HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 169 



Admiral Sir Richard Leveson, who commanded against the Spanish 

 Armada, Here is likewise a curious stone font, beautifully em- 

 bellished with figures and flowers, and evidently of great antiquity. 



Memorabilia. In 1529, the Church was robbed, and the church- 

 wardens went to a wise man. 



1533. The high altar cost o95. 



1572. Seats first allowed to be built in the church. 



Plott says, "in the church of Wolverhampton are seven bells 

 rung together in peal, which must needs be very unmusical." 



Nov. 6, 1796, about two o'clock in the morning, a violent gust 

 of wind blew down the whole range of battlements on the south side 

 of the church, together with part of the south transept, and did 

 great damage in the neighbourhood. 



In the church-yard, near the south porch, is a round column, 

 about twenty feet in height, exhibiting a variety of rude carvings 

 divided into compartments, containing a bird and beast looking 

 back at each other, dragons with fore feet and long tails in lozen- 

 ges, birds and roses, a band of Saxon leaves, beasts or griffins, and 

 other grotesque representations: the whole is surmounted by a plain 

 capital. There are similar monuments in Leek church-yard, at 

 Checkley, Chebsey, and Draycot-in-the-Moors, but it is doubtful 

 whether they are of Danish or Saxon construction. 



Among the charitable donations recorded in the Church, is the fol- 

 lowing : " Sir Stephen Jennings, Aldernaaii of London, born in this 

 town, founded one free-school, and purchased the manor of Rushock, 

 in the county of Worcester, now (1707) of the yearly value of <300. 

 at least, for the perpetual maintaining of a schoolmaster and usher, 

 the care and government of which he did leave to the Worshipful 

 Company of Merchant Taylors, of London." Sir Stephen Jen- 

 nings was Lord Mayor of London in the year 1506. 



The new Church, dedicated to St. John, is a handsome stone fabric, 

 with a beautiful and lofty spire, and pewed and painted according 

 to modern taste. The Act for erecting this Church was obtained 

 in 1755, but the damage which the building sustained by a fire in 

 1758, and a deficiency of funds, prevented its completion till the 

 year 1776. It is in the gift of the Earl of Stamford, who contri- 

 buted liberally towards its erection, and the present minister is the 

 Rev. Joseph Reitl. 



Besides the two Churches, there is a Scotch kirk, a Roman 

 Catholic chapel, and four meeting-houses for the Methodists and 

 Independents. 



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