E. Page (Binfield) 28
Rev. F. W. Ford (London) 1

At four o'clock, Mr. Page (who was the son of a local iron-master) and
Mr. Ford retired in favour of Mr. Ward. The Returning Officer was Mr. R.
N. Hearne, Steward to the Lords of the Manor of Stowheath, the Duke of
Sutherland and Mr. W. T. C. Giffard; and the poll was taken by open
voting, each voter recording his vote orally and within the hearing of
all present.

The result having been forwarded to the Lords of the Manor, they formally
nominated the one at the head of the poll to the Bishop for appointment
and induction to the living. The successful candidate was a native,
being the son of the Rev. D. Rosedale, to whose exertions the building of
Holy Trinity Church was largely due, and in the Vicarage House attached
to which the said candidate was born. But he possessed other than local
claims, though these, no doubt, prepossessed many Willenhall folk in his
favour.

There can be little doubt the election of 1894 was conducted with far
more tact and discretion than ever had been exercised on similar
occasions previously. There was still the old risk of serious public
disturbances; but perhaps more than ever there was, as must generally be
the case in such methods of conducting a controversial matter of this
description, the danger of unseemly and acrimonious squabblings in
public. It reflects the highest credit upon the Churchwardens and all
others concerned in the election, that not only was nearly all this
avoided, but the possibility always present, of long and embittered
litigation to follow, was also reduced to a minimum. It required some
firmness and decision to weed down 23 formal applications, and more than
twice that number of business-like inquiries, to workable limits for
taking a poll.

The litigation of 1834 had arisen through the manufacture of "faggot
votes," which were eventually disallowed, and had to be struck off. A
difficulty arose in 1894 as to the interpretation of an Act of
1844--would Lord Blandford's Act debar from taking part in the voting the
residents in the newly-created ecclesiastical districts of St. Stephen's,
St. Anne's, and Holy Trinity, Short Heath? Although at first dubious on
the question, the authorities answered it in the negative.

* * * * *

As previously stated, the earliest record of the Advowson is of the year
1408. In the Salt