HISTORY BIRMINGHAM WILLIAM HUTTON, F.A.S.S A NEW EDITION, WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS. BIRMINGHAM: WKIGHTSON AND WEBB, NEW STREET. 1839. •34H1 18 31 THE HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. NAME. T, HE word Birmingham is too remote for certain explanation. During the last four centuries it has been variously written, Brum- wycheham, Bermyngeham, Bromwycham^ Burmyngliam^ Ber- myngham, Byrmynghamy and Birmingham ; nay, even so late as the seventeenth century it was written Bromicham. Dugdale sup- poses the name to have been given by the planter, or owner, in the time of the Saxons ; but I suppose it much older than any Saxon date : besides, it is not so common for a man to give a name to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his name except he is the founder, as Peter sburgh from Peter the Great. Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute beginnings, and generally take a name from situation or local cir- cumstances. Would the lord of a manor think it an honour to give his name to two or three miserable huts ? But if, in a succession of ages, these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an honour, a residence, and a name. The terminations of steady ham, and hurst, are evidently Saxon, and mean the same thing, a home. The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, has undergone various mutations ; but the original seems to have been Bromwich ; Brom perhaps from broom, a shrub, for the growth of which the 2 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. soil is extremely favourable ; TFych, a dwelling, or a descent ; this exactly corresponds with the declivity from the High-street to Digbeth. Two other places in the neighbourhood bear the same name, Castle-Bromwich and West-Bromwich, which serves to strengthen the opinion.* This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings of existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of Bromwych. Its centre, for many reasons that might be urged, was the Old CrosSjt and its increase, in those early ages, must have been very A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its name, reside in it, and the particle ham would naturally follow. This very probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and the name was no other than Brommy chain. SITUATION. It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west extre- mity of the county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the northern part of which is bounded by Hands worth, in the county of Stafford, and the southern by King's-Norton, in that of Worcester, It is in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, in the deanery of Arden, and in the hundred of Hemlingford. Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty yards north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of the old river, with Deritend^ in the parish of Aston, on our left. Before we come to the flood-gates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by the Longmores, a small part of King's-Norton. Crossing the river Rea, we enter the vestiges of a small rivulet, yet visible, though the stream has been turned, perhaps, a thousand years, to supply the Moat.+ At the top of the first meadow from the river * Mr. Hamper appears to differ in opinion with Mr. Hutton on the derivation of the word, as the Roman station, Breinenium, was on the Icknield-street at this place. f Situated near the present Market-place, in tlie Bull-ring. X The Moat formerly occupied the space on which Smithfield Market stands. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 3 Rea, we meet the little stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of which we cross the Bromsgrove-road a little east of the first mile- stone. Leaving Banner's marl-pit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane, crossing the old Bromsgrove-road, and up to the turnpike at the Five- ways, in the road to Hales-Owen. Leaving this road also to the left, we proceed down the lane towards Lady- wood, cross the Icknield-street, a stone's cast east of the Observa- tory, to the north extremity of Rotton Park, which forms an acute angle, near the Bear at Smethwick. From the river Rea to this point is about three miles, rather west, and nearly in a straight line, with Edgbaston on the left. We now bear north-east, about a mile, with Smethwick on the left, till v/e meet Shirland-brook, in the Dudley-road ; thence to Pig-mill. We now leave Handsworth on the left, following the stream through Hockley great pool ; cross the Wolverhampton- road, and the Icknield-street at the same time, down to Aston-furnace, with that parish on the left. At the bottom of W^almer-lane we leave the water, move over the fields, nearly in a line to the post by the Peacock upon Gosta-green. We now cross the Lichfield-road, down Duke-street, then the Coleshill- road at the A. B. house. From thence along the meadows to Cooper's mill; up the river to the foot of Deritend-bridge, and then turn sharp to the right, keeping the course of a drain in the form of a sickle, through John-a-Dean's hole into Digbeth, from whence we set out. This little journey, nearly of an oval form, is about seven miles. The longest diameter from Shirland-brook to Deritend-bridge, is about three ; and the widest, from the bottom of Walmer-lane to the rivulet, near the mile-stone upon the Bromsgrove-road, more than two. The superficial contents of the parish are two thousand eight hundred and sixty-four acres. Birmingham is by much the smallest parish in the neighbourhood ; those of Aston and Sutton are each about five times as large, Yardley four, and King's-Norton eight. When Alfred, that great master of legislation, parished out his kingdom, or rather put the finishing hand to that important work, where he met with a town, he allotted a smaller quantity of land, because the inhabitants chiefly depended upon commerce ; but where 4 HISTORY Of BIRMINGHAM. there was only a village, he allotted a larger, because they depended on agriculture. This observation goes far in proving the antiquity of the place, for it is nine hundred years since this division took effect. The buildings occupy the south-east part of the parish, which, with their appendages, are about eight hundred acres. This part being insufficient for the extraordinary increase of the inha- bitants, she has of late extended her buildings along the Broms- grove-road, near the boundaries of Edgbaston ; and on the other side, planted some of her streets in the parish of Aston. Could the sagacious Alfred have seen into futurity, he would have augmented her borders. As no part of the town lies flat, the showers promote both clean- liness and health, by removing obstructions. The approach is, on every side, by ascent, except that from Hales-Owen, north-west, which gives a free access of air, even to the most secret recesses of habitation. Thus eminently situated, the sun can exercise his full powers of exhalation. The foundation upon which this mistress of the arts is erected, is one solid mass of dry reddish sand. The vapours that rise from the earth are the great promoters of disease ; but here, instead of the moisture ascending, to the prejudice of the inhabitant, the contrary is evident ; for the water descends through the pores of the sand, so that even our very cellars are habitable. Thus peculiarly favoured, this happy spot enjoys four of the greatest benefits that can attend hu- man existence — water, air, the sun, and a situation free from damps. All the past writers upon Birmingham have viewed her as low and watery, and with reason; because Digbeth, then the chief street, bears that description. But all the future writers will view her on an eminence, and with as much reason ; because, for one low street we have now fifty elevated. Birmingham, like the empire to which she belongs, has been, for many centuries, travelling np hill ; and like that, rising in consequence. SOIL. The soil is rather light, sandy, and weak ; and though metals of varioue sorts are found in great plenty above the surface, we know of nothing below, except sand and gravel, stone and water. All the HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 5 riches of the place, hke those of an emperic iu laced clothes, appear on the outside. The northern part of the parish, consisting of seven hundred and eighty-seven acres, to the disgrace of the age, is yet a shameful waste.* A small part of the land is parcelled out into little gardens, at ten or twenty shillings each, amounting to about sixteen pounds per acre. These are not intended so much for profit, as health and amusement. Others are let in detached pieces, for private use, at about four pounds per acre ; so that this small parish cannot boast of more than six or eight farms, and these of the smaller size, at about two pounds per acre.f Manure from the stye brings about sixteen shillings a waggon load ; that from the stable twelve ; and that from the fire and street five. WATER. There is not any natural river runs through the parish, but there are three that mark its boundaries, for about half its circumference, described above ; none of these supply family use. After penetra- ting into a body of sand, interspersed with small strata of soft rock, and sometimes of gravel, at the depth of about twenty yards, we come to plenty of water, rather hard. There are, in the lower parts of the town, two excellent springs of soft water, suitable for most purposes; one at the top of Digbeth, the other Lady well ; or, rather, one spring, or bed of water, with many out-lets, continuing its course along the bottom of the hill, parallel with Smallbrook-street, Edg- baston-street, St. Martin's-lane, and Park-street, sufficiently copious to supply the whole city of London. J Water is of the first conse- * This land has been enclosed about thirty years. t Grass land now averages a rental of from £4 to £6, and garden ground about £10 per acre. X A Company has lately been formed, with a capital of upwards of £100,000, which supplies this neighbourhood with excellent water, brought from the river Tame ; there are two large reservoirs, one of which is situated on very high land. Had Mr. Hutton lived, he would have been convinced that the supply of water, which he 6 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. quence; it often influences disease, always the habit of body: that of Birmingham is, in genei-al, productive of salutary eiFects. BATHS. At Ladywell are the most complete baths in the whole island. They are seven in number ; erected at the expence of £2000. Ac- commodation is ever ready for hot or cold bathing ; for immersion or amusement, with conveniency for sweating. That appropriated to swimming, is eighteen yards by thirty-six, situated in the centre of a garden, in which there are twenty-four private undressing houses ; the whole surrounded by a wall ten feet high. Pleasure and health are the guardians of the place. The gloomy horrors of a bath sometimes deter us from its use, particularly if aided by complaint ; but the appearances of these are rather inviting. We read of painted sepulchres, whose outsides are richly ornamented, but within are full of corruption and death. The reverse is before us. No elegance appears without, but within are the springs of life ! I do not know any author who has reckoned man among the amphibious race of animals ; neither do I know any animal who better deserves it. Man is lord of the little ball on which he treads, one half of which, at least, is water. If we do not allow him to be amphibious, we deprive him of half his sovereignty. He justly bears that name who can live in the water. Many of the disorders incident to the human frame are prevented, and others cured, both by fresh and salt bathing ; so that we may properly remark, " He lives i7i the water, who can find life, nay, even health in that friendly element." The greatest treasure on earth is health ; but a treasure of all others, the least valued by the owner. Other property is best rated when in possession, but this can only be rated when lost. We sometimes observe a man, who, having lost this inestimable jewel, seeking it with an ardour equal to its worth; but when every research mentions as equal to the wants of the metropolis, is not sufficient for the extended demands of Birmingham even at the present day. The main pipes are always filled with water, and plugs placed in every street, which are vei-y convenient in case of fire, when the ad- vantage arising from them is particularly shown. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 7 b}%land is eluded, he fortunately finds it in the water. Like the fish, he pines away upon shore, but like that, recovers again in the deep. The cure of disease among the Romans, by bathing, is supported by many authorities ; among others, by the number of baths fre- quently discovered, in which pleasure, in that warm climate, bore a part. But this practice seemed to decline with Roman freedom, and never after held the eminence it deserved. Can we suppose the physician stept between the disease and the bath, to hinder their junction; or that he lawfully holds, by subscription, the tenure of sickness, \wfee? The knowledge of this singular art of healing is at present only in infancy. How far it may prevent or conquer disease ; to what measure it may be applied, in particular cases, and the degrees of use, in difterent constitutions, are inquiries that will be better understood by a future generation. CHALYBEATE SPRING. One mile from Birmingham, in the manor of Duddeston, and joining the turnpike-road to Coleshill, is a chalybeate spring, whose water has but one defect — it costs nothing. This excellent spring lies forlorn, neglected, and exposed to every injury ; it seems daily to solicit protection, and oflfer its friendly aid in restoring health ; but being daily rejected, it seems to mourn the refusal, dissolve itself in tears, and, not being allowed, though designed by nature, to increase the health of man, moves weeping along to increase a river. All the attention paid by the traveller is, to gaze for a moment ; but in the height of contemplation, instead of taking out its water, deliver in his own. Had this water passed through a bed of malt, instead of mineral, it would have drawn more attendants than the shrine of Thomas Becket, and those attendants would have stoutly disputed for every rising drop. Poverty assumes a variety of shapes : it is sometimes seen in the human; sometimes in the horse at the coal cart; again, in the pulpit ; in the furniture of a house, or a head. But in whatever shape it appears, it is always despised. The low state, and low credit of this Well, are equal. Merit is often depressed. Here th? 8 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. afflicted might find a prescription without expence, efficacious as if signed by the whole College of Physicians. The stick and the crutch would be nailed round its margin, as trophies of victory over disease. The use of the bottle adds to the spirits, but shortens life ; this fountain is the renewer of health, the protracter of age. I re- mark the water will lose some of its efficacy, if carried off in any vessel but the stomach.* AIR. As we have passed through the water, let us now investigate her sister fluid, the air. They are both necessary to life, and the purity of both to the prolongation of it ; this small difference lies between them — a man may live a day without water, but not an hour with- out air. If a man wants better water, it may be removed from a distant place for his benefit ; but if he wants better air, he must remove himself. The natural air of Birmingham, perhaps, cannot be excelled in this climate ; the moderate elevation and dry soil evince this truth ; but it receives an alloy from the congregated body of sixty thousand people. f Also from the smoke of an extraordinary number of fires used in business ; and perhaps more from the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not uncommon to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his constant employment in brass ; if he reads, the green vestiges of his occupation remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The inside of his body, no doubt, receives the same tincture, but is kept clean by being often washed with ale. Some of the fair sex, likewise, are subject to the same in- convenience, but find relief in the same remedy. LONGEVITY. Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops for ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and perceive in his countenance the marks of intelligence. His ex- * This spring may be distinguished from several other adjacent fresh- water springs by its being of a greenish colour, and the aper- ture from whence the water flows being protected by a small iron frame. f The present population of Birmingham amounts to about 150,000. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 9 ternal appearance will inform us whether he is old-fashioned, in which case he is less valuable upon every gambling calculation. If we cast a glance upon his face, we shall learn whether all be right within, and what portion of time has elapsed. This curious ma- chine is filled with a complication of movements, very unfit to be regulated by the rough hand of ignorance, which sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated even by the hand of an artist. If the works are directed by violence, destruction is not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it will give an additional vigour, but in the end clog and impede the motion. But if the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will guide it by an even and a de. licate hand, and perhaps the piece may move on till it is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore years. There is a set of people who expect to find that health in medicine, which possibly might be found in regimen, in air, exercise, or serenity of mind. There is another class among us, and that rather numerous, whose employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular. Their time is divided between hard working and hard drinking, and both by a fire. It is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at forty, wear the aspect of sixty, and finish a life of violence at fifty, which the hand of prudence would have directed to eighty. The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its inhabitants ; success iu trade depends upon the manufacturer ; the support and direction of a family upon the head of it ; when this useful part of mankind, therefore, is cut off in the active part of life, the community sus- tains a loss, whether we take the matter in a national, a commercial, or a private view. We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last fall, but wreck upon another ; they run upon Scylla, though they have missed Charybdis ; they escape the liquid destruction, but split upon the solid. These are proficients in good eating ; adepts in culling of delicacies, and the modes of dressing them. Masters of the whole art of cookery, each carries a kitchen in his head. Thus an excellent constitution may be stabbed by the spit. Nature never designed us to live well, and continue well ; the stomach is too weak a vessel to be richly and deeply laden. Perhaps more injury is don^ c 10 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. by eating than by drinking ; one is a secret, the other an open enemy : the secret is always supposed the most dangerous. Drinking attacks by assault, but eating by sap : luxury is seldom visited by old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this kind of slow poison, is exercise ; but the advantages of elevation, air, and water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance. We have a fourth class, and with these I shall return, and shut up the clock. If this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of nature; if the rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward case, without affecting the internal works, and if reason conducts the piece, it may move on with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted pace to a great extent of years, till time only annihilates the motion. I personally knew among us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90 ; George Davis, 85 ; John Baddely, Esq. and his two brothers, all between 80 and 90 ; Mrs. Allen, 88 ; Mrs. Silk, 84 ; John Burbury, 84 ; Thomas Rutter, 88 ; EHzabeth Bentley, 88 ; John Harrison and his wife, one 86, the other 88 ; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88 ; Sarah Aston, 98 ; Abraham Spooner, Esq. 89 ; Joseph Scott, Esq. 94; all, January 9, 1780, I believe, enjoy health and capacity. This is not designed as a complete list of the aged, but of such only as immediately occur to memory. I also knew a John England, who died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94; John Pitt, 100; George Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow assured me he had kept the market 77 years ; he kept it for several years after to my knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but, fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical as- sistance, he was left to the care of nature, who opened that door to health which the physician would have locked for ever. At 106 I heard him swear with all the fervency of a recruit : at 107 he died.* It is easy to give instances of people who have breathed the smoke of Birmingham threescore years, and yet have scarcely quitted the precincts of youth. Such are the happy effects of constitution, temper, and conduct. * Mr. HuTTON died in 1814, aged 92, and was interred at Aston Church. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 11 ANCIENT STATE OF BIRMINGHAM. WE have now to pass through the very remote ages of time. The way is long, dark, and slippery. The credit of an historian is built upon truth, he cannot assert, without giving his facts ; he cannot surmise without giving his reasons ; he must relate thmgs as they are, not as he would have them. The fabric founded in error will moulder of itself, but that founded in reality will stand the age and the critic. Except half a dozen pages in Dugdale, I know of no author who has professedly treated of Birmingham, None of the histories which I have seen bestow upon it more than a few lines, in which we are sure to be treated with the noise of hammers and anvils : ag if the historian thought us a race of dealers in thunder, lightning, and wind ; or infernals, puffing in blast and smoke. Suffer me to transcribe a passage from Leland, one of our most celebrated writers, employed, by Henry the Eighth, to form an Itinerary of Britain, whose works have stood the test of 250 years. We shall observe how little he must have been qualified to write the history of a place with only riding through it. " I came through a pretty street as ever I entered into Birming- ham town. This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey (Deritend). In it dwells smithes and cutlers, and there is a brook that divides this street from Birmingham, an hamlet, or member, belonging to the parish therebye. There is at the end of Dirtey a proper chappel, and mansion house of tymber (the moat) hard on the ripe (bank) as the brook runneth down ; and as I went through the ford, by the bridge, the water came down on the right hand, and a few miles below goeth into Tame. This brook, above Dirtey, breaketh in two 12 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM, arms, that a little beneath the bridge close again. This brook riseth, as some say, four or five miles above Birmingham, towards Black- hills. " The beauty of Birmingham, a good market-town, in the extreme parts of Warwickshire is one street going up alonge, almost from the left ripe of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a quar- ter of a mile. I saw but one parish church in the town. " There be many smithes in the town that use to make knives and all manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that makes bittes, and a great many naylers ; so that a great part of the town is main- tained by smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of Stafford- shire." Here we find some intelligence, and more mistake, clothed in the ■dress of antique diction, which plainly evinces the necessity of mo- dern history. It is matter of surprise, that none of the religious fraternity, who lived in the Priory for fifteen or twenty generations, ever thought of indulging posterity with an history of Birmingham. They could not v/ant opportunity, nor materials, for they were nearer the infancy of time, and were possessed of historical facts now totally lost. ;Besides, nearly all the little learning in the kingdom was possessed by this class of people ; and the place, in their day, must have en- joyed an eminent degree of prosperity. Though the town has a modern appearance, there is reason to believe it of great antiquity ; my Birmingham reader, therefore, must suffer me to carry him back into the remote ages of the ancient -Britons, to visit his sable ancestors. We have no histories of those times but what are left us by the -Romans, and these we ought to read with caution, because they .were parties in the dispute. If two antagonists write, each his own history, the discerning reader will draw the line of justice between .them ; but where there is only one, partiality is expected. The .Romans were obliged to make the Britons warlike, or there would ;have been no merit in conquering them : they must also sound dtbrth their ignorance, or there would have been none in improving ithera. If the Britons were that wretched people they are repre- sented by the Romans, they could not be worth conquering : no .HISTORY OF BIKMINGHAM. 