Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham Part 16

March 2, 1877, a bull got loose in New Street Station, and ran through the tunnel to Banbury Street, where he leaped over the parapet and was made into beef.

William G.o.dfrey, who died in Ruston-street, October 27, 1863, was a native of this town, who, enlisting at eighteen, was sent out to China, where he acc.u.mulated a fortune of more than 1,000,000. So said the _Birmingham Journal_, November 7, 1863.

The De Berminghams had no blankets before the fourteenth century, when they were brought from Bristol. None but the very rich wore stockings prior to the year 1589, and many of them had their legs covered with bands of cloth.

A pet.i.tion was presented to the Prince of Wales (June 26, 1791) asking his patronage and support for the starving buckle-makers of Birmingham.

He ordered his suite to wear buckles on their shoes, but the laces soon whipped them out of market.

One Friday evening in July, 1750, a woman who had laid informations against 150 persons she had caught retailing spirituous liquors without licenses, was seized by a mob, who doused, ducked and daubed her, and then shoved her in the Dungeon.

At a parish meeting, May 17, 1726, it was decided to put up an organ in St. Martin's at a cost of 300 "and upwards." At a general meeting of the inhabitants, April 3, 1727, it was ordered that, a bell be cast for St. Philip's, "to be done with all expedition."

In 1789 it was proposed that the inmates of the workhouse should be employed at making worsted and thread. Our fathers often tried their inventive faculties in the way of finding work for the inmates. A few years later it was proposed (August 26) to lighten the rates by erecting a steam mill for grinding corn.

On the retirement of Mr. William Lucy, in 1850, from the Mayoralty, the usual vote of thanks was pa.s.sed, but with _one_ dissentient. Mr. Henry Hawkes was chosen coroner July 6, 1875, by forty votes to _one_. The great improvement scheme was adopted by the Town Council (November 10, 1875), with but _one_ dissentient.

A certificate, dated March 23, 1683, and signed by the minister and church-wardens, was granted to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Ann d.i.c.kens, "in order to obtain his majesty's touch for the Evil." The "royal touch" was administered to 200 persons from this neighbourhood, March 17, 1714; Samuel Johnson (the Dr.) being one of those whose ailments, it was believed, could be thus easily removed. Professor Holloway did not live in those days.

Sir Thomas Holte (the first baronet) is traditionally reported to have slain his cook. He brought an action for libel against one William Ascrick, for saying "that he did strike his cook with a cleaver, so that one moiety of the head fell on one shoulder, and the other on the other shoulder." The defendant was ordered to pay 30 damages, but appealed, and successfully; the worthy lawyers of that day deciding that though Sir Thomas might have clove the cook's head, the defendant did not say he had _killed_ the man, and hence had not libelled the baronet.

~Interpreters.~--In commercial circles it sometimes happens that the foreign corresponding clerk may be out of the way when an important business letter arrives, and we, therefore, give the addresses of a few gentlemen linguists, viz.:--Mr. H.R. Forrest, 46, Peel Buildings, Lower Temple Street; Mr. L. Hewson, 30, Paradise Street; Mr. F. Julien, 189, Monument Road; Mr. Wm. Krisch, 3, Newhall Street; Mr. L. Notelle, 42, George Road, Edgbaston; and Mr. A. Vincent, 49, Islington Row.

~Invasion.~--They said the French were coming in February, 1758, so the patriotic Brums put their hands into their pockets and contributed to a fund "to repel invasion."

~Inventors and Inventions.~--Birmingham, for a hundred years, led the van in inventions of all kinds, and though to many persons patent specifications may be the driest of all dry reading, there is an infinitude of interesting matter to be found in those doc.u.ments. Much of the trade history of the town is closely connected with the inventions of the patentees of last century, including such men as Lewis Paul, who first introduced spinning by rollers, and a machine for the carding of wool and cotton; Baskerville, the j.a.panner; Wyatt, partner with Paul; Boulton, of Soho, and his coadjutors, Watt, Murdoch, Small, Keir, Alston, and others. Nothing has been too ponderous and naught too trivial for the exercise of the inventive faculties of our skilled workmen. All the world knows that hundreds of patents have been taken out for improvements, and discoveries in connection with steam machinery, but few would credit that quite an equal number relate to such trifling articles as buckles and b.u.t.tons, pins and pens, hooks and eyes, &c.; and fortunes have been made even more readily by the manufacture of the small items than the larger ones. The history of Birmingham inventors has yet to be written; a few notes of some of their doings will be found under "_Patents_" and "_Trades_."

