Acts of Parliament passed in connection with this town to fill a law
library of considerable size. Statutes, clauses, sections, and orders
have followed in rapid succession for the last generation or two. Our
forefathers were satisfied and gratified if they got a regal of
parliamentary notice of this kind once in a century, but no sooner did
the inhabitants find themselves under a "properly-constituted" body of
"head men," than the lawyers' game began. First a law must be got to
make a street, another to light it, a third to pave it, and then one to
keep it clean. It is a narrow street, and an Act must be obtained to
widen it; when widened some wiseacre thinks a market should be held in
it, and a law is got for that, and for gathering tolls; after a bit,
another is required to remove the market, and then the street must be
"improved," and somebody receives more pounds per yard than he gave
pence for the bit of ground wanted to round off the corners; and so the
Birmingham world wagged on until the town became a big town, and could
afford to have a big Town Hall when other big towns couldn't, and a
covered Market Hall and a Smithfield of good size, while other places
dwelt under bare skies. The Act by which the authority of the Street
Commissioners and Highway Surveyors was transferred to the Corporation
was passed in 1851; the expenses of obtaining it reaching nearly £9,000.
It took effect on New Year's Day following, and the Commissioners were
no longer "one of the powers that be," but some of the Commissioners'
bonds are effective still. Since that date there have been twenty local
statutes and orders relating to the borough of Birmingham, from the
Birmingham Improvement Act, 1851, to the Provisional Order Confirmation
Act, passed in 1882, the twenty containing a thousand or more sections.
All this, however, has recently been altered, the powers that are now
having (through the Town Clerk, Mr. Orford Smith) rolled all the old
Acts into one, eliminating useless and obsolete clauses, and inserting
others necessitated by our high state of advanced civilisation. The new
Act, which is known as the Birmingham Corporation Consolidation Act,
came into force January 1, 1884, and all who desire to master our local
governing laws easily and completely had better procure a copy of the
book containing it, with notes of all the included statutes, compiled by
the Town Clerk, and published by Messrs. Cornish, New Street.
~Local Epitaphs.~--Baskerville, when young, was a stone cutter, and it
was known that there was a gravestone in Handsworth churchyard and
another in Edgbaston churchyard which were cut by him. The latter was
accidentally broken many years back, but was moved and kept as a
curiosity until it mysteriously vanished while some repairs were being
done at the church. It is believed that Baskerville wrote as well as
carved the inscription which commemorated the death of Edward Richards
who was an idiot, and died Sept. 21st, 1728, and that it ran thus:--
"If innocents are the fav'rites of heaven,
And God but little asks where little's given,
My great Creator has for me in store
Eternal joys--What wise man can ask more?"
The gravestone at Handsworth was "under the chancel window," sixty years
ago, overgrown with moss and weeds, but inscription and stone have long
since gone. Baskerville's own epitaph, on the Mausoleum in his grounds
at Easy Hill, has often been quoted:--
'Stranger,
Beneath this cone, in unconsecrated ground,
A friend to the liberties of mankind directed his body to be inurned.
May the example contribute to emancipate thy mind
From the idle fears of Superstition,
And the wicked Act of Priesthood!
Almost as historical as the above, is the inscription on the tombstone
erected over Mary Ashford, at Sutton Coldfield:--
As a Warning to Female Virtue,
And a humble Monument of Female Chastity,
This Stone marks the Grave
of
MARY ASHFORD,
Who, in the 20th year of her age,
Having incautiously repaired
To a scene of amusement
Without proper protection,
Was brutally violated and murdered,
On the 27th May, 1817.
Lovely and chaste as is the primrose pale,
Rifled of virgin sweetness by the gale,
Mary! The wretch who thee remorseless slew,
Will surely God's avenging wrath pursue.
For, though the deed of blood be veiled in night,
"Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Fair, blighted flower! The muse, that weeps thy doom,
Rears o'er thy sleeping dust this warning tomb!
The following quaint inscription appears on the tombstone erected in
memory of John Dowler, the blacksmith, in Aston churchyard:--
Sacred to the Memory of
JOHN DOWLER,
Late of Castle Bromwich, who
Departed this life December 6th, 1787,
Aged 42,
Also two of his Sons, JAMES and CHARLES,
Who died infants.
