Rev. Thomas Walker's, and proceeded to a cottage near the eighth
milestone on the Stafford Road, and at the well in the cottage garden
there, the Gospel was read for the first time. (It was the custom at
these Rogation processionings to read the Gospel under trees--especially
those growing near to some reputed "holy" well--located on or near a
parish boundary, hence their name "Gospel trees.")
From thence a lane near the third milestone on the same road led the
procession to Kinvaston, where the Gospel was read at an Elder in the
fold-yard of a house of a Mrs. Wooton. Then the procession went to
Hatherton, the seat of the late Moreton Walhouse, where the Gospel was
again read on the site of an old well. Proceeding to Hilton, the seat of
the Vernons, the Gospelling was repeated within the gates fronting the
house.
Crossing the Cannock Road, the Gospel was read for the fifth and last
time, that day, under an oak tree in the road near the house of Mr. W.
Price, of Featherstone.
On the second day, May 25th, the parishioners assembled as before, and
proceeded direct to Wednesfield, where the Gospel was read in the Chapel,
the clerk being in readiness at the door to receive the procession.
Thence the perambulation was continued to Essington, where the common was
found to be enclosed; the Gospel was read a second time there at the
Goswell Bush, which, standing in the Bloxwich Road, was found to be
surrounded by a new growth of trees. (Just previous to this period there
had been a rage for enclosing commons--the people's lands.) Turning
back, the party proceeded to Pelsall, where the Gospel was read the third
and last time, that day, in the Chapel there.
On the third day, which was Thursday, May 27th, the assembly was made at
the Swan Inn, and the procession was formed there. The way was led
straight to Willenhall, where the Gospel was read for the first time in
the Chapel, the expectant clerk being there in readiness to perform the
duty. From thence the perambulation was continued to Park Brook, which
was crossed; returning, the way was taken to Bentley Hall, the seat of
Edward Anson, Esq., where the second reading of the Gospel was taken at
an elder bush at the back of the house. (Elders seem to have taken the
place of the ancient "Gospel oaks" in this locality.)
From Willenhall the party next proceeded to Bilston, where the third
reading of the Gospel was performed within the Chapel of that township.
From thence a move was made to Bradeley Hall, then in the occupation of
Mr. Nailer, at the bottom of whose garden was the site of an old well,
which had once been a bath, and here the Gospelling was again celebrated.
The procession was then resumed through Bilston by Catchem's Corner,
Goldthorne Hill, and the Penn Road, to St. John's Chapel, otherwise known
as the New Church, within which the Gospel was ceremonially read for the
last time. This concluded the perambulation, and an entry of its various
details were duly entered in the Parish Book, and signed by Tho. Walker,
minister, and Wm. Buckle and Jos. Smart, the two churchwardens.
[Picture: Decorative flower]
VI--Willenhall at the Norman Conquest (1066-1086).
After the Norman invasion of 1066 it took a number of years to complete
the conquest of the country. It was not till 1086 that the "Domesday"
Book was compiled--written evidence of a settlement of the land question
which, it was fondly hoped (and expressed in the name), would last till
"Domesday"!
The Domesday Book was a great national land register in which was entered
a record of every acre of land in England, its condition, its ownership,
and annual value at that time. For on land ownership alone then depended
not only the amount of the national revenue, but the strength of the
national defences. Willenhall, wrongly written by the Domesday scribes
as Winehala, is returned as being in the Hundred of Offlow, and having an
area of 2,168 acres.
Of this acreage 3 hides belonged to the old domains of the Crown, like
Bilston and Wednesbury (having formerly formed part of the dominions of
the Saxon kings), while but two hides of Willenhall land belonged to
Wolverhampton church. It is believed that the King's manorial portion
took with it Bentley, with its 1,650 acres.
Anyway, Willenhall having belonged originally to the ancient Mercian
kings, and having been held in succession by all the Saxon kings of
England to Edward the Confessor and Harold II., naturally passed as a
royal manor, or rather, a portion thereof, into the hands of the
Conqueror, being set down among the Crown lands as of "ancient demesne."
