incurred by the shrinkage of this industry has
+been more than made up by the enormous growth of the trade in
+stampings--keys are stamped--and in malleable castings.
+
+The earliest Willenhall patent was taken out in this branch of trade, and
+thus specified: "No. 3,800.  7th April, 1814.  Isaac Mason, Willenhall,
+tea tray maker.  Making stamped front for register stoves and other
+stoves, fenders, tea trays, and other trays, mouldings, and other
+articles, in brass and other metals."
+
+In the stamping trades at the present time are Messrs. Armstrong, Stevens
+and Co., Vaughan Brothers, Alexander Lloyd and Sons, Baxter, Vaughan, and
+Co., and J. B. Brooks and Co.  At the works of Messrs. John Harper and
+Co., by far the largest in the town, a variety of hardware articles are
+produced, besides locks, but the bulk of their trade is in the production
+of castings, especially in the form of gas and oil stoves and lamps.  New
+developments continue to bring in fresh industries.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.--Willenhall in Fiction.
+
+
+A vivid picture of the social and industrial conditions which formerly
+prevailed in this locality has been drawn by the masterly pen of
+Disraeli, who evidently studied this side of the Black Country at close
+quarters.  It occurs in his novel, "Sybil," the time of action being
+about 1837.
+
+The distinguished novelist discovered the well-known fact that many of
+the common people hereabout were ignorant of their own names, and that if
+they knew them few indeed were able to spell them.  Of nicknames, which
+were then not merely prevalent, but practically universal, he gives us
+such choice examples as Devilsdust, Chatting Jack, and Dandy Mick; while
+in "Shuttle and Screw's Mill," and the firm of "Truck and Trett," we
+recognise names significant of the methods of employment then in vogue.
+
+But worse perhaps than the "truck system" of paying wages in kind instead
+of in coin, was the prevailing system of utilising an inordinate number
+of apprentices; and as these were almost invariably "parish apprentices,"
+the output of the local workhouses, the tendency was not only to lower
+the rate of wages, but to lower the morale of the people.
+
+How this tendency worked out in everyday life is best seen in the
+following extract from "Sybil."  Under the fictional name "Wemsbury" may
+perhaps be read Wednesbury; "Hell House Yard" is evidently meant for Hell
+Lane, near Sedgley; and as to "Wodgate," there can be no doubt about its
+interpretation as Wednesfield.  This is Disraeli's description of life
+here seventy years ago, no doubt viewed as it was approached from the
+Wolverhampton side:--
+
+    Wodgate, or Wogate, as it was called on the map, was a district that
+    in old days had been consecrated to Woden, and which appeared
+    destined through successive ages to retain its heathen character.
+
+    At the beginning of the revolutionary war Wodgate was a sort of
+    squatting district of the great mining region to which it was
+    contiguous, a place where adventurers in the industry which was
+    rapidly developed settled themselves; for though the great veins of
+    coal and ironstone cropped up, as they phrase it, before they reached
+    this bare and barren land, and it was thus deficient in those mineral
+    and metallic treasures which had enriched its neighbourhood, Wodgate
+    had advantages of its own, and of a kind which touch the fancy of the
+    lawless.
+
+    It was land without an owner; no one claimed any manorial right over
+    it; they could build cottages without paying rent.  It was a district
+    recognised by no parish; so there were no tithes and no meddlesome
+    supervision.  It abounded in fuel which cost nothing, for though the
+    veins were not worth working as a source of mining profit, the soil
+    of Wodgate was similar in its superficial character to that of the
+    country around.
+
+    So a population gathered, and rapidly increased in the ugliest spot
+    in England, to which neither Nature nor art had contributed a single
+    charm; where a tree could not be seen, a flower was unknown, where
+    there was neither belfry nor steeple, nor a single sight or sound
+    that could soften the heart or humanize the mind.
+
+    Whatever may have been the cause, whether, as not unlikely, the
+    original squatters brought with them some traditionary skill, or
+    whether their isolated and unchequered existence concentrated their
+    energies on their craft, the fact is certain, that the inhabitants of
+    Wodgate early acquired a celebrity as skilful workmen.
+
+    This reputation so much increased, and in time spread so far, that,
+    for more than a quarter of a century, both in their skill and the
+    economy of their labour, they have been unmatched throughout the
+    country.
+
+    As manufacturers of ironmongery they carry the palm from the whole
+    district; as founders of brass and workers of steel they fear none;
+    while as nailers and locksmiths, their fame has spread even to the
+    European markets whither their most skilful workmen have frequently
+    been invited.
+
+    Invited in vain!  No wages can tempt the Wodgate man from his native
+    home, that squatters' seat which soon assumed the form of a large
+    village, and then in turn soon expanded into a town, and at the
+    present moment numbers its population by swarming thousands, lodged
+    in the most miserable tenements, in the most hideous burgh, in the
+    ugliest country in the world.
+
+    But it has its enduring spell.  Notwithstanding the spread of its
+    civic prosperity, it has lost none of the characteristics of its
+    original society; on the contrary, it has zealously preserved them.
+    There are no landlords, head-lessees, main-masters, or butties in
+    Wodgate.
+
+                           [Picture: George Borrow]
+
+    No church there has yet raised its spire; and, as if the jealous
+    spirit of Woden still haunted his ancient temple, even the
+    conventicle scarcely dare show his humble front in some obscure
+    corner.  There is no municipality, no magistrate; there are no local
+    acts, no vestries, no schools of any kind.  The streets are never
+    cleaned; every man lights his own house; nor does any one know
+    anything except his business.
+
+                        [Picture: Borrow's Birthplace]
+
+    More than this, at Wodgate, a factory or large establishment of any
+    kind is unknown.  Here Labour reigns supreme.  Its division, indeed,
+    is favoured by their manners, but the interference or influence of
+    mere capital is instantly resisted.
+
+    The business of Wodgate is carried on by master workmen in their own
+    houses, each of whom possess an unlimited number of what they call
+    apprentices, by whom their affairs are principally conducted, and
+    whom they treat as the Mamlouks treated the Egyptians.
+
+    These master workmen indeed form a powerful aristocracy, nor is it
+    possible to conceive one apparently more oppressive.  They are
+    ruthless tyrants; they habitually inflict upon their subjects
+    punishments more grievous than the slave population of our colonies
+    were ever visited with; not content with beating them with sticks, or
+    flogging them with knotted ropes, they are in the habit of felling
+    them with, or cutting their heads open with a file or lock.
+
+    The most usual punishment, however, or rather stimulus to increase
+    exertion, is to pull an apprentice's ears till they run with blood.
+    These youths, too, are worked for sixteen or even twenty hours a day;
+    they are often sold by one master to another; they are fed on
+    carrion, and they sleep in lofts or cellars.
+
+    Yet, whether it be that they are hardened by brutality, and really
+    unconscious of their degradation and unusual sufferings, or whether
+    they are supported by the belief that their day to be masters and
+    oppressors will surely arrive, the aristocracy of Wodgate is by no
+    means so unpopular as the aristocracy of most other places.