13 man subdues a people to improve them, but to profit by them. — Though the Romans were in their meridian of splendour, they pur- sued Britain a whole century before they reduced it ; which indi- cates that they considered it a valuable prize. Though the Britons were not masters of science, like the Romans ; though the fine arts did not flourish as in Rome, because never planted, yet by many testimonies, it is evident, they were masters of plain life; that many of the simple arts were practised in that day, as well as in tliis; that assemblages of people composed cities, the same as now, but in an inferior degree ; and that the country was populous, is plain from the immense army Boadicea brought into the field, except the Romans increased that army that their merit might be greater in defeating it. Nay, I believe we may, with propriety, carry them be- yond plain life, and charge them with a degree of elegance : the Romans, themselves, allow the Britons were complete masters of the chariot ; that when the scythe was fixed at each end of the axle- tree, they drove with great dexterity into the midst of the enemy, broke their ranks, and mowed them down. Their chariot after- wards became useful in peace, was a badge of high life, and continues so tvitli their descendants to this day. We know the instruments of war used by the Britons were a sword, spear, shield, and scyihe. If they were not the manufac- turers, how came they by these instruments ? We cannot allow either they or the chariots were imported, because that will give them a much greater consequence. They must have been well ac- quainted with the tools used in husbandry, for they were masters of the field in a double sense. Bad, also, as their houses were, a chest of carpentry tools would be necessary to complete them. We cannot doubt, from these evidences and others which might be adduced, that the Britons understood the manufactory of iron. Perhaps history cannot produce an instance of any place in an im- proving country, like England, where the coarse manufactory of iron has been carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except the materials failed ; and as we know of no place where such materials have failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our fore-fathers, the Britons, were supplied with those necessary imple- ments by the black artists of the Birmingham forge. Irou-stone 14 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. and coal are the materials for this production, both which are found in the neighbourhood in great plenty. The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient British manufactory : — Upon the borders of the Parish stands Aston-furnace, appropri- ated for melting iron-stone, and reducing it into pigs ; this has the appearance of great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this sub- teranean region of infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or cinder, of which there is an enormous mountain. From an attentive survey the observer would suppose so prodigious a heap could not accumu- late in one hundred generations ; however, it shews no perceptible addition in the age of man. There is also a common of vast extent, called Wednesbury old field, in which are the vestiges of many hundred of coal-pits, long in disuse, which the curious antiquarian would deem as long in sinking, as the mountain of cinders in rising. The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this black soil, which in a succession of ages, has grown to its pre- sent opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is very uncertain ; perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is since. Thus the mines of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap of Birmingham, and thus she draws nurture from the bowels of the earth. The chief, if not the only, manufactory of Birmingham, from its first existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in iron : of this was produced instruments of war and husbandry, furniture for the kitchen, and tools for the whole system of carpentry. The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street : some small remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly in Digbeth, where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original music of anvil and hammer. As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her manufactures long before the landing of Caesar, it would give pleasure to the curious inquirer, could he be informed of her size in those very early ages ; but this information is for ever hid from the historian and the reader. Perhaps there never was a period in which she saw a decline ; but that her progress has been certain, HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 15 though slow, during the long space of two or three thousand years before Charles the Second. The very roads that proceed from Birmingham, are additional indications of her great antiquity and commercial influence. Where any of these roads led up an eminence, they were worn by the long practice of ages into deep holloways, some of them twelve or four- teen yards below the surface of the banks, with which they were once even ; and so narrow as to admit only one passenger. Though modern industry, assisted by various turnpike acts, has widened the upper part, and filled up the lower, yet they were all visible in the days of our fathers, and are traceable even in ours. Some of these, no doubt, were formed by the spade, to soften the fatigue af climbing the hill, but many were owing to the pure efforts of time, the horse and the showers. As inland trade was small, prior to the fifteenth century, the use of the waggon, that great destroyer of the road, was but little known. The horse was the chief conveyer of burdens among the Britons, and for centuries after : if we consider the great length of time it would take for the rains to form these deep ravages, we must place the origin of Bir- mingham at a very early date. One of these subterranean passages, in part filled up, will convey its name to posterity in that of a street, called Holloway-head, till lately, the way to Bromsgrove and to Bewdley. Dale-end, once a deep road, has the same derivation. Another at Summer-hill, in the Dudley-road, altered in 1753. A remarkable one is also be- tween the Salutation and the turnpike, in the Wolverhampton- road, A fifth at the top of Walmer-lane, changed into its present form in 1764, Another between Gosta-green and Aston-brook, re- duced in 1 752. All the way from Dale-end to Duddeston, of which Coleshill-street now makes a part, and Mile-end another, was sunk five or six feet though nearly upon a flat, till filled up in 1756 by Act of Parliament ; but the most singular is that between Deritend and Camp-hill, in the way to Stratford, which was fifty-eight feej. deep and is, even now, many yards below the banks; yet the seniors of the last age took a pleasure in telling us, they could remember when it would have buried a waggon load of hay beneath its J)resent surface. Thus the traveller of old, who came to pur- 16 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. chase the produce of Birmingham, or to sell liis own, seemed to approach her by sap. British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old Dudley-road down Easy-hill, under the canal ; at the eight mile-stone, and at Smethwick : also in many of the private roads near Birmingham, which were never thought to merit a repair, particularly at Good Knave's-end, towards Harborne; the Green-lane, leading to the Garrison ; and that beyond Longbridge, in the road to Yardley ; all of them deep holloways, which carry evident tokens of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine what an an amazing length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads along Saltley-field, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way to Stitchford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses. The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old Cross, from the number of streets pomting towards it. Wherever the narrow end of a street enters a great thoroughfare, it indicates antiquity. This is the case with Philip-street, Bell-street, Park- street, Spiceal-street, and Moor-street, which not only incline to the centre above mentioned, but terminate with their narrow ends in the grand passage. As the town increased, other blunders of the same kind were committed ; witness the gateway late at the east end of New- street, the two ends of Worcester-street, Smallbrook-street, Cannon- street, New Meeting-street, and Bull-street ; it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first; perhaps the south end of Moor-street is two thousand years older than the north ; the same errors are committing in our day, as in Hill and Vale-streets, the two Hink- leys, and Catherine-street. One generation, for want of foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and another widens it by Act of Parliament. Every word in the English language carries an idea : when a word strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture which repre- sents it as faithfully as the looking-glass does the face. Thus, when the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture instantly expands in the mind, which is best explained by the other words grand, populous, extensive, active, commercial, and humane. This paint- ing is an exact counter-part of the word at this day ; but it does not correspond with its appearance in the days of the ancieut Britons — we must, therefore, for a moment, detach the idea from the word. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 17 Let us suppose, then, this centre surrounded with less than one hundred straggling huts, without order, which we will dignify with the name of houses ; built of timber, the interstices wattled with sticks, and plastered with mud ; covered with thatch, boards, or sods ; none of them higher than the ground story : the meaner sort with only one room, which served for three uses, shop, kitchen, and lodging-room ; the door for two, it admitted the people and the light : the better sort, two rooms, and some three, for work, for the kitchen, and for rest ; all three in a line, and sometimes front- ing the street. If the curious reader chuses to see a picture of Birmingham in the time of the Britons, he will find one in the turnpike road, be- tween Hales-Owen and Stourbridge, called the Lie- Waste, alias Mud City. The houses stand in every direction, mostly composed of one large and ill-formed brick, scoped into a tenement, burnt by the sun, and often destroyed by the frost : the males nearly naked ; the females accomplished breeders. The children, at the age of three months, take a singular hue from the sun and soil, which continues for life. The rags which cover them leave no room for the observer to guess at the sex. We might as well look for the moon in a coal-pit, as for stays or white linen in the City of Mud. The principal tool in business is the hammer, and the beast of bur- den the ass. The extent of our little colony of artists, perhaps reached nearly as high as the east end of New-street, occupied the upper part of Spiceal-street, and penetrated down the hill to the top of Digbeth, chiefly on the east. Success, which ever waits on industry, produced a gradual, but very slow increase ; perhaps a thousand years elapsed without add- ing half the number of houses. Thus our favourite plantation having taken such firm root, that she was then able to stand the wintry blasts of fortune, we shall di- gress for a moment, while she wields her sparkling heat, according to the fashion of the day, in executing the orders of the sturdy Briton ; then of the polite and heroic Roman ; afterwards of our mild ancestors, the Saxons — (whether she raised her hammer for the plundering Dane is uncertain, his reign being short) ; and, lastly, for the resolute and surly Nor man. D 18 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. It does not appear that Birmingham, from its first formation to the present day, was ever the habitation of a gentleman, the lords of the manor excepted. But if there are no originals among us, we can produce many striking likenesses : the smoke of Birmingham has been very propitious to their growth, but not to their maturity. Gentlemen, as well as buttons, have been stamped here ; but, like them, when finished, then are moved oflT. They both originate from a very uncouth state, without form or comeliness ; and pass through various stages, uncertain of success. Some of them, at length, re- ceive the last polish, and arrive at perfection ; while others, ruined by a flaw, are deemed wasters. I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot out of Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless orphan in rags. I have known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand people, fall from his phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish vestry. Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune de- scribes a circle, in the rotation of which a family experiences alter- nately the height of prosperity and the depth of distress ; but more frequently, like a pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle, and that always at the bottom. Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold sense, erected by the trowel. The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native of this place, and purchaser in the begin- ning of Edward the Third, of the several manors, which have been the honour and the support of his house to the present time. Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332, pur- chased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal descen- dant, Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq. Charles Colmore, Esq. holds a considerable estate in the parish ; his predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and general receiver of the taxes. A numerous branch of this ancient family flourishes in Birmingham at this day. The head of it, in the reign of James I. erected New- hall, and himself into a gentleman. On this desirable eminence, about half a mile from the buildings, they resided, till time, fashion, and success, removed them, like their predecessors, the sons of fortune, to a greater distance. The place was then possessed by a HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 19 tenant, as a farm : but Birmingham, a speedy traveller, marched over the premises, and covered them with twelve hundred houses, on building leases ; the farmer was converted into a steward ; his brown hempen frock, which guarded the outside of his waistcoat, became white holland, edged with ruffles, and took its station within : the pitchfork was metamorphosed into a pen, and his an- cient practice of breeding sheep, was changed into that of dressing their skins. Robert Philips, Esq. acquired a valuable property in the seventeenth century, now possessed by his descendant, William Theodore Inge, Esq. A gentleman of the name of Foxall, assured me, that the head of his family resided upon the spot, now No. 101, in Digbeth, about four hundred years ago, in the capacity of a tanner. Richard Smallbroke, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the reign of George II. was a native of Birmingham, as his an- cestors were for many ages, with reputation : he was born at No. 19, in the High-street, had great property in the town, now enjoyed by his descendants, though they have left the place. The families also of Weaman, Jennens, Whalley, Sec. have acquired vast property, and quitted the meridian of Birmingham ; and some others are at this day ripe for removal. Let me close this bright scene of pros- perity, and open another, which can only be viewed with a melan- choly eye. We cannot behold the distresses of man without com- passion ; but that distress which follows affluence, comes with double effect. We have among us a family of the name of Middlemore, of great antiquity, deducible from the conquest ; who held the chief posses- sions, and the chief offices in the county, and who matched into the first families in the kingdom, but fell with the interest of Charles the First ; and are now in that low ebb of fortune, that I have frequently, with a gloomy pleasure, relieved them at the common charity-board of the town. Such is the tottering point of human greatness. Again, another of the name of Braeebridge, who, for more than six hundred years, figured in the first ranks of life ; a third of the name of Mountfort, who shone with meridian splendour, through a long train of ages. As genealogy was ever a favourite amusement, I have often conversed with tliese solitary remains of tarnished lustre, but find in all of them, the pride of their family 20 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. buried with its greatness — they pay no more attention to the arms oF their ancestoi's, than to a scrap of paper, with which they would light their pipe. Upon consulting one of the name of Elwall, said to be descended from the Britons, I found him so uninformed, that he could not stretch his pedigree even so high as his grandfather. A fifch family among \is, of the name of Arden, stood upon the pin- nacle of fame in the days of Alfred the Great, where, perhaps they had stood for ages before: they continued the elevation about seven hundred years after; but having treasonable charges brought against them, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, about two hundred years ago, they were thrown from this exalted eminence, and dashed to pieces in the fall. In various consultations with a member of this honour- able house, I found the greatness of his fitmily not only lost, but the memory of it also. I assured him, that his family stood higher in the scale of honour, than any private one within my knowledge : that his paternal ancestors, for about seven generations, were succes- sively Earls of Warwick, before the Norman Conquest : that though he could not boast a descent from the famous Guy, he was related to him : that, though Turchell, Earl of Warwick, at the conquest his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour of Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William's; yet, as the Earl did not appear in arms against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings, nor oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of his manors : and that he retired upon his own vass estate, which he held in dependence, where the family resided with great opulence, in one house, for many centuries. He received the information with some degree of amazement, and replied with a serious face, — " Perhaps there may have been something great in my predecessors, for my grandfather kept several cows in Birmingham, and sold milk. !" The families of those ancient Heroes, of Saxon and Norman race, are, chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become extinct, or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune. Those few, therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher than that of the'present nobility ; for I know none of these last, who claim peerage beyond Edward the First, about 1295. Hence it fol- lows, that for antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is evi- dently in favour of the lowest class. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 21 Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and in- spect human actions, he might behold one of his descendants danc- ing at the lathe : another, tippling with his dark brethren of the apron ; a third, humbly soliciting from other families such favours as were formerly granted by his own , a fourth, imitating modern grandeur, by contracting debts he never designs to pay ; and a fifth snuiF of departed light, poaching, like a thief in the night, upon the very manors possessed by his ancestors. Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance in superior life, are esteemed of the highest value ; while in the inferior, who has a prior claim, they are totally neglected ? The grand design of every creature upou earth, is to supply the wants of nature. No amuse- ments of body or mind can be adopted, till hunger is served. When the appetite calls, the whole attention of the animal, with all its pow- ers is bound to answer. Hence arise those dreadful contests in the brute creation, from the lion in the woods, to the dog who seizes the bone. Hence the ship, when her provisions are spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye upon human sacrifices ; and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men is too far engrossed for mental pursuit. They see, like Esau, the honours of their family devoured with a ravenous appetite. A man with an empty cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher. But if fortune should smile iipon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his original standing and give him a prospect of independence he immediately begins to eye the arms upon carriages, examine old records for his name, and inquires where the Heralds' Office is kept. Thus, when the urgency of nature is set at liberty, the bird can whistle upon the branch, the fish play upon the surface, the goat skip upon the mountain, and even man himself can bask in the sunshine of science. We have several families, as the Colmores,the Clarkes, the Mays, the Smallwoods, the Bedfords, through whose veins flow the blood- royal of England, with that of most of the European princes. For these families being descended from the Willoughbys, and they from the Marmions, whose daughter married Richard, natural son of King John, brings up our laboured pedigree to a sceptre and a crown. From thence, as by a spacious turnpike-road, we easily travel through the great names of antiquity ; as William the Con- 22 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. queror, Edmund Ironside, the accomplished Alfred, the powerful Egbert, the beloved Cerdic, till we arrive at the Saxon Deity JFoden. I digress no farther. The situation of St. Martin's church is another reason for fixing the centre of Birmingham at tlie Old Cross. Christianity made an early and swift progress in this kingdom ; persecution, as might be expected, followed her footsteps, increased her votaries, and as was ever the case in all new religions, her proselytes were very devout. The religious fervour of the Christians displayed itself in building churches. Most of those in England are of Saxon original, and were erected between the fourth and tenth century ; that of St. Martin is ancient beyond the reach of historical knowledge, and probably rose in the early reigns of the Saxon kings. It was the custom of those times, to place the church, if there was but one, out of the precincts of the town ; this is visible at the present day in those places which have received no increase. Perhaps it will not be an unreasonable supposition to fix the erec- tion of St. Martin's in the eighth century; and if the inquisitive reader chuses to traverse the town a second time, he may find its l)0undaries something like the following. We cannot allow its ex- tension northward beyond the east part of New-street; that it included then the narrow parts of Philip-street, Bell-street, Spiceal- street, Moor-street, and Park-street. The houses at this period were more compact than heretofore ; that Digbeth and Deritend, lying in the road to Stratford, Warwick, and Coventry, all places of antiquity, were now formed. Thus the church stood in the environs of the town, unencumbered with buildings. Possibly this famous nursei-y of arts might, by this time, produce six hun- dred houses. A town must increase before its appendages are formed; those appendages also must increase before there is a necessity for an additional chapel, and after that increase, the inha- bitants may wait long before that necessity is removed by building one. Deritend is an appendage to Birmingham ; the inhabitants of this hamlet having long laboured under the inconvenience of being remote from the parish church of Aston, and also too numerous for admission into that of Birmingham, procured a grant in 1381 to ei'ect a chapel of their own. If we, therefore, allow three hundred HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 23 years for the infancy of Deritend, three hundred more for her matu- rity, and four hundred since the erection of her chapel, which is a very reasonable allowance, it will bring us to the time I mentioned. It does not appear that Deritend was attended with any consider- able augmentation, from the Norman Conquest to the year 1767, when a turnpike road was opened to Alcester, and when Henry Bradford publicly offered a freehold to the man who should first build upon his estate ; since which time Deritend, only one street, has made a rapid progress ; and this dusky offspring of Birmingham is now travelling apace along her new formed road.* I must again recline upon Dugdale. In 1309, William de Birm- ingham, Lord of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and King's Norton, for refusing to pay the customary tolls of the market. The inhabitants brought their action, and re- covered damages, because it was said, their lands being the ancient demesne of the crown, they had a right to sell their produce in any market in the King's dominion. It appeared in the course of the trial, that the ancestors of William de Birmingham had a market HERE before the Norman Conquest ! I shall have occasion, in future to resume this remarkable expression. I have also met with an old author, who observes, that Birmingham was governed by two constables in the time of the Saxons ; small places have seldom more than one. These evidences prove much in favour of the government, population, and antiquity of the place. In Doomesday-book it is rated at four hides of land. A hide was as much as a team could conveniently plough in a year ; per- haps about fifty acres ; I think there are not now more than two hundred ploughed in the parish. It was also said to contain woods of half a mile in length, and four furlongs in breath. What diflfer- ence subsisted between half a mile and four furlongs, in ancient time, is uncertain ; we know of none now. The mile was reduced to its present standard in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; neither are their * The inhabitants of Deritend, in 1 791 , obtained an act for lighting and cleansing the streets, empowering 31 Commissioners to carry the same into effect. 24 PIISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. the least traces of those woods, for at this day it is difficult to find a stick that deserves the name of a tree, in the whole manor. Tim- ber is no part of the manufactory of Birmingham. Let us survey the town a third time, as we may reasonahly suppose it stood in the most remarkable period of English history, that of the Conquest. We cannot yet go farther north of the centre than before, that is, along the High-street, till we meet the east end of New-street. We shall penetrate rather farther into Moor-street, none into Park-street, take in Digbeth, Deritend, Edgbaston-street, as being the road to Dudley, Bromsgrove, and the whole West of England ; Spiceal- street, the Shambles, a larger part of Bell-street, and PhiHp-street. The ancient increase of the town was towards the south ; because of the great road, the convenience of water, the churcli, and the manor house, all which lay in that quarter ; but the modern exten- sion was chiefly towards the north, owing to the scions of her trade being transplanted all over the country as far as Wednesbury, Wal- sall, and Wolverhampton ; but particularly her vicinity to the coal delphs, which were ever considered as the soul of her prosperity. Perhaps by this time the number of houses might have been aug- mented to seven hundred : but whatever were her number, either in this or any other period, we cannot doubt her being populous in every aera of her existence. The following small extract from the register will shew a gradual increase, even before the Restoration : — Year. Christenings. Weddings. Burials. 1555, 37, 15, 27, 1558, 48, 10, 47. 1603, 65, 14, 40. 1625, 76, 18, 47. 1660, 76, from April, to December ii ive. In 1251, William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, procured an additional charter from Henry the Third, reviving some decayed privileges, and granting others ; among the last was that of the Whitsuntide fair, to begin on the eve of Holy Thursday, and to continue four days. At the alteration of the style, in 1752, it was prudently changed to the Thursday in Whitsun week ; that leas HISTOllY OF BIRMINGHAM. 25 time might be lost to the injury of work and the workman. He also procured another fair, to begin on the eve of St. Michael, and continue for three days. Both which fairs are, at this day, in great repute.* By the interest of Audomore de Valance, Earl of Pembroke, a licence was obtained from the Crown, in 1319, to chai-ge an addi- tional toll upon every article sold in the market for three years, to- wards paving the town. Every quarter of corn to pay one farthing, and other things in proportion. But, at the expiration of the term, the toll was found inadequate to the expense, and the work lay dor- mant for eighteen years, till 1337, when a second licence was obtained, equal to the first, which completed the intention. Those streets, thus dignified with a pavement, or rather their sides, to accommodate the foot-passenger, probably were High- street, the Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Moat-lane, Edgbaston-street, Spiceal-street, and part of Moor-street. It was the practice, in those early days, to leave the centre of a street unpaved, for the easier passage of carriages and horses ; the consequence was, in flat streets, the road became extremely dirty, almost impassable, and in a descent the soil was quickly worn away, and left a causey on each side. Many instances of this ancient practice are within memory. The streets, no doubt, in which the fairs were held, mark the boundaries of the town in the thirteenth century. Though smaller wares were sold upon the spot used for the market, the rougher ar- ticles, such as cattle, were exposed to sale in what were then the out-streets. The fair for horses was held in Edgbaston-street, and that for beasts in the High-street, tending towards the Welch Cross. — Inconvenient as these streets seem for the purpose, our dark ancestors, of peaceable memory, found no detriment, during the infant state of population, in keeping them there. But we, their crowded sons, for want of accommodation, have wisely removed both: the horse-fair, in 1777, to Brick-kiln-lane, now the extreme * The latter fair, during the last twenty years, has, by order of the authorities, commenced the first Thursday alter Michaelmas. E 26 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. part of the town ; and that for beasts, in 1769, into the open part of Dale-end.* Whatever veneration we may entertain for ancient custom, there is sometimes a necessity to break it. Were we now to solicit the Crown for a fair, those streets would be the last we should fix on. If we survey Birmingham in the twelfth century, we shall find her crowded with timber, within and without; her streets dirty and narrow, but much trodden. The inhabitant became an early en- croacher upon her narrow streets, and sometimes the lord was the greatest. Her houses were mean and low, but few reaching higher than one story, perhaps none more than two ; composed of wood and plaister — she was a stranger to brick. Her public buildings consisted solely of one, tJie church. If we behold her in the four- teenth century, we shall observe her private buildings multiplied more than improved ; her narrow streets, by trespass, become nar- rower ; her public buildings increased to four ; two in the town and two at a distance ; the Priory, of stone, founded by contribution, at the head of which stood her lord ; the Guild, of timber, after- wards the Free School ; and Deritend Chapel, of the same mate- rials, resembling a barn, with something like an awkward dove-coat, at the west-end, by way of steeple. All these will be noticed in due course. If we take a view of the inhabitants, we shall find them industrious, plain, and honest. In curious operations, known only to a few, the artist was amply paid. Nash, in his history of Worcestershire, gives us a curious list of anecdotes, from the churchwarden's ledger, of Hales-owen. I shall transcribe two, nearly three hundred years old. *' Paid for bread and ale, to make my Lord Abbot drink, in Rogation week, 2(i." What should we now think of an ecclesiastical nobleman, accepting a twopenny treat from a country churchwarden ? — It shows also the amazing reduction of money : the same sum which served my Lord Abbot four days, would now be devoured by a journeyman in four minutes. — " 1498, paid for repeyling the organs, to the organ- * The Beast-market, or Smithfield, now occiipies the space form- erly recognised by " the Moat.'' HISTORY OF BIKMINGHAM. 