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Wolverhampton (St. Peter)

WOLVERHAMPTON (St. Peter), a parish, and the head of a union; comprising the new municipal borough of Wolverhampton, and the market-town of Bilston, in the N. division of the hundred of Seisdon; the townships of Featherstone, Hatherton, Hilton, and Kinvaston, in the E. division of the hundred of Cuttlestone; and Bentley, Pelsall, Wednesfield, and Willenhall, in the S. division of the hundred of Offlow; S. division of the county of Stafford; the whole containing 76,000 inhabitants, of whom 40,000 are in the town, 16 miles (S.) from Stafford, and 123 (N. W.) from London. This place, which is of considerable antiquity, was called Hanton or Hamton prior to the year 996, when Wulfruna, sister of Ethelred II., and widow of Aldhelm, Duke of Northampton, founded a college here for a dean and several prebendaries or Secular canons, and endowed it with so many privileges that the town, in honour of Wulfruna, was called Wulfrunis Hamton, whence its present name. The college continued under the same government till 1200, in which year Petrus Blesensis, who was dean, after fruitless attempts to reform the dissolute lives of the brethren, surrendered the establishment to Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was subsequently annexed by Edward IV. to the deanery of Windsor. In 1258, the town obtained from Henry III. the grant of a market and a fair; from which time no circumstance of historical importance occurs till 1590, when a considerable part of it was destroyed by a fire that continued burning for five days. In the parliamentary war, Charles I., accompanied by his sons, Charles, Prince of Wales, and James, Duke of York, visited Wolverhampton, where he was received with every demonstration of loyalty by the principal inhabitants, who, in aid of the royal cause, raised a liberal subscription, towards which Mr. Gough, ancestor of the learned antiquary of that name, contributed £1200. Prince Rupert, in 1645, fixed his headquarters in the town, while the king was encamped at Bushbury; and immediately after the battle of Naseby, Charles marched into it, and remained until the day following.

The town is situated on an eminence, in a district abounding with mines of coal, iron, and limestone; and consists of several streets diverging from the marketplace to the roads from which they take their names. Among the improvements lately effected, is a new entrance on the east from Bilston, constructed by the Holyhead trust, and which, by means of a street crossing the town, nearly in a direct line, communicates on the west with Salop-street, leading towards Shrewsbury. The houses are in general substantial, neatly built of brick, and many of them are modern and handsome, but in the smaller streets are dwellings of more ancient appearance. The town is paved, lighted with gas, and supplied with water partly from wells sunk to a great depth in the rock on which it is built, and partly from water-works established under an act passed in 1845, by a company having a capital of £20,000. In 1847 an act was passed for uniting the former gas-light company with the new gas company. A public subscription library was founded in 1794, which contains more than 10,000 volumes, and for which a neat and commodious building was erected in the year 1816, when a newsroom was added: over the library is a suite of rooms in which assemblies and concerts take place. A new theatre was built in 1844, which is well arranged for the purpose: prior to the erection of the old theatre, Mrs. Siddons, and her brother J. P. Kemble, performed in the town-hall, since taken down, where they first developed those talents which procured for them so distinguished a reputation. Races are held in August, in an extensive area near the town, where an elegant stand has been erected.