~Iron.~--In 1354 it was forbidden to export iron from England. In 1567 it was brought here from Sweden and Russia. A patent for smelting iron with pit coal was granted in 1620 to Dud Dudley, who also patented the tinning of iron in 1661. The total make of iron in England in 1740 was but 17,000 tons, from 59 furnaces, only two of which were in Staffordshire, turning out about 1,000 tons per year. In 1788 there were nine blast furnaces in the same county; in 1796, fourteen; in 1806, forty-two; in 1827, ninety-five, with an output of 216,000 tons, the kingdom's make being 690,000 tons from 284 furnaces. This quant.i.ty in 1842 was turned out of the 130 Staffordshire furnaces alone, though the hot-air blast was not used prior to 1835. Some figures have lately been published showing that the present product of iron in the world is close upon 19-1/2 million tons per year, and as iron and its working-up has a little to do with the prosperity of Birmingham, we preserve them.

Statistics for the more important countries are obtainable as late as 1881. For the others it is a.s.sumed that the yield has not fallen off since the latest figures reported. Under "other countries," in the table below, are included Canada, Switzerland, and Mexico, each producing about 7,500 tons a year, and Norway, with 4,000 tons a year:--

Year. Gross Tons.

Great Britain........ 1881 8,377,364 United States........ 1881 4,144,254 Germany.............. 1881 2,863,400 France............... 1881 1,866,438 Belgium.............. 1881 622,288 Austro-Hungary....... 1880 448,685 Sweden............... 1880 399,628 Luxembourg........... 1881 289,212 Russia............... 1881 231,341 Italy................ 1876 76,000 Spain................ 1873 73,000 Turkey............... -- 40,000 j.a.pan................ 1877 10,000 All other countries.. -- 46,000 ---------- Total............ 19,487,610

The first four countries produce 88.4 per cent, of the world's iron supply; the first two, 64.3 per cent.; the first, 43 per cent. The chief consumer is the United States, 29 per cent.; next Great Britain, 23 '4 per cent.; these two using more than half of all. Cast iron wares do not appear to have been made here in any quant.i.ty before 1755; malleable iron castings being introduced about 1811. The first iron ca.n.a.l boat made its appearance here July 24, 1787. Iron pots were first tinned in 1779 by Jonathan Taylor's patented process, but we have no date when vessels of iron were first enamelled, though a French method of coating them with gla.s.s was introduced in 1850 by Messrs. T.G. Griffiths and Co.

In 1809, Mr. Benjamin Cook, a well-known local inventor, proposed to use iron for building purposes, more particularly in the shape of joists, rafters, and beams, so as to make fire-proof rooms, walls, and flooring, as well as iron staircases. This suggestion was a long time before it was adopted, for in many things Cook was far in advance of his age.

Corrugated iron for roofing, &c., came into use in 1832, but it was not till the period of the Australian gold fever--1852-4--that there was any great call for iron houses. The first iron church (made at Smethwick) as well as iron barracks for the mounted police, were sent out there, the price at Melbourne for iron houses being from 70 each.--See "_Trades_."

~Iron Bedsteads~ are said to have been invented by Dr. Church. Metallic bedsteads of many different kinds have been made since then, from the simple iron stretcher to the elaborately guilded couches made for princes and potentates, but the latest novelty in this line is a bedstead of solid silver, lately ordered for one of the Indian Rajahs.

~Iron Rods.~--Among the immense number of semi-religious tracts published during the Civil War, one appeared (in 1642) ent.i.tled "An Iron Rod for the Naylours and Tradesmen near Birmingham," by a self-styled prophet, who exhorted his neighbours to amend their lives and give better prices "twopence in the shilling at the least to poor workmen."

We fancy the poor nailers of the present time would also be glad of an extra twopence.

~Jacks.~--Roasting Jacks of some kind or other were doubtless used by our great-great-grandmothers, but their kitchen grates were not supplied with "bottle-jacks" till their fellow-townsman, Mr. Fellowes, of Great Hampton Street, made them in 1796.

