The Annals of Willenhall Part 7

Fyrste one challes of sylver with a paten parcell gilte weyinge by estimacon viij ounces; iij vestement one of whyte fustian another of blacke chamlett and the thyrd of bleu sarsynet; iij alter clothes; ij cruetts of ledde; a bucket of bra.s.se; iij candelstyks of maslyn; a paxe of bra.s.s; a corporas with the case; ij towells; one cheste; a lampe of latynn; ij small bells.

Mem.-That all these parcells before rekened were delyvered unto Richard Forsett, Surveyor to the Kynge's Majesti, as shall appare by his acquytance, except ij belles the whyche remayne still within the sayd chapell.

A few words in explanation of the above terms may, perhaps, be necessary for the general reader. The chalice and the paten were the vessels used at the Sacrament, the former being the wine cup, which was of silver, and the latter the bread dish, partly gilt. The priestly vestments were those forbidden by the reformed church, and were of different textures for different parts of the Roman ceremonial; the fustian was a coa.r.s.e piled fabric, or kind of cotton velvet, imported from the East; chamlett, or camlett, was a cloth so called because originally woven from camel hair; and the sarsnett was a thin kind of silk. The altar cloths had to be discarded when the "Ma.s.s" was reformed into the "Holy Communion." The cruets were pairs of metal jars for containing the wine and the water previous to their admixture in the sacrament of the Ma.s.s. The bucket was for use at the font. The candle-sticks were for the lighted tapers upon the altar and in this case were made of maslin, an alloy like bra.s.s, but with a harder grain; latten, of which the altar lamp was made, was a similar alloy resembling bra.s.s. The pax was a tablet (sometimes of wood, sometimes of bread, though this Willenhall example was of durable bra.s.s), on which was a figure of the crucifixion; it was presented in the ceremony of the Ma.s.s for the faithful to kiss. The Corporas was the cloth placed beneath the consecrated elements in the service of the Ma.s.s.

The towels were napkins used in the celebration of the sacred office; it must be borne in mind that all textile fabrics, as well as metals, were far more costly in those days, and the chest was to keep all these valuables in safety.

It is difficult to decide the nature of the "two small bells"; because, if they were the sanctus bells used at the most solemn parts in the performance of the Ma.s.s, one a hand-bell rung inside, and the other as a signal outside, they would have been abolished. So, as they were left by the Reformers, they were probably small bells in the steeple or turret.

So much for the changes materialistic brought about at this great religious upheaval of the sixteenth century. Now let us inquire into the more serious and essential changes which occurred in the religious life of the nation at that time.

From a little known Return made in 1586 we are enabled to gather the conditions of the Church of England, as it was found to exist, only 28 years after it had been by law established.

At the Reformation, after the annulling of all "Popish ordinations," the state of the English clergy became very deplorable. Some of the basest of the people were permitted to become parish priests, a circ.u.mstance that gave point to the arguments and contentions of the Puritans.

The Reformers were divided upon the subject, Queen Elizabeth expressing herself as being perfectly satisfied if in each county three or four clergymen could be found capable of preaching to their congregations.

The Puritans, on the other hand, laid great stress on the admonitory value and spiritual importance of sermons and homilies.

By 1586 the condition of the newly-formed Protestant Church of England had become so scandalous in respect of its priesthood that a national "Survey" was undertaken. Of the remarkable facts disclosed by this Return we select from the summaries the following few which relate to this immediate locality:-

WOLVERHAMPTON.-A Collegiate Church; impropriate to the King's Majestie or the Dean of Windsor; value of lands belonging to it is 600 per annum. There be seven Prebends and a s.e.xton under them; seven stipendiaries; the allowance for four of them is ten n.o.bles apiece; for the other three 6 apiece. Six of the Prebends be held by Sir Gualter Levison; the other is held by another. The rent reserved to the Dean of Windsor, 38. People 4,000. Many Popish; many Recusants.

Chappells 3:-

1. Pelsall; curate's stipend 4; no preacher.

2. Willenhall; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.

3. Bilston; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.

These curates, especially two of them, Mounsell and Cooper, be notorious and dissolute men.

