becoming Dean, convened a Chapter at Oxford which was attended by all the
Prebendaries and the Sacrist. This meeting was specially called to
consider the case of the inhabitants of Willenhall and Bilston, who had
represented to the Dean the great inconveniences which arose in having to
carry their dead from these chapelries for interment at Wolverhampton;
and humbly praying that their respective chapels and chapelyards should
be consecrated for the proper burial of the dead.
The prayer was granted, but it was most carefully stipulated that the
inhabitants of the two chapelries should always pay the customary levies
to the mother church, and also the fees for burials and for the churching
of women, to the respective curates of the said chapels, as well as to
the ministers of the mother church; and that the expenses attending the
desired consecrations should be paid by the petitioners.
A subsequent Chapter, held 10 October, 1718, confirmed this, when the
Ministers and Inhabitants of the Chapelries of Bilston and Willenhall
signed an Agreement to observe and perform the said conditions. For the
carrying out of the agreement in business-like form the said Ministers
covenanted to pay the said fees half-yearly, at Lady-day and Michaelmas,
transmitting a copy of their respective Registers "without reserve or
fraud" to be transcribed into the books of the mother church.
The fees to be charged each Chapelry were fixed to a scale: tenpence for
"ye churching of every woman"; sevenpence for the burial of each body in
the churchyard, and twice that amount for the burial inside the church:
and so on.
Subsequently (some 30 years after, when St. John's Chapel, Wolverhampton,
was in contemplation) the inhabitants of the Liberties of Willenhall and
Bilston, notwithstanding the written agreement aforesaid, peremptorily
and finally refused to pay their respective fees for Christenings,
Churchings, and Burials to the Sacrist and Curates of Wolverhampton;
payments whereby the profits of their several offices were lessened more
than half, and the loss was so considerable it was no longer to be borne.
At Bilston the quarrel of 1753 was practically not settled for nearly a
century afterwards. It was ruled that whatever might be arranged in
respect of fees for other rites no marriages could be legally performed
in the Chapel except by licence of Wolverhampton, which claimed a
"Peculiar" jurisdiction; and as the inhabitants indignantly refused to
pay double marriage fees, no marriage was solemnised in the chapel from
January, 1754, to February, 1841.
The same year--to be exact, the date was April 12th, 1841--the first
marriage was solemnised at Willenhall Church, the Bishop having then
issued a special licence to the Incumbent to marry persons living within
the township.
Almost concurrently with this dispute there was another source of
grievance to Willenhall, Bilston, and Pelsall which had to be strenuously
fought by these outlying places.
This quarrel arose, in the main, through the excessive demands made upon
the inhabitants of the three chapelries for rates with which to repair
and maintain the fabric of Wolverhampton Church. The levies made
ostensibly for this purpose seem to have been at times somewhat
exorbitant, and the money to have been spent in meeting charges which can
only be described as superfluous so far as the non-residential
contributors were concerned.
About 1738 the chapelwardens of Bilston made a determined stand against
the churchwardens of Wolverhampton.
A "case was stated" in which it was shown that the Collegiate Church of
Wolverhampton consisted of a Dean and Prebendaries, founded by a Royal
Family, and was subject to no visitation but that of the Crown. It
contained three Chapels--one at Bilston, another at Willenhall, and a
third at Pelsall.
The statement proceeded:--"Every Hamlet and Village in the Ecclesiastical
Parish of Wolverhampton has a Constable and all other parochial officers,
and maintains its own poor as it were a separate parish. . . ."
"The Chapelries of Willenhall and Bilston nominate and maintain each its
own Clergy, and repair their own Chapels, which have been endowed time
out of mind, and were consecrated about thirteen years ago for burying
places."
Other points of complaint put forward were that the two chapels afforded
every facility to the inhabitants of the respective places for divine
worship and the administration of the sacraments; that formerly Bilston
and Willenhall each paid only 4 pounds a year to the mother church, but
that since 1716 increasing demands had been made till as much as 56
pounds 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 pounds per annum, the chapelwardens being
allowed 3d. in the pound at Boston and 4d. in the pound at Willenhall for
collecting it.
It was also complained that all the rest of the villages had been forced
"to contribute in like proportion with these two towns," and that these
levies on the out-hamlets had been made for additions to, or improvements
of, Wolverhampton Church, which were quite superfluous in their
character, if not absolutely illegal.