~Jennens.~--It is almost certain that the "Great Jennens (or Jennings) Case," has taken up more time in our law courts than any other cause brought before the judges. Charles d.i.c.kens is supposed to have had some little knowledge of it, and to have modelled his "Jarndyce _v_.

Jarndyce" in "Bleak House" therefrom. It has a local interest, inasmuch as several members of the family lived, prospered, and died here, and, in addition, a fair proportion of the property so long disputed, is here situated. The first of the name we hear of as residing in Birmingham was William Jennens, who died in 1602. His son John became a well-to-do ironmonger, dying in 1653. One of John's sons, Humphrey, also waxed rich, and became possessed of considerable estate, having at one time, it is said, no less a personage than Lord Conway as "game-keeper" over a portion of his Warwickshire property. Probably the meaning was that his lordship rented the shooting. Ultimately, although every branch of the family were tolerably prolific, the bulk of the garnered wealth was concentrated in the hands of William Jennings, bachelor, who died at Acton Place in 1798, at the age of 98, though some have said he was 103.

His landed property was calculated to be worth 650,000; in Stock and Shares he held 270,000; at his bankers, in cash and dividends due, there were 247,000; while at his several houses, after his death, they found close upon 20,000 in bank notes, and more than that in gold.

Dying intestate, his property was administered to by Lady Andover, and William Lygon, Esq., who claimed to be next of kin descended from Humphrey Jennings, of this town. Greatest part of the property was claimed by these branches, and several n.o.ble families were enriched who, it is said, were never ent.i.tled to anything. The Curzon family came in for a share, and hence the connection of Earl Howe and others with this town. The collaterals and their descendants have, for generations, been fighting for shares, alleging all kinds of fraud and malfeasance on the part of the present holders and their predecessors, but the claimants have increased and multiplied to such an extent, that if it were possible for them to recover the whole of the twelve million pounds they say the property is now worth, it would, when divided, give but small fortunes to any of them. A meeting of the little army of claimants was held at the Temperance Hall, March 2, 1875, and there have been several attempts, notwithstanding the many previous adverse decisions, to re-open the battle for the pelf, no less than a quarter of a million, it is believed, having already been uselessly spent in that way.

~Jennen's Row~ is named after the above family.

~Jewellery.~--See "_Trades_."

~Jews.~--The descendants of Israel were allowed to reside in this country in 1079, but if we are to believe history their lot could not have been a very pleasant one, the poorer cla.s.ses of our countrymen looking upon them with aversion, while the knights and squires of high degree, though willing enough to use them when requiring loans for their fierce forays, were equally ready to plunder and oppress on the slightest chance. Still England must have even then been a kind of sheltering haven, for in 1287, when a sudden anti-Semitic panic occurred to drive the Jews out of the kingdom, it was estimated that 15,660 had to cross the silver streak. Nominally, they were not allowed to return until Cromwell's time, 364 years after. It was in 1723 Jews were permitted to hold lands in this country, and thirty years after an Act was pa.s.sed to naturalise them, but it was repealed in the following year. Now the Jews are ent.i.tled to every right and privilege that a Christian possesses. It is not possible to say when the Jewish community of this town originated, but it must have been considerably more than a hundred and fifty years ago, as when Hutton wrote in 1781, there was a synagogue in the Froggery, "a very questionable part of the town," and an infamous locality. He quaintly says:--"We have also among us a remnant of Israel, a people who, when masters of their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel, and who are now seldom employed in anything else. But though they are ever moving they are ever at home; who once lived the favourites of heaven, and fed upon the cream of the earth, but now are little regarded by either; whose society is entirely confined to themselves, except in the commercial line. In the synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the faint resemblance of the ancient worship, their whole apparatus being no more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small, but tolerably filled; where there appears less decorum than in the Christian churches.

The proverbial expression, 'as rich as a Jew,' is not altogether verified in Birmingham; but, perhaps, time is transferring it to the Quakers. It is rather singular that the honesty of a Jew is seldom pleaded but by the Jew himself." No modern historian would think of using such language now-a-days, respecting the Jews who now abide with us, whose charitable contributions to our public inst.i.tutions, &c., may bear comparison with those of their Christian brethren. An instance of this was given so far back as December 5th, 1805, the day of general thanksgiving for the glorious victory of Trafalgar. On that day collections were made in all places of worship in aid of the patriotic fund for the relief of those wounded, and of the relatives of those killed in the war. It is worthy of remark that the parish church, St.