The Domesday Book also sets down among the possessions of the Canons of
Wolverhampton 2,200 acres in Wednesfield, 1,194 acres in Pelsall, both in
the same Hundred; 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton, 3,912 acres in Arley, and
6,377 acres, a part of Bushbury, are set down in Seisdon Hundred; the
Essington portion of Bushbury, once belonging to the Countess Godiva, is
reckoned in Cuddlestone Hundred, in which are also given the four other
portions of Wolverhampton, namely Hilton, Hatherton, Kinvaston, and
Featherstone.
Since the eleventh century the boundaries of the Hundreds of Offlow and
Cuddlestone have been altered. As to the Arley estate, that was lost to
the canons ere another century had elapsed--by 1172 had escheated to the
Crown.
The present-day acreage of Wolverhampton parish is no less than 17,449;
made up of 3,396 acres in Wolverhampton proper, 1,845 in Bilston, and
1,650 in Bentley, a total of 6,891 acres in Seisdon Hundred; thus leaving
10,608 acres to constitute Hilton (two manors, since united into one)
Hatherton, Kinvaston, Featherstone, and Hocintune. The last-named was a
manor which, at that time, probably lay between Hilton and Hatherton,
within Wolverhampton; the name is obsolete.
These ten estates, comprising Wolverhampton, Willenhall (part of), Arley
(part of), Bushbury (part of), Hilton (part of), Pelsall, Wednesfield,
Cote (near Penn), Haswic (near Newcastle), and Hocintune (now obsolete),
were in 1086 held by the Canons of Wolverhampton under Sampson, the
highly favoured royal Chaplain, to whom the Conqueror had presented this
fief. For the purposes of comparison it may be mentioned that there were
then eighteen holdings in Staffordshire, occupying 567 hides, and valued
at about 516 pounds. Sampson's fief extended to 26.5 hides of this, and
was estimated as being worth 8 pounds 2s. a year.
This Sampson, who has been incorrectly styled the first Dean of
Wolverhampton, was a Canon of Bayeux, and though a king's chaplain, was
not ordained a priest till nine years after the Conqueror's death, when
Rufus made him Bishop of Worcester. Bishop Sampson subsequently gave the
Church of Wolverhampton to his Cathedral Monastery of Worcester. He also
held the neighbouring estates at Bilbrook and Tettenhall as the superior
of the priests of Tettenhall College.
Willenhall, in the great survey, is recorded to have contained, as
previously stated, three hides belonging to the King, and two hides
belonging to the church--a hide of land in Saxon measurement was a
variable quantity from 200 to 600 acres, according to the locality, but
generally it was accounted so much as would serve to maintain a
family--together with one acre of meadow, and a carucate (which was a
measure of about 100 acres of "carved" land) employing three ploughs.
The annual value of Willenhall is set down at 20s. The population
consisted of eight families, or, as the return puts it, five bordars and
three villeins.
A bordar, or boor, was a squatter living in a hut or cottage on the
borders of a manor, having attached a little patch of land, the rent of
which was paid to the lord of the manor in the shape of poultry, eggs,
and small produce. A villein, or serf, was to all intents and purposes a
slave, at the absolute disposal of the lord, except that he could not be
detached from the soil on which he was born. While the bordar, or
cottager, was resident in the manor more or less on sufferance, the
villein was there of right, and was in that sense the superior of the
bordar. The villein certainly might not go away from Willenhall, nor get
married, nor buy and sell oxen, nor grind corn, without the express
permission of the lord of the manor; yet he was not so badly off as all
this would make it appear to our modern ideas. People seldom travelled
in those days, money was little used, life was exceedingly primitive, and
wants were very few and very simple.
Staffordshire at that time was in a chronic state of poverty, an
insurrection in the county having been suppressed in 1069 with the
Conqueror's customary severity, thousands of the wretched hinds having
been slaughtered, the county desolated and the Midlands depopulated.
Bilston was but a cluster of mud huts inhabited by swineherds; and it is
probable Willenhall was a similar little centre of boor life in the next
woodland clearing a little further along the purling brooklet, and near
its junction with Beorgitha's Stream, as the Tame was then called. The
entire population of the county was purely agrarian, the villeins and
boors altogether numbering about 2,800; or on an average of one labourer
to each 167 acres of land registered in Domesday Book. The subsequent
history of the two parts of Willenhall will have to be traced separately.