+
+    In the first place, it is a real aristocracy; it is privileged, but
+    it does something for its privileges.  It is distinguished from the
+    main body, not merely by name.  It is the most knowing class at
+    Wodgate; it possesses, in deed, in its way, complete knowledge; and
+    it imparts in its manner a certain quantity of it to those whom it
+    guides.
+
+    Thus it is an aristocracy that leads, and therefore a fact.
+    Moreover, the social system of Wodgate is not an unvarying course of
+    infinite toil.  Their plan is to work hard, but not always.  They
+    seldom exceed four days of labour in the week.  On Sunday the masters
+    begin to drink; for the apprentices there is dog-fighting without any
+    stint.
+
+    On Monday and Tuesday the whole population of Wodgate is drunk; of
+    all stations, ages, and sexes, even babes who should be at the
+    breast, for they are drammed with Godfrey's cordial.  Here is
+    relaxation, excitement; if less vice otherwise than might be at first
+    anticipated, we must remember that excesses are checked by poverty of
+    blood and constant exhaustion.  Scanty food and hard labour are in
+    their way, if not exactly moralists, a tolerably good police.
+
+    There are no others at Wodgate to preach or to control.  It is not
+    that the people are immoral, for immorality implies some forethought;
+    or ignorant, for ignorance is relative; but they are animals,
+    unconscious, their minds a blank, and their worst actions only the
+    impulse of a gross or savage instinct.  There are many in this town
+    who are ignorant of their very names; very few who can spell them.
+
+    It is rare that you meet with a young person who knows his own age;
+    rarer to find the boy who has seen a book, or the girl who has seen a
+    flower.  Ask them the name of their Sovereign, and they will give you
+    an unmeaning stare; ask them the name of their religion, and they
+    will laugh; who rules them on earth, or who can save them in Heaven,
+    are alike mysteries to them.
+
+    Such was the population with whom Morley was about to mingle.
+    Wodgate had the appearance of a vast squalid suburb.  As you
+    advanced, leaving behind you long lines of little dingy tenements,
+    with infants lying about the road, you expected every moment to
+    emerge into some streets, and encounter buildings bearing some
+    correspondence, in their size and comfort, to the considerable
+    population swarming and busied around you.
+
+    Nothing of the kind.  There were no public buildings of any sort; no
+    churches, chapels, town hall, institute, theatre; and the principal
+    streets in the heart of the town in which were situate the coarse and
+    grimy shops, though formed by houses of a greater elevation than the
+    preceding, were equally narrow, and, if possible, more dirty.
+
+    At every fourth or fifth house, alleys, seldom above a yard wide, and
+    streaming with filth, opened out of the street.  These were crowded
+    with dwellings of various size, while from the principal court often
+    branched out a number of smaller alleys, or rather narrow passages,
+    than which nothing can be conceived more close and squalid and
+    obscure.
+
+    Here, during the days of business, the sound of the hammer and the
+    file never ceased, amid gutters of abomination, and piles of
+    foulness; and stagnant pools of filth, reservoirs of leprosy and
+    plague, whose exhalations were sufficient to taint the atmosphere of
+    the whole kingdom, and fill the country with fever and pestilence.
+
+Such were the conditions of life in Willenhall, at least from the
+industrial side; for Willenhall and Wednesfield were at that time almost
+identical in their industrial, social, and municipal economics.  The
+novelist is, of course, incorrect in saying Wednesfield had no church; as
+we have seen in Chapter XXIII. it had possessed a small church or chapel
+since 1746.
+
+Another novelist who has dealt with the same theme is Louis Becke.  The
+hero of his tale, entitled "Old Convict Days" (published by T. Fisher
+Unwin), is a runaway apprentice from Darlaston; and Willenhall is alluded
+to in this work as "Wilnon."  Spirited descriptions are given of regular
+set fights between the apprentices of the two towns, which took place on
+the canal bridge that divided their respective territories near Bug Hole,
+and in the course of which drownings have not been unknown to occur.
+Allusions are also made to the dog-fighting, human rat worrying, and
+other brutal sports with which the populace of these two places were wont
+to amuse themselves; and particularly to the haunted Red Barn in which a
+murder had been committed.
+
+Willenhall can lay a further claim to classic ground in the realm of
+fiction, though the exact spot has not yet been satisfactorily
+identified.  It is the place called Mumper's Dingle, in the works of
+George Borrow, the gipsy traveller and linguist, or as he calls himself
+in the Romany dialect, Lavengro, the "Word-Master."
+
+The word "mumper" signifies a tramp or roving beggar; but its slight
+likeness to the name Monmer has led certain local enthusiasts to identify
+Mumpers' Dingle with Monmer Lane.  Wherever this particular gipsies'
+dingle may have been, it was certainly on the Essington side of
+Willenhall, though scarcely five miles out; in fact, the public-house
+mentioned in the narrative ("Lavengro," chapter 89) is generally
+understood to be the Bull's Head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, which is
+definitely stated to be two miles from Mumpers' Dingle.  It must have
+been a secluded and romantic spot about the year 1820, and quite a
+fitting scene for that interesting episode of the gipsy life described as
+being led there by the unconventional Lavengro, in Platonic association
+with a strapping Gitano wench named Isopel Berners.
+
+Since George Borrow has come to be recognised as a writer fitting to rank
+among our standard English authors, quite a Borrovian cult has grown up,
+which has naturally enough fortified itself by a literature of its own.
+
+Our first extracts are the great writer's own description of the place.
+("Isopel Berners," by George Borrow.)
+
+    The Dingle is a deep, wooded, and, consequently, somewhat gloomy
+    hollow in the middle of a very large, desolate field.  The shelving
+    sides of the hollow are overgrown with trees and bushes.  A belt of
+    sallows crowns the circular edge of the small crater.  At the lowest
+    part of the Dingle are discovered a stone and a fire of charcoal,
+    from which spot a winding path ascends to "the plain."  On either
+    side of the fire is a small encampment.  One consists of a small pony
+    cart and a small hut-shaped tent, occupied by the Word-Master, on the
+    other side is erected a kind of tent, consisting of large hoops
+    covered over with tarpaulin, quite impenetrable to rain; hard by
+    stands a small donkey cart.  This is "the tabernacle" of Isopel
+    Berners.  A short distance off, near a spring of clear water, is the
+    encampment of the Romany chals and chies--the Petulengres and their
+    small clan.
+
+The place is above five miles from Willenhall, in Staffordshire.
+
+The time is July, 1825.
+
+Our concluding quotation is taken from the "Life, Writings, and
+Correspondence of George Borrow," by William J. Knapp (published in
+1899).
+
+    1825.
+
+    On the 21st, he departs with his itinerant hosts towards the old
+    Welsh border--Montgomery.  Turns back with Ambrose Petulengro.
+    Settles in Mumber Lane, Staffordshire, near Willenhall.  My informant
+    of Dudley caused it to be found, and wrote as follows:--
+
+    "'Mumpers' Dingle' still exists in the neighbourhood of Willenhall,
+    though it does not seem to be well known, as a native had to make
+    inquiries about it.  Willenhall itself is one of the most
+    forlorn-looking places in the Black Country, ranking second to
+    Darlaston, I should think."
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.--Bibliography.
+
+
+From the merely allusive in literature, we proceed to the bibliography of
+Willenhall, which, though not extensive, is of fair average interest.
