ce there; and to do and perform all such other offices and
things as shall properly belong to his Ministerial function and
calling.

And thus much you, the said Thomas Gilpin, are hereby desired to take
notice of.

Dated under our hands and seals this 18th day of November in the year
of our Lord God, 1674, and in the six-and-twentieth year of the
reigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles II., by the grace of God, King
of England, etc.

Walter Giffard. L.S.

W. Leveson Gower. L.S.

After the expulsion of Mr. Gilpin the Rev. John Carter, who was appointed
to succeed him, continued in the Curacy of Willenhall till his death in
1722. In 1727 mention is made of a Mr. Holbrooke being Curate of
Willenhall.

Soon after the Registers assist in tracing the successive holders of the
benefice. Here are three interesting memoranda, for instance, bearing
the signature of the Rev. Titus Neve:--

1748, March 4th.--The faculty for rebuilding and enlarging ye chapel
of Willenhall, ye then present minister, ye Rev. Titus Neve--(to
charge and receive certain fees, etc.)

1750, January 20.--Then it was yt service began to be performed in ye
New Chapel, after almost two years discontinuance, by Titus Neve,
Curate.

1763, February 17th.--Joyce Hill made oath that ye body of Benjamin
Stokes was buried in a shroud of Sheep's Wool only, pursuant to an
Act of Parliament in that case made and provided.--Witness my hand,

Titus Neve.

(This entry has reference to the Act for Burying in Woollen, one of those
pieces of legislative folly whereby it was sought to bolster up
artificially our decaying trade in wool.)

The Rev. Titus Neve, whose descendants at the present day are a
well-known Wolverhampton family, was born at Much Birch in Herefordshire,
son of the Rev. Thomas Neve, in 1717. He matriculated at Balliol
College, Oxford, became Rector of Darlaston, 1764, holding the two
livings, together with the Prebendary of Hilton his death in 1788. He
was buried at Willenhall.

A sermon preached by him in Worcester Cathedral on August 12th, 1762, was
printed in Birmingham by the celebrated Baskerville (see Simms'
"Bibliotheca Staffordiensis").

His successor was the Rev. William Moreton, who, according t