h
vitriol." The Sea-well Spring still retained its name as a "Spaw" famous
for its "eye water"; while those of Willenhall and Bentley were said to
yield a valuable remedial sulphur water so long as they "could be kept
from mixture with other waters."

Folklore not only connected these Wells with patron saints, but
associated their magic precincts and curative effects with beneficent
fairies. A well like that of Willenhall, which in a post-renaissance
period was honoured with a stone frontal bearing a Latin inscription,
would of a certainty be attended by fairy elves in an earlier and more
primitive era.

About this Spring (if ancient fame say true)
The dapper elves their midnight sports pursue;
Their pigmy king and little fairy queen,
In circling dances gambolled on the green,
While tuneful sprites a merry concert made
And airy music warbled through the shade.

[Picture: Decorative design]

XVIII.--The Benefice.

Owing to the meagreness of the record, a complete list of the holders of
the benefice is not to be expected. Thomas de Trollesbury has been named
as "the parson of Willenhall" in 1297 (Chapter VII.); while we also have
the names of three chantry priests here--William in the Lone, 1341
(Chapter XI.); Thomas Browning, "chaplain of the chantry" in 1397
(Chapter VII.); and Hugh Bromehall in 1526 (Chapter X.); all of them
doubtless nominees of the Deanery of Wolverhampton.

Of course, it was possible, though not often the practice, for the holder
of the living to act as "chaunter" priest as well. The Chantry
endowments, as we have seen, were forfeited at the Reformation, at which
period the benefice was returned as of the annual value of "10 pounds
clear."

Either of these notorious evil-livers mentioned in Chapter XI., the
non-preaching "dumb-dogs," Mounsell and Cooper, may have been the
occupant of the Willenhall curacy in 1586. In 1609 an improvement in the
intellectual status of the holder had been effected, William Padmore,
D.D., being then incumbent.

In a previous chapter it was shown that the Rev. T. Badland was expelled
from the living of Willenhall in 1662. It can now be shown that he was
holding the benefice at least as early as 1658--and possibly from the
beginning of the Cromwellian rule and the overthrow of the Episcopacy in
1646.

About 1645-6 ordinances were passed appointing a Committee to consider
ways and means of upholding