ds belonging to it is
600 pounds per annum. There be seven Prebends and a Sexton under
them; seven stipendiaries; the allowance for four of them is ten
nobles apiece; for the other three 6 pounds apiece. Six of the
Prebends be held by Sir Gualter Levison; the other is held by
another. The rent reserved to the Dean of Windsor, 38 pounds.
People 4,000. Many Popish; many Recusants.

Chappells 3:--

1. Pelsall; curate's stipend 4 pounds; no preacher.

2. Willenhall; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.

3. Bilston; curate hath no stipend reserved; no preacher.

These curates, especially two of them, Mounsell and Cooper, be
notorious and dissolute men.

Such was the lamentable state of the local clergy at that time, when the
population of Wolverhampton, with all its outlying parts, is set down at
4,000 only. A few words of explanation will perhaps be necessary to make
the foregoing extract more intelligible to the general reader.

A "noble" was a coin of the value of 6s. 8d.; a "recusant" was one who
disputed the authority and supremacy of the Crown in matters
ecclesiastical, whether Papist or Puritan; while to "impropriate" church
property was to place it in the hands of a layman.

Four or five more extracts from this interesting Survey, relating to
other parts of this neighbourhood, may not be out of place to quote
here:--

BYSHBY.--Parsonage, impropriate; worth 40 pounds per annum; vicarage
worth 30 pounds; patron, Sir Edward Littleton; many Popish; many
Recusants. Incumbent a mere worldling; no preacher.

TETNALL.--A college dissolved; five prebends and a deane; impropriate
to the King's Majestie; worth 300 marks. One prebend is held by Sir
Richard Leveson; one by Mr. Gualter Wriotesley; two by Richard
Cresswell. Curate's stipend, 20 marks; no preacher.

CODSALL.--Prebend of Tetnall. Curate-prebendary a loose liver; no
preacher.

WOMBOURNE.--Parsonage, impropriate, held by Hugh Wriotesley, Esquire;
worth 40 pounds; vicarage worth 26 pounds; patron, Edward L. Dudley.

PEN.--Parsonage; impropriate to the vicars of Lichfield; worth 20
pounds; vicarage worth as much; patrons, the Vicars of Lichfield.
Vicar --; no preacher.

This selection of extracts will serve to enlighten the reader upon two
important points in the history of the Church; the first is the amount of
church revenue whic