In Pope Nicholas's taxation, A.D. 1291, Wednesbury was allotted to pay 12s. 4d.

Record Office, Carlton Ride, London.

Vicesima Domino Regi a laicis concessa in Comtu. Staffordie, anno regni sui primo, (i.e. 1st Edward III.,) 1327.

The following is taken from the Talbot Papers, letter N., fo. 247, in the College of Arms, London, being the subsidies for Staffordshire, shewing the yearly value of every parish, and property of every householder in the said county, A.D. 1590:

Bordesley Monastery, in Worcestershire, possessed a water mill in Wednesbury, valued at 28s. yearly.

Sandwell Monastery also held lands in Wednesbury.

Thomas Knight founded a charity in Walsall church, and endowed it with lands in Wednesbury. It was valued at £4 6s. 1d.

April 8, 1643, it was ordered that the weekly pay of Willenhall, Wednesbury, &c., should be assigned to Colonel Leigh, of the rebel army, to pay his company and officers; and, June 22, 1644, it was again ordered that the weekly pay of Walsall, West Bromwich, Sandwell, Tipton, and Wednesbury, should be assigned to Captain Tuttle, of the Parliamentary army, for the pay of his officers and soldiers.

The Treasurer of the King's Garrison at Lichfield received from the constablewick of Wednesbury, in October, November, and December, 1645, five pounds for the royal

cause.

William Hopkins, yeoman, and Richard Hawkes and Robert Carter, caused the chimes of the Parish Church to be made and set up at their equal and proper cost and charges, A.D. 1635.

The following curious extracts are made from the Parish Registers, and are here inserted as likely to prove interesting to some

1673.-Elizabeth Dutton was buried, being about 100 years old. 1674.-John Russell being famished for want of bread, (Josiah Freeman being overseer,) with the solemnity of many tears was buried.

1677.-John Beck, an ancient widower and true Churchman, was

buried.

1678. Elizabeth Webb, an ancient widow, being 100 years of age, was buried.

After the act passed in the year 1678, entitled "An Act for burying in Woollen," the registers certify when it was adhered to, and the first affidavit was made before Captain Thomas Lane, eldest son of the famous Colonel Lane, of Bentley, who afforded protection to the fugitive monarch, Charles II.

1687. A child of Robert Beardsmore, a most rude, swearing collier, was buried in woollen only.

1701.-Thomas Robinson, a Quaker, of the parish of Darlaston, was put into a pit, that was made in the yard adjoining the Quakers' Meeting House, in the Parish of Wednesbury. Of this no affidavit was given that the body was wrapped in woollen, and the curate gave notice thereof to the churchwardens, as the act required, to avoid the penalty.

1701.-John, the son of George and Mary Newall, Roman Catholicks, was born at the Delves, and baptized, as I was informed, by a person of the Romish persuasion.

This is the first evidence of Romanism existing in Wednesbury after the Reformation.

1702.—John, the son of John and Elizabeth Cashmore, was baptized by a Presbyterian minister, at St. Margaret's Chapel alias a barn, in the parish of West Bromwich.

1703.—Martha, the daughter of Edward and Martha Heywood, was baptized by a Presbyterian minister, at a conventicle, at the house of William Clare, of Tipton, an old Oliverian cornet.

The names which occur most frequently in ancient registers are the following (some of which are to be met with at the present day):-"Addenbrooke, Babb, Bruisbones, Bassett, Biram, Collier, Cheshire, Dearlove, Danks, Darlaston, Jesson, Hawke, Hopkins, Hurlbut, Holden, Merryhurst, Meadow, Parkes, Parkshouse, Pershouse, Palmer, Richards, Ratliffe, Siddons, Spittle, and Tonks."

The trades formerly followed, as shown by the same authority, were those of "nailmakers, forgemen, colliers, tobacco-pipe-makers, bucklemakers, potters, gun-lock-makers, curtain-ring-makers (at the Delves,) brickmakers, boremakers, vicemakers, weavers, dyers, hatters, bendwaremakers, tow-dressers, and edge-tool-makers."

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The places most frequently mentioned are "the Delves, King's Hill, Monway Field, (these two names occur in a document A.D. 1315,) the Pits, Wednesbury Mill, the Forge, the Bridge End, and Broadwaters;" this latter place, Dr. Plot tells us, was stocked at the first with fish by Mr. Lane, of Bentley." The same author relates the following circumstance:-"Of all the accidents that can befall the trunks of trees, there is none more unaccountable than their being found in divers countries buried under ground;

they are found in Rotten Meadow, under Wednesbury Hall, and also near Wrottesley," &c. &c.

"Of unusual small birds I would add," says Dr. Plot, "the Fringilla Montana, or mountain chaffinch, of the short, hard-beaked kind, found plentifully about Venice, but rarely in England. This I have was killed and given me by the ingenious Mr. Millar, Vicar of Wednesbury, near the Vicarage House."

In writing of the eggs of birds, the Doctor states :-"Herein I also met with divers anomalies of Nature. The ingenious Mr. Millar, Vicar of Wednesbury, amongst his tithe-eggs, met with one whose yolk was perfectly white as that we usually call so, the separation between them remaining as distinct as in ordinary eggs."

Of meteors he writes:-"A meteor of a globular form was seen November 22nd, 1672, about twelve or one at night, not in motion, but stationary, against the west door of Wednesbury Church, by the ingenious Mr. Millar, Vicar there, and two others in his company, which shone so bright that it gave them light, though a very dark night, at half a mile distance, where it continued for about the one-eighth of an hour's space, and then of a sudden disappeared; whereupon there immediately followed a great storm of hail and rain."

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for an

"We need go no further," says the Doctor, instance of unknown noises than in the same town of Wednesbury, where the colliers will tell you that, early in the morning, as they go to their work, and from the colepits themselves they sometimes hear the noise of a pack of hounds in the air, which has happened so frequently, that they have got a name for them, calling them 'Gabriel's hounds,' though the more sober and judicious take them only to be wild geese, making their noise in their flight, which perhaps may be probable enough."

Speaking of echoes, the same writer observes:-"I was informed by the ingenious Mr. Millar, Vicar of Wednesbury, that there is a very distinct echo there, when the windmill window stands open towards the church, otherwise none at