A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



of their geographical position far from London and the eastern counties, 

 and with little means of communication therewith. Besides, the reaction in 

 favour of the ruling classes was so swift that the news of the rising probably 

 only reached this county with the additional information that it had been 

 put down by the most vigorous methods. Yet there is reason to suppose 

 that the effects of the Black Death in depopulating the county were not 

 quite so serious in Staffordshire as in some parts of England, and that, in con- 

 sequence, the peasants here suffered somewhat less from the operation of the 

 Statutes of Labour which had attempted, though vainly, to fix the rates of 

 wages according to those which prevailed before the plague. There is a 

 tradition that Wolverhampton was partially devastated by the disease, 86 and 

 here and there in the records there are indirect references to its ravages. 88 

 It was of course most unlikely that this county should have escaped the 

 pestilence, and the general scantiness of the ordinary judicial records at this 

 time renders it dangerous to make serious general statements. 



There is, however, a distinct statement on the matter in a letter directed 

 to an official of the archdeaconry of Coventry and Lichfield in 1361, which 

 points to the comparative immunity of the county in the second great 

 visitation of 1361-2, if not in the earlier one of I 348-9." 



The pestilence (says the letter) with which God is visiting the sins of the people, has 

 not yet come into this diocese, but many other parts of the country are rendered empty by it ! 

 Prayer is therefore to be made in all churches for the staying of the Plague. 



Certainly it was felt severely round about the Staffordshire borders, as 

 appears from various entries in the Episcopal Registers. Thus in 1380 a 

 request was made by the monks of Bordesley, in the diocese of Worcester, 

 for the appropriation of the church of Kinver in the archdeaconry of Stafford, 

 the abbot pleading poverty on the ground that his chief endowment is in land 

 and agriculture, which bring in nothing through lack of labourers owing to 

 the pestilence. He states that an unusual number of guests have visited the 

 monastery, and that the cattle plague has further reduced his resources. 88 



As regards the commercial and industrial development of Staffordshire, it 

 is quite evident that there was but little progress between the eleventh and 

 the sixteenth century. We know that the county suffered considerably in the 

 civil war of Stephen's day, being for some time in the campaign of 1153 the 

 head quarters of Matilda's son Henry. In 11878 the sheriff reports that 

 84 hides of geldable land were so desolated that he could levy nothing 

 on it. ' Lo it was near one-fifth of the geldable area of the county.' 89 



The growth of the towns was certainly late. From the Subsidy Roll of 

 1332-3 we see that Stafford, one of the ten fortified English towns mentioned 

 in Domesday Book, comes first, with a contribution of 13 8j. io</. 40 Lichfield 

 is next on the list, and pays 12 ; the third town is Newcastle under Lyme, 

 paying 10 1 3-r. 4*/., whilst Burton contributes only 8, and the other towns 

 are inconsiderable, and come far behind. 41 



* F. Burleigh, Hist, and Descriptive Guide to Wolverhampton, 4. 

 " The mil. Salt Arch. Soc. Coll. vii, 38 ; ibid, xii, 98 ; ibid, xiv, 73. 



57 Reg. of Bithop Robert de Stretton (Lich. Epis. Reg.), printed in The Will. Salt Arch. Soc. Coll. viii (New 

 Ser.), 99. 



>s The Will. Salt Arch. Soc. Coll. viii (New Ser), 141. 



89 Ibid. x. Ibid, x (i), 79-1 32. Ibid. 



282 



