ver enjoyed it.

The Lord Clinton and his Lady seem to have occupied the Manor-house; and
Sir Thomas, unwilling to quit the place of his affections and of his
nativity, erected a castle for himself at Worstone, near the Sand-pits,
joining the Ikenield-street; street; where, though the building is
totally gone, the vestiges of its liquid security are yet complete. This
Sir Thomas enjoyed several public offices, and figured in the style of
his ancestors. He left a daughter, who married Thomas de la Roche, and
from this marriage sprang two daughters; the eldest of which married
Edmund, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who, at the decease of Sir John's
widow, inherited the manor, and occupied the Manor house. There yet
stands a building on the North-east side of the Moat, erected by this
Lord Ferrers, with his arms in the timbers of the ceiling, and the
crest, a horse-shoe.

I take this house to be the oldest in Birmingham, though it hath not
that appearance; having stood about 350 years.

By an entail of the manor upon the male line, the Lady Ferrers seems to
have quitted her title in favor of a second cousin, a descendant of
William de Birmingham, brother to Sir Fouk.

WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,

1430.

In the 19th of Henry the Sixth, 1441, is said to have held his manor of
Birmingham, of Sir John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, by military service;
but instead of paying homage, fealty, escuage, &c. as his ancestors had
done, which was very troublesome to the tenant, and brought only empty
honour to the Lord: and, as sometimes the Lord's necessities taught him
to think that money was more _Solid_ than suit and service; an agreement
was entered into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the
tenant--Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind of
bastard freehold:--The tenant held a certainty, while he conformed to
the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the manor--And the Lord
still possessed a material control. He died in 1479, leaving a son,

SIR WILLIAM BIRMINGHAM,

1479,

Aged thirty at the decease of his father. He married Isabella, heiress
of William Hilton, by whom he had a son, William, who died before his
father, June 7, 1500, leaving a son,

EDWARD BIRMINGHAM,

1500,

Born in 1497, and succeeded his grandfather at the age of three. During
his minority, Henry the Seventh, 1502, granted the wardship to Edward,
Lord Dudley.

The family estate then consisted of the manor