The manufacture of the finer steel ornaments, which was carried on extensively, and brought to the highest perfection, in this town, has given place to the heavier articles of steel and iron. Of these the principal are, smiths' and carpenters' tools of every description, files, nails, screws, gun-locks, hinges, steel-mills, and machinery; locks, for which the place has long been celebrated; furnishing ironmongery and cabinet brasses, with every branch of the iron manufacture; and brass, tin, Pont-y-Pool, and japanned wares in great variety. The Chillington works consist of four blast-furnaces, forge, mill, &c., producing 400 tons of finished iron per week, in railway-bars, nail-roads, sheet-iron, boiler-plates, and other articles, and affording employment to upwards of 1000 hands. The Shrubbery works for the manufacture of boiler-plates and all other descriptions of best iron, were established in 1824, and are carried on by a firm who also conduct the Bradley works near Bilston, erected by the late John Wilkinson, Esq. In both concerns, from 300 to 500 tons of iron are manufactured weekly, and about 650 men are regularly engaged. The Priestfields works, for smelting pig-iron, and for castings of every description, are also very extensive; and the Wolverhampton tin-plate manufactory, established in 1837, employs about 350 men, producing weekly from 1000 to 1500 boxes of tin-plates, which are of high repute in the market. There are likewise extensive chemical-works for the manufacture of oil of vitriol, aqua-fortis, and other preparations connected with medicine and manufactures: the chemical-works of Messrs. Mander Weaver and Co. have been established since 1773. Rowley ragstone is found in the coal-mines in the parish, frequently in large masses, sometimes penetrating the thick stratum of coal at a depth of 300 to 400 feet from the surface. The Birmingham canal, which forms a junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, runs close to the town, on the west and north, where it is joined by the Essington and Wyrley canal. The Liverpool and Birmingham railway, also, passes within a mile of the town, near which a station is established on the line, which is here carried through a tunnel 200 yards in length. An act was passed in 1845 for a railway to Worcester and Oxford, 92½ miles long; and in 1846 for a railway to Birmingham, commencing in junction with the Worcester and Oxford line, and measuring 11 miles in length. Another act was passed in the latter year for a second railway to Birmingham, beginning at Bushbury, on the Liverpool line, near Wolverhampton, and extending 15¼ miles. A third act was passed in 1846 for a railway to Shrewsbury; and a fourth for a railway to the Calveley station of the Chester and Crewe railway. The market-days are Wednesday and Saturday, and a fair, which continues for eight days, the first being for cattle, commences on July 10th: the market-place is a large area.

By the act 2nd of William IV., cap. 45, the town was constituted a borough to return two members to parliament, to be elected by the £10 householders of a district consisting of the townships of Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield, Willenhall, and Sedgley, the whole comprising 18,604 acres. The township of Wolverhampton contains 2930a. 3r. 12p., exclusively of the ground on which the town is built. In 1846, an act was passed for appointing a stipendiary justice for the town, who, with the county magistrates acting in the district, still performs the magisterial business. On the 15th of March, 1848, the township was incorporated by Her Majesty in council as a municipal borough, with a mayor, twelve aldermen, and 36 councillors, and divided into eight wards, namely, St. Peter's, St. Mary's, St. James', St. Matthew's, St. George's, St. John's, St. Paul's, and St. Mark's. It is the intention of the common-council shortly to apply for a separate commission of the peace. The powers of the county debt-court of Wolverhampton, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Wolverhampton and Seisdon, and part of that of Penkridge.

The collegiate chapter consists of four (till lately seven) non-resident prebendaries, with a net revenue of £641, formerly payable to a dean, but now received by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners: each of the prebendaries has a separate revenue from his prebend. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Bishop of Lichfield: the tithes payable to the Duke of Cleveland have been commuted for £715. The church, built in the reign of Edward III., and anciently one of the king's free chapels, to which many immunities were granted, is a spacious cruciform structure, partly in the early decorated, but principally in the later English style, with a square embattled tower rising from the centre, the upper part of which is a very fine specimen of the later style. It has been lately repewed by subscription. The piers and arches of the nave and transepts, if not of the early English, are of that style merging into the decorated. The pulpit, of one entire stone, is adorned with sculpture; and the octagonal font, of great antiquity, supported on a shaft, the faces of which are embellished with figures of St. Anthony, St. Paul, and St. Peter, in bas-relief, is richly ornamented with bosses, flowers, and foliage. In the chancel, which is in the Italian style, is a fine statue of brass, erected in honour of Admiral Sir Richard Leveson, who commanded under Sir Francis Drake against the Spanish Armada; also a monument to the memory of Colonel John Lane, the protector of Charles II. after the battle of Worcester. What was anciently the Lady chapel contains an alabaster monument to John Lane and his wife, the former represented in armour. In the churchyard, which is inclosed with a handsome iron palisade, is a column twenty feet high, divided into compartments, and highly enriched with sculpture of various designs, supposed to be either British or Danish. Near the south-western angle of the churchyard is a large vault, the roof of which is finely groined, and supported on one central pillar; the walls are three yards in thickness, and on both sides of the doorway are slight vestiges of sculpture: the interior is in good preservation. It appears to have been the basement of some edifice, probably connected with the monastery of Wulfruna, the exact site of which has not been ascertained.