My sledge and hammer lie reclined,
My bellows, too, have lost their wind
My fire's extinct, my forge decayed,
And in the dust my vice is laid;
My coal is spent, my iron gone,
My nails are drove, my work is done.
The latter part of the above, like the next four, has appeared in many
parts of the country, as well as in the local burial grounds, from which
they have been copied:--
From St. Bartholomew's:
"The bitter cup that death gave me
Is passing round to come to thee."
From General Cemetery:
"Life is a city full of crooked streets,
Death is the market-place where all men meets;
If life were merchandise which men could buy,
The rich would only live, the poor would die."
From Witton Cemetery:
"O earth, O earth! observe this well--
That earth to earth shall come to dwell;
Then earth in earth shall close remain,
Till earth from earth shall rise again."
From St. Philip's:
"Oh, cruel death, how could you be so unkind
To take him before, and leave me behind?
You should have taken both of us, if either,
Which would have been more pleasing to the survivor."
The next, upon an infant, is superior to the general run of this class
of inscription. It was copied from a slab intended to be placed in Old
Edgbaston Churchyard:
"Beneath this stone, in sweet repose,
Is laid a mother's dearest pride;
A flower that scarce had waked to life,
And light and beauty, ere it died.
God and His wisdom has recalled
The precious boon His love has given;
And though the casket moulders here,
The gem is sparkling now in heaven."
Ramblers may find many quaint epitaphs in neighbouring village
churchyards. In Shustoke churchyard, or rather on a tablet placed
against the wall of the church over the tomb of a person named Hautbach,
the date on which is 1712, there is an inscription, remarkable not only
for lines almost identical with those over Shakespeare's grave, but for
combining several other favourite specimens of graveological literature,
as here bracketed:
"When Death shall cut the thread of life,
Both of Mee and my living Wife,
When please God our change shall bee,
There is a Tomb for Mee and Shee,
Wee freely shall resign up all
To Him who gave, and us doth call.
{Sleep here wee must, both in the Dust,
{Till the Resurrection of the Just.
{Good friend, within these Railes forbear
{To dig the dust enclosed here.
{Blest bee the man who spares these stones
{And Curst be he that moves our bones.
{Whilst living here, learn how to die;
{This benefit thoul't reap thereby:
{Neither the life or death will bee
{Grievous or sad, but joy to thee.
{Watch thoue, and pray; thy time well spend;
{Unknown is the hour of thy end.
{As thou art, so once were wee,
{As wee are, so must thou bee,
Dumspiramus Speramus."
It is a collection of epitaphs in itself, even to the last line, which
is to be found in Durham Cathedral on a "brass" before the altar.
~Local Landowners.~--It is somewhat a difficult matter to tell how much
of the ground on which the town is built belongs to any one particular
person, even with the assistance of the "Returns" obtained by John
Bright of "the owner" of land so called, possessing estimated yearly
rentals of £1,000 and upwards. That these "Returns" may be useful to
biassed politicians is likely enough, as Lord Calthorpe is put down as
owner of 2,073 acres at an estimated rental of £113,707, while Mr. Muntz
appears as owning 2,486 acres at an estimated rental of £3,948. His
lordship's £113,707 "estimated" rental must be considerably reduced when
the leaseholders have taken their share and left him only the ground
rents. The other large ground landlords are the Trustees of the Grammar
School, the Trustees of the Colmore, Gooch, Vyse, Inge, Digby, Gillot,
Robins, and Mason estates, &c., Earl Howe, Lench's Trust, the Blue Coat
School, &c. The Corporation of Birmingham is returned as owning 257
acres, in addition to 134 had from the Waterworks Co., but that does not
include the additions made under the Improvement Scheme, &c. The manner
in which the estates of the old Lords of the Manor, of the Guild of Holy
Cross, and the possessions of the ancient Priory, have been divided and
portioned out by descent, marriage, forfeiture, plunder, and purchase is
interesting matter of history, but rather of a private than public
nature.
~Local Notes and Queries.~--The gathering of odd scraps of past local
history, notes of men and manners of a bygone time, and the stray (and
sometimes strange) bits of folklore garnered alone in the recollections
of greybeards, has been an interesting occupation for more than one
during the past score or two of years. The first series of "Local Notes
and Queries" in our newspapers appeared in the _Gazette_, commencing in
Feb., 1856, and was continued till Sept., 1860. There was a somewhat
similar but short series running in the columns of the _Journal_ from
August, 1861, to May, 1862. The _Daily Post_ took it up in Jan., 1863,
and devoted a column per week to "Notes" up to March, 1865, resuming at
intervals from 1867 to 1872. The series now (1884) appearing in the
_Weekly Post_ was commenced on the first Saturday (Jan. 6) in 1877.
