An History of Birmingham (1783) Part 20

As the execution of this grant was one of the last acts of Henry's life, we should be apt to suspect the Duke carried it in his pocket ready for signing, but deferred the matter as long as he could with safety, that distance of time might annihilate reflection; and that the King's death, which happened a few weeks after, might draw the attention of the world too much, by the importance of the event, to regard the Duke's conduct.

The next six years, which carries us through the reign of Edward the Sixth, is replete with the intrigues of this ill.u.s.trious knave. He sought connections with the princ.i.p.al families: He sought honours for his own: He procured a match between his son, the Lord Guildford Dudley, and the Lady Jane Gray, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and a descendant from Henry the Seventh, with intent of fixing the crown in his family, but failing in the attempt, he brought ruin upon the Suffolk family, and himself to the block, in the first of Queen Mary, 1553.

Though a man be guilty of many atrocious acts that deserve death, yet in the hour of distress humanity demands the tear of compa.s.sion; but the case was otherwise at the execution of John, Duke of Northumberland, for a woman near the scaffold held forth a b.l.o.o.d.y handkerchief and exclaimed, "Behold the blood of the Duke of Somerset, shed by your means, and which cries for vengeance against you."

Thus Northumberland kept a short and rough possession of glory; thus he fell unlamented; and thus the manor of Birmingham reverted to the crown a second time, the Duke himself having first taught it the way.

Birmingham continued two years in the crown, 'till the third of Queen Mary, when she granted it to

THOMAS MARROW,

1555,

Whose family, for many descents, resided at Berkeswell, in this county.

In the possession of the High Bailiff is a bushel measure, cast in bra.s.s, of some value; round which in relief is, SAMUEL MARROW, LORD OF THE MANOR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1664.

The Lords.h.i.+p continued in this family about 191 years, 'till the male line failing, it became the joint property of four coheirs--Ann, married to Sir Arthur Kaye; Mary, the wife of John Knightley, Esq; Ursulla, the wife of Sir Robert Wilmot; and Arabella, unmarried; who, in about 1730, disposed of the private estate in the manor, amounting to about 400_l_.

per annum, to Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, as before observed, and the manor itself to

THOMAS ARCHER, ESQ.

for 1,700_l_. in 1746,

Of an ancient family, who have resided at Umberslade in this county more than 600 years--from him it descended to

ANDREW, LORD ARCHER,

And is now enjoyed by his relict,

SARAH, LADY ARCHER,

1781,

Possessing no more in the parish than the royalty; as it does not appear that the subsequent Lords, after the extinction of the house of Birmingham, were resident upon the manor, I omit particulars.

Let me remark, this place yet gives t.i.tle to the present Lord Viscount Dudley and Ward, as descended, by the female line, from the great Norman Barons, the Fitz-Ausculfs, the Paga.n.a.lls, the Somerys, the Suttons, and the Dudleys, successively Lords paramount, whose original power is reduced to a name.

MANOR HOUSE.

(The Moat.)

The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is given to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into action. In all societies of men, therefore, restraints have been discovered, under the name of laws, attended with punishment, to deter people from infringing each others property. Every thing that a man can possess, falls under the denomination of property; whether it be life, liberty, wealth or character.

The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed from the rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for a man to be constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able to repel any force that shall rise up against him.

It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the people are advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or the magistrate too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man to possess property.

But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence; when the laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a man need not trouble himself concerning the protection of his property--his country will protect it for him.

The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually refining; and are capable of that protection which violence never was.

But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall find the laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the place of justice, and property unprotected. In those barbarous ages, therefore, men sought security by intrenching themselves from a world they could not trust.

This was done by opening a large ditch round their habitation, which they filled with water, and which was only approachable by a draw-bridge. This, in some degree, supplied the defect of the law, and the want of power in the magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of priesthood, furnished that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.

The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The camps they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow ditch, bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water. The moat, therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are often in marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by water.

These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the christian aera, they were in the zenith of their glory at the barons wars, in the reign of king John, and continued to be the mode of fortification till the introduction of guns, in the reign of Edward the fourth, which shook their foundation; and the civil wars of Charles the first totally annihilated their use, after an existence of twelve hundred years.

Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone, erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath already been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton Park, which crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.

Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's, formerly situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street, of a circular figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we allow this watery circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of the house, it is a much greater with regard to the antiquity of the church.

The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the residence of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty yards south of the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also circular, and supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to Bromsgrove, near the first mile stone; it originally ran into the river Rea, near Vaughton's hole, dividing the parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but at the formation of the Moat, was diverted from its course, into which it never returned.

No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work was accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were few or no buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been one of the first streets added to this important school of arts; the upper part of that street must of course have been formed first: but, that the Moat was completed prior to the erection of any buildings between that and Digbeth, is evident, because those buildings stand upon the very soil thrown out in forming the Moat.

The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian circle, is in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de Birmingham, then lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in splendor. All the succeeding Lords resided upon the same island, till their cruel expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in 1537.

The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of time.

Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the modern style, occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of the out-buildings is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords kept their court leet; another out-building which stands to the east, I have already observed, was the work of Edmund Lord Ferrers.

The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same appearance now as perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether the same use. It then served to protect its master, but now, to turn a thread-mill.

PUDDING BROOK.

Near the place where the small rivulet discharges itself into the Moat, another of the same size is carried over it, called Pudding Brook, and proceeds from the town as this advances towards it, producing a curiosity seldom met with; one river running South, and the other North, for half a mile, yet only a path-road of three feet asunder; which surprised Brindley the famous engineer.

THE PRIORY.

The site of this ancient edifice is now the Square; some small remains of the old foundations are yet visible in the cellars, chiefly on the South-east. The out-buildings and pleasure-grounds perhaps occupied the whole North east side of Bull-street, then uninhabited, and only the highway to Wolverhampton; bounded on the North-west by Steelhouse-lane; on the North-east by Newton and John's-street; and on the South-east by Dale-end, which also was no other than the highway to Lichfield--The whole, about fourteen acres.

The building upon this delightful eminence, which at that time commanded the small but beautiful prospect of Bristland-fields, Rowley-hills, Oldbury, Smethewick, Handsworth, Sutton-Coldfield, Erdington, Saltley, the Garrison, and Camp-hill, and which then stood at a distance from the town, though now near its centre; was founded by the house of Birmingham, in the early reigns of the Norman Kings, and called the Hospital of Saint Thomas,--The priest being bound to pray for the souls of the founders every day, to the end of the world.