The living of St. Johns is a perpetual curacy; patron, the Earl of Stamford and Warrington. The church, which was erected at an expense of £10,000, including £1000 given by the then patron, was consecrated in 1760. It is an elegant structure in the Grecian style, with a handsome tower surmounted by a lofty and finely-proportioned spire; the prevailing character is a mixture of the Ionic and Corinthian orders. A pleasing and appropriate effect is produced from the arrangement of the interior, and the altar is ornamented with a good painting of the Descent from the Cross, by Barney, a native of the town. In this church is the celebrated organ built in the 17th century, for the Temple church, London, by Harris, the competitor on that occasion of Schmidt; it was purchased for the cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin, where it remained until about 50 years ago, when it was sold for £500, and set up here. St. George's district church, of the Grecian-Doric order, with a tower and spire, was erected in 1830, at an expense of £10,325, towards which the inhabitants subscribed £3400; it contains 2300 sittings, of which 1200 are free. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £155; patron, the Bishop. St. Paul's church was built in 1835, and the living is a perpetual curacy in the gift of the Rev. W. and Mrs. Dalton, at whose expense the edifice was chiefly erected and endowed; it is capable of accommodating about 1400 persons, and more than onethird of the sittings are free. St. Mary's church was built in 1842, at a cost of £10,000, including the parsonage, at the sole expense of Miss Hinckes, of Tettenhall-Wood. The edifice is in the early English style, with a square tower surmounted by a Flemish spire, and has 1000 sittings, of which 400 are free; it contains a superb altar-piece of carved oak, and in the eastern window, of stained glass, are representations of the Descent from the Cross, and the Resurrection. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Miss Hinckes, who endowed it with the interest of £1000, and also presented a splendid communion-service. Another church, dedicated to St. James, was built by subscription in 1843: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of certain Trustees, and endowed with the interest of £1054 three per cents. Two church districts, respectively named St. Matthew and St. Mark, were constituted in 1846, under the act 6th and 7th Victoria, cap. 37; and the erection of churches was commenced in the following year: each living is in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop, alternately, and has an income of £150. At Bilston, Pelsall, Wednesfield, and Willenhall are other incumbencies. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, Methodists of the New Connexion, Unitarians, Irvingites, and Roman Catholics. An act for a cemetery was passed in 1847, under which a company has purchased about 20 acres of land at Meredale, for the purpose.

The free grammar school was founded under letterspatent of Henry VIII., in 1513, by Sir Stephen Jenyns, Knt., a native of the town, and lord mayor of London in 1508, who endowed it with estates in the parish of Rushock, in the county of Worcester, producing an income, aided by other benefactions, of about £1170 per annum. The building was erected in 1713, by the Merchant Tailors' Company, London. Sir William Congreve; John Abernethy; and John Pearson, advocategeneral of India, were educated at the school. The Blue-coat charity school, for 100 boys and 50 girls, who are educated and clothed, is an ancient establishment, with an endowment purchased with benefactions, and producing more than £240 per annum. Two miles on the Sedgley road is situated Sedgley Park school, established in 1761, for the education of Roman Catholic children on an economical scale; it is under the direction of a president and vice-president, assisted by teachers. National schools, and a British and an infant school, are supported by subscription; and a spacious hospital has been just erected. There are numerous bequests for the poor. The union of Wolverhampton includes only a portion of the parish, comprising, with the town itself, the three chapelries of Bilston, Wednesfield, and Willenhall, and containing a population of 68,412.


Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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