Martin's, then raised the sum of 37 7s., and the "Jews' Synagogue" 3 3s. At the yearly collections in aid of the medical charities, now annually held on Hospital Sunday, St. Martin's gives between three and four hundred pounds; the Jewish congregation contributes about one hundred and fifty. If, then, the church has thus increased ten-fold in wealth and benevolence in the last seventy years, the synagogue has increased fifty-fold.

~Jews' Board of Guardians.~ A committee of resident Jews was appointed in 1869, to look after and relieve poor and dest.i.tute families among the Israelites; and though they pay their due quota to the poor rates of their parish, it is much to the credit of the Jewish community that no poor member is, permitted to go to the Workhouse or want for food and clothing. The yearly amount expended in relief by this Hebrew Board of Guardians is more than 500, mostly given in cash in comparatively large sums, so as to enable the recipients to become self-supporting, rather than continue them as paupers receiving a small weekly dole. There is an increase in the number of poor latterly, owing to the depression of trade and to the influx of poor families from Poland during the last few years. Another cause of poverty among the Jews is the paucity of artisans among them, very few of them even at the present time choosing to follow any of the staple trades outside those connected with clothing and jewellery.

~Jewish Persecutions in Russia.~--On Feb. 6, 1882, a town's meeting was called with reference to the gross persecution of the Jews in Russia, and the collection of a fund towards a.s.sisting the sufferers was set afoot, 1,800 being promised at the meeting.

~John a' Dean's Hole.~--A little brook which took the water from the moat round the old Manor House (site of Smithfield) was thus called, from a man named John Dean being drowned there about Henry VIII.'s time.

This brook emptied into the river Rea, near the bottom of Floodgate Street, where a hundred and odd years back, there were two poolholes, with a very narrow causeway between them, which was especially dangerous at flood times to chance wayfarers who chose the path as a near cut to their dwellings, several cases of drowning being on record as occurring at this spot.--See "_Manor House_."

~Johnson, Dr. Samuel.~--Dr. Johnson's connection with Birmingham has always been a pleasant matter of interest to the local _literati_, but to the general public we fear it matters naught. His visit to his good friend Dr. Hector in 1733 is historically famous; his translations and writings while here have been often noted; his marriage with the widow Porter duly chronicled; but it is due to the researches of the learned Dr. Langford that attention has been lately drawn to the interesting fact that Johnson, who was born in 1709, actually came to Birmingham in his tenth year, on a visit to his uncle Harrison, who in after years, in his usual plain-speaking style, Johnson described as "a very mean and vulgar man, drunk every night, but drunk with little drink, very peevish, very proud, very ostentatious, but, luckily, not rich." That our local governors have a due appreciation of the genius of the famed lexicographer is shown by the fact of a pa.s.sage-way from Bull Street to the Upper Priory being named "Dr. Samuel Johnson's Pa.s.sage!"

~Jubilees.~--Strange as it may appear to the men of the present day, there has never been a National holiday yet kept equal to that known as the Jubilee Day of George the Third. Why it should have been so seems a great puzzle now. The celebration began in this town at midnight of the 24th October, 1809, by the ringers of St. Philip's giving "five times fifty claps, an interim with the same number of rounds, to honour the King, Queen, the Royal Family, the Nation, and the loyal town of Birmingham." At six o'clock next morning the sluggards were aroused with a second peal, and with little rest the bells were kept swinging the whole day long, the finale coming with a performance of "perpetual claps and clashings" that must have made many a head ache. There was a Sunday school jubilee celebrated September 14, 1831. The fiftieth year's pastorate of Rev. John Angell James was kept September 12, 1855, and the Jubilee Day of the Chapel in Carr's Lane, September 27, 1870; of Cannon Street Chapel, July 16, 1856; of the Rev. G. Cheatle's pastorate, at Lombard Street Chapel, January 11, 1860; of the Missionary Society, September 15, 1864; of Pope Pius the Ninth, in 1877, when the Roman Catholics of this town sent him 1,230. being the third largest contribution from England.