+
+Recently (June, 1907) was put up for auction in London a First Folio
+Shakespeare of some local interest.  It was the property of Mr. Abel
+Buckley, Ryecroft Hall, near Manchester.  This folio appears to have been
+purchased about 1660 by Colonel John Lane, of Bentley Hall, Staffs, the
+protector of Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester.  It remained in
+the possession of the family till 1856, when, at the dispersal of the
+library of Colonel John Lane, of King's Bromley, whose book-plate,
+designed by Hogarth, is inserted, it was bought by the third Earl of
+Gosford for 157 guineas.
+
+The son of the third Earl of Gosford disposed of it to James Toovey, the
+famous London bookseller, for 470 pounds in 1884; and soon afterwards Mr.
+Buckley obtained the folio.  It measures 12.875in. by 8.25in., is
+throughout clean, but the fly-leaf and title are mounted and two leaves
+repaired.  This is the volume's interesting history, according to Mr.
+Sidney Lee.
+
+In 1795, Stephen Chatterton, a Willenhall schoolmaster, published a book
+of poems of a humorous cast.  One is "An epistle to my friend Mr. Thomas
+S--, who was married in July, 1783, to his third wife, on his fiftieth
+birthday."
+
+The bibliography of the Rev. Samuel Cozens, at one time minister of the
+Peculiar Baptists' Chapel at Little London, Willenhall, is rather
+extensive if not very interesting.  A full list of his pamphlets and
+other works will be found in G. T. Lawley's "Bibliography of
+Wolverhampton," and also in Simms' "Bibliotheca Staffordiensis."  His
+first work, which appeared in the "Gospel Standard," 1844, was "A short
+account of the Lord's Gracious Dealings with One of the Elect Vessels of
+Mercy," and is autobiographical.
+
+From this title, and that of the second part of his life, which appeared
+in 1857, "Reminiscences: or Footsteps of Providence," the attitude of
+mind assumed by the writer may be easily guessed.  His was a dogmatic
+creed, of stern unyielding Calvinism, which left him always
+self-satisfied, and often made him aggressive.  He moved from
+Wolverhampton to Willenhall in 1848, where his first book was written, a
+scholarly volume in the form of "A Biblical Lexicon."
+
+Presently his combative nature found expression in a controversial
+pamphlet attacking the Primitive Methodists, "John Wesley, the Papa of
+British Rome, and Philip Pugh, the modern Pelagius, weighed in the
+Balance of Eternal Truth and found wanting" (Willenhall, printed and
+published by W. H. Hughes, 1852).  The Rev. Philip Pugh was located at
+Darlaston, and made a gallant defence on behalf of his co-religionists;
+the Primitive Methodists of Willenhall acknowledging these services by
+presenting him with a handsome testimonial.  The pamphlets containing his
+rejoinders bear the imprint of Stephen Hackett, Willenhall.  Mr. Cozens
+died in Tasmania some years later.
+
+The "Memoirs of G. B. Thorneycroft," written by the Rev. J. B. Owen, and
+published (Wolverhampton: T. Simpson) in 1856, contain local allusions of
+minor interest.  The subject of the memoir was the well-known South
+Staffordshire ironmaster, who in the earlier part of his commercial
+career had some works near the Waterglade, on the Bilston Road.
+
+George Benjamin Thorneycroft, was born August 20th, 1791, at Tipton,
+where his grandfather kept the Three Furnaces Inn.  His biographer claims
+his descent from the Thornicrofts of Cheshire.  In his youth he was
+employed at Kirkstall Forge, near Leeds, returning to Staffordshire in
+1809 to work at the Moorcroft Ironworks at Bradley, near Bilston, where,
+by his skill and industry he ultimately rose to the management.
+
+It was in 1817 he founded a small ironwork at Willenhall, and seven years
+later joined his twin brother, Edward Thorneycroft, in establishing the
+Shrubbery Ironworks at Wolverhampton.  The rise of the railways at that
+period, and the consequent larger demands for iron and steel, were among
+the causes which led to his great prosperity as an ironmaster.
+
+His Willenhall residence was on the site now occupied by the Metropolitan
+Bank, in the Market Place: while his works, this first this iron magnate
+owned, were located near what is now known as Forge Yard, Waterglade
+Street.  It was in this house his son, Colonel Thorneycroft, of
+Tettenhall Towers, was born.
+
+                          [Picture: Neptune Inn]
+
+His prominence as a public man may be estimated by the fact that when
+Wolverhampton was incorporated in 1848, Mr. Thorneycroft was selected for
+the honour of being first Mayor of the new borough.  He was at all times
+a generous supporter of every local charity and benevolent institution,
+till the old quotation came to be fitted to him:--
+
+    There was a man--the neighbours thought him mad--
+    The more he gave away, the more he had.
+
+In the Town Hall of Wolverhampton a statue has been set up to commemorate
+the public work of this estimable character.
+
+                           [Picture: Bell Inn]
+
+Although during the greater portion of his career a great supporter of
+the State Church, in earlier life Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft had been an
+ardent Wesleyan; and in his memoirs (p. 134) it is recorded how he
+liquidated the burden of debt on the Willenhall Chapel belonging to that
+denomination.  On his death, in 1851, among those who testified to his
+public usefulness, and the estimation in which he was held, was the Rev.
+G. H. Fisher, of Willenhall (memoirs pp. 263-5).
+
+                        [Picture: Old Bull's Head]
+
+"The Willenhall Magazine" was the name of a monthly periodical launched
+in 1862, "published for the proprietors by J. Loxton, Market Place,
+Willenhall," and having Messrs. J. C. and Jesse Tildesley as its chief
+contributors.  The first number appeared in March, and twelve months
+afterwards this praiseworthy attempt to establish a local magazine in
+Willenhall had completely failed.
+
+                          [Picture: The Plough]
+
+In 1866 appeared a religious novel written by a Primitive Methodist
+preacher of this town, and published by Elliot Stock, London.  It: was
+entitled "Nest: A Tale of the Early British Christians," by the Rev. J.
+Boxer, Willenhall.  Mr. G. T. Lawley describes it as a well-written story
+dealing with the pagan persecution of the early British Christians by
+their Saxon conquerors.
+
+A story of direct local interest was Mr. G. T. Lawley's work "The
+Locksmith's Apprentice; a Tale of Old Willenhall," published serially
+some years ago in the columns of a Wolverhampton weekly newspaper.
+
+Mr N. Neal Solly (of the firm of Fletcher, Solly, and Urwick, Willenhall
+Furnaces) wrote the Guide to the Fine Arts Section of the South
+Staffordshire Exhibition, held at Molineux House, Wolverhampton, in 1869.
+The writer was himself an artist, and he afterwards produced some
+valuable Memoirs of David Cox (1873), and of the Bristol painter, William
+James Muller (1875).
+
+The most eminent litterateur Willenhall has produced is Mr. James
+Carpenter Tildesley, a lock manufacturer, as we have seen, and a
+life-long public man in the town.  Reference has already been made to his
+writings on industrial subjects, and also to his works on the history of
+local Methodism.  As a public man, he is a Justice of the Peace for the
+County, a chairman of Willenhall Petty Sessional Division, has been
+president of the Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the
+Willenhall Local Board, and chairman of the Willenhall Liberal
+Association.  Since his retirement to Penkridge he has written a history
+of that parish, which was published by Steen and Co., of Wolverhampton,
+in 1886.
