tenance of Chantry Priests, with all
their lamps, candles, torches, and other expensive appointments for what
were declared to be "superstitious" uses. But a right was reserved to
the King, as head of the Church, to direct such properties to uses which
could be regarded as truly "charitable." What became of the Willenhall
Chantry endowments?

It is the opinion of Mr. A. A. Rollason, no mean authority on the
subject--vide his recondite articles in the "Dudleian," having special
reference to a similar Commission of Inquiry held in 1638 as to the
alienation of lands belonging to Dudley Grammar School--that the
Willenhall Inquisition, or Commission of Inquiry, was brought about, as
was that at Dudley, in consequence of the uncertain state of the law as
to whether the lands, and the income therefrom, came within the
Charitable Uses Act; or whether the gifts were absolutely void.

For while Magna Charta declared "that if any one shall give lands to a
religious house, the grant shall be void, and the land forfeited to the
lord of the fee"--the abbots of old took care to be "lords of the fee,"
usually holding their lands direct from the King--there was a Statute of
Edward III. by which the King was empowered to grant a Royal licence
affording relaxation of lands held under the Statutes of Mortmain.

It seems almost impossible to doubt that the freehold lands belonging to
the Willenhall Chantry had escaped confiscation to the Crown under the
Statute, I Edward VI., if they had been held solely for performing obits
and singing masses for the dead. Yet it is just possible they may have
been re-granted to aid in the maintenance of the Curate of the
Chapel-of-Ease, in which case they would be recognised as a "charitable
use," and were consequently safe.

The Willenhall Inquisition of 1607 was addressed by the King (as stated
in the last chapter) to "The Reverend Father in God, William, Bishopp of
Coventrie and Lichfield And to our right trustie and well beloved William
Lord Pagett and to our trustie and well beloved Sir John Bowes, Sir
Edward Littleton, Sir Edward Leigh, Sir Simon Weston, Sir Robert
Stanford, Sir Walter Chetwynde and Sir William Chetwynde, Knights,
Zacharie Baington (Babington), Doctor of Lawe, Chancellor of Lichfield,
Raphe Sneade, Walter Bagott, William Skevington (Skeffington), Roger
Fowke, John Chetwynde, and Walter Stanley, Esquires."

It set forth that the King, for the due execution of a certain Statute