27 maker at Bromicham, 10a\" Birmingham then, we find, disco- vered the powers of genius in the finer arts, as well as in iron. By " the organ-maker," we should .suppose there was but one. It ap- pears that the art of acquiring riches was as well understood by our fathers, as by us ; while an artist could receive as much money for tuning an organ as would purchase an acre of land, or treat near half a gross of Lord Abbots. BATTLE OF CAMP-HILL, 1643. Clarendon reproaches with virulence, our spirited ancestors, for disloyalty to Charles the First. The day after the King left Birmingham, on his march from Shrewsbury, in 1642, they seized his carriages, containing the royal plate and furniture, which they conveyed, for security, to Warwick Castle. They apprehended all messengers and suspected persons ; frequently attacked and reduced small parties of the royalists, whom they sent prisoners to Coventry, Hence the proverbial expression to a refractory person, send him to Coventry. In 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with a detachment of two thousand men, to open a communication between Oxford and York. In his march to Birmingham, he found a company of foot, kept for the Parliament, lately reinforced by a troop of horse from the garrison at Lichfield ; but, supposing they would not resist a power of ten to one, sent his quartermasters to demand lodging and offer protection. But tlie sturdy sons of freedom, having cast up slight works at each end of the town, and barricadoed the lesser avenues, rejected the oflfer and the officers. The military uniting in one small and compact body, assisted by the inhabitants, were determined the King's forces should not enter. Their little fire opened on the Prince ; but bravery itself, though possessed of an excellent spot of ground for defence, was obliged to give way to numbers. The Prince quickly put them to silence ; yet, under the success of his own arms, he was not able to enter the town, for the inhabitants had choked up, with carriages, the deep and narrow 28 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. road, then between Deritend and Camp-hill, which obliged the Prince to alter his rout to the left, and proceed towards Long- bridge. The spirit of resistance was not yet broken ; they sustained a second attack, but to no purpose, except that of slaughter. A running fight continued through the town ; victory declared loudly for the Prince ; the retreat became general : part of the vanquished took the way to Oldbury. William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the Prince, being in close pursuit of an officer in the service of the Parliament, and both upon the full gallop, up Shirhnd-lane, in the manor of Smechwick, the officer, instantly turning, discharged a pistol at the Earl, and mortally wounded him with a random shot. The Parliament troops were animated in the engagement by a clergyman, who acted as governor, but being taken in the defeat, and refusing quarter, was killed in the Red Lion Inn. The Prince, provoked at the resistance, in revenge set fire to the town. His wrath is said to have kindled in Bull-street, and con- sumed several houses near the spot, now No. 12. He obliged the inhabitants to quench the flames, with a heavy fine, to prevent far- ther military execution. Part of the fine is said to have been shoes and stockings for his people. The Parliament forces had formed their camp in that well-chosen angle which divides the Stratford and Warwick roads upon Camp-hill. The victorious Prince left no garrison, because their insignificant works were untenable ; but left an humbled people, and marched to the reduction of Lich- field. It is not without a smile that I transcribe a passage from the news- papers of the day, entitled — " The barbarous and butcherly cruelty of the Cavaliers at Birmingham. — April 8, 1G43, certain intelligence arrived of the cruel slaughter of divers inhabitants of that honest town ; about eighty houses were burnt down by that barbarous and butcherly prince of rohhers, Prince Rupert, and his accursed cava- liers. But his filching forces got but little by their inhuman barba- rity, for the unarmed inhabitants, mostly smiths, nailors, and work- ers in iron, with such weapons as they had, so knocked the Earl of Denbigh, that he received his death-wound in his furious pursuit of them ; and we are informed that arch traitor to the Commons, Lord Digby, was wounded. It is, however, a remarkable provi- HLSTOKV OF BIRMINGHAM. 29 dence, that in plundering and burning the town, the greatest loss fell upon the malignant party, for most of the honest had conveyed their goods to Coventry, before the arrival of the Cavaliers." In IG65, London was not only visited with the plague, but many other parts of England, among which Birmingham felt this dread- ful mark of the divine judgment. The infection is said to have been caught by a box of clothes, brought by the carrier, and lodged at the White Ilart. Depopulation ensued. The Church-yard was insufficient for the reception of the dead, who were conveyed to Lady- Wood-green, one acre of waste land, thence denominated the Pest Ground. The charter for the market has evidently been renewed by divers kings, both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain, perhaps at an early Saxon date ; and the day seems never to have been changed from Thursday. The Lords were tenacious of their privileges ; or, one would think, there was no need to renew their charter. Prescription, ne- cessity, and increasing numbers, would establish the right. Per- haps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our circum- scribed market-place, for the people and their weekly supplies ; but now their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the people. Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and uniform stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages, rising superior to the frowns of fortune, establishing a variety of productions from iron, ever improving her inventive powers, and perhaps changing a number of her people, equal to her whole inhc- bitants, every sixteen years, till she arrived at another important period, the end of the civil wars of Charles the First.* ♦ \Ve shall close this account of tlie anricnt state of Binniiig-ham, by insert- ing: part of a Poetical Address to the inhabitants of the town, published many years ago in Swinney's Birmingham Chronicle. '•Hail, native town! with womrrons g^enius crownd, Tiiy fame, triumphant, spreads the world around. From pole to pole is heard the mighty blast, Which shall till time s remotest period last ; Fur praisr, like thine, shall cv'ry tongue proi laim, N\ hilc woilh can raise, or nu-rit build a name'. 30 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. MODERN STATE OF BIRMINGHAM. It is the practice of the historian to divide ancient history from modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course of about seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in me- ridian splendour, the lustre of her arms and political conduct in- fluenced, more or less, every country in Europe. But at the fall of that mighty empire, which happened in the fifth century, every one of the conquered provinces was left to stand upon its own basis. From this period the history of nations takes a material turn. The English historian divides his ancient account from the mo- dern, at the extinction of the house of Plantagenet, in 1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the introduction of letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon science, and, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the Seventh, the British Con- stitution, occasioned by one small Act of Parliament, that of allow- ing liberty to sell land, took a very different, and an important course. But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham must divide at the restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before held a considerable degree of eminence, yet at this period, the cu- rious arts began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of genius. Building leases, also, began to take effect, extension fol- lowed, and numbers of people crowded upon each other as into a As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a suitable soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground to Thou nurse of beauty, elegance, and art, Europe's grand toy-shop, and the worlds wide naart! Vulcanic toil did once thy cares resound, Now pleasing fancy ever smiles around, Whose brilliant charms, superbly-rich, display The lively taste and talent of the day. The various toys of art's productive skill Flash into being — forming at thy will : Nor yet confin'd to fancy's curious eye, Thy bolder projects thunder in the sky. With tenfold force the pond'rous engines roar. Ingenious proofs of elemental power. While bright invention ever gilds thy name. And stamps thee foremost in mechanic fame." HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 31 a great extent, and robs the neighbouring plants of their support, that nothing can thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half whose inhabitants above the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives, draws her annual supply of hands, and is constantly fed by the towns that surround her, where her trades are not practised, pre- venting every increase to those neighbours who kindly contribute to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove, Dudley,* Stour- bridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill, and Solihull. We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of its existence, during the long course of perhaps three thousand years, standing sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has been a little clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that we might not be deceived. But, though we have attended her through so immense a space, we have only seen her in infancy ; comparatively small in her size, homely in her person, and coarse in her dress. Her ornaments, wholly of iron, from her own forge. But nowy her growth will he amazing, her expansion rapid, per- haps not to he paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in all the beauty of youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the notice of the commercial world. She will add to her iron ornaments the lustre of every metal that the whole earth can produce, with all their illustrious race of compounds, heightened by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will draw from the fossil and the vegetable king- doms ; press the ocean for shell, skin, and coral ; she will tax the animal for horn, bone, and ivory, and she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil. I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the author observes, " That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably consisted only of three streets." But it is more probable it consisted of fifteen, though not all finished, and about nine hundred houses. I am sensible when an author strings a parcel of streets together, he furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader, especially to a stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence from the histo- * Since this was written the population of Dudley has rapidly in- creased. Perhaps its contiguity to the coal and iron districts may be cause. 32 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. rian, I must beg leave to mention the streets and their supposed number of houses : — Digbeth nearly the same as now, except the twenty-three houses between the two Mill-lanes, which are of a modern date, about 110; Moat-lane (Court-lane) 12; Corn-market and Shambles 50 ; Spiceal-street 50 ; Dudley-street 50 ; Bell-street 30 ; Philip-street 20; St. Martin's-lane 15; Edgbaston-street 70; Lee's-lane 10; Park-street, extending from Dig!)eth nearly to the east-end of Free- man-street 80 ; Moor-street to the bottom of Castle-street 70 ; Bull street, not so high as the Minories 50 ; High-street 100 ; Deri- tend and Bordesley 120 ; odd houses scattered round the verge of the town 70.— Total 907. The number of Inhabitants 5,472. The same author farther observes, " That from the Restoration to the year 1700, the streets of Birmingham were increased to thirty- one." But I can make their number only twenty-eight, and many of these far from complete. Also, that the whole number of houses were 2,504, and the inhabitants 15,032. The additional streets therefore seem to have been Castle-street, Carr"s-lane, Dale-end, Stafford-street, Bull-lane, Pinfold-street, Colmore-street, the Frog- gery, Old Meeting-street, Worcester-street, Peck-lane, New-street, (a small part) Lower Mill-lane. Dr. Thomas, the continuator of Dugdale, tells us, " The old parish contained about 900 houses, the new between seven and eight, Deritend 90, and Bordesley 30," but omits the time; probably about the erection of St. Philip's. From the year 1700 to 1731, there is said to have been a farther addition of twenty-five streets, I know of only twenty-three : and also of 1,215 houses, and 8,250 inhabitants. Their names we offer asunder: — Freeman-street, New Meeting-street, Moor-street, (the North part) Wood-street, the Butts, Lichfield-street, Thomas- street, John's-street, London Prentice-street, Lower Priory, the Square, Upper Priory, Minories, Steelhouse-Iane, Cherry-street, Cannon-street, Needless-alley, Temple-street, King's-street, Queen- street, Old Hinkleys, Smallbroke-street, and the East part of Hill- street. I first saw Birmingham July 14, 1741, and will perambulate its boundaries with my traveller, beginning at the top of Snow-hill, HISTORY OF nTT^MINCTIAM. 33 keeping the town on our left;, and the fields that then were, on onr right. Through BulI-laiK^ we proceed to Temple-street ; down Peck- lane, to the top of Pinfold-street; Dudley-street, the Old Ilinkleys to the top of Smallbrook-street, back through Edgbaston-street, Digbetl], to the upper end of Deritend. "We shall return through Park-street, Masshouse-lane, the north of Dale-end, Stafford-street, Steelliouse-lane, to the top of Snow-hill, from whence we set out. If we compare this account with that of 1731, we shall not find any great addition of streets : but those that were formed before were much better filled up. The new streets erected daring these ten years, were Temple-row, except about six houses. The north of Park-street, and of Dale-end ; also Slaney-street, and a small part of the east side of Snow-hill. From 1741, to the year 1781, Birmingham Seems to have ac- quired the amazing augmentation of seventy-one streets, 4172 houses, and 25,032 inhabitants. Thus her internal property is co- vered with new-erected buildings, tier within tier. Thus she opens annually a new aspect to the traveller ; and thus she penetrates along the roads that surround her, as if to unite with the neigh- bo\n-ing towns, for tlieir improvement in commerce, in arts, and in civilization. I have often led my curious enquirer round Birmingham, but, like the thread round the swelling clue, never twice in the same track. We shall again examine her boundaries. Our former jour- ney commenced at tlie top of Snow-hill, we now set olT from the bottom. The buildings, in 1781, extended about forty yards beyond the Salutation, near the Wolverhampton-road. We turn up Lionel- street, leaving St. Paul's, and about three nev/-erected houses on the right ; pass close to New Hall, leaving it on tlie left, to tlie top of Great Charles-street, along Easy-hill ; we then leave the Wharf to the right, down Suffolk-street, in which are seventy houses, having two infant streets also to the right, in which are about twelve houses each, up to Ilolloway-head ; thence to Windmill- hill, Bow-street, Brick-kiln-lane, down to Lady- Well ; along Pud- ding-brook to the Moat, Lloyd's Slitting-mill, Digbetli ; over Deri- F 34 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. tend Bridge ; tlien«e to the right for Cheapside ; cross the top of Bradford-street ; return by the Bridge, to Floodgate-street, Park- street, Bartholomew's Chapel, Grosvenor-street, Nova Scotia- street, Woodcock-lane, Aston-street, Lancaster-street, Staniforth-street, Price's-street, Bath-street, to the bottom of Snow-hill. The circle I have described is about five miles. There are also, beyond this crooked line, five clumps of houses belonging to Bir- mingham, which may be deemed hamlets. At the Sand-pits, upon the Dudley-road, about three furlongs from the buildings, are fourteen houses. Four furlongs from the Navigation Office, upon the road to Hales-Owen, are twenty-nine. One furlong from Exeter-row, towards the hand, are thirty- four. Upon Camp-hill, 130 yards from the junction of the Warwick and Coventry roads, which is the extremity of the present buildings, are thirty-one. And two furlongs from the town, in Walmer-lane, are seventeen more. Since my last journey round Birmingham, the reader and the writer have had a respite of ten years; we shall, therefore, in the present year, 1791, make exactly the same tour, and, with a critical exactness, observe what streets and houses have arisen, on our right, out of solitary fields. The cattle have been turned out of their pasture to make room for man, and the arts are planted where the daisy grew. These additions are so amazing, that even an author of veracity will barely meet belief. A city has been grafted upon a town ! Instead of Birmingham drawing her neighbourhood only, she seems to draw the world. I shall divide my examination into eight parts, according to the eight roads which proceed from her. I will omit the five hamlets, for, before I can mend my pen for another edition of this work, they will be united to the place. Between the Roads to JVolverhampton and Dudley, are, Houses. On the west side of Constitution-hill, extending to the 2 first mile-stone . . . . S HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 35 Houses. Falkner-street . . . . . . 15 Kenyon-street 70 North wootl-street 19 Cock-street 54 Henrietta-street . 60 Mary-Ann-street .... 52 North end of Livery-street 20<5 Water-street 81 North of Church-street and Ludgate-hill 47 St. Paul's Square . 62 Caroline-street H Mount-street 01 Brook-street 8 James-street 7 North side of Lionel-street 46 North end of Newhall-street 12 Fleet-street 104 North side of Summer-row, between the t wo cana Is 16 977 There were only three houses, March 14, 1779, in this division. By that day twelve-months they had increased to 55, and March 14, 1781, they were 144. The same day in the present year (1791) there is an addition of 833. From the Dudley to the Bewdley Road. South side of Summer-row . . . . 18 Crescent ....... 5 King Edward's Place . .... 29 North side of the Bewdley-road, extending to the canal . 5 Between the Bewdley and the Bromsyrote Roads. South side of the road ..... Bridge-street ...... Wharf-street ...... Fordrough-slrcet ...... 57 7 12 122 74 36 HltsTOllY OF BIRMINGHAM. Norfolk-street ..... 41 South end of Navigation-street . 49 Ditto of Cross-street .... 15 Gough-street ..... 25 Suffolk-street ..... 297 Little Hill-street ..... 12 South end of Bristol-street, beyond Inge-street . 41 695 Deduct for 70 houses in Suffolk-street, and 24 in two infant streets ...... 601 Fro/)i the Broms^roce to the Coccntrij lload. North end of Bristol-street, east of Inge-street 17 Thorpe-street .... 84 Dean- street . . 12 Inge-street 55 Hurst-street 14 Bromsgrove-street 39 Balsall-street 39 Rea-street . 44 364 From the Vocentnj to the Coleshill Road. Milk-street. . . . . . . 71 Coventry-street . 41 Oxford-street 30 Bordesley-street . 88 Mountjoy-street . . 41 Canal-street 13 Fazeley-street 21 Bartholomew-street 125 South-side of Vauxhall-row 20 Watery-lane 24 Great Brook-street 27 IIIbTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 37 Lawley-street Windsor-street Henry-street South-side of Mile End (Ashted) Houses. . 47 . 55 . 8 . 94 Between the Road to Coleslull and that to Lichjield. 705 West-side of Mile-end . 12 Woodcock-lane .... . 87 Leicester-street .... . 8 Aston-road, East .... . 16 Love-lane ..... . 23 Duke-street . . . 47 Prospect-row ..... . 32 225 Deduct for the 70 houses in Duke-street, kc. . 70 155 From the Lichjield to the Stajford Roac I. On the West of Lichfield-road . 32 North end of Duke-street . 8 York-street, North end . 9 Addition to Staniforth-street . . 65 Nell-street .... . 11 Lancaster-street .... . 63 From the Stafford to the JFolterluimpton Road. North side of Price's-street Summer-lane Hospital-street Hampton-street Bond-street St. Luke's-rovv to the Mile-stone 188 58 70 77 9 24 242 38 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. This great circle of streets, which has during the last ten years, will be found to 3145. There must also have been erected in town 603 more, so that an augmentation and 20,470 inhabitants. The Hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley, which were chiefly one street in 1767, contain, surrounded Birmingham be 70, and the houses the internal parts of the taken place of 3,745, Houses. OntheEastendofDigbeth . . . . .40 Mill-lane . 44 The street called Deritend . 287 Quality-row . 10 Birchall-street . 77 Lombard-street . 60 Alcester-street . 94 Brandy-row . 19 Warwick-street . 28 Bradford-street . 112 Green-street . 25 Cheapside . 108 Moseley-street . 50 954 The whole of Deritend and Bordesley, in 1781, consisted of 5 streets, 400 houses, and 2125 inhabitants. The streets are now 13, the houses 954, and the inhabitants 5013. Birmingham has there- fore added to her dimensions, during the last ten years, 78 streets, 4299 houses, and 23,358 people. I shall comprize, in one view, the state of Birmingham in nine different periods ; and though some are imaginary, perhaps they are not far from real. Streets. Houses. Souls. the time of the ancient Britons 80 400 A.D. 750, . 8 600 3000 — 1066, . 9 700 3500 — 1650, - 15 900 5472 — 1700, - 28 2504 15,032 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 39 Sti'eets. Houses. Souls. 1731, 51 3717 23,286 1741, 54 4114 24,660 1781, 125 8382 50,295 1791, 203 12,681 73,653 A.D. In 1778, Birmingham, exclusive of the appendages, contained 8042 houses, 48,252 inhahitants.* At the same time Manchester consisted of 3402 houses, and 22,440 people. In 1779, Nottingham contained 3191 houses, and 17,711 souls. It is easy to see, without the spirit of prophecy, that Birmingham has not yet arrived at her zenith, neither is she likely to reach it for ages to come. Her increase will depend upon her manufactures ; her manufactures will depend upon the national commerce ; national commerce upon a superiority at sea; and this superiority may be extended to a long futurity. The interior parts of the town, are like those of other places, par- celled out into small freeholds, perhaps, originally purchased of the Lords of the Manor ; but, since its amazing increase, which began about the Restoration, large tracts of land have been huxtcred out upon building leases. Some of the first that were granted, seem to have been about Worcester and Colmore-streets, at the trifling an- nual price of one farthing per yard, or under. The market ran so much against the lessor, that the lesse had liberty to build in what manner he pleased ; and, at the expiration of the term, could remove the buildings unless the other chose to purchase them. But the market at this day is so altered, that the lessee gives six-pence per yard ; is tied to the mode of building, and obliged to leave the pre- mises in repair. The itch for building is predominant : we dip our fingers into mortar almost as soon as into business. It is not wonderful that a person should be hurt by the fall'mg of a house ; but, with us, a * So great has been the addition of the number of houses, that from 1700 to 1821, the increase was from 2504 to 17,323. 40 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. man sometimes breaks his back by raism// one. T^iis private injury, however, is attended with a public benefit of the first magnitude; for every " House to he lef," holds forth a kind of invitation to the stranger to settle in it, who, being of the laborious class, promotes the manufactures. If we cannot produce many houses of the highest orders in archi- tecture, we make out the defect in numbers. Perhaps ifw?'e are erected here, in a given time, than in any place in the whole island, London excepted. It is remarkable, that in a town like Eirmingliam, where so many houses are built, the art of building is so little under- stood. The style of architecture of the inferior sort, is rather showy than lasting. The proprietor generally contracts for a house of cer- tain dimensions, at a stipulated price : this induces the artist to use some ingredients of the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether he can cement the materials with sand, instead of lime. But a house is not the only thing spoilt by the builder ; he frequently spoils himself: out of many succession of house-makers, I cannot recollect one who made a fortune. Many of these edifices have been brought forth, answered the purposes for which they were erected, and been buried in the dust, during my short acquaintance with Birmingham. One would think, if a man can survive a house, he has no great reason to complain of the shortness of life. From the external genteel appearance of a house, the stranger would be tempted to think the inhabitant possessed at least of a thousand pounds ; but, if he looks within, he sees only the ensigns of beggary. We have people, who enjoy four or five hundred pounds a year, in houses, none of which, perhaps, exceed six pounds per annum. It may excite a smile to say I have known two houses erected, one occu- pied by a man, his wife, and three children ; the other pair had four ; and twelve guineas covered every expense ! Pardon, my dear reader, the omission of a pompous encomium on their beauty or duration. I am inclined to think three-fourths of the houses in Birming- ham stand upon new foundations, and all the places of Worship, except Deritend Chapel. About the year 1730, Thomas Sherlock, late Bishop of London, purchased the private estate of the ladies of the manor, chieHy land. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 41 me about four hundred per annum. In 1758, thl%teward told it had increased to twice the original value. The pious old Bishop was frequently solicited to grant building leases, but answered, " his land was valuable, and if built upon, his successor, at the ex- piration of the term, would have the rubbish to carry off;" he, therefore, not only refused, but prohibited his successor from grant- ing such leases. But Sir Thomas Gooch, who succeeded him, see- ing the great improvement of the neighbouring estates, and wisely judging fifty pounds per acre preferable to five, procured an act, in about 1766, to set aside the prohibiting clause in the Bishop's will ; since which a considerable town may be said to have been erected upon his property, now about £2400 per annum. An acquaintance assured me that, in 1756, he could have pur- chased the house he then occupied for £400, but refused. In 1770 the same house was sold for £600, and, in 1772, 1 purchased it for eight hundred and thirty-five guineas, without any alteration, but what time had made for the worse ; and for this enormous price I had only an old house which I was obliged to take down. Such is the rapid improvement in value, of landed property, in a commer- cial country. Suffer me to add, though foreign to my subject, that these premises were the property of an ancient family of the name of Smith, now in decay ; were many centuries ago one of the first inns in Birmingham, and well known by the name of the Garland House, perhaps from the sign ; but, within memory. Potter's Coffee House, Under one part was a room about forty-five feet long, and fifteen wide, used for the town prison. In sinking a cellar we found a large quantity of tobacco-pipes of a singular construction, with some very antique earthenware, but no coin ; also loads of broken bottles, which refutes the complaint of our pulpits against modern degeneracy, and indicates the vociferous arts of getting drunk and breaking glass, were well understood by our ancestors. In penetrating a bed of sand, upon which had stood a workshop, about two feet below the surface, we came to a tumulus six feet long, three wide, and five deep, built very neat, with tiles laid flat, but no cement. The contents were mouldered wood, and pieces of human bone. I know of no house in Birmingham, the inns excepted, whose 42 IIISTOUY OF BIRMINGHAM. annual rent exceeds ninety pounds. The united rents appear to be about one hundred thousand, which, if we take at twenty years' purchase, will compose a freehold of £2,000,000 value. The new erections I have described, with their appendages, cover about 300 acres. If we allow the contents of the manor to be 2900, and deduct 900 for the town, 500 more for roads, water, and waste land, and rate the remaing 1500 at the average rent of £3 per acre, we shall raise an additional freehold of £4500 per annum. This landed property, at thirty years' purchase, will produce £135,000, and, united with the value of the buildings, the fee-sim- ple of this happy region of genius, will amount to £2,135,000. STREETS AND THEIR NAMES. We accuse our short-sighted ancestors, and with reason, for leaving us almost without a church-yard and a market-place ; for forming some of our streets nearly without width, and without light. Something, however, may be pleaded in excuse, for we should ever plead the cause of the absent, by observing, the concourse of people was small, therefore a little room would suffice ; and the buildings were low, so that light would be less obstructed : be- sides, as the increase of the town was slow, the modern augmenta- tion coidd not then be discovered through the dark medium of time ; but the prospect into futurity is, at this day, rather brighter; for we plainly see, and perhaps with more reason, succeeding gene- rations will blame us for neglect. We possess the power to reform, without the will ; why else do we suffer enormities to grow which will have taken deep root in another age ? If utility and beauty can he joined together, in the street, why are they ever put asun- der ? It is easy for Birmingham to be as rapid in her improve- ment as in her growth. We have more reason to accuse ourselees of neglect than our an- cestors, for we cherish all their blunders in street-making, and upon these we graft our own. The inhabitants of Birmingham may justly HISTORY OF BIHMINGHAM. 