+
+Mr. J. C. Tildesley was sub-editor of the "Birmingham Morning News" under
+the famous George Dawson, and has been a most diligent contributor to the
+Press for the last forty years.  It was mainly by his efforts that the
+Willenhall Literary Institute was founded, that what is now the Public
+Hall was built, and that the Free Library was established.
+
+In recognition of his work in connection with the Literary Institute, a
+public presentation was made to him, the inscription upon which bore this
+eloquent testimony--"Not to requite but to record services of great value
+to Willenhall . . .  January 4th, 1869."  That Mr. J. C. Tildesley is now
+permanently invalided is a matter of regret not only to Willenhall, but
+to a wide circle of readers and admirers outside the township.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.--Topography.
+
+
+There is often a wealth of history to be unearthed from place-names.
+Localities often preserve the names of dead and gone personages,
+half-forgotten incidents, and matters of past history well worth
+recalling for their interest.  Besides the pleasure to be derived from
+the right interpretation of place-names and old street names, great
+interest often centres around the social associations of old inns and
+taverns.  Let us consider a few of the old-time inns and localities of
+Willenhall.
+
+The site of the mediaeval Holy Well, which in the later fashion of the
+18th century blossomed forth as a Spa, was situated between the church
+and the present Manor House.  In the remoter age we may imagine it as the
+haunt of the lame, the halt, and the blind (possibly the church was
+dedicated to St. Giles, the patron of cripples, on this account), and in
+the more recent period as the resort of fashionable invalids and wealthy
+valetudinarians.
+
+In the Private Act of Parliament, dated 6th August, 1844, for disposing
+of the Willenhall Endowment properties, a number of field-names occur in
+the schedule which are pregnant with local history.  Welch End is a name
+which seems to mark the locality where resided the family of Welch, who
+founded the church dole; the Doctor's Piece was perhaps part of the
+estate of the celebrated Dr. Wilkes; the Clothers and the Little
+Clothiers are names which are said to indicate certain lands once
+belonging to the Cloth-workers' Company of the City of London; Somerford
+Bridge Piece and the Hither Bathing were presumably located near the
+brook; while the Poor's Piece, the Constable's Dole, and the Dole's Butty
+(query: does the last-named, interpreted in the dialect of the district,
+signify "the companion piece to the Dole?"), are names which suggest the
+identity of charity lands.
+
+There is mention of a High Causeway, which manifestly indicates the
+position of some old paved road; and the Butts, doubtless, named the
+field where in ancient times archery was practised by the men of
+Willenhall, as the men of Darlaston did at the Butcroft in their parish.
+
+Reverting to the schedule, there are some names for which no explanation
+can be offered; as Ell Park, Berry Stile, the Stringes, and the Farther
+Stringes.  Many of the properties named in the list are declared to be
+"uninclosed lands that lie dispersedly in the Common Fields there,
+intermixed with other lands."  How much, or rather, how little, common
+land is there in Willenhall to-day?
+
+And yet the amount of "waste" land in and around Willenhall was once
+excessive, as the writings of George Borrow cannot fail to convey (Chap.
+XXVIII.).  In Chap. XXII. we read of Canne Byrch, situated in "Willenhall
+Field," lying in the highway towards Darlaston, where perhaps the village
+community of ancient times tilled their lands in common; and more
+directly of the "waste or common land" called Shepwell Green; a wide
+stretch of open land once apparently stretching away towards the
+wilderness and solitudes of that gipsy-land immortalised by George
+Borrow.
+
+"Willenhall Green" is named by Dr. Plot, writing in 1686, as a place
+where yellow ochre was found a yard below the surface, and which after
+being beaten up was made into oval cakes to be sold at fourpence a dozen
+to glovers, who used it in combination with cakes of "blew clay," found
+at Darlaston and Wednesbury, "for giving their wares an ash colour."
+
+The old highway between Walsall and Wolverhampton lay along Walsall
+Street, through Cross Street, and the Market Place; the new coach route,
+or the New Road, as it was called, was made in the early part of the
+nineteenth century.
+
+New Invention is a place-name which originated not from any connection
+with the local industries, as one might be led to expect, but from
+nothing more serious than a nickname of derision.  The tradition is that
+many years ago an inhabitant from the centre of the town was strolling
+out that way, when he was thus accosted by an acquaintance living in one
+of the few cottages which then comprised the neighbourhood, and who was
+standing on his own doorstep to enjoy the cool of the evening: "I say,
+Bill, hast seen my new invention?"  "No, lad; what is it?"  "That's it!"
+said the self-satisfied householder, pointing up to a hawthorn bush which
+was pushed out of the top of his chimney.  "That's it!  It's stopped our
+o'd chimdy smokin', I can tell thee!"  And ever after that the locality
+which this worthy honoured with his ingenious presence was slyly dubbed
+by his amused neighbours the "New Invention," by which name it afterwards
+became generally known.
+
+Portobello, on the outskirts of Willenhall, is said to have borrowed its
+name from that second-hand Portobello near Leith, which was named after
+Admiral Vernon's famous victory of 1739.  At the Scottish suburb a bed of
+rich clay, discovered in 1765, led to the development of the place
+through the establishment of brick and tile works; a similar discovery of
+a thick bed of clay outside Willenhall, and its subsequent industrial
+development on parallel lines led to the copying of that patriotic name,
+more particularly because a neighbouring coal-pit was already rejoicing
+in the name of Bunker's Hill, conferred upon it by local patriots after
+the American victory of 1775.  The Willenhall wags, however, have given
+quite another derivation.  A man once passing a solitary farmhouse in
+that locality, say they, called and inquired if the farmer had any beer
+on tap.  The reply was, as the man pointed cellarwards, "No--only porter
+below!"
+
+Little London seems to be a locality which attempts to shine by the
+reflected glory of the capital's borrowed name, and is appropriately
+approached by a thoroughfare called Temple Bar; but which of these
+metropolitan names suggested the other, the oldest inhabitant fails to
+recollect.
+
+Among the old inns and taverns of the town the chief were the Neptune
+Inn, Walsall Street; the Bull's Head, Wolverhampton Street; the Hope and
+Anchor, Little London; the Bell Inn, Market Place; and the Waterglade
+Tavern, Waterglade.  The Neptune, situated on the main road between
+Wolverhampton and Walsall, and almost opposite the church, was formerly a
+posting-house kept in the 18th and early part of the 19th century by
+Isaac Hartill, one of those typical hosts of the coaching period; active,
+genial, and obliging, a man of good conversational powers, and one who
+instantly made his guests feel at home, and was extremely popular with
+all the local gentry and regular travellers along the road.  With the
+advent of the railway the character of the Neptune Inn gradually
+altered--the railway, by the way, was cut through the crescent,
+overlooking Bentley Hall, a property which had belonged to and had been
+the residence of the Hartill family since 1704, and part of which is now
+The Robin Hood Grounds, used for sports and recreations and other
+out-door assemblies.
