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diff --git a/31675-h/31675-h.htm b/31675-h/31675-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00b8592 --- /dev/null +++ b/31675-h/31675-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10217 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Annals of Willenhall, by Frederick William Hackwood</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 30%; } + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Annals of Willenhall, by Frederick +William Hackwood + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Annals of Willenhall + + +Author: Frederick William Hackwood + + + +Release Date: March 17, 2010 [eBook #31675] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANNALS OF WILLENHALL*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1908 Whitehead Bros. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: right">[<span +class="smcap">Copyright</span>]</p> +<h1><span class="smcap">The</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Annals of Willenhall</span></h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">—by—</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Frederick Wm. +Hackwood</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">AUTHOR OF</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“The Chronicles of Cannock +Chase,” “Wednesbury Ancient and Modern,”<br /> +“The Story of the Black Country,” +“Staffordshire Stories,”<br /> +&c., &c.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“I cannot tell by +what charm our native soil captivates us,<br /> +and does not allow us to be forgetful of it.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<i>Ovid</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0b.png"> +<img alt= +"Seal of Willenhall Local Authority" +title= +"Seal of Willenhall Local Authority" +src="images/p0s.png" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center">Wolverhampton:<br /> +<span class="smcap">whitehead bros.</span>,<br /> +St. John’s Square and King Street.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">1908.</p> +<h2><!-- page iii--><a name="pageiii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. iii</span>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Chapter</span>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Page</span>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>I.—Willenhall—Its Name and Antiquity</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>II.—The Battle of Wednesfield</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>III.—The Saxon Settlement</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>IV.—The Founding of Wulfruna’s Church, <span +class="smcap">a.d.</span> 996</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>V.—The Collegiate Establishment</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page22">22</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>VI.—Willenhall at the Norman Conquest +(1066–1086)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>VII.—A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>VIII.—Willenhall in the Middle Ages</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>IX.—The Levesons and other Old Willenhall +Families</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page41">41</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>X.—Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page48">48</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XI.—How the Reformation Affected Willenhall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XII.—Before the Reformation—and After</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XIII.—A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms +(1640–1745)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XIV.—Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend +(1615–1702)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page72">72</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XV.—Willenhall Struggling to be a Free Parish</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XVI.—Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall +(1690–1760)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XVII.—Willenhall “Spaw”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page90">90</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XVIII.—The Benefice</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XIX.—How a Flock Chose its own Shepherd</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XX.—The Election of 1894, and Since</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXI.—Willenhall Church Endowments</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page116">116</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXII.—The Church Charities: the Daughter +Churches</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXIII.—The Fabric of the Church</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page135">135</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXIV.—Dissent, Nonconformity, and Philanthrophy</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXV.—Manorial Government</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXVI.—Modern Self-Government</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page153">153</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXVII.—The Town of Locks and Keys</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page158">158</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXVIII.—Willenhall in Fiction</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page167">167</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXIX.—Bibliography</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXX.—Topography</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXXI.—Old Families and Names of Note</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>XXXII.—Manners and Customs</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page187">187</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><!-- page v--><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Seal of Local Authority</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">Title Page.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>St. Giles’ Church</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagev">v</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rev. Wm. Moreton</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagev">v</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rev. G. H. Fisher, M.A.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagev">v</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Dr. Richard Wilkes</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagev">v</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Moseley Hall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Boscobel</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Bentley Hall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Willenhall Trade Token (farthing)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Borrow, George</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page169">169</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Borrow’s Birthplace</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page169">169</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Neptune Inn</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Bell Inn</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Old Bull’s Head</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Plough</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tildesley, James</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tildesley, Josiah</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Pearce, George Ley</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hartill, Jeremiah</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Austin, John</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0ab.png"> +<img alt= +"St. Giles’ Church (before Restoration). 1755 to 1871" +title= +"St. Giles’ Church (before Restoration). 1755 to 1871" +src="images/p0as.png" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0bb.png"> +<img alt= +"The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles’ Church, +1788–1834)" +title= +"The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles’ Church, +1788–1834)" +src="images/p0bs.png" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0cb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A. (Incumbent of St. Giles’ +Church, 1834–1894)" +title= +"Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A. (Incumbent of St. Giles’ +Church, 1834–1894)" +src="images/p0cs.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0db.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Dr. Richard Wilkes" +title= +"Dr. Richard Wilkes" +src="images/p0ds.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +1</span>I.—Its Name and Its Antiquity</h2> +<p>Willenhall, vulgo Willnal, is undoubtedly a place of great +antiquity; on the evidence of its name it manifestly had its +foundation in an early Saxon settlement. 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.</p> +<p>Dr. Oliver, in his History of Wolverhampton, derives the name +from Velen, the Sun-god, and the Rev. H. Barber, of +Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who tries to find a Danish origin for nearly +all our old Midland place-names, suggests the Norse form +Vil-hjalmr; or perhaps a connection with Scandinavian family +names such as Willing and Wlmer.</p> +<p>Dr. Barber fortifies himself by quoting Scott:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Beneath the shade the Northmen came,<br /> +Fixed on each vale a Runic name.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Rokeby, Canto, IV.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Here it may not be out of place to mention that Scandinavian +influences are occasionally traceable throughout the entire basin +of the Trent, even as far as this upper valley of its feeder, the +Tame. 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. <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 2</span>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.</p> +<p>Willenhall, however, was situated outside the Danelagh, the +western boundary of which was the Watling Street; indeed, the +place nomenclature of this locality affords very few examples +which are really traceable to the Danish occupation—an +almost solitary specimen being the aforementioned name of +Bustleholme, near the Delves.</p> +<p>The etymological derivation which has found most favour in +times past is that based on the erroneous Domesday form, +Winehala. 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.”</p> +<p>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 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span>; but thanks to +the recent researches of our eminent local historiographer, Mr. +W. H. Duignan, F.S.A. (of Walsall), that position is no longer +tenable.</p> +<p>There is in existence a couple of charters dated <span +class="smcap">a.d.</span> 732 (or 733; certainly before the year +734) which were executed by Ethelbald, King of Mercia, at a place +named therein as “Willanhalch.”</p> +<p>Mr. Duignan says the Mercian kings frequently reside in this +part of their dominions, as at Kingsbury, Tamworth, and +Penkridge; probably for the convenience of hunting in Cannock +<!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +3</span>Forest, within the boundaries of which Willenhall was +anciently located.</p> +<p>Virtually the two charters are one, the same transaction being +recorded by careful and punctilious scribes in duplicate; and +their purport was to benefit Mildrith, now commonly called St. +Mildreda, one of the grand-daughters of King Penda, and probably +one of the few canonised worthies who can be claimed as natives +of this county-area. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>The suggestion of Shaw that the name was changed cannot be +entertained for one moment; the Anglo-Saxons were not in the <!-- +page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +4</span>habit of changing place-names, but they were very much +addicted to the practice of “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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Yet in the next paragraph it is admitted that the Danes never +gained a permanent footing in this locality, and that there is +scarce a name of purely Danish origin in the neighbourhood.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +5</span>II.—The Battle of Wednesfield.</h2> +<p>Although it cannot be admitted that the Battle of Wednesfield, +or the great national victory gained on that occasion, provided +Willenhall with its name, the event itself may certainly be +regarded as the chief historical episode which has occurred in +this immediate vicinity. This was “far back in the +olden time” when, says the local poetess—</p> +<blockquote><p>The Danes lay camped on Woden’s field.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +6</span>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.</p> +<p>As a matter of fact, the exact site of the Tettenhall +engagement is not known, yet one historian has not hesitated to +represent the nature of the conflict as being “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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>We there, in strife bewild’ring,<br /> + Spilt blood enough to swim in:<br /> +We orphaned many children,<br /> + We widowed many women.<br /> +The eagles and the ravens<br /> + We glutted with our foemen:<br /> +The heroes and the cravens,<br /> + The spearmen and the bowmen.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>According to Fabius Ethelwerd it was a national and a most +memorable fight which occurred at Wednesfield, where three Danish +chieftains fell in the conflict; in support of which statement it +is mentioned that the Lows, or monumental burial grounds, of the +mighty dead are to be found at Wednesfield and Wrottesley. +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 <!-- page 7--><a +name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>writing of the +Rev. Stebbing Shaw’s “History of Staffordshire” +(1798–1801).</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 8</span>up to the River Severn as far as +Bridgnorth, then called Quat, Quatbridge, or Quatford, committing +great enormities, and destroying all before them. 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>At the encounter of the following year (<span +class="smcap">a.d.</span> 911) the Danes, after a great pillaging +expedition, having strongly posted themselves at Wednesfield, +little advantage was gained by either side after many hours of +hard fighting, till at last the Saxons were reinforced by Earl +Kenwolf. Victory then fell to the Saxons.</p> +<p>This Kenwolf, who is said to have been the greatest notable of +the locality, and seated on a good estate at Stowe Heath, was +mortally wounded in the fray; and on the opposite side there fell +Healfden and Ecwills, two Danish kings; Ohter and Scurfar, two of +their Earls; a number of other great noblemen and generals, among +them Othulf, Beneting, Therferth, Guthferth, Agmund, Anlaf the +Black, and Osferth the tax-gatherer, and a host of men. 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.</p> +<p><!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +9</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>Coming to the latest and most reliable authority, Mr. W. H. +Duignan, of Walsall, here is what he writes in his admirable +work, “Staffordshire Place Names,” under the heading +“Low Hill,” which is the name of an ancient estate at +Bushbury:—</p> +<p>“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 <!-- page 10--><a +name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>911 a battle +was fought between the Saxons and the Danes, called in the +Chronicles the battle of Tettenhall, but which was really waged +on Wednesfield Heath (now Heath Town).</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p10.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p10.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +11</span>II.—The Saxon Settlement</h2> +<p>Fourteen or fifteen centuries ago the cluster of places which +we now know as the town of Wolverhampton, and the numerous +industrial centres grouped around it, were then primitive Saxon +settlements, each of them peopled by the few families that +claimed kinship with each other.</p> +<p>These embryo townships were dotted about the clearings which +had been made in the thick primeval forest with which the whole +face of England was then covered, save only where the surface was +barren hill or undrained swamp. 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.”</p> +<p>At the outset each settlement at its foundation was +independent of, and co-equal with, the others; Saxon society +being founded on a system of family groupings, and a government +of the ancient patriarchal type.</p> +<p>All questions of government and public interest were settled +by the voice of the people in “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 <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 12</span>(now Wednesbury), a hill fortified by +deep ditch and high stockade.</p> +<p>Presently the family tie gave way to the lordship, as certain +chiefs, under the stress of circumstances, acquired domination +over others, and hence arose the manor or residential lordship, +the head of which took pledges for the fidelity of those below +him, and in turn became responsible for them to the king above +him—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>At Wolverhampton was seated one Wolfric, said to have been an +ancestor of Wolfgeat, and a relation to Wulfruna; his manor house +was situated on the slope of the hill between the present North +Street and Waterloo Road—doubtless a large rambling mansion +of low elevation, built of heavy timbers on a low plinth of +boulders and hewn stones.</p> +<p>Here at Hantun he kept his state—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 <!-- page 13--><a +name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>table, with +rude benches of oak on each side; the whole effort at +ornamentation being limited to trophies of war and the chase +hanging upon the walls. Such, in brief, was the home life +of a great thane.</p> +<p>It will be observed that Wednesfield and Wednesbury at least +were founded by the Saxons in their pagan days; that is before +their acceptance of the White Christ, which was towards the close +of the seventh century. 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.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>Part of the blood was then sprinkled on the worshippers, part +on the sacred grove; the bodies were then either burnt on the +altar or suspended on trees within this mystic grove. +Later, when some advance had been made by the hierarchy, the +Woden Stone was removed from the Wednesfield grove to be erected +within the temple of Woden at Wednesbury.</p> +<p>There are other evidences of pagan practices to be discovered +in Staffordshire place-names. 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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 14--><a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>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.</p> +<p>Here are some local illustrations of place-names conferred by +the Anglian invaders when they had conquered and appropriated the +territory.</p> +<p>Arley, otherwise Earnlege, was “the Eagle’s +ley.”</p> +<p>Bilston signifies “the town of Bil’s +folk.”</p> +<p>Blakenhall was “the hall of Blac.”</p> +<p>Bloxwich was “the village of Bloc”: as Wightwick +was “Wiht’s village.”</p> +<p>Bushbury was “the Bishop’s burg.”</p> +<p>Chillington was originally “Cille’s +town.”</p> +<p>Codsall was “Code’s hall.”</p> +<p>Darlaston was once “Deorlaf’s town.”</p> +<p>Dunstall, otherwise Tunstall, was “an enclosed +farmstead,” half a mile outside the ancient boundary of +Cannock Forest.</p> +<p>Essington was “the town of the descendants of +Esne.”</p> +<p>Ettingshall was “the hall of the Etri family.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Hatherton, or Hagathornden, signifies “the hill of the +hawthorn.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Moseley was the “mossy or marshy lea”: as Bradley +the “broad lea”; and Bentley was the “lea of +bent” or reedy grass.</p> +<p><!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +15</span>Newbolds, an ancient farm in Wednesfield, is an +Anglo-Saxon name, “niwe bold,” and it pointed out +“the new house.”</p> +<p>Ogley Hay, now called Brownhills, was originally Ocginton, or +“Ocga’s town.”</p> +<p>Pelsall may be translated “Peol’s Hall.”</p> +<p>Pendeford was once “Penda’s ford.”</p> +<p>Scotlands were “the corner-lands,” this hamlet +being at the corner of a triangular piece of land, bounded on all +sides by ancient roads.</p> +<p>Seisdon was probably “the Saxon’s Hill.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Tettenhall was possibly Tetta’s hall; or, more probably, +“Spy hall,” otherwise a watch tower.</p> +<p>Tromelow, commonly called Rumbelows, a farm on the site of one +of the Wednesfield lows, is a name that may literally mean +“the burial mound of the host.” The corruption +Rumbelow is probably made out of the phrase “At +Tromelowe.”</p> +<p>Wergs (The), through many transformations from Wytheges to +Wyrges, is “the withy hedges.”</p> +<p>Wobaston, an estate in Bushbury, was anciently +“Wibald’s town.”</p> +<p>Wombourne was the “bourne (or brook) in the +hollow.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +16</span>Although some of these names (as Showells, formerly +Sewall) may not date quite back to the Saxon period, most of them +may be accepted as present-day evidences of the great Teutonic +descent upon this Midland locality. 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.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p16.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p16.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +17</span>IV.—The Founding of Wulfruna’s Church, 996, +A.D.</h2> +<p>After the advent of Christianity, the new religion was +gradually advanced throughout the land by the settlement of +priest-missioners in the various localities. 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.</p> +<p>England is made up of some ten thousand parishes, each with +its parish church, around which for a thousand years has revolved +the social and political, as well as the whole religious life of +the place. The parish is our unit of local government, and +the history of a town is usually a history of the parish.</p> +<p>But Willenhall never was a parish. 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.</p> +<p><!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +18</span>The ancient parish of Wolverhampton lies widely +dispersed and very detached, containing no less than 17 townships +and hamlets, all subject to the collegiate church in matters +ecclesiastical, though in many cases being distinct in matters +secular. How broken the area is may be noted in the case of +Pelsall, which is cut off from the mother parish by Bloxwich, a +hamlet in Walsall parish.</p> +<p>Willenhall is one among several other neighbouring places +that, from the earliest period of England’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 (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 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.</p> +<p>This was in the reign of Ethelred the Unrede, which was a +period sadly troubled by the aggressions of the Danes; and it is +believed that Wulfruna (or Wulfrun) had designed to found a +monastery, though as early as the time of Edward the Confessor, +or within a century of its institution, her establishment is +found to be a Collegiate Church.</p> +<p>With this accession of dignity, and in grateful recognition of +the lady’s pious munificence, the town became known as +Wulfrun’s Hampton, now modified in Wolverhampton.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In founding her noble church at Wolverhampton, Wulfruna +endowed it with thirteen estates, including lands in Willenhall, +Wednesfield, Pelsall, Essington, Hilton, Walsall, Featherstone, +Hatherton, Kinvaston, Bilston, and Arley. Willenhall being +only three miles away from Wolverhampton, and being also for a +long <!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +19</span>time ecclesiastically incorporated with it, its history +at many points cannot be detached from that of the mother +parish.</p> +<p>The wording of the charter by which the gift was made is +quaintly interesting. 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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>The boundaries of the lands conferred by the noble +benefactress are set forth with much precision, as in the noting +of brooks and fords, of parks and woods, of fields and lanes and +lands; and in very few cases has Mr. Duignan failed to recognise +the old names and identify them with the modern appellations of +the places meant, among the latter being Willenhall, Wednesfield, +Pelsall, Hilton, Ogley Hay, Hatherton, Cannock, Moseley Hole, +Twyford, Walsall, &c.</p> +<p>The original Charter has not been heard of since 1646, when it +was supposed to be copied by Sir William Dugdale into his +monumental work, the “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 <!-- page 20--><a +name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>in +Anglo-Saxon, which makes it an interesting study of +place-names.</p> +<p>Wolverhampton church, dedicated to St. Mary, was a collegiate +establishment, with a dean as president, and a number of +prebendaries or canons who were “secular” priests, +and not brethren of any of the regular “orders of +monks.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>The Princess Wulfruna heard the deeds,<br /> +Told by the fire in her stately hall.<br /> + Alas! then said the gentle dame,<br /> + It grieves me sore such things should be.<br /> + Now, by the Christ that died on tree,<br /> + The Christ that died for them and me,<br /> + These heathen souls shall all be free<br /> + From sin, and pain of Purgat’ry;<br /> + In token of our victory,<br /> + Where masses shall be sung and said,<br /> + And prayers told for the restless dead<br /> + That wander still on Woden’s Plain—<br +/> + It shall be raised in Mary’s name.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +21</span>The noble lady with her train, and accompanied by the +Archbishop Sigeric, pays a visit of inspection to the locality +she designs thus to honour, passing beneath the shade of +“the forest trees of Theotanhall” on her +way—</p> +<blockquote><p>And as they passed thro’ Dunstall Wood,<br +/> +And stopped to drink where a streamlet fell,<br /> +Then said the lady fair and good<br /> +Here will I build a wayside well.<br /> +Now Hampton town before them lay.<br /> +But first they sought out Woden’s plain,<br /> +Where lay the bleached bones of the slain.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>After the Archbishop had offered up a prayer for the +dead—</p> +<blockquote><p>At length they stood upon the height<br /> +That rises over Hampton town;<br /> +There, amid knight, and dame, and priest,<br /> +The Princess Wulfrune laid the stone,<br /> +The first stone on the holy fane.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Then solemnly the pious lady removed from her royal brows the +golden coronet that hitherto had graced it, and put in place of +it a crown of thorns, saying—</p> +<blockquote><p>It were ill done that I have worn<br /> +A golden crown, while Jesus sweet<br /> +For my sake wore a crown of thorn;<br /> +And here I dedicate my days<br /> +To Him until my life be sped.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thus far the foundation of the mother church—much more +of the town’s history follows in like strain.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * * *</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +22</span>V.—The Collegiate Establishment</h2> +<p>We cannot be too insistent on the close connection long +subsisting between Willenhall and Wolverhampton owing to the fact +of the former being a part of Wulfruna’s endowment of her +collegiate church.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>A prebendary, it may be explained, is one who enjoys a prebend +or canonical portion; that is, who receives in right of his +place, a share out of the common stock of the church for his +maintenance. 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.</p> +<p>Sampson Erdeswick, whose history of this county was commenced +in 1593, says the foundation was effectuated in 970 by King +Edgar, at the request of his dying sister, Wulfruna.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +23</span>The dean and the prebends had special seats or stalls in +the choir of the church; the sacrist had no stall, neither had he +any voice in the chapter. In modern times (1811) the +sacrist has become the perpetual curate of the parish.</p> +<p>It will be noted that the head of this college of seculars was +styled the “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.</p> +<p>In the year 1338, Edward III. confirmed the charter of the +church as a royal free chapter, giving the Dean the jurisdiction +of a Court Leet, and a copyhold Court Baron, to be called the +Deanery Court of Wolverhampton. 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</p> +<blockquote><p>In the third Edward’s time.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The college then consisted of the ten members of the +foundation just mentioned, augmented by other ministers and +officers necessary for conducting so large an establishment, the +prebendaries being officially mentioned in this order:—(1) +Wolverhampton; (2) Kinvaston; (3) Featherstone; (4) Hilton; (5) +Willenhall; (6) Monmore; (7) Wobaston; (8) Hatherton.</p> +<p>By the fifteenth century Chantries had been founded, and +chapels erected therefor, at Willenhall, Bilston, Pelsall, and at +Hatherton; and in further depreciation of the mother church, King +Edward IV., about 1465, with a desire to enrich the Collegiate +Church of St. George, at Windsor, annexed Wolverhampton to that +chapel royal.</p> +<p>In Protestant times the daily services were performed by the +sacrist and the readers, the prebendaries officiating on Sundays +in <!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +24</span>rotation, according to a set cycle. The time set +out for the prebendary of Willenhall commenced on the Sunday +after Ash Wednesday; till eventually exemption was purchased by +the payment of a small fee to the Perpetual Curate.</p> +<p>In olden times it was a common practice to carve the choir +seats. The prebendal stalls in Wolverhampton church were +marked with heraldic shields charged with simple ordinaries, in +the following manner:—the following manner:—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">ON THE SOUTH SIDE.</p> +<p>1. The Dean. On a fess, three roundels.</p> +<p>2. Prebendary of Featherstone. A pale cotised.</p> +<p>3. Prebendary of Willenhall. A Chevron.</p> +<p>4. Prebendary of Wobaston. A Chevron.</p> +<p>5. Prebendary of Hatherton. A pale cotised.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">ON THE NORTH SIDE.</p> +<p>6. Prebendary of Kinvaston. (Stall removed.)</p> +<p>7. Prebendary of Hilton. A Chevron +renversé.</p> +<p>8. Prebendary of Monmore. A Chevron.</p> +<p>To assist in the identification of the various estates +chargeable with the provisions of the prebends, or canonical +portions, it may be useful to give here a brief account of a +perambulation of the Wolverhampton parish boundaries made in +1824.</p> +<p>It was a regular Rogation ceremony of “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”:—</p> +<p>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 +<!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +25</span>the well in the cottage garden there, the Gospel was +read for the first time. (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.”)</p> +<p>From thence a lane near the third milestone on the same road +led the procession to Kinvaston, where the Gospel was read at an +Elder in the fold-yard of a house of a Mrs. Wooton. 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.</p> +<p>Crossing the Cannock Road, the Gospel was read for the fifth +and last time, that day, under an oak tree in the road near the +house of Mr. W. Price, of Featherstone.</p> +<p>On the second day, May 25th, the parishioners assembled as +before, and proceeded direct to Wednesfield, where the Gospel was +read in the Chapel, the clerk being in readiness at the door to +receive the procession. 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.</p> +<p>On the third day, which was Thursday, May 27th, the assembly +was made at the Swan Inn, and the procession was formed +there. 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.)</p> +<p><!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +26</span>From Willenhall the party next proceeded to Bilston, +where the third reading of the Gospel was performed within the +Chapel of that township.</p> +<p>From thence a move was made to Bradeley Hall, then in the +occupation of Mr. Nailer, at the bottom of whose garden was the +site of an old well, which had once been a bath, and here the +Gospelling was again celebrated.</p> +<p>The procession was then resumed through Bilston by +Catchem’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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p26.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p26.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +27</span>VI—Willenhall at the Norman Conquest +(1066–1086).</h2> +<p>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”!</p> +<p>The Domesday Book was a great national land register in which +was entered a record of every acre of land in England, its +condition, its ownership, and annual value at that time. +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.</p> +<p>Of this acreage 3 hides belonged to the old domains of the +Crown, like Bilston and Wednesbury (having formerly formed part +of the dominions of the Saxon kings), while but two hides of +Willenhall land belonged to Wolverhampton church. It is +believed that the King’s manorial portion took with it +Bentley, with its 1,650 acres.