Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham Part 21

s. d.

1637--Paid Walter Taylor for ridding the gutters in Moor Street 0 0 11 1665--Zachary Gisborne 42 loads of mudd out of Moore Street .. 0 0 7 1676--J. Bridgens keepinge open pa.s.sage and tourneing water from Cars Lane that it did not runne into More Street for a yeare .. .. .. .. 0 4 0 1688--Paid mending Carter's Bridge timber and worke .. .. .. 0 5 0 1690--John, for mending Moore Street Bridg .. .. .. .. .. .. 0 0 10

Moor Street, from the earliest date, was the chosen place of residence for many of the old families, the Carless, Smalbroke, Ward, Sheldon, Flavell, Stidman, and other names, continually cropping up in deeds; some of the rents paid to the Lord of the Manor, contrasting curiously with the rentals of to-day. For three properties adjoining in More Street, and which were so paid until a comparatively modern date, the rents were:--

"One pound of pepper by Goldsmythe and Lench, Two pounds of pepper by the master of the Gild, One pound of c.u.min seed, one bow, and six barbed bolts, or arrow heads by John Sheldon."

~Moseley.~--One of the popular, and soon will be populous suburbs, connected as it is so closely to us by Balsall Heath. It is one of the old Domesday-mentioned spots, but has little history other than connected with the one or two families who chose it for their residence ages ago. It is supposed the old church was erected prior to the year 1500, a tower being added to it in Henry VIII.'s reign, but the parish register dates only from the middle of last century, possibly older entries being made at King's Norton (from which Moseley was ecclesiastically divided in 1852). Moseley does not appear to have been named from, or to have given name to, any particular family, the earliest we have any note about being Greves, or Grevis, whose tombs are in King's Norton Church, one of the epitaphs being this:--

"Ascension day on ninth of May, Third year of King James' reine, To end my time and steal my coin, I William Greves was slain. 1605."

Hutton says that the old custom of "heriot" was practised here; which is not improbable, as instances have occurred in neighbourhood of Bromsgrove and other parts of the county within the past few years. This relic of feudalism, or barbarism, consists of the demanding for the lord of the manor the best movable article, live or dead, that any tenant happens to be possessed of at the time of his death.

~Moseley Hall.~--Hutton relates that on July 21, 1786, one Henshaw Grevis came before him in the court of Requests, as a poor debtor, who, thirty years before, he had seen "completely mounted and dressed in green velvet, with a hunter's cap and girdle, at the head of the pack."

This poor fellow was the last member of a family who had held the Moseley Hall estate from the time of the Conquest. In the riots of 1791 the Hall was burnt down, being rebuilt ten years after.

~Mothering Sunday~, or Mid-Lent Sunday, has its peculiarities according to districts. In Birmingham the good people who like to keep up old customs sit down to veal and custard. At Draycot-le-Moors they eat pies made of figs. The practice of visiting the parents' home on this day was one of those old-time customs so popular in the days of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers (but which, with many others have fallen into disuse), and this is supposed to have given rise to the "Mothering Sunday" name. Prior to the Reformation, the Catholics kept the day as a holy day, in honour of the Mother of Jesus, it being a Protestant invention to turn the fast-day into one of feasting.

~Mount Misery.~--At the close of the great war, which culminated at Waterloo, it was long before the blessings of peace brought comfort to the homes of the poor. The first effects of the sheathing of the sword was a collapse in prices of all kinds, and a general stagnation of trade, of which Birmingham, made prosperous through the demand for its guns, &c., felt the full force. Bad trade was followed by bad harvests, and the commercial history of the next dozen years is but one huge chronicle of disaster, shops and mills closing fast, and poverty following faster. How to employ the hundreds of able-bodied men dependent on the rates was a continual puzzle to the Overseers, until someone, wise in his generation, hit upon the plan of paying the unfortunates to wheel sand from the bank then in front of Key Hill House up to the ca.n.a.l side, a distance of 1-1/2 miles, the payment being at the rate of one penny per barrow load. This fearful "labour test" was continued for a long time, and when we reckon that each man would have to wheel his barrow backwards and forwards for nearly 20 miles to earn a s.h.i.+lling, moving more than a ton of sand in the process we cannot wonder at the place receiving such a woeful name as Mount Misery.

~M.P.'s for Borough.~--See "_Parliamentary_."

~Mules.~-These animals are not often seen about town now, but in the politically-exciting days of 1815 they apparently were not strangers in our streets, as Mr. Richard Spooner (who, like our genial Alderman Avery, was fond of "tooling" his own cattle), was in the habit of driving his own mail-drag into town, to which four mules were harnessed.

