BY SAM: TIMMINS.

Origin of Name.—Eight hundred years ago the name of Birmingham first appeared in history, and almost exactly with the present name of the town. In the famous Domesday Book (1083-1086), compiled for William the Norman, the name is spelled “Bermingeha’,” but the varieties of spelling, from the conquest, have been remarkable. Some curious collector has summed up one hundred and forty variations, but most of these may be resolved into two forms of pronunciation—either Birmingham or Bromicham. It is curious that no other town or village in England seems to have a similar name to that of Birmingham, and hence its etymology is somewhat obscure. Hutton’s favourite origin was Broom from the plant, Wych, a dwelling or a descent, and Ham a home, so that Bromwycham was supposed to be the original name indicating local details; but Hutton had forgotten to look at Domesday Book, or to explain how Bromwycham had been turned into Birmingham. Still more, he had neglected Dugdale’s remark that while “ham,” for home, explained the final syllable, the other two syllables certainly denoted some personal name. All later researches have tended to confirm this suggestion, and modern philologists, including Prof. E. A. Freeman, are almost unanimous in agreeing that “Berm,” or “Beorm,” or some similar form represents the name of some Saxon tribe or people, and that Bermingham would be a patronymic or family name, with the “ing” or “iung” denoting some progeny or tribe, and giving the name to the “de Berminghams,” who flourished in the place, as Dugdale fully shows.

Early History.—As to the ante-Norman holders, Dugdale says on the authority of Domesday Book, that in “Edward the Confessor’s days (Birmingham was) the freehold of one Ulvvine,” but the history begins with the Domesday Book which gives the following details:—“Richard holds of William (Fitz Ausculf) four hides in Bermingha’. The arable employs six ploughs; one is in the demesne. There are five villeins and four bordars with two ploughs. Wood half a mile long, and four furlongs broad. It was, and is worth 20s.” These few facts compare very favourably with the description of other places, and show that Birmingham was then a place of some importance. No church is mentioned, and no priest, but those omissions do not necessarily prove that the place had neither, and probably it had both. The extent of the “hide” is very uncertain and it seems to have varied from sixty to one hundred acres. This entry obviously relates to Birmingham only, and Edgbaston, Aston, and other places are similarly described. This extract is merely given to show that some sort of town existed long before 1083-1086, and that its name was nearly as we spell and sound it now.

After Domesday Book a long blank occurs, except as to certain documentary evidence as to Fairs, (1166 and 1251), and the help given to Simon de Montfort against Henry III., by William de Bermingham. But a little light is thrown on the condition of Birmingham by further examination of a curious and unique old map of England and Scotland now in the Bodleian Library, but which was known to Gough and included in his Topography, (Vol. I., p. 77,) with an engraving by Basire, which, however, is very imperfect and inaccurate. A photo-zincograph of this ancient map was produced by the Ordnance Office in 1875, with a description by Mr. W. Basevi Saunders, who settles the date of the map as circa 1286-1300. In this map, which is remarkably interesting but ludicrously wrong in many parts, especially as to Scotland, Birmingham distinctly appears. Cathedral cities and large churches are generally indicated, rivers are marked, and even miles on roads, while a large number of single houses are marked to show towns, when no names are given. In the portion marked “Ardene” one house, with “Brmyngha,” clearly appears between Worcester and Lichfield, and is the only town in Warwickshire which is described by name, not even Coventry or Warwick being named. This seems to show that Birmingham was a place of some importance even six hundred years ago, and that its name was then spelled nearly as now, the abbreviations probably indicating “Bermyngham.”

As Dugdale’s Warwickshire is generally limited to the territorial and family history, which is difficult to condense, and rarely refers to the existence or state of the buildings in his time, there is very little material for the history of the town for several centuries. He mentions, however, that Peter de Bermingham “had a Castle here which stood nearre a Bow-shoot from the Church south-westwards” (12 Henry II., 1166), doubtless on the site of Smithfield market, which had buildings and moat till 1815. A market was granted by the same king, and on Thursdays, and was probably largely frequented and helped the progress of the town. From this de Bermingham family, Dugdale says, “doubtless came the de Berminghams of Ireland, who settled there very antiently: perhaps in Hen. II. days on the first conquest of that realm by Ric. Strongbow:” but the family connection with Birmingham ended with Edward and his tragic story in 1545.

The Priory.—The Hospital or Priory of St. Thomas the Apostle has had its name and site preserved by the names “Upper and Lower Priory,” “Minories,” &c., but the exact site of the buildings and the date of the foundation are uncertain. The grounds occupied a large space along Bull Street, Dale End, John Street, and Steelhouse Lane; but even in the recent excavations for new streets scarcely a fragment has been found. A century ago the pseudo-antiquarian William Hutton, who did his best to write a History of Birmingham, records that in 1775 he removed “twenty waggon loads of old stones, great numbers of which were highly finished in the Gothic taste; parts of porticos, windows, arches, ceilings—some fluted, some ciphered, yet complete as the day they left the chisel,” and that after letting the builders destroy the greater portion, he used some in making a fire-place in “an under-ground kitchen.” There is little hope now of finding any of these relics or of settling the site on which the Priory buildings stood. Even Dugdale failed to find its origin, and simply records that the first mention occurs in 13 Edwd. I. (1285), and that the Commissioners of Henry VIII. (1545) valued it at £8. 8s. 10d., and that it was duly dissolved.