</p> +<p>Anyway, Willenhall having belonged originally to the ancient +Mercian kings, and having been held in succession by all the +Saxon kings of England to Edward the Confessor and Harold II., +naturally passed as a royal manor, or rather, a portion thereof, +into the hands of the Conqueror, being set down among the Crown +lands as of “ancient demesne.”</p> +<p>The Domesday Book also sets down among the possessions of the +Canons of Wolverhampton 2,200 acres in Wednesfield, 1,194 acres +in Pelsall, both in the same Hundred; 3,396 acres in +Wolverhampton, 3,912 acres in Arley, and 6,377 acres, a part of +Bushbury, are set down in Seisdon Hundred; the Essington portion +of Bushbury, once belonging to the Countess Godiva, is reckoned +in Cuddlestone Hundred, in which are also given the <!-- page +28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>four +other portions of Wolverhampton, namely Hilton, Hatherton, +Kinvaston, and Featherstone.</p> +<p>Since the eleventh century the boundaries of the Hundreds of +Offlow and Cuddlestone have been altered. As to the Arley +estate, that was lost to the canons ere another century had +elapsed—by 1172 had escheated to the Crown.</p> +<p>The present-day acreage of Wolverhampton parish is no less +than 17,449; made up of 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton proper, +1,845 in Bilston, and 1,650 in Bentley, a total of 6,891 acres in +Seisdon Hundred; thus leaving 10,608 acres to constitute Hilton +(two manors, since united into one) Hatherton, Kinvaston, +Featherstone, and Hocintune. The last-named was a manor +which, at that time, probably lay between Hilton and Hatherton, +within Wolverhampton; the name is obsolete.</p> +<p>These ten estates, comprising Wolverhampton, Willenhall (part +of), Arley (part of), Bushbury (part of), Hilton (part of), +Pelsall, Wednesfield, Cote (near Penn), Haswic (near Newcastle), +and Hocintune (now obsolete), were in 1086 held by the Canons of +Wolverhampton under Sampson, the highly favoured royal Chaplain, +to whom the Conqueror had presented this fief. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Willenhall, in the great survey, is recorded to have +contained, as previously stated, three hides belonging to the +King, and two hides belonging to the church—a hide of land +in Saxon measurement was a variable quantity from 200 to 600 +acres, according to <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 29</span>the locality, but generally it was +accounted so much as would serve to maintain a +family—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.</p> +<p>A bordar, or boor, was a squatter living in a hut or cottage +on the borders of a manor, having attached a little patch of +land, the rent of which was paid to the lord of the manor in the +shape of poultry, eggs, and small produce. 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.</p> +<p>Staffordshire at that time was in a chronic state of poverty, +an insurrection in the county having been suppressed in 1069 with +the Conqueror’s customary severity, thousands of the +wretched hinds having been slaughtered, the county desolated and +the Midlands depopulated.</p> +<p>Bilston was but a cluster of mud huts inhabited by swineherds; +and it is probable Willenhall was a similar little centre of boor +life in the next woodland clearing a little further along the +purling brooklet, and near its junction with Beorgitha’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.</p> +<p><!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +30</span>The two hides set down as ecclesiastical property have +remained in the possession of the church throughout. +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.</p> +<p>“Each of the other portionaries (continues Erdeswick) +have a several leet; whereof</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Kinvaston is reputed worth</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£100</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wobaston</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£100</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wilnall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£100</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Fetherston</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£80</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hilton</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£70</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Monmore</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£70</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hatherton</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£40</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 31</span>lands, tithes, hall, and park, +&c., called Bentley, adjoining to Willenhall, for +£13,500.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Such was life in Willenhall and Wednesfield at the Norman +period, both places being then overshadowed in more senses than +one by the severely protected royal preserves of Cannock +Forest. 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.</p> + +<blockquote><p> While +to their lowly dome<br /> +The full-fed swine return’d with evening home;<br /> +Compell’d reluctant, to the several sties,<br /> +With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The trade and callings of an English serf were as limited as +his other opportunities in life; and others beside the swineherd +found it in the adjacent woodlands. For there were +certainly woodcutters and charcoal burners; and if the local iron +ore were exploited, who shall say there were not then Willenhall +smiths who fashioned bolts and bars, even if they had not arrived +at the intricacies of locks and keys?</p> +<p>Here we are but emerging from the twilight of history.</p> +<h2><!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +32</span>VII.—A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall.</h2> +<p>In the earlier centuries of our national existence, the +history of a parish follows that of its church, the +ecclesiastical fold into which its inhabitants were regularly +gathered, not only for every religious purpose, but for every +other object of communal interest or of a public nature.</p> +<p>But, as previously explained, Willenhall was not a parish; it +was but one member of that wide parochial area ruled from the +mother church of Wolverhampton, several miles distant.</p> +<p>Yet at an early period Willenhall seems to have boasted a +chapel-of-ease, for the Calendar of Patent Rolls, under date +1297, contains an allusion to “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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 33</span>and administrations of the sacraments +being always strictly reserved to the mother church.</p> +<p>While a chapel-of-ease was provided for the general good of +the whole community, a chantry chapel was intended for the +special glory and exclusive benefit of some local landed +family. 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:—</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>A chantry (or chauntry, a name derived from cantaria), was a +chapel, little church, or some particular altar in a church, +endowed with lands and other revenues, for the maintenance of a +priest, or priests, daily to chant a mass and offer prayers for +the souls of the donors, and such others as the founders of the +chantry may have named. 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.</p> +<p>The method of procedure in setting up these foundations was +first to obtain a patent from the Crown for the founding and +endowing of them; and then to obtain the Bishop’s licence +for the regular daily performance of Divine service by the +appointed chantry priest, to whose stipend and support the +endowment mainly went.</p> +<p>Most of these chantries came into existence in the 14th +century, and by the close of the following century there was +scarce a parish church in the kingdom without its chantry in one +or other of its side chapels or subsidiary altars. By the +time of <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 34</span>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.</p> +<p>In connection with the endowments of the Willenhall chantry, +it is on record that at an Inquisition taken in 1397, it was +testified on oath that Roger Levison at that time held on lease +from Thomas Browning, chaplain of this chantry, 12 acres of land +in Wednesfield, and 100s. of rent in Willenhall, for which he had +to perform suit and service (of the usual nature in feudal +tenures) at the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.</p> +<p>In 1409 the advowson of the chapel of Willenhall, together +with certain valuable properties of rents and tenements in +Wolverhampton, were granted by Richard Hethe and William +Prestewode, chaplain, to William Bysshebury and his wife Joan, +and settled on them for the term of their lives, with remainder +to John Hampton, of Stourton, and his heirs for ever.</p> +<p>Fourteen years later William Bysshebury (his wife Joan being +then deceased) was sued by certain plaintiffs, on behalf of the +said John Hampton, for wasting these Wolverhampton properties, of +which he had the reversion. The plaintiffs included Roger +Aston, knight, William Leveson, William Everdon, Thomas +Arblaster, and others; while the waste and destruction complained +of comprised the digging and selling of clay, marl, and stones; +the permitting of seven halls, two chambers, two kitchens, two +granges, a dovecot, and a mill to remain unroofed till the +principal timbers had rotted; and also with cutting down and +selling a number of oaks, ashes, pear, and apple trees, the total +damage in respect of all this waste being estimated at a very +considerable figure.</p> +<p>The advowson was, of course, the right of presentation to the +benefice of Willenhall; and the Hamptons of Stourton Castle, to +whom it passed at this time, seem to have been a family which +originated at Wolverhampton—and perhaps derived their name +from the town.</p> +<p>The ministers who officiated in the local chapels-of-ease were +inferior in official status to the vicar, rector, or beneficed +clergyman <!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 35</span>of the mother church, and such +curates were generally removable at the pleasure of the said +vicar or rector. Willenhall, doubtless, was served by a +“curate” sent from the Wolverhampton collegiate +establishment.</p> +<p>In the reign of Edward IV. local ecclesiastical matters became +further complicated by the collegiate church of Wolverhampton +being permanently united with the Deanery of Windsor, the two +deaneries being always subsequently held together. 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).</p> +<p>The Chantry of Willenhall, in common with all others, +disappeared at the Reformation (this one probably in 1545), when +prayers for the dead were no longer tolerated. 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.</p> +<p>Attendance at church was compulsory in the early days of the +Anglican establishment. By statute (<span +class="smcap">i</span>, Elizabeth c. <span +class="smcap">i.</span>, 23 Elizabeth c. <span +class="smcap">i.</span>, and 3, James <span +class="smcap">i.</span> c. 4) every person was to repair to his +parish church every Sunday on pain of forfeiting 1s. for every +offence; and being present at any form of prayer contrary to the +Book of Common Prayer was punished with six months’ +imprisonment. Persons above sixteen years of age who +absented themselves from church above a month had to pay a +forfeit of £20 a month.</p> +<p>Protestant dissenters who did not deny the doctrine of the +Trinity were (it is interesting to note) exempted from these +penalties in 1689; and the Roman Catholics were similarly +emancipated by law in 1792. This by the way.</p> +<p>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; <!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 36</span>the incumbent was thenceforward to be +in fact, as well as in name, “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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p36.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p36.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>VIII.—Willenhall in the Middle Ages.</h2> +<p>Having brought the ecclesiastical history of Willenhall up to +the enlightened days of Queen Elizabeth, to preserve some sort of +chronological arrangement, we leave that section awhile in order +to deal with the social life of the place, so far as this may be +gleaned from a number of fragmentary sources and isolated +references.</p> +<p>The result of these gleanings is naturally very scrappy an +disconnected—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.</p> +<p>In the year 1172 the Pipe Rolls, which come next to the +Domesday Book among our most ancient national records, and +contain a full account of the Crown revenues, return Willenhall, +among five other Staffordshire estates, bringing in the sum of +£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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>During the reign of Edward III., his son and heir, the +renowned Black Prince, hero of Crecy and Poictiers, claimed +(after the manner of those times) the custody and guardianship of +Matilda, daughter and heiress of his old comrade in arms, John de +Willenhale. 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.</p> +<p><!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +38</span>In these earlier centuries of the Middle Ages the +machinery the law was crude and ineffective; as a consequence +lawlessness was rampant, and everywhere might became right.</p> +<p>The nobles, whenever the weakness of a king emboldened them, +fortified their castles, and increased the number of their +retainers, whom they reduced to a condition of complete +vassalage; and each baron strove to make himself a figure in the +great national convulsions which, from time to time, broke out +under the malign influences of the feudalism that dominated the +whole land and blighted its every hope of progress.</p> +<p>The Franklins, the inferior grade of gentry, who, under the +old Saxon system were called Thanes, were often compelled by +force of environment to range themselves under the protecting +banner of one or other of these petty kings. And where +authority was systematically set at defiance by the great and the +powerful, inoffensive conduct and dutiful obedience to the laws +of the land afforded no guarantee for the security of either life +or property.</p> +<p>To these disturbing influences must be added the barbarous +severity of the laws of the chase, the vindictive nature of which +sometimes made the heavy feudal chains of the common people +almost too grievous to be borne. As Willenhall was on the +confines of the Royal Forest of Cannock, the oppressive nature of +the Forest Laws was not unfelt by the inhabitants of this +secluded hamlet.</p> +<p>In 1306, when John de Swynnerton married the daughter and +heiress of Philip de Montgomery, Seneschal of the Royal Forest of +Cannock, and became Steward of the Forest in customary +succession, Willenhall was officially returned, along with a +number of surrounding places (Wednesfield, Wednesbury, Darlaston, +Essington, Hilton, Newbrigge, Moseley, Bushbury, Pendeford, +Coven, and a score more), as appurtenant to a third part of the +said forest bailiwick.</p> +<p>The Swynnerton interest in Willenhall transpires again in +1364, when John de Swynnerton is found suing two Willenhall men +for forcibly and feloniously removing some of his goods and +chattels from that place.</p> +<p><!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +39</span>In the previous reign—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>What the cause of quarrel may have been these meagre records +do not inform us, but on the evidence of a number of witnesses, +among whom was Richard Colyns, of Willenhall, they freely used +their spears and swords, inflicting wounds upon the throat and +other parts of the body, till the unfortunate Roger was +despatched.</p> +<p>In 1339, one Richard Adams, of Willenhall, was charged with +slaying two men in that place, one a townsman named John Odyes, +and a certain John de Bentley. As he was acquitted, +probably he did it in self-defence. Encounters of this +character were of frequent occurrence in those lawless times.</p> +<p>When the offences recorded are of a less serious nature than +murder and slaughter, they are nearly always described as being +accompanied by the violent use of lethal weapons—“vi +et armis” is the old legal phrase. Here are some +examples of this kind of lawlessness:—</p> +<p>In 1352, William de Hampton (probably of the Dunstall family +of that name) prosecuted a gang of fourteen men, including <!-- +page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>a chaplain, the parson of Sheynton (? 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.</p> +<p>A similar prosecution was undertaken in 1395 by another member +of this family, one Nicholas Hampton, against Thomas Marshall, of +Willenhall, and for a similar outrage in that place.</p> +<p>A Willenhall man named John Wilson, in 1373, had to invoke the +law upon a desperado who forcibly broke into his house and close +at Homerwych (Hammerwich), and stole from thence timber, +household utensils, clothing, corn, hay, and apparently +everything he could lay his hands upon and carry away.</p> +<p>Twenty years later John Wilson (probably the same prosecutor) +charged John Wilkes, of Darlaston, with stealing two of his oxen, +though no violence is alleged on this occasion.</p> +<p>Two Willenhall men, William Colyns, and William Stokes, were, +in 1399, arrested, and charged with cutting down trees and +underwood at Bentley. Force and violence were used on that +occasion; and it must be remembered that timber was then in much +greater demand for building purposes than now, while underwood +was in constant requisition as fuel and for the repair of fences +and shelters.</p> +<p>Sixteen years later (1415) John Pype and a number of other +Bilston men were prosecuted by Sir Hugh Burnell, Knt., for +breaking into his closes at Willenhall, trespassing on his land, +and treading down his grass with their cattle, committing damage +to a grievous extent, and all in undisguised defiance to the +law.</p> +<p>Enough has been quoted to illustrate, by incidents common to +the social life of so simple a community as that of Willenhall, +the gradual decay of feudalism, and the steady growth of English +liberty by the vindication of constitutional law.</p> +<h2><!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +41</span>IX.—The Levesons and other old Willenhall +families.</h2> +<p>From the same sources, namely from the records of the ancient +Law Courts, as transcribed, translated, and published in the +volumes of the Salt Society, we are enabled to gain a knowledge +of the most prominent families in this locality during the Middle +Ages. There seem to have been lawsuits ever since there +were landowners.</p> +<p>The principal family in Willenhall were the Levesons or +Leusons, who are said to have been connected with this place and +the neighbouring parishes of Wednesbury and Wolverhampton, almost +from the time of the Norman Conquest, eking out a living from the +soil, of which their tenure was at first a very precarious +one.</p> +<p>Their pedigree, given by the county historian, Shaw (II. p. +169), shows the founder to be one Richard Leveson, settled in +Willenhall in the reign of Edward I. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 42</span>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.”</p> +<p>A Clement de Willenhale is mentioned in an Assize of the year +1338, but not improbably he was identical with the Clement +Leveson mentioned in another lawsuit in 1356, a party to which +was a member of the ancient local family of +Harper—“John le Harpere,” as he is therein +called.</p> +<p>Then there is mention in 1351 of the John de Willenhale, who +is described as being in the wardship of the Prince of +Wales. 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.</p> +<p>Here is a copy of the Subsidy Roll of 1327 so far as it +relates to</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Wyllunhale</span>.</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>De</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Adam M—</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">—</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">—</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Andr’ atte Mere</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">xviij</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Joh’e le Bakere</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">—</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">—</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ric’o Odys</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 43</span>Ric’o filio Radulfi</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">vj</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Joh’e filio Rogeri</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">—</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">—</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ric’o filio Ade</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Will’o filio Roberti</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">iij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Will’o atte Pirye</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">vj</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ric’o Chollettes</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Agnete Odys</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">iij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hugone le Gardiner</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Adame atte Mere</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">ij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Joh’e Hopkynes</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">xij</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Agnete atte Wode</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">xij</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Will’mo Newemon</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">xij</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Symone Levesone</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">vj</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">Summa</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">xxviij</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">vj Pb.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>It will be seen that this fragment is imperfect, as the +various amounts set down will not add up to the +“summa” or total given, notwithstanding that it has +been audited—the abbreviation “Pb.” standing +for probata, or proved.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It will be observed that Simon is the only member of the +Leveson family assessed, and that he pays the least sum, except +that paid by the man Hugh, described as “the +Gardener” (the amount paid by “John the Baker” +has been obliterated from the roll).</p> +<p>The strange surname Odyes, appearing twice in this list, +occurs in another record of the year 1422, and seems to belong to +a gentle family, resident in Willenhall, and owning lands in +Bentley.</p> +<p>As but few people then bore recognised surnames, we find +taxpayers here officially set down as “Richard the son of +Ralph,” “John the son of Roger,” “Richard +the son of Adam,” and <!-- page 44--><a +name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +44</span>“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.”</p> +<p>From the Patent Rolls of November, 1334, may be gleaned the +bare facts of what seems to have been an extraordinary assault at +Willenhall, which was committed upon John, son of John de +Bentley, by no less than thirty assailants. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In 1369, John de la Lone, of Wolverhampton, sued John +Levesone, of Willenhale, for forcibly taking his fish, to the +value of 100 shillings, “from his several fishery in +Willenhale.”</p> +<p>In 1394, Roger Liefson (Leveson), of Wylenhale (who has been +previously mentioned in Chapter VII.), was at law with Thomas +Colyns, of the same place, for forcibly taking away from +Willenhall twelve oxen belonging to him. Immediately after, +one William de Chorley was attacked for taking away from Great +<!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +45</span>Wyrley, also with a display of armed force, three oxen +and two cows, the property of Richard Leveson, of +Willenhall. If these two cases were not reprisals, they at +least show a state of disturbance and insecurity.</p> +<p>Another exhibition of lawlessness is brought to our notice in +1429, when Richard Leveson is found suing Robert Dorlaston, +weaver, Richard Colyns, lorymer, William Brugge, and William +Bate, yeomen, all described as “of Wylenhale,” for +violently and forcibly breaking into his close at Willenhall.</p> +<p>A similar case of forcible entry into the close and houses of +James Leveson, at Willenhale, by one Roger Waters, a Willenhale +lorymer, was an outrage which occupied the attention of the law +courts in 1433.</p> +<p>Three years later (1436) another law case shows the same James +Levesson suing John Pippard, chaplain, for a messuage and 20 +acres of land in Wolverhampton, which he asserted had descended +to him from Richard Levesson, of Willenhall, who held it in the +time of Edward I., in a direct line, namely, from Richard to his +son Geoffrey, from Geoffrey to his son Roger, and from Roger to +his son Nicholas, who was plaintiff’s father.</p> +<p>By this time the Leveson family seems to have been not only +firmly established in and around Willenhall, Wednesfield, and +Wolverhampton, but to have been very numerous as well. +Originally yeomen of the first-named place, cultivating their +lands within the precincts of the Royal Forest of Cannock, they +gradually grew and prospered, one branch taking advantage of the +greater commercial opportunities offered by the last-named town, +and settling there as merchants and wool-staplers.</p> +<p>Woolstapling was a prosperous trade in Wolverhampton as early +as 1354; and in its ancient market place the Levesons of the +younger branch were to be found bartering wool and steadily +accumulating riches until they were able to marry into the most +exclusive of the county families.</p> +<p>Among the Bailiffs of the Staple—which, in the case of +Wolverhampton were wool and woolfel—we find the names of +William Leveson in 1485, and Walter Leveson in 1491.</p> +<p><!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +46</span>Members of other old and well-known local families also +filled this office of Bailiff at various times, namely, William +Jennings in 1483, Richard Gough in 1486, Edward Giffard in 1493, +Y. Turton in 1496, and W. Wrottesley in 1499. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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).</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 47--><a +name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>daring attack +upon Cadiz which has been sung by Henry John Newbolt in his +“Admirals All”—</p> +<blockquote><p>Essex was fretting in Cadiz Bay<br /> + With the galleons fair in sight;<br /> +Howard at last must give him his way,<br /> + And the word was passed to fight.<br /> +Never was schoolboy gayer than he,<br /> + Since holidays first began:<br /> +He tossed his bonnet to wind and sea,<br /> + And under the guns he ran.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>At the time Richard Leveson was sailing the seas with Essex +and Drake, there was a John Leveson living in Willenhall as lord +of the manor, the site of his residence being still marked by the +position of Levison Street and Moat Street.</p> +<p>In Wolverhampton “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.</p> +<p>Truly the local record of the Levesons is a long and notable +one; and it is interesting to note that John Leveson, son of +Thomas, who had been Sheriff of the county, and died in 1595, is +the last in Shaw’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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +48</span>X.—Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation.</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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).</p> +<p>A new valuation of the College of Wolverhampton had but just +been instituted in 1526, from which it will be necessary here to +extract only that portion of the return relating to our +subject. It was to this effect:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="4"><p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">The Prebend of Wylnall</span>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>William Leveson, Clerk (dwelling in Exeter with the +Bishop), Prebendary there, and hath in glebe-lands</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And in tithes of corn, one year with another</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And in wool and lambs by the year, one year with +another</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And in the Easter Book by the year, one year with +another</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And in tithes of Herbage, Pigs, Geese, and other small +tithes</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">Sum total</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And thereof he pays allowance for Synodals every third +year, paid to the aforesaid Dean</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And so there remains clear</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The tenth part thereof</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">23</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>The value of the Deanery, the Prebends, and the two +Chantries of Willenhall and Bilston are all set forth in this +Return. (See Oliver’s “History of Wolverhampton +Church,” pp. 57–60.)</p> +<p>The visitation of the religious houses, undertaken as it was +in a hostile spirit by Henry VIII., naturally alarmed the +authorities of a church where it would appear that irregularities +on the part of the prebendaries had long existed, and not an +inconsiderable portion of the church property had been alienated, +to say nothing of the sequestration of the church communion +plate. Now some hasty attempts were made at restitution, +and more so to escape detection and censure.</p> +<p>Restoration in some sort seems to have been hastily attempted +at Wolverhampton. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Although the various deeds were confirmed by the Dean and +Chapter of Windsor, the legality of the proceedings was +questioned; and presently it was successfully contended that the +Deanery of Wolverhampton was a separate benefice detached from +<!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>the College of Windsor, and that the prebends were in +the hands of the Crown.</p> +<p>There is extant another valuation of these ecclesiastical +revenues in the Primate’s Court. The record is in +Latin, but it may be Englished thus:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Canterbury values Willenhall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>It Days to the Dean of Wolverhampton</p> +<p style="text-align: right">(William Leveson, Prebendary of +Willenhall.)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>The Prebendary of Willenhall is worth per annum:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>In Glebeland</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">41</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>In Corn tithes</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>In Wool and Lambs</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">46</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>In Easter dues</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>In Tithes of Fodder, of Hogs, and Geese and other small +tithes</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Thence is paid, in every third year, to the Dean, for the +Synod</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>The valuation of Wolverhampton College which is to be regarded +as that of the Reformation was made in 1551, and one item in +which may be quoted from Oliver’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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="3"><p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 51--><a +name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span><span +class="smcap">Chantry of Wylnall</span>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hugh Bromehall, chaplain, hath a house with lands +pertaining to the same, value per annum</p> +</td> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: right">8 marks</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And prays to be allowed for rents of assize, payable to +the Dean</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And for Capitation rents, paid annually to William +Leveson, Prebendary of Wylnall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>And so their remains due</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">102</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The tenth part thereof</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>The Chantry, being regarded as one of the abhorred +institutions of Romanism, thus came to an end under the reforming +zeal of our Protestant legislators in the early years of the +reign of Edward VI.</p> +<p>All the possessions of the Colleges of Wolverhampton and +Tettenhall, with their Prebends, together with the Chantry lands +of Willenhall, Bilston, and Kinver, when they passed from the +Crown in 1552, fell into the hands of the notorious John Dudley, +Duke of Northumberland, who contrived to grab no end of church +property in this immediate locality. When Northumberland +came to the block shortly afterwards, there was a great +redistribution of this property, that of Wolverhampton being once +more annexed to the Royal Free Chapel of St. George at +Windsor.</p> +<h2><!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +52</span>XI.—How the Reformation Affected Willenhall.