The two hides set down as ecclesiastical property have remained in the
possession of the church throughout. Erdeswick, writing his history of
this county in 1593, states that within the jurisdiction of the Dean and
Chapter of Wolverhampton there were then "nine several leets, whereof
eight belong to the church. The custos, lately called the Dean, is lord
of the borough of Wolverhampton, Codsall, Hatherton, and Pelsall in com.
Stafford; and of Lutley in com. Wigorn; hath all manner of privileges
belonging to the View of Frankpledge (that is, the administration of
criminal justice, &c.), to Felons' goods, Deodands, Escheats, Marriage of
Wards, and Clerks of the Weekly Markets, rated at 150 pounds per annum,
and in the total is valued worth 300 pounds per annum.
"Each of the other portionaries (continues Erdeswick) have a several
leet; whereof
Kinvaston is reputed worth 100 (pounds)
Wobaston 100
Wilnall 100
Fetherston 80
Hilton 70
Monmore 70
Hatherton 40
"And the sacrist to attend them in capitulo, 40 pounds"--by no means a
poor salary in those days for such duties as the secretarial and
managerial work to a Chapter.
As to the three hides of Willenhall in the King's Manor of Stow Heath,
here is its later history as recorded by Dr. Vernon, a historiographer
who made some additions to Sampson Erdeswick's history:--
"In Willenhall is a manor called Stowheath, with a court baron and
court leet. Several lands there held by copy from that lords
thereof: four closes, called bundles, held of this manor, and were,
in 1729, confirmed by John, Lord Gower, and Peter Giffard, lords of
the manor of Stowheath; which four closes, with four others, were
sold about 1748 by Mr. Lane to Admiral Anson, together with three
tenements in Bloxwich, with all the manor lands, tithes, hall, and
park, &c., called Bentley, adjoining to Willenhall, for 13,500
pounds."
As to the adjoining hamlet, it may be mentioned that Domesday Book
formally recorded the canons of Wolverhampton to possess "five hides of
Wednesfelde; the arable land is three carucates; that there are six
villeins, and six bordars, who have six carucates; and that there is a
wood in which cattle are pastured, half a mile long and three furlongs
broad."
Such was life in Willenhall and Wednesfield at the Norman period, both
places being then overshadowed in more senses than one by the severely
protected royal preserves of Cannock Forest. We may picture the few
hinds constituting the scanty population, tenanting cottages which were
mere hovels, and most of them like Gurth--the swineherd of Scott's
"Ivanhoe"--wearing round their necks the iron collars, which were the
badge of Saxon serfdom, and like him driving their herds into the woods
each morning, and returning at nightfall with their charges grunting and
gorged with beech-mast and acorns.
While to their lowly dome
The full-fed swine return'd with evening home;
Compell'd reluctant, to the several sties,
With din obstreperous, and ungrateful cries.
The trade and callings of an English serf were as limited as his other
opportunities in life; and others beside the swineherd found it in the
adjacent woodlands. For there were certainly woodcutters and charcoal
burners; and if the local iron ore were exploited, who shall say there
were not then Willenhall smiths who fashioned bolts and bars, even if
they had not arrived at the intricacies of locks and keys?
Here we are but emerging from the twilight of history.
VII.--A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall.
In the earlier centuries of our national existence, the history of a
parish follows that of its church, the ecclesiastical fold into which its
inhabitants were regularly gathered, not only for every religious
purpose, but for every other object of communal interest or of a public
nature.
But, as previously explained, Willenhall was not a parish; it was but one
member of that wide parochial area ruled from the mother church of
Wolverhampton, several miles distant.
Yet at an early period Willenhall seems to have boasted a chapel-of-ease,
for the Calendar of Patent Rolls, under date 1297, contains an allusion
to "Thomas de Trollesbury, parson of the church of Willenhale." Dr.
Oliver, in his history of the town, says that Wolverhampton church was
rebuilt about 1342, and he evidently attributes the erection of
Willenhall chapel to the same date, as being the outcome of the same
devout spirit of church building. But this is nearly half a century
later than the allusion just quoted from the Patent Rolls, and Dr.
Oliver's reference may possibly be to the founding of a chantry chapel by
the Gerveyse family, who set up one of these mass-houses in Willenhall
about a dozen years after one had been established at Pelsall.
