By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the Saxons
conquered province after province, which was effected in about one
hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons retreated into Wales:
But we are not to suppose that all the inhabitants ran away, and left a
desolate region to the victor; this would have been of little more value
to the conqueror, than the possession of Sutton Coldfield or Bromsgrove
Lickey. The mechanic and the peasant were left, which are by far the
greatest number; they are also the riches of a country; stamp a value
upon property, and it becomes current. As they have nothing to lose, so
they have nothing to fear; for let who will be master, they must be
drudges: Their safety consists in their servitude; the victor is ever
conscious of their utility, therefore their protection is certain.
But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater that
substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the more danger
to himself if conquered: These were the people who retreated into Wales.
Neither must we consider the wealth of that day to consist of bags of
cash, bills of exchange, India bonds, bank stock, etc. no such thing
existed. Property lay in the land, and the herds that fed upon it. And
here I must congratulate our Welch neighbours, who are most certainly
descended from gentlemen; and I make no doubt but the Cambrian reader
will readily unite in the same sentiment.
The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of the
conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws, language,
customs and habits of their own. Hence we date the division of the
kingdom into manors.
Human nature is nearly the same in all ages. Where value is marked upon
property or power, it will find its votaries: Whoever was the most
deserving, or rather could make the most interest, procured land
sufficient for an Elderman, now Earl; the next class, a Manor; and the
inferior, who had borne the heat and burthen of the day--nothing.
I must now introduce an expression which I promised not to forget.--In
the course of a trial between William de Birmingham, and the inhabitants
of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, in 1309, concerning the right of
tollage; it appeared, That the ANCESTORS of the said William had a
market here before the Norman conquest. This proves, that the family of
Birmingham were of Saxon race, and Lords of the Manor prior to
that period.
Mercia was not only the largest, but also the last of the seven
conquered kingdoms--It was bounded on the North by the Humber, on the
West by the Severn, on the South by the Thames, and on the East by the
German ocean. Birmingham lies nearly in the centre. Cridda, a Saxon,
came over with a body of troops, and reduced it in 582; therefore, as
no after revolution happened that could cause Birmingham to change its
owner, and as land was not in a very saleable state at that time, there
is the greatest reason to suppose the founder of the house of Birmingham
Came over with Cridda, as an officer in his army, and procured this
little flourishing dominion as a reward for his service.
The succeeding generations of this illustrious family are too remote for
historical penetration, 'till the reign of Edward the Confessor, the
last of the Saxon Kings, when we find, in 1050,