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V.
THIS sketch of a parochial contest of thirty years ago purposes to put on record the incidents of that famous fight over the levying of the last Church Rate in Wednesbury. It would be as impossible to re-kindle the flames of partizan animosity by these reminiscences as it would be to revive the imposts themselves, which were wisely and finally abolished by 31 and 32 Vic. c. 109 (1868). * (*Under certain restrictions and conditions Church Rates still exist in some parts of the country to this day, and in such places are still recoverable by law.)
We must go back to the year 1851, when it was found necessary to again enlarge the Parish Churchyard, to do which two small pieces of land were available, both belonging to Mr. John Russell, of the Church Hill Tube Works. A Vestry meeting to consider the method of raising the necessary £400 was called by the Churchwardens, Mr. E. Blakemore, and Mr. B. Round for October 3rd. At this meeting, which was thinly attended, a resolution in the following terms was carried ;-" That this Vestry recommend the Churchwardens to call a parish meeting on Friday next, for the purpose of the land granting a sufficient rate for the purchase of the land now offered by Mr. Russell, and the expenses connected with that purchase." The following list of names was appended to it, but it will be gathered from the subsequent proceedings that some of those who signed merely acquiesced, in order to discover if a larger meeting of ratepayers would be willing to grant the rate : - I. Clarkson, (Chairman), B. Round, F.W. Seaman, S. Constable, E. Blakemore, R. Ashmore, J. Hobbins, jun., G.H. Smith, John Griffiths, Thomas Danks, Thomas Mayes, Thomas Parkes, J.G. Whitehead. The second meeting was so largely attended, each side having adjourned from the vestry to the school-room for greater convenience. Then the strife began. It was proposed by Mr. W. Lees, and seconded by Mr. Joseph Smith, - "That a rate of sixpence in the pound be granted," upon which Mr. Joseph Anslow moved an amendment, seconded by Mr. T. Mayes, - "that the granting of the rate be deferred to this day six months." The show of hands being overwhelmingly in favour of the amendment, Mr. Seaman demanded a poll. The Vicar, as Chairman, acceded to the demand, and appointed the polling to take place at the Public Office, Russell Street, on Wednesday and Thursday, the 15th and 16th of October, the poll to open each day at 10 o'clock, and to close at 4 o'clock. Then the excitement commenced. Party-spirit ran high, public meetings were frequently held, and a paper-war of a deadly character ensued - at least it would have been deadly if words could kill. The champions of the rate defended their action on the grounds of public necessity and economy, asserting that more ground was necessary for the decent burial of the dead, not so much for the rich, who had vaults, as for the poor ; and that it would be better to expend £400 on the Churchyard to make it serve another 20 years, than to go to the cost of providing a Public Cemetery at an outlay of £5,000 or £6,000. However, the churchwardens thought it necessary to issue a manifesto declaring that the proposed rate should be applied exclusively to the purchase of land for the burial ground, and pledging themselves not to ask for a rate for any other purpose. The Anti-Rate party expressed a desire for a Public Cemetery and suggested the Mounts as a suitable site. Their objections to the rate were weighty and manifold, but they do not seem to have combated the principle of the thing. They certainly hinted that Dissenting parishioners would have to pay for a graveyard to which their own pastors would be denied access as officiating ministers ; and it was also mentioned that in some towns cases had occurred of burial in churchyards being altogether refused to the bodies of Nonconformists. But when it is remembered that this party included such sound churchmen as Mr. A. W. Whitehouse and Mr. Thomas Duce, their forbearance on this point will be at once understood. To catch votes, however, they ingeniously strung together a long list of petty grievances which the proposed rate would create ; they declared it would be an injustice for King's Hill residents, who mostly attended places of worship in Darlaston, to contribute to the cost of a burial ground in which they would have no interest ; they pointed out that the churchyard became practically the freehold property of the vicar, and that before the people could use it, a second payment would have to be made to him in the shape of fees, whereas a cemetery would become their own property ; the principle of the interment of the dead away from the centres of population was insisted upon ; and lastly, the rate was declared bad in law, inasmuch as the wardens were not empowered to levy rates for the purchase of burial grounds unless under the acts for building new churches.
The polling days arrived in due course, and then occurred the most extraordinary manipulation of votes ever recorded. The officers who conducted the election were Mr. J.N. Bagnall, Mr. W. Lees, and Mr. Joseph Smith on the side of the contents, and acting for the non-contents were Mr. Joseph Anslow, Mr. Benjamin Danks, and Mr. Thos. Mayes. The scrutineers were Mr. James Blakemore, and Mr. T. Duce.