~Jubilee Singers.~--This troupe of coloured minstrels gave their first entertainment here in the Town Hall April 9, 1874.

~Jury Lists.~--According to the Jury Act, 6 George IV., the churchwardens and overseers of every parish in England are required to make out an alphabetical list before the 1st September in each year of all men residing in their respective parishes and townships qualified to serve on juries, setting forth at length their Christian and surname, &c. Copies of these lists, on the three first Sundays in September, are to be fixed on the princ.i.p.al door to every church, chapel, and other public place of religious worship, with a notice subjoined that all appeals will be heard at the Petty Sessions, to be held within the last day of September. The jury list for persons resident in the borough, and for several adjoining parishes, may be seen at the office of Mr. Alfred Walter, solicitor, Colmore Row, so that persons exempt may see if their names are included.

~Justices Of the Peace.~--The earliest named local Justices of the Peace (March 8, 1327) are "William of Birmingham" and "John Murdak" the only two then named for the county.--See "_Magistrates_".

~Kidneys (Petrified).~--In olden days our footpaths, where paved at all, were, as a rule, laid with round, hard pebbles, and many readers will be surprised to learn that five years ago there still remained 50,000 square yards of the said temper-trying paving waiting to be changed into more modern bricks or stone. Little, however, as we may think of them, the time has been when the natives were rather proud than otherwise of their pebbly paths, for, according to Bisset, when one returned from visiting the metropolis, he said he liked everything in London very much "except the pavement, for the stones were all so smooth, there was no foothold!"

~King Edward's Place.~--Laid out in 1782 on a 99 years' lease, from Grammar School, at a ground rent of 28, there being built 31 houses, and two in Broad Street.

~King's Heath.~--A little over three miles on the Alcester Road, in the Parish of King's Norton, an outskirt of Moseley, and a suburb of Birmingham; has added a thousand to its population in the ten years from census 1871 to 1881, and promises to more than double it in the next decennial period. The King's Heath and Moseley Inst.i.tute, built in 1878, at the cost of Mr. J.H. Nettlefold, provides the residents with a commodious hall, library, and news-room. There is a station here on the Midland line, and the alterations now in the course of being made on that railway must result in a considerable, addition to the traffic and the usefulness of the station, as a local depot for coal, &c.

~King's Norton.~--Mentioned in Domesday, and in the olden times was evidently thought of equal standing (to say the least) with its five-miles-neighbour, Birmingham, as in James the First's reign there was a weekly market (Sat.u.r.days) and ten fairs in the twelve months. The market the inhabitants now attend is to be found in this town, and the half-score of fairs has degenerated to what is known as "King's Norton Mop" or October statute fair, for the hiring of servants and labourers, when the Lord of Misrule holds sway, the more's the pity. The King's Norton Union comprises part of the borough of Birmingham (Edgbaston), as well as Balsall Heath, Harborne, Moseley, Northfield, Selly Oak, &c., and part of it bids fair to become a manufacturing district of some extent, as there are already paper mills, rolling mills, screw works, &c., and the Smethwick men are rapidly advancing in its direction--the Midland Junction with the West Suburban line being also in the parish.

The fortified mansion, known as Hawkesley House, in this parish, was the scene of a contest in May, 1645, between King Charles' forces and the Parliamentarians, who held it, the result being its capture, pillage, and destruction by fire.

~Kirby's Pools.~--A well-known and favourite resort on the outskirt of the borough, on the Bristol Road, and formerly one of the celebrated taverns and tea gardens of past days. The publichouse (the "Malt Shovel") having been extended and partially rebuilt, and the grounds better laid out, the establishment was re-christened, and opened as the Bournbrook Hotel, at Whitsuntide, 1877.

~Kossuth.~--Louis Kossuth, the ex-dictator of Hungary, was honoured with a public welcome and procession of trades, &c., Nov. 10, 1851, and entertained at a banquet in Town Hall on the 12th. He afterwards appeared here May 7 and 8, 1856, in the _role_ of a public lecturer.

~Kyott's Lake.~--A pool once existing where now is Grafton Road, Camp Hill. There was another pool near it, known as Foul Lake.

~Kyrle Society.~--So named after the character alluded to by Pope in his "Moral Essays":

"Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?

'The Man of Ross,' each lisping babe replies."