+
+It was from the balcony above the entry of the Neptune Inn, over which
+was then the public drawing-room, that the Right Hon. Charles P. Villiers
+first addressed the electors of the newly-enfranchised borough of
+Wolverhampton in 1835, and subsequently made many of his fervent Free
+Trade speeches; and in fact, from this place all public announcements
+were wont to be made.  The room behind the balcony was formerly used as a
+Court Room, in which the magistrates administered justice; here too, the
+Willenhall Court Leet was held, and to this day Lord Barnard's agents
+receive the tithes there.
+
+The Neptune once served all the purposes of a lending inn as an
+acknowledged place of public rendezvous; and when the Stowheath farmers
+were accustomed to ride or drive in to attend church, its spacious
+stableyard was a scene of animation, even on Sundays.
+
+The Bell Inn, in the Market Place, is perhaps the oldest in the market
+taverns, though the date 1660 painted upon its sign can scarcely refer to
+the projecting wing which bears it.  The back portion of the house is
+unquestionably old; in fact, the family of Wakelam who kept the inn 25
+years ago, were identified with this house and the Bull's Head Inn for
+upwards of two centuries.
+
+The Plough Inn, Stafford Street, is less old than the others, and of more
+doubtful interest.  It has been completely altered within recent years;
+in the old days when prisoners consigned to Stafford Gaol had to walk, it
+was the place of the final drink before starting, and marked the limits
+of the town till Little London began.
+
+The Bull's head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, is supposed to be the alehouse
+referred to in Borrow's romantic tale of Romany life, "Lavengro."
+
+The Waterglade Tavern marked the spot on the road between the two
+old-world villages of Willenhall and Bilston, where it dipped to the bed
+of the stream.
+
+The Woolpack Inn, at Short Heath, is one of the oldest licensed houses in
+that locality.
+
+The First and Last Inn, New Invention, was so dubbed because at one time
+it was the first licensed house when approaching from Wednesfield, and
+the last when going the other way out.
+
+The sign rhymes of Willenhall belong to the hackneyed type.  The Gate
+Inn, New Invention, has the well-known couplet:--
+
+    This Gate hangs well and hinders none:
+    Refresh and pay and travel on.
+
+The Lame Dog Inn, at Short Heath, is not very original with:--
+
+    Step in, my friends, and stop a while,
+    To help a lame dog over the stile.
+
+Enough has been said on the subject to arouse the interest of patriotic
+Willenhaleans.  One reflection in conclusion--in the old days licensed
+houses were invariably kept by families of position and substance, and it
+is remarkable to discover the great number of professional and well-to-do
+men of the present day who were born in public-houses.  It is so with
+regard to Wednesbury and Darlaston, and even more so with regard to
+Willenhall.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.--Old Families and Names of Note.
+
+
+To not a few of the old names of those who have lived their lives in
+Willenhall, and left their mark indelibly fixed upon its annals,
+attention has already been paid in treating of the various matters with
+which their respective life-work was associated.  It remains here only to
+add a few more names to our list of Willenhall worthies, and to
+supplement a few biographical details to those already mentioned.
+
+The index to the names of landowners would be incomplete without that of
+Offley.  In the year 1555 Alderman Offley, a citizen of London, acquired
+lands in "Willenhall, otherwise Wilnall."  About the same date this
+opulent merchant became lord of the manor of Darlaston.  (See History of
+Darlaston, pp. 39-40.)
+
+An important old Willenhall family, as may have been gathered in the
+course of these Annals, was that of Hincks.  Their family residence still
+stands in Bilston Street, near to the Market Place; a descendant, and
+apparently the only representative of the Hincks family surviving is Mrs.
+Samuel Walker, of Bentley Hall.
+
+Of Carpenter, Willenhall's most famous inventor, a few more items of
+local and biographical interest are forthcoming.  In early life James
+Carpenter was a Churchman, but, as many other Willenhall folk did, became
+a Wesleyan in consequence of the scandals caused by the Rev. Mr.
+Moreton's mode of life.  His remains lie in a vault on the east side of
+the Wesleyan Chapel in Union Street.  He was a keen supporter of the
+Right Hon. C. P. Villiers when he first became a Parliamentary candidate
+for Wolverhampton.
+
+John Austin, the tradesman, who first issued the "Willenhall farthings,"
+mentioned in Chapter XXVII., was an enterprising tradesman, a man of
+handsome presence and of an alert mind.  On leaving Willenhall he went to
+live at Manor House, Allscott, near Wellington, at which town he
+established artificial manure works, and where he manufactured sulphuric
+acid very extensively.
+
+The issue of the Willenhall trade farthings was continued by Rushbrooke,
+his successor in the business (1853), though the original date, "1844"
+was always retained upon them.  They were sold to shopkeepers and traders
+all round the district at the rate of 5s. nominal for 4s. 9d. cash.  When
+the new national bronze coinage came into circulation in 1860, large
+quantities of these copper farthing tokens were returned on to Mr
+Rushbrooke's hands, but he melted them down without sustaining the least
+loss.
+
+[Picture: Josiah Tildesley, Senr.  Prominent Wesleyan and Highly Esteemed
+                                Townsman]
+
+The Hartill family has long been settled in Willenhall.  George Hartill
+married Isabel Cross, at St. Peter's Church, Wolverhampton, in 1662.  All
+their nine children were baptised at St. Giles's Church, Willenhall.  The
+present Dr. J. T. Hartill is descended directly from Richard, fifth son
+of the above, and his grandfather, Isaac Hartill, inter-married with Ann
+Hartill, a descendant of the said George Hartill's second son.
+
+   [Picture: James Tildesley.  Large Employer of Labour, Proprietor of
+                            Summerford Works]
+
+The social rank of the Hartills since their residence in Willenhall has
+been that of tradesmen or professional men, manufacturers, or small
+property owners, but always educated up to the standard of the period in
+which they lived.  In 1826 Jeremiah Hartill established himself in
+medical practice, joined in 1861 by his nephew, William Henry Hartill,
+and in 1869 by the latter's brother, Dr. J. T. Hartill.  The arms and
+crest borne by the last-named were formally granted him in 1896; but the
+same coat without the crest had always been used by his uncle Jeremiah,
+and that on a claim of inheritance from the ancient lords of the manor of
+Hartill, in Cheshire, to whom it had been granted by King John.  These
+particular arms have not been officially recorded at the College of
+Heralds since 1580, but a very similar coat was used by a member of this
+family in 1703.
+
+[Picture: Jeremiah Hartill, Surgeon.  Agitated for Easier Enfranchisement
+                              of Copyholds]
+
+The Willenhall Hartills migrated here from the neighbourhood of Kinver,
+Wolverley, and Kidderminster.  There are still Hartills of the old stock
+resident in the Kinver district, and from them are descended Mrs.
+Shakespeare, wife of the well-known Birmingham solicitor; and Mrs.