Let it not be imagined that this new church was either a large or a
magnificent structure. In all probability it was a diminutive chapel
constructed of timber which had been cut in the adjacent forest; some of
its wall spaces, perhaps, were only of timber framed wattle and dab; and
at most any building material of a more durable nature entering into its
construction would be but a plinth of stone masonry, and dwarfed at that.
A chapel-of-ease, be it explained, was often established where the parish
was a wide one, for the "ease" of those parishioners who dwelt at a
distance from the mother church, and found it difficult to attend divine
service so far away from their homes. Such chapels were intended for
prayer and preaching only; burials and administrations of the sacraments
being always strictly reserved to the mother church.
While a chapel-of-ease was provided for the general good of the whole
community, a chantry chapel was intended for the special glory and
exclusive benefit of some local landed family. And here is the first
record we have of the Willenhall Chantry; it is extracted from the Patent
Rolls of Edward III., under date 14th February, 1328:--
"Licence for the alienation in mortmain by Richard Gerveyse, of
Wolvernehampton, of a messuage, land, and a moiety of a mill in
Willenhale, co. Stafford, to a Chaplain to celebrate Divine service daily
in the Chapel of Willenhale for the souls of the said Richard and
Felicia, his wife, the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children and
ancestors, and others." A fine of 40s. was paid to the King (at
Stafford) for this licence to devote landed estate to the said purposes
of church endowment.
A chantry (or chauntry, a name derived from cantaria), was a chapel,
little church, or some particular altar in a church, endowed with lands
and other revenues, for the maintenance of a priest, or priests, daily to
chant a mass and offer prayers for the souls of the donors, and such
others as the founders of the chantry may have named. In this particular
instance, as we have seen, the eternal welfare of the Gerveyses is sought
to be assured, and the chantry here was doubtless at the altar of the new
chapel-of-ease--we cannot expect there were two separate ecclesiastical
buildings in so small a place as Willenhall.
The method of procedure in setting up these foundations was first to
obtain a patent from the Crown for the founding and endowing of them; and
then to obtain the Bishop's licence for the regular daily performance of
Divine service by the appointed chantry priest, to whose stipend and
support the endowment mainly went.
Most of these chantries came into existence in the 14th century, and by
the close of the following century there was scarce a parish church in
the kingdom without its chantry in one or other of its side chapels or
subsidiary altars. By the time of Richard II.--about the year 1394--at
least four chantries had been founded, and chapels built, within the
outer area of Wolverhampton parish; namely, at Willenhall, Bilston,
Pelsall, and Hatherton.
In connection with the endowments of the Willenhall chantry, it is on
record that at an Inquisition taken in 1397, it was testified on oath
that Roger Levison at that time held on lease from Thomas Browning,
chaplain of this chantry, 12 acres of land in Wednesfield, and 100s. of
rent in Willenhall, for which he had to perform suit and service (of the
usual nature in feudal tenures) at the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.
In 1409 the advowson of the chapel of Willenhall, together with certain
valuable properties of rents and tenements in Wolverhampton, were granted
by Richard Hethe and William Prestewode, chaplain, to William Bysshebury
and his wife Joan, and settled on them for the term of their lives, with
remainder to John Hampton, of Stourton, and his heirs for ever.
Fourteen years later William Bysshebury (his wife Joan being then
deceased) was sued by certain plaintiffs, on behalf of the said John
Hampton, for wasting these Wolverhampton properties, of which he had the
reversion. The plaintiffs included Roger Aston, knight, William Leveson,
William Everdon, Thomas Arblaster, and others; while the waste and
destruction complained of comprised the digging and selling of clay,
marl, and stones; the permitting of seven halls, two chambers, two
kitchens, two granges, a dovecot, and a mill to remain unroofed till the
principal timbers had rotted; and also with cutting down and selling a
number of oaks, ashes, pear, and apple trees, the total damage in respect
of all this waste being estimated at a very considerable figure.
The advowson was, of course, the right of presentation to the benefice of
Willenhall; and the Hamptons of Stourton Castle, to whom it passed at
this time, seem to have been a family which originated at
Wolverhampton--and perhaps derived their name from the town.
