152 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



Dr. Wilkes was a skilful physician, and his prescriptions were often 

 attended with success. His general knowledge was considerable, 

 and his mind active, and always employed in some praise-worthy 

 pursuit. He died at Willenhall, of the gout in his stomach, on the 

 6th of March, 1760, in the TOth year of his age, and was buried in 

 the Church, where the monument before-mentioned was erected to 

 his memory. His death was universally lamented by his friends 

 and townsmen. He was an indulgent landlord, a good master, 

 a friend to the poor, to whom he always gave gratuitous advice as 

 a physician, and pecuniary aid; and that he was unassuming, the 

 following brief account of himself and his ancestors will demon- 

 strate : " My family," says he, " came out of Hertfordshire, and 

 settled here about 300 years ago, and lived much in the same man- 

 ner, for if one spent a little of the estate, it was recovered again 

 by another* But as none of my brethren married, and I have no 

 son living, the name of Wilkes will end in this town, and be for- 

 gotten with me/' Dr. Wilkes was also a great antiquary, and 

 collected materials for a History of Shropshire ; but to the anti- 

 equities of Staffordshire his attention was principally directed. 



Willenhall Spa rises on the north side of a brook which runs to 

 the east. About 200 yards up the brook are several springs, one 

 of which was formerly consecrated to St. Sunday. Below the spa, 

 on the opposite side of the brook, white clay with yellow veins is 

 found, which, when mixed and made into cakes, is sold to glovers 

 by the name of ochre cakes. The whole country abounds with 

 mines of coal and iron-stone. 



Wednesfield is a hamlet, about two miles north-east from Wol- 

 verhampton, on the western verge of the hundred. It is memo- 

 rable as the scene of a battle between Edward the Elder and the 

 Danes, in the year 910, of which Dr. Plott gives the following ac- 

 count : " King Edward, with an army of West Saxons and Mercians, 

 overtook the retreating Danes at the village of \Vednesfield, and 

 overthrew them in a bloody battle, wherein he killed Eowills and 

 Halfden,two of their kings, and Ohtea and Scurfer,two of their earls, 

 and nine other noblemen, of which great slaughter there are no re- 

 mains but a low in a ground called South Low-field, which once 

 had a wind-mill set upon it ; another field is called North Low-field, 

 doubtless from lows in it, since removed ; and such was likely 

 Stowman's-hill, on the road betwixt Wolverhampton and Walsall, 

 half a mile s. w. of Nechels." Stowman-low or Hill, has been 

 since removed to mead the roads, and nothing remarkable discovered. 



