It is denominated a corporate body, by the name of the warden
and society of the king's town of Sutton Coldfield, and consists of
twenty-four members besides the warden, with a grant to them of the
whole manor and lordship of the parish, together with a tract of waste
ground, called the park, containing about 3500 acres, wherein is
great abundance of valuable timber, on condition of paying into the
exchequer a fee farm rent of fifty-eight pounds per annum.
The said Bishop Vesey erected fifty-one stone houses in the parish and
also a free grammar school, which he liberally endowed with land, and
ordained by the statutes, that the master should be a layman, which is
strictly adhered to. He also procured for the inhabitants a market,
and the extraordinary privilege that every person who erected a house
in Sutton, should be entitled to sixty acres of land in the park.
Here are two fairs annually, for horses, neat cattle, and sheep; the
one on Trinity Monday and the other on the 8th of November; when, for
every horse that is sold, a toll must be paid of four-pence, and a
reputable voucher produced by the person who sells it; the marks
and age of the animal being registered.
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