+Showell, wife of the late Walter Showell, the founder of the eminent firm
+of Black Country brewers, who was once a Parliamentary candidate for one
+of the divisions of Birmingham.  The Hartills of Kinver are related to
+the Hartills of Kingsbury, and there has always been a great similarity
+in the Christian names borne by the old Kingsbury, Kinver, and Willenhall
+Hartills.  The steeple of Polesworth church was built by the last Sir
+Richard Hartill, 1377-1379, and below the tower battlements is carved
+upon a large shield the arms of this benefactor, which are identical with
+those of the late Dr. Jeremiah Hartill of Willenhall.
+
+[Picture: John Austin of the Albion Mill, who issued the Farthing Tokens]
+
+Mr. Henry Vaughan, the founder of the largest business concern in the
+town, has done a large amount of public work in various capacities, but
+chiefly as a magistrate, a member of the defunct School Board, and more
+recently as a County Councillor.
+
+    [Picture: George Ley Pearce.  Prominent Wesleyan and Philanthropic
+                                 Worker]
+
+Among the justices who have sat on the Willenhall Bench and possessed
+other connections with the place may be mentioned the late N. Neal Solly,
+ironmaster, two water-colour drawings by whom hang on the walls of the
+Free Library; the late Rev. G. H. Fisher, who was chairman; R. D. Gough,
+a brother of the late Colonel Foster Gough, and who married the rich and
+benevolent Mary Clemson, daughter of John Clemson, a corn miller, of this
+township; while among the most recent appointments are Clement Tildesley,
+Thomas Vaughan, and Thomas Kidson.  The present Clerk to the Willenhall
+Bench is Samuel Mills Slater, in succession to his father, the late James
+Slater, of Bescot Hall.
+
+A memorial tablet to the local men who fell in the Boer War has been
+erected at the gateway to the Old Cemetery.
+
+                       [Picture: Decorative design]
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.--Manners and Customs.
+
+
+The Manners and Customs of the people of Willenhall have been those held
+in common with the populace of the surrounding parishes, and which have
+been dealt with too fully in the published writings of Mr. G. T. Lawley
+to need more than a brief review here.
+
+The seasonal custom of Well Dressing has been alluded to in Chapter
+XVII., and of Beating the Bounds in Chapter V.  Other ancient customs of
+minor import existed, but space cannot be found to treat them in a
+general history.
+
+The social calibre of the people a century or so ago may be gauged by a
+local illustration of the custom of Wife Selling.
+
+This practice was once common enough everywhere, and amongst the ignorant
+and illiterate in some parts it is still held to be a perfectly
+legitimate transaction.  From the "Annual Register" this local instance
+has been clipped:--
+
+    "Three men and three women went to the Bell Inn, Edgbaston Street,
+    Birmingham, and made the following singular entry in the toll book
+    which is kept there: August 31, 1773, Samuel Whitehouse, of the
+    Parish of Willenhall, in the county of Stafford, this day sold his
+    wife, Mary Whitehouse, in open market, to Thomas Griffiths, of
+    Birmingham, value one shilling.  To take her with all her faults.
+
+                                               (Signed) Samuel Whitehouse.
+                                                          Mary Whitehouse.
+
+    Voucher, Thomas Buckley, of Birmingham."
+
+The parties were all exceedingly well pleased, and the money paid down
+for the toll as for a regular purchase.
+
+So much for the moral status of the people; now to consider them from the
+industrial side.
+
+The older generation of Willenhall men were accustomed, ere factory Acts
+and kindred forms of parental legislation had regulated working hours and
+otherwise ameliorated the conditions of labour, to slave for many weary
+hours in little domiciliary workshops.  Boys were then apprenticed at a
+tender age, and soon became humpbacked in consequence of throwing in the
+weight of their little bodies in the endeavour to eke out the strength of
+the feeble thews and bones in their immature arms.
+
+In those days men worked when they liked, and played when it suited them;
+they generally played the earlier days of the week, even if at the end
+they worked night and day in the attempt to average the weekly earnings.
+In this connection it has been suggested that in pre-Reformation times
+Willenhall folk duly honoured St. Sunday and well as St. Monday,
+consecrating both days to the sacred cause of weekly idleness.  Or was
+Willenhall's Holy Well dedicated to St. Dominic, and came by grammatical
+error to be called St. Sunday?  As thus--Sanctus Dominicus abbreviated
+first to Sanc. Dominic, and then extended in the wrong gender to Sancta
+Dominica, otherwise Saint Sunday?  Who shall say?  It may have been so.
+
+It is perhaps in their pleasures, more than in their pursuits, that the
+character of a people is to be best seen.  Allusion has been made to the
+obsolete Trinity Fair in Chapter XII.; but the Wake has remained to this
+day, less loyally observed perhaps, but rich in traditions of past
+glories.
+
+Willenhall Wake falls on the first Sunday after September 11th, the Feast
+of St. Giles, to whom the old church is dedicated.
+
+Among the wakes of the Black Country none are richer in reminiscence of
+the old time forms of festivity than that of Willenhall.  Although in
+later times the outward and visible sign of its celebration has dwindled
+down to an assemblage of shows and roundabouts, shooting galleries, and
+ginger-bread stalls, it was once accompanied by bull-baitings and
+cock-fighting, and all the other coarse and brutal sports in which our
+forefathers so much delighted.
+
+    At Wednesfield at one village wake
+       The cockers all did meet
+    At Billy Lane's, the cock-fighter's,
+       To have a sporting treat.
+
+    For Charley Marson's spangled cock
+       Was matched to fight a red
+    That came from Will'n'all o'er the fields,
+       And belonged to "Cheeky Ned."
+
+    Two finer birds in any cock-pit
+       Two never yet was seen.
+    Though the Wednesfield men declared
+       Their cock was sure to win.
+
+    The cocks fought well, and feathers fled
+       All round about the pit,
+    While blood from both of 'em did flow
+       Yet ne'er un would submit.
+
+    At last the spangled Wedgefield bird
+       Began to show defeat,
+    When Billy Lane, he up and swore
+       The bird shouldn't be beat;
+
+    For he would fight the biggest mon
+       That came from Will'n'all town,
+    When on the word, old "Cheeky Ned"
+       Got up and knocked him down.
+
+    To fight they went like bull-dogs,
+       As it is very well known,
+    Till "Cheeky Ned" seized Billy's thumb,
+       And bit it to the bone.
+
+    At this the Wednesfield men begun
+       Their comrade's part to take,
+    And never was a fiercer fight
+       Fought at a village wake.
+
+    They beat the men from Will'n'all town
+       Back to their town again,
+    And long they will remember
+       This Wednesfield wake and main.
+
+The site of the Willenhall Bull Ring, it may be added for the information
+of future generations, was opposite the Baptist Chapel, Little London,
+where Temple Bar joins the Wednesfield and Bloxwich Roads.
+
+Among other Wake observances of the last century were the "Club Walkings"
+or processioning of the Friendly Societies, whose members first attended
+a brief service in the church, and then spent the rest of the day in
+feasting at the Neptune Inn opposite.  Tradition hath it that further
+back, well into the Georgian era, and certainly before Mr. Fisher's time,
+another Wake custom was that of "kissing the parson," a privilege of
+which the women were said to be very jealous.