</h2> +<p>As recorded in the last chapter, the Willenhall Chantry, in +common with all others throughout the country, was finally +suppressed by Edward VI. and his Protestant ministers +(1547). It had been in existence upwards of 200 years, the +name of its first Chantry Priest being given (1341) as +“William in the Lone.”</p> +<p>The Prebendal lands also, as we have seen, were leased in the +fourth year of this reign to John Leveson, for the sum of +£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.</p> +<p>In 1547 the zeal of the Protestant reformers induced the +Government of Edward VI. to send Commissioners round the country +to make inquiry in every parish and every church as to the +ecclesiastical appointments used in ritual, with orders to +suppress all that made for “idolatrous Popish +practices.”</p> +<p>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—</p> +<blockquote><p>A juste, treu, and parfett survey and inventorie +of all goods, plate, juelles, vestements, belles, and other +ornaments, of all churches, chappells, brotherhoddes, gyldes, +fraternities, and compones within the Hundred of Offeley, in the +Countie of Stafford; taken the seventh day of October, in the +sixte yere of the Rayne of our Sovereyn Lord, King Edward the +Sixte, by Thomas Gyffard and Thomas Fytzherbert, knyghts; and +Walter Wrottesley, Esquier, by virtue of the King’s +commissein to them, directed in that behalf, as hereafter +particularly appereth.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +53</span>On one hand, they had to put a stop to the embezzlement, +concealment, and appropriation by private persons of the +condemned church property, and to recover as much of it as +possible for the King’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.</p> +<p>The Return made for Willenhall Church by the Commissioners and +their official “Surveyor,” or assessor, runs, +verbatim:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Wylnall</span>.</p> +<p>Fyrste one challes of sylver with a paten parcell gilte +weyinge by estimacon viij ounces; iij vestement one of whyte +fustian another of blacke chamlett and the thyrd of bleu +sarsynet; iij alter clothes; ij cruetts of ledde; a bucket of +brasse; iij candelstyks of maslyn; a paxe of brass; a corporas +with the case; ij towells; one cheste; a lampe of latynn; ij +small bells.</p> +<p>Mem.—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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <!-- page +54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +54</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>From a little known Return made in 1586 we are enabled to +gather the conditions of the Church of England, as it was found +to exist, only 28 years after it had been by law established.</p> +<p>At the Reformation, after the annulling of all “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.</p> +<p>The Reformers were divided upon the subject, Queen Elizabeth +expressing herself as being perfectly satisfied if in each county +three or four clergymen could be found capable of <!-- page +55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +55</span>preaching to their congregations. The Puritans, on +the other hand, laid great stress on the admonitory value and +spiritual importance of sermons and homilies.</p> +<p>By 1586 the condition of the newly-formed Protestant Church of +England had become so scandalous in respect of its priesthood +that a national “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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Wolverhampton</span>.—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.</p> +<p>Chappells 3:—</p> +<p>1. Pelsall; curate’s stipend £4; no +preacher.</p> +<p>2. Willenhall; curate hath no stipend reserved; no +preacher.</p> +<p>3. Bilston; curate hath no stipend reserved; no +preacher.</p> +<p>These curates, especially two of them, Mounsell and Cooper, be +notorious and dissolute men.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Such was the lamentable state of the local clergy at that +time, when the population of Wolverhampton, with all its outlying +parts, is set down at 4,000 only. A few words of +explanation will perhaps be necessary to make the foregoing +extract more intelligible to the general reader.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +56</span>Four or five more extracts from this interesting Survey, +relating to other parts of this neighbourhood, may not be out of +place to quote here:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span +class="smcap">Byshby</span>.—Parsonage, impropriate; worth +£40 per annum; vicarage worth £30; patron, Sir Edward +Littleton; many Popish; many Recusants. Incumbent a mere +worldling; no preacher.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Tetnall</span>.—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.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Codsall</span>.—Prebend of +Tetnall. Curate-prebendary a loose liver; no preacher.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Wombourne</span>.—Parsonage, +impropriate, held by Hugh Wriotesley, Esquire; worth £40; +vicarage worth £26; patron, Edward L. Dudley.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Pen</span>.—Parsonage; impropriate +to the vicars of Lichfield; worth £20; vicarage worth as +much; patrons, the Vicars of Lichfield. Vicar —; no +preacher.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This selection of extracts will serve to enlighten the reader +upon two important points in the history of the Church; the first +is the amount of church revenue which had already found its way +into the pockets of the laity; and the other is the lamentable +necessity there was at that period to provide the English clergy +with ready-made Homilies. 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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +57</span>XII.—Before the Reformation—and After.</h2> +<p>It may be assumed that Willenhall Church has been dedicated to +St. Giles from the first, because the period for holding the +dedicatory Wake synchronises with St. Gile’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.</p> +<p>This court was established by Henry VII. to deal with routs, +riots, and all other cases not sufficiently provided for by the +common law; but the oppression practised by the unscrupulous +abuse of its indefinite jurisdiction led to its summary +extinction in the reign of Charles I.</p> +<p>The case to be quoted is one of an alleged riot in the year +1498 (13 Henry VII.), in which the men of Wednesbury were deeply +involved. These turbulent townsmen seem to have made +themselves notorious for riotous behaviour at various times; as +witness the historic Wesley Riots of 1744, their march on +Birmingham to regulate the price of malt in 1782, and their +attack on the same town during the Church and King Riots in +1791.</p> +<p>It would appear that a company of Mummers, made up of +performers from Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall, were +regularly in the habit of going round to the neighbouring Fairs, +and performing to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor a +Morris-dance, in which the characters were dressed up for the +then <!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +58</span>popular dramatic interlude of “Robin Hood,” +including Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and all the rest of them.</p> +<blockquote><p>The hobby-horse doth hither prance,<br /> +Maid Marian and the Morris-dance.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It would be interesting to discover why, in this local +version, the character called the “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.</p> +<p>The money collected at these al fresco performances was +applied to maintaining the fabric of the three parish churches; +but, for some reason unknown, there had evidently grown up a +deadly feud between the Wednesbury and the Walsall +contingents. This was the cause of all the trouble.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">To the King Our Sovereign +Lord</span>—</p> +<p>Humbly sheweth unto your highness, your faithful subject and +true liegeman, Roger Dyngley, Mayor of Walsall; and Thomas Rice, +of the same town—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 <!-- page 59--><a +name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>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.</p> +<p>Whereupon the said Mayor, with other inhabitants, did arrest +John Cradeley and Thomas Morres, and there did put them in prison +according to your laws, there to remain till it were known +whether the said Thomas Rice should live or die.</p> +<p>And incontinent thereupon one John Beamonde, +“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.</p> +<p>And thereupon William Harper and William Wilkes, Justices of +the Peace, charged the said riotous persons to keep the peace +upon a great pain to be forfeited to your grace. By reason +whereof the said rioters for that time ceased from further +riot.</p> +<p>And whereas the said Justices of the Peace, knowing the said +rioters intended to make more riot, and to execute their malice +in doing some mischief or hurt to the said town or to the +inhabitants thereof, for eschewing any riot or breach of the +peace commanded the inhabitants of Walsall, Wednesbury, and of +divers other towns, their adherents, that they should not +assemble together out of the said town, and should not come to a +Fair that should be holden at Wilnale on Trinity Sunday, then +next following.</p> +<p>And the inhabitants of Walsall the same day kept at home.</p> +<p><!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +60</span>Notwithstanding, came one from Hampton, whose name is +William Milner, calling himself the Abbot of Marram, and one +Walter Leveson with him, with the inhabitants of Hampton to the +number of four score persons in harness [armour] after the manner +of war, to Wilnall to the said Fair. And also one Robert +Marchall, of Wednesbury, calling himself Robyn Hood, and Sir +Richard Foxe, priest, with divers other persons to the number of +100 men and above, in harness, came in likewise, and met with the +said other rioters at the said town of Wilnall, and then and +there riotously assembled themselves, commanding openly that if +any of the town of Walsall came therefrom, to strike them down, +and in the said town continued their said riotous assembly all +the same day; and if any man of Walsall at that day had been seen +at that Fair, they should have been in jeopardy of their +lives.</p> +<p>Please your highness to grant your Letters of Privy Seal to be +directed to the said John Beamonde, Walter Leveson, Sir Richard +Foxe, priest, and Roger Marchall, to commanding them to appear +before your Council to answer to the premises.</p> +<p>1st July, in the 13th year, to appear.</p> +<p>[Endorsed].</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Three several letters issued to Walter Leveson, Richard Foxe, +and Roger Marchall, to appear.</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Michaelmas Term in the</span> +14<span class="smcap">th Year</span>. <span +class="smcap">The Mayor and Inhabitants of Walsall against John +Beamonde</span>, <span class="smcap">Esquire</span>, <span +class="smcap">and Others</span>. <span class="smcap">Answer +for Sir Roger Marchall</span>—</p> +<p>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 <!-- page +61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>with +their disportes to the profight of the chirches of the said +lordshipes,” whereby great profit hath grown to the said +churches in times past.</p> +<p>Whereupon the said Roger Marchall and his Company at the +special desire of the Inhabitants of Weddesbury, come in +peaceable manner to the said Fair, according to the said old +custom, and these met with one John Walker, of Walsall, and +divers others of the said town, and then and there “they +make as gud chere unto them as they should do to ther lovying +neyburs.” And he denies that they came riotously.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">The Answer of Walter +Leveson</span>—</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Whereupon the said Walter with two of his servants, in +peaceable manner, and without any harness, came to the said John +Beamont to his place at Weddesbury, to know how the Mayor and +Inhabitants of Walsale would entreat him.</p> +<p>John Beamont said that he knew of no hurt that they willed to +him. It has been of old time used and accustomed on the +said Fair day that the inhabitants of Hampton, Weddesbury, and +Walsale have come to the Fair with such Captains as they have of +old time used, to the intent to gather money with their disports +to the use of the said churches of the said lordships.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And this is all we know of that lively “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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>After the Reformation came the Puritans, who severely +discountenanced all Sunday revelry. And so the lampoon of +their enemies ran:—</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 62</span>There dwells a people on the earth<br +/> +That reckons true religion treason,<br /> +That makes sad war on holy mirth,<br /> +Count madness zeal and nonsense reason;<br /> +That think no freedom but in slavery,<br /> +That makes lyes truth, religion, knavery;<br /> +That rob and cheat with “yea” and +“nay,”<br /> +Riddle me, riddle me, who are they?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Yet, when religious differencies had brought on civil war, it +had to be confessed of this Puritan people (so says Sir Francis +Doyle in “The Cavalier”):—</p> +<blockquote><p>That though they snuffled psalms, to give<br /> + The rebel dogs their due,<br /> +When the roaring shot poured thick and hot<br /> + They were stalwart men and true.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And so the mighty struggle for liberty of conscience against +the pretensions of a dominant Church had proceeded for over +century, when we find the incumbency of Willenhall held by the +Rev. Thomas Badland.</p> +<p>Thomas Badland was born in 1643, matriculated at Pembroke +College, Oxford, 1650, and took his B.A. degree, 1653. He +was one of the noble band of ministers who relinquished their +livings on August 24th, 1662, rather than conform to the +requirements of the Act of Uniformity, passed on the Restoration +of Charles II.</p> +<p>On his ejectment from Willenhall, this conscientious Puritan +divine returned to his native city, Worcester, where “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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +63</span>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Under these seats lies interred the body of the +Rev. Thomas Badland, a faithful and profitable preacher of the +Gospel in this city for the space of thirty-five years. He +rested from his labours, May 5th, <span class="smcap">a.d</span> +1698, æt. 64.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Mors mihi vita nova.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>From a MS. history of Angel Street Church, written by Samuel +Blackwell in 1841, it would appear that Mr. Badland had as one of +his assistants a Mr. Hand, who had been ordained at +Oldbury. 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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 64</span>the Vicarage of Clent, and died at +Birmingham; but notwithstanding such common mispronunciations as +“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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +65</span>XIII.—A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms +(1640–1745).</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p65ab.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Mosley Hall. Photo. by J. Gale, Wolverhampton" +title= +"Mosley Hall. Photo. by J. Gale, Wolverhampton" +src="images/p65as.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>In the year 1640 a special muster was made for the war against +the Scotch Covenanters; the men from Staffordshire consisted of +trained bands who had been employed in the previous year, and 300 +men who were impressed for the occasion. 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p65bb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Boscobel House. Photo. by B. Williams, Wolverhampton" +title= +"Boscobel House. Photo. by B. Williams, Wolverhampton" +src="images/p65bs.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>This was the last attempt at raising men on the old feudal +levies; the trained bands were armed partly with pikes and partly +with the newly-invented firelock, while the whole of the +impressed men were armed merely with pikes. The Muster Roll +for this immediate locality contains these names (that of Aspley +is cancelled):—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: center">Traine.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: center">Presse.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tipton</p> +</td> +<td><p>Thomas Dudley,</p> +</td> +<td><p>—Thomas Winney. The L. dnd.</p> +<p>—William Aspley pst.</p> +<p>—John Winspurre in loco.</p> +<p>—John Husband.</p> +<p>—Joseph Richard.</p> +<p>—William Dutton.</p> +<p>—Richard Rushton: to be sp: per R. Turnor.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Darlaston & Bentley</p> +</td> +<td><p>Thomas Pye, Willm Turner,</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wednesfield</p> +</td> +<td><p>John Hill,</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Willenhall</p> +</td> +<td><p>William Wilkes,</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>Another Roll dated 1634, but apparently in use at this time, +gives among the names of the “trayned horse” liable +as (or for) <!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 66</span>2 “curiasiers,” +“Thomas Levison, Esq.,” and “Mrs. Lane and her +sonne.”</p> +<p>Within a couple of years Civil War had broken out in England, +and Willenhall had to endure its full share of suffering lying, +as it did, midway between two opposing strongholds—Dudley +Castle, held for the King (under Colonel Leveson), and Rushall +Hall, garrisoned for the Parliamentarian side.</p> +<p>Both sides in turn, as they were in a position to enforce +payment, made levies of money upon the unfortunate inhabitants of +the district. While Rushall Hall was a fortified position, +first under its owner, Sir Edward Leigh, and afterwards under its +military governor, Captain Tuthill, Willenhall was forced to pay +to the support of the garrison there.</p> +<p>Here is the evidence of an official notice:—</p> +<blockquote><p>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</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There is a similar military order, dated 22nd June, 1644, by +which the weekly pay of all these places is assigned to Captain +Tuthill, governor of Rushall, though in the parcelling out of +contributory areas, Bushbury, Wolverhampton, Bilston, and Bradley +are included in another district. The other side were +employing forced labour for strengthening the defence of Dudley +Castle, and not improbably the Leveson tenants from Wednesfield +and Willenhall were impressed to go up there equipped with spade +and mattock.</p> +<p>Doubtless troops and detachments of armed men were frequently +to be seen passing through Willenhall; while Wolverhampton, owing +to the influence of the Levesons and the Goughs, was almost a +Royalist rallying place. Soon after the skirmish at Hopton +Heath, near Stafford, in 1643, Charles I. found shelter in the +old Star and Garter Inn (then in Cock Street), and to this +hostelry came Mr. Henry Gough, who had accommodated Charles, +Prince of Wales, and his younger brother, James, Duke of York, +<!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +67</span>at his private residence, to proffer the King a willing +war loan of £1,200.</p> +<p>The same year the King made the same hostelry his +headquarters, dating a letter which he addressed to the Lichfield +magistrates, directing them to send their arms to join the Royal +standard at Nottingham, “Att our Court at Wolverhampton, 17 +August, 1642.”</p> +<p>In 1643, Prince Rupert, after his memorable fight at +Birmingham, made an attack upon Rushall Hall; and notwithstanding +the gallant defence of Mistress Leigh, in the absence of her +husband, its lord, took and held it for the King, putting in as +governor Sir Edward Leigh’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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In the same month the Stafford Parliamentarian Committee +ordered the seizure of all the horses and cattle belonging to +that staunch Royalist, Squire Lane, and of all the other cavalier +landowners around Bentley. 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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 68</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In 1645 Prince Rupert had his headquarters in Wolverhampton, +while the King lay two miles to the north of the town, where +tradition says he watched a skirmish with the enemy from Bushbury +Hill. 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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><!-- page 69--><a +name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>Friday, May +16, 1645.</p> +<p>The rendezvous was near the King’s quarters. Began +after 4 o’clock in the morning here. One soldier was +hanged for mutiny.</p> +<p>The prince’s headquarters was at Wolverhampton. A +handsome towne. One faire church in it.</p> +<p>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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Our military diarist next writes:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Satterday, May 17, 1645.—His Majestie +marched from here to Tong—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>K. Lichfield.—Colonel Bagott, +governor.</p> +<p>R. Russell hall.—A taylor governor.</p> +<p>R. Mr. Gifford’s house at Chillington, three miles +from Wolverhampton. Now slighted by themselves.</p> +<p>K. Dudley Castle.—Colonel Leveson, whose estate +and habitation is at Wolverhampton, is governor.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>Coming now to the end of the war, when Charles II. was +defeated at Worcester in 1651, the country round Willenhall +became the scene of that fugitive monarch’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.</p> +<p>Fearing discovery, the King was escorted by the brothers +Penderel to Moseley Hall, near Bushbury, a timber-framed <!-- +page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>mansion in the picturesque Elizabethan style, the home +of the Whitgreates, where the hunted monarch was welcomed and +immediately refreshed with some biscuits and a bottle of +sack. 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.</p> +<p>Prudence dictated another secret flight, and taking advantage +of a dark night the unhappy King was taken by Colonel Lane to his +own house, and was next hidden at Bentley Hall.</p> +<p>The story of the escape of Charles II. from Bentley towards +the continent, disguised as a groom and riding in front of Jane +Lane’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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>As a result of the Revolution of 1688, and with the death of +Queen Anne in 1714, the impracticable Stuarts disappeared for +good from the English throne; but as adherents to their +discredited cause, known as Jacobites, still remained numerous, +it may be guessed they were not lacking in and around +Willenhall.</p> +<p>After the Hanoverian Succession there were, in fact, a number +of avowed Jacobites in this vicinity, who refused to take the +oath of allegiance to George I. 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 <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 71</span>incurred (but not exacted) against +each name. In these lists appeared the following +names:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Charles Smith, of Bushbury, Esq.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">67</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Anne Kempson, of Estington, widow</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ursula Kempson, of Wolverhampton, widow</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">39</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>John Kempson, of Great Sardon</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">41</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>William Ward, ditto</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mary Leveson, of Willenhall, in Wolverhampton</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">31</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>John Leveson, ditto</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">50</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">17</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>John Brandon, of Prestwood, yeoman</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Thomas Giffard, of Chillington, Esq.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2100</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Elizabeth Giffard, of Wolverhampton, spinster</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">58</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Thomas Whitgreaves, of Moseley, Esq.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">73</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p71.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p71.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +72</span>XIV.—Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend +(1615–1702).</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The Leveson family had been dealing with Wolverhampton church +property for centuries, and in the Stuart period were lessees of +the greater part of it at a nominal rent of £38 per +annum. Their standing in the county may be gauged by this +entry which the Heralds made concerning the family at +“Visitation” 1538:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Richard Leveson of Willenhall was living in 27 +Edward I. He married Margereye, daughter of Henry Fitz +Clemente of Wolverhampton.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>By an indenture of the year 1613 the Dean and Chapter of +Wolverhampton leased the deanery, prebends, and manor of +Wolverhampton to Sir Walter Leveson, and all the lands belonging +thereto in various parts of Staffordshire and Worcestershire, +including those at Willenhall, Wednesfield, Bentley, &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.”</p> +<p>The validity of these leases was questioned a few years later +in the 13th year of James I., the lessee having refused to pay +the reserved rents without considerable deductions; and a bill +was filed in Chancery by Joseph Hall, D.D., prebendary of +Willenhall, and Christopher Cragg, prebendary of Hatherton +(probably on the advice of the newly installed Dean, Dr. Anthony +Maxey), against the aforesaid, Sir Walter Leveson, who was then +in possession of <!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 73</span>the property belonging to their two +prebends, as well as other possessions belonging to the College +of Wolverhampton.</p> +<p>Although the case was decided against Sir Walter Leveson, the +prebendaries reaped little or no benefit; for Sir Walter died +immediately after, leaving his heir a minor, and a ward of the +King. During the wardship the King attempted to settle the +questions and controversies which had arisen when he made the +appointment of a new Dean.</p> +<p>It must be borne in mind that the Deans of Wolverhampton were +also Deans of Windsor; and Dr. Maxey dying about 1618, there +followed a somewhat quick succession of Deans. These were +Matthew Wren (1628), protege of Laud, and successively Bishop of +Hereford, of Norwich, and of Ely; Christopher Wren, his brother +(1634), father of the famous architect of the same name; Dr. +Bruno Ryes (1660); and Dr. Brideoak, who became Bishop of +Chichester in 1675.</p> +<p>The wardship of young Leveson lasted 16 years, and when he +came of age the prebendaries were glad to come to a composition +with him.</p> +<p>By this composition he agreed to pay them £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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>After the Civil War the Prebendaries found that they had +suffered considerable losses by the acts of their predecessors; +so it was determined by Thomas Wren, LL.D. (son of the +aforementioned Rev. Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely, whose literary +remains include “A Brief History of the Parish and +Jurisdiction of Wolverhampton, from the Time of King +Edgar”) prebendary of <!-- page 74--><a +name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>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.</p> +<p>The hearing was before the great Lord Chancellor of that day, +Lord Clarendon, who dismissed the bill, though without costs.</p> +<p>The Leveson family consequently continued in the undisturbed +enjoyment of the church property, granted to them in fee farm by +six prebendaries, as well as of divers other freehold estates in +the parish of Wolverhampton.</p> +<p>The Leveson property in Wolverhampton became much implicated +in the numerous family settlements till, in 1702, Frances, Earl +of Bradford, purchased it of Robert Leveson for +£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.</p> +<p>In the same year, however, the Dean, Prebendaries, and Sacrist +filed a bill in Chancery against Leveson and the Earl for the +recovery of the property. The plaintiffs were Gregory +Hascard, D.D., dean; Prebendaries John Hinton (Willenhall), +Richard Redding (Kinvaston), Thomas Allestree (Hilton), John +Plimley (Fetherstone), John Hilman (Hatherton), Richard Ames +(Monmore), Walter Ashley (Wobaston), and Henry Wood, sacrist.</p> +<p>They contended they were all clerks, constituted one entire +body, and rector or parson incorporate, of the whole parish of +Wolverhampton, which was of very great extent, consisting of 16 +or 17 hamlets or villages besides the large town of +Wolverhampton, being in circuit about thirty miles, in three of +which said hamlets there were chapels of ease, the several cures +thereof belonging to the said College or Free Chapel Royal.</p> +<p><!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +75</span>In all this litigation it was a question much agitated +whether, as all the prebendaries with the Dean and the Sacrist +constituted one entire body, any single prebendary could demise +his annual portion of the said general tithes without the consent +of the whole body.</p> +<p>The defendant Leveson was accused of having contrived secret +conveyances of many parcels of the said tithes and lands for the +benefit of his own family, some of the properties having been +sold for large sums of money, and the church revenues defrauded +thereby. Also that he had so altered and confounded the +buildings, fences, and boundaries of the church lands, and so +mixed them up with his own inherited lands, that it had become +impossible to discern or distinguish which were the original +possessions of the College; possessions which at the Domesday +Survey had extended to 3,000 acres, besides the lordship of +Lutley, near Halesowen.</p> +<p>Dr. Oliver states that in his time (1836) there remained some +“houses and lands now belonging to the prebendaries and +Sacrist, which are leased out for lives.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The Rev. Richard Ames, Curate of Bilston for 46 years +(1684–1730), makes the following record:—</p> +<blockquote><p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +76</span>In 1836, when Dr. Oliver wrote his history of the +church, the Chapter of the College consisted of the Hon. Henry +Lewis Hobart, D.D. (Dean), the Rev. R. Ellison, M.A., prebendary +of Willenhall, and the other prebendaries (of Kinvaston, Hilton, +Featherston, Monmore, Hatherton, and Wobaston respectively), and +the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., perpetual curate and Sacrist (an Act +obtained in 1811 by Dean Legge had constituted the Sacrist the +real incumbent of the church). The Chapter had it own seal, +which was of proper ecclesiastical design, and of some +antiquity.</p> +<p>On the death of the very Rev. and Hon. H. L. Hobart, D.C.L., +&c., in 1846, the Collegiate establishment of Wolverhampton +ceased to exist, and its property became vested in the +ecclesiastical Commissioners.</p> +<p>Such was the gross abuse of ecclesiastical patronage, the +entire income of the Collegiate Church (except £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.</p> +<p>With the suppression of the ancient Deanery, the modern +township of Wolverhampton was divided into thirteen +ecclesiastical parishes.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p76.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p76.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +77</span>XV.—Willenhall Struggling to be a Free +Parish.</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The first cause of the quarrel was found in the fact that +these two places, having become as populous as towns of ordinary +status, were without legal burying-grounds. 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.”</p> +<p>The history of the conflict goes back to 1709, when Dr. +Manningham, on becoming Dean, convened a Chapter at Oxford which +was attended by all the Prebendaries and the Sacrist. This +meeting was specially called to consider the case of the +inhabitants of Willenhall and Bilston, who had represented to the +Dean the great inconveniences which arose in having to carry +their dead from these chapelries for interment at Wolverhampton; +and humbly praying that their respective chapels and chapelyards +should be consecrated for the proper burial of the dead.</p> +<p>The prayer was granted, but it was most carefully stipulated +that the inhabitants of the two chapelries should always pay the +customary levies to the mother church, and also the fees for +burials and for the churching of women, to the respective curates +of the said chapels, as well as to the ministers of the mother +<!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +78</span>church; and that the expenses attending the desired +consecrations should be paid by the petitioners.</p> +<p>A subsequent Chapter, held 10 October, 1718, confirmed this, +when the Ministers and Inhabitants of the Chapelries of Bilston +and Willenhall signed an Agreement to observe and perform the +said conditions. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +79</span>Almost concurrently with this dispute there was another +source of grievance to Willenhall, Bilston, and Pelsall which had +to be strenuously fought by these outlying places.</p> +<p>This quarrel arose, in the main, through the excessive demands +made upon the inhabitants of the three chapelries for rates with +which to repair and maintain the fabric of Wolverhampton +Church. The levies made ostensibly for this purpose seem to +have been at times somewhat exorbitant, and the money to have +been spent in meeting charges which can only be described as +superfluous so far as the non-residential contributors were +concerned.</p> +<p>About 1738 the chapelwardens of Bilston made a determined +stand against the churchwardens of Wolverhampton.</p> +<p>A “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.</p> +<p>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. . . .”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>Other points of complaint put forward were that the two +chapels afforded every facility to the inhabitants of the +respective places for divine worship and the administration of +the sacraments; that formerly Bilston and Willenhall each paid +only £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.</p> +<p><!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +80</span>It was also complained that all the rest of the villages +had been forced “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.</p> +<p>On this opinion (of a learned Sergeant-at-Law) the inhabitants +of Willenhall were invited to join with those of Bilston in a +common defence for their mutual benefit. On the advice of +the esteemed Dr. Wilkes, a well-known local Antiquary, who was +then the leading public man of Willenhall, the invitation was +declined.</p> +<p>Litigation proceeded for several years both in the +ecclesiastical courts and in chancery, but without any definite +decision being arrived at.</p> +<p>In 1754 the Earl of Stamford tried to induce both parties to +submit a case fairly drawn up (for the legal work in the +preparation of which he generously offered to pay all the costs) +and to abide by the decision. The people of Willenhall, +through Dr. Wilkes, thanked his lordship for his friendly offer, +and declared their willingness to accept it.</p> +<p>The Wolverhampton officials, however, rejected the proposal, +in the hope they would win their case in the ecclesiastical +courts. 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“This is the portion of Rates each Chapelry +and Prebend shall pay towards the repairs of the Mother +Church:—</p> +</blockquote> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wolverhampton</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">36</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Bilston</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wylnale</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wednesflde</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hatherton</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Featherstone</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Kinvaston</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hilton</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 81</span>Pelsall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Bentley</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Stretton rent</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">83</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>A writ of prohibition was forthwith filed to stay all further +proceedings in the Spiritual Courts; and the law costs of the +trial, amounting to £282 1s. 8d., were divided equally +between Bilston and Willenhall (1756).</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p81.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p81.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +82</span>XVI.—Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall +(1690–1760).</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>One John Wilkes married a widow Parkhouse, <i>nee</i> Margery +Garbet, of Nether Penn; another John, his nephew, was Rector of +Lum, and evidently a Puritan, as his two sons bear the striking +biblical names, Ephraim and Manasses. 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.</p> +<p>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, <!-- page 83--><a +name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>1713, he took +his B.A degree; three years later he was chosen Fellow, and in +1718 he was appointed Linacre Lecturer.</p> +<p>It does not appear when or where he took his degrees in +medicine. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>About this time he wrote an excellent treatise on Dropsy; and +later, when a dreadful disease raged among the horned cattle of +the Midlands, he published a very useful and practical +“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.</p> +<p>His skill as a physician was very considerable, and seems to +have been applied chiefly to the gratuitous relief of his poorer +neighbours. He led an exemplary life, being an early riser, +and an indefatigable reader, constantly adding to the rich stores +of his well-stocked mind.</p> +<p>As previously mentioned, he spent several years of industry in +collecting historical manuscripts, and making antiquarian notes +relating to his native county, of which the Rev. Stebbing Shaw +afterwards made such good use.</p> +<p>For instance, Dr. Wilkes’ 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 <!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 84</span>embodied in the +“Introduction” and the “General History” +at the commencement of Shaw’s compendious work.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Diarist was too modest to add that the Waterworks which +long supplied Wolverhampton with water were the property of Dr. +Wilkes.</p> +<p>Among other projected literary works was a new edition of +Hudibras, with notes, &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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Here, reader, stand awhile, and know<br /> +Whose carcase ’tis that rots below;<br /> +A man’s, who walk’d by Reason’s rule<br /> +Yet sometimes err’d and play’d the fool;<br /> +A man’s sincere in all his ways,<br /> +And full of the Creator’s praise,<br /> +Who laughed at priestcraft, pride and strife,<br /> +And all the little tricks of life.<br /> +He lov’d his king, his country more,<br /> +And dreadful party-rage forbore:<br /> +He told nobility the truth<br /> +And winked at hasty slips of youth.<br /> +The honest poor man’s steady friend.<br /> +The villain’s sconce in hopes to mend.<br /> +His father, mother, children, wife,<br /> +His riches, honour, length of life,<br /> +Concern not thee. Observe what’s here—<br /> +He rests in hope and not in fear.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>His wife dying in May, 1756, he married for the second time in +October the same year Mrs. Frances Bendish (sister to the Rev. +Sir Richard Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, Bart.), who long survived +him, dying December 24, 1798, at Froxfield, near Petersfield, in +Hampshire, at a very advanced age.</p> +<p>The learned doctor himself died March 6, 1760, with a return +of the gout in his stomach, and his death was universally +lamented <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 85</span>by his tenants, who lost an indulgent +landlord; by his servants, who lost a good master; but more by +numbers of poor in the populous villages adjacent and at a +distance, in grateful remembrance of the charitable advice and +friendly assistance they had always enjoyed at his kindly +hands. A somewhat eulogistic entry of his death appears in +the Bilston Registers.</p> +<p>As Dr. Wilkes left no issue, his property passed to the Unett +family, the representatives of his aunt Anne who had married +George Unett, of Wolverhampton.</p> +<p>He was buried at Willenhall in his native soil, where a neat +monument was erected to his memory near the family pew, by his +heirs, Captain Richard Wilkes Unett, and Mr. John Wilkes Unett; +the tablet was thus inscribed:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“Near this +place<br /> +Lie the remains<br /> +of<br /> +RICHARD WILKES, M.D.</p> +<p>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</p> +<p style="text-align: center">of the late<br /> +Sir Richard Wrottesly, of Wrottesly, Bart.<br /> +and widow of Higham Bendish, Esq.<br /> +He died March 6, 1760,<br /> +aged 70 years.</p> +<p>[Underneath is the following escutcheon:—</p> +<p>(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]</p> +<p>“The children of the late Rev. Thomas Unett, of +Stafford, his heirs-at-law, placed this monument an. +1800.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +86</span>On the floor of the Lane Chapel in Wolverhampton Church +will be found stones to the memory of the Wilkes family, +“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.</p> +<p>The old house of Dr. Wilkes, a good specimen of its type of +architecture, stands back from the main road behind iron +palisading. 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.</p> +<p>The house has a white stuccoed front, irregularly disposed, +the semi-porticoed doorway with classic columns having three +windows on its left and two on its right, although the shorter +side seems to have been lengthened at a later period by a red +brick wing. Along the line of the first floor are six +windows, whose lights in the Annean period, to which the building +belongs, were doubtless of small leaded panes.</p> +<p>From the tiled roof project three dormers, the centre one +having a semi-circular head, the outer ones pointed. 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.</p> +<p>On entering the house, the visitor feels a pang of regret that +the venerable building should ever have been degraded to the +purposes of commerce; particularly as the fabric retains many of +its characteristics, thanks to the soundness of the workmanship +of two centuries ago. The decorations in the form of +plaster mouldings that cover the beams, and the medallion or +panel pictures, being partly historical and partly classical, all +exhibit the Renaissance feeling of the early eighteenth +century.</p> +<p>The ceilings of two lower rooms are in a splendid state of +preservation, and contain excellent work. 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 <!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 87</span>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).</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The pool which formerly ornamented the garden had disappeared; +but the boathouse is still there, and the room above it in which +the Doctor used to keep his Antiquarian Collection and <!-- page +88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>other +artistic treasures. As to the lawns, shrubberies, gardens, +orchards, and pleasaunces, there is scarcely a remnant left.</p> +<p>Of the once sweet and pellucid stream, spanned by an +ornamental bridge, which conducted the rambler to the pleasant +meads beyond, nothing remains but the name, “Willenhall +Brook”—it is now little better than a dirty open +sewer.</p> +<p>It may not be generally known that a passing allusion is made +to Wilkes in Boswell’s “Life of Johnson.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Exalted soul! whose harmony could please<br /> +The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;<br /> +Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move<br /> +To beauteous order and harmonious love;<br /> +Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise<br /> +And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Johnson shook his head at the common-place funeral +lines, and said to Garrick, ‘I think, Davy, I can make +better.’”</p> +<p>The great biographer goes on to state that Johnson, after +stirring about his tea and meditating a little while, produced +these lines:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Exalted soul! thy various sounds could please<br +/> +The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;<br /> +Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move<br /> +To beauteous order and harmonious love.<br /> +Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,<br /> +And join thy Saviour’s concert in the skies.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Suffice it to add that the personage who inspired the lines +was an eccentric genius named Claudius Phillips <a +name="citation88"></a><a href="#footnote88" +class="citation">[88]</a>, on whose <!-- page 89--><a +name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>memorial +tablet in the porch of Wolverhampton Church were engraved the +said lines, attributed to Dr. Wilkes, who strangely enough is +described as “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.</p> +<p>All this points to the fact that Dr. Richard Wilkes was well +known as a writer, and acknowledged as an authority.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p89.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p89.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +90</span>XVII.—Willenhall “Spaw.”</h2> +<p>It is difficult to imagine Willenhall as a health resort; yet +it was no fault of Dr. Richard Wilkes that his native spot did +not become a fashionable inland watering place.</p> +<p>It should be explained that during the eighteenth century +there was almost a mania to discover and exploit wells and +springs, and to regard them as fountains of health to which the +fashionable and the well-to-do might be attracted. 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Truly the Doctor might have earned a good living nowadays by +writing the advertisements for modern quack specifics.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 91--><a +name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>Fons occulis +morbisque<br /> +cutaneis diu celebris, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> +1726.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>One of the Wilkes MSS. utilised by Shaw, and dated 1737, +records the following experiment worked by the learned doctor +with the local mineral waters:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another of his scientific records runs:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In another place he writes:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“On the 5th of November, 1737, I filled +several glasses with this water, and put into them the following +simples:—</p> +<p><!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +92</span>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.</p> +<p>2. Fustic; not so deep, more like cyder.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>4. Alkanet; deeper, like old mountain wine.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The glovers’ handicraft, it may be mentioned in passing, +was once strongly represented in olden Darlaston.</p> +<p>The situation of Willenhall is by no means an elevated one, +and the whole plain in which it is situated formerly abounded in +Springs, ere the surface had been so much disturbed by mining +operations.</p> +<p>On the edge of the valley, under the shadow of Sedgley Beacon, +was the famous Spring known as the Lady Wulfruna’s, and +which gave the place its name, Spring Vale; from this spot the +silvery stream flowed eastwards into Willenhall, seeking the cool +shade of the pleasant woodland there.</p> +<p><!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +93</span>The stream, as it came in from Bilston, and ran +eastwards through Willenhall, till it met the Tame, was once +called the Hind Brook, or Stag River. 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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Dr. Oliver says the beautiful spring at Dunstall was the +favourite resort of the Lady Wulfruna, and from contact with her +sanctity acquired a reputation for possessing healing virtues of +a <!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +94</span>miraculous character, and that this fountain was long +known among its devotees as Wulfruna’s Well.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>About this Spring (if ancient fame say true)<br /> +The dapper elves their midnight sports pursue;<br /> +Their pigmy king and little fairy queen,<br /> +In circling dances gambolled on the green,<br /> +While tuneful sprites a merry concert made<br /> +And airy music warbled through the shade.</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p94.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative design" +title= +"Decorative design" +src="images/p94.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +95</span>XVIII.—The Benefice.</h2> +<p>Owing to the meagreness of the record, a complete list of the +holders of the benefice is not to be expected. 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It was out of this income that augmentations and advances were +granted by the said Committee to ministers and +school-masters. <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 96</span>In the Record Office at London there +is an audited account the Treasurer to the “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</p> +<blockquote><p>“Thomas Badland, of Willenhall (6 months to +1659, March 25) . . . £10.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In curious contrast with this high-minded clergyman, who +sacrificed his living to his conscience, is his successor in the +Curacy of Willenhall, the Rev. Mr. Gilpin, who had to be +seriously admonished for non-residence and other faults, and was +at last, in the year 1674, turned out of the living +altogether. Not improbably this gentleman was a pluralist, +an example of the class of clergymen by which the Church of +England was very much degraded at that period.</p> +<p>Dr. Oliver’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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>We, whose names are subscribed, the undoubted and +immediate lords of the Manor of Stow Health, hearing and well +weighing the said complaints of the Inhabitants of the towne of +Willenhall, lying within our said Manor, made and brought against +you, Thomas Gilpin, clerk, Curate of the Chapell there:</p> +<p>Doe in consideration thereof and in pursuance of an Order made +and inrolled on some of the Rolls of the Court of our said Manor, +bearing date 11th day of October in the Sixth Year of the Reign +of our late Soveraigne, Lord, King James, over England, etc.</p> +<p>And of our power and authority thereby, Displace and Discharge +you, the said Thomas Gilpin, from the place, Dignity, and office +of Curate, Minister, or Priest in the said Chapell.</p> +<p>And do hereby present and allow John Carter, clerk (a person +elected and approved by the Inhabitants of Willenhall aforesaid), +to be Curate of the said Chapell in your place <!-- page 97--><a +name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>and stead, to +read divine service there; and to do and perform all such other +offices and things as shall properly belong to his Ministerial +function and calling.</p> +<p>And thus much you, the said Thomas Gilpin, are hereby desired +to take notice of.</p> +<p>Dated under our hands and seals this 18th day of November in +the year of our Lord God, 1674, and in the six-and-twentieth year +of the reigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles II., by the grace +of God, King of England, etc.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Walter Giffard. <span +class="smcap">l.s.</span></p> +<p style="text-align: right">W. Leveson Gower. <span +class="smcap">l.s.</span></p> +</blockquote> +<p>After the expulsion of Mr. Gilpin the Rev. John Carter, who +was appointed to succeed him, continued in the Curacy of +Willenhall till his death in 1722. In 1727 mention is made +of a Mr. Holbrooke being Curate of Willenhall.</p> +<p>Soon after the Registers assist in tracing the successive +holders of the benefice. Here are three interesting +memoranda, for instance, bearing the signature of the Rev. Titus +Neve:—</p> +<blockquote><p>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.)</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Titus Neve.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>(This entry has reference to the Act for Burying in Woollen, +one of those pieces of legislative folly whereby it was sought to +bolster up artificially our decaying trade in wool.)</p> +<p>The Rev. Titus Neve, whose descendants at the present day are +a well-known Wolverhampton family, was born at Much Birch in +Herefordshire, son of the Rev. Thomas Neve, in 1717. He +<!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +98</span>matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, became Rector +of Darlaston, 1764, holding the two livings, together with the +Prebendary of Hilton his death in 1788. He was buried at +Willenhall.</p> +<p>A sermon preached by him in Worcester Cathedral on August +12th, 1762, was printed in Birmingham by the celebrated +Baskerville (see Simms’ “Bibliotheca +Staffordiensis”).</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>The advent of the Rev. W. Moreton marks an epoch, and we now +turn aside to consider the peculiar history of the Advowson, or +right of presentation to the living of Willenhall. In 1409 +it is found in private hands, being then the property of William +Bushbury and his wife (see Chapter VII.).</p> +<p>When the lord of a manor built a church on his own demesne, he +often appointed the tithes of the manor to be paid to the +officiating minister there, which before had been given to the +clergy in common; the lord who thus founded the church often +endowed it with glebe, and retained the power of nominating the +minister (canonically qualified) to officiate therein. 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.</p> +<p><!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +99</span>An old book in the Registry at Windsor (without date) +contains this entry:—</p> +<blockquote><p>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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Shaw, the county historian, writing in 1798, after stating +that whoever holds the Curacy of Willenhall must have a licence +from the Dean of Wolverhampton, proceeds to say:—</p> +<blockquote><p>There has been lately a serious contest between +the Marquis of Stafford and the inhabitants about the nomination +of a curate.</p> +<p>The gift of the living (says the same authority), or +nomination of the minister or curate, is in the principal +inhabitants that have lands of inheritance here. He is to +be approved of by the lords of the manor, and admonished by them +when he does amiss; and if he does not amend in half a year, they +may turn him out and nominate another.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This practice is believed to have existed in Willenhall since +the time of James I.</p> +<p>The power of the parishioners to elect their own clergymen, +though not common, exists in various parts of the country; as at +Hayfield and Chapel-in-le-Frith, both in Derbyshire; and in this +more immediate locality at St. John’s Deritend, Birmingham, +and at Bilston and Bloxwich, nearer still.</p> +<p>In London the only example where the elective principle is +employed in the choice of a parish priest is presented by +Clerkenwell. 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 <!-- page +100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +100</span>which cannot fail to leave behind it those feelings of +rancour so harmful in matters sacred.</p> +<p>The only remedy for this state of things seems to be the +voluntary surrender of their privilege by the parishioners; or +the provisions of a special Act of Parliament.</p> +<p>As to the soundness of the general principle of a people being +consulted in the choice of their spiritual pastor, there can +scarcely be two opinions. 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.</p> +<p>Now, as a matter of fact, votes are recorded at these +elections by Romanists, by Dissenters of various shades of +opinion, by those who are unattached to any religious +denomination, and by many who never, at other times, take a great +interest in Church of England affairs. 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.</p> +<p>Resuming the story of the benefice at the election of 1788, it +is said that Mr. Moreton having been elected, the then lords of +the manor declined to present him to the bishop on the ground +that they did not regard him as a fit and proper person. +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.</p> +<p>The electors for a second time returned Moreton, and the lords +of the manor then took up the attitude that it was not part of +their duty to live in litigation, either with the electors or +with Moreton; they had expressed their opinion of the man in the +strongest manner possible, and this they considered relieved them +<!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +101</span>from further responsibility; so now at the +electors’ wish they nominated him to the bishop for +induction, and in due course he was formally inducted.</p> +<p>The new incumbent of Willenhall was popularly given out to be +an illegitimate “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.”</p> +<p>It was not long before the old mocking doggerel was applied to +Willenhall:—</p> +<blockquote><p>A tumble-down church—<br /> + A tottering steeple—<br /> +A drunken parson—<br /> + And a wicked people!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>That this old rhyme fairly described the condition of things +we may venture to believe if we can also accept as true the rhyme +oft quoted by this Willenhall worthy, and which was said to +embody his philosophy:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Let back and sides and head go bare,<br /> + Let foot and hand go cold,<br /> +But God send belly good ale enough,<br /> + Whether it be new or old.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- +page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +102</span>for his eccentricities, he managed to labour among the +rough population, to whom he ministered, with some sort of +success.</p> +<p>Into all his lapses from the conventionalities of clericalism, +he was a gentleman at the core, having a dignified bearing and a +commanding presence. 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.</p> +<p>Of the Rev W. Moreton, it may at least be said that he was a +remarkably fine reader, and his sermons were always +well-constructed compositions. For many years he lived with +Mr. Isaac Hartill in the house at the corner of the Market Place, +opposite the Metropolitan Bank; an old house still retaining its +original oak floors and staircase, and its substantial +old-fashioned doors of the same material, although the building +is now made into two shops.</p> +<p>For nearly fifty years Parson Moreton was a familiar figure in +the streets of Willenhall. 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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Truly a charitable and Christian-like obituary!</p> +<h2><!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 103</span>XIX.—How a Flock Chose its own +Shepherd.</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The Rev. Titus Neve, who held the living of Willenhall from +about 1748 to 1788, acted as Curate of Darlaston in 1760, and +became Rector of that parish in 1764; while his son, the Rev. +Charles Neve, was also Curate there from 1790 to 1793. The +Willenhall record of his ministry and interment runs:—</p> +<blockquote><p>The Revd. Titus Neve, Minister, Curate, or +Stipendiary Priest of Willenhall Chapelry, Prebendary of Hilton +and Sacrist of the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton, and Rector +of Darlaston, in the County of Stafford, departed this life +December 23rd, 1788, and was interred in the Chancel.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>His successor, the Rev. William Moreton, went as Curate to +Darlaston in 1786, and was sequestered to the vacant chapelry of +Willenhall, December 24th, 1788, the day following Mr. +Neve’s decease.</p> +<p>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).</p> +<p>It appeared that when the Rev. W. Moreton became very old he +neglected his duties sadly, often keeping funerals and +congregations waiting an unconscionable time, greatly to the +scandal of the whole parish. In consequence of this the +Churchwardens induced the Incumbent, two or three years before +his death, to appoint and pay an energetic young Curate to assist +him in his parochial ministrations.</p> +<p><!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>The Curate appointed under these circumstances, as +already mentioned, was the Rev. G. H. Fisher, who speedily became +a favourite, and by most Willenhall people came to be looked upon +as the only possible successor to Mr. Moreton.</p> +<p>Long before the advent of Mr. Fisher, however, the Darlaston +folk had settled in their own minds that their Rector, the Rev. +Mr. White, was to annex the Willenhall living whenever it become +vacant. 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.</p> +<p>During the earlier months of the year 1827 it would appear +that there had been, from time to time, incursions and alarms +between the two towns, and even rioting that involved hand to +hand fighting in the streets. 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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>By way of reprisal the men of Willenhall would raid Darlaston, +and pretend to call the cock from the steeple there by <!-- page +105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +105</span>scattering corn in the churchyard, in mocking allusion +to an old tale of Darlastonian simplicity. No wonder, +therefore, that the ridiculed were at last exasperated beyond +endurance, and that the coup de main of stealing the Willenhall +cock was not only projected, but carried to its marvellously +successful issue.</p> +<p>Consternation reigned supreme in Willenhall; it was felt that +the pass to which matters had been brought by the enormity of +this latest aggravation by their enemies could only be met by an +appeal to the law, which, hitherto, both factions had so +recklessly set at naught. So the following public notice +was promptly issued:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">10 GUINEAS REWARD.</p> +<p>Whereas, early on Sunday morning last, some evil disposed +Persons did steal and carry away the</p> +<p style="text-align: center">WEATHERCOCK<br /> +from off the<br /> +STEEPLE.</p> +<p>Any Person giving Information so that the Offenders may be +apprehended, shall upon Conviction receive <span +class="smcap">Ten Guineas Reward</span> over and above what is +allowed by the Association for the prosecution of Felons. +And as more than one were concerned, if either will impeach his +Accomplice or Accomplices, they shall receive the above Reward, +and every endeavour used to obtain a free Pardon.</p> +<p>Willenhall,<br /> + July 24, 1827.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Thomas +Hincks</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">James Whitehouse</span>,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Chapel Wardens.</p> +<div class="gapline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">Bassford, Printer, Bilston.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Notice proved totally unproductive of results, for no +Darlaston man was found mean enough to betray the heroes of this +daring escapade. 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 <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 106</span>Willenhallers, a new vane had +forthwith to be provided for the church.</p> +<p>It was some time after the Willenhall pride had been thus +lowered that the old weathercock was accidentally found by some +miners who were re-opening an old coal pit which lay between the +rival townships. Almost needless to say, the new vane was +instantly fetched down, and the old one once more set up to +flaunt itself as bravely as of yore in the eyes of distant +Darlaston.</p> +<p>The good folk of Willenhall, feeling humiliated, did all in +their power to cover up their shame by burying the episode in +oblivion; and to this day Willenhall men will deny that the +Darlastonians ever came and took away their church +weathercock. 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.</p> +<p>The authenticity of the said Notice is always open to +investigation, for a framed copy of it still hangs in the Neptune +Inn, preserved as a curiosity. (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.)</p> +<p>Resuming the history of the benefice, it may be observed that +a doubt has been raised whether Mr. Moreton had to go through a +contested election in 1788, but there can be no doubt as to an +electoral struggle in 1834. Mr. Fisher soon found himself +drawn into the vortex of factional strife, for he was speedily +pounced upon by the home party, and very much against his will +adopted as their figure-head, if not their champion.</p> +<p>When, on the death of Mr. Moreton, the period of Election came +within measurable distance, the excitement became more intense; +the patriotic supporters of Mr. White invading the Willenhall +<!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +107</span>territory day after day. 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.</p> +<p>Cracked sconces, broken noses, split ears and black eyes +resulted by the score; to which list of casualties must be added +the number of the half-drowned who had to be rescued from the +canal. Onslaughts made on public-houses and other party +headquarters led to a considerable destruction of property, +which, however, was borne with much complacency when it was +remembered that the whole Hundred would be called upon to pay the +bill.</p> +<p>Among the candidates for the Incumbency were the Rev. R. +Robinson, lecturer at the Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, in +recommendation of whom Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft wrote a letter, +dating it from Chapel House in that town, 16 July, 1834; the Rev. +John Howells, the Rev. Mr. Rogers, the Rev. Mr. Gwyther, and the +Rev. Mr. Wenman; but the Rev. George Hutchinson Fisher, who had +been Curate two and a-half years in the town, was recognised as +the most formidable competitor. 