The Guild of the Holy Cross, whose Hall was on the site of the present King Edward’s School, was founded in 6 Rich. II. (1382), for the maintenance of two priests to celebrate service daily in the Church of St. Martin, but ten years later was formed into a “Guild or Fraternitie, consisting of men and women of Birmingham,” in the names of the “Bailiffs and Communaltie of Birmingham and other adjacent places, for a Chantrie of priests and services in the Church, for the souls of the Founders and all the Fraternitie,” but in 37 Hen. VIII. (1545) the lands were valued at £31. 2s. 10d., and appropriated by the Crown, and afterwards, 5 Edw. VI. (1550), were used for the foundation of the “Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for the Education and Instruction of Children in Grammar for ever,”—the basis of the present noble foundation, not only in New Street, but in several important Branch Schools.
Leland’s Description, 1538.—Nearly half of the sixteenth century had passed before Birmingham was visited and described by any stranger, and the visit of John Leland is a memorable landmark in the history of the town. His few words are familiar but worth quoting again, not merely as a record, but as a contrast with the changed conditions of over three hundred years. In the reign of Henry VIII., he made his famous journey through England, and in 1538 he visited Birmingham and rode through the town, which he describes in picturesque words:—“I came through a pretty street or ever I entred into Bermingham towne. This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey [Deriten]. In it dwell smithes and cutlers, and there is a brooke [Rea] that divideth this street from Bermingham, and is an hamlett or member belonginge to the Parish therebye. There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappell and mansion house of tymber, hard on the rype [bank] as the brooke runneth downe: and as I went through the ford by the [foot] bridge, the water ranne downe on the right hand, and a fewe miles below goeth into Tame, ripâ dextrâ. * * * * The beauty of Bermigham, a good markett towne in the extreame parts of Warwike-shire, is one street going up alonge, almost from the left ripe of the brooke up a meane hill by the length of a quarter of a mile. I saw but one Paroch Church in the towne. There be many smiths in the towne that use to make knives and all mannour of cuttinge tooles, and many loriners that make bittes, and a great many naylors. Soe that a great part of the towne is maintained by smithes whoe have their iron and sea-cole out of Stafford-shire.”
This description of the town is minute and careful. The “mansion house of tymber” still remains as the Old Crown House in Deritend; and nearly opposite other half-timbered houses of the same period survive. The “propper chappell” has greatly changed its form, and the descriptions of trade are no longer strictly accurate, as some of the handicrafts are now better known at Sheffield, Walsall, and Halesowen. Some other old houses of the sixteenth century still remain, one notably in Digbeth, which has been carefully preserved; and one early sixteenth century house in Bull Street, near Dale End, has just been removed (1886). One remarkable change has occurred since Leland’s days; for the streams which crossed the roads have disappeared beneath, and the pumps and wells and water courses are long since gone.
Camden’s Description, 1584.—The visit of William Camden confirms Leland’s account, and shows considerable progress, as the town was “swarming with inhabitants and echoing with the noise of anvils,” and the general prosperity evidently continued through the century, and far into the next century too, for it is clear that the manufacture of swords, if not of guns and pistols, had begun and was destined to extend the fame and improve the industrial condition of the town.
Prince Rupert.—The busy occupants of the line of road traversed by Leland and Camden had serious trouble a century later. Charles I. on his way, in 1642, to Edge Hill had stopped at Aston Hall, which had been built early in the seventeenth century, and was believed to be from a design by Inigo Jones. Sir Thomas Holte had been true to the King, but had become unpopular with the Birmingham people, who were on the Parliamentary side. Aston Hall was attacked and besieged for three days, and the traces of the cannonading still remain. In the April of the next year, 1643, the fiery Rupert advanced to Birmingham from Camp Hill, and was stopped in Deritend by the barricades and valour of the people, but he forced his way, plundered and fired eighty houses, and left the town on the other side after heavy losses of life and limb. Clarendon has described Birmingham “as of great fame for hearty wilful affected disloyalty to the King as any town in England,” and the town had supplied the Parliamentary army with 15,000 swords, but “Prince Rupert’s Burning Cruelty to Birmingham” only intensified the opposition to the King and his cause.
A City of Refuge.—The latter part of the seventeenth century saw many marked advances in the prosperity of the town. The extravagances of the restoration period greatly increased the demand for many of the products of Birmingham ingenuity and skill. The demand for fire-arms also encouraged and extended one of the trades which was afterwards to become one of the great industries of the town; not only so, but Birmingham had become a sort of City of Refuge for reformers of all sorts, and a sort of Free Port for many sorts of manufactures which, owing to the customs of corporate towns, were restricted elsewhere. The “five mile,” and other acts, drove out many useful and able people and sent them to reside in a place where there was more elbow room and more free air, and thus not only the population but the energy and usefulness of the inhabitants rapidly increased. The visits of George Fox had stimulated many people, like those of Wesley a century later, and every influence, industrial, political, religious, social, seemed to continue and develop and intensify the life and progress of the town.
Early Printers and Booksellers—The eighteenth century added but little to the antiquities, but much to the history of Birmingham. The industrial developments which Leland and Camden noted made far more rapid progress towards the end of the seventeenth century, when Birmingham became as famous for fire-arms as it had been for pikes and swords half a century before. Even that progress was, however, to be far exceeded before the eighteenth century ended, and the almost infinite variety of manufactures had become established. Birmingham was, in fact, in those times, what London has since become, the centre towards which the foremost men of the day tended for many years. In the early years of the century, Dr. Johnson’s father came to Birmingham weekly with a small stock of books—the only supply the town seems to have had—but a few years later Thomas Warren had begun to print, newspapers were started, and books of considerable importance were published. Dr. Johnson’s first literary work, his translation of Lobo’s Abyssinia, was dictated to Warren, but probably not printed in Birmingham, although as early as 1712, and possibly ten years sooner, books were printed in the town. So early as 1652 a master of the Grammar School had published a Latin Grammar—the earliest Birmingham book—and in 1717 the first book printed in Birmingham appeared from Matthew Unwin’s press.
Early Maps and Engravings—Thomas Warren’s first known book is dated 1728, and many important works afterwards came from his press. Engraving, as well as printing, soon became common, and many excellent examples soon came forth. In 1731, William Westley published the first map or Plan of Birmingham, followed by others of great value, as Bradford’s, in 1751, and Hanson’s, in 1779; and Bradford also issued a “View of Birmingham,” of a size and quality unsurpassed in line-engraving, of which only two copies have survived. Many folio and quarto volumes appeared in the middle of the century from Thomas Aris, C. Earl, and others, and were remarkably fine productions for a midland town a century and a half ago.
John Baskerville—All these, however, were surpassed by the far-famed productions of John Baskerville’s press, for his experience as a grave-stone cutter in Moor Street, and his fine taste and restless energy enabled him to produce type and paper, and to print in so excellent a style, that his productions soon won European fame. At Easy Hill—the house, in ruins, still remains—he made his own presses, type, and probably paper to some extent, and spent hundreds of pounds before he had formed letters to please his fastidious eyes and excellent taste. Birmingham has few greater claims to honour in the industries and arts than those which have so universally been given to the Baskerville Press.