+
+In the year 1857 the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Member of Parliament for
+the Borough of Wolverhampton, of which this township was part,
+inaugurated in Willenhall one of the first exhibitions of fine art and
+industry ever held in the Black Country.  It was opened on the Monday in
+the Wake week, and Mr. Villiers alluded to the fact that "they met in the
+midst of one of those old-fashioned wakes which it was the humour of
+their ancestors to establish and be pleased with," and the right hon.
+gentleman proceeded to contrast the present with the past conditions of
+Willenhall Wake-time.
+
+A flourishing Free Library--founded like many another in the face of
+great local opposition and prejudice--is one of the legacies of that
+exhibition, from the date of which may be traced the more rational
+observance of Wake-time.
+
+With the advance of science and art and the spread of popular education,
+the future prosperity of an ingenious community, like that of the skilled
+mechanics and deft craftsmen of this township, is assured.  Impressed
+with such certitude it is all but a work of supererogation to echo the
+patriotic sentiment of the old-time townsfolk--
+
+                        "LET WILLENHALL FLOURISH!"
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                 THE END.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Ablow Field 7, 10
+
+Agmund 8
+
+Aldhelm 18
+
+Ames 75, 77, 137
+
+Anlaf 8
+
+Annes, St. 110-2, 134
+
+Anson (Lichfield) 128, 139, 152
+
+Arley 14, 18, 27-8
+
+Aston 34
+
+Austin 165, 184
+
+Badland 62-4, 95-6
+
+Baker 106, 149
+
+Barnard 128
+
+Barr 114
+
+Bate 132
+
+Beating Bounds 24-6, 187
+
+Beaumont 46, 58-9, 60-1
+
+Beneting 8
+
+Bentley 17, 25, 27-8, 31, 39, 44, 65, 67, 70, 72, 77, 81-82, 109, 110,
+120-1, 125, 127-8, 126, 140, 143, 151-2, 175, 182, 184
+
+Beogitha's Stream 29
+
+Bescot 17
+
+Bilbrook 28, 93
+
+Bilston 12, 14, 18, 26-8, 34, 37, 40, 51, 56, 66, 77-81, 85, 93, 135,
+137-8, 156, 161
+
+Blakenhall 14
+
+Bloxwich 14, 17-8, 25, 30, 39, 134, 189
+
+Booth 137
+
+Boscobel 69-70
+
+Bradford 74
+
+Bradley 26, 175
+
+Brewood 4, 93, 162
+
+Brideoak 73
+
+Bromehall 51, 95
+
+Browning 34, 95
+
+Burnell 40
+
+Burton 21
+
+Bushbury 4, 9, 14, 24, 27, 38, 46, 56, 66, 68-9, 71, 98, 113
+
+Callendine 74
+
+Canals 127, 133, 155, 157
+
+Cannock 2, 19, 24-5, 38-9, 41, 45, 135, 148, 151
+
+Carpenter 144, 147, 158, 161-3, 165, 178, 184
+
+Carter 96, 164
+
+Catchem's Corner 26
+
+Chartley 83
+
+Chatterton 175
+
+Chillington 14, 84, 121, 149
+
+Chubb 160
+
+Churchwardens 26, 79, 105, 112, 129, 130, 132, 153
+
+Clarke 114
+
+Clement 42, 72
+
+Clemson 139, 186
+
+Clent 37, 64
+
+Cleveland 107, 128
+
+Codsall 14, 30, 56, 93-4, 137
+
+Coseley 145
+
+Cote 28
+
+Courts (Leet, &c.) 23, 148-153, 156, 182
+
+Coven 38
+
+Cozens 175
+
+Cuddlestone 27-8
+
+Darlaston 14, 38, 40, 45, 65, 82, 92, 98, 103, 106, 137, 143-4, 156, 164,
+172, 174-5, 180, 184
+
+Davies 114, 125
+
+Dean (of Wolverhampton) 22-4, 28, 30, 34-6, 39, 49, 50-1, 55, 72-9
+
+Delves 2
+
+De Willenhall, John 37, 42
+
+,, Roger 37
+
+Dudley 39, 46, 51-2, 58, 64-6, 69, 90, 137, 172
+
+Duignan 2, 3, 9, 19
+
+Dunstall 14, 17, 21, 39, 93
+
+Ecwills 8
+
+Elfthryth 19
+
+Essington 14, 18, 25, 27, 38, 71, 154, 157
+
+Ettingshall 14
+
+Etymologies 1-5, 9, 11, 13-4
+
+Fairs, Wakes, &c. 57-61, 163, 188, 190
+
+Featherstone, 6, 14, 18, 23-5, 28, 30, 74-6, 80
+
+Fellows 22-3
+
+Fisher 102, 104, 106-111, 125, 127, 134, 139, 186, 189
+
+Fletcher 132-2, 134
+
+Foster 144
+
+Franchises 30
+
+Fytzherbert 52
+
+Garrick 88-9
+
+Gerveyse 32-3, 116
+
+Giffard 30, 52, 69, 71, 97, 112, 121, 123, 139, 149
+
+Giles, St. 36, 57, 103, 105, 110-1, 133, 139, 141, 188
+
+Gilpin 96-7
+
+Goldthorn Hill 20, 26
+
+Goscote 66
+
+Gospelling 25, 26, 93
+
+Gough 46, 66, 137, 139, 140, 147, 186
+
+Gower 30, 47, 97, 139
+
+Graisley 7, 20
+
+Grosvenor 69
+
+Guthferth 8
+
+Halesowen 75
+
+Haling 46-7
+
+Hall 72, 86, 147
+
+Hammerwich 40
+
+Hampton 34, 39, 40, 113
+
+Harper 42, 44, 59, 144, 164, 166
+
+Hartill 102, 107, 111, 114, 125, 133-4, 140-2, 146, 150, 154, 163, 181,
+185-6
+
+Hascard 74
+
+Haswic 28
+
+Hatherton 14, 18-9, 23-4, 28, 30, 34, 72, 74-6, 80
+
+Healfden 8
+
+Heath Town 10, 11
+
+Hilton 18-9, 23-4, 28, 30, 38-9, 74-6, 80, 98, 103
+
+Hincks 105, 125, 184
+
+Hind Brook 90
+
+Hinton 74-5
+
+Hobbart 76
+
+Hocintun 28
+
+Holbrooke 97-137
+
+Holyoake 108
+
+Horsley 7-10
+
+Huntbach 6, 7, 10
+
+Industries, Trades 31, 41, 45, 92, 106, 175, 178
+
+Jennings 46
+
+Johnson 88, 101, 114
+
+Kempson 71, 161
+
+Kenwolf 8
+
+Kidson 147, 186
+
+Kinvaston 14, 18, 23-5, 28, 30, 74, 76, 80
+
+Kinver 9, 51, 185-6
+
+Lane, Lone 30, 44, 52, 66-7, 70, 77, 95, 119, 120, 136-7, 139, 152, 175
+
+Lawley 37, 93, 175, 177-8, 187
+
+Leek 37
+
+Lees 114
+
+Leigh 66-7, 119
+
+Leper House 94
+
+Levison 34, 36, 39, 41-52, 55-6, 59, 60-1, 66, 68, 71-4, 97, 121, 123,
+149, 150-1
+
+Lewis 98
+
+Lilleshall 46, 49
+
+Little London 145, 148, 189
+
+Little Low 7, 10
+
+Lowhill 4, 9
+
+Lows 6, 7, 9, 10
+
+Loxton 177
+
+Lutley 30, 75
+