43 be styled masters of invention ; the arts are obedient to their will. But if genius displays herself in the shops, she is seldom seen in the streets. Though we have long practiced the art of making streets, we have an art to learn ; tliere is not a street in the whole town but might have been better constructed. When land is appropriated for a street, the builders are under no controul ; every lessee proceeds according to his interest or fancy ; there is no man to preserve order or prescribe bounds ; hence arise evils without a cure — such as a narrowness, whicli scarcely admits light, cleanliness, pleasure, health, or use ; unnecessary hills, like that in Bull-street; sudden falls, owing to the floor of one house being laid three feet lower than the next, as in Coleshill-street ; one side of a street like the deck of a ship, gunnel-to, several feet higher than the other, as in Snow-hill, New-street, Friday-street, Paradise- street, Lionel-street, Suffolk-street, Brick-kiln-lane, and Great Charles-street. Hence, also, that crowd of enormous bulk sashes ; steps projecting from the houses and the cellar ; buildings which, like men at a dog-fight, seem rudely to crowd before each other ; penthouses, rails, palisades, &,c., which have long called for redress. Till the year, 1769, when the Lamp Act was obtained, there were only two powers able to correct these evils — the lord of the manor and the freeholders — neither of which were exerted. The lord was so far from preserving the rights of the public, that he himself be- came the chief trespasser. He connived at small encroachments in others to countenance his own. Others trespassed like little rogues, but he like a lord. In 1728, he seized a public building, called the Leather Hall, and converted it to his private use. George Davis, the constable, summoned the inhabitants to vindicate their right ; but none app-aaring, the lord smiled at their supineness and kept the property. In about 1745, he took possession of the Bull-ring, their little market-place, and began to build it up ; but, although the people did not brmg their action, they did not sleep as before, for they undid in the night what he did in the day. In 1758, when the houses at No. 3, were erected, in that extreme narrow part of Bull-street, near the Welch Cross, the proprietor, emboldened by repeated neglects, chose to project half a yard beyond his bounds. But a private inhabitant, who \\as an attorney, a bully, and a free- 4f HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. liolder, with his own hands, and a few hearty curses, demolished the building, and reduced the builder to order. But though the freeholders have power over all encroachments within memory, yet this is the only instance upon record of the exertion of that power. The town consists of about 200 streets, some of which acquired their names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and others have not yet acquired a name. Those of Bull-street, Cannon- street, and London 'Prentice-street, from the signs of their respective names. The first of these, was originally Chapel-street, from a Chapel belonging to the Priory which covered that ground. Some receive their names from the proprietors of the land, as Smallbroke- street, Freeman-street, Cohnore-street, Slaney-street, Weaman-street, Bradford-street, Colmore-row, Philip-street, and Bell-street. Dig- beth, or Duck's Bath, from the pools for accommodating that ani- mal, was originally Well-street, from the many springs in its neigh- bourhood. Others derive a name from caprice, as Jamaica-row, John and Thomas's-streets. Some from a desire of imitating the metropolis, as, Fleet-street, Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, and Friday-street. Some again from local causes, as High-street, from its elevation, St. Martin's-lane, Church-street, Cherry-street, origi- nally an orchard. Chapel-street, Bartholomew-row, Masshouse-lane, Old and New Meeting-streets, Steelhouse-lane, Temple-row and Temple-street, also Pinfold-street, from a Pinfold at No. 85, removed in 1 752. — Moor-street, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one side, or the declivity on the other. Park- street seems to have acquired its name by being appropriated to the private use of the Lord of the Manor, and, except at the narrow end next Digbeth, contained only the corner house to the south, entering Shut-lane, No. 82, lately taken down, which was called the Lodge. Spiceal- street, anciently Mercer-street, from the number of mercers shops ; and as the professors of that trade dealt in grocery, it was promis- cuously called Spicer-street. The present name is only a corruption of the last. The spot, now the Old Hinkleys, was a field, till about 1720, in which horses were shewn at the fair, then held in Edgbaston- street. It was since a brick-yard, and contained only one hut, in which the brick-maker slept. The tincture of the smoaky shops, with all their hlack furniture , for welding gun barrels, which after- HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 45 wards appeared on the back of Smallbroke-street, might occasion the original name Inkleys ; ink is well known ; leys, is of British deri- vation, and means grazing ground ; so that the etymology perhaps is Black pasture. The Butts, a mark to shoot at, when the bow was a fashionable instrument of war, which the artist of Birmingham knew well how to make, and to use. Gosta-green (Goose-stead) a name of great antiquity, now in decline; once a track of commons, circumscribed by the Stafford-road, now Stafford-street ; the roads to Lichfield and Coleshill, now Aston and Coleshill-streets, and extending to Duke-street, the boundary of the manor. Perhaps, many ages after, it was converted into a farm, and was, within memory, possessed by a person of the name of Tanter, whence Tan- ter-street. Sometimes a street fluctuates between two names, as that of Catha- rine and Wittal, which at length terminated in favour of the former.* Thus the name of Great George and Great Charles stood candidates for one of the finest streets in Birmingham, which after a contest of two or three years, was carried in favour of the latter. Others receive a name from the places to which they direct, as Worcester-street, Edgbaston-street, Dudley-street, Lichfield-street, Aston-street, Staf- ford-street, Coleshill-street, and Alcester-street. A John Cooper, the same person who stands in the list of donors in St. Martin's church, and who, I apprehend, lived about two hun- dred and fifty years ago, at the Talbot, No. 20, in the High-street, left about four acres of land, between Steelhouse-lane, St. Paul's chapel, and Walmer-lane, to make love-days for the people of Bir- mingham ; hence Loveday -croft. Various sounds from the trowel upon the premises, in 1758, produced the name of Loveday -street (corrupted into Lovely-street.) This croft is part of an estate under the care of the Lench's Trust ; and, at the time of the bequest, was probably worth no more than ten shillings per annum. At the top of Walmer-lane, which is the North East comer of this croft, stood about half a dozen old alms houses, perhaps erected in the begin- ning of the seventeenth century, then at a considerable distance from the town. These were taken down in 1764, and the present alms houses, which are thirty-six, erected near the spot, at the expence of the trust, to accommodate the same number of poor widows, who * Now Whittall-street. 46 PIISTOIIY OF BIRMINGHA.M. have each a small annual stipend, for the supply of coals. This John Cooper, for some services rendered to the lord of the manor, obtained three priviliges, that of regulating the goodness and prices of beer ; consequently he stands in the front of the whole liquid race of high tasters ! that he should, whenever he pleased, beat a bull in the Bull-ring, v/hence arises the name ; and, that he should be allowed interment in the south porch of St . Martin's church. His memory ought to be transmitted with honour to posterity, for promoting the harmony of his neighbourhood, but he ought to have been buried in a dunghill for punishing an inncent animal. His wife seems to have survived him, who also became a benefactress ; is recorded in the same list, and their monument, in antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch. TRADE. Perhaps there is not by nature, so much ditferencein tlie capacities of men as by education. The elForts of nature will produce a ten- fold crop in the field, but those of art, fifty. Perhaps too, the seeds of every virtue, vice, inclination, and habit, are sown in the breast of every human being, though not in an equal degree. Some of these lie dormant for ever, no hand inviting their cultivation. Some are called into existence by their own internal strength, and others by the external powers that surround them. Some of these seeds flourishmore, some less, according to the aptness of the soil, and the modes of assistance. We are not to suppose infancy the only time in which these scions spring, no part of life is exempt. I knew a man who lived to the age of forty, totally regard- less of music. A fiddler happened to have apartments near his abode, attracted his ear by frequent exhibitions, which produced a growing inclination for that favourite science, and he became a pro- ficient himself. Thus, in advanced periods, a man may fall in love with a science, a woman, or a bottle. Thus avarice is said to shoot up in ancient soil; and thus, I myself bud forth in history at fifty-six. The cameleon is said to receive a tincture from the colour of the object that is nearest to him ; but the human mind in reality receives a bias from its connexions. Link a man to the pulpit, and he cannot proceed to any great lengths in profligate life. Enter him into the HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 47 army, and he will endeavour to swear himself into consequence. Make the man of humanity an overseer of the poor, and he will quickly find the tender feelings of commisseration hardened. Make him a surgeon, and he will amputate a leg with the same indifference with which a cutler saws a piece of hone for a knife handle. Make him a physician, and he will be the only person upon the premises, the heir excepted, unconcerned at the prospect of death. You com- mit a rascal to prison because he merits transportation, but by the time he comes out he merits a halter. By uniting also with industry we become industrious. It is easy to give instances of people whose distinguishing characteristic was idleness, hut when they breathed the air of Birmingham, diUgence became the predominant fea- tiirc. The view of profit, like the view of corn to the hungry horse, excites to action. Thus the various seeds scattered bv nature into the soul at its first formation, either lie neglected, are urged into in- crease by their own powers, or are drawn towards maturity by the concurring circumstances that attend them. The late Mr. Grenville observed, in the House of Commons, " That commerce tended to con-uptthe morals of a people." If we examine the expression, we shall find it true in a certain degree, beyond which tends to improve them. Perhaps every tradesman can furnish out numberless instances of small deceit. His conduct is marked with a littleness, which, though allowed by general consent, is not strictly just. A person with whom I have long been connected in business, asked, if I had dealt with his relation, whom he had brought up, and who had lately entered into commercial life. I answered in the affirmative. He replied, " He is a very honest fellow." I told him I saw all the finesse of a tradesman about him. " Oh, rejoined my friend, a man has a right to say all he can in favour of his own goods." Nor is the seller alone culpahle. The huyer takes an equal share in the decep- tion. Though neither of them speak their sentiments, they well understand each other. Whilst a treaty is agitating, the profit of a tradesman vanishes, yet the buyer pronounces against the article ; but when finished, the seller whispers his friend, " It is well sold," and the buyer smiles it a bargain. Thus is the commercial track a line of minute deceits. 48 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. But, on the other hand, it does not seem possible for a man in trade to pass this line without wrecking his reputation ; which, if once broken, can never be made whole. The character of a trades- man is valuable, it is his all ; therefore, whatever seeds of the vi- cious kind shoot forth in the mind, are carefully watched, and nipped in the bud, that they may never blossom into action. Having stated the accounts between morality and trade, I shall leave the reader to draw the balance, and only ask whether the people in trade are more corrupt than those out ? If the curious reader will lend an attentive ear to a pair of farmers in the market, bartering for a cow, he will find as much dissimulation as at St. James's, but couched in homelier phrase. The man of well-bred deceit is " infinitely your friend — it would give him immeyise plea- sure to serve you !" Deception is an innate principle of the human heart, not peculiar to one man, or one profession. Having occasion for a horse, in 1759, I mentioned it to an acquaintance, and informed him the uses ; he assured me he had one that would exactly suit, which he showed in the stable, and held the candle pretty high for fear of affecting the straw. I told him it was needless to examine him, for I should rely upon his word, being conscious he was too much my friend to deceive me ; therefore bargained, and caused him to be sent home. But, by the light of the sun, which next morning illumined the heavens, I perceived the horse was greased on all fours. I, therefore, in gentle terms, upbraided my friend with duplicity, when he replied with some warmth, " I would cheat my own brother in a horse." Had this honourable friend stood a chance of selling me a horse once a week, his own interest would have prevented him from deceiving me. A man enters into business with a view of acquiring a fortune — a laudable motive ! That property which rises from honest industry, is an honour to its owner ; the repose of his age, the reward of a life of attention ; but, great as the advantage seems, yet, being of a private nature, it is one of the least in the mercantile walk. For the intercourse occasioned by traffic, gives a man a view of the world and of himself ; removes the narrow limits that confine his judgment, expands the mind, opens his understanding, removes his prejudices, and polishes his manners. Civility and humanity are HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. -19 ever the companions of trade ; the man of business is the man of liberal sentiment ; a barbarous and commercial people, is a contra- diction ; if he is not the philosopher of nature, he is the friend of his country. Even the men of inferior life among us, whose occu- pations, one would think, tend to produce minds as callous as the metal they work, lay a stronger claim to civilization than in any other place with which I am acquainted. It is singular, that a predilection for Birmingham is entertained by every denomination of visitants, from Edward, Duke of York, who saw us in 1765, down to the presuming quack, who, gri^^ed with necessity, boldly discharges his filth from the stage. A pa- viour, of the name of O'Brian, assured me, in 1750, that he only meant to sleep one night in Birmingham, in his way from London to Dublin. But instead of pursuing his journey next morning, as intended, he had continued in the place thirty-five years ; and though fortune had never elevated him above the pebbles of the street, he had never repented his stay. It has already been remarked, that I first saw Birmingham in 1741, accidentally cast into those regions of civility, equally un- known to every inhabitant, nor had the least idea of becoming one myself. Though the reflections of an untaught youth of seventeen cannot be striking, yet, as they were purely natural, permit me to describe them. I had been before acquainted with two or three principal towns. The environs of all I had seen were composed of wretched dwellings, replete with dirt and poverty ; but the buildings in the exterior of Birmingham, rose in a style of elegance. Thatch, so plentiful in other towns, was not to be met with in this. I was much sur- prised at the place, but more at the people ; they were a species I had never seen ; they possessed a vivacity I had never beheld ; I had been among dreamers, but now I saw men awake ; their very step along the street showed alacrity. I had been taught to con- sider the whole twenty-four hours as appropriated for sleep, but I found a people satisfied with only half that number. My intended stay, like O'Brian's, was one night ; but, struck with the place, I was unwilling to leave it. I could not avoid remarking, that if the people of Birmingham did not suflfer themselves to sleej? in the 50 niSTOllY OF BIRMINGHAM. streets, they did not sufFer others to sleep in their beds; for I was, earh morning, by three o'clock, saluted with a circle of hammers. Every man seemed to know and to prosecute his own affairs ; the town was large, and full of inhabitants, and those inhabitants full of industry. I had seen faces elsewhere tinctured with an idle gloom, void of meaning, but here with a pleasing alertness. Their ap[>earance was strongly marked with the modes of civil life : I mixed with a variety of company, chiefly of the lower ranks, and rather as a silent spectator. I was treated with an easy freedom by all, and with marks of fiivour by some. Hospitality seemed to claim this happy people for her own, though I knew not from what cause. I did not meet with this treatment, in 1770, twenty-nine years after, at Bosworth, where I accompanied a gentleman, with no other intent than to view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard the Third. The inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of set- ting their dogs at us in the street, merely beausa we were strangers. Thus, it appears, that characters are influenced by profission ; — that the great advantage of private fortune, and the greater to so- ciety, of softening and forming the mind, are the result of trade. — But these are not the only benefits that flow from this desirable spring. It opens the hand of charity to the assistance of distress ; witness the Hospital and the Charity Schools, supported by annual donation : it adds to the national security by supplying the taxes for internal use and for the prosecution of war. It adds to that security, by furnishing the inhabitants with riches which they are ever anxious to preserve, even at the risk of their lives ; for the preservation of private wealth, tends to the preservation of the state. It augments the value of landed property, by multiplying the num- ber of purchasers ; it produces money to improve that land into a higher state of cultivation, which ultimately redounds to general benefit by affording plenty ; it unites bodies of men in social com- pact, for their mutual interest ; it adds to the credit and pleasure of individuals, by enabling them to purchase entertainment and im- provement, both of the corporeal and intellectual kind. It finds employment for the hand that would otherwise be found in mis- chief; and it elevates the cliaracter of u nation in the scale of go- vernment. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 51 Birmingham, by her commercial consequence, has, of late, justly assumed the liberty of nominating one of the representatives for the county; and, to her honour, the elective body never regretted her choice. In that memorable contest of 1774, we were almost, to a man, of one mind. If an odd dozen amongst us, of a different mould, did not assimilate with the rest, they were treated, as men of free judgment should ever be treated, with civility, and the line of harmony was not broken. If this little treatise happens to travel into some of our corporate places where the fire of contention, blown by the breath of party, is kept alive during seven years, let them cast a second glance over the above remark. Some of the first words after the creation, inci'ease and multiply, ar*; applicable to Birmingham ; but as her own people are insuflS- cient for the manufactures, she demands assistance for two or three miles round her. In our early morning walks, on every road pro- ceeding from the town, we meet the sons of diligence returning to business, and bringing in the same dusky smuts which, the evening before, they took out. But, though they appear of a darkish com- plexion, we may consider it is the property of every metal to sully the user ; money, itself, has the same effect, and yet he deems it no disgrace who is daubed by fingering it ; the disgrace lies with him wJio has none to finger. Fashions mark all the degrees of men. This industrious race are distinguished by a black beard on Satur- day night, and a white shirt on Monday morning. The profits arising from labour, to the lower orders of men, seem to surpass those of other mercantile places. This is not only visi- ble in the manufactures peculiar to Birmingham, but in the more common occupations of the barber, tailor, shoemaker, kc. who bask in the rays of plenty. It is entertaining to the curious observer to contemplate the vari- ation of things. We know of nothing, either in the natural or mo- ral world, that continues in the same state. From a number of instances that might be adduced, permit me to name one — that of money. This, considered in the abstract, is of little or no value ; but, by the common consent of mankind, is erected into a general arbitrator to fix a value upon all others ; a medium through which every thing passes; a balance by which they must be weighed; a 52 HISTOllY OF BIRMINGHAM. touchstone to which they must be applied to find their worth : though we can neither eat nor drink it, we can neither eat nor drink without it. He that has none best knows its use. It has long been a complaint, that the same quantity of this me- dium — money, will not produce so much of the necessaries of life, particularly food, as heretofore; or, in other words, that provisions have been gradually rising for many ages, and that the shilling, which formerly supported the laborious family a whole week, will not now support it one day. In times of remarkable scarcity, such as those in 1728, 41, 56, 66, and 74, the press abounded with publications on the subject ; but none, which I have seen, reached the question, though short. It is of no consequence, whether a bushel of corn sells for sixpence or six sliillings, but, what time a man must labour before he can earn one ? If, by. the moderate labour of thirty-six hours, in the reign of Henry the Third, he could acquire a groat, which woidd purchase a bushel of wheat ; and if, in the reign of George the Third, he works the same number of hours for eight shillings, which will make the same purchase, the balance is exactly even. If, by our commercial concerns with the eastern and the western worlds, the kingdom abounds with bullion, money must be cheaper ; therefore a larger quantity is required to perform the same use. If money would go as far now as in the days of Henry the Third, a journey- man in Birmingham might amass a fortune. Whether provisions abound more or less ? and whether the poor fare better or worse, in one period than the other ? Are also ques- tions dependent upon trade, and therefore worth investigating. If the necessaries of life abound more in this reign, than in that of Henry the Third, we cannot pronounce them dearer. Perhaps it will not be absurd to suppose, that the same quantity of land, di- rected by the superior hand of cultivation, in the eighteenth century, will yield twice the produce, as by the ignorant management of the thirteenth. We may suppose also, by the vast number of new inclosures which have annually taken place since the Revolution, that twice the quantity of land is brought into cultivation : It fol- lows, that four times the quantity of provisions is raised from the earth, that was raised under Henry the Third ; which will leave a HISTORY OF BIEMINGIIAM. 53 large surplus in hand, after we have deducted for additional luxury, a greater number of consumers, and for exportation. This extraor- dinary stock is a security against famine, which our forefathers severely felt. It will be granted, that in both periods the worst of the meat was used by the poor. By the improvements in agricul- ture, the art of feeding cattle is well understood, and much in prac- tice ; as the land improves, so will the beast that feeds upon it : If the productions, therefore, of the slaughter house, in this age, surpass those of Henry the Third, then the fare of the poor is at least as much superior now, as the worst of fat meat is superior to the worst of lean. The poor inhabitants in that day, found it difficult to procure bread ; but in this, they sometimes add cream and butter. Thus it appears, that through the amazing variation of things a balance is preserved : that provisions have not advanced in price, but are more plentiful ; and that the lower class of men have found in ti-ade, that intricate, but beneficial clue, which guides them into the confines of luxury. Provisions and the manufactures, like a pair of scales, will not preponderate together ; but as weight is applied to the one, the other will advance. As labour is irksome to the body, a man will perform no more of it than necessity obliges him ; it follows, that in those times when plenty preponderates, the manufactures tend to decay : For if a man can support his family with three days' labour, he will not work six. As the generality of men will perform no more work than produces a maintenance, reduce that maintenance to half the price, and they will perform but half the work : Hence half the commerce of a na- tion is destroyed at one blow, and what is lost by one kingdom will be recovered by another, in rivalship. A commercial people, there- fore, will endeavour to keep provisions at a superior rate, yet within reach of the poor. It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimen- tal to trade ; for we frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support it. The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a hundred generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own forge. The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the exe- cution of orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a year; 54 IIISTOKY OF BIRMINGHAM. and though this mode of busine'^s is not totally extinguished, yet a vei-y different one is adopted. The merchant stands at the head of the manufecture, purchases his produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale ; a practice that would have astonished our forefathers. The commercial spirit of the age, has penetrated beyond the confines of Britain, and explored the whole continent of Europe; nor docs it stop there, for the West-Indies, and the Ameri- can world, are intimately acquainted with the Birmingham merchant; and nothing but the exclusive command of the East India Company over the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from treading upon the heels of each other in the streets of Calcutta. To this modern con- duct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to tb.e foreign market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid increase. By the poor's books it appears, there are not four thousand houses in Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates ; whilst there are more than seven thousand that do not.