The ancient wooden staves belonging to the corporation are still
deposited in the hall, and are curious relics of antiquity, being
ornamented with heads of various animals, rudely carved.
The sheriff of the county, by his deputy, holds a court in this town,
at the Castle inn, every third Monday, for the recovery of debts,
under forty shillings; but the expenses are excessive to both debtor
and creditor, and if the latter loses his cause, his expenses alone
will amount to six or seven pounds.
In the year 1452, Thomas Mosely, of Moxhull, in Warwickshire, being
then lord of Bascote, in that county, gave it in trust to William Lyle
and Thomas Magot, for the use of the town of Walsall. In 1539, the
inhabitants were summoned by the bellman to repair to the church,
where a dole was distributed, amounting to the sum of seven pounds,
ten shillings, and nine-pence. Some time after, an attempt was made
to discontinue this dole, which caused the populace to assemble, who
forced the same to be continued; at which time it was distributed to
about fourteen thousand people, nine thousand of whom were supposed to
reside in Walsall.
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