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.</p> +<p>At that time the Duke of Cleveland was impropriator, but the +tithes had been leased by his Grace to Messrs. James Whitehouse +and Charles Quinton.</p> +<p>As the day of battle approached public feeling ran so high +that on the eve of the poll, which took place on August 5th and +6th, 1834, the Returning Officer deemed it prudent to issue the +following Appeal to the Inhabitants:—</p> +<blockquote><p>It is represented to me, from numerous quarters, +that the excitement of the approaching Nomination of a Minister +to your Chapel renders it imprudent to take the Poll at the time +and place appointed.</p> +<p><!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>Gentlemen,—I cannot but hope and believe that +such fears are unnecessary; and, relying upon your good sense, I +have determined not to make any alteration in the present +arrangements.</p> +<p>I have no interest in your choice; it is my duty only to act +with impartiality between all parties.</p> +<p>For that purpose I shall be at your Church at Ten +O’clock To-morrow Morning, but unless every person entitled +to vote has free and Unmolested Access to the Poll, I shall, of +course, be under the <span class="smcap">necessity</span> of +adjourning it.</p> +<p>I address myself to the friends of Each Candidate Alike, and +entreating you to allow the proceedings of the day to take place +with that moderation which their object and the sacred place in +which we shall meet so particularly require.</p> +<p>I am, Gentlemen,<br /> +Your faithful, humble Servant,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Francis +Holyoake</span>.</p> +<p>Tettenhall, August 4, 1834.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Needless to say, all this rowdyism and disgraceful violence +were sternly reprobated by Mr. Fisher, whose rabid opponents must +have come to realise that their cause was a lost one when they +waylaid the polling clerk and tore his poll-book to shreds.</p> +<p>As to the Magistrates and the Constables, the custodians of +the peace discreetly pursued a policy of the most masterly +inactivity. 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.</p> +<p>For the voting resulted easily in favour of Mr. Fisher, though +the validity of his return was challenged in the Court of +Chancery for some three years afterwards, during which time, +however, <!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 109</span>he had no hesitation in +officiating. He was a fine reader and an able speaker, his +delivery of the Church ritual being a model of correct +elocution.</p> +<p>Like his predecessor, he held the living a long time, the +tenure of the two covering a century. Mr. Fisher resided +for a number of years at Bentley Hall.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p109.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative flower" +title= +"Decorative flower" +src="images/p109.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 110</span>XX.—The Election of 1894, and +Since.</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +111</span>To fully realise the position it must be borne in mind +that in addition to the three constituted “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.</p> +<p>On the death of the Rev. G. H. Fisher in 1894, no less than 23 +formal applications were forthcoming for the vacant living. +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.</p> +<p>The voting (recorded on cards) resulted in favour of the Rev. +William Elitto Rosedale, M.A., Rector of Canton, Cardiff, for +whom there were 265, as against 26 given for the Rev. W. L. Ward, +of St. Anne’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.</p> +<p>The votes recorded on this occasion were:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Rev. W. E. Rosedale (Canton, Cardiff)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">199</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rev. W. L. Ward (St. Anne’s, Willenhall)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">157</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rev. J. E. Page (Binfield)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rev. F. W. Ford (London)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>At four o’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 <!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +112</span>the Manor of Stowheath, the Duke of Sutherland and Mr. +W. T. C. Giffard; and the poll was taken by open voting, each +voter recording his vote orally and within the hearing of all +present.</p> +<p>The result having been forwarded to the Lords of the Manor, +they formally nominated the one at the head of the poll to the +Bishop for appointment and induction to the living. 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.</p> +<p>There can be little doubt the election of 1894 was conducted +with far more tact and discretion than ever had been exercised on +similar occasions previously. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>As previously stated, the earliest record of the Advowson is +of the year 1408. In the Salt Collections, Vol. XI., +p. 218, we <!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 113</span>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.”</p> +<p>Exactly two centuries later, as we shall learn in the next +chapter, the endowments of, and the right of presentation to, the +living were placed upon a definite and legal foundation. +Suffice it here to say that at the present time there are +Trustees appointed by the Charity Commissioners for the purpose +of holding the Trust property belonging to the said living, and, +with the assistance of an official representing the +Commissioners, managing affairs connected therewith.</p> +<p>The Trust, to which Mr. Samuel Mills Slater is solicitor, is +under the full control of the Charity Commissioners, who have to +be regularly supplied with certified copies of all the Trust +accounts.</p> +<p>As we shall see presently, the original Feoffees of the Trust +property were appointed in 1608 by a Commission of local magnates +and landowners, consisting of William Overton, Bishop of +Lichfield; William, Lord Paget, of Beaudesert; Sir John Bowes, of +Elford; Sir Edward Littleton, of Pillaton Hall; Sir Edward Leigh, +of Rushall; Sir Simon Weston, of St. John’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.</p> +<p>By virtue of a provision in the Decree or award of these +Commissioners, the surviving Feoffees were enabled to appoint new +<!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +114</span>Feoffees in the places of the deceased ones. In +later times, however, by virtue of the Charitable Trusts Acts, +the Board of Charity Commissioners acquired the power of making +appointments of new Trustees, and also of removing Trustees.</p> +<p>In the year 1889, the number of Trustees had become reduced to +one—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:—</p> +<p>John Clark.</p> +<p>Wm. Henry Hartill.</p> +<p>John Thomas Hartill.</p> +<p>Joseph Johnson.</p> +<p>David Wm. Lees.</p> +<p>Jas. Carpenter Tildesley.</p> +<p>Henry Vaughan.</p> +<p>Henry Hartill Walker, junr.</p> +<p>Of these gentlemen only Messrs. J. T. Hartill, Vaughan, and +Walker are now living.</p> +<p>It might be necessary under certain conditions (as, for +instance, in any action connected with the sale of the Advowson) +to constitute a body of elected Trustees (as distinct from the +aforementioned nominated Trustees) of not more than eleven, nor +less than five members, duly elected at a statutory meeting of +the town’s inhabitant freeholders.</p> +<p>As a matter of fact, a public meeting of the owners of the +Advowson, convened on the requisition of a memorial to the +Incumbent (Rev. W. E. Rosedale), signed by a number of them, was +held in the month of June, 1900, to consider a proposal for the +sale of the said Advowson. A similar proposal had been +discussed in 1898 at a public meeting attended by some 200 +owners, when it was suggested that half the sum realised should +be handed over to the town authorities, while the other half +should be spent on the church and schools.</p> +<p>At this second meeting, over which Mr. T. Nicholls, chairman +of the District Council, presided, the sale value of the Advowson +<!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +115</span>was variously estimated at sums ranging from +£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.</p> +<p>Another speaker gravely cautioned the meeting against +over-estimating the capitalised value of this living by remarking +that the present incumbent was then a comparatively young man of +only forty-two, and healthy at that.</p> +<p>It was given as the opinion of another speaker that the +existing method of electing their parson was undesirable in the +best interests of the church, and ought to be forthwith +discontinued. Also it was contended that if a sale could be +effected, any sum that resulted therefrom might very +advantageously be expended in the town for the benefit of the +inhabitants generally.</p> +<p>One stalwart stickler for “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.</p> +<p>In the end, although those in favour of selling almost +threatened to apply for an Act of Parliament for effecting a sale +compulsorily, the meeting finally resolved by a very substantial +majority: “That it was not advisable at the present time to +sell the Advowson.”</p> +<p>So that two well-conducted public meetings, held within a +brief space of each other, were unable to come to any definite +decision by which the position of things would be materially +altered.</p> +<h2><!-- page 116--><a name="page116"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 116</span>XXI.—Willenhall Church +Endowments.</h2> +<p>By the courtesy of Mr. S. M. Slater, of Darlaston, a +summarised, but fairly comprehensive account of the Willenhall +endowments, and the somewhat exceptional parochial privileges +connected therewith, may be given here.</p> +<p>The foundation of the Endowment of the Benefice and the +establishment of the right of the Parishioners, or rather the +Parishioners of the Township “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:—</p> +<p>(a) A Decree dated the 27th March in the 5th Year of James the +1st (1607), made in pursuance of an Inquisition, or Commission, +issued by the King on the 12th February of the previous (regnal) +year.</p> +<p>(b) A Deed of the 23rd September of the 6th Year of James the +1st (1608), entered into between the Lords of the Manor of +Stowheath on the one hand, and Sir Walter Levison and others, on +behalf of themselves and the rest of the Inhabitants of +Willenhall, on the other hand.</p> +<p>(c) A Memorandum entered on the Court Rolls of the Manor of +Stowheath, dated the 10th October in the 6th Year of James the +First (1608).</p> +<p>Reference to Chapter VII. of this work will recall how a +Chantry Chapel had been founded and endowed in Willenhall by the +Gerveyse family. 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 +<!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +117</span>such properties to uses which could be regarded as +truly “charitable.” What became of the +Willenhall Chantry endowments?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It seems almost impossible to doubt that the freehold lands +belonging to the Willenhall Chantry had escaped confiscation to +the Crown under the Statute, <span class="smcap">i</span> Edward +VI., if they had been held solely for performing obits and +singing masses for the dead. 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p><!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +118</span>It set forth that the King, for the due execution of a +certain Statute of 43 Queen Elizabeth, intituled an Act to +“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.”</p> +<p>The Commission then proceeds:—</p> +<blockquote><p>And therefore we commande you that at cteyne days +and places which you or any foure or more of you shall appoint in +this behalf ye or any foure or more of you doe make diligent +Inquirie and Inquiries upon the pmisses and all and singuler the +same and all other things appointed by the said Statute for you +or any foure or more of you to doe and execute that ye or foure +of you at the least pforme doe and execute that <!-- page +119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +119</span>effecte in all points and in everie respect accordinge +to the said Statute. . . . 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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Decree before referred to was signed by Sir Edward Leigh, +Dr. Zacharie Babington, William Skeffington, John Chetwynde, and +Walter Stanley, and was addressed to the Right Honourable Thomas, +Lord Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor of England. It set out the +Commission and then proceeded as follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Wee therefore by verteue of the said Commission +dyd award a pcept to the Sheriffe of the said Countye to somon +foure and twentye good and lawfull men of his Baylywicke to be +before Us at Lichfeilde the xxijth day of Marche laste paste and +did also send a precepte to one Jane Lane Widdow and to Thomas +Lane Esquire that claymed intereste in the pmisses to bee before +Us att the same day and place to sett forth theire and either of +theire tytles (yf they had anie) to the said pmisses att wch daye +and place by virtue of the said pcepte to the sayde Sheriffe +dyrected as aforesaid a full Jury dyd appeare and Councell on the +behalfe of Mrs. Lane and the said Thomas Lane dyd alsoe appear +before Us and thereupon wee pceeded to sweare the Jurye who +bringe sworne and chardged to inquire of the pmisses <!-- page +120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +120</span>after long evidence and examinacon of many witnesses on +both pts the said Jurors gave up theire verdicte in such sorte as +by an Inquisition hereunto annexed Sealed and subscribed (wch wee +doe herewith all ctyfye unto yor Lordshippe into the highe Courte +of Chancery) maie appear; that is to say that a pcell of pasture +or land called Marchyhills alias Bessalls in Bentley aforesaid, +of ye yeerlie value of fyve pounds, was before the fourth yeere +of Kinge Edward the Sixth given to Nicholas Hellyn and Richard +Whorwood gent., John Podmore Willm Greene Willm Whitmore and +William Podmore and their heires to bee Imployed to saye devine +service in the Chappell of Willenhall aforesaid for the ease of +the Inhabyants there being farre remoote from their prshe Church +of Wolverhampton in the said Countye that the pffits of the said +lands were from Anno quarto of Kinge Edwarde the sixte so +imployed as aforesaid by the space of dyvers yeeres of the said +Jane Lane and Thomas Lane and their Tenants 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 <!-- page 121--><a +name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>tyme to +tyme and at all tymes hereafter yeerelie Imploye and bestowe the +full value thereof upon and towards the maynetaynance of a Curate +or Chaplyne to saye devyne service in the said Chappell.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>As will be seen, the Decree states clearly that the yearly +income of the Bentley lands was to be used towards the +maintenance of a Curate to say Divine Service in the Chapel; this +at once brought it under the Charitable Uses Act, and removed it +from liability to be confiscated under 23, Henry VIII., c. 10., +for perpetuating practices regarded as superstitious and contrary +to Reformation doctrines. 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.</p> +<p>The Decree then proceeds, as mentioned in the last chapter, to +make provision for the filling up of vacancies in the number of +Feoffees whenever the number may be reduced to three.</p> +<p>It will be noticed that the Inquisition and Decree, as given +above, deal only with the title to and the application of the +income of certain freehold lands at Bentley. 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, <!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 122</span>Yeomen, on behalf of themselves and +the rest of the Inhabitants of Willenhall, on the other part; and +after making reference to a “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.</p> +<p>Coming to the Memorandum of 1608, it is evident a serious +difficulty had arisen with the Willenhall lands held under +copyhold tenure, and which were probably dealt with by the same +Commission. For there was probably but one Commission of +Inquiry, though there may have been two separate Decrees.</p> +<p>Lands held by Copyhold tenure are usually subject to fealty to +the Lord of the Manor, and this was doubtless customary in +Stowheath. It seems conclusive that the King did not take +these lands into his own hands, whereby matters would have been +reduced to the absurdity of the lord paramount being called upon +to do homage to his own tenant.</p> +<p>The suggestion is offered by Mr. Rollason that the tenure of +the lands was not precisely a lay one, but partook of a spiritual +nature—was, in fact, not feudal, but what was known as a +tenure in frankalmoign or free alms.</p> +<p>The Memorandum commences with a recital as follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Whereas by a Commission awarded upon a Statute of +43 Elizabeth concerning Lands given to Charitable Uses upon the +executinge of wch Comission the Inhabitants and Men of Willenhall +in the County of Stafford have made profe that certaine Copyhold +Lands in the Towne of Willenhall holden by Coppie of Court Roll +of the Manor of Stowheath were formerly Surrendered by certain +Feoffees or Stateberers Uppon Trust and confidence that the +yearly Pfitts thereof should be imployed for the hyer stipend and +wages of a Preist Minister or Curate to say Divine Service in the +Chappell of Willenhall from tyme to tyme for ever for the Ease of +the Inhabitants there dwelling <!-- page 123--><a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>being two +Myles distant from Wolverhampton their Prshe Church and towards +the repairinge of the said Chappell and the said yearly pfitts +thereof were soe used and imployed for many yeares togeather +uppon consideracon of wch said cause and uppon longe debate +thereof before divse Comissioners in psence of Councell of both +ptes ambiguity and doubtings arisinge whether the said Copyhold +Lands were originally given to the maintenance of a Chantery +Preist or otherwise to the maintenance of a Curate of Preist to +say Divine Service in the Chappell aforesaid The said Inhabitants +are contented to refer themselves therein to the consideracon of +Sir John Leveson Knt and John Giffard Esquire Lords of the Mannor +of Stowheath within wch Mannor the said Towne of Willenhall lyeth +and is pcel wch usadge and imploymt of the saide rents and pfitts +of the said Lands the said Sr John Leveson and Jhn Giffard Esqre +well accepting of are willing to give furtherance to soe good and +charitable an occon And the rather for that their Ancestors have +formerly given allowance out of the same Lands for the same +purpose And therefore doe for them and their heirs consent and +agree that the said Coppyhold Lands shall for ever hereafter be +let by the consent of four of the Inhabitants of the said Towne +of Willenhall to be chosen by the greater pte of the sufficient +Householders of the said Towne having lands of inheritance there, +and that the said aforemenconed Lands shall be by the said four +Inhabitants let from tyme to tyme according to the trew and +reasonable Rate or Valew thereof and the mony pfitts and rents to +be reserved out of the said Lands to be imployed half yearly +hereafter in manner and forme following (that is to say) First to +the payment of eleven shillings yearly for the antient and +accustomed cheife rent dew and to be dew to the Lords of the said +Manor of Stowheath Secondly to the payment of Six shillings and +eight pence yearly towards the reparations of the said Chappell, +and thirdly towards the maintenance of a stipendary Preist +Minester or Curate for the sayinge of Divine Service Ministeringe +of the Holy Sacraments and doinge all such other service in the +Chappell of Willenhall as doe and <!-- page 124--><a +name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>shall +belong to his Ministerie and Function wch Stipendary Priest +Minister or Curate shall be fro tyme to tyme chosen nominated and +appointed by the said Inhabitants of Willenhall for the tyme +beinge or the greatest pte of them havinge lands there as +aforesaid and prsented and allowed by the Lord on Lords of the +said Manner of Stowheath and his and their heir or heires for +ever. 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 <!-- page 125--><a +name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>when and as +often there shal be remaininge but three or two Feoffees or +Stateberers And that uppon every such admittance there shall be +payed to the Lords of the said Mannor the some of six pounds +thirteen shillings and fower pence for a fine and Herriotts as +often as any such admittance shall be as aforesaid.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The disclosure here made, that part of the endowments went to +the repair of the church, gives the key to the probable solution; +because this unquestionably constituted a “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.</p> +<p>On reading the introductory portion of the Memorandum, it will +be observed that no date is given to the Commission referred to, +which possibly might be interpreted to mean that such Commission +was quite separate from the one above set out, inasmuch as the +latter related only to freehold land at Bentley, while the +Memorandum speaks of “certain Copyhold lands in the Towne +of Willenhall” being “surrendered by certain Feoffees +. . . Uppon trust,” &c.</p> +<p>In the documents before considered no allusion is made to +there being any endowment or provision for the maintenance of the +Chantry Priest or Curate other than the income from the Freehold +<!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +126</span>and Copyhold lands which respectively formed the +subject of those documents; and from this it is reasonable to +conclude that such income formed, or was involved in what may be +described as practically the only permanent provision for the +maintenance of the Incumbent for the time being of the +Chapel.</p> +<p>A century ago there appears to have been a prevalent belief +that the income of the Incumbent or Curate was about £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 <!-- page 127--><a +name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>the Grand +Junction Railway Company and the Canal Company respectively under +their compulsory powers. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In the exercise of the powers conferred by the Act, the +Trustees, in the course of a few years, sold all the lands +belonging to the Living situate in Willenhall, and in recent +years a piece of land containing 1 rood and 23 perches, forming +part of the Freehold land at Bentley, has also been sold and +there now remains at Bentley, belonging to the Living, nine +pieces of land, containing a total area of 30 acres and 27 +perches, which, for several years prior to Mr. Fisher’s +death, produced a rental of £20 per annum.</p> +<p>The primary provisions of the Act with regard to the moneys to +arise from sales and leases under the powers thereby conferred +were: (a) That the moneys should be let out and invested under +the direction of the Court in the purchase of Freehold +hereditaments or Copyhold hereditaments convenient to be enjoyed +therewith; (b) that the premises purchased should be conveyed +unto the Trustees for the time being of the Charity and held upon +the Trusts, upon which the hereditaments sold would have been +held in case the same had not been so sold, and the Act had not +been passed; (c) that until the moneys should be so let out <!-- +page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>and invested they should be invested in Parliamentary +stocks or Funds of Great Britain in the name of the +Accountant-General; and (d) that the annual produce of such funds +should be applied to the person and for the purposes to which the +rents of the trust lands would have been applicable.</p> +<p>In the exercise of the trust for purchasing lands conferred by +the Act, the Trustees subsequently purchased the property in +Walsall Street, adjoining and near to the Churchyard, including +the site of the new Schools there, and also two Cottages and some +gardens and land at Shepwell Green. The latter property has +since been sold off.</p> +<p>Reverting to the question of the value of the Living, it may +be mentioned that in the year 1886, when the Shepwell Green +property and the small piece of land at Bentley were still in +hand, the gross income from the Living, apart from Surplice Fees, +was £792 7s. 9d., made up as follows:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rents</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">194</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Dividend from £19,941 16s. 8d., 3 per cent. +Consols</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">598</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£792</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>The effect of the “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:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">s.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">d.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rents</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">194</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Dividend from 2½ per cent. Consols</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">498</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£692</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>This statement brings matters up to date (1907); the tithes +are still impropriate, a rent charge of £540 being +receivable by Lord Barnard in succession to the Duke of +Cleveland. The tithe-owner in Bentley is the Earl of +Lichfield.</p> +<h2><!-- page 129--><a name="page129"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 129</span>XXII.—The Church Charities: +The Daughter Churches.</h2> +<p>At the beginning of the nineteenth century a Royal Commission +was appointed to inquire into, and put a stop to, the barefaced +robbery of the Church charities, which had been going on for a +century or more. Every parish in England was visited, and +the Report on the Willenhall Charities was published in 1825 to +the following effect:—</p> +<h3>1.—<span class="smcap">Prestwood’s +Dole</span>.</h3> +<blockquote><p>An ancient Instrument was produced to us, +purporting to be a Deed-poll (without any seals thereto, but with +a portion of the lower margin torn off, not, however, as it +appeared to us, in that part where the seals are usually +affixed), bearing date 17 August, 1642, whereby William +Prestwood, of Willenhall, in Co. Stafford, and Mariana, his wife, +granted to the Wardens and Sidemen of the Church or Chapel of +Willenhall, aforesaid, and to the Overseers of the poor of the +said Town, and their successors for ever, all the annual rent, +profits, and emoluments whatsoever, issuing, renewing, and +arising from, in and out of a certain Close of the said William +and Mariana, called Canne Byrch, lying and being in Willenhall +aforesaid, between Willenhall Field on one part, and the highway +leading towards Darlaston on the other; to have and to hold all +the rent, profits, and emoluments arising from the said Close, +after the death of the said William and Mariana, for ever; to the +pious use following, viz.:—</p> +<p>To pay and contribute the annual rent aforesaid to the use and +behoof of the Poor in the said Town, at the discretion of the +aforesaid Wardens, Officers, and Overseers of the Chapel and Town +aforesaid for ever, and not otherwise: And it is further declared +that the said rent should be annually paid in the manner and form +as the said William by his last Will should appoint.</p> +<p>We have no evidence that this piece of land, which is well +known, was ever in the possession of the Parish Officers. +<!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +130</span>It is now considered as the property of Hervey Smith, +Esq., of Castle Bromwich, who has lately succeeded to it on the +death of his father, the late William Smith, Esq., solicitor of +Birmingham, and to be subject only to an annual rent charge of +20s. to the Poor of Willenhall, which is regularly paid by the +tenant of the land. 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.”</p> +<p>The others are for the same sum, designating it either as +“Prestwood’s Dole,” or “A Dole payable to +the Poor of Willenhall.”</p> +<p>We do not conceive that, under these circumstances, the +imperfect Instrument above stated, unaccompanied by possession, +can afford any ground to the Parishioners of the Township to +claim anything more than the Dole which has been so long +paid. The 20 shillings are given away to 20 Poor Widows on +St. Thomas’s Day.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>2.—<span class="smcap">Pedley’s +Charity</span>.</h3> +<blockquote><p>James Pedley, otherwise Fletcher, by his Will +dated 20 May, 1728, after the death of his wife, gave to his +brother, Richard Pedley, alias Fletcher, his heirs and assigns, +those two Closes of Land called by the name Little Clothers, +lying in the Liberty of Willenhall, in the Parish of +Wolverhampton, on condition that his said brother should pay or +cause to be paid 30s. a year out of the rent of the said two +Closes of land, as follows; that is to say, to the Minister of +Willenhall 6s. 8d. a year to preach a sermon on New Year’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 <!-- +page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +131</span>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.</p> +<p>The premises charged with this annuity of 30s. are at present +the property of Mr. George Bailey, in right of his wife, to whom +they descended as heir to her brother, Charles Pedley, the +great-nephew of the testator.</p> +<p>The several payments of 6s. 8d. to the Minister and 8s. and +13s. for bread, appear to have been annually made; but the bread +having been distributed by the Pedley family themselves, or +persons deputed by them, without the intervention of the +Chapelwarden or Overseer, the fees of 2s. 4d. to these Officers +have been hitherto withheld, and are indeed unnoticed in a Will +of James Pedley, dated in 1792, whereby he devises the Closes in +question to the above-named Charles Pedley, describing them as +subject to the other payments of 27s. 8d. only.</p> +<p>Mr. Bailey has, however, expressed his readiness to supply the +omission in future, and to pay the bread money, or deliver the +bread to the Officers of the Township to be distributed by them +according to the directions of the donor.</p> +<p>The distributions appear to have been hitherto made +respectively on New Year’s Day and at Midsummer, among Poor +Old Widows and other Poor of the Township.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>3.—<span class="smcap">Charities of John Tomkys and +George Welch</span>.</h3> +<blockquote><p>At a Court Baron held for the Manor of Stowheath, +on 29th May, 1781, the lords of the manor, at the request of +certain persons being Chapelwardens, and certain others being +Overseers of the Poor of the liberty of Willenhall, and of +certain others, being three of the principal Inhabitants of +Willenhall, on behalf of themselves and others, the inhabitants +of Willenhall, by the hands of the Steward, according to the +custom of the manor, gave, granted, and delivered to Joshua +Fletcher, of Willenhall, and Catherina, his wife, all those three +Closes or parcels of land, containing together five acres, or +thereabouts, theretofore enclosed from the waste or <!-- page +132--><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +132</span>common-land called Shepwell Green, within the liberty +of Willenhall, for their natural lives and the life of the +survivor, with remainder to the heirs and assigns of the said +Joshua Fletcher for ever, subject to the payment of 20s. on St. +Thomas’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.</p> +<p>These premises are now the property of John Fletcher, by whom +the annuity of 20s. is duly paid to the officers of the +Township. 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.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>4.—<span class="smcap">John Bates’s +Charity</span>.</h3> +<blockquote><p>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.</p> +<p>The principal was placed at interest on 21 December, 1701, in +the hands of Joseph Hincks, on the security of his bond; and the +interest appears to have been duly paid by himself and his heirs +successively. 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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 133</span>Welch family, their homestead in +Willenhall stood in the location known as Welch End.</p> +<p>Concerning Pedley’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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 134--><a name="page134"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 134</span>Bentley and the remaining portion of +the Willenhall township. The fourth daughter parish, St. +Anne’s, came a few years later.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>St. Anne’s Church, Spring Bank, was built largely as a +memorial to his wife by Mr. H. Jeavon. It was consecrated +in 1861.</p> +<p>Holy Trinity Church (Short Heath) Vicarage and Schools were +all built by the Rev. Dr. Rosedale, the first vicar of the +parish, and father of the present vicar of St. +Giles’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.</p> +<p>A Mission Room at New Invention completes the list of Anglican +Establishments in Willenhall.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 135</span>XXIII.—The Fabric of the +Church.