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diff --git a/31675-0.txt b/31675-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc08f7c --- /dev/null +++ b/31675-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8131 @@ +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*** + + +******* This file should be named 31675-0.txt or 31675-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/6/7/31675 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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