* Hence we see what an amazing number of the laborious part of mankind are among us. This valu- able class of the creation, are the prop of the remainder. They are the rise and support of our commerce. From this fountain we draw our lu.Yuries and our pleasures. They spread our tables, and oil the wheels of our carriages. They are the riches and the defence of the country. How necessary then is it to direct with prudence, the rough passions of this important race, and make them subservient to the great end of civil society. Let us survey the man, who begins life at the lowest ebb, without property, or any other advantage but that of his own prudence. He comes, by length of time and very minute degrees, from being directed himself, to have the direction of others. He quits the precincts of servitude, and enters the do- minions of command. He laboured for others, but now others labour for him. Should the whole race, therefore, possess the same pru- dence, they would all become masters. Where then could be found the servant ? Who is to perform the manual part? Who is to execute the orders of the merchant? A world consisting only of masters, is like a monster consisting only of a head. We know that the head is no more than the leading power, the members are equally necessary. This was written about forty years ago. HISTORY OF EIIIMINGIIAM. 55 And as one member is placed in a more elevated state than another, so are the ranks of men, tliat no void may be left. The hands and the feet were designed to execute the drudgery of life, the head for direction, and all are suitable in their sphere. If we turn the other side of the picture, we shall see a man born in affluence, take the reins of direction, biit like Phneton, not being able to guide them, blunders on from mischief to mischief, till he involves -himself in destruction, comes prone to the earth, and many are injured uitli his fall. From directing the bridle he submits to the bit; seeks for bread in the shops, the line designed him by nature ; where his hand becomes callous with the file, and where, for the first time in his life, he becomes useful to an injured society. Thus, from imprudence, folly, and vice, is produced poverty , — poverty produces labour ; from labour arise the manufactures ; and from these, the riches of a country, with all their train of benefits. Capacity is not quite so necessary to carry on busines as a turn of mind suited to the occasion. Most trades may be conducted with very little brains. I have known many a pretty fortune ac- quired by many a weak head ; nay, I have sometimes been tempted to question whether genius is not an enemy to success. It is apt to soar above the low grovellings of a mechanical shop. The man of genius may acquire fame, but the plodder acquires money. We have a middle class, which is one of the most amiable cha- racters among us ; a character very little noticed, but very common — that of ^faithful servant. A flower is not the less beautiful be- cause it blows unheeded in the field, or a gem the less valuable, be- cause never exhibited to the world. In them the eye of attention wakes for another ; the still tides of ambition never disturb the mounds of contentment, I could give a list of these silent worthies as long as that of our chief officers. He who finds one, finds hid- den treasures. It would be difficult to enumerate the great variety of trades practised in Birmingham, neither would it give pleasure to the reader. Some of them spring up with the expedition of a blade of grass, and, like that, wither in a summer. If some are lastin"-, like the sun, others seem to change with the moon. Invention is ever at work. Idleness, the manufactory of scandal, with the numerous 55 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. occupations connected with the cotton, the linen, the silk, and the woollen trades, are little known among us. Birmingham began with the productions of the anvil and proba- bly will end with them. The sons of the hammer were once her chief inhabitants ; but that great crowd of artists is now lost in a greater ; genius seems to increase with multitude. Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham, are owing to the late John Taylor, Esq., who possessed the singular powers of perceiving things as they really were. The spring and consequence of action were open to his view ; him we may justly deem the Shak- spear or Newton of his day. He rose, from minute beginnings, to shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the poetical and philosophical. Imitation is part of the human character. An ex- ample of such eminence in himself, promoted exertion in others, which, whea prudence guided the helm, led on to fortune ; but the bold adventurer, who crowded sail without ballast and without rudder, has been known to overset the vessel and sink insolvent. — To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt button, the japanned and gilt snuff-boxes, with the numerous race of enamels. From the game fountain issued the painted snufF-box, at which one servant earned three pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a farthing each. In his shop were weekly manufactured, buttons to the amount of £800, exclusive of other valuable productions. One of the present nobility, of distinguished taste, examining the works with the master, purchased some of the articles ; among others, a toy of eighty guineas value, and, while paying for them, observed, with a smile, " he plainly saw he could not reside in Birmingham for less than two hundred pounds a day." — Mr. Taylor died in 1775, at the age of 64, after acquiring a fortune of £200,000. The active powers of genius, the instigation of profit, and the afii- nity of one calling to another, often induce the artist to change his occupation. There is nothing more common among us ; even the divine and the lawyer are prone to this change. Thus the church throws her dead weight into the scale of commerce, and the law gives up the cause of contention ; but there is nothing more dis- graceful, next to thieving, in other places, "I am told," says an elderly gentleman, as he amused himself in a pitiful bookseller's HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 57 shop in a wi-etched market town, " that you are a stocking-maker by trade !"' The humble bookseller, half confused, and wholly ashamed, could not deny the charge. "Ah," cried the senior, whose features were modelled between the sneer and the smile, " there is neither honour or profit in changing the trade you were bred to. Do not attempt to sell books, but stay at home, and pur- sue your own business." But the dejected bookseller, scarcely one step higher than a walking stationer^ lived to acquire a fortune of £20,000, Had he followed the senior's advice, he might, like a common foot soldier, have starved upon eight pence a day.* The toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the beginning of Charles the Second's reign, in an amazing variety, at- tended with all their beauties and their graces. The first, in pre- eminence, is the BUTTON. This beautiful ornament appears with infinite variation ; and though the original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember the long coats of our grandfathers covered with half a gross of high- tops, and the cloaks of our grandmothers ornamented with a horn button, nearly the size of a crown-piece, a watch, or a John-apple, curiously wrought, as having passed through the Birmingham press. Though the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of the day, yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, and the pyramid, flash into existence. In some branches of traffic the wearer calls loudly for new fashions ; but in this, the fashions tread upon each other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption of this article is astonishing, and the value, from three-pence a gross, to one hundred and forty guineas. There seems to be hidden trea- sures couched within this magic circle, known only to a few, who extract prodigious fortunes out of this useful toy, whilst a far greater number submit to a statute of bankruptcy. Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed ; for, where one is carried to the end Mr. HuTTON, in this passage, refers to himself. I 58 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. of a successful journey, many are thrown off by the way. The next that calls our attention is the BUCKLE. Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is nearly as ancient as the foot. It originally appeared under the name of sandal ; this was no other than a sole without an upper leather. That fashion has since been inverted ; and we now, sometimes, see an upper lea- ther nearly without a sole : but, whatever was the cut of the shoe, it always demanded a fastening. Under the House of Plantagenet, it shot horizontally from the foot, like a Dutch skait, to an enor- mous length, so that the extremity was fastened to the knee, some- times with a silver chain, a silk lace, or even a pacVthread string, rather than avo'\d genteel taste. This thriving beak drew the attention of the legislature, who were determined to prune the exorbitant shoot; for, in 1465, we find an Order of Council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe to more than two inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from the priest, and, which was worse, the payment of twenty shillings to the king. This fashion, like every other, gave way to time, and in its stead, the rose began to bud upon the foot, which, under the House of Tudor, opened in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable, with- out being fastened with a full blown rose. Ribands of every colour, except white, the emblem of the depressed House of York, were had in esteem ; but the red like the House of Lancaster, held the pre-eminence. Under the House of Stuart, the rose withered, which gave rise to the shoe-string. The beaux of that age, ornamented their lower tier with double laces of silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities were beautified with a small fringe of the same metal. The inferior class, wore laces of plain silk, linen, or even a thong of leather ; which last is yet to be met with in the humble plains of rural life. But I am inclined to think the artists of Birmingham had no great hand in fitting out the beau of the last century. The revolution was remarkable for the introduction of the minute buckle, not differing in size and shape from the horse bean. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 59 This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The fashion of to-day is thrown into the casting pot to-morrow. The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size, and shape of geometrical invention : it has passed through every form in the whole zodiac of Euclid. The large square buckle, plated with silver, is the ton of the present day.* The ladies also, have adopted the reigning taste. It is difficult to discover tlieir beautiful little feet, covered with an enormous shield of buckle; and we wonder to see the active motion under the massy load. Thus the British fair support the manufactures of Birmingham, and thus they kill by weight of metal. GUNS. Though the sword and the gun are equal companions in war, it does not appear they are of equal antiquity. I have already observ- ed, that the sword was the manufactory of Birmingham in the time of the Britons. But tradition tells us. King William was once lamenting, " That guns wei*e not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was obliged to procure them from Holland at a great expence, and greater difficulty." Sir Richard Newdigate, one of the Members for the County, being present, told the King, " That Genius resided in Warwickshire, and that he thought his consti- tuents could answer his Majesty's wishes." The King was pleased with the remark, and the Member posted to Birmingham. Upon application to a person in Digbeth, whose name I forget, the pattern was executed with precision, which, when presented to the Royal Board, gave entire satisfaction. Orders were immediately issued for large numbers, which have been so frequently repeated, that they never lost their road ;f and the ingenious manufacturers have been * The manufacture of buckles has been extinct many years. This is much to be regretted ; for it was a branch of the Birmingham trade which supported some hundreds of families. We hope ere long to see this useful and ornamental article again in general use. f After the revolution of France, when England was threatened with an invasion, such was the demand for guns that this country 60 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. so amply rewarded, that they have rolled in their carriages to this day. Thus the same instrument which is death to one man is gen- teel life to another, LEATHER. It may seem singular to a modern eye to view this place in the light of one vast tan-yard. Though there is no appearance of that necessary article among us, yet Birmingham was once a famous market for leather. Digbeth not only abounded with tanners, but large numbers of hides arrived weekly for sale, where the whole country found a supply. When the weather M'ould allow, they were ranged in columns in the High-street, and at other times de- posited in the Leather Hall, at the east end of New-street, appropri- ated for their reception. This market was of great antiquity, pei-haps not less than seven hundred years, and continued till the beginning of the present cen- tury. We have two officers, annually chosen, by the name of lea- ther-sealers, from a power given them by ancient charter, to mark the vendible hides ; but now the leather-sealers have no duty, but was induced to extend the manufacture of them in her own do- minions, and Government giving encouragement to the artizans of Birmingham, they were, in 1 804, enabled to supply monthly 5000 stand of arms, in 1809, 20,000, and in 1810, from 28,000 to 30,000 which were supplied regularly until the termination of the war in 1815. A temporary proof-house had been erected, in Lancaster- street, under the inspection of a Board of Ordnance, to expedite businsss ; but, in 1813, an Act was obtained to erect a permanent one, where all kinds of gun and pistol barrels might be proved, and the omis- sion subjects the party to a heavy penalty. It is situated in Ban- bury-street, and under the directions of three Wardens, chosen an- nually from the guardians and trustees named in the Act. In addi- tion to them, the Lords Lieutenants of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford ; the Members of Parliament for these counties, and the Mcigistrates, acting within seven miles of Birmingham, are appointed guardians. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 61 that of taking an elegant dinner ; shops are erected upon tan-fats ; the Leather Hall is gone to destruction, and we are reduced to one solitary tanner. STEEL. The progress of the arts, is equal to the progress of time; they began and will end together. Though some of both are lost, yet they both accumulate. The manufacture of iron, in Birmingham, is ancient beyond re- search ; that of steel is of modern date. Pride is inseparable from the human character ; the man without it, is the man without breath. We trace it in various forms through every degree of people ; but, like those objects about us, it is best discovered in our own sphere ; those above, and those below us, rather escape our notice ; envy attacks an equal. Pride induced a late High Bailiff, at the proclamation of our Michaelmas fair, to hold his wand two feet higher than the usual rest, that he might dazzle the cr-owd with a beautiful glove hanging pendant, a ruffle curiously wrought, a ring set with brilliants, and a hand delicately white. Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon meaner : it whets the sword for destruction, it urges the lau- dable acts of humanity, it is the universal hinge on which we move, it glides the gentle stream of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of reason, and swells it into a destructive flood ; like the sun, in his milder rays, it animates and draws us towards perfection ; but like him, in its fiercer beams, it scorches and destroys. Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds no where more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a Sunday dress, casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags ; it boasts the honour of a family, while poverty unites a soul and upper leather with a bandage of shop-thread. There are people who even pride themselves in humility. This dangerous ^oofZ, this necessary evil, supports the female cha- racter ; without it, the brightest parts of the creation would degene- ate. It will be asked, " What portion may be allowed '?" Prudence will answer, " As much as you please, but not to disgust." It is equally found in the senate-house, and the button-shop ; the scene 62 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. of action is the scene of pride. He who makes steel prides himself in carrying the art one step higher than he who makes iron. This art appeared amongst us in the seventeenth century ; was introduced by the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane will convey to posterity the situation of the works, the commercial spirit of Birmingham will convey the produce to the Antipodes. From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button which shines on the breast, and the bayonet intended to pierce it ; the lancet, which bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock which preserves the beloved bottle, and the screw to uncork it ; the needle, equally obedient to the thimble and pole. BRASS WORKS. The manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner, in about 1 740, who erected those works at the south-end of Coles- hill-street ; then, near two hundred yards beyond the buildings, but now the buildings extend half a mile beyond them. Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel, some of the trades collected their daily supply of brass ; but the major part was drawn from the Macclesfield, Cheadle, and Bristol companies. * Causes are known by their effects ;' the fine feelings of the heart are easily read in the features of the face : the still operations of the mind, are discovered by the rougher operations of the hand. Every creature is fond of power, from that noble head of the creation, man, who devours man, down to that insignificant mite, who devours his cheese : every man strives to be free himself, and to shackle another. Where there is power of any kind, whether in the hands of a prince, a people, a body of men, or a private person, there is a propensity to abuse it : abuse of power will everlastingly seek itself a remedy and frequently find it ; nay, even this remedy may in time degene- rate to abuse, and call loudly for another. Brass is an object of some magnitude, in the trades of Birmingham; the consumption is said to be a thousand tons per annum. The manufacture of this useful article had long been in few and opulent hands ; who, instead of making the humble bow, for favours received, ficted with despotic sovereignty, established their own laws, chose HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 63 their customers, directed the price, and governed the market. In 1780, the article rose, either through caprice, or necessity, perhaps the/onner, from £72. a ton to £84. the result was, an advance upon the goods manufactured, followed by a number of counter-orders and a stagnation of business. In 1781, a person, from affection to the user, or resentment to the maker, perhaps the latter, harangued the public in the weekly pa- pers; censured the arhitary measures of the brazen sovereigns, shewed their dangerous influence over the trades of the town, and the easy manner in which works of our own might be constructed — good often arises out of evil ; this fiery match, dipt in brimstone, quickly kindled another furnace in Birmingham. Public meetings were advertised, a committee appointed, and subscriptions opened to fill two hundred shares of £100 each, deemed a sufficient capital ; each proprietor of a share, to purchase one ton of brass annually. Works were immediately erected upon the banks of the canal, for the advantage of water carriage, and the whole was conducted with the true spirit of Birmingham freedom. The old companies, which we may justly consider the directors of a south sea bubble in miniature, sunk the price from £84. to £56. Two inferences arise from this measure ; that their profits were once very high or were now very low ; and, like some former monarchs in the abuse of power, they repented one day too late. NAILS. In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman bear a proportion. If the former is able to figure in genteel life, the latter is able to figure in silk stockings. If the master can afford to allow upon his goods ten per cent, discount for money, the ser- vant can afford to squander half his wages. In a worn-down trade, where the tides of profit are reduced to a low ebb, and where impru- dence sets her foot upon the premises, the master and the man starve together. Only half this is our present case. The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us ; we may safely charge its antiquity with four figures. We cannot con- sider it a trade in^ so much as of Birmingham ; for we have but few nail-makers left in the town ; our nailers arc chiefly masters, and 64 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. rather opulent. The manufacturers are so scattered round the country, that we cannot travel far, in any direction, out of the sound of the nail-hammer. But Birmingham, like a powerful magnet, draws the produce of the anvil to herself. When I first approached her, from Walsall, in 1741, I was sur- prised at the prodigious number of blacksmith shops upon the road ; and could not conceive how a country, though populous, could sup- port so many people of the same occupation. In some of these shops I observed one, or more females, stript of their upper garment, and not overcharged with the lower, wielding the hammer with all the grace of the sex. The beauties of their face were rather eclipsed by the smut of the anvil ; or, in poetical phrase, the tincture of the forge had taken possession of those lips, which might have been taken by the kiss. Struck with the novelty, I enquired *' Whether the ladies in this country shod horses?" but was answered with a smile, "They are nailers." A fire without heat, a nailer of a fair complexion, or one who despises the tankard, are equally rare among them. His whole sys- tem of faith may be comprised in one article — that the slender two- penny mug, used in a public house, is deceitful above all thinffSy and desperately wicJced. While the master reaps the harvest of plenty, the workman sub- mits to the scanty gleanings of penury, a thin habit, an early old age, and a figure bending towards the earth. Plenty comes not near his dwelling, except of rags, and of children. But few recruits arise from his nail-shop, except for the army. His hammer is worn into deep hollows, fitting the fingers of a dark and plump hand, hard as the timber it wears. His face, like the moon, is often seen through a cloud of smoke.* BELLOWS. Man first catches the profession ; the profession afterwards moulds the man. In whatever profession we engage, we assume its charac- * During the last twenty years nails have been made of cast-iron, which, for shape and beauty, excel those made by hand. They are rendered so malleable as to equal any wrought nail which can be forged. 1 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 65 ter, become a part of it, vindicate its honour, its eminence, its anti- quity, or feel a wound through its sides. Though there may be no more pride in a minister of state, who opens a budget, than in a tinker who carries one, yet they equally contend for the honour of their trade. The bellows-maker proclaims the honour of his art, by observing he alone produces that instrument which commands the winds ; his soft breeze, like that of the south, counteracts the chill blasts of winter ; by his efforts, like those of the sun, the world receives light ; he creates when he pleases, and gives breath when he cre- ates. In his caverns the winds sleep at pleasure, and by his orders they set Europe in flames. He farther pretends that the antiquity of his occupation will appear from the plenty of elm, once in the neighbourhood, but long cut up for his use ; that the leather-mar- ket in Birmingham, for many ages, furnished him with sides ; and though the manufacture of iron is allowed to be extremely ancient, yet the smith could not procure his heat without a blast, nor could that blast be raised without the bellows. One inference will arise from these remarks, that bellows-making is one of the oldest trades in Birmingham, THREAD. We, who reside in the interior parts of the kingdom, may observe the first traces of a river issue from its fountain ; the current so extremely small, that if a bottle of liquor was discharged into its course, it would manifestly augment the water, and quicken the stream. If we pursue this river, winding through one hundred and thirty miles, we shall observe it collect strength as it runs, expand its borders, swell into consequence, employ multitudes of people, carry wealth in its bosom, and exactly resemble thread-making in Birmingham. If we represent to our idea a man able to employ three or four people, himself in an apron, one of the number ; but being unable to write his name, shows his attachment to the Chris- tian religion by signing the cross to receipts ; whose method of book- keeping, like that of the publican, is a door and a lump of chalk ; producing a book which none can peruse but himself; who, havino- manufactured forty pounds weight of thread, of divers colours, and K 66 HISTORY OF BIKMINGHAM. rammed it into a pair of leather bags, something larger than a pair of boots which we might deem the arms of his trade empaled^ slung them on a horse, and placed himself on the top by way of a crest, visits an adjacent market to starve with his goods at a stall, or re- tail them to a mercer, nor return without the money, we shall see a thread-maker of 1652. If we pursue this occupation, winding through the mazes of one hundred and thirty years, we shall see it enlarge its boundaries, multiply its people, increase its consequence and wealth, till 1782, when we behold the master in possession of cor- rect accounts, the apron thrown aside, the stall kicked over, the bags tossed into the garret, and the mercer overlooked in the grand prospect of exportation. We farther behold him take the lead in provincial concerns, step into his own carriage, and hold the king's commission as a magistrate. PRINTING BY JOHN BASKERVILLE. The pen of m\ historian rejoices in the actions of the great ; the fame of the deserving, like an oak tree is of sluggish growth. The present generation becomes debtor to him who excels, but the fu- ture will discharge that debt with more than simple interest. The still voice of fame may warble in his ears towards the close of life, but her trumpet seldom sounds in full clarion, till those ears are stopped with the finger of death. This son of genius was born at Wolverly, in the county of Wor- cester, in 1706; heir to a paternal estate of £60 per annum, which, fifty years after, while in his own possession, had increased to £90. He was trained to a stone-cutter, but, in 1726, became a writing- master in Birmingham. In 1737, he taught a school in the Bull- ring, and is said to have written an excellent hand. As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative branch of japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street. He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs north-west of the town, to which he gave the name of Easy-hill, converted it into a little Eden, and built a house in the centre ; but the town, as if conscious of his merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with buildings. Here he continued the business of a HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 67 japanner for life ; his carriage, each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be considered the pattern-card of his trade, and was drawn by a beautiful pair of cream-coloured horses.