</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The first edifice, as a mere chapel of accommodation, was in +all probability a very primitive structure, constructed entirely +of timber cut from the adjacent forest of Cannock. But when +it became a chantry also, the original structure may have been +replaced by a more elaborate edifice, in the style which is +generally known as half-timbered.</p> +<p>Soon after the Reformation the mother church of Wolverhampton +was pewed on a plan for the specifically allotted accommodation +of all the parishioners, when the centre aisle was given to the +inhabitants of Wolverhampton, the south aisle was set apart for +the people of Bilston, and the north aisle was appropriated to +Wednesfield and Willenhall. In those days, as previously +explained, the law supposed that every adult person attended +church on Sundays; there was, in fact, a penalty for absence +enforcible by law.</p> +<p>With regard to Willenhall’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 <!-- page +136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>records in the Tipton Registers of no less than seven +collections made there between 1657 and 1661 for the relief of +distress through fire and other causes in Desford, Southwold, +Drayton (Salop), Oxford, East Hogborne, Chichester, and Milton +Abbey.</p> +<p>Willenhall called for this form of national assistance in +1660, as entries of a Brief on its behalf have been found as far +apart as Chatham, in Kent, and Woodborough, in Notts, and may +doubtless be traced in various parish registers up and down the +country. Here is a copy of the Nottinghamshire +entry:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">September ye 23, +1660.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Collected</span> at ye Parish Church and +among ye Inhabitants of Woodbourogh for and towards the Reliefe +of ye distressed inhabitants of Willenhall, in ye County of +Stafford, being Commended hityr [hereto] by ye King’s +Majestyes Letters Patents with ye gorat Sale [Great Seal] for and +towards their loss by fire, ye sum of 4s. 10d.</p> +<p>Witness,</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">John +Allatt</span>,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Minister.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">James +Job</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Henry Moorelaw</span>,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Churchwardens.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>[It has been romantically suggested by a local writer that the +“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 <!-- page +137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +137</span>secreted by Jesuitic and other priestly adherents, +though they might have pocketed a reward of £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!]</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p137b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Bentley Hall" +title= +"Bentley Hall" +src="images/p137s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>To resume our history of Willenhall Church: What was +manifestly a “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.</p> +<p>On August 14th of the year 1727, the Bishop having first +consecrated Bilston Chapel, in the presence of a large assembly +of the local clergy, which included the Rev. R. Ames and two +other prebendaries; the vicars of Walsall and Dudley; Mr. Tyrer, +curate of Tettenhall; Mr. Gibbons, minister of Codsall; Mr. +Varden, rector of Darlaston; Mr. Perry, curate of Wednesbury; and +Mr. Holbrooke, curate of Willenhall; his lordship proceeded to +Willenhall in a coach and four, where the ceremony of +Consecration “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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>About the middle of the eighteenth century there was a wave of +zeal for church extension, on which we find Wolverhampton carried +along rather freely; for within the short space of ten years, +under the auspices of Dr. Pennistan Booth, the enterprising Dean, +the building of four chapels-of-ease was projected. These +daughter churches were:—</p> +<p>1746—Wednesfield (Advowson of which was vested in Walter +Gough and his heirs).</p> +<p>1748—Willenhall.</p> +<p><!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +138</span>1753—Bilston.</p> +<p>1755—St. John’s (the new building was injured by +fire, and not consecrated till 1760).</p> +<p>From the Registers is gleaned the following issue of a writ to +release sequestration of fees:—</p> +<blockquote><p>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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>From the Diary of Dr. Richard Wilkes is extracted the +following illuminative entry—a contemporary record of the +state of the ancient edifice:—</p> +<blockquote><p>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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>This edifice was a fair specimen of the crudities which went +to make up the “churchwarden architecture” of the +period; consisting <!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 139</span>mainly of a plain, box-like nave, +pierced on either side by half a dozen staring oblong windows, +and having in the whole of its hulk not one curved line or +rounded form by which relief could be afforded to the eye at any +single point. 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.</p> +<p>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).</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The work of enlarging the church was undertaken in 1897 in +memory of the late Incumbent, Mr. Fisher; and a fine organ was +installed in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond +Jubilee. Also at the same time choir stalls were +introduced, the choristers being <!-- page 140--><a +name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>brought +from the gallery, which latter feature was rightly removed +altogether. Among the improvements promoted by the +Incumbent and his energetic churchwardens, Dr. John T. Hartill +and Mr. H. H. Walker, of Bentley Hall, were the enlargement of +the churchyard and the scheme for providing a church house.</p> +<p>As the new incumbent, Mr. Rosedale, was a nephew of Mrs. +Gough, the generous contributor to the rebuilding fund of +1865–7, just mentioned, it was suggested that the house she +occupied might fittingly be transformed to serve as a +Parsonage.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>Almost from the time pews were first put into churches, seats +became appurtenant to certain family mansions, and by custom +descended from ancestor to heir, without any ecclesiastical +concurrence. 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>I give and bequeath to my Son, Abraham Hartill, +the fourth part of a seat in the Chapel, No. 4 in B row an all so +one 4 part of a seat in F row near the Dore. . . . and I bequeath +to my Daughter, 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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Similar testamentary disposals appear in the will of Isaac +Hartill, dated 27 May, 1818:—</p> +<blockquote><p>I give and devise to my Son, Isaac Hartill, all +that my moiety or half part of the seat or pew, being No. 10 in +the South Aisle within the Church or Chapel of Willenhall +aforesaid, to hold to him my said son, Isaac, his heirs and +assigns tor ever. . . .</p> +<p>I give and devise unto my said Son, Ephraim Hartill, one +moiety or equal half part of, and in my seat, or pew, being +number 4 in the South Aisle within the Church or Chapel +aforesaid, to hold to my said Son, Ephraim, his Heirs, and +assigns for ever. And I also give and devise unto my +daughter, Mary Atkins, the other moiety or equal half part or +share of <!-- page 141--><a name="page141"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 141</span>the said last mentioned seat or pew, +to hold to my said Daughter Mary Atkins, her heirs and assigns +for ever.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Of like purport is the following extract from codicil to the +will of Samuel Hartill, dated June 9, 1821; probate Nov. 12, +1821:—</p> +<blockquote><p>I give devise and bequeath to my nephew Henry +Bratt, all that my seat or pew or part or share thereof being +number eleven in A in Willenhall Church, to hold to him his +heirs, executors administrators or assigns according to the +tenure of the said property. I give devise and bequeath to +my Brother-in-law, Isaac Hartill in my Will named all my other +Seats or Pews or parts or shares of seats or pews in Willenhall +Church aforesaid to hold to him his heirs executors +administrators or assigns according to the tenure of the said +property.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thus much in witness of the heritable nature of Church Pews; +now for documentary evidences of the trafficking in such +properties (all relating to Willenhall Church):—</p> +<blockquote><p>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</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Richd. +Wilkes</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">A 12.</p> +<p>6 Jan, 1750.—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</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Richd. +Wilkes</span>.</p> +<p>£2 7s. 7½d.</p> +<p>“I hereby acknowledge that I have this day had and +received from Abraham Hartill . . . the sum of One Pound Fifteen +Shillings for the full and absolute purchase sale value and +Consideration of all those my sittings kneelings Parts or shares +of and in two different seats or pews and standing and being on +the left-hand side in the first Ile and numbered with the figures +11 and 12 in the Church or Chapel of Willenhall aforesaid, and +which said sittings kneelings Parts or shares of the said seats +or pews I do hereby Warrant <!-- page 142--><a +name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>unto the +said Abraham Hartill his Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns against +me, my Heirs Exors Admors and Assigns and that I my Heirs Exors, +Admors or Assigns shall and will at any time or times hereafter +upon the request and Costs of the said Abraham Hartill His Heirs +&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.</p> +<p>Witness</p> +<p style="text-align: right">FRANCIS CHANDLER.</p> +<p>Wm. Perkin.<br /> +Saml Hartill.”</p> +<p>“Received January 24 1783 of Isaac Hartill The Sum of +Two Pounds in full for Halfe a Seat Number 10 in E In Willenhall +Chappell</p> +<p>By mee The Mark X of <span class="smcap">Richd. +Hartill</span>.<br /> +Witness Jonah Hartill.”</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Stephen +Perrey</span>.</p> +<p>Willenhall April 26th 1791 Received then of.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Of this last voucher there is a duplicate copy bearing a +twopenny receipt stamp.</p> +<h2><!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 143</span>XXIV.—Dissent, Nonconformity, +and Philanthrophy.</h2> +<p>Inasmuch as Bentley Hall lies within the confines of +Willenhall, this place must always be associated with the rise +and early history of Wesleyanism. The episode of John +Wesley being haled by the Wednesbury rioters before Justice Lane +at Bentley Hall (1743) belongs to the general history of the +denomination, and there is no need to repeat the story here.</p> +<p>The reader may be referred to “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.</p> +<p>That the evangelical missioning of John Wesley was peculiarly +suited to the religious and social needs of the eighteenth +century, and nowhere more so than among the proletariat of the +mining and manufacturing Midlands, is now a generally accepted +truism. 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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 144--><a +name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>and grew +mightily; chapels were established at Short Heath and Portobello, +on the Walsall Road (1865), and on Spring Bank.</p> +<p>Mr. Pratt pays a high tribute to the efforts of the Tildesleys +and the Harpers, but with a sense of justice he does not forget +the mead of gratitude always due to those early pioneers from +Darlaston, placing on the same bright scroll of fame the names of +Foster, Wilkes, Rubery, Silcock, Bowen, and Banks.</p> +<p>In the earlier history of local Wesleyanism, one of its chief +supporters was James Carpenter, founder of the existing firm of +Carpenter and Tildesley. Another pillar of Wesleyanism was +Jonah Tildesley, followed later in the good work by his two sons, +Josiah and Jesse, his grandson Thomas, George Ley Pearce, and +Isaac Pedley; and in a lesser degree by James Tildesley (who +married Harriet Carpenter), and the late John Harper, founder of +the Albion Works, now the largest place of employment in the +town.</p> +<p>One outcome of the Wesleyan spirit was seen about the year +1820, when James Carpenter, George Pearce, William Whitehouse, +and other leading inhabitants made a determined effort to put +down some of the coarser sports by which the annual Wake was +celebrated. 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.</p> +<p>It cannot be said the injunction was enforced; but it is a +fact that from that time many church-goers were driven into the +Methodist fold.</p> +<p>The romantic side of the evangelisation of the Black Country +has been idealised by Mr. J. C. Tildesley in his “Sketches +of <!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +145</span>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.</p> +<p>A short history of local Methodism, it may be mentioned, was +deposited in the memorial stones of Wednesfield Chapel in +1885.</p> +<p>The existing Wesleyan Chapels, now under the direction of the +Rev. A. Hann and the Rev. Walter Fytche, are five in number, +namely, Union Street, Walsall Road, Monmer Lane, Short Heath, and +High Street, Portobello. 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.</p> +<p>Primitive Methodism first established itself at Monmer Lane, +and then removed to Little London, but did not meet with much +success at the outset, though it has now four flourishing chapels +in the township. They are all at present under the +direction of the Rev. C. L. Tack, and situated respectively at +New Invention, Spring Bank, Lane Head, and Russell Street.</p> +<p>Nonconformity was first brought into Willenhall from Coseley, +the brethren of the famous Darkhouse Chapel establishing a colony +at Little London, where eventually they erected a pioneer Baptist +Chapel. 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.</p> +<p>The Roman Catholics first made their appearance in modern +Willenhall some sixty years ago, when they established a small +mission at the bottom of Union Street, afterwards building their +resent chapel, which is dedicated to St. Mary, and of which the +Rev. Walter Poulton (in succession to the Rev. W. P. Wells) is +priest.</p> +<p>A mission of the Catholic Apostolic Brethren, served from +Wolverhampton, completes the list of religious agencies now at +work in Willenhall.</p> +<p><!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +146</span>In the religious and social history of the place +mention cannot be omitted of some few names which have earned the +respect of the townspeople. 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">ERECTED<br /> +by voluntary subscription in memory of<br /> +GEORGE LEY PEARCE<br /> +(of Willenhall),<br /> +who died December 31st, 1873,<br /> +Aged 78;<br /> +And was buried in the adjacent vault.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">For fifty years he zealously +devoted himself to the work of visiting the sick and afflicted of +this town, whether rich or poor, and was made a great blessing to +many.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">His work was the outward expression +of that Christ-like charity which pervaded his soul.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. +<!-- page 147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +147</span>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.</p> +<p>Without sorting into sects and creeds, let it be acknowledged +that Willenhall has been fortunate in the number of its townsmen +whose lives have been usefully and commendably spent in the +public service and for the public good. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p147.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative pattern" +title= +"Decorative pattern" +src="images/p147.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 148</span>XXV.—Manorial Government.</h2> +<p>Willenhall is a township of some 1,980 acres in extent, carved +out of the ancient parish of Wolverhampton, and situated midway +between that town and the town of Walsall, being about three +miles distant from either. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Of <span class="smcap">Stowheath Manor</span>, the portions +lying within Willenhall are a small part of the modern township, +together with Short Heath, New Invention, Lanehead, Sandbeds, +Little London, and Portobello. The remainder of this manor +stretches beyond the Willenhall boundary into Bilston and +Wolverhampton.</p> +<p>To a manor or lordship was usually attached a Court Baron, or +domestic court of the lord, for the settling of disputes relating +to property among the tenants, and for redressing misdemeanours +and nuisances arising within the manor. The business was +transacted by a jury or homage elected by and from the +tenants.</p> +<p>How far the customary officers were chosen every year by the +Willenhall Court Baron cannot now be ascertained. Doubtless +<!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +149</span>appointments were made from time to time of such +manorial tears as Hedgers and Ditchers, to look after the +highways and byways, a Common Pinner to impound stray cattle, and +Head boroughs or Petty Constables “to apprehend all vagrom +men” whose room was esteemed more highly than their +company.</p> +<p>The present lords of the Manor of Stowheath are the Duke of +Sutherland, and W. T. C. Giffard, Esq., of Chillington; the +Steward of the Manor is Mr. W. E. Stamer, of Lilleshall; and the +Deputy-Steward Mr. Frederick T. Langley, of Wolverhampton. +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.</p> +<p>THE <span class="smcap">Manor of Willenhall</span>, which, +though prebendal, is impropriate, comprises the rest of the +township; of this manor the Baron Barnard is the present lord, +and the sole recipient of all tithes from Willenhall, Short +Heath, and Wednesfield.</p> +<p>A glimpse of the 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.</p> +<p>By whom or when a manor house was first set up in Willenhall +is not known; but it is not improbable that the lordship of +Stowheath, soon after it passed out of the hands of the King, was +acquired by a Leveson, who seated himself on the estate, +reserving to himself the portion which lay nearest his mansion +(demesne <!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 150</span>lands), and distributing the rest +among his tenants (tenemental lands).</p> +<p>The house in which the Levesons resided, as previously +recorded, was situated on the east side of Stafford Street; the +Midland Railway now runs through the site, but before the line +was cut, and whilst the mines remained ungotten, traces of its +ancient moat were clearly discernible.</p> +<p>The residence now known as the Manor House, and occupied by Dr +J. T. Hartill, though it has no connection with the manorial +mansion of the Leveson family, is not without some association +with the manorial form of government. It appears that +upwards of half a century ago, when the late Jeremiah Hartill +(uncle of the present occupant of the house) was taking his full +share in the public life of Willenhall, it was most difficult, if +not next to impossible, to get copyhold land in this manor +enfranchised.</p> +<p>At that time there was a very considerable amount of property +in Willenhall held by this old-world tenure, and this induced Mr. +Jeremiah Hartill to take a very prominent part in the local +efforts which were then being made to introduce the principle of +compulsory enfranchisement. As the result of a national +movement in this direction an Act was passed in 1841 to provide a +statutory method of enfranchisement; and the matter was carried +still further in 1852 by another Act, which introduced the +principle of compulsory enfranchisement.</p> +<p>Mr. Hartill had at that time recently built himself a new +house (1847), when, as the local leader in a movement which had +been brought so far on the road to success, he was invited to a +public dinner in recognition of his public-spirited +efforts. 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.</p> +<p><!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +151</span>The names of the chief residents in Willenhall in 1327 +may be gleaned from the Subsidy Roll given in Chapter IX.; very +similar names occur in another list of the taxpayers to the +Scotch War of 1333. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.).</p> +<p>There were two kinds of enclosures, however, all made in the +last few centuries; the enclosure of the open commons or wastes, +and the enclosure of the common fields. “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.</p> +<p>In 1377 the <span class="smcap">Manor of Bentley</span> 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.)</p> +<p>The estate seems to have descended to him from his +grandfather, to whom it had been granted in the reign of Edward +II.; and it is noteworthy that his wife, Alianora, was a +Leveson.</p> +<p><!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +152</span>In 1421 William Griffiths established his right to +Bentley, and in 1430 it was conveyed to Richard Lone de la +Hide. Of the family of this Richard Lone of the Hyde there +were afterwards two branches; one, the Hamptons, of Stourton +Castle, and the other, the Lanes, of Bentley.</p> +<p>The halo of romance which grew up around Bentley Hall during +the seigniory of the Lanes is well known. 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.</p> +<p>The Lanes sold the Manor of Bentley in 1748 to Joseph Turton, +of Wolverhampton, and he in turn sold it to the first Lord Anson, +ancestor of the present holder.</p> +<p>The Manor comprises 1,200 acres, none of which is now +copyhold. 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.</p> +<p>Bentley is a parish without a church, or a chapel, and until +the Willenhall District Council recently made a Cemetery there, +it was also without a burial ground.</p> +<p>Bentley has but a scant population, and contains not a single +inn. Its living history seems to have centred almost +entirely round the old family mansion of the Lanes.</p> +<p>In 1660 a tax was levied on the fire-hearth of every +dwelling-house, and the amount collected under this grievous +impost in Willenhall was returned as £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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 153</span>XXVI.—Modern +Self-Government.</h2> +<p>For centuries the Manorial and the Parochial forms of +government ran together side by side in this country, till these +two antiquated ideas of feudal lordship and church temporalities +had to give way before the growing democratic principle of +elective representation, and they were eventually supplanted by +the modern methods of popular self-government.</p> +<p>In the reign of Elizabeth—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The Vestry, or public assembly of parishioners, would +supplement these feeble efforts at local government by choosing +not only Chapelwardens, but Parish Constables and the +Waywardens. The custody of the stocks was entrusted to the +former, while the latter were supposed to superintend the amateur +efforts of the parishioners to repair their own highways, every +one being then liable to furnish either manual labour or team +work for this laudable public purpose.</p> +<p>Publicly elected and unsalaried Waywardens were naturally but +feeble instruments to work with; so in the early nineteenth +century, when coaching was at its zenith, this antiquated and +ineffective system was superseded in Willenhall, as in many other +places, by an elected Highway Board, charged with the duty of +<!-- page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +154</span>looking after all highways and common streets, ancient +bridges, ditches, and watercourses. In a dilettante sort of +way this Board was also a sanitary body.</p> +<p>In 1734 Willenhall is recorded to have suffered from a plague +called the “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.</p> +<p>Cholera and other epidemic scourges having made it apparent +that beyond preserving the peace and mending the roads, the +paramount duty of local self-government was to protect the +people’s health, Willenhall in 1854 showed itself alive to +this fact by adopting the new Public Health Acts and calling into +being its first Local Board.</p> +<p>Nothing can convey an idea of the material blessings which +resulted from this better than a glance at the vital statistics +relating to Willenhall. The death-rate per +thousand—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>From 1845 to 1851 was</p> +</td> +<td><p>29</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>,, 1851 ,, 1860 ,,</p> +</td> +<td><p>26.8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>,, 1861 ,, 1870 „</p> +</td> +<td><p>23.8</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>„ 1891 ,, 1900 ,,</p> +</td> +<td><p>20.2</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>„ 1901 „ 1906 „</p> +</td> +<td><p>16.9</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>It was not till 1866, however, that the Board appointed its +first medical officer of health, Dr. Parke. 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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p><!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 155</span>In 1811 the population was</p> +</td> +<td><p>3,523</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>,, 1821</p> +</td> +<td><p>3,965</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>,, 1831</p> +</td> +<td><p>5,834</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>„ 1841</p> +</td> +<td><p>8,695</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>,, 1851</p> +</td> +<td><p>11,933</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>,, 1861</p> +</td> +<td><p>17,256</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>With the growth thus becoming so rapid, it was thought +desirable, in 1872, to erect Short Heath into a separate Sanitary +Authority. The area allotted to the Short Heath Board of +Health was that north of the Birmingham Canal, but the village of +Short Heath itself remained part of the Township of +Willenhall.</p> +<p>The census returns for Willenhall, minus Short Heath, have</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>1871 it had a population of</p> +</td> +<td><p>15,903</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>1881</p> +</td> +<td><p>16,067</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>1891</p> +</td> +<td><p>16,851</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>1901</p> +</td> +<td><p>18,515</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>After the passing of Sir H. H. Fowler’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.</p> +<p>No part of what used to be called Stow Heath was in Willenhall +Township, the extreme western boundary of the latter being Stow +Heath Lane.</p> +<p>Modern Willenhall, although without public parks or pleasure +grounds, and not yet possessing public baths, is fairly well +equipped for its size and rateable value. 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.</p> +<p><!-- page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +156</span>Willenhall had its own Waterworks at Monmore Lane as +early as 1852; it now takes its supply from the Wolverhampton +Corporation, who purchased the old works in 1868. Its old +Gas Works in Lower Lichfield Street have been taken over by Short +Heath; and Willenhall is now supplied by the Willenhall Gas +Company, the present system of public street lighting being that +of the very efficient incandescent burner.</p> +<p>The Sewerage of the town was completed in 1890. There +are two public cemeteries; the Old Cemetery provided about 1851 +under the Burial Acts, and the newer one at Bentley, established +under the Act of 1879.</p> +<p>The Police are, as in most townships, under the control of the +Staffordshire County Council; and Petty Sessions are held once a +week (on Mondays). Seventy years ago Willenhall had a Court +of Requests for the recovery of debts up to £5.</p> +<p>For Parliamentary representation Willenhall formed a portion +of Staffordshire till the great Reform Bill of 1832 made +Wolverhampton a borough, when it became part of that more +important urban constituency.</p> +<p>For communication with the outer world Willenhall has had the +advantage of the London and North-Western Railway from the +earliest possible time—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.</p> +<p>The town is equally well supplied with tramways; the +Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways, Limited, controlling +three lines, to Wolverhampton, to Bilston, and Darlaston +respectively; while the Walsall Corporation afford facilities for +communication with their thriving and go-ahead borough. 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 <!-- page 157--><a +name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>parcels for +transmission to Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and other centres not +too far distant.</p> +<p>The Wyrley and Essington Canal for heavy traffic was made in +1792, and is still a useful highway, particularly to the Cannock +Chase Collieries.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p157.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative design" +title= +"Decorative design" +src="images/p157.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 158</span>XXVII.—The Town of Locks and +Keys.</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The great American writer, be it noted, does not fail at the +very outset to pay a well-deserved tribute to James Carpenter +Tildesley, as the foremost authority on the subject, and +compliments him on the versatility displayed in his article on +Locks and Keys, contributed to that co-operative literary work, +“Birmingham and the Midland Hardware District,” which +was specially issued for the British Association meeting at +Birmingham in 1865.</p> +<p>The lockmakers of antiquity worked in wood and not in metal, a +key consisting of hard wood pegs being made to turn in a wooden +lock of loose pegs. The Romans first introduced the iron +key with wards instead of pegs.</p> +<p>The subject is full of interest; for lock-making is among the +most ancient of the mechanical crafts, and has for centuries +afforded a wide and ample scope as one of the branches of +industrial art. 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?</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 159</span>many finely wrought specimens of +ornamental old keys are still in existence.</p> +<p>On the utilitarian side of our subject, industrial history +records that we are indebted to the Chinese for unpickable locks +of the lever and tumbler principle; and to the Dutch for the +combination or letter-lock. The latter ingenious +contrivance contained four revolving rings, on which were +engraved the letters of the alphabet, and they had to be turned +in such a way as to spell some pre-arranged word of four letters, +as O P E N, or A M E N, before the lock could be opened.</p> +<p>Allusion to this complex contrivance is made by the poet Carew +in some verses written in the year 1620—</p> +<blockquote><p>As doth a lock<br /> +That goes with letters—for till every one be known<br /> +The lock’s as fast as if you had found none.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mechanical ingenuity in lock making has also expanded itself +along the line of marvellous miniatures, in the production of toy +locks so small that they could be worn as pendants or personal +ornaments. Allusion will presently be made to a Willenhall +specimen.</p> +<p>Another ingenious variety of locks was contrived to grab and +hold the fingers of pilferers.</p> +<p>The first patent granted in England for a lock was in 1774; +ten years later Joseph Bramah, of London, “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.</p> +<p>The sensation caused by this achievement was almost of +national dimensions; but of more importance was the decided +impetus it have to the inventive skill of lock makers, by +demonstrating that Bramah had not yet arrived at finality in lock +making; a great number of further improvements were soon +forthcoming in the manufacture of these goods.</p> +<p><!-- page 160--><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +160</span>Chubb’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.</p> +<p>Dr. Plot, writing of this county in 1686, makes no mention of +the trade being carried on in Willenhall, but gives some account +of it in Wolverhampton; gossiping pleasantly on +“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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Dr. Wilkes has recorded that in his time Willenhall consisted +of one long street, newly paved; and he then proceeds to +say:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The village did not begin to flourish till +the iron manufactory was brought into these parts in the reign of +Queen Elizabeth.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This may, or may not, refer to the making of locks and keys, +but it certainly refers to the great devastation of Cannock +Forest in providing charcoal for iron-smelting. The doctor +continues:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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, <!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 161</span>and Bilston 8; while nearly a +century later, in 1855, the numbers were Willenhall 340, +Wolverhampton 110, and Bilston 2, which shows that the trade grew +in Willenhall at the expense of the adjoining places. 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Before the rise of factories into which workmen might be +collected, and their labour more healthily regulated, Willenhall +lock-making was always conducted in small domiciliary +workshops. 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.”