John Leveson, son of Thomas, who had been
Sheriff of the county, and died in 1595, is the last in Shaw's pedigree
to be described as "of Willenhale," although in a succeeding chapter we
shall find members of this family still seated on their native soil,
Willenhall, as late as the years of the Jacobite Rebellions, 1715 and
1745.

X.--Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation.

Now to resume the ecclesiastical history of the place. Willenhall was
affected by the Reformation from two directions; first, through the
mother church of Wolverhampton, of which collegiate establishment it
formed a portion; secondly, through its own chapel and the endowed
chantry established therein.

The great ecclesiastical upheaval of the sixteenth century had its
precursor in the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. The
rumble of the coming storm warned the secular or non-monastic foundations
that it would be prudent to set their houses in order if they were to
safeguard their revenues; for every one of the smaller monasteries, with
an income of less than 200 pounds per annum, had been forfeited to the
Crown (1529).

A new valuation of the College of Wolverhampton had but just been
instituted in 1526, from which it will be necessary here to extract only
that portion of the return relating to our subject. It was to this
effect:--

THE PREBEND OF WYLNALL.
pounds s. d.
William Leveson, Clerk (dwelling in 3 0 0
Exeter with the Bishop), Prebendary
there, and hath in glebe-lands
And in tithes of corn, one year with 3 0 0
another
And in wool and lambs by the year, one 3 6 8
year with another
And in the Easter Book by the year, 0 13 4
one year with another
And in tithes of Herbage, Pigs, Geese, 0 40 0
and other small tithes
Sum total 12 0 0
And thereof he pays allowance for 0 6 8
Synodals every third year, paid to the
aforesaid Dean
And so there remains clear 11 13 4
The tenth part thereof 0 23 4

The value of the Deanery, the Prebends, and the two Chantries of
Willenhall and Bilston are all set forth in this Return. (See Oliver's
"History of Wol