* His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his thoughts towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain pursuit, sunk £600 before he could produce one letter to please himself, and some thousands before the shallow stream of profit be- gan to flow. His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil, price one guinea, now worth several. — He afterwards printed Paradise Lost, the Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English Classics^ kc. in various sizes, with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument to himself. In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris, and now Ambassador from America, to sound the literati respect- ing the purchase of his types, but received for answer, " that the French, reduced by the war of 1756, were so far from pursuing schemes of taste, that they were unable to repair their public build- ings, but suffered the scaflfolding to rot before them." In private life he was a humourist ; idle in the extreme ; but his invention was of the true Birmingham model — active. He could well design, but procured others to execute ; wherever he found merit, he caressed it. He was remarkably polite to the stranger, fond of show, a figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that figure with gold-lace. During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life, he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a peevish temper, we may consider good nature and intense thinking are not always found * The spot where Baskerville resided is now encompassed by Easy-row, Cambridge-street, Crescent wharfs, St, Martin's-place, and Broad-street ; the house he erected was afterwards enlarged by the late John Ryland, Esq., whose improvements were but just com- pleted, when, in 1791, it was destroyed in the memorable and dis- graceful riots of that yeai-. 68 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. together. Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture, architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed througli liis fingers bore the lively marks of John Baskerville. He erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for his remains, and died vithout issue, in 1775, at the age of 69. Many efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the types ; but, to the lasting discredit of the British nation, no purchaser could be found in the whole commonwealth of letters. The Universities coldly rejected the offer. The London booksellers understood no science like that of profit. The valuable property, therefore, lay a dead weight till purchased by a literary society in Paris, in 1779, for £3,700. It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much as this island ; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no where so little rewarded ; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and Chatterton, to want bread ? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too common to attract notice, or is the use of money beneath the care of exalted talents ? Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask what fortune Baskerville ought to have been rewarded with ? " The ?nost which can be comprised in five figures." If you farther ask what he pos- sessed ? " The least .'" but none of it squeezed from the press. What will the shade of this great man think, if capable of thinking, that he has spent a fortune, and a life of genius, in carrying to per- fection the greatest of all human inventions ; and that his produc- tions, slighted by his country, were hawked over Europe in quest of a bidder ? His example has since taught others to equal him. We must revere, if we do not imitate, the taste and economy of the French nation, who, brought by the British arms, in 1762, to the verge of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in seventeen years, to purchase Baskerville's elegant types, and expend an hundred thousand pounds in printing the works of one of her most eminent authors. BRASS FOUNDRY. The curious art before us is perhaps less ancient than profitable, and less healthful than either. I shall not enquire whose grand- HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 69 father was the first brass-founder here, but shall leave their grand- sons to settle that important point with my successor, who shall next write the History of Birmingham. Whoever was the first, I believe he figured in the reign of King William; but, though he sold his productions at an excessive price, he did not, like the mo- derns, possess the art of acquiring a fortune; but now the master knows the way to affluence. BREWERY. The two props of eating and drinking, like the two legs of a man, support his body. Without them he would make but a miserable shift. They give equal relief, are nearly of equal standing. If the antiquary finds pleasure in the researches of a few centuries, what will he find in these two amusements ? They are the two oldest fa- shions we know ! He may readily trace their origin to Adam. He may pursue, with some precision, the fashions of dress through 5000 years, but the fashions of eating and drinking are, at least, one day older. The love of life, the desire of the sex towards each other, the fear of death, and the relish for food, make a part of our nature, and are planted in us for the preservation of our race. — If the pleasure of infusing existence was no greater than that of de- stroying it, if the dread of death was no more than that of sleep, and the pleasure of taking sustenance no greater than that of discharg- ing it, annihilation would follow. The first thing we learn is to cry for food ; the last to die when we cease to take it. Could we sus- tain life without it, or procure it without trouble, the manufactures would cease. Invention might assist us with regard to fire and clothing, but there is no food without labour. One would think the Israelites must have made but a despicable figure in the eyes of the active, philosophical, or commercial world, for spending forty idle years in the wilderness. It is no wonder want of employment bred discontent. In 1752, a brewery Mas instituted in the Inkleys ; but, as the practice of the inhabitants was to brew their own drink, it fell, for want of success. In 1782, another was erected in Moseley-street. A person from London, in 1784, erected a Brewery near the Ick- nield-street ( Warstoue-lane) to furnish the town with porter in the 70 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. London style. This is supplied by a small rivulet 200 yards distant ; which, in the year 1400, guarded a castle, inhabited by a branch of the Birmingham family. Thus the humble water, as if attentive to the service of man, still retains its ancient use of preserving life. Its former master kept it for his private benefit ; its present, sells it for his. It then secured the property of the owner, it now wastes that of the user. From the extensive scale upon which this work is pursued, the proprietor may be said " to barrel up a river;" and the inhabitants, " to swallow a stream which ran useless for ages."* The manufacture of plated Hollow-ware, Umbrellas, &c. are of modern date. Professors also increase with mechanics, for the medical gentlemen, who, in 1781, were 24, are, in 1791, 43. Those of the law hold the same proportion. To enumerate the great variety of occupations among us, would be as useless, and as unentertaining to the reader, perhaps to the writer, as to count the pebbles in the street. Having therefore visited a few, byway of specimen, I shall desist from further pursuit, and wheel off in a HACKNEY COACH. Wherever the view of profit opens, the eyes of a Birmingham man are open to see it. In 1775, a person was determined to try if a Hackney Coach would take with the inhabitants. He had not mounted the box many times before he inadvertently dropped the expression, " Thirty shillings a day !" The word was attended with all the powers of magic, for instantaneously a second rolled into the circus. And these elevated sons of the lash were, in 1795, augmented to fifteen,t whom we may * There are now several extensive public breweries in Birmingham. f In 1834, Mr. Smith, of Smallbrook-street, introduced the Om- nibus into this town, running from Snowhill to the Bristol-road. Four others almost immediately followed in the different directions of Edgbaston, HandsAvorth, and Highgate. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 71 justly denominate a club of tippling deities, who preside over wed- dings, christenings, and pleasurable excursions. It would give satisfaction to the curious calculator, could any mode be found of discovering the returns of trade, made by the uni- ted inhabitants. But the question is complicated. It only admits of surmise. From comparing many instances in various ranks among us, I have been led to suppose, that the weekly returns exceeds the annual rent of the buildings. And as these rents are nearly ascer- tained, perhaps, we may conclude, that those returns are about £100,000, and allowing for holidays about £4,000,000 a year. BANK. Perhaps a public bank is as necessary to the health of the com- mercial body, as exercise to the natural. The circulation of the blood and spirits are promoted by one, as are cash and bills by the other ; and a stagnation is equally detrimental to both. Few places are without ; yet Birmingham, famous in the annals of trafic, could boast no such claim. To remedy this defect, about every tenth trader was a banker, or, a retailer of cash. At the head of these were marshelled the whole train of drapers and grocers, till the year 1765, when a regular bank was constituted by Messrs, Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen, whose credit being equal to the bank of Eng- land, quickly collected the shining rays of sterling property into its focus. Wherever the earth produces grass, an animal will be found to eat it. Success produced a second bank, by Robert Coales, Esq. a third by Francis Goodal, Esq. and Co. and in 1791, a fourth by Isaac Spooner, Esq. and Co.* WEALTH, I have often taken the liberty of wandering rather wide of Bir- mingham, in my historical remarks ; but in this visionary chapter, I must, like Anson, take the liberty of compassing the globe. By the laws of the quill, an author, under severe penalties, is forbid to sleep ; * There are now ten extensive Banking Establishments. 72 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. nay, if he suffers a reader to sleep, he may, hke a woman guilty of petty treason, he condemned to the fiames : but he is no where forbid to play, or to shift his station ; he who plays, may amuse another as much as himself, and we all know, he who writes is often, \\\xo\\^\ poverty , obliged to shift his station. If we survey this little world, vast in our idea, but small compared to immensity, we shall find it crusted over with property, fixed and moveable. Upon this crusty world, subsist animals of various kinds ; one of which, something short of six feet, who moves erect, and seems the only one without a tail, takes the lead in pride, and in the command of this property. Fond of power, and conscious that pos- sessions give it, he is ever attempting, by force, fraud, or laudable means, to arrive at both. Fixed property bears a value according to its situation ; 10,000 acres in a place like London, and its environs, would be an immense fortune, such as no man ever possessed ; while, 10,000, in some parts of the globe, though well covered with timber, would not be worth a shilling. No king to govern, no subject to submit, no market to exhibit property, no property to exhibit, instead of striving to get possession, he would, if cast on the spot, strive to get away. Thus assemblages of people mark a place with value. Moveable property is of two sorts, that which, with the assistance of man, arises from the earth, and the productions of art, which wholly arise from his labour, A small degree of industry supplies the wants of nature, a little more furnishes the comforts of life, and a farther little, the luxuries, A man, by labour, first removes his own wants, then, with the overplus of that labour, purchases the la- bour of another. Thus, by furnishing a hat for the barber, the hat- ter procures a wig for himself: the tailor, by making a coat for another, is enabled to buy cloth for his own. It follows, the larger the body of people, the more likely to cultivate a spirit of industry ; the greater that industry, the greater its produce ; consequently, the more they will supply the calls of others, and the more lucrative will be the returns to themselves. It may be asked, what is the meaning of the word rich ? Some have termed it, a little more than a man has ; others, the possession of a certain sum, not very small ; others again, as much as will con- HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 73 tent him. Perhaps all are wrong. A man may be rich, possessed only of one hundi-ed pounds ; he may be poor, possessed of one hun- dred thousand. He alone is rich, whose income is more than he uses. Industry, though excellent, will perform but half the work ; she must be assisted by economy ; without this, a ministerial fortune would be defective. These two qualities, separated from each other, like a knife from the handle, are of little use; but like that, they be- come valuable when united. Economy without industry, will barely appear in a whole coat ; industry without economy, will appear in rags. The first is detrimental to the community, by preventing the circulation of property, tlie last is detrimental to itself. It is a sin- gular remark, that even industry is sometimes the way to poverty. Industry, like a new-cast guinea, retains its sterling value, but, like that, it will not pass currently till it receives a sovereign stamp ; economy is the stamp which gives it currency. I well knew a man who began business with £1,500, Industry seemed the end for which he was made, and in which he wore himself out. While he laboured from four in the morning till eight at night, in the construc- tion of gimblets, his family consumed twice his produce. Had he spent less time at the anvil, and more in teaching the lessons of frugaUty, he might have lived in credit. Thus the father was ruined by industry, and his children have, for many years, been fixed on the parish books. The people of Birmingham are more apt to get than to keep. Though a man, by his labour, may treat himself with many things, yet he seldom grows rich. Riches are generally acquired by purchasing the labour of others. He who buys the labour of one hundred people, may acquire ten times as much as by his own. What then has that capricious damsel. Fortune, to do in this chain of argument? Nothing. He who has capacity, attention, and economy, has a fortune within himself. She does not command hirn^ he commands her. Having explained the word riches, and pointed out the road to them, let us examine their use. They enable a man with great fa- cility to shake off an old friend, once an equal ; and forbid access L 74 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. to inferiors, except a toad-eater. Sometimes they add to his name the pretty appendage of Right Honourable Baronet, or Esquire, an addition much coveted, which, should he happen to become an au- thor, is an easy passport through the gates of fame. His very fea- tures seem to take a turn from his fortune, and a curious eye may easily read in his face the word consequence. They change the tone of his voice from the submissive to the commanding, in which he well knows how to throw a few graces. His style is convincing. Money is of singular efficacy ; it clears his head, refines his sense, points his joke. The weight of his fortune adds weight to his ar- gument. If, my dear reader, you have been a silent spectator at the Shakspeare Tavern, at a general meeting for public business, at the Low Baililf's feast, at Hobson's, or at Jones's, you may have ob- served many a smart thing said unheeded by the man without mo- ney, and many a paltry one, echoed with applause, from the man with it. The room in silent attention hears one, while the other can scarcely hear himself. They direct a man to various ways of being carried with great ease, who is too idle to carry himself; nay, they invert the order of things, for we often behold two men who seem hungry carry one who is full fed. They add refinement to his palate, prominence to his belly, scent to his leavings, scarlet to his nose. They frequently ward off old age. The ancient rules of moderation being broken, luxury enters in all her pomp, followed by a group of diseases, with a physician in their train and the rector in his. Vials, prayers, tears, and gally-pots, close the sad scene, and the individual has the honour to rot in state before old age can advance. His place may be readily supplied with a joyful mourner. There are people among us who manage matters with such ad- dress that they pay their way with credit, live after the rate of five or six hundred pounds a year, without a shilling of their own. In doubtful prospects, the shadow may be taken for the substance. A tree may flourish to the sight and be rotten at the root. There are others who have acquii-ed £20,000, yet appear to the eye much in the style of journeymen. He who has been long inured to his dusty shops, and whose shops have paid him, deems it a sin to for- sake them. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 75 The wealth of our principal inhabitants, December, 1783, may be comprised in the following table. — Perhaps we have 3 who possess upwards of £100,000 each. 7 . 50,000 8 , 30,000 17 . 20,000 80 . 10,000 94 5,000* * In September 1828, the estimate of the supposed population and wealth of Birn linghan^ was as follows : — Total popu ation 120,000 Females . . 50,000 Adult male 3 . 25,000 Persons. Property. Amount. 1 £400,000 2 300,000 . 600,000 3 200,000 . 000,000 4 150,000 . 600,000 5 100,000 . 500,000 6 80,000 . 480,000 10 50,000 . 500,000 "20 30,000 . 600,000 30 20,000 . 600,000 50 15,000 . 750,000 70 10,000 . 700,000 100 5,000 . 500,000 200 2,000 . 400,000 400 1,000 . 400,000 1000 500 . 500,000 2000 250 . 500,000 3000 100 . 300,000 4000 50 . 200,000 5000 25 . 125,000 5000 15 . 75,000 4000 . 000,000 Female proj erty 670,000 £10,000,000 76 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. Some one may ask, " how came you to know what property the inhabitants are possessed of, they never told you ?" I answer, the man long accustomed to shoot with a gun, cannot be a bad shooter, he will sometimes hit the mark, seldom be far from it. The man ■who has guessed for thirty years cannot be a bad guesser. I have written, you see, an extensive chapter, consisting of many pages, merely for the sake of a few figures, which compose six crabbed lines, cut short at both ends. Instead of making a little cabinet to hold the treasure I may be charged with making a house ! But, let me observe, this treasure has taken more time in ascertaining than the house in building. A reader, fond of figures, will quickly perceive that I have se- lected 209 people who take the lead among 50,000, by commanding a property of £3,500,000. Out of the 209, 103 began the world with nothing but their own prudence ; 35 more had fortunes added to their prudence, but too small to be brought into account ; and 71 persons were favoured with a larger, which, in many instances, is much improved. Hence it follows that the above sum is chiefly acquired by the present in- habitants. But we are not to suppose Birmingham, during this age, has increased in wealth to that amount. While these 209 for- tunes have been making, twice that number, of various sizes, have been spent, divided, or carried off. But all the 209 are of modern date, not one of them having passed through three descents. Many occasions have offered, in the course of this work, which obliged me to pay a just compliment to the merit of the inhabitants, and which I gladly embraced ; but no occasion surpasses the pre- sent. — A fortune, justly gained, is a credit to the man who gains it, and is generally considered by him who has it, and him who has it not, a pretty conveniency. It is a benefit to others. A man can- not acquire £10,000 by fair trade, without 10,000 persons being gainers by the acquirement. It confers a singular honour on the place of his success. Pride may afterwards induce him to be ashamed of the place, but the place is never ashamed of him. These observations corroborate a remark in the begimiing of the work, that we are well able io fabricate gentlemen, but not to Jceep HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 77 them. Birmingham, a fertile field, yields a copious harvest, which attracts the inhabitants fifty miles round it ; some of whom glean a fortune and retreat with the prize. GOVERNMENT. Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes, every one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has a dazzling effect ? Or have you seen a ring, from the same origin, set with diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles with amazing beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprise the be- holder ? Or have you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens be- spangled with refulgent splendour, each stud shining with intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in the aggregate, reflect honour upon the maker, and enliven the hemisphere? Such is the British Govern- ment. Such is that excellent system of polity which shines the envy of the stranger, and the protector of the native. Every city, town, and village in England, has a separate jurisdic- tion of its own, and may justly be deemed a stud m the grand lustre. Though the British constitution is as far from perfection, as the glory of the ring and the hilt are from that of the sun which causes it, or the stars from the day ; yet perhaps it stands higher in the scale of excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may, with propriety, allow that body to shine with splendour, which has been polishing for seventeen hundi-ed years. Much honour is due to the patriotic merit which advanced it to its present eminence. Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant cluster, yet she is a sparkle of the first water, and of the first magnitude. The more perfect any system of government, the happier the people. A wise government will punish for the commission of crimes, but a wiser will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an ac- tive animal ; if he is not employed in some useful pursuit, he will employ himself in mischief: example is prevalent. If one man falls into error, he often draws another. Though heaven, for wise pur- 78 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. poses, suffers a people to fulfil the measure of their iniquities, a pru- dent state will nip them in the bud. It is easy to point out some places, only one third the magnitude of Birmingham, whose frequent breaches of the law, and quarrels among themselves, find employment for half a dozen magistrates, and four times that number of constables ; whilst the business of this was for many years conducted by a single Justice, the late John Wyrley, Esq. If the reader should think I am mistaken ; and ob- ject, that parish affairs cannot be conducted without a second : Let me reply. He conducted that second also. As humah nature is nearly the same, whether in or out of Bir- mingham ; and as enormities seem more prevalent out than in, we may reasonably ascribe the cause to the extraordinary industry of the inhabitants, not allowing time to brood over, and bring forth mis- chief, equal to places of less diligence. There were, in 1795, two acting magistrates to hold the beam of justice, the Rev, Benjamin Spencer, and Joseph Carless, Esq. who both resided at a distance. Many of our corporate towns received their charters from that amiable, but unfortunate prince, Henry the Second, These were the first dawnings of British liberty, after fixing the Norman yoke. They were afterwards ratified and improved by the subsequent Kings of England, granting not only the manors, but many exclu- sive privileges. But at this day, those places which were so remark- ably favoured with the smiles of royalty, are not quite so free as those that were not. We often behold a pompous corporation, which sounds well in history, superintending something like a dirty village. This is a head without a body. The very reverse is our case — we are a body without a head. For though Birmingham has undergone an ama- zing alteration in extension, riches, and population, yet the govern- ment is nearly the same as the Saxons left it. This part of my im- portant history therefore must suflfer an eclipse ; this illustrious chapter, which rose in dazzling brightness, must be veiled in the thick clouds of obscurity ; I shall figure with my corporation in at HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 79 despicable light. I am not able to bring upon the stage a mayor and a group of aldermen, dressed in antique scarlet, bordered with fur, drawing a train of attendants ; the meanest of which, even the pin- der, is badged with silver; nor treat my guest with a band of music, in scarlet cloaks with broad laces. I can grace the hand of my Bir- mingham fidler with only a rusty instrument, and his back with barely a whole coat ; neither have I a mace, charged with armorial bearings, for the inaugeration of the chief magistx-ate. The reader, therefore, must either quit the place, or be satisfied with such enter- tainment as it affords. The officers, who are annually chosen, to direct in this prosperous seat of fortune, are An High Bailiff, Two High Tasters, Low Bailiff, Two Low Tasters, Two Constables, Two Affeirers, and Head borough. Two Leather Sealers. All which, the constables excepted, are no more than servants to the lord of the manor ; and whose duty extends no farther, than to the preservation of the manorial rights. The high bailiff to inspect the market, and see that justice takes place between buyer and seller ; to rectify the weights and dry mea- sures used in the manor. The low bailiff summons a jury, who chuse all the other officers, and generally with prudence. But the most important part of his office is, to treat his friends at the expence of about Seventy Pounds. The headborough is only an assistant to the constables, chiefly in time of absence. High tasters examine the goodness of beer, and its measure. Low tasters inspect the meat exposed to sale, and cause that to be destroyed which is unfit for use. Affeirers ratify the chief rent and amercements, between the lord and the inhabitant. And the Leather sealers, stamped a public seal upon the hides, when Bir- mingham was a market for leather. These manorial servants, instituted by ancient charter, chiefly possess a name, without an office. Thus order seems assisted 80 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. by industry, and thus a numerous body of inhabitants are governed without a governor. Exclusive of the choice of officers, the jury impannelled by the low bailiff, have the presentation of all encroachments upon the lord's waste, which has long been neglected. The duties of office are little known, except that of taking a generous dinner, which is punctually observed. It is too early to begin business till the table is well stored, and too late afterwards. During the existence of the house of Birmingham, the court-leet was held at the Moat, in what we should now think a large and shabby room,* conducted under the eye of the low bailiff, at the expence of the lord. The jury, twice a year, wei-e witnesses that the famous dish of roast beef, ancient as the family who gave it, demanded the head of the table. The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and the ex- pence, which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time, prosperity, and emulation, are able to effect considerable changes. The jury, in the beginning of the present century, were impannelled in the Old * The Manor House was, for a succession of ages, the residence of the Lords of Birmingham. It was situate within one hundred yards south of St. Martin's Church, and about forty west of Digbeth. The approach to the court yard was over a bridge which stood exactly opposite Bradford-street. The house was defended by a Moat, supplied by a small stream which originally joined the Rea, at Vaughton's Hole, and divides the parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston. At the formation of the Moat, the course of this ap- parently insignificant stream (which afterwards turned a thread mill for several years in Mill-lane) was changed ; and this rivulet was so level and gentle, that another, called Pudding-brook, ran parallel with it in an opposite direction, a circumstance that very much sur- prised Brindly, the celebrated engineer. On the filling up of the Moat, the former stream, which had been diverted from the river Rea for a thousand years, was again restored by an artificial channel near Vaughton's Hole. Some portion of the original Hall remained until the Moat was filled up, in 1816. The site of the mansion and domain is now occupied by the cattle mai-ket, Smithfield. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 81 Cross, then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to the house of the bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of two or three pounds. This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the company, grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at the tavern, and the bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming ten pounds upon his guests. It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. la 1 7G0, they had increased to forty pounds. The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his bailiff; but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats his lord. The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high bailiff, in the name of the Lord of the Manor ; this was done a cen- tury ago, without the least expence. But the strength of his liquor, a silver tankard, and the pride of showing it, perhaps induced him, in process of time, to treat his attendants. His ale, without a mi- racle, was, in a few years, converted into wine, and that of various sorts ; to which was added, a small collation ; and soon afterwards his friends are complimented with a card, to meet him at the Hotel, where he incurred an expence of thirty pounds. While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry, and the singular jurisdiction amongst us, this insignificant pimple, on our head of government, swells into a wen. Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of late years, sprung up, termed the constable's feast, with this difference, it is charged to the public. We may consider it a a wart on the political body, which merits the caustic. Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to the court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her constable is chosen by the same jury. I shall here exhibit a list of our principal officers during the last century.* If it should be objected, that a petty constable is too in- significant, being the lowest officer of the crown, for admission into history ; I answer, by whatever appellation an officer is accepted, * We shall continue this list of the principal officers of the town from 1 790 to the present year, 1 834. 82 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. he cannot be insignificant who stands at the head of 70,000 people. Perhaps, therefore, the office of constable may be sought for in future, and the officer himself assume a superior consequence. The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by charter, within thirty days after Michaelmas. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 83 13 m % ^ pq < H III iz; O o o Oi Q r^ ^ O < H ^ b P^ s 3 S P^ t ! § s s ^ ;2; s 1 1— 1 of pq p^ fi^ \^ O hH IZi l-q ^ l-H <1 1 pq W O H-l 03 w w H 2 2i "^ o 5r? 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HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 85 as ti j: iH ^ =3 -^ Tn *=0 ^^3 — == E« ^l:§Jg|E54^H^H^HH^ ill S3 I g bC a g'^'^i.:]^ ca rt^ a Tl cs 002 cc^ ceO g o •--: --> :S^'^ I^OI^c/fH^SrtHHHHP^OI^^HsH^H i f § i pg^ s I ^. ^. y K .• ^ i ^ I p2: s ^. 3 ^ .^ ^ 2K> § SW3-2-HK^ S J^' ^ I I 1 I 7 I I I I I 1 I I I I I i I f 86 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. S^ ^ ^ o o Ph w .^ p^ o W W ^ ^ 1? s S ^ i S g^ H ^ CO T^ :^ .i! ^5 S fl C r5 H l-S 1-5 IS g 1 .9 -i § ^ ^ -^ -^i! -2 w w ^ -^ ;> H E-i o a . s 2 o ^ H O ^ CO CO w O) :^ M O u i -g J I 1-5 ^ H H S c S -2 ^ ^ o o o rS !3 re rt t^ O OJ OJ I' P* s; (^ ^ ^ a £ -R -§. ^ . 2 CO O) to ..-H c« O O O > 1-5 1-5 ^-5 1-5 !> p 2 ;5 W =d == C § ^ o CO 1 s o i ■5 Ph :i w o ll > o H PQ H^-5 ^ ^, r^ ^ « ^ P p-( i: a, 3 Tj 0) a ^ cS CO 1 Ph H O ^ 'n) h^ i^ 3 s rJ3 P^ H t^ t^ 1^ t^ (1 1 3 1 i 1 1 s 1 § 1 1 1 1 -. Ph i t-5 1 a CO 1 1 i CO J^ 00 o^ o O) CO ^ to 1 1 oo 00 GO oo oo 0^ o^ 05 Oi Oi 05 05 i^t^t^t^t^t^jr^t^r^t^ HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 87 1 I I ^ 1 1 § I -a a -i II ^ II J ? ^ i a s^a'opflS ^ °3 a«^ 2 gs^ =:5 a S to )-?HH^-5C^|-5t^'^i-H'-5p^pH!>-WHHr-i!>Ot-, g . . §- COOT m •trctji'-M'C |:||frili||l«i|Jii|i| o 5 r- a. for. ffi s^^S^ arS^-^ a^ s-^-^^TcS a I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I M I I ■S OiOiOOOOOOOOOO^r-Hr-^-H— l^-H P t^l>.OOOO0OOO0O0O0O000OCZ)00QO0O0O0O0O00O0 88 IIISTOEY OF BIKMINGIiAM. fl S p^ ^. P^ W P^ W CO H K pq d O H H O d c K-. ^ ^ ^ ^ m g K"_ ^_ ;g ^, pMr* 1-5C/0 PhHsHc0I>-;>>-5^^ I ;^ ^ W ^ ^ H ^ O O =^ ^. O ^ 13 K ^ . p:; ;s: H . ^ ^ "1 • g H ^- ^ ^' ^* H,- ^ H W W ^: >-i ^ « Son ^gJ"o S »^ d ^ d ^Y Pf ^* ^ ^' ^' ^ ^* '^^ ^' f^ OOOOOOOOOOQOQOQO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOQO HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 89 COURT OF REQUESTS. Law is the very basis of civil society, without it man would quickly return to his original rudeness ; the result would be rob- bery and blood; — and even laws themselves are of little moment, without a due execution of them — there is a necessity to annex pu- nishment. All wise legislators have endeavoured to proportion the punish- ment to the crime, but never to exceed it. A well conducted state holds forth a scale of punishments for transgressions of every di- mension, beginning with the simple reprimand, and proceeding downwards even to death itself. Much honour is due to that judicial luminary, William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, who presided over the King's Bench, for intro- ducing equity into the courts of law, where she had long been a stranger. From a consideration of the prodigious intercourse subsisting in so vast a body of people as those of Birmingham, it was wisely judged necessary to establish an easy and expeditious method of ending dispute, and securing property. The inhabitants, therefore, in 1752, procured an act for the recovery of debts under Forty Shillings ;* constituting seventy-two commissioners, three to be a quorum. They sat for the dispatch of business in the chamber over the Old Cross (till it was destroyed) every Friday morning. There usually appears before them 160 causes: their determinations are final. Two clerks, constituted by the act, attend the court to give judicial assistance ; are always of the law, chosen alternately by the lord of the manor, and the commissioners, and continue for life. Once in every two years, ten of the commissioners are ballotted out, and ten others of the inhabitants chosen in their stead. LAMP ACT. Order is preserved by attention. In 1769 an act was obtained, and in 1 773 an amendment of the act, for lighting and cleaning the streets * Since raised to Five Pounds. N 90 IIISTOKY OF BTRMINGILIM. of Birmingham, and for removing obstructions that were prejudicial to the health or convenience of the inhabitants. These acts were committed to the care of about seventy-six irre- sohite commissioners, with farther powers of preventing encroach- ments upon pubhc ground ; for it was justly observed, that robbery was a work of darkness, therefore to introduce light would, in some measure, protect property. That in a town like Birmingham, full of commerce and inhabitants, where necessity leads to continual action, no part of tlie twenty-four hours ought to be dark. That, to avoid darkness, is sometimes to avoid insult : and that by the light of 700 lamps, many unfortunate accidents would be prevented. It was also observed, that in course of time, the buildings in some of the ancient streets had encroached upon the path four or five feet on each side ; which caused an irregular line, and made those streets eight or ten feet narrower, (that are now used by 70,000 people) than they were wlion used only by a tenth part of that number ; and that their confined width rendered the passage dangerous to children, women, and feeble age, particularly on the market day and Saturday evening. That if former encroachments could not be recovered, fu- ture ought to be prevented : and that necessity pleads for a wider street now than heretofore, not only because the inhabitants being more numerous, require more room, but the buildings being more elevated, obstruct the light, the sun, and the air, which obstructions tend to sickness and inconveniency. Narrow streets with modern buildings, are generally dirty, for want of these natural helps ; as Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Swan- alley, &:c. The narrower the street, the less it can be influenced by the sun and the wind, consequently the more the dirt will abound ; and by experimental observations upon stagnant water in the street, it is found extremely prejudicial to health. And also, the larger the number of people, the more the necessity to watch over their inte- rest with a guardian's eye. It may farther be remarked, that an act of parliament ought to distribute justice with an impartial hand, in which case, content and obedience may reasonably be expected. But the acts before us carry a manifest [)artiality, one man clai;us a right to an encroachment HISTORY OF BIKMINGHAM. 91 into the street of three or four feet, whilst another is proscribed to twelve inches.* This inactive body of seventy-six who wisely argue against the annihilation of one evil, because another will remain, had powers to borrow a thousand pounds, to purchase and remove some obstruc- tive buildings, and to defray the expeuce by a rate on the inhabi- tants, which, after deducting about one hundred and twenty pounds per annum for deficiencies, amounted in £ 1774 to . . . 912 1775 — 1776 — 1777 — 1778 — 1779 — 1780 — 1785 — 1786 — 1787 — 1788 — 1789 — 1790 — 902 947 965 1012 1022 1021 1256 1253 1265 1276 1315 iSOlf Though the town was averse to the measure, as an innovation, they quickly saw its utility, and seemed to wish a more vigorous ex- ertion of the commissioners ; but numbei's sometimes procrastinate intentions. If it is difficult to find five men of one mind, it is more * These acts have been consideral)ly altered and amended ; the commissioners increased in number to 108, and vested with greater powers. £ t In 1801 the rate amounted to . . . 2660 1809 3000 1812 5000 1814 ...... 6500 92 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. difficult to find a larger number. That business which would run currently through the hands of five, stagnates at fifteen, the number required. It is curious to observe a body of commissioners, every one of whom conducts his own private affairs with propriety and success, attack a question by the hour, which is as plain as the simplest pro- position in the mathematics, when, not being able to reduce it, they leave the matter undetermined, and retreat in silence. In works of manual operation a large number may be necessary, but in works of direction a small one facilitates dispatch. Birmingham, a capacious field, by long neglect, is overgrown with encroaching weeds. The gentle commissioners, appointed to reduce them, beheld it an arduous work, were divided in opinion, and some withdrew the hand from the plough. The manorial powers, which alone could preserve order, have slept for ages. Re- gularity has been long extmct. The desire of trespass is so preva- lent, that I have been tempted to question if it were not for the powers of the Lamp Act, feeble as they are, whether the many- headed-public, ever watchful of prey, would not, in another cen- tury, devour whole streets, and totally prevent the passenger. Thus a supine jurisdiction abounds with strcet-rohhers. If the sleepy powers of the lord made any efforts, those efforts operated to the injury of the streets by taking encroachments into pay. If simple mischief is prejudicial, what then must be that mis- chief which is countenanced by power? — We learn from modern re- cords, that per aim. Charles Soul held a passage from the street to a vault at . 5s. Od. Andrew Adams, a flight of steps . . . .2s. 6d. William Butler, for a vault and a shed . . .7s. 6d. Richard Lntwych, a vault and sashes . . .7s. 6d. Wakefield, steps and sashes . . .7s. 6d. Isaac Baker, for leave to lay down coals . . .7s. 6d. Thomas Everett, a passage to a vault . . .5s. Od. These trespasses, with many others, were presented to the lord by his own jury ; but the encroacher checked their proceedings by a silver bar and continued possession. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 93 There are cases where the line of the street should inviolably be preserved, as in a common range of houses ; therefore all projections above a given dimension infringe this rule. There are other cases where taste would direct this line to be broken, as in buildings of singular size or construction, which should be viewed in recess. Those of a public nature generally come under this description, as the Free School and the Hotel, which ought to have fallen two or three yards back. What a pity that so noble an edifice as the The- atre in New-street, should lose any of its beauty by the prominence of its situation. As Birmingham abounds with new streets that were once private property, it is a question, often discussed, in what point of time the land appropriated for such streets ceases to be private ? But as this question was never determined, and as it naturally rises before me, and is of importance, suffer me to examine it. When building leases are granted, if the road be narrow, as was lately the case at the west end of New-street, the proprietor engages to give a cer- tain portion of land to widen it. From that moment it falls to the lot of the public, and is under the controul of the commissioners, as guardians of public property. I allow, if within memory, the granter and lessees should agree to cancel the leases, which is just as likely to happen as the powers of attraction to cease, and the moon to descend from the heavens, the land would again revert to its original proprietor. Though the streets of Birmingham have, for many ages, been ex- posed to the hand of the encroacher, yet, by a little care, and less expence, they might, in about one century, be reduced to a consi- derable degree of use and beauty. In what light then shall we be viewed by a future eye if we neglect the interest of posterity ? COMMERCIAL COMMITTEE. A Commercial Committee, consisting of the first characters, was instituted to watch over the common interests of the place. HAY MARKET. In 1791, a market was opened every Tuesday to supply the town with hay, &:c. 94 HISTORY OF EIKMINGHAM. PUBLIC LIBRARY. The benefit of letters is ascertained by comparing the practice of tlie fifteenth century with the present. Then, even the man of re- flection, for want of this valuable resource, might tluiik himself into a doze, by his fire- side, and slumber away half his night's rest before bed-time. No magazines for mental subsistence were pub- lished in that barren period. His mind, starved and unemployed, sunk into inaction, instead of knowing what appertained to others, he did not know himself; the past and the future were hid from his eyes, and his utmost stretch of acquirement comprehended only a small part of his day, aided by a narrow tradition. The result was darkness, slavery, ignorance, prejudice, poverty of substance and of thought, bigotry, and superstition. Neither could he draw in- telligence from others, for their literary fountains were as dry as his own ; his manners were as savage as his judgment was erroneous. But the man of the present century becomes heir to immense trea- sures. The generations which are past, as well as the present, have stored up more amusement than he can grasp. The collection of ages lie open to view ; he beholds things which are past as if they were present, and lights up his dark mind from a constellation of luminaries. Before him expands a capacious garden, rich in cul- ture, where he can gather what flowers he pleases ; here he tastes the tree of knowledge without danger ; solitude no longer disgusts ; for, should he lose his company, he cannot lose himself. He com- mands the living and the dead ; what they acquired he may pos- sess. So far from dozing away the day, he can scarcely spare the night for sleep. The results of the press are, juster ideas, refine- ment of taste and judgment, advance in civilization, the introduc- tion of wealth, knowledge, and freedom. Anciently, the man who understood the alphabet was reputed a conjurer, but now he may understand something more, and be reputed a blockhead. The public Library of Birmingham, originated in 1779, and, like many important things, from exceedingly minute beginnings. Each member paid a guinea entrance, and six shillings per annum. Their number was so small that they could scarcely have quarelled had they been inclined, and their whole stock might have been hid in a HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 95 handkerchief. The society received, from the benevolent hand of Dr. Priestley, in 1782, that stability and method, without which no institution can prosper. In 1781, the subscription was raised to eight shillings. — A librarian then entered the service at £10 per annum. In 1786, admission was advanced to £1 lis. 6d., and an order made that when the subscribers amounted to SOU, it should be two guineas, and when 400, three guineas. Tvventv-Iivc pounds per annum is paid for a room, and 30 guineas to a librarian for su- perintending a stock of 4000 volumes.* The medical gentlemen, in 1790, formed themselves into a Book Society, for purchasing the publications of their science. KELIGIOX AND POLITICS. Although these two threads, like the warp and the woaf, are very distinct things, yet, like them, they are usually woven together. — • Each possesses a strength of its own, which, when united, become extremel}' powerful. Power is the idol of man ; we not only wish to acquire it, but also to increase and preserve it. Birmingham, in remote periods, does not seem to have attended so nuich to religious and political dispute, as to the coarse music of her hammer. Peace seems to have been her characteristic — she paid obedience to that Prince who had the good fortune to possess the throne, and regularly paid divine honours in St. Martin's, because there was no other church. Thus, through the long ages of Saxon, Da- nish, and Norman government, we hear of no noise but that of the anvil, till the reign of Henry the Third, when her Lord joined the Barons against the Crown, and drew after him some of his mecha- * There are now 600 subscribers who must be shareholders ; the shares are transferable, and produce about seven or eight guineas. The Library contains 20,000 volumes: the present building was erected by tontine subscription. Another subscription library was established some years ago, under the name of the " Birmingham New Library" ; there are up- wards of 300 subscribers. 96 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. nics, to exercise the very arms tliey had been taught to make ; at the battle of Evesham, he staked his life and fortune, and lost both. Things quickly returning into their former channel, the people of Birmingham stood silent spectators during the dreadful contest be- tween the two roses, pursuing the tenor of still life till the civil wars of Charles the First, when they took part with the parliament; some of whose troops were stationed here, particularly at the Garrison and Camphill ; the names of both originating in that circumstance. Prince Rupert, as hinted before, approaching Birmingham in 1643 with a superior power, forced the lines, and as a punishment set fire to the town. His vengeance burned fiercely in Bull-street, and the affrighted inhabitants quenched the flames with a fine. In 1660, she joined the wish of the kingdom, in the restoration of the Stuart family. About this time, many of the curious manufac- turers began to blossom in this prosperous garden of the arts. We should deem it a contradiction, to riot for that religion whose doctrines are peace. One would think, the man who wishes to enjoy his own, can do no less than allow another the same privi- lege. A sameness in religious sentiment is no more to be expected, than a sameness of face. If the human judgment varies in almost every subject of plain knowledge, how can it be fixed in this, composed of mystery ? Is there not as much reason to punish my neighbour for differing in opinion from me, as to punish me because I diflfer from him ? Or is there any to punish either ? If a man's sentiments and practice in religious matters appear even absurd, provided society is not in- jured, what right has the magistrate to interfere ? And if the head of power cannot stand against him upon reasonable ground, none of the members can. The task is as easy to make the stream run upwards as to form a nation of one mind. The line of Brunswick had swayed the British sceptre near half a century, ere the sons of science in this meridian, were completely reconciled. PLACES OF WORSHIP. In a town like Birmingham, unfettered with charteral laws, which niSTOHY OF 13IRMINGIIAM. OT would prevent access to the stranger, and where the principles of toleration are well understood, it is no wonder we find various modes of worship. The wonder consists in finding such agree- ment in such variety. We have (1782) fourteen places for religi- ous exercise, six of the establishment, three dissenting meeting- houses, a quaker's, baptist's, methodises, catholic's, and Jewish. SAINT MARTIN'S. It has been remarked that the antiquity of this church is too re- mote for historical light. The curious records of those dark ages, not being multiplied and preserved by the art of printing, have fallen a prey to tiijre and the revolution of things. There is reason for fixing the foundation in the eighth century, perhaps rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the buildings. The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old Cross ; consequently the ring of houses that now surrounds the church, from the bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of Spiceal-street, and St. Martin's-lane, could not exist. I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have undergone a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the modern name of Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn and herbs, was once an appropriation of the church, though not used for interment; because the church is evidently calculated for a town of some size, to which the present church-yard no way agrees, being so extremely small that the ancient dead must have been con- tinually disturbed to make way for the modern, that little spot being their only receptacle for 900 years. A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his property and habitation, but also in the grave, where he can scarcely enter without expelling half a dozen of his ancestors. * Since Mr. IIutton wrote, the following churches and chapels connected with the Establishment have been built : — Christ Church, situated in New-street.— Of this church it has been observed by the author of the Picture of Birmingham, that o 9S HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the adja- cent ground. From the eminence upon which the High- street stands " placed as it is, it ought to have borne a more imposing appear- ance. It stands on an elevated spot, forming an angular jutting promontory in the busy confluence of several streets. In order to obtain a level area, one side of the church-yard is raised above the street to an altitude sufficient to allow of a neat row of vaults and shops under it, fronting to New-street. The advantages of situa- tion are, however, lost by the insignificance and baldness of the design. At the western front is a portico, which is intended to give an august efiect to the whole ; but, though lofty and massive its own proportions are far from being correct, and it has little con- gruity with the body, and still less with the spire ; this last is un- graceful in its form, ultra incongruous in its connection with the rest of the edifice, ostentatiously bad in its whole effect," The view of the eastern side of the church from the extremity of, and ap- proach along, ^Vaterloo-street, will, however, add considerably to the appearance of this place of worship. The building of this edi- fice, upon land given by Wm. Philips Ixge, Esq., (whose ances- tors bestowed the site of St Philip's Church) commenced from vo- luntary subscriptions in 1805, but it was not completed till 1813, when it was consecrated, on the 6th of July, by the Honourable and Right Rev. James Cokkwallis, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. The body of the church is free to the public, and is neatly fitted up with benches ; but the galleries being paid for, are finished in a superior style of elegance, with mahogany, supported with light pillars of the Doric order. The portico and spire were both erected by Mr. Richardson, of Handsworth ; the former at the expence of £1200, and the latter £1500, which was completed in 1816. This place of worship is computed to accommodate 1500 persons. Trinity Chapel, Bordesley, is erected on an admirable site, and the workmanship altogether, of its exterior and interior, re- flect credit on the talent and taste of the persons employed. This beautiful gothic chapel is considered to resemble that of King's College, Cambridge ; the fine arched and sheltered entrance cor- responds with the richness of the other parts of the building, and the interior, at the eastern end, is highly ornamented. A fine altar- HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 99 proceeds a steep and regular descent into Moor-street, Digbeth, down Spiceal-street, Lees-lane, and Worcester-street. This descent is broken only by the church-yard, which, through a long course of interment for ages, is augmented into a considerable hill, chiefly composed of the refuse of life. We may, therefore, safely remark, in this place, the dead are raised up. Nor shall we be surprised piece, by Foggo, representing Christ healing the sick man, at the pool of Bethesda, is well designed, and executed with much taste ; the communion table and pulpits are also well arranged and hand- somely fitted up. Saint Peter's Church, Dale-end. — This beautiful structure (which has since been nearly destroyed by fire) was finished in 1828. It is a Grecian Doric edifice, surmounted with a handsome cupola. It cost £13,000. Saint Thomas's Church, Holloway Head.— The almost semi- circular front, or western entrance of this beautiful structure is or- namented with six chaste Ionic columns, under which the arches to the centre and two side entrances, have a picturesque appearance ; the eastern end is also ornamented with Roman Ionic columns, sup- porting a handsome pediment ; from the centre rises a quadrangu- lar tower, supported by columns of a similar character ; these sus- tain a light octagon cupola, surmounted by a gilt round ball and cross, which produce a very beautiful efi'ect. This church, from being erected upon so elevated a site, may be seen at an immense distance. It presents an admirable object, and may be considered the most desirable addition that has been made to the town for a number of years. It is calculated to hold 2049 persons, 1423 cf which have free sittings ; it cost £14,200. Saint George's Church, Tower-street, was commenced in 1820, and consecrated in 1822, by the Bishop of Chester. It cost about £13,000 ; seats 2000 persons, of which more than 1000 are without payment. At the east end is a large window of stained glass, and an elegant altar-piece. It was built from designs by Mr. Rickman, in the style of Gothic arcliitecture of the reign of Edward the Third. Saint James's Chapel, Ashted, was originally the residence of Dr. Ash. After his death it underwent various alterations, which made it a very neat and cuunnoilious [)lace ol worsliij). lOf) HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. at the i-apid growth of the hill, when we consider this little point of land was alone that hungry grave which devoured the whole inhabi- tants, during the long ages of existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The curious observer will easily discover the fabric has lost that symetry wliich should ever attend architecture, by the growth of the soil about it, causing a low appearance in the building, so that instead of the cliurch burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried the church. As the ground swelled by the accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was added to support the growing soil. Thus the fence and the hill sprang up together ; this was demonstrated, August 27, 1781, when, in removing two or three old houses to widen St. Martin"s-lane, they took down the church-yard wall, which was fifteen feet high without, and three within. This proved to be only an outward case that covered another wall twelve feet high ; in the front of which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, " Robert Dallaway, Francis Bur- ton, Church-wardens, anno. dom. (supposed) 1310." As there is certain evidence that the church is much older than the above date, we should suspect there had been another fence many ages prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when the workmen came to a third wall, four feet high, covered with antique coping, probably erected with the fabric itself, which would lead us far back into the Saxon times. The present church is of stone ; the first upon the premises, and perhaps the oldest building in these parts. As the country does not produce stone of a lasting texture, and as the rough blasts of 900 years had made inroads upon the fabric, it was thought necessary, in 1690, to case both church and steeple with brick, except the spire, which is an elegant one. The bricks and the workmanship are excellent. The steeple has, within memory, been three times injured by light- ning. Forty feet of the spire, in a decayed state, was taken down and rebuilt in 1781, with stone from Attleborough, near Nuneaton; and strengthened by a spindle of iron, running up its centre 105 feet long, secm-ed to the side walls every ten feet by braces. Inclosed is a ring of twelve musical bells, and though I am not HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 101 master of the bob-major and triple grandsire, yet am well informed the ringers are masters of the bell-rope ; but to excel in Birming- ham is not new. The seats in the church would have disgraced a meaner parish than that of Birmingham ; one would be tempted to think, they M-ere the first ever erected on the spot, without taste or order ; the timber was become hard with age, and to the honour of the inhabi- tants, bright with use. Each sitting was a private freehold, and was farther disgraced, like the coffin of a pauper, with the paltry initials of the owners' name. These divine abodes were secured with the coarse padlocks of a field gate. By an attentive survey of the seats, we plainly discover the en- creasing population of Birmingham. When the church was erected there was doubtless sufficient room for the inhabitants, and it vv^as probably the only place for public worship during 800 years. As the town encreased, gallery after gallery was erected, till no con- veniency was found for more. Invention was afterwards exerted to augment the number of sittings ; every recess capable only of ad- mitting the body of an infant, was converted into a seat, which indi- cates the continual increase of people, and that a spirit of devotion was prevalent among them . The floor of the church was greatly injured by interment, as also the light, by the near approach of the buildings, notwithstanding, in 1733, the middle roof of the chancel was taken off, and the side walls raised about nine feet, to admit a double range of windows. Dugdale, who wrote in 1640, gives us twenty-two drawings of the arms, in the windows, of those gentry who had connexion with Bir- mingham. 