On this opinion (of a learned Sergeant-at-Law) the inhabitants of
Willenhall were invited to join with those of Bilston in a common defence
for their mutual benefit. On the advice of the esteemed Dr. Wilkes, a
well-known local Antiquary, who was then the leading public man of
Willenhall, the invitation was declined.
Litigation proceeded for several years both in the ecclesiastical courts
and in chancery, but without any definite decision being arrived at.
In 1754 the Earl of Stamford tried to induce both parties to submit a
case fairly drawn up (for the legal work in the preparation of which he
generously offered to pay all the costs) and to abide by the decision.
The people of Willenhall, through Dr. Wilkes, thanked his lordship for
his friendly offer, and declared their willingness to accept it.
The Wolverhampton officials, however, rejected the proposal, in the hope
they would win their case in the ecclesiastical courts. When the case
eventually came to trial in 1755 an old parish book was produced, which
showed that the exorbitant demands of Wolverhampton were distinctly
illegal. In it was an entry of 1668, which ran in this wise:--
"This is the portion of Rates each Chapelry and Prebend shall pay
towards the repairs of the Mother Church:--
pounds s. d.
Wolverhampton 36 0 0
Bilston 12 0 0
Wylnale 12 0 0
Wednesflde 12 0 0
Hatherton 3 0 0
Featherstone 1 4 0
Kinvaston 1 1 0
Hilton 1 7 0
Pelsall 2 2 0
Bentley 1 10 0
Stretton rent 1 6 8
83 10 8
A writ of prohibition was forthwith filed to stay all further proceedings
in the Spiritual Courts; and the law costs of the trial, amounting to 282
pounds 1s. 8d., were divided equally between Bilston and Willenhall
(1756).
[Picture: Decorative flower]
XVI.--Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall (1690-1760).
Willenhall's most illustrous son was Dr. Richard Wilkes, Antiquary, whose
house still stands on the Walsall Road. He came of good family of county
rank, and his personal character raised him to the eminence of a
notability in Staffordshire. His portrait appears in Shaw's history of
this county of which his (Wilkes') valuable and voluminous MSS. formed
the nucleus. Though settled in this locality, adding to their little
patrimony from time to time for 300 or 400 years, the family came
originally from Hertfordshire.
The pedigree of Wilkes, according to the Heralds' Visitation in 1614,
commences with John Wylkys de Darlaston, who was witness to a Deed of
Roger, Lord of Darlaston, in the time of Edward III. (1331). There is a
Richard Wylkys, of Willenhall, who witnessed a Bentley Deed in 1413. To
this Richard and his wife Juliana, daughter and heir of William Wilkes, a
grant of lands in Bentley was made by Humphrey, Earl of Stafford. The
son of this couple was William Wilkes of Willnall (1505). Protonotary of
the Court of Common Pleas, 15 Henry VIII. The family tree is very
complete in Shaw.
One John Wilkes married a widow Parkhouse, _nee_ Margery Garbet, of
Nether Penn; another John, his nephew, was Rector of Lum, and evidently a
Puritan, as his two sons bear the striking biblical names, Ephraim and
Manasses. Richard seems to have been the favourite name for the eldest
son. One Richard married Mercy Drakeford, of Stafford (see Salt. Vol.
VIII.); his son, also named Richard, became the father of our Willenhall
worthy, whose mother was Lucretia, youngest daughter of Jonas Astley, of
Wood Eaton, in this county.
Richard Wilkes, M.D., was born in March, 1690, and had his school
education at Trentham. In his 19th year he was entered at St. John's
College, Cambridge, and was admitted scholar 1710. In April, 1711, he
began to attend Mr. Saunderson's mathematical lectures, and became very
proficient in algebra. In January, 1713, he took his B.A degree; three
years later he was chosen Fellow, and in 1718 he was appointed Linacre
Lecturer.
It does not appear when or where he took his degrees in medicine. He
seems to have taken pupils and taught mathematics in college from the
year 1715 till he left it, and to have been engaged thus early in
literary matters, particularly in the collection of material for
subsequent use. It was by his literary labours, particularly in
antiquarian research, that he made himself a name.
He presently took deacon's orders, and once preached in the parish church
of Wolverhampton. He also preached several times at Stow, near Chartley.
