As to the elected officials, the
same curate records in a pamphlet which he published in his indignation,
that "on Christmas Day, during divine service, the churchwardens entered
the workhouse with constables and bailiffs, and a multitude of men
equally pious with themselves, and turned the governor and his wife into
the snow-covered streets." Another measure of iniquity laid to their
charge was their "cruelty to Mr. Foster," the master of the charity
school held in the old Market Cross, "a man of amiable disposition, and
a teacher of considerable merit." These aggressive wardens grazed the
churchyard for profit, looked coldly upon a proposal to put up Tables of
Benefactions in the church, and altogether acted in a manner so
high-handed as to call forth this historic protest. Although the fabric
of the church was in so ruinous a condition that the rain streamed
through the roof upon the head of our clerical pamphleteer as he was
preaching, all these complaints were to no purpose. When the absentee
vicar was appealed to he declared his helplessness, and one sentence in
his reply is significant; it was thus: "It is as much as my life is
worth to come among them!" Allowance must be made for party rancour. It
is probable that Watkins was but the official figure-head of this
dominant party, and he is said to have been a man of real piety; and
after holding the office of parish clerk for sixty years, he at last
died in the vestry of the church he loved so much.

As a certified clerk George Court held the office as long as his
grandfather before him. He was a man of the bluff and hearty sort,
thoroughly typical of old Wednesbury, of Dutch build, yet commanding
presence, in language more forcible than polite, and not restrained in
the use of his strong language even by the presence of an austere and
iron-willed vicar. The tales told of him are numerous enough, but are
scarcely of the kind that look well in cold print. Although fond of the
good things of this world himself, he could occasionally be very severe
on the high feeding and deep drinking proclivities of "You--singers and
ringers"! He was never known to fail in scolding any funeral procession
that had kept him waiting at the church gates too long, and that in
language as loud as it was vigorous. He, like his predecessor, was the
autocrat of the parish.

The last of the long line of parish clerks who occupied the bottom desk
of the fine old Jacobean three-decker was Th