</p> +<blockquote><p>He smokes his forge, he bares his sinewy arm,<br +/> +And bravely pounds the sounding anvil warm.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Locks of every variety of principle and quality are produced +in Willenhall; the chief kinds being the cabinet lock, the best +qualities of which range from 10s. to £3 each, while the +commoner <!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 162</span>ones are sold at from 10s. to 3s. +the dozen; the rim lock for doors having two or three bolts, and +opening with knob and key; the stock or fine plate lock, imbedded +in a wooden case to stand the weather when used on exposed yard +or stable doors; the drawback lock for hill doors, with a spring +bolt that can be worked from the inside with a knob or from the +outside with a latch-key; the dead lock, having one large bolt +worked by the key, but not catching or springing like the rim +lock; the mortice lock, which is buried in the door, and may be +of the dead, the rim, or the drawback variety; the familiar loose +padlock made in immense quantities both of iron and of brass; and +others less familiar.</p> +<p>The lock-producing centre includes Wolverhampton, Willenhall, +Wednesfield, and some of the outlying rural districts like +Brewood and Pendeford, where parts and fittings are +prepared. In the mother parish the business is extensive +and extending; at Wednesfield, iron cabinets and till locks, as +well as various kinds of keys, are produced in great numbers, for +keys are frequently made apart from the locks as a separate +branch of the trade.</p> +<p>Willenhall produces most of the same kinds as Wolverhampton, +except the fine plate, though oftener in the cheaper qualities; +rim locks are very largely made, all on the Carpenter and Young +patent, most of them for export. Willenhall locks are all +warded, the wards varying in strength and complexity, known as +common, fine round, sash, and solid wards.</p> +<p>It was the Carpenter and Young invention of 1830, making the +action of the catch bolt perpendicular instead of horizontal, +which renewed the vitality of the town’s staple +industry.</p> +<p>As registered the patent was entered:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“No. 5,880, 18 January, 1830. James +Carpenter, of Willenhall, and John Young, of Wolverhampton, +locksmiths. Improvements in locks.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. R. B. Prosser, a recognised authority on patents and +inventions, records that in 1841 Carpenter brought an action +against one Smith, but the verdict was given for the defendant, +it being held that Carpenter’s lock was not a new invention +(Webster’s Reports of Patent Cases, Vol. I., p. 530).</p> +<p><!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +163</span>Notwithstanding this the lock has always been known, +and is still known, as “Carpenter’s lift-up +lock.”</p> +<p>James Carpenter, the founder of the business still carried on +under the style of Carpenter and Tildesley, was not a native of +Willenhall. 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.</p> +<p>Mr. Rowland Tildesley, solicitor, and Clerk to the Willenhall +Urban District Council, is the fourth son of James Tildesley.</p> +<p>James Tildesley’s eldest daughter, Louisa Elizabeth, +married William Henry Hartill, surgeon, and J.P. for the county +of Stafford, who died in 1889; his second daughter, Emily, +married John Thomas Hartill, J.P., surgeon, who filled the office +of President of the Staffordshire Branch of the British Medical +Association in 1885, and again in 1907.</p> +<p>With these few biographical details of Willenhall’s +chief inventor we pass on.</p> +<p>Other local patents in this branch of industry on the Register +are:—</p> +<p>No. 8543—13th June, 1840—Joseph Wolverson, +locksmith, William Rawlett, latch maker, both of +Willenhall. “Locks and latches.”</p> +<p><!-- page 164--><a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +164</span>No. 8903—29 March, 1841.—James Tildesley, +of Willenhall, factor, and Joseph Sanders, of Wolverhampton, Lock +manufacturer. “Locks.”</p> +<p>No. 10611—15th April, 1845.—George Carter, of +Willenhall, jobbing smith. “Locks and latches.</p> +<p>No. 12604—8th May, 1849.—Samuel Wilkes, of +Wednesfield Heath, brass founder. “Knobs, handles, +and spindles for the same, and locks.”</p> +<p>[There are patents in the name of Samuel Wilkes, at Darlaston, +ironfounder, in 1840, for hinges; and for vices in the same +year. 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.]</p> +<p>At the present time there are some 90 factories and 143 +workshop employers in Willenhall, besides nine factories and 47 +workshops in the Short Heath district. 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.</p> +<p>The rate of wages for workmen in the lock trade now ranges +from 20s. to 35s. per week, yielding an average of about +29s. Of the wares produced there are probably 300 +varieties, many of them in several sizes each, the gross output +running into thousands of dozens per week, and so great is their +diversity that they range <!-- page 165--><a +name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>from field +padlocks to ponderous prison locks, and the selling prices vary +from 1d. to 30s. each. They are exported all over the +world, finding good markets in Australasia and South Africa.</p> +<p>Tradition forbids that we should omit here the two stock +illustrations of the fact that lock-making ranks among the +notoriously ill-paid industries. One is the familiar +exaggeration that if a Willenhall locksmith happens to let fall +the lock he is making, he never stoops to pick up because he can +make another in less time.</p> +<p>The other is the hackneyed anecdote of the late G. B. +Thorneycroft, who was once taunted with the sneer that some +padlocks of local manufacture would only lock once; and who +promptly retorted that as they had been bought at twopence each, +it would be “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.</p> +<p>The making of currycombs, though shrunk to somewhat +insignificant proportions within the last quarter of a century, +was once a very prominent industry in Willenhall. In 1815 +James Carpenter, whose name is now so prominent in the lock +trade, took out a patent, which was registered as +follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another typical industry was the making of door-bolts, now +represented by the firms of Joseph Tipper, and Jonah Banks and +Sons. It is interesting to note that among the last of the +old trade tokens circulating in this locality, were the +Willenhall farthings issued by Austin, a miller, baker, and +grocer, who carried on <!-- page 166--><a +name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>business at +the corner of Stafford Street (the same now conducted by Joshua +Rushbrooke); the obverse of this coin bore as a design +characteristic of the town a padlock, a currycomb, and a +door-bolt, with the legend, “Let Willenhall +flourish,” and the date 1844.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p166ab.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Willenhall coin" +title= +"Willenhall coin" +src="images/p166as.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The Currycomb manufacture is now represented by D. Ferguson, +and by W. H. Tildesley, the latter adding to it the making of +steel traps.</p> +<p>But whatever loss has been incurred by the shrinkage of this +industry has been more than made up by the enormous growth of the +trade in stampings—keys are stamped—and in malleable +castings.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>In the stamping trades at the present time are Messrs. +Armstrong, Stevens and Co., Vaughan Brothers, Alexander Lloyd and +Sons, Baxter, Vaughan, and Co., and J. B. Brooks and Co. 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p166b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative design" +title= +"Decorative design" +src="images/p166b.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 167</span>XXVIII.—Willenhall in +Fiction.</h2> +<p>A vivid picture of the social and industrial conditions which +formerly prevailed in this locality has been drawn by the +masterly pen of Disraeli, who evidently studied this side of the +Black Country at close quarters. It occurs in his novel, +“Sybil,” the time of action being about 1837.</p> +<p>The distinguished novelist discovered the well-known fact that +many of the common people hereabout were ignorant of their own +names, and that if they knew them few indeed were able to spell +them. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Wodgate, or Wogate, as it was called on the map, +was a district that in old days had been consecrated to Woden, +and which appeared destined through successive ages to retain its +heathen character.</p> +<p>At the beginning of the revolutionary war Wodgate was a sort +of squatting district of the great mining region to which <!-- +page 168--><a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +168</span>it was contiguous, a place where adventurers in the +industry which was rapidly developed settled themselves; for +though the great veins of coal and ironstone cropped up, as they +phrase it, before they reached this bare and barren land, and it +was thus deficient in those mineral and metallic treasures which +had enriched its neighbourhood, Wodgate had advantages of its +own, and of a kind which touch the fancy of the lawless.</p> +<p>It was land without an owner; no one claimed any manorial +right over it; they could build cottages without paying +rent. 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.</p> +<p>So a population gathered, and rapidly increased in the ugliest +spot in England, to which neither Nature nor art had contributed +a single charm; where a tree could not be seen, a flower was +unknown, where there was neither belfry nor steeple, nor a single +sight or sound that could soften the heart or humanize the +mind.</p> +<p>Whatever may have been the cause, whether, as not unlikely, +the original squatters brought with them some traditionary skill, +or whether their isolated and unchequered existence concentrated +their energies on their craft, the fact is certain, that the +inhabitants of Wodgate early acquired a celebrity as skilful +workmen.</p> +<p>This reputation so much increased, and in time spread so far, +that, for more than a quarter of a century, both in their skill +and the economy of their labour, they have been unmatched +throughout the country.</p> +<p>As manufacturers of ironmongery they carry the palm from the +whole district; as founders of brass and workers of steel they +fear none; while as nailers and locksmiths, their <!-- page +169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +169</span>fame has spread even to the European markets whither +their most skilful workmen have frequently been invited.</p> +<p>Invited in vain! 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p169ab.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Borrow" +title= +"George Borrow" +src="images/p169as.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>No church there has yet raised its spire; and, as if the +jealous spirit of Woden still haunted his ancient temple, even +the conventicle scarcely dare show his humble front in some +obscure corner. 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p169bb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Borrow’s Birthplace" +title= +"Borrow’s Birthplace" +src="images/p169bs.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The business of Wodgate is carried on by master workmen in +their own houses, each of whom possess an unlimited number of +what they call apprentices, by whom their affairs are principally +conducted, and whom they treat as the Mamlouks treated the +Egyptians.</p> +<p>These master workmen indeed form a powerful aristocracy, nor +is it possible to conceive one apparently more oppressive. +They are ruthless tyrants; they habitually inflict upon their +subjects punishments more grievous than the slave population of +our colonies were ever visited with; not content with beating +them with sticks, or flogging them with <!-- page 170--><a +name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>knotted +ropes, they are in the habit of felling them with, or cutting +their heads open with a file or lock.</p> +<p>The most usual punishment, however, or rather stimulus to +increase exertion, is to pull an apprentice’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.</p> +<p>Yet, whether it be that they are hardened by brutality, and +really unconscious of their degradation and unusual sufferings, +or whether they are supported by the belief that their day to be +masters and oppressors will surely arrive, the aristocracy of +Wodgate is by no means so unpopular as the aristocracy of most +other places.</p> +<p>In the first place, it is a real aristocracy; it is +privileged, but it does something for its privileges. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>On Monday and Tuesday the whole population of Wodgate is +drunk; of all stations, ages, and sexes, even babes who should be +at the breast, for they are drammed with Godfrey’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.</p> +<p>There are no others at Wodgate to preach or to control. +It is not that the people are immoral, for immorality implies +<!-- page 171--><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +171</span>some forethought; or ignorant, for ignorance is +relative; but they are animals, unconscious, their minds a blank, +and their worst actions only the impulse of a gross or savage +instinct. There are many in this town who are ignorant of +their very names; very few who can spell them.</p> +<p>It is rare that you meet with a young person who knows his own +age; rarer to find the boy who has seen a book, or the girl who +has seen a flower. Ask them the name of their Sovereign, +and they will give you an unmeaning stare; ask them the name of +their religion, and they will laugh; who rules them on earth, or +who can save them in Heaven, are alike mysteries to them.</p> +<p>Such was the population with whom Morley was about to +mingle. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Here, during the days of business, the sound of the hammer and +the file never ceased, amid gutters of abomination, and piles of +foulness; and stagnant pools of filth, reservoirs of leprosy and +plague, whose exhalations were <!-- page 172--><a +name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 172</span>sufficient +to taint the atmosphere of the whole kingdom, and fill the +country with fever and pestilence.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Such were the conditions of life in Willenhall, at least from +the industrial side; for Willenhall and Wednesfield were at that +time almost identical in their industrial, social, and municipal +economics. The novelist is, of course, incorrect in saying +Wednesfield had no church; as we have seen in Chapter XXIII. it +had possessed a small church or chapel since 1746.</p> +<p>Another novelist who has dealt with the same theme is Louis +Becke. 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.</p> +<p>Willenhall can lay a further claim to classic ground in the +realm of fiction, though the exact spot has not yet been +satisfactorily identified. 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.”</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 173--><a +name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>there by +the unconventional Lavengro, in Platonic association with a +strapping Gitano wench named Isopel Berners.</p> +<p>Since George Borrow has come to be recognised as a writer +fitting to rank among our standard English authors, quite a +Borrovian cult has grown up, which has naturally enough fortified +itself by a literature of its own.</p> +<p>Our first extracts are the great writer’s own +description of the place. (“Isopel Berners,” by +George Borrow.)</p> +<blockquote><p>The Dingle is a deep, wooded, and, consequently, +somewhat gloomy hollow in the middle of a very large, desolate +field. 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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The place is above five miles from Willenhall, in +Staffordshire.</p> +<p>The time is July, 1825.</p> +<p>Our concluding quotation is taken from the “Life, +Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow,” by William +J. Knapp (published in 1899).</p> +<blockquote><p>1825.</p> +<p>On the 21st, he departs with his itinerant hosts towards the +old Welsh border—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:—</p> +<p><!-- page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +174</span>“‘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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p174.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative design" +title= +"Decorative design" +src="images/p174.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 175--><a name="page175"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 175</span>XXIX.—Bibliography.</h2> +<p>From the merely allusive in literature, we proceed to the +bibliography of Willenhall, which, though not extensive, is of +fair average interest.</p> +<p>Recently (June, 1907) was put up for auction in London a First +Folio Shakespeare of some local interest. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>From this title, and that of the second part of his life, +which appeared in 1857, “Reminiscences: or Footsteps of +Providence,” <!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 176</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It was in 1817 he founded a small ironwork at Willenhall, and +seven years later joined his twin brother, Edward Thorneycroft, +in establishing the Shrubbery Ironworks at Wolverhampton. +The rise of the railways at that period, and the consequent +larger demands for iron and steel, were among the causes which +led to his great prosperity as an ironmaster.</p> +<p><!-- page 177--><a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +177</span>His Willenhall residence was on the site now occupied +by the Metropolitan Bank, in the Market Place: while his works, +this first this iron magnate owned, were located near what is now +known as Forge Yard, Waterglade Street. It was in this +house his son, Colonel Thorneycroft, of Tettenhall Towers, was +born.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p177ab.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Neptune Inn" +title= +"Neptune Inn" +src="images/p177as.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>His prominence as a public man may be estimated by the fact +that when Wolverhampton was incorporated in 1848, Mr. +Thorneycroft was selected for the honour of being first Mayor of +the new borough. 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>There was a man—the neighbours thought him +mad—<br /> +The more he gave away, the more he had.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the Town Hall of Wolverhampton a statue has been set up to +commemorate the public work of this estimable character.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p177bb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Bell Inn" +title= +"Bell Inn" +src="images/p177bs.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Although during the greater portion of his career a great +supporter of the State Church, in earlier life Mr. G. B. +Thorneycroft had been an ardent Wesleyan; and in his memoirs (p. +134) it is recorded how he liquidated the burden of debt on the +Willenhall Chapel belonging to that denomination. 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).</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p177cb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Old Bull’s Head" +title= +"Old Bull’s Head" +src="images/p177cs.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p177db.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Plough" +title= +"The Plough" +src="images/p177ds.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>In 1866 appeared a religious novel written by a Primitive +Methodist preacher of this town, and published by Elliot Stock, +London. 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.</p> +<p><!-- page 178--><a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +178</span>A story of direct local interest was Mr. G. T. +Lawley’s work “The Locksmith’s Apprentice; a +Tale of Old Willenhall,” published serially some years ago +in the columns of a Wolverhampton weekly newspaper.</p> +<p>Mr N. Neal Solly (of the firm of Fletcher, Solly, and Urwick, +Willenhall Furnaces) wrote the Guide to the Fine Arts Section of +the South Staffordshire Exhibition, held at Molineux House, +Wolverhampton, in 1869. The writer was himself an artist, +and he afterwards produced some valuable Memoirs of David Cox +(1873), and of the Bristol painter, William James Muller +(1875).</p> +<p>The most eminent litterateur Willenhall has produced is Mr. +James Carpenter Tildesley, a lock manufacturer, as we have seen, +and a life-long public man in the town. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In recognition of his work in connection with the Literary +Institute, a public presentation was made to him, the inscription +upon which bore this eloquent testimony—“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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 179</span>XXX.—Topography.</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In the Private Act of Parliament, dated 6th August, 1844, for +disposing of the Willenhall Endowment properties, a number of +field-names occur in the schedule which are pregnant with local +history. 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.</p> +<p>There is mention of a High Causeway, which manifestly +indicates the position of some old paved road; and the Butts, +doubtless, named the field where in ancient times archery was +<!-- page 180--><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +180</span>practised by the men of Willenhall, as the men of +Darlaston did at the Butcroft in their parish.</p> +<p>Reverting to the schedule, there are some names for which no +explanation can be offered; as Ell Park, Berry Stile, the +Stringes, and the Farther Stringes. 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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>The old highway between Walsall and Wolverhampton lay along +Walsall Street, through Cross Street, and the Market Place; the +new coach route, or the New Road, as it was called, was made in +the early part of the nineteenth century.</p> +<p>New Invention is a place-name which originated not from any +connection with the local industries, as one might be led to +expect, but from nothing more serious than a nickname of +derision. 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 <!-- page 181--><a +name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>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.</p> +<p>Portobello, on the outskirts of Willenhall, is said to have +borrowed its name from that second-hand Portobello near Leith, +which was named after Admiral Vernon’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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <!-- page +182--><a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +182</span>genial, and obliging, a man of good conversational +powers, and one who instantly made his guests feel at home, and +was extremely popular with all the local gentry and regular +travellers along the road. 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.</p> +<p>It was from the balcony above the entry of the Neptune Inn, +over which was then the public drawing-room, that the Right Hon. +Charles P. Villiers first addressed the electors of the +newly-enfranchised borough of Wolverhampton in 1835, and +subsequently made many of his fervent Free Trade speeches; and in +fact, from this place all public announcements were wont to be +made. 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.</p> +<p>The Neptune once served all the purposes of a lending inn as +an acknowledged place of public rendezvous; and when the +Stowheath farmers were accustomed to ride or drive in to attend +church, its spacious stableyard was a scene of animation, even on +Sundays.</p> +<p>The Bell Inn, in the Market Place, is perhaps the oldest in +the market taverns, though the date 1660 painted upon its sign +can scarcely refer to the projecting wing which bears it. +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 183--><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +183</span>The Bull’s head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, is +supposed to be the alehouse referred to in Borrow’s +romantic tale of Romany life, “Lavengro.”</p> +<p>The Waterglade Tavern marked the spot on the road between the +two old-world villages of Willenhall and Bilston, where it dipped +to the bed of the stream.</p> +<p>The Woolpack Inn, at Short Heath, is one of the oldest +licensed houses in that locality.</p> +<p>The First and Last Inn, New Invention, was so dubbed because +at one time it was the first licensed house when approaching from +Wednesfield, and the last when going the other way out.</p> +<p>The sign rhymes of Willenhall belong to the hackneyed +type. The Gate Inn, New Invention, has the well-known +couplet:—</p> +<blockquote><p>This Gate hangs well and hinders none:<br /> +Refresh and pay and travel on.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Lame Dog Inn, at Short Heath, is not very original +with:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Step in, my friends, and stop a while,<br /> +To help a lame dog over the stile.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Enough has been said on the subject to arouse the interest of +patriotic Willenhaleans. 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p183.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative design" +title= +"Decorative design" +src="images/p183.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 184--><a name="page184"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 184</span>XXXI.—Old Families and Names +of Note.</h2> +<p>To not a few of the old names of those who have lived their +lives in Willenhall, and left their mark indelibly fixed upon its +annals, attention has already been paid in treating of the +various matters with which their respective life-work was +associated. It remains here only to add a few more names to +our list of Willenhall worthies, and to supplement a few +biographical details to those already mentioned.</p> +<p>The index to the names of landowners would be incomplete +without that of Offley. 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.)</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 185--><a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +185</span>The issue of the Willenhall trade farthings was +continued by Rushbrooke, his successor in the business (1853), +though the original date, “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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p185ab.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Josiah Tildesley, Senr. Prominent Wesleyan and Highly Esteemed +Townsman" +title= +"Josiah Tildesley, Senr. Prominent Wesleyan and Highly Esteemed +Townsman" +src="images/p185as.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The Hartill family has long been settled in Willenhall. +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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p185bb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"James Tildesley. Large Employer of Labour, Proprietor of +Summerford Works" +title= +"James Tildesley. Large Employer of Labour, Proprietor of +Summerford Works" +src="images/p185bs.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The social rank of the Hartills since their residence in +Willenhall has been that of tradesmen or professional men, +manufacturers, or small property owners, but always educated up +to the standard of the period in which they lived. 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p185cb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Jeremiah Hartill, Surgeon. Agitated for Easier Enfranchisement +of Copyholds" +title= +"Jeremiah Hartill, Surgeon. Agitated for Easier Enfranchisement +of Copyholds" +src="images/p185cs.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The Willenhall Hartills migrated here from the neighbourhood +of Kinver, Wolverley, and Kidderminster. There are still +Hartills of the old stock resident in the Kinver district, and +from them are descended Mrs. Shakespeare, wife of the well-known +Birmingham solicitor; and Mrs. Showell, wife of the late Walter +Showell, the founder of the eminent firm of Black Country +brewers, who was once a Parliamentary candidate for one of the +divisions <!-- page 186--><a name="page186"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 186</span>of Birmingham. 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p185db.jpg"> +<img alt= +"John Austin of the Albion Mill, who issued the Farthing Tokens" +title= +"John Austin of the Albion Mill, who issued the Farthing Tokens" +src="images/p185ds.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Mr. Henry Vaughan, the founder of the largest business concern +in the town, has done a large amount of public work in various +capacities, but chiefly as a magistrate, a member of the defunct +School Board, and more recently as a County Councillor.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p185eb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Ley Pearce. Prominent Wesleyan and Philanthropic Worker" +title= +"George Ley Pearce. Prominent Wesleyan and Philanthropic Worker" +src="images/p185es.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Among the justices who have sat on the Willenhall Bench and +possessed other connections with the place may be mentioned the +late N. Neal Solly, ironmaster, two water-colour drawings by whom +hang on the walls of the Free Library; the late Rev. G. H. +Fisher, who was chairman; R. D. Gough, a brother of the late +Colonel Foster Gough, and who married the rich and benevolent +Mary Clemson, daughter of John Clemson, a corn miller, of this +township; while among the most recent appointments are Clement +Tildesley, Thomas Vaughan, and Thomas Kidson. The present +Clerk to the Willenhall Bench is Samuel Mills Slater, in +succession to his father, the late James Slater, of Bescot +Hall.</p> +<p>A memorial tablet to the local men who fell in the Boer War +has been erected at the gateway to the Old Cemetery.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p186.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative design" +title= +"Decorative design" +src="images/p186.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 187--><a name="page187"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 187</span>XXXII.—Manners and +Customs.</h2> +<p>The Manners and Customs of the people of Willenhall have been +those held in common with the populace of the surrounding +parishes, and which have been dealt with too fully in the +published writings of Mr. G. T. Lawley to need more than a brief +review here.</p> +<p>The seasonal custom of Well Dressing has been alluded to in +Chapter XVII., and of Beating the Bounds in Chapter V. +Other ancient customs of minor import existed, but space cannot +be found to treat them in a general history.</p> +<p>The social calibre of the people a century or so ago may be +gauged by a local illustration of the custom of Wife Selling.</p> +<p>This practice was once common enough everywhere, and amongst +the ignorant and illiterate in some parts it is still held to be +a perfectly legitimate transaction. From the “Annual +Register” this local instance has been clipped:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"> (Signed) Samuel Whitehouse.<br +/> +Mary Whitehouse.</p> +<p>Voucher, Thomas Buckley, of Birmingham.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The parties were all exceedingly well pleased, and the money +paid down for the toll as for a regular purchase.</p> +<p>So much for the moral status of the people; now to consider +them from the industrial side.</p> +<p>The older generation of Willenhall men were accustomed, ere +factory Acts and kindred forms of parental legislation had +regulated working hours and otherwise ameliorated the conditions +of labour, to slave for many weary hours in little domiciliary +workshops. Boys were then apprenticed at a tender age, and +soon <!-- page 188--><a name="page188"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 188</span>became humpbacked in consequence of +throwing in the weight of their little bodies in the endeavour to +eke out the strength of the feeble thews and bones in their +immature arms.</p> +<p>In those days men worked when they liked, and played when it +suited them; they generally played the earlier days of the week, +even if at the end they worked night and day in the attempt to +average the weekly earnings. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Willenhall Wake falls on the first Sunday after September +11th, the Feast of St. Giles, to whom the old church is +dedicated.</p> +<p>Among the wakes of the Black Country none are richer in +reminiscence of the old time forms of festivity than that of +Willenhall. Although in later times the outward and visible +sign of its celebration has dwindled down to an assemblage of +shows and roundabouts, shooting galleries, and ginger-bread +stalls, it was once accompanied by bull-baitings and +cock-fighting, and all the other coarse and brutal sports in +which our forefathers so much delighted.</p> +<blockquote><p>At Wednesfield at one village wake<br /> + The cockers all did meet<br /> +At Billy Lane’s, the cock-fighter’s,<br /> + To have a sporting treat.</p> +<p>For Charley Marson’s spangled cock<br /> + Was matched to fight a red<br /> +That came from Will’n’all o’er the fields,<br +/> + And belonged to “Cheeky Ned.”</p> +<p><!-- page 189--><a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +189</span>Two finer birds in any cock-pit<br /> + Two never yet was seen.<br /> +Though the Wednesfield men declared<br /> + Their cock was sure to win.</p> +<p>The cocks fought well, and feathers fled<br /> + All round about the pit,<br /> +While blood from both of ’em did flow<br /> + Yet ne’er un would submit.