However, disappointment in the expectation of preferment in the Church
soon disgusted him with the ministry, and in 1720 he began to practise
physic, for which he seemed to have a natural talent, at Wolverhampton.
In 1725 he married Rachel Manlove, of Abbots Bromley, with whom he had a
handsome fortune, and from that time he dwelt with his father (who died
in 1730) at Willenhall.
About this time he wrote an excellent treatise on Dropsy; and later, when
a dreadful disease raged among the horned cattle of the Midlands, he
published a very useful and practical "Letter to Breeders and Graziers in
the County of Stafford," and made every effort to assist in stamping out
the plague. Possibly while at Chartley he had made a study of the herd
of wild cattle preserved there.
His skill as a physician was very considerable, and seems to have been
applied chiefly to the gratuitous relief of his poorer neighbours. He
led an exemplary life, being an early riser, and an indefatigable reader,
constantly adding to the rich stores of his well-stocked mind.
As previously mentioned, he spent several years of industry in collecting
historical manuscripts, and making antiquarian notes relating to his
native county, of which the Rev. Stebbing Shaw afterwards made such good
use.
For instance, Dr. Wilkes' account of Roman roads, camps, and other
remains of antiquity is a fairly exhaustive one for a county history, and
shows a considerable depth of research. It is embodied in the
"Introduction" and the "General History" at the commencement of Shaw's
compendious work.
Like Pepys, he kept a Diary, which was never intended for publication--he
was a diligent recorder of historical facts. Here is an interesting note
from it:--
"The first steam engine that ever raised any quantity of water was
erected near Wolverhampton, on the right-hand side of the road
leading to Walsall, over against the half-mile stone." (This was on
the site of the Chillington ironworks.)
The Diarist was too modest to add that the Waterworks which long supplied
Wolverhampton with water were the property of Dr. Wilkes.
Among other projected literary works was a new edition of Hudibras, with
notes, &c. In the beginning of the year 1747, having a severe fit of
illness which confined him to the house, he amused himself with writing
his own epitaph, which he calls "A picture drawn from the life without
heightening." It is as follows:--
Here, reader, stand awhile, and know
Whose carcase 'tis that rots below;
A man's, who walk'd by Reason's rule
Yet sometimes err'd and play'd the fool;
A man's sincere in all his ways,
And full of the Creator's praise,
Who laughed at priestcraft, pride and strife,
And all the little tricks of life.
He lov'd his king, his country more,
And dreadful party-rage forbore:
He told nobility the truth
And winked at hasty slips of youth.
The honest poor man's steady friend.
The villain's sconce in hopes to mend.
His father, mother, children, wife,
His riches, honour, length of life,
Concern not thee. Observe what's here--
He rests in hope and not in fear.
His wife dying in May, 1756, he married for the second time in October
the same year Mrs. Frances Bendish (sister to the Rev. Sir Richard
Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, Bart.), who long survived him, dying December
24, 1798, at Froxfield, near Petersfield, in Hampshire, at a very
advanced age.
The learned doctor himself died March 6, 1760, with a return of the gout
in his stomach, and his death was universally lamented by his tenants,
who lost an indulgent landlord; by his servants, who lost a good master;
but more by numbers of poor in the populous villages adjacent and at a
distance, in grateful remembrance of the charitable advice and friendly
assistance they had always enjoyed at his kindly hands. A somewhat
eulogistic entry of his death appears in the Bilston Registers.
As Dr. Wilkes left no issue, his property passed to the Unett family, the
representatives of his aunt Anne who had married George Unett, of
Wolverhampton.
He was buried at Willenhall in his native soil, where a neat monument was
erected to his memory near the family pew, by his heirs, Captain Richard
Wilkes Unett, and Mr. John Wilkes Unett; the tablet was thus inscribed:--
"Near this place
Lie the remains
of
RICHARD WILKES, M.D.
Formerly fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge; the last of an
ancient and respectable family resident at this place 300 years and
upwards. He married first, Rachel, eldest daughter of Rowland
Manlove, of Lees Hill, in this county, esq.; secondly, Frances,
daughter of Sir John, and sister
of the late
Sir Richard Wrottesly, of Wrottesly, Bart.
and widow of Higham Bendish, Esq.
He died March 6, 1760,
aged 70 years.