~Local Taxation.~--See "_Municipal Expenditure_."
~Locks.~--The making of locks must have been one of the earliest of our
local trades, as we read of one at Throckmorton of very quaint design,
but rare workmanship, with the name thereon of "Johannes Wilkes,
Birmingham," towards the end of the 17th century. In 1824 there were 186
locksmiths named in the Directory.
~Lodger Franchise.~--Considering the vast amount of interest taken in
all matters connected with local Parliamentary representation, and the
periodical battles of bile and banter earned on in the Revision Courts
over the lists of voters, it is somewhat curious to note how little
advantage has been taken of the clause in the last Reform Bill which
gives the right of voting to lodgers. The qualification required is
simply the exclusive occupation of lodgings which, if let unfurnished,
are of the clear yearly value of £10; and there must be many hundreds of
gentlemen in the borough residing in apartments who would come under
this head. Out of a total of 63,221 electors in 1883 there were only 72
who had claimed their right to vote. In many other boroughs the same
discrepancy exists, though here and there the political wire-pullers
have evidently seen how to use the lodger franchise to much better
effect, as in the case of Worcester for instance, where there are 59
lodger voters out of a total of 6,362.--See "_Parliamentary Elections_."
~London 'Prentice Street,~ was called Western Street or Westley's Row on
the old maps, its continuation, the Coach Yard, being then Pemberton's
Yard. How the name of London 'Prentice Street came to be given to the
delectable thoroughfare is one of "those things no fellow can
understand." At one time there was a schoolroom there, the boys being
taught good manners upstairs, while they could learn lessons of
depravity below. With the anxious desire of putting the best face on
everything that characterises the present local "fathers of the people,"
the London 'Prentice has been sent to the right-about, and the nasty
dirty stinking thoroughfare is now called "Dalton Street."
~Loveday Street,~ from Loveday Croft, a field given in Good Queen Bess's
reign, by John Cooper, as a trysting-place for the Brummagem lads and
lasses when on wooing bent.
~Low Rents.~--A return of unassessed houses in the parish of Birmingham,
taken October 19, 1790, showed 2,000 at a rental under £5, 2,000 others
under £6, 3,000 under £7, 2,000 under £8, 500 under £9, and 500 under
£10.
~Lozells.~--In the lease of a farm of 138 acres, sold by auction, June
24, 1793, it was written "Lowcells." Possibly the name is derived from
the Saxon "lowe" (hill) and "cele" (cold or chill) making it "the cold
hill."
~Lunacy.~--Whether it arises from political heat, religious ecstacies,
intemperance, or the cares and worry of the universal hunt for wealth,
it is certainly a painful fact to chronicle that in proportion to
population insanity is far more prevalent now than it was fifty years
ago, and Birmingham has no more share in such excess than other parts of
the kingdom. Possibly, the figures show more prominently from the action
of the wise rules that enforce the gathering of the insane into public
institutions, instead of leaving the unfortunates to the care (or
carelessness) of their relatives as in past days, when the wards of the
poor-houses were the only receptacles for those who had no relatives to
shelter them. The erection of the Borough Asylum, at Winson Green, was
commenced in 1846, and it was finished in 1851. The house and grounds
covered an area of about twenty acres, the building being arranged to
accommodate 330 patients. Great as this number appeared to be, not many
years passed before the necessity of enlargement was perceived, and,
ultimately, it became evident the Winson Green establishment must either
be doubled in size or that a second Asylum must be erected on another
site. An estate of 150 acres on the south-eastern slopes of Rubery Hill,
on the right-hand side of the turnpike road from here to Bromsgrove, was
purchased by the Corporation, and a new Asylum, which will accommodate
616 patients, has there been erected. For the house and its immediate
grounds, 70 acres have been apportioned, the remainder being kept for
the purposes of a farm, where those of the inmates fit for work can be
employed, and where the sewage from the asylum will be utilised. The
cost of the land was £6,576 8s. 5d., and that of the buildings, the
furnishing, and the laying out of the grounds, £133,495 5s. 8d. The
report of the Lunatic Asylums Committee for 1882 stated that the number
of patients, including those boarded under contract at other asylums, on
the first of Jan., 1882, was 839. There were admitted to Winson Green
and Rubery Hill during the year 349. There were discharged during the
year 94, and there died 124, leaving, on the 31st Dec., 970. The whole
of the 970 were then at the borough asylums, and were chargeable as
follows:--To Birmingham parish, 644; to Birmingham borough, 8; to Aston
Union, in the borough, 168; to King's Norton, 16; to other unions under
contract, 98; the remaining 36 patients not being paupers. The income of
the asylums for the year was--from Birmingham patients £20,748 1s. 9.;
from pauper patients under contract, and from patients not paupers,
£2,989 9s. 5d.; from goods sold, £680 1s. 5d.; total, £24,417 12s. 7d.
