Old Argus of an hundred eyes could boast,
An hundred fluent tongues had B--k--r's head,
But Argus all his eyes by music lost,
At dogger'll rhyme all B--k--r's tongues have fled.
1835. November. The Rev. W. H. Cartwright, M.A., a grandson of the
late Doctor Cartwright, a former vicar of Dudley, was nominated to the
valuable living of the parish church, as the successor to the late Dr.
Booker. Mr. Cartwright held the living for ten years, and then suddenly
exchanged livings with the Rev. James Caulfield Browne, M.A., Rector of
Compton Marten, in Somersetshire. Doctor J. C. Browne, held the living
for 25 years, and died universally revered and respected, March 11th,
1870. Aged 65 years.
1835. December 16th, died, the Rev. William Humbel Baron Ward, of
Birmingham. Aged 54 years. This nobleman was the father of the present
Earl of Dudley; but only enjoyed the title and estates a very short
time.
Another Borough election in 1837 again set the town alive, and as the
great spirit of Reform had received innumerable checks throughout the
country; Dudley participated in a modified Reforming declension, and
again was unsuccessful in returning a Reformer. A Mr. Merryweather
Turner was the Reform candidate brought against the old member, Mr.
Hawkes, with the following result:
1.--Mr. Thomas Hawkes Tory, 385
2.--Mr. Merryweather Turner Reformer, 289
----
Majority for Mr. Thomas Hawkes 96
1838. The Rev. John Davies, M.A., was appointed the incumbent of
St. Edmund's Church. This highly esteemed, hard-working, and truly
Christian pastor, held this living for the long period of Thirty-one
years, and died April 21st, 1869, universally esteemed and regretted,
aged 65 years.