The Original Nineteen
The Declaration of the Intent of Enfeoffment, 11th March 1525, William Lenche made his generosity and concern for Birmingham and its people clear. After his death this Declaration stated his Trustees should use the income from his estates to distribute in “warke of charyte” for the health of the souls of the couple. Written in English, this was the foundation for the charitable work of Lench’s Trust.
These Trustees, the original nineteen, were men of great substance and influence whose tight connections bring into view some of those responsible for building even stronger the foundations for Birmingham’s rise to industrial fame. The first five Trustees were close friends of William Lenche, with the remaining Trustees being men connected to William Lenches’ close friends.
Let’s start with the man that headed the Trustees John Shilton.
John Shilton the Mercer
John Shilton the Mercer, probably the richest man in Birmingham and biggest property holder. His wealth was emphasised after his death in 1553 by the inventory of his goods and chattels. With no such document for Lenche, it gives an indication as to the high living standards of Birmingham’s leading citizens. Shilton’s large home had numerous items in the hall, kitchen, back kitchen, tavern, malt chamber, great chamber over the hall, plate room, wife’s chamber, maid’s chamber, high chamber, and two other chambers. Outside there were three tool sheds along with many chattels in wide pastures: 10 oxen; 28 horses; 14 cattle, some with calves; 64 ewes and lambs; 120 hoggerels (young sheep) and wethers (castrated goats and rams); and 14 pigs, little and big.
‘On the ground’ were eight acres of oats in the hay barnes, land that adjoined the modern Great Hampton Row in Hockley. A much bigger estate was the 29 acres of rye, eight of oats, and four of barley at the Byngas. Later owned by King Edward VI School, this was the farm around Shilton’s mansion. The building itself was eventually bought by the banking Lloyds who replaced it with Bingley House. In turn that was knocked down for Bingley Hall, opened in 1850 as the first purpose-built exhibition building in Britain. Today, the ICC covers the spot. As for the Shiltons, they went on to marry into the landed gentry, becoming the lords of Wednesbury and West Bromwich, with one of them achieving the rank of Solicitor-General to Charles I.
Richard Swyft
Richard Swyft was the second of Lench’s Trustees. His family was mentioned in the Birmingham rental of 1296, whilst it was also well established in Yardley, then in Worcestershire. A witness to several other important documents, he was amongst the highest taxpayers for land in Birmingham in 1547.
Roger Redhyll
Roger Redhyll was third. Another prosperous landholder, his father left him the substantial sum of £20 in 1522. The rest of his inheritance gives another insight into the possessions of Birmingham’s wealthiest men. He received one of his father’s three goblets; six silver spoons; a feather bed with all things pertaining to it; a brass pot; 12 pewter vessels; a basin with a laver (wash basin); and a chafing dish (a metal cooking pan on a stand and heated with charcoal in a brazier for gentle cooking away from direct flames). These were all expensive and valued goods. As supervisor of his father’s will, Redhyll was joined by Lenche and Shilton.
John Hypkys
One of the three witnesses was John Hypkys, who was the fourth named of Lenche’s Trustees. It seems he was the father of another John Hypkys, an ox shoer, a highly-skilled man with a home and blacksmith’s shop in Winson Green. His prosperity was made clear by his bequests of the substantial amounts of £30 each to his son and daughter.
William Symondes
William Symondes was the fifth and last of Lench’s friends named in both his will and deed of gift. A cousin of Shilton, he held land and property but classed himself as a gentleman, earning enough from rents not to have to engage in trade. On other documents, he was given as an armiger, someone with armorial bearings, a counsellor, and serjeant-at-law and judge of South Wales. Symonds was a powerful and determined man and would be the leading figure in effectively saving Lench’s Trust in 1540.
The Four Williams
These next four Trustees were all amongst Birmingham’s trading elite, and all named William to boot!
William Sheldon was a tanner and though not as wealthy as John Shilton, he was a most prosperous man. Dying in 1551, he left over £6 to one daughter towards her marriage; his gown furred with black lamb’s wool to one son-in-law; and his best gown to another. Amongst other expensive clothing, he gave his five sons his sleeveless jacket and doublet with fustian sleeves, best doublet of satin, best pair of hose, and best doublet stacked with velvet.An ironmonger, William King was one of the loving brethren and friends of another Trustee, William Colmore the elder. A rich mercer, Colmore’s family would become the most powerful in Tudor Birmingham, recalled in Colmore Row and the adjoining streets. With roots in the Solihull area, Colmore the elder wasn’t mentioned in the 1524-25 tax record but was amongst the highest payers in the 1543 Lay Subsidy, exceeding even Shilton and Symonds. He died in 1566 and was remembered by a slab in St. Martin’s Church upon which he was shown in a long civilian’s gown, with hanging sleeves – each of which had slits at the upper part and through which the arms passed. That disappeared and today one of the oldest memorials in the church is a canvass of dark wood high on the south transept wall. It was erected in 1612 by William Colmore the younger in memory of his parents and shows the ‘Grim Reaper’ – a seated skeleton holding a scythe.
The oldest of eight sons, this William was a witness to Lenche’s Deed of Enfeoffment and benefited the most from the will of his father the Trustee, whose riches were emphasised by his bequests of 100 marks to each of his seven younger sons. A mark was the equivalent of two thirds of a pound and this was boosted by inheritances of property. As for the older Colmore’s five daughters, they were each given £100. These were enormous amounts considering that as late as the turn of the twentieth century, the poverty line for a modest family of four was about £1 a week. Colmore the elder also passed on gold, silver, and jewels, and, importantly, added to Lench’s Trust with his own charitable bequest.
The fourth Trustee of abundance was William Phillips, whose family had land in Erdington and Bordesley and whose ancestor of the same name was recorded as renting a property from Birmingham’s lord of the manor in 1296. His descendants did exceptionally well and in 1426, a John Phelyps was described as a chalonnere, someone who sold bedding. Like the Shiltons, the family moved away from trade and into landholding and property, with William Phillips featuring prominently in the great 1553 Survey of Birmingham. He freely held a house in ‘Dygbathe’ with a croft, and two fish ponds, land and buildings in Park Street. This was supplemented by the rent of land and buildings in Molle (Moor) Street, New Street, High Street, Dale End, and elsewhere. One intriguing rental related to a pasture called Bennetts Hill, for which William paid one rose at the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
His son, Ambrose, inherited the family lands and was later described as a gentleman living in Walsall. No longer having to work, he’d entered the gentry. By the early seventeenth century, the Phillipses owned most of the land and dwellings they’d once rented, as well as much of New Street and the Bull Ring. The last of the family’s direct line was Robert Phillips of Newton Regis near Tamworth. It was his wife, Elizabeth, who gave Horse Close on Bennetts Hill for the building of St. Philip’s Church. Consecrated in 1715, it’s now Birmingham Cathedral, carrying the name of a family deeply connected to Birmingham and the Lench’s Trust.
The Remaining
The remaining Trustees included men connected to Lenche’s five close friends. Henry Shilton was Symond’s brother-in-law and a relative of John Shilton; William Hawkes was the father of Lenche’s servant Roger Hawkes; and John Swyft was a relation of Richard Swyft. They were joined by William Paynton, Lenche’s servant; Henry Sygwyk, related to an executor of Lenche’s will and the owner of the Bull Tavern in Chapel Street, afterwards Bull Street; Thomas Spurriar, a landholder; Edward Pepwell, one of a family long connected with that of Lenche in Duddeston; William Askryk, a newcomer to Birmingham who was a landholder and active in public affairs; and Thomas Wygstyd and Robert Goldson, about whom nothing is known.
