the ten members of the foundation just
mentioned, augmented by other ministers and officers necessary for
conducting so large an establishment, the prebendaries being officially
mentioned in this order:--(1) Wolverhampton; (2) Kinvaston; (3)
Featherstone; (4) Hilton; (5) Willenhall; (6) Monmore; (7) Wobaston; (8)
Hatherton.

By the fifteenth century Chantries had been founded, and chapels erected
therefor, at Willenhall, Bilston, Pelsall, and at Hatherton; and in
further depreciation of the mother church, King Edward IV., about 1465,
with a desire to enrich the Collegiate Church of St. George, at Windsor,
annexed Wolverhampton to that chapel royal.

In Protestant times the daily services were performed by the sacrist and
the readers, the prebendaries officiating on Sundays in rotation,
according to a set cycle. The time set out for the prebendary of
Willenhall commenced on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday; till eventually
exemption was purchased by the payment of a small fee to the Perpetual
Curate.

In olden times it was a common practice to carve the choir seats. The
prebendal stalls in Wolverhampton church were marked with heraldic
shields charged with simple ordinaries, in the following manner:--the
following manner:--

ON THE SOUTH SIDE.

1. The Dean. On a fess, three roundels.

2. Prebendary of Featherstone. A pale cotised.

3. Prebendary of Willenhall. A Chevron.

4. Prebendary of Wobaston. A Chevron.

5. Prebendary of Hatherton. A pale cotised.

ON THE NORTH SIDE.

6. Prebendary of Kinvaston. (Stall removed.)

7. Prebendary of Hilton. A Chevron renverse.

8. Prebendary of Monmore. A Chevron.

To assist in the identification of the various estates chargeable with
the provisions of the prebends, or canonical portions, it may be useful
to give here a brief account of a perambulation of the Wolverhampton
parish boundaries made in 1824.

It was a regular Rogation ceremony of "beating the bounds" and occupied
three whole days, so widely scattered is this extensive, far-reaching
parish. It will be observed that the Hatherton here dealt with is not
the Staffordshire village of that name, two miles north-west of Cannock.
Wobaston, it will be remembered, has previously been mentioned as
situated in Bushbury; while Monmore Green is still a well-known
place-name. The other names occur in self-explanatory context. The
detailed acco