</p> +<p>At last the spangled Wedgefield bird<br /> + Began to show defeat,<br /> +When Billy Lane, he up and swore<br /> + The bird shouldn’t be beat;</p> +<p>For he would fight the biggest mon<br /> + That came from Will’n’all town,<br /> +When on the word, old “Cheeky Ned”<br /> + Got up and knocked him down.</p> +<p>To fight they went like bull-dogs,<br /> + As it is very well known,<br /> +Till “Cheeky Ned” seized Billy’s thumb,<br /> + And bit it to the bone.</p> +<p>At this the Wednesfield men begun<br /> + Their comrade’s part to take,<br /> +And never was a fiercer fight<br /> + Fought at a village wake.</p> +<p>They beat the men from Will’n’all town<br /> + Back to their town again,<br /> +And long they will remember<br /> + This Wednesfield wake and main.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The site of the Willenhall Bull Ring, it may be added for the +information of future generations, was opposite the Baptist +Chapel, Little London, where Temple Bar joins the Wednesfield and +Bloxwich Roads.</p> +<p>Among other Wake observances of the last century were the +“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.</p> +<p>In the year 1857 the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Member of +Parliament for the Borough of Wolverhampton, of which this +township was part, inaugurated in Willenhall one of the first +exhibitions of fine art and industry ever held in the Black +Country. <!-- page 190--><a name="page190"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 190</span>It was opened on the Monday in the +Wake week, and Mr. Villiers alluded to the fact that “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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>With the advance of science and art and the spread of popular +education, the future prosperity of an ingenious community, like +that of the skilled mechanics and deft craftsmen of this +township, is assured. Impressed with such certitude it is +all but a work of supererogation to echo the patriotic sentiment +of the old-time townsfolk—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“LET WILLENHALL +FLOURISH!”</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">The +End</span>.</p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> +<p>Ablow Field <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span></p> +<p>Agmund <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Aldhelm <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span></p> +<p>Ames <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span></p> +<p>Anlaf <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Annes, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span></p> +<p>Anson (Lichfield) <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page152">152</a></span></p> +<p>Arley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>–8</p> +<p>Aston <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span></p> +<p>Austin <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page165">165</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +<p>Badland <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page62">62</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>–6</p> +<p>Baker <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +<p>Barnard <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span></p> +<p>Barr <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span></p> +<p>Bate <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span></p> +<p>Beating Bounds <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>–6, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span></p> +<p>Beaumont <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page58">58</a></span>–9, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>–1</p> +<p>Beneting <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Bentley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>–8, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page81">81</a></span>–82, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>–1, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page127">127</a></span>–8, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page151">151</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +<p>Beogitha’s Stream <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page29">29</a></span></p> +<p>Bescot <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span></p> +<p>Bilbrook <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span></p> +<p>Bilston <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>–8, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>–81, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>–8, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span></p> +<p>Blakenhall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span></p> +<p>Bloxwich <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>–8, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span></p> +<p>Booth <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span></p> +<p>Boscobel <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>–70</p> +<p>Bradford <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span></p> +<p>Bradley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span></p> +<p>Brewood <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page162">162</a></span></p> +<p>Brideoak <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span></p> +<p>Bromehall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span></p> +<p>Browning <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span></p> +<p>Burnell <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span></p> +<p>Burton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span></p> +<p>Bushbury <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page68">68</a></span>–9, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span></p> +<p>Callendine <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span></p> +<p>Canals <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page127">127</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page157">157</a></span></p> +<p>Cannock <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>–5, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>–9, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span></p> +<p>Carpenter <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page158">158</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page161">161</a></span>–3, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page165">165</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page178">178</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +<p>Carter <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page164">164</a></span></p> +<p>Catchem’s Corner <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span></p> +<p>Chartley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page83">83</a></span></p> +<p>Chatterton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span></p> +<p>Chillington <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page84">84</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +<p>Chubb <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page160">160</a></span></p> +<p>Churchwardens <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page79">79</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page130">130</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page153">153</a></span></p> +<p>Clarke <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span></p> +<p>Clement <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page42">42</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page72">72</a></span></p> +<p>Clemson <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +<p>Clent <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page64">64</a></span></p> +<p>Cleveland <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span></p> +<p>Codsall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span></p> +<p>Coseley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page145">145</a></span></p> +<p>Cote <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span></p> +<p>Courts (Leet, &c.) <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>–153, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span></p> +<p>Coven <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span></p> +<p>Cozens <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span></p> +<p>Cuddlestone <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>–8</p> +<p>Darlaston <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page174">174</a></span>–5, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +<p>Davies <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page125">125</a></span></p> +<p>Dean (of Wolverhampton) <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page22">22</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>–6, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span>–1, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>–9</p> +<p>Delves <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span></p> +<p>De Willenhall, John <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page42">42</a></span></p> +<p>,, Roger <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Dudley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page64">64</a></span>–6, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span></p> +<p>Duignan <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page3">3</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +<p>Dunstall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span></p> +<p>Ecwills <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Elfthryth <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +<p>Essington <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page154">154</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page157">157</a></span></p> +<p>Ettingshall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span></p> +<p>Etymologies <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span>–5, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page13">13</a></span>–4</p> +<p>Fairs, Wakes, &c. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span>–61, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page190">190</a></span></p> +<p>Featherstone, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span>–5, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>–6, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span></p> +<p>Fellows <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page22">22</a></span>–3</p> +<p>Fisher <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page102">102</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page104">104</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>–111, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page127">127</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span></p> +<p>Fletcher <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span></p> +<p>Foster <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span></p> +<p>Franchises <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span></p> +<p>Fytzherbert <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span></p> +<p>Garrick <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page88">88</a></span>–9</p> +<p>Gerveyse <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span>–3, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span></p> +<p>Giffard <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page97">97</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page123">123</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +<p>Giles, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page36">36</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span>–1, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span></p> +<p>Gilpin <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>–7</p> +<p>Goldthorn Hill <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page20">20</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span></p> +<p>Goscote <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span></p> +<p>Gospelling <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span></p> +<p>Gough <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page140">140</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +<p>Gower <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page47">47</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page97">97</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span></p> +<p>Graisley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page20">20</a></span></p> +<p>Grosvenor <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span></p> +<p>Guthferth <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Halesowen <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span></p> +<p>Haling <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>–7</p> +<p>Hall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page86">86</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span></p> +<p>Hammerwich <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span></p> +<p>Hampton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span></p> +<p>Harper <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page42">42</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span></p> +<p>Hartill <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page102">102</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page111">111</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span>–2, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page146">146</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page154">154</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span>–6</p> +<p>Hascard <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span></p> +<p>Haswic <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span></p> +<p>Hatherton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>–9, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>–4, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>–6, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span></p> +<p>Healfden <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Heath Town <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span></p> +<p>Hilton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>–9, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>–4, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>–9, +<span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span>–6, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span></p> +<p>Hincks <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page125">125</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +<p>Hind Brook <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page90">90</a></span></p> +<p>Hinton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span>–5</p> +<p>Hobbart <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span></p> +<p>Hocintun <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span></p> +<p>Holbrooke <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page97">97</a></span>–137</p> +<p>Holyoake <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page108">108</a></span></p> +<p>Horsley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>–10</p> +<p>Huntbach <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span></p> +<p>Industries, Trades <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page31">31</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page41">41</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page178">178</a></span></p> +<p>Jennings <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span></p> +<p>Johnson <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page88">88</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page101">101</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span></p> +<p>Kempson <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page161">161</a></span></p> +<p>Kenwolf <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Kidson <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +<p>Kinvaston <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span>–5, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span></p> +<p>Kinver <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span>–6</p> +<p>Lane, Lone <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>–7, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>–7, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span></p> +<p>Lawley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span>–8, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span></p> +<p>Leek <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Lees <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span></p> +<p>Leigh <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>–7, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span></p> +<p>Leper House <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page94">94</a></span></p> +<p>Levison <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page36">36</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page41">41</a></span>–52, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page55">55</a></span>–6, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>–1, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>–4, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>–1</p> +<p>Lewis <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page98">98</a></span></p> +<p>Lilleshall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page49">49</a></span></p> +<p>Little London <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page189">189</a></span></p> +<p>Little Low <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span></p> +<p>Lowhill <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span></p> +<p>Lows <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span></p> +<p>Loxton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +<p>Lutley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span></p> +<p>Manlove <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page83">83</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page85">85</a></span></p> +<p>Manningham <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span></p> +<p>Marshall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page60">60</a></span></p> +<p>Matilda <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Maxey <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page72">72</a></span></p> +<p>Mercia <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page3">3</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Monmore <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page16">16</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>–6, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span></p> +<p>Moreton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page100">100</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +<p>Moseley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page70">70</a></span>–1, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span></p> +<p>Mounsell <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span></p> +<p>Mumper’s Dingle <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page172">172</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page174">174</a></span></p> +<p>Nechells <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span></p> +<p>Neptune Inn <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page102">102</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page181">181</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span></p> +<p>Neve <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page138">138</a></span></p> +<p>Newbolds <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span></p> +<p>Newbrigge <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span></p> +<p>New Invention <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page154">154</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page183">183</a></span></p> +<p>Nicholls <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span></p> +<p>North Low <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span></p> +<p>Oakeswell <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page67">67</a></span></p> +<p>Ocstele, le <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span></p> +<p>Odyes <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page42">42</a></span>–3</p> +<p>Offlow <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>–8, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span></p> +<p>Ogley Hay <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +<p>Ohter <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Oldbury <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page63">63</a></span></p> +<p>Oliver <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page50">50</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page89">89</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page96">96</a></span></p> +<p>Osferth <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Padmore <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span></p> +<p>Patent Rolls <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span>–3, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span></p> +<p>Pearce <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page146">146</a></span></p> +<p>Pedley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page130">130</a></span>–1, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page147">147</a></span></p> +<p>Pelsall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page81">81</a></span></p> +<p>Pendeford <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page162">162</a></span></p> +<p>Penderel <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page69">69</a></span></p> +<p>Penkhull <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Penkridge <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page178">178</a></span></p> +<p>Penn <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span></p> +<p>Pensnett <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page90">90</a></span></p> +<p>Perry <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page161">161</a></span></p> +<p>Phillips, Claudius <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page88">88</a></span>–9</p> +<p>Pipe Rolls <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Pitt <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page67">67</a></span></p> +<p>Podmore <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>–1</p> +<p>Portobello <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>–5, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span></p> +<p>Prestwood <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page120">120</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page151">151</a></span></p> +<p>Prosser <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page162">162</a></span></p> +<p>Pype <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span></p> +<p>Railways <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page127">127</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page150">150</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page156">156</a></span></p> +<p>Rollason <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page64">64</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page117">117</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page122">122</a></span></p> +<p>Rosedale <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page111">111</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span></p> +<p>Rowley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Rubery <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span></p> +<p>Rushall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>–9</p> +<p>Rushbrooke <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span></p> +<p>Ryes <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span></p> +<p>Sampson <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span></p> +<p>Sandbeds <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page154">154</a></span></p> +<p>Scotland <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span></p> +<p>Sedgley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page13">13</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page167">167</a></span></p> +<p>Seisdon <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page27">27</a></span>–8, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span></p> +<p>Sewall, Showells, &c. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page93">93</a></span>–4</p> +<p>Shakespeare <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page185">185</a></span></p> +<p>Shenstone <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span></p> +<p>Shepwell Green <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page128">128</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page134">134</a></span></p> +<p>Short Heath <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span>–4, +<span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>–5, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span></p> +<p>Sigeric <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page20">20</a></span>–1</p> +<p>Slater <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page116">116</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +<p>Soldier’s Hill <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span></p> +<p>Solly <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page178">178</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +<p>South Low <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span></p> +<p>Spa, Holy Well, &c. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page90">90</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span>–8</p> +<p>Spring Vale <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span></p> +<p>Stephen’s, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>–4</p> +<p>Stow Heath <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page99">99</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page112">112</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page116">116</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page122">122</a></span>–4, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>–9, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span></p> +<p>Stowman Hill <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span></p> +<p>Stretton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page81">81</a></span></p> +<p>Sunday, St. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page90">90</a></span>–1</p> +<p>Sutherland <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page47">47</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page112">112</a></span></p> +<p>Swynnerton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span></p> +<p>Symmonds <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page68">68</a></span></p> +<p>Tame <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span></p> +<p>Tettenhall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>–8, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span></p> +<p>Therferth <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span></p> +<p>Thorneycroft <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page165">165</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page176">176</a></span>–7</p> +<p>Tildesley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page154">154</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page158">158</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page163">163</a></span>–6, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span>–8, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +<p>Tipper <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page164">164</a></span>–5</p> +<p>Tipton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page136">136</a></span></p> +<p>Tithes <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page48">48</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page50">50</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span></p> +<p>Tomkys <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>–2, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span></p> +<p>Tonks <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page146">146</a></span>–7, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span></p> +<p>Tramways <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page156">156</a></span></p> +<p>Trollesbury <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page95">95</a></span></p> +<p>Tromelow <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span></p> +<p>Tumuli <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span></p> +<p>Turton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page47">47</a></span></p> +<p>Twyford <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +<p>Unett <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page85">85</a></span>–6, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span></p> +<p>Vaughan <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +<p>Vestry <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span></p> +<p>Villiers <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page182">182</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page184">184</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page189">189</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page190">190</a></span></p> +<p>Wakelam <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page182">182</a></span></p> +<p>Walker <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page61">61</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page184">184</a></span></p> +<p>Walsall <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>–9, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>–9, +<span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page60">60</a></span>–1, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span></p> +<p>Wednesbury <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>–3, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>–61, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span></p> +<p>Wednesfield <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span>–13, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page18">18</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page31">31</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page38">38</a></span>–40, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>, l67, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span></p> +<p>Welch <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page133">133</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page151">151</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +<p>Wergs <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page8">8</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span></p> +<p>Wesley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page145">145</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page152">152</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +<p>West Bromwich <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span></p> +<p>White <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page103">103</a></span>–4</p> +<p>Whitehouse <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page105">105</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page187">187</a></span></p> +<p>Whitegreaves <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page70">70</a></span>–1</p> +<p>Willis <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page89">89</a></span></p> +<p>Wilkes <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page59">59</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page80">80</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page82">82</a></span>–92, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>–1, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +<p>Willoughby de Broke <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page75">75</a></span></p> +<p>Windsor <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page35">35</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page49">49</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page57">57</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span>–5, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span></p> +<p>Wobaston <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span>–6</p> +<p>Woden Stone <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page13">13</a></span></p> +<p>Wolfric <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span></p> +<p>Wolstanton <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page37">37</a></span></p> +<p>Wombourn <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page56">56</a></span></p> +<p>Wren <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span></p> +<p>Wrottesley <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page84">84</a></span>,–5</p> +<p>Wulfgeal <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +<p>Wulfruna <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page22">22</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page94">94</a></span></p> +<p>Wyndefield <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page39">39</a></span></p> +<p>Young <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page162">162</a></span></p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote88"></a><a href="#citation88" +class="footnote">[88]</a> 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 +<i>forte</i> was in wild and plaintive melody, dictated by the +impulses of his own mind, and subject to none of the ordinary +rules of studied compositions; his manipulation of the violin was +also distinguished for a rapidity of execution unrivalled in +those days. 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove<br +/> +The pangs of guilty power and hapless love,<br /> +Rest here! distrest by poverty no more,<br /> +Here find that calm thou gav’st so oft before!<br /> +Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,<br /> +Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>(See also Oliver’s “Wolverhampton,” pp. 98 +and 99.)</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANNALS OF WILLENHALL***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 31675-h.htm or 31675-h.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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