The ministers who officiated in the local chapels-of-ease were inferior
in official status to the vicar, rector, or beneficed clergyman of the
mother church, and such curates were generally removable at the pleasure
of the said vicar or rector. Willenhall, doubtless, was served by a
"curate" sent from the Wolverhampton collegiate establishment.
In the reign of Edward IV. local ecclesiastical matters became further
complicated by the collegiate church of Wolverhampton being permanently
united with the Deanery of Windsor, the two deaneries being always
subsequently held together. It appears that King Edward, desirous of
doing his Chaplain a favour, annexed the "Free Royal Church of
Wolverhampton" to the said Deanery of Windsor, which royal act was soon
afterwards confirmed by Parliament (1480).
The Chantry of Willenhall, in common with all others, disappeared at the
Reformation (this one probably in 1545), when prayers for the dead were
no longer tolerated. But it is interesting to observe that under the new
Protestant regime attendance at church every Sunday was still regarded as
a duty no good citizen and loyal subject could be excused.
Attendance at church was compulsory in the early days of the Anglican
establishment. By statute (I, Elizabeth c. I., 23 Elizabeth c. I., and
3, James I. c. 4) every person was to repair to his parish church every
Sunday on pain of forfeiting 1s. for every offence; and being present at
any form of prayer contrary to the Book of Common Prayer was punished
with six months' imprisonment. Persons above sixteen years of age who
absented themselves from church above a month had to pay a forfeit of 20
pounds a month.
Protestant dissenters who did not deny the doctrine of the Trinity were
(it is interesting to note) exempted from these penalties in 1689; and
the Roman Catholics were similarly emancipated by law in 1792. This by
the way.
It was in Elizabeth's reign, and, of course, under the authority of the
newly-established Protestant Church of England, that Willenhall was
enabled to make a distinct advance in the status of its church. The
charge of this church became an independent one, and was no longer
subordinated to the canons of Wolverhampton; the incumbent was
thenceforward to be in fact, as well as in name, "Chaplain of
Willenhall." But although the incumbent thus obtained his personal
freedom from the domination of the mother church, the Wolverhampton
establishment still retained all the old parochial rights in the shape of
fees and ecclesiastical emoluments. Beyond levying this money tribute,
however, the Dean and Rector of Wolverhampton no longer held any control
over the internal affairs of the church of St. Giles', in Willenhall.
The specified duties of the incumbent of Willenhall (as set forth in a
Trust deed of 1603, to which Sir John Leveson is a party) were to conduct
Divine service there, and to have his residence within a mile and a half
of the church.
[Picture: Decorative flower]
VIII.--Willenhall in the Middle Ages.
Having brought the ecclesiastical history of Willenhall up to the
enlightened days of Queen Elizabeth, to preserve some sort of
chronological arrangement, we leave that section awhile in order to deal
with the social life of the place, so far as this may be gleaned from a
number of fragmentary sources and isolated references.
The result of these gleanings is naturally very scrappy an
disconnected--like the modern periodicals afflicted with the prevalent
"snippetitis." Such as they are, however, the local reader may be
willing to accept them as being of some little interest.
In the year 1172 the Pipe Rolls, which come next to the Domesday Book
among our most ancient national records, and contain a full account of
the Crown revenues, return Willenhall, among five other Staffordshire
estates, bringing in the sum of 19 pounds 7s. 8d. per annum to Henry II.
This would represent nowadays a sum twenty times that amount. These
estates were Bilston and Rowley Regis, being ancient demesnes of the
Crown, and the manors of Leek, Wolstanton, and Penkhull (in the north of
the county), which had escheated at the Conquest from the Earl of Mercia.
Rowley probably brought in but a few pence at that time, when it formed a
part of Clent.
In the same reign (Henry II.) the Canons of Wolverhampton are recorded as
holding two hides of land in "Winenhale"--certainly not more than 400
acres in a fertile locality like this.
During the reign of Edward III., his son and heir, the renowned Black
Prince, hero of Crecy and Poictiers, claimed (after the manner of those
times) the custody and guardianship of Matilda, daughter and heiress of
his old comrade in arms, John de Willenhale. The heiress of Willenhall
was therefore at this time a royal ward. The earliest holder of this
manor who is known by his territorial title seems to be Roger de Wylnale,
who (according to Lawley's "History of Bilston," p. 132) was flourishing
about the year 1109.