The expenditure on maintenance account was £21,964 4s., and on building
capital account £2,966 7s. 7d.--total, £24,915 11s. 7d.; showing a
balance against the asylums of £497 19s. The nett average weekly cost
for the year was 9s. 6-1/2d. per head. Mr. E.B. Whitcombe, medical
superintendent at Winson Green, says that among the causes of insanity
in those admitted it is satisfactory to note a large decrease in the
number from intemperance, the percentage for the year being 7.7, as
compared with 18 and 21 per cent. in 1881 and 1880 respectively. The
proportion of recoveries to admissions was in the males 27.7, in the
females 36, and in the total 32.3 percent. This is below the average,
and is due to a large number of chronic and unfavourable cases admitted.
At Rubery Hill Asylum, Dr. Lyle reports that out of the first 450
admissions there were six patients discharged as recovered.--The Midland
Counties' Idiot Asylum, at Knowle, opened in 1867, also finds shelter
for some of Birmingham's unfortunate children. The Asylum provides a
home for about 50, but it is in contemplation to considerably enlarge
it. At the end of 1882 there were 28 males and 21 females, 47 being the
average number of inmates during the year, the cost per head being £41
13s. 6d. Of the limited number of inmates in the institution no fewer
than thirteen came from Birmingham, and altogether as many as
thirty-five candidates had been elected from Birmingham. The income from
all sources, exclusive of contributions to the building fund, amounted
to £2,033 3s. 8d., and the total expenditure (including £193 3s. 4d.
written off for depreciation of buildings) to £1,763 15s. 7d., leaving a
balance in hand of £269 8s. 1d. The fund which is being raised for the
enlargement of the institution then amounted to £605 15s., the sum
required being £5,000. The society's capital was then £10,850 12s. 8d.
of which £7,358 12s. 5d. had been laid out in lands and buildings. Mr.
Tait, the medical officer, was of opinion that one-fourth of the
children were capable of becoming productive workers under kindly
direction and supervision, the progress made by some of the boys in
basket-making being very marked.
~Lunar Society.~--So called from the meetings being held at the full of
the moon that the members might have light nights to drive home, but
from which they were nicknamed "the lunatics." Originally commenced
about 1765, it included among its members Baskerville, Boulton, Watt,
Priestley, Thomas Day, Samuel Galton, R.L. Edgeworth, Dr. Withering, Dr.
Small, Dr. Darwin, Wedgwood, Keir, and indeed almost every man of
intellectual note of the time. It died down as death took the leaders,
but it may be said to have left traces in many learned societies of
later date.
~Luncheon Bars.~--The honour of introducing the modern style of luncheon
bar must be awarded to the landlord of the Acorn, in Temple Street, who,
having seen something of the kind in one of the Channel Islands,
imported the notion to Birmingham. The lumber rooms and stables at back
of his house were cleared and fitted up as smoke rooms, and bread and
cheese, and beer, &c., dealt out over the counter. Here it was that Mr.
Hillman took his degree as popular waiter, and from the Acorn also he
took a wife to help him start "The Stores," in Paradise Street. Mr.
Thomas Hanson was not long behind Hillman before he opened up "The
Corner Stores," in Union Passage, following that with the "St. James" in
New Street, and several others in various parts of the town. The "Bars"
are now an "institution" that has become absolutely indispensable, even
for the class who prefer the semi-privacy of the "Restaurants," as the
proprietors of the more select Bars like to call their establishments.