+Manlove 83, 85
+
+Manningham 77
+
+Marshall 59, 60
+
+Matilda 37
+
+Maxey 72
+
+Mercia 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 21, 27, 37
+
+Monmore 11, 16, 23-4, 30, 75-6, 93, 143, 145, 156
+
+Moreton 98, 100-4, 106, 110, 184
+
+Moseley 14, 19, 69, 70-1, 136
+
+Mounsell 55, 95
+
+Mumper's Dingle 172, 174
+
+Nechells 9
+
+Neptune Inn 102, 106, 149, 181-2, 189
+
+Neve 96, 98, 103, 138
+
+Newbolds 14
+
+Newbrigge 38
+
+New Invention 145, 148, 154, 183
+
+Nicholls 114
+
+North Low 7, 9, 10
+
+Oakeswell 67
+
+Ocstele, le 39
+
+Odyes 39, 42-3
+
+Offlow 12, 21, 27-8, 148
+
+Ogley Hay 14, 19
+
+Ohter 8
+
+Oldbury 63
+
+Oliver 1, 24, 50, 76, 89, 93, 96
+
+Osferth 8
+
+Padmore 95
+
+Patent Rolls 32-3, 44
+
+Pearce 144, 146
+
+Pedley 130-1, 133, 144, 147
+
+Pelsall 4, 15, 18, 25, 27, 30, 32, 55, 66, 81
+
+Pendeford 15, 38, 40, 162
+
+Penderel 69
+
+Penkhull 37
+
+Penkridge 2, 178
+
+Penn 56, 82
+
+Pensnett 90
+
+Perry 161
+
+Phillips, Claudius 88-9
+
+Pipe Rolls 37
+
+Pitt 67
+
+Podmore 120-1
+
+Portobello 134, 144-5, 148, 181
+
+Prestwood 34, 40, 71, 113, 120, 129, 132, 151
+
+Prosser 162
+
+Pype 40
+
+Railways 127, 150, 156
+
+Rollason 64, 117, 122
+
+Rosedale 111-2, 114, 134, 140
+
+Rowley 37
+
+Rubery 144
+
+Rushall 4, 66-9
+
+Rushbrooke 166, 185
+
+Ryes 73
+
+Sampson 28
+
+Sandbeds 134, 148, 154
+
+Scotland 15
+
+Sedgley 13, 39, 92, 167
+
+Seisdon 6, 12, 15, 27-8, 148
+
+Sewall, Showells, &c. 6, 15, 93-4
+
+Shakespeare 185
+
+Shenstone 40
+
+Shepwell Green 128, 132, 134
+
+Short Heath 110-2, 133-4, 144-5, 148, 155, 164, 183
+
+Sigeric 20-1
+
+Slater 113, 116, 186
+
+Soldier's Hill 9
+
+Solly 178, 186
+
+South Low 7, 9, 10
+
+Spa, Holy Well, &c. 57, 90-4, 179, 187-8
+
+Spring Vale 92
+
+Stephen's, St. 110, 112, 133-4
+
+Stow Heath 12, 15, 17, 30, 99, 112, 116, 122-4, 139, 148-9, 155, 182
+
+Stowman Hill 9
+
+Stretton 81
+
+Sunday, St. 90-1
+
+Sutherland 47, 112
+
+Swynnerton 38
+
+Symmonds 68
+
+Tame 1, 29, 93
+
+Tettenhall 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17-8, 21, 28, 40, 51, 56, 137
+
+Therferth 8
+
+Thorneycroft 107, 165, 176-7
+
+Tildesley 114, 144, 147, 154, 158, 163-6, 177-8, 186
+
+Tipper 164-5
+
+Tipton 65, 136
+
+Tithes 48, 50, 75, 95, 107
+
+Tomkys 44, 121, 131-2, 151, 161
+
+Tonks 146-7, 164
+
+Tramways 156
+
+Trollesbury 32, 95
+
+Tromelow 7, 10, 15
+
+Tumuli 4, 6, 7, 9, 10
+
+Turton 47
+
+Twyford 19
+
+Unett 85-6, 161
+
+Vaughan 114, 147, 164, 166, 186
+
+Vestry 17, 26
+
+Villiers 182, 184, 189, 190
+
+Wakelam 182
+
+Walker 24, 26, 61, 114, 184
+
+Walsall 2, 4, 5, 9, 17-9, 57-9, 60-1, 68, 137, 140
+
+Wednesbury 1, 2, 5, 12-3, 17, 27, 38, 41, 46, 57-61, 65, 67, 137, 152,
+167, 180
+
+Wednesfield 2, 5-13, 18, 31, 38-40, 66, 72, 80, 132, 135, 145, 155, 162,
+l67, 172, 181
+
+Welch 131, 133, 151, 179
+
+Wergs 8, 15
+
+Wesley 57, 143, 145, 152, 175, 177
+
+West Bromwich 113
+
+White 103-4
+
+Whitehouse 105, 107, 144, 187
+
+Whitegreaves 70-1
+
+Willis 89
+
+Wilkes 6, 7, 40, 59, 80, 82-92, 120-1, 138, 141, 144, 160, 164, 179
+
+Willoughby de Broke 75
+
+Windsor 19, 23, 35, 49, 51, 57, 74-5, 99
+
+Wobaston 15, 23, 28, 30, 74-6
+
+Woden Stone 13
+
+Wolfric 12
+
+Wolstanton 37
+
+Wombourn 6, 9, 10, 15, 56
+
+Wren 73
+
+Wrottesley 4, 6, 7, 40, 52, 84,-5
+
+Wulfgeal 19
+
+Wulfruna 12, 17, 22, 92, 94
+
+Wyndefield 39
+
+Young 162
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+{88}  Claudy Phillips, as he was popularly called, seems to have been a
+man of considerable genius, though not without some of the eccentricities
+which sometimes accompany it.  He was well known throughout the county,
+which he used to traverse dressed at one time in laced clothes, at others
+in garments which betrayed the low state of his exchequer.  When drawn to
+it by stress of financial embarassment, he was not above playing in the
+evening at inns, and throwing himself upon the generosity of his
+audiences there.  As to his qualities as a musician, it is said his
+_forte_ was in wild and plaintive melody, dictated by the impulses of his
+own mind, and subject to none of the ordinary rules of studied
+compositions; his manipulation of the violin was also distinguished for a
+rapidity of execution unrivalled in those days.  The handsome marble
+tablet erected to his memory soon after his death, in 1732, by public
+subscription, shows that he must have been held in considerable
+estimation by a goodly number of admirers.  Indeed, he must have been
+known to some of the most prominent personages of his time, as the
+following lines upon him have been variously attributed to Dr. Johnson or
+to David Garrick:--
+
+    Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove
+    The pangs of guilty power and hapless love,
+    Rest here! distrest by poverty no more,
+    Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before!
+    Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,
+    Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!
+
+(See also Oliver's "Wolverhampton," pp. 98 and 99.)
+
+
+
+
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