f the 18th century, when their frequency through the complaisance
of the Court of Chancery was considered such an abuse that it was ordered
for the future that their issue should be granted only after a formal
application to Quarter Sessions. Thus we find records in the Tipton
Registers of no less than seven collections made there between 1657 and
1661 for the relief of distress through fire and other causes in Desford,
Southwold, Drayton (Salop), Oxford, East Hogborne, Chichester, and Milton
Abbey.

Willenhall called for this form of national assistance in 1660, as
entries of a Brief on its behalf have been found as far apart as Chatham,
in Kent, and Woodborough, in Notts, and may doubtless be traced in
various parish registers up and down the country. Here is a copy of the
Nottinghamshire entry:--

September ye 23, 1660.

COLLECTED at ye Parish Church and among ye Inhabitants of Woodbourogh
for and towards the Reliefe of ye distressed inhabitants of
Willenhall, in ye County of Stafford, being Commended hityr [hereto]
by ye King's Majestyes Letters Patents with ye gorat Sale [Great
Seal] for and towards their loss by fire, ye sum of 4s. 10d.

Witness,

JOHN ALLATT,

Minister.

JAMES JOB,
HENRY MOORELAW,

Churchwardens.

[It has been romantically suggested by a local writer that the "burning
of Willenhall" was an act of revenge perpetrated by the Puritans of
Lichfield and the vicinity for the succour given at Bentley Hall in 1651
to the fugitive Charles II.; and that these church collections are
evidence of the personal interest taken by that monarch on his
Restoration, in the place which had afforded him shelter in his hour of
direst need. Two considerations will immediately dispel any such
illusion. First, the Briefs were very commonplace affairs, as already
shown; secondly, displays of Stuart gratitude were just as rare. All the
reward commonplace affairs, as already shown; secondly, displays of
Stuart gratitude were just as rare. All the reward Charles vouchsafed to
the devoted Lanes was the cheap honour of an augmentation of the family
arms, and the scanty gift of 1,000 pounds to Jane Lane. Allusion has
b