Such was the lamentable state of the local clergy at that time, when the population of Wolverhampton, with all its outlying parts, is set down at 4,000 only. A few words of explanation will perhaps be necessary to make the foregoing extract more intelligible to the general reader.

A "n.o.ble" was a coin of the value of 6s. 8d.; a "recusant" was one who disputed the authority and supremacy of the Crown in matters ecclesiastical, whether Papist or Puritan; while to "impropriate" church property was to place it in the hands of a layman.

Four or five more extracts from this interesting Survey, relating to other parts of this neighbourhood, may not be out of place to quote here:-

BYSHBY.-Parsonage, impropriate; worth 40 per annum; vicarage worth 30; patron, Sir Edward Littleton; many Popish; many Recusants.

Inc.u.mbent a mere worldling; no preacher.

TETNALL.-A college dissolved; five prebends and a deane; impropriate to the King's Majestie; worth 300 marks. One prebend is held by Sir Richard Leveson; one by Mr. Gualter Wriotesley; two by Richard Cresswell. Curate's stipend, 20 marks; no preacher.

CODSALL.-Prebend of Tetnall. Curate-prebendary a loose liver; no preacher.

WOMBOURNE.-Parsonage, impropriate, held by Hugh Wriotesley, Esquire; worth 40; vicarage worth 26; patron, Edward L. Dudley.

PEN.-Parsonage; impropriate to the vicars of Lichfield; worth 20; vicarage worth as much; patrons, the Vicars of Lichfield. Vicar -; no preacher.

This selection of extracts will serve to enlighten the reader upon two important points in the history of the Church; the first is the amount of church revenue which had already found its way into the pockets of the laity; and the other is the lamentable necessity there was at that period to provide the English clergy with ready-made Homilies. These Homilies were ordered (as the Prayer Book informs us, in the x.x.xV. Article), to be read "diligently and distinctly" in the churches by the Ministers.

XII.-Before the Reformation-and After.

It may be a.s.sumed that Willenhall Church has been dedicated to St. Giles from the first, because the period for holding the dedicatory Wake synchronises with St. Gile's day (September 1st), making allowance for the eleven days' difference effected in 1752 between the Old Style and the New Style calendars. As the Protestant Reformers took objection to non-Biblical saints (West Bromwich Church was altered from St. Clement's to All Saints'), a dedication to St. Giles may safely be accepted as a pre-Reformation one; and as St. Giles was the patron saint of cripples, he doubtless retained his popularity here on account of the reputation for healing qualities acquired by the Willenhall "Holy Well"-of which more anon. But in addition to its Wake, the town seems to have possessed in mediaeval times a much frequented Summer Fair, held on Trinity Sunday.

Our knowledge of this interesting fact is derived from the records of the Court of Star Chamber.

This court was established by Henry VII. to deal with routs, riots, and all other cases not sufficiently provided for by the common law; but the oppression practised by the unscrupulous abuse of its indefinite jurisdiction led to its summary extinction in the reign of Charles I.

The case to be quoted is one of an alleged riot in the year 1498 (13 Henry VII.), in which the men of Wednesbury were deeply involved. These turbulent townsmen seem to have made themselves notorious for riotous behaviour at various times; as witness the historic Wesley Riots of 1744, their march on Birmingham to regulate the price of malt in 1782, and their attack on the same town during the Church and King Riots in 1791.

It would appear that a company of Mummers, made up of performers from Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, and Walsall, were regularly in the habit of going round to the neighbouring Fairs, and performing to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor a Morris-dance, in which the characters were dressed up for the then popular dramatic interlude of "Robin Hood,"

including Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and all the rest of them.

The hobby-horse doth hither prance, Maid Marian and the Morris-dance.

It would be interesting to discover why, in this local version, the character called the "Abbot of Marham" was introduced into the play-Marham nunnery was situated in Norfolk, a long way from the usual forest scenes of Sherwood and Needwood.

