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 pounds per annum.
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 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.
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.
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 pounds 7s. 9d., made up as
follows:--
pounds s. d.
Rents 194 2 8
Dividend from 19,941 pounds 16s. 8d., 598 5 1
3 per cent. Consols
792 7 9
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
pounds 13s. 7d., made up as follows:--
pounds s. d.
Rents 194 2 8
Dividend from 2.5 per cent. Consols 498 10 11
692 13 7
This statement brings matters up to date (1907); the tithes are still
impropriate, a rent charge of 540 pounds being receivable by Lord Barnard
in succession to the Duke of Cleveland. The tithe-owner in Bentley is
the Earl of Lichfield.
XXII.--The Church Charities: The Daughter Churches.
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:--
1.--PRESTWOOD'S DOLE.
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.:--
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.
We have no evidence that this piece of land, which is well known, was
ever in the possession of the Parish Officers. 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 pound due Nov. 1st, 1753, for Prestwood's Dole."
The others are for the same sum, designating it either as
"Prestwood's Dole," or "A Dole payable to the Poor of Willenhall."
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.
2.--PEDLEY'S CHARITY.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
3.--CHARITIES OF JOHN TOMKYS AND GEORGE WELCH.
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 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 pounds, 10
pounds thereof being theretofore given by one John Tomkys, and the
other 10 pounds theretofore given by one George Welch, to and for the
use of the said Poor.
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.
4.--JOHN BATES'S CHARITY.
This Charity consists of the sum of 5 pounds, 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.
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.
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 Welch family, their homestead in Willenhall stood in the
location known as Welch End.
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.
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.
In 1881 Jeremiah Hartill gave 200 pounds 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.
* * * * *
Thirty or more years ago a Mr. Stokes gave the Incumbent of Willenhall
500 pounds 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.
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 Bentley and the remaining portion
of the Willenhall township. The fourth daughter parish, St. Anne's, came
a few years later.
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.
St. Anne's Church, Spring Bank, was built largely as a memorial to his
wife by Mr. H. Jeavon. It was consecrated in 1861.
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.
A Mission Room at New Invention completes the list of Anglican
Establishments in Willenhall.
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.
Dr. Hartill, as Churchwarden, was instrumental in securing a grant of 700
pounds from a bequest of 15,000 pounds 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 pounds from the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners; while in the following year a further sum
of 700 pounds from each source was also obtained for increasing the
endowment of St. Anne's Church.
XXIII.--The Fabric of the Church.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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:--
September ye 23, 1660.
COLLECTED 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.
Witness,
JOHN ALLATT,
Minister.
JAMES JOB,
HENRY MOORELAW,
Churchwardens.
[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 pounds 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 secreted by Jesuitic and other priestly adherents, though
they might have pocketed a reward of 10,000 pounds 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!]
[Picture: Bentley Hall]
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.
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.
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.
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:--
1746--Wednesfield (Advowson of which was vested in Walter Gough and his
heirs).
1748--Willenhall.
1753--Bilston.
1755--St. John's (the new building was injured by fire, and not
consecrated till 1760).
From the Registers is gleaned the following issue of a writ to release
sequestration of fees:--
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.
From the Diary of Dr. Richard Wilkes is extracted the following
illuminative entry--a contemporary record of the state of the ancient
edifice:--
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.
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.
This edifice was a fair specimen of the crudities which went to make up
the "churchwarden architecture" of the period; consisting 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.
This church endured only for about a century, being replaced in 1867 by
the present edifice, erected at a cost of 7,000 pounds, raised by public
subscription. The Chairman of the Committee for the rebuilding was Mr.
R. D. Gough, who, with his wife, contributed 1,700 pounds. Other large
contributors were Mrs. Stokes (with 505 pounds), and the Vicar and
Trustees (who gave 1,000 pounds).