With Mr. Thomas Potts, a well-to-do merchant, a "bigoted Baptist," and ultra-Radical, Mr. Spooner and Mr. T. Attwood took part in a deputation to London, giving occasion to one of the street-songs of the day:--

"Tommy Potts has gone to town To join the deputation; He is a man of great renown, And fit to save the nation.

Yankee doodle do, Yankee doodle dandy.

d.i.c.ky Spooner's also there, And Tom the Banker, too; If in glory they should share, We'll sing them 'c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo.'

Yankee doodle do, Yankee doodle dandy.

d.i.c.ky Spooner is d.i.c.ky Mule, Tom Attwood is Tom Fool; And Potts an empty kettle, With lots of bosh and rattle.

Yankee doodle do, Yankee doodle dandy."

Another of the doggerel verses, alluding to Mr. Spooner's mules, ran--

"Tommy Potts went up to town, Bright Tom, who all surpa.s.ses, Was drawn by horses out of town, And in again by a.s.ses.

With their Yankee doodle do, Yankee doodle dandy."

~Munic.i.p.al Expenditure.~--Fortunately the population of Birmingham is going ahead rapidly, and the more the children multiply the more "heads of families" we may naturally hope there will be noted down as ratepayers by the heads of the gather-the-tin office. The cost of governing our little town is not at all heavy, and when divided out at per head of the inhabitants it seems but a mere bagatelle. Mr. J. Powell Williams, who takes credit for being a financier and man of figures, said in 1884 that the totals of our munic.i.p.al expenditure for the past few years were as follows:--

In 1879 it was 354,000 or 18/3 per head " 1880 " 343,900 " 17/5 "

" 1881 " 361,500 " 18/0 "

" 1882 " 374,000 " 18/4 "

" 1883 " 385,000 " 18/7 "

" 1884 " 385,000 " 18/3 "

The bachelors who live in apartments will surely be tempted to begin housekeeping when they see how low a sum it takes to pay for all the blessings conferred upon us by a Liberal Corporation; but what the Pater of half-a-dozen olive branches may think about the matter, is altogether a different thing, especially when he finds that to the above 18/2 per head must be added 2/7-1/2 per head for the School Board, and 1s. 2d.

per head for the Drainage Board, besides poor-rates, Government taxes, gas, water, and all these other little nothings that empty the purse.

~Murder and Manslaughter.~--It would be _too_ black a catalogue to give all the horrible cases of this nature which the local journals have chronicled in past years, those here noted being only such as have a certain historical interest.

"Tom and Jack."--"See _Executions_."

Sergeant William Cartwright, of the Coldstream Guards, was killed in Townsend's Yard by a deserter, September 13, 1796.

A desperate attempt was made to murder a young woman in Bull Street in the evening of a fair day, June 9, 1797.

Philip Matsell was hanged August 22, 1806, at the bottom of Snow Hill, for attempting to murder a watchman.--See "_Executions_."

A Mr. Pennington, of London, was murdered at Vauxhall, Feb. 6. 1817.

Ashford, Mary, May 27, 1817, murdered at Sutton Coldfield.

F. Adams was murdered by T. Johnson, in London 'Prentice Street, Aug. 5, 1821.

Mr. R. Perry was killed in Mary Ann Street, by Michael Ford, December 6, 1825. Execution, March 7, 1826.

J. Fitter was tried and acquitted August 11, 1834, on a charge of having murdered Margaret Webb, in Lawley Street, on 7th April preceding.

Mr. W. Painter, a tax collector, was robbed and murdered in the old Parsonage grounds (near what is now the bottom of Worcester Street), February 17, 1835.

William Devey murdered Mr. Davenport in a shop in Snow Hill, April 5, 1838.

Mrs. Steapenhill shot by her husband in Heneage Street, January 7, 1842.

Mrs. Davis killed by her husband in Moor Street, March, 1848.

Mrs. Wilkes murdered her four children in Cheapside, October 23, 1847; also committing suicide.

Francis Price was executed at Warwick, August 20, 1860, for murdering Sarah Pratt, April 18.

Elizabeth Brooks was shot by Farquhar, at Small Heath, August 29, 1861.

He was sentenced to imprisonment for a long term, but was liberated in April, 1866.

Thompson, Tanter Street, killed his wife, September 23, 1861; hung December 30.

Henry Carter, aged 17, who had killed his sweetheart, was hung April 11, 1863.