1. Astley. 7. Ancient and Modern Bir- 2. Someri. mingham quartered. 3. Ancient Birmingham. 8, Peshale quartering Bot>- 4. Ancient Birmingham, the second tetort. house. 9. Birmingham quartering 5. Seagrave. Wyrley. 6. Modern Birmingham. 10. Freville. 102 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 11. Ancient Birmingham. 17. Burdet. 12. Knell. 18. Montalt. 13. Fitz-Warrer. 19. Modern Birmingham. 14. Montalt. 20. Beauchamp. 15. Modern Birmingham. 21. Ferrers. 16. Hampden 22. Latimer. These twenty-two coats are now reduced to three, which are, Number two, in the east window of the chancel, oi\ two lions passant azure, the arms of the family of Someri, Lords of Dudley Castle, and superior Lords of Birmingham. Number three in the south window of the chancel, azure, a hend lozenge of five points , or, the ancient arms of the family of Bir- mingham. And number ten, in the north window, or, a cross indented gules ; also, five fieurs de lis, the ancient arms of Freville, Lords of Tam- worth, whose ancestor, Marmion, received a grant of that castle from William the Conqueror, and whose descendant, Lord Viscount Townshend, is the present proprietor. Under the south window of the chancel, by the door, were two monuments a-breast, of white marble, much injured by the hand of rude time, and more by that of the ruder boys. The left figure, which is very ancient, I take to be William De Birmingham, who was made prisoner by the French at the Siege of Bellegard, in the 25th of Edward the First, 1297. He wears a short mantle, which was the dress of that time, a sword, expressive of the military or- der, and he also bears a shield with the bend lozenge, which seems never to have been borne after the above date. The right hand figure, next the wall, is visibly marked with a much older date, per- haps about the conquest. The effigy does not appear in a military character, neither did the Lords of that period. Under the north-east window, is a monument of white marble, belonging to one of the Lords of the house of Birmingham ; but this is of modern date compared with the others, perhaps not more than 300 years ; he hearing the parte per pale, indented or, and gules. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 103 NORTH GALLERY. John Crowley, in 1709, gave twenty shillidns per annum, payable out of the lowermost house m the Priory, to be distributed in bread, in the church, on St. John"s-day, to housekeepers in Birmingham, who receive no pay. Joseph Hopkins died in 1683, who gave £200., with which an estate was purchased in Sutton Coldfield; the rents to be laid out in coats, gowns, and other relief for the poor of Birmingham ; he also gave £5. lOs. to the poor of Birmingham. Whereas the church of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, had only 52 ounces of plate in 1708, for the use of the communion table ; it was, by a voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, increased to 275. — Two flaggons, two cups, two covers and pattens, with cases : the whole £80 16s. 6d. Richard Banner ordered one hundred pounds to be laid out in lands within ten miles of Birmingham ; which sum, lying at inte- rest, and other small donations being added, amounted to £170, with which an estate at Erdington, value £8 10s. per annum, was purchased for the poor of Birmingham. Richard Kilcup gave a house and garden at Spark-brook, for the church and poor. William Rixam gave a house in Spiceal-street, No. 26, for the use of the poor, in 1568. John Ward, in 1591, gave a house and lands in Marston Culey. John Peak gave a chest bound with iron for the use of the church, seemingly about two hundred years old, and of two hundred pounds weight. Edward Smith gave £20 per ann. to the poor, in 1612, and also erected the pulpit. John Billingsley, in 1629, gave twenty-six shillings, yearly, chargeable upon a house in Dale-end, to be given in bread, by six pence every Sunday. Richard Dukesayle, in 1630, gave the utensils belonging to the communion table. 104 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. Catharine Roberts, wife of Barnaby Smith, in 1642, gave £20, the interest of which was to be given to the poor the first Friday in Lent. John Milward gave £26 per annum, lying in Bordesley ; one third to the schoolmaster of Birmingham (Free School) ; one third to the principal of Brazen-nose College, Oxford, for the maintenance of one scholar from Birmingham or Haverfordwest, and the re- mainder to the poor. Mrs. Jennens gave £10. per annum to support a lecture the se- cond and third Thursday in every month.* This church, in 1786, underwent a thorough alteration, at the ex- pence of upwards of £4000, The vast number of grave-stones, which nearly covered the floor, and the names of the defunct, with their concise funeral memoirs, were committed to the same oblivion as themselves. The arms, monuments, pews, pulpit, roof, and cha- rities, fell in one general ruin. Nothing was left of this venerable edifice but part of the walls. Even the fine old monuments of the ancient lords, the pride of the church could barely find a place above ground, and that in the last stage of existence, the stairhole. With all my powers I pleaded for the lords and their arms ; but although I pleaded without a fee, I was no more regarded than some who plead with one. It is easy to destroy that which can never be restored. The following oflfspring of charity seems to have expired at its birth, but rose from the dead a few months ago, after an interment of fifty four years. The numerous family of Piddock flourished in great opulence for many ages, and though they were not lords of a manor, they were as rich as those who were ! they yet boast, that their ancestors could walk seven miles upon their own land. Perhaps they were possessed of the northern part of this parish, from Birmingham-heath to Shirland- brook, exclusive of many es- tates in the manors of Smethwick and Oldbury. Their decline continued many years, till one of them, in 1771, * There were, besides these, many smaller donations and be- quests. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 105 extinguished their greatness by a single dash of his pen, in selHng the last foot of land. William Piddock, in 1728, devised his farm at Winson-green, about nine acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death, to his nephews and executors, William and John Riddall, their heirs and assigns for ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor boys of Birmingham ; or other discretional charities in the same parish. But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put the money into any pocket sooner than their own ; that as the estate was in the family it was needless to disturb it ; that as the will was not known to the world, there was no necessity to publish it ; and, as it gave them a discretional power of disposal, they might as well consider themselves the poor, for they were both in the parish. Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel between the brothers and a tenant broke the enchantment, and shewed the actors in real view. The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery, and recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust to the constables, churchwardens, and overseers of the day. During Cromwell's government, Slater, a broken apothecary of this place, having been unsuccessful in curing the body, resolved to attempt curing the soul. He therefore, to repair his misfortunes, assumed the clerical character, and cast an eye on the rectory of St. Martin's ; but he had many powerful opponents ; among others were Jennens, an ironmaster, possessor of Aston-furnace ; Smallbroke, another wealthy inhabitant ; and Sir Thomas Holt. However he, with difficulty, triumphed over his enemies, stept into the pulpit, and held the rectory till the Restoration. Being determined, in his first sermon, to lash his enemies with the whip of those times, he told his people, "The Lord had carried him through many troubles; for he had passed, like Sliadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, through the fiery furnace . And as the Lord had enabled the children of Israel to pass over the Red Sea, so he had assisted him in passing over the Small-hrooJcs, and to overcome the strong Holts of sin and satan." He was expelled at the Restoration. p lOG HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. John R'iland succeeded him, who is celebrated for piety, learn- ing, and a steady adherence to the interest of Charles the First ; in whose cause he seems to have lost every thing he possessed, but his life. He was remarkable for compromising quarrels among his neighbours, often at an expence to himself; also for constantly can-ying a charity-box, to relieve the distress of others ; and, though robbed of all himself, never thought he was poor, except when his box was empty. A succeeding rector, William Daggett, is said to have understood the art of boxing, better than that of preaching : his clerk often felt the weightier argument of his hand. Meeting a quaker, whose pro- fession, then in infancy, did not stand high in esteem, he offered some insults, which the other resenting, told him, "If he was not protected by his cloth, he would make him repent the indignity." Daggett immediately stripped, " There, now I have thrown off my protection." They fought ; but the spiritual bruiser proved too hard for the injured quaker. The benefice in 1771, was about £350 per annum. The late rector, John Parsons, procured an act in 1773, to enable the incum- bent to grant building leases; the grant of a single lease in 1777, brought the annual addition of about £170. The income is now about £1000, and is expected at the expiration of the leases, to ex- ceed £2000. SAINT PHILIP'S. We have touched upon various objects in our peregrinations through Birmingham, which meet with approbation, though viewed through the medium of smoke ; some of these, being covered with the rust of time, command our veneration ; but the prospect before us is wholly modern. If an historian had written in the last century, he would have re- corded but two places of worship ; I shall shortly record fourteen ; but my successor, if not prevented by our own imprudence, in driv- ing away the spirit of commerce, may record the four and twentieth.* * About forty are now in regular use. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 107 The artist who carries the manufactures among foreigners, or the man who wantonly loads the people with burdens, draws the wrath of the place upon his own head. This curious piece of architecture, the steeple of which is erected after the model of St. Paul's, in London, but without its weight, does honour to the age that raised it, and to the place that contains it. Perhaps the eye of the critic cannot point out a fault, which the hand of the artist can mend ; perhaps too, the attentive eye cannot survey this pile of building, without communicating to the mind a small degree of pleasure. If the materials are not proof against time, it is rather a misfortune to be lamented, than an error to he complained of, the country producing no better. Yet amidst all the excellencies we boast, I am sorry to charge this chief ornament with an evil which admits no cure, that of not rang- ing with its own cemetery, or the adjacent buildings ; out of seven streets, with which it is connected, it lines with none. Like Deri- tend chapel, of which I have already complained, from a strong attachment to a point of religion, or of the compass, it appears twisted out of its place. This defect in religious architecture, arises from a strict adhe- rence to the custom of the ancients, who fixed their altars towards the east. It is amazing, that even weakness itself, by long practice, becomes canonical ; it gains credit by its age and its company. Hence Sternhold and Hopkins, by being long bound up with scrip- ture, acquired a kind of scripture authority. The ground, originally, was part of a farm, and bore the name of the Horse-close ; afterwards Barley-close. Thus a benign spot of earth gave additional spirits to a man when living, and kindly covered him in its bosom when dead. This well-chosen spot is the summit of the highest eminence in Birmingham, with a descent every way ; and, when the church was erected, there were no buildings nearer than those in Bull-street. The gifts, which the benefactor himself believes are charitable, and expects the world to believe the same, if scrutinized, will be found to originate from various causes — counterfeits are apt to be offered in currency for sterling. Perhaps ostentation has brought forth 108 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. more acts of beneficence than charity herself ; but, like an unkind parent, she disowns her offspring, and charges them upon charity. — Ostentation is the root of charity ; why else are we told, in capitals, by a large stone in the front of a building — " This hospital was erected by William Bilby, in the sixty-third year of his age, 1709." Or, that " John Moore, yeoman, of Worley Wigorn, built this school in 1730." Nay, pride even tempts us to strut in a second- hand robe of charity, left by another ; or why do we read — " These alms-houses were erected by Lench's trust in 1 764, W. WALSING- HAM, Bailiff." Another utters the word charitij, and we rejoice in the echo. If we miss the substance, we grasp at the shadow. Sometimes we assign our property for religious uses late in the evening of life, when enjoyment is over, and dXvciO&i possession, — Thus we bequeath to piety what we can keep no longer. We con- vey our name to posterity at the expence of our successor, and scaf- fold our way towards heaven up the walls of a steeple. Will cha- rity chalk up one additional score in our favour, because we grant a small portion of our land to found a church, which enables us to augment the remainder treble its value, by granting building leases ? A man seldom makes a bargain for heaven and forgets himself. — Charity and self-interest, like the apple and the rind, are closely connected, and, like them, we cannot separate one without trespass- ing on the other. This superb edifice was begun by Act of Parliament in 1711, under a commission consisting of twenty of the neighbouring gentry, appointed by the bishop of the diocese, under his episcopal seal. — Their commission was to end twelve months after the erection of the church. Though Birmingham ever was, and perhaps ever will be, consi- dered as one parish, yet a portion of land, about one hundred acres, nearly triangular, and about three-fourths built up, was taken out of the centre of St. Martin's, like a shred of cloth out of a great coat to make a less, and constituted a separate parish by the appel- lation of St. Philip's. We shall describe this new boundary by an imaginary journey, for a real one perhaps was never taken since the land was first laid out, nor ever will to the end of time. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 109 We include the warehouse, then of John Jennens, Esq., and jom- ing my premises, now No. 27, in High-street, penetrate through the buildings, till we come within twenty yards of Moor-street, turn sharp to the left, cross the lower part of Castle-street, Carr's-lane, and New Meeting-street ; pass close by the front of the Meeting- house, through Bank-alley, into Hen's-walk, having kept Moor- street about twenty yards to the right all the way ; we now enter that street at the bottom of Hen's-walk, pass through the east part of Dale-end, through Stafford-street, Steelhouse-lane, (then called Whittal-lane) Bull-lane, (then Newhall-lane) and Mount-pleasant. Our journey now leads us on the west of Pinfold-street, keeping it about twenty yards on our left ; up Peck-lane, till we come near the top, when we turn to the right, keeping the buildings, with the Free School in New-street, on our left, into Swan-alley. We now turn up the Alley into New-street, then to the right, which leads us to the party wall between No. 27 and 28 in High-street, late Jenens's, where we began. In the new parish I have described, and during the journey, kept on the left, there seems to have been, at passing the act, twelve closes, all which are filled with buildings, except the land between New-street and Mount-pleasant, which only waits a word from the owner to speak the houses into being. The church was consecrated in 1715, and finished in 1719, the work of eight years, at which time the commissioners resigned their powers into the hands of the diocesan, in whom is the presentation, after having paid, it is said, the trifling sura of £5,012; but per- haps such a work could not be completed for £20,000. Three rea- so nsmay be assigned why so small a sum was expended ; many of the materials were given, more of the carriage, and some heavy debts were contracted. The urns upon the parapet of the church, which are highly orna- mental, were fixed at the same time with those of the school, in about 1756. When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper dis- tance, uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north. New-hall excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a 110 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. western sun, I was delighted with its appearance, and thought it then what I do now, and what others will in future, the pride of the place. If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood of ground ; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four acres, ornamented with walks, shaded with trees in double and treble ranks, and surrounded with buildings in elegant taste, per- haps its equal cannot be found in the British dominions. The steeple, till the year 1751, contained a peal of six bells, which were then augmented to ten, at which time St. Martin's, the mother church, having only eight, could not bear to be out-numbered by a junior, though of superior elegance, therefore ordered twelve into her own steeple ; but as room was insufficient for the admission of bells by the dozen, means were found to hoist them tier over tier. These two steeples are our puhllc band of music ; they are the only standing waits of the place. In the vestry is a theological library, bequeathed by the first rec- tor, William Higgs, for the use of the clergy in Birmingham and its neighbourhood ; he left £200 for future purchase, which was after- wards made, and an elegant library erected adjoining the Parsonage- house in 1792. Under the centre isle runs a vault, the whole length of the church, for the reception of those whose friends chuse to pay an additional guinea. The organ excels; the paintings, mouldings, and gildings are superb ; whether the stranger takes an external or an internal survey, the eye is struck with delight, and he pronounces the whole the work of a master. Its conveniency also can only be equalled by its elegance. In the Front Gallery. — Upon application of Sir Richard Gough to Sir Robert Walpole, then in power, George the First gave £600, in 1725, towards finishing this church. Whether monumental decoration adds beauty to a place already beautiful, is a question. There are three very small and very ele- gant monuments in this church. Upon one of the south pillars, is that of the above William Higgs, who died in 1733. Upon another is that of William Vyse, the second rector, who died in 1770, at tlie HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. Ill age of 61. And upon a north pillar, that of Girton Peak, Esq. a humane magistrate, who died in 1770, aged 48. Interment in the church is wisely prohibited ; an indecency in- compatible with a civilized people. The foreigner will be apt to hold forth the barbarity of the English nation, by observing, "they introduce corruption in their very churches, and pay divine adora- tion upon the graves of their ancestors." Places of worship were designed for the living ; the dead give up their title with their life ; besides, even small degrees of putrefaction, confined in a room where the air cannot circulate, may become prejudical to health. It is difficult to traverse the elegant walks that surround this gulph of death without contemplating, that time is drawing us to- wards the same focus, and that we shall shortly fall into the centre ; that this irregular circle contains what was once generous and beau- tiful, opulent and humane. The arts took their rise in this fruitful soil ; this is the grave of invention and of industry ; though multi- tudes unite with the dead, the numbers of the living increase ; the inhabitants change while their genius improves. We cannot pass on without reading upon the stones the short existence of our de- parted friends, perusing the end of a life with which we were well acquainted. The active motion, that veered with the rude blasts of seventy years, stops in this point for ever. There are many inducements for an author to take up the pen, but the leading motives, however disguised, seem to be pride and poverty ; hence two of the most despicable things among men fur- nish the world with knowledge. I shall, to avoid prolixity in a barren chapter of the two extremes of life, select about every tenth year from the register. Those years at the time of the plague make no addition to the burials, because the unhappy victims were conveyed to Lady- wood for interment. Year. Births. Burials. Year. Births. Burials 1555 37 27 1628 100 96 1571 48 26 1653 47 1590 52 47 1666 144 121 1600 62 32 1667 149 140 1610 70 45 12 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. Year. Births. Burials. Year. Birtlis. Burials. 1681 251 139 1760 984 1143 1719 334 270 1770 1329 899 1730 449 415 1780 1636 1340 1740 520 573 1791 2310 3280* 1750 860 1020 SAINT JOHN'S CHAPEL, DERITEND. This, though joining to the parish of Birmingham, is a chapel of ease belonging to Aston, two miles distant. Founded in the fifth of Richard the Second, 1382. As soon as the chapel was erected, William Gefien, Thomas Holden, Robert of the Green, Richard Bene, Thomas de Belne, and John Smith, procured a licence from the king, to enable them to endow it with lands to the annual value of £6 13s. 4d. to support a priest; who, with his successors, seem to have exercised the usual functions of office, till 1537, when Henry the Eighth seized the property as chantry lands, valued at £13 Is. 7d. per annum. Two priests, who officiated at Aston, then possessed the pulpit, and divided the income. In 1677, Humphry Lowe of Coventry, bequeathed a farm at Rowley-Regis, called the Brick-house, then let at £35 to support the chapel. This bequest is held, in trust, by six of the inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley. This chapel does not, like others in Birmingham, seem to have been erected first and the houses brought round it. It appears, by its extreme circumscribed latitude, to have been founded upon the site of other buildings, which were purchased, or rather given, by Sir John de Birmingham, Lord of Deritend, and situated upon the boundaries of the manor, perhaps to accommodate, in some measure, the people of Digbeth, because the church in Birmingham must, for many ages, have been too small for the inhabitants. * Of later years the numbers have been — Year. Births. Burials. 1800 1881 1838 1818 2447 2627 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 113 Time seems to have worn ou4 . . 3257 19 8 1811 . 6680 2 9 . . 3629 10 1814 . 7124 12 . 3111 15 2 1817 . 8746 6 9 . . 4296 10 10 1820 . . 9483 4 7 . 5001 10 11 1833 . 10359 14 0% . . 5806 12 6% 1826 . . 10104 2 11 . . 4592 3 11 1839 9771 4 8 . . 3806 17 3 1834 . 13278 6 2 The gentlemen who had the direction of the entertainments of the Festival, spared no pains to secure the most eminent performers of the day ; Mr. Joseph Moore, in particular, had the almost exclusive management of this department, and Mr. Munden the difficult and laborious duty of superintending and instructing the chorus singers. PROGRESS OF THE FESTIVAL. The town presented, during the festival week, and in deed for some days previous to its commencement, a most bustling and animated appearance — bustling, however, in the pursuit of plea- sure ; carriages of all sorts and sizes, and equipages of the most brilliant description, rolled along in almost endless succession ; the principal streets were daily crowded to an extent never before witnessed, by throngs of curious pedestrians anxiously inspecting the attractions exhibited in the shop windows, especially those of the purveyors for the heroes and heroines of the Fancy Ball, where the costumes of all characters and nations were displayed in a pro- fusion calculated to delight the spectator. The general effect 258 HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. of the festivity was much heightened Ly tlie state of the weatherj the colds and damps of October being exchanged for the sunny skie^ and genial warmth of May or June. REMARKS. During the last few years great and rapid improvements have been made in and about the town. The entrances to some of the streets, which were very narrow and inconvenient, have been en- larged, and, by well paving them, and conveying the water away, by means of culverts, a great annoyance to foot passangers has been removed. The streets and shops are now generally lighted up with gas, and the manufacture and fitting up of the apparatus for this purpose gives employment to a great number of people in the town. The Water Works Company have laid down pipes in all the prin- cipal streets with smaller ones branching from them into the pre- mises of those inhabitants who require a larger supply of this indis- pensable element. The water plugs in the streets, in case of fire, will be found of singular utility and advantage by giving an instantaneous and abundant supply of water in any part of the town. The buildings in New-street, Bennett's-hill, Waterloo-street, Temple-row-west, &c., erected during the last four or five years, have a neat and elegant appearance. In all parts of the town, as well as the diiferent outlets, a vast number of new houses and streets are observable. In the environs are the delightful villa residences of the more opulent inhabitants and tradesmen, which, for a combi- nation of beauty, comfort, and convenience, perhaps, cannot be surpassed. Birmingham being entirely unshackled by restrictive charters, strangers commence and pursue their various avocations unmolested in this place ; hence its rapid expansion, and advancement in its manufactures. Metallic articles of every kind that can be devised* are manufactured here. A vast quantity of japanned goods, jewel- lery, toys, guns, swords, locks, and buttons of all kinds ; besides an * When Miltou's Comus was last performed in this town, the following; passage greatly amusi'd the master manufacturers :— " Such notes as warbled from the string, drew IROV tears down Pluto's cheeks." These were (they observed) the only things in iron, they had ever heard of, that could not he made in Birmingham. HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM. 259 infinite variety of articles produced by the brass founders, steel toy makers, and platers. By the Reform Bill Birmingham is erected into a borough^ and the ten pound inhabitant householders now exercise the rights of the elective franchise in sending two members to represent them in the Commons House of Parliament. Thomas Attwood, and Joshua Scholefield, Esqrs., were the gentlemen, who first had the honour of representing in Parliament the inhabitants of this borough. rinted by Wrightson and Webb, New-street, Blrmlngha / i?^ ^/A^f jr T ^V