St. Martin’s Church.—The Mother Church, St. Martin’s, claims great antiquity, but its exact date has not been found. During the recent restoration some early wall-paintings were discovered, with the still more valuable remains which formed part of a Norman Church, very evidently on the same site, but all traces of whose history have been lost. The existing Church has, however, some highly interesting monuments of some of the de Berminghams of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, one in alabaster, representing an ecclesiastic, being well known as an almost unique example of fifteenth century art. The present restored church has replaced an ugly brick casing which covered the decaying portion of an earlier church supposed to have been of the latter part of the thirteenth century with later alterations. The Registers begin in 1555, and have been carefully preserved, as well as various Church Books which have been used in the History of St. Martin’s by Mr. J. Thackray Bunce.

St. John’s Chapel.—Another ecclesiastical relic, in name only, is to be found in the ugly last century brick building, St. John’s Chapel, Deritend, which has replaced the “propper chappel,” which Leland saw in 1538, an early English building among the trees by the river side. This “chapel” was founded in 1375, by some of the inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley, who found the floods often preventing access to their Parish Church at Aston. Thirteen of the inhabitants of the hamlets contributed the funds, and acquired the right of “appointing one Chaplain” for the services, and such Chaplain is appointed to this day by the parishioners’ votes. Tradition records that John Rogers, one of the early translators of the Bible, and the first Martyr of the reign of Mary, was born in Deritend near this Chapel, and a marble slab records his fame, but the tradition is doubtful, and has not been fully confirmed.

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, rip 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.

Directories—The later half of the century was even more distinguished in many other ways. The modern Directories were not popular or common till late in the last century. Even the rare London Directory of 1677 does not seem to have had many imitators, but about 1750 the increasing number of trades stimulated the demand. In Newcastle-on-Tyne, and in Sheffield and other towns, Directories appeared, and Birmingham was among the first, and one of great interest and value appeared in 1770, and probably earlier, followed by others, ever increasing as the population increased, but very curiously contrasting with the huge volumes of later days.

Cotton Spinning—One of the most remarkable, perhaps, of the industrial schemes in Birmingham, was the establishment of a cotton mill, which still remains as a building and shows its origin, although now a rolling mill. It was the natural result of the genius of John Wyatt and of Lewis Paul, for in a room in the Upper Priory—now covered by the schools of the Society of Friends—the first cotton spinning machine was erected and worked, and the old distaff and spindle, and spinning machine doomed. Thomas Warren, Edward Cave, Dr. James, and others, took up the speculation of Lewis Paul, and mills were built at Birmingham and Northampton, but before the century closed they had failed to pay.

The Soho Works—The most famous of all the classes of industrial enterprises in Birmingham was the famous “Soho.” From the manufacture of “toys”—steel toys, buckles, buttons, sword-hilts, &c.—in Snow Hill, Matthew Boulton had removed to Soho in 1763. There he erected machinery for water power, but by happy accident, James Watt visited the place, and Boulton was so struck with his improvements in the steam engine, which Soho only seemed able to produce, that a connection began which has immortalised the names of Boulton and Watt, and shed undying glory on the industrial history of Birmingham. The story has been too often told to require repetition, but even now it has scarcely been fully told. Soho itself has perished, scarcely a relic remains, but James Watt’s house at Heathfield still exists with relics which will ever be an honour to his genius, and will keep his memory green. All admirers of the genius of Watt will hope and desire that these remains of an industrial hero, a genius of the useful arts, may become a public trust, to show posterity how so illustrious a man of science was valued in his life, and is honoured by those who rejoice in the fruits of his genius and skill.

Famous Men: the Soho Circle—One of the most remarkable chapters in the history of Birmingham would be a full record of the men of the latter half, or even the last quarter, of the last century who gave lustre to the town, and who materially helped its constant progress. “Soho” had not only supplied what the world had long wanted, “power,” but it had set up a standard of excellence, and had trained a class of workmen who were to go forth to conquer, at home and abroad, in all industrial work. The spirit of Soho is still abroad in the land, and Birmingham may claim to have been one of the foremost in the mechanical progress of the past hundred years.

The galaxy of great men, as it has been called, who met in Birmingham a century ago is certainly remarkable. Boulton was a native of the town, but many “strangers came within the gates.” James Watt—almost all-accomplished—was soon followed by Joseph Priestley, who lived here for eleven years. His fame had preceded him, his great discoveries had been made. A storm of popular and ignorant bigotry drove him from the town, wrecked his home, ruined his laboratory, and burned his library; but the sons have “blushed to find their fathers were his foes;” and a statue honoured his memory and his great discovery of oxygen on the centenary of that day. Dr. Darwin, of Lichfield and Derby, the father of a noble line, and himself a man of genius and power, was a constant visitor. William Murdock, one of the ablest of the Soho group, the first maker of a locomotive, and the practical inventor of gas-lighting, was long a resident in the town, and is buried near Boulton and Watt. John Baskerville, the printer; Josiah Wedgwood, the famous art-potter; James Keir, the great chemist; Richard Edgeworth and Thomas Day, authors; Joseph Berington, the learned Roman Catholic; Dr. Withering, the botanist; Dr. Parr, the famous Greek scholar; Samuel Galton, the Quaker; John Proud, the Swedenborgian; John Wyatt, the inventor; Edmund Hector, Johnson’s friend; and many others, formed such a “happy family” of genius and worth as few towns of the period could surpass or equal; and that “golden age” of Birmingham, the men and names, and works and progress of the last century, must ever be remembered and honoured, even in these days of quicker progress and greater victories in scientific and industrial pursuits.

[Many very interesting details of the History of Birmingham are necessarily omitted in this brief summary and may be found in the following works:—

The Reference Library contains all the works named, and many others,—every known book or pamphlet, map or directory, relating to the History of Birmingham; and the detailed catalogue (pp. 93) classifies the collection under numerous headings, including all the Acts of Parliament relating to Birmingham and its neighbourhood.]