MEMORIALS OF OLD BIRMINGHAM. Men and Names: FOUNDERS, FREEHOLDERS, AND INDWELLERS, FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. WITH PARTICULARS AS TO The Earliest Church of the Reformation Built and Endowed in England. FROM ORIGINAL AND UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. NOTHE BY TOULMIN SMITH, OF LINCOLN'S INN, ESQUIRE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES (COPENHAGEN). "Let them be well used; for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time." With Illustrations and Facsimiles. Hamlet. BIRMINGHAM: WALTER J. SACKETT, 11, BULL STREET. 1864. LETA PREFACE. Two of the best books in the English language, on subjects of general interest, grew up out of notes upon obscure villages. SELBORNE, whence arose WHITE's charming "Natural History of Selborne," lies in a corner of Hampshire: AMBROSDEN, whence arose KENNETT'S learned "Parochial Antiquities," lies in Oxfordshire. The reason why these are good books, is plain. Each of the authors, instead of dealing in speculative generalities, took note of what was before him, and followed up his observations on these actual things of real life as far as he was able. There is a vagueness about the consideration of general principles: but when general principles are found applied to instances in life and action, they remain no longer vague: they become understood, as an actual part of the world's living existence, or of a nation's growth, strength, and well-being. It is from this point of view that the following pages have been written. Birmingham is not a little village, but a large town. It has grown to be a large town during the course of many centuries, and through the influence of that tone of mind which springs from the character of old English Institutions. What is here put together, arising out of what has been done in Birmingham, illustrates equally the action of |