The money collected at these al fresco performances was applied to maintaining the fabric of the three parish churches; but, for some reason unknown, there had evidently grown up a deadly feud between the Wednesbury and the Walsall contingents. This was the cause of all the trouble.

The "John Beamont" mentioned was John Beaumont, Esquire, lord of the manor of Wednesbury, a benefactor of the parish church there, and a patron of a Walsall Chantry. It will be noticed that the quoted doc.u.ment speaks of the "Church of the lordship," not "of the parish"; and also, that the prefix "Sir" was then used to a parson's name, as we should now use the prefix "Rev."

Here is the text of the plaints entered by the terrorised "orators" of Walsall, together with the affidavits put in as rejoinders; the archaic spelling is retained only in a few places just to indicate the style of English then employed in the law courts; and it is interesting to note that Midlanders had those peculiar vowel sounds in olden times, and p.r.o.nounced "fetch" as "fatch," and "gather" as "gether"-just as the illiterate among them still do:-

TO THE KING OUR SOVEREIGN LORD-

Humbly sheweth unto your highness, your faithful subject and true liegeman, Roger Dyngley, Mayor of Walsall; and Thomas Rice, of the same town-That whereas your said orators on Wednesday next before Trinity Sunday, the 13th year of your reign, were in G.o.d's peace and yours, in your said town of Walsall-thither came one John Cradeley, of Wednesbury, and Thomas Morres, of Dudley, in your said county; and then and there made affray upon the said Thomas Rice, "and hym soore wounded and bett" [beat], so that he was in peril of his life.

Whereupon the said Mayor, with other inhabitants, did arrest John Cradeley and Thomas Morres, and there did put them in prison according to your laws, there to remain till it were known whether the said Thomas Rice should live or die.

And incontinent thereupon one John Beamonde, "Squyer," Walter Levison, of Wolverhampton, Richard Foxe, priest, of the same town, and one Robert Marshall, of Wednesbury, "arreysed" and riotously a.s.sembled themselves at Wednesbury with other riotous persons to the number of 200 men, arrayed in manner of war, that is to say, with bows, arrows, bills, and "gleves" [long daggers], with other unlawful weapons there gathered and a.s.sembled, to the intent to have come to have destroyed your said town of Walsall, saying openly that they would "fache" out of prison the said John Cradeley and Thomas Morres, and destroy your said town of Walsall.

And thereupon William Harper and William Wilkes, Justices of the Peace, charged the said riotous persons to keep the peace upon a great pain to be forfeited to your grace. By reason whereof the said rioters for that time ceased from further riot.

And whereas the said Justices of the Peace, knowing the said rioters intended to make more riot, and to execute their malice in doing some mischief or hurt to the said town or to the inhabitants thereof, for eschewing any riot or breach of the peace commanded the inhabitants of Walsall, Wednesbury, and of divers other towns, their adherents, that they should not a.s.semble together out of the said town, and should not come to a Fair that should be holden at Wilnale on Trinity Sunday, then next following.

And the inhabitants of Walsall the same day kept at home.

Notwithstanding, came one from Hampton, whose name is William Milner, calling himself the Abbot of Marram, and one Walter Leveson with him, with the inhabitants of Hampton to the number of four score persons in harness [armour] after the manner of war, to Wilnall to the said Fair. And also one Robert Marchall, of Wednesbury, calling himself Robyn Hood, and Sir Richard Foxe, priest, with divers other persons to the number of 100 men and above, in harness, came in likewise, and met with the said other rioters at the said town of Wilnall, and then and there riotously a.s.sembled themselves, commanding openly that if any of the town of Walsall came therefrom, to strike them down, and in the said town continued their said riotous a.s.sembly all the same day; and if any man of Walsall at that day had been seen at that Fair, they should have been in jeopardy of their lives.

Please your highness to grant your Letters of Privy Seal to be directed to the said John Beamonde, Walter Leveson, Sir Richard Foxe, priest, and Roger Marchall, to commanding them to appear before your Council to answer to the premises.

1st July, in the 13th year, to appear.

[Endorsed].