At the end of the first day there was a majority of 55 against the rate, and the final close of the poll showed votes Against the
rate.....................685 An immense concourse of people greeted the announcement of this result with much enthusiasm ; but it was not all over yet. The resources of the Rate Party were not exhausted, and all things were to become more lively still. The business of the election was adjourned till the following Tuesday, to the Workhouse Vestry, for the purpose of examining the votes, and ascertaining the real state of the poll. Two further adjournments took place, but on the Friday, the Rev. Isaac Clarkson as Chairman, declared the state of the poll as follows :- Votes for the
rate.....................613 To this declaration the following signatures were appended : - J.N. Bagnall, W. Lees, J. Smith, B. Round, E. Blakemore, Joseph Nayler, Henry Taylor, John Griffiths, and R .Ashmore. The next day the following bill was extensively circulated in the town : - "To the inhabitants of Wednesbury, - At the close of the poll it was announced that there was a majority of 74 votes against the rate. "Yesterday, at the Poor House Vestry, the Chairman said there was a majority of 17 for the rate. Now, how is this ? Why, the Chairman and his friends had crossed off 120 votes against the rate belonging to working men, without respect to their being good or bad votes, and had retained a number of votes for the rate, which are bad. "This I am prepared to prove ; I dare them to such proof. I have in my possession 17 receipts for the last Poor's Rate, belonging to men living in the parish, whose votes were thus crossed off, the tax-gatherer saying, 'I don't know such men.' Their receipts may be seen in my window to-night. "What do the inhabitants think of this ? Will the masses of the people suffer this ? What was the good of polling the parish ? Had there been a majority of 500 or 1,000 against the rate at the poll, it seems it would have been of no avail. "JOSEPH ANSLOW. "Wednesbury,
Oct. 25, 1851." "We, as scrutineers, are prepared to meet John Bagnall, William Lees, Joseph Smith, the Vicar as self-elected Chairman again, with his churchwardens, in public, and prove that there is a majority against the rate ; we dare them to meet us, and disprove what we now state.
In the face of all this, the party who had won their cause had to proceed very circumspectly. The rate was assessed, and Mr. John Griffiths undertook to collect it ; those who felt disposed paid it, but the majority of parishioners refused, and no attempt was made to compel them. Had any compulsion been attempted, a Defence Association, whose head quarters were the Old British Schoolroom, was quietly lying in wait to commence legal proceedings ; the funds of this association were in charge of Mr. G. H. Muntz, Mr. Thomas Taylor, Mr. James Yates, and Mr. James Stokes. However to give the Rate a legal aspect, it had been issued as a Church Rate, and the demand notes were headed :-"Wednesbury Parish Church Rate. For the repairs of the Church" &c. The amount produced by the rate was £378 19s. 5d. for its supporters, as their names will indicate even now, were men of good position and men not slow to put their hands into their own pockets to support what they considered to be right. This money was applied as was intended ; the land was bought and duly walled in as part of the churchyard, the cost of its consecration being £16 3s.
One incident of the polling led to legal proceedings after all. It appears that Mr. Mayes issued the following bill at the close of the first day's poll : - "CHURCH RATES. "Men of Wednesbury ! You can now see what is the opinion of the public about a church rate. A majority of 139 persons have expressed their opinion against the rate notwithstanding the tremendous effort that has been put forth by the church rate party. To-morrow let the majority be 500 ! If the men, the working-men, of the town will not be intimidated, but come forward and exercise their own individual judgment, this will certainly be the case. No Church Rate for wine, organ-blowing, washing surplices, land, bell-ringing, Beadle, Clerk, Parson, nor Bishop. THOMAS MAYES, a Ratepayer. "Wednesbury, October 15th, 1851." It will be seen that Mr. Mayes made a mistake in subtraction ; the majority should have been 129 not 139. In reply to this appeared the following handbill (supposed to have emanated from the pen of one of the churchwardens) which was freely distributed at the polling station on the second day : - "Fellow ratepayers ! Judge for yourselves upon the false statements of Thomas Mayes, who has put forth a compound of the grossest lies ever stated by man - never excelled by a circus fool. He is a turncoat ! a deceiver ! and a madman ! and I should recommend a straight jacket for him, and a policeman to conduct him to the asylum. To prove the man look at his statements of yesterday - one of the most blackguard productions ever witnessed. Through deceit, he is trying to burden the poor with a heavy rate for a cemetery, which will continue for twenty or thirty years, instead of a small rate for one year only. I sincerely regret to feel myself called upon to use such strong language, but necessity requires it. A VOTER." "Edward Ellis & Co.,
Printers, The violence of this production roused animosity to a higher pitch than ever. Mr. Mayes demanded the name of the author of the bill, and was refused ; he requested the printers to withdraw it from circulation and to apologise, and this was also refused. He entered an action for libel against the printers, and the case came on before Mr. Justice Wightman, at Stafford, on the 10th March, 1852. In the course of his address the Counsel for the defence endeavoured to discredit Mr. Mayes, and to prove his inconsistency, by quoting a squib which the literature of the Poll had just put into the mouth of that ardent politician who, it may be explained, was a butcher by trade, and lived at the corner of Earp's Lane and High Street. "I am a butcher burly bold But it was of no avail. The jury gave Mr. Mayes the verdict, with £5 damages : but this lawsuit actually cost something like £300 to the losers. Will not the recollection of those lively times raise a smile on the face many an old inhabitant ?
This agitation had the further effect of killing the "Easter Dues" ; for the next time it was attempted to collect these ecclesiastical imposts, the poorer ratepayers demurely conducted the collector to a bare pantry, and there assuming an air of respectful submission to the Spiritual Powers he represented, quietly requested him to help himself to the "due" ! In this bit of acting they had been ably instructed and well rehearsed by those wicked wags - the Anti-Rate Party !
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