[Underneath is the following escutcheon:--
(Wilkes) Paly of eight Or and Gules; on a chief Argent, three
lozenges of the second: impaling, 1. (Manlove) Azure, a chevron
Ermine, between three anchors Argent; 2. (Wrottesley) Or, three
piles Sa. a canton Ermine]
"The children of the late Rev. Thomas Unett, of Stafford, his
heirs-at-law, placed this monument an. 1800."
On the floor of the Lane Chapel in Wolverhampton Church will be found
stones to the memory of the Wilkes family, "seated at Willenhall from the
reign of Edward IV."; there is also a blue slab to the memory of Mary
Unett, who died in 1767.
The old house of Dr. Wilkes, a good specimen of its type of architecture,
stands back from the main road behind iron palisading. Part of it has
been utilised as a stamper's warehouse; had it received the respect due
to its associations, it might flittingly have been a town Museum, or some
such public institution. It was built by the Doctor's father, and the
Doctor was born there.
The house has a white stuccoed front, irregularly disposed, the
semi-porticoed doorway with classic columns having three windows on its
left and two on its right, although the shorter side seems to have been
lengthened at a later period by a red brick wing. Along the line of the
first floor are six windows, whose lights in the Annean period, to which
the building belongs, were doubtless of small leaded panes.
From the tiled roof project three dormers, the centre one having a
semi-circular head, the outer ones pointed. The chimneys stand out from
each gable end, and in the brickwork of each of their sides is a plain
recessed panel; the chimney-heads being noticeable for the absence of the
usual projecting courses. Local tradition says that Hall street was once
a stately avenue of trees by which this residence was approached from
Lichfield Street.
On entering the house, the visitor feels a pang of regret that the
venerable building should ever have been degraded to the purposes of
commerce; particularly as the fabric retains many of its characteristics,
thanks to the soundness of the workmanship of two centuries ago. The
decorations in the form of plaster mouldings that cover the beams, and
the medallion or panel pictures, being partly historical and partly
classical, all exhibit the Renaissance feeling of the early eighteenth
century.
The ceilings of two lower rooms are in a splendid state of preservation,
and contain excellent work. One room is square with beams across the
middle; the ceiling on one side of the beam representing "The Seasons,"
and on the other side "The Elements." The Seasons are severally depicted
as follows:--A young face, with the hair of the head bedecked with
flowers, for "Spring"; a face in the bloom of womanhood, with the hair
bedecked with corn, represents "Summer"; a well-matured face, having the
hair bedecked with fruit, "Autumn'"; while a pleasing aged face, the brow
bedecked with holly, stands for "Winter." Painted on the wall over the
fireplace is the Castle of St. Angelo, and the bridge crossing the Tiber
at Rome. The Elements, (so called by the old alchemists) are also
figuratively, represented by four heads; one bearing a castle, with three
towers and other buildings in the background (Earth); one surmounted by
an eagle with outspread wings (Air); the next with tongues of fire
issuant (Fire); and the other spouting forth a fountain (Water).
The other room is oblong, with beams across dividing its ceiling into
four parts. In these parts there are four well-drawn figures, one
believed to be Bacon, with beard, moustache, whiskers, and in Elizabethan
costume; two close cropped heads, carried on noble necks, believed to be
respectively Julius Caesar and Mark Antony; and the fourth is said to be
Homer, with the customary curly hair and beard, but showing a collar of
some sort, and apparently wearing a skull cap. Over the mantel, painted
on canvas, is the Coliseum, showing the Arch of Titus and a pool in the
foreground.
In the main room upstairs is still to be seen the portrait of Dr. Wilkes,
painted on canvas, over the mantelpiece. He is depicted as a clean
shaven man with benevolent face, bluish or blue-grey eyes, a good
forehead, nose, mouth and chin well-defined, and wearing a wig. His
costume includes a high-cut waistcoat, bearing ten buttons, opened in
front nearly all the way down to show cravat and frilled shirt, the
cravat having a buckle--probably jewelled in front. The outer coat is
without a collar, cut a little lower than the waistcoat, sloping from
above outwards, showing eight buttons, and apparently of greenish-brown
velvet.
The pool which formerly ornamented the garden had disappeared; but the
boathouse is still there, and the room above it in which the Doctor used
to keep his Antiquarian Collection and other artistic treasures. As to
the lawns, shrubberies, gardens, orchards, and pleasaunces, there is
scarcely a remnant left.