~Magistrates.~--By direction of the Queen's Council, in 1569, all
magistrates had to send up "bonds" that they would subscribe to the then
recently passed Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayers and Services in
the Church, and the Administration of the Sacraments. The local name of
Middlemore appears among the few in this county who objected to do so,
and most likely his descendants would do the same. The first twenty-five
of our borough magistrates were appointed about nine weeks after the
date of the Charter of Incorporation, 1839. In 1841, 1849, 1856, and
1859, other gentlemen were placed on the roll, and in April, 1880, ten
more names were added to the list, having been sent up to the Lord
Chancellor a few days before he vacated office, by some knowing
gentlemen who had conceived a notion that the Conservative element was
hardly strong enough among the occupants of the Bench. There are now 52,
in addition to the Stipendiary Magistrate and the Recorder, and as
politics _must_ enter into every matter connected with public life in
Birmingham, we record the interesting fact that 31 of these gentlemen
are Liberals and 21 Conservatives. Mr. T.C.S. Kynnersley first acted as
Stipendiary, April 19, 1856.
~Magazines.~--See "_Newspapers and Periodicals_."
~Manor House.~--How few of the thousands who pass Smithfield every day
know that they are treading upon ground where once the Barons of
Birmingham kept house in feudal grandeur. Whether the ancient Castle,
destroyed in the time of Stephen, pre-occupied the site of the Manor
House (or, as it was of late years called--the Moat House), is more than
antiquarians have yet found out, any more than they can tell us when the
latter building was erected, or when it was demolished. Hutton says:
"The first certain account we meet of the moat (which surrounded the
island on which the erections were built) is in the reign of Henry the
Second, 1154, when Peter de Bermingham, then lord of the fee, had a
castle here, and lived in splendour. All the succeeding lords resided
upon the same island till their cruel expulsion by John, Duke of
Northumberland, in 1537. The old castle followed its lords, and is
buried in the ruins of time. Upon the spot, about fifty years ago
[1730], rose a house in the modern style, occupied by a manufacturer
(Thomas Francis); in one of the outbuildings is shown the apartment
where the ancient lords kept their court leet. The trench being filled
with water has nearly the same appearance now as perhaps a thousand
years ago; but not altogether the same use. It then served to protect
its master, but now to turn a thread mill." Moat Lane and Mill Lane are
the only names by which the memory of the old house is now retained. The
thread mill spoken of by Hutton gave place to a brass or iron foundry,
and the property being purchased by the Commissioners, the whole was
cleared off the ground in 1815 or 1816, the sale of the building
materials, &c., taking place July 5, 1815. Among the "lots" sold, the
Moat House and offices adjoining realised £290; the large gates at the
entrance with the brick pillars, £16; the bridge, £11; the timber trees,
£25; a fire engine with carriage, &c., £6 15s. (possibly some sort of
steam engine, then called fire engines); the total produce, including
counting-house, warehouse, casting, tinning, burnishing, blacking, and
blacksmiths' shops, a horse mill, scouring mill, and a quantity of wood
sheds and palisading, amounted to nearly £1,150. The prosaic minds of
the Commissioners evidently did not lead them to value "the apartments
where the ancient lords kept their court," or it had been turned into a
scouring or tinning shop, for no mention was made of it in the catalogue
of sale, and as the old Castle disappeared, so did the Manor House,
leaving not a stone behind. Mr. William Hamper took a sketch of the old
house, in May, 1814, and he then wrote of the oldest part of the
building, that it was "half-timbered," and seemingly of about Henry
VIII.'s time, or perhaps a little later, but some of the timbers had
evidently been used in a former building (probably the old Manorial
residence) as the old mortices were to be seen in several of the beams
and uprights. The house itself was cleared away in May, 1816, and the
last of the outbuildings in the following month. So perfect was the
clearance, that not even any of the foundations have been turned up
during the alterations lately effected in Smithfield Market. In 1746,
the "manorial rights" were purchased by Thomas Archer, of Umberslade,
from whose descendants they were acquired by the Commissioners, in 1812,
under an Act of Parliament obtained for the purpose, the price given for
the Manor House, meat, and ground, being £5,672, in addition to £12,500,
for "market tolls," &c.
~Manufactures.~--For a few notes respecting the manufactures carried on
in Birmingham, see "_Trades_."