Of the once sweet and pellucid stream, spanned by an ornamental bridge,
which conducted the rambler to the pleasant meads beyond, nothing remains
but the name, "Willenhall Brook"--it is now little better than a dirty
open sewer.
It may not be generally known that a passing allusion is made to Wilkes
in Boswell's "Life of Johnson."
In the IV. chapter of Vol. I. of this monumental biography we read that
in 1740 Dr. Johnson wrote "an epitaph on Phillips, a musician, which was
afterwards published with some other pieces of his, in 'Mrs. Williams's
Miscellanies.' This epitaph is so exquisitely beautiful, that I remember
even Lord Kaines, strangely prejudiced as he was against Dr. Johnson, was
compelled to allow it very high praise. It has been ascribed to Mr.
Garrick from its appearing at first with the signature G; but I have
heard Mr. Garrick declare it was written by Dr. Johnson, and give the
following account of the manner in which it was composed. Johnson and he
were sitting together, when amongst other things Garrick repeated an
epitaph upon this Phillips, by a Dr. Wilkes, in these words:--
Exalted soul! whose harmony could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise
And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies.
"Johnson shook his head at the common-place funeral lines, and said to
Garrick, 'I think, Davy, I can make better.'"
The great biographer goes on to state that Johnson, after stirring about
his tea and meditating a little while, produced these lines:--
Exalted soul! thy various sounds could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
Could jarring crowds, like old Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love.
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
And join thy Saviour's concert in the skies.
Suffice it to add that the personage who inspired the lines was an
eccentric genius named Claudius Phillips {88}, on whose memorial tablet
in the porch of Wolverhampton Church were engraved the said lines,
attributed to Dr. Wilkes, who strangely enough is described as "of
Trinity College, Oxford and Rector of Pitchford, Salop"--a clergyman
whose name was John, and who lived a century previously. We are further
informed that our Willenhall worthy is spoken of by Browne Willis in the
"History of Mitred Abbies," Vol. II. p. 189--Browne Willis being one of
the most notable antiquarians of that period, and an eccentric individual
withal.
All this points to the fact that Dr. Richard Wilkes was well known as a
writer, and acknowledged as an authority.
[Picture: Decorative flower]
XVII.--Willenhall "Spaw."
It is difficult to imagine Willenhall as a health resort; yet it was no
fault of Dr. Richard Wilkes that his native spot did not become a
fashionable inland watering place.
It should be explained that during the eighteenth century there was
almost a mania to discover and exploit wells and springs, and to regard
them as fountains of health to which the fashionable and the well-to-do
might be attracted. Before the newer fashion of sea bathing was
introduced--which was early in the next century--there was a great number
of these newly-invented places of inland resort. For instance, Dudley
had its charming Spa on Pensnett Chace; and to show that Wolverhampton
was not behindhand, we take the liberty of quoting from the MSS. of Dr.
Wilkes:
"A medical spring has lately been discovered at Chapel Ash, in the
south-west part of this town, which purges moderately and without the
least uneasiness. A brown ocre, or absorbent earth, remains after
evaporation, mixt with salt and sulphur; so that it seems to promise
relief in all kinds of disorders proceeding from costiveness, and
alcaline, fiery, and acid humours in the stomach and bowels, attended
by a flow of feverish heat, eruptions on the skin called scorbutic,
headaches, giddiness, flatulency, sour eructations, flying pains
called nervous and rheumatic, the hemorrhoids or piles, asthma, and
many other disorders which seem incurable by the most powerful
medicines."
Truly the Doctor might have earned a good living nowadays by writing the
advertisements for modern quack specifics.
Shaw's description of the Willenhall Spa says that "the spring arises on
the north side of a brook which runs almost directly from the west to the
east, and so very near to it that a moderate shower will raise the brook
as to cover it. About 200 yards up this brook, on the same side, are
several springs, one of which was much taken notice of by our ancestors,
and consecrated to St. Sunday, no common saint. Over it is the following
inscription:--
Fons occulis morbisque
cutaneis diu celebris, A.D. 1726."
"Saint Sunday" must have been some local saint; or, more probably, a
jocular embodiment of the sacredness of this day of the week with its
peculiarly pagan name, to the cause of idleness, and so dubbed by the
native wit of Willenhall; anyway, no saint of this name is to be found in
the authorised Calendar of any church.